Photos by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images (L), Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images (C), Brian Fluharty/Getty Images (R)
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NBA players on the Ball in the Family podcast firmly rejected comparisons between NBA and WNBA skill levels, calling the debate “common sense.”
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Michael Porter Jr. and Lonzo Ball emphasized that even high-level male teens would dominate WNBA players due to physical and athletic differences.
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The panel strongly dismissed former NBA player Pat Beverley’s claim that the 2025 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces could beat an NBA team.
This whole debate feels like one of those conversations that pops up online every few months just to give everyone something to yell about. What struck me is how blunt the players were — not malicious, just honest to the point where you could practically hear their PR reps screaming into pillows off-camera. Porter bringing up busting up college women’s teams in seventh grade? Lonzo casually announcing that ninth-grade Lonzo would be “going crazy” in the WNBA? It’s the kind of confidence only elite athletes and delusional middle-aged softball dads possess.
But underneath the bravado, there’s a simple truth: men and women’s basketball aren’t built on the same physical baseline, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone. Still, the sensitivity around the topic says everything about today’s sports culture — where saying something obviously true can get you lectured by your own franchise.
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This whole debate feels like one of those conversations that pops up online every few months just to give everyone something to yell about. What struck me is how blunt the players were — not malicious, just honest to the point where you could practically hear their PR reps screaming into pillows off-camera. Porter bringing up busting up college women’s teams in seventh grade? Lonzo casually announcing that ninth-grade Lonzo would be “going crazy” in the WNBA? It’s the kind of confidence only elite athletes and delusional middle-aged softball dads possess.
But underneath the bravado, there’s a simple truth: men and women’s basketball aren’t built on the same physical baseline, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone. Still, the sensitivity around the topic says everything about today’s sports culture — where saying something obviously true can get you lectured by your own franchise.
It seems some male basketball players are tired of having their skill levels compared to WNBA players.
After a former NBA player said the 2025 WNBA champions could beat an NBA team, a group of ballers decided to set the record straight with brutal honesty about how a matchup between the two sets of pros would play out.
‘I wish this would stop being a conversation.’
NBA players Michael Porter Jr., Lonzo Ball, and former pro LiAngelo Ball brought up the comparison of NBA players versus WNBA players on a recent episode of the “Ball in the Family Podcast.”
In just the second episode of the show’s existence, Porter decided he would contribute to its newsworthiness by asking the panel if they had heard that WNBA star Paige Bueckers claimed she could beat an NBA player head-to-head.
“Did you see when she said that she would beat Josh Hart one-on-one?” Porter asked.
“No chance,” the panel unanimously agreed, stating there was too big of a skill gap between Hart, who has averaged more than 10 points per game in his career, and a female pro.
The group then discussed what the age-appropriate matchup between a male and female basketball player would be, prompting the panel to drop brutal truths.
“Probably eighth grade,” Porter theorized, revealing he had actual experience playing against female college players as a teen.
“My sisters went to University of Missouri, and I was still a young dude, and they had me playing on the scout team, and they had a few WNBA players on their team, like Sophie Cunningham and a couple others. I think I was in seventh or eighth grade,” Porter continued.
He noted that he did indeed crush his female competitors at that time.
“It’s just a difference. I wish this would stop being a conversation because it should be common sense. But like, it’s just not,” he said.
Any viewers who thought the other panel members would jump to the defense of female players at this point were sorely mistaken. Particularly Lonzo Ball pulled no punches.
“I mean this as respectfully as possible, but ninth-grade Lonzo Ball in the WNBA is going crazy,” he said, speaking in third person.
Ball then brought out the measuring stick:
“In ninth grade, I was over six feet and dunking. I’m coming through the lane. No girl in the WNBA is doing that. I’m going backdoor, ‘Throw it up!’ I’m looking like Jordan out there,” he said.
Ball is no slouch in the NBA, and his 11-points per-game career average gives him the basis to make these claims.
“I mean this so respectfully. Middle school [and] down,” he added.
Earlier in the podcast, Porter outed his pro team for having reprimanded him in the past for talking about the differences between male and female players.
He explained that even within the Brooklyn Nets organization, “We’ve had conversations. They would appreciate if I stayed clear of certain topics, you know what I mean? That’s why the WNBA thing, that’s just a topic that kind of — it’s so sensitive nowadays. So I try to be aware of that.”
According to OutKick, Porter had previously strongly implied that if the WNBA All-Star team or the women’s Team USA basketball squad played the best male high school basketball players in the country, the boys would easily beat the women.
“It’s one of them things, bro. You can’t dance around it. In high school, when I was in high school … if we played the WNBA All-Star team, that, no disrespect, bro. No disrespect. I’m not even gonna say it,” Porter reportedly said.
Las Vegas Aces holds up the championship trophy after winning Game Four of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs finals at Mortgage Matchup Center on October 10, 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images
In early October, 12-year NBA veteran (now retired) Pat Beverley said in an X post that the WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces could give an NBA team a run for their money on the court.
“Idk if it’s the [wine] but i really believe this Aces team could beat a NBA team,” Beverley wrote.
The recent podcast panel reacted strongly to that claim with multiple guests simply responding, “That’s crazy.”
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