In the world of professional sports, the narrative is everything. And right now, the narrative being spun in the WNBA is one of united sisterhood, of veteran players rising up in righteous concern for the shockingly low $80,000 rookie salary of its newest messiah, Caitlin Clark. It’s a compelling story of solidarity, one that paints a picture of established stars looking out for the next generation.

There’s just one problem. According to a scathing new analysis, it’s a complete and total lie.

This isn’t just a misunderstanding; it’s being called a “total deception,” a “calculated act” of “pure theater” designed to manipulate the public, rewrite a history of jealousy, and mask the uncomfortable truth: the very players publicly lamenting Clark’s paycheck are the ones who built her cage.

The central, damning accusation is this: WNBA veterans, through their own players’ association, consciously and deliberately negotiated the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to favor themselves at the direct expense of incoming rookies. They reportedly “wanted more money for the veterans and less money for the rookies.” In the last CBA negotiations, they allegedly took money that could have gone to the rookie pay scale and instead added “an extra hundred grand on the max” for themselves.

They didn’t just allow this pay structure to happen; they designed it. They voted for it. They signed off on it.

For these same players to now turn to the cameras with shocked expressions, wringing their hands over the “little of money” Clark is making, is being framed as the height of hypocrisy. It’s a strategic move to rehab their own reputations after a season rife with open animosity toward the very player who is, by all accounts, single-handedly driving “hundreds of millions of dollars” in new revenue to the league.

This “performance,” as it’s being called, is a desperate attempt to control a narrative that had spun wildly out of their control. And the public, it seems, is finally seeing right through it.

A History of Hostility, Not Sisterhood

To understand the breathtaking cynicism of this new “fake concern,” one only needs to rewind the tape a few months. When Caitlin Clark, the greatest offensive phenomenon in college basketball history, entered the league, she wasn’t met with open arms. She was met with a target on her back.

The narrative of “sisterhood” falls apart under the briefest scrutiny. Clark was the “most flagrantly fouled player in the league by a landslide.” She was hip-checked, shouldered, and knocked to the floor in displays of aggression that went far beyond typical rookie hazing. This wasn’t just “welcome to the league” toughness; it was a palpable disdain.

When fans, many new to the sport and drawn in by Clark’s generational talent, cried foul, they weren’t just dismissed—they were branded as “racist” for daring to protect their new favorite player. It was a coordinated, defensive crouch from an establishment that seemed to resent the very attention it had been begging for.

This animosity wasn’t just on the court; it was admitted in the media. WNBA player Lexi Brown, who is now reportedly joining the chorus of “concern” for Clark’s pay, is being singled out as a prime example. On her own podcast, Brown previously admitted to a “level of hostility” from teammates specifically directed at Caitlin Clark and the 2024 rookie class.

How can a player, commentators ask, admit to an “unwelcoming vibe” and widespread jealousy one month, only to turn around and claim deep, sympathetic sadness over that same rookie’s contract the next? The contradiction is staggering. This sudden “change of tune” isn’t just unbelievable; it’s a clear and desperate pattern of “rewriting history” for a public they believe isn’t paying attention.

The Undeniable “Caitlin Clark Effect” They Tried to Ignore

The root of this hostility, and the subsequent hypocritical pivot, is what’s known as the “Caitlin Clark Effect”—an economic and cultural shockwave that has completely transformed the league’s fortunes overnight. And for a long time, the league’s veterans actively “pushed back” against the idea that this “rising tide” would, in fact, “lift all boats.”

The most glaring and undeniable proof? Charter flights.

For decades, WNBA players have rightly complained about the grueling nature of commercial travel. It was a key negotiating point, a symbol of their fight for professional respect. Yet, for years, the league claimed it was an economic impossibility.

Then, Caitlin Clark arrived.

When Clark began receiving private flights for security, the “envy and public outcry” from other players was immediate and intense. The optics were terrible: the one rookie star getting treatment the veterans had demanded for years. Suddenly, miraculously, the “impossible” became possible. The league didn’t negotiate this change in the next CBA; it was forced to implement leaguewide charter flights almost overnight. It was a direct, panicked reaction to the drama and attention Clark’s presence created.

This single event proves the monumental, game-changing power Clark wields. Her presence alone solved an issue that decades of “collective sacrifice” could not.

This reality—that one 22-year-old is the “singular, monumental thing” driving all this new prosperity—is the truth the establishment has been “deeply resistant” to admitting. Instead, a dishonest campaign began to “dilute” Clark’s unique impact.

You’d hear veterans and their media allies lumping Clark in with other talented rookies like Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Guju Watkins. They claimed fans were “flocking” to see them all. The data, however, tells a different story. Attendance numbers show that Paige Bueckers’ games had some of the lowest attendance in her league. Chicago Sky games were “frequently empty”—unless, of course, Caitlin Clark was in town. Those games were moved to NBA arenas to handle the massive, Clark-driven crowds. Games at USC were reportedly “empty as hell.”

The attempt to spread Clark’s singular drawing power across a group of players who simply do not have the same impact is a transparent “manufactured story.” It’s an effort to avoid giving credit where it is overwhelmingly due.

Everybody Eats… Now That They’re Forced To

Now, after a season of resisting, denying, and downplaying, the narrative has made another “complete flip-flop.” Suddenly, veterans are embracing the “everybody eats” mantra they once scoffed at. Why? Because the economic realities are too undeniable to ignore.

This isn’t a change of heart; it’s a “strategic giving in.” The new money and opportunities are tangible. Erica McDonald, a player who “started the season sitting on her couch,” suddenly landed a “quarter million dollar contract” on a rival team—a comeback directly attributed to the “massive new visibility” Clark brought.

Kelsey Plum is “high-fiving on Good Morning America,” doing promotions for Arby’s, and playing in pro-am golf events. These high-profile, lucrative corporate opportunities were “pretty much unheard of” for most WNBA players just one year ago.

The pie is getting bigger, and it’s happening almost entirely “thanks to one person.” And so, the very players who resented her arrival are now adopting the language of unity, all while trying to “steal her story” and position themselves as the elder stateswomen who always cared.

This brings us back to the salary. The outrage is a performance. The concern is theater. It is a tool being used to shift blame, curry public favor, and mask the truth: they are not victims of the system; they built it. They are the ones who chose to suppress rookie wages so their own could be higher.

The WNBA is at a critical juncture. It can either embrace the uncomfortable, undeniable truth—that Caitlin Clark is the catalyst, the force, and the phenomenon driving its future—or it can continue this “self-defeating charade.” This “fake posturing” and clumsy “rewriting of history” does a massive disservice to the intelligence of the millions of new fans Clark brought to their doorstep.

It’s a fundamental betrayal of the league’s potential, choosing bitterness over gratitude, and self-serving agendas over the very player who is, right now, giving them all the platform they ever wanted. The truth is impossible to deny, and every effort to hide it only highlights the hypocrisy that fans are no longer willing to ignore.