The WNBA players’ union, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), called out NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in light of his recent statement about profit sharing inside the WNBA.
In a recent story on Instagram, the WNBPA called out Adam Silver for his statement about him not preferring the term “sharing” when it comes to a new CBA for the WNBA.
“Don’t want to share, Adam Silver?” the WNBPA account wrote in their story caption. The account tagged Silver as well.
The controversial statement came from Adam Silver’s recent interview on the TV show “Today,” where he was asked if he thinks WNBA players deserve to be paid more, to which he agreed, and even promised a hefty pay bump to players. However, he gave a few clarifications on the use of terms when it comes to drafting deals.
“I mean, I think share isn’t the right way to look at it because there’s so much more revenue in the NBA,” Silver said. “I think you should look at 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.”
The WNBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is scheduled to conclude on October 31. Should a new agreement not get finalized by this deadline, an extension is possible to avert a work stoppage, similar to what happened in 2019.
Revenue sharing has become a widely discussed subject that has arisen in CBA negotiations as the popularity of the WNBA has grown over the last several years, with ratings and attendance records being broken on a regular basis, and franchise valuations are higher than ever.
Hall of Famer Looks Back on Previous CBA Negotiations in WNBA
In a recent interview, Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo got honest about how she sees the current CBA negotiations in the WNBA compared to how this deal was talked about decades ago.
“It was so different in those days,” Lobo told WFUV Sports on Monday. “Our two biggest things were year-round health insurance and a 401(k). That was our focus in our first CBA negotiation.”
Lobo went on to express faith in the new CBA, saying that the days of rooking players making less than $100,000 would be a thing of the past.
“Even Cathy Engelbert has talked about, the league wants transformational change in terms of the salaries that players are making,” she continued. “The days of the rookies making $75,000, those days are gone. The days of the max contract being $225,000 for the best, most veteran player, those days are going to be behind us. There’s going to be a massive shift when it comes to those salaries.”
The WNBA is currently offseason, and is expected to start its 2026 season with a new CBA.
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