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why the hate on a legit league? Sorry if you prefer to watch men shoot free throws 20 minutes a game....
By Debbie Schlussel
They’re baaaaack. And it’s scary.
Unfortunately, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is back for a another season of ennui, inep ude and annoying invasion of the national airwaves.
Fittingly, the WNBA’s opening day was Memorial Day. It’s a sports league that’s been dead for four years. But like a stubborn, unwanted weed, it keeps rearing its ugly head. Nobody cares about women’s basketball, and the anorexic box office receipts and embarrassing television ratings prove it.
According to league-inflated numbers, attendance dropped to a paltry 9,072 per game, last year–and that includes cold bodies at the nearest cemeteries. Amazingly, the WNBA gets lower ratings than the XFL, the World Wrestling Federation’s pro-football league. The WNBA gets barely 0.5 in the ratings on both ESPN and Lifetime networks, and an anemic 1.4 on NBC (many of whose affiliates run old sitcom reruns instead of this ratings disaster). But the higher-rated XFL was killed after one season. Yet, in pro sports’ affirmative action sacrificial offering to the barren altar of le IX silliness, the Wannabe Association gets to bother us for a fifth year. Even “Monday Night Curling” is more exciting, and it’s not real (it’s an “SCTV” sketch).
Unlike the XFL, there are no colorful characters, like “He Hate Me.” Even though “He” does hate the WNBA. Few men watch women’s pro basketball. Maybe, the league should have an athlete nicknamed “She Hate Me,” too, since few women watch it, either. Female sports fans remain loyal to real sports, like pro football, men’s basketball and hockey. They are turned off by the women’s substandard product, where running, slam-dunking, and real shooting are unknown skills. Let’s face it: Men like professional men’s sports because they want to be the players. Women fans want to date them. Both of those dynamics are absent with the WNBA, where no one identifies with or fantasizes about the likes of 7-foot-2 Margo Dydek of the Utah Starzz.
Unless you count the many lesbian fans and players in the league. The fact is, a substantial portion–in fact, the largest demographic group–of the few fans the WNBA has, are lesbians. And, like the LPGA, so are many of the players on the court. “The fact is that the majority of players are gay, and a lot of the management, and people who work with women’s basketball,” Washington Mystic Valerie Still told sportsjones.com. And WNBA star Lisa Leslie acknowledged it in a 1997 ESPN special. So do many frank articles, like the Village Voice’s “Madison Garden.” “Everyone knows lesbians are a majority of our fans,” New York Liberty player Sue Wicks told the Voice. The WNBA All Star Weekend is always the site of huge lesbian gatherings, and it’s no coincidence that the 1998 WNBA season tops the list of videos for sale on lesbianshopper.com. The New York Times reported that on June 14, the Los Angeles Sparks, in conjunction with lesbian “Girl Bar,” are promoting “Gay Pride Kick-off.”
But the WNBA, desperate for nuclear families, won’t acknowledge this. And the WNBA player contract prohibits players from saying anything detrimental to the league. That presumably includes admitting that they don’t like men. It is the ultimate deception to families, which are sold the WNBA “family-friendly” advertising and marketing bill of goods. Washington, D.C. families, looking for low-cost entertainment for their kids have complained, for instance, when their children were exposed to multiple lesbian public displays of attention in the stands at Washington Mystics games. And lesbian fans at many WNBA games wear T-shirts announcing their presence. Poor parents will have to figure out an answer to little Susie’s question, “Mommy, what’s a lesbian?” The WNBA owes it to families to tell the truth and come out of the closet, so families won’t be ambushed by these unwanted situations.
But the WNBA won’t end the lie. It’s no coincidence that since its 1997 inception, Rosie O’Donnell has been a WNBA spokesperson. Like O’Donnell, the WNBA deceives its target audience by posing as a normal, heterosexual, American product. New York Magazine outed O’Donnell as a lesbian, whose girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, “accompanies her week after week to her box at WNBA games.” Like O’Donnell, the WNBA knows that the lesbian lifestyle turns off mainstream consumers, and an industry–in this case, women’s professional sports–cannot survive on a gay consumer audience. Duping families into believing it’s a mainstream product, is the ultimate rip-off.
