One other NBA participant is exploring WNBA enlargement — this time in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — Hornets ahead Grant Williams desires to see a WNBA enlargement crew in Charlotte.

And, he desires to see it performed proper.

“I’ve been making an attempt to deliver a crew to Charlotte for the previous 2.5, 3 years, however that’s as much as [WNBA Commissioner] Cathy [Engelbert] and them,” Williams stated at Hornets shootaround in Charlotte final week. “Nothing we are able to say or do about that. The WNBA is answerable for that, they employed a third-party agency to do all that. I really feel prefer it’s a aggressive panorama now.”

To say the panorama is aggressive is an understatement. Williams is much from the one skilled athlete — or individual for that matter — hoping to become involved with bringing a WNBA crew to their hometown or metropolis.

His former Celtics teammate, Jayson Tatum, has been linked to a bid in his hometown of St. Louis, whereas Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has expressed curiosity in a crew in Kansas Metropolis, the place he’s turn out to be a legend.

And, there’s a plethora of former athletes and different buyers exploring vying for a crew within the fast-growing league.

It’s all occurred so quick.

The WNBA was comprised 12 groups within the 2024 season, and is slated for 3 extra to hitch over the subsequent two seasons: the Golden State Valkyries in 2025 and groups in Toronto and Portland in 2026. The league is vying for a sixteenth crew to even issues out by 2027, and there are greater than a dozen suitors, together with in Miami, Milwaukee, Denver, St. Louis, and Philadelphia, amongst others. Some groups hope to latch onto a thriving current sports activities scene, others on account of a connection within the

Grant Williams desires to see new WNBA possession teams actually make investments

Williams stated he wasn’t capable of discuss any particular involvement he had within the Charlotte bid, and famous that there are a ton of different groups concerned within the course of.

“Earlier than, nobody was tremendous motivated, after which impulsively, there’s been this wave,” Williams stated.

He’s not mistaken — the proliferation has been current, and intense. This previous season, the WNBA broke a slew of viewership and attendance report, with a report 22 regular-season video games averaging a minimum of 1 million views. The recognition of the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark — who was the Rookie of the Yr — performed a crucial half within the WNBA’s growing views, as did the rise of different rookies within the class.

However, Williams urged for these taken with buying a WNBA crew to view it as greater than only a monetary funding.

“It could actually’t simply be fleeting — it could’t be one thing that’s seen as a cash alternative,” Williams stated. “It’s one thing that you simply [have to] truly care, promote the sport of ladies’s basketball… they deserve quite a lot of the identical advertising and alternatives that we do.”

It’s not the primary time that Grant Williams has spoken out in help of the ladies’s recreation. Shortly after the U.S. girls beat Australia to advance to the gold medal recreation within the Paris Olympics, Williams turned to X to name consideration to the dearth of media protection on the video games.

“The distinction between the lads’s vs girls’s postgame is disrespectful, and the ladies deserve higher,” Williams stated.

Now, with the league persevering with to look towards enlargement, Williams hopes that Charlotte could be in consideration. It’d be his first time being concerned with an initiative of this nature.

“I’m not supposed to speak about most of that, however basically, they’ve in all probability 12 franchises now which are going after bids,” Williams stated. “It’s a aggressive market.”

This previous season, plenty of possession teams had been criticized for a scarcity of constant funding of their groups, together with the Connecticut Solar and the Chicago, neither of which had their very own observe amenities for gamers (although the Sky are starting the development of 1).

The Solar notoriously needed to share a observe facility with a toddler’s party in the course of the WNBA Finals, one thing that Solar star Alyssa Thomas deemed as “the final word disrespect.”

Williams shouldn’t be alone in calling for higher requirements throughout the board — it’s one thing that the gamers’ union has referred to as for as effectively — however making certain that new franchises are dedicated to offering groups with the sources they want from the bounce is paramount.

“You don’t need those who simply are available in and don’t actually interact within the crew — [you have to] ensure that they’ve all of the sources they want,” Williams stated. “They should do a deep dive to verify they carry the appropriate companions in. That’s the primary factor.”

As well as, Williams desires to see the league enhance organizationally and throughout the board — echoing an more and more widespread from various stakeholders — whereas acknowledging its relative youth. The WNBA was based in 1997, whereas the NBA fashioned a long time prior, in 1949. Williams has turn out to be extra intimately aware of the NBA’s governance via his place because the NBA Participant Union’s First Vice President, a job he’s held since February of 2021.

Picture by Chris Gardner/Getty Pictures

“The group of the WNBA has to get higher as an entire, within the sense of taking good care of the working funds, ensuring that issues are being spent the place they’re presupposed to be, simply being run as in the event that they’re a Fortune 500 enterprise as effectively,” he stated. “They’ve been round for 25 years. They’ve some rising pains, similar to we did within the first 25 years earlier than.”

Grant Williams hopes that the league’s enlargement serves as a tipping level for additional progress, and that it’s performed with thought and intention.

He additionally hopes to see his hometown within the combine.

“Now, that is the time to capitalize on the chance that’s forward,” Williams stated. “It’s only a matter of placing individuals in place which have a very good understanding of what they’re doing, and using that success to hopefully not simply assist the gamers, however assist possession as effectively.”