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Message: [QUOTE="BlueSkyGLW, post: 5061093, member: 11281"] A good and thorough article on Gabby's dilemma if she is inclined to help a team with a rest-of-season contract. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5709058/2024/08/19/gabby-williams-wnba-cba/[/URL] As discussed and speculated upon re: which team Gabby Williams would join for the rest of the WNBA season, the Core Provision in the CBA complicates her decision and she may opt to sit it out before joining Fenerbahce for their upcoming season. If a team agrees not to Core her, she may play. [I]...as [URL='https://x.com/RachGall/status/1823438206177607886']originally reported by Rachel Galligan[/URL] on X and confirmed by The Athletic, Williams is considering whether to return to the WNBA this season because of how that decision would impact her options in 2025. If Williams simply elects to eschew the WNBA in 2024 (she already has a contract to play for Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahçe for 2024-25), she will once again be an unrestricted free agent in the 2025 offseason and have full control over where she plays in the league next year. However, if she signs for the rest of the season, that team would have the opportunity to core Williams and thus retain her exclusive negotiating rights for 2025. WNBA teams have the opportunity to designate a free agent as a core player during the offseason. The player can subsequently only negotiate with said team as a free agent and is guaranteed a one-year, supermax contract unless the two parties agree on a deal with different terms or a trade. The purpose of the core provision was to give teams the ability to protect their investment in a player. After drafting, developing and investing in a player, the core gives franchises another mechanism to keep top talent in their organizations. However, it also by definition reduces player freedom, which has inadvertently been the story of Williams’ WNBA career. Williams’ case challenges the theory of the core provision. She isn’t a franchise player. If she returns to the WNBA, it will be to a team that didn’t draft her and hasn’t given her any marketing money because she’s always overseas during the offseason. A team’s only investment in her would be the $20,000 or so it will pay her for about a dozen regular-season games to close out the season. And for that limited stretch, a team would be able to control where she plays in 2025. Williams could stay in France and bask in the glory of her silver medal for a month before reporting to Turkey. Instead, the decision to help a team chase a WNBA title could handcuff her, once again putting her WNBA career in the hands of an outside actor. The professional experience should be prioritizing players, not forcing them to rely on the promises and goodwill of organizations. The reason Williams isn’t playing in the WNBA is because she is trying to control her career, and the league’s CBA is trying to control her.[/I] [/QUOTE]

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