WNBA Money Hoopla

Wasn’t it cute the way WNBA players used their All-Star Game to demand more money with those ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us” T-shirts?

Like so many Mamdani The Commies, they want their fair share of money that isn’t there.

Understand, the WNBA is an economically subsidized program of the NBA. To put it another way, if WNBA players got their share of profits (actually losses) they would end up owing the league for the right to play in it.

Reports on readlucid.com indicate the WNBA, founded in 1996, has lost $10 million to $20 million a year since then. Yes, even with the Caitlin Clark phenomenon raising the league’s profile, it still bleeds red ink.

Clark is the poster girl for many aspects of the WNBA, including hatred of her for being white, hatred of her for being widely recognized by the public as the face of the league, hatred in All-Star postgame remarks for her allegedly not supporting the cause, even though she wore one of the ridiculous T-shirts.

By the way, when convenient, WNBA players will use Clark to make their case, noting her salary is a reported number of about $80,000 for 2025. They neatly omit she has signed lucrative endorsements, including one for $28 million from NIKE. You won’t see Clark using a SNAP card to buy groceries anytime soon.

It’s like the faux outrage over CBS canning Stephen Colbert – next year! – due to his show losing huge money.

The left is outraged. It can’t simply be that he repels viewers with his political screeds and costs boatloads of cash to keep on the air No, there must be another agenda here, most likely the network bowing to Trump censorship demands.

Speaking of other agendas, does anyone else wonder why Colbert, the wrinkle-eared humorless comedian pronounces his last name with a French twist. I did a little research and discovered that the COAL-BEAR pronounciation was dreamed up by little Stephen. His father prounced the last name COAL-BERT.

I guess COAL-BEAR was Stephen saying FU to his father.

WNBA players want 50 percent of the revenue, avoiding the unpleasant reality that those revenues don’t cover expenses. So, do they want to share the losses, too? Take the lower reported loss of $10 million a year, divide it by 150 players and you get a number of $66,666.666 each player would owe the league. Symbolic.

Three quick points before we close.

First, if you hear people whining about economic fairness, they often don’t share all the facts. When billionaire Warren Buffett lamented publicly that his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did, he didn’t mention that was due to his income mostly coming from capital gains, not a salary. If Warren really felt bad for the help, he could gift her with stock and let her pay a lower tax rate due to capital gains. If the stocks went down — think the WNBA losing money – alas, no capital gains and no income.

Second, the quality of play and officiating in the WNBA is, shall we say, suspect. There is a viral video on social media of star Angel Reese double-dribbling at least twice, travelling and carrying the basketball repeatedly on a trip down the court to a layup. My brother, something of a college women’s softball guru who maintains a web site on the sport, wondered about the Clark phenomenon a year or so back and tuned in a game, only to see her have more turnovers than points, as she alternated between coughing up the basketball and clanking heaves off the rim. He called me to express his dismay.

Third, it strikes me as perfectly understandable that the WNBA players, both white and black, seem to hate Clark despite her being the best thing that ever happened to their DEI league. During a career of covering sports, I knew several coaches with experience coaching both boys and girls teams. They almost all agreed that their girls teams were more difficult to keep together in terms of locker room unity or playing together on the court. The girls, they told me, tended to get caught up in cliques and had difficulty leaving personal dislikes at the door to the dressing room.

In conclusion, I say pay those WNBA women what they are owed. They should share the wealth, or in this case, the losses.

When can the WNBA expect their $66,666 payments?