WNBA All-Stars pressure league on CBA negotiations with warmup shirts

By ALYCE BROWN

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The WNBA All-Stars wanted to send a clear message to the league on the game’s brightest stage.

All of the players on Team Clark and Team Collier warmed up for Saturday night’s WNBA All-Star Game in shirts that read “Pay us what you owe us.”

“We get a very tiny percentage of all the money that’s made through the WNBA, which obviously is made through the entertainment we provide,” said Lynx star Napheesa Collier on the decision to wear the shirts. “So we want a fair and reasonable percentage of that.”

The idea was hatched Saturday morning at a players meeting.

The demonstration comes after the players and the league failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement at an in-person meeting Thursday. The league’s players opted out of their last CBA in October, and are looking for a better revenue-sharing model, increased salaries, improved benefits and a softer salary cap.

After the failed negotiations, many players said there was a large discrepancy between what they wanted and what the league was offering. If a new CBA is not reached by October some players, including All-Stars Collier and Angel Reese, have mentioned the potential of a walkout.

At the end of the game, chants of “Pay them!” broke out in the arena. Some fans held signs that read “Pay the players,” during the game.

“We had no idea that they were in solidarity with our demonstration,” said former Stanford star Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBPA and Seattle Storm forward. “I’ve been hearing it all weekend at the fan events, supporting us and wanting us to get our fair share of the value.”

This was potentially the last time that so many players would be together in one place before the season ends — a fact not lost on the union leadership.

“This is a perfect opportunity to raise awareness for what we’re doing and do it together,” Collier said.

The players haven’t decided whether they’ll wear the shirts on their own teams over the course of the second half of the season, which begins Tuesday. They hope that fans will wear them as the union announced on social media during the game that the shirts were on sale.

Ogwumike was unaware that the shirts were already on sale.

“You put it out there, and you stand on business,” Minnesota All-Star Courtney Williams said about the shirts. “And we’re standing on business.”