Stop asking whether women can

I am so damn tired of this question I just can’t stand it anymore. Not when women give birth and come back to contend for medals in the Olympics. Not when a woman, Dani Fischer, cracks the top 30 among all finishers in the most recent IRONMAN Wisconsin. Not when women can rip a jab, cross, uppercut faster than someone can say, “Are you qualified?”

I lie to college students, working on their well-meaning projects, when they ask me if sexism in sports still exists. Oh no, I say, the playing field is even, the attitudes are fair – because I have chosen to ignore the moments when they aren’t, because I simply don’t have the time or the energy for that fight anymore.

Yeah, I read with passing interest that the Milwaukee Bucks were bringing in Becky Hammon for the head coach opening. The same way I once read with respect that Danica

Patrick was going to get behind the wheel of a really fast car. And Violet Palmer would referee for the NBA and Sarah Thomas for the NFL. And I wrote about Sonia Gysland being an athletic trainer in the NFL and Kat Vosters helping run the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team from the bench.

Nice, I thought. Go get ’em. And keep going.

My guess is that Hammon, an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, is absolutely qualified to coach in the NBA and if we gave her a basketball IQ test she would score well.

But hiring a coach – a leader – is only partly about credentials, qualifications and maybe experience. It’s also about personality fit, vision, common ground. The Bucks have an aggressive ownership group that has gone all in. And a young general manager hired for his progressive views on data and talent analysis more than his experience. It was good that the Bucks interviewed Hammon to see if her vision aligns with theirs.

Why do we even have to ask the question whether Hammon might be a publicity stunt, a token hire? It demeans the whole process.

We need to remember that the Bucks have a player – Malcolm Brogdon – who trusted his contract and therefore his entire career to an agent who is a woman.

We need to remember that women have had more opportunities in basketball – unlike football or baseball – to play and coach the game, and therefore the development of strong female coaching candidates has been in the works since Title IX.

We need to remember that we have long accepted, for some reason, men coaching girls in high school and women in college, a double standard I always found odd as a youth athlete and laughable later as a reporter. Pat Summitt and Theresa Shank Grentz could have coached the best men, I promise you.

We also need to remember that Journal Sentinel sports columnist Gary D’Amato, through his coverage of the Olympics, amateur athletes and golf, has chronicled the triumphs of many female athletes. I didn’t agree with parts of his column saying now isn’t the right time to hire Hammon over someone with more experience, but I respect him for his work and professionalism spanning decades.

What I’d love to know is who Giannis Antetoukounmpo wants as coach. He’s a special player and his opinion matters. The players look up to him.

And frankly I will never forget Jason Kidd telling me, four days before he got fired as Bucks coach, that he wasn’t sure how to win with a team that can’t consistently make threes, not against other teams that can. Maybe it doesn’t matter who coaches the Bucks if they can’t keep up with the high-scoring playoff teams.

I do know I’m really tired of the questions of my generation. Can a quarterback be black? Can a woman be president? Can someone who is gay serve our country, or lead our churches? Will a Latina hold her own on the Supreme Court?

And can we handle the burden of extra pressure and scrutiny – unfair as it is – along the way?

The answer is yes.