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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s frequent depiction as a \u201cmasculine\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basketball\u2019s \u201cwildness\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n