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basketball, Crypto.com Arena, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Sparks, pro basketball, Sparks, WNBA, Women's Basketball, Women's National Basketball Association
A nice supportive sign from this Sparks fan…
NOTE: This will not be the usual team preview, but more of an opinion piece.
Tonight at Dodger Stadium before the Dodgers took on the Arizona Diamondbacks,
The two newest members of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, threw out the first ball.
Brink and Jackson were stars for Stanford and Tennessee, respectively, and were (also respectively) the second and fourth overall picks in the recent WNBA draft,
Which followed a season for the ages in women’s college basketball;
The fact that their NCAA Tournament drew higher TV ratings than their male counterparts, thanks to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who now plays for the Indiana Fever as the #1 overall pick, and a South Carolina team that ran the table in winning their second national championship in three years,
Not to mention the seasons that USC and UCLA had,
Speaks for itself.
Not that the Sparks have been in on the fun as their combined record the past three seasons is a dismal 42-66, having missed the postseason all three of those years,
Along with having to play many of their games at the 5,000 capacity Walter Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State as opposed to Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as Staples Center) due to lack of enough fan support.
And on top of all of that, those Sparks are off to a not good 0-2 start this season as this is crystal clearly a rebuilding year, with not much expected from them.
At least I had a decent time seeing them in 2017, when I went to then-Staples Center for the first time;
Even though they blew a big lead in the second half and lost.
Here’s the link to the write-up I did on that experience…
The only other thing I’ll say about not only the Sparks, but regarding women’s basketball in general, as much of a renaissance as it’s been enjoying, is…
The WNBA needs to expand. ASAP.
And not just to the San Francisco Bay Area either as the Golden State Valkyries will make their debut next year.
With a mere twelve teams in that league and 144 player spots available,
It’s harder to make a team in that association than in the NBA.
Just ask Charisma Osborne, who super starred for UCLA and was chosen in the WNBA draft only to get cut during the preseason.
I reckon that a WNBA expansion team would do okay in cities like Denver, Orlando, Miami, Philadelphia and Toronto.
A sixteen-team league would be so much better for the sport overall.
Along with much better pay as the top salary belongs to the Las Vegas Aces’ Jackie Young, who will be paid $252,490 this year.
Which in the real world is pretty good pay for four months’ work.
But compared to the NBA, where the minimum salary is $1,120,000, well…
I don’t think I have to spell it out.
To say that I hope that the Sparks have a good season and make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 should go without saying.
But in the grand tradition of being brutally honest,
This will most likely be the only time I post about that team this year.
Unless they win the WNBA championship, of course.