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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 66773 Location: Where the action is
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Posted: 01/03/20 8:14 pm ::: W Players: Overplayed And Underpaid |
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https://www.essence.com/feature/wnba-players-overplayed-and-underpaid/
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While conversations surrounding load management erupt regarding NBA players making an active choice to rest their bodies in hopes for preservation in the playoffs, we have somehow overlooked what system is at play that would have a player like Skylar Diggins-Smith play an entire season while pregnant and not feel comfortable with letting anyone know. |
_________________ Let us not deceive ourselves. Our educational institutions have proven to be no bastions of democracy.
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myrtle
Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 32326
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Posted: 01/03/20 9:54 pm ::: |
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um no. Count back nine months from April. Plus most people don't know they're pregnant for 4 - 6 weeks. She obviously didn't play a whole season in silence. And then she chose to be silent about it. That has nothing to do with the 'system'.
And quoting Amber Harris as an example is pretty absurd.
_________________ For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
- Amanda Gorman
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019 Posts: 4701
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Richyyy
Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 24327 Location: London
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Posted: 01/04/20 7:40 am ::: |
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Stormeo wrote: |
And speaking of her, since the article talked a bit about branding, can I just take this opportunity to say that I still don't get why she added her husband's last name to hers? For her, why not commit to either "Diggins" or "Smith"? What does simply adding a name like "Smith" at the end of your existing name, particularly on the back of your jersey, do for your brand? Nothing. She's a business major & businesswoman for god sakes... sorry it's just always really bothered me lmao I've never liked saying, seeing, or hearing it. |
It's a way to take her husband's (and children's) name, as millions of women do, while still retaining the name that's already part of her 'brand'. I'm not Diggins-Smith's biggest fan, but I don't see anything wrong with that. |
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ChiSky54
Joined: 19 Jun 2019 Posts: 667 Location: Chicago
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Posted: 01/04/20 7:53 am ::: |
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Stormeo wrote: |
And speaking of her, since the article talked a bit about branding, can I just take this opportunity to say that I still don't get why she added her husband's last name to hers? For her, why not commit to either "Diggins" or "Smith"? What does simply adding a name like "Smith" at the end of your existing name, particularly on the back of your jersey, do for your brand? Nothing. She's a business major & businesswoman for god sakes... sorry it's just always really bothered me lmao I've never liked saying, seeing, or hearing it. |
I always thought that just dropping the family name that one has had all one's life to take on a spouse's name was the thing that seemed kinda silly. A woman would have to be married to that same person as long as they were alive with the family name. So many people don't stay married that long, so they drop the spouse's name and add a new one when they remarry, possibly multiple times. Elizabeth Taylor seemed to do okay keeping her branded name through all of her marriages!
Hyphenation, as cumbersome as it is, still allows them to be found by folks who "knew them when", which would be much harder to do if the family name is gone and the married name(s) are unknown. It's also really, really important to some people to indicate publicly that they are married. So hyphenation allows them to retain the family name and also announce their marital status!
Pretty funny that Amber Harris is still showing up as a Sky player, and for her example to be so prominent in the article is...weird! There had to be many active, reasonably well-known players the author could have selected instead!
I still say that SDS couldn't have been pregnant the whole season unless she had one of those rare long pregnancies! The numbers just don't compute!
_________________ There is nothing new under the sun.
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willtalk
Joined: 13 Apr 2012 Posts: 1088 Location: NorCal
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Posted: 01/04/20 11:19 am ::: |
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Also, players and their fans being upset at reality is absurd. There are many people in life that are underpaid in relation to their skill. Basketball and sports are entertainment and in that business, salaries are based on market value. The reality that women's professional basketball does not have a high market value. Women's basketball has considerably less valued than their male counterparts at every level.
I have a friend, who like me is a fan of women's basketball who is constantly upset and B!tching that more people do not come to the games. I try to explain to him that other people are not like us. But it does not seem to get across.
I personally wish that more basketball fans would start to appreciate the womens game and begin to support it, but the reality is otherwise. People tend to buy into hype and it affects their perception os market value. For example there are many very talented people in the entertainment field who never even get a chance to show what they can do, so they either work for peanuts or not at all. Talent show seem to give some of them opportunities, but even they are sort of rigged. At least in sports you get to compete head to head as you raise through the various level of competition.
Of course the question still remains- are the players in the WNBA underpaid? Or perhaps the NBA players are vastly overpaid. Does the attendence drop when players retire or quit due to injuries or other factors? Do the players make the league or does the league make the players?
_________________ No one one is ever as good as their best game, nor as bad as their worst.
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4200
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Posted: 01/04/20 3:53 pm ::: |
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ChiSky54 wrote: |
Stormeo wrote: |
And speaking of her, since the article talked a bit about branding, can I just take this opportunity to say that I still don't get why she added her husband's last name to hers? For her, why not commit to either "Diggins" or "Smith"? What does simply adding a name like "Smith" at the end of your existing name, particularly on the back of your jersey, do for your brand? Nothing. She's a business major & businesswoman for god sakes... sorry it's just always really bothered me lmao I've never liked saying, seeing, or hearing it. |
I always thought that just dropping the family name that one has had all one's life to take on a spouse's name was the thing that seemed kinda silly. A woman would have to be married to that same person as long as they were alive with the family name. So many people don't stay married that long, so they drop the spouse's name and add a new one when they remarry, possibly multiple times. Elizabeth Taylor seemed to do okay keeping her branded name through all of her marriages!
Hyphenation, as cumbersome as it is, still allows them to be found by folks who "knew them when", which would be much harder to do if the family name is gone and the married name(s) are unknown. It's also really, really important to some people to indicate publicly that they are married. So hyphenation allows them to retain the family name and also announce their marital status!
Pretty funny that Amber Harris is still showing up as a Sky player, and for her example to be so prominent in the article is...weird! There had to be many active, reasonably well-known players the author could have selected instead!
I still say that SDS couldn't have been pregnant the whole season unless she had one of those rare long pregnancies! The numbers just don't compute! |
The author is a freelancer whose husband is the head coach of the (American) football team in Wuhan, which happens to be the same city where Amber Harris is the local team's foreign player. Most of the other players quoted also happen to be playing in China right now. This seems more like a human interest story than hard-hitting journalism. |
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019 Posts: 4701
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Posted: 01/05/20 1:07 am ::: |
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Richyyy wrote: |
It's a way to take her husband's (and children's) name, as millions of women do, while still retaining the name that's already part of her 'brand'. I'm not Diggins-Smith's biggest fan, but I don't see anything wrong with that. |
ChiSky54 wrote: |
Hyphenation, as cumbersome as it is, still allows them to be found by folks who "knew them when", which would be much harder to do if the family name is gone and the married name(s) are unknown. It's also really, really important to some people to indicate publicly that they are married. So hyphenation allows them to retain the family name and also announce their marital status! |
I mean, ultimately I'd be fine with it if she did it only legally - in which only those that actually know her would know she did it - and didn't do it professionally, if that makes any sense. Here are a few examples of celebrities doing it. Some add the last name without the hyphenation professionally, some don't add it at all professionally. Seems like very few people do the hyphenation thing. Combine that with the fact that she added the most common last name to her name, as well as me being partial to that brand continuity (when recognizable people stick with the name that they had when they first rose in popularity, such as Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis; it definitely bothered me when Ron Artest became Metta World Peace for example lol), and I guess that's where I just get weirdly triggered. I guess I can explain it as, she has had the most potential out of the majority of W players to expand her brand to the masses given her already big fanbase (which in theory would collaterally help the W and its brand, though even now that doesn't really seem to be the case) and regular mainstream appearances (Kids' Choice Awards, MTV's Wild 'N Out, being the name of an Azealia Banks song pre-marriage, etc.); changing her name imo sets her brand back since she arose to popularity as "Skylar Diggins". Though I can admit, it probably isn't as big a deal as I think it is and it's something I really should get over for my own sake.
On the subject of all this, does anyone else remember when Mistie Bass used to be Mistie Williams back at Duke, then Bass, then Mims, then back to Bass? (Did I miss one?) By the time she changed it to Bass the second time, all I could do was laugh. Totally going off-topic now, but I re-found Bass' twitter page and her son is absolutely adorable!! Can't remember if I knew at the time that she had a child or not.
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