Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're starting
Speaker 1: the show with a huge you to the lady with
Speaker 1: the band Nails shirt. At Wednesday nights, connecticuts on Indiana
Speaker 1: Fever Game, Go Kick Rocks Lady. On today's show, we
Speaker 1: got another group chat. We're talking all things WNBA with
Speaker 1: Jordan Robinson, co host of the Queens of the Court podcast,
Speaker 1: and Ben Pickman, women's basketball writer for The Athletic. Plus
Speaker 1: Captain Dick Rocket is at it again. It's all coming
Speaker 1: up right after this. Welcome back my little slices. Happy Friday.
Speaker 1: Here's what you need to know today. Round one of
Speaker 1: the WNBA Playoffs is complete and we're looking ahead to
Speaker 1: the semi finals that start on Sunday. First up, the
Speaker 1: New York Liberty host in the Las Vegas Aces at
Speaker 1: three pm Eastern on ABC. It's a twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: finals rematch and it's sure to be a hell of
Speaker 1: a five game series. Who will prevail in the Battle
Speaker 1: of the last two WNBA MVPs to Wilson or Brianna Stewart,
Speaker 1: Who will have the upper hand point guard Chelsea Gray
Speaker 1: or sabrinian Escu. Clear your schedule This one is going
Speaker 1: to be fun. Then, at eight thirty pm Eastern on ESPN,
Speaker 1: the Connecticut Sun played their first road game of these
Speaker 1: playoffs at the Minnesota Links. Will Nafisa Collier serve up
Speaker 1: another forty Burger can Alyssa Thomas at another triple double
Speaker 1: tour all time tally? Only time will tell. This should
Speaker 1: be a good one. Some more WNBA news, a w
Speaker 1: team might be in Philadelphia's future. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Speaker 1: the seventy six Ers have plans to bid for a team,
Speaker 1: a detail that was uncovered during a public city meeting
Speaker 1: about the seventy six ers new arena proposal on page
Speaker 1: sixty six of an eighty page PowerPoint presentation. In a
Speaker 1: statement to the Inquirer, a seventy six Ers team spokesperson said, quote,
Speaker 1: we share in Mayor Parker's desire to bring a WNBA
Speaker 1: franchise to Philadelphia and have been engaged with the league
Speaker 1: on the process. Our goal is for our new arena
Speaker 1: to service home to both the seventy six Ers and
Speaker 1: a WNBA franchise. End quote. We'll link to the Inquirer's
Speaker 1: full story in our show Notes to Soccer. There's one
Speaker 1: game in the NWSL Tonight, angel City FC host in
Speaker 1: the Washington Spirit at ten pm Eastern on Prime Video.
Speaker 1: Angel City is still sitting in the tenth spot in
Speaker 1: the standings with twenty two points, three points behind number
Speaker 1: eight Racing Louisville, and they'll try to close that gap
Speaker 1: with a win tonight. There are six more games this
Speaker 1: weekend as well, including a three to four matchup between
Speaker 1: Gotham FC and Casey Current on Saturday, and a five
Speaker 1: to six matchup between NC Courage and Chicago Red Stars
Speaker 1: on Sunday. We'll link to that full schedule in our
Speaker 1: show notes. Some exciting news for the NWSL as well.
Speaker 1: The average team now worth one hundred and four million dollars,
Speaker 1: up fifty seven percent from a year ago. According to Sportico,
Speaker 1: angel CITYFC, a club that joined the NWSL in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, leads the whole league with a two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollar valuation on its own. This comes
Speaker 1: in a year where the league is set records for attendance, revenue,
Speaker 1: and TV ratings. What's that age old adage we keep
Speaker 1: coming back to in women's sports, If you build it
Speaker 1: and invest in it, they will come to college volleyball,
Speaker 1: the non conference portion of the schedule has come to
Speaker 1: a close. So far, this season has been full of
Speaker 1: surprises and upsets. Pitt and Nebraska are currently holding court
Speaker 1: as the best teams in the land, and there's a
Speaker 1: slew of rank sides tipping off conference action over the weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll link to the full schedule in our show notes.
Speaker 1: The top three teams in the nation hit the court tonight. First,
Speaker 1: it's number three Stanford versus Notre Dame at six thirty Eastern,
Speaker 1: Then the aforementioned Pittsburgh Panthers against Clemson at seven eastern,
Speaker 1: followed by number two Nebraska playing UCLA at eight eastern
Speaker 1: to the ice. The college hockey season enters its second
Speaker 1: weekend with a big couple matchups. Number three Minnesota opens
Speaker 1: its season with back to back games on the road
Speaker 1: against number nine Connecticut tonight and Saturday, and number two
Speaker 1: Wisconsin opens its season at home with Lyndenwood visiting for
Speaker 1: a doubleheader. In college soccer, number three Duke takes the
Speaker 1: pitch tonight against Southern Methodist and number four UNC will
Speaker 1: face number nineteen Virginia, both at seven pm Eastern. A
Speaker 1: majority of the top tenor and Action on Sunday too.
Speaker 1: Will link to the entire weekend schedule in our show notes.
Speaker 1: We got to take a quick break. When we come back,
Speaker 1: time for another group chat with Jordan Robinson and Ben Pickman.
Speaker 1: It's time for group chat where we take the tea
Speaker 1: from the text to the airwaves. Joining us today, she's
Speaker 1: co host of the Queens of the Court podcast, host
Speaker 1: of the ESPN Plus show this Week in wcc Basketball,
Speaker 1: and hosts for the Women's Sports Network. She's co authoring
Speaker 1: a book on the history of women's hoops and you
Speaker 1: don't want to mess with her and her hubby in
Speaker 1: a co ed hoops league. It's Jordan Robinson. What's up, Jordan?
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm so glad that last part got in there.
Speaker 1: Yes, I've seen the picks. I've seen proof. Joining her,
Speaker 1: he's a staff writer at The Athletic, cover in the
Speaker 1: WNBA and women's college basketball, one of the hosts of
Speaker 1: the Athletic Women's Basketball Podcast. He's a Wisconsin alum, an
Speaker 1: elite camp counselor, and a marathon runner. It's Ben Pickman.
Speaker 1: What's up, Ben?
Speaker 3: Wow, that is a great introduction, but I'm still dwelling
Speaker 3: on Jordan's introduction because that just blew me away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Judy, about your championship, I would love to so
Speaker 2: me and my husband wearing a co ed league and
Speaker 2: we won the championship and it was amazing because I'm
Speaker 2: a guard, he's a post player, so my assists were up.
Speaker 2: He was dominating inside, I was shooting from the outside.
