Kelsey Plum.Photo: Steve Christo - Corbis/Corbis via Getty
WNBA championKelsey Plumis breaking down the stark contrast in pay discrepancies between WNBA and NBA players.
Plum, 28, made an appearance onThe Residency Podcastand theLas Vegas Acesstar talked about the ways WNBA players are compensated differently than the men who play the same sport.
“We’re not asking to pay what the men get paid,” Plum told the show’s hosts Jeff Tomastik, Lowell Raven, and Drew Belcher. “We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared.”
Plum wanted “to be really clear about” her emphasis being on the percentages of revenue and not salaries for individual players, which she said is often “a huge misconception” in conversations on the topic.
“I don’t think I should get paid the same as LeBron [James],” said Plum, who helped lead the Aces to the 2022 WNBA championship and USA Basketball to a gold medal in the same summer.
However, Plum claimed that she does not receive a portion of sales on her own jerseys sold at Mandalay Bay, referring to the Aces' arena. “I don’t get a dime,” she said. According to the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association’s 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the WNBPA receives 50% of players' jersey sales.
Plum went on to break down additional ways NBA players bring in more substantial portions of the league’s revenue.
“In the WNBA, thats not the case,” she said.
Kelsey Plum for GSTQ.GSTQ
In July, Plum opened up further on the topicin an exclusive interviewwith PEOPLE. “With our league, a lot of times, I think as a woman, people feel like they’re doing you a favor if they’re supporting you or watching you…and I don’t think it’s intentional,” she said.
“I don’t want people’s pity,” she continued. “I want you to come watch me play because I’m damn good at what I do, man or woman.”
Plum elaborated: “It’s so interesting, when you go watchLeBron Jamesplay, you don’t say, ‘I’m supporting LeBron.’ You say, ‘I’m going to go watch LeBron play basketball.’ Right?”
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It’s no secret that the WNBA has long struggled with viewership, especially in comparison to the NBA. In recent years, however, the women’s basketball league has seen real momentum, evident in this year’s All-Star Game viewership, which saw the most viewers since 2015.
According to The Athletic, the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game peaked at 768,000 viewers.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Plum toldThe Residency Podcasthosts. “We may not be moving at the speed that we’d like to, but you gotta take it.”
source: people.com
