In an interview on NBC’s “Today,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver offered his opinion on the CBA negotiations in the WNBA.
Silver was asked by “Today” host Craig Melvin on Tuesday if WNBA players should get a larger share of total revenue. “They get 9 percent of total revenue compared to roughly 50 percent of the revenue of NBA players. Should they be getting a larger share of revenue in the WNBA?”
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Silver was quick to clarify. “Yes, I think ‘share’ isn’t the right way to look at it because there’s so much more revenue in the NBA,” Silver said.
“You should look at it in absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making,” he added. “They are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining. And they deserve it.”
The NBA and WNBA have different revenue-sharing systems. In the NBA, players make roughly half of basketball-related income (BRI) with the other half going to owners. BRI determines the NBA’s salary cap.
The WNBA’s current CBA doesn’t explicitly use BRI to determine the salary cap. The CBA sets the salary cap for each year of the agreement.
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The league’s current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire Oct. 31. Players have identified revenue sharing as a major sticking point in a new agreement.
Negotiations have become more tense after Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier read a statement in her exit interview admonishing the league’s leadership. Several players praised Collier, and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was heavily booed when she presented Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson with the WNBA Finals MVP trophy on Oct. 10.
Collier said in her statement that the WNBA has “the best fans in the world, the best players in the world, but the worst leadership in the world.”
She also revealed details of a conversation she had with Engelbert at Unrivaled, the 3×3 professional winter basketball league that Collier co-founded last year with her husband, Alex Bazzell.
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“I asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin (Clark), Angel (Reese) and Paige (Bueckers), who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little their first four years,” Collier said. “Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.’ In that same conversation, she told me, ‘Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.’”
Engelbert denied making those comments in a press conference ahead of the WNBA Finals.
“Obviously, I did not make those comments,” Engelbert said. “Caitlin has been a transformational player in this league. She’s been a great representative of the game. There were a lot of inaccuracies reported out there, and I certainly did not say that.”
Collier and Engelbert had a meeting planned that Collier canceled.
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At an event earlier in October, Silver offered his thoughts on the relationship between league leadership and players, saying that the situation has “become too personal and we’re going to have to work through those issues.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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