The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Without getting too controversial on a star control site, I recently had an argument with someone who thought that women are equally as good, if not better, then men at basketball.
I'm as big of an advocate for women's rights as much as the next guy, but that's taking it too far. The basis of this person's argument was that women have equal or better basketball "skill" compared to men. I'm willing to agree that a lot of women know a great deal about basketball, and some women in the WNBA are probably much more "basketball smart" then many men in the NBA, but that doesn't make a difference when you compare the raw athleticism of men and women.
The bottom line is that any men's college team, no matter where they're from, could easily beat any women's college team. They don't even use the same ball.  It's not even a fair comparison.
Knowing when to take a foul, when to call timeout, when to screen or who to pass the ball to can only get you so far in a game. And it's not like men who play in the NBA are dumb (about basketball).
Look at Memphis this year. One of the worst shooting percentages in the NCAA, yet with their raw athleticism, they made it to the championship.

Anyways, didn't notice a whole lot of sports discussion, but thought I'd get that out there.

I'm not surprised that there's not a lot of abstract modern sports discussion on a forum for a 15 year old computer game. Personally I couldn't care less.

Sport is good - everyone should play it. There is a sport for everyone.

Men far more athletic than women, and have generally better hand-eye coordination too (although not considerably).

I know this because I play mixed-gender sport (ultimate frisbee) and on the odd occasion where there is a gender mis-match on the field, it is just that - a mis-match.

One physical area where women can compete with men is endurance. Even then men have a slight edge.

darn, you got in just before I edited my post :P

Anyway, how far are you willing to generalize the idea of "sport"?

Interesting question. Everyone agrees basketball is a "sport," but is cheerleading a sport? Bowling?  Tug of war?  Horse racing? Competitive ballroom dancing? NASCAR? Seems like it depends not just on physical activity but possibly also on societal definitions.

that's kind of diverting from the topic, however "sport" is just a word. I'm just talking about basketball here. If sports requires an athletic skill, then I don't know where the line is drawn, but I'm fine saying that sports are simply something that involves competition
that being said, men do have better endurance than women, just look at marathon runners.

This is obviously bunk. Maybe women's games give off the perception of being more strategic since they don't have as many instances of all-star players scoring most of the points. Just a guess on my part, I'd have to pay more attention to basketball games to know.

Could some women's rights activist explain to me, why there are different tournaments for men and women in chess.

The answer is of course all too obvious in our tiny dry eyes so I'm not going to say it.

Are there really? Interesting.

Obviously the answer to why that is is because they don't want the women "distracting" the men to gain an unfair advantage :)

That makes no sense at all. Curiously, women compete on an equal footing with men at equestrian sports...and motor racing even.

yeah that's pretty dumb. I don't see the point in that. There have been more men strategists in history, but that's just all the patriarchal bullshit. That's kind of an interesting thought though. What if men have evolved to become better field marshals than women? I think men are more aggressive. Who knows. It's unfair to make comparisons because of history.

In a pure skills competition (say a 3-point shot competition), yes, a skilled women could definitely compete with the boys. We see this all the time during the NBA All Star Game.

But put two, comparably skilled men and women against each other in a head to head game, and it's really no contest. The guy's arm reach is simply too much to overcome. Generally, where size or strength is a factor, the woman is going to be at a serious disadvantage.

Cedric, I would argue that women are actually at an advantage in equestrian and motor sports. Smaller size is less of a burden on their horse or car.

That being said, the chess example above is fascinating. Has there ever been official men vs. women chess matches before?

I think with Chess, men are waaaaaaaay more likely to learn and play the game in the first place. Call me a prize nerd but I beloinged to a chess club at high school.  15 boys, not a single girl.

Hence, if you were to pick the best guys for matches against the best girls, with men you proably have a pool of 1,000 awesome players to choose from, with women, more like 50. I think men are just more intersted in chess.

It sounds like you have evidence to back it up, but I am surprised that women compete equally with men ina  three-point shoot out. I would have thought men to have superior hand-eye coordination and accuracy (now thinking snooker, billiards, pool etc)

Cedric, I still want to know what you mean by "everyone should play sport"

I guess saying “everyone should play sport” is a bit of an imposition of opinion. It wasn’t intended like that.

What I should say is that everyone should do something that keeps them active and moving at least once a week. Not should as in you will burn in hell if you don’t but should as in you’ll more than likely live longer and feel better...unless of course your chosen activity is cage fighting or hot-dog eating.

Sport is also a great social opportunity, especially team sports.

I suspect you actually know all this.

And you probably think that there are other ways of achieving the above without playing sport. You are probably right. However, sport is an easy and accessible way of dong it.

Sport by its nature is indeed competitive, which turns a lot of people off. However there are TONNES of sports which allow people to play socially.

Partaking seems like a good way of killing many birds with one stone.

Well, I think I'll stick to skateboarding. I don't like team sports.

Yeah, they're right up there with the boys when hoisting up 3s. In other contests, like the slam-dunk contest however, I don't think women participate because very few women can actually dunk.

Ahhh! Hunting! A great suggestion!

Just kidding, but yeah, playing sports would actually be a good idea for me, but I don't really have the time (all honors classes).

I prefer excercise to sport myself. If I go swimming or to the gym by myself, I don't have to fit anything into another persons schedule, which gives me a lot more freedom. I also don't really like the social aspects of mosts sports. I suppose I kind of use my excercise time as a sort of meditation, where I can empty my mind of everything and just relax and focus on my body. In team sports, there's always a tactical and social element that prevents me from just zoning out, and that's an important part of it to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anticsocial. I do enjoy spending time around epople, just not when im excercising.

That works too!

So Luki, you're into yoga? I thought that was for girls? ;)

I have two favorite sports:
1. Frungy, of course.
2. Hunting. It is most fun when you use a crossbow to hunt Homo sapiens, the stupidest of game.

 

Oh no! Dancing Fungus is that manhunter from Jumanji!!! RUN!!!! ;)

Sure, if you define yoga as swimming and going to the gym. Otherwise you might want to work on your reading comprehension.

Stupid girl, stop trying to monopolize everything that's good in the world! ;)

When I played in chess tournaments, the men and women were in the same games. Actually, in my second tournament, the only person I lost to was a lady.

But, getting back to the original idea in this thread, I think it's unfair to say that men or women are better at any particular sport (basketball in this case).
A man or a woman may be better than another man or woman, but I think it's
unfair to general that one half of the human race is better at something than the other half.

Men may be generally more skilled in a lot of sports, but I think men are also encouraged more into playing sports than their female counterparts in most areas. Put another way, if you have 100 men who play basket ball, chances are you can put together a better team with that 100 than you can with 10 female players. Better odds.

You're ignoring the obvious difference in physiology between sexes. It's not unfair to say one group is better than the other because even if you had the exact same number of people playing a sport, the men would still be dramatically better at it. Your argument makes sense applied to chess, not sports.

They weren't really doing that, they were pitting the average man against the average woman. It's like saying tall men are generally better at basketball than short men.

Yes, generally men are more muscular than woman, so they would be better at basketball. That's how it should be. (I mean, seriously, a muscular girl? That's just nasty.)

As I mentioned in the first post, the skill factor in basketball is really just part of the overall athleticism. Men can't give birth, but we're better at basketball. Go figure.

Your screen name is SweetSassyMolassy and you're a dude?

Go figure.

What are you talking about? Men are very important to the reproductive process! ;)

haha, SassyMolassy isn't gender specific, I just love barbeque. I didn't say they weren't important, I said they can't give birth.

I'd like to point to the emoticon I used, the wink (which looks like this --> ;)).

Do you want me to get some of my female friends and have them beat you up? ::)

Hah, imagine that. You'll probably have to give that explanation out many more times if you get attached to the name.

Well, if you're too weak to do it yourself, I understand, kind of. (of course, if you're that weak, then LAEPUIDOA!!!!! (Laugh at Elvish Pillager Until I Die of Old Age))

My sport of choice is the computer game.

Ah but is it a sport......

I played Wii sports for the first time last week. That qualifies as a sport in my book. A few hours of tennis will certainly raise your pulse, even though it's not quite the real thing. Other comoputer games? Not so much.