Brittney Griner was an incredible college player — can’t that stand on its own?

Mark Cuban said he’d consider drafting Baylor’s Brittney Griner in the second round of the upcoming NBA draft in June.

Like sheep herding to their slaughter, the media immediately picked up on the quote and ran with it to feed the all-consuming, 24-hour media monster.

For a couple days, talking TV heads and radio hosts across the country could blabber incessantly for a few minutes about whether Griner could play with the boys and if not, who could.

Miami Heat forward Shane Battier told ESPN.com that in his opinion, “There’s no doubt that in our lifetime, there will be a woman NBA player.”

Honestly, I don’t care. The fact that Danica Patrick is female and racing cars with the boys doesn’t add significant interest to Nascar for me. I’d like to think that in the past couple decades we’ve come to accept the notion you don’t have to be a big, burly guy to turn a steering wheel or shift gears. I mean, Joey Logano can do it.

When Annika Sörenstam or Michelle Wie were vying to play on the PGA Tour, it was hard to ignore Sörenstam. She seemed to view the opportunity of playing with the men as a challenge, a chance to challenge herself at another level.

Wie, however, a teenage girl who hadn’t even beaten her fellow competitors in the LPGA, was purely a marketing stunt and an embarrassment for those involved.

And now the media is embarrassing itself by providing Cuban a platform for a publicity stunt, a moment to hog the spotlight and sell a few more tickets for Dallas’ summer league team. And it’s a hot headline for reporters (CUBAN WANTS TO DRAFT BAYLOR’S BRITTNEY GRINER — A WOMAN!).

It speaks to the essence of how many — far, far too many — view female sports. It’s not enough that Griner finished her college career with more blocks than anyone else in college history.

It’s not enough that Griner averaged 22.2 points a game in her four-year career. We have to validate her accomplishments through the prism of whether she could compete with the boys.

Sure, Griner’s good, but we can’t fully appreciate her contributions to the game until she plays with the men.   

Keep in mind, this entire bizarre story revolves around one of the greatest women’s college basketball players — ever. After Baylor was upset by Lousiville in the Sweet 16, the conversation should have started with how she’ll do in the WNBA.

Instead, with Cuban’s comments unleashed on the Internet, discussions of an all-time great shifts to what Griner can’t do.

The matter of Griner’s ability in relation to men is moot. If she does strap on a pair of sneakers with the true intent to play in the NBA, she’d better be doing it for cash, lots and lots of cash.

If Griner even puts a toe on the floor with NBA players — full grown men that make her large, intimidating physique look like an overgrown toothpick — she’d only hamper her own image and further perpetuate the idea that women are physically inferior.

Can Griner dunk like Lebron, dominate the post like Dwight Howard (OK, maybe she could on this one) or run the floor like Kenneth Faried? No.

But that doesn’t take away anything from one of the great college careers in history.

I should note that Griner took to Twitter to respond to Cuban’s comments, writing, “I would hold my own! Lets do it.”

If she feels that way, great. Undoubtedly, Griner’s confidence helped carry her to some of the vast feats she achieved while in Waco. If she doesn’t mind the idea of making a few bucks at the expense of her dignity, great for her.

But I hope Cuban — a seemingly smart guy, if not a publicity hound drunk on reading his own quotes — can avoid the temptation of allowing Griner to have the chance.