Getting Uncomfortable with Cari Champion

ode to a coold Weather essential. It's all coming up right after this Welcome back. Here's what you need to know today. On Monday, Team USA Olympic gymnast Jordan Childs submitted an appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court over the Court of Arbitration for Sport or CAS's decision that resulted in her being stripped of her individual bronze medal

in the floor exercise. Now to jog your memory on this whole saga, Jordan originally finished fifth in the floor exercise final at the Paris Olympics, but her score increased by a tenth of a point after her coach submitted an inquiry, asserting that the judges didn't credit her for one of her skills. That boost ended up pushing Childs past to Romanian gymnasts and onto the podium for bronze, setting up that epic photo that we all remember with

her in Smoane Biles and Rebecca Andrage. So five days later, after Romanian officials file to complete with CIS, they announced that the inquiry on Child's behalf was submitted four seconds past the one minute deadline. CIS called for the results of the competition to be reversed, and the International Olympic

Committee stripped Chiles of her bronze medal. USA Gymnastics attempted to appeal that CIS decision on Chiles's behalf, claiming that the organization had video evidence showing that her coach's inquiry was submitted in forty seven seconds, well within the deadline. CIS declined the appeal on the basis of rules that quote do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented end quote.

Chiles new appeal this week claims that the CIS's decision ignored her quote right to be heard and She cites a conflict of interest by the president of the CIS arbitration panel due to his previous work for You Guessed at Romania. It also includes details about how CIS initially used the wrong email addresses to try to get in touch with representatives of USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic

and Paralympic Committee. While the appeal to the Swiss Tribunal was submitted under Jordan's name by her attorneys, it was done with the support of both USA Gymnastics and the USOPC. In a statement, USA Gymnastics said quote USAG is closely coordinating with Jordan and her legal team and will make supportive filings with the court in the continued pursuit of justice for Jordan end quote. As part of her appeal, Jordan's team submitted video footage from the documentary crew that

was taping teammates Simone Biles during the Olympics. In the footage, Child's coach to Seal Landy, can be heard telling an official that she wanted to submit an appeal within the one minute deadline now because the Swiss Federal Tribunal only hears appeals if they meet certain limited restrictions. For example, if CIS procedures weren't followed, it was crucial for Jordan's legal team to cite problems with the process and not just a decision itself. As you can see, this story

is ongoing. We'll keep you updated. Two women's college hoops some unsettling news. An Oregon man, Robert Cole Parmally was charged Monday for stalking and harassing Yukon women's basketball star page Beckers. He was arrested on Friday by Yukon police, who said they were made aware of him way back in June after he sent the school's communications department a number of emails claiming that he was a member of the royal family and wanted to marry a member of

the women's basketball team. He was also arrested on August twenty seventh by Connecticut State Police while walking along a highway near Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. He told police he was on his way to Seebeckers. Prior to that arrest, Parmeally posted to social media that he was going to propose to Becker's and get her expelled. Parmey has been charged with breach of peace, electronic stocking, and harassment and he's being held on a one hundred thousand dollars bond.

That's a whole lot to deal with while also just getting ready to get back to school in basketball. So we're sending Paige good vibes to pro hoops. In WNBA news, the league's social media account is following the Phoenix Mercury's lead, dropping cryptic posts to keep folks guessing they aren't about Diana Trossi's potential retirement, though yesterday the WNBA tweeted quote, you know what's better than fourteen teams with a smirk emoji.

Now this feels like an obvious hint at expansion beyond just the Golden State Valkyries and the WNBA Toronto franchises that are coming into action starting in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six, respectively, and all signs point to Portland and the Bethal family. That name sounds familiar. Raj Bethal is the principal co owner of the Sacramento Kings

of the MNBA. Son Alex is co owner and executive director of Sacramento Basketball Holdings, which owns the Kings, and in twenty twenty four, the family acquired the controlling interest in the Portland Thorns of the NWSL. Alex and his sister Lisa now managed data day operations for the Thorns. Reporter Sean Heiken broke the news of the Bethal's landing a Portland expansion team a couple of weeks ago on the Rose Garden Report, and he's now reporting that an

official announcement will come today. Also in more WNBA, shout out to photographer for bree Lawerki, who posted a series of photos on Instagram of the notoriously hot headed Caitlin Clark being wrangled by her teammates working at Calmer Down keep her away from officials. Pre wrote quote c C de Escalation Committee is one of my favorite things to capture. Eliah Boston responded, we work overtime, and Clark herself wrote Brah with a punch of laughing emojis, you could check

out breeze work at Brie Laworki photo. As for Tuesday's WNBA games, we recorded before a few of them wrapped, so go check out the results and you can keep up with that race for the eighth and final playoff spot. In college volleyball, the top five teams are all in action. Tonight, We've got an in state showdown between number one Pit and number three Penn State. Number two Stanford squares off with number five Nebraska, and number four Louisville plays number

eleven Kentucky. We already told you about a few upsets early in this season, so worth keeping your eyes peeled for potential fireworks tonight. We got to pay some bills when we come back. We'll get comfortable being uncomfortable with Kerrie Champion joining us now. She's a CNN contributor, the host of the podcast Naked with Carrie Champion and the new podcast series The Making of a Rivalry Kaitlyn Clark

versus Angel Reese. She's a proud UCLA alum, the founder of the Brown Girls Dream Foundation, and she was my emotional support animal and can it's Carrie Champion.

in a lot of ways makes people uncomfortable. But that's just because society has said we are supposed to behave a certain way. And so when I watch these women compete against one another and I noticed how people wanted them to behave, I thought to myself, well, this is so unfair. This is not even this is not even a real conversation. We're having clutches my pearls, Like what

is this this is about? And so I just wanted to explore all the intersections it meta and met at gender, and met at race and met at how women consume sports. It's political, it's cultural, it is sports, It is all of these things, and I wanted to show how sports is truly, in my opinion, a microcosm of a larger issue that we have in society.

to professional sports. But it feels like with these two, because the conversation got so big and so loud, we were maybe able to finally get through to more people about the idea that if you're playing sports the goal is to win. If the goal is to win, then that comes ahead of what your hair looks like, whether you look friendly, whether you're being nice, whether you're you know,

being a good sport like that simple idea. The fact that we still are having to get that through to people, I think is the baseline for this whole conversation, right, Like, if we're still there, how can we expect ourselves to get to all of the other more nuanced stuff. But that's what you're trying to get to. And you spoke to a whole bunch of people for the series. Can you tell me about some of the people you decided to call in to talk about Caitlin versus Angel.

guy by the name of keV on stage. He's a comedian, but he really truly is a die hard fan of women's basketball because he has a women in his household. He's married to a woman, a black woman more specifically, and he, to me is one of these voices that really, really, really is a part of the conversation on Twitter or x or whatever you'd like to call it whenever they're

having these battles. And I remember him tweeting and talking about things during this during the initial rivalry, if you will, when Caitlyn and Angel were in college, and he said some really smart things and he was very honest. So I wanted to find people who would be very honest I would want. I wanted to find people in the media and see their perspective and how they thought they were covering the story or how they viewed the story.

And then, last but not least, I wanted to hear from And we've been able to catch up with Angel when she was playing before she got injured. We talked to her, and of course she said the right things. I understand that, But I really wanted to talk to people from various backgrounds black, white, male, female, and I wanted to see their perspective and just as I assumes, and I'm gonna be honest except for Sarah and Ryan, and that's Ryan Ruco because he caught the big game,

the big lsu Iowa game, and yourself. I think everyone has really told this story through their filter. If you're black, you're gonna tell it to a black filter. If you're white, normally you'll tell it to it through a white filter. And it's really interesting how we see things very differently based on how we are raised and how we've been approached in society.

