The morons in charge
Published by editorialpinups.com itstooimportant.com co-original in WNBA · Thursday 02 Jul 2026 · 3 minutes
There is a woman's professional basketball league, the WNBA. This was a league where the best of the United States women college basketball players go to play professionally. The problem is, not many people followed the league and the league lived on subsidies from the NBA, the Mens's professional league, National Basketball Association.
In 2024 the WNBA was given a gift. A young lady from the suburbs of Des Moines Iowa who did follow the league growing up with the goal of playing in the league. She even had an idol, Maya Moore.
This young lady had been rejected before. As with many top girls playing basketball UConn (not many players com from Connecticut) was a favored destination. But UConn coach, Geno Auriemma, rejected her saying he had a point guard. She had thought Notre Dame, but decide it was not for her.
So she landed at the University of Iowa. She was somewhat difficult to coach as she had skills in passing and shooting that had been seen from a women's player. She looked much like Pistol Pete Maravich. But coach Lisa Bluder took a line from the move Angels in the Outfield starring Danny Glover that "Less is more!". This young lady took the team by elevating her teammates to three big 10 championships and two NCAA final appearances. So good was she that she broke Megan Gufstafson's Iowa scoring record, the Big 10 scoring record, the NCAA Division 1 scoring record, she even beat Pistol Pete Maravich's NCAA scoring record.
This young lady had brought viewers to the games she played including 55,646 to the Crossover at Kinnick, the to three most viewed women's basketball games, 2024 National Championship (South Carolina vs. Iowa): 18.9 million viewers, 2024 Final Four Semifinal (Iowa vs. UConn): 14.2 million viewers, and 2024 Elite Eight (Iowa vs. LSU): 12.3 million viewers. Her games got people interested in Women's basketball and and they wanted to see more!
This young lady got drafted number one in the 2024 WNBA draft. It averaged 2.45 million viewers on ESPN, a 307% increase over the previous year and surpassing the prior record of 601,000 viewers set in 2004. The broadcast peaked at 3.09 million viewers, driven largely by the selection of Caitlin Clark with the first overall pick by the Indiana Fever. She got an appearance on Saturday Night Live. These numbers should should make a spreadsheet hungry accountant, which is who WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is.
Games featuring this young lady filled WNBA stadiums. So much so that games by teams laying in smaller stadiums were moved to large venues when she came to town. Players who people had not seen before, not because they did not exist, but the interest and visibility did not exist. That happens in sports. How many knew of Phil Mickelson until Tiger Woods came along. How many people knew of Luc Longley until Michael Jordan came along?
So why with all of this visibility is this young lady beaten up, mauled, downplayed by her coach, seemingly not supported by Ms. Spreadsheet, maligned by other players and certain old time fans? I have no clue, but have seen many other businesses fail due to management stupidity. Will the WNBA follow?
