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There were three prevailing storylines surrounding 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend.
One highlight was the live stream content produced by the Minnesota Lynx guard duo of Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman (also known as the StudBudz) via Twitch throughout the weekend in Indianapolis, which went viral multiple times and featured some hilarious behind-the-scenes moments among the world’s top women’s basketball players.
Another was that Fever star guard Caitlin Clark wasn’t competing because of a groin injury she had suffered just a few days before (which she still hasn’t returned to the court from, now about a month and a half later).
And the third was the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between the league office and its players. There was a meeting between the two sides on Thursday of that All-Star weekend, which didn’t go well, according to several players. In the aftermath of this, every WNBA All-Star warmed up for Saturday’s game wearing a black shirt that read, “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”
The reasoning for these shirts is that the WNBA players are seeking increased salaries and increased revenue sharing as part of the next CBA, which will go into play before next season if the two sides agree by then.
These shirts went viral, bringing these ongoing negotiations into the mainstream sports media’s collective consciousness in a way that it had not before.
NBA Icon Robert Horry Shares Interesting Caitlin Clark Stance
While media coverage of the CBA negotiations has died down somewhat, interesting stances make waves every once in a while. And this was the case when 7-time NBA champion Robert Horry shared his opinion during an August 27 episode of his Big Shot Bob podcast.
After a conversation about what increased revenue WNBA players are looking for, Horry said, “I’mma be an a****** right now. If I’m Caitlin Clark, I’m like, ‘I want my image and likeness like [Michael] Jordan did back in the day.’ And then, I’m like, ‘All right. The rest of y’all, figure it out.'”
He later added, “I’m just saying, though. Think about all the jerseys that she sells. I’m like, ‘No, I want my likeness. And everything, the money that’s [used] to pay my jerseys, I want that money.’ And a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, s***, we gotta stop hating on Caitlin now because we need her revenue.’ Because you think about how much revenue the league make off her alone.”
One of Jordan’s shrewdest business strategies was exercising as much control over his image and likeness as possible. He even opted out of multiple NBA collective licensing deals so he could negotiate and license his name and likeness separately, and has sued companies that use his likeness without his permission.
It seems that Horry believes Clark should take a similar approach.
