NAIVEVILLE, USA — When it was announced on Sunday that LeBron had agreed to a four year deal worth $153.3 million the No.1 overall pick of the WNBA, A’ja Wilson, decided to speak out on the huge wage gap between the NBA and the WNBA. So she goes to Twitter and shoots this out, “154M ……….. must. be. nice. We over here looking for a (million) but Lord, let me get back in my lane.”
154M ……….. must. be. nice. We over here looking for a M 🙃 but Lord, let me get back in my lane pic.twitter.com/IFDZLlI53z
— A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) July 2, 2018
As the No.1 overall pick she signed a three-year deal with the Las Vegas Aces that will play her an average of $55,052 per year, with a team option worth $67,020 for a fourth season. The max salary in the WNBA for any player in 2018 is $115, 500. On the surface, that comment sounded good and was enough to get boyz fired up about the gender pay gap in the NBA vs WNBA but when you peel the onion back it made absolutely no sense.
Please understand that Ms. A’ja is only 21 years old and has been workin’ a job for a little over two months.So she really doesn’t fully understand how money moves in America. Listen up playas, they don’t pay you in this world for the skill set that you have. They pay you for the money that you can generate. They aren’t simply payin’ players because they can shoot hoop. Skill set doesn’t mean a thing if nobody’s watchin’ it.
There is an old calloquialism that says, “If a tall tree falls in the middle of a forest and makes a loud crashing noise and nobody is around to hear it. Did it really make a sound?”
I cover the NBA and have covered the WNBA as well. Durin’ the summer WNBA season arenas are empty all throughout the league for the most part. However, there are a few exceptions from time to time. They’re literally givin’ tickets away to go to those games to fill up the joints. I covered the WNBA Finals in 2015 between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx and they were still givin’ tickets away to get a huge crowd. That was in the FINALS bruh!!!
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! The NBA sells crazy tickets, the television revenues are through the roof, especially after LeBron took his talents to South Beach. The playoffs over the past 8 years have been so polarizin’ because of LeBron that the numbers have gone nuts!! That’s why these cats are signin’ these ridiculous deals now.
Duns are signin’ $150 to $200 million deals because the NBA can charge whatever they want for ad space durin’ the games. Why? Because EVERYBODY and their baby’s momma are watchin’ them play. The more eyeballs on the games the more money that is bein’ generated by sellin’ ad space etc. So therefore, the NBA can afford to pay those types of salaries.
The WNBA can’t pay those salaries or anywhere close to those because there isn’t money bein’ generated at the same level. It’s simple mathematics. It has nothin’ to do with gender inequality etc. It’s straight money. No different than when you hear people talkin’ about teachers not bein’ paid more etc.
Teachers make as much money as most people workin’ in America but they keep tellin’ folks that they don’t make any money. My mother was a retired school teacher and my wife taught school for several years as well. The average teacher makes $58,353 accordin’ to Money Magazine. The median household income in America in 2016 was $59,039. So in many instances, a single teacher makes more money than households runnin’ around this country.
Stop lyin’ to folks tellin’ them that teachers don’t make any money. They make just as much money as everybody else. However, if you want to make huge salaries you have to get in to the business of bein’ able to generate revenue. Teachers don’t generate revenue and they’re paid out of tax dollars. Therefore, if they are goin’ to make more money the people in the local area have to agree to pay more in taxes and they never do.
It has nothin’ to do with how good the teachers are. They can only get paid out of the bucket of funds that have been set aside to pay them. If the bucket doesn’t get bigger they can’t get more money. It’s the same thing with the WNBA. If nobody’s goin’ to the games or watchin’ them on television it doesn’t matter how good the players are they aren’t goin’ to make any more bread. So please stop talkin’ crazy about a gap in pay because they’re all basketball players. It’s a great game that I wish more people would support because these women are phenomenal athletes and players but the sad reality is that very few people attend the games or watch them on television. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
The G is excluded from the endings of all words because the G is near and dear to my heart because I’m from “The G” which is Gary, Indiana. So I only use the G when I’m talkin’ about “The G!”
The caption under the photo isn’t real but its real talk!