Extended weather forecasts, regardless of region or time of year, tend to historically possess the same accuracy as one of my tee shots.

Dopplers, Vipers and other high-tech meteorological devices have joined forces to predict partly cloudy skies and a high temperature of 86 for New York City on Saturday.

Translated, the Big Apple can expect between 2 and 8 inches of rain.

The Indiana Fever, scheduled to play the New York Liberty on Saturday night minus the oft-taken-for-granted protector from elements known as a ceiling, could view this as a negative.

Seems women’s professional basketball is enduring a two-hour sightseeing tour through the forest of bizarre sports ideas. A WNBA game played outdoors. Stars like Tamika Catchings, Katie Douglas and the Liberty’s Shameka Christon shining beneath shining stars.

Somewhere Bill Veeck is smiling and Arthur Ashe, whose name graces the stadium in which this event takes place, might just be top-spinning in his grave.

The naysayers who wave off the WNBA as little more than another irritating byproduct of Title IX truly don’t care about this game.

Don’t care if the Fever are forced to spend the opening half shooting jumpers into 15-mph winds. Don’t care that fouls won’t be the only slaps heard given the possible presence of mosquitoes.

Even so, give the WNBA credit. Dubbed “The Liberty Outdoor Classic,” the Fever-Liberty game pushes the entertainment envelope, which is precisely what the league needs to do on a more frequent basis.

The WNBA is affordable, high-quality entertainment with $10 the cost of an upper-level seat at Conseco Fieldhouse. And upper-level in this case isn’t even all the way up.

But ... (uh, oh, here it comes) ... not counting the occasional dunk, it’s below-the-rim hoops with an emphasis on all that unwatchable stuff. You know, screening, teamwork and an actual ability to consistently hit the dying animal known as the mid-range jumper.

Traditionalists also point to the summer months as belonging to Major League Baseball, which enjoyed more than a 100-year head start when the WNBA debuted in 1997. Thus, the WNBA has to work and work hard in attempts to continually keep the product fresh.

Saturday’s game qualifies as such. Hopefully the rain drops, not the spectators, stay away.

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CBS DUMPS PACKER: News earlier this week that CBS is taking longtime college basketball analyst Billy Packer out of the game surprised me.