7 strange stats from US women's basketball at Olympics...

[meyers7]

Steve Nash was NBA MVP and was Canadian, but I believe played college basketball in the United States.

Dirk Nowitzki was MVP in 2007. Played for Germany.

 

[JordyG]

I think this is really a false narrative - the college men's game is more competitive because the most talented players in the men's game are one and done, so they are less well coached and trained in the game, while the slightly less talented players are two or three years older, have been coached in the system for longer and have played with their teammates for those two or three years longer. A UCLA like program has no chance to develop and stock pile three years of talent into a single team in the modern men's college universe - imagine a Kentucky squad coming into this year with the following players - 2016 NBA draftees #7, #28, #34; 2015 draftees #1, 6, 12, 13, 44, 48; and 2014 #7, #17, and whatever freshman they have coming in. Because that is what Uconn brings to the court every year on the women's side, they dominate. And it isn't just the talent, but the training and teamwork that gets developed during those four years.
And the Olympic teams have similar issues:
Women - every top player who isn't injured is available every two years for Olympics/WC, and most try to make training camps a few times each year as well. Men - half of the top players are unavailable every two years, and I am not aware of them even trying to hold training camps prior to getting together the week before a WC or Olympics.
Women - 11 of 12 players have played on at least one WC or Olympic team and all have showed up for training camps in the last 4 years. 8 have been with the team since the 2010 WC when Geno started coaching, and 9 were on the last Olympic team. The only rookie to competition on the NT is EDD the reigning WNBA POY.
Men - to lazy to check, but I know they have less continuity.

I really don't think the men's competition in the world has gotten better than the women's competition - the USA still produces the best players regardless of gender and by a wide margin the most talent. But the approach to the NT for the two genders is just vastly different, and that produces a much tighter international competition.

The other issue that people mention all the time that really does have an effect is the nature of the men's pro (and college) game - it is predicated on individual superstar play. Some of that I think has to do with men sort of outgrowing the physical dimensions of the court, a lot has to do with individual talents being rewarded more than team performance, and a lot has to do with the training inherent in four years of college no longer being a part of the equation.

NB - I do not believe the NBA has ever had a foreign MVP - the WNBA has. And in the top 25 players of the last 20 years there would likely be fewer foreign players on the men's list than on the women's list. Just a small comparison of international talent.

Dirk Nowitzki. And my Firefox is slow and buggy.

 

[JordyG]

A bit OT. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but scripts , ads, and cookies in the BY frequently make my posting experience a nightmare. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[j66kicker]

A bit OT. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but scripts , ads, and cookies in the BY frequently make my posting experience a nightmare. Anyone else have this problem?

Not a "nightmare", but I find the new ads which now appear in the middle of the screen between posts to be extremely annoying

 

[EricLA]

The thing I find frustrating and a bit disappointing is that some seem to want to downplay the amazing talent of the WNT by saying "there's no competition". I'm not sure if the comments are coming because some have said, in so many words, for what they do, the women's team is better than the men's team. For the record I agree with that statement. As a team, they play better team basketball. I would never compare the teams as if they would play each other. I doubt the WNT would even beat a Div III men's college team, but that's not the point.

When you talk about Kerry Walsh Jennings and the 3 Olympic golds she's won with Misty May Trainer, that team has performed BETTER and is better than the men's Olympic teams. She's going for a 4th gold this year and with a new partner, is likely to do no worse than silver. There's no men's team that's comparable. When you talk about the dominance of the women's 8 rowing team, their dominance in the sport is far better than the US men's team. So the women's 8 is better. Again, not head to head, but against their own competition.

With regards to the WNT in basketball, the women's team is flat out better than the men's team. The proof is in the performances. The reason there's "less competition" is because the women play at a higher level for their sport than the men do. You can't compare the 2 against how they would do against each other, but do downplay the women's accomplishments by saying basically it's because everyone else sucks is not only wrong, it's sexist. The women are better at what they do in their sport than the men. It's pretty much an undisputed fact.

Possibly a better example would be the UNC women's soccer team. They have 21 NC's going back to 1982. they won 9 in a row from 86 to 94. Do we pooh-pooh their accomplishments by saying the rest of the competition was no good? Absolutely not. We celebrate the sustained greatness since it's unprecedented. I just don't get why some people try to downplay the dominance of a women's team in their sport. We read the same crap about the UCONN women winning 4 in a row with Stewie, Jefferson and Tuck. Why do some feel threatened? Why make excuses for why it's not such an incredible accomplishment? I get some won't agree with me. I don't get saying the women's accomplishments are less than.

 

[Justavisitor]

The reason the competition isn't as stiff for the women is because the talent pool across the Nation in no way compares to the size of the talent pool for men. There's a much higher % of the total population of men that play sports than the % of women that play sports. The raw numbers alone are going to equate to a much higher number of those that possess the talent to play. The more players there are, the more competition there is. This isn't an insult to women, but it's a fact.

 

[JordyG]

Not a "nightmare", but I find the new ads which now appear in the middle of the screen between posts to be extremely annoying

For me it's the stops, starts, crashes, the scripts alerts asking whether to stop, debug, or continue scrips. Typing is an unbelievable trial, along with the occasional page changing, I can barely scroll. All adding up to a nightmare. These few sentences took me 5 mins. After I've finished I run Super Anti Spyware and eliminate 5-600 unwanted pieces of adware. It's tough.

 

[j66kicker]

For me it's the stops, starts, crashes, the scripts alerts asking whether to stop, debug, or continue scrips. Typing is an unbelievable trial, along with the occasional page changing, I can barely scroll. All adding up to a nightmare. These few sentences took me 5 mins. After I've finished I run Super Anti Spyware and eliminate 5-600 unwanted pieces of adware. It's tough.

Hmmm - I don't get that stuff. Occasionally it does seem to freeze me up or slow me down (every 2-3 days or so).

 

[JordyG]

Hmmm - I don't get that stuff. Occasionally it does seem to freeze me up or slow me down (every 2-3 days or so).

It's Mozilla. It seems to be FAR less on Chrome.

 

[meyers7]

Not a "nightmare", but I find the new ads which now appear in the middle of the screen between posts to be extremely annoying

Yea, I sometimes think I'm at the end of a thread.

Strange thing though is I don't actually ever look at the ads. I don't actually notice what they are for. Just background "noise".

 

[j66kicker]

Yea, I sometimes think I'm at the end of a thread.

Strange thing though is I don't actually ever look at the ads. I don't actually notice what they are for. Just background "noise".

Yeah I sometimes think I'm at the end of a thread - had to retrain myself to look past the ad. I pride myself on visually avoiding them (all obnoxiously-placed Internet ads) to the point that I don't know what the ad is for.