Speaker 2: Just a scary tandem to go up against.
Speaker 1: Yah sounds like a perfect perfect match in marriage and
Speaker 1: in hoops. Speaking of hoops, we are knee deep in
Speaker 1: the WNBA playoffs. There is so much to get to.
Speaker 1: I want to start with reflecting on the first round.
Speaker 1: I got called the casual on Twitter by a number
Speaker 1: of people for complaining about the best of three format
Speaker 1: in the first round. But I know I am not
Speaker 1: alone in wanting more to Rossi and the Mercury, more Jewel,
Speaker 1: Lloyd and the Store, more Kaitlin Clark and the Fever.
Speaker 1: That was probably enough of the Liberty Dream series. But
Speaker 1: you get my point. Are you with me? Jordan? Is
Speaker 1: it time to to best of five in the first round?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: I think we've made steps forward because we've come from
Speaker 2: the single elimination first round, which.
Speaker 5: Was just bonker.
Speaker 2: I think we could all agree on that that was
Speaker 2: really hard because yes, it gave kind of that March
Speaker 2: badness atmosphere, but it didn't allow for a team to
Speaker 2: have a bad game. Like if somebody was just having
Speaker 2: a bad game, then they can come back and kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, have a good game the next time.
Speaker 4: So that's what the best of three series did.
Speaker 2: Now it's time to expand from that, and I hope
Speaker 2: that we can see that there was still some really
Speaker 2: high basketball being played and we want to continue to
Speaker 2: watch that. And Sarah, I think you made this point
Speaker 2: of like giving the other teams a chance to make
Speaker 2: some money off of the postseason run. I think that's smart,
Speaker 2: and it also I think the conversations around making the
Speaker 2: regular season longer, I don't think we want that. Look,
Speaker 2: I love the Sparks. We don't want to see the
Speaker 2: Sparks way anymore games Like put the bad teams out
Speaker 2: of their misery and let's give more games to the
Speaker 2: good teams of the postseason.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I think I could be convinced
Speaker 1: on an even longer regular season, but we're just year
Speaker 1: two of the forty game season. I'm fine with a
Speaker 1: couple more years of that. While it shakes out, and
Speaker 1: then figuring out once we add another team next year,
Speaker 1: two more teams in twenty twenty six, if we want
Speaker 1: to have a few more opportunities for teams to face
Speaker 1: each other, then Ben She mentioned that I talked about
Speaker 1: the financial aspect on Twitter and listen. I was only
Speaker 1: part of a team ownership group for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: but in those meetings you do talk about how important
Speaker 1: it is to make the postseason so that you can
Speaker 1: potentially host a playoff game. Not only for the financials
Speaker 1: and the money it brings in with merchant ticket sales
Speaker 1: and concessions and all that, but the brand affinity that
Speaker 1: is driven by success by having a team that gets
Speaker 1: to that point and that you can get fans to
Speaker 1: show up for that playoff atmosphere brings them back the
Speaker 1: next year more often because it just feels different than
Speaker 1: a regular season game. I think the WNBA financials are
Speaker 1: so different now that not only do they not to
Speaker 1: save money on avoiding the travel and the things that
Speaker 1: come with a longer series, but also they can afford
Speaker 1: to make more money by capitalizing on teams getting a
Speaker 1: chance to host at least one game. So are you
Speaker 1: good with expansion to ben Are you gonna call me
Speaker 1: a casual who just got here who only wants to
Speaker 1: see Kaitlin Clark? And if she had won, I would
Speaker 1: have been saying this no.
Speaker 3: And I'm all for a playoff reformatting the postseason, and
Speaker 3: I do think it is something that is going to
Speaker 3: happen over the next couple of years. I think there
Speaker 3: was kind of a general openness among players and coaches
Speaker 3: I talked to heading into the postseason that you know,
Speaker 3: as the WNBA expands to fourteen teams and sixteen teams,
Speaker 3: if the playoff format is going to continue to be
Speaker 3: reevaluated right to the regular season format. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think the footprint of the WNBA is only going to
Speaker 3: get longer because it has to, as you know, team thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
Speaker 3: and eventually sixteen comes in, and so it makes sense
Speaker 3: that you know, the footprint in the fall continues to go,
Speaker 3: you know, late October into November, potentially you know, making
Speaker 3: the arena dates work with the NBA too. But you know,
Speaker 3: it wouldn't shock me if the playoff format changed as well,
Speaker 3: and maybe you know it's three out of five, maybe
Speaker 3: it's actually going back to conferences if we get eight
Speaker 3: to eight, you know, evenly in a couple of years.
Speaker 3: I do think one other thing to consider. Brianna Stort
Speaker 3: made this point to me in a conversation we had
Speaker 3: leading into the playoffs, is in the short term at
Speaker 3: least do they re evaluate the two to one format, right,
Speaker 3: Because one of the big reasons it was put in
Speaker 3: was because of the.
Speaker 5: Current charter plans, right and how right?
Speaker 3: Like everyone's taking commercial flights and the league had then
Speaker 3: moved to charters for you know, the postseason before now
Speaker 3: putting in the full charter plan. But in theory, with
Speaker 3: charter flights being the norm even next year, like, couldn't
Speaker 3: you go one to one one and allow what you're
Speaker 3: talking about, Sarah, that everyone gets a chance to host
Speaker 3: a game. Now we know the WNBA post season schedule
Speaker 3: really tight, really condensed. Those games are on top of
Speaker 3: each other, So maybe logistically that's tough, but that could
Speaker 3: also be something in the short term, even before a
Speaker 3: three out of five change goes into place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point, Ben, Were there any surprises
Speaker 1: for you in this first round in the WNBA postseason?
Speaker 5: It's a good question.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think Seattle hung with Las Vegas a
Speaker 3: little bit more than I thought, and Phoenix for a while,
Speaker 3: especially in that Game one, pushed the Minnesota Lynx big
Speaker 3: picture surprises like not really, I had predicted a two
Speaker 3: to two two two or sweeps and the Connecticut Indiana
Speaker 3: series frankly, like, I'm going to get a lot of
Speaker 3: things wrong on this postseason. In terms of predictions, it
Speaker 3: kind of went exactly how I thought it was going
Speaker 3: to be, with Connecticut winning pretty handily in Game one
Speaker 3: and then this game too coming down to the wire
Speaker 3: and the more experienced team playing out. So I think
Speaker 3: we're due for some surprises, do for some excitement, but
Speaker 3: no shockers for round one.
Speaker 1: For me, yeah, we'll get to the semi finals because that,
Speaker 1: to me is going to be a lot tougher to pick.