the right thing? And why are they saying it? And what do you think they're not saying that you'd rather hear.

to head every night. What it means is that you two people live on two or before you even started to play one another, you've lived on two different spectrums of the universe. You've come together, and the story of you two playing in college now in the WNBA has become a story of interest, and people have put verses in between you all, whether it be the media, whether

it be you all yourselves. But I know that you understand how important your role is to the women's game, and I know you both understand that people are watching what you do every single night when you play, and I know you both understand there are people in camps rooting against and four and so it's not necessarily a bad thing. We need that inertia. We need that tension, as we've talked about in this podcast series, to give

us a great storyline. And I hate to say it, but that's what we have with these two young ladies. And they're like, well, we're not rivals. I'd be hard pressed to believe that they aren't paying attention to what they both are doing. I know Angel is looking at Caitlin's stats, and I know Caitlyn is looking at angel stats because you wouldn't be a competitor. You are taking away the idea of who you are at your core by saying you're not interested in what the other person

is doing and you don't care about that. Yes you do, you do. It's just who you are. And if you don't want to say it, that's fine, but I'll say it for you. Yeah.

to it or not, whether they want to. The way this yeah, I think the way this rivalry has been covered and what it has unlocked for so many different fan bases and groups, including some truly unhinged behavior that is racist, that is misogynist, that is homophobic, that is sexist, all the things. I think that that makes it easy to want to shy away from it because with it comes so much bad stuff. Sure, and in women's sports especially, there is a lot less of people flat out saying

we don't like them. That's our rival, whether it's a team or a player. We see it all the time in men's sports, and I think that comes back to what we started with off the top of the show, this expectation for women and the idea that you would blatantly say out loud, I want to win, I want to beat them, I don't like them, and that's okay. Is a step too far for some people in society, right, which is so frustrating.

We're not holding you know, Lebron James accountable for being competitive towards other people like Kobe didn't like anybody, and it was okay. And I don't understand we.

to compete as athletes. And what I am finding throughout this entire docu series is that that is probably more of the big surprise to me than even the race element and even the darling that Caitlin has become and the villain that Angel has decided that she would embrace the fact that women don't even allow women to compete, and one of our Kevi on stage said this, He goes, women are supposed to play with dolls. You're supposed to play with dolls. The boys are supposed to rough house.

He was like, that's how they've been raised. He was like, and so when we're watching these women compete like athletes, not necessarily like men, but just like athletes, it's uncomfortable for us to see that. And I thought to myself, well, we are here, it is twenty two. Where are we in the women's rights movement?

But to your point, what's been really frustrating as this rivalry has taken shape has been the voices that have gotten the spotlight, how willing they are to say things so out of pocket, Like the ones that stood out the most to me weren't even the talking heads that I'm used to trying to get clicks and say things that are sillacious. It was a former NBA player saying that the rest of the WNBA should let Caitlin win early on when she was struggling because it'd be good

for the league. And I'm like, oh my god, you have completely divorced these women from the idea of sports at all. If you believe that that's going to take place, and the disrespect for the league and for their lifetime of work that you think that that's the answer is they shouldn't try. Like, what has surprised you the most about That was the most surprising to me was athletes saying shit like that.

a rookie, you guys were going easy on him. I find it really hard to believe that you thought it was wrong for Kobe to shit talk you and in any capacity and talk about and by the way, the the the trash talk isn't even on the level of what the men do. Like, it's not they're not talking about sleeping with somebody's wife. They're not we know that happens.

