This week, NBA Hall-of-Famer and TNT commentator Charles Barkley made headlines for the latest of his head-scratching statements. This particular remark concerned the Golden State Warriors, a favorite target of Barkley’s. Barkley, when pressed as to why he is constantly critical of the team, said he could simply never like their style of “little girly basketball.” He went on in his own defense, claiming, “I love women’s basketball, but I don’t want it in the NBA.”
What Barkley is referring to, put in slightly more exact terms, is the Warriors’ spread-out, small, fast-paced, high-scoring approach, which Barkley believes is at odds with the more traditional, physical style of play in the NBA.
While Barkley’s gendered description of the Warriors is clearly disrespectful and demeaning, it is unfortunately not unusual in the sports world. The entire sphere is filled with terminology that associates aggression, violence and masculinity with success, and the more stereotypically feminine characteristics on the opposite end of that spectrum, with failure and weakness.
Before jumping into all the reasons why the negative connotation Barkley ascribes to the word “girly” is so troublesome, I would first just like to assure readers that the Warriors aren’t likely taking Chuck’s word’s too harshly.
After all, the Warriors have had a fair amount of success with their particular style of play, with two consecutive NBA Finals appearances, one championship and a historic 73-win season to show for in the past two years. This year they look just as formidable, after adding superstar Kevin Durant in the offseason and starting off this season with a 17-3 record. (Barkley, on the other hand, never managed to win an NBA title in a career defined by his physical interior post play.)
But the success the Warriors have had with their unconventional style is not what make Barkley’s comments off the mark. Rather, it is the massive number of phenomenal female athletes they do a disservice to.
Phrases from, “throwing like a girl” to “nice guys finish last” are used with regularity in sports at every level. Usually the connotations of such terms go unquestioned, and their effect is unconscious. But the result of remarks like Barkley’s is a reinforcement of the idea that sports are the dominion of alpha-males, and that the presence of “female” traits tarnishes or diminishes the legitimacy of a game, team or sport.
Barkley’s remarks have been met with widespread disapproval from many areas of the sporting community. Notably, Rachel Nichols, a colleague of Barkley’s, addressed them on her show “The Jump,” saying “this is just about girls out there … who shouldn’t have to grow up feeling like they are the living, human stand-in definition of being less than or weak.”
It is the universal struggle of female athletes to overcome the idea that their gender makes them less of a fit for athletic pursuits. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
Even limited to just 2016, female athletes have accomplished extraordinary things; the success of female Olympians such as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Claressa Shields; the explosion in popularity of women’s UFC; and Maya Moore’s continued ascension into the conversation of best women’s basketball player of all-time to name a few.
But really, what is most disappointing about Barkley’s comments is the degree to which they limit how we define sports. In my mind, sports are about celebrating the totality of human competition and physical performance. If one only sees traits like size, strength and aggression as the defining qualities of a skilled athlete, so much of a colorful and varied landscape is excluded. An athlete may need an abundance of strength, or speed, or agility, or grace, or coordination, or endurance, frailty, sturdiness, lightness, power, contortion, patience, aggression, mercy, or all of the above.
And male or female be damned, because there are numerous athletes of both genders who have these qualities in spades. Athletics should be a celebration of the entire breadth of humanity’s achievements, and this means respecting each and every part of the physical spectrum.
