Serious question - not trolling.

Does anyone watch this and why?

only when Sophie and Clark play

MookieBlaylock said:

---

only when Sophie and Clark plays

---

jrgypsum said:

---

Serious question - not trolling.

Does anyone watch this and why?

---

DEI

Women's basketball is just painful to watch. I'm not being anti women. It's just bad. I can watch women's soccer, volleyball, track, gymnastics. Even softball. They're all entertaining.
They just can't play basketball.

Liberty just fired the coach who won a championship last year and had numerous injuries this season.

I just don't get it in a league that is needed good press

Not clowning the WNBA at all, but it would be great if they lowered the rim to 8.5' or 9' and made dunks a regular thing. I watch a lot of basketball, and I still love a fast break alley-oop. Jokes aside, if even 1/3 or 1/2 of the WNBA could dunk, scoring would have to go up. Higher scores and dunks sounds like something worth watching.

The biggest problem with it is alienating all the lower level competitions (think some poorer colleges and all the way down to youth leagues) who can't afford the type of basketball hoops that are adjustable to both male and female competitions. It's a massively convenient truth that having a standard height rim makes basketball courts so much more affordable and logical when it serves everyone equally.

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

---

Not clowning the WNBA at all, but it would be great if they lowered the rim to 8.5' or 9' and made dunks a regular thing. I watch a lot of basketball, and I still love a fast break alley-oop. Jokes aside, if even 1/3 or 1/2 of the WNBA could dunk, scoring would have to go up. Higher scores and dunks sounds like something worth watching.

---

Truth be told - the WNBA looks more like basketball of yesteryear and lots of people actually like that. The fact that everyone can dunk, everyone can shoot 3's in the NBA, etc etc etc has gotten the game so boring - the athletes are quite frankly too good now.

Not saying I love the WNBA (because catty fighting and LBGTQ issues are crap) - but that 'brand' of basketball being more amateur isn't all bad.

I find it hard to watch any level of basketball that isn't the NBA.

Even during March madness it is a hard watch for me unless I have a rooting interest and get to know the players on the team. Otherwise, I just find it too slow and a lot of guys who don't make an open shot.

It's somewhat the same with the wnba. I'll have the TV on when Clark, Sophie, and Hull are playing for the fever. Nobody else though.

Iowaggie said:

---

I find it hard to watch any level of basketball that isn't the NBA.

Even during March madness it is a hard watch for me unless I have a rooting interest and get to know the players on the team. Otherwise, I just find it too slow and a lot of guys who don't make an open shot.

It's somewhat the same with the wnba. I'll have the TV on when Clark, Sophie, and Hull are playing for the fever. Nobody else though.

---

Yup, you nailed the way I feel about basketball, too. I only watch the NBA (not that it doesn't have its own problems like FTs and too many 3s), but every other league is so inferior to these freaks of nature athletes that it becomes difficult to watch.


What's interesting to me is how too much scoring is a "problem" in the NBA (that's a matter of opinion), but the WNBA and college hoops have games where teams struggle to get to 70 points. I would much rather the Pacers and Thunder drop 128 on each other than hear the clank of college rims over and over.

It's just a bad product on tv. Maybe in person it's better. I can't even watch the highlights without reaching for the remote.

As another poster said, I can watch others women's sports. Basketball … there is no way.

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

---

Iowaggie said:

---

I find it hard to watch any level of basketball that isn't the NBA.

Even during March madness it is a hard watch for me unless I have a rooting interest and get to know the players on the team. Otherwise, I just find it too slow and a lot of guys who don't make an open shot.

It's somewhat the same with the wnba. I'll have the TV on when Clark, Sophie, and Hull are playing for the fever. Nobody else though.

---

Yup, you nailed the way I feel about basketball, too. I only watch the NBA (not that it doesn't have its own problems like FTs and too many 3s), but every other league is so inferior to these freaks of nature athletes that it becomes difficult to watch.


What's interesting to me is how too much scoring is a "problem" in the NBA (that's a matter of opinion), but the WNBA and college hoops have games where teams struggle to get to 70 points. I would much rather the Pacers and Thunder drop 128 on each other than hear the clank of college rims over and over.

