Dallas Mavericks shamelessly try pandering to women, aggressively fail

The Dallas Mavericks want more female fans. They probably have less after sending this tweet.

I’m pretty sure there’s been some sociological study backing up what I’m about to say (I don’t feel like looking one up), so I’m going to go ahead and guess that there are probably more male fans of the NBA than female fans, whether by proportion or sheer numbers.

So on its face, an NBA team trying to court more female fans isn’t inherently a bad thing, even if it’s realistically only a play for tapping into another revenue stream.

There are probably some good ways to attract more female fans. The Mavericks are definitely trying a bad way with their “NBA 101 for Women” promotion. What is NBA 101, you ask?

NBA 101 for women is an annual event hosted by Mavs players, coaches and staff. It’s an opportunity for women to learn and understand the fundamentals of basketball in a fun, light and interactive atmosphere.

This women-only event, held at American Airlines Center practice court and locker room, provides basic instruction on topics including offensive and defensive sets, coaching strategy, as well as a Q&A session with a player and behind the scenes information about workouts and life on the road.

Huh, insulting the intelligence of a gender is probably not the way to go. I doubt Rachel Nichols, Doris Burke, Sage Steele or the myriad other NBA-involved women became experts about the league because they had teams teach them the game as if they were children. 

Would the Mavericks ever do this for men? After all, there are plenty of guys out there who currently could not care less about a floppy screen or a corner three.

It doesn’t really look like Dallas-area women are the ones in need of a lesson here.