Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're muting
Speaker 1: the words Diana Tarasi and retire just like ex user
Speaker 1: Phoenix Sun twenty five. Don't want to get hit with
Speaker 1: retirement news while scroll in the timeline. Our emotions cannot
Speaker 1: handle that Right now. On today's show, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: chatting with Los Angeles Sparks forward Derek Hamby about her
Speaker 1: team season and the backlash she's gotten since filing a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the Las Vegas Aces and the WNBA. Plus
Speaker 1: we've got another entry into the Good Game Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame and how a long line derailed my date with
Speaker 1: a dairy field delicacy. It's all coming up right after this.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, my little slices. Here's what you need to
Speaker 1: know today in NWSL news, ESPN's Jeff Casoof conducted a
Speaker 1: one on one anonymous phone survey of gms from each
Speaker 1: of the league's fourteen teams and found that some believe
Speaker 1: that league reforms have quote gone too far. One GM
Speaker 1: told the SPN quote, there's a fear amongst staff about
Speaker 1: what you can say, what you can't say, what you
Speaker 1: have to ask players permission for what you don't if
Speaker 1: you're going to get in trouble for this, and that
Speaker 1: means it's gone too far end quote. Others described apprehension
Speaker 1: about holding one on one meetings with players about their
Speaker 1: performance and expressed worries about player complaints doing disproportionate damage
Speaker 1: to staff members' reputations over misunderstandings, and WSL Players Association
Speaker 1: chief Megan Burke, who we had on good Game not
Speaker 1: too long ago push back. She told the ESPN quote
Speaker 1: I flatly reject that there is evidentiary or factual basis
Speaker 1: for the narrative that players have too much power end quote,
Speaker 1: and that it's quote disingenuous to simultaneously agree that the
Speaker 1: league has been completely transformed and we've created a healthier,
Speaker 1: better work environment and culture, and to simultaneously claim that
Speaker 1: players have too much power, because you can't have one
Speaker 1: without the other. The players did the work of transforming
Speaker 1: the league. There was no savior, no league, no team,
Speaker 1: no one else who is going to come in and TRANSFORMSL.
Speaker 1: It was the players themselves. End quote. Burke added that
Speaker 1: in her view and he, concerns about holding meetings with
Speaker 1: players are due to quote misinterpretations of band conduct. The
Speaker 1: survey also found that GMS are concerned about the league
Speaker 1: spending too much money too quickly, that seventy nine percent
Speaker 1: of respondents believe teams don't follow league rules when it
Speaker 1: comes to discovery, which is basically calling DIBs on certain players,
Speaker 1: and that many teams frequently pay off the record additional
Speaker 1: compensation to cheat the salary cap. We'll link to that
Speaker 1: ESPN story in our notes. Two women's basketball. The twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four national champions South Carolina game Cocks basketball team
Speaker 1: made their trip to the White House yesterday, led by
Speaker 1: head coach Don Staley. In his opening remarks, President Biden
Speaker 1: said of the program, quote, I know why you're so good.
Speaker 1: You've got a girl from Philly running this team. I'm
Speaker 1: married to Philly girl. You don't screw around with a
Speaker 1: Philly girl. Man, They're tough Jilly from Philly. End quote.
Speaker 1: We love the super cute chaut out to first Lady
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but we got to say that nickname's already taken,
Speaker 1: and it's taken by in comp singer and actress Jill Scott.
Speaker 1: And while we're on Jill Scott, I advise you to
Speaker 1: look up the live version of the Roots. You got
Speaker 1: me with Jill Scott. Hits different and it was on
Speaker 1: my pregame mix for every game and every track meet
Speaker 1: from senior year of high school all the way through college.
Speaker 1: I promise you won't be sorry you got me roots
Speaker 1: Jill Scott do it In any event, it was an
Speaker 1: incredible celebration for a team that accomplished amazing things last season.
Speaker 1: Led by Camila Cardoso, the crew from Columbia South Carolina
Speaker 1: finished with a dazzling thirty eight to oh record, becoming
Speaker 1: just the tenth Division one women's team in history to
Speaker 1: finish the season undefeated, and they did it after losing
Speaker 1: all five starters from the year prior. This year, they'll
Speaker 1: have four of their five starters back, which is frankly
Speaker 1: scary hours I can't wait to see what the Cox
Speaker 1: cook up in twenty four to twenty five. More college hoops.
Speaker 1: Four time Team Canada Olympia Natalie Chanwall is headed to
Speaker 1: the University of Michigan to serve as assistant coach for
Speaker 1: player development. It's a new adventure for her following her
Speaker 1: retirement from international basketball after the Paris olymp but it's
Speaker 1: not her first dip into the off court side of
Speaker 1: college ball. She spent some time as interim director of
Speaker 1: operations at her alma mater, Notre Dame. In twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: She'll joined Kim Barnes Arico's staff in ann Arbor after
Speaker 1: the Wolverines finished the twenty twenty three to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four season with a twenty and fourteen record, losing in
Speaker 1: the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Achanwa brings a
Speaker 1: ton of hoops experience to this role. Obviously, in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, she was the youngest player ever selected
Speaker 1: to the Canadian senior national team, and she's got more
Speaker 1: Olympic appearances than any other team Canada basketball player. She
Speaker 1: spent eight years in the w starting her career with
Speaker 1: the Fever and concluding it with the Lynks, and she
Speaker 1: helped the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to three national championship
Speaker 1: appearances during her time as a player. Michigan's getting a
Speaker 1: good one there to the WNBA. With less than two
Speaker 1: weeks remaining in the regular season, the playoff picture is
Speaker 1: nearly complete. Seven teams have clinched a postseason birth, while
Speaker 1: the Chicago Sky, the Atlanta Dream, and the Washington Mystics
Speaker 1: are all still battling for the eighth and final spot.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks have been officially
Speaker 1: eliminated from playoff contention. Three games tonight, including a consequential
Speaker 1: matchup between the number eight Sky and the number ten Mystics.
