NEW YORK -- The NBA wants WNBA players to agree to a new contract by April 18, or the women's 2003 season will not be played.

What does it all mean?

The holdup in getting a deal done has a lot to do with player movement. In the NBA's last proposal to the NBA Players' Association (NBPA), which works on behalf of the WNBA players, the league asked for a salary cap of $616,000 per team. But since six teams spent more than that in 2002, the NBPA was concerned it would not allow teams to compete for players and thus restrict player movement. In response, the players' association came back with a proposal that would cap team salaries at $750,000. The NBPA also thought the NBA's proposal of making players restricted free agents after seven years and unrestricted free agents after 10 seasons would limit player movement too much. The NBPA came back with a proposal that makes players restricted free agents after four years and unrestricted free agents after five years. "To take the deal the league has given us totally underestimates our players value to the league," said NBPA spokesman Dan Wasserman. "We received two proposals since the deal ended eight months ago and now a deadline. This type of hardball approach is inappropriate given the contributions that WNBA players have always provided to this league." -- Darren Rovell, ESPN.com

The players are confident they can reach a settlement.

"We want to get a deal and work with the players," NBA commissioner David Stern said Tuesday, announcing at the same time that his league had voted an additional $12 million to subsidize its women's affiliate. "But if that's not to be, it's not to be. We'll know in the next 10 days if there will be a WNBA season."

That came as no surprise to the players.

"We anticipated this coming out. It was just a question of what the day was going to be," Houston Comets guard Sonja Henning, president of the WNBA Players Association, said in an interview Tuesday with Houston television station KRIV. "We knew there would be a deadline set.

"It's not the sort of thing where we are suddenly going to cave in and say, 'Well, we've got to get a deal done, so let's get a deal done by the deadline.' The deadline, if anything, puts more fire under their feet than ours."

Henning said she doesn't believe the season, or the league, is in jeopardy.

The contract with WNBA players expired Sept. 15, and negotiations have gone nowhere. The union is demanding substantial pay increases and free agency among other things.

"Our proposal is by no means a final proposal," union spokesman Dan Wasserman said. "We are ready and willing to negotiate. The fact of the matter is, in every key area, we are not that far apart.

"It remains to be seen how much flexibility the league has as we go forward, or whether they are going to take a tightfisted, hardball approach to deal with a group of athletes who have been the most cooperative in all of sports."

The WNBA rookie minimum salary is $30,000 and the veterans' minimum is $40,000 for the four-month season that begins with training camp in late April.

While the league says the average salary is $60,000, the union says it is closer to $46,000, excluding benefits. Top players reportedly earn a base salary of $79,500.

Nearly 80 percent of the players supplement that in the offseason in leagues in Europe, South America, Israel and Asia. Two American players per team can earn between $150,000 and $200,000 each, depending on the country, for an eight-month season. A handful of top players can earn up to $300,000.

The WNBA, meanwhile, has been struggling financially. The Miami and Portland franchises folded, Utah moved to San Antonio and the Orlando team was bought by the Mohegan Indian Tribe and will play at the tribe's casino in Uncasville, Conn.

Stern said he thinks the $12 million subsidy can help spur an agreement. He also said he empathizes with the women.

"Many of these players are the most accomplished in their game," he said. "They see the men making so many times more than they make. But that's the nature of the world we live in."