WNBA Players Need a Reality Check

The 2025 AT&T Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) All-Star Weekend took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 18-19. The two-day event included a 3-point contest, a skills challenge, and an All-Star Meet and Greet, all taking place on Friday, July 18.

But the weekend’s slate of activities culminated in the 21st annual WNBA All-Star Game, played at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, in Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the home for the Indiana Fever.

Fans were excited to see the two teams compete, led by 2025 All-Star captains, Caitlin Clark of the hometown Indiana Fever and Napheese Collier of the Minnesota Lynx. Clark’s team sported gradient pink and orange jerseys, with their All-Star opponents decked out in black jerseys that were trimmed in the gradient hues.

But before donning their appointed team colors on Saturday night, all of the 23 WNBA’s 2025 All-Star players came barreling onto the court for pre-game festivities and tip-off in front of a sold-out house at Gainbridge, wearing identical black T-shirts. But it was the provocative, white-lettered words emblazoned upon the black shirts that grabbed national attention: “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”

Wait … did I miss something? Have any of the owners of the current 13 WNBA teams failed to pay these players their salaries? Did one or more of these professional women athletes miss a paycheck in the amount legally specified and agreed to in their personal contracts?

Seriously, my first thought upon seeing these All-Star T-shirts was, OK, which team is in breach of contract? And who missed a paycheck?

But much to my surprise, these elite female basketball players, the ones with paying jobs that little girls across the country dream of having, did NOT miss a contracted paycheck. No, they simply believe that someone, somewhere, owes them more money than what they are currently getting paid for carrying out their chosen job – which is playing a game.

Now, I know that professional male athletes make way more money than these women. I get that. In fact, the average (and it is a wide-range average) National Basketball Association (NBA) male player makes around $11 million annually, a ridiculous amount when compared to that of teachers, firemen, policemen, and other professional service providers.

Yet, the average WNBA salary is slightly over $102,000. This means that professional male basketball players literally make 100 times more than their female counterparts. So, yes, I get the fact that these women are quite disgruntled at the Grand-Canyon-sized pay differential.

Evidently, these professional female athletes decided that the All-Star festivities would be the perfect time to highlight that great chasm in pay.

"We wanted to do something that was united as a collective,” said Kelsey Plum, an All-Star guard from the Los Angeles Sparks, “and I thought that it’s a very powerful moment and got the point across. …Sometimes, you don’t have to say anything.”

She might be right, but I think it should be said that none of those players are entitled to any pay outside of their contracted salaries. No one owes them anything. They are a privileged, elite group of athletes who earned the right to play at our nation’s highest level of basketball competition. But they agreed to their salaries in writing before setting foot onto any WNBA basketball court.

And someone should also say this part out loud, as well: The NBA generates $11 billion annually, while the WNBA has made no profit at all in its 28-year existence, according to Yahoo Sports and The Washington Examiner. Not one single dime.

On top of that, the WNBA lost around $40 million in revenue over the past year, and it lost other million-dollar amounts in years past. Plus, 7 of the 13 WNBA teams are owned by the NBA, which also subsidizes the female basketball league to the whopping tune of $15 million annually.

But the WBNA All-Stars took their silent, T-shirt-clad stand at what they view as an opportune time, with contract negotiations coming up in October, with growing fan-interest in players such as Caitlin Clark, and with a new $2.2 billion WNBA media deal in the works.

With those points in mind, All-Star Captain Napheese Collier explained that the league players desire to see some massive salary restructuring this Fall, in order for the women to “get a larger piece of the pie that we helped create.”

And according to Nneka Ogwumike, president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), the proverbial pie is growing, and the league is not paying its WNBA players what they are owed.

“And we want to be able to have that fair share moving forward,” added Ogwumike.

Alright then, with all this talk of a larger, fairer share of the pie, let’s stop, take a breather, and analyze this situation realistically. Let’s take time out and look at the scoreboard, so to speak.

Yes, the pay differential between men and women who play professional basketball is tremendous, almost unbelievably so. But the bottom line is that pro-basketball is a money-making industry, and the WNBA has yet to produce a dollar of profit for that industry.

Call me a simpleton, but in my world, down here on planet Earth, where the majority of people work real jobs for a living, if an employee does not generate revenue for their employer or institution, that’s grounds for termination.

In what world does an industry continue to shell out millions of dollars, knowing they will not get a return on their investment? Apparently, the WNBA.

Yes, the potential for profit is admittedly looking better, with the WNBA’s growing fan base and increasing media attention, but potential does not equate to profit – not just yet. So, the truth is, no one owes those WNBA All-Stars and their regular-season teammates anything. Not one red cent, to be honest. Not even continued employment.

They signed contracts; they did the job they were contracted to do; and they were paid accordingly. No one owes them anything. Nothing

Maybe a better alternative to the WBNA All-Star T-shirt saga would have been for those talented women athletes to come running out on that court with a more humble and less demanding attitude – and T-shirt. Instead, their elitist, entitled attitude reminded me of 1 Timothy 5:18: “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

And I am not sure those women's wages are worth nearly what they imagine.