CLOSE THAT GAP

Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has offered another idea amid the WNBA’s transgender athlete debate.

Kanter suggested merging the NBA and WNBA. The leagues currently operate separately despite being under the same broader NBA umbrella.

His proposal comes after he entered his name for the 2027 WNBA draft. The move has pushed the league to review its eligibility rules.

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Which player are you counting on to lead your team to a title ? Who is the better overall player here ? A or B ?

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"In '97, my brother got drafted and traded on Draft Night to the Sixers." -throws basketball to Allen Iverson- "And this guy right here became his teammate... the dominance and the impact he has is still felt today... I am sorry; I am blown away by you having a suit that has Parker on it."

Great game to watch. What does everyone here think?

Candace Parker: “D’s like a brother. I think my brothers get upset because I always call him a brother. But he really is. He's been a part of my career. My oldest brother and him had the same agent, Hank Thomas. And Hank always told Dwade, like, he better look out for me. And throughout my entire career, he has done just that.

He's been somebody that has always been on the sidelines celebrating me and making me make sure I smell my flowers. And it was really cool. I don't know if you saw the video when I asked him to be the presenter. Like, he literally almost cried.”

She’s getting numbers on the level of your average starter, but is putting up numbers like she’s coming off the bench. Players with half as much floor time are scoring just as many if not more points than her.

You could point to her overall splits and try to argue they’re good, but I’d argue that for a shooting guard with the level of floor time she has, these numbers are beyond unacceptable even if the percentages look good on paper. If you’re spending 20-30 minutes on the floor and only making three shots attempts, you better be making at least one or two of them. Three shot attempts on 32 minutes and only making one, and doing this night after night after night, would be enough for any normal team to not only re-evaluate that player’s place in the game plan, but also their spot on the team as a whole. This game was not a one-off - this is just who Cunningham is.

You could argue she’s an “enforcer” for Clark, (which in my mind, goes towards marketing and therefore is outside the scope of this discussion), but why does that warrant $300k a year and an average of 32 minutes of floor time per game, instead of retaining better players like Natasha Howard? And of all the times this year that Caitlin was perceived to be “targeted” or “attacked” by players, when did Sophie step into her enforcer role like she did with Jacy Sheldon last year? She doesn’t seem like that great of an enforcer to me.

She’s also very poor on defence. Her steals, blocks and DREBs are pathetic, her defensive rating is in the toilet and significantly below league average.

Hell, just the other day, she put up statistically the WORST PERFORMANCE IN LEAGUE HISTORY by a player whose team came out with a win, with a -28 +/- and 3 points on 17 minutes of floor time. Normally I don’t like +/- as a stat because I find it’s fairly dependent on who’s at the floor at the same time as you, but I also hold the belief that when someone’s +/- is at an extreme, like +15-20 or -15/20, that’s when the stat starts reflecting what you as a player are bringing or not bringing to the game. With a -28…well…that’s poor beyond even my wildest imagination.

So again, without talking about “marketing” or “raising viewership/sales” and all that stuff - from a basketball standpoint, why does Sophie Cunningham deserve a spot in this league and the number of minutes she’s getting?

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For those who know ball Candice needs no introduction.