Donna Orender speaks out for WNBA

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

We’ve had a lively discussion in recent weeks on this site about the viability of the WNBA as a professional league.

We started with an opening shot from Melissa Rohlin, a freelance writer and basketball player/fan who doesn’t believe the WNBA offers much entertainment value.

That drew a response from the very talented Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi, who, of course, believes in the league, and a WNBA fan, Sue Favor, who used some excellent research to support her points.

Taurasi later invited the high school girls’ basketball team from Palisades High to be her guest at a Sparks-San Antonio playoff game and just might have changed some of their young minds.

We enjoyed our experience with her so much that we invited her to become a regular contributor to the Fabulous Forum. But she already has an arrangement, unfortunately for us, with Yard Barker.

Now the league’s commissioner, Donna Orender, has weighed in with an opinion piece for the Detroit Free Press.

She makes a particularly strong case for the impact the WNBA has on young girls who want to play professional sports -- and aren’t particularly interested in the Lingerie Bowl. (That last comment was mine, not hers.)

-- Randy Harvey