Diana Taurasi can't count the number of times she has answered this question: Could a woman play in the NBA? She turns to U. Neither can come up with a number. And then she shakes her head, an indication both of the answer that's coming and her wariness of the topic. I can't help it. Skill-wise, knowing the game, there's no difference between men and women It's a long shot.
Women play against men all the time -- on the playgrounds, in pick-up games. Most college women's teams pit their starters against male practice players on a routine basis. High compliments received from the best players in the world. Baylor star Brittney Griner has become a familiar name in our sporting frame of reference largely because of her ability to dunk, bringing the women's game ever closer to the men's in what many consider the most defining way. But a woman playing in the NBA?
The skills -- the ability to shoot with dead-eye accuracy, handle a ball, make a crisp pass -- all translate. The physical disparity in size and speed and strength -- not so much. Olympic coach in If we are talking about strength and speed and jumping ability Hell, yeah, I would bet on her all the time. Can she beat any NBA player one-on-one? Ann Meyers Drysdale is one of the few who can say she gave it a go. The current vice president of personnel and scouting for the Phoenix Suns as well as president and general manager of the Phoenix Mercury, became the first woman to sign a contract with an NBA team, in with the Indiana Pacers.
Meyers Drysdale was attacked by media and skeptics -- male and female -- who didn't understand why a woman would want to play with men when the Women's Professional Basketball League, where she excelled, already existed. I shouldn't strive for the best because my equipment is different than [the guys]? Because I don't have what they have? Holdsclaw remembers growing up on the courts of New York City playing against Lakers Lamar Odom and Ron Artest and discovering their strength, specifically as it was applied against her.
He would blow by me and hit me in the chest and I was like, 'Man, this hurts. Shooting guards, which is the position she would have to play in the NBA, are to There aren't many women that size with shooting guard skills.
