Amid $100,000 Boost, A’ja Wilson Hits Back at WNBA After Shocking Development: “What Happened to Growing the Game?”

It had not been 24 hours when the Aces team got one big news. The City of Las Vegas made the squad an offer of $100,000 worth of personal sponsorships. The catch was to keep repping the city. However, looks like the Aces’ happiness that separated the franchise from the rest of the league in finances did not stay with them too long. While A’ja Wilson and Co. did win a hardy game against the LA Sparks, they returned to their locker room for some shocking surprise.

Before tonight’s game, Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA announced that they had opened an investigation into the $100,000 bonus payments for the Aces players. This update in the deal spread out like wildfire and the 2x WNBA champion A’ja Wilson could not hide her astonishment. Taking it to her official X account, she tweeted after the game, “finding out ya team is under investigation right after a game is OD like huhhhhhh…what happened to growing the game ?¿?¿”

Certainly, Wilson’s blunt reaction was a big question mark to what the WNBA is trying to call “growth.” Some basketball followers had brought up Caitlin Clark as the reason behind this wind of change after hearing the news yesterday. While it may have been a sign that the franchises are understanding the fact that these women have brought world championship titles to their city twice. Hence, Las Vegas appreciating the efforts is most natural. But that is not what the pro league itself thinks.

The league hasn’t directly cited a reason for the investigation but ESPN reports, it would be looking into the matter to see if the deal “violates the spirit of the cap rules.” This is to ensure that the team would not have an advantage in recruiting, providing extra incentives. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has interestingly reported that the deal was signed only through individuals’ agents while the team played no part.

“the offer’s really simple: we want you to just play, we want you to keep repping Las Vegas, and if you get a three-peat, that’d be icing on the cake,”  Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO and President Steve Hill had announced. Following the instance thus, A’ja Wilson wasn’t the only Las Vegas Aces star to have show her disappointment in the league.

WNBA’s “Crazyyyyy” decision did not sit well with A’ja Wilson and Co.

A’ja Wilson was not the only one who questioned the decision that the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert took. Chelsea Gray posted on the step saying, “Under investigation is crazyyyyy.” At the same time, the seasoned player in Aces, Alysha Clark, commented on Gray’s post saying, “Can we investigate Cathy in her decision on who is allowed to charter and who isn’t?” The 5-ft-11 small forward mentioned the fact that only selected teams with long journeys will be getting the charter facility before May 21, 2024. However, Indiana has traveled in it for just a 1.5+ hour-long journey to Connecticut. Connecticut.

Seems like another drama is brewing between the franchise and the WNBA. However, Steve Hill has mentioned that the decision was of the city and not the players. Whether the players in the team will get the promised $100,000 per person will soon come to a conclusion as the LVCVA is adamant about improving the pay scale for their players. It will be interesting to see how the league responds to it all.