Speaker 1: Those teams are only separated by two games in the standings,
Speaker 1: and with the win, the Sticks could close the gap
Speaker 1: to one. This will be the Sky's second matchup without
Speaker 1: Angel Rees, who's out for the season, but their third
Speaker 1: with explosive score Kennedy carter Back in the lineup. A
Speaker 1: loss would definitely loosen Chicago's grip on the last seed
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and it would be their eighth loss
Speaker 1: in the last ten games. We'll link to the full
Speaker 1: schedule of w games in our show notes. Finally, in
Speaker 1: w News, WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert went on CNBC's Power
Speaker 1: Lunch on Monday, and CNBC anchor Tyler Matheson brought up
Speaker 1: the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, how it
Speaker 1: began in college but became something altogether different in the
Speaker 1: W Here's a bit of their exchange.
Speaker 2: Now, it seems on some social media channels to have
Speaker 2: taken a darker turn, a more menacing turn, where race
Speaker 2: has been introduced into the conversation, where sexuality is sometimes
Speaker 2: introduced into the conversation.
Speaker 1: How do you.
Speaker 3: Try and stay ahead of that, try and tamp it
Speaker 3: down or act as a league when two of your
Speaker 3: most visible players are involved, not personally, it would seem,
Speaker 3: but their fan bases are involved in saying some very
Speaker 3: uncharitable things.
Speaker 4: Well, the one thing that's great about the league right now,
Speaker 4: we do sit at this intersection of culture and sport
Speaker 4: and fashion and music. Like the WNBA players are really
Speaker 4: looked at now as kind of cultural icons. True, and
Speaker 4: when you have that, you have a lot of attention
Speaker 4: on you. There's no more apathy.
Speaker 1: Everybody cares.
Speaker 4: It is a little that bird magic moment if you
Speaker 4: recall from nineteen seventy nine when those two rookies came
Speaker 4: in from a big college rivalry, one white, one black,
Speaker 4: and so we have that moment with these two. But
Speaker 4: the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry.
Speaker 4: That's what makes people watch. They want to watch games
Speaker 4: of consequence between rivals. They don't want everybody being nice
Speaker 4: to one another. So social media is different today and
Speaker 4: it was in nineteen seventy nine when it didn't exist.
Speaker 4: But you know, I always tell the players, you know,
Speaker 4: I was told a long time ago. If someone's typing
Speaker 4: something in and you wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Ask their advice, ignore it.
Speaker 4: So it's it's a balance, but certainly from a marketing dollars,
Speaker 4: But corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players
Speaker 4: much much more so than they were five years ago
Speaker 4: because they see the benefit of having women and diverse
Speaker 4: women representing their brand.
Speaker 1: So plenty to say about this, and plenty of folks
Speaker 1: are talking about this. We're going to get into it
Speaker 1: more on Friday's show, but I want to say quickly,
Speaker 1: Engelbert isn't wrong. Nothing she said there was inaccurate, but
Speaker 1: it was incomplete, and it sounded like someone who prioritizes
Speaker 1: capitalism and the business side of her job over the
Speaker 1: empathy and leadership side. Obviously, when she talks about social
Speaker 1: media and the idea of you know, you wouldn't ask
Speaker 1: them for advice, to don't listen to them, it sounds simple,
Speaker 1: but when so much of your economic opportunity as a league,
Speaker 1: so much of the conversation around the league, and frankly,
Speaker 1: so much of life for young people takes place online
Speaker 1: and to simply say, don't read the comments, which I
Speaker 1: do have a key chain that says that and tries
Speaker 1: to remind me of that. Simply saying that is not enough,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't acknowledge how much business actually gets done
Speaker 1: on social media. And it reminded me of the way
Speaker 1: the league never really worked to get ahead of this problem.
Speaker 1: We saw this bubbling, and as the anchor on CNBC remarks,
Speaker 1: through the college rivalry, there were hints that this was
Speaker 1: going to take a darker turn, and the league really
Speaker 1: could have had a more concerted effort when the season
Speaker 1: started to combat some of the conversations, to make sure
Speaker 1: informed people were leading the conversations. And I even look
Speaker 1: at the way this league and its players have come
Speaker 1: together in the past around issues as serious as trying
Speaker 1: to elect people into prominent political positions in the US.
Speaker 1: When they work together and they act together, they get
Speaker 1: shit done. And it feels like there wasn't that collective
Speaker 1: effort in this case to prioritize not just the experience
Speaker 1: of the rookies, but the way the league was entering
Speaker 1: this new era of attention. And I think Kathy Engelbert,
Speaker 1: perhaps as a leader. If this is the way she'd
Speaker 1: used this problem is part of the issue there. Claire Watkins,
Speaker 1: a Great women's sports reporter, asked on Twitter, this is
Speaker 1: a real question. Is there anyone in the league office
Speaker 1: who has shown Engelbert what it is exactly a player
Speaker 1: like Ree sees on her social media every day. It's
Speaker 1: a great point if Engelbert is too distanced from the
Speaker 1: actual experience of the players to recognize the severity of this,
Speaker 1: which includes death threats and I know where you live
Speaker 1: and here's your address, and awful, racist and homophobic and
Speaker 1: every other kind of comment that these players are getting.
