Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're still crying at the speech Asia Wilson gave after learning she won MVP, and we're still hydrated after a busy weekend as the world's best wedding officiant.
Congrats Hannah and Jenny.
On today's show, we'll be chatting with Minnesota Links and USA basketball head coach Cheryl Reef about our team's focus in the first round of the WNBA Playoffs, managing the USA roster route to gold in Paris, and dealing with criticism surrounding roster selection and player minutes. Plus, it's our fiftieth episode. The traditional gift for fifty is gold. Do with that information what you will. It's all coming up right after this. Welcome back, my Orange slices. Hope you
had a great weekend. Here's what you need to know today in the w the first round series are underway.
Now.
I had to hop on a flight home from the aforementioned nuptials. The things we do for love.
So we're going to update you on the Phoenix Mercury versus the Minnesota Links and the Las Vegas Aces versus the Seattle Storm tomorrow. But here's the status report on the first two games. The New York Liberty took care of business on home court against Atlanta down in the Dream eighty three sixty nine. Leoni Phoebich had the best scoring game of her career in the first playoff game of her career, leading New York with twenty one points.
Along the way, Courtney Vandersloute passed suberd to become the w's all time playoff assists leader. She's got three hundred and sixty five and counting Tina Charles, the newly minted WNBA all time leader in rebounds and double doubles. She broke both those records in the final regular season game.
She had twelve points and seven rebounds for Atlanta. Some hometown fun in the Indiana Fever Connecticut Sun game as the Mohegan Sun, video operators highlighted a bunch of Fever fans in attendance on a quote unquote bandwagon cam with the caption diehard Fever fan since twenty twenty four. They got jokes and the Sun got the win. The game started out tight and pretty ugly, with both team's lacking rhythm and some equipment malfunctions that had Caitlin Clark given
her best bill O'Reilly stare at the scorer's desk. We'll do it live if you know, you know, But it wasn't their fault and it got cleared up and the sun eventually clicked, pulling away to get an easy ninety three to sixty nine win. Marina Maybrey led the way for Connecticut with twenty seven points. That's the most points ever off the bench in a WNBA playoff game, while
Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with twenty one points. And we'd be remiss if we didn't give you the hoops and gay shit update, seeing as this game had two count them two engaged couples. First, the Sons Alyssa Thomas and Duanna Bonner, who combined for thirty four points, sixteen rebounds, and eighteen assists in their team's win, and the sons
djn A Carrington and the Fevers Melissa Smith engaged. I said, sure did they're stoken some serious rumors after showing up to the last game of their respective regular seasons in matching outfits and Djona wearing a big old diamond ring on her left ring finger. We stand real bad and now we're wondering if there are new rules for staying at your opponent's place when it's the postseason. We really need to get a WNBA reporter to ask if Melissa is staying at Djona's place tonight.
I just I can't imagine it. I really can't. Okay, more w news.
On Sunday morning, the WNBA officially announced that Asia Wilson is the unanimous MVP of the twenty twenty four season. It's only the second unanimous vote ever. The first with no opposition was Cynthia Cooper back in the inaugural ninety seven season. This is Asia's third MVP award, making her the fourth player in w history to win three of them, joining Cheryl Swoops, Lisa Leslie, and Lauren Jackson. That is
great company. The announcement head at eight thirty am Eastern, and the Aces followed it up with a video that's definitely going to get your eyes a little misty.
We'll link to it in our episode notes.
But eight thirty am Eastern is five thirty am in Vegas, so some folks on the West Coast woke up beyond a little late to the party, and same for those of us who slept in real late on the East Coast. Also interesting, there were sixty eight voters, but only sixty seven ballots were cast for Wilson as MVP. Maybe someone overslept and didn't submit in time. Maybe someone refused to answer. Someone tells me we're not going to find out. In any event, this year's crown is Asia's Take a bow girl.
Oh and you didn't think this announcement would pass without a mention from Asia's secret boot. But it was actually his team that got in on the game this time. The MNBA Miami Heat joined the social media shenanigans between Wilson and Bam Autobio, tweeting, quote our random photo of Bam on this lovely Sunday. Of course that's a apostrophe random.
We love this.
The rest of the w's end of season awards will be released throughout the postseason, and will update y'all on those as they come in. For what it's worth, though, the Associated Press's fifteen member media panel did release all of their picks for the awards. We'll link to the full list in our show notes, but it's worth noting that the AP voters did select a Fisa Collier for
Defensive Player of the Year over Asia Wilson. Now, in case you missed it, last week, Becky Hammond, coach of the Las Vegas Asis, called out ESPN in particular during a postgame press conference after several ESPN writers announced they had selected ANFISA as Defensive Player of the Year.
