{"id":653376,"date":"2026-05-06T13:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653376\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:31:08","slug":"im-getting-my-mama-a-new-house-what-happens-when-a-huge-pay-boost-changes-wnba-players-lives-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653376\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m getting my mama a new house\u2019: what happens when a huge pay boost changes WNBA players\u2019 lives? | WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA is entering its 30th season, a milestone worthy of as big of a celebration as its players could muster \u2013 and this year, they mustered up a lot. The Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) negotiated a landmark collective bargaining agreement<\/a> (CBA) with the league that, among other things, introduces a revenue sharing system and an estimated average salary of $583,000.<\/p>\n

This season, all players will make the minimum of $270,000, up from $66,000; others may make as much as $1.4m. It\u2019s money that Alysha Clark, a veteran forward for the Dallas Wings and vice-president of the WNBPA, describes to the Guardian as \u201camazing\u201d. One of the most incredible aspects of the new deal, she says, is having the ability to pave the way for future generations of WNBA<\/a> players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t only going to enhance the superstars in our league and the rising stars of the rookies, but it\u2019s going to change the lives of the heartbeat of the league,\u201d says Clark, who will make $277,500, up from $110,000 two years ago. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the majority of players, players like me, that fill in the gaps between those two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what the generations before us were fighting for us to make sure that we had \u2013 that not knowing a world without the WNBA would never exist,\u201d Clark adds. \u201cAnd now our job was to carry that torch. And now the players coming in, not only do they not know a world without the WNBA, but now they\u2019re not going to know a world where they\u2019re having to scrape by to be a professional athlete and they\u2019re going to be properly compensated for just their gifts and talents.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deal will allow those players to invest in their futures, including financial and physical opportunities, and also to support their families.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams, who was paid<\/a> $175,000 in 2024 and $180,000 last season, is looking forward to what the new CBA \u2013 and her $1.19m salary \u2013 will allow her to do. Gone are the days that players have to choose between their future and their present; now, they can have both.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019s first order of business will be taking care of her mother. \u201cI\u2019m getting my mama a new house,\u201d she says. \u201cSo my mama is in a trailer right now. We\u2019ve been in it for my whole life. So I\u2019m able to put her in a new house. Pay off our cars, retire her. She wasn\u2019t comfortable enough to let me take over everything. But now she\u2019s like, \u2018All right, you can\u2019, you know what I\u2019m saying? So it\u2019s different now.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some players, the new CBA has changed how they see the next few years of their lives unfolding. In the past, many WNBA players spent their offseasons<\/a> playing abroad, where salaries in countries such as Russia, Turkey and China dwarfed what they were receiving in the US.<\/p>\n

Playing overseas has not come without risks. In addition to injuries and the challenges that come with navigating unfamiliar countries and languages, some players have encountered serious problems. Brittney Griner was held overseas<\/a> in Russia for 10 months after she entered the country in 2022 with cannabis vape cartridges; had Griner not felt compelled to play overseas to help make ends meet, she may not have found herself in that position in the first place.<\/p>\n

Brittney Griner was one of the many WNBA stars who spent the offseason playing professionally in Russia for a much higher salary. Photograph: Andrea Kareth\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The new salaries will give players the option to spend more time at home during the offseason, whether that\u2019s playing in domestic leagues such as Unrivaled<\/a> and Athletes Unlimited, or taking a break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want players in the future generations to be able to stay at home,\u201d Clark says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to have to have them sacrifice time away from family and friends during holidays, missing moments like we\u2019ve had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to be able to make a living to be able to stay here year-round, work on their craft, take time to heal and work on their body,\u201d she continues. \u201cSo that way when they show up for the W season, they\u2019re the best, you know, that they, that they can possibly be personally and that just makes the product better on the floor, night in and night out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dallas Wings\u2019 Maddy Siegrist, who was drafted by the team in 2023, acknowledges this reality. \u201cI was probably at the tail end of where everybody was going overseas [in the offseason],\u201d says Siegrist, whose salary is up to $501,180 from $83,781 last year. \u201cI think obviously now, that\u2019s a choice. With so many opportunities here and obviously with the increase in salaries, it\u2019s no longer something you have to do if you don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alanna Smith, who will earn $1.19m with the Wings this season, told the Guardian she\u2019s even thinking differently about retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture planning, retirement-wise, was always on my mind,\u201d Smith says, \u201cand how I was going to have to continue after my basketball career, basically to just sustain myself. But now with the salaries that we\u2019re getting, it\u2019s a little bit easier to plan for the future and not have to think about a massive career outside of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith adds that before the new deal, her biggest concern was what kind of career she\u2019d have after the WNBA. Those options included coaching. \u201cWith this type of money, you don\u2019t necessarily have to do that if you don\u2019t want to,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just gives a little more financial freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

That freedom will be evident on the outside, be it through purchases of homes, cars, or other typical signs of an increase in income, but there\u2019s also an internal transformation happening. Both Williams and Clark also acknowledged that the months-long fight with the WNBA \u2013 the previous CBA lapsed in October 2025, and the new one was ratified in March \u2013 was about a lot more than their bottom line.<\/p>\n

For Clark, feeling respected by the league\u2019s leadership was crucial. That included \u201crespecting our craft and what we\u2019re doing,\u201d and that \u201calso comes with compensating us for doing such. So those two were very much tied together\u201d.<\/p>\n

To Williams, the idea of respect and compensation aren\u2019t quite as black-and-white. \u201cThat\u2019s so tricky, right?\u201d she says. \u201cBecause at the end of the day, people will be like, \u2018All right, well, y\u2019all won way more,\u2019 and that\u2019s valid, but it\u2019s like everything is a process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-time All-Star Courtney Williams has seen her salary increase from $180,000 last year to $1.19m this year. Photograph: Matt Krohn\/USA Today Sports<\/p>\n

The details of what it took to get to the new deal can get lost, she adds, because the WNBPA negotiated with the league to get close to their proposed changes. \u201cIf you really understand what\u2019s going on, we were on our last CBA making maybe almost 9% [in revenue sharing],\u201d Williams says. \u201cAnd it got to the point where they have to pay us back $8m. If we were losing money \u2026 how can you pay somebody back if you\u2019re losing money? It\u2019s like \u2026 the internet is not a real place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams was referencing the February 2026 reveal that, for the first in its history, the league made enough money<\/a> to trigger automatic revenue sharing with players last season. All 13 teams received a total of $8m to divide up among players, an announcement that came as players were refuting claims by the league that the WNBA couldn\u2019t meet the WNBPA\u2019s revenue sharing proposals.<\/p>\n

When told the NBA didn\u2019t become profitable until its 40th season \u2013 the WNBA, again, in its 30th \u2013 Williams laughs and shakes her head. \u201cI just need everybody to just sit back, do a little research and understand what\u2019s going on. But the thing is, nobody ever is going to, and that\u2019s literally OK. That\u2019s why it\u2019s long, good, bad, ugly, [and] beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs again. \u201cIf y\u2019all [are] talking about it, it\u2019s a good thing to keep talking about. Just keep talking about it and keep helping us grow it because the people that love us, gonna keep loving us, people that hate on us, gonna keep running out of views.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight doesn\u2019t stop here just because milestones have been met, Williams adds. \u201cI think once everybody wrapped their mind around just the process of getting there \u2026 We made history. We\u2019re the first league that made this big of a jump on our own salaries, right? So it\u2019s like, we see what\u2019s going on. Everybody can see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is entering its 30th season, a milestone worthy of as big of a celebration as its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-653376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}