WNBA salaries have been a huge topic of discussion as of late, with the stars of the league demanding a greater share of the revenue, quite vociferously, in recent weeks. Shaquille O’Neal knew that they got paid less than NBA players. But when he got to know just how low the salaries were, he was astounded.
Advertisement
The Diesel appeared in an interview with Bailey Jackson where got to know that A’Ja Wilson, a seven-time All-Star, makes just $200k a year. Without an iota of doubt, he declared that she should be earning 50 times that amount.
When Caitlin Clark’s contract details came up, the Los Angeles Lakers legend took off his glasses, dropped them on the floor, and looked genuinely dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that someone so instrumental to the women’s game was earning just $70 to $80K, a figure that pales in comparison to what some forgettable third-string NBA players make.
Shaq said about A’ja, “She should be making $10 million a year.” After a brief pause to let Clark’s salary sink in, he added, “I never knew this…Really.”
O’Neal then brought up a controversial solution to the salary disparity. He suggested lowering the rims. The moment he hinted at it, Jackson scoffed. It’s clear that WNBA players don’t want any changes made to the court, nets, or rims. But Shaq believes that lowering the rims would allow women to dunk more easily, and in his view, that’s what’s holding the league back.
“You wanna make more money? Let Caitlin go baseline and fingertip dunk. Let Angel [Reese] do her layup like that, let her turn that wrist one time forever and throw it down man,” said Shaq. “Trust me on this.”
View this post on Instagram
The height of the rims in the WNBA is 10 feet, and Shaq isn’t calling for an overhaul. He just wants a slight adjustment, one he believes could help fix the league’s salary problem, a conversation that has gained significant momentum in recent months.
At the recently concluded All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, all the players wore t-shirts reading ‘Pay us what you owe us.’ It wasn’t a call for NBA-level salaries. The stars simply want to be paid fairly based on the league’s revenue, something they currently are not.
