They do give direct physiological advantages but the main advantage they give is increased capacity for hard work. Take steroids all you want but never exercise and your body will still look like that of the skinny kid in the Charles Atlas ads who got sand kicked in his face. Professional athletes, like violinists, need to be as good as they can be. The audience demands nothing less. The professional athlete has an obligation to his fans in a similar way.
Crowds are much larger at men s professional basketball games that at women s.
Advocates of the women s game claim it can be just as exciting as men s basketball, given its own terms. This claim is easily seen to be disingenuous when you realized the same can be said for junior high school basketball. Nobody is advocating that we should pay lots of money to watch those kids play. Steroids improve the level of performance. Ben Johnson ran faster and Bulgarian weightlifters lift more thanks to steroids.