Pay WNBA Players More. This argument has been brewing in the WNBA for a NUMBER of years now. In a league where the average annual salary hovers around $120,000 per year, players like Kelsey Plum and Angel Reese have been speaking out in hopes that they and their fellow players can get paid in a similar way to NBA players.

But recently, with the WNBA’s new CBA negotiations on the horizon, it looks like the Chicago Sky’s second-year phenom Angel Reese has taken the discussion to another level. It looks like the former LSU Tiger has a SPECIAL MESSAGE for the higher-ups in the league; PAY…..or we don’t play!

Angel Reese makes it very clear WNBA players are prepared to go on strike if they fail to reach an agreement in upcoming CBA negotiations. 👀 pic.twitter.com/7LeOSz7unz

— theScore (@theScore) March 8, 2025

It’s a wild play for the second-year star, as the WNBA has been operating at a deficit for a number of years now. The thought of players sitting out games because their failing league (which needs help from the Men’s league to stay afloat) won’t pay them more, just sounds like a recipe for disaster. It just sounds like the start of a dirty and depressing nosedive for a league that has been around since 1996.

Now granted, they may not have to do this, when the league’s new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal that they signed in July of 2024 hits in 2026. This MAJOR influx of money (mostly due to superstar Caitlin Clark’s popularity, in my opinion) will help TRIPLE the amount of money coming into the league.

But the question on everyone’s mind is…..will the “Caitlin Clark bump” help raise the players’ revenue share from the current 9%, to the even split that they’ve been hoping for? Will it be enough money to give these players the pay they’ve been hoping for for the past number of years?

Personally…..I don’t know. In theory, this money should bump them all up a little bit more. It should be enough to give Angel Reese and co. a pay raise that their predecessors only DREAMED of having. But will it get them to an equal share, just like the folks in the NBA?

One could only hope, so this stupid discussion can FINALLY come to an end.

But in the end, I think the most important point in all of this is……..a strike would probably be the worst move for this collection of humans to make. Regardless of how these negotiations go, the thought of a league that needs a handout to survive sitting out games…..would just end up being a death sentence. No more WNBA, through a self-inflicted wound.

This may get messy, ladies and gentlemen. The swarm of love for the league after the entrance of Caitlin Clark may FIZZLE OUT very quickly, if players don’t get what they want. But in the end, as always….what do I know? I’m just a guy from the Midwest, with a beer and a laptop, trying to make sense of this world.