They're not talking about you know, someone's mom. They're like, I'm about to I'm about to score here and I'm about to take you here, and you ain't all that, and I'm okay, it's okay for me to say that, I'm surprised that I went on air with Bob. And this was earlier in the season, right after Angel Reese was thrown to the ground, and people were like, oh my gosh, who cares? And then when Caitlin Clark, you know, got that heart filed by Carter Kenedya Carter Rooone was like,

what's what's going on? And I said the same exact thing Bob Costa said, but when he said it, and rightfully, he's Bob Costas, but when he said it, it was like, oh my god, He's right. No one cares about the black girls, but they do care about Ande Reese. And I'm like, well, we've been we the women, Yeah, Caaitlyn Clark, and he's like, no one cares about Angel Reese. They only care about Kaitlyn Clark because it's it's it's it's

white on black crime, not black on black crime. In shut right, I'm paraphrasing, and he went, I roll for that, and I'm like, in my mind, I'm all like, okay, what else is new? Like welcome.

of tears. That was why people cared, because they don't really care if women tell you how bad things are. But if men get sad and emotional about it and acknowledge it, then all of a sudden, let's make sure we're talking about it, which is very much what we've seen this year. The men have decided to join. And

this isn't all men. There have been some great men covering the league forever, and there are some great men who are talking about it in a way that reflects the nuance that we've all known about this league for many years. But yeah, that's been part of the problem. And part of the problem also is I think the league did not figure out in advance if they wanted to do something about this, prepare for this. They could see the ball rolling down the hill, and they didn't

get in front of it. Kathy Engelbert sent a letter to WNBA players acknowledging that she missed the market or interview on CNBC. You posted on Social about that interview quote, the commissioner answered, like every employer I've worked for, avoiding or perhaps invalidating the feelings of many in the league she has been charged with governing. Tell me more.

Kathy Engelbert's response on CNBC was, you know, I was told a long time ago that you should just ignore the people, if you wouldn't take advice from them, and just ignore them. I'm like, what, what, what did you just say? What the hell did you just say? And it's so disrespectful. But it's more than disrespectful, it's painful. It's painful because as a black woman, I get tired of being called a villain. I get tired of being

told what I'm not. I get tired of expressing myself and feeling like I can't bring my whole self to work because I will then be perceived as too much or I am doing too much. And I've struggled with this, and I'm gonna be honest with you, Sarah. I've struggled with this because I had this problem with she Carrie Richardson. I had when Angel would would have an attitude on the court, I'd be like, why you're representing all of us?

Why are you doing that? But you know what I decided, I said, this generation does not give a fly in about what other people say about them. They are bringing their full selves and they should be unapologetic about who they are and what makes them who they are. We as a society can't let one moment define who we think these people are. So what if you didn't like what Angel Rehys did to Caitlin Clark, That's not who she is. She shouldn't be a thug, she shouldn't be

villainized for that one moment. Let me tell you about the one mini moments I've had that I'd be ashamed of if somebody held me to that standard. And what Kathy Engelbert did was exactly what white people do. No offense is ignore the issue. This is why in this country we cannot talk about race. This is why in this country we are often told when we bring it up,

it's uncomfortable. I talked to Coach Blueter, which is Caitlin Clark's coach, and Coach Bluter was very honest and she was like, you know, I just wish and she had a hard time talking about race, and she said, I just wish she just didn't have to get too ugly. I wish people didn't have to bring race into it. And she was like, and then.

come from. And so I was so disgusted with this response from Kathy Engelbert on this stage where the majority of your players are and or is is ism exists, whether it be the sexism issue, whether it be the racism issue, and ism exists, and you're so out of touch that you talk about while rivalry is good for the game, yes, yes, and but what about this race issue. It really made me frustrated because I'm like, here we go get another corporate response.

all the stuff. And she didn't do that. And to your point, that is a privilege point of view, to be able to ignore the lived experiences of people who are different than you in favor of talking about the things that you think are a positive spin. And I think that when we look at how culpable league leadership is in terms of how far the unhinged fans and even some media have been able to go around this rivalry.

You know, we know that social media is awful, we know that people are going to be awful, but this feels like more than that. It feels like it got out of control and there was no one trying to reel it in right.

