Fans Love W.N.B.A. All-Stars, but Cast a Critical Eye on the League

His favorite player is Aces guard Kelsey Plum. She tied Maya Moore’s record for points in an All-Star Game with 30, and was named the most valuable player. Brown said Plum, like many other players, does not get the same kind of attention as the league’s bigger names.

“They kind of only push the same five or six,” he said. “There are so many other good players who are here now and not going to leave in two years. They deserve to shine.”

Patrick Schmidt of the Detroit area agreed, saying he’d like to see the league “showcasing more of their Black superstars in addition to the legends that they do.”

Some fans also spoke about the disparity in pay between W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. players.

In 2022, the salary cap for each W.N.B.A. team is about $1.4 million, and the maximum player salary is just under $230,000. In the N.B.A., the team salary cap will be more than $123 million for the 2022-23 season, and the top players make nearly $50 million per year.

“It makes no sense that a star women’s basketball player makes less than a bench player in the N.B.A.,” Sterling Hightower, a fan from Chicago, said. “I’m a big N.B.A. fan. There are people in the N.B.A. I don’t even know who are making more than Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/sports/basketball/wnba-all-star-game.html