After winning the Commissioner's Cup, the Indiana Fever were in fully celebration mode in their locker room with Instagram lives galore showing just how thrilled they were to have taken down the giant that is the Minnesota Lynx this season.
One player that didn't suit up but was still around to soak in the win with her teammates was star guard Caitlin Clark, who was sidelined once again with a lingering groin injury. Clark was still celebrating, though, and was actually caught on live mic giving some feedback to the WNBA and commissioner Cathy Engelbert about the payout the team would be receiving for winning the in-season tournament.
"We get more for winning the Commissioner's Cup than we do if you're a WNBA champion. Makes no sense! Someone tell Cathy to help us out. Cathy, help us out!," yelled Clark on Sydney Colson's Instagram live last night amidst the teams' celebration. The clip, shared to social media, has gotten over 200 retweets and nearly 3,000 likes, so it has reached quite the audience amongst WNBA and Fever fans.
Clark calls out WNBA for Finals and Cup payouts
Clark has a point - the Cup winners earn a pool of $500,000 to split evenly amongst teammates, and even those payments are pro-rated depending on how long a player has been with a team. That means Aari McDonald, a player that has revitalized the Fever's bench and starting lineup with her defensive prowess and even-keeled temperament, will see a much smaller piece of that payment.
Players earn a $20,000 bonus for winning the championship, so doing the math and concluding that most players would see about $40,000 from this Cup victory, Clark is right to feel like the team and the league is being shorted for winning a far more important Finals series than the Cup final.
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Still, both come with a trophy, bragging rights, a banner, and money, which the league is probably considering as more than enough to satisfy players.
It clearly isn't, though. When taking into account the money accrued winning rounds of games in route to the Cup final in addition to "cryptocurrency" earned over that time, the disparity between teams' Finals winnings and Cup winnings grows even greater.
Clark isn't a player that necessarily needs these extra paydays given her $28 million endorsement deal with Nike, amongst other huge brand deals. But, her advocating for better payment, regardless of how silly the environment she's done it in, is huge for the players and the WNBAPA as they proceed with negotiations on a new CBA with the league.