Welcome to good game with Sarah Spain, where there's not enough liquor in the world to drown our Diana Tarassi related sorrows DT. The White Mamba, the Goat done. We knew it was coming, and we're still not ready. It's Thursday, February twenty seventh, and on today's show, Big Citrus will convene to give our reactions to the news of Dinah Tarassi hanging them up. We'll clone ourselves for a game of one on many and talk miniature horses and a passion for pities, plus a circle of l's and our
crystal ball gets called upon again. It's all coming up right after this Welcome back slices. Here's what you need to know today. We'll start with DT. Diana Tarassi, the WNBA's all time leading scorer and all time leader in mad three pointers, has announced her retirement after twenty seasons. Tarassi told Time Magazine of the decision, quote mentally and physically, I'm just full. That's probably the best way I can
describe it. Full, and I'm happy. End quote. Last August, Tarassi became the first basketball player to win six Olympic gold medals. She led the Phoenix Mercury, which drafted her number one in two thousand and four, to WNBA championships in two thousand and seven, two thousand and nine, and twenty fourteen. A five time WNBA scoring champion and fourteen time All WNBA selection, Tarassei was League MVP in two thousand and nine and Finals MVP in nine and twenty fourteen.
A winner at every level, she led.
The Yukon Huskies to three consecutive national titles from two thousand and two to two thousand and four, including an undefeated season The Goat.
There will never be another DT.
To college hoops, where we've got sixteen ranked teams in action tonight, including new number one Texas. The Longhorns travel to Mississippi.
State for an SEC matchup.
That game tips off at seven thirty pm Eastern. We'll link to the full college hoops schedule in the show.
Notes to Soccer.
We're recording this episode before the final match of the She believes Cup a must win for the US women's national team versus Japan, but will be sure to react to all things she's and believes is in a future show. In the meantime, let's pull out that crystal ball again, shall we It's telling us the US wins the game, but Japan wins the cup. Wait that can't be right, hold on, hold on, this is a magic eight ball.
I grab the wrong thing. We got to take a quick break. When we come back, it's time to open up the mail bag.
All right, slices, It's time for a little big citrus mail bag time. Y'all have said just so many questions, so we're gonna try to get through a bunch of them today and then a whole bunch more in a future episode. But before we can even get to all of the things that you, Slices asked us, I just need a quick check in on everybody on this day and a Tarassie news. We're gonna have plenty of time to talk about this, but meiche first reaction.
First reaction is.
I knew it was coming, Like in my bones. I knew it was gonna happen, as I think we all did.
But DT is.
An icon and the game is never going to be the same without her. We're gonna see different iterations of greatness come after.
Her, but the game will never be the same.
I love you, DT, I appreciate everything you've done Man legend Legend alex Man.
I feel the same way.
I love the detail in the time story about how on January first, that's when she kind of locks in for the next season, and this year, on January first, she just didn't feel it, and I was like, we could have gotten some cheerleaders out there, you know, get her psyched up and ready to go.
Yeah.
I feel like, you know, last year, we were all kind of like, oh, no, don't do it, and then when they made that big video, we were like, oh, it's over. Like it's over, but we just needed the official confirmation.
I'm happy for her if it was time.
I'm sad for us for not getting to watch her play, but I'm also sad because I'm not convinced that like the Sue Birds and Megan Rappinos and others, she will be visible to us as often.
Oh DT doesn't like yeah there, So, like.
I think she said she's doing the final four show at Sue though, which is a victory I want to celebrate.
I completely agree, but I don't think I could get by on one Final four show a year. We're gonna need DT to figure out a little bit more. Love of the Spotlight for all of our sake.
Also just want to mention super happy that Diana got a big retirement story in time. But I don't know if you guys felt this way. As I was reading through, I was like so many men, it just felt like it was centered towards a men's basketball audience. And I went through an accounted only five sources were quoted, one of them being Diana in zero of her WNBA teammates or coaches from a twenty year career, and I was like, that just would not fly for an MNBA retirement story.
