Hoda Kotb on Caitlin Clark’s ‘ridiculous’ salary in first year of WNBA: ‘Very concerning’

Hoda Kotb was very excited after learning that Kaitlyn Clark, a rising WNBA basketball player, would only earn a fraction of what her male teammates earn in her first year as a professional basketball player.

“For someone who is now the face of women’s basketball, it seemed kind of ridiculous,” Kotb said on the “Today” show Tuesday.

The Kotb noted that Clark, who was the No. 1 overall pick on Monday, signed a four-year contract with the Indiana Fever for $338,000, while Victor Wimpanyama, the top pick in the 2023 NBA draft, received a $55 million deal. .

“There is something very disturbing about this,” the 59-year-old Kotb added. “I mean I imagine all the little girls with signs saying ‘Caitlin!’ but this is what’s worth holding?

The mogul’s co-anchor, Savannah Guthrie, chimed in, saying, “We hope payday comes too.”

Evidently, the wage disparity remained on Qutb’s mind for hours, as it was I discussed it again on “Today with Hoda and Jenna” Later Tuesday morning.

“I was like, ‘Ah!’ What will you get? Because in the end, you can get a real salary, and then I saw that, and I said, “This can’t be true.”

The mogul read out Clark’s starting salary of $76,535 and asked: “Here’s what the No. 1 player, who is now in the WNBA, said,” [is earning]?”

Kotb acknowledged that Clarke, 22, would earn more money from various endorsements, but she still doesn’t understand how the athlete could earn so much less than Wimbanyama, who earned $12.1 million in his first season with the San Antonio Spurs last year.

“Honestly, the gap is so big,” Jenna Bush Hager said. “The inconsistency when we talk about equal pay? That’s not even close!”

Kotb noted that the large gap is “like picking off an old scab for many women,” including herself.

“For many years sitting next to co-anchors over the years and not knowing what anyone was getting paid and then finding out that you were making a fraction of what the guy next to you was making,” she recalled.

Kotb credited Clark with putting women’s basketball center stage and inspiring young girls, saying she didn’t want the salary difference to affect that.

“I was imagining the little girls with the signs, who used to fill the courts, who are now obsessed with basketball, with signs that say ‘Caitlin,’ and I think the community is saying, ‘Okay, this is what it’s worth.’ Now, this is what it’s worth,” she said. It is worth 76 thousand dollars.

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Kotb then went to her phone and started playing Taylor Swift’s song “Man” before singing the lyrics, “Because if I were a man, I’d be the man.”

“Hoda is shaking!” Bush Hager, 42, exclaimed. “When you piss off Hoda, you never know who’s going to come out.”

Kotb jokingly ended the clip by placing her hands in a prayer position and saying, “Namaste.”

Clark has risen to fame over the past few years by breaking several records with the Iowa Hawkeyes and finishing second in the NCAA Tournament.

The former college athlete was expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, and she captured the title while wearing head-to-toe Prada.