While Caitlin Clark didn’t get the chance to play in Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup, the Fever’s win meant she took home a share of $500,000 — something she actually took exception to.
“We get more for [winning the Commissioner’s Cup] than you do if you’re a [WNBA] champion,” Clark said on Fever teammate Sydney Colson’s Instagram livestream after their 74-59 win over the Lynx. “Makes no sense! Someone tell [WNBA commissioner] Cathy [Engelbert] to help us out. Cathy, help us out!”
The Commissioner’s Cup is similar to the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, as it’s an opportunity to spice up the regular season while offering monetary rewards to players.
The Fever received half a million dollars to be split amongst the players for winning the Commissioner’s Cup. With 11 players on the roster, players would be looking at a roughly $45,000 bonus, along with a $5,000 cryptocurrency bonus.
Where Clark’s point resides is the fact that if the 8-8 Fever were to win the WNBA Finals, players would receive just a $20,000 bonus — not even half of the Commissioner’s Cup bonus.
One is a history-defining win that a team works all their careers for, while the other is an in-season tournament — the different magnitudes of these events do not necessarily line up with the monetary bonus the players receive.
The WNBA’s average base player salary is $102,249, and though Clark is one of the WNBA’s top players, and is certainly the most popular, her salary is just $76,066 as she is still on her rookie deal.
Perhaps luckily for Clark and the rest of the league, the WNBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires after this season, meaning that some different terms for salaries and bonuses may be discussed moving forward.
With Clark’s superstardom, she may have about as much pull as anyone in the league when it comes to league-wide changes, so her message on the live stream to commissioner Engelbert might not fall on deaf ears.