The Other Cult of Diana

Here they come, the baller girls, keeping sharp eyes on their deity of the crossover dribble and the long shorts and the fearless no-look pass. Legions of them follow her slicked-back hair, her come-on-now smile, her unnerving vision scanning the court. Diana Taurasi is an icon to them, with a religious devotion to her sport and a charismatic style rare in a Women's National Basketball Assn. player--a combination that ineluctably makes people want to follow her. To be her.

Baller girls. Even as other female athletes, the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova and another basketball hero, Lisa Leslie, trade on their femininity, these girls are just about the sport. They don't do curls or hair bands or lip gloss; they are girls who say, "I'm about ball, OK?" Like Diana.

They watch the 2000 movie "Love & Basketball" on video again and again, waiting for the part when star guard Sanaa Lathan says to her star guard boyfriend, "I'm a ballplayer." And when males on playgrounds and gyms watch females play the game, they make distinctions as well: "Check her out, she's ballin," they'll say, to indicate that the girl is not just a casual player. Baller girls don't fool around. They wear heavy sweatshirts with Love & Basketball logos (from the movie) or Love and Hoops, another brand. Before games, they wear sport socks and Nike slides. They shuffle in casually, watching the gym. They wear logo sweatbands at their forearms and shorts past the knee, skirting the patella, the kneecap so fragile. Baller girls get hurt more these days, because they play differently, and they take the ball to the hoop rather than settle for the outside shot.

They are good enough to play against guys, but it's their own teams they love fiercely, whether school or club. Lady Warriors. Superflow. Outlaws. Swift. Shooters. At huge tournaments, they file in wearing headphones, like Diana wears all the time. They're listening to their signature song, "Lyte as a Rock," by MC Lyte: "Do you understand the metaphoric phrase 'lyte as a rock'? It's explaining how heavy the young lady is . . . . Get out of my face, don't wanna hear no more, if you hate rejection, don't try to score. . ."

They've come a long way. A 1910 photo of a high school girls basketball team in Louisiana shows young women in long black skirts, black blouses, hair in pouffed buns. Even as late as the 1960s, girls had to play by different rules: The number of times they could dribble was restricted, and only the girl playing the rover position was allowed to move at will. Male audiences were unimpressed.