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Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're considering

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Speaker 1: dyeing our hair bright pink to match the stud buds.

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Speaker 2: Can we pull it off?

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, July twelfth, and on today's show, we'll be

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Speaker 1: chatting with Annie Costable, now a front office sports, about

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Speaker 1: our new gig, the biggest surprises so far this WNBA season,

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Speaker 1: and the historic tea that fuels today's rivalries. Plus a

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Speaker 1: reminder that your fandom comes with a side of civic duty.

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Speaker 1: Is TBA a worthwhile cause? And an accidental irish Goodbye?

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Speaker 1: It's all coming up right after this welcome back slices.

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Speaker 1: Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with hockey.

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Speaker 1: The PWHL expansion Draft was Monday night, and wow, let's

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Speaker 1: just say Vancouver and Seattle should both be in contention

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Speaker 1: for the Walter Cup in their inaugural seasons. Both teams

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Speaker 1: entered Monday night's draft having already signed five players during

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Speaker 1: the initial signing window, but they're now up to twelve

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Speaker 1: apiece following a seven round snake draft, and Couver solidified

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Speaker 1: its reputation as a defensive giant by selecting Ottawa defender

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Speaker 1: Ashton Bell with the first pick of the night, while

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Speaker 1: Seattle added a slew of offensive weapons, with selections including

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Speaker 1: Boston's Hannahbilka, New York's Jesse Aldridge, and Toronto's Julia Gosling.

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Speaker 1: We'll link to the full draft results in the show

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Speaker 1: Notes to the WNBA. Former Chicago skyguard Ali Quigley has

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Speaker 1: officially announced her retirement from basketball, three years after she

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Speaker 1: played her last game. In an essay published and The

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Speaker 1: Player's Tribune on Tuesday, Quigley wrote that she didn't mean

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Speaker 1: to irish goodbye the WNBA, but after one off season

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Speaker 1: turned into two, and two seasons off turned into three.

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Speaker 2: She realized she was done.

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Speaker 1: Quigley and her wife, Courtney Van der Slute, also welcomed

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Speaker 1: their first child, Jana Christine, earlier this year. Quigley played

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Speaker 1: fourteen seasons in the WNBA, spending nearly her entire career

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Speaker 1: with her hometown team, the Chicago Sky.

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Speaker 2: She retires as a.

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Speaker 1: Three time All Star and four time three point shootout champion,

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Speaker 1: a record for both the WNBA and NBA for shootout wins.

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Speaker 1: Congrats to Ali, But between this and Courtney's ACL injury,

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Speaker 1: I guess I got to put the Vander quig shirt

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Speaker 1: I brought back out for this season back in my closet.

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Speaker 2: More WNBA.

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Speaker 1: The Dallas Wings will be without Ty Harris for the

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Speaker 1: rest of the season after the guard underwent successful knee

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Speaker 1: surgery on Tuesday. Harris played five games to start the season,

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Speaker 1: averaging four point six points, but had been out since

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Speaker 1: late May with a knee injury. In a statement, the

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Speaker 1: Wings said Harris is expected to make a full recovery.

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Speaker 2: More hoops.

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Speaker 1: Letitia me Here is back with the Golden State Valkyries.

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Speaker 1: The former South Carolina standout played the last two seasons

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Speaker 1: with the Atlanta Dream and then attended training camp with

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Speaker 1: Golden State before getting waived ahead of the start of

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Speaker 1: the season. But on Sunday, the Valkyrie announced that the

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Speaker 1: team had re signed to me Here after waving kaya

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Speaker 1: Linskins and That's not All.

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Speaker 2: On Tuesday, with Julie van.

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Speaker 1: Leu heading off to compete in the Summer's EuroBasket Tournament,

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Speaker 1: the Valks announce that the team has also signed Aerial Powers.

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Speaker 1: More WNBA All Star voting gets underway today at two

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Speaker 1: pm Eastern and runs through Saturday, June twenty eighth. Over

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Speaker 1: the next couple weeks, fans will be able to vote

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Speaker 1: for which players they think should be starters in this

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Speaker 1: year's All Star festivities, which will be held in Indianapolis's

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Speaker 1: Gainbridge Field House on July nineteenth. Fans account for fifty

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Speaker 1: percent of the vote, while current players and media account

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Speaker 1: for twenty five percent each. During the voting window, fans

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Speaker 1: may submit one ballot each day via WNBA dot com

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Speaker 1: and the WNBA app. We'll link to the voting page

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Speaker 1: in our show notes, so make sure to get those

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Speaker 1: ballots in. To swimming, Canadian superstar and three time Olympic

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Speaker 1: gold medalist Summer McIntosh set two world records this week

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Speaker 1: at Canadian national team trials. First, on Saturday, the eighteen

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Speaker 1: year old broke the world record in the four hundred

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Speaker 1: meter freestyle, taking more than a second off of the

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Speaker 1: previous mark set by Ariana Titmas of Australia in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Then, on Monday night.

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Speaker 1: McIntosh broke the world record in the two hundred meter

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Speaker 1: individual medley, which was previously set by Hungary Katinka Jozu

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Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. Ann McIntosh is not done yet. We're

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Speaker 1: recording this ahead of Wednesday night's four hundred meter im

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Speaker 1: final where she could be on world record watch again.

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Speaker 1: This all sets up an exciting showdown ahead of next

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Speaker 1: month's World Championships in Singapore, where McIntosh is expected to

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Speaker 1: go head to head against US DR Katie.

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Speaker 2: Ldeki in the four hundred meter free.

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Speaker 1: McIntosh also has the chance at that competition to become

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Speaker 1: the only swimmer other than Michael Phelps, to win five

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Speaker 1: individual gold medals at a single World Championship competition.

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Speaker 2: To softball and.

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Speaker 1: A little bit of ratings news, ESPN announced that this

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Speaker 1: year's women's College World Series was the most watched in history,

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Speaker 1: averaging one point two million viewers per game, up twenty

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Speaker 1: four percent year over year, and the finals set its

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Speaker 1: own viewership record, with the best of three series between

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Speaker 1: Texas and Texas Tech averaging two point two million viewers.

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Speaker 1: We love to see it. Finally, a reminder that albeit

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Speaker 1: tonight's Aurora FC game, when our side takes on the

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Speaker 1: Chicago City Dutch Lines at TCO Stadium in Egan, Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: if you're around, come say hi and get a good

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Speaker 1: game sticker. All right, slices, it's time for another edition

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Speaker 1: of Give Me a Minute. Although I did like the

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Speaker 1: suggestion that we call this the squeeze.

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Speaker 2: So we're so calling this a TBA name.

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Speaker 1: Let's bring in producer Alex Hi Alex Hello, and producer

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Speaker 1: me Shai me Zip.

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Speaker 2: You guys like the squeeze, I do, because the juice

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Speaker 2: is worth the squeeze.

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Speaker 1: You know, the juice is worth the squeeze. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: we may be back next time with the new name.

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Speaker 1: For this time, we'll call it give me a minute,

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Speaker 1: but I think we're gonna need about five for this one.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: So today I wanted to talk about a mistake I made.

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Speaker 1: I made the mistake of using social media to talk

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Speaker 1: about a tough topic, and it's something that I've really

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Speaker 1: stopped doing in recent years. I used to spend a

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Speaker 1: lot of time on Twitter and Facebook and other places

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Speaker 1: engaging with folks, trying to talk through tough ideas, trying

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Speaker 1: to discourage problematic thinking, or shout down stereotypes and bullshit

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Speaker 1: holding women back in the sports world, or try to

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Speaker 1: discourage the spread of wrongheaded, moronic ideas about serious issues

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Speaker 1: that I was covering in sports, like domestic violence and

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Speaker 1: sexual assault. It felt worth it at the time, but

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Speaker 1: as Twitter got more and more full of bots and

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Speaker 1: engagement started to be paid for.

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Speaker 2: I stopped using it for.

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Speaker 1: That entirely, but Tuesday night on Blue Sky, I dipped

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Speaker 1: a toe in. I wanted to offer up a thought

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Speaker 1: on the folks that I saw attacking Simone Biles for

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Speaker 1: what they considered walking back her stance supporting trans athletes.

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Speaker 2: Let me catch you up on this.

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Speaker 1: So noted trans phobe and terrible person, Riley Gains responded

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Speaker 1: to a tweet celebrating a high school softball team state

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Speaker 1: championship win, and she wrote comments off lol to be

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Speaker 1: expected when your star player is a boy. Biles responded,

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Speaker 1: You're truly sick all of this campaigning because you lost

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Speaker 1: a race, straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting

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Speaker 1: the trans community and perhaps finding way to make sports inclusive,

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Speaker 1: or creating a new avenue where trans feels safe in sports,

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Speaker 1: maybe a transgender category in all sports, but instead you

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Speaker 1: bully them. One thing's for sure is no one in

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Speaker 1: sports is safe with you around now.

