Warriors star Draymond Green says 'NBA players support the WNBA more than we probably support' our own league

• WNBA legend Lisa Leslie joined UNINTERRUPTED's "The Shop" for an episode airing Friday.
• The two-time champ and three-time MVP spoke to LeBron James and Draymond Green about promoting the WNBA.

NBA players are the "No. 1 allies" to the WNBA and its athletes, according to one of the brightest stars to ever step foot on a women's basketball court.

Even still, she said, they can do more to help support the league.

WNBA legend Lisa Leslie sat down with NBA stars LeBron James, Draymond Green, and P.J. Tucker for a Season 5 episode of UNINTERRUPTED's "The Shop" that debuts Friday.

In a sneak peek offered exclusively to Insider, the two-time WNBA champion and three-time league MVP discussed the WNBA pay gap and how NBA players can continue to support their counterparts in the women's league.

"From a salary standpoint, it'd be great for the women to be able to make more money," Leslie said. "It's a lot of work — it's a lot of hard work. I think I saw something that said one player that makes maybe $12 million on an NBA team can cover the whole WNBA's salaries. And so that's kind of crazy."

"Again, we're 26 years young, so it's not like we're comparing ourselves to the NBA, but I do feel like the pay gap would be something that — we could just take a donation around the NBA maybe," the Los Angeles Sparks legend added, pantomiming passing around a hat for contributions.

"Maybe one night y'all don't go to the casinos."

But Green — a Golden State Warriors superstar who has previously gotten himself into hot water for commenting on women's players "complaining" about pay discrepancies — took issue with Leslie's characterization of NBA players' relationship with the WNBA.

"It pisses me off, because I don't think there's anyone in America that supports the WNBA more than NBA players," Green said, to which Leslie responded "100%."

"The NBA players support the WNBA players more than we probably support the fucking NBA," he added. "And it bothers me."

Leslie then explained that she believes the WNBA should further embrace its connection with NBA players. She said that she used her platform as one of the WNBA's Top 25 Players of All Time, an honor the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game earned in 2021, to impress upon others in the league that they should direct more focus toward NBA players.

"When LeBron wore that orange hoodie, I told them — that hoodie was just sitting there with the logo on it," Leslie said as Green nodded along. "When he wore that hoodie, it went viral. I explained to them that our No. 1 allies that have supported us from day one are the NBA players. I said they tweet, they follow us, they come to our games — we don't highlight them."

The WNBA has spotlighted NBA players on several occasions during the past season. Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul was the inaugural recipient of the Kobe & Gigi Bryant WNBA Advocacy Award back in February 2022 because he "attended WNBA games throughout the regular season and playoffs, and also supports the youth girls' game through camps and the CP3 Basketball Academy," per ESPN.

But not everyone was enthusiastic about that choice. Some argued that rewarding a professional athlete for merely supporting other professional athletes is infantilizing to the latter group.

Still, there are undeniable benefits to NBA players supporting the WNBA. Ja Morant, the 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year who is close friends with Las Vegas Aces superstar A'ja Wilson, sat courtside during several of the 2022 WNBA MVP's Finals matchups in September. He even danced with Wilson after one game — which gained tons of traction on social media.

He repeatedly tweeted about the experience — and the rest of the Finals series between the Aces and Connecticut Sun — to his 2.4 million followers. No WNBA star has close to as large a following, and the league itself checks in at just over 800,000 Twitter followers.

That's Leslie's point.

"They are our No. 1 ally," Leslie said. "They have the most followers. You guys are targeting the wrong people."

Fans can check out the new episode of The Shop presented by Grey Goose on Friday at noon ET on UNINTERRUPTED's YouTube channel. But until then, check out the exclusive clip of Leslie, Green, and James below: