NEW YORK — The WNBA considered terminating the Liberty franchise. All because the owners of the team regarded their players the same way as their NBA counterparts.
Joe and Clara Wu Tsai chartered flights for the team for away games through the second half of last season, which prompted a league-record $500,000 fine and the removal of Liberty exec Oliver Weisberg from the league’s executive committee, according to a new bombshell report published Tuesday by Sports Illustrated’s Howard Megdal.
The flights, as well as the Tsai’s team bonding trip with the Liberty to California’s wine country in September 2021, were violations of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and represented a competitive advantage for the Liberty. Even more, when the league weighed punishment for the CBA violations, it discussed suspending the Tsais as owners, losing “every draft pick you have ever seen” and even terminating the franchise completely, per Megdal’s reporting.