Speaker 1: She might feel like her answer was comprehensive enough. It
Speaker 1: clearly wasn't. This isn't just a dog on Kathy, but
Speaker 1: it is to say that as the league increases in
Speaker 1: popularity and attention, so too must it acknowledge the responsibility
Speaker 1: that it has to handle big issues like this. This
Speaker 1: answer was a fail. It was incomplete. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about this more later, and by then we probably
Speaker 1: will hear from players too. In fact, some of them
Speaker 1: are already out there very clearly speaking their mind about
Speaker 1: what they saw from Kathy. I haven't seen many full
Speaker 1: on say this is what she should have said or
Speaker 1: I disagree with that, but there are some pretty obvious ones.
Speaker 1: Brianna Turner, for example, wrote, I stand against all forms
Speaker 1: of discrimination, hatred, and bias, especially in reference to sports.
Speaker 1: The intersection of racism and sports should always be rejected.
Speaker 1: No platform is too big or too small to stand
Speaker 1: for the right thing, no excuses. She posted that to
Speaker 1: social no context. I think it's pretty clear that she
Speaker 1: was suggesting that that's something Kathy Engelbert should have said.
Speaker 1: I agree, although I'll say that the simplistic idea of
Speaker 1: like denouncing racism, homophobia, sexism, yeah, absolutely start with that.
Speaker 1: But ultimately the question here for Kathy, and the larger
Speaker 1: question for the league is what do you plan to
Speaker 1: do about this? How do you get ahead of it?
Speaker 1: Not just how do you respond to it, but how
Speaker 1: are you preventative or how are you collective in your
Speaker 1: efforts to make sure that it doesn't get fostered by
Speaker 1: anyone in the media, by fan bases, by groups that
Speaker 1: allege to support you, your team, or your league. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people are going to call for
Speaker 1: Kathy to explicitly face this issue head on and that's accurate,
Speaker 1: Like you have an opportunity there to speak head on
Speaker 1: to an issue that has plagued this league since its
Speaker 1: beginnings and very clearly has taken on an even darker
Speaker 1: turn this year, and she didn't do it. And criticism
Speaker 1: for that is completely fair. But to be honest, at
Speaker 1: this point, I think we're so beyond needing to just
Speaker 1: say racism bad that I want to hear more definitive
Speaker 1: ways that she wants to respond. It feels like this
Speaker 1: league is very aware of the homophobian racism that plagues
Speaker 1: women's sports par particularly the w and the coaches are
Speaker 1: and probably most of the front office. I just don't
Speaker 1: know if Kathy wants it to be part of her job,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to speak out a turn. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much she does behind the scenes, and frankly,
Speaker 1: I haven't done reporting on whether behind the scenes she
Speaker 1: is active in this, but that answer certainly led me
Speaker 1: to believe that she isn't. She's more focused on the
Speaker 1: business side and props to the business of the W
Speaker 1: going the direction that's going in. But Kathy needs to
Speaker 1: care as much about this issue, and she needs to
Speaker 1: make that clear when she does interviews like this and
Speaker 1: when she's making decisions about the league moving forward. Finally,
Speaker 1: there's a new research report from the Women's Sports Foundation
Speaker 1: titled Play to Lead The Generational Impact of Sports on
Speaker 1: Women's Leadership, and this breakthrough study reveals the profound cross
Speaker 1: generational impact youth sport participation has on women's leadership development.
Speaker 1: It's a survey of multiple generations of women, from those
Speaker 1: in their twenties all the way up to their eighties,
Speaker 1: exploring the effects of policy driven changes, most notably the
Speaker 1: passage of Title nine in nineteen seventy two, and diving
Speaker 1: into the barriers that have impeded full and sustained sport
Speaker 1: participation across the decades. Now, some of this reporting is
Speaker 1: stuff that I've been talking about people in this industry
Speaker 1: have been talking about for a really long time. We
Speaker 1: know that early access to sport and youth participation tied
Speaker 1: directly to leadership at the highest levels. You've likely heard
Speaker 1: that longsighted Ernst and Young report ninety four percent of
Speaker 1: C suite women played sports, a staggering number. But there's
Speaker 1: new takeaways from this research that I found surprising to
Speaker 1: including the fact that the youngest group of women interviewed.
Speaker 1: Those in their twenties have escalating concerns around barriers to
Speaker 1: full and safe participation as a component of youth sports.
Speaker 1: That means those who most recently participated in youth sports
Speaker 1: see problems and see those problems getting worse. The report
Speaker 1: recommends all sorts of potential policy action, like advocating for
Speaker 1: Title nine to be enforced at all levels of education,
Speaker 1: starting even younger, expanding the Equity and Athletics Disclosure Act
Speaker 1: to include second education programs, and advocating for US Congress
Speaker 1: to pass the Fair Play for Women Act. It also
Speaker 1: suggests other solutions, including elevating youth sport coaching training, expanding
Speaker 1: the number of women coaches through training and active recruitment,
Speaker 1: and prioritizing mental health and wellness support. There's a ton
Speaker 1: of good stuff in this report, and the most important
Speaker 1: part might be that it gives us the hard data
Speaker 1: on the impact of sport for women on future leaders
Speaker 1: and women's success in the workplace, and the effect it
Speaker 1: has on our economy as a whole. And we know
Speaker 1: how much people are moved by the business case for things,
Speaker 1: by the economics of things. We understand how important it
Speaker 1: is to keep putting this data in front of decision
Speaker 1: makers and having them see the direct correlation between girls
Speaker 1: and women in sport and what that means for our economy.
