Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams announced that she will not participate in EuroBasket Women 2025 with the French national team. She explained her decision to Sarah Spain, host of the “Good Game” podcast, on Tuesday.Williams asserted that the Seattle Storm had three players suffer ACL tears during the offseason and didn't want to leave the team with only eight or nine active players. That would have kept them disadvantaged, especially with the WNBA's salary cap constraints.“Unfortunately, we [Seattle] had three ACL tears in the offseason and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave us with like 8 or 9 active players because the league’s salary cap wouldn’t allow us to bring somebody else…”Seattle began the 2025 season significantly undermanned due to ACL injuries. Key players Jordan Horston and Katie Lou Samuelson were on the injury list, leaving the team with just ten healthy players for the opener.Several international WNBA players, including Gabby Williams, Marine Johannès, Dominique Malonga and Nyara Sabally, opted out of EuroBasket. Doing that, they choose to prioritize their WNBA commitments, a shift that has affected multiple teams, most notably the Seattle Storm and Golden State Valkyries.Gabby Williams criticizes the WNBA for allegedly trying to push Unrivaled outGabby Williams bluntly criticized the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for appearing to want to “remove all these other leagues”, referring to Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited. “It’s very clear they want to remove all these other leagues,” Williams said during an interview with "The Next Hoops" on July 19. “Maybe not remove them, but keep us far from them without paying us more than these leagues pay us … I just think there’s a little bit of delusion in the W.”The Unrivaled league, launched by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, offered competitive salaries and high-end training facilities during the WNBA offseason. Williams argued that, despite WNBA messaging, Unrivaled filled a critical gap and without it, many players wouldn’t have made it to WNBA training camps under new scheduling rules.The league and players' union are currently negotiating a new CBA agreement. Over 40 players attended a major CBA meeting in Indianapolis, but multiple union leaders, including Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud, called it a “wasted opportunity”, with no meaningful progress made.