Former Washington Wizards stalwart Etan Thomas recently showed his support for a now-viral protest by the 2025 WNBA All-Stars regarding equal pay. In this year’s WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday, July 19, several notable names, such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers, made headlines by wearing black pre-game shirts, demanding equal pay.
The shirts read, “Pay us what you owe us,” in bold white letters, which was a direct shot at the higher-ups in the WNBA and the discussions and developments regarding a recent round of CBA negotiations. This prompted Thomas, a former teammate of NBA legend and six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan, to come up with his own collage of these players’ pictures on his X/Twitter handle along with a supportive two-word reaction.
“Much Respect #WNBA #WNBAallstar,” Thomas captioned with a fist emoji.
Much Respect #WNBA 👊🏾#WNBAallstar pic.twitter.com/iax0wuEqYD
— Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) July 20, 2025
Thomas played for the Wizards at the start of his NBA career after his standout tenure with the Syracuse Orange. He played at Washington from 2001 to 2009, as he was drafted with the 12th overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks and traded to the Wizards a year later. There, he played with Jordan for a couple of years before the now Hall of Famer officially retired in 2003.
Nowadays, Thomas is in basketball media, appearing on different podcasts and regularly publishing articles surrounding the equal pay between men and women. With him pledging his allegiance towards the WNBA All-Stars’ push for equal pay, he is bolstering the narrative, along with many others, of WNBA players pushing for fair compensation on their end.
The reason why All-Stars such as Clark, Bueckers, Reese, and even New York Liberty superstar Sabrina Ionescu wore these shirts is that two days prior to the celebratory All-Star game, more than 40 players met with league officials to discuss the recent CBA negotiations. Apparently, they weren’t satisfied with the progress made, so they decided to come together and push for more development.
Brittney Sykes Joined Equal Pay Movement Post 2025 WNBA All-Star Game
Former Syracuse Orange standout and now Washington Mystics guard Brittney Sykes held up a bold sign during interviews after this year’s WNBA All-Star Game on July 19.
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The sign read, “Pay the players,” in bold white letters on a black board. She was waving and showing it around when Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier was accepting her 2025 WNBA All-Star Game MVP award.
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