Brink's Return to the WNBA
Cameron Brink's break from basketball and a quick look at her time away from the game.
It’s been a while since my last post. While the rest of the world has moved on from the US Open, I’m still riding the World Aquatics wave. Expect a story about it soon. I’m hoping this mini-story will tide things over until then.
This July, Cameron Brink, a forward for the Los Angeles Sparks, returned to basketball after more than a year-long break from the game.
Brink was one among a handful of rookie players that rose to fame in the WNBA 2024 season, alongside Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kate Martin, Rickea Johnson and Kamilla Cardoso. She was the number 2 pick in the draft that year, behind Clark, averaging 8 points-per-game and was even selected to play on the 3x3 team for the Paris Olympics (3x3 is a shorter and faster variation of basketball played on a half-court with one hoop and three players in each team).
However, Brink’s season was cut short when she tore the ACL in her left knee during the first quarter of a June 18 basketball game against the Connecticut Sun. ACL tears are serious and unrelenting injuries for professional athletes and she was unable to play the remainder of the first year of her professional career.
13 months later, Brink is back on the court and is averaging 6 points per game. But I was more curious about her time spent away from basketball.
How do WNBA athletes, like Cameron Brink, earn off the court?
As per the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement, in short, signed players do receive a salary for any injury or illness that was suffered in-season, except if the player has attempted suicide, committed intentional self-inflicted injury, abuse of alcohol, and a few more (the list goes on). Brink has a four-year rookie contract with the Sparks, making her eligible to continue to receive a base salary during her recovery period.
Unlike other athletes who tend to celebrate their first paychecks, Brink is known to be careful with her earnings. “I’m really thinking about my financial future,” Brink, who claims to have saved up nearly 90% of her rookie salary, told CNBC, “I want to ensure that I’m setting myself up for a comfortable lifestyle down the line because I definitely don’t want to be working forever.”
A break as long as 13 months can stall a professional athlete’s physical progress, but also popularity—and with it, income. Athletes’ professional lives are powerfully short-lived compared to traditional jobs. Female athletes have to earn enough to set up a stable financial future after their professional careers end. Since WNBA athletes aren’t earning as much as they’d like to through their regular season salaries, they look to other ways to keep income streams flowing by playing in the off-season, taking up endorsement deals, setting up hefty insurance policies and even podcasts or YouTube channels.
But Brink didn’t lose momentum while she was away. Over the last year, she signed endorsement deals with New Balance and Urban Outfitters. She also runs a podcast show ‘Straight To Cam’ alongside Sydel Curry-Lee, creating episodes that cover pop culture, dating hot takes, social media trends, fashion, everyday struggles, and her life in the WNBA.