Fansided

Tamika Catchings: WNBA should keep the rim 10 feet

By Mark Carman

Oct 8, 2013; A general view of a basketball, rim and net during a game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks at Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland won 99-87. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2013; A general view of a basketball, rim and net during a game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks at Quicken Loans Arena. Cleveland won 99-87. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Some think the WNBA would benefit by lowering the rim, bringing the dunk into the women’s game, not Indiana Fever Tamika Catchings 

WNBA attendance peaked in 1998 when the league averaged just under 11,000 fans per game (10,864). Attendance in 2014, 16 years later, was down over 3,000 per game to 7,578. Is there a way to make the game more exciting to get more fans back to the arena?

Val Ackerman, the former president of the WNBA and USA Basketball, thinks the game should experiment with lowering the rim to make the dunk a more prevalent part of the women’s game. Ackerman wishes the league would have at least experimented when she was in charge.

“Take 10 players, run them over to Madison Square Garden, lock the doors and see what happens,” Ackerman said, via the New York Times.

Geno Auriemma, the famed UCONN coach is also in favor of the WNBA and college taking a proactive approach to bring out more fans.

“I’m trying to help those teams that can’t figure out why they get only 200 people to watch them play every night,” Auriemma said.

Tamika Catchings is a former MVP and 9-time WNBA All-Star for the Indiana Fever, while also playing overseas in Turkey averaging 16.9 points per game for her illustrious WNBA career. Catchings is not in favor of changing the game to attempt to get more fans to the games,

“Not in favor of that,” Catchings said. “That (dunking) has never been a staple of our game. That is not something that we practice. I like that there isn’t that much discrepancy between our game and the mens game except for the size of the ball.”

As for getting more fans in the seats, Catchings believes playing the game and the fundamentals is still exciting and should be good enough.

“One thing we have been able to hang our hat on is providing great players,” Catchings said. “People want to see great basketball. A lot of people get caught up in the dunking, but when you provide a great team and a great atmosphere people will come.”

Catchings is only planning on playing two more seasons and consequently probably won’t see any major changes to the game while she is still on the court.

“Hopefully I will play one more WNBA season after this one and finish it off with the 2016 Olympics. Kind of the storybook ending,” Catchings said.

Catchings, as usual, has been busy off the court. She started her own charity “Catch The Stars” over 15 years ago and recently teamed up with Laureus Sport For Good as one of their ambassadors. On the court her Fever are off to a slow 0-2 start with games this week at New York and home with Phoenix.

More from WNBA

Home/WNBA