Women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe took exception to Draymond Green’s comments referencing the complaints of female athletes over pay inequities compared to men.
Megan Rapinoe was asked about Draymond Green's comments that he was tired of female athletes "complaining" about pay disparities: pic.twitter.com/FzASkMgmlx
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 7, 2021
Green’s controversial remarks were made last week and directed at the anger of females who believe that the large difference in pay between male and female athletes needs to be addressed.
"I'm really tired of seeing them complain about the lack of pay, b/c they're doing themselves a disservice by just complaining."
Today Draymond talked about his Tweets about women's sports that received criticism from athletes like @mPinoe & @Layshiac @kron4news #DubNation pic.twitter.com/7iUQ982jx9— Kylen Mills (@KylenMills) April 1, 2021
“I’m really tired of seeing them complain about the lack of pay, because they’re doing themselves a disservice by just complaining,” Green said. “They’re not laying out steps that they can take to change that. It’s coming off as a complaint because the people that can change it are just going to continue to say, ‘Well, the revenue isn’t there. So if you don’t bring in the revenue, we can’t up your pay.’
“They’re going to keep using that, but the reality is, as true as that is, it’s an excuse. Because everyone says, ‘We support women. We support women empowerment. We support women in the workplace. We do this for women. We do X for women, blah, blah, blah.’ And everyone uses it to their advantage, yet these women are not using these people that are saying those very things to their advantage.”
The chief reasons for the disparity between the pay of NBA and WNBA players stem from major differences related to the aforementioned revenue, which is largely connected to attendance and television deals for the respective leagues.
One major difference between the NBA and WNBA is the length of time the two leagues have been in business. The NBA first began play in 1946, while the WNBA didn’t play their first contests until 1997.
Rapinoe has long been vocal on the subject of gender pay inequity in soccer, which is why Green’s comments struck a nerve.
Green has a reputation for speaking his mind on any number of topics, but it’s unclear exactly how much deeper the Golden State Warriors star may be willing to go deeper with his opinion, given the blowback.
