2025 WNBA Regular Season Discussion Thread

[Green Chile]

Seattle finally gets over that Golden State hump. This matchup is always fun to watch. Almost like a Steelers Ravens game.

I love Nneka so much. Wheeler opened it up in the 3rd, then Nneka closed it down in the 4th.

Good to see more bench minutes from Tiffany Mitchell.. She's been pretty good since they signed her. And good to see something from Lexie Brown. I like the kid but this has been the season from hell for her. Brought in as a shooter. Can't get minutes and when she does she can't hit anything. Today she finally showed some signs of life.

Hopefully it continues because bench scoring for Seattle is gold.

Unfortunately no Dom for this one. I get it.. Golden State just forces Seattle to shoot 3's. Bench players had to be 3-point threats.

[MrDollarBills]

Sophie got her ass booed hard during the line up announcements. I wonder why lol

Anyway. We need to keep up the pressure and pace.

[MrDollarBills]

Seattle finally gets over that Golden State hump. This matchup is always fun to watch. Almost like a Steelers Ravens game.

I love Nneka so much. Wheeler opened it up in the 3rd, then Nneka closed it down in the 4th.

Good to see more bench minutes from Tiffany Mitchell.. She's been pretty good since they signed her. And good to see something from Lexie Brown. I like the kid but this has been the season from hell for her. Brought in as a shooter. Can't get minutes and when she does she can't hit anything. Today she finally showed some signs of life.

Hopefully it continues because bench scoring for Seattle is gold.

Unfortunately no Dom for this one. I get it.. Golden State just forces Seattle to shoot 3's. Bench players had to be 3-point threats.

Your team is really good.

I'm looking forward to the Skills Challenge. Skylar, Tasha Cloud, Courtney Williams are gonna talk so much trash that it might be a mistake to mic any of them up.

[MrDollarBills]

Based on some of the rumblings I'm seeing, and that tweet that Tasha sent out earlier today, fans need to be prepared for a contentious labor battle between the WNBAPA and the league. A strike or lockout may be imminent

Most players make more money overseas than they do here in the W. That's gonna be a huge sticking point.

[Green Chile]

Seattle finally gets over that Golden State hump. This matchup is always fun to watch. Almost like a Steelers Ravens game.

I love Nneka so much. Wheeler opened it up in the 3rd, then Nneka closed it down in the 4th.

Good to see more bench minutes from Tiffany Mitchell.. She's been pretty good since they signed her. And good to see something from Lexie Brown. I like the kid but this has been the season from hell for her. Brought in as a shooter. Can't get minutes and when she does she can't hit anything. Today she finally showed some signs of life.

Hopefully it continues because bench scoring for Seattle is gold.

Unfortunately no Dom for this one. I get it.. Golden State just forces Seattle to shoot 3's. Bench players had to be 3-point threats.

Your team is really good.

I'm looking forward to the Skills Challenge. Skylar, Tasha Cloud, Courtney Williams are gonna talk so much trash that it might be a mistake to mic any of them up.

Skills Challenge and Three Point Contest lineups are amazing (as much as it really sucks that CC can't be there).

I can't root against Skylar, but I would really love to see Allisha go back-to-back in both.

[hermes]

Based on some of the rumblings I'm seeing, and that tweet that Tasha sent out earlier today, fans need to be prepared for a contentious labor battle between the WNBAPA and the league. A strike or lockout may be imminent

Most players make more money overseas than they do here in the W. That's gonna be a huge sticking point.

wonder how the new/future ownership groups feel about a potential stoppage, or if they even get a vote?
there are two teams starting next year that will probably be a little upset if the season ends up cancelled

not to mention potentially taking the air out of the balloon of positive growth momentum the league has.
those teams that just paid $250m just to join might ask for some of it back

[Green Chile]

Based on some of the rumblings I'm seeing, and that tweet that Tasha sent out earlier today, fans need to be prepared for a contentious labor battle between the WNBAPA and the league. A strike or lockout may be imminent

Most players make more money overseas than they do here in the W. That's gonna be a huge sticking point.

wonder how the new/future ownership groups feel about a potential stoppage, or if they even get a vote?
there are two teams starting next year that will probably be a little upset if the season ends up cancelled

not to mention potentially taking the air out of the balloon of positive growth momentum the league has.
those teams that just paid $250m just to join might ask for some of it back

Players Association just put out a statement that made it sound like the meeting didn't go well.

