Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we just bought a gallon of sunscreen and three portable fans in preparation for WNBA.
All Star weekend in Phoenix.
On today's show, we're going to talk all things hoops and the joys of retirement with four time WNBA champ and five time Olympic gold medalist Sue Byrd. But first, here's what you need to know.
Today. It's All Star Friday.
The skills competition and the three point contest are today the big news. No Sabrina Ynescu or Kitlin Clark in the three point contest. Now, multiple outlets reported that the WNBA invited both of them, but they declined. Sabrina of course getting ready for the Olympics, and Kaitlin Clark has been playing basketball pretty much every day since well really since she was born, but especially all season long for
college straight into the WNBA. So I guess I understand needing a break, but this is so disappointing, especially after we saw what Sabrina did in the men's All Star competition with Steph Curry. I want to see her come back and try to beat her own record from the women's three point line, and I really wanted to see
Caitlin Clark do what she does best. In fact, I would love for them to create a second three point line near half court logo threes only, Like, can we just get a Caitlin Clark logo threes competing against herself?
Three point contest? Augh, I'm just very disappointed. I get it, I get it, they need some rest. It's up to them. They don't owe us anything.
And yet that was a huge opportunity for both the league and for both of those players.
So I'm really bummed we're not going to get to see them tonight.
We are going to get some great three point competitors though, the Liberties jhon Qwell Jones taken on the Washington Mystic Stephanie Dolson, who is a center. Yes, that's right, a center in the three point contest and as a former big you know I'm going to be rooting for steph She also used to be a proud Chicago Sky member. Dolson actually currently the WNBA leader in three point field goal percentage this season, so we love to see it.
They'll be shooting against the Minnesota Links. Kayla McBride, Atlanta Dreams, Alicia Gray and the get Sons. Marina Maybury also super pumped for the Skills Challenge because we got Britney Griner representing her home team, the Phoenix Mercury, and she's going to compete against a bunch of guards including her Mercury teammate Sophie Cunningham again Gray and Maybury.
And then the twenty.
Nineteen WNBA All Star MVP Erica Wheeler of the Indiana Fever. So overall bummed about Sabrina and CC, but lots of fun tonight in the skills competition and the three point contest. Tomorrow night, we got the All Star Game, Team USA versus Team WNBA, and it's the Battle of the Cheryls. Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the Minnesota Lynx, who is also serving as head coach of the US Olympic team, is going to lead Team USA in the All Star Game, taking on Team WNBA and their head coach.
Cheryl Miller.
Miller, a women's basketball pioneer, also was the Mercury's first ever head coach back in nineteen ninety seven. Pumped for the Battle of the Cheryls. I hope they're both miked up too. There could be some good trash talk in that one. The Phoenix Mercury unveiled their new practice facility
on Thursday, fifty eight thousand square foot performance center. The organization said it cost one hundred million dollars to build and it includes everything from a full kitchen with a team chef, to an underwater treadmill to two practice courts dedicated to Diana Tarassi. Tarassi has played her entire twenty season WNBA career with the Mercury. Very cool move to
name those courts after her. Also pretty cool move by the Mercury to try to appeal to free agents because practice facilities have become a massive selling point during WNBA free agency. In the last year, both the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm built brand new dedicated practice centers, and those facilities have clearly had a big influence in attracting some of the league's biggest names. While the Olympic Girlies are away, the Club Girlies will play. That's right,
there's still soccer to watch, not just Olympic soccer. NWSL times Leaga MX Feminil Summer Cup kicks off today. It's a first of its kind tournament featuring clubs from the NWSL of the US and League MXFEMINIL of Mexico. Tonight's Seattle Rain versus Utah Royals at nine Eastern on CBS Sportsnet and Paramount Plus. Then Tigras UANL versus Pachuca at ten pm Eastern on Paramount Plus and CBS Sports Golazo Network.
Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse started last night. If you're not familiar, AU Lacrosse is a four week fifty six player league held in Sparks, Maryland, with twenty four games scheduled through the August eleventh Grand Finale. It's a short form, fast paced format with ten minute quarters, ten v ten gameplay, a sixty second shot clock, and it's all housed on
a ninety yard by sixty yard playing field. Now AU uses a special scoring system that sort of rewards individual players as well as teams, so every player can lose or win points during every game. Athletes score points as individuals and as a team to go on to an MVP titles and get cash bonuses. Each week, players and fans get a chance to vote for their MVP, and then the top four players become new captains. Each week draft their teams from scratch for the next week's games.
