Stephen A. Smith Singles Out 1 WNBA Player After CBA Breakthrough
At long last, there is finally a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the WNBA. This comes after over 18 months of negotiations and represents a massive shift in how WNBA player are compensated, along with how the league will be viewed for the forseeable future.
Among the details of this new CBA are that there is a new salary cap that starts at $7 million, which is an increase from $1.5 million. Average revenue share is nearly 20% across the entire CBA, an individual player's supermax contract starts at $1.4 million, and average WNBA player salary is in the range of $600,000, with the minimum above $300,000, according to an X post from ESPN's Shams Charania.
Pressure was on both sides to agree to a deal before the 2026 WNBA regular season had to be shortened. While many people deserve credit for this CBA success, Seattle Storm star Nneka Ogwumike is at the forefront, given that she's the President of the WNBA Players' Association and had a prominent role in negotiations.
Stephen A. Smith Praises Nneka Ogwumike After Landmark CBA Success
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith has been outspoken about these negotiations. And he took the time to give Ogwumike her flowers on a March 18 episode of "First Take".
When speaking to Chiney Ogwumike, who is an ESPN analyst and Nneka's sister, Smith said, "Your sister's leadership during this time is going to be something that's gonna go down in annals. It may not be appreciated at this particular moment in time because we don't understand the magnitude of what she did and what she ended up pulling off. But as we learn more of the particulars, more of the specifics," per an X post from First Take.
"And we learn, and we recognize what she had to go through to get to this point, and how that's going to lead to future negotiations, and what the standard is going to be, and what's gonna have to be lived up to, your sister's name is going to be all over it," Smith continued. "She has set a standard; she deserves to be applauded for it, and the deal the WNBA players got, this is a damn good deal."
He later added, "The momentum that was built, led by your sister, and some of those folks on the negotiations committee, propelled it to this point. Y'all deserve all the credit in the world, you got exactly what you deserve — actually, I think you might have deserved a little more, but it ain't like you didn't get anything; you got a lot. You deserve it, and your sister is to be commended for her leadership. Absolutely, she should be applauded. And congratulations to all [the WNBA players]."
"[Nneka Ogwumike] has set a standard. She deserves to be applauded for it. ... Your sister is to be commended for her leadership."
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 18, 2026
—@stephenasmith on the new collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA and WNBPA 👏 pic.twitter.com/IVB7JVyJLe
Props to Smith for giving praise where it's due.
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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