Sources: WNBA offers players extension on CBA deadline - ESPN

The WNBA has offered players a 30-day extension to continue negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

An extension before the current CBA expires Friday would allow both sides more time to negotiate a new deal. Both sides agreed to a 60-day extension during the last round of CBA negotiations in 2019 before the new deal was signed in Jan. 2020.

It would also shelve concerns over a potential work stoppage, either a strike initiated by the players or a lockout initiated by the owners. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert acknowledged during the WNBA Finals that while she was hopeful both sides would meet the Oct. 31 deadline, «we have extended deadlines in the past.»

A source said the players may be willing to consider an extension «under the right circumstances» but they feel «those circumstances do not yet exist.»

WNBPA senior advisor and legal counsel Erin D. Drake said recently on The Athletic's «No Offseason» podcast that there will not be a new agreement by Friday.

«We have worked hard to be able to say on Friday, we did it. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen,» Drake said in the podcast episode, which aired Tuesday. «In a dance, it takes two to tango. And it has been difficult to find a beat, to find a rhythm and to find the same sense of urgency [from the league], just to be frank, to get this done.»

The WNBA countered that assertion in a statement provided to ESPN, saying that the league's most recent proposal was made on Oct. 1 and that the WNBPA just responded to it on Monday.

«We have been negotiating with the Players Association in good faith and with urgency for several months with the goal of finalizing a new collective bargaining agreement as quickly as