Image: Wikimedia Commons
WNBA: The Builders Behind Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Lisa Leslie, Breanna Stewart and A'ja Wilson
They played for a fraction of what the men earned — so they did something about it. Championships first, then ownership stakes, new leagues, cafés and candle companies: eight women who turned a league that underpaid them into businesses they own.
Produced and Edited by The Bourgeois Society Staff
For most of the WNBA's history, the deal was simple and unfair: be grateful for the stage, then fly overseas in the offseason to make real money. These eight refused to leave it there. A point guard who negotiated the landmark pay deal and then bought into her own team.
A forward who gave up a season on principle and ended up owning the franchise that wouldn't meet with her. Two rivals who stopped waiting and built a whole new league with equity for its players. Every one of them started as talent somebody else profited from — and finished as an owner.
Selected on the obstacle climbed, the thing built, and the good given back — and fact-checked line by line, with sources linked under every profile.
Seattle Storm Legend & Co-Owner, Seattle Storm · Co-Founder, TOGETHXR — Seattle, WA
Official links: Website · X
Image: NBC News
Why We're Inspired
Sue Bird was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 WNBA draft, straight out of UConn, and she never wore another team's jersey.
Across a Seattle Storm career that ran to her retirement in 2022 — she left as the league's career assists leader — she won four WNBA championships, made 13 All-Star teams and collected five Olympic gold medals. The playing was only half of it.
As vice president of the WNBA Players Association she helped negotiate the landmark 2020 collective bargaining agreement, and she fought publicly for equal pay, equal marketing and LGBTQ+ rights after coming out in 2017. Then she did what the great ones on this list keep doing: she bought in.
In April 2024 Bird joined Force 10 Hoops, the Seattle Storm's ownership group, becoming the third retired WNBA player to invest in a former franchise, alongside a minority stake in the NWSL's Gotham FC and TOGETHXR, the women's sports media company she co-founded with Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim and Simone Manuel.
"I feel like it was kind of inevitable, and in a lot of ways something I always wanted, something that I've always had in the back of my head."
The Story
Bird's post-playing portfolio keeps widening without ever leaving the game she carried. She serves as managing director of the USA women's national team, works as an NBC studio analyst for WNBA coverage and hosts the Bird's Eye View podcast — and along the way she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Players remember the other side of her leadership, too: in her playing days she once took a veteran-minimum salary so Seattle could keep its championship core together. The point guard who spent two decades making everyone around her better is now, quite literally, part-owner of the house she built.
Sources
Pollstar / VenuesNow — “VenuesNow 2026 All-Star Honoree: Sue Bird”
Sports Business Journal — “Sue Bird: Players' social media has taken WNBA 'to another level'”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · A'ja Wilson · Tamika Catchings
Indiana Fever Legend & Owner, Tea's Me Café — Indianapolis, IN
Official links: Website · X
Image: Jordan Raynor podcast
Why We're Inspired
Tamika Catchings was born with hearing loss in both ears and was bullied as a child for wearing hearing aids. She turned the thing other kids mocked into fuel.
Across 15 seasons with the Indiana Fever she became the franchise's defining player — a league MVP, the leader of the 2012 championship team, a ten-time All-Star, a Hall of Famer and a four-time Olympic gold medalist — and she credits her faith in God for carrying her through the hearing loss, family separation and debilitating injuries along the way.
In 2017, shortly after retiring, she bought Tea's Me Café in Indianapolis, a small tea shop she set out to run the way she had played: for the neighbourhood around it, hiring and mentoring local young people.
"This isn't goodbye, it's the beginning of a new chapter, and we can't wait to continue serving you at our university café."
The Story
The café story has a current chapter worth printing straight.
Tea's Me grew to multiple Indianapolis locations, and Catchings has since made a deliberate pivot: the original 22nd Street shop closed, the Butler-Tarkington location she opened in 2021 held its last day of business, and the brand now centres on its university café at IU Indianapolis and a kiosk-based model around the campus — a smaller footprint, aimed where students and community meet.
