TODAYS TOPIC

Draymond Greene Is Pissed When Lisa Leslie Says NBA Players Should Financially Help WNBA Players .

WNBA legend Lisa Leslie joined UNINTERRUPTED’s “The Shop” .The two-time champ and three-time MVP spoke to LeBron James and Draymond Green about promoting the WNBA.

Green argued that “NBA players support the WNBA more than we probably support the fucking NBA.”

NBA players are the “No. 1 allies” to the WNBA and its athletes, according to one of the brightest stars to ever step foot on a women’s basketball court.

Even still, she said, they can do more to help support the league.

WNBA legend Lisa Leslie sat down with NBA stars LeBron James, Draymond Green, and P.J. Tucker for a Season 5 episode of UNINTERRUPTED’s “The Shop” that debuts Friday.

In a sneak peek offered exclusively to Insider, the two-time WNBA champion and three-time league MVP discussed the WNBA pay gap and how NBA players can continue to support their counterparts in the women’s league.

“From a salary standpoint, it’d be great for the women to be able to make more money,” Leslie said. “It’s a lot of work — it’s a lot of hard work. I think I saw something that said one player that makes maybe $12 million on an NBA team can cover the whole WNBA’s salaries. And so that’s kind of crazy.”

“Again, we’re 26 years young, so it’s not like we’re comparing ourselves to the NBA, but I do feel like the pay gap would be something that — we could just take a donation around the NBA maybe,” the Los Angeles Sparks legend added, pantomiming passing around a hat for contributions.

“Maybe one night y’all don’t go to the casinos.”

But Green — a Golden State Warriors superstar who has previously gotten himself into hot water for commenting on women’s players “complaining” about pay discrepancies — took issue with Leslie’s characterization of NBA players’ relationship with the WNBA.

“It pisses me off, because I don’t think there’s anyone in America that supports the WNBA more than NBA players,” Green said, to which Leslie responded “100%.”

“The NBA players support the WNBA players more than we probably support the fucking NBA,” he added. “And it bothers me.”

Leslie then explained that she believes the WNBA should further embrace its connection with NBA players. She said that she used her platform as one of the WNBA’s Top 25 Players of All Time, an honor the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game earned in 2021, to impress upon others in the league that they should direct more focus toward NBA players.

“When LeBron wore that orange hoodie, I told them — that hoodie was just sitting there with the logo on it,” Leslie said as Green nodded along. “When he wore that hoodie, it went viral. I explained to them that our No. 1 allies that have supported us from day one are the NBA players. I said they tweet, they follow us, they come to our games — we don’t highlight them.”

The WNBA has spotlighted NBA players on several occasions during the past season. Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul was the inaugural recipient of the Kobe & Gigi Bryant WNBA Advocacy Award back in February 2022 because he “attended WNBA games throughout the regular season and playoffs, and also supports the youth girls’ game through camps and the CP3 Basketball Academy,” per ESPN.

But not everyone was enthusiastic about that choice. Some argued that rewarding a professional athlete for merely supporting other professional athletes is infantilizing to the latter group.

MY OPINION : Lisa Leslie, you have some nerve . The NBA already financially supports the WNBA . And if it wasn’t for that there wouldn’t even be a WNBA . Why because the WNBA can’t even bring in a enough money to support itself . It’s basically a charity . And now you want NBA players to give a portion of their hard earned salary to the WNBA too . Please !