Nearly all golf courses offer players a choice of places to tee off on each hole to increase or decrease the challenge level. Those closest to the hole are often (though less often these days, I’ve noticed) called the “ladies’ tees” because women tend not to hit the ball as far as men.
Fair enough. And even in the professional ranks, women play shorter holes than men play in their tournaments because of this tendency.
So the idea of lowering the height of the hoop for women’s basketball, recently championed by Chicago Sky all-star Elena Delle Donne, isn’t necessarily patronizing or sexist.
Dropping the rims to 9 feet from 10 feet “would bring a whole different aspect to the game and bring viewership as well and show the athleticism of our women,” Delle Donne told USA Today.
Diana Taurasi, of the Phoenix Mercury, begged to differ, saying that the sporting world “might as well put us in skirts and back in the kitchen.”
But Delle Donne noted the long-accepted different standards employed in golf, volleyball (where the nets are lower for women) and tennis (where the matches are shorter) and suggested the WNBA “let every single player in the league play above the rim like the NBA can.”
I agree in principle that it would make the game more exciting — alley-oops, anyone? — and I disagree with those who argue that it would take years for women to adjust to shooting at a lower hoop after having learned the game on regulation-height hoops. Weeks, maybe.
But the practical hurdles remain considerable. Lowering a volleyball net or walking 50 yards down the fairway to tee off is easy. But most baskets in most gyms around the country are at a fixed height, and replacing them all with adjustable hoops such as those used for kids’ basketball at some park district gyms, would be expensive and take many years.
Still, how about a pilot project in, say, a small-college league to see it such a change really would make women’s basketball more appealing to fans?
Let me know your views in the comment section at Change of Subject online, chicagotribune.com/zorn.
