August 27, 2025 • 47 mins
On this episode of Full Circle, Lexie Brown and Mariah Rose dive into the WNBA’s tight MVP race with A’ja Wilson, Alyssa Thomas, and Napheesa Collier all making strong cases. They shout out Paige Bueckers’ 44-point game and Courtney Williams setting the assist record for the Lynx. The back-to-back game schedule sparks a conversation about player workload and how teams are managing the grind. They also celebrate the league’s record-breaking attendance and take a moment to look back at how far the W has come.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Full Circle is an Iheartwoman's sports production and partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
You can find us on the.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back to another episode of Full Circle.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
LEXI, how you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Doing, pay girl? I'm good.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Five points away, no, six points away from one thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, guys, I got this game.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I know that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Game a few days.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Ago against Dallas, score five little points, so we're we're
chipping away.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
How many games we got left? We got six more games,
as you should guys. I just six points.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
It's just it's crazy that I'm like, can I get
six points and six games? I don't know, but we're
gonna try. I would like to have this done, yes, playoffs.
I would like to have this done before playoffs so
then I could just vibe out for the rest of
the season, like I just want to be able to
be like, you know, here's a tiny personal bright spot
(01:02):
of my season this year was getting to a thousand points,
so that would be amazing. But how are you doing?
How are you doing? You got new hair? You look cute, girl,
You look so good.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I love guys.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I was just talking to Lexi before we started recording
about how really, not just like se but everybody at
the w y'all.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Keep your hair did. Now.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I understand when people have short hair, you know what
I'm saying. But the girls who have their hair did,
I'm like, y'all are working out every single day.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Your professional athletes, how was your.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hair always perceive?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I will say there are I will there's like ten
players that I'm always like, your hair is always laid,
it always looks good, not a hair out of place.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
They switch up the colors, they just switch up the styles.
I mean, that's I just love being a girl.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
That's like one of the things that I love being
a I just love being a girl like that's That's
one of the fun things in our league is we
always talk about a personal style, looks, makeup, outfits, like everything,
Like just so many things that you've seen in women's
sports that you just don't see as much of men's sports.
I feel like the men's athletes are getting a little
(02:11):
bit more in there. This is who I am back
Like I just saw I think it was Jalen Williams
from Okay. See he's like out shopping in Tokyo or
wherever he is, and he has like a big jump
with this big jumbo and everyone was like, yeah, shame, shame.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And I was like people thought it was oh my god.
People get mad at everything. But like it's a bag.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I thought he was eating.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
It's a bag, Like I don't know, I don't know
if y'all ever seen those bags, Like they're pretty big
and they can hold a lot of stuff. Chanel is
not just for the girls, like it's a brand.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Also people need to carry their stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'd be telling my boyfriend, I'm like, quip, putting your
wallet and all your stuff in your pocket.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
You need a little bag, like you need a bag,
Like there's yes, maybe not a jumbo flaph know, okay,
but that's the swag.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Maybe like a backpack, but a.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Backpack, but also a backpack is not for all situations.
Like when I graduated college, I stopped. I think I
stopped carrying around a backpack. Like my second year in the.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
League, I think I was like, I don't really want
to carry this around anymore.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
So now I just carry like big toe bags, like
I'll throw my basketball shoes in there and everything, Like
I don't know back, I try to get like a
cute backpack, but I was like, I just feel like
a little kid with a backpack sometimes or a boy, right,
I get it, So I just get huge bags.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay. Anyway, guys, this is a basketball show. Sorry, but yes,
back to the basketball.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
There's a lot to get into this week. I want
to start with MVP.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I really do. And I think.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
We're gonna like pound this into the ground because I
think for the most part, all postseason awards, maybe outside
of Defensive Player of the Year are pretty much locked up.
I think as far as most Improved sixth Player of
the Year. But MVP is getting real spicy. It's getting
real spicy. Last time we were on the show, we
(04:12):
were begging a fee to come back, and that's exactly
what she did last night, dropping thirty two to nine
in her return. She heard us, she heard us, she
heard everybody saying Fee, come get your MVP. Come, come
come back, come back. They're catching you. Unfortunately, I think
she's been caught in past despite her thirty two point outing.
(04:33):
And here's why, guys, please bear with me. Okay, the
whole season we have been this has been like a
very pro Minnesota lynks Pod.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
This has been a.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Very pro fee for MVP POD. But the numbers do
not lie, guys. Okay, so currently I don't know what
the odds are for the MVP stuff. If he's still
in first, we'll start with her. She's averaging twenty three points,
eight rebounds, three assists. Asia is averaging twenty three points,
ten rebounds, three assists.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And the third.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Person that I think is MVP race is Alyssa Thomas
who's averaging sixteen points, nine rebounds and nine sis.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
What are the what are what are they? We have
the Links in first place, who's in second? The dream
are in second, the Aces are now in third, ten
straight wins, and Phoenix isn't fourth. So now we have
a bit of a dilemma here my new argument, guys,
(05:31):
I'm jumping the fee ship.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm sorry, I'm on the Asia for MVP van wagon.
Now I'm here, guys.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, that's what That's what I thought, and.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I thought that's how it's gonna jump to the at.
But the numbers do not lie. Asia right now has
the highest total points and total rebounds with seven hundred
and eighty nine points and three hundred and forty six
rebounds in second place. No, not in second. I'm not
(06:00):
sure what place they're in. But Fee only has six
hundred and forty four total points. Not only that's a
lot of friggin points, but in comparison to Asia, almost
one hundred and fifty less. And then AT has two
hundred and seventy three total rebounds, which is bound.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Seventy eighty less than Asia.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
So we're talking about importance to the squad overall performance numbers.
I feel like this is kind of it is becoming
an easier choice.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But Asia Wilson, Asia Wilson. Look, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
They're on a ten game winning streak, which is their
longest since twenty twenty one. She is carrying this team
with multiple thirty point games at.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Like multiple double doubles.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Hold on, I have it here, nineteenth double double now
with ten career thirty point games and multiple seasons. I
it's look, we argued last week, when you're voting, are
you voting based on best player on best team that
(07:12):
is prime to win a championship? The leaks were first
or thirty wins whatever, first to clinch of playoff spot.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Are you going with that route? Okay?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Fee is leading that charge whatever, or are you going
with the route the best player whose team would be
down the worst without them, if that makes sense. But
Asia's kind of both now, so like they're in third,
they're winning, and she's the best player on this team,
So you can't really deny her any.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
More, No, you can't.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I think that she felt that energy from the media
that you know, Fee was running away with the MVP,
which you know in the.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
First half of the season pre All Star, that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Was definitely an argument, and the numbers backed it up
and the record backed it up. But that's why it's
a long season. That's why it's an end of season award.
