Charles Barkley cautions WNBA players against overplaying their hand

As the WNBA works through its growing pains, Charles Barkley cautioned the players amid their contentious labor negotiations.

Barkley joined The Rich Eisen Show Thursday afternoon on ESPN Radio, which was hosted by Suzy Shuster. And during the interview, Barkley was asked about the state of the WNBA as the players and owners continue to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of the Oct. 31 deadline.

“They need to be very careful, they’re walking on thin ice right now,” Barkley said before citing his own experiences with labor negotiations in the NBA. “I know they’re doing some great things, but you can’t overplay your hand…as a league that had Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and a hundred great players, I think we went on strike three times. So, this notion, just cause you got power and talent these billionaire owners are just gonna give you everything you want, that’s not gonna happen.”

“You can overplay your hand,” Barkley continued. “In the NBA, we were like, ‘No, we’re not gonna strike. They need us.’ You know what I was doing? Sitting my Black ass at home, unemployed…playing damn tiddlywinks.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert have both expressed confidence that a deal will be reached with the players, even if it’s not before the Oct. 31 deadline. But the players are rightfully seeking sizeable pay increases considering the WNBA’s substantial growth in recent seasons.

“You have to be careful overplaying your hand,” Barkley repeated. “One thing about people who make money, they’re never gonna be billionaires. Billionaires always have the upper hand on millionaires. No matter how many millions you got, you’re not a billionaire. So, you always have to be careful overplaying your hand. What you do is, you try to make the best deal possible in the moment and keep growing, but you have to be careful overplaying your hand.”

Although, it’s not really billionaires vs. millionaires in the WNBA. And for the WNBA players who are millionaires, those earnings came from endorsements more than whatever amounts the team owners are shelling out. The highest base salary this season is Kelsey Mitchell at $249,000, while Caitlin Clark earned just $78,000. This is why WNBA players launched Unrivaled, as a way of earning higher salaries in the offseason. But according to Barkley, Unrivaled doesn’t necessarily provide the bulk of WNBA players more leverage.

“If they screw around and go on strike, a bunch of those star players could go to Unrivaled, and they could start their own league,” Barkley said, noting it would still leave a lot of players looking for work. “That would screw all the other players in the WNBA. But you have to understand something…everybody is not on the same playing field.”

The WNBA is at a crossroads right now. A potential work stoppage could stunt some of the historic momentum the league has built in recent seasons, but players are far from being properly compensated for their role in the growth. And as a new CBA is negotiated, both sides can attempt to use the growth as their own leverage.