Shaquille O’Neal wants to make a huge change to the WNBA: “Pretty girl dunking on a rim. I’m watching that”

Like everybody else, Shaquille O’Neal has been watching the rapid rise in popularity of women’s basketball with great interest. Viewership continues to rise - the 2024 WNBA season was the most-watched in history and this season’s figures are already up on last year’s.

And Shaq feels there is definitely room for the women’s game to grow even further, with ways to boost fan engagement, attract new fans and generate more revenue, so that the league’s top stars can earn the kind of salary they deserve.

WNBA stars should be earning more

In episode 7 of the Off the Record podcast, he told hosts Bailey Jackson and Lachelle Smith that he was shocked by the salary Aces center A’ja Wilson is taking home, $200,000. “That’s a disgrace!” Shaq said, shocked. “A’ja Wilson should be making 10 million a year - easily. I didn’t even know that. That pisses me off, c’mon man. That’s not fair”.

The solution to that - a move that would take the WNBA to a new level, the legendary Lakers center says, is quite simple.

“We gotta lower the rim. You wanna make more money? Let Caitlin go baseline and fingertipped up, and everybody’s gonna be, ‘Can she dunk?’ Then Angel the way she do her layup like that, let her turn her wrists over one time and throw it down. Come on, man. Trust me on this. I’m telling you, I see it. Now if they didn’t lower the women’s volleyball net and move the golf tee, I wouldn’t say it“.

The basketball rim is both the NBA and WNBA is set at a standard height of 10 feet, but Shaq believes that lowering it slightly for the women would be a revolutionary move.

Dunking will transform the WNBA, says Shaq

“What’s the only thing that’s missing from the women’s game?” he asked. “We can dribble, y’all can dribble; we can shoot, y’all can shoot... so listen, I’m not saying lower it to clown rate, just a little, nine and three quarters. Just so the girls can dunk. We know y’all can do what we can do, you don’t have to show it anymore, we know. That’s the only difference from our game".

To elaborate his point further, Shaq continued: “Don’t go from 10 feet to eight feet. Imagine A’ja Wilson, the way she plays, drops that dunk... oowee! Bwoy! Everybody’s gonna start to go crazy - and it’s gonna inspire little girls more and it’ll start to grow. Trust me - that’s how we get you more money”.

Simple but effective, says Shaq, who ended: “And do you know what? It shouldn’t be a thing, let’s just lower it and not tell people”.

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