Two popular national message boards have recently had very spirited discussions about female basketball. The following comments are taken from these boards.
I was at a club basketball tournament this past weekend and I could not believe all the missed layups by some of the top players. One game featured two high school teams who are projected to be in the semi-finals in their divisions, both will be highly rated and have multiple D1 players already committed. Both teams missed a ton of layups. One of the teams could not drop a pea in the ocean while standing on the shore. There is nothing more frustrating for a coach or fan than to see a great defensive play, awesome transition, a great move, a perfect pass to a missed layup.
Another one continues:
Why is girl's/women's basketball so bad. Most can't handle the ball, the passing sucks, a few of them have good shooting form, most don't. Their 1 on 1 moves are poor, and many play zone defense, only select few play real man to man defense. They haven't progressed and aren't even coming close to approaching the quality and skill of the men's game. Why is that?
This one comes from a contributor called San Antonio:
Because the game of basketball is built for athletic boys. Girls struggle with quickness, jumping ability and upper body strength. Any girl with upper body strength will dominate the boards regardless of size. Also girls rarely play basketball outside of an organized setting. Its hard to get better if your not playing all the time. Also there is very little mental toughness in the girls game. They tend to shut down if the situation becomes too intense, harsh or critical. Many, many individual exceptions to these generalizations but for the most part true. All that being said it's still a great game for teaching life lessons, commitment team work, etc.
These comments may seem cruel and out of place on a blog that is dedicated to female basketball but these opinions should be discussed. A few points follow:
Missed Layups- One of the reasons that girls/women's basketball players miss so many layups is that the girls game is played below the rim. Any marginally athletic guy can slap the backboard on his layup attempts. The distance between the bottom of the back board and the rim is six inches. A guy finishing a layup and slapping the backboard will be anywhere from 6 to point blank at the rim. I would say that most layups at the elite boys/men's level are taken only a couple of inches away from the rim. Now compare that to the girls game where most layups are being shot from at least a foot away from the rim. Of course all these examples are generalizing boys and girls players but very few girls are athletic enough to finish at the rim. This increased distance would explain the extra misses by female basketball players. The fact is that the further you are from the rim, the less likely you are to make a basket. It is no wonder that the best shooting players, by percentages, are the biggest men on the court. These big men take shots closer to the basket, thus, shoot better percentages. We all know Shaq's field goal percentage is one of the greatest in NBA history but he struggles from the free throw line. Take Sylvia Fowles for instance; she is one of the WNBA's biggest players but still plays a below the rim game.
Now playing below the rim is no excuse for missing repeated break away and uncontested layups but the fact remains that less athleticism is a contributing factor. Please view some video of the early days of basketball. The black and white video will expose the fact that the early men's players also missed a ton of layups because the game was also played under the rim in those days. Also, visit any local gym and view all of us old athletes trying to revisit our glory days. You will see a ton of missed layups as our minds can still fly but our legs are more grounded in reality.
2.Built for athletic boys- The second comment regarding the game being built for men is a little over the top but the fact remains that the more athletic you are, they more likely you are to succeed in basketball. What is athletic? This is an issue that is often argued by a great basketball blogger/coach/trainer Brain McCormick and he makes some great points. I will not go into what is and what is not athleticism right now. A very good friend of mind and great coach always says " Girls basketball is harder to teach than boys" He continues, " A girl can not catch a bad lob pass and finish it with a dunk" . He is basically alluding the to fact that MOST girls do not have the athletic ability to correct mistakes on the fly. A boy can jump in the air and adjust in mid flight according to what a defender does. We all have seen the Dr J lay up against the Lakers as he starts on one side, palms the ball in one hand, and eventually finishes the layup on the other side. We all remember Micheal Jordan doing a similar lay up against the Lakers in the 91' championship. On explaining how the shot developed, Micheal said, " I saw long armed Sam Perkins going to block the shot and brought it backed down, switched hands and finished with the left. WHAT!! The players in the 50's could not imagine such a shot and we can not expect the same from women, YET.