Speaker 1: But Jordan, how about you, Anything surprised you in this
Speaker 1: first round?
Speaker 2: I think kind of the opposite, and I feel like
Speaker 2: that kind of goes with this whole playoff schedule. Is
Speaker 2: when I look at a team with Skuyler Neka and
Speaker 2: Jewel Lloyd and them not winning a single playoff game,
Speaker 2: I think that kind of surprises me when you think
Speaker 2: about who they went up against. Okay, that's not really
Speaker 2: the surprise, but when that trade happened, I think I
Speaker 2: wanted to them, you know, gel more and have that
Speaker 2: excitement of playing with each other. And then the same
Speaker 2: with Phoenix. You get Ca Natasha Cloud, Diana Tarassi playing
Speaker 2: the way she was, Brittany Griner and them going, you know,
Speaker 2: winless in the postseason. That's a little bit of a surprise.
Speaker 2: So I think the sweeps are the way that they are,
Speaker 2: and the better teams did win, but when you look
Speaker 2: at the construction of the teams, it is a little
Speaker 2: surprising that they didn't get a win.
Speaker 4: But that's just.
Speaker 2: Kind of a hat tip to how good this league
Speaker 2: is right now. There are players like an Asia Wilson
Speaker 2: that are playing out of their mind, so that is
Speaker 2: not surprising.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that the top teams are just so
Speaker 1: good that they somehow managed to beat out even rosters
Speaker 1: that look like they should make I mean, the Storm
Speaker 1: all season long look like this should have been making
Speaker 1: it work better than they did, and it just never
Speaker 1: really clicked. And then when you saw what Gabby Williams brought,
Speaker 1: you were like, I really would have liked to see
Speaker 1: this team with her all season long. It just would
Speaker 1: have been a different story. I think if they'd had
Speaker 1: her all along, and then same with Phoenix. Some mean
Speaker 1: I think the foul trouble obviously made it so cautious,
Speaker 1: wasn't as dominant as she could have been. But also, yeah,
Speaker 1: just on paper is very different than in games when
Speaker 1: you got a fee or you got a Asia doing
Speaker 1: what they're doing. It's it's tough toward the WNBA released
Speaker 1: a statement after the Wednesday night game between the Sun
Speaker 1: and the Fever condemning the racist, derogatory, and threatening comments
Speaker 1: received by the players. This felt like it was directly
Speaker 1: in response to the treatment faced by dj A Carrington
Speaker 1: after the accidental contact with Caitlin Clark in Game one
Speaker 1: of that series, but it applies to a whole lot
Speaker 1: of players in the league. What did you make of
Speaker 1: the timing of that statement? Let's start there. Let me
Speaker 1: just take any bath pace. The timing of this statement
Speaker 1: is atrocious.
Speaker 2: I think, just to put it out there to say
Speaker 2: this statement in the what are way the last week
Speaker 2: of September, when this has been happening since May, since April,
Speaker 2: since what was that twenty twenty three National championship with
Speaker 2: Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, like the WNBA had a
Speaker 2: whole year to prepare themselves for what was about to
Speaker 2: come their way, and they did not prepare themselves. And
Speaker 2: when I saw that statement, you know, I kind of
Speaker 2: thought about twenty twenty and how awful twenty twenty was
Speaker 2: for so many reasons. But I just felt like the
Speaker 2: whole year I was going around saying how my life mattered.
Speaker 2: The whole time, I'm just saying Black lives matter, and
Speaker 2: this is why, this is why. And I feel like
Speaker 2: it is more of the same thing in the WNBA.
Speaker 2: We have been screaming all season long that the black players'
Speaker 2: lives matter, and their lives are getting threatened daily on
Speaker 2: social media, players are getting stocked. Like it has gone
Speaker 2: to a way bigger level than just oh I don't
Speaker 2: like that player because they were mean to my favorite player.
Speaker 4: This is a whole other level.
Speaker 2: And a couple weeks ago when Cathy says essentially that yeah,
Speaker 2: we see.
Speaker 4: That, but that doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: What matters is the bottom line, and it was just
Speaker 2: a slap in the face to all the players, but
Speaker 2: especially the black players who have been screaming at the
Speaker 2: top of their lungs like, hey, pay attention to this,
Speaker 2: and now it is getting to a point where you
Speaker 2: can't ignore it. But the bare minimum that you can
Speaker 2: do is release a statement, and that's exactly what the
Speaker 2: WNBA is doing.
Speaker 4: They're doing the bare minimum.
Speaker 2: Now I want to see what are the actions that
Speaker 2: are going to be taking place, because, yes, the statement
Speaker 2: is nice, and it was in a nice spot, it
Speaker 2: was in the color scheme of the WNBA, But what
Speaker 2: is going to be the next step after this? And
Speaker 2: the season's about the end, so you got a whole
Speaker 2: off season to figure it out for the next season.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just end of September. It happened to
Speaker 1: be after the fever and that fan base that's been
Speaker 1: responsible for a lot of it is no longer in it.
Speaker 1: It did feel like it was specific to the email
Speaker 1: that Dja Carrington got and posted on her Instagram story,
Speaker 1: and that they felt like it was necessary to speak out,
Speaker 1: but again, it's just so far behind a conversation that's
Speaker 1: been going on all season long that you expected the
Speaker 1: league's front office and even the players themselves to potentially
Speaker 1: rally around and speak out about and it's been sort
Speaker 1: of instead. This constant hum both below the surface and
Speaker 1: in the conversations of media, reporters, fans, players, etc. Without
Speaker 1: the league really taking control of it. So Ben there
Speaker 1: were a couple of reporters, including Frankie de Lacreta, who
Speaker 1: was on the show a few weeks ago to talk
Speaker 1: about something else but also covers a lot of women's
Speaker 1: basketball and the intersection of race and sports, and they
Speaker 1: posted about a downright hostile and unsafe feeling environment at
Speaker 1: the Connecticut sun Fever game, including posting a photo of
Speaker 1: one woman wearing fake nails and a homemade T shirt
Speaker 1: that said ban nails. This was again in reference to
Speaker 1: Djnay Carrington, who, by the way, doesn't even have particularly
Speaker 1: long it's giving racist dog whistle, it's giving misogynir and
Speaker 1: some folks think this kind of thing is inevitable with
Speaker 1: an increase in attendance and popularity. I think those people
Speaker 1: can't possibly be deeply involved in the w if they
Speaker 1: don't understand the difference between sports fans being assholes and morons,
Speaker 1: and the way this has been very specifically divided by race, bisexuality,
Speaker 1: by political party, et cetera, and how it's become this
Speaker 1: much bigger thing. What do you say to those folks
Speaker 1: who just kind of shrug and say, this is what
Speaker 1: comes with a league getting more popular.
