Women\u2019s basketball players can finally stay stateside to make a living, says WNBA star Paige Bueckers, a reversal of a trend of WNBA athletes going overseas to supplement their income from the league.<\/p>\n
Professional women basketball players make only a small fraction of their NBA counterparts. The top rookie in the 2024 NBA season made around $12.6 million, and the final pick made about $2.5 million, according to Sports Illustrated<\/a>. But Bueckers, the WNBA\u2019s 2025 No. 1 draft pick, will make only $78,831, according to the league\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Though the women\u2019s league is a half century younger than the NBA, its average team valuation of $269 million skyrocketed 180% from last year, according to data<\/a> from Sportico.<\/p>\n About half of the WNBA\u2019s 144 players play ball outside the U.S., a way to make up to quadruple<\/a> their salary in the WNBA, which averages about $100,000. In 2022, four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird told CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d<\/a> she was able to become a millionaire after playing in Russia\u2019s EuroLeague.<\/p>\n \u201cI pretty much lost money playing in the WNBA,\u201d she said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference<\/a> in October 2024.<\/p>\n Even as WNBA salaries pale in comparison to the NBA, women basketball stars have found other ways to make money without going abroad, Bueckers said, thanks to the rise of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals for student-athletes and the rise of alternative leagues in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re less likely to go overseas and more prone to stay in the United States, just because there\u2019s more opportunities now,\u201d Bueckers told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n More stateside opportunities<\/p>\n In 2023, WNBA veterans Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart founded Unrivaled<\/a>, a 3-on-3 women\u2019s basketball league paying its participating athletes an average $220,000 salary. The startup announced on Monday its latest funding round raised its valuation<\/a> to $340 million, with Serena Williams\u2019 Serena Venture<\/a> scouting itself among the league\u2019s investors. In April, Bueckers\u2014who is making $348,198 on a four-year contract with the WNBA\u2019s Dallas Wings\u2014signed a three-year deal<\/a> with the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n Athletes Unlimited<\/a>, a 5-on-5 women\u2019s basketball league founded in 2020, has already recruited<\/a> three-time WNBA champion Alysha Clark and two-time WNBA champion Sydney Colson for its four-week season beginning in February. The league will offer $500,000 in prize bonuses.<\/p>\n The changing landscape of NIL has also allowed athletes to accumulate wealth earlier, Bueckers said. A 2021 Supreme Court decision<\/a> paved the way for the NCAA to allow student-athletes to make money from NIL deals. The NIL industry swelled to an estimated $1.67 billion in the 2024-2025 academic year, with women\u2019s basketball student athletes getting about 10.2% of total NIL compensation, according to Opendorse\u2019s 2024 report<\/a>. Their men\u2019s basketball counterparts meanwhile got 21.2% of total compensation. Bueckers\u2019 NIL deals with brands like StockX and Gatorade, helped her reach an estimated $1.5 million net worth<\/a> in 2024-2025, according to On3.<\/p>\n WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has previously expressed support<\/a> for players going overseas but has also wanted to increase player-marketing opportunities domestically to entice athletes to keep playing in the U.S. In 2022, Engelbert touted the league tripling its number of player-marketing agreements.<\/p>\n There are more than just financial benefits from continuing to compete in the U.S. WNBA players who have to exert themselves more in between seasons are more injury prone, Bueckers said, with fatigue being exacerbated by overseas travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n For others, travelling overseas is risky. Six-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia for 10 months in 2022 after Russian authorities found her guilty of carrying hashish oil\u2014a marijuana concentrate\u2014in her luggage. Griner previously said she felt it necessary to play in Russia to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole reason a lot of us go over is the pay gap,\u201d Griner said in her first press conference<\/a> after her return from Russia. \u201cA lot of us go over there to make an income to support our families, to support ourselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bueckers said now, players can still make the choice to play abroad, but it\u2019s no longer necessary financially.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who want to have that experience and go and play overseas, that opportunity is always available for them,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cBut for people to not feel like they need to in order to stay alive\u2026I think it\u2019s great for that to be a decision that you have to make, and not an obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n Work left to do<\/p>\n Still, WNBA athletes are working to increase their salaries in the league. Bueckers said she doesn\u2019t have a number in mind of what she and her teammates should be paid. Instead, she said she wants a revenue-sharing model. Under the current contract, which expires at the end of the 2025 season, players receive 20% to 25%<\/a> of the WNBA\u2019s basketball-related income. NBA players receive closer to 50%.<\/p>\n Diana Taurasi, a 20-year WNBA veteran widely regarded as one of its best-ever players, told The Athletic<\/a> in May the salary the WNBA should try to achieve for players should be $1 million, though also advocated for revenue-sharing.<\/p>\n In July during the league\u2019s All-Star game, WNBA players wore \u201cPay Us What You Owe Us\u201d shirts<\/a> after about 40 of the athletes met with the WNBA to discuss CBA agreement negotiations and felt not enough progress had been made ahead of the October deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the event, Engelbert expressed optimism about a new contract. The league has made some efforts to accommodate player demands, including introducing a $25 million per year charter program<\/a> to help athletes travel more comfortably and increasing postseason bonuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want the same things as the players want,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cWe want to significantly increase their salary and benefits while balancing with our owners, their ability to have a path to profitability as well as continued investment. You see tens of millions of dollars being invested in practice facilities and other player experience by teams. We want to strike the right balance between those two so that can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Bueckers was among the athletes wearing the shirts at the All-Star event.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the players, so we feel like we just should get what we deserve and what the people before us have paved the way for us to get, what the next generation deserves,\u201d Bueckers told Fortune. \u201cAs the game continues to grow, and the W continues to capitalize off of our growth\u2026we feel like we should just get a piece of that pie.\u201d\n<\/p>\n