8th-grade Michael Porter Jr. would dominate the WNBA according to Michael Porter Jr. originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Michael Porter Jr. and Lonzo Ball got into an interesting podcast discussion recently.
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It’s not a new conversation. Since the WNBA existed, guys have wondered how their talent compares to the best women’s basketball players on the planet. But these two NBA standouts, now with the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers, really didn’t hold back in their thoughts.
MPJ started the conversation by pointing out that former NBA guard Patrick Beverly had said that a WNBA team could beat an NBA team’s bench players.
Ball didn’t like that.
“I mean this as respectfully as possible but 9th grade Lonzo Ball in the WNBA is going crazy,” Ball said on the Ball in the Family podcast. “… In 9th grade I was over six feet and I’m dunking. I’m coming through the lane. No girl in the WNBA is doing that. I’m going back door, throw it up. I’m looking like Jordan out there.”
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Porter heard Ball’s claim of ninth grade and raised it.
“I’m probably going with 8th grade because I have real experience doing this,” Porter said. “I played my sisters. They played at The University of Missouri and I was still a young kid. They had me playing on the scout team and they had a few WNBA players on their team like Sophie Cunningham and a couple others. I was in the 7th or 8th grade going crazy. So, I have real life experience. It’s just a difference and I wish this would stop being a conversation because it should be common sense. I appreciate common sense. I feel sometimes that’s lost a little bit.”
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A couple things are probably important to acknowledge here.
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One, this is a pointless conversation. Why does it matter which side of this argument is right? The NBA and WNBA each feature the top players in the world in their respective sports.
Two, Ball and Porter aren’t coming at this from your average NBA player’s perspective. Each was one of the top couple recruits in the country. They blossomed early and were well-known commodities by the time they reached high school. Their experiences as hoopers probably did suggest that they could take on all comers even at an early age.
That all said, it is often amusing to hear the confidence of world-class athletes. Whether they’re right or wrong isn’t crucial, but when you get a man rolling about his athletic accomplishments, he might just talk your ear off.
