A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Alexis Ohanian Join Fans’ Outrage After Michael Porter Jr’s ‘Ping Pong’ Take on Women Basketball

Everyone knows the fact that the WNBA players don’t earn as much as the NBA athletes. While, as per Business Insider, the WNBA players had an average salary of $113,295 in 2023, the minimum NBA salary as per Statista (h/t: Business Insider) was around $1.1 million. This humongous gap in the treatment of players has often been a cause of debate.

More recently, the discussion once again surfaced and took a fiery turn when the Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. made some controversial remarks regarding the pay disparity in the two leagues. And that seemed to get a lot of backlash from people, including some celebrities. 

What did Porter Jr. say?

Porter Jr. was present at ‘The Pivot Podcast’ and spoke at length about why women players make less money than male players. And this seemed to get a lot of adverse reactions from the netizens. Porter Jr. stated: “And they’re very talented. But so is… so is a famous ping pong player. They’re just as talented as… as a… Like the best ping pong player is just as talented as the best basketball player. That doesn’t mean they’re gonna get paid the same.”

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He also went ahead to point out the fact that “it’s what the people wanna watch. I mean so… as much as I understand female players wanting the same treatment as men’s basketball players… It’s a different sport. People don’t have packing out the arenas, obviously their TV deals are not the same. So much as I advocate for women and kinda the equality of, the respect for their craft and all those things. I mean you can’t pay them the same thing, you know but I do feel like they… There should be a little way to make a little bit more money because they are very talented.”

The core argument that goes against the WNBA players is that the league makes quite less in revenue as compared to their male counterparts’ league – the NBA. The women’s league is watched by a lesser number of people and the TV rights are therefore lower for the WNBA players. Another reason that the critics of WNBA cite is that the ball size is smaller and the three-pointer line is also closer to the basket as compared to that in the NBA. 

Previously too there have been a lot of discussions regarding the WNBA player salaries and this has often got the internet divided much like this statement did. A lot of fans castigated Porter Jr. for his controversial stand. They were joined by some WNBA stalwarts including A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, and Alysha Clark. Among others, the comments by the American entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian and former college tennis player turned celebrity publicist Alexis Robinson stood out.

What did the celebs say?

Alexis Robinson was quick to point out that Porter Jr.’s stand insulted women. “This wasn’t advocating for women’s hoops at all smh it’s actually insulting.” She also went on to state that the 25-year-old brought forward his arguments much similar to the flawed concept of lowering hoop heights for women. “He also gave the ol’ ‘I would watch if they lowered the rims and were dunking.'”

Meanwhile, A’ja Wilson asked for the entire video instead of a snippet. She also refuted not believing what the rushes had shown. “I need to see the whole interview before I spazz, cause ain’t no way he said we the equivalent to ping pong playerssssss.”

Kelsey Plum on the other hand tagged the pivot podcast and asked them if they would be interested in talking “@thepivot what’s up yall, let’s chat”.

Going along the same lines, Alysha Clark too didn’t seem too convinced by Porter Jr.’s words: “Let’s watch it together because there’s NOOOOOOO WAY BRO.”

Alexis Ohanian too called Ryan Clark for a chat: “hey @Realrclark25 are you gonna be at the SB? Let’s chat about women’s sports!”

It remains to be seen what next step ‘The Pivot Podcast’ and Porter Jr. will take. And if he’ll respond to being confronted by the celebrities.

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