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Kobe: "There are WNBA stars 'who could play in NBA right now"
- Thread starter Rbk_3
- Start date
I used to play with Sean Rooks and Cheroke Parks in Newport 38th street long ago.... Two of the most average NBA players you can have. They DOMINATED everyone in their path on the parks. I agree with your post. People have no idea how good the worst players in the league are.
Well, when you consider there are about 4,500 D1 college players at any given time, another 3k or so D2, and 60 guys are drafted each year, with at least 5 to 6 of those guys never even hitting the floor for an NBA team. The average length of an NBA career is around 4 years, with a lot guys lasting a year or 2 at best and going overseas or the G-League and never sniffing a rotation.
So yeah, any guy who can get minutes in the NBA are really good at basketball.
No WNBA player could really crack a rotation in the league, but I mean it'd be cool if one could.
look at matt thomas on the raptors — he's an elite three-point shooter but offers virtually nothing else, so he gets a rotation spot for when they need spacing or to make up a deficit.
i am pretty sure elena delle donne could at least fill a role like that and would be better on defense.
Those are two names I haven't heard in a long time.
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Eh, even then that athletic disparity is clearly on display. To fit his role, she'd have to play guard and she doesn't move at all like a guard. She moves like a lumbering big. I can't see her getting off clean shots or creating with this level of agility.
vs
You and a lot of others underestimate what it takes to be an NBA player
There is a lot more to being a NBA player than being able to shoot the Basketball. Even the best shooter in the WNBA would struggle to get her shot off in the NBA and she'd be an absolute liability to the level of unplayable on defense.
No WNBA player would even sniff D1 Basketball and Kobe knows this
This is fucking hilarious. Elena Delle Donne is 6'5 180 lbs. In the WNBA those are elite wing/frontcourt measurements. Those are the measurements of an undersized 2 guard in the NBA. She's a fantastic WNBA player, but to watch her play, how she moves, her play style, and think that could not only translate over to perimeter play in the NBA, but actually be better than her male counterparts on defense, is absolute lunacy. I can only conclude you don't watch men or women basketball players.
Here's more of that Scalabrine challenge ... he's an NBA "scrub" but these guys were no where close to beating him and some of these guys are pretty decent players from the looks of it. One dude was nailing everything in warm ups. First guy is about 6'8 and plays some college ball, this guy would probably be a pretty good WNBA player, got completely waxed 11-3.
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I did not wake up this morning expecting to hear the names Sean Rooks and Cherokee Parks.
I hope youre like 6'10.
Possibly but most likely it would have to be a 60% type shooter from 3 and use zone defense on the other side to meitigate bad defensive liability.
well yeah of course! he'd also play 40 minutes a game instead of 2, which is all i'm saying — i wouldn't be shocked if you could get certain specialised WNBA players to hang with that level of usage.
yeah, fair on the specifics of that comparison.
put it this way: on a sporting level i would be more interested in watching a team try this than i was in watching conor mcgregor try to box. which is a low bar, maybe, but a whole lot of people were interested in seeing that
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There's not a single WNBA player that could get 8ppg even in D1 College Basketball. They're not going to be able to blow by anyone, will struggle heavily to get their shot of if at all and will be an absolutely unplayable on defense. It's absurd to think otherwise.
I don't know about any Basketball games between top women and men's teams but in soccer for example the best female national teams routinely lose in double digits to u15 and u16 boys teams, of which maybe 1-2 players end up pro. And here we're talking about a sport which is way more reliant on physical attributes than soccer.
That is the major equation of basketball. Can you drive to the basket to get the easier points up close. And do you have the distance shot so a defender can't play off a step. And of course being tall is an advantage to shooting near and far from the hoop.
Defense is the same thing needed size and speed to counter the other player.
Defense is the same thing needed size and speed to counter the other player.
I think for all sports anyone should be able to compete at the top level that is able to.
Then below that have different categories to make it inclusive for everyone not able to play at the top level.
Then below that have different categories to make it inclusive for everyone not able to play at the top level.
Just being a "good shot" isn't near enough to play at an elite level. I am an amazing shot and I can beat my friend who played Big Ten collegiate ball in a game of PIG 4 out of 5 times. 1 on 1 and I get absolutely murdered and can't score a point.
Challenge accepted.
Bring that bum to the Y. I will find some random standout middle schooler and we will have a shooting competition.
Loser has to wear a Jordan jersey for an entire week.
No reason not to let them try. Not saying lower standards or anything. But no reason not to let them try our in their own skill.
