Shaquille O’Neal Goes Speechless over Caitlin Clark’s $70K Contract

The Indiana Fever will pay superstar point guard Caitlin Clark a mere $78K as per the 4-year contract she signed while entering the WNBA.

Shaquille O’Neal Goes Speechless over Caitlin Clark’s $70K Contract

Caitlin Clark earning just $78K stunned Shaquille O'Neal (Image via FirstSportz)

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The WNBA is gearing up for a trying time over the next few months as they look to finalize the next Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players and the league. Caitlin Clark and her peers have rejected the 1st offer proposed by the league.

They called it a ‘slap in the face’ as owners are not willing to give them what they deserve. They are primarily fighting for a greater share of the revenue. The existing CBA gives them roughly 9% of the revenue.

In contrast, the NBA gives 50% of its revenue to its players. That along with the difference in overall revenue explains the massive difference in salaries. Even though the WNBA is growing at an exponential rate, the players are receiving miniscule salaries.

That is what they are trying to change with the next CBA. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal was speaking with the crew of the ‘Off the Record’ podcast. When the hosts informed him that the WNBA’s most famous player, Caitlin Clark, earns a mere $78K salary, he was left speechless.

I never knew this.

Shaquille O’Neal remarked

While saying this, the Big Aristotle took of his glasses and dropped them on the table in shock. He earlier mentioned that 3-time MVP A’ja Wilson should be making $10 million a year, and not $200,000. This information had him dumbfounded by the wage gap.

Shaquille O’Neal has a solution to help the Caitlin Clark and WNBA boost viewership

The last time Shaquille O’Neal spoke about ideas to help boost the WNBA’s viewership, he was speaking with his mentee, Angel Reese, on her podcast. While on this ‘Off the Record’ podcast, he reiterated the idea that he has held for a while.

Now we got to lower the rim. You want to make more money? Let Caitlin go baseline and fingertip dunk. Then Angel, the way she do her layup like that, let her turn that wrist over one time forever and throw it down. Trust me on this.

Shaquille O’Neal said

The 4-time champion brought up the topic of volleyball, and the difference in net height between men and women’s games. He also referenced the differences in women’s golf, where the women tee off further up the hole than the men.

He is not advocating for a major drop in rim height. O’Neal believes dropping the rim by an inch or two is enough to be within reach for the women to dunk easily. The TNT analyst claims that is the only difference between the NBA and the W.

If the women get more dunks in, fans will be excited, and the revenue will start shooting up. That way, the WNBA will have the revenue at their disposal to pay their players what they deserve.

Caitlin Clark’s presence draws 1.3 million to 3-point contest and skills challenge

There is a slim chance that the WNBA will ever implement Shaquille O’Neal’s proposal. They have been working with the standard height rim for so long, and are not going to change just to appease fans.

Caitlin Clark did not participate in WNBA All-Star due to injury
Caitlin Clark did not participate in WNBA All-Star due to injury (Image via Open Source/X)

They might not need to, especially if their viewership numbers keep rising the way it has been for the past year-and-a-half. As per television ratings analyst website Programming Insider, Friday night’s 3-point contest as well as the Skills challenge drew an average of 1.3 million viewers.

That makes it almost double of what the WNBA could muster up last season. More importantly, Caitlin Clark did not participate and was sitting courtside along with her Indiana Fever teammates.

These numbers give the indication that more and more fans are starting to take in everything the W has to offer. Clark might be the ‘golden goose’, but fans are warming up to the rest. If this continues, it will be difficult to justify paying the Fever superstar mere $78K in salary.

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