When Nancy Lieberman decided to come back, at age 50, to play for the WNBA's Detroit Shock, she was struck by how much things had changed since she'd played for the L.A. Lakers summer league team. But there was one connection to her old team: Kobe Bryant approached Lieberman to learn the secret to her longevity.

Lieberman points out that with a simple click onto male athletes' Twitter pages, you can find comments and praise for Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, the UConn women's winning streak, or tennis champion Serena Williams. That means a lot, according to a woman who has played and coached in both the NBA system and the WNBA.

"I guess my point is, in this day and age, you can see the respect women have from men," said Lieberman, who now coaches the NBA Development League's Texas Legends.

But can it translate? Would players in the NBA or another professional men's league accept a woman as a teammate? Over the next six days, espnW will look at the sports landscape in detail -- the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, tennis and golf -- to see if an exceptional woman could play against, and with, men. And if she would be accepted as a peer.

In the 39 years since Title IX opened playing fields across the country to girls, the number of women playing sports has skyrocketed. Women's professional leagues have come -- some have stayed and others have gone -- and the skill level of female athletes has improved tremendously.

Many of those interviewed for this story, both coaches and athletes, say a woman could be accepted as a professional if she helped her team win. Danica Patrick in auto racing and Kelly Kulick on the Professional Bowlers Association tour have shown that women can compete and win on an individual basis. Others, such as former LPGA champion Annika Sorenstam and Baylor basketball player Brittney Griner, have brought attention to their sports by competing with men, or mastering a skill once thought to belong strictly to the male domain, such as dunking.

There may be places for women in the men's leagues. Former Packers vice president Andrew Brandt said a woman might be able to play as a kicker. Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette said a woman might break into baseball as a knuckleballer.

Others, including some who didn't want to be quoted, think it's unrealistic. In tennis, then-teenagers Venus and Serena Williams, aspiring to play on the ATP Tour, were beaten soundly in an exhibition by Karsten Braasch, ranked No. 203 at the time. Even women who have played with men -- Lieberman, basketball player Chamique Holdsclaw and Division I kicker Katie Hnida -- said men have a size and strength advantage at some positions that will be hard for a woman to challenge.

"There are no women today who are 6-foot-6, 250 pounds and can plow through a dude," Lieberman said bluntly.

When the women's professional bowling league folded, Kelly Kulick joined the men's tour. Her stunning victory in the Tournament of Champions in 2010 proved she can compete -- and win. AP Photo/Mel Evans

Dr. Cindy Chang, chief medical officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said studies have shown that men have greater upper-body strength than women, but added that studies that compare physical differences do so by comparing the averages. There are women who may be at the far end of the curve in areas such as leg strength, or have a body type that is beneficial for certain sports.

But Chang said some, such as Patrick, are able to defy their size.

"To drive a race car takes incredible upper-body strength," Chang said, "but you also need to use your strength efficiently."

Boys and girls are often funneled into different sports long before biology gives boys an advantage, for reasons that may be more social than physical. Dr. Earl Smith, the director of American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest, thinks that the physical challenges of breaking into the professional ranks would be dwarfed by sociological ones.

He points to the way groundbreakers such as Jackie Robinson and Billie Jean King were vilified for their trouble; to how exceptional female athletes are criticized for not being feminine enough; and to the role for women as cheerleaders, which is reinforced during commercials and timeouts.

There is still, he said, a stigma, and few girls are going to be encouraged to truly go against the grain.

"There are women who can kick a football or a soccer ball," Smith said, "but then you have to ask yourself as a parent, would you put your daughter through that just to play a game?"

Any team scouting a woman would have to consider the attendant media circus. Consider the questions already posed to players before the draft. Now imagine if that player were the first woman. She would have to be able to withstand media scrutiny as well as skeptical fans and teammates.