Breanna Stewart Gives Telling Update on WNBA CBA Negotiations
New York Liberty star forward Breanna Stewart has been one of the most important people to listen to when it comes to the ongoing negotiations between the WNBA league office and the players' association for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
This is because Stewart is a Vice President in the WNBA Players' Association (WNBPA) and therefore is in the room when these negotiations are taking place. Unfortunately, this meant that she hadn't been in many rooms of late, because there was a stalemate between the two sides for a few weeks with no new proposals exchanged.
RELATED: Breanna Stewart Addresses Hard Truth Amid WNBA CBA Stalemate
But the league office rectified this with a proposal that was sent at the beginning of February following a meeting between the two parties. At least, they rectified the silence between them, as the new proposal was still not up to the players' standards.
Breanna Stewart Admits CBA Optimism After Recent Proposal
However, it appears that this proposal was much closer to what the players are seeking, which Stewart conveyed during a February 11 episode of her "Game Recognize Game" podcast.
"The CBA proposal that we got, there's movement. We got traction. We're finally headed in a direction," Stewart said. "So I'm excited. I'm excited to hopefully negotiate back, and really kind of do the negotiations. Because unfortunately, it has been 18, 17 months, and we haven't negotiated. We've just fighting about, 'Well, we don't like your proposal, and you don't like our proposal. And nobody is gonna budge.'
Breanna Stewart says there's momentum after the players' and WNBA's face-to-face meeting 👀 pic.twitter.com/kZT1Ytc7TZ
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 12, 2026
RELATED: Breanna Stewart Offers Hope Amid WNBA CBA Standoff
"It has been pretty frustrating, but I've been trying to be as involved as I can," Stewart continued. She later added, "I'm feeling better [about the direction the CBA is going]. I'm feeling better. The owners are finally acknowledging and being receptive to what we want. The players, as well, we've all had to kind of put our business hats on and get into that mindset. And I'm hoping we can get this thing done quickly, so that we're not late.
"And that's the thing I've been telling them, is now that we're part of a revenue share model, you miss games, it's less money. And not to say that we should submit, and just say yes to any proposals that we don't like. But this is a business now, and that's how businesses go," Stewart concluded.
The entire women's basketball community will be keeping its eyes on this story to see how it develops as the 2026 regular season inches closer.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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