This is an exciting time in the WNBA. Game attendance and viewership for nationally televised games are up. Dwyane Wade, new part owner of the Chicago Sky, was recently quoted by ESPN as saying, “Growth is going to happen, and so I want to be a part of the growth of this league.”
The WNBA has two powerhouse teams, the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces, with some of the best players in the league, if not all-time. One of those players, Courtney Vandersloot, is a world-class point guard who helped take the Chicago Sky to the promised land two years ago. This season, she is an assist machine in New York, feeding the ball to Sabrina Ionescu, a phenom who now holds the 3-point shooting contest record across the NBA and WNBA.
Adding to this, the WNBA is one season away from getting Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Clark and Reese will automatically make two other WNBA teams top contenders.
For as good as they are now, WNBA players have enormous potential to improve their stamina, body control, hand-eye coordination and decision-making — if they had the same easy access to high-level training and equipment as their male counterparts.
This is not the current reality. Last year, the NBA’s Orlando Magic trained at a new $70 million facility while the WNBA’s Chicago Sky practiced at a public recreation center in Deerfield.
As a proud Chicago Sky season ticket holder, I believe that I am in on one of the best-kept secrets, getting high-value sports for bargain prices. Still, I would much rather see how great women’s basketball can become with increased demand and the revenue that comes with it.
Chicagoans can help bring about a golden age in the WNBA. This Sunday, the Liberty are coming to town, while the Minnesota Lynx and MVP contender Phee Collier bring their talents to the Windy City the following Friday for the Sky’s final home game this season. Lower-level seats in the $100 to $200 range are available for both games, and there is nothing like watching great basketball up close and personal.
The Sky might be having a dud of a season, but they also have Kahleah “KFC” Copper cutting through defenses and powering through players to the basket. KFC alone is worth the price of admission.
So is a well-funded WNBA.
— Mike Belle, Oak Park
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Error in discouraging EVs
Regarding the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial excerpt published in the Tribune, “About electric cars and natural gas” (Aug. 28): What’s with the direct pipeline from the climate-skeptic editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal to the pages of the Tribune? Once again, this board is given ink to promote the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to further drag their feet on addressing the crisis of our times.
The board suggests that California has erred in legislating the sale of electric vehicles by 2035 since cars are charged at night when natural gas is used to supply electricity. So for the next 10 years, nobody should embrace new technology on their own dime, nor should our various levels of government encourage innovation?
— Margaret Sents, Glenview
Fossil fuel model is obsolete
Regarding the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial excerpt “About electric cars and natural gas”: The climate issue is critical to the well-being of all living things inhabiting the earth. I’m profoundly disturbed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal Editorial Board’s viewpoint: that is, that new green tech is ahead of its time when, in fact, energy producers are behind the times.
Fossil fuel companies’ current model is obsolete. They will not change, go green, until incentivized to do so. Viable green technologies exist today. Public pressure is needed to light a fire under the boards of directors to get off their comfy cushions of old-school status-quo business models. The news media have a social responsibility to provide carefully considered points of view. The public deserves quality information to make informed decisions.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal board’s editorial not only misses the mark but also is blatantly harmful to the future of all life as we know it.
— John Guenther, Chicago
Action, not rhetoric, is needed
In response to questions about the alarming number of deaths due to the opioid epidemic, Mayor Brandon Johnson correctly stated it should be confronted as a public health issue. The great irony here is that in the same month, he unceremoniously fired the extraordinarily competent and experienced director of the Chicago Department of Public Health, Dr. Allison Arwady, in a sickening display of acquiescence to the Chicago Teachers Union, delivering a gut punch to that agency.
Johnson said he would find a replacement with deliberate speed. The mayor’s defenders point out that it is early in his term in office, but he was elected on April 4, and the opioid epidemic has been going on for years. This is far from the only issue in which the city is awaiting for something besides rhetoric.
Benjamin Franklin’s words seem to be a prophecy: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
— Elliot Weisenberg, Chicago
Swim club should be celebrated
On July 4, 1950, hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans graced our lakefront. It is a testament to the power of the lake as a place for all of Chicago to commune and an unfortunate reminder of how removed we’ve become from the most spectacular and unique feature of our great city.
Chicago was born from Lake Michigan, and the city’s future survival will hinge upon our ability to cherish and protect it. So let’s applaud and support Friday Morning Swim Club in its efforts to convince so many Chicagoans to jump in the lake, to bathe in its majesty and to understand the power of our great lake.
— David McDermott, Chicago
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