It's a little confusing at first, but then it becomes such a cool way to root for players and see different matchups in different team dynamics.
So just watch it for a bit and you'll get the feel for it.
You can go to auprosports dot com slash lacrosse to check out the schedules and TV times. We are hurtling into the All Star weekend and then we're crashing into the Olympic break, but we got to put the brakes on real quick and take a breath. We can't put the first half of the WNBA season to bed without first acknowledging yet another milestone for Kaitlin Clark. The Indiana Fever rookie broke the WNBA single game assist record on Wednesday night, recording nineteen assists in the team's loss to
the Dallas Wings. This amazing accomplishment brings us to a great yes and moment.
Yes and.
Yes, Kaitlin Clark's dimes are a wonder and the league has seen some pretty good passers in the past two Some are still dishing it out every night. Actually, like the woman Caitlyn passed in the record books, the Liberty's
Courtney Vanderslute. Now Slute had the record with eighteen assists in a game set in August of twenty twenty, and she's also tied for third most assists in a game with sixteen, alongside current players Alyssa Thomas of Connecticut and Salutes teammate in New York Sabrina and Escu, plus the great t Scha Pennchero, who dished out sixteen assists twice in her career back in ninety eight and two for the Sacramento Monarchs Rip Monarchs, Google them Pennachero sixteen and
ninety eight was the rookie single game record before Caitlyn's big nights, So there's another record for Caitlin. CC has also now set the Fevers single season franchise assist record. She's got two hundred and two in twenty six games with plenty more games to go. So yes, Caitlin Clark and go google t Chapennachero highlights when we come back.
Her job is basketball. At least it was.
It's Sue Berd aka Barbie the Legend drops by to dish on the WNBA.
Reality TV and more joining us.
Now we've got one of the greatest players in WNBA history, and you better take a.
Seat, because it's gonna take a while.
She's a four time WNBA champ, a thirteen time WNBA All Star, a five time Olympic gold medal. It's a two time NCAA champion, and a multi hyphenate post retirement, already well into securing an equally powerful legacy in media, team ownership and business. She has broken her nose exactly the same number of times she's one Olympic gold. It's super bird unless you've broken your nose more recently when you weren't on TV and we didn't get to witness it.
No, No, I think the next time I break my nose is when I'm getting a nose job.
I broke my nose in field hockey in high school, and I'm like, all these years later, still every once so WHI, I'll catch sight of it and be like, I should have just I should have gotten that fixed.
Oh, it's it's actually it's my I have a deviated septum like a lot of people. Yeah, it's the breeding issues. It's less vanity, more breathing. I might just claim five times is no good.
I might claim a deviated septum order to fix it. No one's gonna know no, So I have to start with something really important, which is, I think you're kind of my boss now, because you're the chief strategy officer for Deep Blue Sports Entertainment, which is one half of the partnership along with iHeart that launched this show, that launched this women's sports audio network.
I'm just a plead.
I'm just the talent here, and I'm trying to figure out, like, what kind of boss are you?
Good question. I've never been a boss before, so we're just gonna have to learn together here.
Oh that sounds terrifying. I mean I think a point guard is basically a boss.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm definitely nobody's boss. Even when I played you know, we're gonna get serious on it. Even when I play the point guard position, which is you know, the leader and all the things. You know, you're not going to actually act like a boss.
That's no fun.
I don't think you get the best out of people on that way.
You're not firing anybody, that's for sure. That's still absolutely good now, definitely not. It is very difficul to keep up with you these days. In fact, I had to go all the way to the south of France to hang out with you at Sport Beach at can But I do spot you on social a lot so I can keep tabs of what you're doing. You're sitting court side at Seattle Storm Games, You're attending Gotham f C Games.
You're a co owner over there. You're launching new content for Together and a touch more new deals with Box. You co produced a documentary, So let's pause there. Power of the Dream. It's streaming now in prime video. It's this incredible look at the true power of the WNBA off the court at a moment in time that really blew people's minds. Tell me about making that and tell folks why they should watch it.
