From hoops to oysters: Inside the unexpected second acts of WNBA stars

After seven days of wind, the morning is finally calm enough on New York’s East Moriches Bay for Sue Wicks to jetty her boat to check on her oysters. Hundreds of cages pop out at odd angles from their lines, and a few float away.

The retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer admits that the aquaculture farm she started at age 50 can be anxiety-inducing and compares it to her time playing basketball.

“Some days you’re like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ You’re injured, you’re hurt, you are losing, things are going bad. And then the next day you go back and do it again because you love it,” she said.

Wicks, 59, has worked as a commentator, college basketball coach and at a fitness start-up since retiring from the WNBA in 2002, and says she feels lucky to again find a career “that works for my soul.” But the reality is that even a successful run as one of the world’s best basketball players didn’t earn her enough to fully retire.

Although the WNBA is bringing in more than ever from sponsors and ticket sales, many players still find themselves financially unsteady when the final whistle blows.

“The choice is what they do as their second career, not whether they have a second career,” said Risa Isard, director of research and insights at women’s sports marketing platform Parity. Since “women athletes get paid a fraction of what men do while they’re playing,” Isard said their next acts tend to look more like traditional career paths rather than managing substantial investment portfolios.

The average NBA salary is around $11.9 million, according to data reviewed by The Associated Press. That's nearly 100 times what the WNBA says is the average salary of $120,000 for its players — although major differences in league size, age, profit margins and media contracts account for part of that gap.

For 2009 second overall draft pick and 2015 WNBA All-Star Marissa Coleman, the main difference between post-playing careers between WNBA and NBA players is that “most NBA guys are sitting on tens, sometimes hundreds of million dollars.” And for those who are financially savvy, working after the game is “more so curing boredom versus a necessity."

"Most women athletes across the board have to find a career after basketball out of necessity,” Coleman said.

All this is happening against a backdrop of unresolved questions about the future of WNBA player compensation. Tensions have run high in the ongoing labor battle between the WNBA and the players’ union, although it is unclear how far apart the sides are in terms of compensation. Both parties agreed on Nov. 30 to an extension of the current collective bargaining agreement to Jan. 9 while negotiations continue.

A major sticking point has been revenue sharing: As the WNBA booms, players are looking for a larger share in that growth. They currently earn a significantly smaller fraction of the league’s revenue compared with NBA players.

When former Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters transitioned from basketball to real estate development in 2019, she said the hardest lesson was learning that working hard in her new career may not be enough to yield results quickly, or at all. After a tough game during her playing days, she could “go in the gym and shoot and work on my shot. And you’re going to see a result if you’re putting in the work."

“That is not necessarily true in the real world,” said the 36-year-old. "You can put in a ton of work and do a lot right and not get anywhere.”

The shift away from basketball also came as a financial shock: “That transition was a little bit difficult in that I had to cut back significantly,” she said. “There was a lot of learning very quickly” given the “big gap in what I was making then and what I make now.”

For the last six years, Peters has shepherded an affordable housing project in South Bend, Indiana — home to her alma mater, Notre Dame. Red tape, politics, and myriad other logistical challenges have made the project “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life," Peters said.

But she says it's also the best: “Helping people that truly, genuinely need it” makes it all worth it. Her affordable apartment building is slated to break ground next month, and open its doors in August 2027.

For 38-year-old Coleman, the next phase of her career also unfolded far outside the paint. Alongside former teammate Alana Beard, Coleman franchised a Mellow Mushroom — a psychedelic-themed pizza chain — in Roanoke, Virginia. She also chaired a campaign to legalize sports betting in Maryland, and now leads strategy and growth for the VIP team at fantasy sports platform Underdog, with the aim of carving space for more women and people of color to access the industry.

“I knew from a very early age entrepreneurship and business were something that I was really, really passionate about,” Coleman said.

She added that she feels grateful to her parents for emphasizing the importance of education and long-term career planning. Thanks to their wisdom, she made sure to seek out mentors and explore industries that interested her throughout her basketball career.

