{"id":505660,"date":"2026-03-05T18:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505660\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:09:08","slug":"its-getting-late-early-for-liberty-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505660\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s getting late early\u2019 for Liberty season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening Night is a little more than two months away.<\/p>\n

The WNBA Draft is slated for April 13.<\/p>\n

Also, the fastest-growing league on the North American sports scene has to hold a pair of expansion drafts for two new teams, the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire.<\/p>\n

Not to mention that there are over 100 free agents currently available on the WNBA free-agent market, none of whom can sign before the Players\u2019 Association and league agree on a new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n

As always-quotable New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, \u201cIt\u2019s getting late early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here in Downtown Brooklyn, where the New York Liberty are ever so tenuously slated to host the Connecticut Sun in their home and season opener on May 8 in front of what should be a sellout crowd at Barclays Center, the roster for 2026 isn\u2019t close to being finalized.<\/p>\n

In fact, none of the Big Three \u2014 Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones \u2014 has inked a deal to return to the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush to chase Title II.<\/p>\n

That trio hung the first championship banner at Barclays in 2024 after a near miss in the Finals against Vegas a season earlier.<\/p>\n

Though the Liberty bowed out in the opening round against Phoenix last year, costing iconic New York coach Sandy Brondello her job, the hoopla and hysteria surrounding our borough\u2019s NBA franchise has never been higher.<\/p>\n

But it may turn into hysterics if the league continues to frustrate what the WNBPA described Wednesday as a \u201cunited\u201d front in the face of what it has felt has been a series of low-ball offers from the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every CBA negotiation, the goal of the league and teams is to divide the players,\u201d read a statement from the seven-player executive committee, which includes Stewart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese negotiations are no different. We remain united and focused on delivering a transformational CBA for all members of this Union, and are committed to negotiating for as long as it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the WNBA, it can\u2019t go on much longer than March 10 for the 44-game season to begin on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to play basketball in 2026,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cWe want to be in front of our fans playing the game that we love. We will not stop fighting. There is no WNBA without the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing stalemate, the games have gone on, be it Stewart\u2019s participation in the 3-on-3 Unrivaled Final on Wednesday, or her planned participation in the EuroLeague championships next month as a member of Turkey\u2019s Fenerbahce BC.<\/p>\n

\"NewLiberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and her new coach, Chris DeMarco, talked hoops in San Francisco back in November, but when they\u2019ll hit the hardwood together in Brooklyn remains in doubt. Photo: Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/p>\n

But the two-time WNBA and Finals Most Valuable Player has not wavered in her duties as an executive committee member, joining hardwood rival Kelsey Plum in penning a letter to PA executive director Terri Jackson on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are frustrated that we have not made more progress as we near the March 10 deadline,\u201d the three-page letter noted. \u201cAnd we believe this is a result of a breakdown in communication between you and the Executive Committee and players more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Liberty coach Chris DeMarco, coming off a 13-year tenure as player-development guru and assistant with the NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors, is a little over a month away from running his first training camp in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

If, of course, the draft, expansion selection, exhibition schedule and regular season don\u2019t keep getting pushed back.<\/p>\n

Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb felt confident at the end of last year that he would have his Big Three back in the fold this year.<\/p>\n

However, ESPN reported Wednesday that an Instagram post by the PA indicated that 84% of players would not accept the current offer, giving them 15% of the league\u2019s gross revenue toward player salaries and other compensation over the next eight years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at a place where we feel like the proposals the league has sent haven\u2019t been good ones,\u201d WNBPA vice president Alysha Clark told ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we want to continue to fight for what we know we deserve. We hope that at some point the league decides to have that same sentiment towards us as well through the proposals that they send.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart fought the good fight at Barclays on Monday, lifting Mist to the Unrivaled title game before scoring 32 points, including the game-winning free throw, to top Plum\u2019s top-seeded Phantom\u00a0BC in Miami on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\"FILEJonquel Jones, who won Finals MVP in 2024, is one of over 100 unrestricted free agents waiting for the WNBA and Players\u2019 Association to come to terms on a new CBA. Photo: Darryl Webb\/AP<\/p>\n

She and her teammates got $600,000 to split among themselves for earning the crown in the league Stewart helped found with Minnesota superstar Napheesa Collier last offseason.<\/p>\n

Now, Stewart and her fellow WNBA players will continue to fight for a bigger split out of the best women\u2019s basketball league in the world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cSometimes hard conversations need to be had,\u201d Stewart told the Associated Press after talking to her fellow PA members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt better after it and know that we finished that call understanding that we\u2019re representing the larger body (of players) and we have work to be done and we\u2019re going to do that work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opening Night is a little more than two months away. The WNBA Draft is slated for April 13.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4889,402,230064,13970,99,434,206696],"class_list":{"0":"post-505660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-barclays-center","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-jt-torenli","11":"tag-liberty","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba","14":"tag-wnba-womens-national-basketball-association"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505660","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=505660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}