Yeah, well I'll start. I'll start with the ladder. So this is just the story of you know, all of us when we were in the bubble season we arrived there. Obviously it's in the middle of a pandemic. It's also in the middle of the social uprising, and we really wanted the season to stand for something. We wanted to stand for social justice. We wanted to have black live matter on the court. We wanted to have say her name on our warm up shirts, Brianna Taylor's name on
our jerseys. So it was really, you know, we wanted to have impact, only to be met with resistance by a Republican sitting senator who was also the owner of the Atlanta Dream and Kelly Loffler. And it's really the story of you know, her essentially telling us that we're trying to be too political, you know, trying that Black Lives Matter is a political movement, a device, and a
divisive one at that. And it's really about it's a story about the history of w B activism and how we got to twenty twenty and why we had the backbones that we had, if you will. And then it's also about what we did and the strategy that we took and how we were able to kind of defend ourselves while also helping American democracy. And that's not like a that's not like a loose statement. It's like very fastial the Senate. Yeah, no, it's pretty crazy when you
think about it. So it's really just a story of that. And I think so it's important to watch it to see just I think how the WNBA rolls and really how anyone and any you know, I don't know at any workplace, at any moment in their lives, in any community. When you come together and you get strategic good things can happen. Good things can happen. So I was really
excited to be a part of that. The co producing part is really just more kind of like, you know, making sure the dots are connecting, you know, making sure we have enough photo, enough video. Luckily, you know, it was the bubble, so a lot of people were taking pictures of videos who were able to use a lot of the archival there, so putting it to putting it all together was great. But don Porter, the director, is the one that she's incredible all that she noted it. Yeah, she was one of.
The directors of the incredible Title nine documentary the ESPN did, and that was just fantastic. I love how you were just one of the co producers of the doc but also like basically a co producer of the movement because you were such a huge part of making it happen. So it's multifaceted that role for you. Where else are you spending most of your time these days? How do
you just side which projects to say yes to? And how hard is it to say no when everyone's like, but it's women's sports and you're super birds, so you should be involved with all of it.
Yeah, I've never been good at saying no, Like my whole life. It's that whole you know, that old people pleasing thing. So I'm definitely navigating that. I do feel like, honestly similar to you, Sarah, why the show is so important. We're kind we're on the same age and so we have similar experience, and that we've been in women's sports for so long, so we're uniquely positioned our voices, our experience,
all of that, understanding the nuance. I mean, we've talked about this at nauseum at times, so it's hard to say no because we are at such a pivotal moment. It's so exciting. There's so much coverage, or so much more coverage. So you want to have those voices a part of it. You want to have your you know, your fingerprints all over it. But you have to learn
how to say no too. So that's kind of what I'm navigating, trying to keep the main thing, the main thing, which at this point is really just not you know, overdoing it for myself.
I like how you tried to find a main thing, and you still were like, it's still all the things, but like just doing only so many of all the things.
Yeah, basically, I've never had a main thing.
I was to have athlete. I didn't even have a main thing in sports.
I've literally never said no, not even to an event other than like the mile plus anything longer than a mile.
It was easy to say no to.
I'm out. You didn't have like one that you were better at.
I mean, my best was probably that gaveling, and then hurdles and triple and long jump. Yeah, I mean I didn't really have one that was so much better than the others.
Never been good at the main thing.
You did finally say no to basketball, and by that I mean you were retired finally, which is like, I'm still sad, you know this, because I was such an asshole the entire time, every time you were like I'm not sure.
I'm like one more year, You're not allowed all of us.
You're the only thing I have left when I'm like, oh, there's people my age still doing stuff.
OK, what's been the best part about being retired?
Probably just making my own schedule. You know, obviously, listen, you play sports. Everybody knows it when you're an athlete, like you're in season, you've got games, you're traveling. If you don't have games, you have practice, and the off season you work out. But I don't think the part that people don't understand is just how it's constantly running
in the backdrop. There's just this thing that is just always there, and it's either providing a little bit of guilt, like crap, I gotta fucking get up and work out. How am I going to set this in? Or it's providing a ton of other emotions. But it's just always there. It's always guiding you. And so once that was gone, there's definitely moments of like what the fuck do I do now? But now I'm almost two years, Like once
this WNB season ends, it'll be two years. So I'm starting to get into a flow and I really like that I can. I I have my own time. I get to make the decisions I want with my own time now outside of work stuff that still exists. But that's really nice. Like Megan and I can I don't know, go to Mexico for a weekend if we want it, you know, we can take a trip, we can see friends, we can make these decisions where before that was just
not on the table. So it's been really cool to kind of add those days back into like my consciousness. They were just not there, they didn't exist.
