The Case of Who can be Called a GOAT and Why Women Don't Seem to be Put Into the Same Conversation

 

Look at this photo that Sports Center posted 6 days ago and look at who is featured and who is missing. Have you looked yet? Do you see what I and millions of women quickly noticed? That's right there are no female athletes featured in this photo just male athletes. Now don't get me wrong I believe these male athletes are GOATS but come on you are missing Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Simone Biles, Sue Bird, Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Naomi Osaka, Kristy Yamaguchi, Alex Morgan, Allyson Felix and so many more. The women I listed above are from the top of my head, if I took even 10 more minutes to research all of the names of female athletes who are GOATS this list would grow exponentially. 

As a society we need to not create lists of Greatest Athlete and then another list of Greatest Female Athlete because that is a disservice. By the way in writing this I just remembered two more names Diana Turasi and Candace Parker. Back to my point though we keep curating these conversations as only Male Athletes can be called the GOAT but no that is not the case. I think it takes more to be considered a GOAT in Female Sports World because of all of the implicit and explicit commentary surrounding these athletes. For example take Serena Williams in the US Open when she lost to Naomi Osaka; everyone ragged on her for showing her "temper" and for being emotional about what she perceived to be bad calls. On the other hand I remember a match with Novak where he did the same thing and he lost as well not in the final but still it was just a display of how passionate he is for the sport. Do you see the difference and if you don't then you are the problem.

What will it take for Female Sports Stars to be put into the same conversations as Male Sports Stars for GOAT status? Look at this photo that has been circulating since the Storm won the WNBA Championship. That is not fair Sue Bird has the exact same pedigree as Lebron James and she is making not even 1% of his salary. Sue Bird has come back from injuries and like most WNBA players for the large part of her career she never had an off season because she had to go play abroad to make the WNBA worthwhile and livable. Sue Bird is a GOAT and she is one of the absolute best to play basketball but she is not even considered in the same conversation as Lebron and that is frankly very wrong. 

On another point how is it that she doesn't have her own shoe line yet or that any WNBA player doesn't have a signature shoe yet? I would run out and buy that shoe so quickly and I know so many women would as well as little girls who are wanting to be the next XYZ WNBA player. We have to do better and these conversations are just starting points and not solutions.

I hope you enjoyed this post and will keep following my love affair with sports.