Tensions high as WNBA labour battle continues — and deadline looms

Tension is rising in the ongoing labour battle between the WNBA and the union representing the players, with the existing collective bargaining agreement expiring next week and no new deal in sight.

And the back-and-forth — with both sides taking shots at the other — ramped up quickly on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It started Tuesday morning when the head of the NBA, which partly owns the women's league, said he was confident a new deal would get done and that WNBA players would get significant raises. But one of his word choices — when he answered a question about whether WNBA players merit a larger share of that league's revenues — raised the ire of the union.

"Yes. I mean, I think 'share' isn't the right way to look at it because there's so much more revenue in the NBA," commissioner Adam Silver said on NBC's Today show.

"I think you should look at absolute numbers in terms of what they're making, and they are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining, and they deserve it."

Much of that might have sounded good — except to the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), which shot back Wednesday.

"What the league and teams are really trying to do is not only limit the cost of labour but also contain it through an artificial salary system that isn't tied to the business the players are building in any real or meaningful way," the union's executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said in a statement.

"You know it's bad when the best they say they can do is more of the same: a fixed salary system and a separate revenue sharing plan that only includes a piece of the pie, and pays [the league] back first."

Breaking down all the drama in the WNBA... in 60 seconds

The WNBA then responded