A 12 year old girl has been banned from playing basketball with her team because she's too good. Check out this video (try to ignore that the interviewer in the 2nd half of the video does a bad job).

What can be going through a person's mind when they publicly, explicitly say that they are punishing someone for being good? How can they live with themselves, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant their offense (insignificant compared to murder or starvation, etc.)? What problems must they have in their lives, or how low is their own self-esteem to be so abusing whatever power they hold?

I hope those decision-makers heard the following quote from one of this girl's teammates, and were embarrassed that a 12 year old boy understands justice (and perhaps reality) better than they do:

Quote:

Her greatness, it like sprinkles off and goes onto us and it kind of makes us better as a player, too.

Socialism dictates everyone must be equal. Someone's feeling is getting hurt from too good!

Cute girl. Sad how people see her as a danger instead of how her teammate accurately described her.

I don't know any 12 year old boys who wouldn't play a bit differently with her on the court. But that aside, its just silliness, and while I feel for her, this kind of B.S. is the rule, not the exception.

I jive with Stef on this: People make up fucked up rules that make no good sense, JUST to perpetuate the kind of authority they were subjugated to. And perhaps, to never have to condemn their own providers for being the retards that they surely were....

What do you think, my homey's?

Her team mate was priceless! I think this will work out. More certainly know who she is now. My guess is she will be invited to play in a more challenging league and will inevitably become greater...call me optimistic...but it is...Wednesday!

She's 'hot', confident, female, and better than the boys. The parent (iirc) who says 'the boys play differently with her out there' has a point. Of course they do.

That says nothing about whether or not she should play, despite what that numbskull was trying to insinuate. I was just pointing out that it is likely a fact that could have bearing, depending on what you value. The boys will play differently with a 6 foot hottie on the court. Especially one that is making them look like fools every time she gets near the ball. As a somewhat expert on 12 year olds, this is lets say: "not insignificant".

Why are there boys and girls teams in the first place? Is it because most girls can't compete, because the boys wouldn't let the girls play with them or because the majority of both sexes are uncomfortable playing a physcal sport as they enter puberty?
Theres alot to this question. Any team that doesn't contest a rule violation to their favor is silly. If thier player travels they won't question it but they will if the other team's player does. I know a girls team would contest a boy playing on the girls league. You can question why they have the rules in the first place but not the enforcement of them.

I think it's important to remember that the goals of play can vary. If this girl's basketball abilities are of a different magnitude than the other players in the league, then the game could be a lot less fun for other kids who are involved. They're twelve years old; the point of a junior league like this is (hopefully) not to be as competitive as possible, but to have fun. And although it's often said that the game's the thing, that it's not about winning, it's not much fun to have your ass handed to you, predictably, by someone who is just flat-out better.

I don't know if that's exactly what's happened here, but it's certainly possible. The interviewer mentioned a game where she won 90-12. They don't say how she's fared while on the boy's team, though, so I don't know just how good she is relative to the rest of that league.

It's also possible that, as was implied, the boys are effected by her presence. It's arguable whether that's a good reason to remove her or not, but it's not necessarily relevant; this is a private league, and they can include in it whomever they choose. If a player is "disruptive", even in a way that seems trivial or insulting to us, that's not really our business.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/highschoolsports/2004422051_bball18.html?syndication=rss

I believe this was the original story.
"For now, Jaime is back playing with girls: on a sixth-grade team and a nontraveling high-school team."

Thats gotta be a little strange going from 6th graders to high school players.

Thank you for posting that link Phlog....

the coach said "I never saw the rule," said Abraham, who has coached basketball, mostly girls and women's teams, for 32 years.

"If I'd known about it, I wouldn't have put any of my teams in the league. Besides, she's been playing on this team since second grade, and she plays on our team when we travel around the region. There's never been one word of complaint."

It is funny how the press plays us on occasion we only saw a blurb and jumped to conclusions about the coach who seems like a fair minded chap.

Like anything if you want to get to the truth a little research gos along way.

my favorite line ; "Listen, she's a girl's girl, but she plays tough. She's no cupcake. She gets knocked down and takes a charge."

I may sound like a feminist here, but I think that the league is scared of boys feeling emasculated by stronger girls. That's why they'll still let her dominate the girls teams.

Meh, I still think you can have fun even when playing against someone with whom you don't have much of a chance to win, as long as they're respectable and don't try to denigrate you for being worse at them at a mere game.