ESPN’s Holly Rowe suffered an embarrassing blunder this week after forgetting to delete a private comment from her update on the WNBA‘s ongoing salary war.
WNBA chiefs have been locked in fierce negotiations with the players’ union for several months over a collective bargaining agreement, with crucial meetings on the matter taking place in New York City this week.
On Thursday, Rowe – the esteemed women’s basketball reporter who has worked for ESPN since 1995 – took to X to provide a bombshell update on negotiations between the two parties.
Yet unfortunately for the 59-year-old, she appeared to leave a confidential message from her source at the WNBA in the post.
‘Just so you have on background – no attribution to me or the league… here are some updates,’ it said.
After seemingly realizing her error, Rowe deleted the post over an hour later.
ESPN’s Holly Rowe accidentally left a private remark from her source in a post about the WNBA
Rowe suffered the blunder after taking to X to provide an update on the league’s salary war
The 59-year-old has worked for ESPN since 1995 and is well respected in women’s basketball
She revealed in the rest of the update that the WNBA’s latest proposal to the players’ union includes a salary cap of $6.2million, which is up from $1.5m in 2025.
The league has also offered an average starting salary of $570k for players in year one which eventually grows to $850k in year six.
Maximum salaries exceeding $1.3m also grow to nearly $2m in the WNBA’s proposal.
The WNBA previously told the players’ union that it needed to get a deal in place by March 10 to start the 2026 season on time.
The season is supposed to start May 8 and every game missed results in lost revenue, sponsorships, television money and fan support.
Nevertheless, last month the union confirmed that the WNBA will give its players $8m from revenue sharing from last season as the league generated enough to trigger revenue sharing for the first time in history.
The players will decide how much they will each receive from that distribution. The union had 60 days from February 9, when it was officially notified of the revenue sharing money, to come up with how it will disperse the funds.
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ESPN reporter forced to delete social media post after making embarrassing mistake