Too often in this country do male sports fans discredit women’s sporting leagues. Tennis, golf, and volleyball attract spectators without much effort mostly due to their historical credibility. In 1884 women started competing at Wimbledon; that was quite some time ago… The first women’s golf tourney was held in Scotland 207 years ago!! These sports have had time to build generational fan bases so their place among sports (regardless of gender) feels more approachable to fans – in our case, American fans. I make the ‘American’ distinction because we’re one of the few countries with top-level professional sports leagues that do not value women’s ball sports, especially basketball. From China’s massive women’s league, to Europe’s Euro League and even the Turkish Basketball League (LiGi) the skill of women’s basketball is much more appreciated in every major market but the US. Shame on us, because there have been spectacular female ballers throughout history. In fact, the United States has the best female basketball players in the world!
Reggie Miller will straight up tell you his sister, Cheryl Miller would whip him on the hardwood his entire life. While in high school in Riverside Cheryl put up 105 in a game… by herself. ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE POINTS. Watch them talk about it below, it’s too funny.
The WNBA has had dunkers like Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and Syliva Fowles. Elite floor generals like Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi played the game with Stockton and Magic-like grace and flair. Dominating bigs like Tina Thompson and Tamika Catchings showed that girls could battle in the post too.
All-around generational stars like Cynthia Cooper and Maya Moore have always been pushing the WNBA; these two in particular stand as the greatest WNBA players ever (in my opinion). Since the league’s inception in 1997 (random fact: I attended that LA Sparks v. NY Liberity game at age 8) the WNBA’s stars have had shoe contracts just like the boys. Kevin Durant has been on IG a lot recently calling us out for not respecting the women’s game enough while at the Nike Women’s EBYL Peach Jam this week. Nike historically outfits the WNBA’s best with outstanding player exclusives kicks, much like they do for KD and other NBA All-Stars. For today’s Sample Sunday we’ll take a look at some of our favorite Nike PE’s on the feet of various female stars throughout the years! There are so many out there it’s impossible to list them all, if you want to see more WNBA kicks leave a comment below or tell us on Instagram!
Aaron Nojima
Robbie Falchi
Sneaker History