DubTheVanDamage wrote:Texas Chuck wrote:If you listen to what each of them actually said, she is in the right. But mind you that's way different from what this discussion will boil down to which is women's sports suck and don't generate revenue so shut up.
But I hope some people will take the time to actually read the quotes before their usual lazy commentary. Several female athletes actually engaged with him in very meaningful ways to acknowledge some of what he said while correcting him on the areas he missed on.
It spurred a good dialogue, but we won't have it here sadly.
How is your response spurring a good dialogue? You flat declare Rapinoe right, but don't say why or how.
So, here are the quotes for context:
Green said:
"As long as y'all make the argument about pay, while the revenue stays the same... They will continue to point at the revenue not being high enough to cover bigger salaries. While that is true in damn near every business, how do we take that card out of their pockets? That's the key to changing the pay. There's no argument for lack of revenue, unless... You make those that say they stand for women actually stand up."
He then said:
"The NBA wasn't always the global game that it is today. It wasn't always driving as much revenue as it does today. But there were people behind it, building the platform, and more importantly telling INDIVIDUAL...stories and building up the interest in the players. That's how the game took off. Who's building up y'all platform? Who's telling the individual stories of how great y'all are? Building the interest and transforming women's basketball into a global game?"
Rapinoe's response:
"It's really unfortunate, in the position [Green's] in, having all of the resources that he has and the ability to have a much more educated opinion, that he just hasn't. And then, drag all these other people into it by tagging them and speaking at a time when the [NCAA] tournament is going on and all that we saw with the lack of resources and funding."
Her first response to to claim that an opposing view is "uneducated" and that Draymond doesn't understand what Rapinoe and other female athletes talk about. If Rapinoe disagreed with anything Draymond said, she could have countered them, but this sort of broad, dismissive response is intellectually dishonest, self righteous, and quite offensive. I find it surreal that you're standing up and clapping for this sort of marginalization.
She continued:
"That's frustrating that's the take you have. You obviously showed your whole ass in not even understanding what we all talk about all the time -- WNBA players and us on the national team. Like what Sue [Bird] said, you tagged the wrong people. You don't think we asked for more money? I mean, what are we screaming about? Nonstop!"
More talk that Green doesn't understand. Poor, uneducated fool... and the fact that Rapinoe is defending her girlfriend -- no, there is no bias here.
The true irony is this -- Rapinoe actually didn't bother to read what Draymond wrote. She said, "You don't think we asked for more money?" when that was
exactly the point Green made -- asking for money without increasing the revenue pool won't work.
Finally, on a (slightly) more constructive note, Megan said:
"When we talk about equality and women's sports, we always talk first about investment, and funding and resources and marketing and branding and investing in not just the players but the support staff and coaching and media, TV media, print media, all of it," she said. "Those are the things that we talk about first, and I think anybody who watches us or follows us, or really has skin in the game and equal pay or equality in that sense, knows that that's what we talk about first."
This is where she more directly addressed Draymond's comments -- although, again, I think she missed the mark. She is asking for investment -- expecting other people to step up when Draymond's message was
do it yourself.
As a final note, attendance for the WNBA has pretty much declined since its inception -- the league peaked at an average of 10.8k fans in its second year and was down to 6.5k in 2019. The league loses money -- pretty clearly, the approach to market the league hasn't worked. Megan is naively demanding more investment in a dying, loss making business.
NBA players have, overall, done an excellent job off the court, both in promoting themselves, building businesses, and speaking out. Instead of shrilly castigating Draymond for giving his advice, why not say, "Ok, show us how to do it. Let's team up."
The WNBA's approach, including that of the players, simply hasn't worked. It's foolish to think, given the long-term decline the league is experiencing, that continuing to do the same thing will lead to different results. Also, Draymond, and many of his friends (including James and Curry) -- could do a lot to help and mentor WNBA players. Perhaps Bird and the other WNBA players should have spent less time "correcting" and more time collaborating.