You don't give people their awards halfway through the season
because things change, personnel changes, teams go through their ups
and downs at different times of the year. I know,
I always say that, you know, you set a standard
(08:14):
for yourself getting these awards and you must like match
it or surpass it. But like what Asia did in
that unanimous twenty twenty four season was just absolutely ridiculous,
like once in a lifetime type performance you see from
a player on any.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Level, either gender. Like whatever, what she did in.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Twenty twenty four was absolutely insane, So it is a
little bit unfair to use that as her baseline because
you know, that was just a really special season. She
was a unanimous twenty twenty four MVP. So this season
is kind of reminding me of the twenty twenty three
MVP voting that was like very dramatic and weird. And
(08:55):
that was when we had the infamous fourth place vote
for Asia, Yes, twenty three At. It was eight between At,
Stewie and Asia, so those were the three players that
were in like legitimate contention. At led the first place
votes with twenty three. She had the most first place votes,
(09:17):
but she also had the most third place votes.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
She ended up losing to Stewie by seven points. That
was it.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Okay, the last time the person who led in first
place vote lost the MVP was in two thousand and five,
and that's when Cheryl Swoops won MVP over Lauren Jackson.
So Lauren Jackson had more first place votes but didn't
win MVP.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So that's only happened two times in WBA history.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I was looking at the charts, you know, they like
show the voting chart of where the votes are distributed.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
You get a vote for like first place through fifth place.
I think that's ridiculous, Like, yeah, that's unnecessary.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
There shouldn't be five five votes. I always I'm going
to say this every time you shorten the list. As
the season goes on, you know, there's like people on
the list that had like one one fifth place vote
or a third place vote in like three fifth place votes,
Like you're not you don't have a chance to win.
Like I said, it's probably really nice to feel like
(10:19):
you're in these conversations with these amazing players in this league.
So I get that, but like, let that come out
like All Star break, like once a month, like let's
let's let's release like voting of where you think everybody
is or like the ladder. Yeah, and then by the
time we're getting like the last like twelve fifth I
want to say fifteen because our season sociort I would
(10:40):
say like maybe eight to ten games you shorten that
list down to like three or four, depending on how
close everybody is, because in that twenty twenty three year,
it was at fee Stewie.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And then everybody up here and then everybody else was.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Like down here, So it was like a waste of voting,
and like those votes could have went to those three
players who are really in contention. And when you lose
by seven points and you lead in all first place votes,
that's like you want to like punch everybody that voted,
because why you wasting your.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Votes on these players? Like it doesn't It just doesn't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Make sense to me why there's that many choices for
MVP when like clearly, like right now there's three or four.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Players that are in legitimate contention to an MVP.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But again, I can't say the voters get it right
because I see a case for each player. So I'm
like really excited to see how the voting shakes out.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Like I don't know, I want to ask about the
third player in this conversation because we kind of gave
We talked a lot about feet throughout the season, we
gave our reasons why Asia's kind of surpassity and the.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
MVP conversation in our heads.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But at she got our sixth triple double of the season,
tied her own record. She now has twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Career triple doubles.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The next closest person, as Lexi has highlighted, has full
work top fifteen, scoring first and assists second. In rebounds,
I believe my question is, now that she's been in
this conversation multiple times, what does she need to do
to be able to overtake these two and be able
to win this award? Is that possible?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
What's missing?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
She's she doesn't score enough, So I mean, I think
that's the biggest, most glaring thing. Like she scores sixteen
points a game, Like that's great. Along with her nine points,
I mean nine assists and nine rebounds, She's gonna have
to average a triple double. And for like, it seems
like such an unfair thing to ask of a player, Like,
for you have these two players who are playing out
(12:32):
of their minds averaging twenty four or three points per game,
ten rebounds, eight rebounds, but you're like, you know what,
at you got to average.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
A triple double and then maybe you will have a chance.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Like I just feel like that's so crazy, But like
that's just how good of a player she is. And
we're always talking about the constant moving of the goalposts,
and that applies to everybody. It doesn't just apply to
your fath or this person's fave. Like I feel like
everybody feels like goal posts have been moved not in
their favor at some point in the career, and I
feel like At is definitely like the poster.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Child of that.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
I think she absolutely should have won that twenty twenty
three MVP.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I think she deserved it.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
She was first in rebounding and assists that year, and
Stewie was actually second in scoring as far as total points.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So not saying stuwe didn't.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Deserve that MVP because she absolutely had such a great
season that year, but that was like prime time for
At to win. I think a lot of I mean,
they agreed, she got the most first place votes. I
think a lot of people thought she should have won
the MVP. So do I think that they try to
right their wrong this year. I think they might try to,
(13:43):
but I don't know. I think Asia and Fiev just
put together such amazing seasons it's going to be hard
for them to do that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But again, we always relay Asia to Jokic, like our
voters get.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Voter fatigue, and like, again that's another moving up the goalpost,
Like you're gonna be mad at someone for being extremely
great at what they do and be like, you know what,
we're tired of giving them the awards. We're gonna give
it to somebody else. I think that's dumb as well.
If Asia wins MVP this year, she will be the
first player in WBA history to be a four time
(14:14):
WNBA MVP, which is absolutely insane considering the amount of
talented women that have come through.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
This league and how young she is.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
And how young she is, would you like to guess
who the other three time winners could be?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Guess? Oh my gosh, you always got me on.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
On trivia fun facts with Lexi.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Okay, let me think.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
You can just if you can get one of them,
I'll be impressed. My more Nope, Cheril swoops ding ding ding. Okay,
you want to do another Cheril Miller? Nope, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I don't want to be wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right? One more guests? One more guests DT Nope,
sheer only one wants if you could believe that what?
I didn't know that superd Nope. The other two are
Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Damn a lot of I guess Lisa Leslie, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
So stupid to me. It was a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
No shade, Lisa, I'm not trying to age you, but
that was a long time ago, and I feel like
a lot of people even forget how good Lauren Jackson was.
She played for the story. She played with super She's
Australian legend. She was insane, she was so good. But yes,
Age will be the first four time MVP, which I
think will be amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And this I don't think this will be her last
MVP either.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Like we said, she is just tapping into her prime years,
which is scary.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But this is going to be a very fun MVP race.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I hope that some more media members come out publicly
and say who they voted for and why. I think
that that would be good for the game. I think
that it would be fun to see different things that
people value. I don't know why it has to be
such a big secret, So yeah, I'm excited for that.
It's not like that and the men no like say
what you'llest. There are some media members I don't like.
(16:00):
Here's my ballot here, so I vote it, and I
respect those people. I don't respect the ones that throw
a rock and hide a hand, Like if you want
to vote for this person, it's okay, just tell me why.