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Speaker 2: Predictably, hordes of.

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Speaker 1: Awful people started attacking Biles, including Riley Gains herself, weaponizing

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Speaker 1: Biles victimization by doctor Larry Nassar. So yesterday, in light

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Speaker 1: of all of that, Biles posted this I wanted to

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Speaker 1: follow up for my last tweets. I've always believed competitive

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Speaker 1: equity and inclusivity are both essential in sport. The current

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Speaker 1: system doesn't adequately balance these important principles, which often leads

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Speaker 1: to frustration and heated exchanges, and it didn't help for

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Speaker 1: me to get personal with Riley, which.

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Speaker 2: I apologize for.

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Speaker 1: These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don't have

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Speaker 1: all the answers or solutions to, but I believe it

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Speaker 1: starts with empathy and respect. I was not advocating for

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Speaker 1: policies that compromise fairness in women's sports. My objection is

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Speaker 1: to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways

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Speaker 1: that feel personal and harmful. Individual athletes, especially kids, should

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Speaker 1: never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system

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Speaker 1: they have no control over. I believe sports organizations have

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Speaker 1: a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while

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Speaker 1: maintaining fair competition. We all want a future for sport

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Speaker 1: that is fair, inclusive, and respectful. Xoxo, Simone. Now, I

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Speaker 1: saw a lot of folks alleging that Biles was a

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Speaker 1: weak ally, that she backtracked on her support, and that

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Speaker 1: she apologized to Riley Gaines, who isn't deserving of an apology.

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Speaker 1: I disagreed, so I posted to Blue Sky Simone apologizing

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Speaker 1: for taking a personal shot at Riley g while reiterating

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Speaker 1: her belief in prioritizing inclusive while also seeking fairness. Isn't

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Speaker 1: backtracking or being a bad ally. Folks are still allowed

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Speaker 1: to care about their own behavior even if others are trash,

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Speaker 1: and there is nuance to the convo, which is what

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about with y'all today, Alex and meish,

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Speaker 1: So let's start the clock.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: I'm of the opinion that it wasn't necessary for Biles

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Speaker 1: to follow up, but I also understand that if you

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Speaker 1: behave in a way that you normally wouldn't or a

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Speaker 1: way that you don't approve of, when others do it,

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Speaker 1: you might feel compelled to apologize for that. I made

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Speaker 1: a rule for myself long ago to not go tit

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Speaker 1: for tat with people who harassed or attacked me online.

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Speaker 1: Adding more hate to the space via personal attacks just

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Speaker 1: didn't really seem like a great solution.

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Speaker 2: To the problem.

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Speaker 1: Plus, correct messages that I believe in are weakened by

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Speaker 1: ad homin and bullshit. They stand alone without that stuff,

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Speaker 1: and in my life, I don't ever engage with people

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Speaker 1: that way. So why get into shouting matches and hurl

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Speaker 1: insults just because I'm online.

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Speaker 2: That's not who I am.

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Speaker 1: So knowing that about myself, I understand perhaps why Simone

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Speaker 1: chose to post that and to follow up with her

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Speaker 1: thoughts on how the topic is nuanced and worth discussing.

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Speaker 1: Some of the responses I got to posting that about

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Speaker 1: Biles assumed I was muddying the water on inclusion or

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Speaker 1: using nuance as a way to obfuscate for problematic ideas

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Speaker 1: about trans inclusion. But I've made clear on this show

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Speaker 1: and everywhere else how I feel about trans inclusion in sport.

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Speaker 1: Being afraid to engage in conversation about it and refusing

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Speaker 1: to acknowledge that there is nuance isn't going to help

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Speaker 1: the cause. In my opinion, there's nuance. There's different policy

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Speaker 1: at different levels. There's bullshit mandatory DNA testing that also

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Speaker 1: harms CIS, women with DSD or naturally high levels of

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Speaker 1: testosterone that we should talk about. There's bullshit executive orders

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Speaker 1: that are trying to ban participation at every single level,

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Speaker 1: regardless of policy. So there's a lot to discuss, and

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Speaker 1: I think if your main goal is just to win

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Speaker 1: an online war with Riley Gains, and you think you're

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Speaker 1: seeding ground by acknowledging nuance you've already lost, that's not

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Speaker 1: the goal. The goal is to convince more people to

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Speaker 1: embrace inclusion while feeling good about fairness and policy across

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Speaker 1: different levels. So if you're attacking folks for offering up

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Speaker 1: that there's nuance at all, I just don't think that's

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Speaker 1: the way. While I was thinking of all of this,

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Speaker 1: I also got a note or two from some of

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Speaker 1: you about having Ashlyn Harris on the show as part

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Speaker 1: of a series we're doing now. While I understand people

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Speaker 1: have strong opinions about her and believes about what happened

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Speaker 1: be true, I honestly can't tell you that because I

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Speaker 1: wasn't in their marriage, you're allowed to have those opinions.

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Speaker 1: I still encourage you to listen to the show to

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Speaker 1: be able to have grace and curiosity about people, because

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Speaker 1: it feels like life has become toxically informed by Internet behavior,

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Speaker 1: with everything requiring an immediate black and white answer. A

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Speaker 1: villain and a hero an uplifting of someone or a

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Speaker 1: cancelation of them. And those two moments of my comment

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Speaker 1: about Biles and the comments I was getting about Ashland

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Speaker 1: happening sort of concurrently reminded me that at this stage

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Speaker 1: of my life, I'm trying to do more listening, more understanding,

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Speaker 1: and more allowing for grace as opposed to attacking, judging

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Speaker 1: or assuming. It's better for my mental health and interactions

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Speaker 1: with people in the world, and it's better for the

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Speaker 1: people around me, for whom I offer more compassion and

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Speaker 1: a chance to evolve and improve and explain themselves. So

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Speaker 1: you don't have to listen to anything. You don't have

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Speaker 1: to agree with me. I'm just offering up that the

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Speaker 1: world is offering me opportunities to approach things a little

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Speaker 1: bit differently, and I think sometimes, as much as our

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Speaker 1: instincts tell us otherwise, it's worth taking a pause and

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Speaker 1: thinking about doing that.

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Speaker 2: What do you think, Mesh, I think.

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Speaker 3: That's a damn That's a damn mic drop right there.

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Speaker 3: I You know, I struggle with this personally, right because

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Speaker 3: I am a person who I consider to have a

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Speaker 3: very strong moral compass. I feel grateful to you to

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Speaker 3: have been raised by two parents who both had very

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Speaker 3: strong moral compasses, who educated me about the world around

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Speaker 3: me and the people around me from a very young age.

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Speaker 3: And that doesn't mean I know everything about everything. You

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Speaker 3: say it all the time. I'm a baby in this

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Speaker 3: in this life game, you know.

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Speaker 2: What I mean. There's there's still so much to learn

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Speaker 2: and acknowledging it.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'll acknowledge it sometimes, I like not it sometimes.

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Speaker 3: But what I found is that even even for myself,

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Speaker 3: I didn't want to get social media for this exact reason.

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Speaker 3: I got social media my junior year of high school,

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Speaker 3: and I'd already seen the way it had changed the

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Speaker 3: way my friends and the people around me thought about things,

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Speaker 3: took things in. And the issue for me is, like

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Speaker 3: you're saying, snapping to judgments about things is so convenient,

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Speaker 3: and even from you know, what was that twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 3: twenty fourteen to now, we've only been bombarded with more

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Speaker 3: and more and more stuff. So there's always so much

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Speaker 3: the process, and it's easy, it's lazy, and it's convenient

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Speaker 3: to make snap judgments. So you know, you see a buzzword,

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Speaker 3: you see a person, you see a platform and a post,

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Speaker 3: and you assume immediately you know all the relevant facts

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Speaker 3: and you can decide what side of a line that

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Speaker 3: you're on it. It's just it's easy to do, and

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Speaker 3: I feel like it's something we all have to take

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Speaker 3: responsibility for. Is checking that stuff you know at the door,

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Speaker 3: knowing when okay, maybe I don't actually know everything about this,

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Speaker 3: maybe I should be giving this person a little bit

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Speaker 3: more grace, because at the end of the day, don't

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Speaker 3: we all also want a little bit of grace. Don't

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Speaker 3: we all also have nuance in different contexts and different

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Speaker 3: things happening behind the scenes that everybody doesn't see. So

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Speaker 3: it's it's not to say also that some of these

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Speaker 3: snap judgments aren't correct, because.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes they absolutely are right.

