Getting Rid Of NBA Dancers? Ridiculous

Kelly Dwyer at Yahoo! Sports' Ball Don't Lie asked this question: Do we really need dancers at NBA games?

He goes on for awhile in that KD-way before coming to this conclusion:

At no point in either watching or attending an NBA contest do I really want to be titillated to the core by some woman wearing next to nothing.

His question and politically correct/basketball purist answer was in response to this post at Hardwood Paroxysm from a well respected female blogger, Sarah Tolcser. Sarah makes some fine points about how the NBA markets to women before concluding that the fairer sex is being ignored by the league.

Forget for a second that a female marketing executive who works for the Suns organization recently told me this about sports buying decisions, "Women, as a general rule are not programmed sports fans. You're brought up to put sports down the pecking order as you get older....Men are programmed sports fans."

Forget how condescending and patronizing it would be for me - a man - to tell these young women that their decision to dance in skimpy outfits is offensive to other women. As if I would have a clue what offends or doesn't offend all women.

Let's just cut to the chase.

These girls enjoy performing for us. They always seem happy when I see them. They smile a lot. When I see a group of them coming or going to "work" they are usually chattering to each other in what appears to be a cheerful manner. I can't say I recall ever seeing a Suns Dancer act as if they were being forced to perform against their will.

And fans, as a general rule, enjoy watching them. At least that's the impression I get from the cheers and drooling.

Seems like a win-win to me.

So, until I start hearing dancers boo'd by the crowd I am just going to go ahead and support their hard work and dedication.

Well done, ladies. You can dance at my game any time.