PHOENIX — Well, that was anticlimactic.
The first seven-game series in WNBA Finals history concluded in a clean sweep for the Las Vegas Aces. The Phoenix Mercury, barely able to put up a fight, were left merely to watch as the powerhouse adorned its dynasty crown.
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It was a dud of an end to the league’s new postseason era, which started with a bang. Three of the four first-round series used the full three games, and one semifinal needed a winner-take-all Game 5. It also didn’t do much to overtake the noise building into a roar around the WNBA this month.
Everywhere else, the drama ratcheted up, setting the stage for a coda with no apparent end in sight.
What little spotlight the Finals took over the past week will now shine bright back onto the issues at stake in an offseason of uncertainty. An impending work stoppage loomed over the Finals, leaving jittery fans unsure if this was the last of the WNBA they would see for a while. And right at a moment when the league has more interest than ever.
Collective bargaining negotiations turned publicly contentious, clouding the day-to-day of a Finals everyone was desperate to keep about the basketball. Officiating issues crashed back into view after Nate Tibbetts, one of the postseason’s most mild-mannered coaches, earned an ejection in Game 4. Everyone in the building has seen less given for worse. This is the arena where Diana Taurasi built her legacy, after all.
Cathy Engelbert was showered with boos when she took the mic for the postgame celebrations on Friday night. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Christian Petersen via Getty Images)
Then there’s the pesky injury aspect after at least one, and sometimes multiple, star performers exited in all three rounds. The WNBA used to make this much headline news in an entire season or two, not over a one-month span when basketball should be the focus.
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But now that there’s no basketball left, it’s time to sort it out.
Most players Yahoo Sports spoke with through the Finals said they were focused on the championship. They monitored internal information about CBA negotiations, but even team player reps weren’t as involved as they would have been if their seasons were over. The deadline for a deal is Oct. 31. It can be extended, as it was in 2019, but there is a busy offseason of expansion drafts and overloaded free agency to handle.
Mercury forward Kalani Brown told Yahoo Sports such as Aces guard Dana Evans, would come together in the days after the Finals to discuss desired salary numbers for their tier. Satou Sabally, a co-chair of the WNBPA’s CBA committee, said earlier in the week that the league offered a $300,000 minimum in their offer. The sticking point in negotiations is the that grows their salaries with the business.
Aces team owner Mark Davis, who also owns the Las Vegas Raiders, declined to speak on progress in negotiations on Friday night, calling it not the right time amid a celebration. He has made no secret of finding loopholes to pay and support his players, but is on the opposite side of the negotiating table from them. As the business booms, team owners also feel they’re owed after years of investment when viewership, attendance and overall interest weren’t as friendly to their bottom line.
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A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd looked exasperated at a final question on Friday night about the CBA and their feelings about how commissioner Cathy Engelbert is being perceived. The half-empty arena drowned out Engelbert’s presentation of the championship and Finals MVP trophies with boos.
“I don’t think this is the time for that,” Gray said. She instead spoke of paying and valuing players, the talking point of the union began a wave of public support.
The WNBA experienced the most growth in its history under Engelbert’s tenure, including sponsorship investment, expansion, charter flights, higher salaries and better benefits. But fault lines between Engelbert and players went public when Lynx forward Napheesa Collier took the unprecedented step of taking direct aim at league leadership in a scathing four-minute exit interview.
Players spoke up in support of Collier, largely citing “good points” and a strained relationship. Engelbert took the dais days later, and had reached out to Collier to talk it out. Collier is a co-founder of Unrivaled, a WNBA offseason 3-on-3 league in which players have equity shares.
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Collier canceled that meeting, throwing fuel on a fire that relationships between leadership and players couldn’t be mended, and a CBA was out the window. But Collier, who, by player accounts, acted alone in her comments, is not the union leader at the table leading negotiations. That’s union president Nneka Ogwumike, Sabally and the union’s CBA committee, with input from the executive committee that includes Collier.
For now, the relationship tension is more of a smoke screen.
The first offseason news will, in all likelihood, be an extension of the deadline. The previous CBA was announced in January 2020, delaying only the draft lottery held in December. Free agency opens in February. Both sides maintain a deal will be done, and both sides have considerable stake in doing so.
Work stoppages don’t go well for leagues, and severe damage could be done to the WNBA and its players at a time when the league has never been more robust.