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Speaker 3: You know, if you're like me, if you're also Leo,

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Speaker 3: Sarah's a Leo. Period, sometimes we're right. A lot of

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Speaker 3: the time, we could be right right, but that doesn't

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Speaker 3: mean we can't leave space for ourselves to be wrong.

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Speaker 3: And that's how we make sure that we never align

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Speaker 3: with anybody ever. Is when we're never wrong, we can

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Speaker 3: never be questioned, we can never question ourselves. So it's

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Speaker 3: just it's a tough thing to do in the world

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Speaker 3: that we live. In today, but it's so necessary, and

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day, was so much shit

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Speaker 3: happening in the world at large. We need more people

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Speaker 3: who are willing to connect than are willing to cancel.

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Speaker 2: And now that's a dropped money.

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Speaker 3: I'll just leave it there because I don't want to

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Speaker 3: mess it up.

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Speaker 4: What do you think, Alex oh Man, Well, I want

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Speaker 4: to just add one tweet of Simons in which, to me,

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Speaker 4: is the one that she was actually apologizing for. When

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Speaker 4: she initially responded to Riley, she wrote, believe someone your

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Speaker 4: own size, which would ironically be a male, and I

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Speaker 4: think that's what she is referring to when she is

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Speaker 4: referring to getting personal with Riley. But I totally agree

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Speaker 4: with you about the lack of nuance in these spaces.

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Speaker 4: And I don't expect somebody like Simone Biles to have

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Speaker 4: all of the answers right. She, as a professional athlete,

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Speaker 4: has her own career to worry about. But I appreciate

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Speaker 4: that she is coming at this from an opinion of

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Speaker 4: inclusion and respect in lifting up children, and the fact

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Speaker 4: that we have gotten so far away from that in

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Speaker 4: this current conversation is extremely frustrating. And I'll also add

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Speaker 4: that I think sometimes the community that is advocating on

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Speaker 4: behalf of trans inclusion in sports, they are up against

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Speaker 4: such a hard fight, an existential fight against human rights

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Speaker 4: for the lives and safety of their community, that sometimes

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Speaker 4: what happens is there is a lack of acknowledgment of

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Speaker 4: what the general population is aware of when it comes

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Speaker 4: to sports. So the example all often set is the

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Speaker 4: fact that last year, when you look at the women's

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Speaker 4: one hundred meter AE, thousand men ran faster than the

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Speaker 4: current women's world record. Now, those are cisgender men competing

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Speaker 4: at all different levels, and cisgender men and trans women

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Speaker 4: not the same thing by any means. So I don't

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Speaker 4: want to make it sound like I'm equating those two things.

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Speaker 4: But when you ask a random person on the street, hey,

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Speaker 4: is it fair for a trans woman to compete against

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Speaker 4: a cisgender woman, it is unsurprising to me that their

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Speaker 4: answer would be no if they don't have any further

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Speaker 4: education or information on that topic. And so I want

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Speaker 4: to respect that that is a place that a lot

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Speaker 4: of people are coming from, and that in some ways

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Speaker 4: it's backed up by their experiences of watching high school

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Speaker 4: track meets, of watching their daughters and sons compete in sports,

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Speaker 4: but that experience doesn't negate the experience and lives of

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Speaker 4: brands kids that just want to participate. And I think

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Speaker 4: too often it feels like there is this importance that

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Speaker 4: is being placed on youth sports in a way that

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Speaker 4: does not matter down the line. What matters in youth

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Speaker 4: sports down the line is inclusion and acceptance. It does

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Speaker 4: not matter what time you placed. And if a team

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Speaker 4: has a quote unquote unfair advantage, well, let me tell

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Speaker 4: you there's so many unfair advantages in life. And you're

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Speaker 4: going to be better off for accepting people because of

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Speaker 4: who they are than rejecting them because they have an

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Speaker 4: advantage over you potentially.

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Speaker 3: And I feel like you you make a great general

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Speaker 3: point also about like because you as an individual, or

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Speaker 3: me as an individual, or any of us as individuals

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Speaker 3: have educated ourselves about certain things, that doesn't mean everybody

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Speaker 3: has that same level of understanding. I feel like that's

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Speaker 3: such an easy trap to fall into on social media

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Speaker 3: because you just think, you know, you've got your followers

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Speaker 3: on your feed, and you're and the people that you

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Speaker 3: care about who can be of more like mind to

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Speaker 3: you than other people just random folks on the internet

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Speaker 3: that you don't know, and it's very easy to assume

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Speaker 3: that everybody understands things at a certain level. And I

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Speaker 3: think that just goes back to the point it's better

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Speaker 3: to call people in. It's better to say, hey, let's

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Speaker 3: have a dialogue about this, because then you got an

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Speaker 3: opportunity to reach more people and help them understand. And

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Speaker 3: then next time they see something on their feed or

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Speaker 3: we have this conversation about Simona and Riley, they're not

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Speaker 3: as quick to say, oh, let me jump down her throat,

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Speaker 3: right yeah.

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Speaker 4: I think what scares me the most in this current

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Speaker 4: moment is the fact of how it speaks to just

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Speaker 4: larger misinformation. You know, following the executive order barring trans

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Speaker 4: girls and women from sport, there was a poll about

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Speaker 4: how sixty seven percent of Democrats Democrats believe that trans

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Speaker 4: women should not compete in women's sports, and that to

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Speaker 4: me is a sign of how flawed this current moment

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Speaker 4: is in terms of people having information that informs their beliefs.

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Speaker 4: People have beliefs that aren't informed by.

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Speaker 1: Fact, and that's why saying that there's nuance and let's

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Speaker 1: talk about it is the best way to get those

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Speaker 1: people to understand policy at different levels. Inclusion at every

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Speaker 1: level of youth is the answer. EO's barring everything from

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Speaker 1: pre k on our bullshit, mandatory hormone testing when there

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Speaker 1: isn't proof of T levels contributing at the elite, like

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Speaker 1: all this stuff. That's why I said nuance, and that's

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Speaker 1: why Simone said it's complicated, and let's try to prioritize

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Speaker 1: inclusivity and fairness. There's a great story people want to

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Speaker 1: read it in the Washington Post and opinion piece by

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Speaker 1: Philip Bump talking about how much parents are putting money

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Speaker 1: into youth sports and that one in nine parents believe

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Speaker 1: that their child will be a professional athlete, and how

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Speaker 1: that's intersecting with their worries about fairness and trans inclusion,

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Speaker 1: and to Alex's point, how unfair the playing field already

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Speaker 1: is based on the amount of wealth that you have

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Speaker 1: and ability for your children to even participate at all,

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Speaker 1: the likelihood of them making it to collegeen playing as

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Speaker 1: a results of that wealth, on and on and on.

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Speaker 2: There is so much nuanced to this topic.

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Speaker 1: There are so many ways to call people in to

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Speaker 1: talk about it that don't involve immediately canceling them and

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Speaker 1: I think that that applies to a million things going

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Speaker 1: on right now that aren't just this conversation about Sione

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Speaker 1: Biles or Ashlett Harris or anything else. For instance, we

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Speaker 1: just got a report today that Serena Williams and Venus

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Speaker 1: Williams are launching a new video podcast, Amazing, Awesome.

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Speaker 2: Can't wait to watch it.

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Speaker 1: Where will it be on X owned by Elon Musk,

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Speaker 1: which we're all working hard to move away from. Yea,

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Speaker 1: we will reserve our judgment on that, as we will

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Speaker 1: reserve our judgment on many other things until we have

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Speaker 1: more facts, we get our questions answered, and if in

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Speaker 1: the end we still decide, hey, that sucks, we're allowed to.

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Speaker 1: But let's take those beats and have those conversations first.

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Speaker 1: Per usual, we went way over the time we allotted

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Speaker 1: for ourselves, so we're definitely going to need to change

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Speaker 1: the name of this segment. All right, We got to

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Speaker 1: take a quick break. When we come back, it's anti

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Speaker 1: coostable stick around.

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Speaker 2: Joining us now.

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Speaker 1: She's a women's sports reporter for Front Office Sports, formerly

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Speaker 1: of the Chicago Sun Times and the Greatest City in

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Speaker 1: the World.

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Speaker 2: She's on to make her smelly er pastures.

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Speaker 1: In NYC and Iowa grad Queen of the Thrift Fit

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Speaker 1: and hot off of Kendrick Lamar WNBA doubleheader.

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Speaker 2: It's Annie Costable. Hi Annie, what an intro.

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Speaker 5: I I'm always anxiously awaiting your intros and they just

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Speaker 5: get better and better each time a person comes on.

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Speaker 6: So thank you for that.

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Speaker 1: Yes, you're in the two timers club. You have been

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Speaker 1: here before. Welcome back, but with a new gig this time.

