The biggest star of the Wings' thrilling opening-day win over the Fever? The WNBA's new CBA

This time two months ago, it was unclear whether the 2026 season would start on time, or even happen at all. After more than a year of negotiations, strike authorizations, verbal barbs, leaked internal documents and missed deadlines, the league and the players were running out of time to come to terms on a new CBA.

Finally, early in the morning of March 18, the two sides struck a deal. It came more than a week after the league's initial drop dead date of March 10, and required more than 100 hours of in-person negotiation inside The Langham, a luxury hotel in Manhattan, and the NBA's offices.

The seven-year agreement, which runs through 2032, and has an opt-out clause after 2031, established the first comprehensive revenue-sharing model in women's professional sports history, significantly raised salaries, enshrined charter travel, set new facility standards and enhanced retirement, health and family planning benefits. In short, "it redefines what it means to be a professional in this league," WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told Front Office Sports shortly after the deal was finalized.

Thirty-one players will make more than $1 million this season, five of whom (Mitchell, Boston, Ogunbowale, Shepard and Alanna Smith) were on the court Saturday. Boston's four-year, $6.3 million deal was the richest contract in league history and the first EPIC extension --  a mechanism in the new CBA that fast-tracks the ability for players on rookie-scale deals to earn max money. Fudd, meanwhile, is making $500,000, the biggest rookie salary ever and more than double the 2025 supermax of $249,244.

[WNBA, players union announce details of historic CBA: Everything we know about salaries, housing and more

Jack Maloney

The new CBA also ensured there would be basketball this summer.

The WNBA has grown exponentially in recent years. Attendance, viewership and merchandise sales are all soaring, as are franchise valuations -- the Golden State Valkyries recently became the first team worth $1 billion. An expansion boom has already added three teams, and will add three more by 2030, and players have become household names. A work stoppage, especially a protracted one, threatened all of that momentum.

Both sides knew as much, which is why they finally compromised. After the two sides shook hands and posed for a photo together, they walked down to the lobby of the Langham to tell reporters camped out that there was a deal. One of the first things WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart said was "[We're] just excited that we can tell our fans that we're going to be back."

The fans were just as excited. Saturday's thriller between the Wings and Fever was exactly why.