Cover Letter

         My audience in this essay was for people who are interested in basketball or the wage differences between basketball, but it is also able to be read and understood by anyone reading it. I was able to tailor my language and rhetorical choices to appeal to all readers by presenting factual data and statistics. Some meaningful insights that I gained during this phase was that I learned how to know the difference between good sources and bad sources. I did not know this before and because of this phase I was able to see that you can tell by the website and sometimes even the credentials of the author. One concept that has impacted my learning and writing practices is evidence. I think so because I learned how to use evidence from other people’s writing into my own and cite it to express what I am trying to say. Another concept that has impacted my writing practices is purpose because I wrote this to show whoever reads this exactly why the WNBA can’t make as much as the NBA, which is something I didn’t know and understand, so my purpose in writing this was to show the readers and maybe teach them something they may not have known before. This phase’s assignment helped me achieve one of the course learning outcomes which were “Locating research sources in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.”. I was able to achieve this goal by finding sources for one of our assignments and dwindling the amount as I went to do my draft. I started with a source from an aspiring sports editor when I realized the author of the article, I was reading did not put his actual name and put a username instead, so I ended up having to not use that source because it was not reliable. This is what I was about to take away from the phase 3 assignment. 

WNBA’s Fight For Equality

Basketball is a sport that has been around for over 100 years and the National Basketball Association (NBA) is in its 75^th year this year. The average salary in the NBA this is $7.5 million and the highest paid player in the league is Stephen Curry whose salary is $45,780,966. The WNBA is relatively new being created in 1996 so it has been around for approximately 25 years. The average salary in the WNBA this year was $120,648. The highest paid player in the WNB is Sue Bird whose salary is $221,450. Now, looking at that there is an obvious salary gap for the same sport. Some people feel that the WNBA players should make a similar amount of money as NBA players or should just simply make more. However, I believe it is not currently possible for WNBA players to make the same amount of money as NBA players.

In the article, “Data explains the leading cause for wage gap in professional basketball” (2020), by Declan McDaniels a sports editor asserts that it is impossible for WNBA players to make the same amount as NBA players and suggests that it is because of the revenue difference. He backs up this claim by doing the following: first he shows the difference between the yearly revenue between the NBA and the WNBA which is about 7.3 billion dollars; next, he explains that the WNBA does not have the funds to be able to pay the same salary as the NBA average; lastly he gives an example of the viewer difference which happens to be that the WNBA has less than half the amount of viewers than the NBA. McDaniels appears to write in the hopes of displaying facts about the NBA and WNBA in order to show readers why they cannot have the same wage currently. Because of the author’s formal tone, it seems as if he writes for sports fans.

Sports editor, Michael Harris, in his article “Draymond Green explains why NBA players make more than their WNBA counterparts”, published in rollingout.com, address the topic of NBA and WNBA salary and argues that WNBA players can’t make the same as NBA players. He supports this claim by quoting current player and NBA champion (Draymond Green) on why he thinks which was that it is based on revenue and platform, then he brings up a fact from the 2019-20 season for the WNBA which was that the average salary for a WNBA player was $75,000 while the average for an NBA player was $7.7 million, and finally he ends with Draymond Green saying businesses the WNBA work with are exploiting them to make it look like they care about equality.

In her sports article, “Why substantially increasing WNBA player salaries is more complex than you think” 2018, sports editor Mechelle Voepel asserts that is not easy to currently increase WNBA player salaries by addressing the percentage that WNBA and NBA players make out of their league’s revenue. The age and profit difference between the two leagues, and the schedules of WNBA players. By supplying the reader with information about most WNBA players must play year-round to make a decent amount of money because there is a relatively short window in their athletic career, and that they should make a better percentage of money from the league revenue, which is currently only 22 percent, Voepel builds her claim by showing how their salaries affect them. Mechelle wishes to convey to the readers the importance of the WNBA’s revenue in order to change the salary of the league’s players. The author’s audience likely consists of those interested in equality amongst gender, as is evident in her references to players talking about respect and getting know the players as people; she addresses the readers with a tone that is formal and educational.

