Shane Battier believes the NBA will have a female player, and it won’t take too long for that to happen.
The topic of females in the NBA came up this week after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he would consider selecting Baylor’s Brittney Griner in the draft. Though UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma thinks such a move would be just a publicity stunt, Battier feels differently.
“There’s no doubt that in our lifetime, there will be a woman NBA player,” Battier told ESPN Thursday.
“I don’t know if it’s Griner or if it’s someone who is 5 years old right now. But we’ll see it. It’ll happen in our lifetime. Just the law of averages.”
Battier also thinks that the first female player in the NBA would likely be a quick, athletic guard rather than a taller, lankier player like Griner. His reasoning makes sense; Griner’s height allows her to dominate against female competition, but she would be undersized playing against men. A fast guard who can keep up with quick men wouldn’t have to worry about a strength issue as much as Griner would.
Part of the reason Battier is confident this will happen is because he plays pickup games with women. If he knows how well they can compete in pickup games, then why should we doubt his prediction? All it takes is one supreme specimen to come along and change everything.
