Soon to be WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese
(Sports Illustrated)
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have both decided to forgo their final year of college eligibility and enter the WNBA Draft, though there aren’t multimillion dollar WNBA rookie contracts awaiting them.
Clark, Iowa’s record-setting guard, is expected to be the No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever, and rival from LSU should be selected later in the first round. The base salary for the first pick in the WNBA draft is $76,000, unlike the millions in rookie contracts for their NBA brethren.
Clark and Reese became millionaires during their college careers, and despite the WNBA salary range, going pro doesn’t doesn’t mean the collegiate standouts will take a dramatic pay cut — or any pay cut for that matter.
The pair had the top two name, image and likeness (NIL) valuations for women’s basketball players and those deals are expected to carry over into their pro careers.
Clark’s NIL deals are valued at just over $3 million and Reese at $1.8 million, according to On3.com. Clark’s deals include Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and Buick; Reese, who has built her own brand over the past few years, has a long list of sponsors that includes Reebok, Coach and Sports Illustrated.
WHAT ARE WNBA ROOKIE SALARIES?
If Clark is the top pick in the WNBA as expected, she will earn around $76,000 in base salary. The 10th overall selection earns about $70,000, and Reese will get somewhere in between — depending where she is drafted. Both players also could earn hundreds of thousands dollars in league and team marketing deals as well as bonuses for performances on the court — boosting their WNBA earnings to potentially $500,000.
