The WNBA

[proserpina65]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:09 PM, mojoween said:

Oh so NOW everyone cares about the women’s salaries because their golden girl is getting paid eighty grand a year.  No one batted an eye when Brittany Griner was in the fucking gulag because she was trying to make some more bank.  I hate people.  The women have been complaining about this for YEARS but no one deigned to listen before.

The league should actually start generating enough revenue to actually pay their players rather than having to rely on the NBA to subsidize their payrolls.  The WNBA has never, NEVER made a profit and until it does, the players do not deserve to be paid what the men of the NBA (which brings in a huge profit) do.

[KWalkerInc]

Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier have founded a 3X3 league called Unrivaled which features 36 WNBA players and starts tomorrow.  It is designed to give players a higher paycheck so that they don't have to go overseas.  I don't really know how it works, but I was surprised to see that they have national TV coverage for all the games, on TNT or TruTV (also streaming on Max).  I'm pretty sure Caitlin Clark isn't a part of it, or they'd probably mention it.  I will be watching the games for the "Phantoms" because Sabrina and Satou are playing together.

[Black Knight]

On 1/16/2025 at 2:20 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I'm pretty sure Caitlin Clark isn't a part of it, or they'd probably mention it. 

Correct, as she wanted the chance to actually rest, and of course, she's the rare WNBA player who doesn't need the additional income, so she has the ability to take the time off.

[baldryanr]

2 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Correct, as she wanted the chance to actually rest, and of course, she's the rare WNBA player who doesn't need the additional income, so she has the ability to take the time off.

That's right, she wanted to spend some time cheering on the Chiefs with Taylor Swift.

[Is Everyone Gone]

1 hour ago, baldryanr said:

That's right, she wanted to spend some time cheering on the Chiefs with Taylor Swift.

Caitlor is cute. I approve.

[KWalkerInc]

16 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Correct, as she wanted the chance to actually rest, and of course, she's the rare WNBA player who doesn't need the additional income, so she has the ability to take the time off.

Oh, absolutely.  I was being a little facetious about not knowing if she was in Unrivaled, as I'm sure it would have been mentioned immediately if she was in it!  I doubt it will get much in terms of ratings (they do have a fair number of sponsors at least), but most of the games have been competitive...except for whatever that was I watched with Sabrina, Satou, BG and company.  Sabrina was apparently the last player to sign on for the league and though she wasn't as bad (offensively) as her teammates, it's concerning that she still has her shooting hand taped up, so maybe she should have passed on this.  It was reported (though she and team won't confirm) that she has something torn in her hand that was expected to heal on its own.  That was like three months ago.

[KWalkerInc]

I was apparently out of the loop (not surprising) about Sabrina's injury, as there had been an article since I last checked in which she said she had thumb surgery, but was cleared to play in Unrivaled (though she has permission to not go to every game because she had "other commitments"--such as watching the NBA games in Paris).

Anyway, there is a lot of movement going on in the WNBA with star players.  Jewel Loyd, who had alleged bullying by the Seattle coaches, is getting traded to Las Vegas, with Kelsey Plum sent to L.A. and Seattle getting some draft picks.  Alyssa Thomas is getting traded from Connecticut to Phoenix.  And Brittney Griner is signing with Atlanta.  I think things can't be official until February 1.

In December, there was a special on ESPN where Golden State announced who they had chosen in the expansion draft.  Other than New York's Kayla Thornton, I hadn't heard of most players, though the commentators were surprised about a player that Indiana made available and was selected, noting that she worked well with Caitlin.  They had three celebrities each read off selections from four teams; but they didn't want any of Seattle's available players, so the guy who read that off went "Oh snap!" or something like that, which was funny.