Speaker 1: We should care a whole lot about whether we're helping
Speaker 1: the next generation, and that includes all of them, regardless
Speaker 1: of economic status, race ability. How to get all of
Speaker 1: them access to sport so that we can ensure that
Speaker 1: the future includes more women in those leadership positions. You
Speaker 1: can find the full Women's Sports Foundation report in the
Speaker 1: show notes, and I highly recommend a lot of you
Speaker 1: checking it out. It's good stuff, all right, my little
Speaker 1: orange slices. I got to give you a little context
Speaker 1: here ahead of my interview with La sparkstar Derika Hamby.
Speaker 1: So last month, Hanby filed a federal lawsuit against her
Speaker 1: former team, the Las Vegas Aces, as well as the
Speaker 1: WNBA itself. She claimed that she was discriminated against on
Speaker 1: the basis of pregnancy.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: She was a member of the Aces from twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: through twenty twenty two, and she signed a two year
Speaker 1: contract extension in June of twenty two. She says that
Speaker 1: to sweeten that extension offer, the Aces made specific assurances
Speaker 1: outside the contract, including allegedly promising to pay the private
Speaker 1: school tuition of her daughter through a school quote unquote donation,
Speaker 1: and to supply both assistance with childcare and housing accommodations.
Speaker 1: Just days after Hamby and the a has won the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two WNBA title, she announced that she was
Speaker 1: pregnant with her second child. According to her lawsuit, Hamby
Speaker 1: says that following that pregnancy announcement, she experienced changes in
Speaker 1: how she was treated. She alleges that Ace's head coach,
Speaker 1: Becky Hammond, made hostile and discriminatory remarks about her pregnancy,
Speaker 1: and she says Hammond accused her of signing her contract
Speaker 1: extension while knowingly pregnant, not taking proper precautions to avoid
Speaker 1: another pregnancy, and more. Now, if you remember, this isn't
Speaker 1: the first time the topic has come up. On the
Speaker 1: day that Hamby was traded to the Sparks, she took
Speaker 1: to social media to publicly accuse the Aces of misconduct,
Speaker 1: and in February of last year, the WNBA announced that
Speaker 1: it was investigating her allegations. The league ultimately stripped the
Speaker 1: Aces of a first round draft pick as punishment for
Speaker 1: quote impermissible player benefits since those aforementioned assurances about the
Speaker 1: school tuition and the childcare payments violate the WNBA standard
Speaker 1: player contract. The league also suspended Hammond for two games
Speaker 1: for violating league and team respect in the Workplace policies,
Speaker 1: but Hamby's federal lawsuit takes the case to a new level.
Speaker 1: Details in the law lawsuit alleged that the Aces directed
Speaker 1: players to stop communicating with her, and that the team
Speaker 1: didn't invite her to the team's WNBA title white House
Speaker 1: ceremony with Vice president Kamala Harris, among other things. She
Speaker 1: also says the WNBA refused to extend a marketing contract
Speaker 1: that paid her in addition to her player salary. WNBA
Speaker 1: has said it's reviewing the complaint, and Hamminis denied wrongdoing
Speaker 1: on multiple occasions, but while the legal process unfolds, Hambias
Speaker 1: had to deal with harassment, including from Las Vegas Aces fans.
Speaker 1: When the Sparks played the Aces in Vegas last month,
Speaker 1: she was booed just about every time she touched the ball,
Speaker 1: despite helping that team to its first title just two
Speaker 1: seasons ago. Deerica is limited on what she's allowed to
Speaker 1: say about the case given that it's still ongoing. But
Speaker 1: I did get her thoughts on what it's been like
Speaker 1: playing under so much pressure and how she handled the
Speaker 1: hostile response from the Aces fans, plus a whole lot more.
Speaker 1: That conversation's coming up next stick Around. She's a WNBA champion,
Speaker 1: a three time All Star at two times sixth Woman
Speaker 1: of the Year, and an Olympic bronze medalist three x
Speaker 1: three at the Paris Games. She's the mother of two,
Speaker 1: and she broke my Sky fan heart with her insane
Speaker 1: last second half court game winner against Chicago in the
Speaker 1: second round of the twenty nineteen playoffs. It's the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Sparks, Dereka Hanby, what's up, Dereka?
Speaker 5: You haven't healed from that.
Speaker 1: No, that was a terrible play on all accounts by
Speaker 1: the Sky. But you also had to make the shot
Speaker 1: to make.
Speaker 5: It hurt, and you did, which was meant to be
Speaker 5: a lot of.
Speaker 1: Was it for who?
Speaker 5: For who? For me?
Speaker 1: Who was in charge of that kind of destiny?
Speaker 5: Referee?
Speaker 1: That's right. I want to start with the most important thing,
Speaker 1: which is your cute little babies. I want to know
Speaker 1: where the names came from. Amaya and legend Marie.
Speaker 5: Uh So, Amya.
Speaker 6: She's actually in the shooting basketball right now, but I
Speaker 6: just wanted to stick with an a name. Her father's
Speaker 6: names Alonso, so I was trying to kind of keep
Speaker 6: that thing going. And Marie is my family's like middle name,
Speaker 6: my mom's middle name, my grandmoms, my sister, so felt
Speaker 6: I wanted to keep that going. And then when I
Speaker 6: had a son, I was like, he can't be Murray,
Speaker 6: so he'll be like Mari and so r e E
Speaker 6: and his name just kind of just kind of crazy
Speaker 6: how it came about. I was at All Star weekend
Speaker 6: and I had to bracelet on my wrists and at
Speaker 6: the time I didn't know, but uh like I was pregnant,
Speaker 6: and the bracest said legend, and I was talking to
Speaker 6: Kelsey Plum and I was like, I'm gonna name my
Speaker 6: next kid this like legend And then sure enough, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm not gonna lie as a person whose name
Speaker 1: is better than my siblings, because just Sarah Spain, the
Speaker 1: alliteration is better than Katie Spain. I've always wondered if
Speaker 1: she's like, why didn't I get the cool name? And
Speaker 1: I feel like Amaya might be like, I'm just a
Speaker 1: Maya and my legend but I can't honestly might inspire
Speaker 1: her to greatness, I would just like spite.