Talking to the NBA commissioner and Lebron James instead of the WNBA commissioner and Asia Wilson, for example, just kind of wild.
That's such a great point, because yeah, it's probably the author believing there's more heft to hearing from those people and that's proof of how great she is.
But that's not how it works in the space. Like, it's fine if you.
Want to have those voices as well to prove she was so great that went beyond the w and beyond women's hoops, but you should also be talking to the people who actually played alongside her and to the biggest, most powerful voices.
In women's hoops too. That's such a great point.
Al all right, we'll be spending plenty more time talking about Dana Trossi in future shows. But let's get to some of your questions. Slices from Nora Foudi. My fiance asked me this yesterday, and I just have to ask all of you how many clones of you could beat Phee one v one? This is, of course ANFISA Collier winner of the unrivaled one on one. My future bet for WNBA MVP next season, Alex, how many clones of you would be required to beat Fee?
Okay, I'm going to do a Kapa answer and say one, because I don't think that any number could successfully beat her, Like I could have one hundred of me on the court still not going to win. And so I'm going to say one, because then it's the least embarrassing, right.
And then you could just say I played her one on one. End of story.
Yeah, exactly, bragging rights. No follow up questions?
What about you?
First of all, Alex, I think you're selling yourself short.
One hundred clones. One hundred clones is not.
I think maybe you need like five, you know, just just have her going in a circle for me, I need me and one other clone. That two man game about to go crazy. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. We haven't talked a lot about what I can do on the court. But I can hit it three and I can make a layup.
That's all I need, right just space. Okay, there's only one of her. I mean you need to play some defense.
I mean, you know, I just got to hit that first shot. If we're doing it like Unrival did, I just got to hit that first shot top of the key so I can get possession and we're good after that.
Also, I can play two on one defense. I could play two.
But if you don't want your plan for that fade away Jay and the paint.
I'm a fowler. I know I said I wanted to foul limit, but not when I'm playing. I'm a fowler, straight up.
Okay. So I'm old, my spine is dust, but I have.
Pride and I will always have pride. So I'm gonna say three of me, period, three of me. She's not that much taller than me.
I'll just put my giant arms up and pray. Okay.
Next question from Pamela Mudway Sarah, where does your love for pity mixes come from? I can't get enough of the photos you posted your pups, so I was wondering where it all started. Wasn't super intentional? I love almost all pups. I'm not gonna name the ones that aren't my favorites. I still love them, but I don't want to insult anyone's dogs. I'll just say that we knew
we wanted to rescue our first dog. We went in because I had this idea of a half Lab half German Shepherd mix, because I had met one once years before and almost adopted it in an ill advised move that wouldn't have worked out because I had no money or time. So for like years after that, I had that mix in my head. So we went to go meet a dog called Sunshine at Anti Cruelty in Chicago,
and my dog, Fletch was one crate above Sunshine. And I saw Fletch with his little white fur and his black ears and his little spots, and I was like, Sunshine's over, We're getting this dog. And Fletch, as it turns out, probably is a pit mix too, but Fletch looks more like a cattle dog and then after we
adopted Fletch, we became so cessed. We became those weird dog people, especially with adopting that we started reaching out to all the orgs in Chicago to figure out like what dogs needed to be fostered and who we could help with, which, you know, rescue organizations, and there's so many pit based ones that we got our first pit, and then from that it was kind of a rap. Was like, there's so many of them in the shelters. They're so loyal and wonderful, and there's such a bad
stigma around them. So it's pits, pits on pits on pits, and we love them.
Y'all don't have dogs, do you? I think I would have heard about it, alex As Kats.
Nah, no dogs over here. My mom is actually deathly afraid of dogs. She's been bit by seven different ones in her lifetime. I'll talk too much more about that. Personally, I love animals. I've never been able to have a dog or a cat. I had a fish once my cousin killed it. But yeah, no, no dogs.
