Brittney Griner has a net worth that is believed to be between $5 million and $17 million and it’s mostly earned from her basketball career. She is an American professional female basketball star who plays as a center for Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Recently, the 6-feet-8-inch-tall basketball player has been slightly more popular, no thanks to her ongoing imprisonment in a Russian facility for being in possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. Right from the time she was arrested in February 2022, the interest in Brittney Griner’s personal life has been at an all-time high. Here is everything there is to know about the 33-year-old’s net worth, like how she makes her money and the teams she played for before her incarceration.
What is Brittney Griner’s Net Worth?
There are varying reports on exactly how much Brittney Griner is really worth. The super athlete is reportedly worth anywhere between $5 million and $17 million. However, according to reports by blogs like Celebrity Net Worth, Daily Mail, and Sports Brief, Brittney is much closer to a $5 million total net worth than $17 million.
The Phoenix Mercury Amazon began playing professionally in 2013 and has been able to establish herself as one of the best female basketball players thus far. Although a $5 million net worth is impressive by all means, there is a lot to be said about the huge disparity between the earnings of male and female basketball players in the United States.
In the WNBA, the average yearly salary for players is between $70k and $150k as opposed to nearly $4 million for the players in the NBA league. Griner happens to be in the very top percentile of salary earners, as she grossed nearly $227,990 in 2022. The 33-year-old earns both during the WNBA season and off-season.
A rising trend among the WNBA stars sees them take short contracts abroad during the off-season of the WNBA to play for foreign basketball clubs in a bid to augment their sincerely poor salaries.
Season Contracts Contribute to Brittney Griner’s Net Worth
Since her foray into professional basketball, Brittney Griner has signed a number of pro contracts that have slightly increased as her value increased and she became more of a force on the court.
Most recently she signed her contract with the Phoenix Mercury was extended by three years. She plays a center for the team, an unsurprising fact since she is a total goddess on the court.
According to Wikipedia, Brittney Griner is currently the only NCAA basketball player to have scored 2,000 points, while simultaneously blocking 500 shots. Nearly a decade ago, in 2012, she was named the AP Player of the Year as well as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
Griner has won the All-American championships three times and is an Olympic gold medalist, an NCAA champion, a FIBA World Cup gold medalist, and a WNBA champion. But do all these accolades translate to a great-paying career for Griner? Let’s find out.
Brittney Griner’s WNBA Contracts
Her most recent season in the WNBA saw her sign a three-year extension in 2020 worth about $664,544 in total (still less than what the least capable male players make on average). This put her salary for the 2021-2022 season at $221,450, $227,900 for the 2022-2023.
Although it is nothing compared to what the men earn, it’s much better than her previous pay. Her first contract with Mercury was in 2016. She signed for a total of $554,000 and earned roughly $138,500 per year on average.
Since she joined the WNBA in 2013, Brittney Griner has only ever played for the Phoenix Mercury. Only recently, the club began their first playoffs since the 2022 season and Griner was noticeably absent. We can only pray that the basketball star returns to the court in the near future.
Brittney Griner’s Off-Season Contracts
To make up for the huge salary deficit, top WNBA players opt to play overseas. Her first basketball rodeo outside of the USA was in China. According to reports from the NBA, the center signed a $600,000 contract with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls for a one-year period.
A quick calculation will reveal that Griner made her three-year WNBA salary in just a few months, by simply choosing to play for a foreign country. Next, she decided to work with the UMMC Ekaterinburg of Russia, ironically the same country she is presently incarcerated in. Griner reportedly made over $1.5 million for every season that she played for Russia.
Endorsements That Contribute to Brittney Griner’s Net Worth
Griner currently is a brand ambassador for the global footwear brand, Nike. She first signed a contract with them in 2013, becoming the first gay athlete (who’d come out at the time of the contract signing), to sign an endorsement deal with the shoe brand. The contract was reportedly worth $1 million. Her collaborative merch jerseys reportedly sell for as much as $100 apiece.
The basketball superstar certainly earns a pretty sum from her on-court skills, but as with almost every other celebrity in the world today, she makes money from a host of other avenues as well.
Currently, Brittney Griner’s Net Worth Remains Uncertain as a Result Of Her Incarceration
Brittney Griner’s career is currently in limbo because of her ongoing legal issues but surprisingly, her endorsement deals are all intact. This is probably because Americans are largely sympathetic to her plight and are hesitating to cut her out of her contracts. There is no doubt that her career will take off once more if she is released soon.
Currently, the United States government appears to be in talks with Russia, the aim being to facilitate the release of Brittney Griner in exchange for US-imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, but the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war seems to be a clog in the wheel.
Other unverified predictions believe that Brittney Griner would have an increased net worth in the coming years. Her net worth is estimated to grow at a rate of 30% each year. There are also expectations that the basketball star would earn more from media and television rounds, especially if she is released soon enough.