3. It is true that MOST girls do not play the game outside of organized settings on a constant basis. I grew up with stories like Cheryl Miller playing all day and night and hustling unsuspecting players with younger brother Reggie. I read about the very middle class Nancy Lieberman traveling to the inner cities of New York to play street ball in the ghetto. I moved to San Antonio to learn that John Jay's Clarissa Davis honed her game playing against men at local military bases. Do we still have these examples in today's games? Has club ball done away with just playing the game for fun? Better yet, have ipods, Xbox, Myspace,etc. taken our young stars off of the court? An example:
My daughter played with a 10 year old scoring machine back home. When I say scoring machine, I mean scoring machine. It is not normal for a 10 year old girl to play the other top 10 year old players in the nation and consistently put up 20 plus a game. California, Las Vegas, and Florida did not matter; she was going for at least 20 points. AAU Nationals with close to 100 of the best teams in the country did not matter; she was going for 20 points. Her father and I would argue for hours about his lying. He would claim that she never played the game other than a few YMCA games. I'm no fool! You do not learn to score like that at the Y. Then in one AAU qualifier, it all came out. On the main court in the championship game for the 10/11 year old boys, I witnessed some of the most athletically skilled young players that I have ever seen. One team was loaded with two 6 foot 5th graders! Their guards were lighting quick. Their forwards were beasts. As I sat there in awe at such talent at this age, the scoring machine walked by and said, " Hi Timmy, Hey Terrance, What's up Sabari". I asked her how did she know these boys. She Said" I go to school with all of them". I play ball with them everyday at lunch". WOW!!!! I turned to her dad and called him a liar! This girl had been playing pick up ball at lunch with some of the best youth basketball players in Southern California for three years. 180 days of school sunshine pitted her against these young studs. Her father went on to explain that he had been called to a parent meeting because these boys were so upset that his daughter was getting so good that they started to ban her from playing. After years of being OK, she was getting so good that they took to physically intimidating her in the form of very rough play. Bloody nose and busted lips would not keep this young girl away. After hearing this, I know could feel comfortable with my self. I know knew why this 10 year old girl could drop 30 points at will on very good competition . I know knew why she played like a boy; reckless and no thought for her safety.
This illustrates the fact that playing basketball outside of a coaches practice or club/school game is and has always been very important in the development of young players. (Watch out for Ashely Catlin at Wagner. I may be spelling her name wrong but the kid can score. She obviously plays with and against boys often. Her game can be more refined but the kid can score)
4.Girls Basketball is so bad-This comment from the message board illustrates the ignorance surrounding girls basketball. It does not suck and it is not bad. Just like the boys game, it CAN be very bad at times at certain levels. The lack of 1 on 1 moves is also a result of not playing the game outside of organized settings and a lack of individual skill development. The lack of ball handling is due to the same reasons.These deficiencies can be seen on the boys side too. The constant Zone play is scrutinized in many circles and is a valid point. Do girls play Zone more than boys teams? Probably. There is no quantifiable data to back that up but in my experience, I do see more Zone from girls coaches. I also see more Zone from less athletic boys teams so that should also be taken into consideration.
As for girls being less mentally tough than boys, I think that is way off base. How many boys have practiced and played games why menstruating? Absolutely NONE! We think that men are tough for playing through pain but women are not? Give me a break.
Katie Smith is not one of the fastest, quickest, tallest, or strongest basketball players in the WNBA but she is the reigning WNBA finals MVP. Smith is able to thrive because of a great skill set but also mental toughness. Name her NBA equivalent. Tim Duncan has been described as being not very athletic but very skilled. He has won the NBA finals MVP. But,Tim Duncan is above the average height in the NBA and in the top percentile regarding height. His height definitely helps. Could he, having the same athletic prowess, dominate a NBA series if he was the NBA average height of 6'7 as Katie Smith recently did. Smith is the average height of the WNBA. One could argue that the NBA has a more grueling season. True, but not true for all. The women in the WNBA play 34 games compared to 82 games in the NBA. However, players like Smith play as many games in European countries to subsidize their WNBA salaries. Playing year around away from your loved ones is not a easy thing to do. Tim Duncan flies first class while Smith rides economy to most WNBA road games. Smith makes between $100,000 and $600,000 a year compared to Duncan's $20,000,000 a year. Some could argue Smith plays in mentally tougher conditions than Duncan.
The women's game is definitely not for fringe basketball fans. It is a game for the purists. It is a game for those that appreciate movement, passing, shooting, strategy and determination. At the highest level, it is a beautiful thing to see. At the lowest skill level, it is brutal and punishing to watch.
