{"id":481047,"date":"2026-02-17T16:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481047\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:36:07","slug":"nneka-ogwumike-calls-out-adam-silver-wnba-over-latest-cba-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481047\/","title":{"rendered":"Nneka Ogwumike calls out Adam Silver, WNBA over latest CBA comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although it was NBA All-Star weekend, Adam Silver couldn\u2019t escape questions about the WNBA CBA negotiations. He said that something he \u201cwould love to do is put pressure on everyone\u201d and \u201cwe need to now move toward the next level of sense of urgency.\u201d Nneka Ogwumike wasn\u2019t very fond of those comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When she appeared on\u00a0Flagrant and Funny w\/ Cari Champion & Jemele Hill<\/a>,\u00a0Ogwumike said, \u201cI actually was a little bit confused when Adam [Silver] said that because as players we have certainly had a sense of urgency so much so that we\u2019ve moved a substantial amount on this portion of the agreement that we know is going to allow everything else to fall in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

That portion is the revenue shares.<\/a> The league, on the other hand, hasn\u2019t operated with the same sense of urgency, according to Ogwumike. She outlined how the players initially asked for 40% of the revenue but lowered that number significantly while the league moved little.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, we\u2019ve come down, and we\u2019ve come down to degrees that are not equivalent or equitable to how the league has been proposing,\u201d Ogwumike said. \u201cSo, when we gave our proposal in December, we had come down to somewhere closer to 28%, and that was where we had not heard a response for about six weeks until, I believe, this last Friday. And, quite frankly, the league\u2019s first proposal had the player share at less than 13, and they\u2019re still stuck at 14.5. It\u2019s not even at 15. So, to come back six weeks later, and that\u2019s still where they\u2019re at doesn\u2019t demonstrate a sense of urgency from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strike is still on the table<\/p>\n

The players still have the option to strike<\/a>, which would be a first in league history, but Ogwumike reiterated that players want to play the 2026 season. It\u2019s in everybody\u2019s best interest. Having a 2026 season is the best way to build on the momentum the league has gained over the last few seasons, and for players to continue to build their brands. While there are many other options for players now, the WNBA is the most established league, and that carries weight with brands that want to pay players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, the players don\u2019t want to back down on what they feel they deserve because that would mean failing generations of players who dealt with terrible playing conditions to get the league to where it is and future generations still waiting for their chance to help grow the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A recent in-person meeting in New York at least prompted the league to finally respond to the WNBPA\u2019s proposal from December. Ogwumike also said that the players would send their response to the league\u2019s latest proposal soon. So, at least there is some movement in the negotiations. But time is ticking. The season is scheduled to start in May, which doesn\u2019t leave much time for the expansion draft, free agency, and the college draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although it was NBA All-Star weekend, Adam Silver couldn\u2019t escape questions about the WNBA CBA negotiations. He said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-481047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}