Speaker 5: Oh she's on it.
Speaker 6: She's she works already, Like she's in there working out
Speaker 6: right now and play. So I'm hoping she likes tennis
Speaker 6: and she's really picked up on it, So hoping she's
Speaker 6: gonna stay with that.
Speaker 1: Okay, you might have inspired her with those name choices.
Speaker 1: What's been the best part of adding the job of
Speaker 1: mom to your job of basketball player?
Speaker 6: Just having like a little mini me, you know, she's
Speaker 6: just the life I get to experience is one thing,
Speaker 6: Like you know, your parents are like, oh, I got
Speaker 6: to do this and do that, And I think it's
Speaker 6: pretty cool. Me and my mom were really close growing up.
Speaker 6: She had me at seventeen, so we've always had a really.
Speaker 5: Good relationship, close relationship.
Speaker 6: So to be able to kind of repeat that with
Speaker 6: my daughter and have her goal along and experience everything,
Speaker 6: this meant a lot to me, and I know it'll
Speaker 6: mean a lot to her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last weekend, your Sparks were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Speaker 1: What are your teammates and coaches saying about staying motivated,
Speaker 1: staying competitive through the end of the season.
Speaker 6: Uh, just we're just talking about the future and continue
Speaker 6: to build and while it obviously isn't going to quite
Speaker 6: matter right now, and just continue to do little.
Speaker 5: Things and continue to get better.
Speaker 6: If we just had a meeting, coach had to treat
Speaker 6: this like our playoffs, because we're going to get back
Speaker 6: to backs with Connecticut and Seattle and like you would
Speaker 6: typically do that in a playoff series.
Speaker 5: So just kind of get a little experience with that
Speaker 5: going through that process.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I mean going into the season, it wasn't
Speaker 6: We didn't have the highest expectations, and I think at
Speaker 6: a point in time we thought like we could still
Speaker 6: be pretty good, but we obviously had some bad luck
Speaker 6: with some injuries that happened. But we're excited. We got
Speaker 6: good pieces. Obviously we're gonna add another piece probably in
Speaker 6: the draft. Yeah, we're gonna be good to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there might be a there might be a chance
Speaker 1: we see Page Beckers there this year.
Speaker 6: We won't.
Speaker 1: We will, you know, I don't want any tampering. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the rules are for you in potential
Speaker 1: first round picks, but you're looking at the future and
Speaker 1: you do have Rakia Jackson, one of the stellar rookies
Speaker 1: to come out of this year's draft class, who's been
Speaker 1: just playing her ass off. You've gotten to watch her
Speaker 1: up close all season. What makes her so special and
Speaker 1: what do you see for her future in the league.
Speaker 6: I mean, she's just skilled, honestly, on both ends of
Speaker 6: the ball. I know we obviously have seen her offensive talent,
Speaker 6: but her lengthdin and versatility, she can be special in
Speaker 6: defense as well. And honestly, I think after like her
Speaker 6: second her third week here, I wrote her a letter
Speaker 6: and I told her that she was the future of
Speaker 6: this team and that she was the start. And at
Speaker 6: that point she hadn't even hear her stradia, and I
Speaker 6: know she was frustrated, and I tried to keep reminding her,
Speaker 6: like it's gonna click, it's gonna click, like you know,
Speaker 6: just the new the rookie transition. And at the beginning,
Speaker 6: with some injury, she was playing out of position, so
Speaker 6: it was a little hard. You know, she was at
Speaker 6: the four going against like me, and so it was
Speaker 6: kind of frustrating for her. But I just tried to
Speaker 6: be in her ear, just remind her how confident she
Speaker 6: needs to stay in that how good she's going to be.
Speaker 1: That's a vet move. But it's also kind of a
Speaker 1: mom bove to take the right under your wing and
Speaker 1: write her a letter. That's really sweet.
Speaker 6: Oh, every I wrote all my teammates letters, maybe after
Speaker 6: the first couple of weeks. Yeah, just about what they
Speaker 6: could do well and just kind of things they give
Speaker 6: them confidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's old school, instead of sending them a text
Speaker 1: or an email. Do you have specific like special paper
Speaker 1: or cards that you use.
Speaker 6: Oh, Maya got we got index cards and I let
Speaker 6: Maya decorate them and they get kind of lazy towards
Speaker 6: the end. But that was something that when Maya was here,
Speaker 6: she was fresh out of school. Also, it was just
Speaker 6: an opportunity for also met Amita Bond and I wrote
Speaker 6: them out on my phone and then I just kind
Speaker 6: of like translated them over and I gave them before game.
Speaker 6: And I think it meant a lots of them are
Speaker 6: Kisa that she still has it on refrigerator actually, so ah,
Speaker 6: that was great on the line for her to hopefully
Speaker 6: share that story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yet another rookie phenom and Cameron Brink and her
Speaker 1: injury was a real disappointment for the Sparks, especially to
Speaker 1: have to see a rookie go down like that. How
Speaker 1: has the team sort of supported her and how is
Speaker 1: she handled being sidelined really well?
