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Jul. 26--One small step for women, one giant step for the Women's NBA? For once, the WNBA played center stage in the wide world of sports. All it took was a bench-clearing brawl Tuesday night.
We will leave it to sports sociologists to determine if women's basketball is better off because players for the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks squared off. But one fact is indisputable: More people have been talking WNBA this week than ever in the league's 12 seasons. That has to be a good thing for an enterprise still searching for a major league identity.
Fight highlights were everywhere on television and across the Internet. They littered SportsCenter and ancillary ESPN shows and spilled over to the network morning fare. It was eye-catching reality television to take away from the tedium of Brett Favre cellphone reports. And it was certainly more riveting than watching Tony Romo step off an airplane in California.
Of course, that didn't translate to an overflowing eyeball convention for Thursday night's follow-up between the Shock and Houston Comets on ESPN2. That game featured the Bill Veeck-like return of 50-year-old Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman, who made a cameo on-court appearance for the depleted Shock.
Average major-market rating for the season's first 11 games on ESPN2: 0.23.
Average major-market rating for the first post-brawl game on ESPN2: 0.25.
Translation: The average WNBA game on ESPN2 before Thursday was seen in 218,000 homes. The Sparks' victory over the Shock played in only slightly more. Net gain: an itsy-bitsy baby step.
But here's what the skirmish proved: There is passion in the women's game. For many, the WNBA is a below-the-basket game played by the old girls club. The brawl has revealed the players to be competitive athletes who would not be more at home on the Ladies PGA Tour. No one is advocating turning the WNBA into the WWE, but an outpouring of pure emotion is never bad for a sport.
The league doesn't know how to embrace the recent publicity. ESPN's Doris Burke, the analyst who worked courtside at the Shock-Comets game, practically had to have her arm twisted by play-by-play voice Pam Ward before acknowledging the brawl might bring some much-needed attention.
Perhaps Shock forward Katie Smith should be elevated to WNBA spokeswoman. "I don't think the publicity hurts," she told reporters the morning after the brawl. "In hockey, people live for the fights. Who knows, maybe we'll meet in the WNBA finals and there will be even more interest."
Irvin to NFL Network Michael Irvin has signed on with the NFL Network to work the Aug. 2 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He'll team with Fran Charles, Steve Mariucci and Adam Schefter.
Why Irvin, whom ESPN booted from its NFL covereage?
