{"id":340091,"date":"2025-12-10T01:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340091\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T01:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:36:08","slug":"aja-wilsons-savage-mic-drop-on-cathy-engelbert-after-napheesa-collier-callout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/340091\/","title":{"rendered":"A&#8217;ja Wilson&#8217;s savage mic drop on Cathy Engelbert after Napheesa Collier callout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In what has been a topsy-turvy year for the WNBA, A&#8217;ja Wilson came out on top. She <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/las-vegas-aces\/aces-news-aja-wilson-makes-history-with-4th-wnba-mvp-award\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">won their fourth MVP Award<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/las-vegas-aces\/aces-news-aja-wilson-bam-adebayo-celebrate-wnba-finals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aces won their third WNBA championship<\/a> in four years.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Wilson <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7339270\/athlete-of-the-year-2025-aja-wilson\/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_content=091225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">was named<\/a> Time Magazine&#8217;s Athlete of the Year. During her interview, Wilson took time to speak on the current state of the WNBA CBA negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>She told Sean Gregory that Commissioner <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/cathy-engelbert\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cathy Engelbert<\/a> is on the wrong side of the negotiations by telling the players they should be grateful to play in the first place. In particular, Wilson was returning to <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/napheesa-collier\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Napheesa Collier<\/a>&#8216;s comments, <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/wnba-stories\/wnba-news-cathy-engelbert-denies-caitlin-clark-comments-napheesa-collier\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">calling out Engelbert for allegedly criticizing the players<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only know Cathy by when she hands me trophies,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cIf that\u2019s her true self, thank you for showing that. Thank you for saying those things. Because now we see you for who you are, and now we\u2019re about to work even harder at this negotiation. We\u2019re in a league where they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, be happy you got private planes. \u201cNo. That was just scratching the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A significant factor in the CBA negotiations is the players&#8217; demanding an equal share of the revenue generated. Recently, the WNBA <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/wnba-stories\/wnba-news-new-cba-proposal-guarantee-1-million-salary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">proposed increasing salaries to $1 million<\/a>, but cutting team housing and starting the season in mid to late March.<\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/wnba-stories\/wnba-news-wnbpa-agree-cba-extension\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extension deadline has been set for Jan.9<\/a> with no sign of a deal in sight.<\/p>\n<p>A&#8217;ja Wilson&#8217;s salary compared to SGA of the OKC Thunder<\/p>\n<p>Last season, Wilson earned a salary of $200,000. By contrast, NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the OKC Thunder just <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/shai-gilgeous-alexanders-285-million-thunder-contract-extension-becomes-largest-in-nba-history\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed a $285 million contract extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NBA players earn more because of lucrative TV deals and earn 50% of the revenue generated. Meanwhile, WNBA players have historically received 9-10% of revenue, even as the league continues to grow in popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the WNBA <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/wnba\/wnba-news-league-reaches-11-year-media-rights-deal-to-air-games-on-usa-network\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">secured a $2.2 billion, 11-year media deal<\/a> beginning next year, which is expected to boost revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what has been a topsy-turvy year for the WNBA, A&#8217;ja Wilson came out on top. She won&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[650,18116,4677,3250,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-340091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aja-wilson","9":"tag-cathy-engelbert","10":"tag-las-vegas-aces","11":"tag-napheesa-collier","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}