Only because I want to know. I'm nosy, not because
I want to argue with you.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I just want to.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Know that's you though, that's not everybody else.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Right, People do love arguing down, So good luck to
the voters. This is not going to be easy. No
one's going to be not everyone's going to be happy, obviously,
but I think that it's going to be close. I
wonder if there's going to be a chance of it
being tied. That would be crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And is that possible.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Do they have enough, Like do they distribute the votes
in a way where that's even possible.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I don't know, but if that happens, I would be
a cop out and I would hate that. So I
hope that they don't do that or be like, you
know what, all three of you get it, everybody gets it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Everybody would I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Think they'll do that.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
They would have to vote again or something like they
have to give it to one but.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
They have to give it to one person. So yeah,
shout out to the voters.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I'm glad I'm not one of y'all. Let's talk about
this recent conversation about the back to back games. I
know I've actually seen quite a few videos on TikTok
(17:27):
responding to the comments made by Satu Sabili about the
back to backs including Patrick Beverly. Pat Bev chimed in,
which I was like, oh, okay, we got to talk
about this on our show. If Pat Bev got something
to say, we definitely need to have something to say
about it. So I do want to hear from you,
Mariah as like, because a lot of the comments not
(17:48):
calling you.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Like a normal or regular person by any means.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
But I did see a lot of comments like, well,
we work eight to nine hours a day and have
to get up every day and work eight and to
nine hours a day as well, which I think that's
a very valid point of view, but it's it's not
the same as like playing. I don't think saw too
meant I don't want to work hard. I don't want
to work I think she genuinely is like, my body
(18:14):
is what makes me money and it's getting run into
the ground. Can we please do something about that? So
how do you feel about the statements made by satu?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Here's my thing. Number one.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I don't ever want to hear what an NBA player
has to say about a WNBA player complaining about the schedule.
That should be self explanatory to anybody who watches sports.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Okay, half of y'all don't play.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
In back to backs because you don't feel like it.
And do you know how much we cost to go
to an NBA game? And these people are sitting there
and the biggest star on the team is on the
bench in history close and he.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Not even hurt.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So I'm not even trying to hear that number two.
I don't think it's fair for I guess this might
get me in trouble, but regular people. I feel like
this comes up a lot with like regular people and athletes,
where people are like, well, we show up to work
every day and blah blah blah, but you did. They're
different things, Like I don't like the what aboutism of
(19:12):
social media where everybody applies their situation to every single situation.
It's just different people are different. People have different situations.
At the end of the day. Athletes work really really hard,
But I don't like the what aboutism of social media
where people are like, oh, we do this, so you
should have to do that. A lot of y'all sit
at desks every single day, and some people do harder things.
But like, you're not a professional athlete. You don't go
(19:33):
to work and you're like running, jumping, shooting, exercising every
single day. If she has an issue with her schedule
or if she doesn't want to do this, or if
she doesn't want to do that, I feel like that's
her prerogative to complain about. But at the end of
the day, this might sound bad for me. But when
I hear quotes like that, I take it with a
grain of salt, because at the end of the day,
this is y'all's job.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's not like she's like she's saying, like, oh, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Like, at the end of the day, if she has
to play back to back and you'll have to play
back to back or we have to play back, it's
gonna happen anyways, you know, right, So I don't really care.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I mean, and that's exactly what she said. She was like,
I'm gonna show up and do my job every day.
But this is how my body's feeling, this is how
my mind is feeling about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Like, let's do something about it.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I think, Yes, it is a league wide problem of
the condensed scheduling. We've maxed out at games per season
at forty four, Like we literally cannot play more than
forty four regular season games based on the CPA, so
we've capped out on that.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I'm looking at the coach like, this is a coaching thing.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
If you see that your players are tired and exhausted,
then play them last minutes like simple fix.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
You have a team.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Full of professional basketball players sitting right there at your disposal,
most of which are very well rested because.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You don't play them.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I see both sides of this because I've never
played more than thirty minutes per game in my entire career,
and that's only happened one time. The other times where
I've played, I've laid between eighteen and twenty five minutes
per game in three or four seasons, and then two
seasons like I haven't played three seasons, I barely play,
(21:15):
So I don't have the same perspective in point of
view of these players that I've logged thirty plus minutes
almost every year of their careers. So I, personally, I
don't really have anything to say about that because it's
something that I personally haven't experienced.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But I know how I feel.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
And how my body feels after a flight after a
hard game of me just sitting there watching going through
pregame warm ups doing my lifts during the day, like
I know how my body feels, so yes, I put
myself in their shoes constantly because I'm like, I know
that they're run down, but there's benches on every team
(21:50):
full of players that never get any playing time, So yes,
the back to backs are annoying. I did look up
about the back to backs in the past. There's been
back to backs, like since the beginning of the league.
Like I looked it up. There's not an exact number,
which I even asked chat GBT, I need us to
like tighten up on that because I found the exact
(22:12):
number of back to backs of the NBA seasons, but
for the WNBA there's not an exact number, so we
need to tighten up on that. I didn't have enough
time to go look at every schedule and see where
the back to backs were, but the number I did
find was that in twenty ten, the Minnesota Links had
four back.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
To back sets.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Perspective, last year in the NBA, every team had between
thirteen and sixteen back to backs on top of playing
eighty two games. So apples and oranges, yes, but I
just want to put that into perspective.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Why Pat BEV decided to weigh in.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
He's been part of a league where you have a
ton of back to backs, So I get why he
needed to put his two sentence because he did say
he's a big advocate for the w he wants us
to get everything we deserve.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He did preface his statements with that.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
But again, I'm like you, sir, zip it, I do
have one more thing they.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Say from his comments and Sattoo's comments and what I
just heard from you, I've said this before and I'll
say it again.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I also don't like the NBA schedule.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
No, I think it's either. I think them playing that
many back in the backs is crazy. It's way too
many games. It's insane.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And as a fan in somebody who covers the league like,
I'm just keep it up a stack with y'all. I'm
not trying to watch all them games.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
There's so many and not at eleven PM.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I don't get me started on that.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
That's the whole other side thing. I'm so mad about that.
Ain't nobody doing that. I'm sorry, I got plates at
seven thirty.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
No, I got time for that.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I have to watch now. I'm going to watch the
highlights on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
As a West Coaster.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I'm not mad at it, but I clutched my pearls
when I saw that announcement, and I said, who is
stayed up to eleven PM to watch a basketball game?
A lot of people, apparently because they did it for
a reason, you know, I don't know. So it's going
to be interesting to see what those numbers look like
in my research.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
As well as looking up.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
These back to backs, I stumbled across a cute little
article from two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
An ESPN article from two thousand and three interviewing the president,
the WA president at the time, who her name is,
val Ackerman.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think that was a woman.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I'm pretty sure it was a woman, but vow you
don't know, pretty sure that was a woman. So, you
know how I always am talking about the distribution of
minutes and how it's crazy and how.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
In two thousand and three, they asked her about making
the games potentially forty eight minutes as well, because they
have so much talent in the league.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
In two thousand and three, they were asking.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Her that, so she said, you know, probably not, because
we need to have our slots in the two hour
for the media the TV. But okay, I for thinking
about what the TV was like in two thousand and three,
it was very like you had the TV, had cable,
that was it. You ain't have streaming, you ain't have
all these websites. You didn't have Amazon Prime, you didn't
have Disney Plus, you didn't have all these things. Also,
(25:09):
it was funny that I saw that the WNBA used
to have their games on Oxygen, which I'm like, that's
so girly and fun, like I want our games to
be like put our games on Bravo or something like
I know what's on Ion right now, because you imagine
like in between an episode of Housewives WNBA game, Like
I think that would be so cute. Okay, anyway, and
(25:31):
then they also asked, I know this is like no
longer about back to backs, but this was just all
in the article that I was reading. They asked about
opening up early entry because Diana Tarassi was in college
two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So guys, these conversations have been happening for over twenty years,
over twenty years, So it's nice to see that because
you people think like all these conversations all these ideas
are like, oh, why not. No, you're not reinventing the wheel.
You know, there's people who have been watching women's basketball
for a long time who have asked these questions about
(26:08):
extending the games because of the talent, or opening up
of college or lowering the college age so talented players
can come to the league early. Been there, done that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
She said, absolutely not, We're not lowering the age. I
don't care who you are.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
That was Diana Tarassi, guys, who we claimed as our
goat last week. So I'm just saying things change, takes time.
I don't think that age limit thing is going to change.
I do think that that forty to forty eight minute
could change, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I think they're gonna have to give there's gonna have
to be more roster response if they're gonna do that,
am I yeah? Or it's just like that also goes
into the back to backs thing, though, is what I
was gonna say.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
I guys just keep saying, y'all, it's a slippery slope
of CBA things of front office things of coach things.
Another thing that I looked up today, I looked up
a lot of stuff this morning guys, I was at
a low coffee shop.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
We're in Indianapolis. There's not much to do here.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I went in, sat in the coffee shop and just
did my little research.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
This morning.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
We're talking about minutes played per game for these players,
these super talented players. I looked up the minutes per
game played for NBA players last season, and not a
single player played more eighty percent or more of their
(27:33):
forty eight minutes per game. Not one in our league
right now. I think there's like around fifteen players that
play eighty plus percent of the forty minutes.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
So it's that's a lot of minutes.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And the fact that how talented the NBA is, they
have more time and they still are not getting to
that eighty percent threshold. And we have a plethora of
players that are and a lot of players that are
like very very close as well. You know, I think that, yes,
these players deserve to be on the court. They help
you win, do all the things, coaches trust you. But again,
(28:12):
there's just a lot of untapped talent on these WNBA benches,
as y'all are seeing on the valkyries before our very eyes,
a team full of players that were not getting the
opportunities that they probably thought that they deserved, and now
they are in playoff contention, legitimate playoff contention in their
first year being an expansion team.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So that's all I'm.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Going to say about that back to backs minutes, all
of these fun numbers that I discovered today.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
No, those numbers at the end really put it in perspective,
because I mean, there's so many bodies in the NBA
that allow them to have that flexibility to not have
to play their best players more than eighty percent of
a game. And in the WNBA, fifteen players are going
over that threshold.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah, and again that goes with their eighty two game season.
When I'm on Gills, they were always talking about how
they kind of like plan their schedules like okay, like
this is a game we could lose if we need to.
This is a game we could lose if we need to,
or this this player can sit this game, you know,
if we win this.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Game when the schedule is entirely too long, yeah, we
don't have one.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
We don't have that luxury. We don't have that luxury
to do that.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So you're not going to really see very many players
scheduling losses, scheduling games to sit out of because we
just don't have time for that. Nor I don't think
that's not like that's a whole conversation for another time.
But like you said, the season is way too long.
The players have to prioritize themselves, the organizations have to
prioritize their player health and safety, and that's kind of
been their happy medium. We're not there yet, so I'm
(29:48):
looking at coaches like your players are literally in media
saying how tired they are, and you are like, okay,
play forty minutes and yes, yeah, but hey, it's been
like that for a long long time, a long long time.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well, hopefully she is able to get some sort of
rest and you know, the men, keep it cute.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Keep it cute, please. I appreciate your opinions and support, but.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Not to win.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
In some positive news, some records were broken in the
past week. I want to start by talking about miss Pagebeckers.
She wrote her name in the WNBA history books on
Wednesday with an incredible forty four point outing and the
Dallas Wings loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. It ended
in a buzzer beater, which is that is heartbreaking for
(30:45):
somebody who drops forty four but neither here nor there.
Incredible performance, and she attributed a lot of her success
to the long loss forgotten mid range LEXI. What were
your thoughts on pages outing and her quotes.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Well, y'all already know we love page here forty four
points on eighty percent shooting seventeen for twenty one, which
is the first time a player in the league has
scored forty points shooting eighty percent or better. She tied
Cynthia Cooper for most points for a rookie, which was
I think when did she do that?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I can't remember the year.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
But it was a long time ago. If y'all been
tabby with the w Cynthia Cooper played a long time ago.
She's twenty nine straight games double figure scoring, which is
third all time in WBA rookie history, and she's the
fastest to reach five hundred points and one hundred assists.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I liked those.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Records fastest two because I feel like some of these
greats are about to get a race, not a race
from the record books, but they're going to probably move
down a lot quicker than they probably expected to because
of the expansion of our season and the amount of
games that we have. So until twenty twenty two we
only played thirty four games, thirty six and twenty twenty two,
(32:00):
forty games in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four,
and then this year playing forty four games, and that's
only going to continue to go up. So we're gonna
see a lot of records being broken in these next
few years because we have more games. So I want
you guys to keep that in mind when you're like,
how bad was the league back then? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
No, they just had less games, Okay, So let's keep
that in mind. And that's why I.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Really appreciate those players that do things fast, because there's
no you don't need all the games to do that.
So shout out to page. She did have a beautiful
quote about the mid range. I know you guys know
me as a three point shooter, but when you get
run off the line, you have to have a mid
range shot or you have to be a really elite finisher.
(32:44):
And I have always thought that the mid range shot
is very important the game of basketball, even though in
recent years they tried to remove it from our game completely.
