the pathway

on centres and institutes

Basketball, in this country, specifically as a sport for girls and women, has an interesting psychology.

It considers itself the premier female code, because it is the oldest, because of its participation numbers.

The WNBL is accustomed to competing with netball — with its similarly small list sizes at a professional level and the opportunity to represent Australia — in the sense it does not deign to compete. It knows itself. 

The netball might now have a minimum wage more than double the WNBL’s, at $46,600, but it is basketball that offers the possibility of being selected to play at an event as esteemed as the Olympics. This is the only fact basketball needs to be both the superior sport and the best pathway for girls, who want to be elite athletes, to choose. 

To any outsider, the audacity of this confidence — when the odds are so slim to play in the national league, let alone the national team — is jarring.

Australian basketball continues to harbour the smug belief that it makes the best female athletes. Its players are the most well-rounded: coordinated and athletic and skilled, with the sharpest game intellect and hardest work ethic. They can adjust nicely to other codes whereas players from other codes are, blatantly, not good enough for basketball.

Basketball Australia takes this infinitely burgeoning talent pool for granted, but it is not infinite. It is not guaranteed. It has a looming expiration date. 

Because the AFLW has changed the figurative game. Cricket has changed it. Soccer has. These sports will slowly kill the WNBL if Basketball Australia does not act. They, especially the AFLW with its sheer extent of opportunity, will chew through its talent.

And it will not be because of money. It will be the lack of having a crack, of bothering to compete. It will be the culture.

The Pathway is an essay about systems and psychology.