Love and Basketball

by Akilah Monifa
Sunday, June 4, 2000

SPORTS IS the modern opiate of the people. Like all good drugs, it provides a satisfying boost to its users (both participants and spectators) and huge money to its owners. A compelling spectacle, sports promotes the cherished American ideal of intense competition on a level playing field where race nor gender matter. Sports heroes, language and images saturate U.S. culture, presenting a model of race, gender and sexual roles.

The WNBA has kicked off its fourth preseason in the dust of the now-defunct American Basketball League. In women's sports, sexual preference -- not race -- is the big taboo for corporate marketing. As Christine Grant, University of Iowa's athletic director was quoted in the News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C.: ``Homophobia in women's sports is like the McCarthyism of the 1950s. The fear is paralyzing.''

Just take a look at the WNBA's promotional ``femming up'' campaign to avoid even a question about the sexual orientation of the players or women coaches. In a magazine article, Dot Richardson of the 1996 Olympic softball team complained that because she was an athlete, people thought she must be a lesbian.

Pat Griffin, author of ``Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sports,'' writes, ``Somehow lesbians have become the scapegoats for problems in women's sports.'' According to a 1994 NCAA study, 49 percent of female athletes and 51 percent of female coaches said they felt homophobia was a hindrance to attracting and retaining women in athletic careers. In professional sports, it's OK to be a lesbian, just not OK to be out. Some college coaches use homophobia to steer straight players to their ``family friendly'' teams and away from teams known to be tolerant of lesbians.

Now, for the first time since ``Personal Best,'' there is a movie about women in sports. ``Love and Basketball'' tells the parallel story of two basketball players, a boy and a girl who meet at age 11 when they become next door neighbors. Told in four quarters from 1981 to the beginning of the WNBA, ``Love'' mirrors the issues faced by professional women athletes. The tomboy and lesbian accusations. The notion that women aren't as good athletes as men. The limited opportunities for women in terms of professional sports even with the WNBA. The inequities in college opportunities despite Title IX. The lack of commercial endorsements and salary inequities in professional sports based on gender.

Women are still conflicted with attempting to balance personal and family relationships with their sports careers. If sports is a metaphor for life, the very attributes that are admired in male athletes are disdained in female athletes. But not all women/girls have stereotypical values and interests. When the lead female character in ``Love and Basketball'' attends her senior spring dance, her mind wanders when making out with her date. She is trying to concentrate and remember how many offensive rebounds she got in the championship game.

When the characters in the movie first met at age 11, Monica's dream is to be the first woman to play in the NBA. Her male counterpart tells her that he will be the one to play in the NBA and she'll be his cheerleader. Made sense at the time. And still does today. The reality of a women players or coaches in the NBA is not on the horizon. But then again, the WNBA was not something that folks thought would happen and thrive. In the movie, the characters' parallel lives diverge when in their freshman year at the University of Southern California, the guy drops out and is drafted in the NBA. The woman graduates, at first plays professionally in Europe and then finally in the WNBA. The guy gets bounced around in the NBA and eventually sustains what is probably a career-ending injury in that he tears a knee ligament. In the end, it is he who is the courtside cheerleader and stay-at-home dad with baby in tow, cheering on mom, who is playing for the Los Angeles Sparks.

But then again, that's Hollywood. Although it has been said that a male athlete has better odds of being struck by lightning than becoming a professional, what then are the odds of becoming a professional female athlete?

Big money is involved, for players, corporations, colleges and cities. Gender inequities abound. Who will break the silence?

Akilah Monifa is a free-lance writer in Oakland.

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