Thank you! Makes sense.
Evina Waived. Burke and Harrigan as well
- Thread starter eebmg
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Well said! I agree 100%
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I expect Ododa to be cut as well, that would mean all 3 Uconn players got cut. I think they should have comeback, one more run at the title wouldn't have hurt.
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This just proves that the WNBA is not ready for prime time!
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Dang! This is the sad part about this whole process. Some players, especially the ones we have watched over the years, struggle to make the roster or find a team to play for and it just sucks!
We tell these girls, especially our high school girls, work hard on your game. Keep the grades up. Do all of the little things correctly and then...boom! Get drafted. Show up early for practice. Stay late for practice. Putting in the work. Then you get wavied 2-3 days before the season opener. Just sucks!
And it's not the fault of the League. Like the NBA in its early stage, they had 8-12 teams for awhile. Some legends couldn't make an NBA team. They would show up for tryouts ans bust their buns back in the 50s and 60s and not make it in the League.
Not trying to spin it but hopefully some other team, with an extra slot or two, can pick up Evina. This is just the sad part of this business that hopefully they figure something out soon. Because there is a whole bunch of talent coming up over the next several years and if the league doesn't figure things out, they will lose loyal fans and potential fans.
We tell these girls, especially our high school girls, work hard on your game. Keep the grades up. Do all of the little things correctly and then...boom! Get drafted. Show up early for practice. Stay late for practice. Putting in the work. Then you get wavied 2-3 days before the season opener. Just sucks!
And it's not the fault of the League. Like the NBA in its early stage, they had 8-12 teams for awhile. Some legends couldn't make an NBA team. They would show up for tryouts ans bust their buns back in the 50s and 60s and not make it in the League.
Not trying to spin it but hopefully some other team, with an extra slot or two, can pick up Evina. This is just the sad part of this business that hopefully they figure something out soon. Because there is a whole bunch of talent coming up over the next several years and if the league doesn't figure things out, they will lose loyal fans and potential fans.
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I think they bring Gray Because Mercedes Russell is injured and need to another center, which is not Evina's position.
Personally I will still watch, I mean if Uconn fans won't even watch one of their legend's last dance like Sue, or their best player in Stewie or Gabby that is one of fan's fav, I'm sure those fans won't watch Evina or ONO either in one or two years.
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UConn WBB is my favorite team, men’s or women’s, at any level, in any sport. But I love basketball generally. I watch women’s and men’s college basketball, the NBA (especially Golden State and the Bulls), the EuroLeague (ASVEL and Monaco; Kevin Durant and Emma Stone were in the stands at the Monaco game yesterday) … and the WNBA (Seattle is my favorite).
I’m super bummed about E, and I hope she’ll be picked up by another team. But I’m not going to boycott the W and be part of the problem. The underlying problem in the WNBA is a lack of people in the stands and especially viewers on TV. Sure, the NBA needs to spend more money on promoting the women’s game, but the WNBA is getting more coverage in the press, and there are more games on TV now. It’s making progress, but it’s going to take time for the financial situation to change.
Even if the number of players in the WNBA doubled from 144 to 288 players, it would still be extremely difficult to get on a team. Professional sports are like that. In all sports amazing players do not get on a pro team, or they do and are cut after a few years. Teams are trying to win. It’s not about fairness.
I’m super bummed about E, and I hope she’ll be picked up by another team. But I’m not going to boycott the W and be part of the problem. The underlying problem in the WNBA is a lack of people in the stands and especially viewers on TV. Sure, the NBA needs to spend more money on promoting the women’s game, but the WNBA is getting more coverage in the press, and there are more games on TV now. It’s making progress, but it’s going to take time for the financial situation to change.
Even if the number of players in the WNBA doubled from 144 to 288 players, it would still be extremely difficult to get on a team. Professional sports are like that. In all sports amazing players do not get on a pro team, or they do and are cut after a few years. Teams are trying to win. It’s not about fairness.
Much like what Seattle did with Ezi, Laureen Jackson is one of the heads of. Australia basketball. They knew Ezi was 19, and wouldn't come to America the 1st year.
Same with Melbourne, she is on their national team will stay in Australia this year, and come over next year.
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Sorry, I don't get the WNBA. She gets drafted 21st overall and gets cut?? This makes no sense. If it was for salary reasons, wouldn't veterans get cut and young players be retained? It's really amazing this league is still in business.
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The WNBA really needs to just have two rounds of the draft. At this point when first round selections are getting cut, then there is no reason to have three.
What's seemingly happened is the mid range players are getting relatively large deals which leaves little to no room for additional players beyond one or two spots, which is why lots of teams are carrying 11. The "144" number is deceiving as now it can be a few as 132. There will be rookies who hang around due to them being on the low end of the food chain but it appears the last two classes have been sacrificial lambs as a ripple effect of the new collective bargaining agreement.
