Shuttle That Cock on Outta Here with Big Citrus

Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're setting a timer every ninety minutes to remind ourselves to reapply our sunscreen. Over here at Big Citrus Enterprises, we're still on summer break and living the good life. But that doesn't mean we're leaving y'all contentless. So on today's show, it's a Big Citrus summer hang where we're talking about our favorite summer sports traditions. Storylines will be watching in the WNBA, and a couple events going on while we're

I feel like citrus is a winter fruit.

Is it? That's what I'm wondering. It feels like I'm using it a lot now. But I feel like, you know, in certain places, whether that's you know, Florida or otherwise, that are year round nice. It can be really any time of year.

Yeah, the citru I mean where I'm at, the oranges have been juicy. The lemons and the limes have been flavorful. We've been using a lot of them. A lot of the summer stuff we like to cook has a lot of citrus in it. So yeah, I think we're at our best right.

Now, cutting a lot of wedges to put in drinks. Yeah, just me, Yeah, baby, that's right. We're recording this on June twenty fifth, just a couple of days ahead of the start of our summer break and what will eventually be the start of season two. We're very excited about season two for the show, but we need a little bit of rest. So if somehow, some way by the time you're listening to this and this episode drops, I

Oh absolutely, I think you know where I'm gonna start. Sarah Washington, miss Sticks, Like you said, we're recording this on June twenty fifth. June twenty fourth is the day they slayed the Giants. They took out the Minnesota Lynx, the number one team at this time in the WNBA, and my Sticks are kind of good on the low, Like what's up with that? They're just not consistent, and I think that's the part that's still kind of pinching

And Gabby Williams, Yes, has been unreal. If you are not watching Gabby Williams and what she's been doing in Seattle, you are missing out in one of the best stories of the season so far.

Oh Man absolutely like talk about a player who could. She makes it look effortless on the floor too. That's the part that gets me. She's so fluid in her movement. She's so athletic, but she can do so many different things. She can attack the basket, she can hit a mid range. Has been struggling with that three ball as of late, but facilitating extremely, extremely well for that squad. So I'm keeping my eyes on them for sure. And then the Golden State Valkyries.

Yeah, be so th real fight Jess Smith is.

Yes, they they've surprised a lot of people. But I'll tell you what. They didn't surprise me.

And you know why.

When we first talked about this team, you remember what I said, this is a team full of six players of glue players and temmy fact. Ben actually echoed those sentiments not too long ago in a postgame press conference, saying, like, we're a bunch of role players. We know how to do what we need to do individually for their group to be successful.

And we talked about a team of a lot of European players and whether their style of play might be different enough that it just takes some other teams off their game for a little while before they could figure it out.

Yeah, And I've just been so extremely impressed with that squad. I hope they keep it up. Natalie Nicasse is pressing all of the right buttons. She's finding a way to give everybody, you know, whether it's somebody who gets signed on a hardship contract and comes in for a second, or you know, somebody who's on for the long run of the season, Like she's given these players individual confidence to go out there and be great in whatever it

I hope we someday get the behind the scenes story about what happened leading into the Valks first season, because I just remember during free agency it was like crickets over there and we're like, why are they not signing any big players? Why don't any of the stars want

Right, That's what I was wondering. If they had any conditions around joining the team whereby they wanted to have people on longer deals where they were sure they could use them to continue to build, that they could have fans grow attached to members of the roster that they knew would stick around, And if that was really difficult at a time when most of the players in the league don't want to be signed past this season, that could be one explanation for why they struggled to get

I did just pull up the Valk's salary cap cheat sheet courtesy or her hoop stats. And even without signing those big name players though, they weren't able to get anyone on a longer contract except for Carla Lay and Kate Martin, both of whom are on contracts that they signed as rookies. Everyone else is either an unrestricted or restricted free agent next year, so still could be a very different look team.

Yeah. I mean, that's just a guess from me that they might want folks to sign longer term content to be, you know, a part of this process for longer, but they also might be thinking, we just need to put out a team this first season. Once everybody sees the fans, season ticket holders, the vibes at Balhalla. We're gonna get some of those free agents to come start that new part of their career post new CBA with us here, and boy are those wins gonna help with that. Yeah.

And well, one thing that we did find out this week, we know who's not going to be headed to Golden State. It's not gonna be Subrinian Sq. I know there were so many people before the draft, the expansion draft, and things were like, is Sabrina going to return to the Bay and become the franchise. It's not happening, she told. I think it was the post. She told some publication that she's she plans on spending the rest of her WNBA career in New York. What's valid?

Valid?

