Here, women--have a ball

"Make him think he's involved and he will stop bothering you," my mother said.

Sound advice. My friends and I would give my younger brother a peripheral role in whatever we were doing and then make a big deal out of it to make him stop pestering us. Eventually he lost interest and left.

Welcome to the Women's NBA.

The showpiece of the women's basketball movement is a sham, designed not to promote the women's game or to provide a true professional league but to give women something to do so they will stop pestering the men for equal billing.

How can I say this? Doesn't the WNBA give women's hoops the boost it badly needs?

The answer is no.

1) The WNBA season is bad for the women's game.

Women's basketball is so unlike men's basketball it might as well be a different sport. Based on this faulty logic, the WNBA decided to play during the summer, a time it figured would be perfect to attract women bored by baseball and male hoops-junkies with nothing to watch. As a marketing strategy, this is sound. As a plan for developing the women's game, it is dangerous. Why? Because the argument for women's and men's hoops being fundamentally different is only viable if you assume that the games are of equivalent value. Most people don't assume this. In fact, most men I know (and even some women) don't respect women's basketball at all. They think it is a weaker version of the men's game. Playing in the summer merely reinforces this idea. Sure, people thought, play it in the summer. In the winter, with so many more sports, nobody will care. Don't buy it? Do two things: first, keep an eye on American Basketball League (ABL) and NCAA attendance this winter. If the WNBA was really more than a novelty act, interest in all levels of women's hoops will increase. Second, check around to see how many people who followed the WNBA were already casual observers of women's basketball--don't be surprised if 90 percent of the WNBA fans are not new to the game.

2)The WNBA plays poor basketball.

First, let me assure you that I am a long-time follower of women's hoops. Do any of you remember the Kerrie Bascom-led UConn Huskies losing to Dawn Staley's Virginia Cavaliers in the 1991 Women's Final Four in New Orleans? I didn't think so.

That said, I think I've seen enough women's hoops to know good from bad. The WNBA is bad. The Tennessee Lady Volunteers could beat some of these teams, maybe most of them. Missed lay-ups, sloppy passes, and minimal defense characterized the inaugural season.

Yes, Lisa Leslie is great, and Houston Comets guard Cynthia Cooper can play. The rest? I like Jamila Wildeman but she had a terrible season. Teresa Witherspoon was a good point-guard, but nothing special. Worse, these few decent players aren't even the ones that received the heavy press. That honor goes to Rebecca Lobo, the perfect player to prove my point. Lobo is the star of the WNBA. She gets more TV time than Al Gore and more ink than Mitch Richmond. Most fans who watch her score a meaningless 16 points per game think: Wow, she's really tall. She scores a lot. She must be good. These girls are a lot better than I thought. When does the British Open start?

Lobo is 6' 4", a giant in women's hoops. She wasn't even close to being the best player on her team. She is slow, awkward, and sloppy. She doesn't block shots and she plays less defense than Tiger Woods. The perfect poster child.

3)The WNBA is inherently sexist.

In addition to furthering the stereotype of mediocre women's players who should not be taken seriously, the WNBA is the ultimate example of women getting less money than men for the same job.

Guess how much money the WNBA pays its players. $100,000? Try again. $50,000? Getting warmer. How about $30,000 or less? Yep, the WNBA--after spending millions on advertising and using its influence to deny TV exposure to the rival ABL--limited player salaries. The coaches, mostly women, make even less than the players. Meanwhile, the NBA made millions from gate, concessions and TV. If a university pulled the same trick, it would be found guilty of Title IX violations. This does not strike me as a serious effort to bring women into professional sports.

Women's basketball is alive and well, in high-school gyms and on college campuses. Right here, in Hartford, Conn., the ABL New England Blizzard, coached by K.C. Jones, are fighting for fans and respect. These women play in winter, and they play a hustling, active, skilled brand of basketball you won't see in July on NBC. The NBA doesn't want you to watch because a legitimate women's basketball league might cut into its market share. The NBA might not be the only show in town.

Don't worry ladies, you'll have all the glitz and TV glamour of the WNBA. Your peripheral role is secure. The NBA has tossed you a bone and you are gnawing greedily.

I hope you don't choke on it.

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