Speaker 6: I mean, if you know anything about him, she's she's
Speaker 6: super sensitive and she's hard on herself, and so I
Speaker 6: think initially it was I mean, I don't think for
Speaker 6: anybody to be really draining, but I think she's slipped
Speaker 6: her perspective and she knows it's a good opportunity for
Speaker 6: her to get stronger, watch a lot of film and
Speaker 6: just grow, and you know, she got a taste of it,
Speaker 6: and so I think she's going to be prepared, you know,
Speaker 6: come back next season and she'll have a growth a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, we never want anyone to get hurt,
Speaker 1: but her injury did open up a spot for you
Speaker 1: on the Olympic three x three squad. Can you take
Speaker 1: us through how you got that news that you would
Speaker 1: be elevated and playing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, very disappointed at first on the initial selection process.
Speaker 6: I won't speak too much because obviously I still ended
Speaker 6: up on the team. And yeah, you know, Cam and
Speaker 6: I were on that phone call together and we were
Speaker 6: both crying and like, I was happy for her, but
Speaker 6: she was like sad for me. So we kind of
Speaker 6: went through that process together and actually a couple of
Speaker 6: days ago we had another conversation about it and she
Speaker 6: was talking about how she thinks were intertwined and just
Speaker 6: I was like meant to me and like a moment
Speaker 6: for her to have like like tremendous growth in her
Speaker 6: life because of where she was at with basketball, and
Speaker 6: so it was kind of like a sad.
Speaker 5: But like a bonding moment for us.
Speaker 6: And she was super supportive and I'm gonna be there
Speaker 6: for her through this process as much as I can.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I got the phone call.
Speaker 6: It was ironically, I was already in Connecticut with the Rosati,
Speaker 6: the head coach of three on three, and the day
Speaker 6: before we had sat down for a little bit and
Speaker 6: we kind of talked about it and maybe an alternate
Speaker 6: and so the way it kind of played out the
Speaker 6: day after that was kind of like bittersweet, which is
Speaker 6: I feel like for me, I wasn't able to fully
Speaker 6: like you know, processing to be excited because I was
Speaker 6: still just so like in shock for camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's wild though, that she was the one comforting
Speaker 1: you after the initial roster decision and then you're the
Speaker 1: one comforting her after the jury. It does sort of
Speaker 1: connect you to in a really special way. I know
Speaker 1: that the new three on three not three x three
Speaker 1: because Unrivaled is using three on three and they have
Speaker 1: different rules. That new league is going to be different
Speaker 1: than the Olympic version. But there's obviously a lot of
Speaker 1: crossover when you've got three on three play. So are
Speaker 1: you going to be generous with your advice for competitors
Speaker 1: or are you keeping those secrets to yourself.
Speaker 6: I mean it's gonna be new to me quite honestly.
Speaker 6: I mean it's still it's five on five court style
Speaker 6: because you're still going up and down, right, So I think.
Speaker 1: Are going to be because they're using both sides of
Speaker 1: the court like three x three.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's gonna be players that have advantages just because
Speaker 6: like foot speed up and down. I think I'll be
Speaker 6: one of those. But just a great opportunity. You know,
Speaker 6: the best players in the world are gonna be in
Speaker 6: the city of Miami, you know, getting better and competing
Speaker 6: and just bringing more attention to women's basketball. So I'm
Speaker 6: looking forward to you know, I get to go and
Speaker 6: learn more. I mean, I'm ten years in and I
Speaker 6: still have to go so to be able to be
Speaker 6: around the best players in the world.
Speaker 5: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I'm excited, and I'm I'm a really big fan of
Speaker 1: when you've got a versatile player that can be a
Speaker 1: big and still shoot threes, like you know, handle the ball.
Speaker 1: So you're right, those players that have enough size and
Speaker 1: length to be tough on defense and to take up
Speaker 1: space in a three x three situation, but also can
Speaker 1: have the speed to play full court as opposed to that.
Speaker 1: That benefit in three x three was that you weren't
Speaker 1: having to run the floor, but they're gonna make you
Speaker 1: work for it, which I mean, if it's no Fisa
Speaker 1: and Brianna, that's why that's happening. They basically created the
Speaker 1: thing that was the best for their skill set.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think you're gonna have to be in
Speaker 6: better conditioning to do three x three, honestly, because you know,
Speaker 6: three on three you can kind of walk the ball
Speaker 6: up a little bit, so you might be able to
Speaker 6: That's fair.
Speaker 1: That's fair, and I didn't even think about that. You
Speaker 1: get a little break between the reaction and the.
Speaker 6: Games will probably be longer, so there's a little bit
Speaker 6: more room for air versus. But it's like one on
Speaker 6: one and so We're.
Speaker 1: Gonna see who's got the handles, that's for sure. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be fun. I'm excited for that. So, speaking of competing,
Speaker 1: Maya's auntie, Olivia Nelson Adota plays for the son sister
Speaker 1: of Maya's dad. When you play each other, does that
Speaker 1: connection make you go extra hard or do you take
Speaker 1: it easy on her?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 6: I think I'd take it easy on her. I mean,
Speaker 6: she'd probably to take it hard, but I have a
Speaker 6: little soft spot for her.
Speaker 5: So I've known her since she at least it's on
Speaker 5: Maya seven, I've been ten.
Speaker 6: Fourteen, sixteen years. Wow, So i've known her. She was
Speaker 6: kind of mean to me when she was little, so
Speaker 6: like a protective little system.
Speaker 5: But no, we have a great relationship.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: I'm just trying to be supported to her and be
Speaker 6: there for her and in all areas of life. And
Speaker 6: I'm thankful for that relationship.
Speaker 1: What if Amia wants to wear her jersey instead of yours?
Speaker 5: How does that?
Speaker 1: What happens?
Speaker 6: Then she says she's just she said she doesn't cheer
Speaker 6: against us, but whoever wins, she's happy for them.
