(INDIANAPOLIS) — The players at the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game delivered a very public, black and white message on the court Saturday: “Pay Us What You Owe Us.”
After the national anthem, all the players from both teams revealed they were sporting black T-shirts for the pre-game warmups with white script that stated their collective message.
WNBA players put equal pay in the spotlight at 2025 All-Star Game
Fans inside the sold-out Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis chanted in support of the equal pay messaging throughout the evening.
Some of the loudest calls from the crowd to “pay them” that echoed through the arena came when WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert awarded Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier the MVP trophy.
“The fans making that chant, that gave me chills,” Collier told ESPN.
The now-viral shirt, which has a Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association logo underneath the text for the players’ union, is officially available through a link on the WNBAPA’s Instagram.
Under the backdrop of the All-Star Game and its concurrent festivities, 40 players attended meetings with the league and the players association to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, ESPN first reported.
Per ESPN, “The players didn’t think the meeting produced enough progress with a late October deadline looming.”
With more than 4 million viewers watching the All-Star Game nationwide, according to The Athletic, the players were able to shine a bright spotlight on their off-court efforts to try to earn higher salaries with more revenue entitlements.
Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum told ESPN the crowd’s support “was a powerful moment.”
“As players, we didn’t know that was going to happen. So it was a genuine surprise. Those chants tonight, those signs, it just shows that as players, we are united, but the fans are united in believing what we’re seeking,” Plum said.
The WNBA stars are not the first female athletes to fight for fair wages.
Tennis legend Billie Jean King, a trailblazer for equal rights in women’s sports, told “Good Morning America” previously that when she and the “original nine” made history in 1970, signing $1 contracts at the Houston Racquet Club, the moment was for female leadership for years to come.
“We fought for equality,” she said. “Women’s tennis is the leader in women’s sports on and off the court. And players today have to realize it came from that moment when we were willing to give up our careers.”
Progress has been made in the year’s since, with now-retired soccer stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe leading the U.S. Women’s National Team to a landmark equal pay agreement in 2022, following a three-year legal battle over gender discrimination.
