Is Anyone Watching?

Last night a 50 year old woman named Nancy Lieberman played in an WNBA game and broke her own record of oldest woman to play in a WNBA game by 11 years. Also in this same week a fight broke out between the Detroit Shock and the Los Angelas Sparks and several players were ejected and subsequently suspended, including the face of the new WNBA Candace Parker.

That makes two stories in one week that are newsworthy and yet if I asked 10 sports fan if they heard about them, or cared, they would more than likely all say no. The WNBA is not a popular league by any stretch of the imagination and the fact that these two incidents occurred and no one knows simply proves that.

Will this make you watch though? The Lieberman story is a nice one but it just makes the league look worse that a 50 year old can play in it. Imagine a 50 year old man playing in the NBA. He would get destroyed and probably have his ankles broken when he got crossed over or have a heart attack trying to run the floor.

"If this helps the league, I think it's great. It's entertaining, and anything that draws attention to the league is a good thing." This is a statement made by a WNBA executive who feels that any attention the league gets will help it. I personally feel if you're hoping more fans will watch your games for fights and senior citizens then I think you are in the wrong business. Yes there is fighting in almost every sport and only years ago there was the NBA brawl in Detroit but the NBA didn't like when that happened. WNBA officials seem to be overjoyed that their league is in the news and don't seem to care why.

What makes the whole thing worse is the ringleader of the fight was Candace Parker. Parker is a rookie this year but is the most famous female basketball player on the planet and the face of the WNBA and yet she is out there fighting. How bad does your league look when your best player is out there throwing punches instead of playing the game. David Stern and the NBA would go mental is Lebron James lost his temper and started throwing haymakers at people.

All of this publicity cannot help this downtrodden league. I think the real problem with the WNBA is that too many people watch it and feel that they can do what these players do. I mean when you watch the NBA you sit back in amazement when Lebron defies gravity and makes a nasty slam dunk or when Kobe Bryant hits a fade away jumper from 12 feet out with two defenders all over him. The WNBA is all about fundamentals with nice passes and good teamwork but they take the fun out of it and are left with only damentals. I've watched about 20 minutes of WNBA action in my entire life but I think I could do anything that anyone in the league could do.

Sorry for the rant there at the end, I'm not against women's sports I just don't feel like the WNBA does a good job of representing itself if its going to promote fighting between its players and if its going to resort to cheap PR moves to try and gain fan support. Your product should speak for itself like the NBA. However I may be a hypocrite because if 50 year old women are going to scrap and play basketball every game I might tune in, or at least watch the highlights.