They got a good thing going over there. But I'm right there with you, Alex. I hope that one day we do get a Golden State documentary so they can tell us exactly all the ins and outs and everything that happened behind the scenes. But I'm extremely, extremely impressed with them.

By the way, I love sab saying that for loyalty reasons, but girl.

What you're doing, I feel so must.

Leverage use your leverage to make them pay your ass. I mean they think you might be going to the bay, they're gonna have to up the amount that you're getting.

Maybe there's other things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about in our preview too.

Alex, I'm sure you're gonna be watching the w in between checking for the first ripe tomatoes of your harvest in your garden this summer. So what are you gonna be keeping an eye on?

Phoenix Mercury. I did not expect them to beeed third in the standings as of this recording, and uh, I just want to see if they can keep it going. I think it's so funny though. I was thinking back to our early season predictions and we're recording this on the day that it was confirmed that Dowana Bonnor no longer with Indiana. They waved her there's a chance she could be heading to Phoenix, of course to join her

To continue going up and up.

But as for the Mercury, they've been really making it work with a lot of pieces, and I think it also speaks to how good of a player Alsa Thomas is. Right like, she during her time at Connecticut was continually somebody that should have been in the MVP conversation. Sometimes she was, sometimes she wasn't, but it was just the respect. She didn't always get it despite her very good play. And I think she's showing, hey, it doesn't matter where I am, I can still bring these same results.

Especially important with Colliacopper missing so many games to start the season. This is a team that we were like, oh no, they lost Danna Tarassi, They're gonna be without Britney Griner. This is going to be a completely different look. How is this gonna work? And between Alyssa Thomas and of course to Sabi the Unicorn doing what she does.

Yeah, and then just thinking about adding Dewana Bonner.

Yeah, all of that, it's just.

Completely unfair, completely insane. But to your point out, you know, at the beginning of the season, I don't know if I was thinking that she was going to be the reason they wanted championship per se, but I did think, you know, she was gonna have a very particular kind of impact on this squad, and I'm kind of sad to see that it didn't work out that way. But of course, you know, we never know what's actually happening

For both parties. And if you look at the advanced statistics around Lexi Hall, she is whop been. When she is on the court, the team is playing significantly better. I don't have the plus minus in front of me, but her presence on the court changes the style of

Yeah, for sure.

For sure. Well, in between literally laying down horizontally and doing absolutely nothing for as long as possible during this break, potentially getting up occasionally to pet my dogs, I will be watching some w and one of the things I will be watching is the Atlanta Dream you just mentioned, Alex. The Phoenix Mercury are in third, and the Atlanta Dream, a team that I did not expect to be ballin with a new roster, brand new pieces to try to fit together, is getting it done. And a lot of

I agree, I disagree.

I liked the idea of it, and then I tried to watch a Sky Dream game where the Sky we're wearing light blue with navy accents, and the Dream we're wearing navy with light blue accents, and the court was navy with blue accents, and I was like, I don't know what's happening. What am I watching right now? So other than the court, which is a nice idea but

With Ali Chagre is current averaging the most points per game she's averaged in her entire career, nineteen point seven per game. She's the sixth leading scorer in the Wright. Now you mentioned Ryan Howard, the twelfth leading scorer in the Wright. Now it's seventeen point seven. Like that's a two headed monster if I've ever seen one. And it's

The other one, I'm gonna be keeping an eye on the Las Vegas Aces. Listen, y'all. You know I'm not keeping an eye in the sky because it's painful, but the fact that the Aces only have two more wins than my sky at the time of this taping tells you just how dire things are for a team that should be much better than that.

Say, I'm gonna make a bold pretty By the time people are listening to this, I think they're going to be even in the stand ins.

The sky and the Aces. Good Lord for that one.

I'm full of bold predictions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean you you were the one who came up with the idea of ball dogs at Wimbledon, which I'm here for. No, but I mean, this is still a team with Jackie Young, Asia Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jewel Lloyd You should not have that much talent on the court and be sitting at six wins. You should not be able to misuse that much talent at this point in the season. We should have started to figure it out by now. Six and seven is just not acceptable.

I'm stumped when it comes to this group because there have also been moments where they've played their asses off right, Like I think distinctly back to that last game they played against the Indiana Fever, it looked like they were starting to get their lives together a little bit. But there's just something, some piece is missing, some connection is missing.

She did.

I saw a social media post where it was like, Aliah Boston belongs in the rage baiting Hall of Fame.

Something she does. It was a good night for bigs. Camilla Cardoza that same night really went off. Yah, yeah, yeah, the bigs. The Bigs had a night of it. Yeah. I mean, it's time to start questioning whether there's a Deerica Hamby curse.

Occur.

