Maya Moore Spokeswoman for Jordan's

This is indeed good news. Maya Moore has been selected to be a spokesperson for the Jordan brand. She is the first woman basketball player that has been welcomed into this brand family that represents excellence at the highest level of competition.

I must digress and say that this has been a long time coming, too long. Were Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, not great enough? Women athletes have been badasses for a long time, but are only now getting the accolades. I'm very glad that women are beginning to get the big endorsement deals and bigger salaries (but they are far smaller than men in the same sports), but I can't help but wonder how long until things are equal, or at least equitable.

Right now the average WNBA player has to play a season in the US and when that is over hitch a plane to another country and play another full season. What is nice about it is that these women are not solely tied to the NBA for all of their earnings and do not have to feel like highly paid indentured servants, but it is a hard life. I follow Tina Charles on twitter and just the feel I get from her tweets is that it is tough to spend your life on airplanes in different cities (in another country) all the time. Being a professional athlete is hard, and it is even harder to do that outside of your country of origin. And the reason why they have to do that is because their salaries are so low. Players make between $50,000-$90,000 a season in the WNBA. So they go overseas and play for 4xs that amount.

Some will argue that the pay disparity is due to newness of the league and the attendance is lower. Well NBA is in the name and they have more than enough money to spread around. The profits of the NBA are ridiculously high and players, owners, and coaches make a ton of money. And let us not forget that they have a huge audience because we did not have a professional women's league. If this country was not deeply conflicted about strong women, we would not have the disparities in revenue and attendance between women's and men's sports.

The naming of Moore as a Jordan's Spokesperson might signal the coming of a new era in women's sports, where women can garner the endorsements and accolades that have been reserved for men. I can only hope. Congrats Maya!

Amazing Race Winners Season 18 LaKisha and Jennifer Hoffman

These lovely ladies recently won the Amazing Race! They are sisters and sistahs. LaKisha and Jennifer Hoffman are the first pair of black women to win the reality show. Other black winners have been male and female pairs, who were also married couples; Chip and Kim won Season 5 and Uchenna & Joyce won Season 7.

The Hoffman sisters were both Division 1 athletes who played basketball at the University of Louisville, so they were athletically ready for this challenge. If you have ever watched the show before there have been other black women on the show who were not physically ready for all of the challenges and they were quickly eliminated. They are not new to the show, they actually appeared on season 14, but they were eliminated early because Jennifer did not know how to swim. Jennifer rose to the occasion and took swimming lessons. And when they re-appeared on The Amazing Race Season 18 they came out victorious. Major kudos to Jennifer because too many black women (in the US) do not know how to swim and are unwilling to learn.

Currently Jennifer Hoffman is an assistant basketball coach at U of L, and Lakisha Hoffman is a graduate student. And even more good news, Lakisha is an OUT lesbian, which makes her the first OUT black lesbian to win the Amazing Race. And besides Wanda Sykes, Sheryl Swoopes, and Felicia Snoop Pearson, she joins a very small group of black women that are fully out of the closet. So thanks for being out and proud. And thanks to both of you for showing the world that black women can do anything they put their minds to.