Speaker 3: I think I would say, listen to what Jordan just said.
Speaker 3: How you teed up this question, Sarah, I think I
Speaker 3: would say, listen to the players who time and again
Speaker 3: since may have made their thoughts very clear on this.
Speaker 3: I think agents have made their thoughts clear as front
Speaker 3: offices coaches like this is not a secret. And I
Speaker 3: think going back to Jordan's comments about the timing of
Speaker 3: the league's release, and to do it in the middle
Speaker 3: of a press conference, when players you suddenly are reacting
Speaker 3: mid press conference to a statement they haven't seen, it
Speaker 3: puts them in again in an unfair position to react
Speaker 3: to what the league is saying. But this is not new.
Speaker 3: This is not something new to the WNBA. Frankly, it's
Speaker 3: heightened this year. You talk to players, they talk about
Speaker 3: the increases in toxicity, in vitriol that they face. But
Speaker 3: this is not new for this league of players who
Speaker 3: you know, primarily black women, so many in the queer community.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is commonplace for a lot of these
Speaker 3: players now. Unfortunately so and I think everyone is still
Speaker 3: waiting to see how the WNBA is going to react.
Speaker 3: I know the Chicago Skies, a franchise, have taken a
Speaker 3: lot of crap over the years for their lack of
Speaker 3: investment for their facilities. But I do want to call
Speaker 3: one partnership that they actually announced in mid August, and
Speaker 3: they partner with these two companies to have an app
Speaker 3: placed on the phones of their players that, in theory
Speaker 3: they say uses automatic intelligence to identify negative posts on
Speaker 3: social media feeds and block them. Like, I don't know
Speaker 3: the success of that app and how good of a
Speaker 3: job it is doing and limiting harassment, but to me,
Speaker 3: that seems like, you know, a step, right, a small
Speaker 3: step potentially that the lead could take, that other teams
Speaker 3: could take, and you know, is it reactionary to what
Speaker 3: has gone on? Would that have been something a great
Speaker 3: partnership to have at the start of the year. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: But that is more than what I think a lot
Speaker 3: of other teams are doing right now. So I do
Speaker 3: have to give Chicago credit for making that step, and
Speaker 3: I hope stuff like that happens, you know, going forward,
Speaker 3: because I think the unfortunate reality is these kind of comments,
Speaker 3: the toxicity, it's not going away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have to say I do like the idea
Speaker 1: of that, assuming that the AI and or someone else
Speaker 1: is actually monitoring it, because as someone who has gotten
Speaker 1: death threats before, the problem with dismuting or blocking is
Speaker 1: then you're actually not seeing if they escalate. You're not
Speaker 1: seeing if they're taking a turn where you actually have
Speaker 1: to like think about being in danger. I've definitely had
Speaker 1: people say I know where you work or I know
Speaker 1: where you live and I'm coming there. So yeah, there's
Speaker 1: I mean, the problem is that this exists in the
Speaker 1: sports world and outside of it too.
Speaker 3: Along those lines, pre Turner just on Twitter this morning.
Speaker 3: She talked about, you know, that it's important that these
Speaker 3: players continue to call out what is going on right
Speaker 3: and that she is someone who has continued to advocate
Speaker 3: for various causes, but to be fearless in what she
Speaker 3: is saying. And she noted that you know, minimizing hate spiece,
Speaker 3: not calling it out, cultivate spaces in which people are
Speaker 3: enabled and continue to be enabled to allow this behavior
Speaker 3: to go on. So I think, you know, I hear
Speaker 3: exactly where you're saying, Sarah, and I think that's kind
Speaker 3: of the balance that teams and leagues are navigating right
Speaker 3: of how to act when you receive this hate speech.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jordan, I wanted to say something Ben pointed out,
Speaker 1: and this is true. This is a league that has
Speaker 1: had to push back against society's feelings about queer people,
Speaker 1: about black women, about women who don't fit this like
Speaker 1: general esthetic of what we like to see the girl
Speaker 1: next door, petite athlete. But it also had made for
Speaker 1: itself over the years a space that felt unique for
Speaker 1: all those people, both as fans and as players. There
Speaker 1: were always going to be the outliers. There were always
Speaker 1: going to be the assholes, but when you went to
Speaker 1: a game, it felt different. Literally named this show based
Speaker 1: on the concept of like going to a women's professional
Speaker 1: sporting event is the good place where you get the
Speaker 1: good game. And it was so sad to me to
Speaker 1: see people posting about going to that game, that sun
Speaker 1: Fever game, and say, I never thought this is what
Speaker 1: a w game would be for me, with a woman
Speaker 1: wearing these ridiculous fake nails and a dumb shit shirt
Speaker 1: she made that said band nails and feeling like it
Speaker 1: looked like a meme of like a Karen calling on
Speaker 1: someone's barbecue, or it looked like a fucking Trump rally
Speaker 1: at a W game. I know, it just feels it's
Speaker 1: different this year. It's not the same.
Speaker 4: It's not the same.
Speaker 5: And I.
Speaker 2: Had to think about, you know, I'm doing my Scandal
Speaker 2: rewatch right now.
Speaker 4: Out's shondaland perfect show.
Speaker 2: But I just got to the part where Papa Pope
Speaker 2: is telling Olivia Pope the famous scene where you have
Speaker 2: to be what and Olivia repeats, you have to be
Speaker 2: twice as good for half as much. And that is
Speaker 2: the story of being a black woman in this country,
Speaker 2: very much so. And when I think about Djana's story,
Speaker 2: she has two undergrad degrees from Stanford, Like.
Speaker 4: She is not just this normal woman. She is the
Speaker 4: WNBA's most improved player.
Speaker 2: And still she gets reduced to someone calling her a thug.
Speaker 2: She gets reduced to an inward slur. She gets, you know,
Speaker 2: the long nails that aren't even long. It's just an
Speaker 2: assumption that because she is a black player with lashes,
Speaker 2: that her nails are long. Still that happens, and it
Speaker 2: just hurts my heart because you're right. The W it
Speaker 2: felt like this safe space. It felt like we were
Speaker 2: in our own world for a little bit. And I
Speaker 2: know we were calling from the rooftops for people to pay.
Speaker 4: Attention, but not in this way like good.
Speaker 1: People, only the best people, like good people.
Speaker 4: It truly feels like I was thinking about this the
Speaker 4: other day.
Speaker 2: It feels like we got hijacked, like our season, our
Speaker 2: love for this sport got hijacked by people who don't
Speaker 2: know anything about it, who are spewing hate.