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Speaker 1: So tell us how it's going so far with Front

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Speaker 1: Office Sports.

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Speaker 6: Do we want the realty or like the real positivity?

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Speaker 2: No? No, no, we want honesty, not fake positivity.

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Speaker 6: Yeah. No, genuinely positive things to say.

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Speaker 5: But I always try to be real in that, Like

436
00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:56,320
Speaker 5: anytime you make a significant change, it's not seamless.

437
00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:57,000
Speaker 6: It never is.

438
00:20:57,040 --> 00:20:59,840
Speaker 5: And I think when you start something new, your hope

439
00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:02,960
Speaker 5: is that you know you're going to come in and

440
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,320
Speaker 5: and feel just as confident as you did in your

441
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:07,280
Speaker 5: old job. But the fact is I was at the

442
00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 5: Sun Times for seven years. That was seven years of

443
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:14,560
Speaker 5: source building and building you know, a following and becoming

444
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,400
Speaker 5: an expert on all things Chicago, sky and so here

445
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,159
Speaker 5: at Front Office Sports. The challenge I'm really excited about

446
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,879
Speaker 5: is starting from scratch, not in the sense of you know,

447
00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,120
Speaker 5: my WNBA source building, but just as far as all

448
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:31,280
Speaker 5: other women's sports goes. You know, it's it's an opportunity

449
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:37,040
Speaker 5: to approach my coverage. It's in terms of women's sports

450
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 5: the same way I approached everything I did covering the

451
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:42,960
Speaker 5: Chicago Sky and that's what I'm really excited about.

452
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:44,800
Speaker 6: But again, like that's not easy.

453
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:48,120
Speaker 5: You got to start from from zero and build back

454
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 5: up to one hundred. So as far as my competitive

455
00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:54,199
Speaker 5: side goes, and I think, you know, like I'm very competitive,

456
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,320
Speaker 5: that's the biggest challenge is knowing it's going to come

457
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:02,640
Speaker 5: with some learning curves and getting beat here and there.

458
00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,640
Speaker 5: I take getting beat on stories. So yeah, that's that's

459
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 5: been the challenge. But I mean, New York, why wasn't

460
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,840
Speaker 5: I here before? I feel like I've like landed exactly

461
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 5: where I'm supposed to be.

462
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what about New York City. It's very exciting.

463
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on. And for those who don't

464
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,679
Speaker 1: live in a big city, they probably think Chicago and

465
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 1: New York are quite similar, but there's a lot of differences.

466
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 1: How's it been getting used to living in a new place.

467
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, So being back this weekend in Chicago actually was

468
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,120
Speaker 5: like a mental test for me. I obviously was there

469
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:36,800
Speaker 5: for work, but I was like, Okay, this is going

470
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:42,120
Speaker 5: to be a good experiment to see if mentally I

471
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:43,919
Speaker 5: still feel confident about.

472
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:46,640
Speaker 6: The decision I made, or I'm happy in New York, YadA, YadA.

473
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,200
Speaker 5: And so yeah, when I was back in Chicago, I've

474
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 5: only I mean, I've been in New York three months,

475
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:57,120
Speaker 5: and my immediate kind of sense was, wow, this feels

476
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 5: already so different here. And the difference was Chicago is

477
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,639
Speaker 5: it's just you can find your pockets of calm and

478
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 5: quiet and peace.

479
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 6: You know.

480
00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,400
Speaker 5: Even getting out the house at like seven eight am,

481
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 5: I was walking, you know, back my same path to

482
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 5: get my coffee in the morning, I'm like, oh my god.

483
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 6: There's no where are all the people.

484
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,560
Speaker 5: You know, the second you step out of your house

485
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,680
Speaker 5: in New York, it's just it's chaos. It's like from

486
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 5: the second you get on the train, it's chaos. And again,

487
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 5: at first, I was like, Okay, this feels right. I

488
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 5: feel at home here, but I won't truly know how

489
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,160
Speaker 5: at home I feel in New York until.

490
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 6: I go back to Chicago.

491
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 5: And by the end of my trip in Chicago was like, man,

492
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 5: get me back to New York.

493
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,439
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, good, I'm happy for you. We'll see how

494
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 1: the wong at lasts. I mean, I think Chicago is

495
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,080
Speaker 1: obviously superior. So eventually you want to come back, but

496
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,359
Speaker 1: for now, have your fun. It's a good, good young

497
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: person fun. Let's talk sports because now, as you said,

498
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 1: your beat is a little bit bigger and that's very cool,

499
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,120
Speaker 1: and I like to have your perspective on so many

500
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,120
Speaker 1: different places and cities and markets. And before we even

501
00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 1: get to your main beat, which is basketball, let's talk

502
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:05,920
Speaker 1: softball a little bit because you've written some stuff about

503
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,239
Speaker 1: the Women's College World Series, in particular Nigrie Kennedy. So

504
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,199
Speaker 1: tell us what you think it means both for Texas

505
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: Tech to have her coming back and also what it

506
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: means for a softball player to be making that kind

507
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: of nil money as this AUSL Professional League is launching,

508
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: And will there be any friction for those players in

509
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: college ball getting to the pros.

510
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,160
Speaker 2: Is it going to be like the old days.

511
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,359
Speaker 1: Of playing for a really high profile program in college

512
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,280
Speaker 1: basketball and going to the WNBN being like, oh weird,

513
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: we have like worse locker rooms in travel than I

514
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:40,159
Speaker 1: used to have.

515
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I'm so happy we're talking about this because

516
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 5: let me start with Nija coming back to Texas Tech. Obviously,

517
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 5: I think what she did this year, them signing her

518
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 5: and them signing her to that seven figure deal shows

519
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 5: exactly how impactful she is on that program. And one

520
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,720
Speaker 5: year she led them to the Women's College World Series,

521
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 5: and so obviously Texas gets it done this year, but

522
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 5: her return, I mean, in a lot of people's minds,

523
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,120
Speaker 5: puts them right back in the Women's College World Series,

524
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 5: competing for a final. And that's why again they re

525
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 5: upped on that seven figure deal. Now, as far as

526
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 5: it goes in consideration to how that type of salary

527
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 5: is going to impact the professional level, you're exactly right

528
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 5: in terms of comparing it to the WNBA and some

529
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 5: of the differences that players saw and honestly continue.

530
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 6: To see even in recent years.

531
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 5: I mean, Angel Reeves going from LSU to the Chicago Sky,

532
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 5: big difference in terms of experience and where they're training, YadA, YadA.

533
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 6: But when it comes to.

534
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 5: Softball, there's still a huge gap in that salary. And

535
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 5: I mean, when we're talking about a million dollars. The

536
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:53,439
Speaker 5: average salary for AUSL is forty thousand, So that's a

537
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 5: significant difference. And so when you think about a player

538
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 5: like Nija, she's not only going to have options to

539
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 5: play here in the States, but she's going to have

540
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 5: options to play overseas too, and we know that in

541
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,160
Speaker 5: Japan that's where players are making the most lucrative salaries.

542
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 5: And so something I've been asking different sources and different

543
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 5: context is, Okay, could we see a similar situation as

544
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 5: we saw to Diana Tarassi where she was paid to

545
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 5: sit out and solely play overseas? You know, and I've

546
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 5: talked to multiple sources who are like, that is not

547
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:33,359
Speaker 5: a far stretch of the imagination because the resources that

548
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:39,240
Speaker 5: teams have in Japan significantly outweighed the resources that we've

549
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 5: known women's softball to have here in the States. And

550
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 5: obviously AOSL is changing things, especially with this investment from

551
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,439
Speaker 5: Major League Baseball. But when you anticipate a player like

552
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 5: Nija coming in, you still have a couple of years.

553
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 5: How is AUSL how is the professional softball space in

554
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,719
Speaker 5: America preparing for that?

555
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 6: Because she's already making a million.

556
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: Right and she's obviously an anomaly because she's making way

557
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,080
Speaker 1: more than other softball players on the NL front, but

558
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: still worth noting that there are these players that eventually

559
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: are game changers and leagues have to adjust in order

560
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,879
Speaker 1: to compete to keep them, and she's going to be

561
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,360
Speaker 1: one of them. So it'll be interesting to see how

562
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: AUSL builds from this current four team barnstorming league, which

563
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 1: is a great way to start, and then uses that

564
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: investment from MLB to really expand and blow up. All right,

565
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,639
Speaker 1: let's talk WNBA. There's so much to get to. We

566
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: always want to talk more WNB in the show, but

567
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: we're like a multi sport show, so it feels like

568
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: there's always stories that fall between the cracks, so you're

569
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: here to help pick them up. I want to start

570
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 1: with the team in your new hometown, the Liberty. I mean,

571
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,679
Speaker 1: I guess this can be expected, but it's not always

572
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,679
Speaker 1: a given that a team comes right back after a

573
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: championship with the same heart and integrity and passion and

574
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: desire and hustle.