Here's a clip of.
That ESPN and we worked with ESPN, Eve and I worked with ESPN, And I'm just going to say this, Asia Wilson got the.
MVP stuff right, the Defensive Player of the Year.
If you have to, as a journalist or a reporter, have to go down a rabbit hole to find somebody else to be in the conversation, you already have the answer to all your questions.
And that's all I'm going to say on it.
We asked aphesis coach Cheryl Reeve for her thoughts on him and sentiments, so stay tuned for that more. WNBA News La Sparks guard and twelve year WNBA vet Leisha Clarendon announced their retirement over the weekend. The thirty three year old, who uses he she they pronouns, is the league's first openly transgender and non binary player and the
first ever VP of the players Association. He was a driving force behind the league's historic twenty twenty collective bargaining agreement, which increased salaries, improved travel conditions.
And offered more support for parents in the league.
She also advocated for LGBTQIA plus inclusive policies across the w and it was their idea to dedicate the twenty twenty season to the Say Her Name Campaign, a social movement which calls attention to the stories of black women and girls who have been victimized by racist police violence. Clarendon has dealt with their share of injuries in recent years and hasn't played a full season since twenty twenty one. In a post on Instagram, they wrote, in part, quote,
while the grief is heavy, the joy remains. I am so looking forward to being celebrated and love done. I respectfully ask you not to say you're going to be great in whatever you choose next. I want to stay in the sweetness of this moment where my heart is broken and there's tears rolling down my eyes, and I can also smile, look up and say, damn, I really did all of that.
End quote, Yes, Ley, you did. Thank you for it all.
In the NWSL We've got a positive update on Washington's Spirit striker Trinity Rodman. She was taken off the pitch in a wheelchair after a collision in the seventy fifth minute of Washington's Friday night match against the Case Current. After the match, the Spirit's head coach said Rodman felt quote something in her back end quote. Rodman's agent confirmed this Saturday, telling the Washington Posts Ella Brockway that Trinity had in fact suffered an intense backspasm and is in
a lot of pain. That her team is hopeful she avoided anything serious. Speaking of injury, we got some sad news on Saturday in New York, New Jersey. GOTHAMFC announced that defender Kelly O'Hara is done for the season due to chronic need degeneration.
O'Hara, who was a.
Staple on the back line of the US women's national team, announced in May that she would be retiring at the end of the twenty twenty fourth season. According to a Gotham press release, she'll continue to be in the team's environment for the remainder of the season in a leadership role, and GOTHAMFC will also celebrate O'Hara's legendary career on October twentieth, during the team's final regular season home match against the Orlando Pride. That's a five pm Eastern start at Red
Bull Arena. Also, it was a little poetic that Kelly and Alex Morgan ended up playing their final games on the exact same day. Those two are sort of inextricably linked, and as sad as we are to see both of them be done, it does feel a little bit right that they both played their last game on the exact same day. Also, something got them can celebrate. They clinched a spot in the playoffs. The team's one nil victory
over the Utah Royals on Sunday made it official. The defending champs are third overall in the league as it stands now, trailing the unbeaten Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit to Hockey. The college hockey season is officially underway. The Ohio State Buckeys are on a mission to defend their twenty twenty four title and capture a third chip in four years. Last season, they defeated Wisconsin won nothing in the Frozen four final. But Ohio State's roster looks
pretty different these days. After eight members of last year's championship roster were picked up in the twenty twenty four PWHL draft. Minnesota Duluth humbled the buck Guys in the season opener, beating the defending champs two to one on Saturday and then pulling out a.
Four to three win on Sunday. Finally, some style.
And fashion news, Ellie the Elephant, the uber popular New York Liberty mascot, teamed up with Nike to create a new Sabrina two colorway. We'll link to the site in our show notes, and we'll also link to the video of Ellie's design process at Nike headquarters Pure Entertainment. The Liberty also announced a multi year partnership with fashion company off White over the weekend. The brand is now the official style and culture curator of the team, marking off
White's first US sports team partnership. The first item born from the collaboration is a custom varsity jacket, which was unveiled ahead of the Liberty's opening playoff game. We are super excited to see an insanely cool and cheep brand like off White work with the Liberty, but we are also wondering how we are ever going to be able to afford the merch We're going to take a quick break when we come back. We caught up with Minnesota Link's head coach Cheryl Reeve on Friday ahead of the
first round of the playoffs. You'll hear that conversation coming up next. She's the head coach and president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Links of the WNBA A team she's led to four championship wins, and she's a two time WNBA champion. As an assistant coach with the Detroit Shock, she was head coach of the USA basketball team that just won gold in Paris, and as a player, she's still top ten in single season assists at LaSalle University, where she was inducted into the Hall.
