Gilbert Arenas Has Negotiating Advice for WNBA Players

During a recent conversation with Joy Taylor, Gilbert Arenas had some advice for the WNBA players who are fighting for more money. 

It has been decades since the WNBA has been profitable, and the league has largely been funded by the NBA. Thanks to Caitlin Clark and other rising stars, the league is booming in popularity. 

And with that popularity comes demands from the players for more money. The average current salary of an NBA player is $11.9 million. In the WNBA, that number is only $147,000. 

With the salaries being based on the revenue generated, Arenas suggested that the players make a different argument:

"I think the problem here is this: stop asking for a revenue split. I want real money. Take the cap off, let our owner pay us what he wants to pay us. So, when we talk about a revenue split, it is no different than business. We can split our revenue 50-50, so what the owner of the business do? 'Ah, there is no profit, there are all these bills to pay…' so there's no revenue. That's a pointless thing to do, because they are going to offset how much they lost. As a player, you don't want that."

For many years, the best female basketball players have gone overseas to ply their trade and make bigger salaries. Thanks to the boom in the WNBA, they may now be able to stay in their native country. The fight for more money is seemingly never-ending but might be successful in the coming years.