Yeah, it's pretty wild. I think the non athlete doesn't really get. It's kind of like I think about being like an actor and actress, where it's like, no, no, you can't cut your hair. You can't like accidentally get a bruise because that's not going to match the time we were recording this scene the last time, and now we have to make it. You know, like your body and you are not entirely yours in a way that's very different from a lot of other jobs.
What's been the toughest.
Part probably like the same thing.
No structure. No one's telling me like what the hell am I spying?
I know my dad. My dad has through through my professional career, has joked that I've just been in like this extended version of kindergarten. You know. It's like people telling me where to go when I have a booboo, they fix it. And I think all of those Yeah, exactly, make sure you your snack, make sure that's that, make sure you nap, don't miss your nap time.
You have literal timeouts.
So yeah, yeah, so that part has been tough too. I think the hardest part is just I guess, like the identity piece of it. You know, it's even it still doesn't roll off my tongue when if I introduce, if I'm getting introduced or I'm introducing myself, like oh, retired athlete, former athlete, it still doesn't come naturally. I still speak in the wing when I talk about the w NBA, So that part is still slowly I'm still
slowly letting go of it. So it's been a process getting better, but it's been that's probably the hardest part.
I'm gonna say forever athlete retired is fine if we never say fur I like that. You mentioned Megan your full fiance still unless you secretly got married.
Okay, it's been a long engagement, so just checking.
To make sure a little bit we didn't make use of our free time that way. You and Meghan Rapino this incredible power couple, and you've done a lot separately and a lot together. I'm wondering the weirdest pitch or invitation that you've gotten. You don't necessarily have to share names or specifics of a company or a person, but like, did you ever get like a prince in Dubai that's like okay, five million dollars to be at my party or some company that you're like, this is the worst.
This is like not a fit.
Nothing is nothing's collen to the top of my head. And this isn't This isn't a plug, I promise, but we are. We recently announced we're going to do like a reality show around the dating lives of women's athletes.
No way, where did you announce it?
How do I gus this?
It's like a touch more which is me and Megan's production company in partnership with Together but also a partnership with Bunna Murray. It does. I mean, they're like the wizards of this.
Oh my wait wait wait wait wait more details all the details.
Basically, yeah, I mean we're going to follow you know, any female athlete that wants to be a part of it. We're going to follow their dating lives. So whether it's people who are in relationships mary, partner, husband, white, doesn't matter, all the above, everything in between, single dating, you knowing mingled and just like yeah, we don't want it to be it's not gonna it's not gonna start out as like some salacious thing.
No, it's gonna turn into fantasy. It's gonna turn Remember that show, wasn't it Fantasy Island?
Discover Way America can't stop talking about Temptation Island.
I never watched it.
I never literally watched it with my dad. I don't know that.
What weird that was when we were growing up, it was like they sent couples to a place and they were like, either this will bring you closer together, or you'll all start having sex with each other instead.
Like I feel like that's like that. I feel like that could be this. It's like, hey, we have a bunch of it.
I might have teammates, you might have teammates dating. It might have you know, like inter league dating, Yeah, different sports, you name it. So we're in the process right now. Obviously, people always want to know if we're going to be on it. We are not. Maybe I was like, can't we just be like the cool people on the cameo? Yeah, you're like Nickololache and.
What's your face on Love is Blind? No? No, it's news No whatever his new way. I don't watch these things Okay, well I didn't.
I watch Love on the Spectrum though, do you watch Love on the Spectrum? Oh my god is the best.
I try not to watch any of them, and then someone I respect happens to mention it, and then I'm like, I'll give it a shot. Mina chimes Love is Blind, And then here I am like five seasons in wasting my life away watching freaking Love is Blind. Anyway, you could be like Nick Lashane whatever his wife's name is, I'm sorry for that woman, Vanessa che.
