March Madness 2025 came to an end with a blowout win from the University of Connecticut Huskies. If you had them winning on your bracket, give yourself a pat on the back! The final game against the No. 1-ranked team, the South Carolina Gamecocks, on Sunday, April 6, drew an average of 8.5 million viewers, the third largest audience on ABC since ESPN began its exclusive rights agreement in 1996. Obviously, people were tuning in for some amazing basketball, but also to watch basketball superstar Paige Bueckers play her final game as a college athlete. Now, sheās off to join the WNBA.
Like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese ā as well as so many other extremely talented women in both college and professional basketball ā Bueckers has played an integral role in bringing much-deserved attention and appreciation to womenās basketball. As such, the 23-year-old point guard is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBAās April 14 draft. (I mean, sheās called āPaige Bucketsā for a reason, right?) Thereās no question that Bueckers is expected to do great things as a professional athlete, but considering how talented and successful she is, there *is* a question on many fansā minds: How much money will Paige Bueckers make in the WNBA?
Luckily, thereās a somewhat concrete answer to this, since Bueckersā deal for the WNBA has already been revealed. According to Sports Illustrated, sheāll start off her time in the WNBA making $78,831 in the 2025 season (assuming sheās the No. 1-4 draft pick, which is pretty much a given at this point). From there, Bueckers will make $80,408 in the 2026 season, $88,449 in 2027, and $100,510 in 2028. This makes her rookie contract worth a total of $348,198 over four years.Ā
While this may seem like a lot of money (especially for those working on an average college student budget), in the world of professional sports, itās kind of on the meager side. According to sports financial website Spotrac, the No. 1 draft pick in the NBA in 2024 was expected to make a whopping $12.6 million in his first year playing āĀ thatās about 160 times as much as Bueckersās first year salary. Woof.
Thankfully, it seems the WNBA is starting to make progress on paying its players more. In 2024, No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark only received $76,535 for her first year āĀ $2,296 less than Buckersās starting salary. Hopefully, little by little, the WNBAās Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will bring this number higher for the talented athletes who work so hard in the league.Ā
Of course, Buckersās (and other playersā) base WNBA salary pales in comparison to the amount Bueckers has made and will continue to make from things like brand deals, endorsements, and other contracts. Up until this point, Bueckersā net worth has been based mostly on her Name, Image, and Likeness, or NIL, deals made as a college player, with her valuation coming in around $1.4 million for 2024-2025 alone. The NIL Store even named her as the top-earning female athlete of 2024. Sheās had brand deals with CeraVe, Verizon, Dunkinā, Bose, and more. She also became the first college athlete to have a player-edition Nike shoe. Bueckers has made buckets as a college athlete through these deals, and is expected to make more as a professional, with her social media following already growing to over two million pre-WNBA draft, and her games moving to primetime.
Plus, Bueckers is reportedly signing a contract to play for Unrivaled, the new three-on-three womenās pro basketball league, in the WNBAās offseason āĀ that would be far more impressive than the WNBAs. According to ESPN, sources say Bueckers’ salary for her first year with Unrivaled (which would only be a 10-week season) would be more than what sheād make in her first four years with the WNBA (so, more than $348,198 for 10 weeks).
So, while the WNBA still has a lot of catching up to do in the salary department, it seems like Bueckers will still be getting her bag in her first year post-grad no matter what.