Well I have to be honest – 3rd place of “Miss Italia 2007” plays basketball. Her name is Ilaria Capponi and plays some good basketball in Italy. She is on the roster of the first division team Virtus Viterbo.
It looks like she is into modeling for a few year since she is only 17 and won already the title “Miss Teenager Umbria” in the 2003 and “Miss Schoolday 2006”. I am sure you would want to click here and here to see some pictures of her.
I have read a few articles over the years why women’s’ basketball is not that successful in the United States. Some people come up with reasons like that:
men watch basketball. the women who play are not attractive. if they played in lingerie, it would be more popular than nba.
Now some people disagree with that:
By the way, I do not in any way mean to contribute to the tension that exists in women’s sports because of a tendency to recognize athletes for their looks more than their accomplishments — I just felt like celebrating the beauty of a few of these accomplished women. It’s ok to look sometimes.
But it is a fact that the WNBA does not want to be recognized for the looks of their athletes and they do everything to not let that happen. “Playboy” wanted to make a top ten of WNBA players a few years ago but it never came out because of problems with the WNBA organization.
Now here in Europe especially in countries like Italy and France people are proud of their beautiful basketball players. Now of course not every girl is a model but at least some models do play good basketball. Okay – here is some more of Ilaria.
