Draymond Green Says Women Athletes Should Take Action Instead of Complain About Pay Gap

The Warriors star made the comments during a video interview with NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Kerith Burke. He said women athletes need to take more action.

Draymond Green
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Image via Getty/Noah Graham/NBAE

Draymond Green

Draymond GreenĀ has some advice for women athletes fighting for equal pay: stop complaining and take action.

TheĀ three-time All Star made the controversial comments during a recent video interview with Kerith Burke, an NBC Sports Bay Area reporter who pressed Green on his previous tweets regarding the gender wage gap within sports. Green insisted heĀ fully supported higher pay for women athletes, but believedĀ they simply werenā€™t doing enough to achieve that goal.

ā€œIā€™m really tired of seeing them complain about the lack of pay, because theyā€™re doing themselves a disservice by just complaining,ā€ he said Wednesday. ā€œTheyā€™re not laying out steps that they can take to change that. Itā€™s coming off as a complaint because the people thatĀ can change it are just going to continue to say, ā€˜Well, the revenue isnā€™t there. So if you donā€™t bring in the revenue, we canā€™t up your pay.ā€™ Theyā€™re going to keep using that, but the reality is, as true as that is, itā€™s an excuse. Because everyone says, ā€˜We support women. We support womenā€™s empowerment. We support women in the workplace. We do this for women. We do X for women. Blah, blah, blah. And everyone uses it to their advantage, yet these women are not using these people who are saying these very things to their advantage.ā€

The comments came just days after Green took to Twitter to addressĀ the massive pay gapĀ between NBA and WNBA players. According to NBC Sports, the average WNBA salary is a little less than $100,000, while the average NBA salary is more than $7 million. Green acknowledged that WNBA revenue was just a fraction of what the NBA racked in, but saidĀ the latter organization managed to achieveĀ that success by building a platform and tellingĀ ā€œindividual stories,ā€ which is something he hasnā€™t seen within the WNBA.

Green then pointed toĀ Phoenix Mercury player Diana Taurasi, suggesting her talent was often overlooked because people didnā€™t know her story, and therefore had no personal connection with her.

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe responded to Greenā€™s assessment in a series of tweets, arguing that the stories of women athletes are largely ignored due to inequality.Ā 

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