Speaker 4: And it's like, what is going on?
Speaker 2: And I think Stephanie White said it beautifully last night
Speaker 2: in her press conference. She said, we are making the
Speaker 2: trolls the main story. Yes, we're not keeping the main thing,
Speaker 2: the main thing, the main thing.
Speaker 4: The basketball is still really good.
Speaker 1: Right, right right. I think it's this complicated thing of
Speaker 1: how do you address this very obvious thing that's going on,
Speaker 1: but also how do you take responsibility as reporters, as
Speaker 1: media companies, as websites to not post the thing that
Speaker 1: you know will get the clicks if you also know
Speaker 1: that it will increase the damage, the vitriol, the threats,
Speaker 1: Like you have to decide that it is not worth
Speaker 1: the extra clicks to immediately post Kaitlin Clark punched in
Speaker 1: the eye if that's not what happened, and you also
Speaker 1: know the result the LA Times headline that I called
Speaker 1: out that said, Kaitlin Clark gets black eye from player
Speaker 1: who previously mocked her, Like, you know, what's going to
Speaker 1: happen when you post that, and it implies intention, and
Speaker 1: it implies correlation, which there wasn't. It happened to be
Speaker 1: a player she had an incident with before, which happens
Speaker 1: in basketball. But when you do that, you know what
Speaker 1: you're doing. And I think that's what Stephanie spoke to beautifully,
Speaker 1: which is it's not that we ignore that this is
Speaker 1: a hum beneath the surface, but it is that we
Speaker 1: stop allowing them to have control over what we talk about,
Speaker 1: what we post, the clips we use, the headlines we write,
Speaker 1: because that's what's making it allowed to grow and be fostered.
Speaker 3: I think that's also something that you know, players are
Speaker 3: wrestling with about how to platform and if they should
Speaker 3: you know, platform to use another word or to use
Speaker 3: that word, like the messages they are actually receiving. Right,
Speaker 3: We saw to Jenick Carington post the specifics of a message,
Speaker 3: right and sure enough a few hours later call a coincidence.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's not coincidence. The WNBA, You sure it's not Yep,
Speaker 3: the WNBA releases this statement, and suddenly we're continuing to
Speaker 3: have this conversation and more and more people are talking
Speaker 3: about it. They do it, you know, they talk about
Speaker 3: it on Sports Center, on morning talk shows today, on
Speaker 3: shows like this. I've talked to players all year about,
Speaker 3: you know, some of these social media you know, the
Speaker 3: harassment they faced, and a lot of them speak to it,
Speaker 3: but are also hesitant to provide specific examples. And that
Speaker 3: is obviously their right not to provide specific examples. But
Speaker 3: there is this kind of balance that I think players
Speaker 3: are navigating of how much do they share and reveal?
Speaker 3: Because how much does sharing and revealing specifics actually lead
Speaker 3: to what you're talking about, Sarah, More people going into
Speaker 3: their mentions, more people using really vitriotic, vitriolic language, more
Speaker 3: people seeing you know, what Carrington has been called and
Speaker 3: doing that time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. That It's tough, the balance that so many
Speaker 5: are waying.
Speaker 1: And here we are, you know, we're twenty minutes into
Speaker 1: talking and we haven't talked that much basketball because it's
Speaker 1: so hard. You don't want to, you don't want to
Speaker 1: move from this, it's so important, But you also then
Speaker 1: find yourself saying Oh yeah, let's talk about who had
Speaker 1: a good game too. Nancy Armer wrote a great piece,
Speaker 1: and I want to wrap up with this before we
Speaker 1: do move on to basketball, about how Caitlin didn't ask
Speaker 1: for any of this, but she is still sort of
Speaker 1: responsible for helping shut it down. I've been giving her
Speaker 1: a lot of grace. I've been saying by next season,
Speaker 1: I anticipate and expect that she should have enough experience
Speaker 1: in this league with women of color understanding everything going
Speaker 1: on that she should be able to speak to it
Speaker 1: and feel comfortable speaking to it if she isn't yet.
Speaker 1: She didn't ask for this, but I do think it'd
Speaker 1: be hard for me to be in her position and
Speaker 1: not have said something by now. Do you think she
Speaker 1: needs to now or do you think at the start
Speaker 1: of next season or in the off season there needs
Speaker 1: to be a time for her to address what's going
Speaker 1: on in her name?
Speaker 5: Jordan.
Speaker 2: Such a tough question, because sometimes I've read people saying
Speaker 2: it is her responsibility. I don't know if it's her responsibility,
Speaker 2: but the silence is very loud.
Speaker 4: I will say that.
Speaker 2: Because if it was something that you totally disagreed with,
Speaker 2: I would run to say please so disassociate my name
Speaker 2: with all of this hate. But it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of like you know that quote from the Last Dance
Speaker 2: that kind of blew up where Michael Jordan was like
Speaker 2: Republicans VI shoes too, like, oh, is it her team?
Speaker 2: Kind of saying, you know, let's just all good. Press
Speaker 2: is good. You know, all press is good press. That's
Speaker 2: where I would hope there's a change there because she
Speaker 2: has these teammates. You know, a Leah Boston was kind
Speaker 2: of the first person this season that got the most
Speaker 2: hate when Indiana was not doing well. That is her teammate,
Speaker 2: that is someone she says she loves to play with.
Speaker 2: So now you are in these rooms with these players
Speaker 2: who are having these visceral reactions, like an Alyssa Smith,
Speaker 2: like people who you see every single day. So I
Speaker 2: would hope that you would get out in front of
Speaker 2: it the next season and say this is not what
Speaker 2: I stand for.
Speaker 4: Shut it all down. That's my hope. Will it happen,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but that's my hope.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's talk side my finals. The first round going
Speaker 1: chalk wasn't a surprise to any of us, but making
Speaker 1: picks in the next round is tough. I want to
Speaker 1: start with Game one on Sunday, top seeded New York
Speaker 1: Liberty versus the two time defending champs in the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Aces. What's the difference going to be in this one, Ben, I.
Speaker 3: Think it is how Las Vegas handles New York's revamp
Speaker 3: starting lineup, and that is really the big question for me.
Speaker 3: New York moved Leoni Phoebich into the starting lineup in
Speaker 3: the first round, and this was a five man group
Speaker 3: of Stuart Jones, Laney, Yenescu, and Phoebich that was almost
Speaker 3: plus twenty four per one hundred possessions during the regular season.
