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Why the WNBA?
By Tony Renteria June 27, 2007 |
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Why Cover the Sacramento Monarchs? They are girls for goodness sake. They are women! The WNBA? Why would a red blooded American male care about women’s basketball? Maybe because it is Basketball at it is purest form. There is passing and defense. And a team concept that has been lost since ESPN started showing highlights of dunks, blocks and players being arrested. The WNBA is the product that the NBA put out to compete with the now defunct ABL. David Stern knew women’s professional basketball was a wise investment, if not an easy one, for the owners to make. In 2005, the salary cap for the WNBA was only 0.673 million dollars. A certain owner in Dallas exceeds that in fines per year, almost every year. High school coaches across America cover their eyes when watching Men’s professional Basketball. It is hard to find to say a guy is your hero when he has six kids out of wedlock and been arrested for sexual assault. But these are Ladies, yes Ladies not women, Ladies who come to work and actually do what coaches say and play for the love of the game. The average WNBA player does not make the millions in a career or do they even have and off-season. Most play overseas where women’s professional basketball games are as rabid as a Duke/North Carolina Game in early March. They drive cars that most people drive. They live in homes that most people live in. They sign autographs and give interviews with out setting conditions. They actually wait for fans to walk over them and smile as the little kid’s line up to meet them. One day Bill Russell told fans that he did not sign autographs and nearly at once it started the separation of player and fan. The players made more than the coaches, the coaches started to care more about wins than the players and professional team basketball died. In doing so the name of the back of the jersey became more important than the name on the front. Parents have to explain to kids that NBA players are not role models that they are people just like the rest of us. I have yet to find a WNBA player arrested for sexual assault or drug possession. Nor has a WNBA player ever chocked her coach or kicked a cameraman. When a WNBA player charges into the stands it is to chase down a loose ball or even give a fan a high five after a game. So lets hope when little girls make a great pass they yell “Tisha!!” In the NBA, stars are ridiculed for passing the basketball, in the WNBA they are praised. When one player falls, eight hands reach out to pick them out. They have a concept know as “Team ball.” They pass the ball to every player. They play team defense. You can depend on them to show up on time with out having to send a limo for them. They are true professionals. Some may ask why cover the WNBA? I say why not, they play basketball! We have just forgotten what it was like to watch it done the right way! |
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