Kobe Bryant thinks some WNBA players are good enough to play with the guys. Many women's teams are already doing that.

Kelly McLaughlinJan 23, 2020, 02:55 IST

Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sportsobe Bryant is pictured with his daughter Gianna at the WNBA All Star Game at Mandalay Bay Events Center in July 2019.

Retired NBA star Kobe Bryant told CNN that there are women in the WNBA who he could see competing in the NBA alongside men.
He named Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Elena Delle Donne as players he thought could make a move to the league.
While the leagues are very much separate for now, WNBA players regularly compete against all-male practice squads.
The league's practice squads are made up of unpaid male volunteers, most of whom played high school or college basketball.
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Former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said he believes there are women in the WNBA who could compete against men in the NBA.

"I think there are a couple of players who could play in the NBA right now, honestly," Bryant told CNN, when asked if his 13-year-old daughter Gianna could see a future in the NBA. "There's a lot of players with a lot of skill that could do it."

While men and women play in different leagues now, WNBA players regularly compete against men during practice.

According to a feature published in SBNation last year, the WNBA uses male practice squads in a way to create equality among the league and ensure teams aren't farming players and keeping a stacked roster on the practice squad.

Male practice squads date back to at least the 1990s, when college coaches used the method, Vice reported in 2015.

The men, many of whom played high school or college basketball, aren't paid. They volunteer for the positions, and more often than not, they lose.

Connecticut Sun forward Shekinna Stricklen told SBNation that playing against men helps her and her teammates hone their skills.

"Guys can do some things athletically that most women can't do - like, if a point guard is skying in for a rebound, there's not many women that can do that," she said. "It makes you have to be better in that way."

Brandi Poole, an assistant coach for the Sun, said the men's' size and athleticism means the practice squads "can really battle with our women" in a way others can't.

In his interview with CNN, Bryant named went on to list Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Elena Delle Donne as players he could see in the NBA.

Taurasi, whose nickname is "White Mamba" in a reference to Bryant's "Black Mamba," is a nine-time WNBA All-Star and is a three-time WNBA champion with Phoenix Mercury.

Moore is a four-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx, and Delle Donne is a two-time MVP with the Washington Mystics.

Despite retiring in 2016, Bryant has stayed close to basketball, and regularly takes Gianna, his second eldest of four daughters, to WNBA games.

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Kobe Bryant thinks some WNBA players are good enough to play with the guys. Many women's teams are already doing that.

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