2024 will be the second season under the WNBA prioritization clause and the rule regarding when a player is banned will take effect earlier this year. Any player under contract who has sufficient years of service who does not arrive in training camp by May 1st will be suspended for the rest of the season. Free agents who have sufficient years of service who are not free of any other contractual obligations to play basketball for another entity as of the opening of training camps on April 28th will be banned from playing in the WNBA for the entire season. Free agents who start a playing obligation after that date or participate with their national team more than two weeks before a tournament are also barred from signing with the WNBA after that point. As was the case last year, we will try to provide an updated tracking list of these players.
Richard Cohen of Her Hoop Stats confirmed that an issue raised during last season’s application of the rules has been resolved in time for this season. Given the importance of years of service in determining whether a player is subject to this rule, the league has applied the calculations specified by the CBA this season, which they had been loose with in previous years, to make sure that nobody is being excluded from this season who does not meet the specified criteria. That should prevent our tracker from needing to include any explanations of uncertainty regarding specific players being subject to the rules, but it is also possible that the league may ultimately interpret the rules differently than the wording in the CBA.
There is an additional set of rules for contracted players who leave during the season to play elsewhere in one of the situations that does not have an exception or leave for any other unauthorized reason. This would include not returning after 48 hours from competing in a national team event or not returning after 24 hours from a significant life event that leads to an authorized absence. In addition to being suspended for the rest of the season, the player is banned from the league for the following season. Given that it is unlikely that any player would intentionally fall afoul of this portion of the rules, we do not anticipate needing a tracking table for players being punished under this paragraph.
One area that is still unclear is the treatment of 3×3 competition. The first question is whether the WNBA deems it to be basketball or not, which impacts whether playing it constitutes an Off-Season Playing obligation. It seems reasonable to assume that it would be considered basketball given its existence within the FIBA ecosystem. After that, the question then becomes which events might be considered prioritization-compliant given that all sanctioned 3×3 play technically counts towards qualification for major events, including the Olympics. Until an official ruling is issued on this, we will assume that only the Olympics, World Cup, continental championships, and any tournament with a direct team qualification component to those events will be exempt.
We will add players to our tracker as they are confirmed to be participating in an Off-Season Playing Obligation on April 28th or later. That means that the player is in the lineup for a game during that time as it is not always clear whether a contract has already been terminated, especially for an injury. That does mean that free agents who train with their national team before the two week period may be excluded from this list even if they are banned from signing in reality because it is difficult to really confirm that a player is participating unless they play in an exhibition game. Players who have already had their contracts suspended prior to May 1st in anticipation of being subject to this rule like Jessica Shepard will not be listed. Some transaction data from earlier seasons may not be complete so it is possible that we report an older player as being subject to the rule who might in fact not have earned all of the years of service that were calculated based on available information. When possible, we are using Across the Timeline as a source for transactions.
Our goal is to update this tracker by the end of the day in North America if a player needs to be added due to being in a lineup that day, but that may not always be possible. Some of the more obscure competitions that players are involved in will not keep stats updated that regularly so those players may not be included until days after the participation that led to their ban. It is a daunting task to try to track every single organized basketball competition around the world. If you know of a player who should be added to the tracker, please let us know in the comments.
Updated 5/4
| Player | Off-Season Playing Obligation Team |
| Jazmine Jones | Panathinaikos (Greece) |
| Abby Bishop | Jairis (Spain) |
| Jazmon Gwathmey | Sesto San Giovanni (Italy) |
| Lauren Cox | Virtus Bologna (Italy) |
| Haley Peters | Virtus Bologna (Italy) |
| Alexis Prince | Avenida (Spain) |
| Marie Gulich | Valencia (Spain) |
| Alex Bentley | Ekaterinburg (Russia) |
| Bria Holmes | Nika Syktyvkar (Russia) |
| Kaila Charles | DVTK (Hungary) |
| Yvonne Turner | Sopron (Hungary) |
| Shavonte Zellous | Villeneuve-d’Ascq (France) |
| Ramu Tokashiki | All Star Exhibition (Japanese League) |
| Erika De Souza | Araraquara (Brazil) |
| Kelly Santos | Corinthians (Brazil) |
| Leilani Mitchell | Central Coast Crusaders (Australia) |
| Lauren Jackson | Albury Wodonga Bandits (Australia) |
| Cayla George | Cathay Life (Taiwan) |
| Kristine Anigwe | Gyor (Hungary) |
| Danielle Adams | Adelitas de Chihuahua (Mexico) |
| Bernice Mosby | Adelitas de Chihuahua (Mexico) |
Women's Basketball News and Opinions 