Since its implementation 50 years ago, Title IX has done a great deal to help level the educational and athletic playing field for girls and women up through their college years. There’s certainly still work to be done, but overall the opportunities now available are light-years beyond what existed before 1972.

If only there were some way to reach some semblance of parity in post-university years.

One obvious target is the chasm between women’s and men’s professional sports — specifically, how much athletes earn. When a sport is shared between the two, such as basketball or tennis, earnings are so disparate as to be almost laughable.

To its credit, professional tennis, like other women’s sports, has in recent years sought to narrow the income gap. Grand Slam events now pay women and men equally, but smaller tournaments still award female athletes less than male athletes.

Any appearance of similar earnings, say in the form of a Williams sister’s annual salary, is largely due to lucrative endorsement and other non-tennis-related deals.

Professional basketball, however, is the real disappointment, and the gross salary discrepancy is partly why the United States has yet another American detained overseas by a menacing government.

Brittney Griner’s ordeal in Russia has been widely documented by now, and it’s not going to end anytime soon.

The details of the WNBA star’s detention are well known: Arrested in February for allegedly being caught at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow with cannabis-oil-filled vape cartridges in her luggage, Griner’s been on trial since last month and recently pleaded guilty. In Russia, though, trials continue despite a guilty plea and hers could last until December (her lawyers predict a conclusion in the coming weeks).

Griner was in Russia to continue playing for the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team, which is her squad during the WNBA offseason. She, like many other professional women’s basketball players, opts to play overseas to supplement her U.S. income, which is a small fraction of what professional men’s players make.

Griner’s current WNBA salary is billed at around $228,000 a year; it’s been said she can make $1 million a season in Russia. Even when combined, her two salaries pale in comparison to what an NBA player makes in a year.

When Griner was the WNBA’s top draft pick in 2013, for example, she didn’t even pull in $50,000 in her first year. Meanwhile, an NBA rookie drafted in the first round can sign a contract worth millions.

While a salary of $1.2 million would be great news for most anyone, for a professional athlete who works as hard as Griner it may as well be pennies.

NBA stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry are paid north of $40 million per season, and that’s just for play in the U.S. Their second jobs don’t require immersion in the Russian language or possible arrest just for packing their bags in a hurry (which is what Griner’s lawyer, at a recent hearing, said she did, which led to the vape cartridges in her bag).

Some would argue there are valid reasons for the discrepancy in pro ball wages. For one, the WNBA season is less than half the length of the NBA season. Another explanation is the youth of the WNBA — founded in 1996 — versus the history of the NBA, which started as the Basketball Association of America in 1946.

Those two factors count against the WNBA as far as revenue and, therefore, player salaries go. It’s a challenge just to get the athletes on charter flights to and from games, a privilege enjoyed by NBA teams without a thought.

Despite all this, there is still no reason why WNBA players’ earnings are so comparatively low that they feel they must play overseas just to ensure a solid income.

Honestly, I don’t know what the solution is. It would be great if Title IX rules stretched beyond college graduation — thereby benefiting women in many more areas than just sports — but that’s a pie-in-the-sky dream.

In the meantime, all we can do is hope for a positive outcome for Griner and that pay disparities will at least narrow so players don’t have to face the same risks in the future.

June 23, 2022, marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. To commemorate this watershed event, the Star-Advertiser will publish a series of stories celebrating the achievements of female pioneers and leaders with Hawaii ties.

Click here to view the Title IX series.