Her giving is older than the café. While rehabbing a torn ACL as a Fever rookie, she and her sister Tauja launched the Catch the Stars Foundation; its youth camps ran for 25 straight years and served more than 5,000 children, teaching goal-setting, teamwork and confidence alongside basketball.
Published estimates put her net worth at about $2 million, built the slow way — cafés, speaking, board and advisory work.
Sources
IndyStar — “Tamika Catchings' Tea's Me Café down to last location amid brand pivot”
Fieldhouse Files — “Tamika Catchings returns to Pacers Sports & Entertainment as ambassador”
MVP Net Worth — “Tamika Catchings Net Worth 2026: WNBA Earnings and Tea's Me”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Sue Bird · Lisa Leslie
Los Angeles Sparks Legend and 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist · Co-founder, Aston Rose Real Estate — Los Angeles, CA
Official links: Website · X
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Why We're Inspired
Lisa Leslie was the face of a league that did not exist yet.
Raised in Compton and Los Angeles and a star at Morningside High in Inglewood and USC, the 6-foot-5 center signed with the brand-new WNBA in 1997 and carried it: three league MVP awards, back-to-back Sparks championships in 2001 and 2002, the first dunk in WNBA history, and four consecutive Olympic gold medals with Team USA — all while earning, at her peak, a league maximum of about $91,000 a year.
She understood sweat equity. In 2011, two years after retiring, she became the first former WNBA player to buy an ownership stake in a WNBA team — her own Sparks. In 2022 she co-founded Aston Rose with Tomi Rose, Rob Hite and Rod Watson, a national luxury real estate firm built by former professional athletes, for athletes and entertainers.
"We understand that many African American and minority athletes are making money for the first time. Unfortunately, so many of those athletes fall into the trap of it being about things that don't appreciate in value for them; our firm is changing that"
The Story
Aston Rose exists, in Leslie's telling, because so many Black and minority athletes are earning real money for the first time in their families — and too often spend it on things that don't appreciate.
The firm, which launched in California and Florida, says its team had closed more than $500 million in combined real estate transactions at launch; its mission is to teach athletes and entertainers to build generational wealth instead.
Leslie was honored in 2026 with an 11-foot statue, 'The First Lady,' outside the Sparks' arena — the first of a Sparks player — and says she wants back into team ownership next.
Sources
Front Office Sports — “WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie Launches Athlete-Focused Real Estate Firm”
USA TODAY — “WNBA legend Lisa Leslie honored with statue outside Los Angeles arena”
Bryant University News — “WNBA star and Olympian Lisa Leslie to headline Women's Summit”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Tamika Catchings · Breanna Stewart
New York Liberty Star · Co-Founder, Unrivaled — New York, NY
Official links: Website · Instagram · X
Image: WNBA.com
Why We're Inspired
Breanna Stewart's résumé reads like a dynasty all by itself: three WNBA championships — 2018 and 2020 with Seattle, 2024 with New York — league MVP awards with two different teams, and three Olympic gold medals. The road underneath it was anything but smooth.
In a 2017 Players' Tribune essay she disclosed that she had been sexually abused as a child, from age nine; in 2019 she ruptured her Achilles tendon, missed a full season, and came back to win the 2020 Finals MVP.
Rather than accept an offseason system that sent women overseas to earn a living, she helped build the alternative: with Napheesa Collier she co-founded Unrivaled, the professional 3-on-3 league that launched in January 2025 with equity stakes for its players.
"I am staying in New York, my family is set up and solid here. I'm committed to the Liberty, and I'm excited to continue to invest in my teammates, in the community, and in a franchise that has already given me so much."
The Story
The current record is commitment, doubled.
Stewart re-signed with the New York Liberty on a multi-year deal in open free agency, choosing to keep building with the core that delivered the franchise's first championship — and Unrivaled, the league she co-owns, has kept climbing with her: its Series C round valued it at $650 million, nearly double the $340 million valuation of its Series B, and Stewart herself was named the 2026 Unrivaled Championship MVP.
Her philosophy, in her own framing, is less cash and more equity — ownership in the thing she is building, on the court and off it.
Sources
WNBA.com — “New York Liberty Re-Sign Stewart, Jones and Ionescu”
Field Level Media — “Liberty re-sign Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones”
GREY Journal — “Breanna Stewart Net Worth” (citing Bloomberg on Unrivaled and Forbes on player equity)
Black Enterprise — “WNBA Star Napheesa Collier's Unrivaled Scores $650 Million Valuation”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Lisa Leslie · Napheesa Collier
Minnesota Lynx Star and WNBA Defensive Player of the Year · Co-founder, Unrivaled — Minneapolis, MN
Official links: Website · Instagram · X
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Why We're Inspired
Napheesa Collier was the 2019 WNBA Rookie of the Year, but her defining season came after she had her first child.
She sat out most of 2022 on maternity leave — returning just 74 days after giving birth to her daughter Mila to play one last game alongside the retiring Sylvia Fowles — then came back in 2023 as the Lynx captain and had the best year of her career: a career-best 21.5 points a game, her first All-WNBA First Team selection and a share of the AP Comeback Player of the Year award.
She followed it with the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award and two Olympic gold medals with Team USA. Rather than wait for women's basketball to pay and protect its players properly, she helped build the alternative herself: in 2023 she co-founded Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 offseason league, with Breanna Stewart.
"We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now, we have the worst leadership in the world."
The Story
Unrivaled was designed to end the exhausting overseas offseason — players flying abroad ten days after the WNBA Finals, playing year-round, getting hurt and missing their families, as Collier, a young mother herself, put it.
The Miami-based league launched in January 2025 with equity stakes for its players, and it has grown fast: by its Series C round in 2026 it was valued at $650 million, with players as the largest shareholder group, holding collective equity approaching $200 million.
Collier also works with U.S. Bank to build financial-literacy resources for WNBA players — the resources, she says, that she did not have coming into the league.
And Minnesota kept its star: Collier re-signed with the Lynx on a one-year, $1.4 million supermax contract, a dramatic jump from the $214,284 base salary that closed out her previous deal — the new economics she spent years demanding, arriving first for the players who built the alternative.
Sources
NBC Sports — “Napheesa Collier blasts Cathy Engelbert, WNBA leadership for lack of accountability”
AfroTech — “Issa Rae Is An Investor In 3 Professional Sports Leagues With Unrivaled Being The Latest”
Dime / Uproxx via GoneTrending — “Napheesa Collier Wants To Give WNBA Players The Financial Resources She Didn't Have”
EssentiallySports — “What Is Napheesa Collier's Net Worth in 2026? Lynx Contract, Salary, Earnings & More” (Spotrac contract reporting)
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Breanna Stewart · Renee Montgomery
Atlanta Dream Co-Owner & Vice President — Atlanta, GA
Official links: Website
Image: The IX Sports
Why We're Inspired
Here is an arc you could not pitch with a straight face, because it sounds invented. Renee Montgomery, a guard from St. Albans, West Virginia, won a national championship at UConn, was drafted fourth overall, played 11 WNBA seasons and won two championships with the Minnesota Lynx, earning Sixth Woman of the Year along the way.
In 2020, at the height of her career, she opted out of an entire season — sacrificing her playing salary — to work on social justice, after the Atlanta Dream's owner refused to meet with players over that activism.
A year later the Dream were sold, and Montgomery joined the group that bought them: the first former WNBA player ever to hold an ownership stake in a WNBA franchise, and the team's vice president besides. She also co-owns the FCF Beasts indoor football team, the first woman owner in that league.
"The momentum is here. Brand sponsorships are up, and business leaders are investing in everything that touches women's sports."
The Story
Montgomery has kept building on the same principle — ownership, not applause. She founded the Renee Montgomery Foundation in 2019 to promote equality in women's sports and back young dreamers, works as a broadcaster, and has joined the women's-sports bar chain The Sports Bra as an investor and strategic creative advisor as it franchises into new cities.
Her life became the subject of the 2024 documentary A Radical Act: Renee Montgomery. Published estimates put her net worth at around $3 million — a modest fortune next to some on this list, attached to one of its most remarkable sentences: the player who gave up a season on principle ended up owning the team.
Sources
West Virginia Encyclopedia — “Renee Montgomery”
Restaurant Business — “The Sports Bra wins investment from WNBA champion and team owner Renee Montgomery”
Urban Splatter — “Renee Montgomery Net Worth”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Napheesa Collier · Candace Parker
WNBA Legend · President of Women's Basketball, adidas · Co-Owner, Angel City FC — Los Angeles, CA
Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Why We're Inspired
Candace Parker arrived like a thunderclap: the only player in WNBA history to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season.
What followed was a career of rebuilding — an ACL tear at Tennessee, injuries that reached, by her own count, ten surgeries — and a résumé no one else owns: three WNBA championships with three different teams, and two MVP awards.
After 13 seasons in Los Angeles she came home to Chicago in 2021 and led the Sky to the first championship in franchise history, a hometown hero in the truest sense. She retired in April 2024 with nothing left to prove — and immediately started proving a different point, in boardrooms instead of arenas.
"Stepping into this new leadership role is a deeply personal next step in my journey with adidas. From high school to college to playing pro to now, this appointment by adidas symbolizes a shared commitment to making impactful change and setting new benchmarks for the future of women's sports. It's not just about products; it's about fostering a movement focused on innovation, representation, and access."
The Story
Parker had been putting her own money behind women's teams long before it was fashionable: in October 2020 she and her daughter joined the ownership group of Angel City FC, the Los Angeles NWSL club.
On retirement, adidas — the brand she had worn since 2008, and the first to give a woman basketball player a signature shoe, hers — named her its president of women's basketball, charged with building the platform, partnerships and product lines for the next generation of players.
She has since become the first woman co-chair of the Pro Athlete Community, which guides retired players through their second careers. Forbes-reported figures put her net worth at $8.1 million, built on overseas pay, broadcasting, endorsements and ownership — the portfolio of a player who always intended to own a piece of the game, not just play it.
Sources
Her Agenda — “Candace Parker's Net Worth” (citing Forbes)
Uproxx / Dime — “Candace Parker Will Be Adidas' New President Of Women's Basketball”
The GIST — “WNBA legend Candace Parker becomes first woman co-chair of Pro Athlete Community”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Renee Montgomery · A'ja Wilson
Las Vegas Aces Superstar and 4-Time WNBA MVP · Founder, Burnt Wax Candle Company and the A'ja Wilson Foundation — Las Vegas, NV
Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X
Image: Wikimedia Commons (John McClellan / John Mac)
Why We're Inspired
A'ja Wilson grew up in Hopkins, South Carolina, dreading the moment a teacher called on her to read aloud. She wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until her sophomore year of high school — after years of being told she was just being lazy while she was, in her words, really trying.
Basketball became the place that made sense, and she turned it into history: a national title at South Carolina, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, and a Las Vegas Aces career that now includes three WNBA championships and, in 2025, a record fourth league MVP award — no player had ever won four.
Off the court she became a New York Times best-selling author with 'Dear Black Girls' in 2024, launched the Burnt Wax Candle Company with her mother Eva in 2021 — candles named for her career milestones — and landed her own Nike signature shoe, the A'One.
"Before school started I sat down with my parents and an academic advisor from South Carolina, and we decided that every professor should know about my dyslexia."
The Story
Wilson and her parents, Rosco and Eva, founded the A'ja Wilson Foundation to serve as a resource for children and families who struggle with dyslexia and to shift school culture to prevent bullying — funding teacher training to spot learning disabilities early, plus camps, workshops and grants.
Her mother now serves as the foundation's executive director and as chief operating officer of Burnt Wax, after Wilson helped her retire from a long career in education. Wilson has said she started the foundation because the resources she finally received in college are resources every child deserves — not just top athletes at big schools.
The honours keep pace with the mission: after that record fourth MVP and a third Aces championship in four seasons, she was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
Sources
NBC Sports Bay Area & California — “Aces' A'ja Wilson talks dyslexia and her inspiring path in WNBA”
Parade — “A'ja Wilson net worth”
Moment of Lift Books — “Dear Black Girls” (publisher page)
ESPN / Associated Press — “4-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson named AP Female Athlete of the Year”
More from The Bourgeois Society: The full list · Candace Parker · Sue Bird
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