$5M Worth Brittney Griner Blasts WNBA Pay Gap: “We Earn About 250 Times Less Than NBA Players”

Due to considerably lower salaries than their male counterparts, numerous WNBA stars play overseas. In fact, almost half of the league’s 144 players have played in other countries. From Sue Bird to Dianna Taurasi, these eminent personalities of the sport have spent quite a fair share of their time representing franchises from outside the professional realms of the WNBA. However, for one WNBA great, this experience turned out to be a dreadful one. For 293 days, Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner had to undergo probably the toughest phase of her life. 17 months after her return to the United States, she opened up on the instrumental reason behind her life’s greatest agony. 

The 9× WNBA All-Star became the latest to put forth her blunt views on the massive pay gap between male and female basketball athletes. In an interview with fellow Olympian Megan Rapinoe, Griner minced no words in her criticism of the massive salary discrepancies between the two divisions. She said, “We earn about 250 times less than NBA players and have a hard cap on our salaries. In the WNBA that year I made around $220,000. Overseas, I earned a million plus. That pay gap is why I was in Russia in the first place.” 

On February 17, 2022, the two-time Olympic gold medal winner was apprehended in Russia. The charges for her detention turned out to be smuggling illegal dr*gs. As per the Russian customs officials, she was carrying small amounts of medically prescribed cannabis oil. Griner was in the country to participate in the Russian Premier League. Seemingly, she was trying to capitalize on her WNBA off-season by representing the UMMC Ekaterinburg, a franchise she had been a part of since 2015.

As it turns out, her contract over there promised her $1 million per annum. Consequently, this helped in her net worth reaching $5 million.  Meanwhile, the 2× WNBA scoring champion is not the only one voicing her opinion against the massive pay disparity.

Other celebrities sharing Brittney Griner’s concerns

This topic has been a subject of debate for many eminent faces of the sport. Back-to-back WNBA champion with the Las Vegas Aces A’ja Wilson raised the issue at the recent TIME100 Summit. There, she urged the basketball supporters to invest in the women’s division of basketball if they wanted to witness a surge in their payslips.

Following this, she was thoroughly supported by the fencing Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad. In addition to this, Serena Williams’ husband and a basketball fan himself, Alexis Ohanian, also pointed out ways for the fans to boost the salary of these female athletes.

The unfortunate turn of events for Brittney Griner should certainly serve as valid grounds for a change in the pay structure. Further, it can also demand a great deal of commitment from the fans towards the women representatives of the sport. We will have to wait and see if this season orchestrates any steps in that direction.