South Carolina guard Ta’Niya Latson never thought she’d be in rooms like the one she was in Saturday morning.
The projected first-round decide sat on one of the daises, with 5 other prime WNBA draft prospects seated around the room on their own. It was the first cease on a busy day in the lead-up to Monday’s WNBA draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards.
Microphones, telephones and recorders lined the desk or were held up to their faces as they answered questions about their school careers, the pre-draft course of, their particular person video games and the general progress of the girls’s sport.
Latson and her highschool and school teammate, Raven Johnson, who just so occurred to be sitting only a few yards to her left during this media availability, had mentioned their plans to one day make basketball their full-time careers. But they couldn’t have imagined coming into the WNBA at a time when it’s never been more profitable and in style.
“It’s always been a dream of mine,” Latson said, “and especially to be here now, especially going into this WNBA season, it’s a historical moment.”
Lifelong objectives are going to be achieved Monday evening when gamers hear their names called. Unlike latest years, there isn’t a clear No. 1 general decide. Former UConn star Azzi Fudd, 19-year-old Spanish heart Awa Fam Thiam, former TCU guard Olivia Miles and reigning nationwide champion Lauren Betts are all in the dialog.
Ta’Niya Latson drives to the basket against Charlisse Leger-Walker #5 of the UCLA Bruins during the third quarter in the National Championship of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Mortgage Matchup Center on April 05, 2026. Getty Images
And while the expertise of this draft class is a main storyline heading into Monday, so too is the reality this is the first group of rookies who will enormously profit from the new collective bargaining settlement.
The prime six picks will make more in their first 12 months than Paige Bueckers, last 12 months’s No. 1 general decide, would have made in the total 4 years of her rookie contract under the earlier collective bargaining settlement.
The magnitude of this second isn’t lost on the soon-to-be draftees. Most did their finest to observe alongside with CBA negotiations as they were taking place. But studying how the particulars of this CBA will impression each other individually left the rookies motivated to assist carry on the custom of leaving the WNBA higher than when they entered it.
On Friday, some of this 12 months’s prime draft prospects grabbed dinner with WNBA gamers, including Nneka Ogwumike, Alysha Clark, Monique Billings, Lexie Brown and Georgia Amoore, at a Midtown seafood and steakhouse.
The veterans talked about their own WNBA journeys, shared classes and provided recommendation.
Johnson said Clark’s message about staying grounded and self-aware caught with her.
Azzi Fudd #35 of the UConn Huskies shoots the ball between Maddy McDaniel #1 and Raven Johnson #25 of the South Carolina Gamecocks during the fourth quarter in the Final Four of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Mortgage Matchup Center on April 03, 2026. Getty Images
“She said be a sponge. Don’t come in thinking you’re gonna score 30 points a game. Just be yourself and trust the process but also learn and grow from the moment,” Johnson recalled. “You got vets in front of you, All-Americans in front of you, so just be the person that they want, be the person that other people don’t do, which is probably dive on the floor, play defense.”
At some level, the dialog switched over to the CBA negotiations. They talked about the eight-day, 100-plus-hour marathon bargaining classes in early March that resulted in the historic deal.
“It’s unreal to hear what they fought for,” Fudd said. “They really stood on business, they did not back down and so I think if anything, that shows us that we need to keep that same energy. They did that for us, and we need to continue fighting for what’s right, continue fighting for us and for the generations to come.”
“Just grateful for those who set that up and those who fought for that for so long and stayed in the right regardless of the circumstances,” Miles said. “It’s our responsibility to carry it forward.”
How this draft class will assist the league capitalize off this momentum and proceed to push it ahead will be half of its legacy.
“I’m gonna make the most of it,” former LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson said. “I’m gonna turn up and then leave it better for the next generation of girls because that’s all we’re trying to do is make it better and better and better.”
This CBA was a monstrous step ahead for the league, but the battle for more isn’t over.
“These negotiations, this talk doesn’t end here,” Fudd said.
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