“I knew I didn’t want to be one of those players that retired, and it was like, ‘Oh gosh, what now?’” Coleman said.

Many former athletes land in sports-related roles, such as coaching or sports broadcasting. But not all are surefooted in finding their next calling.

Jayne Appel Marinelli, SVP of player relations for the league's union and a former center for the San Antonio Stars, counsels players on their post-basketball career path. She explained the transition remains challenging for many, even with the WNBA and union's joint tuition assistance and internship program, and semester-long opportunity with Harvard Business School, which Coleman completed.

The players' union has worked to further expand opportunities by adding player internship slots to licensee contracts, partnering with universities and more, according to Appel Marinelli. Athletes “sometimes need help recognizing that the skills that they have built are so easily transferable over to any role that they’re going to take on next," she said.

That kind of support didn't exist for Wicks' generation at the league's inception in 1997. There "was no stability in women's sports," she said. “Our victory was, we got our next paycheck, and that the lights were on and that the bus was waiting there still.”

Back then, “my dream was that the league would exist,” Wicks said. Almost 30 years later, her new dream is that players "are compensated in a way that gives them freedom to do what they want in life.”

Despite her own post-WNBA success, Peters says players could use more guidance to help them understand how to plan, save and prepare for the future.

“The general lifespan of a basketball player is not long,” she said. “You have to be prepared to not be here tomorrow or the next year.”

AP Sports Writers Doug Feinberg in New York and Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks carries bags of oysters off her boat in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Former Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters, transitioned from basketball to real estate development, poses for a photo at her office in Chicago, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Retired WNBA All-Star Marissa Coleman poses for a photo in Mitchellville, Md., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks throws an anchor from her boat in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Retired WNBA star and Hall of Famer Sue Wicks rides her boat to check on her oysters in Moriches Bay in New York, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

SYDNEY (AP) — Two gunmen attacked a Hannukah celebration on a Sydney beach Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitism and terrorism.

The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. It is the deadliest shooting for almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.

One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second, who was arrested, was in critical condition, authorities said. Police said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.

At least 29 people were confirmed wounded, including two police officers, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.

Police said officers were examining a number of suspicious items, including several improvised explosive devices found in one of the suspect’s cars.

“This attack was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community,” the state's premier, Chris Minns, said. The massacre was declared a terrorist attack due to the event targeted and weapons used, Lanyon said.

Hundreds had gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.

Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs scores of centers around the world that are popular with Jewish travelers and sponsors large public events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.

Video footage filmed by onlookers appeared to show two gunmen with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach. One dramatic clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.

Minns called the man a “genuine hero.”

Police said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade in Bondi about 6.45 p.m. responding to reports of shots being fired.

Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press he was waiting for his family nearby when he heard shots. He dropped the beer he was carrying for his brother and ran.

“You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away. ... I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could," Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes.

“Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying and it was just horrible," Moran said.

The violence erupted at the end of a hot summer day when thousands had flocked to the beach.

“It was the most perfect day and then this happened,” said local resident Catherine Merchant.

“Everyone was just running and there were bullets and there were so many of them and we were really scared,” she told Australia’s ABC News.

Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital, Canberra, that he was “devastated” by the massacre.

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. An act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.

“Amidst this vile act of violence and hate will emerge a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith,” he said.

World leaders expressed condolences. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the “ghastly terrorist attack” and offered his condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being updated on the “appalling attack.” Police in London said they would step up security at Jewish sites.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X that “The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world.”

Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents, including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation, surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government's Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.

Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population live.

Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. The authorities didn't make such claims about Sunday's massacre.

Israel urged Australia's government to address crimes targeting Jews.

“The heart of the entire nation of Israel misses a beat at this very moment,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. “We repeat our alerts time and time again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”

Mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.

Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014, and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves.

In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.

McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

A small Christmas tree is at the center of an abandoned holiday picnic at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Bystanders stay where police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers standby at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)