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As the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, one would assume contract dollars came easy for the legendary Diana Taurasi. However, the recently-retired superstar revealed during a three-part docuseries she played more than a decade of international hoops during her off-season to simply get to a reasonable salary given her elite level.
The WNBA’s current CBA expires after the 2025 season, and with fan interest, viewership and revenue at an all-time high, Taurasi is joining the rest of the league in voicing her opinion on players needing to be paid their value.
“I’m the best player in the world and I have to go to a communist country to get paid like a capitalist,” Taurasi said in a snippet released Wednesday by Amazon Prime. “One time I came back and I was like, ‘Man, my parents have just gotten older and I’ve missed a big part of it.’ We weren’t making that much money, so generational wealth was coming from going to Russia every year. Now we have to come back home and get paid nothing, to play in a harder league, in worse conditions, against the best competition in the world.
“The f—ing janitor at the arena made more than me.”
Taurasi’s wealthy international career began in 2005 with a Russian Premier League season as the star of Dynamo Moscow. She later played for Spartak Moscow before a three-summer stint with a Turkish team. Taurasi’s international career finally ended in 2017 with UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Euroleague after a six-year run with the franchise.
Taurasi is a six-time EuroLeague champion, a seven-time Russian National League champion and earned offseason MVP honors on three different occasions while in Russia.
Following the 2024 season, the WNBA players’ union opted out of its current CBA. The players and league will operate under that deal through the current 2025 campaign, which is set to expire in October.
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Revenue sharing was a major topic of interest over All-Star weekend this summer as threats of a possible work stoppage continue. Players even donned “PAY US WHAT YOU OWE US” shirts that went viral.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said an in-person meeting with WNBPA staff and over 40 players was “productive” and yielded “constructive conversations.”
“I remain confident that we will reach a new CBA, one that’s transformational for the players, teams, owners, and the future,” Engelbert said last month.
There’s a new $2.2 billion broadcast deal that begins next season and the WNBA recently announced three additional expansion teams set to join the league by 2030. Three cities — Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — paid a record $250 million expansion fee, which shows the upward trajectory of the league from a financial standpoint.
