Despite the incredible growth that women’s basketball has seen in recent years, the pay gap between the NBA and WNBA remains a thorn in the side of progress. The latest example? Cooper Flagg, the projected number one pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, is expected to sign a four-year, $62.7 million rookie contract. Meanwhile, Paige Bueckers, the number one pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, just signed a four-year contract totaling $348,198. 

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To put these numbers in perspective:

-Flagg will earn 177x more than Bueckers over the course of their four-year contracts. 

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-He’ll earn more in a single week than Bueckers will in four years. 

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-He’ll make more in a single game than Bueckers will in her entire rookie season. 

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This massive pay gap is frustrating for many reasons, but it’s particularly frustrating when considering the marketability of both athletes. By any standards, Bueckers isn’t just a basketball prodigy; she’s a marketing powerhouse. Bueckers currently has 2.4M followers on Instagram and works with over 25 brands to combine for $1.5M in value. Flagg on the other hand currently has just 1.1M Instagram followers and works with only 5 brands. Despite having over a million less followers than Bueckers, Flagg’s deals are estimated to be valued at $4.8M.

There are many factors at play here, but an important one to keep in mind is that men’s basketball has had a significant headstart. The NBA was founded in 1946, while the WNBA didn’t launch until 1997. A 50 year head start makes a huge difference when it comes to building institutional investment, infrastructure, fan bases, and commercial momentum. When it comes to college basketball, it wasn’t until 2022 that the NCAA even permitted the women’s tournament to utilize the “March Madness” branding. In many ways, women’s basketball is really just getting started.

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To combat the 50 year headstart, women’s basketball players are saying “enough is enough” and taking matters into their own hands to reform the outdated systems that still undervalue women’s sports – despite the fact that audiences and revenues continue to soar. That inequity is even more stark for women of color in the WNBA, who face an added layer of disparity when it comes to both pay and endorsements.

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Notably, the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) has opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement, which means a significant renegotiation is currently in the works. Players are using the growth in popularity of the sport as leverage to call for better pay, improved working conditions, and long-term benefits.

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WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart also sent a strong message when they created Unrivaled when it comes to professional standards in women’s sports. In many ways, the new 3x3 women’s league has been a wake-up call for the industry, showing that the combination of investment, strong marketing, and athlete prioritization (and compensation) is a winning recipe in women’s sports.

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Finally, the whistleblowing that took place during the 2021 NCAA women’s basketball tournament served as catalyst for significant change. When the images of the stark disparity between the men’s and women weightrooms went viral, it sparked the NCAA to conduct a gender equity review, that has since led to increased investment from the NCAA in the women’s tournament, an expanded media rights deal with ESPN, and the implementation of a new revenue sharing model on the women’s side of the tournament. 

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At the end of the day, the problem isn’t that there’s no money in women’s basketball; the revenue is growing and the marketability has been proven time and time again. What’s needed now is a new playbook that ensures the athletes driving this growth are compensated accordingly. 

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Because when the WNBA’s number one draft pick earns less in a year than the NBA’s top pick earns in a single day, reform is essential.

Caroline Fitzgerald is a contributing writer for TOGETHXR.com and a leading expert in women’s sports business and gender equity. A Sports Business Journal "2024 Power Player in Women's Sports," she covers the forces shaping the industry’s next era of growth.

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