by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni
According to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, he would be willing to give Baylor’s Brittney Griner the chance to play in the NBA.
Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman to get a tryout with an NBA team — coming out of UCLA, the women’s Olympic star signed a contract with the Indiana Pacers in 1979 but didn’t make the team — and Cuban says he’d give Griner a similar shot.
Per the Dallas Morning News:
Mark Cuban was talking about NBA prospects and a young Asian guard in particular. He gave his stock answer. “If he’s good, we’re looking at him,” Cuban said. “I don’t care if the guy is from Upper Slobovia. If he can play, we’ll take them. If Brittney Griner can play, we’ll take her with our second-round pick. I don’t care.” And with that, the can of worms officially got ripped open. Cuban said he’s serious about the possibility of bringing in Baylor’s 6-8 star now that her college eligibility is done.
“If she’s the best on the board, we’ll take her,” Cuban said. “If we have the 60th pick and she’s on the board, we still might take her.” […] “I’ve thought about it already,” he said. “Would I do it? And right now, I’d lean toward yes, just to see if she can do it. You never know until you give someone a chance. And it’s not like the likelihood of any late-50s draft pick has a good chance of making it. If we had tryouts, I would have no problem inviting her to work out and see how she did. No problem whatsoever.”
If Cuban were to follow through, this would certainly make the NBA’s Summer League a must-watch event.
As for the 6-8 star, Brittney Griner tweeted that she’d be up for the challenge: “I would hold my own! Lets do it.”
