Twitter Erupts After ESPN Comments on Katie Lou Samuelson

On March 6, 2017, University of Connecticut Women's Basketball guard, Katie Lou Samuelson, had a record breaking night. The sophomore scored 40 points, while going 10-10 from the three-point range. With that game, Samuelson set the Division I record for consecutive three-pointers in a game.

ESPN posted a story highlighting her performance on twitter. They captioned the tweet by saying, "No NBA player has ever gone 10-10 on 3-point FG." With that, twitter went crazy. I monitored the comment section and all I saw was hate. People from all around the globe commented on the post saying that one cannot compare a women's college basketball player to an NBA player. 

In my opinion, I feel that ESPN lacked inclusiveness in the caption. Is it an unfair comparison? The most simple answer is yes; however, I don't think you can make a comparison. The NBA and women's college basketball are extremely different, neither being better or worse than the other. I know, at the end of the day it is just basketball. But there are so many different factors that do not match up between both levels. 

I believe that if ESPN wanted to go with this comparison, a better caption would be, "No professional basketball player has ever gone 10-10 on 3-point FG." That way, you are including the NBA and the WNBA. 

Nonetheless, one cannot take away anything from Katie Lou Samuelson. Being perfect from 'downtown' is not easy to do. Kudos to her. That was a heck of a performance.

- H²