The Major Soccer League finally scored its first goal, 21 months after the World Cup was supposed to ignite professional soccer in the United States.
There will be natural comparisons with the American Basketball League following the Olympics, but the situations are entirely different. Though soccer is played throughout the United States, it does not attract the paying customers that women's basketball does, and its future will be determined by the success of the MSL. Women's basketball, though, makes money at the collegiate level, and even has a solid track record in high schools, and will continue to have its own niche no matter what happens to the ABL.
In Northern California, for example, high school girls' games have drawn upwards of 1,000 paying spectators, though admittedly not on a regular basis. Still, only championship high school soccer games can attract that many fans, even for the boys, and only a soccer diehard could claim that it is as popular as girls' and women's basketball.
And that means that the future of women's basketball in the United States does not lie with the Olympic team or the ABL -- even though success in those areas would be an enormous boost. No, what women's basketball needs is just more of the same: Continuing growth in the NCAA, and continuing growth at the high school level.
Yes, the NCAA championship game reached 2.5 million households, but that's no guarantee it always will. Yes, the high school team I coached drew 1,000 or more fans at our home gym five times in the past two years, but that's no guarantee it always will.
What we have to remember is that what got us here will keep us here, and what got us here was hard work. And the hard work isn't just the SID faxing results of the games or convincing local columnists to check out a game, nor is it the team moms making signs and selling Cokes, though that's a big part of it.
It starts with the players. We often assume that players will automatically do what's best for the game, but a look at baseball, football and basketball is proof that it doesn't.
First, we need good players, and as everyone knows, that means players who work hard at improving their game. To me, the most glaring lack for young players is the missing pickup game. A boy can always find a game, but girls are forced by circumstance to have to play in organized leagues or at their local schools' open gyms. But what if her coach doesn't open the gym? What if she can't find a league?
I would like to see high school and AAU coaches across the country do all they can to open gyms or reserve playgrounds for girls who just want to come down and play. Whether it be halfcourt (I think three-on-three is a marvelous instructor in the fundamentals of halfcourt play) or fullcourt, the girls need a place to play if they're going to reach their potential. Fighting boys for time on the court is a losing battle, so we need to create opportunities so that girls can always find a game -- and always find somewhere to get better.
Those players also need to respect the fans, other players and the uncounted adults who support them. Women's basketball isn't going to succeed just because it exists. There is no market out there crying for the product -- we must constantly work to attract fans and then keep them, and the players and their attitudes are where it starts.
Coaches, too, must be aware that they have a responsibility to the game as a whole, and not just their team. Shutting players off from the media, or denying them the opportunity to play whenever or wherever they can is, in the long run, self-defeating. If we want the game to thrive, coaches must do everything they can to promote it. That includes stroking the press, calling in the scores to every available media outlet and cooperating with almost every publicity stunt, no matter how loony. (I draw the line at sitting in a dunking booth.)
But coaches have another responsibility: to teach the game well enough so that it's played well. There's nothing uglier than a bad girls high school game, and I've seen plenty of them. I've also seen some great ones, and every year there are more great ones and fewer really ugly ones. But coaches at the high school level owe it not only to their teams but to the game itself to put in the necessary time.
About 15 years ago, a friend of mine said ``There's nothing to girls' basketball. All you have to do is make half your free throws and you'll win most of your games.`` Sadly, his cynical comment was right on the money. At that time, you'd see girls' teams making three-of-15 free throws, turning the ball over 30 times a game and generally having no clue.
Obviously, the game is much improved, but we still have a long way to go. There are still too many bad teams playing boring games -- and like it or not, a men's basketball fan who sees one of those games is very likely to tell his friends, laughing, that his son's sixth grade team would blow the girls off the floor.
It's not a given that the caliber of play will continue to rise. It takes work, and dedication, and effort, and focus, and hours and days and weeks and months of time. Without that work, dedication, effort, focus and time, women's basketball will fade into the woodwork, just like so many other sports.
The competition is simply too fierce. In the San Francisco Bay Area in February, the casual sports fan can see the Warriors, the Sharks, the International Hockey League Spiders, a professional tennis tournament, a world-class ice skating competition, a major golf tournament and six Division I men's basketball programs, in three different leagues that include national powers like UCLA, Utah and Arizona. If the quality of women's collegiate basketball slips, then the fans will vote with their feet -- as Yogi Berra once said, if the fans want to stay home, you can't stop them.
The competition is equally daunting at the high school level. Obviously, boys' basketball gets more press, but there's also wrestling and soccer to catch the attention of the prep sports follower.
At these levels, it really makes no difference if the American women win the gold, or the ABL finds its niche. Their success, or failure, will have little impact on the grassroots of women's basketball, for those grassroots must be nourished by talented, experienced players who understand the game and play it well.
A bad team and an ugly game are poison for women's basketball, but by the same token, a good team and a great game -- whether it be at the CYO level, or high school, or in the ABL -- is another bit of the foundation for continued success.
Sure, I hope the Americans win the gold, and I'd love the San Jose franchise in the ABL to pack the house 30 times a year, but the real future of the game doesn't lie there. It's in the gyms all across America, where girls are learning and playing the game, and adults are doing all they can to help them.
