Taking a Sarcastic Dig on LeBron James, A’ja Wilson Reveals How She ‘Found Her Voice’

The WNBA star A’ja Wilson is currently promoting her new book, Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You. The 27-year-old recently made an appearance on the popular chat show The View and spoke at length about various topics concerning her life. Amid such discussions, a previous tweet of Wilson surfaced during the show that took a sarcastic dig at NBA players namely LeBron James for the gender pay gap that exists between the NBA and the WNBA.

“154M ……….. must. be. nice. We over here looking for a M 🙃 but Lord, let me get back in my lane,” Wilson had tweeted on the social media networking platform X back in 2018. As per the View host Sunny Hostin, the tweet had helped Wilson “find her voice.”

Confirming the same to an inquisitive Hostin, Wilson recollected the incident and told her side of the story of how it was a “big moment” for her back then. Her gracious reply had all the fans attentively listening to her and wanting more anecdotes from her life.

“But I really found my voice because I felt like I finally used my platform and knew that people were listening and encouraging me to continue to speak out on things that I believe in. … that I live and that’s also why I wanted to write the book because it gives people a dive into that side of life. Like they see us in uniform, think we’re perfect, think we’re having it going on but in actuality we have struggles,” she said.

“We have to speak up for what we believe in because we have to be on platforms like this… Representation matters. So doing that as a young rookie it kinda opened up a whole door for me that I’m like no way, people are listening to me So let me talk a little something… That was a big moment for A’ja,” Wilson further added.

 As per Spotrac, Wilson singed her first 4-year contract with the Aces for a paltry amount of $232,178, with an average salary of $58,045. On the other hand, NBA icon LeBron James was on a four-year contract of $153,312,846. Post that Wilson has become the central player for the Aces, winning two back-to-back championships. She now earned a decent $202,155 as the base salary for the 2023-24 season.

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Further, as per reports, the average league salary was $113,295 for the WNBA in the 2023 season, while the minimum NBA salary for the 2023-24 season was $1.1 million as per Statista. The debate on gender pay recently caught fuel when NBA athlete Michael Porter Jr. compared WNBA players to ‘Ping Pong’ players.

A’ja Wilson reacts to Porter Jr’s ping pong comment

Porter Jr. marked an appearance at ‘The Pivot Podcast’ where he recently shared his opinion regarding the gender pay gap citing, “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.” This caught on the attention of a lot of celebrities including Wilson who refused to believe what Porter Jr. had said and asked for the full interview instead of the snippet that was being circulated on the social networking sites. “I need to see the whole interview before I spazz, cause ain’t no way he said we the equivalent to ping pong playerssssss,” Wilson remarked.

Hopefully, the WNBA will one day provide the same equity to their players as the NBA does. And with stars like Wilson advocating against the gender pay gap, the debate will stay alive till it reaches its purpose.

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