Kelsey Mitchell headline unavailable from verified facts
kelsey mitchell does not appear in the verified facts, but the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement is already changing the money around the league. Courtney Williams will earn $1.19 million under the deal, a leap from $180,000 last season and $175,000 in 2024.
Courtney Williams and the new pay scale
The WNBA is entering its 30th season with a new revenue-sharing system and an estimated average salary of $583,000. Every player will make at least $270,000 this season, up from a previous minimum of $66,000, while some salaries can reach $1.4 million.
Williams, a Minnesota Lynx guard, described her first priority in plain terms: “I’m getting my mama a new house.” She said, “So my mama is in a trailer right now. We’ve been in it for my whole life.”
Alysha Clark on the league shift
Alysha Clark called the new deal “amazing” after her own pay moved to $277,500, up from $110,000 two years ago. Clark, the Dallas Wings forward and vice-president of the WNBPA, said the agreement will affect more than the top names.
“This isn’t only going to enhance the superstars in our league and the rising stars of the rookies, but it’s going to change the lives of the heartbeat of the league,” she said. “And that’s the majority of players, players like me, that fill in the gaps between those two.”
Overseas years and safer seasons
For years, many WNBA players spent offseasons overseas because salaries in Russia, Turkey and China were higher than what they received in the United States. That came with injury risk and the added strain of navigating unfamiliar countries and languages. Brittney Griner was held overseas in Russia for 10 months after entering the country in 2022 with cannabis vape cartridges.
Williams said the new money will let her do more than buy a house for her mother. “So I’m able to put her in a new house. Pay off our cars, retire her,” she said. She added, “She wasn’t comfortable enough to let me take over everything. But now she’s like, ‘All right, you can’, you know what I’m saying? So it’s different now.”
The immediate effect is simple: players at every level of the league are moving from survival money to salaries that can support family plans and reduce the need to chase offseason work abroad. For Williams, that means a new house for her mother; for the league, it means the 30th season starts with a pay structure that looks nothing like the one players had before.