Okay, I'm not gonna say anything about your mom. I'm just gonna say this is like that Sarah Silverman joke. If you keep having bad roommates, you're the bad roommate. I'm just saying I'm not blaming the dogs.
Seven.
I wasn't there, so I can't Was she running a dog fighting run?
Hey, this does not seem like a reasonable number of dogs. This is the story I was told from her mouth, and I'm.
Okay, I need to get you guys in front of some some pities, some little pups.
Okay.
From Doug Halpert, who sent us about a million questions, thank you Doug for your curiosity. Uh, he wrote, does it bother other female athletes?
Do you want or otherwise?
That Olivia Dunn Livy Dunn is the highest paid collegiate athlete, even over other gymnasts who are Olympic gold medalists. Is she really higher paid than NCAA women basketball players who have a larger fan base? Uh, Doug, I did not research all of her latest nil deals. I don't know if all of them are even public. But Livy Dunn makes a ton of money, And this is what I'll say. There are probably athletes that are frustrated by that. Yes,
there are probably fans that are frustrated by that. Looking around at the other talent in the players that make less in ni own money. And also the reality is is hate the game, don't hate the player. Right when we understand that there is still more to marketing and sales and promotion than simply talent, we could step back a little bit and be mad that for women that always means pretty much sex cells, and for men there's a variety of reasons why you might be compelling and
interesting and promoted. For women, oftentimes it is about sex cells. It's better than it used to be, but for now, I think it's unfair to blame women who are a part of a system that they didn't make or control. So I do not like when other people blame women for participating in a system that is not of their creation. And also, we have to be a part of changing the system, and we have to keep pushing back on the bullshit ways that women.
Are usually viewed and valued. Meche thoughts hardly agree with you. I mean, especially to be that young.
First of all, if I was Livydad, y'all would just have to be mad at me. Y'all would just have to be mad at me, like I don't know a lot about her or a lot about her life or anything like that. But you know, in a world that takes every opportunity to shit on young women, on women generally speaking, I'm not mad at her for going to get her back.
I do agree with you, though, we have.
To acknowledge when we benefit from things and find ways to make sure that those things are also accessible to other people. So I'm a thousand percent what you want at Yeah.
I love that. Alex thoughts, Yeah.
I think it's just important to point out this is not new, it's not new criticism, but I think that over the years, women have gotten better at supporting other women. I'll point to a story absolutely unhinged from the New York Times back in twenty twelve going after Lolo Jones during the London Olympics for having so many sponsorships.
And this is an Olympian and it's a.
Similar case though, where like Lolo the best member that US Track and Field team. No, but the fact that she had to go through all of that and take the blame for getting sponsorships in a sport where historically women are not making money in the off season just outrageous to me. And I think we've come up a long way since that thankfully right.
I mean, I think that's the crux of it is we will be blamed both for the system we didn't create and from benefiting from it. Like you, we can't win, so just win as they say that I can. But yeah, I mean, that's that's so true. And I also think one thing that has gotten better is women feel more empowered in those moments than before.
When they felt very objectified.
There's a very fine line between being empowered with yourself and being objectified by others. And it does feel like the content and the style is more evolved than it used to be, which is good to see. Another question from Doug, why do interviews some athletes take place right after they finish a quarter slash period slash race when the athletes are still breathing heavy. In my opinion, they
should be left alone for a sec to catch their breath. Alex, I guarantee you have a good answer for this base of like standing next to a ski run and someone still got their skis on when you're trying to get that story.
This question made me laugh so much because it brought me back to the pen Relays, which is an annual track and field event.
I have competed in it, yes, oh you have.
Okay, we'll have to discuss that one later. So right, it's a relay and it was the four x one hundred meter relay, and it was my job to help corral the athletes post race. And so there was this event happening I think it was in twenty seventeen. The US men historically horrible at relay handoffs, and there was a botched handoff from one to two. There was going to be a post race interview at the finish line.
