The WNBA

I discovered recently that the WNBA, the women's counterpart of the National Basketball Association, began its season of play this past week. I think that playing a spring/summer schedule is a great way to publicize this high caliber of basketball without interfering with the men's season. It also gives us basketball couch potatoes something to tune in to during the summer! Although the WNBA has been going on for a while (since 1997), this will be the first year that I will be paying attention to it. I'm going to watch a few games and then decide which teams I want to root for the most (I'm not geographically tied down to an area). The only thing that I want to make sure before I get in too deep following it is that the WNBA is on sound enough financial footing to allow it to endure long enough to establish traditions, rivalries, and memorable experiences. The fact that it has been around for over a decade, is under the NBA's protective umbrella, and has a TV contract bodes well for its future. Plus, girl's basketball is growing in popularity on a grass roots level across the nation. I saw some bits of the women's NCAA tournament and was impressed by the athletes' play. I felt, while watching the games, a sense that their manner of play resonated more with how I would play the game should I be on a team. When watching the men, I often get swept away by the almost superhuman level of athleticism displayed. There seems to be a slower, strategy-based flavor to the women's games. It should make for some good basketball! Of course, right now I am totally immersed with the men's NBA playoffs.

Later this summer, the Summer Olympics in China should also be interesting regarding both men's and women's basketball (assuming the television coverage actually allows me to watch games without hopping and skipping around too much to other events and features). Who knows, I may recognize the WNBA stars on the US women's team (temporarily pretending to be amateurs).