New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Jacobs: Taurasi, the ultimate money player, deserves better
UNCASVILLE — She is the all-time leading WNBA scorer. She is the greatest entertainer in women’s basketball history. Fourtime Olympic gold medalist, three-time WNBA champion, three-time NCAA champion at UConn, you got it.
There is no greater champion than Diana Taurasi.
Nor has there been any champion ever ripped off worse by American basketball. Red, white and screw you, D.
After a decade and a half of pro basketball, Taurasi is making $115,233 this WNBA season. You know what they call $115,233 in the NBA?
Chump change.
Take a guess what percentage of her career earnings have come from playing in the WNBA.
“Maybe nine percent, a fraction,” Taurasi said before her Phoenix Mercury lost 91-87 to the Sun. “It’s just not a lot of money.
“At this point, I’m playing for health insurance.”
The Suns’ DeAndre Ayton, No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft, told reporters he freaked out when Taurasi walked over to say hello. He was star struck, speechless. He called Taurasi the Michael Jordan of the WNBA.
Taurasi is making one eighth the NBA rookie minimum. A’ja Wilson, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, is making $52,500. Ayton will make $6.8 million.
Russia isn’t a popular word these days. Yet Putin’s Mother Russia is where players of Taurasi’s ilk have been able to reach seven figures. This is why women compete all year all over the globe. This is why they push their bodies to the breaking point.
There was something profound and wonderful in the
Sun’s celebration “Pride Night,” on Friday. Diversity and equality are the mightiest of aspirations. The WNBA is a place where the LGBTQ community has a friend, a place where authentic lives can be led.
Taurasi knows this as well as anyone. She married former player Penny Taylor last year. And in March, Taylor gave birth to their son, Leo.
“Tonight is a small moment in a long-history of time to take a deep breath and look how far, even if this little piece of society has moved forward a little bit,” Taurasi said. “A Friday night game doesn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things. But maybe for one moment, for one person, you can feel normal.”
Yet “Pride Night” also screams of how far we must travel. Name
an openly gay active player in the NBA right now, the NHL, NFL or MLB for that matter. Stop. There aren’t any. Men are still afraid of the backlash in the locker room, in the board room, in the stands. We cannot rest as long as this fear exists.
At the same time this night screams to the humiliating pay differential between the NBA and WNBA. Diversity and equality must be partners if all boats in our society are to rise.
“Our (female) movement comes in the form of money,” Taurasi said. “On the male side, it comes from the movement of mental evolution, which takes a lot longer for males to do, because insecurity runs wild in their blood.
“Not until we either take drastic measures as players, to really look at ourselves in the mirror with the collective bargaining agreement. We folded. We got scared. We didn’t want to mention the word strike or pay raise or anything that came with losing your job. Last time I checked, the NBA has had a strike, the NHL has had a strike and they have millions to lose. So, if we’re not willing to losing everything as players, we don’t really have much to gain.”
No, WNBA pay shouldn’t be equal to the NBA. But does it have to be 60 times less? There’s no denying the NBA is a multi-billion dollar revenue industry and the WNBA is only a fraction of this. Yet NBA players get 50 percent of the revenue. WNBA players get 20 percent.
“(Dividing revenue equally) would be the easy solution,” Taurasi said. “But that 50 percent would cut into those owners pretty harshly and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be around either.
“You would have to look at something that would really make a difference and the only way that can be possible is if the NBA would step up in any sort of way. It’s harder when you don’t have as many NBA owners now (in the WNBA). But I see them pumping the G League and Summer League like it’s the greatest league in the world. Our league, we can’t even get a 20-minute snippet of who played that week. It’s truly a slap in the face.”
And then the Michael Jordan of the WNBA pauses.
“I’ve been in it for 15 years now,” Taurasi said. “At this point, it’s not my fight anymore.”
What? Women basketball’s ultimate fighter doesn’t want to fight?
“My fight has always been on the court,” Taurasi said. “All I can do is put everything into basketball. That’s the only way I can make any change. These young kids now, they’re speaking out, which is great. They’re going to have a whole decade of speaking out on Instagram.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. At this point, it’s the same conversation I’ve had for 10 years about the pay raise and nothing has happened. There’s a dead horse and we keep beating it.”
After LeBron signed his $154 million deal recently, Wilson tweeted, “We over here looking for an M, but Lord let me get back in my place.”
Elizabeth Cambage tweeted: “Today, I learnt NBA refs make more than a WNBA player and the 12th man on a NBA team makes more than a whole WNBA team.”
And D? She plays for health insurance.
“I have a baby now,” Taurasi said. “It’s very expensive. Aetna’s very good. CIGNA, thanks for the dental care. And obviously I play because I play for a great organization. But there are players who aren’t that lucky. They’re playing in Westchester,
N.Y., in front of 800 people. That’s a slap in the face to all the Liberty fans and the players. And nobody seems to be bothered about it.
“We’ve been on the road for 20 of the last 25 days. You think our Phoenix fans like that? You think that’s great for the product on the court? You blink and the season is over. I don’t know what the priorities are. The world championships? If so, that’s great. We’ll be ready.”
The great NBA players are supportive of the WNBA players, but that doesn’t pay the bills.
“The respect we have they have for us and we have for them is unwavering,” Taurasi said.
“That doesn’t move the needle. That doesn’t make any difference as far as making this your career.”
Taurasi loves being a mom and she jokes about Leo drooling and pooping all over the place. She calls Taylor a tremendous mother. And what would the Michael Jordan of the WNBA tell her son about basketball?
“I would tell him there’s not a better sport in the world,” she said.
Seeing he could make 60 times more than a sister would, why wouldn’t mom say that?