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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Former Player Claims WNBA A "Survival League" With "Very Harmful Culture"

Former WNBAer Candice Wiggins “described what she said was a ‘very, very harmful’ culture” in the league -- one in which she “contends she was bullied throughout her eight-year career,” according to Tod Leonard of the SAN DIEGO UNON-TRIBUNE. Wiggins also described the “discouragement she felt being a part of a ‘survival league’ that she said still struggles for attention and legitimacy after 20 seasons.” Wiggins: “It was a depressing state in the WNBA. It’s not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be quite hard. I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me.” Wiggins said that she was “disheartened by a culture in the WNBA that encouraged women to look and act like men in the NBA.” She said of the WNBA, “Nobody cares about the WNBA. Viewership is minimal. Ticket sales are very low. They give away tickets and people don’t come to the game.” Wiggins had eight surgeries during her career, and she “attributed some of the physical breakdowns to an arduous schedule of playing in Europe in the offseason to supplement her pay in the WNBA.” Leonard noted the current CBA “caps the top WNBA salaries at $109,000 per season, while the average player makes about $75,000.” Players could “earn five to eight times that in Europe.” Wiggins added that she was “targeted for harassment from the time she was drafted” by the Lynx “because she is heterosexual and a nationally popular figure.” Wiggins: “Being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge. I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply” (SANDIEGOUNIONTRIBUNE.com, 2/20).

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