The WNBA Prioritization Ruling

As soon as the Olympics concluded on Sunday, there was unexpected news about high profile WNBA free agents who had been believed to be banned from signing with the league this year who were instead ruled eligible. While Gabby Williams and Emma Meesseman were the two big names who had their statuses clarified, they were not the only players who fell in this category. This change could also have an impact next year now that the league’s ruling is known by everyone.

Timeline

There have been many critics of the new prioritization ruling after its implementation in the current CBA, but two of the players to consistently offer the most specific feedback have been Gabby Williams and Emma Meesseman. Williams had an existing long-term contract with Lyon in France, a league whose schedule has not been fully prioritization-compliant the past two seasons despite being shorter than the men’s league schedule in that country. She was able to play in the WNBA last season unexpectedly due to suffering an injury that kept her out of the end of the French league campaign. Meesseman’s issue with the rule was the language related to when a player could join their national team tournament preparations as she believed that it was important to set an example for her teammates with Belgium and participate from the start of training instead of just joining for the final two weeks.

With the Olympics this season, neither player signed a WNBA contract and there were no public statements from either player that they believed that they would be able to at any point this season. The first time that the possibility was seriously raised was in a small paragraph in an article that Kevin Pelton wrote for ESPN to grade a Chicago-Connecticut trade, mentioning that the Sun were one of multiple teams in pursuit of Williams with the plan of signing her after the Olympics. Shortly after the conclusion of the gold medal game and Williams’s performances for the hosts, Khristina Williams of Girls Talk Sports TV posted on social media that she and Meesseman were eligible to sign. Later that day, Alexa Philippou of ESPN added additional details, specifying that the league’s final ruling that neither player was subject to prioritization penalties due to their national team participation.

CBA Language

It may seem strange that many people thought that players were ineligible to sign when they were actually eligible, but the language in the WNBA CBA seemed to support that interpretation and our tracker added the players in question as soon as they appeared in exhibition games with their national teams more than two weeks before the start of the Olympic tournament:
https://wbasketballblog.com/2024/05/01/2024-wnba-prioritization-tracker/

Here is the CBA’s definition of an Off-Season Playing Obligation:

“Off-Season Playing Obligation” means (i) a contract or agreement between a player and any entity that requires the player to play basketball in a professional basketball league other than the WNBA during the Off-Season and/or during a Season or (ii) any playing services provided by the player to any entity other than the WNBA, even if such services are not contractual and even if such entity is not a professional basketball league.
-WNBA 2020 CBA, Article I Subsection bb

The definition is pretty broad and seems to cover national team play regardless of when in the year it occurs. Prioritization is covered in Section 9 of Article XIV with Subsection b covering this season. Here is the language regarding unsigned free agents and their eligibility from Paragraph ii:

Subject to subsection (d) below, with respect to any Season hereunder after the 2023 Season, any player who is not a Pre-Training Camp Contracted Player and who does not fully complete any Off-Season Playing Obligation prior to the start of any such Season shall not be eligible to sign a Player Contract covering all, or any part, of such Season.

The Subsection d mentioned above includes how much experience is needed in order to be subject to the prioritization rule as well as the allowable national team competition timeframes. It is possible that the league does not consider creating a new Off-Season Playing Obligation after the start of the season to be make a player ineligible for that season, only focusing on ones that start during the preceding offseason.

Other Players Affected

While Gabby Williams and Emma Meesseman are the two players mentioned in conjunction with this decision since they would have the clearest strong interest from teams, they are not the only players previously thought to be ineligible who are now available again for this season. Natalie Achonwa, a nine year veteran who did not sign anywhere this season after finishing her last contract without playing last year due to pregnancy, played for Canada’s national team in exhibitions more than two weeks before the Olympics. Also in that boat was Kayla Alexander, who played eight seasons through the 2020 campaign, although by the slimmest of margins now that her Canadian national team play no longer affects her status. As far as anyone knows, the other components of the rules are still in effect and her season with Bourges of France ended on April 27th, right before the April 28th deadline for unsigned player to complete contract obligations in order to be available. The last player is Olympic bronze medalist Cierra Burdick, who played parts of five WNBA seasons through 2021 and ultimate earned a spot on the USA 3×3 team after significant experience in the format. She participated under the USA banner in tournaments that were more than two weeks before the Olympics.

Players Still Banned

Although five Olympians became free agents again this season, there are still players who featured in the competition who are banned for other reasons. Cayla George was on the roster for Las Vegas last season and if interest existed again this season, she may have approached her offseason differently. She is ineligible as a result of signing a late season, short-term contract with Cathay Life, officially getting herself banned after appearing in Game 1 of the Finals in Taiwan on May 4th and eventually winning the championship. Her Australian teammate Lauren Jackson is not in line for a dramatic WNBA return after being out of the league since 2012, emphatically turning in a 43 point, 22 rebound performance on the court bearing her name for the Albury Wodonga Bandits on May 4th. Germany’s Marie Gulich is also still out after playing for Valencia in Game 2 of the Quarterfinals in Spain back on April 28th on their way to winning the championship later.

The Odyssey Sims Situation

This situation is not the only time during this season that the specifics of prioritization were questioned without resulting answers, only getting back results. Odyssey Sims signed a hardship contract with Dallas on June 25th, but she had already played that month in the Swin City Pro Am. It is unclear whether the league does not consider such a competition to be a sufficiently organized entity that a player could provide playing services to it or whether starting a new playing obligation after the start of the season while not being under a WNBA contract is allowed, but she has played for the Wings without incident or protest.

If the league’s ruling is that a free agent starting an Off-Season Playing Obligation after the start of the season is still eligible that season, then that would make several other players eligible too. Mexico’s league started after April 28th so Danielle Adams and Bernice Mosby of Chihuahua and Adut Bulgak of Xalapa would be available, although Adams last played in the WNBA in 2017 and Bulgak only played a limited number of minutes in the league before being waived in 2018. Mosby, who last played in the WNBA in 2009, would only still be eligible because her team in Spain’s second division lost in the quarterfinals of the playoffs the day before the cutoff. Erica McCall, who retired from professional basketball due to injuries having played through the 2021 WNBA season, played several games with the Bay Area Phoenix in the sanctioned professional league, the WPBA, in the summer while coaching at her alma mater Stanford. Amber Holt, who last played in the WNBA in 2012, still plays organized basketball in the summer with the Atlanta Angels of the WABA. Finally, two players would still be free agents despite playing for club 3×3 team Dallas 3XBA after being cut from WNBA training camp. Kaela Davis was in Seattle to try and get back in the league after five previous seasons of experience while Blake Dietrick was in Los Angeles to also attempt a return.

Implications

While the ruling is now known, there is still is a lack of detail about this entire process and how this point was reached, raising concerns about fairness. It is possible that teams were aware of the league’s leanings early and started the process of contacting the players, particularly Gabby Williams, to gauge interest in signing after the Olympics, but the hope from a fan perspective would be that the league gave teams symmetric information throughout the whole process and that no team made moves under the assumption that some players would be ineligible.

The current CBA is likely to be opted out of later this year, meaning that 2025 would be the last season played under the agreement and possibly leading to new language regarding this issue by the 2026 season. There are still 2025 implications though with the continental competitions being played. That means that free agent players not banned from signing due to club commitments could participate in national team training more than two weeks before the tournament and still sign after their teams are finished. According to current plans, EuroBasket ends June 29th, AmeriCup ends July 6th, the Asia Cup ends July 20th, and AfroBasket ends August 3rd.