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