The WNBA is Shooting Itself in the Foot. Here’s How to Save It (And Hoop Dreams for Girls Everywhere)

By Jeremy Oberstein

Lindsay Whalen (left) and Candace Parker (right) huddle up with young players at the
'Hoops for Troops' Girls Basketball Clinic | Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

Two score and 23 days ago, Title IX enfranchised female athletes, leveling the playing field in ways that are still unfolding. By most accounts, the legislation has succeeded wonderfully. The number of female coaches has risen markedly while the number of women's collegiate sports teams now number more than 9,000. As of 2008, according to one study, 21.3% of athletic directors were female, the highest representation of females as athletics directors in nearly three decades.

Title IX also unwrapped a stream of intangible benefits by offering hope to girls whose hoop dreams did not include pom poms. Women’s basketball, now on nearly every college campus, has been a top destination for collegiate female athletes and one that churns out a rare opportunity: turning pro - something that was not offered before 1996.

The Women’s National Basketball Association has been a boon for those fortunate enough to play professional ball and the millions of girls who can now dream as high as their brothers do of Kobe and Lebron.

Why, then, does the WNBA do nothing to help itself, killing the league in the process?

One reason why the league is a non starter for most sports fans is because it lacks the electricity of the NBA. There’s rarely dunking, nearly no hot dogging and no outsize personalities to carry the league. The first issue can be easily fixed, which will help the second issue and then the third.

Here’s how to save the WNBA from itself and reinvigorate professional women’s basketball:


1) Shorten the rim/move the free throw line in. All WNBA dimensions are in line with NBA regulations, except the three-point arc. Breaking that down, the rim in both the WNBA measures 10 feet from its base; each court is 94-feet and and the free throw lines are each 15 feet from the backboard. Such measurements are in place despite the average NBA player having a seven inch height advantage over the average WNBAer.

It’s all well and good to entrench equality, but it should be done only when and where it offers a steady advantage to everyone at play. Having an WNBA court measure the same distance as an NBA hardwood ignores reality and only hurts the cause of professional women’s basketball.

To see how, consider the popularity of the NBA, which shot to stardom on the back of Magic’s Showtime Lakers and Jordan’s high flying jaunts toward the rim. Lebron is an international star not because he’s an excellent passer (which he is), but because he’s made a living above the rim - feats that are not by and large equaled in the WNBA (or on the Spurs, the world’s most boring and fundamentally sound team).

That hurts the WNBA, where players are so fundamentally sound as to be excruciatingly uninteresting.
Each year, the league loses money while the NBA continues to subsidize its sister organization to the tune of $12 million annually. There is some evidence that attendance, sales, sponsorships and ratings are up, which is welcome news. But if the WNBA wants to continue its momentum, it should shorten the rims by exactly one foot and move the free throw line closer by exactly 1.5 feet. Here’s why: The average height of an NBA player is around 6’7’’ (80 inches), while a WNBA player is, on average, 6’ (72 inches). Take their heights and multiply for X (the desired height of the WNBA rim) over 120 inches (the 10 foot rim).

Do the same for the free throw line and you get 13.5 feet, a foot and a half closer than the NBA.

You could also shorten the court, but running is running.

< Changing these regulations, I realize, is not as easy as simply lowering the rim nor painting a new charity stripe. These changes would be systemic and would require a re education of young girl basketball players through high school, college and the WNBA. But that should not be an obstacle. Have you ever dunked a basketball? Neither have I. Do I want to? More than most things, yes. Dunking, in my head, offers a universal sense of joy just as watching dunking does. Give women more of a chance to do that and the fans will come. Give women a chance to dunk and the possibility of fostering the next Lebron in the women’s league grows exponentially, as does its potential bottom line.

2) The NBA must go all in on the WNBA, or it must leave them alone. Women’s professional basketball is intrinsically connected to Stern Inc., with most professional teams in cities where NBAers hoop it up. The NBA financially supports the NBA and sponsors frequently cross over.

I applaud the NBA for encouraging the growth of women’s basketball. It’s a worthy venture and a feather in Commissioner David Stern’s hat. But the NBA is stifling its little sister by expecting it to be just like its cooler, more successful kin without actually encouraging it to grow.

It’s adorable how protective the NBA is over the WNBA. Really, it’s adorable. But let the kid grow and offer it a chance to succeed. They can do so by encouraging the league to change their measurements and, more importantly, by letting it chart its own course. If Stern wants the WNBA to be NBAish (dunk contests galore), he must address the reality that men and women are of different stature. If he does not, let the WNBA go and allow it change its rules accordingly.

3) Stop ignoring reality. Some may cry sexism in these arguments. To them, I would ask why they don’t say the same about softball, women’s golf, women’s marathon runners, etc. In softball, the base paths are 60 feet, not 90 feet, as it is in Major League Baseball and pitchers are about 15 feet closer to batters in softball than in baseball. Women golfers tee up closer than their male counterparts while female marathoners get a head start on their 26.2 mile journey when competing in races men also run. It’s not sexism to realize men and women’s bodies are capable of different feats. Many sports have already acknowledged as such. The WNBA must do so as well.

4) Pay players fairly. The average salary of a WNBA player who’s played at least three seasons is $54,000 [http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Sports/wnba-salaries.php]. There are bonuses for exemplary play and championships, but while the WNBA average is about $20,000 more than the median income for full time women workers in this country, it equals out to about a 200 to 1 disparity vs. NBA salaries.
The earnings potential of, say, Diana Taurasi - one of the top female pro basketball players - is not as high as, say, Kobe Bryant, especially when you consider sponsorship potential, international influence, etc. But when the average WNBA player makes 200 times less than her male counterpart - and may have to take a second job in the off season - what kind of message does that send?

If one point of the WNBA is to weave dreams for young girls (indeed, fantasy is a key target of the NBA and all professional sports), then why treat their players like second class athletes? Executives would say it’s economics, not sexism and I’d agree. But implementing needed reforms like one’s I’ve addressed here can unlock the earnings potential of a sport that deserves just as much space at the table as others.

The WNBA is at a crossroads and has been for some time. Since its inception 16 years ago, 18 teams have been established; five have since folded while three packed their bags for other cities.

Title IX may have opened the door for leagues like the WNBA and given wings to thousands of girls who dream of getting paid to play a sport they’d play for free. But the league must now help itself - and its legions of fans - to survive and continue the cause charted forty years ago.