The WNBA’s most decorated player of all time, A’ja Wilson, agreed to the terms of a super-max contract worth at least $5 million on Tuesday, which will keep her in Las Vegas through 2028, making her the highest-paid WNBA player of all time at the time of her signing.
This deal follows the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, which increased the supermax contracts from $250,000 to $1.4 million.
The contract is fully guaranteed, and the deal can increase by almost $5 million by 2028 if the salary cap and league maximums continue to rise. Nonetheless, Wilson will enjoy a huge pay raise from the $200,000 she received last season to about $1.4 million per year.
The Aces, who’ve won three of the last four championships, now look to add a fourth after re-signing key players in Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd, and others, several of whom took team-friendly deals to make this deal possible for Wilson.
But Wilson is not the only player enjoying the new benefit from the league’s new financial landscape.
On Wednesday, superstar Napheesa Collier signed a 1-year $1.4 million supermax contract to return to the Minnesota Lynx after averaging a career-best 22.9 points last season, according to ESPN.
Collier, who finished second in MVP voting behind none other than A’ja Wilson in back-to-back years, will return to a depleted roster after losing most of their core roster in free agency, including DiJonai Carrington, Natasha Heidman, and Bridget Carleton to the expansion draft.
The Minnesota Lynx made sure to retain their best player, “coring” her this offseason, guaranteeing that she would receive the supermax, but gave the Lynx exclusive negotiating rights and placed a ticking clock on the deal.
This does, though, guarantee that Collier will be an unrestricted free agent during the 2027 offseason, and with a closing window, it’s unclear what the star will do.
Indiana Fever center Aaliyah Boston does have a clear future with the Fever as she signed a four-year, $6.3 million contract extension.
The long-term deal put Boston above Wilson for the current highest-paid player in the league’s history, just days after Wilson.
The new collective bargaining agreement has led to a few million-dollar deals around the league.
In New York, the Liberty re-signed 3-star players Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, and Jonquel Jones to multi-year deals.
Ionescu and Stewart both signed standard max contracts, giving them both over a million dollars annually throughout the deal.
Other teams retained talent on million-dollar deals like Alisha Gray in Atlanta, Alyssa Thomas in Phoenix, Dearica Hamby in Los Angeles, and Arike Ogunbowale in Dallas.
But while some teams kept talent, other players signed new deals with new teams.
Gabby Williams went from Seattle to Golden State on a two-year deal that gives her 1.2 million dollars a year.
Brittney Griner takes her talents from Atlanta to Connecticut on a one year 1.1 million dollars deal.
Then the two new WNBA expansion teams in Portland and Toronto gave million-dollar deals to new talent.
Portland signed Bridget Carleton to a 3 year 3.7 million-dollar contract, while Toronto gave Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes each two-year deals, earning them over a million dollars each year.
Toronto, on top of signing Mabrey and Sykes, signed Temi Fagbenle to a one-year, one-million-dollar contract.
With the WNBA season beginning in the coming weeks, this historic offseason with lucrative deals will now give fans the chance to see which teams made the right moves.
DJ Harding and Cole Edmonds are reporters for HUNewsService.com
