There is a big difference in the world in the last 20 years (DT) and even the last 10 (Maya) of basketball and in society.
There is no question that with comparable athletes men are stronger and faster. But the comments mostly by couch potatoes like me that _______ male athlete could beat ______ female athlete and therefore ______ female athlete is useless is too common and spread everywhere over the internet. Just look at comments on articles about women's games and there are bound to be plenty of 'why are they even writing about this - x guys could destroy them!'
So yeah, here and elsewhere there is a heightened level of sensitivity.
The OP isn't a misogynist post, and the intent is to praise a woman athlete. But it sort of feeds into 'she moves like a man, which I didn't expect' or 'she moves like a man, but LeBron could take her every time' or gives echos to the really terrible things said not long ago about Griner. And there are actually a number of women's athletes that move like women's athletes and like Smith.
So it really is time to retire the 'she moves like a man' or the alternate 'she plays like a girl' - didn't Nike run an ironic campaign not long ago using that last phrase?
