WNBA Board Community Thread

[Doctor MJ]

Hello Friends to the W!

I figure that this is a board that we're community is a must, and so having a Community thread Stickied makes sense, so I'm going to start that now.

Anything is fair game as long as its relevant and not macho negativity, but to put some questions forward:

How'd you become a women's basketball fan?

Who are your favorite teams and players?

Cheers ,
Doc

[Doctor MJ]

Okay, I'll start.

Probably the most important thing to understand about me is that I grew up an all around sports nut. I learned to read using the sports page and basically followed everything I could from it. Doesn't mean I'm a long-time women's basketball expert - very hard to get information on the women's game pre-WNBA - but I remember Cheryl Miller's USC Trojans even if I can't claim to have been able to understand the inner workings.



Fundamentally, I've always thought it bizarre the way men tend to look down on women's basketball as if it's "not really basketball". To me if you love basketball, you can enjoy watching basketball at levels much lower than the NBA because the fundamentals of the sport are the same - dribbling, passing, shooting, running, etc, all in an open field space which requires field vision and awareness from the participants. The idea that the really important factor is how high the players can jump just seems silly to me. I mean, I love aerial plays like the next guy, but the vast majority of the time and play of NBA games is spent doing stuff that doesn't make the dunk highlights, so if all you like are the dunks, to me you don't get to have any kind of cred high ground.

With the beginning of the WNBA, I couldn't help but be fascinated by Miller's former teammate Cynthia Cooper coming back from Europe and dominating the league to the shock of absolutely everyone in women's basketball. Turns out, 3's are a big deal.



With the '00s, the player I was fascinated with was the great Aussie Lauren Jackson who I have to acknowledge I had a bit of a crush on, as unfair as that it is to mention as the first thing when we're talking about such a great basketball talent.



After Jackson I have to acknowledge that I didn't pay as close attention to the WNBA for a good while. In recent years, driven in part by the superior stats that now exist for the WNBA, I've become a proselytizer of the greatness of Maya Moore. I knew she was great from her time at UConn all the way through, but I didn't expect the way she popped out with an impact dominance that really hadn't been seen before in the 21st century.



Looking forward to talking more about these greats as we find our groove with this board.

[cupcakesnake]

I remember getting into the WNBA the same way I got into the NBA: in the early 2000s, the website was really fun to explore.

I've loved basketball since I was a toddler, but my actual fandom was built on being able to learn the narratives and the characters on an easy-to-navigate website. The WNBA site used a lot of the same structure as the NBA, so I was learning about it in the same way. The WNBA had plenty of interesting characters: Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, the aforementioned Lauren Jackson. My first favorite player was Tamicka Catchings.

But as my basketball fandom got nerdier and I wanted the deep dives and the statistical analysis, the WNBA just didn't have much. There wasn't much journalism, marketing, or statistical databases to interact with. There still really isn't but it's finally starting to around.

I kept following it vaguely. I typicall knew the best players and would watch a handful of playoff games. I started getting back into it in 2018, I think. The Athletic was covering it more, there were a few statisticians writing stuff, and I just felt like the league was ready to take off and I wanted to get on the bandwagon. League pass was super cheap, and the WNBA was the perfect way to fill the void of the NBA offseason. Like any sport, the more you know the characters and stories, the more you fall in love with it.

My sisters played ball growing up, and I dated a women's college player for a while. I've always been around women's basketball and rooting for its development. It feels like it's time for the WNBA to take off because it offers a different kind of feel for a new kind of fan that has maybe found sports alienating for various reasons in the past. I got to attend Canada's first WNBA game earlier this year, where the Lynx and Sky sold out a full NBA arena for an exhibtion game. The interest in the game was super high and the crowd was amazing.

[zike_42]

I've been following the WNBA on and off since T-Spoon was at NY. I'm a basketball junkie, and would watch any kind of ball as long as it's good. I love that the WNBA is in the NBA offseason as it gives me more basketball throughout the year.

I'm a Liberty fan as I've been a diehard Knicks fan for my entire life. This season I've loved seeing the Australian players succeed like Ezi, Sami Whitcomb and Alanna Smith to name a few. Let's Go Liberty!

[MrDollarBills]

I've been following the WNBA on and off since T-Spoon was at NY. I'm a basketball junkie, and would watch any kind of ball as long as it's good. I love that the WNBA is in the NBA offseason as it gives me more basketball throughout the year.

I'm a Liberty fan as I've been a diehard Knicks fan for my entire life. This season I've loved seeing the Australian players succeed like Ezi, Sami Whitcomb and Alanna Smith to name a few. Let's Go Liberty!

I loved Sami when she was on the Liberty. Markswoman extraordinaire!!!

[MrDollarBills]

I was a casual watcher when the league initially started, but I always liked watching women's hoops since my sister played basketball when she was in school and i'd go to watch her games, so I guess it carried over.

I think the year we (The Liberty) drafted Sabrina is when I really started going in, because I watched her play at Oregon and i always thought that she was absolutely nasty so I got excited to watch her play here....been completely obsessed with the W ever since.

I cannot wait for next year's draft! Clark, Bueckers, Brink, Reese, Edwards, Van Lith...the talent infusion is going to be generational.

[LewisnotMiller]

Hoops junkie, so I've always been a casual fan. The Australian Olympic team was consistently good, and I had mates who dated state league players, got to scrimmage against them, which taught me some respect for their skills. Had a couple of female friends who were solid ballers also.

However, my fandom has really gone to a new level more recently. After coaching girls basketball for many years at a lower level, I'm now coaching at a semi-serious level, and one of my daughters is even more into ball then me. We go to all the NBL1 games for our local team (second level in Australia) and she convinced my father in law to become a sponsor at the WNBL level (top level) which has let us get behind the scenes, etc.

So I'm watching a couple of games of top level women's ball per week (live) on average, and coaching a couple of games of decent level junior girls.

The women players over here are SO accessible, and willing to chat, it's been great.
My daughter got up to Sydney for the World Champs with my wife, then with me for the Asia Cup. It's remarkable some of the players she has gotten to know on a first name basis after a couple of years of hardcore stanning for the women's leagues...!
As a parent, it's hard to overstate how impactful their willingness to talk to her like a real baller has been on her love for the game. Could happily list 20 players who've made a positive impact on her.