So the person who botched the handoff, by the time the race was finishing, was like halfway across the track, and so I had to go up to this man and be like I needed to run to the finish line, like I know you just ran, but please run some more so that we can get to this broadcast interview on live television.
It was the worst job. I was like, please never make me do that again.
So I always think it's real funny to see what athletes are super out of breath, like four hundred meter runners, No way you can talk to them for ten minutes, like so out of breath, but like a sprinter, like they'll be coming through no problem. Yeah, I don't know why they have to do it, except for I think the answer is just television.
I think television.
I think Also there's this conversation relatedly a lot about do reporters need to be in the locker room right after a game? Why don't they give them time to shower and change and come out. The answer is that usually that time between the moment of great climax, whether that was a game winning shot or a race that they won or lost, is enough time for them to change their answers, to get back to their level head to react differently. In those moments right after is when
you get the most honest and pure responses. It's when you get the athlete in that moment still as soon as they step out of that moment, it's what did my agent tell me to say? What if my sponsor tell me to say? What's gonna be?
Best? Like, you just don't get the good shit? Yeah, mishagrees.
I do agree, plan and simple, it's better for a TV to get the raw emotion and then to the point about the breathing heavy when you're a person who either has not played that sport or doesn't know what it feels like to be in those shoes.
That's also how you really.
Understand the effort and the energy and the toll that competing in what have you takes on athletes.
And I of course come from a basketball background, so.
I'm like, I feel bad every time somebody's even and can't breathe. But also I'm so grateful to hear those like you're saying first hand accounts of exactly what just happened five seconds ago. I do think there might be time for a compromise, though I've seen this on a few especially women's college basketball broadcasts. We're like, you give them two minutes, three minutes of analysis right after the game. That's enough time for them maybe to media trade themselves,
get their answers together a little bit. But at the same time, they haven't left the arena, they haven't left that environment, so maybe we can adjust that. But also broadcasts have hard time limits, hard outs, that kind of stuff. So I don't know. I'm not the genius in the room on that, but I do think it's tough.
It hurts my heart a little bit.
I mean to your point about knowing how hard it is. Though that did wonders for us understanding unrivaled one v one. Those players were cooked and they all said it, and we might not realize how tough it was if we hadn't gotten those I.
Have a little bit of a controversial opinion too, maybe, which is I also like a postgame loser interview. I think it can be really easy sometimes to be like I just want to talk to the winner.
I don't want to have to bother the loser. I don't want to have to remind them.
Of what a bad game they had or what bad game their team had. But there are a lot of athletes where I find I respect them even more after I see a postgame loser interview because she realized just how hard they.
Worked and how much respected they have for their opponent.
Big one that stands out to me is Jianna sanste Combo a year or two ago when they got bounced the Milwaukee Bucks. He gave a soliloquy about respect for the game and should you show up if you're not going to win every time, and what it means to be a competitor, and it was like, this guy gets it. It was really powerful. Okay, easy one from Aaron Raw I'm still waiting for Slice Merch.
When can I support you? I have good news.
We are working with Breaking Tea and I just got most of the final designs for a bunch of gear that we're going to roll out soon. So that is coming very soon for you, Aarin. We promise we'll tell you as soon as we've got stuff for y'all to rock.
Will be so excited to see it in the wild.
Okay, Phil Miller says, Hi, thanks so much for today's episode with Representative Trehan. You spoke about letting local communities and good faith sports councils handle policy question of inclusion of transathletes on the youth sports and high school level.
What are examples of communities.
Organizing bodies that are doing this right in a just and humane way, Sarah, you said, follow the science. My guess, as you're referring to high school, collegiate pro levels, what does that look like in the real world. Who's getting it right, Alex I think you have done some of
the policy stuff on this. I mean, for me, who's getting it right at any level from high school down is who's letting people participate and who is putting inclusion and community and the benefits of sport above just two wins.
I'm a winner, I'm a competitor. I love all of that.
