WNBA All-Star Diana Taurasi reflects on her 20 seasons with the Phoenix Mercury during a retirement news conference at the Phoenix Mercury’s practice facility on March 13, 2025.
Rob Schumacher, Arizona Republic
The average WNBA player salary during the league’s first year, 1997, was $32,500, which is $64,611 adjusted for inflation today, per Spotrac. In 2025, the average salary entering last season was $102,249. After the CBA accounted for several new billion-dollar TV broadcast rights deals, this year’s average salary skyrocketed to about $583,000.
However, it’s bittersweet for Pettis. She sympathized for retired players ineligible for payouts, especially those who played during the league’s inaugural season and didn’t reach the five-year threshold.
“It’s just gratitude more than anything, but I also saw that it’s unfortunate for the players, that first year. I know a lot of those players,” Pettis said. “I feel like the first year shouldn’t be something that is overlooked. I know a player in Houston who played three years and that was it. She had three championships.”
The WNBA’s original dynasty, Houston Comets, consecutively won the league’s first four titles.
Still, Pettis is grateful that the WNBPA and league are taking care of their pioneers and retirees. She hopes there’s more to come financially honoring the league’s pioneers and retirees.
Pettis is confident WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike “thinks in a way of how to continue a process of all the sisters that are a part of the W and I like that about her. This isn’t the final say. It’s the waiting station for now.”
Pettis farm ‘just as valuable’
Pettis owns her non-profit organization Project Roots, which runs the Bridget Pettis Foundation Farm School for children, youth basketball camps and yoga classes. The organization’s mission is to educate people, end homelessness and provide food to underprivileged residents in Phoenix and her hometown of East Chicago, Indiana.