She’s already signed a contract with Sparta&K of Vidnoje in the Moscow Region of the Russian League. She reports sometime in August.
“Russia. It’s where a lot of women’s basketball players end up to get that experience,” Bertsch told me this week.
UConn’s two-time national Player of the Year, Breanna Stewart, and WNBA superstar Brittany Griner both played last year in Bertsch’s new league. Meanwhile, some analysts believe this Russian conference is the toughest in the world.
“It will be a good opportunity for me to grow,” says the 6-foot-4 former post player who is in transition on the court.
[...] elite WNBA players can make about 15 times more from their overseas teams than they do from their WNBA teams. Diana Taurasi, for example, makes $1.5 million from her Russian team, enough that she infamously chose to skip the 2015 season after she was asked to do so by the team, UMMC Ekaterinburg.
[...] WNBA players in general make at least three times more from their foreign teams than their average WNBA salary.
[Griner] was the first overall pick in the 2013 WNBA draft, but as a rookie, could only make $49,440 per the WNBA's tight-pursed salary rules.
At the end of her first season, she played for the Zhejiang Golden Bulls of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association and earned $600,000 for a four-month season — or more than a dozen times her maximum WNBA salary.
AggieSportsTalk.com, the pulse of Aggie athletics. The home of Aggie Pride. Create an account to contribute to the conversation!