Speaker 3: It was their third most used lineup and one that
Speaker 3: was super super successful. That netrating went up to plus
Speaker 3: thirty six point one, which is a crazy, crazy number
Speaker 3: in the first round series, and it just provides New
Speaker 3: York with so much versatility. Lanth on defense and Spiebitch
Speaker 3: is a true six ' four. She is really strong,
Speaker 3: like she can guard post and she can guard guards,
Speaker 3: and that is such a weapon to have. Laney, we
Speaker 3: know she can switch. Yanescu has improved her physicality all
Speaker 3: year and so there really isn't a point that I
Speaker 3: think Las Vegas can attack, and so I'm curious to see,
Speaker 3: you know, what does Las Vegas do to counter or
Speaker 3: do they play Kia Stokes. Do they play Tiffany Mitchell
Speaker 3: who had a great first round series, but New York
Speaker 3: might go out her on the defensive end?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Do they play Alicia Clark who has been such a
Speaker 3: good defender, but Knight might not have the same offensive
Speaker 3: ability as Hayes. So I think that's really the most
Speaker 3: fascinating chess match for me is how does Las Vegas
Speaker 3: counter with New York playing such a big lineup for
Speaker 3: what I expect to be the majority of this series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a big problem to have when you
Speaker 1: get to bring one of the greatest facilitators in history
Speaker 1: of the game off the bench in Courtney vander Slut,
Speaker 1: just for a switch up, it's not too bad. Jordan,
Speaker 1: Is there a particular matchup or a particular player in
Speaker 1: this series that you think could swing things?
Speaker 2: I just want to I want to focus on the stars,
Speaker 2: like I want Brianna's Doward and.
Speaker 4: Asia Wilson to just battle it out.
Speaker 2: I feel like in the finals we got robbed a
Speaker 2: little bit of that. Brianna Stewart did not play well
Speaker 2: in the finals last season, she really didn't play well
Speaker 2: the entire postseason, so I want her to step up big.
Speaker 2: And then Asia Wilson just showing everybody on the biggest
Speaker 2: stage with the brightest lights why she is a three
Speaker 2: time MVP. So yes, there is going to be role
Speaker 2: players and key players that are going to swing, have
Speaker 2: momentum shifts and all of that. But especially this season
Speaker 2: where we're not talking about Brianna Stewart enough, We're not
Speaker 2: talking about Agia Wilson enough, I want them to be
Speaker 2: able to rise to the occasion and really battle it out.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm so here for that.
Speaker 1: I want that too. I want a battle of the
Speaker 1: back to back MVPs getting after it. Speaking of MVPs, though,
Speaker 1: the second series features you runner up MVP and defeasta
Speaker 1: Collier who has been lights out thirty eight points in
Speaker 1: Game one, forty two points in game too. Her two
Speaker 1: seed Minnesota Links have been absolutely unstoppable since the Olympic break.
Speaker 1: They're taken on the number three seed Connecticut Son. What
Speaker 1: can the Sun do to try to stop feed Jordan?
Speaker 2: I think when do they say prayer defense? Like just pray,
Speaker 2: just pray that Fee is going to have an off night.
Speaker 2: But honestly, I think NOFISA scoring the forty two points
Speaker 2: on seventy percent from the field just shows really the
Speaker 2: team as a whole, because the fascinating thing about the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Links this season is their pace is slow. They
Speaker 2: are one of the slowest teams in the league. But
Speaker 2: it's because they swing the ball. They move it around.
Speaker 2: So what the Sun can do is try to speed
Speaker 2: that up. If they try to speed them up. We
Speaker 2: saw Phoenix do that to them when they were coming
Speaker 2: back in Game one after being down twenty points. You're
Speaker 2: pressuring the ball, You're making Courtney Williams take a rush
Speaker 2: midi instead of one that's in control and in rhythm.
Speaker 2: So the Sun is the number one defense right now
Speaker 2: and Minnesota is the number two defense right now. So
Speaker 2: it is going to be a defensive battle all the
Speaker 2: defensive head This is your series. But if you are
Speaker 2: pressuring Minnesota and trying to speed them up, Fee is
Speaker 2: going to do Fee.
Speaker 4: She's going to get her shots.
Speaker 2: But I think the rest of the team what makes
Speaker 2: the Links so dangerous is that they can spread it
Speaker 2: out and everybody's in double figures.
Speaker 4: When you look at the box at the end of
Speaker 4: the day.
Speaker 2: So if you try to limit those shots, that's kind
Speaker 2: of your best bet.
Speaker 1: Who you got stepping up if fees in foul trouble
Speaker 1: or isn't isn't at her best.
Speaker 6: Caleb McBride has had a quiet like one of the
Speaker 6: best seasons of her career, and I think that is
Speaker 6: a shout out to Cheryl Reeve and Nefisa Collier just
Speaker 6: getting the best out of all these.
Speaker 2: Players so late in their careers. But I can see
Speaker 2: Caleb McBride just knocking down some shots, but also putting
Speaker 2: the ball on the floor driving to the basket when
Speaker 2: she's aggressive that way, the Links are super super scary.
Speaker 2: And then Bridget Carleton getting some votes for most Improved
Speaker 2: Player of the Year. She has, I mean down the
Speaker 2: stretch in clutch time. My goodness, Bridget Carleton has been
Speaker 2: on points, so I also see her having a good series.
Speaker 1: Ben on the other side of Lissa Thomas, the only
Speaker 1: player in WNBA Playoff history with fifteen plus points, thirteen
Speaker 1: plus assists and five plus rebounds in a game, and
Speaker 1: she's done it twice. Now, what do the Links have
Speaker 1: to do to slow her down.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you can do. I mean, try
Speaker 3: and get her her way, and I guess she's going
Speaker 3: to run you over and hope to draw charge.
Speaker 5: Like, what are the what are.
Speaker 3: The solutions to slong the list of Thomas down? No
Speaker 3: one has really found six a.
Speaker 1: Third labor to terror to, a third labrum, a.
Speaker 3: Sixth player to follow her on the court as well,
Speaker 3: something like that. I mean, look, the thing about Connecticut
Speaker 3: is they can play at so many different styles and
Speaker 3: I think that's what is making them so dangerous right now.
Speaker 3: Jordan mentioned the pace Connecticut, you know, bottom of the
Speaker 3: league in terms of but yet in the first round
Speaker 3: they actually scored the second most fast break points of
Speaker 3: any team of the eight teams in the playoffs, behind
Speaker 3: just the Indiana Fever. They moved in transition and were
Speaker 3: sped up and did just fine. Right, It's a team
Speaker 3: that normally struggles a little bit from three point range,
Speaker 3: but we saw Marina Mabery get hot. And if she's
Speaker 3: able to get hot, you know she shot under forty
Speaker 3: percent I think just four times since like late August
Speaker 3: or mid August, like she's been really really good and
Speaker 3: was really great in that first round series. So if
Speaker 3: she's making shots, especially from their perimeter, they can make
Speaker 3: three pointers in a way that they haven't before. We
Speaker 3: saw someone like Veronica Burton who normally does not score right.
