[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by bk400

This is an apt comparison. Soccer is a contact sport in a way that is analogous, if not similar to basketball, and the USWNT were arguably the best women's soccer team in the world. That they lost badly to a city-wide team of 15 year olds highlights the strength and speed differences between the sexes.

There is less space on a basketball court relative to a soccer pitch, so quickness and leaping ability in basketball is more important than pure straight line speed, and contact takes place more frequently and is harder to shake. These factors probably accentuate the female disadvantage even more in basketball.

I would take the argument further and say that Caitlyn Clark would struggle 1v1 against the starting, varsity boys shooting guard at any American public high school with an enrollment of more than 1500.

And even then I am guessing those 15 year olds instinctively were less physical in that game than they would have been with their male contemporaries. I played a lot of basketball in the day in countless venues and configurations, and on occasion women would find their way into a game (some were even accomplished players) and no self-respecting guy is going to be rough on a woman in that setting.