What's seemingly happened is the mid range players are getting relatively large deals which leaves little to no room for additional players beyond one or two spots, which is why lots of teams are carrying 11. The "144" number is deceiving as now it can be a few as 132. There will be rookies who hang around due to them being on the low end of the food chain but it appears the last two classes have been sacrificial lambs as a ripple effect of the new collective bargaining agreement.
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Obviously nobody has that right but I was pointing out the issues with the league and the effect on young players like Evina. Many first round picks were waived this year and the league can't expand due to poor revenues and the CBA allowed for higher salaries for certain players. It will not change without new blood, just like the NBA with Larry and Magic.
Kaela Davis WNBA stats are horrible. Playing good overseas stats doesn't mean that going to transfer over in the WNBA because the level of competition is higher in the WNBA.
PacoSwede
Creeker in fact
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four attempts wasn't enough? give the youths a chance, i say.
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I read that tweet. I give her major props for openly admitting that she made a mistake in coming out early and warning those coming after her not to make the same error.
Totally unsure about the math/salaries, but you’d think they might be able to get two rookies for the price of one veteran?
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W/r/t WNBA CBA- like the CBAs in the rest of professional sports, it benefits the veteran star players over rookie unknown players. That will never change.
I loved Breanna Stewart when she was a Husky but IMO she needs a lesson in economics- without vastly increased revenue from ticket sales and especially media contracts there simply is not enough money for teams to spend more on player contracts. If the WNBA ever generates revenues on the level the NBA does then you'll see it reflected in the CBA and individual player contracts but not one second before that happens, if ever.
The same applies for expansion. There is a lot of talk about how the WNBA "needs" to expand but that simply is not going to happen until investors are sure that the league is a wise place to put their money- IOW that they will make some $ out of it. There simply are not enough investors out there interested in women's basketball that are willing to buy a team as a "toy" that can be profitable or not.
I loved Breanna Stewart when she was a Husky but IMO she needs a lesson in economics- without vastly increased revenue from ticket sales and especially media contracts there simply is not enough money for teams to spend more on player contracts. If the WNBA ever generates revenues on the level the NBA does then you'll see it reflected in the CBA and individual player contracts but not one second before that happens, if ever.
The same applies for expansion. There is a lot of talk about how the WNBA "needs" to expand but that simply is not going to happen until investors are sure that the league is a wise place to put their money- IOW that they will make some $ out of it. There simply are not enough investors out there interested in women's basketball that are willing to buy a team as a "toy" that can be profitable or not.
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I think the NBA needs to subsidize the WNBA. All this talk about greater support for women's sports is a joke, like the combined Men's & Women's March Madness shows. It's time to put up or shut up. First round picks shouldn't be getting cut or have to play in Russia. The NBA is great at marketing. They need to provide more support for the WNBA.
UcMiami
How it is
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Collective bargaining in any sport is negotiated between professional athletes and team owners - the college athletes do not get a seat at that table. It is no surprise that the eventual contracts favor the professional athletes rather than the future draft picks.
1. MLB draft is really weird in that some of the top picks made each year are players who will require huge rookie contracts.
2. NFL (rolling in money) put in place a rookie pay scale that greatly reduced the money on the top rookie contracts so vets would get a bigger slice of the salary cap.
Etc.
WNBA has a new collective bargaining agreement that greatly increased the top of the vet salary scale at the cost of agreeing to a hard salary cap, in effect dropping total players in the league by a maximum of 12 which was always going to hit the newly drafted player pool and reduce the 'developmental' players on teams' rosters. At least all of those players have a shot at playing in developmental leagues around the world.
The new harder stance on overseas play for WNBA players will have a huge and as yet undetermined ripple effect. Some of those max contract and mid level veterans are going to still choose to play overseas next year. That will drop them from rosters in the W and opening new roster spots for young/drafted players. Whether losing some stars and adding some lesser players is positive or negative for the league will be determined years from now. For example, will fans be happier to see a draftee on a roster vs. say Katie Lou or Gabby as I think both of them may well choose star roles overseas with more money to bench roles in the W.
1. MLB draft is really weird in that some of the top picks made each year are players who will require huge rookie contracts.
2. NFL (rolling in money) put in place a rookie pay scale that greatly reduced the money on the top rookie contracts so vets would get a bigger slice of the salary cap.
Etc.
WNBA has a new collective bargaining agreement that greatly increased the top of the vet salary scale at the cost of agreeing to a hard salary cap, in effect dropping total players in the league by a maximum of 12 which was always going to hit the newly drafted player pool and reduce the 'developmental' players on teams' rosters. At least all of those players have a shot at playing in developmental leagues around the world.