575
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 2: But they are killing it. What are you seeing from

576
00:27:58,920 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 2: the Liberty?

577
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:02,360
Speaker 6: I mean, the addition of Natasha Cloud.

578
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,719
Speaker 5: I don't want to say I was a skeptic.

579
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 6: Sorry, Tasha, but.

580
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,399
Speaker 5: I just wasn't sure or wasn't clear on exactly what

581
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 5: her impact would be, how she would shift this team.

582
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:17,880
Speaker 6: And my god, I mean her energy.

583
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 5: You you always hear teams coming off a championship talking

584
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:26,440
Speaker 5: about how they can't stay the same, they can't stay complacent,

585
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,160
Speaker 5: And I mean we've seen it cover in our coverage

586
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 5: of former championship teams a lot of times.

587
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 6: That's what what does the team in is?

588
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 5: You know, they bring their their main coreback and not

589
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 5: something really changes, right, Tasha is mentally a different player

590
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 5: than anybody else on her team as far as just

591
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 5: the energy she brings and how she invigorates all of

592
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 5: the players around her.

593
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 6: Her.

594
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 5: The staff has talked about that, her teammates have talked

595
00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 5: about that, so so one, I mean, that's the most

596
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 5: significant change. And then John Quell Jones, I mean she

597
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 5: is like it's I don't even know how to put

598
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 5: this other than to just say it plainly, like her

599
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 5: absence continues to show how impactful she is.

600
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 6: And it's crazy because she's this dominant player.

601
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 5: It's not like you miss her on the court, but

602
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 5: the second she's unavailable, you're like, holy, I'm sorry, Holy shit,

603
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 5: but she is. She's everything to this team. So I

604
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 5: feel like Tasha has again invigorated this team in their

605
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 5: pursuit of a back to back title, and everybody else

606
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 5: has just gotten better.

607
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

608
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're missing Junkquell on my fantasy team too. Skyler's

609
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: is really missing John Quell Jones.

610
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 5: Wait when I saw your team name, I was like

611
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:58,239
Speaker 5: what I had, No, I don't know.

612
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,719
Speaker 1: In reference to Okay, I'm gonna send it to you,

613
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: She's literally doesn't realize that the person she's talking to

614
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: is micd up or that there's a hot mic near

615
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: her and they're talking about years of the league and

616
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: being old, and the girl's like, you're not old, and

617
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: she like old pussy.

618
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 6: Oh my god.

619
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,959
Speaker 5: Literally, when you posted this, I'm like, what.

620
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, we like to push the envelope a little bit. Annie,

621
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:25,120
Speaker 2: you know.

622
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,960
Speaker 6: That, and you know I do as well. Let's just

623
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 6: keep pushing that da.

624
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 2: Right, that's right.

625
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: We actually suffered from a couple of hot flashes in

626
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: the first two challenges of the Fantasy League, but now

627
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: our old pussy is winning, so glad to report that.

628
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the other team that's winning all of

629
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,719
Speaker 1: their games. Minnesota Links nine to zero and if he's

630
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 1: to call, you're my preseason pick for MVP.

631
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 2: She looks to be on a mission. What are you

632
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 2: seeing from them?

633
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree with you on the mission statement. I

634
00:30:55,320 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 5: also picked snafisas my preseason MVP pick, And I think, again,

635
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 5: when you lose a title, it spurs something in you.

636
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 5: But when you lose a title the way they did,

637
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 5: I mean, they're coming back for a vengeance. And especially

638
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,479
Speaker 5: when you think about who Cheryl Reeve is in this league,

639
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 5: what her franchise has experienced in the past.

640
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 6: I mean not to bring up too much of like the.

641
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 5: WNBA's history and the tea and whatever, but like, let's

642
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 5: talk about it. I mean the Minnesota Links and the

643
00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 5: LA Sparks in twenty sixteen, that was another controversial ending

644
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 5: to a WNBA finals, And there's a lot of people

645
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 5: who feel like even in that moment, that was the

646
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 5: Minnesota Links Finals to win, and you know, an officiating

647
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 5: call changed changed everything. And so I think when you

648
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,320
Speaker 5: consider again the history of the league and specifically the

649
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 5: history of the Links, it's very exciting to put into

650
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 5: the forefront of your mind the possibility that the Links

651
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 5: and the Lever could meet again and this finals.

652
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 6: And it also makes sense why.

653
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 5: This team is competing the way that they are with

654
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 5: Cheryl Reeve at the home because again, she's been through it.

655
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 5: This has been something new. What I'll also say about

656
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 5: the Minnesota links In and the Liberty specifically, is when

657
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 5: you consider the issues with the WNBA scheduling, it's astounding

658
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 5: that these two teams will not meet until July.

659
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 6: Like, where who did that? Let's can we talk to them?

660
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, well.

661
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 1: I want to criticize them, and I also have questions

662
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,239
Speaker 1: about how many of the venues they're playing in have

663
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 1: other tenants that take precedents Like I feel like you

664
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: can blame the schedule maker or you can first ask

665
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: to get a peek behind the scenes and figure out

666
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: what they were dealing with when they were trying to

667
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 1: make set schedule.

668
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know what, that's fair. You know what?

669
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,960
Speaker 5: Listen to you being like middle ground considering all angles,

670
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 5: I'm just raging out over You're like.

671
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 1: But I agree because we all want to see them play.

672
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 5: Yeah, truly, And then it's like, Okay, I mean it's

673
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 5: long shot, but will they both be undefeated?

674
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 6: That'd be crazy, can you? Yeah?

675
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 2: Unheard of let's talk about some other teams.

676
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 1: Who's the most surprising team to you in a good

677
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 1: way so far this season?

678
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 6: I think the Valkyriees.

679
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 5: I know, I know their record doesn't necessarily show oh

680
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 5: surprising in a good way, but again, I think the

681
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 5: way that they've competed, it's it shows how good of

682
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 5: a coach one Natalie is that the culture that they're

683
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 5: building really is taking hold and that they as they

684
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 5: kind of spoke about wanting to be, they truly can

685
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 5: be a competitive franchise and in a very short order

686
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 5: exactly so. I think again their record isn't exactly what

687
00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 5: you'd maybe associate with, you know, exciting top tier team,

688
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,800
Speaker 5: but again, as far as what they were up against

689
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 5: and even the roster that they built through expansion, I

690
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 5: don't know that many people thought they'd be competing in

691
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 5: the way that they're competing this early on. And another

692
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 5: factor that you got to consider they have a number

693
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 5: of players that are going to compete in euro Basket. Ye,

694
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 5: so how they respond to that too is going to

695
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,879
Speaker 5: be another test of the culture that they're building there.

696
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: And I want to take this opportunity to shout out

697
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: my previously named but unnamed least favorite player in the

698
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: league who has been playing quite well of late. And

699
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,479
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna apologize because my take on you after

700
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 1: one game was an accurate take. But I will say

701
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 1: props to you for looking more comfortable, getting your head

702
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: about you on the court, and having some fine games.

703
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: And you will remain nameless because this is a kind

704
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 1: and friendly show where you don't call out people for struggling.

705
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 6: Oh my god, will you tell me off the error?

706
00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 2: Yes?

707
00:34:57,080 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: And if you listen to this episode, you might have

708
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 1: even sort of figured it out the way that I

709
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,080
Speaker 1: just said that, But maybe not because I'm snaky. Okay,

710
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: what's the most surprising team in a bad way?

711
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,239
Speaker 6: Oh God, people are gonna hate me for this.

712
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,880
Speaker 2: It's the Chicago Sky Duh. What the I mean is

713
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:15,800
Speaker 2: going on? Annie girl?

714
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 5: I wish The only reason I wish I was still

715
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,680
Speaker 5: in Chicago was so that I could I knew, I

716
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 5: could know in and out what's going on, because obviously

717
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 5: you can observe from afar. But but one thing I

718
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,520
Speaker 5: really took pride in is when I wrote something, I

719
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:36,479
Speaker 5: really knew it or I really had multiple sources on it.

720
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:41,240
Speaker 5: You know, I was I was not out here spewing lies.

