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Is the WNBA a legitimate goal for girls to have?

Girl or boy, most athletes look forward to playing a professional sport when they grow up. Every practice and every game is building up to what they hope will become a livelihood. Boys dream of playing Division one football or starting in a college basketball game. A lot of girls share the same dream, yet they do not have the proper platform to make those dreams happen.

In the Men’s National Basketball Association, the highest paid salary is 33,000,000 dollars, earned by arguably the greatest player to ever play the game, Michael Jordan. While all this money was well earned, when compared to the highest paid Women’s professional basketball (where top players earn at most 107,000 dollars), it is a lot more.

The NBA players all play 82 games throughout the span of half a year, usually 3 per week, while the WNBA only plays 34 games throughout the season. The higher salary in mens makes sense because of the higher amount of games, so if you are looking to play in the WNBA, you might want to consider a different or an additional occupation.

The salaries in the WNBA are at most a little higher than what an average high school teacher makes. Women who play basketball from the time they are in middle school to the end of college put in so much time and effort, wanting to play professional ball to make a living, but end up making the same amount of money as a teacher.

Most women go overseas to continue their basketball career, where they make almost six times the amount they would playing in America. Britteny Griner, a 6”8 player who holds the WNBA record for the most dunks, makes 600,000 dollars a year playing on the Zhejiang Golden Bulls in China. In the WNBA, the most she could make is 100,000 dollars.

Women are leaving America to go play for other countries because of the unfair salaries. While this applies to all sports, such as soccer, in basketball, it is prevalent and causing people to actually leave the country. The sports world is losing more women day by day to other countries based on the mediocre pay they receive for playing a professional sport.

Professional sports are often thought of as a milestone and amazing achievement in one’s life. When these women get into professional sport, they should feel like they are great and also be able to support their families. The WNBA salaries do not give them a chance to make a substantial living, while also being able to physically work their bodies to the limit. They are away from their families during the season to be able to participate in their sport, but they simply do not get paid enough to have it mean something.

These WNBA athletes can make as much money doing something with a lesser time commitment and a lesser physical demand. There is no motivation to become a professional basketball player as a women anymore.

When little girls and high school athletes look up to the women who have to leave America in order to do what they love and to make a living, it makes them lose hope in their dreams of someday becoming an American professional basketball player. That hope is what drives them throughout high school and college, and to be without that hope is a major consequence of the unfair wages in WNBA basketball.

The WNBA is not a legitimate goal for girls to look up to because even if they do get to that level, they will never be where they want to be. They do not get enough recognition for all of the hard work it takes to become a professional athlete because of their gender. No matter how hard these girls work to get to the WNBA, without some sort of change throughout the association, there will be a lesser motivation to become a professional basketball player as a woman.