Caitlin Clark fans will have to wait until next year to see the Indiana Fever star return the court after she reportedly decided against participating the Unrivaled league once again.
The 3-on-3 basketball league, which runs during the WNBA‘s offseason, has been courting Clark since last year when it launched its inaugural season.
Reports earlier this week that Clark was in negotiations with the league and that it was the closest the guard had been to joining Unrivaled.
However, Sports Business Journal clarified on Thursday that Clark, who has not played since mid-July due to injury, was not in talks to join and that the league was waiting for her to change her mind.
It is the second straight year that Clark has turned down the chance to compete in the breakaway league.
Despite reportedly being offered a staggering $1million to be involved, Clark also opted to not participate in the inaugural season.
Caitlin Clark is reportedly set to pass on playing in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league again this year
The news comes amid a week of turmoil for the sport after Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier issued a scathing verdict on the WNBA’s leadership.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is reportedly facing rising pressure from within the league and its parent organization, the NBA, to step down as a mutiny from the WNBA’s stars continues to gather pace.
Collier, who is one of the co-founders of Unrivaled, launched a blistering attack on Engelbert on Tuesday when she blasted the league for having ‘the worst leadership in the world’.
Collier, a five-time All-Star and former Defensive Player of the Year, sharply criticized Engelbert for being ‘negligent’ and also called out the league’s officiating.
‘We have the best league in the world,’ Collier told reporters in a four-minute prepared statement days after Minnesota fell to the Phoenix Mercury in the semifinals. ‘We have the best fans in the world. But we have the worst leadership in the world.’
‘Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.’
In addition to blasting the league’s officiating, Collier also revealed a private conversation between herself and Engelbert about Clark’s five-figure salary.
‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16million off the court, because without the platform that WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything,’ Collier alleged Engelbert as saying.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is reportedly facing mounting pressure to step down
All-Star forward Napheesa Collier thinks the WNBA has the ‘worst leadership in the world’
‘Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them,’ Engelbert added, according to Collier.
Despite her enormous impact on the league and women’s basketball, Clark made just $78,066 this year from her WNBA salary.
The maximum salary, still, is just short of $250,000, which led Collier and Breanna Stewart to co-found the Unrivaled league, which promised players a minimum six-figure salary during a nine-week winter season upon its launch this year.
In a statement, Engelbert responded to Collier’s remarks: ‘I have the utmost respect for Napheesa Collier and for all the players in the WNBA. Together we have all worked tirelessly to transform this league. My focus remains on ensuring a bright future for the players and the WNBA, including collaborating on how we continue to elevate the game.
‘I am disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership, but even when our perspectives differ, my commitment to the players and to this work will not waver.’
‘Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage,’ said Collier. ‘Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.
‘Fans see it every night. Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pre- and post-game media. And leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging them to fix. That is negligence.’
But multiple sources told Sports Business Journal’s Tom Friend that Engelbert is facing pressure to step down from inside the WNBA and its parent organization, the NBA. Those sources say her exit is not imminent, but do expect her to resign once the current collective-bargaining negotiations are completed and a new labor deal is in place.
Engelbert has not responded publicly, but a WNBA spokesperson told SBJ the sources’ claims are ‘categorically false.’ Daily Mail has reached out to the NBA for comment.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .