No high fives from me after Cambage dunk

NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen’s Women’s Basketball Worldwide) – It pains me a little that one dunk in Olympic Women’s Basketball gets more attention than anything else, whether it be the astonishing multi-Olympic record the USA currently sits on, or, some of the absolutely wonderful games we have witnessed in London.
 
Don’t get me wrong, huge credit to Liz Cambage. She is a phenomenal prospect very much destined to be a truly great player for Australia. Indeed she is already rolling in that particular direction and will continue racking up winners medals and personal accolades for both club and country.
 
Only I already fear that the defining moment of her career, whatever she achieves, will be a 20-second ‘youtube’ clip of so-called ‘Olympic basketball history’.
 
And, that’s just plain wrong.
 
I hope she one day doesn’t get that same feeling some television personalities or movie actors get when they become sick and tired of the media asking them to talk about that one ‘famous’ scene or moment on screen - when they were really great actors with so many other great achievements far more interesting and noteworthy.
 
Such things can be a blessing but they can also be a curse.
 
I admit I smiled when Liz threw it down although I didn’t feel myself going particularly overboard about the dunk because I was already engrossed in the game, one which was another hugely entertaining and absorbing contest.
 
Some people tasked with promoting the women’s game will probably want to throw things at me for trying to rain on the parade. But believe me, I’m not. I’d happily wear a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Don’t diss the dunk.’
 
The issue is that whilst dunks in the women’s game may appear sexy if you’re in marketing - and I am sure sponsors for example will love it - please read the small print.
 
For me, it’s a false economy and people clicking on social media sites all over the world during forthcoming days, weeks, months and years to watch it aren’t going to suddenly become women’s basketball fans.
 
It would be bordering on false advertising to really milk the dunk by Cambage since it isn’t something fans are able see on a regular basis - or even on a sporadic basis for that matter.
 
The one element which did genuinely fascinate me though was Cappie Pondexter @cappa23 tweeting “Just witnessed @ecambage dunk! The women's game is changing! I love it.”
 
Discuss.
 
Or, perhaps that debate is something of a watching brief in the medium term.
 
Right now though, these rare and admittedly enjoyable dunks are only skin-deep. The true beauty of women’s basketball is what lies beneath the highlights reel.
 
Specifically the passion, dedication, the actual games themselves and the players taking part. Female athletes with a supremely high level of skill – just like Cambage.
 
Women’s basketball needs to have the confidence and belief that people are streaming out of the Olympic Basketball Arena talking about the gut-wrenching tension of overtime, that three-point shot which won the game and all the other things which have made people fall in love with basketball down the years.
 
The dunk should be a beautiful footnote to another beautiful day in London.
 
I am convinced families will have been sat around the kitchen table over dinner talking about the Olympic basketball tournament and why Great Britain got so near and yet so far from a historic win.
 
I am sure the young girl visiting The Games was sat on the train heading back to her hotel in central London asking her mum where the local women’s basketball team plays back home.
 
It may have indeed been because she saw Cambage dunk but I suspect this young girl will have also fallen in love with many of the same things as I did.
 
That’s why I have vowed that whenever I come across someone searching for, or already watching the dunk by Cambage online in the future, I will insist on showing them other clips of women’s basketball.
 
I will start with Birsel Vadarli and her one-handed assist for Fenerbahce, the one-handed and off balance three-point buzzer-beater for Turkey in the Semi-Final of EuroBasket Women against France last year which was followed by a mesmerising play at the hoop next time down the floor.
 
Yes, please, please don’t forget everyone - there’s more to celebrate in women’s basketball than a nice dunk by Liz Cambage - even if it was the first in Olympic history.
 
In fact, more importantly than anything else, there’s more to celebrate about Liz Cambage than the first dunk by a woman in Olympic basketball history.
 
Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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