Look up “dilettante” in the dictionary and you will find a picture of me and my friends, sitting courtside at the Houston Summit sportsplex, waving Houston Comets and WNBA banners. We represent a large, new target audience: newbie fans of women’s basketball who barely know the basic rules of the game, much less have any experience playing it, yet who find ourselves drawn to the hoops like moths to flame. With all the incredible, edible WNBA marketing saturating television and print, how can women not love the league? Suburban conservative moms love the WNBA, radical lesbians love it, teenyboppers love it. Even, gasp, men love it. Like drinking Coke or shopping at the Gap, though, we may not even know why we love it… yet. It involves women, which is good, doing tough work well, which is good, and it is fun to watch. So far, these tiny flames have been significant enough to lure mama moths to the television sets and arenas across the country.
Sure, there is also the other women’s pro league, the American Basketball League (ABL), which launched last Oc — yawn — tober. Oh, excuse me, what were we talking about? Right, the ABL. Actually, die-hard sportos argue that it is a better league with better players. But that is beside the point for many women — who by and large do not follow professional sports of any kind. No, for these women to get hooked into the body-painting, beer-chugging sports fan culture, the WNBA must be about more than just great players and good games.
With the marketing genius of Nike, Budweiser, and NBC behind it, the WNBA has wisely spun itself as the grand debut of women into mainstream culture. Ironically and despite the hype, what will keep the league from being more than a fad is the covert indoctrination of the legions of damsel dilettantes like me to the actual rules of play.
Slam Spunk
An interesting barometer of the acceptance of the women’s game is its male fans. True, some men will not give the WNBA the time of day, even in the dog days of summer sports drought when endless, actionless games of baseball rule the tube. The men who do get pumped over women’s ball enjoy its similarity to “old school” men’s ball — before the days of Jordan, Magic, or even Wilt, before showboating and ultra-human athleticism turned a team sport into a cult of personalities. The women’s game is largely “horizontal” as opposed to “vertical,” relying on tactical, team-oriented passing rather than superstar slam dunking. Many men seem to be waiting on the sidelines for the league’s first slam dunk before they own up to being WNBA fans.
“My son is just waiting for a girl to dunk, but you don’t see that a lot in the men’s game anyway. I think it’s just something to keep talking about. Something to disrespect the women’s game,” says Houston Comets guard/forward and Austin resident Fran Harris, who played for the University of Texas’ Lady Longhorns undefeated 1986 National Championship team.
Nay-saying men argue that the women just can’t cut the mustard against the power and strength in the men’s game. Fans of women’s ball say that not only is there equal physicality, but that women’s play actually reflects a superior ability to cooperate.
“Whoever said that basketball is a non-contact sport hasn’t played women’s ball lately,” says Jody Conradt, who has coached 675 winning games for the Lady Longhorns over 21 years. According to some players, the only difference in the women’s game is attitude.
“Sure, we’ll knock each other down, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t be there to help each other back up,” says the Comets’ star guard Cynthia Cooper, describing a league-wide dedication to sportsmanship.
“Women have been socialized to keep a harmony,” Harris explains. “With men, they may or may not help me up and afterwards it’s okay. With women, sometimes they get upset with me on the court, and they might be upset with me for a week. That’s what makes us women and that’s okay, but it is funny to see,” says Harris.
According to Conradt, instead of the slam dunk, it’s the three-point shot raising the roof in the women’s game. “Women are off the floor, but they’re not above the rim. I don’t view that as a negative,” she says. Neither do the players, who won’t come right out and say it, but imply that men’s ball is all style and no substance.
“We rely on our fundamentals more so than men do,” Cooper explains. One example is “zone” play, which means players guard areas of the court as opposed to guarding one-on-one. Like college ball, the WNBA allows “playing zone,” but the NBA does not. “The WNBA is trying to keep the game in its purest form,” continues Conradt. “The most confusing call in the NBA is `illegal defense.’ Viewers have a lot of trouble understanding it,” she says.
Whether it is psychological or physical, though, it is not uncommon in the women’s game to see good players with an open shot drop out of the spotlight by passing off to teammates who might be stronger players. “Unselfishness is not a gender-specific trait. It is just the way the women are forced to play the game. In some ways it is a different game than the men play,” says Conradt.
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Saturday at the Summit |
Doctor, Lawyer, Star Athlete
Perhaps it is maturity rather than gender which makes the women’s play unselfish. Especially in the WNBA (which only has a three-month Summer season), most of the players have second careers. Harris has written a book on women’s entrepreneurship, and Lynette Woodard of the Cleveland Rockers is a successful stockbroker in real life.