I don't know how to talk about race. I wouldn't know what to say. I know that I've been thinking about having someone come in and talk to my students, but this is a most white school. So here she is at this white school, and that's all she's had all of her life, and then you put her in this world and you say answer questions about race, can you? And she's like, well, what, well, what I'm uncomfortable And Ryan Rukle said this best he goes they're afraid of

saying something wrong, which is why they ignore it. And this is here's the answer, guys, here's okay. Spoiler alert. If you talk about uncomfortable things, they become more comfortable. And so I understand why, Yes, you don't want to talk about race, especially if you're not educated in that area, but you're going to have to do some homework. Too much is given much as required.

story about her. She spoke to Jeremy Shapp about whether angels should be allowed to do the you can't see me, and she said all the right things, and then after she was shaking and almost crying because she was so worried about saying the wrong thing. Understandable, and you only

get to say that for so long. Now that you know that this is required of you, Now that you know you're in a league that has predominantly women of color, that has plenty of women that are queer, that has all these isms, it is now on you to choose to educate yourself in a way so that you can speak on it comfortably.

a minute to find her voice. Then she will want. Same with Lebron. They were coming to Lebron and asking him what he thought about Trayvon Martin. He really didn't have an answer, and he said, guess what, I should figure this out. So I'm going to give her the grace to figure it out. I'm going to give her some time because I never figured it out. It took a while for him to figure it out.

But what happens is when you have leadership that doesn't get out in front of it and isn't intentional in the way that these things happen and unfurl over the course of a season, you get what's happening right now. And I think Kathy is very much feeling the effects of not having figured that out earlier.

to ensuring player safety and experience and joy. And then you're looking around for people who do get that, and sometimes the reason that they have that empathy and understanding is because they're not billionaires. Because guess what, some people who want to be billionaires are not the same people who want to lead others and be empathetic and understand.

And I'm getting on a tangent here, but I do think what I'm discovering as I get older, in particular, is very often the people in charge and who want to be in charge are not always the same people that want that interaction with the players that understand them. Those people take other positions the top top top are about business, they're about finance, they're about catsline, they're about and listen. I want that person to also be able

to understand and lead right away. That's good for the players. And it feels like in women's sports particularly, that's where there's so much conflict.

have to know that about yourself. And I guess we're going to all start doing a little more digging to understand where the very highest levels of the WNBA in that office, in addition to Kathy, have enough of the people that understand what the players are dealing with and are having intentional collaborative plans moving forward, to deal with massage, shore, to deal with homophontes, to deal with all of it,

to deal with all of it. Do you think that's going to happen, because to me, it feels like this is the league that we've seen collective player energy. So will it just end up being the players doing that?

I don't think she really cares. I think she's there to make money. I think that when they're looking for an empathetic leader, they'll hand the keys over to someone who has an understanding. But she is not the person to do that. And it's so painfully clear. Stevie Wonder can see it. She does not care about these players, and I know she doesn't because it feels more about what she was able to do. She wants to put her name on growing in the league. She wants to

associate herself with this rivalry there. To me, doesn't feel like there's any empathy in her about what is really truly the problem. And I'm not speaking out of turn. I'm speaking for women who lead this league who tell me that in private conversations that they've had with her. I understand that that is her job to make money, but she has missed the mark on the humanity side of this, which is what these women really truly want

as well. They want to be seen as individuals. They don't want to be seen as the lesbian or the black, or the this or the that. I am a human being. First, do you see my humanity? If you can't, Sarah, see me as your sister, your mother, your cousin. If you don't feel that way for me, then you can't understand my plight. And I don't think that she has that. I could be wrong. I doubt if I'm wrong, and it's okay, and it's okay, they'll find somebody else to

figure it out. But we already know what once we know what it is, we can fix it. Yeah.

take your word for it. One thing I want to say before we leave, which is really fascinating to me, is thinking about the way the w and not just the black players, but a lot of the black players have come together to stand up for things that really matter and have felt so collaborative. I was listening to an episode of We Can Do Hard Things with Brittany

Packnet Cunningham. She was talking about specifically Kamala Harris, and she was talking about the Black women Calls that started with her initial run for president and continued in the years since and grew to a space where they were perfectly ready when Kamala announced her presidency to keep it moving, and they inspired the white Women for Harris, called the White Dudes for Harris call, all of the other calls that have raised lots of money and have helped sort

of these black women teaching others how to organize because it's been going on for so long. And one thing that Brittany said that many might find uncomfortable is that because Black women are so consistently let down, not just by black men but the rest of the world, that they know that they have to rely on each other.

