The WNBA players union executive director issued a rebuke of NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s framing of players’ financial demands, saying that Silver is supporting the league’s objective during collective bargaining negotiations to offer “more of the same.”
“You know they know it’s bad when the best they say they can do is more of the same: a fixed salary system and a separate revenue-sharing plan that only includes a piece of a piece of the pie, and pays themselves (the league) back first,” Terri Jackson said in a statement on Wednesday to The Athletic.
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The WNBA is nearing the Oct. 31 deadline for negotiations with the WNBPA as the wedge issues of revenue sharing and salary remain unresolved. Earlier this week, Silver, to whom WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert reports, said that salary increase — not revenue-sharing increase — is the “right way” to reflect on the WNBA’s growth in the upcoming future collective bargaining agreement.
“We’ve come to the table prepared to do business. They’ve responded with bad math and are hoping everyone doesn’t understand what ‘uncapped’ actually means,” Jackson’s statement said. “Adam Silver said it himself on behalf of the WNBA. ‘Share isn’t the word.’ It’s not in their vocabulary.”
The league is proposing a revenue-sharing system that is similar in structure to what is currently in their CBA, in which there is a fixed salary cap and additional revenue sharing, only if league revenue exceeds certain targets, sources with knowledge of the proposal told The Athletic. The WNBA’s latest proposal includes a maximum salary closer to $850,000, sources confirmed. The league’s current maximum player salary is $249,444, and the salary cap in 2025 was $1,507,100, per franchise.
In the current agreement, the CBA sets the salary cap for each year, and cap increases between seasons rise at a fixed three percent rate. The league has an additional mechanism for revenue sharing if certain targets are reached, however, the revenue targets are cumulative and have not been hit due to financial setbacks from the pandemic.
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The WNBPA, meanwhile, has continued to propose a salary framework that is tied to the WNBA business, in which player salaries are linked to a percentage of the revenue generated by the league. Player salaries would also significantly increase under the WNBPA’s framework.
“What the league and teams are really trying to do is not only limit the cost of labor but also contain it through an artificial salary system that isn’t tied to the business the players are building in any real or meaningful way,” Jackson said.
Despite the apparent tensions on the key issue, the two sides continue to meet, with players attending some of the sessions. During the 2025 WNBA Finals, WNBPA executive committee members Nneka Ogwumike, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert attended an in-person meeting, sources with knowledge of the meeting told The Athletic. That session came just a week after Collier’s news conference in which she lambasted Engelbert’s leadership, but the bargaining session remained respectful, sources said.
The WNBPA and WNBA met again last Thursday in Midtown Manhattan, where conversations around the future revenue-sharing system and player salaries remained sticking points.
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Silver said on Tuesday in an appearance on NBC’s “Today” that WNBA players will be getting “big” raises in the future agreement, but he reframed the question regarding whether WNBA players should receive a larger share of WNBA revenue in the future agreement.
“Yes. I mean, I think share isn’t the right way to look at it because there’s so much more revenue in the NBA,” he said. “I think you should look at it in absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making. And they are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining, and they deserve it.”
Silver’s perspective is important. In the aftermath of Collier’s criticism of Engelbert, multiple sources in the WNBA and NBA wondered to The Athletic if Collier’s comments would set in motion a movement for the WNBA to change commissioners. Silver has firing power over Engelbert. She said at her annual WNBA Finals press conference that he remains a “great supporter” of hers. Engelbert said she gives Silver “periodic” updates on the talks, and the league has undergone a period of explosive growth since she assumed the commissioner role six years ago.
Both sides will continue to meet as next week’s deadline approaches.
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They have discussed other topics throughout the negotiation, including formalizing the league-wide charter program, which the league enacted at the start of the 2024 season. They have also discussed expanding roster sizes, and improving family planning benefits and health insurance, sources said.
Despite any purported progress on those matters, players have said they can’t foresee agreeing to a deal that does not increase player compensation and include a new revenue-sharing system.
“The league’s response has been to run out the clock, put lipstick on a pig, and retread a system that isn’t tied to any part of the business and intentionally undervalues the players,” Jackson said. “The fact that the league now wants to call any part of its proposal ‘uncapped’ is precisely why its leadership, transparency and accountability are being challenged right now.”
The WNBA has disputed the characterization of running out the clock.
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“As the WNBA has stated repeatedly, we agree with the players that they deserve to be paid more and, importantly, to participate in the success and growth of the league by sharing in revenue,” a league spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “The comprehensive proposal we provided to the Players Association includes both significant guaranteed salary cap increases and substantial uncapped revenue sharing that enables player salaries to grow as the league’s business grows.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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