During the summer of 2018, Women’s NBA basketball players demanded that they get equal revenue shares as male NBA players.

Recently, Women’s NBA players demanded that they receive a larger portion of revenue than they are currently given. While NBA players receive 50 percent of league revenue, WNBA players are only receiving 20.4 percent of the league’s estimated revenue, according to www.forbes.com.

Woman’s NBA players are also dissatisfied with the level of respect they receive from media and fans.

In my opinion, the WNBA struggle for equal revenue and attention is a battle that needs to be fought. If this issue is overlooked and forgotten, the gap between the respect and pay of NBA and WNBA players will only continue to not receive the respect they deserve.

This larger issue is also reflected in high school sports, with female athletes not receiving as much attention or respect as male athletes.

The girls basketball team plays less games than boys basketball and students have a general disregard for their games. However, last season, girls basketball posted a higher win percentage at 57.7 percent, while the boys posted a 48.3 percent win percentage. Also, the girls team qualified for open division playoffs, which is higher than division I, which the boys qualified for. Open division teams come from all across the city and are very tough opponents to beat.

If people want to see a good game of basketball, they should also consider going to a girls basketball game.

“There is always room for more respect and attention, the girls on the basketball team put in a great deal of work and deserve the respect equivalent to that,” said junior Amanda Matsubara.      

Senior Jared Yuge also weighed in on the debate.

“I believe that girls basketball deserves the same amount of respect for the work they put in as you would give to any organized sports team that is serious about their sport, regardless of gender,” said Yuge.

Personally, I think that girls basketball works just as hard as any other sports team looking to represent Venice High School, and they deserve the respect that is due to them. Any sports team that wants to put in the work deserves ample respect from anyone who isn’t a part of that team.

If you want to support Venice girls basketball, then you should go to their games. While the official schedule hasn’t been released yet, keep an ear out for home game times and dates.