The clock is ticking on the WNBA’s current CBA, with less than three weeks to go before it expires. And right now, there’s no sign of a handshake. The league and the players’ union are still reportedly far apart, with players pushing hard for an NBA-style revenue-sharing model. And if you ask WNBA All-Star Courtney Williams, progress has been slow, with the guard making it clear the league isn’t moving fast enough at the negotiating table.

Calling it “mind-boggling,” Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams said on a StudBudz stream that the WNBA wants to “pay themselves first,” leaving players to split just 30 percent of the league’s revenue.

“They don’t care about nothing. I’m not gonna lie. It’s crazy. The league wants to pay themselves first before they pay us,” Williams said. “When they pay themselves, it leaves less than 30 percent for us to spread. So they want to pay themselves first, and then whatever is left, they want us to split with them.”

She continued, “They want us to stay at that, less than 15 each year. So if the league grows in ’26, ’27, ’28, ’29, ’30, we stay at that, less than 15 the whole way through. But hold on. They want to pay all their expenses first, but mind you, they don’t consider the players’ expenses. They consider coaches’ expenses. And they even piggyback off of that. They still want to pay coaches more than they pay, like, an A’ja Wilson or Napheesa Collier.”

The latest WNBA CBA proposal would give players roughly 30 percent of total league and team revenue, according to The Athletic. The WNBA is pitching a model where only a portion of league revenue would even be eligible to be shared, as Courtney Williams confirmed, with players getting 50 percent of that slice.

What actually counts as “shareable” revenue is still unclear, and under the league’s proposed salary structure, the players’ cut would drop to less than 15 percent and could shrink even further over the life of the deal based on projected revenue growth.

No wonder it’s left players highly frustrated, especially when coaches like Nate Tibbetts are reportedly earning over a million dollars a year, which would be about the same as what max-contract players would make if this CBA were to pass.

In response, the union has put forward its own proposal. The salary cap would be calculated by taking the players’ share of the previous season’s total revenue, subtracting the cost of player benefits, and then dividing the remainder by the number of teams, per The Athletic.

Those benefits would include medical insurance, local transportation, and housing, with the union also calling for mandatory league and team audits to guarantee accurate accounting and real transparency.

So what this proposal effectively does is tie the players’ pay directly to the league’s growth. Under the union’s plan, they would start at 29 percent of the prior season’s gross revenue in Year 1, with a one-time adjustment for the WNBA’s new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal kicking in next season.

From there, their share would climb by one percent each year, topping out at 34 percent of total league and team revenue in the final year of the proposed CBA.

Of course, none of that has been agreed to by the league yet, and the situation is starting to look tense. A work stoppage is very much on the table, with the union already making it clear they won’t be afraid to call a strike if meaningful progress isn’t made in negotiations.

But at the end of the day, the players want to be on the court too, and Caitlin Clark best sums up that feeling.

Caitlin Clark Emphasizes Saving the 2026 Season as WNBA CBA Talks Continue

According to various reports, the WNBA recently rejected a WNBPA proposal that would have given players 33 percent of total revenue every year of the deal, which is why the union shifted to the one-percent year-over-year ramp-up model in the proposal it submitted last week.

But with that not looking likely to be accepted either, the anxiety among players is starting to grow. And while Caitlin Clark and some of the younger stars aren’t on the front lines of the CBA fight, even they understand the gravity of the situation right now. That’s exactly why the Fever star is urging both sides to reach a deal, so the players can simply keep doing what they love, which is to play.

“This is the biggest moment the WNBA has ever seen, and it’s not something that can be messed up, and we’re going to fight for everything that we deserve,” Clark said at her first Team USA training camp.

“At the same time, we need to play basketball. That’s what our fans crave, and that’s what all of you crave as well, is you want the product on the floor. At the end of the day, that’s how you make the money.”

She continued,” It’s important that we find a way to play this next season. Our fans and even everybody that has played in this league that has come before us deserve that as well. Obviously, I can’t speak to every number; it’s pretty complicated, but I think there are different things that we can find ways to say, ‘No, we certainly deserve that, and we’re not going to compromise on that.’ And then other things that we can probably compromise on.”

Clark may not see things exactly the same way as some of the players leading the negotiations, but it’s also important to remember that without the W, most of them lose their biggest platform. Yes, leagues like Unrivaled and Project B exist to supplement income, and in most cases, the pay there is higher than in the W.

However, at the end of the day, we know these players because of the WNBA, and it’s hard to imagine a future where the league simply ceases to exist.

But as things stand, if a new WNBA CBA agreement isn’t reached within the next 17 days, we could be staring at a seismic shift in the women’s basketball landscape.