A day after Candace Parker laid a tremendous stat line on the Houston Comets: career-high 40 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and five blocks, it was making news in places that normally give short shrift to women’s sports: ESPN’s talk shows.
Around the Horn had a segment featuring Parker’s feat, and then Pardon the Interruption (PTI) also spread the news.
Typically, these shows don’t pay any attention at all to women’s sports, so it was nice to see them giving some props to Candace and her achievement.
On the other hand, although Candace’s contributions to the WNBA need to be recognized, there are quite a few other “stars” in the WNBA who pull off some amazing plays night after night, and it would be nice if they could be recognized as well.
But this will only happen if sports fans of the female game - whether WNBA, college basketball, softball,e tc. call up these shows and ask for a little parity in the coverage. If they don’t ask, it likely won’t happen, and in a sense you can’t blame these shows for not showing material when no one makes a point of expressing interest in it.
On a side note, today, Thursday, July 10, 2008, the Los Angeles Sparks are playing a back-to-back game with the Sacramento Monarchs, and are down 16 points in the 4th. Too much emotion and energy expended last night.