I forget your name.
And they come in and they're like, all right, couples, you know, anyway, that's.
That's that's gonna be your in. Meghan's role is like the overseer of all the action.
Okay, you and Megan famously have talked about how late in your career, since you both played longer than the majority of athletes, how you got the workouts in and changed your regimen. You had this great trainer that worked with you to keep your body going. What does it look like now no one is making you work out, You don't have to be ready for anything.
What are you guys up to this?
FI? I mean, we're going right back to your other question. This falls into like making my own schedule. I'm not on somebody else's time. But what I've found is I still like working out. I still, I still it makes me like feel better in my body throughout the day. But I've learned that it doesn't have to be tiller. I think for a while, it took me a minute to shed this. I don't know this like, it's not an obsession. It was more just will be the right word,
maybe like a need. I needed the workout to be hard. I needed to feel like I did it and I accomplished something for this larger goal that was like being ready for games or whatever I'm gonna call it. So I definitely let go of that. Finally it took a minute. So now I can you know, if I go for a thirty minute walk, cool?
Yeah if I do?
Yeah, if you go do I don't know, a boxing class, great? And then yeah if you want to do a hard one every now and then when there when the mood strikes, which it doesn't strike off, great, But if I take a couple of days off in a row, I'm also not being myself up. Yeah for me, part of that identity thing I was talking about earlier was I did.
I did kind of embody this aging athlete who was still at the top of her game, and that for I was the oldest player in the WNBA for like five or six years, so it was just like it was constant in my head too, though everybody reminded me, like, oh, super the oldest player of the w She's a miracle exactly, and I think I like really digested that, and so for a while there it took me a minute to
like let go of that. But yeah, I've gotten to a good place where I basically, you know, I work out enough where I can even drink whatever I want. Is really what we're talking you know.
Yeah, yeah, that was like me right after track, when I stopped competing, I like couldn't go to yoga.
I'm like, what is this even I'm not pouring sweat, I like.
And of course later I come to realize how good it is and beneficial and I really enjoy it, but it was like, I'm gonna run to yoga and then run home from it, and then I'll get a good five miles in.
In addition to the class.
For those who haven't heard it, it's just one of my favorite stories tell the story of showing up to camp and having a chat with your youngest teammate about the age of her mother.
Oh god. So yeah. This was I think twenty twenty one, so I wasn't even in my retirement year yet. So Kicky Herbert Harrigan, she had come from South Carolina. She was in our camp and we were just chatting and she was like, hey, my mom's in Seattle, Like, would it be cool if you, you know, like meet her after the game or meet her, you know, take a picture of whatever.
And I was like, yeah, cool.
So anyways, in that conversation, it's somehow comes up where I think maybe Kiki was like, oh, you guys have the same birthday and I was like, oh nice, like October sixty who And I was like, oh what, Like I don't even remember if I asked. I think I did. I was like, oh, what year she bore She's like, oh, nineteen eighty.
And I was like, I'm sorry, Well, I'm like me and your mom are the exact same age. I was like, what does this mean for my life right now?
So yeah, that was at first, Yeah, it got a lass, Yeah, but I knew it. I knew I was getting I knew I was getting to that age where I was having teammates on my team. And I even said this. I was like, I have teammates on my team that I really could be their mother, and not in like some accidental.
Yeah, not like in high school like I planned this.
Yeah, I thought, like, I want to start my family.
I'm glad that you knew it. I'm delusional.
And when I became an owner of the Red Stars, I thought it was like, I'm like the players kind of not their parents. And then the same thing happened. One of them was like, oh my god, it's your birthday. Today's my mom's birthday.
And my husband was like, probably the same haha.
And she was like, oh, she's born in seventy nine. I'm like, oh, just got her by a year. Yes, but still what the I.
Thought, No, I know you're reminding me, you're taking me back. I don't know if this is going to hit for you. I'm going on a limb here. I remember I had like a big blow to my life when I realized I was older than all the people in real world.
For the youngsters the real world, No, I think it still exists, right, now they just have like challenges.
All the time.
Instead of you know, gaunt, let's stop faking and start getting real or whatever they did.
People stop and start getting.
