The WNBA Is Fining Its Star Players A PREPOSTEROUS Sum Of Money For Saturday's Mid-Game Fight
Source - The WNBA issued a three game suspension to Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner for her role in an on-court fight that broke out midway through the fourth quarter of last Saturday night’s game with the Dallas Wings.
A two-game suspension has also been handed to Dallas Wings forwards Kristine Anigwe and Kayla Thornton. Dallas guard Kaela Davis and Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi each received a one-game suspension and $500 fine for leaving their respective benches.
Bethany Donaphin, Head of WBNA League Operations, announced that Griner has received “a three-game suspension for throwing punches, escalating the incident and pushing Thornton’s face with an open hand.”
Anigwe was suspended for two games for “instigating the initial altercation and for taking an open-handed swing at Griner.” Thornton also received a two-game suspension for “escalating the altercation.
Five-HUNDRED-dollars? Are you kidding me? I know the WBNA doesn’t make the rules, it just enforces them, but still. Cut the ladies some slack. The only person who made contact was Brittney Griner and she didn’t even get fined! She got suspended for three days. Which apparently didn’t sit too well with her because now she’s thinking about quitting the league altogether.
“I’m not doing it for the money because we don’t make enough and they want to fine me for every little thing. I’m getting techs for protecting myself in games and flagrants because they always only see me. They never see anything beforehand. I’m basically not getting paid this summer already (due to fines).”
”How they handle this will determine a lot about the future. Because how can I fight for some league that doesn’t even want to protect their players? They better hope our coaches and GM (Jim Pitman) don’t go anywhere and DB (DeWanna Bonner) plays here forever. Because I’ll be done in a heartbeat if I was anywhere else.”
I actually feel bad for her. She’s the hack-a-Shaq of the WNBA except she gets no calls and the second she retaliates she gets T-d up. The league maximum is also preposterous.
Griner’s contract with Phoenix is in its final year. AZCentral.com says that she’s exaggerating when she says that she’s not making any money due to fines. The publication writes:
“Griner, WNBA scoring leader, six-time All-Star and league MVP contender, is making close to the league maximum $115,000 with the Mercury this season. She makes a seven-figure salary with her Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA’s offseason.”
To put that in perspective, the NBA’s league maximum for a player with less than six years’ experience is $25,000,000 per year. Whatever. As ridiculous as it is, it’s kind of nice to know that professional athletes would feel the same amount of financial pain as a professional blogger if he/she were to be fined $500.
One thing’s for sure and that’s that this fight was fantastic for the WNBA. Fighting is good for any sport, not just hockey. It gets the people talking. If they want to get their numbers up, they’ll start taking swings at each other every game from here on out. Three days until the league is back to normal. Hopefully everyone involved learned their lesson.