Erica Barris

then being a starter, winning all those championships.

She says that's why she stepped up a couple years ago to help negotiate this contract.

You're pulling out like a red diary?

Notebook?

I am.

Yes, Alicia Clark starts flipping through a real old school diary.

During the contract negotiations, she was making entries multiple times a day in her careful cursive writing.

Did you say anything about it?

Like, I know you were like, well, this is good, but were you, did it occur to you, be like, wait, should I get more?

At the time, the WNBA was not turning a profit, which is typical for a new league.

Many professional sports leagues don't make money for a while.

Alicia says when the WNBA players asked for more money, they were always told the same thing.

No one comes to the games.

The revenue just isn't there.

In the beginning, the NBA owned the WNBA.

But over Alicia's career, women's basketball has changed a lot.

It started slow.

More people going to games, more television stations showing them.

During the height of the pandemic, they were one of the only sports on television.

And ever since, women's basketball has gone bonkers.