Of Athletes in twenty seventeen. I once talked shit to her sitting courtside in Toronto while she was coaching against my Sky and it's her birthday today. It's Cheryl reed what's up, coach?
What's up? What's up? I do remember that in Toronto. I haven't forgotten that. I haven't forgot.
Listen only gets my squad. I'm gonna talk some shit.
That's just the way I oper I hear you I do appreciate that about you.
So big birthday plans besides our show.
Yeah, I'm gonna be spending it a team is so sweet. Gonna have dinner with the team tonight. It's actually our playoff dinner. They invited me to that, so I'll be Yeah, so spending my birthday with the team. So actually, they've been so therapeutic for me. So it actually is fitting life.
Of a coach, pretty standard.
Before we even get into your incredible Minnesota links and the postseason coming up, their incredible post Olympic run, I want to take a moment for that run to the Olympic gold. Congratulations. Also, thank you. That was a close one. What was the toughest part of that job for you being the head coach of Tmosa basketball?
Uh, you know, I would say without question it's probably one A and one B, which we talk about all the time, is just that we don't get enough time together and so it has to be like this instant where you get a group of players together. The final roster, you know, wasn't what I had for since twenty twenty two, right, It changed each time we had a competition. So that's that's a challenge. You know, I'm thankful that the leaders of our team sort of understood that we didn't have
time for skepticism or anything like that. We had to kind of all be in it right away and buy in. And that allowed us, you know, obviously to have a you know, a level of success that you know, I appreciated what they were giving. And then the second part, every coach that I talked to, you know, I worked for uh Gino for two quads. I worked for Dawn
for a quad. Uh and both of them said unequivocally the roster management at the playing time for players would be the hardest thing, UH, because you have I mean, there's no wrong choices. But what I did learn is you have to make choices, and I've learned that a long time ago. It's a mistake that a lot of young coaches make. You have to be willing to make the hard decisions, and you know, you try to inform
your decisions collectively as a staff. We certainly did that, but there's no question that was that was those two things with the hardest.
You mentioned coaching under geno Ori Emma and Don Staley. Give me one big thing you learned or took away from each of them, Well.
Both very very different Gino. Gino had d and Sue kind of you know, it was comical, uh the way that they treated him. Uh, it was was fun to be around. But I think Gino, you know, a little more offensive oriented. I would say at that time, you know, Don, you just learned I learned from Don in terms of uh player relations. It's about the players and and trying to kind of have that balance. Uh. So they both were really good. Uh, two very different teams uh that
they coached, and so I learned different things. Uh, I knew My biggest takeaway was that I wanted to utilize our depth on our team. I wanted that to be sort of a hallmark because that is a separator in the US. And we saw with France that they were able to to have depth. They had athleticism, two things that that we have, which is why you saw what you saw in that gold medal game. France was a team you know, we were worried about for more than
a year as we saw them come together. So we are not surprised with how that played out.
Yeah, if there were a player that played for each of the three of you, what do you think they would say? Was distinctly different about playing for you and your style, your way of doing things.
Oh wow, that's a tough one. I really don't know. I really don't know. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to hear it. I wouldn't be surprised, you know. I think I think typically what would be described about me, I can't say what they would say about Donn or Geno. I certainly have like I put my own mark on things. I like to collect information. But I learned long ago that being yourself is the most important thing can do.
Uh.
And that can be both, especially in a short short time where you know, when most of the players aren't my players and they don't get me. Uh. And so I think I can be prickly, you know, I'm demanding. I think, you know, like I want the details. Uh And so I think in camp, you know, we we wanted what we wanted and we worked hard for it, whether it was you know, we wanted to be a defensive oriented team. We were going to do it. We were going to do it a certain way. So I
don't I don't know. I mean, you know, I wanted to have fun at the same time, I'm not sure if we accomplished all that. I don't know it was I I was gonna say, I mean our job. We had one job, you know, and Dawn told me that repeatedly. Cheryl, you have one job, one job, and you don't make many friends in the job, but you have one job.
Yep, you get a lot of friends afterwards when you hand them all their gold medals.
That's right, that's exactly right. It's exactly what you said.
You mentioned that it's hard to try to please everyone, and that could be in playing Diana Tarassi more minutes, because you know it's a final Olympics.
