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Friday, July 25, 2008

Fight Won't Bring WNBA Fans

By Rick Wright
Of the Journal
      I never cared much for women's boxing until I saw women who could actually fight: Lucia Rijker, Margaret Sidoroff, Laila Ali, Albuquerque's Holly Holm, Española's Monica Lovato (to mention but a few).
    I winced at the thought of women's mixed martial arts until I saw a woman who could really brawl: Gina Carano, who skillfully and brutally battered a game Kaitlin Young on the first-ever network-television MMA show back in May. I still winced, for Young's sake.
    And I never liked women's basketball until I saw women who could really ... what? Fight, as members of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Shock did Tuesday night?
    No, for Pistol Pete's sake. Play basketball.
    Fighters fight. Players play. Right?
    Wrong, some folks are saying in the wake of Tuesday's altercation at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
    There's nothing like a brawl, they say, to get the public's attention. There's nothing like a fight, they say, to persuade the skeptics that female basketball players really care.
    "The WNBA came of age this week," wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Helene Elliott, "... when the Sparks and Shock displayed the raw passion that's usually ascribed only to men. Give me that emotion any day, not the supposed `purity' and teamwork the WNBA has promoted as its strong points."
    Gee, maybe the WNBA should hand the players involved bonuses instead of suspensions. Maybe the Shock and Sparks should hire Holm and Carano as assistant coaches.
    Give me a break. To suggest that the league's narrow fan base will widen because of this week's events is ludicrous.
    Will football fans flock to WNBA games because Plenette Pierson proved she can tackle? Will wrestling fans come around because Candace Parker executed a nifty takedown on Pierson? Will boxing fans, impressed by DeLisha Milton-Jones' shot to Shock assistant coach Rick Mahorn's back, start tuning in? Will MMA fans, dazzled by such versatility, demand an octagon-shaped basketball court? This is just a guess, but no.
    Personally, I've never doubted that female basketball players care about the game they play. I've never doubted their desire to play well and to win, at all levels.
    I remember current WNBA star Becky Hammon, while playing for Colorado State, skewering her teammates for defensive lapses during a 1998 Western Athletic Conference tournament game loss to the Lobos. "How many times have we played this team?" she bellowed, in tones that would make a drill sergeant cringe. I'm pretty sure she cared about the outcome.
    I recall UNM players — Abbie Letz and Dionne Marsh, of recent vintage — playing 30 minutes or more with injuries that would have kept most people in bed, surrounded by flowers from well-wishers.
    Stuff of local legend: La Cueva star Beky Preston bled all over herself and the Pit floor after a clash of heads in the first quarter of a 2002 state tournament game, left briefly and returned to score 18 or her 20 points in an overtime loss to Hobbs.
    I've seen too many postgame tears, from both losers and winners, to believe female basketball players don't care. And if you think that's just a girl thing, remember Gonzaga star Adam Morrison's waterworks after the Bulldogs lost to UCLA in the 2006 NCAA Tournament? I'm surprised he didn't warp the floorboards at the Oakland Coliseum.
    Crying isn't just for women. Fighting isn't just for men. Basketball is for everyone.
    And "fight, team fight" is only an expression.
   

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