Los Angeles Sparks forward Candance Parker recently went on an interview with NBA veteran Carmelo Anthony, and the pair went on a deep discussion about the issues plaguing the WNBA today. One of which happens to be the discrepancy in pay, which according to Parker, was one of the reasons why she had to play overseas.
Anthony asked Parker what developments she'd like to see in the WNBA five years from today, and the two-time league MVP explained why she believes female players need to be paid more:
“When I came into the league, I said I definitely wanted to leave the game better than I came into it with,” Parker told Melo. “For me going overseas is kinda one of those things. I think our brand of basketball, our game would be so much better if players only played in the WNBA. The way I fed my daughter and pay my bills was overseas. I went overseas for 10 years.”
Parker is speaking from her own personal experience here. She is without a doubt one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, and for her to spend a decade of her prime years playing outside the country is indeed a travesty for U.S. basketball.
Parker expressed how she earnestly hopes that women don't need to go through the same experience she had to, and that the only way for this to happen is if female players are paid justly in the United States:
“And so in the next five or 10 years I would like to see where women don't have to go overseas anymore to feed their families,” she said. “We could find a happy medium of wanting players to say here and to play in the States. We're the best basketball in the world… It's frustrating that you have to go overseas to make a great living.”
This is not the first time we've heard of such sentiments. The discrepancy between how NBA players are paid compared to WNBA players is appalling, and it speaks volumes of how gender inequality is still rife in U.S. sports.
Follow Us
Subscribe