Kobe Bryant may not watch an awful lot of NBA basketball anymore — at least that’s what he says — but that doesn’t mean the recently retired future Hall of Famer has disconnected himself from watching hoops completely. Bryant is among the biggest proponents of the WNBA and regularly tweets about the women’s game, like Diana Taurasi becoming the league’s all-time leading scorer.
Bryant’s love for the WNBA comes from both his love of basketball and being the father of three daughters. In a recent video for the WNBA, Bryant explained why the league is so great for basketball fans and especially for young girls looking for inspiration as female athletes.
Kobe talks about how the game is played at the highest level and is fun to watch and also how his daughter will regularly come up to him to show him highlights from the latest games, but his quote at the end about the WNBA giving young women playing hoops something to look to and dream of getting to being significant is the best endorsement of the league’s importance.
“You have a dream, you have a goal as a kid to play basketball,” Bryant said. “Now, as a girl, you grow up, you play basketball, your like, my goal and my ambition is to be a WNBA player. I want to be a champion like Coop. I want to be a champion like Diana. I think that’s really the most important part is that women growing up and playing basketball are like, ok, my career track can go like this and lead to that. I think that’s the most significant part.”
The WNBA is growing, as is women’s basketball internationally, and that provides something for a young female athlete to look to in the same way a boy looks at the NBA as his dream. Bryant sees that in his daughters and thinks that part of what the game can do is extremely important. The WNBA’s footprint is ever expanding, including its inclusion in a video game for the first time as part of NBA Live 18, and hopefully that will only continue the league’s growth.
