The Off-Season and the WNBA

Last night was also the last night of my regular September thru June Monday/Wednesday pick-up game. Only 13 players showed up, gym was humid and wicked-hot, guys were having a hard time even holding on to the ball, but nobody got hurt and we all worked up a sweat, so I guess it was a good way to end the season. I still have a group of guys over 48 that I'll play with on Sunday nights for as long as we can regularly get enough guys out to make teams, and in the summer many of these guys also bring their college-aged kids to round out our numbers. But it's not really the same experience.

Now that the NBA playoffs are finally over, and my own regular pick-up games have shut down until fall, I'm left with only my own individual work-outs, cruising playgrounds in search of a game, and (of course) the WNBA. I'm generally a big fan of women's basketball, especially after having lived in Oregon for 14 years where both the High School and the College games are a BIG deal. But the WNBA has been a big disappointment. I blame the NBA marketing folk for this. In my opinion the league has become too much about the personalities of the players, and not enough about the game...and the irony is that these girls are all "gamers" and play very exciting basketball (when given a chance), while their personalities are most appealing when they disappear into the identity of the team.

The men's game and the women's game are very different, at every level. I enjoy them both, but I actually prefer watching the girls (and not for the reasons you think!). The men's game now is all about athleticism and playing "above the rim," while the women's game is as much side-to-side as it is up-and-down: more about ball movement than dribble penetration, and the elegant beauty of a well-executed back-door give-and-go rather than simply elevating and going hard to the hole. These women are serious athletes, don't get me wrong. But the real joy of watching them play is appreciating their hustle and work-ethic, their teamwork, their sound fundamental skills. Yet the WNBA is being positioned, intentionally or not, as a pale imitation of its "parent" league. And from where I stand, that's a big mistake.

The growing parity among major college women's programs is a joy to witness. It's not all just Tennessee, Stanford, Old Dominion and UConn any more. For many years the High School women's tournament in Oregon was an annual event for me; I often ended up spending an entire week at the Chiles Center at the University of Portland, much to the chagrin of My Former Wife (who is also a big fan of the game but thought that I was spending way too much time gazing adoringly at girls young enough to be my daughter when I ought to be working instead).

Of course, one of the little talked about nuances of the women's game is that a good percentage of its fan base is drawn from the Lesbian community. Personally, I think this is great...but I also know that some marketing gurus were a little concerned about appealing too directly to these die-hard fans out of fear that it would compromise their ability to market to the more "desirable" fan base of Dads and their pre-teen/teen-aged daughters. You'd think by now we would have all figured out that watching women play basketball doesn't make schoolgirls gay, any more than playing with dols or a trip to the musical theater from time to time does the same to little boys. But perhaps it does help break down rigid, stereotyped gender roles and open up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities previously unimagined. And I suppose that by itself is enough to make it "dangerous."

My own daughter played a little basketball in High School, before concentrating full time on volleyball year round. And as a doctoral student at the University of Oregon, not only did I get a chance to teach a few of the Lady Ducks a little about US History, I also occasionally got to play in lunchtime pick-up games with some of them at the Student Rec Center. Just having them on the floor made the whole game better: a lot more ball movement and a lot less one-on-one -- plus the assist-to-turnover ratio generally improved dramatically.

In any event, Summers are often a season when I get lazy and put on weight: there are just too many opportunities to eat BBQ or sip champagne and graze at wedding buffets, and my regular work-out routine tends to become both less regular and less routine. But this summer I'm hoping to buck those trends. See ya' on the playground! And who knows? Maybe some of the gals will be running there too.