But even with the pro-family scam, the WNBA will never catch on. Because the only professional women’s sports that succeed, like the USA World Cup Soccer Team, are those with good-looking players. The marketplace isn’t interested in the skills of women athletes, and masculine female athletes are a turn-off. That’s why the beautiful, feminine Anna Kournikova propels women’s tennis’ popularity and is the Women’s Tour’s most highly paid player–at over $10 million a year in endorsements. She’s never won a tournament, and is barely in the top ten women’s tennis rankings. The less attractive, higher-ranked players hate her, but without her, they’d have no Women’s Tour, just like the WNBA has no basketball league. The WNBA’s new slogan is “Basketball is Beautiful.” But where’s the beauty? The New York Times calls it “Beauty and Grace.” More like “Will and Grace.”
And there are no stars. Ever heard of Tynesha Lewis, Astou Ndiaye-Diatta, Claudia Maria Das Neves, or Elena Tonikidou? Me neither. The league is a joke.
The NBA owns and operates the WNBA, because no wealthy successful sports owner likes to throw his money down a black hole by buying a team. Teams in Detroit and Charlotte “are struggling for fans,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Carol Slezak. Slezak wrote about how the NBA pressured Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf into starting a team. While most cities sell out their pro sports teams’ inaugural seasons, the Chicago WNBA franchise is begging 7,500 fans to buy season tickets. Saying “it’s not something we’re doing to see a financial gain,” Reinsdorf said his highest hope was to break even financially. Then why do it? That’s not a sports team. It’s a charity case. Or a political cause for feminists who can’t compete on their own in the sports marketplace, so they’ve gotten the NBA to strong arm its owners.
Gloria Steinem must be smiling. And maybe the NBA should change its initials to NOW.
why the hate on a legit league? Sorry if you prefer to watch men shoot free throws 20 minutes a game....
The gayness issue has nothing to do with the fact that the WNBA sucks ass. Most people don't want to watch women play basketball. It's boring and not entertaining. And the quality isn't as good as the NBA too. I'm not saying that the ladies in the WNBA don't have talent and suck at basketball. They have talent but it's just that people don't want to see it. And let's face it, unless the sport involves sexy blondes that aren't wearing that much, people will likely not watch female sports.
You pull that out of the trashcan while cleaning out your favorites list? I've paid to watch women's basketball and was devastated with the Shock took their act to another city. The Utah franchise is in San Antonio now and has been to the NBA Finals.
The quality of play is much better than when the league first started out. Shooting and slashing are in the women's game now, as our bonafide post moves. To hate on this league without changing the complaints, well, it's like not acknowledging that the women in the league have admitted to suffering from Depression, unlike the men's sports, and have come out of the closet.
There are plenty of stars to fantasize about now and you know this because you made a list of them in another post. The game has improved tenfold in the last 5 years. I'd watch. I've cheered for the Shock. Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan. Yesteryear was about Swin Cash (before the trade) and Cheryl Ford (before the knee injury in the All-Star Game). It was nice to have Elaine Powell back (who was traded to Orlando for Nolan) to get us back to our roots. It was Kara Braxton and Ruth Riley. It was fun to watch them run the court. It was great to watch Bill Laimbeer turn into Red Auerbach. I miss them. Don't diss the WNBA. Give it a shot. It's better than you think.
The quality may have improved, but men's NCAA basketball and Euroleague are still clearly better. I have no qualms about stating that the problem is still the quality of play, and not the sexual orientation of the players. It's boring. There's nothing wrong with admitting that. Matt Bonner dunks more than these players do. The truth is, if these players were as good as their male counterparts, someone would take a chance on them in a more traditional basketball league. It's not NFL football or hockey we're talking about. The fact that they need a league with a "W" in front of it to have a place to play still does and always will scream that the quality is not the same. If there was an WNBA player with the ability to be even an average NBA player, she would be in somebody's NBA training camp, or a star in one of the foreign leagues.
