WNBA’s Latest Unrest Brings Hard Questions

As labor unrest broke out again Thursday between the WNBA and its players’ union, one of women’s basketball’s icons wondered if the third-year league’s players were venturing onto thin ice.

The WNBA, on the day the players were to have signed off on the deal the league and its players thought they had agreed to April 14, “postponed indefinitely” its player draft, which had been scheduled Tuesday.

At issue was whether the 40 players from the late American Basketball League who were to have gone into the draft should be classified as rookies or veterans.

UCLA Hall of Famer Ann Meyers questioned the commitment the players have to their sport.

“I think the WNBA players really need to ask themselves if they expect this league to be around 50 years from now, or even five years from now,” she said.

“I admire people being aggressive in labor negotiations, but when I hear things like some players wanting the same per diem money the NBA players get, and some even talking about WNBA charter air travel . . . they really need to ask themselves how much patience the NBA owners are going to have on this.

“[Players] need to understand the NBA subsidizes the WNBA, that most of these teams don’t make money yet, that when the NBA owners look over and see all this chaos on their women’s side . . . I have to wonder if the longevity of women’s pro ball really matters to these players.”

In a statement, WNBA President Val Ackerman accused the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Assn. of trying to renegotiate issues previously agreed to. Union director Pam Wheeler accused Ackerman of intimidation.

The draft was postponed because all players in the draft must be signed by the league beforehand and they can’t be signed until a collective bargaining agreement is signed.