I'm just saying that ever since Deerica Hanby left and said there was some bad things going on over there, that team hasn't seen a title.

It could be that, or it could be the back to back curse, you know what I mean, because though they had some success that that season, right after the back to back, it's I don't know. It's hard, man. It changes your psyche once you know you can do it. It's like, are there more moments where you say, ah, it doesn't matter as much, or ah, this little detail isn't as important. You know.

It's it's hard.

It's hard to win a championship, and it's even harder to, you know, have a successful season year in and year out.

So I don't know.

I also wonder if Kelsey Plumb is just sit in LA thinking to herself every time she sees another L pop up on the screen, like what's changed? Line is.

Well? I mean, needless to say, there's gonna be a lot to watch in the w while we're gone, and I will be watching Page Becker's highlights. I don't know if I'm willing to commit to full Wings games, but I'm gonna work with Shade because Page is looking good.

It's kind of like when you get invited to a JV game for someone that you really love and you're like, oh, I really want to go support you, but also like.

The ball is bad. Yeah, the ball is bad. They'll figure it out, hopefully, because I need her to be on a team that's thriving, because she looks damn good and she is smooth with it right now, and so it's fun to watch except for then, you know the rest of the game that's happening around her. We got to take a quick break when we come back. More happenings while we're on hiatus. Stick around. We're also going

It does, in fact, I understand.

I'm right there with you, like the idea of our team. I'm into our actual country. No, So I'll just root for each individual US women's national team member and somehow not the whole. Also, every time I go to Canada, I have such a good time and I'm like, maybe I should be Canadian. There's so really nice and fun. We've all that plus we've got a lengthy break for the NWSL that leads to a bunch of different sort of summer exhibition matches, a couple quote unquote cups that

Yeah, for sure.

I feel like every time I get to this point in the NWSL season, I look at some of the programming that they put up in place of the NWSL games and I just want to be like why. And I maybe shouldn't admit this as somebody that's you know, worked in this space for a while, but I sometimes look at it and I'm like, what is this? Why are they playing it? What's the stakes?

Like?

Uh, it's and it's hard to on that.

Info, right. I think for soccer too, it's like you'd have to ask all these individual players who are not on their national teams and not playing in these friendlies and not playing in these cups, would you rather have games every once in a while because training straight through for a month plus y woof, And for them it might actually be better and more interesting to play a friendly against Brazil or some other country than it is to literally just be in whatever city they're in for

Yeah, for sure, we need to sign out our own good game with Sarah Spain end up USL player survey to get their thoughts on this, because I do want to hear their thoughts and I think that probably their input is the most important, and in the past, I will say it hasn't necessarily felt like their voices are being heard, even just when you consider the whole length of the season and the fact that they conclude their season in November, have December off, and then are literally

Yeah, did you hear, Misha, just remembering what running a sprint was?

Like?

No, thank you.

I know. They skipped out of those whatever they could. They were like, oh my arm, odd thing is broke.

Oh no, I did them. I was mad the whole time, but I did them. I did them in soccer and in basketball. Actually I did them in soccer when we were playing in the heat outside. I still don't understand why people decide to do that on purpose. I love to watch, I love to watch, but yeah, the thought of training for a month street running sprints and just being outside in this swampy weather, don't We've talked about the heat wave, y'all.

Mesh, you've never sound so washed before.

Oh. I'm leaning into it these days.

I'm leaning And imagine how I feel.

I've been playing in a field hockey league the last couple of years, and I think I'm not gonna play this year. I think I'm ready.

Why no, no, no, please do it for me, Do it for me as someone who literally this morning spent like five minutes telling my trainer how sad I am that I can't go out and compete in anything. We were trying to list off things I am physically allowed to do, and we ended on like golf and bowling, like I can't even he won't even let me play pickleball. And that's for like old people who can't walk. They're like, everyone's playing pickleball. Now you can play, so you're one hundred.

Well, Alex, you play in the league, and I'll play pickup for the rest of the summer and we'll count that as our win.

For Sarah.

Yeah, I guess so. I just the problem with this league is that it is an adult league, as in eighteen plus, as in current college students are playing in it. And last year my team was old, washed up people playing against the current college students.

It was you don't like getting your ass beat.

It was just not fun. No, no, I really don't.

So what I'm hearing is you need to recruit Alex. What I'm hearing is there needs to be some strategy behind your approach.

I know, but you guys. In addition to not wanting to play in the league, the league also has a tournament where you play four games on a weekend in the middle of.

The day, and I'm like, sounds amazing. That's all I want to do. That's all I want to do with my weekend. I play sport all day, all weekend.

I'm sorry, Sarah, you do a freaky Friday moment and.

Go, oh my god. I would trade bodies with a young person who still got all working original parts, and I would just play sports original.

You said all my parts are original.

I know, I'm out of the count.

I would just play sports for forty eight trade hours without taking a break. Oh the joy. So we'll be missing or maybe not missing some of those soccer games. Plus, the swimming World Championships are also going to get underway before we get back for season two, and they're actually worth keeping an eye on, even if you usually save your lap watching for the Olympics. Alex, can you tell us a little bit of why this is one of the most anticipated World Championships in a while?

Yeah?

For sure.

So big picture here is that I think sometimes when you're a fan of a team in the WNBA or and WSL, You're like, I get to see my favorite athletes every week during the season, three times a week during the season, and for swimming outside of the Olympics, you really only get to see the best athletes in the world go head to head twice during the World Championships,

Summer.

Macintosh is still so young, She's eighteen years old, and I think sometimes in a lot of sports, not just swimming, there's this sense of like they're only going to continue to get better and better and better. And as Katie Ladeki has shown, she is still an incredible athlete, but it has been hard for her to get back to some of those times that she set at a similarly

Yeah, I have to admit that even as an athlete myself, I wasn't completely aware of the age ranges for women and when they're at their peaks, and particularly for sports like swimming, track and field, there are plateaus that occur for a lot of women at certain ages, and the current system is sort of set up along the lines of peaks for men, which happened in their early twenties, and for a lot lot of women, their peaks happen very young, before puberty really hits and takes its toll

Yeah, yeah, I gotta find an outdoor court that's not like straight up cement or straight up assphole. That's my only thing.

I need, Clay, what are we doing here? She's like, I'm not good on the hardcourts anymore.

No, because the way my back and my neck and spine have been feeling, it's giving your you're doing a little too much. It's it's too much impact. But maybe that just means I need to move indoors and it's hot to outside, so it's giving that anyways, Okay, And they still run pick up inside the local La Fitness, so I'm had to get in there with you.

Hey, what I want you to do? You know that new w NBA initiative where they're painting a w NBA three point line. Yeah, I want you to go rogue neighborhood court, bring up the can of spray paint.

Yeah, yeah, make your own line and then start school. And some people do you guys have any summer competition traditions with friends or family that aren't part of the leagues you're in.

Last year, I had a great one with a friend whose father knows a lot about archery, and so to celebrate the Olympics, I've got to try archery for the first time, which was so fun, so fun, so fun. I don't think that's happening again this summer. But sometimes you get a good volleyball game together on the beach, which we play with more than two players on each side of the court because it's so hard.

Yeah, that's required if you're not a professional level player. It's hard with four, it's hard with six. It's hard period. Ever since Gina Davis was trying to get to the Olympics and archery, that's been like a dream of mine to just be like an old ass archer because I was really good in summer camp. I haven't tried it and I don't know thirty years, but I feel like I still got it.

You probably do. It's mind over matter.

Is that on the list of allowed activities?

Maybe archery is my sport. I mean I completely jacked up my arm, my shoulder and javelin. But give it a shot. Means do you have a summer competition?

Yeah, it's giving. I will be having a little drink or drink and playing spades as much as possible. Yeah, with friends, with family, with strangers. It don't matter. As long as you don't renig be good.

Okay, do you take their money?

No, I don't play for money because when you when you introduce money for me, it gets to a different level that I don't really want to tap back into you know what I mean, I've left that version of me in the past because I guess that person is what you would call a red ass Sarah. That person I would call that he is not a kind person. Playing for money, no, So I'm just gonna keep it cool. I'm gonna keep it cute, play for fun, play for for for bragging rights. But spades is my go to.

That would be a shuttlecock.

Oh, I have so many badminton fun facts.

Why am I not surprised that Mesh couldn't remember a shuttlecock? Not interested? Shuttle that cock on out of here, because I ain't interested. Badminton's fun. That's what we used to play a lot and my parents place in Michigan growing up, we had a net. We kind of tried for volleyball, and then we realized that we were racket people because we all grew up playing tennis, so we became badminton folks. We do have a croquet set up in Michigan that is that is a sport I can still play. So

I have a neighbor who has a I want to say professional croquet court, but I actually don't know what a professional croquet court is. But it is an ass stroked her corquet field. And he has people over fairly regularly, a couple times a week, and they all wear their croquet whites.

I'll be right over.

I think he's a Trump supporter, so not so much.

Oh, flight canceled. All right, I'm excited to watch and play whatever I'm still allowed to play. I'll be living vicariously through both of you. We got to take a break, y'all. When we come back. Holy guacamolely welcome back slices. Even though we're out of office, we still love hearing from you, so hit us up on email Good Game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe,