[BillBradley]

As a big fan of the women's game. all the attention Reese and Clark generated for the sport leaves me a bit concerned, especially as a Stanford fan. The rating were incredible. ALL the talking heads shared their opinion on the taunting. My fear is the powers that be will want to replicate this attention. This has potential to create a product that I personally have very little interest in. (Has anyone watched an SEC football game? That back and forth taunting is so over the top it is hard to stomach.) For the record, the men's national championship game was played with basically no taunting by either side. Think of how many bad technical fouls happen in the men's game for "hanging on the rim" I am not sure I agree with the idea that taunting is more tolerated on the men's side.   

I think the increasing appetite for this type of rivalry is yet another challenge Stanford women's basketball will have to overcome. Remember when Boston missed the last second put back in the semifinal in 2021? That miss meant Stanford was going to the championship game for the first time in a decade. How did the players celebrate? Well, the first players to comfort Boston were Haley Jones and Fran Belibi. It was an incredible, and genuine, display of sportsmanship. ESPN highlighted the moment but it did not come close to moving the needle in a way last weekend's lack of sportsmanship did. Which moment repeated would draw more attention? While someone like Cam might play with an edge, there will never be a place for excessive taunting in the Stanford program.

The media loves stuff like this because it's controversial.  There are displays of sportsmanship all over the place (helping players up after they've fallen, hugs after the game, compliments in press conferences, etc.), so more of it really isn't that interesting. "Haley and Fran comfort Aliyah" is just not a headline that the masses are interested in. An article about Angel Reese taunting the best player in basketball with a picture of her pointing to her ring finger will generate a gazillion clicks. This won't ever change. It has nothing to do with the men's game, the women's game, the powers that be or anything else.

[BillBradley]

As a big fan of the women's game. all the attention Reese and Clark generated for the sport leaves me a bit concerned, especially as a Stanford fan. The rating were incredible. ALL the talking heads shared their opinion on the taunting. My fear is the powers that be will want to replicate this attention. This has potential to create a product that I personally have very little interest in. (Has anyone watched an SEC football game? That back and forth taunting is so over the top it is hard to stomach.) For the record, the men's national championship game was played with basically no taunting by either side. Think of how many bad technical fouls happen in the men's game for "hanging on the rim" I am not sure I agree with the idea that taunting is more tolerated on the men's side.   

I think the increasing appetite for this type of rivalry is yet another challenge Stanford women's basketball will have to overcome. Remember when Boston missed the last second put back in the semifinal in 2021? That miss meant Stanford was going to the championship game for the first time in a decade. How did the players celebrate? Well, the first players to comfort Boston were Haley Jones and Fran Belibi. It was an incredible, and genuine, display of sportsmanship. ESPN highlighted the moment but it did not come close to moving the needle in a way last weekend's lack of sportsmanship did. Which moment repeated would draw more attention? While someone like Cam might play with an edge, there will never be a place for excessive taunting in the Stanford program.

The media loves stuff like this because it's controversial.  There are displays of sportsmanship all over the place (helping players up after they've fallen, hugs after the game, compliments in press conferences, etc.), so more of it really isn't that interesting. "Haley and Fran comfort Aliyah" is just not a headline that the masses are interested in. An article about Angel Reese taunting the best player in basketball with a picture of her pointing to her ring finger will generate a gazillion clicks. This won't ever change. It has nothing to do with the men's game, the women's game, the powers that be or anything else.