Okay, back to the basketball. So you really like made the WNBA what it is today. You and many many others are such a huge part of why these current athletes are getting unprecedented levels of coverage and endorsements and support and love. What percentage of you, be honest, is proud and happy for them, and what percentage of you is jealous that you retired right before all of this.
I'm in a pretty good place about it. I'll say, like I'll say, like I was gonna say ninety ten, then I was gonna say eighty twenty, So we'll go eighty five. We split the difference eighty five fifteen. I mean, of course, there's a part of me that wishes I could play, but simultaneously, I don't wish I could play at forties three, Like if I was twenty three, Uh, forget it. I would love to be able to go back in time and be a twenty three year old
right now. Absolutely. I actually said that recently to someone who was like I was like, dang, I was born too soon, and they were like, yeah, but you could have been born earlier and it would be even worse. And I was like, okay, good point. Yeah, so yeah, of course I think someone will be lying if they said they wouldn't want to go back, like any WNBA player who is now retired and play right now. It's everything we always fought for or always wanted. We always
knew that. The one thing I know, I always said throughout my career. It's like at times we will be like, what needs to change in marketing and in business and in this and then that, and I'm like, yeah, I don't know, But what I do know is the product on the floor like that has sustained, like that has not just sustained, that has gotten better. We've done our part, and so it really is wonderful to see like all
of that payoff, to see the attention come. Like you mentioned earlier, I tried to go as many games as I can, whether you know I'm in New York or Seattle, that's where Megan and I both live now, And it really, I mean, it's unreal. It's great. I love it. I mean every now and then I get annoyed at the narratives and all those things of that.
Yes, Like, how do you explain the hysteria that we saw in the beginning of the season, particularly around rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, Like the coverage was insane, but also it was hysterical and unhinged.
Yeah, it was just it was a lot. It really was a lot of new eyeballs that, you know, the college players brought with them, which I still don't understand how that happened because I always said this, where do you think all the W ANDB players came from? Like
we all came from college. I don't get it, like we all, you know, but Kaylin and Angel I mean, listen, you can talk about a lot of college players, but those two in particular, they I don't know what when I see the younger generation, I just see people that different from when I was coming out of college and even pretty much all in my career. They now see these business opportunities and they jump at them. They're they're smart,
they're strategic. We felt lucky just to have a league, and they're and they're like seeking things out in a different way, which I love to see. But from a basketball standpoint, I think Caitlin in particular, you know her long distance threes. I always said this, we finally got the an acdote to dunking. All we heard our entire existence was you guys are boring. You know dunk Oh, maybe you should lower the rims. It would be more exciting. And the thing about the long three is it is
what it is. The distance is the distance. It goes in or it doesn't. It's the same for everybody. And so in a sense, I think she snapped people out of this trance that was very negative towards women's basketball, and now she's brought this huge group. What happened then was and you don't really see it. You didn't really see this, and you don't see this in a lot
of other sports. This need listen. In ten to fifteen to twenty for the remainder of time, Caitlyn will go down as whatever you want to call it, like the change, the one who made the change, this pivotal person. She will one hundred percent. But in other leagues you never it was never like when Lebron came, it was like, oh, Michael Jordan didn't happen, And for some reason that happened, and it caused this whole thing when the reality was
no player felt the way towards Caitlin. Everybody was very welcoming, inviting, and they mistook I think competitive talk right with hate with hating on somebody, and there is a thin line there by the way, and some people do both and some people swing back and forth. But I think the majority of WNBA players, with their play, with their talk, it was just competition, not hate for a person, and it's just sports.
But we have trouble not being around women in sports, so we made it weird. You can only say two words in response to this question, who is your Rookie of the Year pick?
So far?
Yeah, I don't get to do my explanation. It's dicey. I think, well, can I add wes third word? Currently? So I hate doing mid season awards. I think that honestly, I felt this way about m v P forever. People would say someone was MVP in the first two weeks and then in a weird way, it kept them in that conversation no matter what they did. So I've never been but currently Caitlin Clark.
Okay, spicy, okay, spicy icy, and dicey, I don't know you know those double doubles.
That's that's pretty well.
I know. So that's I say, yeah, race, we'll see where where the streets.
It's a great race.