721
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 5: Although people might want to think so that's okay. You

722
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 5: guys are titled to your opinion. So with this team,

723
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 5: I mean one Tyler Marsh. I when when the Sky

724
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 5: hired him, and I still believe this. They I wrote,

725
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 5: they hired the right guy. And I think you don't

726
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 5: have his track record, his championship track record, and you

727
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 5: don't come from the tree that he comes from. And

728
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 5: if you're not an adequate coach, right, you don't fake that,

729
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 5: you don't get You just accidentally end up in the

730
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:19,399
Speaker 5: situations that Tyler Marsh has ended up in. So I

731
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 5: still believe that Tyler Marsh is the right guy for

732
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:27,879
Speaker 5: the Chicago Sky. But obviously this team when it was constructed,

733
00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,359
Speaker 5: when Jeff made the moves he made, and he brought

734
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 5: the players and he brought in something apparent was that

735
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 5: they don't have a certified bucket getter. You know, they

736
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 5: don't have an MVP candidate. And I know, right, I

737
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 5: know those players don't even grow on trees. I'm not

738
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 5: saying every team even has, you know, an MVP candidate player,

739
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:50,799
Speaker 5: but they don't.

740
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,319
Speaker 6: Have a certified star.

741
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 5: They have a lot of players who who contribute to

742
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 5: two teams winning, but none that you can rely on

743
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,160
Speaker 5: to get it done. And then when you think about

744
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 5: the fact that, Okay, if anybody was the creator, it

745
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 5: was Courtney Vandersloute and now she's down with a season

746
00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:15,760
Speaker 5: ending injury, tearing her ACL against the Indiana Fever.

747
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:19,399
Speaker 6: It really shows how.

748
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 5: The Chicago sky were a house of cards and are

749
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 5: a house of cards, and now you just pulled out,

750
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 5: in my opinion, the card that was going to hold

751
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:30,760
Speaker 5: it all together.

752
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 6: So I think they just it was a question mark

753
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:37,280
Speaker 6: from the beginning.

754
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 5: I did think the addition of Ariel Atkins was going

755
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 5: to make a difference back Alan, we haven't seen that yet.

756
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 5: But now you pull out Courtney vanderslut and now the

757
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 5: question becomes will we ever see it?

758
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: You know, who's facilitating, who's setting up the bigs that

759
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: can't create their own shots. Where's the inside out game

760
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: that's required if you want to have two bigs like

761
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: that that aren't really Yes, Reese can hit a couple

762
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 1: threes everyone while, but she's mostly in the paint.

763
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:02,479
Speaker 2: Camille is going to be in the paint.

764
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:04,920
Speaker 1: You need a three point threat otherwise they're just dropping

765
00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: everyone inside and keeping you from getting it inside to

766
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: your bigs. It just the formation of the team was

767
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: tenuous already, but it required that some of their swings

768
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 1: on three point shooters came out shooting, especially after losing

769
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:18,839
Speaker 1: Maybury last year.

770
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 6: Right, it's been and.

771
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: Listen, I want to give Tyler Marsh enough time, but

772
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: literally my trainer this morning, who doesn't even watch a

773
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:28,959
Speaker 1: lot of WNBA, was like, how long is the leisha

774
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:29,439
Speaker 1: on the sky?

775
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:29,800
Speaker 2: Coach?

776
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:31,960
Speaker 1: This is brutal And I'm watching the games and that's

777
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:33,760
Speaker 1: what's standing out to me. It's not that they're losing.

778
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: They are fundamentally offensive right now. They are not doing

779
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,239
Speaker 1: technical things right. They're they're not calling timeouts in the

780
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: moments that they should. Reese is regressing in terms of

781
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 1: bringing the ball down off of boards before going back up, Like,

782
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: there's all these moments that feel coachable, and I'm wondering,

783
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 1: fundamentally what happened to a bunch of these players.

784
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 5: Yeah, So another observation I have and I don't disagree

785
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:02,080
Speaker 5: with you there. But in addition to that, which that

786
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 5: was a whole lot, there's an energy issue. Like this

787
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,240
Speaker 5: team yesterday against the New York Liberty and again Corney

788
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 5: Vanderslit's out, So that's that's a heavy burden to bear.

789
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 5: But this team does not even look like it's playing

790
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 5: at its full, you know, one hundred percent.

791
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 6: And when you're a team that.

792
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 5: Can't be saved by one single player, what are you

793
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 5: holding back for? You know, like this is at a

794
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 5: certain point, it's got to be a little bit about pride.

795
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:37,720
Speaker 5: You guys are getting blown out repeatedly. Where's where's the pride?

796
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 5: And so I think in addition to that, even there's

797
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 5: an identity issue because how are they playing?

798
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 6: What what's their style?

799
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 5: What are they leaning on when you know they need

800
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 5: to get a bucket and none of that's been defined,

801
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 5: none of that's been defined. And then you throw on

802
00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 5: Courtney's injury. It's like this is really a big question mark.

803
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 5: But as far as the leash goes, I will say

804
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 5: in my time covering the Sky that ownership group does

805
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 5: not fire people easily. Okay except for Teaspoon, But again

806
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 5: I say that to say that speaks to the dysfunction

807
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 5: that went on there last year.

808
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:16,239
Speaker 6: They do not. They do not fire people likely they

809
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:16,759
Speaker 6: do not, yea.

810
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 2: And we talked about this.

811
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 1: Everyone was angry on behalf of Tea Spoon, and rightfully

812
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 1: so in the sense of her legacy and maybe what

813
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 1: she could do as a coach, But what was going

814
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes reportedly was not going to be

815
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 1: a fixed with leadership the way it was in the

816
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:32,400
Speaker 1: players that were remaining.

817
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 5: No, and what I'll add to that is, and this

818
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 5: is something I've said in the months since, is Teresa

819
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 5: Weatherspoon as a player and Teresa Weatherspoon as a coach,

820
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 5: two separate people, A great human being, No one's No.

821
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,759
Speaker 5: I certainly wouldn't say otherwise. I don't know her well

822
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 5: enough on a personal level to comment on good bad.

823
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 5: You know that's not my job. But player coach, two

824
00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 5: separate people. Player, hall of famer, incredible, No one will

825
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 5: ever take away from her legacy coach. She still has

826
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 5: a long way to go to be a coach in

827
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 5: the WNBA, Like, that's not an easy job. And just

828
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 5: because you're a Hall of Fame coach or player does

829
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 5: not equate to a Hall of Fame coaching career.

830
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 6: And that is okay to say.

831
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was talking to a GM in the league

832
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 1: about that, and I think there's been a lot of

833
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,240
Speaker 1: talk the last couple of years about a couple players.

834
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 1: There was least a Leslie kind of openly talking about

835
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: how she didn't get a job, and then people were

836
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 1: frustrated about Tea Spoon, and the GM just said to

837
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: me as we were talking about that, there are former

838
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,000
Speaker 1: players that make great coaches, and there are teams that

839
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: need someone who is already a veteran coach who knows

840
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:41,359
Speaker 1: how to manage personalities as much as they know how

841
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 1: to write up ecss and o's. And I think sometimes

842
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: that's hard to take if there's a player that you

843
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:48,359
Speaker 1: really liked as a player, but maybe is it ready yet?

844
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about a couple other Let's talk

845
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:51,720
Speaker 1: specific individual players.

846
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 2: Anyone that hasn't started off as strong as expected for you?

847
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Juel Lloyd in Las Vegas, and obviously

848
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 5: you know her career is it speaks for itself already

849
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,640
Speaker 5: at this point. But I think when you consider, you know,

850
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 5: the intention behind this move and the standards for the aces,

851
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,000
Speaker 5: you know they Jewell obviously wanted out of Seattle. She's

852
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 5: made that perfectly clear. If it wasn't already before you know,

853
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 5: the season began. But on top of wanting out, you know,

854
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:30,479
Speaker 5: the Aces were set on upholding this championship standard, and

855
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 5: bringing her in was about upholding that championship standard. And

856
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 5: I'm not, by any means saying that that where they're

857
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,680
Speaker 5: at is on Jewel. I think Becky Hammond just spoke

858
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 5: about how this team has, you know, a character issue

859
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,839
Speaker 5: in terms of not having that that grit and that

860
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 5: determined dog right exactly, that dog is missing and that

861
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 5: will is missing. And I think in order for the

862
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,000
Speaker 5: Aces to be a content, to remain a contender, they need.

863
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 6: Jewel Lloyd to be the Jewel Lloyd.

864
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 5: You know that we've seen the Jewellloyd that's leading the

865
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 5: league in points per game or at least among the

866
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 5: top five. You know, they need that Jewel Lloyd to

867
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,480
Speaker 5: contribute to put that team, you know, where I think

868
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:21,440
Speaker 5: they have been and where they expect to be.

869
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: What about a player that's taken the biggest leap, Maybe

870
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: someone that you're like, okay, all right, look at this start.

871
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:29,720
Speaker 6: That's a good question.

872
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 5: Honestly, I feel like this might be biased because I

873
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 5: cover this team or I'm around this team as much

874
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 5: as I am, But truly, it's going to be Natasha Cloud.

875
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 5: And I don't even think because of her points per game.

