Who Would Win? Top Women vs Men (Age Limit)

[TheSuzerain]

Even 13 is hard to say. If you're picking the best 13 year olds from all over the States, you are certainly going to find some big kids. The physical disparity is just too big.
I know in soccer, national teams routinely lose to u15 boys

i'll stay with 16. you might get a kid or 2 13yrs but i think an adult 5'10 female athlete could bully a 13yr old. bronny is 15 - he was way puny two years ago

Bronny isn’t a top 100 15 year old in terms of current ability.

[TheSuzerain]

13 is too low, and simply underestimating the full-grown-adult-professionals vs children-still-learning-the-sport dynamic. WNBA wins handily. The children lose massively on skill, and don't have anywhere near enough of an athleticism advantage (if any at all) to counter.

By 16, I'd say it's just as definitive in the other direction. By that age, there's been enough time for the true athletic freaks who are also talent prodigies to have been identified.

Even at 13-14 (I.e 8th grade) the athletic advantage for guys is immense and arguably too large to overcome.

You can find ten outlier 8th graders any given year that would just dominate the paint/backboard. And then they could press.

[SMTBSI]

13 is too low, and simply underestimating the full-grown-adult-professionals vs children-still-learning-the-sport dynamic. WNBA wins handily. The children lose massively on skill, and don't have anywhere near enough of an athleticism advantage (if any at all) to counter.

By 16, I'd say it's just as definitive in the other direction. By that age, there's been enough time for the true athletic freaks who are also talent prodigies to have been identified.

Even at 13-14 (I.e 8th grade) the athletic advantage for guys is immense and arguably too large to overcome.

You can find ten outlier 8th graders any given year that would just dominate the paint/backboard. And then they could press.

It's possible I'm underestimating peak 13 year olds. But at that age are the biggest athletic outliers also going to be the biggest skill outliers at a good enough rate to field a whole team of true two-way outliers?

There comes a point where we're just underestimating female athletes. I'm never going to be the one to pretend they could hold up against legit male competition, but with the WNBA we are talking about the best in the world two-way (athleticism and skill) outliers for women. They're not crap athletes. They're just not.


Are there other examples in other sports of 13 year old males beating top female competition? How do 13-and-under male world records for things like marathon/sprinting/swimming/lifting/etc. stack up to female world records? My intuition says they probably don't - it's just too young. But I actually don't know for sure. Will have to look into it at some point.

[jrask]

i dont think most dudes get how good WNBA players are.

if you aren't a baller who has played college level, and if you haven't played against the women at that level, I basically think you have zero ability to guess how good an WNBA player is, and your random guess says more what you think about women. the guys voting 13 here are just not even on the map for this question.

I think even at 18 years old... sure those kids are gonna get some dunks and blocks and some nice 1 on 1 moves. But c'mon: Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Stewie, Delle Donne.... they're going to school those kids in terms of passing, defensive footwork. I think the 18 year old mcdonalds all-stars are going to mess them up in transition a bit. But the halfcourt game goes to the WNBA players.

Stop it

[Ancalagon]

16

a top 20 boys high school team would crush the wnba. i'll go further - any top10 hs team from a major us city would crush the women.

just put up a full court press and the women would never get past mid court. just kaput - end of story

i really doubt kobe would put up his wealth to back his claim. it's just his daughter is a VERY active high school athlete. in fact i think kobe has a bunch of daughters - what's he gonna say?

no Sir. Give me the top 12 WNBA players and they win easily.

No way. An allstar team of 16 years old highschool players would go undefeated through an WNBA season. Easily. I mean, look at Zion Williamson when he was 16.

A few years back, an under 15 team of German Bundesliga team Stuttgartn destroyed the then world champion women football team. And they didn't even play 90 minutes. Lore like 60.

I think it was the U-15 Stuttgart academy team vs. the #5 Australian women’s squad, not the top team in the world.

However, the U-15 FC Dallas academy club team did defeat the US Women’s National team in a scrimmage 5-2 (caveat: that wasn’t the full strength US team in season, and they did end up losing that year to both England and France).

[picko]

i dont think most dudes get how good WNBA players are.

if you aren't a baller who has played college level, and if you haven't played against the women at that level, I basically think you have zero ability to guess how good an WNBA player is, and your random guess says more what you think about women. the guys voting 13 here are just not even on the map for this question.

I think even at 18 years old... sure those kids are gonna get some dunks and blocks and some nice 1 on 1 moves. But c'mon: Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Stewie, Delle Donne.... they're going to school those kids in terms of passing, defensive footwork. I think the 18 year old mcdonalds all-stars are going to mess them up in transition a bit. But the halfcourt game goes to the WNBA players.

This isn't a comparison of random 15-year olds trying to beat WNBA players. This is what age top basketballers could beat WNBA players.

Consider your 18-year old comparison. Two seasons ago that co-hort includes Luka Doncic - then the best player in Europe - who is practically the same size as Liz Cambage. It would also include Deandre Ayton - who is four inches and 30 pounds heavier than Cambage. Do you really think that'd be a competitive match-up?

So the answer is clearly below 18. And 13 is surely too young. Historically boys and girls show similar sporting ability until boys hit puberty. I'd say that 15-years old seems about right. A best 15-year old boys would be superior athletically, while the WNBA players would have better fundamentals. I'd back the superior speed and movement to overcome better three-point shooting.

[Hindenburg]

Back when I was 13 and on my high-school's grade 9 team, we had a college girls team come in and play an exhibition game with us. We moped the floor with them. They had trouble bringing the ball to halfcourt. We had our coach lecture us at half time to ease off of them. And we were nothing special but to be fair maybe they were a crappy college or weren't taking it seriously.

[vxmike]

Probably none. 13 year old top male prospects are often near normal adult size and far quicker and more athletic than women.

When I was about 13 the high school girls coach asked a few of us to scrimmage against the senior girls. I was just a normal sized average kid nowhere near an elite athlete....we destroyed the girls and it wasn’t even competitive. They couldn’t rebound at all, for example. Several of them were taller but it made zero difference as their strength and lateral quickness were far lower.

[Lalouie]

i dont think most dudes get how good WNBA players are.

if you aren't a baller who has played college level, and if you haven't played against the women at that level, I basically think you have zero ability to guess how good an WNBA player is, and your random guess says more what you think about women. the guys voting 13 here are just not even on the map for this question.

I think even at 18 years old... sure those kids are gonna get some dunks and blocks and some nice 1 on 1 moves. But c'mon: Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Stewie, Delle Donne.... they're going to school those kids in terms of passing, defensive footwork. I think the 18 year old mcdonalds all-stars are going to mess them up in transition a bit. But the halfcourt game goes to the WNBA players.

the women would not get past half court if the men applied themselves, like incentivized to prevent the women to cross half court. i think if this was a money game where money is won by how much you beat the opponent - like say anytime the women can even hit the rim that's 2pts, 3pts if they make a basket, the boys would be incentivized enough not to take it easy and they would powder the women. i think basketball is a mano a mano team sport, and that's where the women lose.

i'll bet they're 2 steps less quick, 8steps slower end to end, 40% weaker, smaller hands - they have to do everything 2-handed, and 1.5' shorter on the jump. they wouldn't shake their male defender.

[DaPessimist]

I think the best freshman HS men in the Country could match up, so I picked 14 years old.

[RoyceDa59]

I’d say about age 14/15.

What about best woman’s team vs old former NBA HOFers?

Could a team of 60+ yr old HOFers beat em?


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[ahmetmekin]

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/australian-womens-national-team-lose-70-to-team-of-15yearold-boys-a3257266.html
13 seems the most reasonable choice here.

[Fico92]

Some of these answers sound like the same people who were sure that Bobby Riggs would crush Billie Jean King.

Look up Karsten Braasch VS the Williams sisters.

"Another event dubbed a "Battle of the Sexes" took place during the 1998 Australian Open[56] between Karsten Braasch and the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena Williams had claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world's top 200, so Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple of bottles of ice cold lager".[57][56] The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park,[58] after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. He first took on Serena and after leading 5–0, beat her 6–1. Venus then walked on court and again Braasch was victorious, this time winning 6–2.[56] Braasch said afterwards, "500 and above, no chance". He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game "fun"[59] and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier and put spin on the ball that female players can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350."

[Neutral 123]

I love women, so I'm probably being biased when I say 13.

[OzThunder]

If you want some context, I was involved (in a coaching capacity) in a team of solid Australian semi pro players (including american imports) scrimmaging against the Australian Opals (female national team) before the 2016 Olympics, as part of their training prep.

This is a team made up predominantly of WNBA players and including some of the best in the world.

The mens team was pretty solid, generally made up of Americans and Australians who were solid NCAA Div 1 players in previous years, aged from 21-30ish.

The games were close and competitive over properly timed 40 minute games.

I'd suggest the best HS teams would be beaten by a womens all star team. College teams would be a better competition match, cos obviously at that level the talent is getting pooled a bit better and the depth of talent becomes more evident.

That's my answer if you're choosing HS/ College teams vs womens all star teams.

If you're choosing the twelve best young old men in the world though it's a different story, and I'd probably say 15 is around the mark, cos there would be enough freak athletes to put together a freak team.

[peZt]

i dont think most dudes get how good WNBA players are.

if you aren't a baller who has played college level, and if you haven't played against the women at that level, I basically think you have zero ability to guess how good an WNBA player is, and your random guess says more what you think about women. the guys voting 13 here are just not even on the map for this question.

I think even at 18 years old... sure those kids are gonna get some dunks and blocks and some nice 1 on 1 moves. But c'mon: Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Stewie, Delle Donne.... they're going to school those kids in terms of passing, defensive footwork. I think the 18 year old mcdonalds all-stars are going to mess them up in transition a bit. But the halfcourt game goes to the WNBA players.

And you completely overestimate how good WNBA players are in comparison to even the best High School players.
In soccer, the best female national teams lose by double digits to middle of the calss u16 boys teams. And here we are talking about the best 16 year old boys in a sport which is way more reliant on physical attributes.

Go watch this.

Watch on YouTube

Any slight skill advantage the best WNBA players might have, is completely negated by the fact that even the worst player in that video is bigger, stronger and faster than anyone in the WNBA. Which WNBA player is going to blow by some, or be able to come off a screen from someone who's twice as fast and strong?

[OzThunder]

i dont think most dudes get how good WNBA players are.

if you aren't a baller who has played college level, and if you haven't played against the women at that level, I basically think you have zero ability to guess how good an WNBA player is, and your random guess says more what you think about women. the guys voting 13 here are just not even on the map for this question.

I think even at 18 years old... sure those kids are gonna get some dunks and blocks and some nice 1 on 1 moves. But c'mon: Liz Cambage, A'ja Wilson, Stewie, Delle Donne.... they're going to school those kids in terms of passing, defensive footwork. I think the 18 year old mcdonalds all-stars are going to mess them up in transition a bit. But the halfcourt game goes to the WNBA players.

And you completely overestimate how good WNBA players are in comparison to even the best High School players.
In soccer, the best female national teams lose by double digits to middle of the calss u16 boys teams. And here we are talking about the best 16 year old boys in a sport which is way more reliant on physical attributes.

Go watch this.

Watch on YouTube

Any slight skill advantage the best WNBA players might have, is completely negated by the fact that even the worst player in that video is bigger, stronger and faster than anyone in the WNBA. Which WNBA player is going to blow by some, or be able to come off a screen from someone who's twice as fast and strong?

Again, an important question of the debate is whether they are playing an average team of that age, i.e- a good high School team, or U16 team USA.

Either way I think you guys underrate execution a tiny bit as a strength of the seasoned women pros

[Badlands]

Some of these answers sound like the same people who were sure that Bobby Riggs would crush Billie Jean King.

Look up Karsten Braasch VS the Williams sisters.

"Another event dubbed a "Battle of the Sexes" took place during the 1998 Australian Open[56] between Karsten Braasch and the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena Williams had claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world's top 200, so Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple of bottles of ice cold lager".[57][56] The matches took place on court number 12 in Melbourne Park,[58] after Braasch had finished a round of golf and two shandies. He first took on Serena and after leading 5–0, beat her 6–1. Venus then walked on court and again Braasch was victorious, this time winning 6–2.[56] Braasch said afterwards, "500 and above, no chance". He added that he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game "fun"[59] and that the big difference was that men can chase down shots much easier and put spin on the ball that female players can't handle. The Williams sisters adjusted their claim to beating men outside the top 350."

It should be noted that Serena and Venus were 16 and 17 years old at the time.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I’d say about age 14/15.

What about best woman’s team vs old former NBA HOFers?

Could a team of 60+ yr old HOFers beat em?


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Here are Marvin Bagley and DeAndre Ayton at 14 and 15

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

6'9" to 7'0" NBA bigs are generally around 6'6-6'8" at those ages, the women can't compete with that kind of athleticism and size.

[Cavsfansince84]

Its not a cut and dry things in terms of it being one way or another. It would go in degrees of who would win the most times out of 10 games. So the question has to be defined as when the male team no longer wins 10 out of 10 or can no longer win a majority out of 10 because at most of the 15-17 ages the women's team would probably be able to win at least some of if not a majority of the time. There's not a magic age at which it goes from the women always winning to the men/boys always winning.