Mind of Michael: Women's hoop rising

By Michael Leek
Sports Editor

The state of basketball has changed at every competitive level, for better and worse: women’s basketball for better and men’s for worse.

Women’s basketball has been gaining more fans, and the talent level of up-and-coming athletes has only been getting better.

College players like Caitlin Clark, Juju Watkins, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and so many more have given the future of the WNBA a lot of hope. Records are being broken and the anticipation for March Madness is growing.

On the pro level, the WNBA is growing, with a 67-percent increase in TV audience last season.

Even though on social media we still see misogynistic comments, within the basketball community the discourse on women’s basketball has been improving.

The Sabrina Ionescu vs. Steph Curry three-point shootout during the NBA All-Star Weekend was another piece of evidence that women’s basketball can compete at a high and entertaining level. Ionescu tied the highest scorers from the NBA in the contest. The only one she did not defeat was Curry, the greatest shooter of all time.

On the men’s side of basketball, things are getting worse due to apparent rule changes, load management, lack of effort and more.

There is a divide in the NBA community on the way the refs are calling the games, and the rules of the game. Older NBA fans and younger NBA fans cannot agree on something as simple as a travel.

The gather-step rule is something the refs do a good job on not calling, but fans do not agree with this recent bend of the rules.

Another thing that is worsening the state of basketball is the load managing players and teams do in the NBA. Players who are injured should not play, it is that simple. We don’t want players aggravating or making injuries worse. But when some players sit out because of weather complications or because they are tired, it is unacceptable.

Lastly, the lack of effort in games makes watching the regular season boring. It is to a point where fans can visibly see players not giving effort on defense.

If this continues to happen, the regular season will seem like it does not matter and only the playoffs will.

Some rule changes, like hand checking, or system changes like lowering the amount of games could help with these problems, but that is a conversation all on its own.