Balloon artist Scott Nichols and his company, Amazing Balloons MN, unexpectedly helped break some WNBA free agency news on the first day of negotiations.
Social media lit up on Wednesday when users noticed an Instagram reel posted by the Minnesota balloon company showing off their collaboration with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
Per sources there’s a very special visitor in Downtown Minneapolis today. As usual the source is Amazing Balloons. Shouts to @tonyreast.bsky.social for the timely screen shot.
— terryhorstman (@terryhorstman.bsky.social) 2026-04-08T17:11:54.313Z
A large display of glowing white, all-caps letters spelling “WELCOME NNEKA” stood surrounded by oversized green and blue balloons. This was in reference to WNBA star and players union president Nneka Ogwumike, who according to multiple reports, was on a free agency visit in Minneapolis to meet with head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve and her staff.
Just moments later, the Instagram reel was deleted, but it was too late. The damage was done. “Balloon Gate” was born.
The cat was out of the bag, not only about some of Ogwumike’s free agency plans, but it also helped put Alanna Smith’s recent comments into perspective. Smith told a reporter that she “loved” Minnesota, the place where she played for the past two seasons, but believes she would do a “disservice” to herself if she “wasn’t exploring other opportunities.”
Put together, it suggests that Reeve is looking for a new frontcourt partner for franchise player Napheesa Collier. And Ogwumike could credibly fill that hole, especially after the Lynx were lacking in offensive creation aside from Collier in the 2025 semifinals series that they lost to the Phoenix Mercury. It’s also worth noting that Collier will miss the beginning months of the 2026 regular season as she continues to recover and rehab from multiple ankle surgeries.
This isn’t the first time the Lynx have worked with Amazing Balloons MN. The company played a role in helping recruit guard Courtney Williams back in 2024. But the difference was back in 2024, free agency lasted for at least a month and a half. It usually happens in three key phases.
Typically, the designation period — the first phase when front offices send contract offers to players based on their years of service — begins within the first two weeks of January.
Some players are cored, which is the WNBA’s equivalent to the NFL’s franchise tag. A core allows for teams to have exclusive negotiation rights with a player with over five years of service. Sometimes teams use these to ensure they can get value for that player in case that the player doesn’t want to return, often resulting in a sign-and-trade.
And others during this time receive reserved or restricted offers by the teams they most recently played for. A reserved offer is for players that have three years or fewer of service, and their team has exclusive negotiating rights. A restricted offer is for a player with four years of service and it allows a player to negotiate with other teams. But their last team has a right of first refusal which means the previous team can match the new team’s offer.
If teams do not make these offers to players, they can become unrestricted free agents and therefore can sign with any team.
Under a typical offseason schedule, negotiations would begin around ten days after the designation period begins. And then signings would be able to commence around a week following the start of the negotiation period. Signings can sometimes be completed by as late as mid-March.
That of course is reliant upon all else being equal. A typical free agency period runs for weeks. This year’s free agency is not typical by any sense of the word. The negotiations of the league’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) delayed this process, and as a result condensed what usually takes over a month into what could take at most two weeks.
This year’s accelerated timeline:
- Designation period: Two days (normally about 10)
- Negotiation period: Three days (normally about a week)
- Free agent signings begin: Saturday, April 11
- WNBA Draft: Monday, April 13
- Training camp opens: Sunday, April 19 (eight days after signing day)
“It’s going to be a bit of a whirlwind,” Smith said. “Teams will be reaching out to players, negotiations will begin and I think the league is going to look very different this year. It’s going to be an interesting space to be in.”
It’s such an interesting space that Connecticut Sun team president Jennifer Rizzotti compared this year’s free agency to speed dating because of just how little time there is for not only executives to pitch free agents, but for free agents to make their decisions.
And then there’s this: A whopping 80 percent of the league is currently unsigned. The last time a new CBA was introduced, five All-Stars changed teams in what was lauded as one of the buzziest free agency periods in league history. That was all relative as in every year following 2020, more and more players changed teams.
But with so little time, how impulsive do players and teams get? For teams it depends on how exactly front offices spent their time while the league and the players union were still negotiating during the first two months of this year. For players and their agents, there’s so much more money available than there’s ever been in the WNBA. To put that in perspective, consider that the lowest salaries are higher than what the highest-paid players earned in the previous CBA.
Because of the time crunch there were reports that indicated that maybe there wouldn’t be as much movement as anticipated. That idea gained traction especially when Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and A’ja Wilson – three of the league’s most coveted players – all publicly stated their intention to stay put.
Former player and incoming NBC Sports studio analyst Sue Bird wondered if players and their agents would take a risk and sign multi-year deals amid so little time to make deliberate decisions. Is 2026 free agency going to be a bit calmer simply because all players don’t have time like Ogwumike to travel around the country to meet face to face with other teams and get a taste of their facilities?
That’s conventional wisdom, however, other players might just follow the money or follow the role that’s available. Satou Sabally, who made it to the finals with the Mercury last season, said goodbye and thanked Phoenix for a great year on Instagram, which confirmed a report from Front Office Sports that Sabally isn’t expected to return to Phoenix and will be meeting with multiple teams during the negotiation period.
Remember, 2026 features two new expansion teams in the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire, and another newer team in the Golden State Valkyries that doesn’t really have a franchise player. Those teams could all be in the running for Sabally as she tries to find a new home.
And don’t forget about the Connecticut Sun. 2026 will be their final season before the franchise changes ownership and moves to Houston to revive the iconic Comets franchise. There’s an opportunity for players to sign multi-year deals with the Sun in 2026 ensuring they play for the Comets in 2027.
But free agency periods aren’t just about signings and who changes teams. They also present ample opportunities for teams to trade not just players but draft assets as well. On Monday during the first official day of the designation period, the Atlanta Dream completed a blockbuster trade with the Chicago Sky to land one of the league’s brightest young stars in Angel Reese.
Welcome home @Reese10Angel 🍑 pic.twitter.com/PFBpqvCDx2
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) April 6, 2026
Could other teams look to make a splashy trade especially right before the draft? It doesn’t always happen in the WNBA, since free agency is typically weeks prior to the draft. However, with a lack of consensus and no clear franchise-changing player in this draft class, and the draft happening literally at the same time as free agency, all bets are off.
The Washington Mystics currently hold three first round draft picks. They fired their GM Jamila Wideman on Monday right as free agency was beginning over what was described as “serious strategic differences.” According to ESPN, they plan on surrounding their young core in Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen with proven veterans, a shift in direction for a team that was previously looking to rebuild slowly.
“Everyone’s in it together,” Ionescu told reporters when asked about free agency while at a USA Basketball camp last week. “No one knows what their teams look like. No one knows a lot, so I think it’s going to be exciting to just kind of start training camp. Everyone will be able to take a deep breath.”
Ionescu won’t be at the center of the chaos, especially since she made it clear that she’s staying in New York. But she certainly sensed the potential for the next two weeks in the WNBA to resemble a three-ring circus. The balloons are already up in Minneapolis.
