Women knocking on NBA’s door

By Maryellen Anastasio
February 18, 2010

Shannon Keough

Women have come a long way from the days of not being allowed to attend school or hold positions of power in the work place. So then is it so surprising that in the next 10 years women could be teammates with men in the NBA?

David Stern, chief of the NBA, told Ian Thompsen of Sports Illustrated in December that he thinks women could end up playing in the NBA within the next 10 years.

“I don’t want to get into all kinds of arguments with players and coaches about the likelihood. But I really think it’s a good possibility,” Stern said.

What a great compliment to those women who play basketball. Since the WNBA started in 1997, women’s basketball has evolved into something bigger and better. The level of play has been elevated drastically in the 13 years of the WNBA’s existence.

Even the college Division I teams have been able to take their games to the next level. These women are showing the world that they can play the game just as well as men.

Take the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team for instance. They are beating other Division I teams by an average of almost 40 points per game. They are also on a winning streak of 63-0.

I would love to see them play a men’s college basketball team and have a little bit more competition. Personally I think they could hang with a men’s team and possibly beat them depending on who they played.

Women are finally being taken seriously in the world of sports and to hear that in the next 10 years there is a possibility that they could be playing on the court with men is quite amazing.

Women are faster, stronger and have the court smarts that they didn’t have 10 years ago. Some players from the beginning blew us away with their abilities. For example, Lisa Leslie surprised us being the first woman to dunk in the WNBA in 2002.

In 2006 at the University of Tennessee, Candace Parker was the first woman to dunk in an NCAA women’s basketball game. Parker was also the first woman to ever win the slam dunk contest in 2004 at the McDonald’s high school All-American game. Her opponents in the contest were all men.

All throughout my schooling and even today men tell me how the WNBA is awful and women will never be able to handle playing with men.

I don’t agree. I think that players like Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings, could play one-on-one with any NBA player and give them a run for their money.

Women will never be as strong as men, but we do have the tenacity, aggressiveness and knowledge of the game to hang with them.

Women have come a long way since the times of their only profession being a housewife and mother (not that there is anything wrong with that).

But women today have more of an opportunity to become CEOs of big corporations, anchors on major news networks and maybe one day play basketball with men.

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Maryellen Anastasio

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