Category: WNBA

NBA and WNBA stars participate in ‘world’s best career day’

Talk about a cool career day.

Career day. Ah, yes, career day. That takes you back.

You know, to those days in high school where you’d sit and your classmate’s dad would come through from whatever job he worked. He’d share a few cool stories with the class and pass around some item that you’d never touched before. Easy money. Easy day at school. Now you can go home and chill.

But could you imagine a career day where James Harden showed up? Or Candace Parker? I don’t know about you, but my classroom would go nuts.

That’s happening for some kids in Chicago this weekend ahead of the All-Star game. Except for instead of a classmate’s dad, they’re kicking it with legends from the NBA and WNBA.

Adidas is hosting what they’re calling “the world’s best career day” with 240 student athletes from eight high schools in Chicago.

They’re getting tips and advice from professionals across different industries — including the NBA and WNBA — about what they did to make it in their profession. Adidas is bringing their athletes and professionals to help these kids shape their futures.

Among those professionals is Los Angeles Sparks forward Candace Parker. The future Hall of Famer said the weekend is an opportunity for her to help someone else build their legacy the way she’s built hers.

“I’ve had countless role models and idols in my life both on and off the court that have played a huge part in who I am, so I’ve always strived to pass it on to the future generations,” Los Angeles Sparks All-Star Candace Parker told For The Win.

Other athletes participating include Derrick Rose, Zach LaVine, James Harden and Chiney Ogwumike among others. Some entertainers under the Adidas umbrella will also participate.

The program is part of Adidas basketball’s “Legacy” program that they say was created to empower youth in underserved communities across the country. The program started in 2017 and is currently in Los Angeles and New York. Chicago’s launch is coinciding with All-Star weekend.

The goal of the program is to “change lives through the power of sport,” Brandon Walker, Adidas Basketball’s program manager, told For The Win. Part of that is getting them in front of professionals who have already done the things they’re trying to do.

And it’s not just basketball they’re focused on. The company is also bringing in business professionals, artists, photographers, fashion designers and professionals from other industries to showcase their skills and drive interest.

“In LA, we were having a session and one of the young lady’s from our program spoke to one of our sneaker designers and she asked ‘You helped design James Harden’s shoe?’,” Walker said.  “And just to see the look on her face to see that she could impact sport without actually needing to play the game was super powerful. And that’s what we try to hammer home.”

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Recapping the WNBA’s wild free agency period

The WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement has sparked major movement in its free agency period.

WNBA free agency has only been upon us for a day and a half and things are already getting insane.

In just a couple days, here’s where we are:

  • Angel McCoughtry left the Atlanta Dream and signed with the Las Vegas Aces
  • Kristi Toliver left the WORLD CHAMPION Mystics and signed with the Los Angeles Sparks
  • The Phoenix Mercury signed and traded DeWanna Bonner to the Connecticut Sun

Those are three big moves that all impact last year’s semi-finalists. The Mystics got worse after having a historic offensive year while the Sun, Aces and Sparks all got a lot better.

This is NBA-level chaos for the WNBA in February when the offseason is supposed to be dead. You absolutely love to see it.

It’s all thanks to the WNBA’s new CBA

The league’s new collective bargaining agreement was the secret sauce the league needed to get its offseason popping.

Teams really just ain’t broke anymore, to put it bluntly. They have more money to play with. The league’s max salaries have jumped up to $215,000 from $117,500 last year, and the league’s salary cap spiked by more than 30%.

The league will be a lot better for it

The league might literally have more super teams than it can handle right now. Three teams in the W have at least three 2019 All-Stars their team — that’s a FOURTH of the league.

That’s not even counting the Mystics, who have Finals MVP Emma Meesseman, or the Storm, who were without Brianna Stewart and Sue Bird for most of last season. Or what about the Sun with Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner? The list goes on.

To put things simply, the WNBA is going to be wild next year.

This is absolutely great for the WNBA as it continues to grow its brand. People love watching super teams despite how much they claim to hate them. All we have to do is look to the NBA’s ratings for proof.

The NBA is as competitive as its ever been right now during the Warriors’  lost year and the league’s ratings are down. When people were firing off their snake emojis at Kevin Durant? Ratings weren’t a problem.

That theory withstands the test of time. Whether it’s Magic’s Lakers, Jordan’s Bulls or LeBron’s Heat, people watched. As much as folks cry about parity, it hasn’t gotten people to watch.

Super teams sell. The WNBA has plenty of them. You can do the math from there.

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We’re not talking about Maya Moore enough

This is one of the most noble things we’ve ever seen.

Maya Moore is easily one of the greatest athletes of our time. In eight years of WNBA basketball, Moore has won four championships, one MVP trophy, another Finals MVP trophy and been named an All-Star six times. She transformed the Minnesota Lynx into a yearly contender.

That’s GOAT level stuff. It all pales in comparison to what she’s doing off of the court.

Moore will skip her second WNBA season in a row this summer to focus on criminal justice reform, the New York Times reports. Specifically, on the case of Jonathan Irons — a man who she believes was wrongfully convicted at age 16. He’s 39 year old now.

Irons is in the middle of service a 50-year prison sentence after being convicted of burglary and assaulting a homeowner with a gun in St. Louis. The homeowner was shot during the assault and testified that Irons was the perpetrator, but there was no evidence linking Irons to the crime.

Moore has been talking about this case since she met Irons in 2017. She took a year off from the game last year to minister in Atlanta and is doing the same this year.

This is unprecedented. We’re not talking about this enough. This is Michael Jordan going into his first retirement, except for instead of sucking at baseball, Moore is being a boss in criminal justice.

She’s 30 years old. We have no idea how much basketball she actually has left in her where she’s playing at a high level. We also have no idea when she’s returning. But this is very clearly bigger than just basketball to her.

This is an opportunity for her to pull someone up and out of a trap that so many people fall into because of no fault of their own. They have no lifelines and no help. Moore is trying to be that for someone who truly needs it.

Over the last few years, athletes have found themselves pursuing the passions they have outside of their sport more and more. A lot have done some real good with that newfound power. Add Moore to that ever-growing list.

Moore isn’t retiring from the game just yet, but this is probably the closest thing to it. We might not ever see her play again. And if she comes back, there’s no guarantee she’ll be as good.

It’s a massive sacrifice that she is choosing to make, but it’s also one that could make a massive difference in somebody’s world — bigger than any difference she could ever make on a basketball court.

If she never players a single minute of WNBA basketball again, it’ll all be worth it.

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Kobe Bryant lists 3 WNBA players he believes could play in the NBA

Kobe Bryant says WNBA stars like Diana Taurasi could keep up in the NBA.

No woman has ever played in an official NBA game, but according to Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, that doesn’t mean that many of the world’s best players in the WNBA aren’t capable of keeping up with the men.

In an interview with CNN, Bryant was asked if he believes whether a woman could ever play in the NBA one day. Bryant responded that there are several current players who could make it playing alongside men right now.

“I think there are a couple players who could play in the NBA right now, honestly. There’s a lot of players who have a lot of skill that could do it. Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, [Elena] Delle-Donne. I mean, there’s a lot of great players out there. They could most certainly keep up with them.”

Although a woman has never played in the NBA, multiple women have been selected in the NBA Draft. Denise Long became the first woman to be selected in 1969 as a 19-year-old, after the San Francisco Warriors picked her in the 13th round – though the selection, meant as a PR stunt, was vetoed by the commissioner. In 1977, the New Orleans Jazz selected Luisa Harris in the seventh round, but she declined to try out for the team. In 2013, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made waves when he said he was considering drafting Baylor star Britney Griner with a second-round pick.

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Everything you need to know about the WNBA’s new CBA

The WNBA’s new CBA is finally here

It’s been a long time coming, but the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement is finally finished.

For years now, players have let their displeasure with the state of the league be known. The crux of their argument was that as the league continues to grow in popularity the players deserve better treatment and a bigger piece of the pie.

They argued that the league’s revenue split with the players, player benefits, travel arrangements and salaries weren’t aligned with the salary and benefits NBA players receive.

Many of those concerns have been addressed in the new CBA, which was announced Tuesday morning on Good Morning America.

Everything isn’t official quite yet — the league’s board of governors still have to approve the deal. But, from the look of things now, that process should go smoothly.

Let’s dive into the details of the new deal.

This is an extremely player-friendly deal

The players are getting almost everything they wanted out of the WNBA’s new agreement.

The money

The league is increasing its salary cap by 30% and its max salaries are almost doubling from $117,500 to $215,000. Certain max players will also have the opportunity to earn additional compensation up to $300,000 — that would means a max player’s earnings would essentially be bumped up over $500,000.

The benefits

Players will receive a full salary while on maternity leave and a new annual childcare stipend while pregnant. In the current CBA players could have their salaries slashed in half because of pregnancy or childbirth.

Skylar Diggins played an entire season pregnant because of how the league treated expecting mothers. She opened up about it on Twitter.

Mental health resources are also included in the new collective bargaining agreement.

The travel

Travel has been an issue for years in the WNBA. Because the league doesn’t use charter flights, teams flew coach or were bussed from game to game on the road.

At times, that led to major issues. In 2010, the Las Vegas Aces forfeited a game after a 26-hour travel day, and the Indiana Fever had a similar problem back in 2015. The 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner was forced to sit in a middle seat in coach on her way to last year’s All-Star game.

In the new deal, they’re still not flying charter. But players are also now guaranteed their own individual hotel rooms on the road and will have mandatory upgrades from coach on flights to economy-plus or comfort-plus.

Not too shabby.

The owners weren’t left high and dry

Though the agreement is extremely player friendly, there are still some stipulations that could benefit owners.

The revenue split

The revenue sharing split will also improve in this new deal. In the current deal, players only received 20% of basketball related income in their split with the league.

Under the new agreement, the players will have an opportunity to push that split to 50-50 – but only if certain revenue goals are hit on marketing and broadcast deals. That puts onus on everyone to grow the game to maximize revenue.

Player retention

WNBA players regularly go play overseas in the offseason because of the low salaries they earn from the league. Breanna Stewart, the league’s reigning MVP, was lost for the season after she tore her Achilles playing for her Russian club.

Teams might be able to prevent that now. Under the new agreement, the league has dedicated a $1.6 million pot to pay players to stop going overseas with a $250,000 cap for a single player. Under the old deal that cap was $50,000.

The league also managed to keep the “core player” designation, which is essentially the WNBA’s franchise tag. However, players can only be designated a maximum of three years by 2020 and 2021 before a team can’t do it again. In 2022, that number shrinks to two.

In-season tournaments

The league is also going to create more opportunities to market their best players. The league is introducing special competitions called “cup games” with big prize pool money involved.

The two teams with the best records in Cup games will play for the Commissioner’s Cup title, per the New York Times, and the prize pool in 2021 is $750,000.

The NBA had a similar idea for increasing the stakes of regular season games. It’s a terrible idea for that league. For the WNBA it’s a great one. Aside from how interesting it makes the league’s regular season (which is already way shorter than the NBA’s), it also gives players another vehicle to get paid. This is a win-win.

There are still questions left to be answered

There aren’t many ways you can cut this to make it look like the players got a bad deal. Relative to what they had, this is most definitely a come up of epic proportions.

BUT, if there is a caveat to throw in there, it’s that we still don’t quite know where the money is coming from. The last time we heard, half the league was actually losing money. So players are being paid more, but we don’t know exactly where the revenue for all of it is coming from.

The NBA could be doing a great thing and contributing more. The owners could have a plan in place that nets them enough to pay more. We don’t know the exact answer and won’t find out for a while.

But, while all of that is worth keeping an eye one, what’s important is that we finally have a deal in place that values the league’s players appropriately. Setting how they’re doing it aside, that’s a good thing for sports.

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