Nick Wright Rips 'Boot-Licking' Caitlin Clark, WNBA Pay Increase Critics

Every member of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game wore black t-shirts that said, "Pay Us What You Owe Us" before their July 19 contest in the Indiana Fever's Gainbridge Fieldhouse Arena. This clear message was a byproduct of the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between the league and its players, in which the players are seeking vastly increased salaries and a greater revenue share.

Given that these shirts have gone mainstream in terms of pop culture, thus raising awareness for the WNBA players' lackluster pay, it has also created a lot of social media criticism from people who are asserting that the WNBA players don't deserve a pay increase because the league isn't profitable.

Sports media personality Nick Wright blasted anybody who tries to make this case during a July 22 episode of What's Wright? with Nick Wright.

"The Kelsey Plum thing, I think was totally misconstrued. But because Caitlin Clark's name was involved, people took it and ran with it. That's not the story. The story is how many people are such utter losers," Wright said.

"Nobody serious is arguing that the WNBA players and the NBA players should make the same amount of money. But nobody serious can actually think that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, making $70-some grand a year, is proper payment for services rendered. Is there any other capitalistic endeavor... where someone of Caitlin Clark's quality would make less than $80,000 a year? And the answer is no.

"It is just outrageous, the amount of people that were like 'Pipe down, ladies! Be happy.' So many losers are just boot-licking management sellouts," Wright concluded.