Player Ownership Could Help Bridge the WNBA/NBA Gap in Player Equality

Photo Credit: Joshua M Hicks

Chicago Sky players are warming up on the court before their game against the Las Vegas Aces.

By Joshua M Hicks

If you are a true basketball fan, you are aware of the top entertaining basketball leagues in the world; the NBA and WNBA. The leagues are entertaining, yet so different in all walks of life (status, treatment, money, etc.) All professional athletes should receive the same respect and it is time to change that in women sports. For the WNBA, there are a couple of ways it can be achieved: being patient and maybe using resources from the big brother to expand the league with heavy involvement of current and former athletes on the biggest stages of any professional sport --- ownership.

As a former collegiate basketball player and current reporter of the sport, I’ve played with and/or against women. I have seen them perform on the highest levels. In this arena, women can do what men do. They can flat out ball!

But when I walk into the realities of life for male basketball athletes compared to females, the average so called ”basketball fans” do not view them equally.

Changing those viewpoints should matter, especially for the little girls that admire female professional athletes, and it can change if the WNBA elevates their athletes’ worth through league expansion.

I’ll never forget covering the game that sealed the Chicago Sky’s fate as the conference champions before eventually winning the championship last season at Wintrust Arena. They brought all of the excitement you could ever expect in a game as a sports fan, putting on a show for all to see. And after all of that, they are still getting paid the same salary jobs as some of the journalists sitting next to me covering the game.

How can a journalist make as much money or even more than the players they are reporting on? That’s a problem, a multi-complex problem that basketball fans need to understand in supporting all of basketball, not just parts of it.

The WNBA has always been the little sister of the NBA. They have been underfunded for years and the discrepancies are huge. According to Queen Ballers Club, the average salary for a WNBA player is upwards of $145,000. When it comes to big brother, the NBA, the average salary for an NBA player is $7.9 million and the minimum salary players can receive is around $925,000, according to Hoops Addict. According to WSN, in 2019, the NBA sat at $7.4 billion in revenue while the WNBA was at $60 million.

NBA players are bringing in revenue from endorsements/sponsorships, but only a few WNBA players are being endorsed heavily while some of the top ranked players are not.

One of them is Chicago Sky guard Dana Evans. She recently signed an endorsement deal with Jordan.

“It means a lot to me,” Evans said. “It is what I always wanted --- I think it is good to be able to show what you can do on and off the court. It is just about marketing yourself in other spotlights so other girls can see it. That helps brings more fans and a bigger crowd as well.”

WNBA players put on the same shoes as men do, go through the same training workouts, diet plans, recovery treatments and routines. They even get involved with speaking against social injustices within the country and world as a whole.

Yet, through all the work they put in, the average NBA player makes tons more money than the WNBA player’s highest paid player does.

In some ways to make up for that financial difference, they have to travel out of the country to play basketball overseas during their offseason within America. And because of that, players like Brittney Griner have to go through the struggles of the foreign land’s court of law in hopes of going home, all because the Russian government detained Griner for finding vapor cartridges contained with marijuana concentrate hashish oil in her luggage. I’m sure being part of a potential World War III was not in her plans, but it is her unfortunate reality as she is still detained 118 days later and counting!

Photo Credit: CNN

Phoenix Mercury center Britney Griner has been imprisoned in Russia for over 110 days and counting since being detained by Russian government.

How can we fix this issue? One of the ways we can is by marketing the players better through various forms such as multi-millionaire/billionaire owners expanding their pockets to pay the worth of these athletes, increasing media coverage throughout the league and endorsement deals, which is taking place at its own pace.

The same amount of people that come from all areas of the world to cover the Bulls and NBA should bring that same energy when covering the Sky or any other WNBA team. I’ve attended Sky games when they were winning and the Sky in previous years when they’ve lost. And yet through it all, if it is not a big game or on a major network, the media circle is relatively small compared to a Bulls game.

We should be held accountable for not giving women basketball the same treatment as men, and if we open up our platforms, there is no doubt that the game can grow and change.

Aside from getting media deals and coverage to help increase league revenue, the owners also have to invest in the teams. WNBA players are flying coach, barely making it in uncomfortable living situations and have to share rooms with players. Sometimes the food service is not that great. Remember the Wubble?

“The middle class of the WNBA is suffering right now because of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement [CBA],” Chicago Tribune reporter James Kay said. “We are seeing a lot of players who should be in the WNBA but can’t because of how much their minimum contracts would cost.”

Eliminating the hard cap can set the standard for ownership to follow in how they should take care of their athletes. If the league continues to put a hard cap on their athletes’ salaries and deny rich owners the opportunity to expand their lifestyle treatment to its true worth, that is not just an owners’ issue, but a league issue. You can eliminate some of that by putting in owners that actually want to invest in their teams.

Being the social justice league that they are, The WNBA has made it known that they aren’t afraid to create change for the right reasons. Look at how the WNBA booted former US Senator Kelly Loeffler out of the Atlanta Dream’s original ownership group and replaced her with a new group that included one of the franchises very own players that protested against the former Senator, Renee Montgomery.

With Commissioner Cathy Engelbert telling the Athletic the league is looking to identify one or two cities for expansion ideally by this year’s playoffs and the new teams could be playing as early as the 2024 season, opportunities for new WNBA teams and ownership groups can become available.

Adding top players with marketing influence such as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James to be the face of a new ownership group that can include the late Black Mamba’s wife Vanessa Bryant and Chicago Sky forward Candace Parker is something the league should take advantage of.

As not arguably the greatest player to ever play the game, but also basketball’s first ever active billionaire player, James has all the resources to put together a strong ownership team. He expressed interest in wanting to pursue WNBA ownership once the WNBA created Loeffler’s exodus.

As long as that idea still exists, it is a win-win situation for everyone involved because of his support as an NBA player for the WNBA combined with his brand and influence in and out of business.

“I think that would help,” ESPN writer Michael Fletcher said. “James is the number one name in America and global sports. NBA players show a lot of respect to WNBA players --- it would help if LeBron James was down for that.”

Vanessa, who is widow to former Laker legend Kobe Bryant, and her daughter Gigi, were and still are big supporters of the WNBA. Having her alongside someone like Parker, who has outside influence, respect between both leagues and a personal relationship with the Bryant family, could take things to the next level.

“We would love to see the big names like [LeBron] James and [Steph] Curry own some teams because we need that,” Evans said. “One day hopefully that comes about --- I can see [Candace] Parker doing it one day because she is really big on promoting our game and doing good stuff for the women.”

The WNBA and NBA are apples and oranges, but it does not mean one has to be more edible than the other. Both fruits are healthy and should be equally edible for consumption. Both leagues deserve equal treatment and it took 75 years for the NBA to make their mark. 25 years in the making, progress is still being made, but the WNBA has a way to go. We should be patient, but working diligently to support the growth of the league like we did for the NBA.