It could even be roster making.
Even though the roster was made by a USA Basketball selection committee, you still end up facing questions, in particular about Caitlin Clark's omission. Sure did how did you handle that situation? And what didn't people get about it?
I think what people don't get about it? And it's okay, you know, like it's you know, you can't change what people think. But the coach of the national team truly has no power in the selection of the team. And my example that I give is we were at a camp in Las Vegas getting ready to go to Sydney, Australia for the World Cup. One of my players was there,
Kayla McBride from the Minnesota Lynx. I thought k mack had a tremendous camp and it should have gone with us to Sydney, and had no indication that anyone felt that, especially from our staff and some of the committee was in our meetings. It felt as if we all felt the same that came back, had a great camp, and not that you'd make the final rouster because you still had to go to Sydney and make that final cut. And I learned at the eleventh hour that they cut
my player, and so I said that came back. If there's ever a time for people to understand that the coach has no say in it, this is one of those times. And so but I get, I get you got to you know, in this day and age, you got to assign blame somewhere that took a lot of bullets for USA basketball. Uh, you know, this is a unique time. I took a lot of bullets and and you know, but you can't. You know, it is what it is when you sign up for the position, it
is what it is. I mean, certainly, Gino, you know went through his time, and you know omissions of players, Dawn, you can't escape that when you're in this position. Somebody's upset and you mentioned Caitlin, but there's other Erique. I thought Arique really had improved and did some great things, and you can make a case for you know, Ryan Howard. You know these are all players that you hope that they stick with it. It may not have been their
time right now, but their time could be coming. And not to give up on that, because I think all those players were worthy of the consideration that they got all right.
Last Olympic question, how do you balance wanting to win and having as much success as possible without giving away links secrets like you're going to need those later to win the title?
How do you do that?
You know what's cool about the group? The players were a little more guarded. I think at times when I'd ask questions like I'm truly was like trying to install an off and say an Asian what block do you like? Chelsea and Asian Jack, y'all look at each other like we really gonna tell her, you know, like which blood you know? And then when push comes to shelve, we're trying to win, so it comes out. But you know, honestly,
I was unguarded. You know, I like, if you learn some things about the Minnesota Links, Okay, you still got to play against us, you still got to stop it whatever. You know, really just that's why you play the game. And it really is just a shell of what the larger picture is for the Lynx because you don't have a lot of time to really drill down. So they learned some maybe some components to it, but I suspect that they won't remember very much.
We'll find out in the postseason.
Okay, so you go straight from Olympic gold right back to the Lynx and you go on an incredible thirteen and one run to close the season after Paris. No post Olympic fatigue, no post Olympic goldrums like you're crushing take us inside the locker room in those practices, like you were already a strong team.
But there's a flip the switch moment that happened. What is that?
You know? I wish I could tell you. It's a special group. We had three Olympians that were away that were you know, three of our starters, and you know McBride was was back in Minneapolis and Courtney Williams, and you know, I think I think they just really enjoy playing with each other. I know Fee was excited to get back, you know, with her with her group and get to, you know, play the position she naturally played, because she played out a position for the entirety of
the Olympics. And I think there was just this I don't know, they just like playing with each other. I got to tell you, I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it.
Sometimes it's that simple.
It is.
It's like when people say, oh, when you meet your person, you'll just know, and you're before you meet them, you're like, that's so annoying, what does that even mean?
And then you meet them, You're like, oh, I got it. It's like that.
It's like a good team just has this intangible vibe and you guys are vibing, like we.
Can see it. I want to talk about Nafista Callier.
You mentioned her an unbelievable regular season on both sides of the ball, but the defense has really been fantastic. What's the case you would make for her as Defensive Player of the Year.
Nefisa just her ability to impact, whether it's on off ball, her length, her deflections, her positioning, her shot blocking, and that's gone to another level, that's just overall awareness. So we count on her heavily to reach our goals defensively in deflecting the different matchups you can give her. She could obviously she can switch guard at pimeter player. The steals that she's getting as a result of deflection, so you know, I think the the RSB, the rebound steels blocks,
I mean, she's knocking it out of the park. And we have we have, you know, a top two defense in the league, and we're number one an opponent field goal percentage. She's the anchor to that. And you know, I will say this, I'm really proud of her because in our exit interview, you know, we really laughed because I had shared with her, Hey, for our defense last year wasn't what it is this year, And I said to her, if this team is going to really take this next step? So we were, you know, we were
a bit of a surprise last year. We were terrible and then we got you know, got going a little bit, made the playoffs, but we want more. We don't want to. I mean, we were you know, essentially we were a five hundred team last year. That's not what the goal is.
