I’m All For Equality Of Course, But Things Don’t Ever Need To Be THAT Equal

The first female NBA Assistant Coach, Becky Hammon, was announced a few days ago.  She was hired by the San Antonio Spurs, and at first, I was thinking to myself, oh boy, I hope she doesn’t come to the table with unrealistic goals, like the idea that there should be women players in the NBA as well.

So, before placing eye rolling judgment on my fellow female, I took a look at a few interviews and read a great article on NBA.com where she was asked about women playing in the NBA.  Her response made me love her:

“People ask me all the time, will there ever be a woman player in the NBA?  To be honest, no. There are differences. The guys are too big, too strong and that’s just the way it is. But when it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there’s no reason why a woman couldn’t be in the mix and shouldn’t be in the mix.” – Becky Hammon

Sometimes as women, we fight so hard to be equal that we forget the basic nature of things and in turn find ourselves making silly statements like, sure, Brittney Griner can play in the NBA.  As if Griner will be just fine playing against and guarding players like Lebron James, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, etc etc.  Um, no.  As good as Griner is, she is not a man, and they will kill her.  Point blank.  Unless of course they played with less strength, and if so, is that really equal?  Fact is, Brittney Griner will never dunk on Lebron or beat him one on one, unless he lets her, and like Hammon said, “that’s just the way it is”.

Part of our responsibility as women (if we truly want to be equal) is recognizing and accepting our differences and working without bitterness within those parameters instead of sometimes trying to force ourselves into unrealistic situations; and Becky Hammon seems to have the right idea.  I am very excited for her and hope she does well, but I NEVER want to see a woman PLAYING in the NBA.  I’m all for equality of course, but things don’t ever need to be THAT equal.

BECKY HAMMON – NBA.com

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