Ahead of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday night, players made a statement as they warmed up.<\/p>\n
Players wore shirts featuring the message “Pay Us What You Owe Us” as the Women’s National Basketball Players Association negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA.<\/p>\n
“We need to get what we’re well overdue for. I think it just shows how powerful our league is and how powerful our voices and our platform [are],” reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson told ESPN<\/a> after the All-Star Game. <\/p>\n Thursday’s discussions between both sides marked the first in-person meeting between the WNBA and WNBPA since December 2024.<\/p>\n Players revealed that both sides seemed to mostly agree on family planning and retirement benefits, but were far apart on issues such as revenue sharing, salary structure and prioritization, according to ESPN’s\u00a0Michael Voepel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Sparks\u00a0guard\u00a0Kelsey Plum\u00a0explained why revenue sharing was a key issue in discussions.<\/p>\n “Rev sharing is truly transformational,”\u00a0Plum\u00a0said, per Voepel. “We want a piece of the entire pie. Not a piece of part of the pie. We’re a resilient group. We know the unity it takes to be able to [get] the outcome desired.”<\/p>\n