Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky has just started to stir on social media as she shared her financial struggles being a WNBA player. Reese, who pays a rent of $8,000 a month for her home in Chicago, admitted that her WNBA salary this 2024 season of $73,439 will not be enough to take care of her living expenses.
Publicly doing the math on social media, Reese, who didn’t even know exactly how much she brought in in the first place, did note one thing for certain: her rent alone, $96,000 annually, far outpaces her WNBA earnings. “I don’t even think that pays one of my bills,” chimed Reese, noting that her WNBA salary doesn’t even come close to touching the majority of her financial obligations.
Although salaried as a professional basketball player, her salary in comparison with the other leagues can be termed as modest; however, Reese has not let that define her financial success. She has opened herself to endorsement deals and other entrepreneurial avenues that have brought in more money streams. In college, NIL rules coming courtesy of the NCAA helped Reese into the seven figures annually with endorsements with companies such as Reebok and Beats by Dre. Such deals have followed her into her pro stage of life, supplementing WNBA income.
Reese, on the other hand, considers the WNBA salary as some sort of “bonus,” claiming the amount one loves to play basketball exceeds any amount of money. She says the league itself gives her a staging area to build her brand, while the business part and endorsements make up the lion’s share of her income.
Reese’s financial transparency has once more brought the issue of pay disparities in professional sports into the spotlight. One would be pretty hard-pressed to ignore that jarring difference between what male and female athletes make. Take, for instance, Donovan Clingan: selected seventh overall in the 2024 NBA draft, he is on course to make as much as $6.8 million during his rookie year-nearly 100 times what Reese has made in WNBA wages.
This has created a chasm that has increased the call for better compensation of women athletes, particularly in the WNBA, where many times players have been left to seek off-season jobs or overseas contracts to buoy their pay. Reaction from the public to Reese’s commentary has ranged between support for her sentiments and frustration with much calling of reform to bridge the pay gap in professional women’s basketball.
