<\/p>\n Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks throws an anchor from her boat in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks throws an anchor from her boat in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cSome days you\u2019re like, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019 You\u2019re injured, you\u2019re hurt, you are losing, things are going bad. And then the next day you go back and do it again because you love it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Wicks, 59, has worked as a commentator, college basketball coach and at a fitness start-up since retiring from the WNBA in 2002, and says she feels lucky to again find a career \u201cthat works for my soul.\u201d But the reality is that even a successful run as one of the world\u2019s best basketball players didn\u2019t earn her enough to fully retire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks rides her boat to check on her oysters in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks rides her boat to check on her oysters in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Although the WNBA is bringing in more than ever<\/a> from sponsors and ticket sales<\/a>, many players still find themselves financially unsteady when the final whistle blows. <\/p>\n \u201cThe choice is what they do as their second career, not whether they have a second career,\u201d said Risa Isard, director of research and insights at women\u2019s sports marketing platform Parity. Since \u201cwomen athletes get paid a fraction of what men do while they\u2019re playing,\u201d Isard said their next acts tend to look more like traditional career paths rather than managing substantial investment portfolios. <\/p>\n The average NBA salary is around $11.9 million, according to data reviewed by The Associated Press. That\u2019s nearly 100 times what the WNBA says is the average salary of $120,000 for its players \u2014 although major differences in league size, age, profit margins and media contracts account for part of that gap.<\/p>\n For 2009 second overall draft pick and 2015 WNBA All-Star Marissa Coleman, the main difference between post-playing careers between WNBA and NBA players is that \u201cmost NBA guys are sitting on tens, sometimes hundreds of million dollars.\u201d And for those who are financially savvy, working after the game is \u201cmore so curing boredom versus a necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Retired WNBA All-Star Marissa Coleman poses for a photo in Mitchellville, Md., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n Retired WNBA All-Star Marissa Coleman poses for a photo in Mitchellville, Md., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cMost women athletes across the board have to find a career after basketball out of necessity,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n All this is happening against a backdrop of unresolved questions about the future of WNBA player compensation<\/a>. Tensions have run high in the ongoing labor battle<\/a> between the WNBA and the players\u2019 union, although it is unclear how far apart the sides are in terms of compensation. Both parties agreed on Nov. 30 to an extension<\/a> of the current collective bargaining agreement to Jan. 9 while negotiations continue. <\/p>\n A major sticking point has been revenue sharing: As the WNBA booms, players are looking for a larger share<\/a> in that growth. They currently earn a significantly smaller fraction of the league\u2019s revenue compared with NBA players.<\/p>\n When former Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters transitioned from basketball to real estate development in 2019, she said the hardest lesson was learning that working hard in her new career may not be enough to yield results quickly, or at all. After a tough game during her playing days, she could \u201cgo in the gym and shoot and work on my shot. And you\u2019re going to see a result if you\u2019re putting in the work.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat is not necessarily true in the real world,\u201d said the 36-year-old. \u201cYou can put in a ton of work and do a lot right and not get anywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Former Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters, transitioned from basketball to real estate development, poses for a photo at her office in Chicago, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (AP Photo\/Erin Hooley)<\/p>\n Former Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters, transitioned from basketball to real estate development, poses for a photo at her office in Chicago, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (AP Photo\/Erin Hooley)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The shift away from basketball also came as a financial shock: \u201cThat transition was a little bit difficult in that I had to cut back significantly,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a lot of learning very quickly\u201d given the \u201cbig gap in what I was making then and what I make now.\u201d<\/p>\n For the last six years, Peters has shepherded an affordable housing<\/a> project in South Bend, Indiana \u2014 home to her alma mater, Notre Dame. Red tape, politics, and myriad other logistical challenges have made the project \u201cthe hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n But she says it\u2019s also the best: \u201cHelping people that truly, genuinely need it\u201d makes it all worth it. Her affordable apartment building is slated to break ground next month, and open its doors in August 2027.<\/p>\n For 38-year-old Coleman, the next phase of her career also unfolded far outside the paint. Alongside former teammate Alana Beard, Coleman franchised a Mellow Mushroom<\/a> \u2014 a psychedelic-themed pizza chain \u2014 in Roanoke, Virginia. She also chaired a campaign to legalize sports betting in Maryland, and now leads strategy and growth for the VIP team at fantasy sports platform Underdog, with the aim of carving space for more women and people of color to access the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew from a very early age entrepreneurship and business were something that I was really, really passionate about,\u201d Coleman said. <\/p>\n She added that she feels grateful to her parents for emphasizing the importance of education and long-term career planning. Thanks to their wisdom, she made sure to seek out mentors and explore industries that interested her throughout her basketball career. <\/p>\n \u201cI knew I didn\u2019t want to be one of those players that retired, and it was like, \u2018Oh gosh, what now?\u2019\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n Many former athletes land in sports-related roles, such as coaching or sports broadcasting. But not all are surefooted in finding their next calling. <\/p>\n Jayne Appel Marinelli, SVP of player relations for the league\u2019s union and a former center for the San Antonio Stars, counsels players on their post-basketball career path. She explained the transition remains challenging for many, even with the WNBA and union\u2019s joint tuition assistance and internship program, and semester-long opportunity with Harvard Business School, which Coleman completed.<\/p>\n The players\u2019 union has worked to further expand opportunities by adding player internship slots to licensee contracts, partnering with universities and more, according to Appel Marinelli. Athletes \u201csometimes need help recognizing that the skills that they have built are so easily transferable over to any role that they\u2019re going to take on next,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That kind of support didn\u2019t exist for Wicks\u2019 generation at the league\u2019s inception in 1997. There \u201cwas no stability in women\u2019s sports,\u201d she said. \u201cOur victory was, we got our next paycheck, and that the lights were on and that the bus was waiting there still.\u201d<\/p>\n Back then, \u201cmy dream was that the league would exist,\u201d Wicks said. Almost 30 years later, her new dream is that players \u201care compensated in a way that gives them freedom to do what they want in life.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her own post-WNBA success, Peters says players could use more guidance to help them understand how to plan, save and prepare for the future. <\/p>\n \u201cThe general lifespan of a basketball player is not long,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to be prepared to not be here tomorrow or the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n ________<\/p>\n AP Sports Writers Doug Feinberg in New York and Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After seven days of wind, the morning is finally calm enough on New York\u2019s East Moriches Bay for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[68218,7,3025,68220,68217,68221,66,3353,68219,458,11239,11862],"class_list":{"0":"post-473059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-alana-beard","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-jayne-appel","12":"tag-marissa-coleman","13":"tag-risa-isard","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-retirements","16":"tag-sue-wicks","17":"tag-wnba","18":"tag-wnba-basketball","19":"tag-womens-national-basketball-association"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115718707686477776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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