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The WNBA and the players’ union will meet in person in New York City on Monday for the first time since the fall amid stalled CBA negotiations. Talking to reporters at Unrivaled, Kelsey Plum said she and fellow union VP Napheesa Collier will travel to New York after their teams play each other in Miami on Sunday night. WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike will be in attendance as well, along with the league’s CBA leadership, labor relations committee, and league and union staff, a source with direct knowledge of the meeting told Front Office Sports. The meeting will also include team owners.
“I feel extremely excited for the opportunity to be there in person,” Plum said. “Obviously with other players that are really invested in this in the executive committee. Then of course, the league making a commitment to be there. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing. We’re meeting together and hopefully we’ll have something.” The WNBPA sent a proposal at the end of December that the league failed to respond to for more than four weeks. The league didn’t believe the contents of the union’s proposal warranted a response, according to a source familiar with the league’s thinking.
ESPN: When your sister gets to break your news 🙌 Nneka Ogwumike is re-signing with the Storm, a source tells @Chiney Ogwumike ❤️
Mike Vorkunov: The WNBA and WNBPA met today for what they called "preliminary conversations and constructive dialogue" about a new CBA. They'll keep talking. Union president Nneka Ogwumike, WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson, and Cathy Engelbert were among those there today.
The NBA’s Social Justice Coalition, a grouping of players, team governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, has focused on legislation at the state level in areas of criminal justice, voting rights, policing and community safety. This cycle, teams and players in both leagues are continuing to engage communities in team cities to get people registered to vote. Among the most high-profile efforts is being led by WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the players’ union, and who was selected in August to take over More Than a Vote, the advocacy group led by LeBron James during the 2020 cycle. Then, the group sought to protect voting access for Black voters, recruiting 40,000 poll workers nationwide and partnering with teams in NBA cities to make arenas available for early voting and to serve as ballot drop locations.
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This cycle, More Than a Vote will concentrate on women’s issues, including reproductive rights, that are on the ballot in multiple states nationwide. Ogwumike is using social influencers, social media, including a WhatsApp channel, and other methods to find voters where they are this cycle. “The best way to reach them is through them following people that they love in sports,” Ogwumike said last week by phone. “That’s what we know best. Using our platforms to ensure that those who are fans of us can also work to be leaders in their own communities. Because we’re also learning, too. There’s this perception that those that you look up to, or those seemingly untouchable figures in society in culture, have everything going on. We learn a lot through the process. Being able to do that with people who follow us is really important.”
More Than a Vote, a nonprofit organization founded by LeBron James in 2020, is rebooting this fall with a new focus on women’s issues and reproductive rights. Nneka Ogwumike, a nine-time W.N.B.A. All-Star with the Seattle Storm and president of the players union, will take over James’s role in leading the organization, and has recruited a group of female athletes to her cause.
“It’s more than just abortion,” Ogwumike said in an interview. “It’s all about educating people about all the different roles that exist in society that support and protect the freedoms of women when it comes to family planning, I.V.F., birth control, everything. There’s just a lot that’s at stake.”
“I started More Than a Vote to give athletes a place to educate themselves and get active authentically to who we are,” James said in an email. “It’s only right that this election be about women athletes. We’re all following their lead right now and Nneka is the perfect person for this election. I’m excited to support her vision.”
Jimmy Butler: A lot of people in my profession do play golf now and after their career. I’m not going to say that is the place for me. When you’re talking about everybody in this spot, you have Serena. I love tennis. Tennis is probably my second-favorite sport, tied with basketball. Nneka Ogwumike plays basketball. Tony Romo is a footballer. My favorite sport of all sports is what Alex Morgan plays, which is what I call football now. Soccer. There are so many different ways to not play basketball. There is the pickleball craze coming into effect. Padel is a very real thing, too.
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This time, neither Lillard nor Ogwumike attempted to take a game-winning shot. As they filmed “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” the movie’s lead actor (LeBron James), other NBA players (Lillard, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green) and WNBA stars (Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi) learned they could deliver both scripted and improvised lines. So just like when star players first become teammates, they experienced some initial hiccups. “Dame was mad because he said I was ad-libbing too much and I was speaking over his lines,” Ogwumike told USA TODAY Sports while laughing. “It was funny. In between takes, we would have a little bit of fun and banter.”
Taurasi, Ogwumike and Lillard delivered positive reviews with the finished product, which will be released nationwide on Friday nearly 25 years after Michael Jordan starred in the original. But when the NBA and WNBA stars filmed the Looney Tunes’ stand-alone sequel two summers ago, their new job required more than tightening their shorts, lacing their sneakers and playing hoops. “We’re basketball players. We’re not actors. So there were a lot of missed lines and miscues,” Taurasi told USA TODAY Sports. “It was fun to work through the kinks and finally get a scene done that they were happy with. It took a whole day to put together a scene that might take five seconds in a movie.”
