Welcome to Basketball Insider, presented by The BIG EAST Conference. Say this for the ongoing WNBA negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement with the WNBPA: it’s never boring around these parts.
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Late Tuesday night, a letter from Kelsey Plum and Breanna Stewart to Terri Jackson was leaked to ESPN. You might think that’s strange, since Plum and Stewart are on the WNBPA’s Executive Committee and Jackson is the WNBPA’s Executive Director. But it speaks to a divide that many within the union have concluded is unbridgeable. The very existence of this letter reinforces the points Plum and Stewart make in that letter.
“But we are frustrated that we have not made more progress as we near the March 10 deadline,” Stewart and Plum wrote, “and we believe this is a result of a breakdown in communication between you and the Executive Committee and players more broadly.”
There have been many takes in the hours since this broke, and simply reading the letter absent the context leading up to it, the criticisms of Stewart and Plum make sense. Why would two members of the EC go public with a grievance like this? Isn’t that what internal meetings are for?
But those of you who read this space regularly know Tuesday’s reckoning was a long time coming. Back in September, I pointed out that Napheesa Collier‘s statement, treated in many corners as purely a broadside against the league, contained within it dissatisfaction about the WNBPA’s communication as well.
Or as Collier put it: “Telling my agent that she doesn’t believe physical play is contributing to injuries. That is infuriating, and it’s the perfect example of the tone-deaf, dismissive approach that our leaders always seem to take.”
Note the plural, and Collier’s decision to make this statement without even a heads-up to the WNBPA, multiple sources familiar with her thinking told The IX Sports.
An even more obvious tell came when a group of WNBA agents wrote to Terri Jackson, speaking directly to questions of transparency. Anyone who thinks that happened without buy-in from the players represented by those agents doesn’t understand how being an agent works.
There are too many examples of this disconnect to list here, but the letter from Plum and Stewart detailed many of them, including how many members of the WNBPA were caught by surprise over even good news, like the OneTeam Partners licensing money that had collected over the past six years. The number of times even player reps have complained privately that they don’t know about the basic functions of the WNBPA reinforce what is now spilling into public view.
Here’s the real problem, with six days until the league-described March 10 deadline: there’s not consensus about the way forward in either direction. That’s not just a WNBPA problem. That’s a problem for the league, should it wish to get more proactive in these next few days, because any movement needs to be aimed at a consensus position. Instead, we’re seeing a further unraveling of the communication, owners back-channeling directly to specific players, everyone unsure what the goal is.
The PA, in damage control mode, released this letter from the entire EC, which doesn’t, really, say anything.
It is signed by every member of the committee.
But as you’ll see below, when I asked Plum on Monday whether she believed the EC needed to be unanimous in its recommendation for the WNBPA to move forward on a strategy, she wasn’t sure. And that’s not Plum’s fault. It’s because it is nearly impossible to imagine some members of the EC accepting anything like the current deal, or some members of the EC authorizing a strike. Even within the EC, the goal line varies.
Accordingly, even the WNBPA’s messaging that has followed the letter, regarding its survey sent last week, is perplexing.
Two things on this: it is notable that the PA effectively used push-polling methodology in surveying its membership. This isn’t just a question in search of an answer; it leads to a skewing of the actual usefulness of the data for the PA itself. Who is this for?
Also, the league has maintained that the current math puts the current net revenue at north of 70%, not 50%, which multiple sources familiar with the current proposal confirmed to The IX Sports. There is, according to Plum and Stewart on Monday, a way to reach an agreement regardless of the revenue system if the actual revenue is agreeable to the players. But the PA has not yet even entertained that possibility in a proposal to the league. And it is March 4.
It’s all difficult to fathom. The leaked letter, three sources told The IX Sports, did not come from Plum’s camp, Stewart’s camp or Napheesa Collier’s camp. That means, almost by definition, it came from a faction within the PA less eager to settle.
What purpose did that serve? Again: who is this for?
All the infighting has left rank-and-file members deeply unsettled. One described the entire process to me as “an episode of a reality TV show.” Another confirmed to me that the survey, even within push polling questions, neglected to provide a positive set of parameters for what players would want. This was particularly concerning as it related to the middle class of members.
For reference, the letter from Plum and Stewart did speak to this topic explicitly.
The result is players like Natasha Cloud want to make sure the middle class of players are taken care of, but aren’t even being given specific benchmarks for what that should look like in the PA’s view.
“We are still not making what the middle man should,” Cloud said, referring to the middle class of player salaries, adding that housing should not be negotiated any further. “…I’m happy with the proposal they came back to us with, but there’s a lot more that we can do to protect our middleman.”
The PA, according to numerous members who spoke with The IX Sports, has been unwilling to commit to a figure internally they’re fighting for on things like the veteran minimum, saying instead the final topline needed to be negotiated first. That’s left numerous players unsure of what they’re even fighting for.
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And the survey? Six people who saw it told The IX Sports it left them more confused than before.
So again: who is this for? Not for members of the EC who sound ready to make a deal. Not for members of the EC who believe massive further negotiation is required, yet during Tuesday night’s three-hour call, did not get into any details of the current proposal or hear what the PA plans to respond by asking for, let alone when, as the clock keeps ticking. Not for the middle class of players, more confused than before about what the endgame is.
If there’s a single, consistent talking point the players have emphasized at every stage, it is that they don’t want to strike. As Cameron Brink said on Monday, when asked for the one common goal of every player, she answered: “To play.”
And everything I listed above: who is this for? One source familiar with the internal process responded to The IX Sports simply:
“People who want a strike.”
No wonder everybody’s confused.
Jackie Powell and Jacob Mox contributed reporting to this story.
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