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Height and muscle mass obviously make a difference. But it’s important to note that uncoordinated, weaker, or shorter men all find roles in the NBA. So the argument people make that women can’t match up seems suspect. No one is saying Caitlyn Clark will be able to play like LeBron in a decade, but when she hits her prime she could absolutely fit a role on an NBA team. I think especially with the newer batch of wnba players coming in it will be hard to argue that at least the top 20 wnba players couldn’t fit roles in the NBA.

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Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Women get bullied around playing against men in a way that is just not apparent when they play with women. I can’t speak for basketball too much but whenever I have played against the best girls in football the different in strength is astronomical. Someone like me who’s not great at football but always been athletic the effort to overcome that strength difference is too much. A women could have way more skill and ability than me, yet that gap is smaller than the advantage I have with strength and even speed.

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- MonkRome@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sure but Steph Curry in his first year got absolutely bullied because he was tiny and weak and still threw up points. I’m skinny and not very strong, I got bullied in basketball, but had I had better handles I could have found a role. I could shoot, rebound, block and guard despite the disadvantage, I couldn’t dribble with a skill level that would get me anywhere though. I played thousands of hours of basketball in my life. I don’t think people understand where value really lies in the game. Plenty of players in the NBA look uncoordinated and weak and somehow carve out significant roles. Because they’re tall, or good 3 point shooters, or talented at rebounding, etc. I fail to see how talented women couldn’t carve out roles in the NBA.
  
  I also think it’s worth nothing that most women, even in sports are strongly culturally discouraged from bulking up. As soon as a woman is strong enough to bully her peers she is accused of being a man. As things change, even though women don’t have the muscle mass of men, some women will bulk up enough to complete as much as they need to. A lot of this stuff is far more cultural than people want to admit.
  
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  - Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    We are just going to have to disagree on this. There no way I think women can compete at that level and unless they do something like play an u16 team and lose to prove it the discussion probably won’t go anywhere.
    
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