They did it. The WNBA reached a deal with its players this week after months—years—of speculation as to whether the athletes powering the rise of women’s basketball would ever be properly compensated for their work.
After several missed deadlines and marathon talks that stretched late into the night, a verbal agreement was finally struck at 2 a.m. Wednesday. The reported numbers (not yet confirmed by the league) are striking. A supermax salary of $1.4 million for veterans. Twenty percent of gross team and league revenue going to the players over the lifetime of the deal. An average salary around $600,000, up from $120,000. A minimum salary around $300,000—up from just $66,079 last season. For arguably the first time, all of the WNBA’s players—not just the biggest stars—will be paid like the professional athletes they are.
The WNBA’s 30th season will start without delay in May, commissioner Cathy Engelbert confirmed. That’s what both sides wanted—to play basketball. And to continue to capitalize on the momentum of the sport and its growing fandom, not suffer from the effects of a lockout.
What did it take to get here? Three decades of ups and downs, financial highs and lows, and some truly existential moments where it seemed as if the league might not make it to 30, as I outlined in a 2024 Fortune feature that went in depth on the sport’s pivotal transition. That context is important to understanding why this CBA negotiation seemed to be so fraught; it’s understandable that the league wouldn’t want to agree to anything it thought could put it back on shaky financial footing, only a few years into the WNBA’s breakthrough era.
Reflecting on what this new contract means, I keep coming back to a theme I heard over and over from those at the center of the women’s basketball world: this is all normal. A labor negotiation will always be tense. There will always be leaks and drama. Women’s sports is no different, and placing expectations for greater decorum on it is a way of holding back the game’s growth. “We shouldn’t be held to a different standard because we’re women,” legendary South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told me a few months ago.
Now, the WNBA can be an unencumbered example of how women’s sports can mature into true mainstream popularity. The WNBA can be proud of being the oldest continuously operating women’s sports league in the U.S., without having to answer for why newer leagues are able to better compensate athletes. The best thing for the league is that fans can now focus on being fans. Instead of chanting, “pay the players,” they can cheer for them. Ultimately, shedding a reputation for underpaying its players will power the growth of the league.
As Seattle Storm guard Lexie Brown put it, “And that’s how you stand on business.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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What does Tulsi Gabbard do now? She's the director of national intelligence, and her own staff says that Iran poses no "imminent threat" (one senior aide, Joe Kent, resigned over the war). Yet her boss, President Trump, is saying otherwise. She went before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday to testify on this serious disconnect. She told lawmakers that "it is not a responsibility of the intelligence community to determine what is or is not an imminent threat."
How do women really feel about guns? Marie Claire published a major investigation into this topic a decade ago, and just revisited it. What's new for 2026? Well, the rise of "gunfluencers," or female social media personalities who are helping the firearm industry reach new customers.
The power of Dolores Huerta. The NYT published a blockbuster investigation this week that alleges that the late labor leader Cesar Chavez abused women and girls for years. Huerta, who was the most prominent woman in the movement, was one of the women who said Chavez assaulted her. It happened in 1966, and she said she chose not to report the assault to the police because of their hostility toward the movement, and she feared that no one within the union would believe her. Chavez's legacy is now being reevaluated. "Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children," Huerta, now 96, said in an interview.
ON MY RADAR
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PARTING WORDS
"I don’t sit around contemplating how a crisis, which I did not want Denmark to be involved in, might factor into a Danish election campaign. ... I think it is because, in a very, very unstable world, people want stable leadership."
— Danish PM Mette Frederiksen on how Trump's efforts to obtain Greenland improved her political fortunes at home. She's seeking a third term in an election next week.
