The Sabrina Ionescu Dilemma
For anybody who loves basketball, Sabrina Ionescu should be a name you recognize. The unanimous best player in women’s college basketball, Sabrina holds the record for most career triple-doubles… across the NCAA, men’s and women’s. With a smattering of other milestones and records, she has made quite the name for herself in the basketball world.
Sabrina made Oregon basketball one of the toughest teams to beat in women’s basketball. In her junior year, she led them to the Final Four, and if it wasn’t for the abrupt end to March Madness this year, it is nearly certain the Sabrina’s Ducks would’ve made a run for the title. However, Sabrina’s impact has gone far beyond just making her team competitive. She has given a face to women’s college basketball and made it relevant. Sabrina is a hooper. Period.
In the past few months, she came into the spotlight for her strong relationship with Kobe and Gigi Bryant. She handled the tragedy with dignity and vulnerability in front of millions, and I became 10x the fan I was before hearing her speak of the impact both had on her.
Like many top athletes, Sabrina Ionescu has a large following on social media. The past Fall, she used this following to pressure Nike into selling a Oregon women’s jersey with the following tweet:
As a female fighting to make women’s basketball more popular, Sabrina Ionescu’s tweet came to fruition; Nike produced her jersey. A unisex jersey, designed specifically after the Oregon women’s team, with Sabrina’s number on it.
And they sold out that day. In a matter of hours.
A huge win for women’s sports. Nike was finally merchandising for specifically women’s teams, and it was successful.
I honestly wish I had copped a jersey. It is obvious that Sabrina has a hell of a future ahead of her in basketball, and I’m fully on the train.
However, I started to think a little bit deeper about her jersey selling like crazy, and realized the perceived success may be a little more complicated than first glance.
NCAA jersey merchandising has been controversial for years, as schools and companies have profited off the name and likeness of star players without the athletes receiving a single dollar. This exploitation, over the past few decades, has largely been towards male athletes. College athletes have fought this for years, resulting in jerseys not using names or popular numbers. Still far from a perfect case, it seems that sooner or later money will make its way to the players.
The gap in popularity between men’s and women’s sports has closed, strongly exemplified by Sabrina Ionescu’s rise to fame. Although numbers are not available concerning how many were sold by Nike, the sell-out says enough. But Sabrina won’t see a penny of it.
In the fight for equality, Sabrina became equal in a field not as expected: exploitation. Is it right for the NCAA to profit off of women just as much as men?
I think the answer is yes.
Jerseys are a way of showing our pride and support for our favorite athletes and teams. This should be true for both men’s and women’s teams. If people want to rep Sabrina’s Oregon jersey or Joe Burrow’s LSU jersey, I think they should be able to. The players deserve compensation in some form, and that will remain up for debate.
The problem is with the NCAA’s rules. This may just be another barrier that Sabrina needs to help break down. Ball out, Sabrina.
