The WNBA and the players' union agreed to a 30-day extension of the league's collective bargaining agreement Thursday, according to ESPN.
The extension runs through Nov. 30, league sources told the network.
The CBA's deadline to expire was Friday. The extension allows both sides to continue negotiations to avoid either a possible player strike or a lockout from the owners.
A collective bargaining agreement is a deal that governs things like salary caps, revenue sharing, other league rules, and outlines the relationship between owners and players.
One of the biggest points of contention between WNBA ownership and the players is over salaries and the percentage of WNBA revenue that goes directly to the players. Right now, that's significantly less than the NBA. Some of that has been attributed to the fact that the WNBA doesn't turn a profit at the same level as the NBA, but players feel the proposed salary increases are not in line with the recent explosion of revenue and popularity of women's basketball.
It's not the first time the two sides extended agreements. It happened back in late 2019 and early 2020, when negotiations took a while but eventually did get where they needed to be.
There's still some time to hash this out, but there's no doubt there's significant ground between the two sides and it's not clear how soon that'll be made up.
It comes as the Dallas Wings welcome a new head coach. The team announced the hiring of former South Florida coach Jose Fernandez this week, replacing Chris Koclanes after just one disappointing season with the Wings — a year with pretty high expectations as the start of the Paige Bueckers era, with a lot of excitement around her being one of the generational prospects the league has seen enter in the last few years. But the season didn't go as well as expected, with the team finishing 10-34.
There were a combination of factors leading to the less than stellar performance. There were a lot of players out with injuries and points in the season where the Wings barely had six or seven players even dressed for games.
A few players also had a really underwhelming season and some of the acquisitions and moves they made in the off season just didn't quite work out the way they hoped.
Fernandez spent the last 25 years as a women's college basketball coach at the University of South Florida and made 10 NCAA tournaments across that span, including eight over the last 12 years.
He was also assistant coach for the USA women's basketball under 18 national team back in 2024 and has been heralded as a brilliant offensive mind with some pro-level concepts that still worked really well in college.
Meanwhile, Bueckers is back for her second year. She was the 2025 No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft and returns after quite the debut season. She won Rookie of the Year and was also named to the All-WNBA's second team. They've got a few other players still under contract this year as well: Aziaha James, J.J. Quinerly, Diamond Miller, and Maddy Siegrist.
There's also veteran guard Arike Ogunbowale, the Wings second-leading scorer last year and the face of the franchise prior to Buecker's joining the fray.
The Wings also have the highest odds to land another No. 1 pick in the draft this year. They've got a 40% chance in the WNBA lottery, which will happen later this year, so that's certainly something to look forward to.
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