The new harder stance on overseas play for WNBA players will have a huge and as yet undetermined ripple effect. Some of those max contract and mid level veterans are going to still choose to play overseas next year. That will drop them from rosters in the W and opening new roster spots for young/drafted players. Whether losing some stars and adding some lesser players is positive or negative for the league will be determined years from now. For example, will fans be happier to see a draftee on a roster vs. say Katie Lou or Gabby as I think both of them may well choose star roles overseas with more money to bench roles in the W.
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Ms. Jade Melbourne almost came to the Arizona State University Sun Devils, stayed in Australia due to
being invited to play with the Canberra Capitals ( it was hard for players to get into or out
of Australia due to COVID restrictions.) The Canberra Coach asked Jade to try out for the team.
She played WELL in the big girl league at 18 years of age! Ms. Melbourne is now 19 yoa.
She is listed as a " swingman" and during the most recent the Australian WNBA season had 8.3 ppg 2.4 rebounds pre game,
2 assists per game and shot 44 % from the field. On the webpage ( I googled JADE MELBOURNE )
she was described as having " speed" and "finishing ability". Of course she was drafted during the WNBA draft in the
third round, # 33, by the Seattle Storm. I believe that she was on the Australian U 17? U 18 ? girls' team that lost
to the USA in the FIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, in OVERTIME in Thailand. Paige was the overall MVP and Van Lith and Rhyne Howard also were on that team for the USA ( almong MANY other USA notables). So... does she stay with
the Storm, play at ASU, or go back to the Canberra Capitals.?? Stay tune, Z
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Exactly. Right now women's basketball remains a niche product. It's very, very difficult for a team to make any money.
The players in the league are the best in the world. They have been loved and adored by American audiences since their college or in some cases high school days. They play to small, pack areas overseas and get paid significantly more money, but it's just a different world here in America. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it's just the reality here.
Until a larger, broader fan base accepts women's basketball as a desirable product to go watch in person or on TV, the money and size of the league will not change.
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IIRC the NBA subsidizes the WNBA to the tune of 12-15 million per year. Could they do more? I suppose so but IMO the present NBA commissioner (name escapes me at the moment) is not the supporter of the WNBA that David Stern was. I firmly believe his attitude towards the WNBA is "here is your subsidy. Now run along and don't bother me while I handle the more important business of running the NBA".
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As they should! If the WNBA can't stand on its own without the NBA propping them up with no ROI, then that shows that the WNBA is not a viable product.
What is the WNBA doing to establish their own foundation that doesn't rely on NBA charity donations? All this talk about expansion leagues, higher salaries, charter planes...they are completely out of touch! Make some money first, then you will have earned those perks.
For those saying that someone should start a competing league...how would it sustain itself without investors willing to lose millions upon millions per year (probably even worse than the WNBA, without the NBA packaging WNBA games into their negotiations with ESPN/ABC)
The players are also of the misguided notion that being the best at their sport entitles them to reap the benefits that top players from other sports enjoy...all the while ignoring that not all sports are not created equal in terms of market value.
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What many are missing is that what is needed is the right owners. Several leagues in Europe (and at least in the past Russia) are owned by the super rich who really don't care if the team makes money. They own the teams for the recognition and "free" advertising and tax write offs. The Liberty got into trouble because their owner flew them on a private plane like all the teams should be able to do. That is the type of owner needed. The league needs to package themselves in a way that attracts that type owner.
I find it interesting that social media accounts by Paige and others from the team, as well as Evina‘s account, have no public comments about her being waived. There’s likely plenty going on behind the scenes. I wonder if they know something that can’t be shared right now? Could there be potential for Evina retuning to the Storm’s roster soon or possibly a trade to another team?
bballnut90
LV Adherent. Topic Crafter
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Rookies and youth doesn't lead to immediate winning, and Seattle is very much in win mode this year since they lose Bird/Stewart after his year. Keeping players like Westbrook and Cunane over seasoned veterans doesn't make a lot of sense if you're looking for immediate contribution. On the flip side, Indiana is not in win mode and as a result they've kept 5 rookies on the roster, and all were top 10 draft picks besides Destanni Henderson.
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Yeah, that whole "pay equity" nonsense.
These young women should study the history of the NBA- it wasn't until the late 80s/early 90s that we started seeing the explosion in revenues that set the table for the ridiculous player contracts we see today. The NBA was nearly a half century old before this took place, with many ups & downs before reaching that point. The WNBA is only 26. They may not like it but these women are still laying the foundation for women's professional basketball in this country- other women will reap the benefits of what they have built. It was ever thus....
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