WNBA Has Questions to Answer

The WNBA sent out faxes the other day, saying that training camps for the women’s basketball league’s third season would open May 13.

Couple of problems here:

* About half the players in the league are unsigned.

* No one has any idea how many former ABL players will be absorbed by the league, or how.

* No one knows how much WNBA player salaries will increase.

Obvious question: Will this league be able to begin its season on the scheduled date, June 10?

The league reports little progress in negotiations with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), selected by the players last season as their bargaining agent.

” . . . Given how close we are to training camps opening, time is getting short,” WNBA spokesman Mark Pray said.

Several sources have the sides far apart on salaries, which last year ranged from $15,000 to $50,000, with an average of $27,500.

The union is said to be seeking substantial raises--one source said 40%--for the league’s lowest-paid players.

All players who joined in the first season, such as Lisa Leslie, signed two-year contracts and are now free agents.

Another sticking point: WNBA President Val Ackerman doesn’t want a limit on signing former ABL players. The union does.

Said one New York agent, Bruce Levy, “When the WNBA started up, they recruited players by telling them they’d be making less money in the WNBA than in the ABL, but that they’d have more security.

“A lot of those players who believed that and who have demonstrated their loyalty to the league for two years are worried that they’ll be left out if a large wave of ABL players comes in.”

Some league officials and other agents have said agreement will be reached on a maximum two players per WNBA team.

The league however, has said nothing.

“The ABL players are a collective bargaining matter right now,” Pray said.

The league has announced an expansion draft April 6 for new Minnesota and Orlando teams, with existing teams protecting six players each. Its main draft will be April 27.

“All new, incoming players will be in the April 27 draft,” Pray said.

The Sparks will draft fourth that day, after Washington, Sacramento and Utah.

It has been assumed since her sophomore season than Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw would be the WNBA’s first pick in this draft, but with such ABL veterans as Yolanda Griffith, Natalie Williams and Jennifer Azzi presumably available, that is less certain now.