And I told Fie, hey, if we're going to really reach our greatest heights, obviously we're going to get to a couple more players around you, but you have to be our best defender as well as our best offensive player, be an MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year. That's what this team needs. If you do that, then we can be we can really go to great places. And so I was kind of telling her, you know, defensively, we weren't that. You know, you got to do this.
This isn't this the very next gate. Next day, she gets named to All Defensive Team, right, she said. She texts me, you know, right away, She's like, like, guess my defense wasn't that bad and so and I said, this year, you know, it was really funny. So the jump that she made, I actually just told her this yesterday. I am super proud of of the jump, the jump that
she's made. She was good defensively, no question about it before, but she took us to another realm where our defense's tops in the league.
Yeah, I'm not sure if you heard Las Vegas Asis coach Beckyhammond. On Thursday night after the final regular season game. She was taking a few reporters to task for voting for NAFISA for Defensive Player of the Year, people who had made their ballots public instead of voting for Asia Wilson. Now, I fully understand advocating for your own player, and there is a great argument to be made for Asia as Defensive Player of Year as.
Well, But there was real anger there.
Do you think that NAFISA as Defensive Player of the Year is a vote deserving of anger?
I didn't see the interview that I would be surprised if someone expressed anger, because I think most people that I talked to I think it's a unanimous decision. No, no disrespect to Asia. I mean, I know what Asia brings to the table. It depends on what you It depends on what you what you value when you vote.
Everybody's different. I know for me what I value is top defensive teams should be you know, the all defensive teams should be riddled with the with the players from that team, you know, and so more than one player. So you look at the top three or four defensive teams, you know. I think in Asia's case, you know, can you be the Defensive Player of the Year when your defense isn't in that that that's completely subjective, and that's obviously the angle that Becky's coming from. I'm a huge
fan of Asia Wilson. She's had an incredible year, you know, but she can have MVP and the FISA Collier's Defensive Player of the Year.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's always hard with those awards because it's just a couple of words and then you get to decide what those words mean and how you vote based on your semantic reading. And we leave it open to everyone to have their opinion except for fourth place voters for Asia for MVP, we do not leave that up to anyone.
That no one will call it.
There's been a lot of conversation this season about who gets the attention of fans and media. Is Asia getting enough love for her MVP season? Is Kitlyn Clark getting too much love? I want to go back to the beginning of the season, because during preseason you tweeted about the fact that the Skylinks game wasn't televised. This was the first look for so many fans at the newly drafted players, and you use the hashtag twelve teams and the w is more than one player. A fan ended
up live streaming the game on her cell phone. It got more than two and a half million views, and some people still took your advocacy for your own team and for the league as a whole as some sort of hit against Caitlin Clark.
Were you surprised by that reaction?
Maybe at that time, yes, But as the season has evolved and there's a very clear understanding of there's a
lot of new fans and new media. Uh, there's there's one media member who really latched onto and sort of made it her mantra that I didn't got a book deal, and so like it's uh, it's interesting because my thing is, uh, if you have followed the league at all, and if you have followed Cheryl Reeve at all, trolling the w n B A is not something you know, it's something that I would would would take them to task for that, And it wasn't that we were and I recognize now
that maybe there it was maybe a bit ambiguous in terms of my initial post, which was all I was saying, was the w n B a social media account? Forget that we weren't on. It's a preseason game. We're not on right now, whether you should be on? Did you miss the boat? Did you not recognize what these rookies? I think so. I think that would be a fair assessment. But my beef was that the w NBA social media account, you know but you know, hey, that that was really cool.
But the my beef was that the social media account was not promoting all of the games. No problem, Indiana Dallas being televised. I didn't care about that. I didn't care that we weren't being televised. Those are business decisions. I do care, and I'm going to protect my team.
When one you don't even mention the game. And by the way, if you're not interested in the minister links, Angel Reese was playing her first w NBA game, right so the fact that you don't even mention it, all I was doing was assisting our fans of hey, don't forget we're playing, and here's where you can find it.