---

The scoring "problem" is just an issue on how those points are scored, not the score itself. The high scoring of the NBA now is the result of more 3s being attempted along with poorer defense as a result of a combination of lacking defensive skills and officiating that favors the offense. There's a reason why the NBA All-Star game is the most boring game even when they are able to score over 200 points. I and many others would rather watch a low scoring game that has good defense that you see in college basketball and older NBA basketball.

First and foremost the WNBA needs to stop comparing itself to the NBA. They are two separate games. Even on a 9 ft rim, the women won't be doing 360 under the leg dunks, and people will always say, "Yeah, but it's a 9 ft rim.". Don't even try to play that game. You will lose.

The WNBA needs to find it's own style. It also needs storylines. If you look at the NBA, it was a niche product until you got Magic and Bird. Then it started to blow up, and Michael sent it through the stratosphere. All of that time, though, you had storylines that made the games more fun to watch. Beyond Magic and Bird, you had the Knicks fighting the Heat, Reggie Miller vs Spike Lee, Kobe vs Shaq, and Charles Barkley, who is a storyline all on his own. That's what made the NBA so popular in the 90s. That's what I think the WNBA needs now. Don't try to win fans on athleticism. You will lose.

Also, I think Bill Burr is right. It's not men's job to watch the WNBA. It's women. Stop marketing to men.

AustinAg2K said:

---

First and foremost the WNBA needs to stop comparing itself to the NBA. They are two separate games. Even on a 9 ft rim, the women won't be doing 360 under the leg dunks, and people will always say, "Yeah, but it's a 9 ft rim.". Don't even try to play that game. You will lose.

The WNBA needs to find it's own style. It also needs storylines. If you look at the NBA, it was a niche product until you got Magic and Bird. Then it started to blow up, and Michael sent it through the stratosphere. All of that time, though, you had storylines that made the games more fun to watch. Beyond Magic and Bird, you had the Knicks fighting the Heat, Reggie Miller vs Spike Lee, Kobe vs Shaq, and Charles Barkley, who is a storyline all on his own. That's what made the NBA so popular in the 90s. That's what I think the WNBA needs now. Don't try to win fans on athleticism. You will lose.

Also, I think Bill Burr is right. It's not men's job to watch the WNBA. It's women. Stop marketing to men.

---

They've tried to go with a "Everyone hates Caitlin and wants to injure her" storyline, but it isn't working.

South Platte said:

---

The complaints about officiating are worthy of a solid eye roll. Has to be the hardest job in the world. 10 uncoordinated women colliding all over the basketball court. It's literally an impossible task.

Somebody please make it go away.

---

In today's WNBA, that may be true. However, quality girls HS varsity and college basketball is extremely easy to officiate. Prior to 2000, SOME lower level HS varsity and JV/frosh was bearable but since about 2005-8, no way.

I worked a HS playoff game between 2 good girls teams sometime back in the '08/09 timeframe. One was a state power and the other was a perennial 1st/2nd round team (the game was a second or third round, I don't recall). It was a good game, well played, well coached. The state power got a bigger and bigger lead with about 5 mins left in the game and pulled away (8-9 point win) but the game was closer than that.

I worked it with 2 other very experienced officials. That game comes to mind as one that I can honestly say we made few if any mistakes. It was that well played and because of that, our job was very easy. Had that been a boys game at the same level, certain things would have been going so fast, we wouldn't have been sure on at least half a dozen or so calls.

At that point in my career, most of the girls coaches in the area that I had worked liked and respected me. The well coached teams were fun to work. I don't know about how entertaining the basketball was as I wasn't looking at it from that perspective. The fans, for the most part, hated me, but that was nothing new. I think what's going on in the WNBA for the last few years is they're trying to have more physicality and with the men, it is usually a fair matchup. With the women, it rarely is. If the officials ignore the contact, like it seems they're told it, it looks way worse than it does in the NBA or in men's college.

I've wondered as I've watched the WNBA if they aren't promoting a few of those refs a bit too quickly.

I don't know, I haven't studied it, but they sure have found a lot of female refs to work WNBA, which I find a bit odd because men overwhelmingly ref at the MS, HS and lower level college, men or women's games. So if they aren't doing a lot of grassroots level games, where are they starting, and what % of female refs are promoted to the professional level (WNBA or NBA) vs. male refs?

Would the wnba still exist if the nba did not support it?

