Pay equity in women's sports: How the WNBA is playing the long game
LOS ANGELES — Katie Lou Samuelson had the perfect shoes to mark the anniversary of Title IX. Before the Sparks' home game against the Chicago Sky on June 23, Samuelson unwrapped white tissue paper in a black shoe box to reveal her custom-decorated pair of Puma sneakers.
"Pay women athletes," Samuelson's shoes proclaimed in a bold white font across a black background.
The sneakers included a mark for the anniversary of Title IX on the back of the left shoe and Brittney Griner's initials and jersey No. 42 on the right.
The Phoenix Mercury center's detainment and conviction in Russia for cannabis possession has become a symbol of the pay-equity issue plaguing the WNBA, where even stars like Griner — a WNBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time All-Star — travel overseas during their WNBA offseason for salaries worth more than four or five times what
