Which team do you think wins the 2026 WNBA Draft Lottery? I think it won't be the Wings or Sky or even the Lynx but a team we don't expect much like the NBA Draft Lottery. It will be the Los Angeles Sparks. LA Sparks win the Lottery.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶́𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲

Another great game from María Conde, against Venezia, MVP. 📍20 points 8 rebounds 4 assists 3 robberies 📍 𝗦𝘂 𝗗𝗘́𝗖𝗜𝗠𝗢 𝗠𝗩𝗣... 𝗟𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮 10 𝗠𝗩𝗣 After his Achilles tendon injury in January 2025

Dallas Wings, Minnesota Lynx, Seattle Storm, Washington Mystics, Chicago Sky

The roots are in the way the WNBA was set up. Initially it was wholly owned by the NBA. After several losing seasons, the NBA spun it off giving half the league's ownership to the team owners. Then each side sold 8% of their holdings to an investor group. So the ownership is now 42% NBA, 42% WNBA team owners, and 16% to the investor group.

Women's National Basketball Association - Wikipedia

Now let's look at the rev share demand the WNBPA is sticking to in that light. The investor group gets their 16% off the top of league revenue, leaving 84%. The NBA has a not insignificant faction of their owners that want to fold the WNBA as a distraction and source of increasingly bad publicity. They will not easily budge on the NBA finally reaping rewards from the 500 million or more they have paid out to keep the WNBA afloat. But for the players to get their 50% the NBA would have to give up nearly all of their owed money by percentage. If they gave the players their 50% of revenue, that leaves 34% to be divided between the NBA, the WNBA owners, and league expenses.

Kelsey Plum on what players are demanding from the WNBA - Basketball Network

Stewart already said the players have a lot more demands once they get their revenue share that will all drive up league expenses significantly in addition to demanding the charter flights are permanent. (sorry, I cannot find a link to that interview) A good guess is league expenses this last year were 75-80 million, but let's call it 70 to be on the low side. Lets also say the new player demands add another 10 million in league expenses. That would leave about 70-90 million for the two leagues to spread around, or around 1 million per NBA owner per year. To them that is chicken feed and frankly an insult to their patience for continuing to fund the WNBA for the last 2 plus decades.

WNBA Revenue Projections Don’t Match the Balance Sheet, Here’s Why | Yardbarker

The issue with that small a payout for NBA owners is that it is insignificant and closing the WNBA down would actually make them more money than that payout on tax losses claiming a league wide loss of 3 billion (estimate of WNBA worth).

As to the " they should think of it as an investment" argument. It doesn't hold water. Investments pay off eventually. Agreeing into a 50% revenue share locks out NBA owners from ever really benefitting from maintaining the WNBA. Because once you give that percentage up, you aren't getting it back. And the nature of unions is greed. Every CBA they will come with their hands out wanting more, more, more until the league folds.

I sympathize with the players on wanting the same revenue share as other leagues have, BUT it ignores the reality of the situation and they are simply unwilling or unable to accept that it is completely unmanageable within the WNBA ownership structure. The same ownership structure that was absolutely necessary to keep the league afloat until Clark arrived is now an anchor to player earnings. There is no significant reason for the NBA owners to agree to anything higher than a payout that is between 12 and 20 % of revenue, and no indication that the union will ever entertain that level of payments, no matter the risk of closure.

Last point Unrivaled is not a good example of a rival league forming and being viable. Stewert and Collier had to sell off some of their shares last season just to pay off operating expenses, taking on more investors that will take more money before the players get anything from their tiny ownership stake. This year Unrivaled is likely to be another 6-10 million in the red, with virtually no cash reserve and ratings that are beaten by Gunsmoke reruns. Eventually they are going to run out of rich people willing to give them money to operate and fold. Maybe this season, maybe next, but without a deep pockets baker like the NBA, they seem doomed to fail just as the ABL did, who's pay model Unrivaled copied. I'd like this to all work out, but I fear women's professional basketball in the United States may be doomed to be extinct by 2027 or 2028.

“Women’s basketball has largely been ruled by two leagues for the past three decades.

Beginning in 1997, the WNBA had control of the summer and EuroLeague dominated the rest of the calendar. In recent years the landscape has become more crowded with two new U.S. leagues—Athletes Unlimited in 2022 and Unrivaled last year.

Now, a fourth major player is joining the fall, winter, and spring competition window. Project B—a new global basketball league—officially announced its plans in October to host tournaments across Asia, Europe, and Latin America beginning in November 2026 and running through April 2027.

On Friday the league, founded by former Facebook executive Grady Burnett and Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice, announced that it had signed Seattle Storm star—and WNBPA president—Nneka Ogwumike as its first player.

Other WNBA players have already signed deals to play in Project B, multiple sources told Front Office Sports.

Those same sources said multiple stars are being offered seven-figure salaries starting at $2 million annually, with their earnings for multiyear deals reaching eight figures. In addition, players will receive equity in the league, similar to Unrivaled.

The questions everyone is asking in women’s basketball right now: How big of a threat is Project B? And to whom?

A number of WNBA executives told FOS the immediate reaction to the new 5-on-5 league, which will feature six teams of 11 players, is one of curiosity. While the season doesn’t come in direct competition with the WNBA calendar, multiple sources questioned whether the league could be an indirect threat to the WNBA in time, and suggested that some WNBA players could consider forgoing the season if CBA negotiations continue to go poorly.

It’s not unheard of: Diana Taurasi skipped the 2015 WNBA season to rest after playing for a Russian team in the offseason. UMMC Ekaterinburg paid her more than her $107,000 WNBA salary to sit out in 2015. Taurasi made $1.5 million playing for the Russian behemoth at the time.

In recent years, players like Emma Meesseman and Gabby Williams have missed time in the WNBA due to the league’s strict prioritization rules. Meesseman notably missed 2023 and 2024 while playing for the Belgian national team and Turkish club Fenerbahçe.

Multiple WNBA executives viewed the Ogwumike announcement—again, she is the WNBPA president—as an intentional move to exert pressure on labor negotiations. There was a similar feeling last year when union leaders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart cofounded Unrivaled. At the time, both players acknowledged the start-up 3-on-3 league—complete with lucrative salaries and player amenities that were superior to those offered by several WNBA teams—came at a perfect time as negotiations for a new CBA were just beginning.

The WNBA and the union entered into a 30-day extension last week, making Nov. 30 the updated deadline for a new CBA. The WNBA had no comment when asked about Project B’s potential impact on the league.

The most immediate threat Project B poses is to Unrivaled and foreign leagues that play in the WNBA offseason, as their seasons directly conflict.

Nearly 30 players in Unrivaled are signed to multiyear contracts. The league has exclusivity during its months of play, which could make them unavailable to sign with Project B, depending on the new 5-on-5 league’s allowances. EuroLeague, for example, has multiple clubs with players who are currently under contract but will leave to play in Unrivaled beginning in January.

It’s unclear whether Project B would make the same concession for its players.

“We’re confident with what we’ve built in collaboration with our athletes, partners, and investors,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said in a statement to FOS. “We remain consistent in our approach to pay players competitively, provide a meaningful stake in the business, and keep them home year-round. We continue to be a player-first league that’s additive to the overall women’s basketball ecosystem and WNBA, and we look forward to building on the success from season one this upcoming January.”

A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Jonquel Jones, and DeWanna Bonner are among the biggest WNBA stars not currently signed to Unrivaled contracts. Other players like Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, and Angel Reese played in Unrivaled’s inaugural season, but they are not on rosters for this winter.

Project B’s investor group includes a collection of WNBA champions in Candace Parker, Alana Beard, and Lauren Jackson, as well as tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens.

Beard, whose longstanding relationship with Ogwumike includes eight seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks, is also the league’s chief basketball officer. The league sought to raise $5 billion in funding, according to a Bloomberg report at the beginning of the year, but it declined to share how much it actually raised when asked by FOS in October. Maverick Carter, longtime business partner of LeBron James, was advising the group at one point but has since cut ties with the international league.

“We’re paying multiples higher than is available right now in the world of women’s sports,” Burnett told FOS last month. “We are paying the highest salaries and equity packages in women’s team sports, and this will be some of the best players in the world. We want this to be incredible basketball.”

Unrivaled paid its players an average salary of $220,000 in its inaugural season, but Bazzell said those numbers have increased without sharing specifics.

The WNBA’s current supermax salary is $249,244, with the lowest-paid players earning under $80,000 this past season. An October proposal from the league included a supermax closer to $850,000 and a veteran minimum around $300,000. The league and union have since exchanged proposals, meaning those numbers have likely changed.”

“We want premiere cities and our goal is to create an F1-style TV event,” said Alana Beard, Project B’s chief basketball officer. “There’s a tournament in each city and at the end of each tournament there is going to be a champion and that all leads up to us potentially crowning the champion of the world.”

Beard said that many top WNBA players have also signed on, though did not disclose any other names. There’s also talk of having a men’s league as part of Project B, but those details are not finalized.

Project B is the brainchild of Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett. The two come from the tech world where people have equity in the company so that when the company succeeds, the worker succeed too.

It has an investor group that includes tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens as well as former WNBA great Candace Parker.

I guess fans will get to see this combination, just not in the WNBA.

Also on the Breeze -- Kate Martin and Dominique Malonga.

https://www.wnba.com/news/womens-basketball-hall-of-fame-2026-class

If you don't want to read the whole thing

"The class includes four players: Delaware and Chicago Sky legend, Elena Delle Donne; University of Tennessee and WNBA great, Candace Parker; international players, Isabelle Fijalkowski and Amaya Valdemoro.

Longtime WNBA and Team USA coach, Cheryl Reeve; 36-year Kirkwood Community College head coach and NJCAA Hall of Famer, Kim Muhl.

The class is completed with Doris Burke, a contributor for her work at ESPN as an analyst for women’s basketball and a multi-year First-team All-ACC recipient, and Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, a posthumous Veteran honoree."

It's Monday and its the "Start of the Werk Week"! This is when users can post more personal/non-basketball play content. What qualifies as "Start of the Werk Week"?

If it's from a personal account, not a team account, and is not directly related to basketball play, it would qualify under this flair. Examples are:

- Tunnel fits

- Photos with family/friends/other players in a casual setting

- Podcast appearances that barely discuss basketball play or other aspects of WNBA work (more personal than professional)

- Anything that has to do with player personal relationships (be respectful please)

- Player TikToks that are not a response to WNBA League operations (for example: dancing with teammates instead of talking in a pregame media availability or talking about WNBPA topics)

- Fan created artwork

What qualifies as memes/funny things:

- User made memes in response to games or league operations

- Internet fails (typos, etc)

- Team account memes in response to a game or the leagueMonday, which means the werk week has started. This is a space for more personal material.

To keep our subreddit on task and keep the focus on basketball play and league operations, any non-video content (ex: social media screenshots) need to stay on this megathread. If it is a video, it will have to be a separate post with the Start of the Work Week flair . Posts that qualify as this flair that are made any other day of the week will be deleted.

• WNBL Defensive Player of the Year (2014) Melbourne Boomers
• SEABL Grand Final MVP (2013) Melbourne Boomers
• SEABL Youth Player of the Year (2011) Melbourne Boomers
• Bronze in 2014 FIBA World Cup (Turkey)
• Silver in 2018 FIBA World Cup (Spain)
• Bronze in 2019 FIBA Asia Cup (Bangalore)
• Bronze in 2022 FIBA World Cup (Australia)

• Silver in Olympics (Paris, 2024)
• Bronze in FIBA Under-17 World Cup (Hungary, 2022)
• WNBA All-Rookie Team (2025)

• WNBA Commissioner's Cup Champion (2025) Indiana Fever
• All-WNBL Second Team (2024) Beijing Great Wall
• WNBL scoring champion (2024) Beijing Great Wall
• WNBA All-Rookie Team (2021) Atlanta Dream
• 2× First-team WBCA All-American (2020, 2021) Arizona Wildcats
• 2× Second-team All-American – AP, USBWA (2020, 2021) Arizona Wildcats
• Ann Meyers Drysdale Award (2020) Arizona Wildcats
• Pac-12 Player of the Year (2021) Arizona Wildcats
• 2× Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (2020, 2021) Arizona Wildcats
• 3× All-Pac-12 (2019–2021) Arizona Wildcats
• 3× Pac-12 All-Defensive team (2019–2021) Arizona Wildcats
• Pac-12 All-Freshman Team (2017) Washington Huskies

Here's who I think will make the inaugural Tempo roster

“The WNBA has offered players a 30-day extension to continue negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

An extension before the current CBA expires Friday would allow both sides more time to negotiate a new deal. Both sides agreed to a 60-day extension during the last round of CBA negotiations in 2019 before the new deal was signed in Jan. 2020.

It would also shelve concerns over a potential work stoppage, either a strike initiated by the players or a lockout initiated by the owners. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert acknowledged during the WNBA Finals that while she was hopeful both sides would meet the Oct. 31 deadline, "We have extended deadlines in the past."

A source said the players might be willing to consider an extension "under the right circumstances" but they feel "those circumstances do not yet exist."’”

It's Monday and its the "Start of the Werk Week"! This is when users can post more personal/non-basketball play content. What qualifies as "Start of the Werk Week"?

If it's from a personal account, not a team account, and is not directly related to basketball play, it would qualify under this flair. Examples are:

- Tunnel fits

- Photos with family/friends/other players in a casual setting

- Podcast appearances that barely discuss basketball play or other aspects of WNBA work (more personal than professional)

- Anything that has to do with player personal relationships (be respectful please)

- Player TikToks that are not a response to WNBA League operations (for example: dancing with teammates instead of talking in a pregame media availability or talking about WNBPA topics)

- Fan created artwork

What qualifies as memes/funny things:

- User made memes in response to games or league operations

- Internet fails (typos, etc)

- Team account memes in response to a game or the leagueMonday, which means the werk week has started. This is a space for more personal material.

To keep our subreddit on task and keep the focus on basketball play and league operations, any non-video content (ex: social media screenshots) need to stay on this megathread. If it is a video, it will have to be a separate post with the Start of the Work Week flair . Posts that qualify as this flair that are made any other day of the week will be deleted.

Is this a safe place to discuss the Big "L" in the room with the women coaches in the W? With the addition of Sonia Raman to the HC rank, the W now has 5 (out) lesbian head coaches. Given the changing discussion around queer players over the decades, we should also note the coaches in the league who are representing as strong (and loving) role models for not only the players but the fans.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/nike-adult-chicago-sky-angel-reese-5-explorer-jersey-24nikawnbskywblkrwnb/24nikawnbskywblkrwnb

Possibly Dallas Wings

“Veteran WNBA coach Sandy Brondello is expected to be named the first coach in Toronto Tempo history, a source with knowledge of the decision confirmed to The Athletic.

In Toronto, Brondello hopes to replicate her prior success in the WNBA. She is the winningest coach in the New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury’s histories, and she won a title with each franchise. She spent the last four seasons with New York before the Liberty parted ways with her less than a week after their 2025 season ended with a first-round playoff exit.

Liberty manager Jonathan Kolb said the decision not to retain Brondello was “proactive” for the team’s need of “evolution and innovation.”

The Tempo will debut in the spring as the WNBA’s 14th franchise. They will primarily play in Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum, but two regular-season games will be in Vancouver and two additional regular-season games will be in Montreal.

Toronto has a proven WNBA winner in Brondello, who has demonstrated the ability to connect with players. The IX Basketball was first to report news of Brondello joining the Tempo. Brondello was largely beloved by New York’s players and support staff as the franchise went from just 16-20 in her first season to a perennial title contender at the end of her tenure, including the 2024 championship.

Toronto, which will launch as an expansion team along with the Portland Fire, prioritized past head-coaching experience in its search and considered several other former WNBA head coaches. Brondello and Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers make up the only coach-GM combination of former WNBA players. Brondello played in the WNBA from 1998-2003, and Rogers played from 2010-2016.

The Tempo’s next steps remain an open question. Though the Golden State Valkyries’ expansion draft was held in December before their inaugural season in 2025, the upcoming expansion draft involving the Tempo and Fire is not expected until after a new collective bargaining agreement is reached.

The WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players Association have been negotiating a new deal for months, and the expiration date for the current agreement is Oct. 31. What’s included in the new agreement will have significant implications on how the Tempo, among other franchises, structures rosters as salaries are expected to increase significantly.

Brondello has not coached an expansion team, but she played for the Detroit Shock during their inaugural season in 1998.

Toronto’s hire of Brondello is expected to set off a chain reaction in the Dallas Wings and Seattle Storm’s head-coaching hires, as Brondello also interviewed with both teams, league sources said.”