I've quoted you so many times talking about the evolution of women's sports because you always seem to see the bigger picture, even when you were playing in it. That includes you were calling out the poison of people poisoning the well of women's sports, wasting their time talking to smack instead of just watching something else. You demanded more advanced statistics for women's basketball and the Players Tribune so we can have better conversations and better analysis. What are
you seeing right now? What do you what is making you want to write another Player's Tribune style? Missive Oh, there's a lot kind of what we were talking about earlier about We'll just use the word nuance.
I think the life of a male professional athlete is so known. It is so known, and a lot of times what we're seeing in the current coverage of women's basketball is people who are taking that male professional basketball player lens because they know it so well, and putting it on women's sports and putting on women's basketball. And that's that's not our lives our lives are different. I think A great example, this isn't necessarily Apple Staples, so
what I just said, but it's similar. A great example. It was the narrative around why in an angel should stay in college for nil money? That was an insane insane It was properly insane. And I'm really glad that not that they left, whether they left or stayed, they were going to become professionals at some point anyway. But I'm really glad the way it played out because those two I don't know their bank accounts, but what I say read they're making way more money than they would
have in college. Nobody ever, nobody ever took in like what it meant to be a professional, and nobody ever took into account that NIL was marketing. Nil isn't your WNBA contract. Yeah that's not.
You can still have that comparison, Yeah, yeah, all that money's going with you.
Yeah.
So that was really frustrating. So I think that's kind of what I've seen that people just don't know our lives, and in a lot of ways that these young young players, they're kind of starting a whole new life of a women's basketball player to be professional in this world. You know, we all played overseas. Our lives were kind of one way, and they're they're starting what is going to be like a new pathway.
Yeah, and then there's that other league that like Brandon Stewart and Defisa Callier started, So there's gonna be a lot of opportunities for folks to stick around in the off season and all the money and sponsorships and attention, which is fantastic. Okay, speed round To close us out, who you got Team WNBA this week's All Star Game or Team Olympics.
So I played in this in twenty well, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty Olympics, whatever, and we lost. So I actually think that Team USA is going to win this time because now it's like it's going to be a lot of we don't want to do what happened now, So I'm going to pick Team USA. It was a learning lesson last time around.
Speaking of the Olympics, how pissed it you are?
Are you at Diana Tarrossi for getting one more run at it.
And potentially adding a gold medal that you don't have?
Well she does, Yeah, she has one up of me, isn't she. No, I'm really happy for her, like truly, it's I don't. It's funny because I've actually got this question a couple of times, and it is interesting. I'm like, I still feel pretty good about my five. It's not good anymore. No, not like it kind of gets brought up in anyway. You're just done. But no, if anyone knows how hard it is to play this long at
this level, it's me. So I have a ton of respect in what she's doing, and I'll be there so I'll get to watch it.
How much longer you think she's going to play?
Gun to my head, this is probably it, but.
Okay, I don't know.
It gets tricky when you're older and you're still playing at a high level. Listen, you wouldn't want it the other way, right, You wouldn't want to be like stinking it up or god forbid injury, Like you wouldn't want any of that. But it does make the decision. You're kind of like, oh, I can still do it.
Yeah, but I don't know.
I think she has an other thing she might want to get to you, so we'll see.
Okay. One of my producers is a former college hooper.
She's so bummed, she's on a flight right now, and she's not getting to meet you, so shout out me. Sometime you'll get to meet Sue. But what's the celeb you have that fandom for? Who do you most want to grab a drinker of me with that? You're like, oh, you spot them from a fire, and you're like, that person seems fun.
Well, my secret crush is wonder Woman Linda Carter. No I actually met her though, Gal good Dot. Yeah, I know. I didn't want to say, except I'm like you do or good Dot. We're just gonna call her Gal if I saw her, yeah, I would be star.
She's not a secret crush anymore.
It is now then everybody knows Megan's over here.
She doesn't have a crush on Gal.
She's like smoking. Okay, last one. You've got the world at your fingertips right now. Pie in the sky dream a job, a role, an opportunity and invitation like put it out there, manifest that ship, put it out in the world.
What do you want?
God?
You know?
I think the one I'm gonna throw out there. I've been throwing this out there quite a bit is when the Sonics get back to Seattle. I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that ownership for sure.
Okay, I love that. I love that. Yeah, and we love you. Sue.
