‘I’m getting my mama a new house’: what happens when a huge pay boost changes WNBA players’ lives?

Playing overseas has not come without risks. In addition to injuries and the challenges that come with navigating unfamiliar countries and languages, some players have encountered serious problems. Brittney Griner was held overseas in Russia for 10 months after she entered the country in 2022 with cannabis vape cartridges; had Griner not felt compelled to play overseas to help make ends meet, she may not have found herself in that position in the first place.

Brittney Griner was one of the many WNBA stars who spent the offseason playing professionally in Russia for a much higher salary. Photograph: Andrea Kareth/Getty Images

The new salaries will give players the option to spend more time at home during the offseason, whether that’s playing in domestic leagues such as Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited, or taking a break.

“We want players in the future generations to be able to stay at home,” Clark says. “We don’t want to have to have them sacrifice time away from family and friends during holidays, missing moments like we’ve had to do.”

“We want them to be able to make a living to be able to stay here year-round, work on their craft, take time to heal and work on their body,” she continues. “So that way when they show up for the W season, they’re the best, you know, that they, that they can possibly be personally and that just makes the product better on the floor, night in and night out.”

The Dallas Wings’ Maddy Siegrist, who was drafted by the team in 2023, acknowledges this reality. “I was probably at the tail end of where everybody was going overseas [in the offseason],” says Siegrist, whose salary is up to $501,180 from $83,781 last year. “I think obviously now, that’s a choice. With so many opportunities here and obviously with the increase in salaries, it’s no longer something you have to do if you don’t want to.”

Alanna Smith, who will earn $1.19m with the Wings this season, told the Guardian she’s even thinking differentlyabout retirement.

“Future planning, retirement-wise, was always on my mind,” Smith says, “and how I was going to have to continue after my basketball career, basically to just sustain myself. But now with the salaries that we’re getting, it’s a little bit easier to plan for the future and not have to think about a massive career outside of basketball.”

Smith adds that before the new deal, her biggest concern was what kind of career she’d have after the WNBA. Those options included coaching. “With this type of money, you don’t necessarily have to do that if you don’t want to,” she says. “It just gives a little more financial freedom.”

That freedomwill be evident on the outside, be it through purchases of homes, cars, or other typical signs of an increase in income, but there’s alsoan internal transformation happening. Both Williams and Clark also acknowledged that the months-long fight with the WNBA – the previous CBA lapsed in October 2025, and the new one was ratified in March – was about a lot more than their bottom line.

For Clark, feeling respected by the league’s leadership was crucial. That included “respecting our craft and what we’re doing,” and that “also comes with compensating us for doing such. So those two were very much tied together”.

To Williams, the idea of respect and compensation aren’t quite as black-and-white. “That’s so tricky, right?” she says. “Because at the end of the day, people will be like, ‘All right, well, y’all won way more,’ and that’s valid, but it’s like everything is a process.”

Two-time All-Star Courtney Williams has seen her salary increase from $180,000 last year to $1.19m this year. Photograph: Matt Krohn/USA Today Sports

The details of what it took to get to the new deal can get lost, she adds, because the WNBPA negotiated with the league to get close to their proposed changes. “If you really understand what’s going on, we were on our last CBA making maybe almost 9% [in revenue sharing],” Williams says. “And it got to the point where they have to pay us back $8m. If we were losing money … how can you pay somebody back if you’re losing money? It’s like … the internet is not a real place.”

Williams was referencing the February 2026 reveal that, for the first in its history, the league made enough money to trigger automatic revenue sharing with players last season. All 13 teams received a total of $8m to divide up among players, an announcement that came as players were refuting claims by the league that the WNBA couldn’t meet the WNBPA’s revenue sharing proposals.

When told the NBA didn’t become profitable until its 40th season – the WNBA, again, in its 30th – Williams laughs and shakes her head. “I just need everybody to just sit back, do a little research and understand what’s going on. But the thing is, nobody ever is going to, and that’s literally OK. That’s why it’s long, good, bad, ugly, [and] beautiful.”

She laughs again. “If y’all [are] talking about it, it’s a good thing to keep talking about. Just keep talking about it and keep helping us grow it because the people that love us, gonna keep loving us, people that hate on us, gonna keep running out of views.”

The fight doesn’t stop here just because milestones have been met, Williams adds. “I think once everybody wrapped their mind around just the process of getting there … We made history. We’re the first league that made this big of a jump on our own salaries, right? So it’s like, we see what’s going on. Everybody can see what’s going on.”