NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen Women's Basketball Worldwide) - The biggest surprise to me when Diana Taurasi revealed she was skipping the 2015 WNBA season was that nobody was actually surprised.

The iceberg has been approaching the WNBA for quite some time and as much as some people want to deny it, this may only be the tip of it.

Over six months ago, I wrote about the dangers being faced by the WNBA in this very column and actually got criticised by some people for it.

Having re-tweeted my original column from way back in August 2014 last week, someone described it as being strangely prophetic'.

Only there was nothing strangely prophetic about it at all.

I just don't have my head buried in the sand because I am not immersed in the WNBA. I am fortunate enough to be able to stand back and look at the entire landscape of women's basketball around the globe.

The warnings I issued last year fell on deaf ears and I fear almost literally in the case of one prominent WNBA figure, who I met at the end of last year.

While I enjoyed our discussion, I am not sure that they truly wanted to hear what I had to say. Very much a case of 'don't ask the question that you might not like the answer to'.

All of this Taurasi business was so predictable because playing in the WNBA is becoming a luxury and not a necessity for many elite level players - merely an ego booster for the resume. Or, an ace in the pack to complete a career set.

I refer back yet again to the dynamic Alba Torrens, who gets paid a fortune beyond any of our wildest dreams to play Euroleague Women with UMMC Ekaterinburg and is revered and has a smile from ear to ear (when the WNBA season is underway) - playing in her beloved Spanish national team vest.

Not that she wouldn't want to one day play WNBA. I am sure she will. Only the WNBA should be attracting her in her prime.

While not exactly the same as Taurasi and Torrens, look at Elizabeth Cambage pulling the plug last year having earned several times more than the WNBA could ever have afforded to pay her by participating in China and then opting to represent the Opals.

None of this is either a coincidence or insignificant.

Players do love representing their country and, like the overwhelming majority of us, they know which side their bread is buttered financially - especially in an athletic career which has a very distinct shelf-life.

I will say it until I am blue in the face: the WNBA is in danger of becoming a busted flush if it does not think outside of the box and re-model to re-invent itself in the new world of women's basketball.

Yes it is the best league in the world. It has an unrivalled reputation for quality and remains the dream of so many players and rightly so. I like it and so do many, many people.

But even the best brands have to move with the times or face becoming less significant in the market.

That is something I feel has been coming over the hill for some time for the WNBA and now it is staring them even more squarely in the face.

FIBA competitions will always impinge on a WNBA season and cause conflict and the WNBA is not even on the podium when it comes to player salaries.

Most pertinently, the real danger for the WNBA has not even been unleashed yet.

It hides under the surface and forms the bulk of the iceberg.

With the money slushing around China, I reiterate again that I am not sure how the WNBA could ever compete if their Asian rivals decided to up the foreigner limit or worse still, move the season around to cause greater conflict for players.

While the WNBA have been searching for a silver bullet to boost their own performance in the face of the scepticism which women’s basketball will always face, they may be yet find out that they are actually the werewolf and that the aforementioned silver bullet will one day be pulled by a Chinese finger.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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