And also the things that I got out of sport were so much more than about winning, So that for me is the easiest and most simple in Anyone who doesn't believe in inclusion at the lower levels, to me is doing so without really processing the humanity behind the people that are wanting to compete. It gets a lot stickier when you get to college, professional, Olympic, ALEXI.
Do you think's doing it right?
Yeah? I think one of the things that we saw a couple of years ago is that the IOC actually had a great framework that they introduced that did tell people, hey, follow the science, prioritize inclusion, prioritize grassroots sports. They failed to provide any type of enforcement mechanism, which then resulted in most sports just go and rogue and doing whatever the hell they wanted, mostly by excluding trans women. One organization though, that did take that into account was USA Fencing,
so a pretty small fish overall. But what I like about USA Fencing's policy is that at the youth level, you fourteen and below, anyone is to compete in whatever category they want. That continues all the way up to the youth's level. The only difference is that if you start qualifying for youth international tournaments, then you are subject to other restrictions that are put in place by the larger fencing governing body, and then there are testosterone restrictions
that come into play at the senior level. I don't think the policy's perfect, but to me, it represented a type of intentionality and thoughtfulness that we so rarely see in the space.
Yeah, I completely agree, and I think it's a work
in progress. If you're interested in understanding why it's not simple, you can go back and listen to our interview with Rose Elvilth, who hosted this incredible podcast called Tested, and you really start to understand that there are bodies that have tried to do extensive science research and to really understand whether the benefits of testosterone are as massive as they appear to be, what else factors interprofessional and elite competition, and how it's not simple And so I think it's
a good listen if you want to kind of understand more mist you have thoughts.
I think whenever we're having conversations about including athletes in sports, I always go back to why do we play sports? What's the point And it's not just about the competition, but it's also about testing the limits, testing the boundaries, seeing what the human body is actually capable of, especially in those individual sports where you're going for.
Time or what have you.
And so to me, if we're looking at it in that framework, inclusion is always the better idea because then you find out what we really can do? Is it? You know, does it get stickier the more you dig into the weeds about Okay, who should be competing against who? And you know, who has a benefit because of xyz like of course, But at the end of the day, it's about figuring out, Okay, what can.
The human body?
What can humans actually accomplish when we you know, let people do what they want to do.
And I think the thing that stands out to me is usually around trans athletes. What ends up happening is it's these artificial caps on what women and girls can do.
Exactly while we continue to celebrate the highest levels of male achievement and are blown away every time they beat our expectations, and when women and girls do it, including cis women and girls, it's still about capping or putting a top on it and presuming that they're not doing it fairly or presuming that there's some sort of impropriety in and that just comes back to it a whole ton of misogyny that affects a lot of these conversations. From Amanda Valo, would you be okay sitting next to
a miniature service horse on an airplane? And she offered to what the fact miniature horses and dogs are the only animals considered assistance animals and legally protected by the ADA. That's funny because I know we've seen there's a woman with like an emotional service peacock.
There's been some wild animals that people have tried to get on planes.
Okay, I would be happy to sit next to any animal on a plane.
I am obsessed with animals.
Being around animals makes me happy every single second of the day. My only caveat is how long is the flight and does the horse hold it the whole time? I'm not about to be smelling horse poop on a cross atlantic flight. Other than that, yes, please put your horse near me.
Misia, I don't know, Sarah, I don't know if I can follow you on that.
You're both shaking your heads and all the problems you don't have dogs.
I'm fact checking that.
I was maybe nodding slightly, but it was not in disagreement.
I was shaking my head.
I'm shaking my head because if we got an hour flight, I'll sit next to your miniature horse as long as a that horse's hair. If they got a long you know it. If it touches me, we got a problem. If they start shitting, if they start peeing, nan any of it, it's it's over with, It's over.
It's over. Are you gonna be quiet the whole flight? Yes, I'll be.
I'll be trying to sleep more than likely, because I actually really don't like flying, especially right now.
Yeah.
So yeah, we're back where it's like socially acceptable to clap when the plane lands.
I had a very real fear of flying as a kid, So I'm like, whatever is gonna mess with my mojo?
