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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Less For The Ladies?

Spanish Translation

By Claudia Atticot

The average NBA player makes more than $3 million a year. But many women players in the WNBA are getting by with the league's minimum yearly salary of $55,000. Quite a few make ends meet by holding down second jobs during the off season! For the Houston Comets' Lisa Leslie, whose skills have been compared to megamillionaire Michael Jordan's, a million-dollar salary seems an impossible dream.

WNBA players don't always stay in luxury hotels. They usually travel to games by bus, not jet-or if they go by plane, the tickets are not first class. These women play hard, but they don't get the royal treatment that NBA players get.

The WNBA is not the only professional league in which players' salaries are not too far out of this world. The maximum annual salary for a Major League Soccer player is $260,000-less than A-Rod earns in a week! Under league rules, MLS teams cannot pay more than $1.7 million total for players' salaries.

Differences in pay from sport to sport are not simply a matter of unfairness or bad luck. Newer pro leagues don't have enough money from ticket sales or TV networks to pay giant salaries to stars. Athletes like Washington Mystics' top-paid Chamique Holdsclaw, above, add to their income by endorsing products like Nike shoes and appearing in ads. But to pitch their products, companies usually want superstar athletes-the ones who are already making millions.

Luckily, money doesn't seem to be the big reason WNBA teams play their hearts out for the fans who fill arenas every season. They also love the game.

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