Breanna Stewart is seeking to bring the aura of “Unrivaled” to the WNBA negotiating table as a season hangs in the balance.
Many leagues have learned that Breanna Stewart isn’t willing to compromise on their court. The WNBA appears to be learning that she’s bringing the same approach to the bartering table.
Stewart sits at the WNBA Players Association’s high table, part of her wide-ranging hardwood duties, which also include serving as one of the founders of the domestic three-on-three league Unrivaled.
Co-creator and fellow WNBPA trustee Napheesa Collier has hardly hesitated to offer her uncensored thoughts on the ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations that leave the Association’s 30th season in a holding pattern. Stewart leaped into the verbal fray with her former Finals foe as she spoke for the first time in the lead-up to Unrivaled’s second season.
“More often than not, we’re the ones that are willing to compromise, and they still aren’t budging,” Stewart reported. “If they’re not going to budge, like, we’re going to get to this point where we’re just going to be at a standoff. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.
“I think that we know how important, as players, that it is to play and to be on the court. But at the same time, if we’re not going to be valued the way that we know we should be and the way that every kind of number of situations tells us, then we’re just not going to do something that doesn’t make sense for us.”
Stewart apparently isn’t the only one fatigued by compromises: just over 24 hours after she spoke, the Players Association voted to give its executive committee the authority to call a strike when necessary.
“The players have spoken, the WNBPA stated in a press release. “Through a decisive vote with historic participation, our membership has authorized the WNBPA’s Executive Committee to call a strike when necessary. The players’ decision is an unavoidable response to the state of negotiations with the WNBA and its teams.”
Prior to Thursday, the most recent official development between the league and its players was an agreement to extend the current collective bargaining agreement through Jan. 9, four days after the second Unrivaled season tip-off in Miami.
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But even that might illustrate Stewart’s point about compromises: ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that whereas the league wanted a weeks-long extension, the players wanted to go but one day.
It has gotten to a point where Stewart is willing to call in some outside assistance: prior to Tuesday’s NBA Cup final, NBA commissioner Adam Silver hinted that both he and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum would make themselves “available to do whatever is necessary” to get the league and players’ ink on paper.
“What we’re doing right now isn’t really getting us anywhere,” the New York Liberty forward bluntly declared. “If that means that Adam [Silver] and Mark [Tatum] need to come to the table, we’re more than happy to have that, making sure everybody understands what we want and how we feel and realizing that both things can be true together. Everybody can agree and get what they want out of this, but there has to be something mutual, some things in common happening first.”
Players Gear Up for CBA Talks in South Beach
Player empowerment was one of the top goals Stewart and Collier had in mind when they paved the Unrivaled journey, granting each participant a share of equity in the league, which has drawn high-profile investors of both the celebrity and corporate variety. One of the others was to assemble the brightest minds, talents, and intangibles in one place. Those two endeavors merge in a dangerous, if not intriguing, light when Unrivaled returns.
Last time around, such a setting made for a hotbed of free agency collusion and gossip. Similar South Beach whispers will likely be equally juicy, but so much more may hang in the balance this time around.
“It’s extremely beneficial to have everybody in one place,” Stewart noted. “Not only just to kind of motivate each other on the court, but off the court. We’ll be able to have conversations, whether it’s your teammates in the W, but also your teammates with your respective club, and keep people looped in on what’s happening and where we’re at.
“We’ll have the PA come down, and we’ll meet together as an entire group here. But just keeping people informed, you know, sometimes it’s hard when it’s through email or through text, or like that type of thing. But person-to-person, you really understand the severity of what’s happening.”
Stewart will once again represent Mist BC in Unrivaled play, reuniting with former Liberty assistant coach Zach O’Brien (who succeeds prior Mist boss Phil Handy). Beyond Stewart’s return, the winds of change have struck the Mist, as Veronica Burton, Allisha Gray, Arike Ogunbowale, Alanna Smith, and Li Yueru also join the fold.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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