Some thoughts from my recent couple of weeks in Seattle and Dallas. The best part, by far, was the quality of women's basketball, which has come light years and is finally being recognized by the American basketball community and the entire nation as scintillating intense competition worth watching.
Almost ten million people watched the championship game on Sunday afternoon. That sentence rolled rather easily off my keyboard, but the fact it relates is almost incomprehensible.
2023 Women's Basketball Championship Viewers 9.91.million
2022 4.85 million
2021 3.98 million
2019 3.40 million
In my opinion, the Semi-Final Friday night between Iowa and South Carolina was the Championship game. It held the 13,200 fans packing the American Airlines arena in the breathless grip of total excitement and involvement from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
The Gamecocks struggled against the packed-in Iowa zone. The officiating was the best I've seen for a women's championship. The thousands of Hawkeye fans were very loud. Caitlyn Clark and her teammates were terrific. Their coach was inspiring. I loved every minute. The Gamecock players were gracious in defeat, but their coach couldn't keep from descending into a lengthy racial diatribe that soured a moment she could have elevated to the excellence that both teams had just demonstrated. She had almost nothing positive to say about Iowa.
The Sunday afternoon game, to me, was the opposite. The Hawkeye team was completely gassed from their all-out battle on Friday night. They had climbed the mountain and shocked the basketball world by taking down the undefeated team most of America was certain would be cutting down the nets on Sunday. Then, the officiating on Sunday was some of the worst I've witnessed. I left in the second quarter. It was too sad to watch any more.
Later, I saw some of the media post-game coverage. Kim Mulkey said her players live in the angry caldron of social media. All their trash talking is who they've become. Angel Reese is a reaping a fortune from NIL and spends her time counterattacking the people on twitter who spend their time attacking her. She feels a victim morning, noon, and night.
Made me remember and appreciate anew the moment after Alliyah Boston missed that put-back in 2021 and dissolved into tears in front of the millions watching - and Fran and Cam both went to her and the three embraced for several priceless moments on national television, the two victors sincerely consoling an opposing great player feeling terrible in defeat.
Seemed the opposite - when in defeat Caitlyn walked away feeling terrible - and Angel followed her for thirty or forty feet heaping abuse on her in an effort to make her feel worse - with almost ten million watching. I felt embarrassed for Ms. Reese, her family, her coach, LSU, and women's basketball.
Seemed an awful finish to a great tournament with a wonderful spirit of sportsmanship along the way that was mostly lost in the finale.
A belated "Thank You" to Fran and Cam. Your spirit of caring friendship and sportsmanship must be the future of our sport.
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