For those that don't know, A fun, good natured wager was made between
Mitch Levy, a Seattle sports-radio shock jock and Sue Bird, an all star
WNBA point guard. The wager was made near the start of the season and it
stated that if she finished the season with an assist to turnover ratio
that was at 2 - 1 or higher, the shock jock had to buy Seattle Storm
season tickets next year.
However, if she couldn't reach that goal, Mitch Levy would give
her an over-the-knee spanking on his radio show while she cried out
"Harder, Daddy, harder."
Once the WNBA brass found out about it, they pressured her to cancel it,
which she did Monday evening. Before she could, however, the story had
gotten more press than anything the WNBA has done all season.
For example, I doubt the Sydney Morning Herald was giving much time to
the Storm's loss to the LA Sparks last week.
Face it, the WNBA is a league in dire need of any kind of publicity. Sue
Bird getting spanked in front of the entire city of Seattle for poor
performance is exactly what this league needed. The WNBA doesn't realize
this (they think that Lisa Leslie finally dunking and being the first
player to do so in the 4 year history of the WNBA is a bigger deal).
A state senator from Washington who goes to several Storm games released
a statement proclaiming the wager "horrible." She scolded Bird for not
realizing that she was a role model to young women and abusing that
public profile. Many journalists, mostly male, feel that this sets back
the women's movement in sports to the caveman days.
Unfortunately, most moments that stick out among women sports have always
involved pretty girls, so to act shocked that men still objectify female
athletes is fairly ignorant.
Think about what might be the most famous image in the history of
American women sports. The 2000 Women's Cup isn't as remembered for the
upset the US Women scored over China as it is for Brandi Chastain ripping
off her shirt after scoring the winning goal to reveal a sportsbra.
It scares me to think that we live in an age where Billie Jean King
wouldn't be allowed to play a tennis match against Bobby Riggs because
people would be afraid that if she lost, she would do irreperable damage
to the women's movement.
Never mind that Bird was on pace to win the bet, and that the WNBA could
use a shock jock attending a few of it's games to get a larger piece of
the nonexistant young male demographic.
I think that the WNBA dropped the ball by pressuring a beautiful young
woman to walk away from a public spanking. That should NEVER happen.
Though I will admit it would look bad for the league if one of it's all
star's was being degraded over the knee of a misogynist DJ while saying
"Harder, Daddy, Harder!"
I just think that the WNBA is in no position to walk away from publicity,
be it positive or negative. This bet got people talking about the WNBA,
something they just weren't doing beforehand.
--
-Daniel Peck
Wheeler
Dealer
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