Valentine’s Day is a special occasion showing love for your close ones, and also to give a fresh start to those who are separated for any reason. But it seems that there is no love left in the WNBA and WNBPA relationship, as the players’ association once again targeted the league, choosing their moment.
Earlier, in February, Nneka Ogwumike criticized the league for arriving unprepared at the CBA meeting. Though the owners later handed a revised proposal, the WNBPA’s recent response hints at unfinished business.
WNBPA’s Valentine Gift For WNBA
The WNBA’s recent proposal saw a bit of improvement on a few demands, making it a more acceptable offer for the WNBPA. But the league chose to keep the key aspects of the players’ demands the same, possibly frustrating the association. Rejecting the offer, the PA chose Valentine’s Day to send their message across.
The WNBPA shared an Instagram post with three slides criticizing the league. First slide says, “Roses are red, violets are blue, we’d love a proposal that values players too.” A second slide read, “This ‘situationship’ has gone on for too long.” A third added, “Maybe it’s time to ‘Make it Official.’”
The WNBPA’s latest Instagram post with a message to the WNBA about its latest CBA proposal ⬇️ https://t.co/nzeaJEwskt pic.twitter.com/wW6cG1yx65
— Natalie Esquire (@natfluential) February 14, 2026
In the midst of the CBA discussion, such a step indicates that the financial framework remains unresolved, and the owners will have to work on the same. Currently, the revenue sharing model is nearly at the halfway mark of what the players are demanding – 15% of gross revenue against the demand of 30% of gross revenue.
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Ironically, this is not the first time the players’ association has gone out of the box to put the league on alert. They used multiple techniques to grab the league’s attention towards the topic.
WNBPA’s Ways To Attract WNBA’s Attention To CBA
The PA is constantly putting pressure on the league to get their demands on paper. As for the WNBA, they are also looking to set terms that benefit both parties, but put their interests slightly ahead of the players’ demands. Players, though, chose different ways to grab fans’ attention from time to time.
The first one was the All-Star game, where the players wore ‘Pay US What You Owe Us’ slogans, which went viral. The next step was labor protest symbols, such as a massive inflatable rat, outside the New York NBA store, to draw public attention to the impasse.
They even shared a post putting their ‘non-negotiable demands’ in front of the league and also the fans. And now the Valentine poem. Fans might be loving the creativity from the WNBPA, but they also want to see the CBA terms in place to get the season underway.