And I listened it. And then I also helped the league when they were posting the you know, the the players that they were promoting in the league, and there was no headshot of Nefisa Kalier, who clearly coming off an MVP candidacy last year, would be a player. And so my photoshopped fee and it said here are fans. I fixed it right, and so you know, I try
to like bring levity to situations. Yeah. Uh and so, but you know, what you're mentioning is that there were a number of fans Kaitlyn Clark fans that sort of grabbed a hold of that and found it to be that I was anti Caitlyn Clark. And you won't find very many clips of me saying amazing things about Caitlyn, which I have done throughout by the time she was
a college player, all the way through. But all you're gonna find is the ones where you know, it's misconstrued that I don't like Caitlyn, and my goodness when she wasn't on the team, that somehow that was all me controverted wreck. I'll go on your show for the record, it absolutely does. I'm a huge Kaitlyn Clark fan. I don't, you know, not when we're playing against her, of course, but she said, you know, like I said, she's a
future Hall of Famer. Everybody can see that. So but anyway, yeah, that was all, like you said, for whatever reason, that was the angle people took, and.
I think it's spot on to say I was surprised at the time, and then it became abundantly clear that the rest of the season was going to be just as unhinged as.
This moment, and then I was ready to prepare for it.
Very good word, very good word.
Un As for those who maybe aren't awhare, Christine Brennan is writing a book about Kaitlyn Clark. I have been a huge fan of Christine's work for many years. I have also very much disagreed with a lot of her takes on Caitlin and the Olympics and some other stuff this year, and some of the techs she's taken in approaching the league this year. But we look forward to the book and it'll be interesting to see how that coverage evolves.
I want to go back to the defense.
You were on Christina Williams podcast in case you missed it right here on Iheartwomen's Sports, and you said that this season you really needed to correct a mistake that you had been making, emphasizing offense over defense a little too much. How do you explain the gift of being able to keep yourself humble, learn and check back in with yourself, even after all the success you've had, because some folks are not willing to adjust after all the
titles and accolades and success. But you were looking at yourself and saying, here's what I've been doing wrong.
Well, first, I'm a virgo. Virgos are very critical. I am as much as the players might feel uncritical of them, I'm more critical of myself. I'm a big believer as a coach than when players aren't doing something, then there's a there's a flaw in the way that it's being coached. And more, you don't have the right players and you're being unrealistic in your expectations. And so maybe it was
a combination of both. And so when I tell you that we did, you know, get some players that I think tremendously helped Atlanta Smith, Natitia Heideman, Courtney Williams doesn't get enough credit, uh for the ways that she's helped our defense. The tremendous buy in we've gotten obviously mentioned fee, you know, fee anchoring the thing, and Kayla McBride doesn't get enough credit, so Bridget Carlton. So we just I think a combination of I needed to move it up
the list, and I learned long ago. Number one, you get what you accept, h or two it's what you emphasize. And so you always look at your practice. And if a stranger walked in and they watched your practice, what would be their takeaways when they walked away? What's your identity? And if you walk out of our practice facility and you don't have any idea what our identity is, defensively,
that's a problem. And that falls directly to coaching. And so you know, I learned that a while ago, and so and as they say, it starts at the top. So I was very much a part of the poor defenses over the last couple of seasons, both selection of personnel and execution.
You get what you accept is so good. I am going to be repeating that for the rest of my life. That's it.
You do everything alife frustrated with your expectation or your attention to detail, or your desire to get things right. Their frustration is not the thing that should decide how things get done. It should be what am I willing to accept and what am I willing to get back?
That's so good. You just mentioned Courtney william she's a dog.
You talked about needing to add a dog to your team, that that was necessary. Why is that kind of player so important to any team? And why do new fans not understand that women hoopers can be and should be dogs too?
That's right, that's right. Uh. You know, Courtney gave us this kind of edge. You know, I don't if they still say swag, but gave us a swag about us, a balance of confidence, you know, believe. You know, she immersed herself into the links and and you know from the time we had our conversation and free agency. Uh, she is a believer. She was a believer. And I tell you I have enjoyed the heck out of coaching Courtney Williams. She's hilarious. You know, she makes me laugh
often even in game. You know, she's very difficult, you know, to to be upset with. She brings levity the situations so easily. But I think what's important because you know, I think Rebecca Lobo mentioned it a couple of years ago when describing our team. You know, I, you know, I like to get opinions from you know, different disciplines, and Rebecca was happy to share and she just said, I think you're missing a dog, missing a dog or two.
You know, like a good team, but you need this next player that can that can take you to the next level. And so dogs aren't easy to come by. Everybody wants them, uh you know. And so we were fortunate to uh you know, lore Courtney to be a part of our group. And we sure, we're sure glad she chose us.
Love it, you know, need the Dogs against Phoenix.
That is a very explosive offensive team, lots of finals experience. You got Diana Tarassi, Klia Kapper, Britney Grinder, Natasha Cloud. Your group is taking care of business against them. You won three out of four times this season. Besides the obvious, you gotta win. You got to score more points, You got to play good defense. What do you know that your team has to do to win this first game in this first series?