Thanks so much for giving us your time. I know you're so busy so far. You've been a benevolent dictator as a boss.
Get back to work. You gotta get out of here.
Thanks Sue. We got to take a quick break.
When we come back, it's ground and find out Fridays tgif.
Oh, hey, you're back, guess.
What it's ground and find out Fridays and we're ready to be petty. Yeah. The best way to celebrate a big accomplishment and tons of positive affirmations from people is to get real negative, real quick, just for like a quick second though. We're going to do it because I just want to give a shout out to all the people who doubted that we could make a show like this. You deserve prison, but you won't get time because you told us. There wasn't enough info, there weren't enough games,
there weren't enough watchers. People didn't listen, people didn't care, And guess what they do, and so do we. And we're having a blast, and so are all of our listeners. So if you Randon found out TGIF. Speaking of listeners, we love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good game play of the day. Obviously, tune into the
WNBA All Star festivities. We got the Skills Challenge and the Three Point Contest tonight six pm Eastern on ESPN, and then the WNBA All Star Game is live tomorrow eight thirty pm Eastern ABC and the ESPN app, and it's also available to live stream with direct TV stream. Speaking of that All Star Game, we got some great responses to your favorite WNBA.
All Star moments. Here are two of my faves.
The first was from coach Marion Washington at my Washington thirty one on Twitter, a Women's Basketball Hall of Famer head coach for the Kansas Jayhawks women's basketball team from nineteen seventy three to two thousand and four. You heard that right, three decades of coaching. I'm so pumped, she wrote us, and I love her answer so much. She said, my favorite WNBA All Star moment is today's moment my Jayhawk time. Mika Dixon was a three time All Star.
Her role models were men today the WNBA is full of role models for today's pro, college and youth players.
We love it. Thank you coach for writing in and thanks for that moment. I love that too.
Also at gen Ford one point thirty said Sue's between the legs pass to LJ. Yes, you must look this up. Two thousand and three All Star Game, Sue Bird length of the court breakaway, no look, bounced past backwards between her legs to a trailing Lauren Jackson for the layup.
Absolutely elite.
Find the highlight And actually, speaking of Lauren Jackson, this is kind of incredible.
So we just talked to Sup Berd. She's clearly very happy in retirement.
But we got to give a shout out to Jackson because she retired in twenty sixteen and spent five years away from the game, but has since returned twice and was actually recently confirmed as a member of Team Australia for the upcoming Paris Olympics. At age forty three, she'll become the oldest basketball player in Olympic his street when she steps on the court in Paris.
By the way, I love that.
People my age are constantly being called miracles, just absolute miracles, just for standing up every day, which, honestly, when I stand up out of my chair every day, I feel.
Like I should get myself a pat on the back. Congrats to Lauren Jackson.
Keep those answers to our questions coming, and I'm still kind of debating what we're going to call you folks. Some listeners have submitted some ideas, the Goodies, the gg's, the ADT's which stands for about damn times, the squad. I've got some ideas too. I was thinking, since our show is named in honor of the postgame handshakes, maybe y'all are the high fives or just the fives?
What's up?
Fives? Thanks for listening.
I don't know about that, the butt slaps, the butt taps, or maybe, like another time honored game tradition, the orange slices you remember those at halftime, y'all could be my slices.
I don't know why. It sounds cute. It sounds like, what's up slices? You're a little slice. I don't know, am I weird? Tell me Let me know. I kind of like that one.
Let's keep brainstorming, though, it feels like maybe we should keep brainstorming, so keep them coming. Hit us up on our email Good Game at wondermedianetwork dot com or on social at Sarah Spain on Twitter, or you can even leave us a voicemail message that we might play on the show. Eight seven two two o four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the show. It's so easy. Watch Dogs rating eleventy out of five stars.
Review Woman's Best Friend better than Humans nine out of ten times.
They love long walks on the beach. They do cool tricks for treats. They're great snugglers.
They'll probably hopefully actually not sure about my dogs, but maybe alert you to a fire and save your whole family dogs man.
Also, please adopt, don't shop. Thank you, thanks for listening. Enjoy the weekend and we'll see you Monday.
Good Game, superb Good Game, Caitlin Clark you Phoenix summer temperatures one hundred and fifteen degrees.
Come on man.
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 Our 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