WNBA players assert ‘worst leadership’ amidst Playoffs with high ratings, lockout looming
WNBA players want more revenue as Caitlin Clark and other stars bring in major revenue to the league, like the early NBA years. The post WNBA players assert ‘worst leadership’ amidst Playoffs with high ratings, lockout looming appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
I wrote an article earlier this year on how this current WNBA season would be the most important one in the history of the league, and I meant that. We are not even into Game 1 of the now WNBA Playoffs seven game series, and this season has proven to be pivotal for the league’s present and future.
Viewership is soaring, attendance records are shattering, dialogue around the league is at an all time high, and despite many injuries, players are seeing more brand deals and sponsorships than ever. In just this season alone, we’ve seen three new individual player logos launch, have had multiple new player shoes’ sell out upon release, and Unrivaled (the player-founded US-based offseason league) just locked in their second season.
Finally, the players are getting what they deserve: eyes, ears and dollars to their name.
Even more fuel to this scorching league is what’s to come: at the end of this season, the players and league will enter intense negotiations after the WNBA Playoffs around their newest Collective Bargaining Agreement. This is a workplace contract set between an employer (the WNBA) and employees (the players), and it’s the backbone of everything the league and players stand for.
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WNBA players assert ‘worst leadership’ amidst Playoffs with high ratings, lockout looming
WNBA players want more revenue as Caitlin Clark and other stars bring in major revenue to the league, like the early NBA years.
The WNBA Player’s Association (WNBAPA) has already opted out of their current agreement (set in 2020 under new Commissioner Cathy Engelbert), and the agreement will now expire on Oct. 31, 2025 unless a new CBA is made prior to. With attendance and viewership soaring, the players deserve a larger piece of the collective revenue pie than they currently have.
The players have notoriously noted they are not seeking equal pay to their NBA-counterparts, but simply “their fair share.”
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It matters that this is happening at all, and it’s incredibly important that it’s happening now. Unfortunately, current negotiations are not going well, as reported by WNBAPA President Nneka Ogwumike.
According to Ogwumike, the league and union are proposing two systems, with the league wanting a fixed percentage and the players wanting “a better share where our salaries grow with the business, and not just a fixed percentage over time.”
As these negotiations continue, another discrepancy between what NBA and WNBA players receive is getting more attention: high-quality referees and rules officials. [***just some sort of transition sentence!]
As more teams are eliminated from these current WNBA Playoffs, more players are speaking out at their end of season exit interviews. Just today, Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier put WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on blast, saying “We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now we have the worst leadership in the world.”
Collier also said Engelbert told her, “Players should be on their knee thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.’
Collier’s season came to a heartbreaking close only a few days ago, as the Phoenix Mercury completed their upset in a series that was marred with multiple coach ejections and player fines regarding someone.
Engelbert responded by saying that she was, “disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership.” “But even when our perspectives differ,” she continued, “my commitment to the players and to this work will not waver.”
Napheesa Collier Full and unedited statement
I’ll have specific quotes after media is done pic.twitter.com/k3BlmTVmPh— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) September 30, 2025
Players and coaches have been keen to note that officiating is not the standard the WNBA upholds itself to, and it ultimately puts players at risk for injury. So, when star Collier goes down at the end of Game 3 after a questionable (but correct) no-call, following 55 minutes of questionable calls (and no-calls), you can imagine the Lynx’s Head Coach Cheryl Reeve was going to lose her hat.
Reeve, after charging at the ref before being ejected, received a one-game immediate suspension and a $15,000 league-record largest individual fine for her actions. The league is no stranger to giving players fines for posts on social media and other public platforms for negative comments on the referees, but never before was this swift of a suspension placed, in such a crucial game.
Reeve should know better than to get herself in such a position, but argued in her presser after being ejected, “The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinal-playoff worthy, it’s f***ing malpractice”.
Fans of the league know all too well of the Lynx’s relationship with the officials in last year’s finals, as the Liberty took their first title on the heels of another dramatic whistle, one that would put Breanna Stewart at the free throw line to eventually seal the Liberty’s win.
Even the Liberty’s Jonquel Jones knew not to speak too harshly on the officiating back in 2024, noting in a presser following Game 1 of the 2024 Finals, one that also featured some important officiating, “I already got one fine this playoffs, I’m not getting another one.”
I say all these things, from both players and multiple coaches across all levels of play, because of course the players and coaches want better working conditions. Of course they are going to be more vocal on issues and discrepancies as they are in the midst of negotiations for their upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement, one that, like this season, is their most important ever. These players are armed with the knowledge of their revenue potential, armed with the knowledge of the multiple new media rights deals the WNBA has entered, and armed with firsthand knowledge and experience that the WNBA needs to work on its inconsistent officiating.
As reported by The Athletic, multiple anonymous sources within the league have noted major inconsistencies in officiating over the years, pointing to a high turnover rate as WNBA officials move to the NBA.
Another WNBA Playoffs GM noted that they believe a lot of officials see the NBA as the “end goal”.
On the other hand, Sue Blauch, the Associate Vice President WNBA Referee Performance and Development, noted that officials across all NBA leagues (NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and Basketball Africa League) are trained with the same set of expectations and standards.
In a recent ESPN article, the WNBA Referee Operations found that “allegations that officiating errors have led to more injuries were unfounded”.
Becoming a WNBA official is not an easy task, and one reserved for some of the top professionals in their game, and should be obvious that both the NBA and WNBA require the same level of consistent officiating.
Moreover, this is not a criticism across every official in every WNBA game, in fact, it was the same officiating crew for Game 3 of the Lynx/Mercury (that saw Reeve ejected) that also called Game 4 of the Aces/Indiana series. Both games were plagued by “interesting” officiating, as Aja Wilson notes below, and it’s hard not to see the overlap of having the exact same officials for both games.
The WNBA — including the WNBA Playoffs — is no stranger to record-breaking deals, and I hope they understand the potential they have to make a major statement with how they structure this next CBA. They have the ability to set a precedent across professional sports worldwide, and I hope they can elevate and support their players as much as they can.
Engelbert may run the league, but let’s be real – we’re here for the players. If the players choose a lockout, it would be the first ever in league history. I certainly hope that is a first we never have, but it might be the only option left to enact major change within the league.
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The post WNBA players assert ‘worst leadership’ amidst Playoffs with high ratings, lockout looming appeared first on Outsports.