Really hope this is all just early negotiation posturing.

Neither side has any reason to give just yet, so it makes sense that they are far apart.

[hermes]

Based on some of the rumblings I'm seeing, and that tweet that Tasha sent out earlier today, fans need to be prepared for a contentious labor battle between the WNBAPA and the league. A strike or lockout may be imminent

Most players make more money overseas than they do here in the W. That's gonna be a huge sticking point.

wonder how the new/future ownership groups feel about a potential stoppage, or if they even get a vote?
there are two teams starting next year that will probably be a little upset if the season ends up cancelled

not to mention potentially taking the air out of the balloon of positive growth momentum the league has.
those teams that just paid $250m just to join might ask for some of it back

Players Association just put out a statement that made it sound like the meeting didn't go well.

Really hope this is all just early negotiation posturing.

Neither side has any reason to give just yet, so it makes sense that they are far apart.

just read the statement, sounds like everyone and their sister was there. 40 some players all spoke, so it was definitely a posturing day - nothing was going to get done but airing out grievances

its super early, if things still seem far apart in february then we can start to really worry. the deal isn't getting done during the all-star break and most likely not this season.

[MrDollarBills]

wonder how the new/future ownership groups feel about a potential stoppage, or if they even get a vote?
there are two teams starting next year that will probably be a little upset if the season ends up cancelled

not to mention potentially taking the air out of the balloon of positive growth momentum the league has.
those teams that just paid $250m just to join might ask for some of it back

Players Association just put out a statement that made it sound like the meeting didn't go well.

Really hope this is all just early negotiation posturing.

Neither side has any reason to give just yet, so it makes sense that they are far apart.

just read the statement, sounds like everyone and their sister was there. 40 some players all spoke, so it was definitely a posturing day - nothing was going to get done but airing out grievances

its super early, if things still seem far apart in february then we can start to really worry. the deal isn't getting done during the all-star break and most likely not this season.

I admit some ignorance here.

I didn't realize that WNBA players make more money playing overseas. Like way more.

Now add Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited into the mix. Unrivaled is a six figure salary. From what I managed to gather via Google, AU plays 20k minimum for 5 weeks of play and that doesn't include performance bonuses and the amenities.

$4000 a week is a lot more than what most WNBA players make right now. You've got people making $72k a year. That's not even enough money to own a 1 BR apartment in some areas.

I don't think the league has much leverage. The players are going to strike and I support them 100%.

[MrDollarBills]

Based on some of the rumblings I'm seeing, and that tweet that Tasha sent out earlier today, fans need to be prepared for a contentious labor battle between the WNBAPA and the league. A strike or lockout may be imminent

Most players make more money overseas than they do here in the W. That's gonna be a huge sticking point.

wonder how the new/future ownership groups feel about a potential stoppage, or if they even get a vote?
there are two teams starting next year that will probably be a little upset if the season ends up cancelled

not to mention potentially taking the air out of the balloon of positive growth momentum the league has.
those teams that just paid $250m just to join might ask for some of it back

They can ask for it back. The players actually have options. This is a lot different from NBA player strife. The men are fools who voted to allow the owners to establish a stealth hard cap which ensures that no one else gets paid but the A and B tier guys. That was horrible collective bargaining. The WNBA players seem to be in lockstep.

Phee and Stewie played the WNBA and NBA for fools when they started Unrivaled. This was calculated. I applaud them.

Why would anyone play basketball for 66k when you can go to Australia and make way more or just wait for January to come to make $125k in Unrivaled? For a few months of work??

