I’m going to do my best to not sound sexist in this article, but I’m sure some will take my comments that way, and I apologize to those people in advance.
I love basketball. I love all kinds. The NBA is my personal preference, but if there’s basketball on TV I will watch it. I live for March when the college madness is on everybody’s mind and the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. I even salivate during fall watching the pre-season games. The summer is the only time of year when I feel a serious basketball deficiency. It is during this time that “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Hoosiers” are in constant rotation on my DVD player. However, there is no reason that this should be the case. In June, just as the NBA finals are coming to a close, the WNBA season is starting up. In fact, the WNBA finals just finished. Why has the WNBA continued to play to half empty stadiums and why has it been unable to capture the hearts and minds of even the most ardent basketball fans?
I’m sure sexism has something to do with the low attendance rates, but there are many women and men, like myself, who view sports as sports regardless of who’s playing. The only thing I demand is that my sports be exciting and the WNBA makes the mistake of not allowing the most exciting part of the game: the slam-dunk.
To be clear: there is no rule on the books that says the players are not allowed to dunk; it’s just that most women in the league can’t dunk. According to the 2007-08 player survey, the average height of an NBA player is 6′7”. According to the same survey for the WNBA the average height of a female player is 5′11”. The men have an average of eight inches on the women, yet they still play on the same size hoop and both leagues use a ten-foot basket. That just doesn’t make any practical sense.
Some may argue that changing the rules of the game to suit the smaller players would be sexist treatment of the women athletes, and that they should compete with the same rules as the men. I disagree completely. In softball they use different equipment and a different pitching style, and women’s lacrosse and field hockey have different rules from the men’s equivalent of those sports. The WNBA itself uses a smaller ball to suit women’s smaller hands. It’s not a question of gender equality; it’s a question of practicality. If everybody in the NBA was the size of Shaquille O’Neal, Yao Ming, and Dwight Howard, I would suggest that they change the height of the rim to 11 or 12 feet.
The fact is that the WNBA players are shorter, so it makes sense that the rim be adjusted for this fact. In the history of the WNBA only two players have dunked in a regular season game, Lisa Leslie in 2002 and more recently Candace Parker in 2008. If the rim was lowered 6-8 inches, women would be able to throw down, the same way as the men, and in turn I guarantee you would have more viewers (as well as this one right here).
Sports are supposed to be exciting for the fans. That’s why we watch. Changing the size of the ball, but not the height of the rim doesn’t make any logical or, more importantly for the league, fiscal sense. When sports aren’t exciting they just become competitions between the players, which I support wholeheartedly but have no interest in watching. Ms. Orender, if you want to have fans of your sport, make it something worth being a fan of. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat shoe sole…when they get dunked on.”
Matthew Strickland is a senior at Drexel University. He studies English and Philosophy, and is anticipated to graduate in March of 2010.
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I wouldn’t call you sexist — I’d just call you uniformed.
What on earth do you do during the time in men’s basketball games when they’re NOT dunking? I mean, why even bother watching the actual game when you can watch dunking contests…. ’cause that is, for you, what makes the game “exciting.”
Since you clearly don’t know (or don’t appreciate) the history of men’s basketball, I won’t bother to educate you on the history of women’s basketball. Just know that, after 13 years (or, to be more accurate, 4 full years of play) the WNBA draws more fans than the NBA did after its first four years.
So, enjoy your “dunk fest,” and please leave your hands off our game.
Ummm,
i think what he was trying to say was dunking would only make the game more fun. It’s kind like If you took out the three point shot, or you weren’t allowed to steal the ball, it’s just another aspect of the game that adds some spice.
Can you clarify the information you provide as to the WNBA’s popularity? Why do you consider the first 13 years of the WNBA only 4 full years? By comparing the first 4 years of the NBA with the first 13 of the WNBA, the women’s league may be more popular, but it’s not an accurate comparison.
In the 13th season of the NBA, Bill Russel and Wilt Chamberlain were national sports superstars, and today after 13 seasons of the WNBA (with 24-hour sports television, exponentially increased marketing, and the backing of the already established NBA) it’s popularity is, shall we say, less than stellar (ranking just behind the National Lacrosse League in average attendance for North American pro sports leagues).
A well written article that balances practicality and the politics of Women vs. Men in sports.
Strickland is a promising young sports writer. Give him 10 years and we’ll all be reading his weekly column for ESPN.
Mr. Strickland,
I loved this article. I never thought of this before until my daughter (she is 6) and I were watching a WNBA game last year. She asked “why don’t the girls slamdunk” and I laughed. Today dropping her off to her first recreational basketball game the thought pooped back into my head.
I wholeheartedly agree with you and found your article well-written and worth something. I would definitley watch the wnba if women could dunk– and the only logical way to do this would be to lower the rim. I think Helen did not read the article in an unbiased way and owes you an apology for her uneducated tirade.
Richie
excuse me did you say “on the rag”. What was this implying? That is sexist. That is disgusting– you even have a daughter, sir.
Maybe women don’t dunk because we have class.
Women shouldn’t dunk. We should preserve the actual skill involved in the sport and stay away from the flashy non-sense like dunking.
Thanks a lot man
Im a huge basketball fan, no matter who is playing. I watch the nba,college men, college women, wnba, and high school ball. Although im already a wnba fan i agree with the article and have actually had the same thoughts myself. This doesnt mean that the women of the wnba cant play because they can. The dunk doesnt make the whole game but it makes it more exciting. baseball is a good game but the home run makes it more exciting. bowling is a good game but a strike or picking up a split is exciting. Tennis is good but an ace or great shot makes it more exciting. football is good but a big hit or touchdown makes it more exciting