Silver says WNBA nearing 11th hour of negotiations

LOS ANGELES — Hours after the WNBPA went on Instagram to post a Valentine’s Day message of, “Roses are red, violets are blue, we’d love a proposal that values players too,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called for a “next level sense of urgency” to finalize a WNBA collective bargaining deal.

Silver, at a news conference ahead of NBA All-Star Saturday, said he’s “very involved behind the scenes” in negotiations. And with the season scheduled to begin May 8, he also intimated it is problematic that an expansion draft (for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire), a college draft and a free agency period involving hundreds of players still need to be staged.

“I’m not ready to set a drop-dead date,” said Silver, in reference to a point where the start of the season may be in jeopardy. “But I will say, as I look at the calendar and the amount that we need to get done really over the next two months, because training camps are scheduled to open roughly two months from now. To your point, we have to get not one but two drafts done. We have an expansion draft and a collegiate draft, and then we need to fit in free agency. Plus whenever we shake hands on a collective bargaining agreement, the lawyers have to go to work and memorialize it.

“What I’d love to accomplish is sort of putting pressure on everybody and saying, OK, I’ve been through so many cycles of collective bargaining and often things tend to get done at the 11th hour. We are awfully close to the 11th now when it comes to bargaining….I’m encouraged there has been more back and forth over the past few weeks. I want to play whatever role would be most productive in getting a deal done. But again, I think we need to now move toward the next level sense of urgency and not lose momentum in terms of the amazing amount of progress we’ve seen in women’s basketball.”