The WNBA should be embarrassed to have Michael Alter as one of its owners.
Alter has long run the Chicago Sky on a shoestring, unable or unwilling to provide his players with resources appropriate for a professional franchise. Now he’s dealt Angel Reese, the Sky’s biggest star and a marketing goldmine, for the equivalent of pocket change and bubble gum.
Connect the dots: the Sky’s entire payroll is going to balloon under the new collective bargaining agreement, with minimum salaries going from less than $70,000 to $270,000. At the same time, Reese's salary will jump to $350,000 this season and she could be eligible for a supermax deal worth $1.4 million as early as next year but for sure in 2027.
No way Alter can, or will, pay that. So off to the Atlanta Dream Reese is going, leaving the franchise in the country’s third-largest city an even bigger laughingstock than it was before.
"This trade is designed to achieve roster balance and represents a great opportunity for all parties,” general manager Jeff Pagliocca said in the statement announcing Reese’s trade for a pair of first-round draft picks.