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I think theres some misconception that women never play against men. They have since the beginning of the game. It happens on a daily basis at d1 college across the country. And I'm sure wnba players do too.
If they could theyd be over there playing. Theres no way they could make any top domestic league teams roster.
I think theres some misconception that women never play against men. They have since the beginning of the game. It happens on a daily basis at d1 college across the country. And I'm sure wnba players do too.
I feel like a lot of people in here are posting thinking with their heart and not their brain. I can respect the idea, but I can't imagine a woman playing well in the NBA.
I used to ref some mixed gender summer scrimmages at a high school where they had a McDonalds AA female player. She wouldnt have started for the boys team. Her size and athleticism were elite for girls. For boys she was below average for a decent high school team. This is a girl that has a chance at the WNBA probably.
Also, girls play with a smaller ball. The larger ball makes shooting and handling more difficult.
Yep, the UCONN women's basketball team has to be one of the best sports teams in the US. Geno and the teams have won more than I can remember.
Basketball at large does that, have rec leagues and local tournaments and whatnot.
But the NBA is a professional sport, they're not going to make some lesser tier league just for inclusion sake, they already fund the G-League (which is like a developmental league) and the WNBA at a loss.
I don't mean the NBA should. I just mean there should be something available.
There is, but it's all local stuff. Basketball is popular enough you can go to most cities in America and find rec leagues. I know for a fact some of the ones in my city, Dallas, have women in the "men's" leagues
I say let women in and have them compete just the same. Feels like professional sports in the US will open up to both sexes in our lifetimes, maybe except the NFL. Might as well be the league to break ground on it.
are you under the impression that women are banned from the NBA by rule?
Exactly. It's like when people would say Serena could compete on the men's tour when in reality she wouldn't even crack the top 500. She is the GOAT female athlete and she would get absolutely washed by run of the mill dudes.
The fact that there's people out there who believe a top WNBA player could make it in the NBA is comical.
Of course, its absurd to think that no WNBA player could body up Delonte West or Jose Calderon. Let them play
You really just gonna throw Delonte West name out there, huh? Jesus dude.
Out of curiosity, is the "metagame" different between the two? I ask because I'm a fencer. Men's Epee fencing and women's Epee fencing have developed different meta games over the years due to differences in coaching and other things.
I don't think there are any rules on the books preventing women from trying out for mens professional sports but I could be mistaken.
I think if a team could justify a roster spot for a very talented woman in one of the major US sports they would love the opportunity just for the positive press.
I know Carli Lloyd was floated as a potential kicker for NFL teams. Women have played on mens high school football teams as kickers before.
I think if a team could justify a roster spot for a very talented woman in one of the major US sports they would love the opportunity just for the positive press.
I know Carli Lloyd was floated as a potential kicker for NFL teams. Women have played on mens high school football teams as kickers before.
Of course not. But you know full well that the public response would be incredibly toxic in the short term, and no league wants to deal with that. Not to mention that some of the players themselves might start acting up, especially the fringe ones that actually stand to lose their spot on the roster.
Any major sports league would try to get a woman on a team, if they were good enough. They would kill to have that kind of PR and publicity. It's why they're all always trying publicly stunts in preseason games and what not.
Jose Calderon was on the Spanish national team for like a dozen years, so at one point he was one of the 12 best basketball players in all of Spain, they wouldn't stand a chance even in his last few years
You may as well argue that our USA women should compete in the men's pool in the olympics
The NBA owns the WNBA and runs it at a loss
NBA would love to see some women make the move from the WNBA and hopefully make the WNBA profitable if it's seen as more of a feeder system.
Just naming a random skinny dude in the NBA, nothing other than that
I was watching Calderon before he was in the NBA, well aware of how amazing a player he was. Physically speaking I dont think he was bigger, stornger and faster than every single player in the WNBA
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And I do think you are absolutely wrong about that. Diana Taurasi is a dominant guard and possibly the current best women's player. She is 6 ft 160lbs. Jose was like 3 inches taller and had 40 lbs on her and played the same position
But is she the biggest physical threat in her league? That was my point of comparison, that Im sure theres a WNBA player thats bigger, stronger or faster than one of the smaller, more skill based, NBA players.
I understand the tennis comparison, btw, and I agree with it. Basketball is a different sport though
This post makes the most sense of any in the entire thread. People assigning all kinds of extra meaning to this.
Its incredibly unreasonable to have that expectation though. I think everyone understood what the original point is about. There still is no woman who would be able to average 5 ppg in the nba.
