With “Pay Us What You Owe Us” emblazoned on their black T-shirts, the WNBA All-Stars’ demand to the league was direct and unapologetic during Saturday’s game. But the shirt — while buzzy, memorable and viral on social media — wasn’t the players’ power play. Rather, the game’s the thing.
If you were confused about why the game — usually deliciously punctuated with rough-and-tumble activity — lacked defense, or why, when Team Clark captain Caitlin Clark, during a halftime interview, laughed off the need for defense and instead called for more 4-point shots, you weren’t the only one. (Granted, we were blessed with Kelsey Plum’s hilarious hug-and-run foul on former teammate A’ja Wilson in the first quarter.) Figuratively scratching my head through halftime, I finally realized the players’ strategy, brilliantly Shakespearean. The shirts were the teaser. The game was the direct action.
Currently, the players earn less than 10% of the league’s total revenue, according to MarketWatch. For comparison, their male counterparts in the NBA receive roughly 50%.
The game itself was the most significant demonstration of the players using their collective power amid ongoing collective bargaining negotiations that have left players frustrated, with New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart calling the latest meeting on Thursday between players and the league a “wasted opportunity." The existing collective bargaining agreement will expire at the end of the 2025 season, and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) and the league have been in talks about what a new agreement looks like as the league experiences unprecedented growth and appeal. The minimum salary for new WNBA players is a meager $66,079 — far below the six-figure income needed to rent an apartment in most major U.S. cities.
The no defense, score-as-many-points strategy sent the league a clear message: You can divide us into teams, but you cannot divide us as a collective. The record-breaking final score — 151-131, Team Collier — reflected this strategy. The combined total of 282 points is absolutely absurd. Yet the total is a demonstration of the power of collaboration, of solidarity in practice, no matter how seasoned a player is, no matter if they are a rookie or a team captain. Like the point total, the message was: together they rise.
“We see the growth in the league and as it stands, the current salary system is not really paying us what we’re owed,” WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike, a Seattle Storm forward, said. “We want to be able to have that fair share moving forward, especially as we see all of the investment going in, and we want to be able to have our salaries be reflected in a structure that makes sense for us.” Ogwumike elaborated that part of the stalemate is that the league is offering a fixed-growth system, while the union demands a flexible-growth system that reflects the upward trajectory of the league.
The players’ top demand is for a greater percentage of the league’s total revenue that accounts for the league’s skyrocketing growth and popularity. According to Deloitte, the WNBA’s revenues this year are projected to surpass $1 billion, up from $710 million in 2024. Figures for TV viewership and game attendance are both up by more than 20% this year. And media deals struck with Disney, Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal last year are valued at roughly $2.2 billion, with renegotiations with networks CBS and ION estimated to raise the total to $3 billion.
Currently, the players earn less than 10% of the league’s total revenue, according to MarketWatch. For comparison, their male counterparts in the NBA receive roughly 50%. Hence, the WNBA players’ T-shirts, which smartly avoid the trite and reductive language of equality and instead demand to be paid a greater percentage of the total revenue that respects their dignity and reflects their value. The language is brilliant because it not only circumvents idiotic and illogical assertions that the players shouldn’t get a bigger piece of the pie because the league has failed to turn a profit in past years, it also allows the players to imagine their own compensation and benefits framework based on their own values. The sky’s the limit — not patriarchal standards.
The fact of the matter is that without the players, the league is nothing. It simply doesn’t exist. “Pay us what you owe us, or we don’t play” is the underlying message. And it is a credible one, since players have already discussed the possibility of striking prior to the start of next season.
The All-Star Game showcased the players’ solidarity as they push for greater respect, recognition and compensation from the league. Kudos to the players — their game spoke louder than their shirts.