Caitlin Clark Went #1 Overall In The WNBA Draft And Will Make A Humble $76k Next Year

The internet is freaking out about this. EVERYONE is commenting how underpaid she is. How she moved enough merch in one night to pay for her contract, her team's entire payroll, and basically for the WNBA to operate for the entire season. How the pay raise between 2024 and 2025 is actually a pay decrease because of inflation. And so on and so forth. And to that I say.....

ERRONEOUS! 

$76k in your first year out of college?! Sign me up! My first job I made $35k/year. I lived in Harlem...no, not West Harlem, East Harlem. With 2 roommates and 2 cats. When Dave hired me I made $45k my first year. And I didn't get paid my first 3 weeks because he never sent the paperwork and I was too scared to ask. But that's beside the point. $76k is fucking sweet money for a 22 year old.

Ok, that was how we used to blog on Barstool. We used to make jokes on this website. But now when we do that people yell at us. But you guys get the point. Obviously she should be making more than $76k to be the face of the league. But that's just not how the WNBA works. She is getting the rookie contract, just like everyone else. Is it fair? Probably not. I'd go as far to say obviously not. But it's also not fair to compare WNBA contracts to NBA contracts. Like, we have to be logical too.

But when you do that you're called sexist and so on and so forth. So what I propose the WNBA does is make up the rules as they go. When you get someone like Caitlin Clark, give them a piece of the pie. A piece of the merch. A piece of ticket sales. They are moving a lot of her games to NBA arenas, let's not act like she shouldn't be compensated for that. There hasn't been a women's hoops star like her in YEARS. Special players should get special treatment. And guess what? The rest of the WNBA profits from the trickle down as well. And if anyone has a problem with Caitlin getting special treatment, they should try harder to be as popular as her. 

Common sense should factor into this type of thing. No, the WNBA is not as profitable as the NBA so no, they should not be making $30 mil a year. But Caitlin also should not be making pennies either. Obviously she'll be fine from the millions in endorsements, but that's not the point nor the principle of the matter. Maybe they test out her rookie year and make adjustments from there. But I do think the WNBA is in a GREAT spot right now and should treat Caitlin (and the other young emerging superstars like Cameron Brink, Angel Reese, etc) like royalty and watch the league grow. 

Great blog.

PS: And a great tweet.