Shaquille O’Neal says he knows how to “fix” women’s basketball.
The legendary NBA big man, who won four championships and is widely regarded as one of the most-dominant players of all-time, says that he has the “solution” for the WNBA. And it’s a simple one.
“In men’s beach volleyball and women’s beach volleyball, the net is lowered just a little bit,” O’Neal said on Revolt TV.
“The only thing missing from the WNBA to the NBA game is the dunk. I’m not saying lower it to 9 feet or 8 feet… so they can dunk.
“I think if they did that, it would make the game more exciting. They got the handles, they got the shooters, they got the showmanship, they just don’t have the dunk. Just imagine if you lower the rim just a little bit.”
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WNBA fans, and women’s basketball players, have long opposed this idea, though. For one, they find it insulting. And two, they find that it would be detrimental to the game as a whole. Basketball hoops are 10 feet tall across the world. If you make the women’s rim lower than the men’s, how would that work in parks and gyms across the country?
Fans express frustration with Shaq’s idea
“Yes Shaq. Let’s make the entire sport of basketball inaccessible to all women who play it because you want to see dunks instead of realizing that they’re fundamentally different sports,” one fan wrote.
“I love Shaq but he’s wrong about this. The fact WNBA ball has to be played below the rim is part of what makes the game interesting,” one fan added.
“I hate this discussion about lowering the rim. Parents watch their kids play in elementary and middle school; they don’t have a problem then. I would say less than 1% of NBA twitter can actually dunk, but the number for how many play is much larger. I can’t dunk, but I want a 10ft rim. The reason why the WNBA isn’t as popular as the NBA is because it’s younger,” one fan added.
“Saying stuff like this implies that yall think dunks are the only thing that make men’s basketball worth watching cuz the women’s game got just about everything else,” one fan added.
Longtime WNBA star Lexie Brown disagrees, too.
“For me, that will not benefit me at all. I’m not like a super athletic girl. But so many of us, even with the rim lower, you’re still not going to get people dunking on people…. Maybe it would benefit what? Five or six players,” she said in response to Shaq’s idea.
