Paige Bueckers had a dream night after playing in the All-Star Game in her rookie season in the WNBA.
There, the Dallas Wings star opened the scoring with a four-point shot and added 6 points and 8 assists to Collier’s 151-131 victory over Clark’s team. Paige was the only 2025 rookie to be named a starter on a team.
The WNBA salary fight
However, her iconic debut wasn’t the only thing that stole the spotlight. As fans prepared to watch their favorite stars shine in the game, a sizable group of players met with league officials to try to reach a salary agreement that would benefit them.
Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and other figures are bringing more and more focus and attention from fans to the league and, as a result, are receiving more income. However, this is not reflected in the players’ salaries.
In response to this, the Wings rookie did not hide her thoughts on the current situation and, as a leader in the fight, she said:
I think it was great for us to show as a collective, like as players, how important that meeting was to us. There were over 40 people in that room, and that was historic for CBA negotiations, but there definitely wasn’t a point where we agreed.
The truth is that if an agreement is not reached before the start of the 2026 season, the WNBA risks a lockout. This would only damage the league itself and overshadow the brilliance and attention that the players and their game have built. In addition, Bueckers cleared up any doubts by saying that their fight is not against the league, to whom they are “grateful for all the stuff that the WNBA provides,” but rather to assert the value of their work:
We think as much as we sacrifice our bodies, our minds, our time, our effort. We just feel like we play a huge part in this as well, and we feel like we should be rewarded for that.
Despite progress in areas such as retirement benefits and family planning, other issues remain stalled. Meanwhile, there is a risk that their star players will choose to play in other rival leagues (whether foreign or domestic). For this reason, an agreement would be the best solution.
“We’re going to keep talking to the media and emphasizing the fact that what they proposed was not enough,” Bueckers said. “And it was kind of disrespectful in a sense,” she concluded.
Now, all that remains is to wait and see whether the collective bargaining negotiations will be successful and whether the parties will finally find common ground that benefits both sides.
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