Basketball is a sport which involves great athleticism, hand-eye coordination, agility, perception, and, somewhat uniquely, height. It is a team sport which is played by both men and women in which there are five players from each team on the court at a given time. Winning a game requires the team to shoot enough hoops while also preventing the other team from scoring on their hoop. Basketball is a mainstream American sport watched widely by people of all races and genders. Interestingly, basketball holds appeal among nearly all racial groups despite over 90% of NBA players being either black or white.
In contrast to the NBA, the WNBA is much less popular and only draws in a fraction of the audience the NBA does. The rules are entirely the same except for the ball being one inch smaller and the three-point line being one foot closer to the basket. This difference in popularity could be due to basketball’s frequent depiction as a “masculine” sport, with displays of powerful dunks and aggressive drives gaining the most attention from the audience. Basketball hoops are 10 ft tall in both leagues, making it more possible for men, who are taller on average, to perform stylish dunks than women. I believe that much of the difference in skill level seen can be explained by the lack of attention and support given to women who show talent in basketball versus men. The basketball world does not readily provide the same resources and training to women showing promise in the sport, in part due to the deep-seated belief that women are not as impressive in sports than men.
Basketball’s “wildness” is made apparent when players achieve the impossible and exceed what is thought possible of them. In the first clip provided, LeBron James exceeds expectations by yet again propelling his team to the finals in 2018 while using every trick in the book to do so. In the second clip, multiple WNBA players achieve the unbelievable by landing half-court buzzer beaters or dunking multiple times in the same game.
-Avinash K
I appreciate your inclusion of the WNBA in your discussion about gender within basketball. I did want to note how you mention basketball being a “masculine” sport. I especially agree with your points that basketball focuses on men because of traits more prevalent in men that help them be successful basketball players (ex: height). In response to your last sentence in the second paragraph, I agree. Women’s sports teams do not have the same notoriety that men’s teams do. Whether this is to be blamed on sexism, it is a fact that women’s teams are not treated the same.
I agree with you that when it comes to women basketball, there is a significant amount of less audience which results in women getting less pay. I think this is really unfair because at times women can be more agile and still don’t get payed as much as a man due purely on their gender. This is a difficult sport that takes practice and both genders should be rewarded equally. Although I understand it might have to do with the popularity of each and the revenue they produce, I think there should be just as much advertising for women than men if they are playing the same high-endurance wild sport.