Solution to the Oppenheimer-Barbie conundrum

The WNBA’s All-Star Break provided the Las Vegas Ace’s “Core 4” with a showcase for 80 percent of a historically stacked starting lineup to strut their stuff in an exhibition. On the downside, it also cracked open a conduit for the cranks to spew their usual bile.

Take for example, Super70sSports aka semi-professional provocateur Ricky Cobb’s reaction to the WNBA All-Star Weekend taking priority in ESPN’s promotional hierarchy. On Monday, Cobb borrowed material from Jason Whitlock’s misogynistic take file and trafficked in antiquated contempt for the Worldwide Leader providing more than the bare minimum coverage of women’s sports. Cobb tried to soften his statement with an apology salad, but for a significant segment of the sports-viewing audience, women’s sports actually being given proper placement sets them off as much as affirmative action boogeyman stories.

Super70sSports’ jab at ESPN’s placement of women’s sports ignores the reality of the national media’s disregard for storylines germinating within the top domestic women’s basketball league in the U.S. Doing it in the aftermath of the All-Star Game from Las Vegas is ironic considering Vegas’ WNBA resident franchise is sizzling hotter than Death Valley right now. Worrying about whether women’s sports highlights play before men’s in mid-July is akin to stressing over whether Barbie or Oppenheimer is taking up more screens at AMC. Just chill out. You’ll have time for both.

The Aces are must-see basketball. There’s no Barbie or Oppenheimer conundrum here. The Aces don’t have to choose. They’re the nexus of both. One price of admission for the denizens of Michelob ULTRA Arena is worth two tickets.

Like BarbieLand, Vegas is not a real place. It’s a multicolored, brightly lit facsimile of several cities. Few people actually live there permanently and The Strip is more tourist attraction than throughway, which is fitting because the Aces feel like a make-believe team puppeting 11 other plastic franchises. Like the WNBA, Barbie has already drawn scathing reviews from conservative critics who’ve ravaged it for pushing LGBTQ stories and feminist narratives. It’s the same sort of thing WNBA critics obsess over when they’re intent on missing the point.

The Aces are box office in several ways. Conversely, during the first half of the WNBA calendar, the Aces have been the destroyer of worlds, activating a devastating offensive attack that’s decimating the league at a blistering pace. As exciting as pitch clock baseball is, the Aces embody what fans seem to gravitate towards more than the most; a dynasty at its peak.

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