Turnover, Delle Donne

The road to hell, goes the old saying, is paved with good intentions.  Consider the one WNBA Chicago Sky forward Elena Delle Donne offered up last month.

First, some background.  Speaking to New York Magazine, Delle Donne said she wants people to see “our game and the product that we put out there.  That’s the biggest way to get people to speak about the game and our talents, instead of always just being like, ‘Oh, a female player…’  I’m a basketball player.  It’s funny how they always have to add that; they don’t say ‘male’ basketball player.”  Eight days after the interview ran, Delle Donne raised this question with USA Today Sports: “Why not lower our rim and let every single player in the league play above the rim like the NBA does?”  As precedent, Delle Donne cited lower nets in volleyball, shorter distances in golf and fewer sets in tennis.

In other words, get people to stop thinking of women athletes as inferior by making things easier.  “Might as well put us in skirts and back in the kitchen,” WNBA star and Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi told ESPNW.com, and I agree.  The more difference you put between the genders when it comes to sports, the easier it is to dismiss women’s accomplishments.  Women hit a 12-inch softball instead of a baseball for reasons that totally escape me.