45-70Ag said:

---

Would the wnba still exist if the nba did not support it?

---

Probably, but it wouldn't get shoved in your face. I believe a few weeks ago Seattle and Detroit were playing Game 5 and the WNBA finals was on. If you went to espn.com the lead story was the WNBA finals. Not the epic Game 5 that was one of the best playoff games in recent history. it's not that big of a deal to scroll down a website, but you can tell the effort put into shoving the WNBA into your face. Maybe 1% of people going to espn.com were looking for the WNBA story.

WNBA side note since the labor negotiations are currently going on.

The WNBPA executive director is Terri Carmichael Jackson, wife of Jaren Jackson (NBA Champion Spurs team member), mother of JJJ.

Iowaggie said:

---

WNBA side note since the labor negotiations are currently going on.

The WNBPA executive director is Terri Carmichael Jackson, wife of Jaren Jackson (NBA Champion Spurs team member), mother of JJJ.

---

Are we supposed to know who any of these people are?

South Platte said:

---

45-70Ag said:

---

Would the wnba still exist if the nba did not support it?

---

Probably, but it wouldn't get shoved in your face. I believe a few weeks ago Seattle and Detroit were playing Game 5 and the WNBA finals was on. If you went to espn.com the lead story was the WNBA finals. Not the epic Game 5 that was one of the best playoff games in recent history. it's not that big of a deal to scroll down a website, but you can tell the effort put into shoving the WNBA into your face. Maybe 1% of people going to espn.com were looking for the WNBA story.

---

ESPN also does this with college basketball. Watch once games start. When you scroll through the college game scores they mix in women's scores with the mens. So dumb.

An NBA fan probably would. Random guy that just scrolls through social media probably wouldn't.

Iowaggie said:

---

An NBA fan probably would. Random guy that just scrolls through social media probably wouldn't.

---

I haven't paid attention to the NBA since they went super-woke during COVID.

I only checked in when Luka put up a big box score, I'd watch his highlights.

******* Nico the Blasphemer took that from me!!

Who is JJJ?

NoahAg said:

---

South Platte said:

---

45-70Ag said:

---

Would the wnba still exist if the nba did not support it?

---

Probably, but it wouldn't get shoved in your face. I believe a few weeks ago Seattle and Detroit were playing Game 5 and the WNBA finals was on. If you went to espn.com the lead story was the WNBA finals. Not the epic Game 5 that was one of the best playoff games in recent history. it's not that big of a deal to scroll down a website, but you can tell the effort put into shoving the WNBA into your face. Maybe 1% of people going to espn.com were looking for the WNBA story.

---

ESPN also does this with college basketball. Watch once games start. When you scroll through the college game scores they mix in women's scores with the mens. So dumb.

---

Ah yes, looking forward to that as well . . .

"What, Duke - UNC is going into 2OT? Man, I need to watch the end of that. Oh, nevermind."

Backyard Gator said:

---

Iowaggie said:

---

An NBA fan probably would. Random guy that just scrolls through social media probably wouldn't.

---

I haven't paid attention to the NBA since they went super-woke during COVID.

I only checked in when Luka put up a big box score, I'd watch his highlights.

******* Nico the Blasphemer took that from me!!

Who is JJJ?

---

I can handle their wokeness WAY more than their love for anything black. However, I'll never watch one second of that crap.

I love the WNBA for the reason someone mentioned above - it's old school. They (generally) play the actual game. Even dribble!

satexas said:

---

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

---

Not clowning the WNBA at all, but it would be great if they lowered the rim to 8.5' or 9' and made dunks a regular thing. I watch a lot of basketball, and I still love a fast break alley-oop. Jokes aside, if even 1/3 or 1/2 of the WNBA could dunk, scoring would have to go up. Higher scores and dunks sounds like something worth watching.

---

Truth be told - the WNBA looks more like basketball of yesteryear and lots of people actually like that. The fact that everyone can dunk, everyone can shoot 3's in the NBA, etc etc etc has gotten the game so boring - the athletes are quite frankly too good now.

Not saying I love the WNBA (because catty fighting and LBGTQ issues are crap) - but that 'brand' of basketball being more amateur isn't all bad.

---

It's terrible. They play the same new style of basketball just not nearly is good.