‘I’m getting my mama a new house’: what happens when a huge pay boost changes WNBA players’ lives?

WNBA players, including All-Star guard Brittney Sykes, spent the past 17 months campaigning for better pay during negotiations for a new labor deal. Photograph: Steph Chambers/Getty Images The WNBA is entering its 30th season, a milestone worthy of as big of a celebration as its players could muster – and this year, they mustered up a lot. The Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) negotiated a landmark collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league that, among other things, introduces a revenue sharing system and an estimated average salary of $583,000.

This season, all players will make the minimum of $270,000, up from $66,000; others may make as much as $1. 4m. It’s money that Alysha Clark, a veteran forward for the Dallas Wings and vice-president of the WNBPA, describes to the Guardian as “amazing”.

One of the most incredible aspects of the new deal, she says, is having the ability to pave the way for future generations of WNBA players. Related: Sign up for WNBA 30: a limited run women’s basketball newsletter “This isn’t only going to enhance the superstars in our league and the rising stars of the rookies, but it’s going to change the lives of the heartbeat of the league,” says Clark, who will make $277,500, up from $110,000 two years ago. “And that’s the majority of players, players like me, that fill in the gaps between those two.

” “And that’s exactly what the generations before us were fighting for us to make sure that we had – that not knowing a world without the WNBA would never exist,” Clark adds. “And now our job was to carry that torch. And now the players coming in, not only do they not know a world without the WNBA, but now they’re not going to know a world where they’re having to scrape by to be a professional athlete and they’re going to be properly compensated for just their gifts and talents.