So there is a constant feeling of sisterhood and togetherness and we are in this and bound together to get what we need via each other, and that white women do not have the same instinct because we are closer in proximity to power to white men. There is more to be gained by us aligning with the men in our lives than other women. And so when we get in instances where we were being held back or held down, we look to the men to help us instead of

to each other. And that includes isolating from and leaving out black women because they are not the source of power for us. And so white women in order to understand how black women organize and move forward in a way that's even when someone steps out of bounds and does something Brittany Packnick Cunningham said, we will publicly support her, and we will privately say hey, we're not doing this. Yep, call them in and say here's how we're dealing with this.

We're publicly still going to support you, though, And that kind of connection does not exist. And there are a million reasons, religion, patriarchy, centuries of bullshit, etc. But in order for this league and the women leading it, as well as playing in it and the fans to move forward is to understand and learn from the way that black women collaborate. And we've seen that in this league. And I'm fascinated by this conversation that they had.

what it was about. It was about bringing everyone together and in our own different disciplines, different fields that we worked in making sure that we all felt supported. And we also had other people in the background moving chips for us to make sure that our voices were heard. The the the and I don't and I'm not saying this in a braggadocious way, I almost feel like it's it's it's become a burden. Black women are the moral conscience of society. We always are worried about everybody else

but ourselves. We've raised their kids, We've raised we we take care of their families, We take care of our families. We always say, well, that's not right, and we do publicly support and we privately we privately disciplined. I feel like that has helped us, but it's also heard as in so many ways because if we aren't more honest about what we feel, these women aren't doing. Ie, white women, do you remember that share the mic where Glenny Doyle

was apart. Yeah, and we and we took over the white women's platforms that had the larger platforms.

sisterhood and she's benefited from it. If you haven't benefited from sisterhood and men have only helped you all your life and in your career and personally and professionally, you can't relate. You just can't. You don't even know, you don't even know what sisterhood looks like. And also, I'll say this, and you tell me if I'm wrong. We were just raised differently. I was raised to take care of women. I was raised to believe in women. I

couldn't talk smack to my mother. If I have no respect for my mom, I'm gonna have any respect for the girl next door. I wish I would say something slick to my mom. She'd look at me like I was crazy. Even to this day, Like, even to this day, I'm still afraid of saying something wrong.

time issues of misogynore and homophobia and everything else come up in the lead, that we don't just redo this all over again. That's what we need to do, is learn when we have these opportunities, these awkward and difficult conversations that come up as a result of organic things like this rivalry, take what we learn and then move forward and make the sion based on them.

You can check it out at Rockthvote dot org slash teamw We'll link to it in our show notes. Remember we're less than fifty days out from election day, and in a lot of states you have to be registered by October sixth in order to vote on November fifth, So even if you think you're registered, be sure to double or triple check. Lots of states periodically purge their

voter rules, which is a topic for another time. So even if you voted in a previous election, make sure you're registered for this one, especially if you moved or went to college. Just don't nod your head while listening to this. Get out your phone and hop on your computer and do it. It takes thirty seconds. Speaking of voting, with the regular season in the WNBA almost wrapped, ESPN's

trio of award voters have publicly announced their picks. Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippo, and Michael Voppel were aligned for four of the six major WNBA awards, unanimously selecting Asia Wilson for MVP, Caitlin Clark for Rookie of the Year, Cheryl Reeve for Coach of the Year, and the FISA Collier for Defensive

Player of the Year. The total voting panel of sixty eight media members at national outlets and within the twelve WNBA markets will turn in their ballots by noon Eastern on Friday, and the award winners will be announced throughout the postseason. But you can turn in your ballot now. Yep, it's time for fight me. I said what I said, so you know what?