Speaker 1: Perfect. Can I ask about when your sparks went to Vegas?
Speaker 1: Some of the aces fans booed you despite you having
Speaker 1: a major role in getting the team its first title.
Speaker 1: How did that feel in that moment, because I have
Speaker 1: not seen a single person, former player or a fan
Speaker 1: say that they felt that that was a fair move
Speaker 1: from the fans.
Speaker 6: Ironically, I tried to process it and prepare myself in
Speaker 6: a sense, but it's still you can't really prepare for
Speaker 6: it until you go through it and I fall back
Speaker 6: tears like the entire game like.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was heartbreaking, but I you know, people don't
Speaker 6: fully know and understand. They're just going off the sport
Speaker 6: aspect of it. So I understand that. But it was
Speaker 6: a moment that I had, like leading up to it,
Speaker 6: I had severe like overwhelmingness and like anxiety in my stomach.
Speaker 6: But that process has passed. I'm just looking forward to
Speaker 6: the right thing being done.
Speaker 1: I don't blame you for having that reaction, and I
Speaker 1: think as much as we can know that fans operate
Speaker 1: from this sense of us versus them, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that it doesn't hurt in that moment. What would you
Speaker 1: say to those fans about what they didn't understand about
Speaker 1: you coming back to play there?
Speaker 6: I don't know if they're new fans. I think a
Speaker 6: lot of the old fans probably weren't participating in that. Yeah,
Speaker 6: just like the loving heart that I poured into being
Speaker 6: a part of that, and I didn't like ask to
Speaker 6: leave so to say.
Speaker 5: So, you know, it's a complicated situation.
Speaker 6: For all them and fans included, and it was like
Speaker 6: kind of torn but.
Speaker 5: Is eventually hoping to have it all situated and figured out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted it to be like that NBA game
Speaker 1: where Popovich like grabbed the mic midgame and was like
Speaker 1: shut up. I wanted like Kelsey or someone to hop
Speaker 1: on and be like, okay, everybody, like we're not doing that.
Speaker 1: But I know that's easier said than done. From afar,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with Michael Jordan's massive Jordan obsessed with both
Speaker 1: the gear but also the guy. I'm a Chicago getal,
Speaker 1: you're a Jordan athlete, So I got to know, like,
Speaker 1: what's the best thing you've been gifted by Jordan brand
Speaker 1: or like the coolest experience that you got because of
Speaker 1: your partnership.
Speaker 6: I would just say the ability I get so many shoes,
Speaker 6: Like actually, I don't even know if it was really
Speaker 6: like put out there, but I sign up for extension.
Speaker 1: Congrats amazing.
Speaker 6: Yeah signed four years. I just what the brand stands
Speaker 6: for and just how comfortable and how loving they are,
Speaker 6: and you know they kind of cater to you as
Speaker 6: a person and an athlete. My family, I just always
Speaker 6: have really appreciated and they just do right by you.
Speaker 6: And like I said, like I love representing the brand
Speaker 6: and I'm excited.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to think about like Christmas presents.
Speaker 1: You just got the play and everybody gets Jays. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I send everybody Nike money and say like, yes please,
Speaker 1: that's I need someone in my family to design with Jordan,
Speaker 1: because I've been sitting on stock X just throwing throwing
Speaker 1: cash at all my jays. What's your goal for this offseason,
Speaker 1: including both playing and unrivaled and looking ahead to next season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it just continues to get better. You know.
Speaker 6: I think I obviously took a tremendous growth Elite this year,
Speaker 6: and I still think I have more.
Speaker 5: That I can add to my game. First of all,
Speaker 5: I need to make graph free throws.
Speaker 6: I think if not saying, we'd be in the playoffs.
Speaker 6: But you know there's a lot of games I've we
Speaker 6: kind of lost to a couple of points. So just
Speaker 6: being able to knock down free throw shots because I
Speaker 6: an't getting into the line, and I would say at
Speaker 6: a midrange game, I've shot, I'm shooting the ball well
Speaker 6: from the three, and obviously it's at the paint, but
Speaker 6: teams are guarding me a little bit different now. So
Speaker 6: being able to kind of have that mid range area
Speaker 6: under control.
Speaker 5: I think you see it in Likenfisa and Asian Stewey.
Speaker 5: So being able to add that to my.
Speaker 1: Game, Yeah, well we'll be watching. We'll be watching for
Speaker 1: the free throws too, I can I can bet on
Speaker 1: that now that you said you're going to work on it.
Speaker 1: We're always one of my goals.
Speaker 6: I had a little basketball, a big bass of dub
Speaker 6: Bay ball, and I wrote down my goals for the
Speaker 6: year and I think I said eighty percent. I'm nowhere
Speaker 6: to hear that, so but at least I was thinking
Speaker 6: about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just keep at it. Just roll that roll the
Speaker 1: goals ball over to the next season too. Don't need
Speaker 1: to start a new keep. Some of those just add
Speaker 1: to it. Thank you so much for coming on. I
Speaker 1: was so great to talk to. Enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: your season. Appreciate the time.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Deerica for the time. We got to
Speaker 1: take another break. When we come back. A pair of
Speaker 1: Hoopers entered the hallowed halls of the Good Game Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. It's next, You're back, We're back to We're
Speaker 1: all back together, and I'm still feeling inspired by Deerica,
Speaker 1: who's absolutely killing it as a Hooper and a mom.
