“If We Could Get $500K That Would Be Amazing”: LA Sparks Star Compares $30,000 WNBA Bonus With NBA CUP Winnings

Gender pay disparity has been one of the hot-button issues in the workplace for a long time. The “glass ceiling,” as it is known, has seen women make less than men in nearly every profession, and though some strides have been taken, there’s still a long way to go. We’ve seen the issue crop up in the sports world, too, most notably with the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams, and now more recently with the striking disparity between the salaries of NBA and WNBA players.

WNBA star Dearica Hamby, now of the Los Angeles Sparks, appeared on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back podcast recently, and she had some thoughts when asked about the difference in pay between the NBA Cup and the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.

“For sure, if we could get $500k, that would be amazing. But we got a few thousand. I think 30k was what it was when we won that year in 2022. And I think we get to donate some money to our favorite charity.”

As Hamby told hosts Michelle Beadle, Chandler Parsons, and Lou Williams, WNBA players that win the Commissioner’s Cup, the WNBA’s equivalent of the in-season tournament, receive about $30,000. The winning team also receives a $10,000 donation to a charity of their choice, with this year’s winner, the Minnesota Lynx, choosing Gender Justice, which fittingly focuses on advancing efforts for gender equality.

Gender equality has been hard to come by for WNBA players, and many have had to turn to outside sources of income because their pay pales in comparison to their NBA counterparts. Many players, even the top stars of the league, have chosen to play overseas in the offseason to supplement their income, and in January, many will take part in Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 league created by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier

The hosts of Run It Back were shocked at how little WNBA players get for winning the Commissioner’s Cup. It’s notable also that the $30,000 number that Hamby cited, which was what she got for winning the Cup as a member of the Las Vegas Aces in 2022, is still the same number that members of the Lynx got for winning this year, even though the league’s popularity and revenue have exploded.

Dearica Hamby has felt the effects of gender inequality before

When Dearica Hamby talks about the difficulties of being a female athlete, people need to listen, because this isn’t her first rodeo. She filed a discrimination suit against the WNBA and the Aces for the way she was treated after she informed the team of her pregnancy in late 2022, as she alleges that she was retaliated against and later traded because of it. Aces head coach Becky Hammon was eventually suspended two games because of the complaint, but the WNBA and the Aces filed a motion to dismiss the suit in September.

Hamby is a 10-year WNBA vet and a two-time winner of the Sixth Player of the Year award. Her situation, sadly, isn’t new to women in the workplace, nor is it new to female athletes, regardless of whether the WNBA or the Aces are found at fault for discrimination. Being a professional athlete is thought by many to be a glamorous profession, but being a female professional athlete is not easy.

One can only hope that the recent surge in interest in women’s basketball will have a trickle-down effect on the athletes themselves. More fans, more merchandise, and larger TV contracts should equal higher pay for the players.

Though the relatively younger WNBA still has a long way to go to catch the NBA in terms of sheer economic impact, hopefully, players like Hamby see a larger share of the growing pie soon.