The WNBA is at a crossroads because players and owners can’t agree on what fair pay means in women’s professional basketball. The league has finally released its revenue-sharing proposal, but the numbers have made players who are fighting for their worth more angry than happy. The current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ends on January 9, 2025.

According to Ben Pickman of The Athletic, “Sources told @TheAthletic the league’s salary structure proposal would result in players receiving less than 15% of total league revenue.”

This new information gets to the heart of why talks have stopped. The league aims to establish a system where only a portion of the money can be shared. Players would get 50% of that money, which means that in year one, the most a player could make would be $1.2 million, and by 2026, the average salary would be at least $500,000.

These numbers indicate significant increases from current pay, but the percentage tells a different story: players would only receive less than 15% of total revenue, and that share would actually decrease over the life of the agreement, according to league projections.

Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBPA, summed up how the players felt when she told The Athletic,  “I don’t feel like there’s any cultivation of a culture of trust. We don’t feel valued in these talks as they stand today.”

There are problems with the system that extend beyond salary caps, which make her angry. The union wants to eliminate the core designation, which is the league’s franchise tag that prevents players from becoming unrestricted free agents until they turn 29.

They want rookie contracts to last three years instead of four, they want limits on guaranteed contracts to be lifted, and they want real involvement in setting standards for facilities and paying for mental health care.

Most of these ideas have been rejected or overlooked by the league.

It couldn’t have come at a worse time. The WNBA’s highest salary is $1 million, but rival leagues like Project B are offering up to $2 million a year. The league is now in a status quo period, so things will remain the same; however, either side can call for a work stoppage.

Players want to be real partners in the league’s growth, not get small raises that leave them with a smaller share of the money.

Paige Bueckers navigates rocky rookie season amid CBA turmoil

This instability comes at a particularly inopportune time for players like Paige Bueckers, who had a rough first season in Dallas, while the league’s future remains uncertain.

The Wings had a terrible season, going 10-34, despite Bueckers winning Rookie of the Year, earning a starting spot on the All-Star team, and being named to the All-WNBA Second Team.

Her partnership with four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale never happened because her teammate had the worst numbers of her career, which meant the rookie had to carry the weight of the franchise.

The change was harder for Bueckers than she thought it would be. She talked about the change on Dillon Gabriel’s show “What Drives Winning”:

“Yeah, it’s hard. I went from being the vet or the senior on the team to where everybody looked to me as the voice, as the leader. I’m coming into a new organization with a lot of new coaching staff, mostly a new team, a new GM, and I’m a rookie. I’m learning every single day what it looks like to show up to work every day. Be an adult.”

The Wings made things worse by hiring Chris Koclanes as head coach.

This was his first job as a head coach at any level. His terrible 10-34 record led to his immediate firing, and the company hired Jose Fernandez, who was a finalist for the original job and has championship credibility due to his connection to Geno Auriemma.

Dallas now has the right pieces to build a good team around its star player. The Wings can finally build a competitive roster now that they have a significant amount of cap space and the first overall pick in the 2026 draft.

Bueckers needs a team that can help her reach her full potential, not a developmental team that needs her to be a hero all the time.