Posted on 01/01/2026 3:36:53 PM PST by nickcarraway
Taurasi wanted the WNBA to show the girls the money.
Diana Taurasi has been one of the WNBA’s most elite players for two decades. The problem was that she was never paid like one. That’s why the 2009 MVP hopes to see the best women’s basketball players receive the compensation they deserve when the next collective bargaining agreement takes effect.
“I always thought about I should’ve get paid for being the best basketball player in the world, not for doing social media or doing commercials,” Taurasi told Front Office Sports back in August. “That was one of the things I always had the most angst about. I don’t wanna do commercials, I don’t wanna be a spokeswoman for every product in the world.”
The gender pay gap in American basketball Taurasi was one of the most vocal proponents of raising WNBA players’ salaries. She lamented having to play overseas during the offseason to supplement her meager pay, claiming that the janitors made more money than she did.
For Taurasi, they needed to be paid because of their skills, just like their male counterparts.
“When I think of the NBA, Kobe got paid to be the best basketball player in the world. Jokic got paid to be the best basketball player in the world. I think we need to change that, shift into women’s basketball. Like, that’s what you are. Let’s get paid for that and hopefully, the next CBA can reflect that,” Taurasi continued.
For context, Kobe Bryant was the league’s highest-paid star for three seasons (2009-10, 2013-14, and 2014-15). He was the first player to secure a $30 million salary for a season, which occurred in the 2013-14 season. Interestingly, Nikola Jokic has never been the top-paid player, but he will earn over $55 million in 2025-26, just behind Stephen Curry’s $59.6 million.
According to Forbes in 2024, NBA players were paid substantially more than WNBA players. The average WNBA annual salary is $150,000, while the average NBA salary is nearly $10 million, roughly 67 times more.
While it’s true that the NBA reaches a worldwide audience compared to the WNBA, the previous CBA wasn’t helping the women’s crusade for better pay. WNBA players receive a much smaller percentage (around 10 percent) of the revenue. In comparison, NBA players receive 50 percent of the league’s revenue pie.
Of course, the counter-argument is that the NBA earns way more than the WNBA, and that is a fact. However, the latter is closing the gap little by little, with estimates projecting a revenue of around $1 billion in 2025, driven by superstars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and others.
If the WNBA stars play their cards right in the CBA negotiations, the days of securing summer jobs abroad will be long gone.
View post: "They offered to pay me to rest" – Diana Taurasi explained her decision to sit out the 2015 WNBA season
What the WNBPA is looking for
It’s understandable why Taurasi (and many others) call out the lopsided revenue-sharing model of the past CBA. However, without a deal in sight in the near future, it looks like the process has done little to convince players that real progress has been made.
According to ESPN, “the WNBA’s latest proposal includes an uncapped revenue sharing model that would raise maximum salaries above $1.3 million (up from $249,244 in 2025) and growing to nearly $2 million over the life of the deal; average salaries to above $530,000 (up from $120,000 in 2025) and growing to more than $770,000 over the life of the deal; and minimum salaries to in excess of over a quarter of a million in the first year alone (up from $66,079 in 2025).”
Additionally, the union wants 30 percent of the gross revenue, while the league counters with 15 percent, roughly equivalent to one-half of the net revenue.
Although the negotiations are far apart, it’s already a step in the right direction. Regardless of the outcome, WNBA players can expect substantial pay raises and additional benefits from the revenue-sharing overhaul, whether it’s 30 or 15 percent of the gross income.
Taurasi will unfortunately no longer be there, having announced her retirement in February. Nonetheless, the scale of the new negotiations suggests the league can no longer ignore the standard that she pushed for.
I think that day is coming.
A better agent?!
What a dishonest article. Making assertions that this is all “in the right direction” - for who? The WNBA only experiences losses, it is funded by NBA money. For those that are investing, the product just doesn’t justify higher salaries.
These WNBA players need to understand that people just aren’t willing to pay much to watch them and they should be grateful they get any form of livable salary for playing a game.
The black lesbos don’t like CC - she makes them look bad. Beats them at their own game and she’s heterosexual.
I have a solution: schedule WNBA games at the same time as NBA games in the same venues. Raise ticket prices for these doubleheaders and no lower price tickets to watch only one game. And no one is admitted after half time of the WNBA game.
She WAS getting paid what she was worth. She was the best worker in a business that always lost money. The league should be disbanded. If NBA doesn’t increase their financial rewards, they might not support the WNBA anymore.
Even white lesbians don’t like CC. Just look up the Connecticut Sun game.
But the NBA gets billions in revenue for broadcast rights from ESPN, TBS, and this year NBC . Thirty teams eighty two games plus playoffs … that fills a lot of air time. And with the growth of gambling, plenty of eyeballs despite the growth of streaming and alternative viewing.
Elite high school? A small city (25,000) high school all star team would beat them.
The wNBA players can hardly rebound.
Elite in basketball. Dunbar in Maryland comes to mind.
ok it was just an article I read claiming financial problems.
Doesn’t China own a significant portion of it?
If the WNBA loses money each year how does profit sharing help?
“Okay Diana, for 2025 you owe us $22,560.”
No one would waste time to watch the wNBA game. The wNBA is a good product for the level of athleticism present. People will pay to see the absolute best, not the best in the athletic class. College ball is popular because of sentimentality of the alumni and the families and traditions of the fans.
If college ball was presented as an elite league with no connection to alumni, they would fail also.
Prime example...the G-league.
I’m sure China pays a lot for broadcast rights too… and a helluva lot of merchandise is sold there.
Or Monteverde in Florida. Cooper Flaggs school. They would destroy wNBA teams.
“That’s why she doesn’t get paid as much.”
Maybe she should try out for an NBA franchise. If she makes the squad, she will never get past the practice squad and will be beaten to death on every rebound and key area entry she makes.
A major selling part of the men’s game is the contact. She’ll get knocked into the third row every time she plays.
She was 6 feet and 163 pounds when she played. A lot of NBA players eat more than that daily. And they will post her up and she will be a waste defensively until she does the team a favor and finally fouls out. They can use guards to post her up if they want and they will blow her away.
wy69
You may be right but if it is a tie-in-sale so to speak and in order to watch an NBA game in person you must first watch a WNBA game, the WNBA will have a much bigger audience.
Lot of great players came out of Dunbar. Most succumbed to drugs or criminality and shortened their careers.
Tax write off.
Complete lack of understanding of market economics. Kobe Bryant wouldn’t have been paid for being the best basketball player in the world if people hadn’t been interested in paying to see the best basketball player in the world. No one wants to see the best _female_ basketball player in the world.
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