Former NBA star Jermaine O’Neal’s daughter reacts to Caitlin Clark and Victor Wembanyama’s staggering pay gap in 1 word

Caitlin Clark and Victor Wembanyama took the professional basketball world by storm during their rookie seasons, breaking viewership records and breathing a new life into both leagues. Their talent and marketability has propelled them into conversations concerning the next face of each league. However, the two do have one major difference between them; their compensation.

Asjia O'Neal is the daughter of six-time NBA All-Star Jermaine O'Neal, who played in the NBA for 18 seasons. Both O'Neal and his daughter are still connected with the basketball world, and O'Neal's daughter took to her Instagram story on Monday to emphasize the gap between Wembanyama's and Caitlin Clark's contracts when it was discussed on MSNBC, only having one word in response.

"Sighhh 😢😔" Asjia said when she saw the numbers.

O'Neal expressed her disappointment in the astronomical pay gap between Wembanyama and Clark despite their comparable talent levels.

Both Victor Wembanyama and Caitlin Clark were the clear-cut No. 1 selections in their drafts, but the gap in the contract value is a prime example of the biggest difference between the WNBA and the NBA. Wembanyama's rookie contract paid him $12.1 million in his first season, while Clark received just $76,500 as a WNBA rookie.

Commissioners Adam Silver and Catherine Engelbert have worked to close the pay gap between their two leagues, but as Asjia O'Neal pointed out, they still have a lot of work to do. One of the biggest reasons why the WNBA's players don't receive the same kinds of contracts that those in the NBA do is the lack of money being spent to cover the league, but Caitlin Clark is helping to fix that problem.

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Caitlin Clark has fueled the WNBA's newest media rights deal and CBA

Caitlin Clark captured the nation's attention during her time at Iowa, and the young phenom brought her fans with her when she entered the WNBA. The league enjoyed the best viewership numbers in its history last season, and broadcast companies were willing to pay a high price to secure the rights to WNBA games.

The new media rights deal is worth around $2.2 billion over the next 11 years, according to ESPN's Alexa Phillipou, by far the league's biggest deal. The WNBA Player's Association pivoted quickly, restructuring the league's collective bargaining agreement(CBA) to make sure that players got their cut of the new deal. The new CBA kicks in next season, allowing for bigger paydays.

Caitlin Clark's contract might be millions of dollars less than Wembanyama's, but her global popularity has more people watching the WNBA than ever before as she continues to sell out arenas, even in preseason games. If she continues her superstar ascension, the pay gap might be closed far sooner than expected.