Not to mention the current hostile climate in the United States towards Black and LGBTQA people? There is no incentive for most WNBA players to even play in this league.

This is gonna blow up in the league's face. They aren't prepared.

[MrDollarBills]

If you paid 250m to own a W franchise and only expected to shell out 250k to 65k in salaries, you are a moron.

[MrDollarBills]

https://bsky.app/profile/gnocchifc.bsky.social/post/3lu72y4kua22q

They aren't playing.

[Green Chile]

It sounds like the Studbudz 72 hour live stream is everything we could have hoped for.

[MrDollarBills]

It sounds like the Studbudz 72 hour live stream is everything we could have hoped for.

Tonight is gonna be crazy

[hermes]

https://www.twitch.tv/studbudz

link if anyone wants to watch
i didn't know they were doing this. sounds like a bunch of wild stuff has already happened

[MrDollarBills]

Gabby Williams-per CBA meeting "its very clear they want to push unrivaled out, push AU out"

https://www.reddit.com/r/wnba/s/JadW6yivvZ

Gabby Williams attended the CBA negotiations yesterday and here is what she had to say about it:

2:45 - 3:19 its very clear that the league wants to push away all other leagues, without still paying more than those other leagues pay us. Again it would make sense if they were paying us more than they pay us here but it still isn't the case even with the new proposals - and its very clear they want to push unrivaled out push AU out they wanna do it as much as possible. So I think now more than ever its really important to push against these active issues.

9:20 - 9:52 But honestly prioritization is not going in the right direction as far as (I just answered this question) that in the CBA meeting its very clear that they just want to remove all other leagues-not remove them but keep/bar us from them without paying us more than these leagues like to pay us so, I think yeah the goal is ultimately to play one season a year. I just think there's a little bit of delusion in the W to think that were getting paid more in the W for it as well.

10:55- 11:29 reporter: can you elaborate how is it clear that the WNBA does not support players playing in unrivaled, playing in overseas? can you expand on that? Gabby- "well the leagues pay us more, that's obvious why they don't want us in those leagues and you can see that the league is trying to push this season, that I think on purpose to counteract with these other leagues as well as creating rules like prioritization.

12:25 -12:55 Reporter: and how would you characterize things are kind of going at this point? Gabby: "I think the voices were heard because they found a very strategic way to spin everything as very ( I was like wow these might be some politicians as well) , you could tell that they heard it even though they were trying to distract us from the real answer. It doesn't seem like its going to be very easy is what I got from that.

The revenue sharing discussion is going to get ugly. There is no incentive for any of these players to play in the WNBA when they are paid more playing for other leagues.

Strike.

[hermes]

sounds like the wnba thinks its a lot more like the nfl, in terms of cache, than it actually is (probably more like the mls)
but unlike the nfl, they are incredibly worried about their competition

like the nfl doesn't care about the xfl, because they know its just a flash in the pan. heck i wouldn't be surprised if these leagues were secretly orchestrated by the nfl to just use at petri dishes to experiment with possible rules changes or different play styles

the wnba may in fact be the premier women's basketball league in the world (they probably are), but they don't have all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it (mainly money and power). they can get there, and they are on their way, but the league needs to bring the players along with them.

at some point with all the other sports leagues, when they ascended to becoming the 800 pound gorillas they are now, shared the spoils with the players. the rich people involved here, if they are just in it to make money - they can make money doing anything else. if you want to make money in sports you need the players - and the players aren't going to play if they aren't making any money

[MrDollarBills]

https://www.twitch.tv/studbudz

link if anyone wants to watch
i didn't know they were doing this. sounds like a bunch of wild stuff has already happened

I was just watching some of it, Courtney is on the court warming up for the skills challenge

She is an absolute treasure. I love how pumped she is to go against Skylar, Tasha, etc.

[Green Chile]

It'so often seems to be the players that people aren't talking about winning.

Prediction: Wheeler and Plum win tonight.

[Green Chile]

Court should have gotten that IV this morning like Heideman did