Speaker 3: I think she had only reached double figures five times
Speaker 3: previously in her three year career. She gets ten off
Speaker 3: the bench right and plays a key role. So different
Speaker 3: players are stepping up, They're playing different styles. I think
Speaker 3: that's something to be aware of, and so much of
Speaker 3: that to me, it is Thomas and her ability to
Speaker 3: play different roles.
Speaker 5: But also do Wanna Bonner? Right?
Speaker 3: You asked Jordan about slowing down to Fisa Collier. I
Speaker 3: think to want to Bonnor. We might see her gardener
Speaker 3: Fisa Kllier for a little bit of this series, and
Speaker 3: you're talking about a smith army knife defender.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: From Clark to Open, you know, game one of the
Speaker 3: first round, Tafisa Kalier. Two very different kinds of players.
Speaker 3: But do have a player in Bonner capable of doing
Speaker 3: both like that is such a luxury. It's why Connecticut
Speaker 3: is so tough to be.
Speaker 1: You mentioned top two defenses in these teams, top five
Speaker 1: offenses in these teams. Two great coaches and Stephanie White
Speaker 1: and Cheryl reed We got the coach of the year
Speaker 1: from last year, we got a three time coach of
Speaker 1: the year. How much of this is going to come
Speaker 1: down to strategy and who figures out how to face
Speaker 1: the other team better? And how much is it just
Speaker 1: the players executing the plan like we're I guess I'm
Speaker 1: asking for a pick Jordan. Oh gosh, I know, so unfair.
Speaker 4: How do you go against Cheryl Reeve?
Speaker 2: I don't know, But what that said, Stephanie White has
Speaker 2: proven been mentioned that switch Ondwana Bonner on Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 2: He's so smart and such a strategy shift in their
Speaker 2: defense and it changed everything, I think, especially in that
Speaker 2: Game one using Dowana Bonner's length. So I'm excited to
Speaker 2: see what Stephanie White's gonna come up with, Like that's
Speaker 2: the fun part of this. Her clipboard is amazing, some
Speaker 2: of those bounds plays, those last minute shots that she's
Speaker 2: able to draw up.
Speaker 4: So that's going to be fun.
Speaker 2: But then you go with the experience of Cheryl Reeve
Speaker 2: just being in these situations time and time again. I
Speaker 2: always battle with that when we get to this time,
Speaker 2: how much does experience really come into play when you
Speaker 2: have players who have been here before who want to
Speaker 2: get over the hump, and then you have a team
Speaker 2: like Connecticut who's like, we have to get past this point,
Speaker 2: Like it is desperation mode for our franchise. We have
Speaker 2: to get past this point. So Cheryl Reeve is going
Speaker 2: to do what she has constantly done, but she's also
Speaker 2: been able to get the players to buy in to.
Speaker 4: This defensive system.
Speaker 2: And I've been playing close attention these past couple games
Speaker 2: of when she calls her timeouts, and it is fully
Speaker 2: when the defense is not doing what they are supposed
Speaker 2: to do, when they are giving some backdoor cuts or
Speaker 2: some pick and roll actions, it's a time out because
Speaker 2: that's not the standard of defense that we play. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to I'm sure that's going to happen again
Speaker 2: with Cheryl Reeves high standard and like, hey, I got
Speaker 2: some rings. This isn't going to get it done, and
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hate those in game coach interviews. I mean, I
Speaker 1: like the idea of them, but they just think the
Speaker 1: coach always seems like they cannot stand it and half
Speaker 1: the time they can't even hear it. But I did
Speaker 1: like the insight into Cheryl being like, in the last
Speaker 1: two halves, we've given up half one hundred points in
Speaker 1: each one, and there have been twenty six points in
Speaker 1: the paint. I'm gonna give you every single stant about
Speaker 1: how pissed I am about this defense. It's not show
Speaker 1: it up. And I was like, okay, all right, she
Speaker 1: ripped into them in halftime, and they're gonna come out
Speaker 1: of here with a little bit better defense for sure.
Speaker 1: Ben Jordan didn't answer my questions. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: ask you about out. I need you to make a
Speaker 1: pick in both series.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I noticed that too. I was going to
Speaker 5: call her out if you did.
Speaker 4: You know what I was trying to do.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you did the job before me. I think
Speaker 3: I'm gonna lean slightly towards Connecticut. Actually, I think they're
Speaker 3: in my mind, a slightly more talented roster top to Bonham.
Speaker 3: I think they can play in different ways as I
Speaker 3: was talking about. I also think like this is a
Speaker 3: team that is comfortable and confident going up against the
Speaker 3: Minnesota Links. They won the season series to one this year.
Speaker 3: It is a franchise in Connecticut that has actually ended
Speaker 3: Minnesota's season the past two years, last year in the
Speaker 3: playoffs and two years ago in the final day of
Speaker 3: the regular season. Connecticut, you know, might not have home
Speaker 3: court in this series, but if you remember back to
Speaker 3: last year's postseason, they actually won Game three in Minnesota convincingly.
Speaker 3: So I don't think the thought of going to Target Center,
Speaker 3: you know, in front of a rockus crowd, is any
Speaker 3: kind of thing that the Connecticut son are afraid of.
Speaker 3: It's a veteran group and you know, I like Thomas
Speaker 3: Jones Maybury like what they can all do. Bonner is
Speaker 3: we talked about, like Minnesota, the question I've gone back
Speaker 3: to all year is have they hit their ceiling? And
Speaker 3: if Nafisa Collier plays it the way she did in
Speaker 3: the first round, I think the answer is no. But
Speaker 3: so much of what they do is incredible team defense.
Speaker 3: It's incredible ball movement on offenses Jordan was talking about.
