Rapinoe hits NBA star Draymond Green over his comments on women’s sports

U.S. women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe on Wednesday called out Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green over his comments on the pay disparity between male and female athletes, CBS Sports reported.

Green was criticized over a series of tweets he wrote regarding WNBA players seeking equal pay. In a March 31 interview, he said he was “really tired” of hearing complaints about WNBA players who want higher salaries. 

“I’m really tired of seeing them complain about the lack of pay, because they’re doing themselves a disservice by just complaining,” Green said.

Rapinoe, who has pushed to close the pay gap between the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams, said Green had shown his “whole ass” on the issue.

“That was really disappointing, and from someone who has such a big platform, that’s just not acceptable at all.”

— Andrew Keh (@andrewkeh) April 7, 2021

“You obviously kind of showed your whole ass in not even understanding what we all talk about all the time. … You don’t think we’ve asked for more funding? What are we screaming about nonstop?” she said. “That was really disappointing, and from someone who has such a big platform, that’s just not acceptable at all.”  

Rapinoe took issue with Green’s initial comments late last month in which he said women focus too much on the pay disparity and not enough on growing the sports they play.

Thanks to those who’ve taken an interest in this issue. I wanted to post the second half of this interaction with @KerithBurke & Draymond. He says women need to call out companies/entities who aren’t valuing female athletes (they have been). Men with power need to do it too. pic.twitter.com/uz3nEoLNvk

— Kylen Mills (@KylenMills) April 5, 2021

On Monday, in the second half of his interview, Green said companies that promote women’s empowerment but don’t put money forward to support it were also part of the problem.