Inside the final seven days of the WNBA CBA negotiations

JUST INSIDE THE LANGHAM HOTEL, NEW YORK — Welcome to Basketball Insider, powered by The BIG EAST Conference. It’s Jackie Powell once again, and I’m here to take you inside what was an equally exhilarating and exhausting week. 

What began at The Langham Hotel also ended back at The Langham Hotel. Now we know officially that there will be a 2026 WNBA season, the league’s 30th. 

By just before 2:30 am on Wednesday morning, leaders of both the WNBA and the WNBPA knew that they had done it. They had agreed verbally to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which still has to be converted into a term sheet and shared with the entire player body.

While both the players and the league’s board of governors have to approve of this new deal, history was made just before 3 a.m. when both sides met in a long conference room to toast with champagne and hug. The battle was over after over 100 hours of bargaining sessions. The battle was over after contentious barbs were fired back and forth. The battle was over after both the players and the league realized they just needed to keep working in order to get to the finish line. 

My colleagues and I were taking shelter in various places, including nearby restaurants and hotel rooms on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, to make sure that if something happened, we would all be on the scene. It was 30 degrees. Gone was the fool’s spring and the lawn chairs. 

Once we got word that something was happening at 2:36 a.m., it was a mad dash to get back to The Langham lobby, and moments later, a gaggle of nine people, including players on the WNBPA’s executive committee, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Union Executive Director Terri Jackson, were all standing together side by side to deliver what was good news. 

Engelbert, who was dressed all in green with a black blazer on with a shamrock necklace, was really leaning into whatever the luck the Irish could bring as St. Patrick’s Day had just passed. She was also wearing a singular blue and red winter glove on one of her hands. 

This wasn’t the first time Engelbert met the media with this mysterious glove. At 3 a.m. on Monday morning, following both the selection Sunday and the Oscars, she told reporters that she wore it to keep warm to help with a circulation issue that she has. When she appeared yet again with the glove, she noted that it became her lucky glove, and lucky it proved to be. 

Engelbert read from a crumpled paper to deliver the news that fans, league employees and league shareholders had been waiting for. 

After she read the statement, she went off script. “We just had some congratulations with each other,” she said, referring to the toast that had just happened less than five minutes prior. “It’s been obviously a process, but we’re very proud to be leading in women’s sports, and the players are amazing, and we’re going to have an amazing 30th season, tipping off in May.”

Jackson, who was all bundled up in a long puffer coat while holding her hotel-provided glass that still had champagne in it, expressed how much the players she was serving had put their hearts and souls into this new CBA. President Nneka Ogwumike, vice president Breanna Stewart, vice president Alysha Clark and treasurer Brianna Turner had worked around the clock alongside the PA’s staff and outside counsel. 

“I am beyond proud of these players,” Jackson said. “They have poured their heart and soul into these negotiations and into the CBA. When you see the details, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. This leadership team stood in the shoes of one through 12, plus two, and took their experiences all into account. They have done these players proud, and there’s nothing more to be said. They have done the work.”

What exactly is that work that players like Stewart, Ogwumike, Clark, Turner and at times Napheesa Collier did throughout this draining week?  

The work was early morning and mid-afternoon workouts in between meetings in conference rooms. The work was reviewing proposals on laptops and iPads during meetings between the lawyers of both sides. The work at times involved taking walks around the city to clear their heads and waiting long hours for responses. The work was huddling around Ogwumike’s laptop, hoping that Michael B. Jordan would win best actor at the Oscars. 

That work was also pushing for a meaningful share of league revenue, exponential growth in the salary cap, increasing average compensation to over half a million dollars, raising professional facility standards, more meaningful retirement benefits and expanding family planning opportunities, including parental leave. 

Later on Wednesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported some of the specifics, which include a $7 million salary cap, revenue share hitting an average of 20% throughout the deal, and the highest salary netting out at $1.4 million. No player will make below $300,000. 

That very fact was probably one of many that got Clark choked up multiple times throughout the evening. After she was the one who sabered the champagne bottle, she gave an earnest and tearful speech that expounded upon the fact that she entered this league at a time when it wasn’t guaranteed that she’d make a meaningful living from the greatest women’s basketball league in the world. 

Ogwumike nudged her to give us an idea of how she was feeling. 

“What we just accomplished is going to change the lives of so many players,” Clark told reporters.  “And speaking from experience… Players like me are going to be the ones that I think feel it the most, and that’s what I think we’re all super proud of because that’s what we set out from the beginning, was making sure every player felt the change in the CBA, and that’s exactly what has happened.”

When the mic turned to Turner, she was initially speechless. She grew up going to Houston Comets games and for her to be on the front lines as one of the women who helped change what it means to be a player in the WNBA was surreal. She couldn’t wait to call her mom to tell her the news, and she also earned a new nickname throughout this arduous process.

Clark shouted: Brianna “Hidden Figures” Turner. That is an obvious reference to the book and film that tells the story of three Black women mathematicians who worked for NASA during the space race in the 1950s and 1960s. “I’ve got the chalk still,” she said, referencing this very scene in the film.  

Stewart’s first reflections on reaching expected labor peace began comically. “First of all, throughout this entire process, I realized I don’t want to be a lawyer,” she said. 

And then her thoughts evolved into gratitude and diplomacy, where she expressed appreciation for everyone involved in this long slog of a process. She thanked the union staff, she thanked Engelbert and her staff, but then stated why the current moment mattered so much. 

“[The deal is] going to build and help create a system where everybody is getting exactly what they deserve and more from on the court and off the court aspects,” she said. “And just excited that we can tell our fans that we’re going to be back.” 

Ogwumike spoke to reporters a few days prior about how doing this laborious work was actually “one of the most exciting points in her career.” To be clear, this is a career filled with 10 All-Star appearances, an MVP award and a championship. 

For Ogwumike, part of the self-actualization comes from the fact that she and her peers for over 100 hours helped alter the perception of the WNBA, one that had been through the ringer ever since the league began around 30 years ago. 

“I’m really excited about players coming into this league for the first time, and not having a sense of lack,” she said.

That “sense of lack” refers to the previous expectations that college athletes would be treated better than professionals in the WNBA. The idea now is that it will become a distant memory rather than reality. 

That sense of lack has also been felt on the media side for just as long. The work that I did this past week was grueling and made me feel like both a zombie and a vampire. 

But that didn’t make it any less meaningful. 

It was a public service at its very heart. Covering these marathon negotiations was symbolic of the very fact that the WNBA is now being treated like a big deal rather than a small one. That’s a win for both players and the storytellers who have believed in its importance all along. 

This week in women’s basketball 

Please read all the work of the members of The Langham Four, which included Alexa Philippou, Annie Costabile, Doug Feinberg and me. 

Mitchell Northam previews Richmond vs. Nebraska 

Chloe Peterson was on the ground covering Team USA in the World Cup qualifiers

Jessica Luther writes about Texas’ National Championship Chances 

Mike Vaccaro writes about FDU and Stephanie Gaitley

Five at The IX: More CBA stories

WNBA CBA negotiations enter Day 8, NCAA women’s bracket picks | The IX Sports Podcast

Howard Megdal walks you through his NCAA women’s March Madness bracket and picks the 2026 national champion. I also tell some of my many stories that came out of staking out the CBA negotiations for over a week. 

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Mondays: Soccer
By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tuesdays: Tennis
By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Wednesdays: Basketball
By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Thursdays: Golf
By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Fridays: Hockey
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Saturdays: Gymnastics
By: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer