Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Over at the NYTimes, there's a preview of "Scary, Isn't She?", Elizabeth Weil's long profile of Jaime Nared:
The controversy surrounding Jaime and the Team Concept boys’ team blew up in April after she had one of those games that fill athletes’ dreams — behind-the-back passes, each shot on target. She scored 30 points. A couple of days later, Abraham, who also coached Jamie on the boys’ team, informed Greg Nared and Jaime’s mother, Reiko Williams (the couple are divorced), that their daughter had been banned from competing with the boys. The management of the Hoop, a private gym that runs the league that Team Concept plays in, cited a previously unenforced rule against mixed-gender play, but Jaime’s parents and coaches found the timing conspicuous. Abraham has coached girls’ and women’s basketball for 32 years — he used to be an assistant coach of the Sparks — and says Jaime is the best 12-year-old girl he’s ever seen. “If she were 5-foot-1 and a mediocre player,” he told me, “do you think we’d be having this discussion?”