Urban Thought Collective

Even from the other side of the world it looked ugly. Luckily neither ESPN Deportes nor CNN en Espanol kept it running on a continuous loop like I’m sure it did on their U.S. counterparts. After seeing a picture of it in a USA Today as I got off the plane in Santiago, Chile, I finally watched it online as soon as I had internet access. A WNBA brawl complete with big name players and a big name coach or 3. To make matters worse, one of the big name coaches is a rather large man (Rick Mahorn) that apparently didn’t know his own strength in the heat of the moment. I don’t want to call anybody out, but Plenette Pierson and her Detroit Shock teammates just set back women’s basketball more than they can probably fathom at this point.

Traditionally thought of as these elegant, highly skilled, and supremely conditioned athletes, WNBA players had yet to be marred by any ugly incidents yet in their 10 year history, at least not to my knowledge. I’m sure somebody had pushed and shoved at some point, because basketball can be a pretty physical game sometimes and keeping one’s cool can be a challenge. But up to this point, I can’t recall seeing highlights about a “girl-fight” in any sport. Not only was it not at all becoming, but I’m sure it will do nothing for the popularity of the sport.

Now I don’t want to sound like a cave man and appear as though I don’t think women should even be breaking a sweat as a profession, let alone get physical. That’s not it at all. I am a huge supporter of women’s athletics and often find myself defending women’s basketball, specifically whenever one of my less open minded friends wants to denounce it as a game lacking skill and excitement. As far as pure team basketball and good fundamentals, the women’s game has no equal. From a coaching perspective, I find myself instructing both my daughter AND my son to watch and learn how to do a pick and roll or something technical in a women’s game more often than I do telling them to try to glean something from a men’s professional game, wrought with higher-flying and increasingly less skilled players each year. I admire what C. Vivian Stringer has done at Rutgers and Pat Summit has done with her legendary program at Tennessee. Anytime your women’s hoop team has a bigger stadium than the men’s team and sells it out every night, you’re playing good ball. Period.

However, I really hope that this is not the supposed path toward mass appeal for women’s professional athletics. Although I don’t think she’s condoning the sistahs gettin’ their scrap on, I slightly disagree with the tone of ESPN.COM writer Jemele Hill in her article this week. I get the sense that she may be misconstrued as suggesting that there need be some equality and respect due to women in athletics for “puttin’ ‘em up.” I don’t think that is her intention, but I had to read it twice to be sure. She does make the compelling point that the pristine and squeaky clean image that the WNBA executives have created may have a slightly exaggerated fairy tale element. Can you blame them though? Apparently, they have the presence of mind to recognize that marketing is everything and when you’re trying to put out a product that folks are racing to see about as fast as they are soccer in the United States, you had better get it right the first time.

How did we get here though? I would’ve thought a brawl like the one from this game would have been unthinkable a few years ago. My sister was a great athlete, as are many of my female friends and I’ve been to their games plenty of times. Women do throw an occasional elbow just like anyone else, but it never looked like that. How did it happen that if I blinked, I might’ve assumed I was watching Artest and the boys in their melee 2 years ago? The way Ms. Pierson rolled up on Candace Parker looked a bit familiar. I hate to pull the media card again, but I’m not sure that the rapid fire images that are so prevalent on television these days aren’t at least partially to blame. I remember being in a hip-hop club a couple years ago and thinking “what is this world coming to?” as a bunch of sistahs ran to the floor shaking fists and spouting the harsh, foul mouthed lyrics of Rah Digga when the DJ cut to that. What happened to the Sista Soulja’s, Queen Latifah’s, and MC Lyte’s that didn’t take no stuff, but didn’t feel like they had to come at you like a dude to get some cred?

I am confident that I am raising my basketball playing daughter to act like she’s got some sense and have a plan B that doesn’t make her beholden to some professional franchise owner’s checkbook. Non athletic vocations are even a greater reality for talented female athletes than they are for the naïve male ones. The money is not big enough for WNBA athletes to think that they can do whatever they want like their knuckleheaded round-ball brethren in the other league. Let’s hope that this situation is the exception and does not become the norm.

Destah Owens is a single father of two from Northern California and proud UCLA Bruin who travels the world for his job as a computer engineer. His blog “Souffles in Saigon” is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.