If you think Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker made a statement with their initial dunks (Parker is pictured left, dunking at the McDonald’s All-American contest a few years back), check out Brittney Griner’s dunks.

Two-handed throw-downs with ease? Are you kidding me?

We’ll see more of Griner next year when she takes the court for Baylor.

What’s amazing about this is the evolution of women’s basketball throughout the years. Think back 20 years ago … did anyone think women would be dunking the ball with such force, such vigor as men? Nope. But then again, there wasn’t a professional women’s basketball league either.

Things change. Brittney Griner is the future.

Photo provided by Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Brittney Griner Dunks Harder Than Any Woman In History

I was a 10-year-old kid once. And I didn’t get to play football because I was a girl. I had to stand on the sidelines and watch my twin brother excel on the football field when I knew I would have been just as good of a player. I also remember when I played soccer on an aggressive co-ed team for many years. That is until I turned 10. The coach took me aside and told me, with tears in his eyes, that it was getting too aggressive for me. I’d have to play on another team, an all-girls team perhaps.

So I know exactly how 10-year-old Alycia Figuroa feels.

Fox News ~

A 10-year-old was barred from playing in a Cleveland-area youth football league because she’s a girl.

Alycia Figueroa of Ashtabula, Ohio, has loved football ever since she was small — and often plays with the boys. But when her parents took her to sign up for the Ashtabula Midget Football League this week, they were turned away, MyFOX Cleveland reported.

The league’s president told them that according to the bylaws set in 1971, girls aren’t allowed.

“It’s not fair that it’s 2008 and she still can’t play because she’s a girl,” her mother, Poula Stitt, told MyFOX Cleveland.

The league’s president told Alycia’s parents that she should try out for cheerleading instead. Read More

The cheerleading comment by the league’s president only adds salt to the wound. This isn’t 1950 anymore. Look at Brittney Griner. She could school any boy her age on the court. And how about Kara Lawson? She was bulldozing over boys in the Fairfax County Football league before she ever got to Tennessee to play ball. Girls are on par with boys at that age. There’s not as much of a difference in their physical bodies or athleticism as there is when kids are older. At that age, it’s anyone’s game.

Just watch this little girl outrun a a bunch of boys who can’t tackle the running back. She the one who finally brings him down:

It’s incidents like these that remind me how, even after all the progress that has been made over the years, girls are still seen as inferior to boys when it comes to sports.

That’s one of the many reasons why I write this blog.

Post from: EveryJoe

Why Not Try Out For Cheerleading Instead?

Griner is a freak of nature. She’s only been balling for three years and she’s already a force to be reckoned with on the court. She can dunk but, unlike Parker, she throws the ball down with force with her left, her right, both hands, off the backboard and even after spinning a full 360 degrees.

See for yourself:

Griner grew eight inches during her high school career and as a high school senior she’s already committed to playing basketball at Baylor for the 2009 season. What’s even more scary is the fact that Griner hasn’t fully developed as a player yet. Her defensive skills are uncanny for a player of her age and yet, in time, she can get even better. With her build, length and strength, some even wonder if she’ll be the first woman ever to play in the NBA.

OK — so that’s never going to happen. But … she just might end up being the best women’s basketball player ever. Even if Candace Parker doesn’t agree.

Video courtesy of YouTube

Post from: EveryJoe

Candace Who?