IYSSSS: Race and Gender

If You See Something, Say Something (IYSSSS) is our semi-regular Internet intelligence report, a liberal arts approach to following the NBA on the Web. E-mail us at jewsforjesusshuttlesworth@gmail.com if you've got any suggestions.

A couple interesting reads on important topics:

TrueHoop: Henry Abbott gives us the lowdown on the publishing of a study that examines the possibility of unintentional racial biases in NBA referees.

Fanhouse: Lisa Leslie thinks the WNBA's lack of popularity is the fault of the media, and the media alone. New sports journalism catchphrase: If it bleeds, it doesn't lead. (Sorry.)

The W: Ladies Be Ballin'

When it's the end of August/beginning of September and there are no trades being made, no big international games being played and no insane off-the-court drama, NBA news often finds itself replaced by something that can appear as filler: WNBA news. From the sports section of amNew York to case-pleading endorsements by Shoals, the last few weeks have offered the sports media the opportunity to turn their attention to the oft-neglected lady ballers. Now, as we approach the upcoming finals between the Seattle Storm and the winner of the New York Liberty-Atlanta Dream series, the fever pitch is forcing me to ask some questions of myself.

Every year--and particularly this year, when blogging has forced me to pay even closer attention to the goings-on of the basketball world--this end-of-summer interest increase gives me the same sense of the Guilties, for I have never paid close attention to the WNBA, and to this day I can count all the active players I can name on my hands and toes.

We Got Now

As a fan of the NBA during the inception of the WNBA, I specifically remember one of their earliest advertising slogans, "We got next." Fair enough. Whose got now then? The golden-era of current point guards in the NBA, that's who.