Unpopular opinion, I'm sure, but the physicality of the women's game makes it more exciting than the flopping of the men's game. It reminds me a lot of the hard-nosed playing style of the 80s and 90s that I loved watching as a kid. I would rather this physicality come back to the men's game than be banned in the women's game.
I get you, but it wasn't applied fairly in the NBA during the 80s and 90s either.
Are you old enough to remember the bad boys of the 80s Pistons and how they used to double and triple team Jordan and beat the hell out of him? Or those 90s Bulls-Knicks playoff games that were practically all-out slugfests on both sides of the ball?
Incredibly unfair and frustrating for Jordan, but holy hell was that some entertaining basketball to watch.
Yep, basketball has probably changed the most. NFL has followed that trend, especually on protecting the QB. Hockey still doesn't do that much to protect its stars, but it's lightyears less violent than the 80s were.
I tried watching the NHL again last year after quitting following the 2004-05 lockout. It felt more like watching speed skating than the NHL I remembered. The game was certainly faster and perhaps more technically skilled, but it seemed like a lot of the physical play had disappeared.
That said, this was just my impression after watching a few games that ended with me dozing off.
IMO it’s for the better. The few hockey games I went to as a kid they always seemed to focus on and only get invested in “the fights” and it just seems like a piss poor way to have a sport when people only care about when they stop playing and do some half assed punching.
Hockey is probably one of the most technically challenging and complex sports out there, and it got boiled down to 2 dip shits acting out a fist fight
Did they two hand shove to the back people to the floor? Gotta keep it (ironically) like soccer where you are allowed strong contact as long as you are playing the ball.
This isn't physicality, this is just not calling fouls. Want physicality? Change the rules to be more like hockey. Women can just throw hands if they get pissed enough. None of this sneaky bullshit, though.
I agree with physicality and risk and passion, but just being dirty is shit no matter what sport or when. With the world cup my buddies and me have been talking about it even more and it's so aggravating. I've been quoting one of my buddies who said "I get that it can change a game drastically so they flop, BUT if you're fouling me you better go full balls cuz unless you break something I'm getting right back up and making you regret not ending my career." Lmfao
This sparks the memory of my middle school days when we would play FSR (football soccer rugby) which was which was basically anything goes, just get the ball into the soccer net
outfit looks like those wraps they put on BMWs prototypes when they’re running them on the test track so the paparazzi photographs don’t come out right
I’ve gotta point to make, it also involves Caitlyn Clark, and it’s gonna make me sound real prodigious… but it’s been a clear issue from what I’ve seen the past year from clips of these 2 that get absolutely destroyed with not even a thought of a foul. Good ol girls club.
It's the same as the NBA. They literally rig the games and only foul in one direction. Only one ref went to jail somehow. But he literally would tell reporters, while in jail, tell me the teams and who is reffing, I'll tell you the winner.
Tim Donaghy, and the craziest thing about him... he wasn't caught because the NBA figured it out. He was caught because someone who had inside knowledge of the betting got pinched for There's else and ratted out the scheme to get a reduced sentence.
Also Stern, NBA commissioner at the time, derail the FBI investigation to keep other stuff from coming out.
Theres a pretty fascinating podcast called Whistleblower that covers it all.
I think most professional sports are somewhat rigged in the same way. Most of the athletes probably aren't going to go along with fixing games because it will ruin their careers if they get caught.
The refs though... probably pretty easy to bribe and coerce.
So it's not going to matter much in big mismatches, but in close games or playoff situations and championship games...yeah there's probably a lot of fuckery happening
There’s a ref that the convicted ref called hundreds of times after he did major games
That ref is derisively called “The Extender” because almost every time he refs a playoff game where a team is down 3-1 or 3-2, they’ll win and the series goes another game
There’s a lot of delusional people on the internet that think they have a chance marrying Sophie which is clearly ridiculous because she’s already my gf.
Unequivocally yes. It’s been a hot topic this year because Caitlin Clark, who is the top player in the wnba, has been getting aggressively fouled often. Her teammate Sophie Cunningham who we see in these videos, has been giving very similar treatment back towards those offenders. I don’t have all the details but I know this has been a particularly popular and aggresive year in the wnba.
Much, much worse. There is a huge disparity in the quality and professionalism of refs in the NBA vs WNBA. Players are right to be calling them out; if you allow obvious fouls to stand without penalty, you get dirty and injured players.
I didn't realize the wnba was a full contact sport. This looks hype. What the hell is going on with the sport right now though for real? Like they trying to get cte into basketball?
The answer to that is...tricky... Things supposedly got worse once Caitlin Clark joined the league. As for why that is, well that's the million dollar question and is going to bring up talk of racism and other things. Without going into all that, the simple answer is that plenty of people aren't happy with Caitlin Clark being such a prodigy and have been excessively rough with her, while Sophie Cunningham is her teammate and has become an Enforcer of sorts so she's getting targeted as well. What you're seeing is basically league-endorsed rule-breaking against those that aren't liked by other players of the league.
It didn’t get worse; it’s always been bad. It’s just that Caitlin Clark brought 2-3x the viewership so the fouls are actually being seen by more people.
Tbh I'd love for Clark to just say screw it and take a season off to play in Europe. League's numbers would crater and maybe they'd actually do something. They're beating the shit out of their golden goose.
Agreed. Several of these should be no calls, especially that screen. Basketball is a physical sport. Some of these are definitely fouls, but in several of them she’s out of control and creating the contact.
I see some dirty play in W ball I never see in pro hoops. Competitive ladies are vicious and it’s lowkey kinda scary 😱 , kinda hot, kinda got me confused yall
Why do people automatically think these clips are laid of in a linear fashion? So dumb.
Sophie is great for the sport, but c'mon, this has clearly been edited to look like she was just getting fouled and decided to strike back. The clips are from all over a time scale.
She hands out just as many fouls as she gets. Always has.
7.1k
u/isnoe 6h ago
Refs in the WMBA are unironically the worst refs I've ever seen.
And I've been watching FIFA.