In the article, “WNBA players don’t deserve NBA pay” (2019), author Victor Joecks, journalist, asserts that WNBA players cannot receive that same salary as NBA players, and suggests that they encourage more people watch WNBA games. He backs up this claim by showing the Las Vegas Aces WNBA which is an arguably a top team in the league. Their average game attendance is 4,400 while when the NBA Summer League was hosted in Las Vegas it had 134,188 fans over 11 days and the NBA average is 18,000 fans per game. Secondly, he brings up the difference in their league deals. Then he brings up the NBA’s TV deals produce about $2.6 billion a year but the WNBA’s TV deal with ESPN is worth only $12 million a year which is a huge difference which allows the NBA players to be paid more. Joecks appears to write in hopes of showing the difference between the NBA and WNBA in order to explain why the WNBA can’t pay their players the same way the NBA does.

Jessica Luther, columnist, in her article “Pay WNBA Players What They Deserve”, published in huffpost.com, addresses the stress put on the bodies of WNBA players year-round because of them looking for financial security. She supports this claim by stating that the average WNBA player makes $75,000 a year and that they don’t have much time to make money of their athletic abilities, so they must make the most of it. The WNBA players feel they should be paid the same as NBA players, (equity in revenue sharing) meaning they would be paid 50 percent of the revenue the league makes rather than where they are currently which is less than 25 percent. But this cannot happen now due to many reasons. In the article, “Why substantially increasing NBA player salaries is more complex than you think”, by Mechelle Voepel she discusses some of the reasons why it will not be possible to pay WNBA players what they think is fair now. According to her article she states, “Directly comparing revenue-sharing percentage, though, is problematic. The NBA as a business is 50 years older and substantially more profitable than the WNBA. Also “revenue” is not the same as “profit.” A smaller pool makes equal revenue-sharing less likely, as owners’ financial needs for running their teams (along with any debt from past seasons) must be taken into account.” This means that it would be more difficult to increase the amount of revenue sharing because the WNBA makes less profit than the NBA and team owners have expenses, they must pay which would make it hard to do so. Also, the NBA has been existent for longer than the WNBA which is a reason why they are able to generate more profit.

Equal pay between men and women have been heavily debated within the past few years. In terms of professional basketball, I believe that it is currently not possible for WNBA players to have an equal share of pay as their counterparts in the NBA. There are too many factors that play a part in the salary of these players, so it is not such an easy task to increase that number. Even though it may not be changed right now, maybe in the future it can be because of the efforts players are making now. Also, profit may increase as time goes on and the WNBA gains more respect as a league and gains a larger fanbase. Lastly, the NBA and the WNBA cannot be treated the same in this current time.

Work Citied Page

Joecks, Victor. “Victor Joecks: WNBA Players Don’t Deserve NBA Pay.” Journal, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 19 July 2019, https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/opinion-columns/victor-joecks/victor-joecks-wnba-players-dont-deserve-nba-pay-1790655/.

McDaniels, Declan. “Data Explains the Leading Cause for Wage Gap in Professional Basketball.” Redwood Bark, 20 Apr. 2020, https://redwoodbark.org/60085/opinion/data-explains-the-leading-cause-for-wage-gap-in-professional-basketball/.

Harris, Michael. “Draymond Green Explains Why NBA Players Make More than Their WNBA Counterparts.” Rolling Out, 28 Mar. 2021, https://rollingout.com/2021/03/28/draymond-green-explains-why-nba-players-make-more-than-their-wnba-counterparts/.

Voepel, Mechelle. “Why Substantially Increasing WNBA Player Salaries Is More Complex than You Think.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 31 July 2018, https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/24247429/why-increasing-wnba-player-salaries-more-complex-think.

McDaniels, Declan. “Data Explains the Leading Cause for Wage Gap in Professional Basketball.” Redwood Bark, 20 Apr. 2020, https://redwoodbark.org/60085/opinion/data-explains-the-leading-cause-for-wage-gap-in-professional-basketball/.