Nafisa Collier. I'm gonna give the edge shoot for Defensive Player of the Year, but I think it almost might be like one of those kind of nice things, like, obviously Asia's the MVP, but Nafisa had a great season, so give her a little bit of a nudge there, and she and Asia go back and forth on those defensive statistics. There's certain ones where Asia's leading, there's certain ones where in Afiicia's leading, and I don't know. I'm just gonna want to give her something for the seasons

she's had, so I'm doing that. And then I agree with Cheryl Reeves as the Coach of the Year. There's a couple that are definitely in the running there, but the links have been incredibly impressive, especially after the Olympic break. The other two awards they're like not unanimous on and I can totally see why there's an argument for a bunch of them. But my sixth person of the Year, I gotta go with Leoni Foevich to the New York Liberty. She's a rookie out of Germany, and the Liberty have

just had such a dominant season. I know that we've talked about the Links kind of taking the power of late, but they've been pretty powerful all season long, start to finish, and she ended up starting fifteen games when a bunch of players were in and out of the lineup for injury. And this was a team that also, you know, had people at the Olympics. Foebish herself played in the Olympics

for Germany. So I don't know I'm given the nod to her, but the argument is there for certainly the others, and then same with most improved I could see a handful of players. This is not a Homer pick. It

might just be that I know more about her. But Kennedy Carter, for all she's had in her past, like literally playing only eleven games because of issues with teammates and you know, being sidelined because of behavior, it's not just that her play has been so impressive for a team that really needed it in the sky, but also just being able to stay on the court, being able

to find focus under a new head coach. Obviously, Tea Spoon has a way of keeping her in the game, and when she's been hot, Kennedy Carter has been hot. So I'm gonna go ahead and give her most proved You've given me much here, Sarah Spain. I'll breethe through my first two quickly. Asia's MVP, Kaitlin Clark's Rookie of the Year. My coach of the Year is Eric Tebow because we just.

while we're seeing it. And I think just because Asia is having an MVP season, that doesn't mean we could ignore the fact she's leading the leading blocks, leading the league in defensive rebounds, defensive winds shares head to head against NAFISA Colliers. She's also leading that battle so and for those who don't know, that's a stat that measures how much a player contributes to their team's wins through defense avanced stats. I'm not a huge fan, but they're pointing to Agie Wilson right now.

as well. And again philosophical difference here. Foebich has started eleven more games for the Liberty than Hayes has for the Aces, And to me, that speaks kind of to the spirit of this award, Right, I'm looking at who comes off the bench to provide more and less time is kind of how I approach sixth Player of the Year.

at wondermedianetwork dot com. That's your good gameplay of the day. And also a reminder, we know that Thursday could be Diana Tarassi's last regular season game, so let us know what's your favorite DT memory. We really want to play some of your awesome responses on the show, So leave us a voicemail at eight seven to two two o four fifty seventy, or you can hit us up on email if that's your thing. Good game at Wondermedia network dot com. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review my pretties.

It's easy. Watch a good blanket rating five out of five stars. Review A good blanket can for real change your life when you can achieve maximum codes, warm your extremities and come back to center on the couch, at your desk, or in a moving car or wherever. Suddenly things just don't seem that bad. There's a good reason

that little kids have blankies, because that shit works. So next time you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed, just get yourself a good blanket, wrap yourself up in it like a burrito, and see if your mood improves, even if it's just by one tiny iota. And if you really want your shit centered waited blanket, a friend gave me a few for my dogs. They're supposed to be calming, and they are. I know this because they're mine.

or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzi and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer. Our editors are Jenny Kaplan, Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez and Grace Lynch. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain