Salary inequalities and disparities have been a hot button issue in the WNBA’s at least since 2017 and it is being more voiced out now after a tweet from four-time All-Star player Liz Cambage who currently plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, in which she claimed that the WNBA is the only place where a head coach makes four times more money than a player on a super max contract, indicating that that she would be looking for other opportunities.
But apparently her message wasn’t about herself at all, it was about Storm’s power forward Breanna Stewart who is returning to Seattle on a one-year supermax deal worth $228,000 a season.
When we compare the deal signed by coach Becky Hammon with the Las Vegas Aces, there is indeed an unusual disparity. Mrs. Hammon signed for over $1 million in salary for a single season. This is not an isolated instance, STREETOPIA has verified that there is a chorus of players who would like to see this problem tackled.
Sue Bird recently had a very public debate with NBA player Draymond Green, as she said that even platform sponsorship, pertaining to basketball, women are under paid when it comes to salaries, because the base (that is, WNBA players) are being publicly undervalued. She accused Draymond Green of being blind and complacent to the problem in his platform.
In fact, when we run the numbers, there isn’t a single precedent case in the NBA, European and Australian’s league history, when a basketball star made four or six times less than a coach. A general universal comparison reveals that normally, in most leagues, a superstar player would make about 3 to 10 times more than head coaches.
We dug deeper into the matter and, differently than some outlets have reported (and what came up in the feud Sue Bird X Draymond Green) the general consent in the backstage of the WNBA has nothing to do with gender equality, it has to do, however, with WNBA players being underpaid when compared to other women’s league anywhere in the world factoring in a certain league revenue versus player’s salary.
Proper value to all WNBA players now!
:: UPDATE ::
After the money complaint posted on Twitter by Australian basketball player Liz Cambage from the Las Vegas Aces, and reported by STREETOPIA, she verbally agreed to play for the Los Angeles Sparks next season. She will be joining her teammates superstars Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike.
It is a heavy loss for the Aces, as her stats are quite impressive, last season, she averaged14.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game staying in the top two rank for the West Coast. The criticism that probably led to this decision was directed linked to the new coach, Becky Hammon who is going to take over the Las Vegas Aces.
STREETOPIA was able to confirm that the invitation came right after the tweet was posted, linking even more, her decision to the open criticism she made not only for salary disparities but also about the fact that the WNBA does not charter flights for their teams, she even mentioned that she had to spend another season paying flight upgrades out of her own pockets.
Liz Cambage pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics due to alleged mental issues, and at the time was heavily criticized both in Australia and directly by her Australian coach Sandy Brondello. This is because not long after the Olympics she was back practicing in the WNBA.
We are certainly hoping that everything turns out great to both Liz and her new team, the Los Angeles Sparks.