876
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,400
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously you know she's I think she's averaging

877
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 5: under ten right now, but that's not it. It's her impact

878
00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:56,720
Speaker 5: that I've seen every single day on the New York Liberty.

879
00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 5: And again, when you consider a teams for to repeat

880
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:04,160
Speaker 5: as champions.

881
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 6: That can't be overstated.

882
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 5: So they don't even need her output to be crazy, like,

883
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:11,840
Speaker 5: they don't need her to put up, you know, fifteen

884
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:14,919
Speaker 5: points a game. So so that output, I mean, she's

885
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 5: where she should be. And so yeah, I think Natasha

886
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 5: Clouds fit with the New York Liberty and her impact

887
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 5: on the Liberty so far is what's impressed me most.

888
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree, especially because we often say about

889
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: teams there's only one ball, and on that team there

890
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:30,919
Speaker 1: are so many people who could be trying to buy

891
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 1: for it and try to be the star, and it

892
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 1: said they're all working so well together. I also think

893
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,239
Speaker 1: Kiki erie Fen and Sonya Citron because for all the

894
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 1: talk that we have that is very true about how

895
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,719
Speaker 1: hard it is to make this lead to even be

896
00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:46,120
Speaker 1: on a roster, for them to be playing the way

897
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 1: they are has been a revelation.

898
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:53,640
Speaker 5: Completely agree, completely agree, because aside from the Golden State

899
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:57,240
Speaker 5: Valkyries the Washington Mystics. We're going to be another team

900
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 5: that has surprised me early on, and it's because of

901
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:03,280
Speaker 5: the contributions from both of them, especially.

902
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 6: Kiky eria Fan. I think her physicality.

903
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 5: Again, when you think about rookies and the adjustment and

904
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:13,359
Speaker 5: you're seeing her out here exude her dominance against some

905
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:17,760
Speaker 5: of the most dominant players in the WNBA, It's really

906
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 5: got me excited to see where her career goes from here,

907
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 5: because my god, I mean, I think she's she could

908
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,240
Speaker 5: be in the conversation for Rookie of the Year.

909
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 2: Both of them. It's pretty impressive.

910
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: We have to take a quick break more with Annie

911
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:41,760
Speaker 1: Costable right after this. Is there a team more player

912
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:43,920
Speaker 1: you think that is not being talked about enough. I

913
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 1: think we all came in with such excitement enthusiasm for

914
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,760
Speaker 1: the Pagebeckers wings story, and the concussion and the illness

915
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 1: has sort of slowed down us getting a chance to

916
00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:54,440
Speaker 1: really watch how that might change anything else that you're like, Oh,

917
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: why is it? Why aren't people focused on this or

918
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 1: talking about this?

919
00:45:57,160 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 6: Oh my god.

920
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 5: I could go through like a whole list, but one

921
00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:05,319
Speaker 5: thing I really wish people were talking about more is

922
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 5: Kelsey Plum and what exactly prompted this trade request, why

923
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,400
Speaker 5: it was time for her to get out of Las Vegas.

924
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 6: And I'll tell you why.

925
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:16,120
Speaker 5: I'm not.

926
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,239
Speaker 6: I'm not like trying to stir the pot.

927
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 5: I'm not trying to bring up drama or you know,

928
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 5: I don't know, encourage some tabloidy reporting.

929
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:27,879
Speaker 6: What I'm saying interests me.

930
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:32,839
Speaker 5: Is if you compare the situation to an NBA franchise, right,

931
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:38,320
Speaker 5: and you see a championship team start to kind of deteriorate,

932
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,160
Speaker 5: the why always gets talked about. It gets talked about

933
00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:44,840
Speaker 5: so much that you're like, can we stop talking about this?

934
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 6: Right?

935
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 5: And so with Kelsey, I think something that was on

936
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:54,640
Speaker 5: the outside looked so obvious was how strong of a

937
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 5: connection the Aces that Aces team had and then all

938
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:04,960
Speaker 5: of a sudden it was gone. And I think that's

939
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:05,400
Speaker 5: something we.

940
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 6: Should be talking about. Why.

941
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 5: And then when you consider how well she's doing in

942
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 5: LA I mean, I just I want to know why.

943
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 2: Okay, last question for you.

944
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,320
Speaker 1: I think I've been having these conversations a lot of

945
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: late with either guests or folks who are interviewing me

946
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: for pieces they're writing it feels like some WNBA teams

947
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 1: still seem to operate from a defensive place, and I

948
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:30,120
Speaker 1: don't know if that's an attempt at good business, smart

949
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: business considering last year's mess. I don't know if they

950
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 1: think they're protecting their players. But sometimes it feels like,

951
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:40,239
Speaker 1: whether it's intentional or perhaps it's the result of a

952
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:43,920
Speaker 1: lack of bandwidth or resources or whatever, that some WNBA

953
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: teams make it hard for folks to cover them. They

954
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 1: make it hard for people to ask sophisticated, sometimes critical

955
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 1: questions and to give sophisticated, sometimes critical coverage. How do

956
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 1: we get teams to welcome that and understand the necessity

957
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 1: of that if the w and Women's Sports wants to

958
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: take its place among the biggest and most profitable men's

959
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:05,760
Speaker 1: professional leagues.

960
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really appreciate this question because it's something that

961
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 5: pisses me off to no end, not even just from

962
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 5: the teams, but from the league as a whole. There's

963
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 5: a transparency issue. And when I say transparency issue, I

964
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:24,640
Speaker 5: mean the simplest thing as far as you know, a

965
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 5: coach getting fined, to you know, details about an investigation.

966
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,560
Speaker 5: It's there's so much that you have to jump through

967
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 5: a million hoops to get the correct information out, and

968
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 5: it leads to, you know, errors in reporting, which is

969
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:45,920
Speaker 5: understandable again because there's like a transparency, but also it

970
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:51,840
Speaker 5: just it. I think it conflates the feelings of attack

971
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:56,360
Speaker 5: versus understanding, Oh, these people are.

972
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 6: Doing their job.

973
00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:02,279
Speaker 5: And so I think the way that it changes from

974
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:08,120
Speaker 5: a team standpoint, from a franchise standpoint is when certain franchises.

975
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 6: Force the others to rise.

976
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 5: And I say that having experienced obviously working with multiple

977
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 5: franchises PR staffs, and the difference from some versus the

978
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:24,520
Speaker 5: others is astounding, not only in the way that they

979
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:29,319
Speaker 5: receive critical coverage or or even allow their players to

980
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 5: receive critical coverage, or their coaches.

981
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 6: Because here's the thing.

982
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 5: If I ask a question that Sandy Brondelo does not like,

983
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,239
Speaker 5: she is well within her right to look me in

984
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 5: the face and say I don't like that question. You know,

985
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 5: no comment, I have nothing to say. But if a

986
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 5: PR person is stepping in and answering for her, it

987
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:50,800
Speaker 5: immediately becomes an issue of what are you hiding?

988
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very pale Belichick, Jordan, how did you meet?

989
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: We're not going to talk about that. I thought you

990
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:57,280
Speaker 1: said it was on a plane. Now we're all very.

991
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:01,759
Speaker 5: Curious exactly exactly, and so so I think that's what

992
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 5: certain franchises have to get a little bit more comfortable with,

993
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:09,880
Speaker 5: is let the player express themselves, let the coach express themselves,

994
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 5: and let these adults in these situations, you know, handle

995
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 5: each other professionally. And I think some of these franchises

996
00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 5: will be surprised that the world will not end when

997
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 5: you do that.

998
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

999
00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 1: We talked to Elizabeth Williams on this show, and one

1000
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 1: of the things I said is I think that there

1001
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: are a number, probably the majority of WNBA athletes that

1002
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,560
Speaker 1: are willing to take tough questions and are smart and

1003
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 1: thoughtful and interested in answering them. And then there are

1004
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: some that I think have gotten used to sycophantic coverage

1005
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:44,920
Speaker 1: and soft coverage and push back against legitimate reporting that

1006
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 1: elevates the sport because they just it because it sucks

1007
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 1: and it's hard, and you're competitive and you're pissed that

1008
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:53,680
Speaker 1: you lost or you had a bad game. But asking

1009
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 1: someone about a bad game if they were zero for

1010
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:58,680
Speaker 1: twenty is how sports works. And I just don't think

1011
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:02,879
Speaker 1: women's sports will be the space that they desire all

1012
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,759
Speaker 1: the benefits of if they can't also face that part

1013
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 1: of it.

1014
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,160
Speaker 5: I completely agree with you, And just to add to this,

1015
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 5: I think it starts at the college level. I mean,

1016
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:15,960
Speaker 5: you've got to consider some of these college coaches and

1017
00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:20,879
Speaker 5: how they're educating their players on media access and how

1018
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,880
Speaker 5: to handle the media. And I'm not saying that this

1019
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,840
Speaker 5: is easy by any means, Like I am not trying

1020
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:29,959
Speaker 5: to take away from the fact that these players these

1021
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 5: coaches are showing up on good and bad days and

1022
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:34,799
Speaker 5: being asked to talk about it. I know on my

1023
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 5: worst day, I would not handle it well. If someone's like, hey, Annie,

1024
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 5: why did you do X, Y and Z instead of

1025
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:42,799
Speaker 5: X Y and Z?

1026
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 6: I would have an attitude.

1027
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 5: And that's why I'm fully supportive of players and coaches

1028
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 5: expressing themselves however they see fit.

1029
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 6: But you can't protect.

1030
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 5: Them from this space in which they entered and are

1031
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 5: also fully equipped to handle a professional athletes. It does

1032
00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:06,640
Speaker 5: them no good to handhold and baby in my opinion,

1033
00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:09,120
Speaker 5: and so I agree with you. In order for women's

1034
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 5: sports to elevate, to continue to grow, it requires the

1035
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 5: critical coverage, It requires transparency, It requires proper media attention,

1036
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 5: and so I think again, and it requires teams holding

1037
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:27,880
Speaker 5: others accountable. If certain franchises elevate to a certain level,

1038
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:30,439
Speaker 5: it's going to forces to rise to be done.

1039
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:32,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do want to add the caveat that

1040
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:36,359
Speaker 1: it's a symbiotic relationship between reporters and athletes. You need

1041
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:40,600
Speaker 1: to be prepared, educated, ask good questions, ask smart questions,

1042
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 1: understand the nuance, understand the intersectionality of women's sports, so

1043
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 1: that when you show up and you do ask tough,

1044
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 1: critical questions, they know that they're being asked in good faith. That,

1045
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:52,480
Speaker 1: of course, is why some athletes already are in a

1046
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:55,239
Speaker 1: position to maybe feel defensive, because it hasn't always been

1047
00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: a space where people were sending their best and the

1048
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,359
Speaker 1: reporters were doing their best. So I get hey, and

1049
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,920
Speaker 1: that's worth commenting on for sure, But also, nothing is

1050
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 1: fixed and the future doesn't look any better if everybody

1051
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: enters with the assumption that the other one is operating

1052
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:11,640
Speaker 1: in bad faith. There needs to be an agreement to

1053
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:14,719
Speaker 1: move forward where both media and athletes and teams and

1054
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:18,680
Speaker 1: leagues are all in pursuit of more sophisticated coverage, because

1055
00:53:18,719 --> 00:53:19,720
Speaker 1: that's what the league deserves.

1056
00:53:19,719 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 6: That's what these players deserve exactly. I fully support that statement.

1057
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,600
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Spain and I paid for this message. Spain

1058
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eighth. Annie, we always love to have you.

1059
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming on. I'm sorry that you

1060
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:36,919
Speaker 1: missed Chicago so much that you have to lie about

1061
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:38,640
Speaker 1: how much you like New York, but I accept it.

1062
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:44,000
Speaker 6: Listen, maybe one day I'll be back. Maybe maybe.

1063
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:47,640
Speaker 1: Thanks to Annie for taking the time and trying to

1064
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:49,880
Speaker 1: spill the tea, we have to take another break when

1065
00:53:49,920 --> 00:53:50,359
Speaker 1: we come back.

1066
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 2: The teams that make y'all proud of Pride stick.

1067
00:53:53,000 --> 00:54:02,520
Speaker 1: Around welcome backslices. We love that you're listening, but we

1068
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:04,040
Speaker 1: want you to get in the game every day too.

1069
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,239
Speaker 1: So here's our good game play of the day. Let

1070
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,879
Speaker 1: us know what Pride activations you've seen and loved so far.

1071
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: Were you part of Angel City's Pink Pony Club TFO?

1072
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:15,840
Speaker 1: Are you obsessed with the Pride t shirts? Retired goalkeeper

1073
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:19,400
Speaker 1: Nicole Barnhardt designed something else. Let us know you know,

1074
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: we love to hear from you, and we want to

1075
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:22,640
Speaker 1: share some of the teams that are doing it right,

1076
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: some of the athletes that are doing it best. You

1077
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 1: could also let us know if you think your team

1078
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:30,319
Speaker 1: missed the mark. Looking at you, Boston Legacy. Ah, we

1079
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: were so excited about the logo finally being released and

1080
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 1: something to celebrate, but I don't know if you all

1081
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: saw this. The club initially announced some Pride merch, saying

1082
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: that money from sales would be quote donated to a

1083
00:54:40,320 --> 00:54:44,560
Speaker 1: local LGBTQ plus nonprofit that's committed to social justice and creating,

1084
00:54:44,600 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: sustaining and advocating for programs, policies, and services that support

1085
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:53,400
Speaker 1: the LGBT community. End quote sounds great? Which one is

1086
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 1: what many people asked, but the team didn't say which

1087
00:54:56,520 --> 00:54:59,320
Speaker 1: nonprofit was getting those funds, and it appears that the

1088
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,799
Speaker 1: team is now leaded the post. The pride gear is

1089
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:06,480
Speaker 1: still available on the Boston Legacy store. The nonprofit name

1090
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: is still Mia. Feels like we're at a Blue Family

1091
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,560
Speaker 1: gala over here or about to donate to the Human

1092
00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:15,759
Speaker 1: Fund if you know, you know, either way, the merch

1093
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:19,200
Speaker 1: is cool. We love the idea of Boston Legacy. Just

1094
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 1: let us know who you're supporting. Hit us up on email,

1095
00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: y'all good game at wondermedianetwork dot com, or leave us

1096
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,720
Speaker 1: a voicemail at eight seven two, two, four, fifty, seventy

1097
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: and don't.

1098
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 2: Forget to subscribe, rate and review It's easy.

1099
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 1: Watch the US Women's the Soccer Tournament coach using her

1100
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 1: prize money from last year's TST championship for IVF, rating

1101
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: ten out of ten happy crying emojis. Review Ooh, y'all,

1102
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: this was a bona fide feel good moment.

1103
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 2: So okay.

1104
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:48,879
Speaker 1: The Soccer Tournament seventy seven winner take all event took

1105
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:51,239
Speaker 1: place from June fourth through the ninth, consisting of eight

1106
00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 1: women's teams, one of which was called the US women.

1107
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:56,280
Speaker 2: That squad pretty stacked.

1108
00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 1: The roster included names like Friend of the Show, Joe Luyden,

1109
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 1: Carly Lloyd, Elly Kreeger, Heather O'Reilly.

1110
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 2: You get the picture anyway.

1111
00:56:03,239 --> 00:56:05,879
Speaker 1: Former North Carolina courage Stark Kendall Fletcher is the head

1112
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:08,239
Speaker 1: coach of that US Women's squad and led him to

1113
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:12,160
Speaker 1: a second straight TST championship on Monday, while pregnant with

1114
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:15,520
Speaker 1: a little one. TST posted a video of Fletcher addressing

1115
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 1: the team after the win, and in it, she revealed

1116
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,040
Speaker 1: that she'd used her chunk of the team's million dollar

1117
00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:23,960
Speaker 1: cash prize from last year's TST Championship on IVF and

1118
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 1: that the baby in her very belly was a result

1119
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 1: of that process. OMG, you have to watch the video.

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00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:32,719
Speaker 1: We'll link to it in the show notes. First watch

1121
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:34,800
Speaker 1: it for Kendall, then watch it for all the player

1122
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,480
Speaker 1: reactions in the background. Such a beautiful moment for that

1123
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:40,279
Speaker 1: group and not a bad payday. Now it's your turn,

1124
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:43,000
Speaker 1: rate and review. Thanks for listening, y'all. See you tomorrow.

1125
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:45,640
Speaker 1: When we talked to Howard Megdohl about his contributions to

1126
00:56:45,680 --> 00:56:48,360
Speaker 1: the women's sports landscape and his new book about Caitlin Clark,

1127
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:54,160
Speaker 1: Good Game, Annie, Good Game, Ali Quigley, Hugh Ice, Forever

1128
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:58,440
Speaker 1: and Ever and Ever. Good Game with Sarah Spain is

1129
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:01,359
Speaker 1: an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue

1130
00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 1: Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app,

1131
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by

1132
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:11,880
Speaker 1: Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones.

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00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:15,920
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan,

1134
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:19,600
Speaker 1: and Emily Rutterer. Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez,

1135
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:23,480
Speaker 1: Grace Lynch, and Gianna Palmer, Our associate producer is Lucy Jones,

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00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:25,440
Speaker 1: and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain.