The joy round ladies’s basketball in recent times is plain. The 2023 NCAA ladies’s basketball nationwide championship recreation between LSU and Iowa was probably the greatest sporting occasions of the yr, and drew large scores for ESPN. The 2023 WNBA Finals between two superteams within the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces additionally generated a few of the highest TV scores in league historical past. Earlier this week, I acquired to witness the Caitlin Clark phenomenon in particular person, which was one thing adjoining to Beatles-mania for the younger ladies in attendance.
Curiosity in ladies’s hoops is simply going to proceed trending up with a lot nice younger expertise within the recreation, however the WNBA nonetheless has actual issues. Groups are sometimes touring with out constitution flights, participant salaries are nonetheless extraordinarily low, and the advertising of the league may use an entire overhaul. Girls hoopers want extra advocates from each the media and males’s gamers, however sadly some males are nonetheless caught at nighttime.
Denver Nuggets ahead Michael Porter Jr. appeared on The Pivot podcast with Ryan Clark this week, and gave some extraordinarily cringeworthy and inaccurate opinions on the WNBA. Porter Jr. in contrast ladies’s basketball gamers to ping-pong gamers asking for more cash, mentioned he’d watch extra ladies’s basketball if the gamers dunked extra typically, and completely missed the purpose of pay equality within the league.
You’ll be able to watch the complete interview right here. Right here’s a clip that’s gone viral for a way silly Porter Jr.’s feedback are.
Porter Jr. is thought for his unhealthy opinions as a lot as his candy soar shot, and this one isn’t going to win him any new followers. Why even give him a platform to spew this rubbish?
WNBA gamers usually are not asking to make the identical salaries as their NBA counterparts as Porter appears to be suggesting. As a substitute, WNBA gamers are asking for a similar share of shared income that their NBA counterparts get. WNBA gamers have gone a very long time with out getting a lower of merchandise gross sales, for instance, whereas NBA gamers do. Aces celebrity guard Kelsey Plum defined a part of what WNBA gamers are asking for in a 2022 interview:
Right here’s a full explainer on how income sharing within the WNBA works after the newest CBA. There have been some enhancements, but it surely nonetheless isn’t sufficient.
Porter is getting slammed on social media for referring to ladies as “females.” His level about wanting ladies to dunk earlier than he begins watching is possibly his most insulting of all. Stephen Curry hasn’t dunked this season and he’s nonetheless fairly thrilling. Girls’s basketball is nice, and it completely doesn’t want above-the-rim play to seize the eye it deserves.
Porter Jr. ought to know higher, contemplating his sisters performed the sport at a excessive stage. Right here’s a small pattern of the response on social media from MPJ’s feedback.
mpj has mentioned so so so many dumb issues about so so so many matters that i discover it exhausting to even get riled up about his wnba bullshit. the boy has rocks for a mind.
— Lindsay Gibbs (@linzsports) February 3, 2024
That MPJ interview actually has me steaming. From his ignorance to him repeatedly referring to ladies as “females”.
— Janae Sims (@auntienae95) February 3, 2024
I like how MPJ’s dumb feedback popping out the identical evening a freshman named Juju Watkins has dropped 40 factors by way of three quarters towards the 4th ranked Cardinal!
— Chris Williamson (@CWilliamson44) February 3, 2024
MPJ doesn’t perceive how insensitive and disrespectful his feedback had been however as soon as once more these males on @thepivot podcast and different’s who faux care make it worse for girls! Don’t convey it up should you’re not going to do your analysis so mainly SHUT UP!
— April Sykes (@AP_Slush24) February 3, 2024
I assume @realclark25 requested #MPJ his ideas on the ladies’s recreation bc he wore Stewies shoe, however the lack of knowledge in terms of the inequities/inequality in ladies’s professional sports activities is a matter in that convo @thepivot. Wanting ahead to the comply with up bc that WASN’T IT.
— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) February 3, 2024
As many identified, Porter’s feedback went viral on the identical day USC freshman sensation JuJu Watkins dropped 51 factors in a win over top-five Stanford. Girls’s basketball goes to proceed to soar. Porter Jr. ought to verify his incorrect assumptions and tune in.
