Moe, this makes so much sense, but no one ever seems to bring this up? Instead of Angel Reese complaining she can't pay her bills with the pay she gets being professional basketball player, she and her teammates should be thanking their lucky stars the NBA has funded this league for nearly 30 years, and they've never been self supporting.
After watching how they reacted to Caitlin Clark this year it's no wonder the league has been failing. These women have a high opinion of themselves and their skills and don't seem to know how to appeal to the fans who in the end are paying them. Caitlin is a good basketball player but she also gets it and knows how to connect with the fans. That is just as important as how you perform on the court.
Clark has been phenomenal from a PR standpoint. She's been coached very well from her marketers and she gets it. The league overall has a big identity crisis. The league's best players don't embrace marketing and understand how business works. Now my big contention of Clark is will she be as big of star as her fans anticipate? I still think she has alot of work to do to become elite. But will the league devour itself going through this process? If you can't tell the league has never had great overall leadership. You can't allow the players to run a young, strugglign league like this.
Yea I see two things she needs to focus on:
She's not crazy athletic and that's always going to work against her. Yes, she had a phenomenal rookie year, broke alot of records, but not many rookies get many minutes in the WNBA so it's really hard to gage her. She evolved some this season as when it became difficult for her to score, they made her more of a facilitator and I think that's where she'll be more effective. She sees the floor well and passes well. However, like anything else, teams will begin to game plan more against that, send and extra person back on defense and take away some of those transition opportunities. The only issue about adding strength is will it slow her down, which she can't have.
A women's professional basketball league that is fully supported and promoted by the NBA and ESPN is losing $40M per year.
I can agree with some of this but where the players do come in is their impact on the viewing audience. If they don’t learn from Caitlin and continue their arrogance the growth they could see won’t be as big as could be because people don’t want spoiled whiny bitches on the game floor.
I agree about Reese. She could be a marketers dream if she would tone down her personality. She just seems angry and accusatory all the time.
Her mouth gets her in trouble to much. Plus the girl lives beyond her means. Crying that she can't even pay her rent with the NBA salary. Get a cheaper apartment! Spoiled little #!^(@
Chicago ain't cheap and WNBA salaries aren't much. She IS a celebrity. This isn't a country where a celebrity can just hang at the local housing authority and hope to not be bothered 24-7.
I thought thuglife was stylish and marketable
I wouldn't say thuglife but she's obviously got a black chip on her shoulder who was clinging proudly to the bad guy role until she saw the impact of it.
That was the whole point of her comments, posters are now complaining.Then go where the money leads her. Share a bigger pie.
Actually most of the top players go overseas to make their "real" money. Remember the stink with Griner? She was going to Russia to play pro ball and took some weed with her. Actually until the last few years no one really cared and the players did their thing, they knew the league was losing money and that was it. All ESPN has done is shine the light on this. Sure they got a nice boost from Clark, but do you really want to hitch the wagon to one player who's being wooed by the 3/3 league? Heck you may see alot of these gals move into the 3/3 league. Let's face it, women's "team" basketball has never been big other than UConn, Tennessee, Stanford just a few college markets who win all the time.
I'm not contradicting anything. Here's how business works. You pay you're employee or contracted labor what you can afford. The WNBA tries to pay their players just enough to keep them playing here. It's not a real popular league if you've never paid attention. Yes, there was a bump this year with CC, but even with the additional revenue, you played in bigger arenas that cost more, more overhead. I know all you guys are pushing for this for some reason, but it's going to be along road and it may never turn out the way you think. IN GENERAL, the masses do not support women's sports. Go to your local high school, compare the crowds at the football/ volleyball games and the boys basketball/ girls basketball games. There's just no comparison.
I don't think that is what she said. I think what she said was that her WNBA salary wouldn't allow her to live in those cities. She was making a point for the wider good. I think she (her agents, handlers....) are smart enough to know her endorsements are easy to look up and were careful about what language she would use. Am I wrong? Her exact quotes should be easy enough to find.