Keep it okay, Alex.
Well, my brain just immediately went to geometry, like how does a horse, a miniature horse even fit in a seat like.
Probably the bulkhead, you know.
So I was like, what direction? And is it oriented in? Does it have to get its own seat? Like obviously has to get its own seat, but almost two seats. I feel like it's that wide. So I was kind of wondering, what are even the odds that you would be seated next to one?
Given that logistical that wasn't the question.
Nol Okay, Yes we got one.
I'm a little worried about you too.
Okay, last one from Aaron Rod just me still played basketball?
Whose but do they kick?
Me?
Plays basketball every once in a blue moon right now. Actually the day that we're recording this, yesterday, I actually was out on the court shooting a little bit because I need to get back and playing shape. It's gonna be warm outside again soon.
Gotta do it.
But yeah, when I do, it's usually grown men whose butts eye kick. They like to do a lot of talking. I had a guy maybe last year we were playing and it was getting down to the last couple of points. He tried to hit a shot in my face, said get the off my court. Missed the shot. I came back down, hit the shot, said get the off my court. So that's what type of time on over.
I love that.
Can we get you to set up a camera so like people do when they're cooking.
Dudes at the gym.
I actually scrolling Insta and I see those videos and it's just a highlight reel of girls cooking dudes who don't want to play d.
I actually have to start posting those I have. I have a few, but I got to get some new tape for you.
All right, good, Okay, I'm putting one more in because I want I want to answer this question. Erin also asked, does Alex read a lot to be the research person?
Does she participate in book challenges? I love that we have gone to Alex so much and been like Alex research that she thinks that you're actually officially the research person, Like we have separate roles on this on this show for the everybody just kind of does everything, except for Alex is always the default research person because we know she's done it.
All official googler. I consume a lot of stuff, a lot of information. I don't necessarily consider myself a big reader in terms of like physical print, but I listen to a lot of audiobooks.
I listen to a lot of in depth.
Narrative podcasts, so yeah, I can SeeMe a lot of information. I used to have this great fear though, that I could never ask a question unless I had googled it to exhaustion and used all of the resources available to me to try to find the answer. And I have thankfully grown out of that. I think it was a bad habit to have.
I think that there is.
Benefit to asking a question that you maybe kind of know the answer of, because sometimes the person's answers changed, and sometimes the person that wrote it down the first time didn't get it exactly right right.
And sometimes the answer you get is so infused with someone's experience or perspective that it's far more compelling and useful to you than what you get off the internet.
That's just a fact.
Also, I would just be worried for the amount of hours in the day that you would spend googling something till exhaustion. So I'm glad that it's at some point now you're willing to just say, you know what, let me ask somebody.
We're going to do a lot.
More slice questions at a future show. But thanks for sending all those in. We got to take another break when we return the oral boros that is women's college hoops. Stick around, Welcome back slices.
We'd love to hear from you. And get more of your questions.
So hit us up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com, or you can leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two O four fifty seventy and.
Don't forget to subscribe. Rate and review.
It's easy watch someone else do in the math rating five out of five. Thank yous more please review. It's been a wild NCAA College hoops season, with the number one ranking getting tossed around like a hot potato the last few weeks, So shout out to at fire Gino on Twitter for doing the math on just how crazy the tourney might be. He really crossed his t's and dotted his tittles on this tweet. It reads quote NC State lost to LSU. LSU lost to Texas, Texas lost
to sc SC lost to Yukon. Yukon lost to USC, USC lost to Notre Dame. Notre Dame lost to NC State, NC State lost to sc SC lost to UCLA. Ucla lost to USC and so on. As you can tell, March is going to be psychotic this year. End quote bring on the madness, but first, bring on the reviews.
Five stars. Say something nice, tell us you love us thank you, thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good game, Dina Tarassi.
You know and with twenty years as a pro another good game to Diana Tarassi, but also by the way you Diana Tarassi leaving us and shit. 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 Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your host Sarah Spain