Can mixed gender basketball work?

Completed your Christmas list yet? Paid for the oversized pine tree that will shed crap all over your carpet by mid December? What about registering for the Mixed Gender Basketball Association?

Say what now?

Yes, this is a real thing. And it wants in on the competition.

Next month the search is on for elite men and women to try out, in the notion they’ll be picked to play exhibition games and be paid for it.

So let’s take this in. A mixed gender basketball league where men dunk on women? Or, more to the point, where women dunk on men?

This ambitious venture was founded by former 1960s Harlem Globetrotter, John Howard.

After a strong career on the court, Howard later became fascinated by gender equality and started studying the subject.

Browsing through the MGBA Inc website, a company based in Florida, you’ll find the following mission statement:

“MGBA Inc.’s Mission is to establish a professional basketball league and tournament, structured on principles of gender equity and fairness where by male and female athletes join together in team competition in the best interest of basketball.”

NBA traditionalists are already frowning. Why do women’s basketball standards need to be impacted on, surely they have enough of a struggle staying afloat in the male-dominated sport, right?

Howard knows he faces ridicule from peers, however his creation is not a mere hobby to pass time, he already has visions of a full league up and running as soon as 2014, tipping off with the exhibition games commencing next month.

The mixed game-plan includes frequent subsitution from quarter to quarter, i.e three men and two women or vice versa, and to compensate the natural size/strength difference, women get a chance at four points at the shot line.

Too obvious?

I’ve never had time for pessimism and most often you’ll find me unbuttoning my blouse when flirting with benefit of the doubt, however this has me questioning its longevity.

Initially, many questions spring to mind, the number one being quality.

If a women was talented enough to match-up against the opposite sex, why isn’t she aiming for WNBA?

Is the court going to be full of retired ex-players of both genders? Would any half-decent male athlete on the court feel remotely challenged by a female? And if he did, would they want people to see it?

One rare selling point in all this is the payment scheme, with the motto “Equal pay for equal play”.

All players would be paid the same price, which in this era is unheard of due to the majority or sponsors always picking the male equivalent.

I understand my queries can be seen as sexist or unsupportive of my sisterhood, feel free to call me ignorant.

I feel almost bad for saying it out loud, but I really can’t see any man voluntarily wanting to spend time on the court with women.

This can be a wonderful concept. If it was instead after work playing with your friends. Or maybe for high school. But a whole friggen league? Where humans pay actual money to watch?

Is it just me?