When one of many largest stars within the WNBA says she desires the league’s personal 3-point contest to be her first go on the occasion, it pays to make it value gamers’ time.

Reigning WNBA Rookie of the Yr and 3-point leader Caitlin Clark confronted hypothesis about her potential involvement within the 3-point contest at NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco again in February. When requested about it, Clark’s representatives at Excel Sports activities Administration denied the claim, telling The Athletic in a press release that “she desires her first 3-point contest to be at WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis this summer season.”

When she steps to the road in July, the Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation (WNBPA) gamers’ union and supplemental insurance coverage firm Aflac are going to guarantee that she (or anybody else who wins the competitors) is paid as a lot for it as their NBA counterparts. Aflac is kicking in $115,000 to spice up the prize pool for each the 3-point contest and the All-Star expertise problem.


Caitlin Clark and Gainbridge give Indianapolis an assist on WNBA Draft Day as the Indiana Fever

Aflac is giving an additional $60,000 to the winner of the 3-point contest, with the talents problem winner taking one other $55,000. Based mostly on the league’s 2020 collective bargaining settlement, which gamers simply opted out of in 2020, the WNBA itself gives the winners of each competitions $2,575 every.

“Aflac stands with our gamers when it issues most, sending a robust message: They’re seen, they’re valued, and they’re value investing in,” stated Terri Jackson, government director of the WNBPA. “As an official associate now in yr two, Aflac’s continued dedication creates a ripple impact—lifting not simply the ladies in these pivotal moments, however the complete girls’s sports activities trade.”

The facility of three

When the corporate first teamed with the WNBPA on the All-Star prize pool final yr, it ended up giving all $110,000 of its contribution to the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Grey—the primary participant to win each contests in a single night time. That prize cash additionally gave Grey the equal of 62% of her $185,000 WNBA wage inside the identical night, which Aflac, the WNBPA, and College of South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley have been happy to name out whereas giving Grey and her outsized checks a cameo in a current advert.