Can You Pay My Bills? For Angel Reese, the WNBA Can’t

By John Celestand This article was originally published on& Word In Black. With the WNBA’s increased popularity and new eyes on the league due to the influx of two dynamic rookies, it can be easy to forget that the enormous pay inequity between WNBA and NBA players remains the same.& & Yet Angel Reese, one of those dynamic rookies, reignited the discussion around the gender pay gap for players in The W, when she recently stated on Instagram Live, “I just hope y’all know, the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all.”& How could it?& Reese’s salary was so insignificant to her, that she stated that she didn’t even know what it amounted to. And why should she? After the Chicago Sky drafted her seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Reese signed a four-year contract worth $324,383 with an average annual salary of $81,096. For a first-year student out of college, the average American could surmise that this would be a more than decent salary to live off.& For a high-profile superstar athlete like Reese living in Chicago, the most expensive major city in the Midwest, it’s peanuts.& But before I start crying a river for Reese, let’s remember...