This Week's Show
Professor Jonathan Weiler, Director of Undergraduate Studies of Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, joins Dre and Patrick to discuss the Deandre Jordan free agency saga and women's sports.
Hosts
- Special Guest Jonathan Weiler (@jonweiler)
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Patrick Minton(@nbageek)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
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Video Show
This Week's Poll
Show Notes
DeAndre Jordan
We discuss the issue of sports "journalism" and the use of unnamed sources, which Jonathan recently wrote about.
Sports media freaking out in free agency and making up stories is nothing new, sadly.
We mention how the notion of DeAndre Jordan's "rudeness" seems out of place in this story.
As Patrick points out, there is a rule that prohibits players from making binding agreements during this period. It is not a moral issue in the slightest, especially as the rules prohibit the very behavior.
Women's Sports
We quickly start out with a Serena Williams vs. Steffi Graf argument. This week's poll was decided quickly.
Despite being so dominant, Serena Williams isn't the highest paid female tennis player due to endorsments. There's an issue with what endorsers are willing to pay for in regards to women sports.
And yes, studies have shown attractiveness improves pay in mens sports as well but certainly not to the same degree.
Jonathan noted that a recent time article about Serena Williams about how female tennis players are on record as not wanting to "sacrifice their bodies" to dominate like Serena. A very odd take from professional athletes. Here's a good Salon piece on what was wrong with the Time article.
Patrick points out the absurdity of anyone bashing the "watchability" of women's sports.
Fantastic post from Dave Zirin on that exact point.
Just because you share a Y chromosome with LeBron James doesn't make you an elite athlete.-Jonathan Weiler
Yes, the top women tennis players' serves are not as fast as the top mens'. They are still ludicrously fast.
Patrick played a co-ed game against Silke Nowitzki (Dirk's sister and manager) and mentioned that she sent many players' shots into the rafters, including the male athletes.
Dave Berri had a great example of the flawed logic that people like Andy Glockner against women's sports use.
Sportscenter only devoted two percent of its time to women's sports. That's less than 1989!
Dave Berri had a good article in Time about the issues of women's sports gaining popularity if places refuse to show them.
Jonathan was willing to note that the quality of NBA basketball to the Fab-Five versus Duke wasn't even close. The NBA was far superior. In short, the idea of only watching the "most skilled" sports is not even sufficient. Jessica Luther summed it up even better.
Ppl watch/follow the little league World Series with rapt attention and then shrug at women's pro sports bc "skill level isn't enough."
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) June 22, 2015
A final nail in the coffin, the NBA used to be a much worse league and was still able to grow and maintain popularity.
Shout Outs
Jonathan shouts out the amazing Jessica Luther (@scaTX), who is a must follow for sports fans.
Patrick shouts out Nicholas Winton, who saved Jewish Czechoslovakian children from Nazi death camps. He appeared on a touching episode of That's Life in 1988.
Brian shouts out Draymond Green for a great reply to Kyrie Irving's hypothetical finals scenerario.
Shout out to Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, who recently passed. An amazing person and loss in the videogame industry.
Shout out to Seamus Young (@ReallySeamus), for also moving to Wisconsin to escape a poorly run NBA team.
Shout out to John Floyd(@baddynoshoes) for pointing out that Sam Presti let James Harden go instead of giving him the max, only to sign Enes Kanter to the max in the hopes of keeping Durant.