ARLINGTON, Texas — Kicking, abusing and mocking the WNBA has turned into the easiest, laziest layup topic for talk shows these days because it requires no effort, and the people talking don’t actually watch the games.

On Wednesday night at the College Park Center in Arlington, the Dallas Wings hosted the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series, and noticeably absent from the capacity crowd was everything that those talk shows discuss.

In its place were about 7,000 paying customers who were dancing, singing, cheering and enjoying themselves together. Of the major sports leagues that exist in this country, none of them attracts the diversity like the WNBA. Black. White. Male. Female. Asian American. Hispanic American. Young. Old. Gay. Straight. Big. Little. You know, Americans.

If you have a problem with that ... why do you care? Exactly what bothers anyone about this league?

The Wings’ 108-100 win in overtime of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Valkyries at the College Park Center was the safest of safe places. It was a special game, and a historic night that included Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale scoring a league playoff-record 45 points, including a tying 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining to force overtime.

The decisive Game 3 is Friday night in San Francisco.

You’d really have to work hard, or have an agenda, to hate Wednesday night’s game.

If you want to whine that the league only exists because the NBA covers the costs, a point made by comedian Bill Burr in a brilliant rant that was an indictment of women’s preferred entertainment choices, it’s valid.

If you want to be mad about players complaining about their salaries, show me an employee who doesn’t complain about their paycheck, and you’ll find a worker who never receives a raise.

The parts that may bother you about the WNBA suggest you could be a racist, or homophobic. You good with that? If so, just own it rather than hide behind some weak political prop shrouded in a biblical term you memorized but don’t understand.

Focus on the WNBA game

I started my career working in women’s basketball 30 years ago, and to see where this sport has evolved is sometimes unbelievable. The caliber of players playing now did not seem possible 30 years ago.

The WNBA provided proof that a woman’s professional sports league in the United States is viable, even if the cash layout is substantial. Most of these teams are still losing money, but the league is viable, stable, growing, and the valuations of the respective franchises are in the hundreds of millions.

The owners are making their money and then some at sale time, a common thread in many sports teams outside of just the WNBA.

The WNBA is fine.

Watching Ogunbowale and Golden State’s Gabby Williams go at it was Broadway theater that Broadway actors and actresses can’t create. Because no one would buy it. Ogunbowale’s 3-pointer that nearly scraped the moon to send the game into overtime is what makes all of this worth it.

When she made the shot, the people inside the College Park Center made the type of noise that generates feel. People cared that she made the shot, and that the Wings won.

When you focus on the actual games, and players like Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, A’Ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, and the others, it’s a good, not perfect, product.

The officiating in the league needs an upgrade, but this has been an issue in major women’s college basketball for years. There aren’t enough decent refs.

Finding the right commissioner to replace the retiring Kathy Engelbert is a priority for the league that needs some PR help in navigating some issues that are unique to the WNBA.

How many other major sports leagues in North America have to deal with the type of nonsense junk thrown at the WNBA? Zero.

The WNBA is fine, improving, and if you take the time to focus on the game, a solid sports entertainment product.

No one who watched Arika Ogunbowale go off for 45 points on Wednesday night could believe otherwise.

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