The WNBA and the WNBA Players Association are in the midst of negotiations on a new bargaining agreement. As those negotiations stretch past the league’s self-imposed deadline to start the season on time, NBA legend and commentator Charles Barkley has a warning for the players.
The two sides have continued their negotiations but were not able to come to an agreement on a deal before March 10, which was the deadline set by the WNBA to ensure the season started on time. Obviously, this has led to frustration from players, including WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark. However, Barkley does not think the players should continue to push this standoff.
In the most recent episode of his podcast The Steam Room, the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer and TNT Sports commentator issued a clear warning to the WNBA players currently negotiating with the league.
Barkley warned the players to take the best offer now and avoid a strike, telling the players that “the people who got all the money, they’re going to make the rules.”
“The notion that workers are ever going to overpower billionaires and multimillionaires, that’s never going to happen in any capacity,” Barkley said, via Awful Announcing.
Barkley does not think this is a battle that the players can win and warned that the players should simply avoid a lockout or a strike at all costs.
“Ladies, I want you all to get paid and I wish you the very best. But y’all gotta be very careful. Y’all get in that room and say, ‘Hey let’s make the best deal.’ You don’t want a strike, you don’t want a lockout. I’ve been watching for months, all these people on TV … you can get paid what you can get. You might not get paid what you’re worth. But you can get paid what you can get.”
Barkley seems to think that the players went a little too far in their criticism of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who he says is merely an extension of the league’s owners. This comes after All-WNBA forward Napheesa Collier very publicly blasted Engelbert in a press conference after last season, saying the league has the “worst leadership in the world.”
“You could see this damn train wreck coming. I didn’t say anything publicly [but] when y’all start bad-mouthing the commissioner, you have to remember one thing,” Barkley explained.
“The commissioner works for the owners … I like Cathy, but she’s speaking for the owners. So now, all these people on television for the last few months talking about, ‘You women, y’all got these dudes and y’all go the commissioner and y’all got the owners.’ I’m like, well, y’all better be careful. Because you know who has power? People who got damn money.”
While there has been some headway in the negotiations between players and the league, there obviously is still a divide between what the players want and what the WNBA is willing to concede. As a result, the negotiations have stretched past the March 10 deadline, and the WNBA season is now in serious jeopardy.
The WNBA players have both publicly and anonymously indicated that they are willing to hold out as long as necessary to get what they believe is a fair deal from the league, but Barkley seems to think that’s a dangerous proposition.
“I love the WNBA. I wish you women nothing but the best,” he said. “But this notion that you were just going to hold everybody’s feet to the fire and get whatever y’all wanted, that’s not the way it works. You have to make the best deal possible. But the people who got all the money, they’re going to make the rules.”