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Women’s sports are finally getting the spotlight they’ve long deserved, and nowhere is that rise clearer than in the WNBA. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a huge surge in viewership, attendance, and merchandise sales. But when Sportico released its Highest-Paid Female Athletes list for 2025, it was a reminder that there’s still a long way to go. Of the 15 athletes on the list, 10 come from tennis. And the lone WNBA representative? Caitlin Clark. According to the report, Caitlin Clark earned $119,000 in WNBA salary and bonuses. But the real boost came from her endorsements, which brought in a massive $16 million. That pushed her to sixth on the list with an estimated total earnings of $16.1 million, making her the highest-earning women’s basketball star this year. (This is a developing news..) 

Caitlin Clark retains her crown as the highest-paid women’s basketball star, highlighting the major pay gap that still exists in the sport.

Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court.  

His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game.  

With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.

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Akash Das

Caitlin Clark Claims the Crown as Highest-Earning Women’s Basketball Star, per
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Caitlin Clark Claims the Crown as Highest-Earning Women’s Basketball Star, per Report

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Caitlin Clark Claims the Crown as Highest-Earning Women’s Basketball Star, per Report - EssentiallySports

EssentiallySports is the home for the underserved fan, delivering storytelling that goes beyond the headlines. As a media platform, we combine deep audience insights with cultural trends, to meet fandom where it lives and where it goes next. Founded in 2014, EssentiallySports now engages with an audience of over 30m+ American sports fan on its website and 1m+ readers on its newsletters daily.

EssentiallySports

Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court. His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game. With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.