Then, of course, there is Houston’s marquee player Sheryl Swoopes, immediately spotlighting the issue of motherhood in the league’s first season. “That’s greater than anything [Swoopes] could hope to do in basketball,” comments Harris, a sentiment not often overheard in a men’s locker room. Then again, it could just be the women’s maturity. Most WNBA players have been waiting since college, usually playing in foreign countries or beginning parallel careers, for a chance to play stateside in a league of their own — which is probably the real reason why the women play nice. They’re just glad to be playing at all.
Harris, 32, waited eight years after her college glory days to play in the national spotlight again. “For me, I’m not a 20-year-old anymore. There is more in this for me than just playing basketball. This opens up so many opportunities,” she says, explaining that she has plans to start her own basketball camp for women over 30 as soon as the season is over.
Harris spent a year playing in Italy and Switzerland to gear up for the WNBA — but other women players, like Cooper, 34, have spent their entire adult careers playing in foreign countries, away from family and friends.
Comets forward Tina Thompson, 22, was able to move straight from her successful college basketball stint to the WNBA. “I’m very thankful for [the older players] paving the road for me. I definitely didn’t want to go abroad.” says Thompson, who plans to eventually go to law school.
Austin’s Harris is simply thrilled to be playing so close to home. “There’s not a word to describe how I feel to be able to start my career in Texas, where I have support from the people in Austin. The Europeans just kind of tolerate basketball. American fans have basketball in their hearts,” she says. When a reporter asks if Harris will consider transferring closer to Austin when San Antonio launches its WNBA team, Harris quickly looks around to see who might be listening. “Shhhh,” she says, plastering on a grin. “I like Houston just fine.”
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League MVP contender: Cynthia “Sooper” Cooper |
Melting Basket
There are few entertainment options these days which will draw out families, lesbians, and gung-ho sports enthusiasts in equal numbers. The WNBA is a bonanza for advertisers to cross-market their products. The diverse fan base should eventually translate into a goldmine for the league as well.
During the August 5 Comets-Rockers game in Houston, a whole row of skinny, white balloons were twisted to spell out “Go Comets.” Turns out, the balloon twisters were a birthday party of pre-teen girls, all of whom were thrilled about the team. Patricia Armet, the eighth-grade elder statesman of the group, explained that everyone in the clique was a big Comets fan. “We can, like, relate,” she said. “We like this better. They’re girls. And mostly you don’t see girls on TV.”
Armet has, like, got something there. Teenaged girls were in evidence everywhere: sitting in each other’s laps, braiding each other’s hair, and screaming their heads off for their team, the Comets.
That’s not to say the men were not adding to the mid-game cacophony. “Hey, yo, ref! What’s that lousy call?!” came the drunken exclamations from a row of manly men, who had paid top dollar to sit in the front row. Craig Moore says he actually bought season tickets to the Comets games. “I like the way the girls hustle more,” he said. “But they should lower the goal so they can slam it.” His intoxicated friend interrupts. “No, no, it’s still a good game without the slam dunks,” he said. Their well-dressed designated driver explained, “The women have more desire to play the game, it’s not all about money to them. It’s about sports, and the desire to win.”
Most interesting, though, is how women who have never taken an interest in sports react to the WNBA. Will the league be able to attract the support of academic feminists and riotgrrls alike who might, perhaps, have turned their backs on competitive sports altogether? Who could not be inspired by Cooper’s determination against Cleveland? In the first half, Cooper took a knee to her quadriceps and hobbled off the court, grimacing in pain. In the second half, after purchasing an $80 Comets jersey with Cooper’s name on the back, I was relieved to see Cooper blaze back into action in spite of the pain. A hero and her fan were born.
That’s a lot of pressure for a brand new star in a brand new league, but Cooper and the rest of the gals are just going to have to get used to it. “It has to do with the place of women’s sports in society,” explains Conradt. “There is a cooperative effort to make this league, the ABL, and even the collegiate game a success.” Conradt admits that she has coached her teams to not just play well, but to put on a good show for the viewers. “When you’re the first at anything you try to reflect and carry the pride of the entire group. That is part of what’s been happening with the pro leagues. The women are trying too hard, almost,” she says, commenting in amusement on the rivalry for sponsorship and airtime between the ABL and the WNBA. Despite the rivalry, this brief debut of the WNBA is destined to become a touchstone for girls and women everywhere, even if this year’s is the first and last season.
Harris, obviously a dedicated athlete, explains that her primary interest in the league lies outside of the sport itself. “My concern is not about bringing men into it. If you really appreciate basketball, you’ll come around. My concern is what having a WNBA means to women everywhere. It touches me to be a part of this,” she says.
This article appears in August 22 • 1997 and August 22 • 1997 (Cover).