Why isn't French Olympic star Gabby Williams in the WNBA? Can she join a team this season?

The 2024 Paris Olympics introduced women's basketball fans to a wider world of stars and few shined brighter than Gabby Williams, who nearly sent France to overtime against Team USA in the gold medal game.

Williams is not actively on a WNBA roster. Nor is Olympic scoring leader Emma Meesseman of Belgium or Williams’ French teammate Marine Johannès. It has left fans a tad befuddled as the WNBA, touted as the best women’s league in the world, prepares to resume play Thursday.

All three have played WNBA minutes and opted to stay with their national teams in training camps ahead of the Games. A larger part of it has to do with the WNBA's controversial prioritization clause that went into full effect this spring and requires teams to suspend players if they don't arrive to training camp on time. Williams, a two-time NCAA champion at UConn, became the face of the clause last year during its initial implementation when players were fined every day they missed. She played five seasons in the league from 2018-23 and has said repeatedly she plans to return.

If she's interested, there's a path around the clause for her and select other European stars to sign with WNBA teams ahead of the postseason. Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese already made the first move to team up with Williams, who politely declined to return to Chicago given her history with the organization.

Here’s why Williams isn’t already on a WNBA team and how she could sign somewhere this month.

Prioritization clause creates difficult choices

Williams said in late 2022 she was "shying away from the W because teams aren't touching what I'm making in Europe." Her base salary that year with Seattle was $144,000 and she is willing to forgo it to make more money overseas in France, where she has dual citizenship. Throughout most of the WNBA's 28-year existence, players have complemented their league salaries with better pay on overseas teams that have longer seasons than the WNBA.

They also use it to improve or work on parts of their game and to keep playing in the six months between W seasons. And certain overseas clubs, such as UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia before the country’s invasion of Ukraine, treat their women’s basketball players as true celebrities and superstars.

But the problem was those longer seasons often bled into the start of the WNBA season in early May, making headline players like Breanna Stewart and Brittney Griner arrive late. Napheesa Collier missed multiple regular-season games for Minnesota in 2021 while winning a French league championship. Going without star players lessened the product during the critical first week of the season.

The players union and team owners agreed to prioritization as part of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement. In 2023, players were fined 1% of their base salaries for every day of training camp they missed and were suspended if they weren’t in market by the start of the regular season. This year, they were suspended if they did not report for camp. There are a few exceptions to the rule, namely for players with fewer than three years of service. It is one of the aspects players want to re-negotiate in the CBA when they intend to opt-out this fall.

They can still play overseas, but they have to choose clubs in leagues that have adjusted their schedules to accommodate the clause and keep WNBA talent rostered. The French league, where Williams plays for ASVEL, is not one of them. But schedules all over the world looked different this season in an Olympic year.

How Williams can return to the WNBA

Williams is a free agent and not under contract with a WNBA team, opening up a possible pathway for a postseason run because she completed her offseason playing obligation before the start of the WNBA regular season. It is how she signed with Seattle in July 2023. Teams can sign players to contracts any time before their final regular-season game. All 12 teams play finales on Sept. 19 and all except the Dallas Wings have cap room.

Since Williams would sign a prorated contract likely at approximately 37% of the veteran minimum of $76,353, she could sign with Chicago, Connecticut, Indiana, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota or Washington immediately before Thursday's games, according to Her Hoop Stats salary data. Teams would need to make a corresponding roster move to stay between 11 and 12 rostered players.

Signing Williams on a hardship contract is also a possibility should an injury impact a team before the playoffs. There are restrictions to when a team can sign a player under that clause. Meesseman, who last played for the Mystics and won the 2019 Finals MVP, has not shown an interest in returning, but could do the same as a free agent. Johannès is a reserved free agent with New York and could return to the league-leading Liberty because she is not credited with three years of service yet.