Larry Bird wasn't exactly welcomed to the league at the time. He was questioned and challenged and when he proved his ability, he was accepted and respected. That's the difference.petty, jealous, hateful, racist....
did we miss anything?
***Official Caitlin/Fever/Kate/Meg Games Mega Thread***
- Thread starter Tenacious E
- Start date
The CC issue also has a Connecticut issue. Gino and company have been "it" for a long time and they have a lot of people in the WNBA. I think they are offended, they they weren't lauded as much as CC.
They would like to think they are/were as good as CC but forget they chose to surround themselves with the best players in the country year after year. If you put the top 3/10 players on your team every year, you are going to win with a hs coach let alone a good college coach. But the problem is their belief that their superiority was something more than stacked talent in a very small pool (the WNBA is proof of that).
Add the connecticut angle to not throwing her praise at a woke racial/lgbtq ideolgy is the start of the reason for the hate.
They would like to think they are/were as good as CC but forget they chose to surround themselves with the best players in the country year after year. If you put the top 3/10 players on your team every year, you are going to win with a hs coach let alone a good college coach. But the problem is their belief that their superiority was something more than stacked talent in a very small pool (the WNBA is proof of that).
Add the connecticut angle to not throwing her praise at a woke racial/lgbtq ideolgy is the start of the reason for the hate.
Talking out of my ass, I would say it's been pretty bleak. With that being said, it would interesting to see which GM's found value in the drafts and are not reliant on high first round picks. Stated another way, given the dearth of difference makers, is it just luck of the draw?
The point about Larry Bird's welcome to the league is kinda interesting.
Black NBAers of the time talking on YouTube now about their surprise at "Damn, this Bird guy can really hoop" is practically a cottage industry. Then as now, I think there's a strong element of "Whitey gotta prove himself first." Not entirely unfair, I suppose.
Also interesting is the NBA and the WNBA were kinda in the same boat. Both leagues were languishing before the arrival of their superstars.
But yet I don't recall there being being such severe growing pains for the NBA.
The world is a lot different now.
I'll leave it at that.
Black NBAers of the time talking on YouTube now about their surprise at "Damn, this Bird guy can really hoop" is practically a cottage industry. Then as now, I think there's a strong element of "Whitey gotta prove himself first." Not entirely unfair, I suppose.
Also interesting is the NBA and the WNBA were kinda in the same boat. Both leagues were languishing before the arrival of their superstars.
But yet I don't recall there being being such severe growing pains for the NBA.
The world is a lot different now.
I'll leave it at that.
WNBA isn't the same game that is played in college. They have purposely made it different (worse) and talent therefore doesn't always translate. So, yeah, this makes talent evaluation a crapshoot, and that further erodes the product.
Simple fix (ha):
Get rid of the hyper-physicality, drop the misguided love for it, and officiate the game correctly.
Simple fix (ha):
Get rid of the hyper-physicality, drop the misguided love for it, and officiate the game correctly.
Or, have the Iowa/WVU game refs teach college refs how to ref, which was even more physical than the W, and dilute interest in both leagues until no one cares about them.
Agree.
Regarding the physicality of the league, as we were being introduced to the play several of us were comparing it to Roller Derby.
So I read up a little about the spectacle that is RD. It started out actually as a sport of endurance racing. Obvious snoozefest. So it seems, in the most gimmicky of ways, all of the body slamming and physicality was added.
The WNBA has 100% copied this playbook.
But as of yet they haven't realized they don't need Alyssa Thomas jumping off the top turnbuckle anymore, to use another sports analogy.
Hopefully Caitlin, and maybe Bueckers and others, can turn enough of the right heads for the W to realize that there is enough talent now to play the Beautiful Game.
I will be interesting to see if Bueckers gets physically roughed up next season, and Juju after that, or if this was all special treatment for Caitlin.
We already know the answer to that one.
Bueckers has already admitted she's privileged (what white athlete in sports isn't?).
That will be interesting and think we all know why.
Though they are birds of a different feather I think they both tweet the same song, a more agreeable song.
Seriously doubt this, but also doubt either player will be the scoring threat (assists or shots) that Clark is. Additionally, the narrative was always that Clark was soft (game wouldn't translate), so they wanted to exploit that supposed vulnerability.
Funny to remember Watkins is still only a sophomore, so plenty of time to have her expectations shift either way, but doubt she gets a "soft" narrative. *Rice and Hidalgo are two more to watch once they get to the WNBA.
The roller derby comparison is sadly fitting.
But also, if they ever lean in and add helmets and skates, weight limits, I'd probably want to watch whatever that would be. Hopefully they don't need to, and dial it back in the other direction.