Speaker 3: And I do wonder that if games slow down and
Speaker 3: the competition continues to heat up, like does Connecticut just
Speaker 3: wear on them and just make plays in little moments
Speaker 3: that are the difference. So I actually think this one
Speaker 3: is going to go five and I'm going to take
Speaker 3: the Sun on the road beating Minnesota in that fifth game.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what Ben's going to do his research,
Speaker 1: and you did mention the ball movement. They actually set
Speaker 1: a record over that series of most points assisted in
Speaker 1: a two game playoff series, so points off assists, the
Speaker 1: percentage was the best of all time, and you could
Speaker 1: see that it was very hard to stop them in
Speaker 1: the half court and very hard to stop them with
Speaker 1: points off turnovers two, which I think the Sun will
Speaker 1: do a better job of this series. Ben quick make
Speaker 1: a pick for the first series.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go to New York in five games. I
Speaker 3: think if you are a fan of the New York Liberty,
Speaker 3: I think you should be very afraid of how they
Speaker 3: looked against the Las Vegas Aces in mid August without
Speaker 3: Asia Wilson. But New York still did beat Las Vegas
Speaker 3: in all three matchups. This year, it's a different team,
Speaker 3: Sabrina and Escu, a different player from last year to
Speaker 3: this year, and I do think the Phoebish switch into
Speaker 3: the starting lineup creates a different look. I like New
Speaker 3: York in five games in that one.
Speaker 1: All right, Jordan, back to you. We're making picks this time.
Speaker 1: Both series.
Speaker 2: Go Man Okay, well, let's start with Connecticut Minnesota. I
Speaker 2: also think Connecticut that desperation is gonna kick in. Like
Speaker 2: I said, it truly feels like, do we blow it
Speaker 2: up after this year if they don't get it done.
Speaker 4: They've always been the bridesmaid, never the bride, So do
Speaker 4: wanna playoff?
Speaker 2: Dowana Bonner is such a treat for all of us,
Speaker 2: and she's able to still in year fifteen kick it
Speaker 2: into another gear. So she has a she has a
Speaker 2: semi finals gear, and I'm excited to see that happen.
Speaker 2: So yes, I think Connecticut gets Minnesota in. God, I'm
Speaker 2: not saying the games don't put me to that, but
Speaker 2: I'm saying Connecticut wins. Now for the Liberty and the Aces, Gosh,
Speaker 2: this is tough because I do feel like the Aces
Speaker 2: are a different team from when the Liberty beat them
Speaker 2: those other times. They are just hitting a stride right now,
Speaker 2: and Asia Wilson is hitting a stride and Chelsea Gray
Speaker 2: is back to the playoff point. God, and you can't
Speaker 2: ever count her out for that. But Sabrina has something
Speaker 2: different in her eye. That focus is there. She was
Speaker 2: in the gym in the off season and me and
Speaker 2: Cheryl Swoops talked about it on our podcast.
Speaker 4: She could have been up for most Improved Player, Like she's.
Speaker 2: Added so much into her bag that it's it's tough
Speaker 2: to be a liberty team where Stuwie is playing at
Speaker 2: a high level and she has a quiet thirty because
Speaker 2: Sabrina is making so much noise not only from beyond
Speaker 2: the three point line but also in the paint and
Speaker 2: attacking and driving. So I have New York because I
Speaker 2: just feel like this is their season, all right.
Speaker 1: That was unfair of me, So thank you guys. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you playing a lot in there. It's a tough one.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be so much fun. Listen to the
Speaker 1: Athletic Women's Basketball Podcast. Listen to Queens of the Court
Speaker 1: Jordan alongside Cheryl Swoops, and thanks to both of you
Speaker 1: for hopping on.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1: We gotta pay some bills. When we come back. We
Speaker 1: air out some weirdos for being weirdos. Welcome back, Slices.
Speaker 1: It's been a while since we called someone out for
Speaker 1: fucking around and finding out and it's time we're back. Baby.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the gambling site and I'm not giving
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Speaker 1: And there were rumors that she was dating Detroit Piston's
Speaker 1: power forward Jalen Duran. So the gambling site ran with it,
Speaker 1: making an Angel Reese Next Boyfriend odds chart and allowing
Speaker 1: people to bet on her dating life. Now, listen, we
Speaker 1: love a good gab sesshon about who's dating who. See
Speaker 1: our ongoing Aposto Bam coverage and the fact that Taylor's
Speaker 1: with and Travis Kelsey videos are basically my whole personality.
Speaker 1: But we draw the line at profiting off people betting
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Speaker 1: Twitter slash x owner Elon Musk changing the block feature
Speaker 1: so blocked users can still see the posts of the
Speaker 1: accounts that block them, rating a billion T out of
Speaker 1: a billion T fail whales review. Elon has long hated
Speaker 1: the block feature, saying it quote unquote makes no sense,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what someone would say who's been blocked
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of times for I don't know, inciting hate,
Speaker 1: spreading misinformation, restoring Donald Trump's Twitter threatening a cage match
Speaker 1: with Mark Zuckerberg, selling blue check marks, making the report
Speaker 1: function essentially useless. Making the search function essentially useless, making
Speaker 1: the security protection essentially useless, losing users, losing billions, and
Speaker 1: losing cool points for shit like posting a picture holding
Speaker 1: a sink and writing quote let that sink in. So
Speaker 1: not only has he confused us all by giving Twitter
Speaker 1: two names Twitter x, twitter x, I don't know what
Speaker 1: the fuck is, but he's also allowed right wing bots
Speaker 1: to continue flourishing and harassing people, and now he wants
Speaker 1: the harassment to be less checked. Allowing block users to
Speaker 1: see your content just makes it that much easier for
Speaker 1: them to continue to harass you. Sure, folks have always
Speaker 1: been able to create another account, logging over there and
Speaker 1: go creep on your posts, but at least that creates
Speaker 1: some sort of barrier, some sort of work. Now, if
Speaker 1: your stocker wants to keep up with you, Elon's made
Speaker 1: it real easy, and I have no doubt that this
Speaker 1: is just a step toward eliminating the block feature altogether,
Speaker 1: something he's been threatening to do since he became the
Speaker 1: app's evil overlord. Thankfully, Apple's App Store guidelines mandate that
Speaker 1: social networks offer quote the ability to block abusive users
Speaker 1: from the service end quote, So maybe that'll keep captain
Speaker 1: Dick Rockets somewhat in line. Now. Am I gonna get
Speaker 1: off Twitter or whatever the fuck it's called. I'm not
Speaker 1: because that would be letting him win, and because I'm addicted,
Speaker 1: So I'll be on it till they pry my phone
Speaker 1: out of my cold dead hands. What can I say,
Speaker 1: I'm weak. Now it's your turn, rate and review. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, have a great weekend and see you next week.
Speaker 1: Good game, Jordan, Good game, Ben, Thank you again, Lady
Speaker 1: with the band Nail's shirt. No one wants you here
Speaker 1: in case that wasn't clear. Good Game with Sarah Spain
Speaker 1: is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep
Speaker 1: Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie
Speaker 1: and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Speaker 1: Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder,
Speaker 1: Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from
Speaker 1: Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain st