{"id":590004,"date":"2026-04-17T15:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590004\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:46:10","slug":"erica-wheeler-apologizes-for-controversial-comments-on-wnba-salaries-after-viral-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590004\/","title":{"rendered":"Erica Wheeler Apologizes for Controversial Comments on WNBA Salaries After Viral Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Indiana Fever<\/a> guard Erica Wheeler found herself in hot water of late over a now-deleted post on X. This is after the former All-Star called out fans who criticized her new deal with the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wheeler last played for the Fever in 2024, suiting up alongside Caitlin Clark<\/a> in the latter’s rookie season. This was the 5-foot-7 guard\u2019s second stint in Indiana. Wheeler was also with the team from 2016 to 2019. She was named an All-Star in that final season with the Fever.<\/p>\n

Wheeler entered free agency after spending last season with the Seattle Storm<\/a>. She secured a massive deal<\/a> with the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday, signing a two-year, $1.25 million contract.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Indiana Fever star Erica Wheeler during a WNBA game\u00a9 Doug McSchooler&sol;for IndyStar &sol; USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Wheeler took to social media on Wednesday to call out the \u201csick\u201d fans<\/a> who were complaining about how much money she and other WNBA<\/a> free agents made after the new CBA was established.<\/p>\n

The post blew up, amassing over two million views. The part of her post that drew the most attention was when she talked about other people\u2019s incomes. \u201cLike how you mad someone is making a million dollars lol oh it\u2019s cause you make less than 150 a year?\u201d Wheeler wrote. <\/p>\n

Wheeler has since deleted the post and issued a public apology. She made it clear that she is against the haters who are \u201cmad W players are making millions or more money.\u201d However, the former Fever guard also owned up to her error in judgment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the second part of my tweet was: because you only make $150,000 a year, that\u2019s why you mad,\u201d Wheeler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I apologize about the number. … It was never about the dollar amount. It was more so like an expression. And however 150 came about, maybe I should have said 20,000. Maybe this wouldn\u2019t have been an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wheeler expressed her regret, reiterating that it was never her intention to offend anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m owning what I said was probably degrading or most people didn\u2019t like it,\u201d she continued. \u201cThat was not my intention. If you know me well, I am not a person that is degrading. I uplift everybody<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never to degrade anybody that\u2019s making $150,000 a year, because that is a great salary. However, I said it in an expressive way. I just don\u2019t like the fact that people are mad that we\u2019re now making money when we fought so hard to really be in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wheeler revealed that she received a lot of hate for what she said. Nevertheless, she\u2019s also reaching out to anyone whom she may have hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my fans who really love me down\u2014I saw your DMs and you know the tweet wasn\u2019t for you guys, but you also expressed how it may have come across as degrading, me saying that $150,000 is not a lot,\u201d Wheeler stated. \u201cI heard you, and I\u2019m apologizing to you guys.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 So again, like I said, I can see how that could offend anybody that\u2019s working a hard job. I get that, and I apologize for saying that. Hope y\u2019all forgive me. I look forward to the W season. Hope y\u2019all enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Fever Facing Backlash After Unexpected Raven Johnson Move<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Indiana Fever guard Erica Wheeler found herself in hot water of late over a now-deleted post on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1760,14401,2839,3029,4676,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-590004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-caitlin-clark","9":"tag-erica-wheeler","10":"tag-indiana-fever","11":"tag-los-angeles-sparks","12":"tag-seattle-storm","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}