Why Is WNBA Not Popular And Will Never Be

Have you heard cats bark? How about Blackwater Elite keeping their #1 draft pick for ten years? They have not happened. They will not happen. They cannot happen.

The same thing can be said about the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) becoming popular.

America's lone professional women's basketball league is in its 14th season of existence. Not many is sure about this timeline, because nobody watches the WNBA. Nobody discusses the WNBA. Nobody seems especially interested in the WNBA. If a basketball league falls in the summer and nobody cares, is it still a basketball league?

During the past 1 ½ decades, absolutely, positively everything under the sun has been tried in the name of WNBA popularity. There have been creative ad campaigns and admirable player outreach efforts. There has been expansion and relocation and contraction; blockbuster trades and highly touted No. 1 picks.

In 2007, the WNBA and ESPN reached an eight-year television agreement, thus assuring high-impact exposure. WNBA players take part in the NBA's All-Star weekend and, at the conclusion of all games, sign autographs until their fingers bleed.

When Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker dunked, the videos were distributed en mass and replayed hundreds of times. Although, many are not impressed because how can one be. A straight-ahead dunk is a straight-ahead dunk. Nothing special about that.

It is understandable that the WNBA is generally disregarded by male sports fans. What may cause more consternation for WNBA is the fact that some women, including female basketball players, also do not hold the league in much high standing.

Recently, Melissa Rohlin wrote a piece in the L.A. Times explaining why she, a former basketball player who "dreamed of playing in the WNBA", does not actually watch WNBA games.

Rohlin: "I watch basketball to be entertained. I do not watch it to support a cause. And, quite frankly, men’s basketball is far more entertaining than women’s basketball." Rohlin goes on to say that she is not alone, explaining that only one of the women’s basketball players hoping to make the team at Los Angeles’ Palisades High regularly watched the WNBA.

The reasoning? Women are not the best basketball players in the world, a standing reserved for male NBA players.

When the 2009 five-game championship series between Phoenix and Indiana averaged a puny 0.4 rating on ESPN2 (That's 548,000 viewers. By comparison - and it's admittedly not a fair one - Game 5 of the NBA Finals drew 18.2 million viewers), the league celebrated the 73 percent rise from the previous season as if it had discovered a new planet.

In other words, the WNBA's emergence as a popular entertainment destination is a mathematical, sociological impossibility. It has not happened. It will not happen. It cannot happen.