According to the article’s introduction, Women’s basketball deserves better. Deserves better what?
I just learned where the game “newcomb/newcome” originated.
In grade school we played newcomb on the b-ball court. I thought it was just a silly variation, but it actually follows the original b-ball rules closer than the current squeak-squeak game.
For a fascinating look at women’s basketball, check out Lydia Reeder’s “Dust Bowl Girls.” The author is the grandniece of Sam Babb, the coach who led his team of Oklahoma girls to a championship during the Depression.
When I was a kid the girl’s game had six-player teams. Three offensive players, three defensive players. Since girls were “too delicate” to run back and forth the full length of the court, they had to stop at the midcourt line. In 1925, principals and superintendents in Iowa proposed cutting the girls sport based on the premise that basketball was too strenuous for girls.
The average height of a WNBA player in 1996 (their first year) was 6 feet.
The average height of a WNBA player now is also 6 feet.
And in 30 years of development, none of them can dunk a ball.
Pathetic!!!
Others? Meh.