Speaker 1: So inspired another entry into the Good Game Hall of Fame. Okay, so,
Speaker 1: just to remind her, Deerica had her son Legend on
Speaker 1: March sixth, twenty twenty three. And get this, she returned
Speaker 1: to Sparks training camp seven and a half weeks later
Speaker 1: April twenty eight, twenty twenty three, and she proceeded to
Speaker 1: play all forty games that season. Insane, right, Well wait
Speaker 1: till you hear this. Way back in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: in the first season of the WNBA Friend of the Show,
Speaker 1: Cheryl Swoops was the face of the league. She was
Speaker 1: the first player to sign with the WNBA, the first
Speaker 1: to have her own signature. Shoe Anne was set to
Speaker 1: join the Houston Comments. Swoops was a big deal in
Speaker 1: Texas too, having put Texas Tech on her back, leading
Speaker 1: the program to its first and only NCAA championship in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. So Cheryl Swoops was pregnant before for
Speaker 1: the start of the ninety seven season and had her
Speaker 1: son Jordan great name just as the season tipped off.
Speaker 1: It took Cheryl just six weeks to return to the court. Now,
Speaker 1: she didn't play all forty games like Deerica, but her
Speaker 1: comments went on to win the first championship in WNBA
Speaker 1: history and then win three more in a row. The
Speaker 1: rest is well, you get it, and we got a
Speaker 1: shout out another friend of the show, Candace Parker, for
Speaker 1: her journey as a hooper and a mom too. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, Candas was at the top of
Speaker 1: her game, coming off two national championship titles with the
Speaker 1: University of Tennessee and an Olympic gold. She became the
Speaker 1: only player in w history to win Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year and MVP in the same season. And surprise, she
Speaker 1: did it all while pregnant. That's right, her daughter Laila
Speaker 1: was in her belly helping mama to that Olympic gold,
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year and MVP. Candas was back on
Speaker 1: the court and Staples Center fifty three days after giving
Speaker 1: birth to Laila, and was named to the All WNBA
Speaker 1: Second Team and All Defensive Second Team despite having missed
Speaker 1: almost a full month due to her maternity leave. She
Speaker 1: started her career as a mom, and in her final
Speaker 1: years playing she expanded her family and finished it as
Speaker 1: a mother of three. She married fellow Hooper on A
Speaker 1: Petrokova in twenty nineteen, and they've added two sons to
Speaker 1: the mix, Air born in twenty twenty two and Hart,
Speaker 1: born in May of this year. Cheryl set the precedent
Speaker 1: for Hooper moms in the w and Candace continued that legacy.
Speaker 1: Both proved that returning after birth might be difficult, but
Speaker 1: it isn't impossible. We salute you, Cheryl, Candace Deerica and
Speaker 1: all the athlete moms out there. Oh and miss Swoops
Speaker 1: and miss Parker. Welcome to the Good Game Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: We love that you're listening, but we want you to
Speaker 1: get in the game every day too, y'all know that.
Speaker 1: So here's our good Game Play of the day. It's
Speaker 1: inspired by that Women's Sports Foundation report we told you about.
Speaker 1: So we want to hear from you. How did your
Speaker 1: experience playing sports impact your life down the road, Got
Speaker 1: any great stories about it? Hit us up good game
Speaker 1: at wondermedianetwork dot com. Leave us a voicemail at eight
Speaker 1: seven two two o four fifty seventy. Hit me up
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Sarah Spain or on Instace at Spain
Speaker 1: two three two three, and don't forget to subscribe, rate
Speaker 1: and review. How many times do I have to tell? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really easy, guys. Just watch the White Sox Campfire
Speaker 1: milkshake rating incomplete out of five stars.
Speaker 5: Review.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to have one. The line was too long. Now,
Speaker 1: how is that possible, you asked, when the White Sox
Speaker 1: are the worst team in the history of baseball and
Speaker 1: their pathetic crowds are a thing of mockery on the interwebs,
Speaker 1: How was there a long line? I'm stumped, as you are.
Speaker 1: A list. This is what happened. A handful of my
Speaker 1: friends and I went to the game as like a
Speaker 1: bit like, let's support our White Sox fan friend for
Speaker 1: his birthday and witness the grossest, most heinous display of
Speaker 1: baseball ever put on a field. They'll be like seventeen
Speaker 1: of us. It'll be fun and it actually was fun,
Speaker 1: but there was like eleven thousand of us and the
Speaker 1: Guardians had a perfect game through six plus innings, so
Speaker 1: like for a while there we actually thought we might
Speaker 1: witness history. Alas, the White Sox got a hit and
Speaker 1: I missed out on like the main reason I was there,
Speaker 1: the infamous campfire milkshake. Pictures of this beautiful monstrosity have
Speaker 1: been taunting me for months. Chocolate milkshake, s'mores, Graham Cracker,
Speaker 1: Hershey Bar, marshmallows, and I was finally gonna get one
Speaker 1: until I got to the stand and I saw the line,
Speaker 1: dozens and dozens of people waiting and each marshmallow being
Speaker 1: meticulously placed atop the dairy delight. It was gonna take forever.
Speaker 1: Everybody get tamp today. What a disappointment. I might have
Speaker 1: to go back for it though, Like I'm really I
Speaker 1: really need to try this thing, and I hear it's
Speaker 1: dog Days at the park coming up, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: The wait talks about gets some more of my money.
Speaker 1: Now it's your Dirk rate and review. Thanks for listening, everybody,
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. Good game, Deerica, Good game, Cheryl and Candice.
Speaker 1: Few long lines for a great shake. From a shitty team.
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
Speaker 1: production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
Speaker 1: can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
Speaker 1: producers are Alex Azzi and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
Speaker 1: are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Jenny Kaplan, Emily Rudder, Brittany Martinez and
Speaker 1: Grace Lynch. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Speaker 1: Host Sarah Spain