“It’s My Job”: Building a Professional League

This chapter questions what it means that the WNBA is a professional league, yet one that does not operate with the same resources as equivalent male leagues. Though the WNBA has tried to mirror the professionalism of the NBA, it often falls significantly short, particularly in terms of the quality of training and facilities, accommodation, and travel. The result is a situation where players experience some of the trappings of professionalism, but limited benefits. Through my ethnographic research, I show that WNBA players now expect a certain level of professionalism that the WNBA often does not live up to, and they have continually pushed the league to ensure that they are up to a standard appropriate for the best players in the world. This chapter provides a gendered lens on labour issues, as well as contributing a new materialist perspective arguing that the material environment of a professional league and the gendered power dynamics work rhizomatically through the players’ bodies. Furthermore, this chapter contends that to make a living, players often need to play overseas in the off-season, as the inability of the WNBA to provide a year-round, sufficient income, means players need to subject themselves to unpredictable conditions, a predicament that has become particularly relevant and urgent after the wrongful imprisonment of Brittney Griner in Russia.