Hmm never thought about the family-friendly/lesbians deception angle. The WNBA tries to sell itself as a family friendly outing (like nearly all ball sports) yet the stands seem to be filled with lesbians, a lot of them maybe a bit too proud for more traditional sports-going families.....I bet the lesbians get zero time on the kiss cam as well even though they're the no. 1 demographic. I would hate to be a WNBA marketer/promoter thats for sure - seems like one of a job to make that league relevant or at least a little more popular.
In any case its no surprise that the WNBA's in a world of financial hurt and no one really gives a damn about it. Even the NBA is in a world of financial hurt and team ownerships been changing hands quite a bit. But damn at getting lower ratings than the god damn XFL!
Most of the chicks make more money overseas anyways...... in a few years, the WNBA will be no more.....
There are probably not as many lesbians in the WNBA as most people think.
Consensus is that it's something like 90% s. That number is way, way too much when you got quite a few married moms in the league. There's no way the WNBA is more than 88% lesbian.
Married moms can be closet gays
son from what my sources have told me about numerous WNBA players, I would estimate the following about the entire league (and no I'm not trying to be funny) ...
60% lesbian (at the very least)
25% straight
15% bi
son at least 75% of the WNBA clam licks either exclusively or part time. that's just how it is.
Last edited by BRHornet45; 08-08-2010 at 12:37 PM.
as long as mah Taylor and Sue Bird stay on the tv I will be happy!
So is that what they are calling it these days?New York Magazine outed O’Donnell as a lesbian, whose girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, “accompanies her week after week to her box...
Wow the hate in the article is incredible, but given what is written on this forum on a daily basis it just seems to reflect how low-IQ fans feel. I wonder in what kind of trash newspaper (or website, most likely) this has been published.
Most of the arguments put forward are bogus, e.g. that the WTA (tennis) wouldn't exist without Anna Kournikova... good joke.
Who cares about the players sexual orientation? As far as I know the US are supposed to be a free country fighting against discrimination.
Only half of the intent of the article was to discuss the extent of lesbians in the League/as fans. The other half addressed what your post infers, that the quality of the game is very low, there's no attraction to the game itself, it's not making money and is kept on life support year after year by the NBA's revenue and, that, in general, nobody (or, not nearly enough) cares for the sport, save for the women involved.
If it was it's own league, they'd have folded a decade ago. Maybe not even have been created.
But I do agree that there was a certain venom in the phrasings used. It undercut the worthwhile discussion points.
Sons save your politically correct bull for another time. The fact is that the WNBA is the worlds largest gay sports attraction and over the years has adopted the nickname WNBgAy. At least 60% of the players, coaches, and staff (mascots included) are gay and 60% is honestly a very conservative estimate. The fan base is full of twinks and bulldogs rocking Joe Dirt-like mullets and at first glance when looking at the crowd you would think you were at a gay pride parade or a Cher concert. Again, save your politically correct BS because no other professional sports league has such a following.
i surely hope so
btw BRH why do you insist on posting any wnba in this forum? this isn't the wnba forum it's the nba forum. and i find it funny not even 3 months ago you were ing at members here who objected to the wnba and now you're objecting and posting garbage like the article you posted in this very thread. in' hypocrite!
NBA Forum
Discuss the latest NBA news, rumors and action. Also the place to go for the WNBA, Euroleague, D-League and everything else basketball.
well that answers that... haha! never read the description but still, why the hypocrisy by BRH?
He probably met his dream WNBA player, found out she was (obviously) a lesbian, and had a massive meltdown when he realized he could never be with her, or any of them for that matter.
that's what i was thinking, well not really but i could def see such a scenario.
lol obsessing about a bunch of ugly s for the past year
Where was this article when you needed it like a year ago, son? God bless.
i dont see how the WNBA can last. there is no appeal
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