I Tell You, It's A Whole Different Sex!

Last year, Elena Delle Donne was the hottest female high school basketball recruit in the country. She chose to go to UConn, the top program in the country, and they were glad to get her. She'd been followed closely for years--got a college scholarship offer in seventh grade. Some called her the female LeBron James.

After two days, she left. She was homesick and, it turned out, never really liked the game. So instead she went to Delaware (not a sports powerhouse) and played volleyball as a walk on.

What hit me about this story was how differently girls and boys approach sports. I can't imagine a major male recruit turning down the chance to be a sports star. In fact, there aren't too many thing most guys would rather be. For whatever reason, it's not the same deal, on average, for girls. It may be biological, but, of course, it's easy to point to social factors that make it this way (though social factors can also follow biology). For one thing, no matter how good Elena was, the best she could hope for was the WNBA, where she'd make five figures, six figures at most. NBA stars sign multi-million dollar contracts.

Certainly society cares a lot more about male sports than female sports. I found out about this story almost a year after it happened. You can bet if LeBron James quit, I'd know about it immediately.

So best of luck to Elena. Who knows, maybe a year away from basketball is what she needs. I'm sure U Conn will take her back and she can still be the star she was always meant to be. But no pressure, only if she wants.

PS I love The New York Times' style:

"If Tom Brady was your son, you would really enjoy that he was a darn good Ping-Pong player, but you’d feel like, Why’s he playing Ping-Pong?” Ernie Delle Donne, a real estate developer, said, referring to the New England quarterback.

They once quoted someone referring to Stevie Wonder and felt impelled to add "Mr. Wonder is blind."