Saturday Slam: It's about time the WNBA started treating their players better

Earlier this week, the WNBA announced a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) that gives its players an opportunity to make way more money ($250K+ salaries), paid maternity leave, an upgrade from coach to economy plus or comfort plus on flights, private hotel rooms, etc. Click here for a full breakdown.

What I wanted to quickly do in this blog post is express my happiness about this news and also frustration that it took this long for WNBA players to get treated better. Let me first talk about my happiness.

What makes me happy about this news is the fact that WNBA players are really really good at basketball. It's a ridiculously competitive league. When you are one of only 150 people or less in a profession, you should be treated really well. These WNBA players have made the same sacrifices as NBA players and deserve to get treated way better than they have as a result. They also grew up with dreams of playing pro basketball, practiced for hours on end, played on their travel ball and high school teams, played college basketball, etc. They've taken a very similar path to get to where they are and its about time they get better compensation for it.

Some of you know I also cover Cal men's and women's basketball for Rivals.com, so I've gotten to appreciate the women's game over the years. I've seen up close how hard they work. Trust me. They put in the same work as the men.

As for why I'm frustrated that it's taken this long, my frustration stems from the fact that the NBA makes LOADS of money and the NBA runs the WNBA. Why the NBA couldn't have used some of their revenue to give WNBA players a better situation years ago baffles me. It's good it's happening now, but once again, this should have happened a while ago.

Finally, I want to say that while I'm glad this CBA is being implemented, I feel WNBA players deserve even more than what they're getting. I don't understand why they can't fly private jets. Like, seriously? Give me a break! However, when you are hoping for progress, you gotta be happy when progress is being made and that is most certainly happening here. Hopefully this news will steer more young women into basketball and give them more reason to follow their dreams and become the best athletes and role models that they can be.

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