Be ourselves. We don't have to be anything we're not. And and when you to the playoffs, you can't change who you are. You can't suddenly if you didn't rebound all season, you're not suddenly going to rebound the basketball. If you didn't defend ball screens, you're not going to suddenly defend it. And I think that's the positive thing for us is that just be ourselves, which is be a great defensive team that you know, we're terrific in our help and our rotation and our trust. That's what
we have to do. And on the offensive end, continue to share the basketball. You know, it's the collective that is our strength. So just be ourselves.
A handful of those stars were on your Olympic squad. You get any tips, you figure out how they're thrive or maybe how to slow them down.
You know, you'd be surprised because it's just so different. It's so different what you do. And the players say this all the time. It is a great sacrifice. And super Bird had the best quotes and description of this that it's really uncomfortable. You know, there's only a couple of players that get to actually be themselves. And for this team, I would say Asia Wilson and Brianna Stewart, we tried to create a space for them that they
could be them right the two top players. I said, fee, you've got to take a back seat, you know, like you got to play some small forward. And then I would say Jackie Young emerged and I thought she had a chance to be close to herself as she got
more comfortable. The rest of them all made sacrifices in the way that they were being used or things they were asked to be doing defensively, roles, you know, I mean, you know, you have leading scorers, you know, top five scorers in the league, kind of going, you know, you're not playing my ass, you know, like what are you doing? You know? So it's hard. It's hard for everybody. But you know, when you're coaching a team, you know, like you just the best you can as quickly as you can,
because you can't drill down. You've got to keep it basic. They're just coming off a WNBA season where we played twenty five games. Can you imagine? So I had four Aces players, three Phoenix players, and you know whatever the rest of the breakdown is, that was seven of the twelve and they're coming to USA Basketball to run completely different things, and so you have to turn off what you're doing and then turn on, Okay, this is what they need me to do here, right, Maybe I did
this for my team. They need me to do this. This is the focal point, and that's a challenge. That's you know, that's a challenge that we tried really hard to meet. I also tried to do some things that were familiar to them, and so I'm not trying to not answer your question. Uh, you know, I think, uh, I think Beg is is playing great. She's playing great, and and that's probably my only uh I know, regrets the right word, but like, if I could do it again, I know why it happened the way that it did.
Stewie in Asia being in their space led to a decision too, and being uncertain about Beg all that she went through and what space she would be in, and so Beg kind of becoming a reserve player for us that made it more difficult to feature her. I think Phoenix has done a terrific fig job, and she's evolving as a player in the way that they're utilizing her. That's a player that you know, probably you know, I wish we could have found a way, you know, to
have her more impactful, especially in the France game. That's one that you look back and you know, if you could do some things differently, you know that that is one of them. And I tell I actually told her repeatedly after games that was the one thing that was eating at me. I didn't feel like we could get enough minutes for her, enough usage for her. But anyway, I think Beg's playing great. Obviously we know Diana and the playoffs and her competitive spirit and what she's going
to bring to the table. And obviously the great play of Khlia Copper, so their big three is awfully good. Uh. And then obviously their supporting cast Cunningham's having a really nice season, and you know, Cloud was a great addition for them. So we have our work cut out for us.
Absolutely, I'm so pumped for the number of eyeballs that are going to be on this playoffs and and hopefully more informed eyeballs to their will be the people who know the intricacies of the cool matchups and the people who have played together before and are now playing against each other. But I'm also very much ready for all the uninformed takes and unfortunately more of that racism and misogyny and homophobia that we've seen in the w for
years but has really reached a peak this season. You know, you've been in this game for three decades, You've overseeen the links, in particular through so much incredible activism from twenty sixteen, after the shooting deaths of Auton Sterling and Filando Castile and the five Dallas police officers, Maya Moore leaving the team to battle wrongful convictions, speaking out after George Floyd during twenty twenty and that sort of racial
reckoning in America. You've even publicly supported the right for transgender and non binary athletes to participate. Like you've really done the work and been super involved in the stuff outside of the game. You've embraced your responsibility as a white woman that's leading a team in a league made up of predominantly women of color, And I wonder how you've processed and dealt with that particular kind of toxicity this year and how it's impacted the league and the players.
Yeah, disheartening is probably the word that comes to mind. It was it's wn B A I don't want to say a safe space, but WNBA was a space that we all felt like we could be ourselves and we were making great progress towards creating change for society larger as a whole, right like the you know, the voting and things like that, And I thought the WNBA really found our voice. Twenty sixteen, you know, like you said, we were at the forefront of that, and we were
in such a great space. And one of the most beautiful parts about the w n B A why I love coaching in the WNBA is we all get to be ourselves. It's such a welcoming, safe space that you know, it doesn't matter how you identify in anything, you're accepted and supported, not just accepted and supported and empowered. And then so to have this vitriol, this toxicity that it's a reminder though you know it as we've seen it.
We go from for example, uh d E and I coming out of George Floyd was one of the most amazing things, and I thought something that really was going to move corporate America forward, sports forward, opportunities. Uh And and look how fast all of that has been undone and people standing proudly doing so. It's it's disheartening. And what I have tried to do, it's been an incredible
uh summer. It's been incredibly difficult, incredibly draining professionally. UH And then now to add that personally, I think finding the energy uh and I will find it to make sure that we can we can not let this in the w n b A space. It's unacceptable, uh, and our players deserve better. I'm so proud of the players in the w n b A, the strength of their collective voices. They understand it, and I hope this is all going to calm down. I'm not sure, you know,
because the base. While uh, diversifying your fan base is a great thing, I think that the fan base has been diversified in a way that is going going to challenge us. And I think that uh, you know what lies ahead. I think who who speaks out and who utilizes this their voices in this time is going to be really really impactful on how this whole entire league moves forward. Mm hmm.
So well said, I'm going to leave us on a more positive note, which is that that gal we've been
talking about a lot during this show, Diana Tarassi. When she entered the league, it was sort of believed that she should maybe suppress her sexuality and who she was, she should be rocking the tank tops and given the kissy faces and you know that bullshit, and over the course of her career, if this is indeed it, as they've been saying in Phoenix, she is now prominently featured with her wife, with their children, with their family, and that's part of why we love the league, instead of
a fear that the league has about what that might mean for their fan base and the support that the that the league gets, and that's a really powerful statement to how much work has been done over the years, both in society at large, but also the w in particular being a place that people can see that and see it being supported and beloved, which is really cool.
And you have a big role in that.
I've all the stuff that you've done over the years, so I've been telling everybody this. You know, Skyrim my team, but everybody's my side piece, so we'll be rooting for you in addition to all the other people that I have said I'm rooting for. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but that's the problem with women's sports. I just end up liking everyone and I'm like, I hope both teams have fun. But Coach, we so so appreciate you coming on. Happy birthday and good luck in the postseason.
Thank you.
Thanks again to Cheryl for joining us. We got to pay the bills when we come back. A special milestone for our little baby show Welcome back, my little Orange slices. We hit a pretty cool milestone today. It's our fiftieth episode, and in honor of half a hundred, please enjoy this curated selection of some of our favorite show opening lines.
Welcome to Good Game.
With Sarah Spain, The daily women's sports show You've always wanted, Where we just bought a gallon of sunscreen and three portable fans in preparation for WNBA All Star Weekend in Phoenix.
The show that's.
Using a drone to spy on Sam Uis's house, hoping to steal secrets on how to make a great podcast. Where we heard you loud and clear, trend sof and Mal. We're only drinking triple Espressos from here on out. Our brains are vibrating inside our heads and we can't buel our hands, but it's.
So worth it.
Where we're staging a second battle of Hogwarts to oust all the transphobes. And where we're watching Gabby Thomas on the Daily Show starting to question our own manifestation. Game still waiting on that Pulitzer and that Nobel Peace Prize and that call from Lorne Michaels, where we'll be smiling all day after hearing that Ted Lasso is coming back for a fourth season. Do you remember that last episode of season three is an AFC Richmond Women's.
Team on the way.
I feel like we fell out of the lucky tree and hit every branch on the way down that ended up in a pool of cash and sour patch kids, where we're taking one last ride on our favorite baby horse before she gallops off into the sunset, where we have concepts of a plan for today's episode. It's been a blast so far, you guys. I can't wait to celebrate one hundred with you. Thank you for continuing to listen to the shows, for engaging with us, for supporting
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Duh.
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Review.
The Indiana Fever average seventeen thousand and thirty five fans this year, up from four thousand and sixty six last season. The Caitlin Clark effect for real. They not only outpaced their fellow Indiana's the Pacers, who average sixteen thy five twenty eight, but also the season averages for the Hornets, Grizzlies, Wizards and Hawks as well. Pretty awesome. Now it's your turn rate and review. Thanks for listening, slices, See you tomorrow.
Good game, Asia, Good game, Cheryl, You you early morning wake ups.
Even if it is for MVP news.
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