Her quote said, I quote. This is right here, I
can quoting it. I truly think basketball has gotten away
from it. It's mostly layups and threes. Teams don't know
(33:06):
how to guard it. So I think it's an advantage
when you can score in the mid range.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I absolutely agree.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I can tell you right now the top five mid
range shot takers in the league one through five. We
start with Courtney Williams, who has taken two hundred and
forty six mid ranges. Page in second place with one
hundred and seventy one mid ranges, Tina Charles one hundred
and thirty, Asia Wilson one hundred and fifteen, and Arique
(33:36):
Agumbuale with one hundred and thirteen. So those are the
top five mid range shot takers. Those are their attempts.
Can you guess who has the highest percentage in.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
That five page?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Ding ding ding? Was that a lucky guess?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
It just makes sense because I mean, talking with that
much conviction a rookie saying teams just don't know how
to guard it, like obviously, like you have to be leading.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
In that category in order to say something like that.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Because my question to you is going to be, why
is that is that just not basically because the game
has changed.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Oh no, I have I have the explanation for you
right here.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
If y'all were wondering, Oh, yeah, she's shooting forty six
percent from mid ranges, which is extremely impressive. The thing
about mid range shots is, for the most part, they
take just a lot of repetition and a lot of rhythm.
So you can't just wake up one day and be like,
I'm just start throwing up middies like it's something that
you have to.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Work on a lot.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
And I know that because before I went to AU
in February, I focused a lot on my middies and
I was hitting them at AU, and I was like
really happy about it because it was something that my
game had gotten away from since being in the WNBA,
of being a three point shooter. So I really wanted
to go into AU shooting more middies, and I did,
and I found a lot of success with my long
(34:53):
ball and getting to the rim when you get that
mid range. So Page is absolutely right, people do not
know how to guard it. What change the landscape of
basketball a little bit? You know, we talk about Steph
Curry and his three point shooting. I mean I would
throw James Harden into that three point shooting in flux
as well, and that is because of something called the
(35:14):
moriy Ball approach. Okay, So what that is is the
fuck let me I was about the curse because it
makes me so mad. The basketball nerds use data and
analytics to basically say, threes rule everything, okay, because it's
the most points, obviously, because a mid range and a
(35:37):
layup are both worth the same number of points, but
the level of difficulty of the mid range is harder.
It's less important and a bad shot because you could
just go get a regular layup or a dunk instead
of taking a difficult mid range. And then a free
throw obviously is uncontested, but it's only worth one point.
So when Darryl Moury was in charge of the Houston Rocket,
(36:00):
that's kind of when he started using his approach, and
the Rockets at the time really were one of the
best offensive teams in the NBA. So people are like, oh,
it works, you know, let's get rid of the mid range.
Just three lips, threes lips. But you have to have
an offense that caters to that. You have to have
personnel that is buying into that who has a skill
set for that, and that's not always the case. Carmelo
(36:22):
Anthony talks about it all the time because he was
on that Rockets team during this No Midi's era, And
if y'all follow basketball, Carmelo Anthony is one of the
best mid range shooters scores that we've ever seen in
the history of basketball. So this is a Hall of Famer.
And it didn't work for him, because that's important. It
wasn't his style of play, and he is very vocal
(36:44):
about how much he hated playing that way. And it's
not for everybody. So you just have to make sure
you have the right players in place, you have the
right offense in place. We just played Dallas a few
days ago. Like I said earlier, they were not at
their full strength. They were coming off of that hard
game in La or Page at forty four.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
They looked really tired, They looked exhausted.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But just looking at their offense and the actions that
they run for Page and if Arique was healthy, even
some of the actions they run for Maddie Secrets like
you can tell that they do value mid range shooting
and getting them open and getting them in space and
actions for them to create for themselves. Page is really
good at her mid post game. Like I was not
(37:26):
hit to that midpost game at she had. She didn't
really have to use it that much in college at
Yukon because she was just so much better than everybody already.
I had no idea that she posted up that much,
and she was so efficient from the mid post and
the post. So yeah, so there's a reason why she's
confident what she's saying, and I completely agree with her.
But it is something that you have to practice, and
(37:47):
I do think Courtney Williams is and has been one
of the best mid range pull up jump shooters for
like the last.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Since she got drafted.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Really, I was on her team when I was a rookie,
and I was amazed by her mid range shooting and
the fact that she despite what everybody says about threes
and layups, she has continued to shoot that little mid
range her entire career and has found a lot of
success in it. Shout out to Courtney, Shout out to Page,
Shout out to all the mid range jump shooters. The
MIDI ain't dead, y'all. Okay, this is coming from a
(38:16):
three point shooter.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
It's not dead. Practice it. You have to work on it.
It's a skill.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So yeah, and shout out to Courtney for making history
as well.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Snaps for Courtney.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Breaking the Minnesota Links season assist record, single season assist record, Yeah,
which is crazy. As I keep telling y'all, Courtney is
not a point guard. She is a shooting guard turned
into a point guard. So for her to break that
record is super impressive, especially since one of the best
(38:51):
point guards to ever play in Lindsay Whalen, was part
of the Minnesota Links. So for her to break her
record is crazy, So shout out to.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I also want to add that she has the third
most games in WNBA history with ten points, ten assists
in zero turnovers.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Wow, Corney, man, I'm so proud of her. I was,
she's like having a year.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
She's having a year, and she's like grown up so
much from when I met her in my rookie year
to now, Like just to see what she's gone through
in her career, the ups, the downs, the highs, the lows,
and for her to come out finding her home in
Minnesota of all places, because I know, like when a
lot of people when she signed to Minnesota, people were like,
how's this going to work because Corney has a big personality,
(39:33):
but she's fitting seamlessly and she's really like changed the
culture of the Minnesota Links.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Like Minnesota Links.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Have always been like very we get shit done, we
down a business, we do things like this, we do
things like that. And she's kind of like loosing them
up a little bit. Her and Na Tisha Heideman with
the stud buds Kmeack putting the little pink in her hair,
Djana pulling out the pink hair to be the fem
bud Like it's it's really cool to see because I
(40:01):
was a part of that Links organization and I did
have a great time there, but it was very like
we do things.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
This is how we do things by the book.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, So for them to be loosening up a little
bit and it's look at how they're playing.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Like I just it was just it's easy peasy.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Let people be who they are as long as they
show up to work every day and do what they're
supposed to do. Like all that extra stuff doesn't matter
as long as you keep the main thing the main thing,
And that's what the Links have done all season long.
You have players in MVP contention, breaking records, shooting this
shit out the ball k Mack.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Like, you bring in a player like Djena.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
You have a player who didn't even play last season
in the WNBA because she was playing overseas, coming in
from the bench, having the fastest WNBA triple double in history,
Like all on the same team. I just how did
this team get assembled? Like without any of us paying attention.
You were talking about super Team in Vegas, Super Team
(41:02):
in New York whole time.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
The super team is in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Right, and it's not even it's just a good organization.
It's like super team this, superteam that. But they they've made,
like you said, kind of under the radar. Move here,
move there, everybody buying in their Coach said that Cortney's
one of the easiest players she's ever had to coach.
And you you describing or seeing her in the stud
buds and being like, oh my god, she has this
(41:27):
big personality and then coach is like, oh no, she
fits in seamlessly.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
She's great to coach. It works very well.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And to be getting all that public attention from Stubbuds
and everything, it's like they're really having a time.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
They're having a year and they're handling it very well and.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Went nine to one without their MVP. You know that's insane.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Yeah, so they're They're a team that obviously everybody is
going to be on the lookout for during playoffs, and
you know, good luck to the team that has to
play them in the first round. It was US a
few days ago. It no longer is US, So we're
moving on up. We're six place now, guys, so we're
moving on us, right, We're moving on up. Got to
(42:07):
twenty wins, which I haven't. I haven't won twenty games
in a while. So snaps snaps for that. Snaps for that.
Last record breaking thing that we want to just give
a quick shout out to is the league breaking the
attendance record. On August twenty first, it was reported that
over two point five million people have attended WNBA games
(42:31):
this season, which breaks the record that was created in
two thousand and two.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
So yay.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It's so crazy to me whenever I hear all of
these records and then it's like, since two thousand and
I'm like, what going on to not that like what
was going on?
Speaker 3 (42:50):
But I'm like two thousand that many people.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
I'm telling you, the WNBA was like I hope that
somebody somewhere has been like just documenting all of this,
the ups and the downs of the league, because it
was cracking in the early stages of it, Like it
was cracking early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, every record I hear is like since the early
two thousands, it's like, this isn't just something that happened yesterday.
It seems to be this was something that's been happening,
took a little break, and it's happening again.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
And it's so crazy because you know, the early two thousands,
it was new, it was fun. But then I would say,
like the prime era of WNBA was that twenty tens era,
and we don't we just don't. We don't like hear
about it as much like we hear about the individual players,
but we don't hear about the rivalries this player, you know,
(43:41):
the six players at that time, like what these teams
a movement? Like, we just don't hear a lot about
any of it, Which is why I love DT's documentary
so much. It's because you got a kind of like
an inside look of that era of WNBA. But it's like, yeah,
like you said, it's either like early two thousands or
twenty twenty one and on this whole middle part of
the WBA is like dark times, the Dark Ages, and
(44:05):
some of the best basketball was being played at that time.
So I'm hoping that somebody somewhere is doing something.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
I'm sure Netflix is somewhere.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Oh gosh, I hope so because I grew up watching
that and I was like, this was just it was
so exciting.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
It was fun. But again, I also was.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
A kid, like even when I was like thinking about
when my dad was coaching in the league.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
So if anybody.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Knows the Orlando area, there's this place called like the
RDV Complex. So it was basically like a giant YMCA,
like a super nice giant YMCA, like it had weightlifting
and had basketball courts, had ice skating rink.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Like it was just like a big place.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
And that's where the Orlando Miracle would practice at like
a giant YMCA. And I thought it was like the
most amazing thing ever. But like, why is a professional
team practicing in a public space.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But when I was a kid.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I was like, oh my god, they got this big
gym to themsel like, no, it wasn't I had no
idea what was going on. But I loved every minute
of it. And I just think that it's funny thinking back,
like they they really were just in like a lifetime
fitness essentially practicing, and I was like.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
This is so cool.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
They get to just play basketball in this big facility.
It wasn't there, It wasn't even theirs. They were visitors.
But that's just the perspective of things. And yeah, the
innocence of being a child. But that was where my
WN dream started. Guys, humble beginning, exactly, humble beginnings.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
That's important. But guys, we are going into a crazy week.
Standings are very different already.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I feel yeah from last week when we talked.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
So the season is winding down, which is so satisfying
by But me and Lexi will be back next week.
Next week, a new recap. I'm sure new records are
to be broken, new things to say.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
You keep climbing on up.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Lexi is six point six points away, guys, hopefully next week.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
What has it been like four weeks? We will four
weeks since I've party.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Man, I'm gonna get I'm getting balloons for myself and everything.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (46:14):
I'm gonna throw a party and see, I don't tell
myself me and Cannon. Guys, it was Cannon's birthday yesterday,
my puppy, and I wasn't with him birthday, So happy birthday, Cannon.
We're gonna celebrate his birthday, hopefully my one thousand point
and hopefully that will be before next week's episode. But
for now, thank you guys for tuning in to this
week's episode.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
We will see y'all next week.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Bye y'all, thanks for listening to Full Circle. We'll be
back next week with more basketball for the girls, by
the girls. We want to hear from you. Leave us
a review on Apple Podcasts and tell us what you
want us to talk about. Full Circle is hosted by
a Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fuse. Our producer
(46:57):
is Zoe dan Klub. Listen to Full Circle on America's
number one podcast network, iHeart, open your free iHeart app
and search Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose
and start listening.
Full Circle is an Iheartwoman's sports production and partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
You can find us on the.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome back to another episode of Full Circle.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
LEXI, how you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Doing, pay girl? I'm good.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Five points away, no, six points away from one thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, guys, I got this game.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I know that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Game a few days.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Ago against Dallas, score five little points, so we're we're
chipping away.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
How many games we got left? We got six more games,
as you should guys. I just six points.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
It's just it's crazy that I'm like, can I get
six points and six games? I don't know, but we're
gonna try. I would like to have this done, yes, playoffs.
I would like to have this done before playoffs so
then I could just vibe out for the rest of
the season, like I just want to be able to
be like, you know, here's a tiny personal bright spot
(01:02):
of my season this year was getting to a thousand points,
so that would be amazing. But how are you doing?
How are you doing? You got new hair? You look cute, girl,
You look so good.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I love guys.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I was just talking to Lexi before we started recording
about how really, not just like se but everybody at
the w y'all.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Keep your hair did. Now.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I understand when people have short hair, you know what
I'm saying. But the girls who have their hair did,
I'm like, y'all are working out every single day.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Your professional athletes, how was your.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hair always perceive?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I will say there are I will there's like ten
players that I'm always like, your hair is always laid,
it always looks good, not a hair out of place.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
They switch up the colors, they just switch up the styles.
I mean, that's I just love being a girl.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
That's like one of the things that I love being
a I just love being a girl like that's That's
one of the fun things in our league is we
always talk about a personal style, looks, makeup, outfits, like everything,
Like just so many things that you've seen in women's
sports that you just don't see as much of men's sports.
I feel like the men's athletes are getting a little
(02:11):
bit more in there. This is who I am back
Like I just saw I think it was Jalen Williams
from Okay. See he's like out shopping in Tokyo or
wherever he is, and he has like a big jump
with this big jumbo and everyone was like, yeah, shame, shame.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And I was like people thought it was oh my god.
People get mad at everything. But like it's a bag.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I thought he was eating.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
It's a bag, Like I don't know, I don't know
if y'all ever seen those bags, Like they're pretty big
and they can hold a lot of stuff. Chanel is
not just for the girls, like it's a brand.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Also people need to carry their stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
I'd be telling my boyfriend, I'm like, quip, putting your
wallet and all your stuff in your pocket.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
You need a little bag, like you need a bag,
Like there's yes, maybe not a jumbo flaph know, okay,
but that's the swag.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Maybe like a backpack, but a.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Backpack, but also a backpack is not for all situations.
Like when I graduated college, I stopped. I think I
stopped carrying around a backpack. Like my second year in the.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
League, I think I was like, I don't really want
to carry this around anymore.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
So now I just carry like big toe bags, like
I'll throw my basketball shoes in there and everything, Like
I don't know back, I try to get like a
cute backpack, but I was like, I just feel like
a little kid with a backpack sometimes or a boy, right,
I get it, So I just get huge bags.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay. Anyway, guys, this is a basketball show. Sorry, but yes,
back to the basketball.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
There's a lot to get into this week. I want
to start with MVP.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I really do. And I think.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
We're gonna like pound this into the ground because I
think for the most part, all postseason awards, maybe outside
of Defensive Player of the Year are pretty much locked up.
I think as far as most Improved sixth Player of
the Year. But MVP is getting real spicy. It's getting
real spicy. Last time we were on the show, we
(04:12):
were begging a fee to come back, and that's exactly
what she did last night, dropping thirty two to nine
in her return. She heard us, she heard us, she
heard everybody saying Fee, come get your MVP. Come, come
come back, come back. They're catching you. Unfortunately, I think
she's been caught in past despite her thirty two point outing.
(04:33):
And here's why, guys, please bear with me. Okay, the
whole season we have been this has been like a
very pro Minnesota lynks Pod.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
This has been a.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Very pro fee for MVP POD. But the numbers do
not lie, guys. Okay, so currently I don't know what
the odds are for the MVP stuff. If he's still
in first, we'll start with her. She's averaging twenty three points,
eight rebounds, three assists. Asia is averaging twenty three points,
ten rebounds, three assists.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And the third.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Person that I think is MVP race is Alyssa Thomas
who's averaging sixteen points, nine rebounds and nine sis.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
What are the what are what are they? We have
the Links in first place, who's in second? The dream
are in second, the Aces are now in third, ten
straight wins, and Phoenix isn't fourth. So now we have
a bit of a dilemma here my new argument, guys,
(05:31):
I'm jumping the fee ship.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm sorry, I'm on the Asia for MVP van wagon.
Now I'm here, guys.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Okay, that's what That's what I thought, and.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
I thought that's how it's gonna jump to the at.
But the numbers do not lie. Asia right now has
the highest total points and total rebounds with seven hundred
and eighty nine points and three hundred and forty six
rebounds in second place. No, not in second. I'm not
(06:00):
sure what place they're in. But Fee only has six
hundred and forty four total points. Not only that's a
lot of friggin points, but in comparison to Asia, almost
one hundred and fifty less. And then AT has two
hundred and seventy three total rebounds, which is bound.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Seventy eighty less than Asia.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
So we're talking about importance to the squad overall performance numbers.
I feel like this is kind of it is becoming
an easier choice.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
But Asia Wilson, Asia Wilson. Look, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
They're on a ten game winning streak, which is their
longest since twenty twenty one. She is carrying this team
with multiple thirty point games at.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Like multiple double doubles.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Hold on, I have it here, nineteenth double double now
with ten career thirty point games and multiple seasons. I
it's look, we argued last week, when you're voting, are
you voting based on best player on best team that
(07:12):
is prime to win a championship? The leaks were first
or thirty wins whatever, first to clinch of playoff spot.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Are you going with that route? Okay?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Fee is leading that charge whatever, or are you going
with the route the best player whose team would be
down the worst without them, if that makes sense. But
Asia's kind of both now, so like they're in third,
they're winning, and she's the best player on this team,
So you can't really deny her any.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
More, No, you can't.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I think that she felt that energy from the media
that you know, Fee was running away with the MVP,
which you know in the.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
First half of the season pre All Star, that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Was definitely an argument, and the numbers backed it up
and the record backed it up. But that's why it's
a long season. That's why it's an end of season award.
You don't give people their awards halfway through the season
because things change, personnel changes, teams go through their ups
and downs at different times of the year. I know,
I always say that, you know, you set a standard
(08:14):
for yourself getting these awards and you must like match
it or surpass it. But like what Asia did in
that unanimous twenty twenty four season was just absolutely ridiculous,
like once in a lifetime type performance you see from
a player on any.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Level, either gender. Like whatever, what she did in.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Twenty twenty four was absolutely insane, So it is a
little bit unfair to use that as her baseline because
you know, that was just a really special season. She
was a unanimous twenty twenty four MVP. So this season
is kind of reminding me of the twenty twenty three
MVP voting that was like very dramatic and weird. And
(08:55):
that was when we had the infamous fourth place vote
for Asia, Yes, twenty three At. It was eight between At,
Stewie and Asia, so those were the three players that
were in like legitimate contention. At led the first place
votes with twenty three. She had the most first place votes,
(09:17):
but she also had the most third place votes.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
She ended up losing to Stewie by seven points. That
was it.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Okay, the last time the person who led in first
place vote lost the MVP was in two thousand and five,
and that's when Cheryl Swoops won MVP over Lauren Jackson.
So Lauren Jackson had more first place votes but didn't
win MVP.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So that's only happened two times in WBA history.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I was looking at the charts, you know, they like
show the voting chart of where the votes are distributed.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
You get a vote for like first place through fifth place.
I think that's ridiculous, Like, yeah, that's unnecessary.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
There shouldn't be five five votes. I always I'm going
to say this every time you shorten the list. As
the season goes on, you know, there's like people on
the list that had like one one fifth place vote
or a third place vote in like three fifth place votes,
Like you're not you don't have a chance to win.
Like I said, it's probably really nice to feel like
(10:19):
you're in these conversations with these amazing players in this league.
So I get that, but like, let that come out
like All Star break, like once a month, like let's
let's let's release like voting of where you think everybody
is or like the ladder. Yeah, and then by the
time we're getting like the last like twelve fifth I
want to say fifteen because our season sociort I would
(10:40):
say like maybe eight to ten games you shorten that
list down to like three or four, depending on how
close everybody is, because in that twenty twenty three year,
it was at fee Stewie.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And then everybody up here and then everybody else was.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Like down here, So it was like a waste of voting,
and like those votes could have went to those three
players who are really in contention. And when you lose
by seven points and you lead in all first place votes,
that's like you want to like punch everybody that voted,
because why you wasting your.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Votes on these players? Like it doesn't It just doesn't.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Make sense to me why there's that many choices for
MVP when like clearly, like right now there's three or four.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Players that are in legitimate contention to an MVP.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But again, I can't say the voters get it right
because I see a case for each player. So I'm
like really excited to see how the voting shakes out.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Like I don't know, I want to ask about the
third player in this conversation because we kind of gave
We talked a lot about feet throughout the season, we
gave our reasons why Asia's kind of surpassity and the.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
MVP conversation in our heads.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But at she got our sixth triple double of the season,
tied her own record. She now has twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Career triple doubles.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The next closest person, as Lexi has highlighted, has full
work top fifteen, scoring first and assists second. In rebounds,
I believe my question is, now that she's been in
this conversation multiple times, what does she need to do
to be able to overtake these two and be able
to win this award? Is that possible?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
What's missing?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
She's she doesn't score enough, So I mean, I think
that's the biggest, most glaring thing. Like she scores sixteen
points a game, Like that's great. Along with her nine points,
I mean nine assists and nine rebounds, She's gonna have
to average a triple double. And for like, it seems
like such an unfair thing to ask of a player, Like,
for you have these two players who are playing out
(12:32):
of their minds averaging twenty four or three points per game,
ten rebounds, eight rebounds, but you're like, you know what,
at you got to average.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
A triple double and then maybe you will have a chance.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Like I just feel like that's so crazy, But like
that's just how good of a player she is. And
we're always talking about the constant moving of the goalposts,
and that applies to everybody. It doesn't just apply to
your fath or this person's fave. Like I feel like
everybody feels like goal posts have been moved not in
their favor at some point in the career, and I
feel like At is definitely like the poster.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Child of that.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
I think she absolutely should have won that twenty twenty
three MVP.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I think she deserved it.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
She was first in rebounding and assists that year, and
Stewie was actually second in scoring as far as total points.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So not saying stuwe didn't.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Deserve that MVP because she absolutely had such a great
season that year, but that was like prime time for
At to win. I think a lot of I mean,
they agreed, she got the most first place votes. I
think a lot of people thought she should have won
the MVP. So do I think that they try to
right their wrong this year. I think they might try to,
(13:43):
but I don't know. I think Asia and Fiev just
put together such amazing seasons it's going to be hard
for them to do that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
But again, we always relay Asia to Jokic, like our
voters get.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Voter fatigue, and like, again that's another moving up the goalpost,
Like you're gonna be mad at someone for being extremely
great at what they do and be like, you know what,
we're tired of giving them the awards. We're gonna give
it to somebody else. I think that's dumb as well.
If Asia wins MVP this year, she will be the
first player in WBA history to be a four time
(14:14):
WNBA MVP, which is absolutely insane considering the amount of
talented women that have come through.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
This league and how young she is.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
And how young she is, would you like to guess
who the other three time winners could be?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Guess? Oh my gosh, you always got me on.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
On trivia fun facts with Lexi.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Okay, let me think.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
You can just if you can get one of them,
I'll be impressed. My more Nope, Cheril swoops ding ding ding. Okay,
you want to do another Cheril Miller? Nope, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I don't want to be wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
All right? One more guests? One more guests DT Nope,
sheer only one wants if you could believe that what?
I didn't know that superd Nope. The other two are
Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Damn a lot of I guess Lisa Leslie, that's.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
So stupid to me. It was a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
No shade, Lisa, I'm not trying to age you, but
that was a long time ago, and I feel like
a lot of people even forget how good Lauren Jackson was.
She played for the story. She played with super She's
Australian legend. She was insane, she was so good. But yes,
Age will be the first four time MVP, which I
think will be amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And this I don't think this will be her last
MVP either.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Like we said, she is just tapping into her prime years,
which is scary.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But this is going to be a very fun MVP race.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I hope that some more media members come out publicly
and say who they voted for and why. I think
that that would be good for the game. I think
that it would be fun to see different things that
people value. I don't know why it has to be
such a big secret, So yeah, I'm excited for that.
It's not like that and the men no like say
what you'llest. There are some media members I don't like.
(16:00):
Here's my ballot here, so I vote it, and I
respect those people. I don't respect the ones that throw
a rock and hide a hand, Like if you want
to vote for this person, it's okay, just tell me why.
Only because I want to know. I'm nosy, not because
I want to argue with you.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I just want to.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Know that's you though, that's not everybody else.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Right, People do love arguing down, So good luck to
the voters. This is not going to be easy. No
one's going to be not everyone's going to be happy, obviously,
but I think that it's going to be close. I
wonder if there's going to be a chance of it
being tied. That would be crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And is that possible.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Do they have enough, Like do they distribute the votes
in a way where that's even possible.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I don't know, but if that happens, I would be
a cop out and I would hate that. So I
hope that they don't do that or be like, you
know what, all three of you get it, everybody gets it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Everybody would I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Think they'll do that.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
They would have to vote again or something like they
have to give it to one but.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
They have to give it to one person. So yeah,
shout out to the voters.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
I'm glad I'm not one of y'all. Let's talk about
this recent conversation about the back to back games. I
know I've actually seen quite a few videos on TikTok
(17:27):
responding to the comments made by Satu Sabili about the
back to backs including Patrick Beverly. Pat Bev chimed in,
which I was like, oh, okay, we got to talk
about this on our show. If Pat Bev got something
to say, we definitely need to have something to say
about it. So I do want to hear from you,
Mariah as like, because a lot of the comments not
(17:48):
calling you.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Like a normal or regular person by any means.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
But I did see a lot of comments like, well,
we work eight to nine hours a day and have
to get up every day and work eight and to
nine hours a day as well, which I think that's
a very valid point of view, but it's it's not
the same as like playing. I don't think saw too
meant I don't want to work hard. I don't want
to work I think she genuinely is like, my body
(18:14):
is what makes me money and it's getting run into
the ground. Can we please do something about that? So
how do you feel about the statements made by satu?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Here's my thing. Number one.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I don't ever want to hear what an NBA player
has to say about a WNBA player complaining about the schedule.
That should be self explanatory to anybody who watches sports.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Okay, half of y'all don't play.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
In back to backs because you don't feel like it.
And do you know how much we cost to go
to an NBA game? And these people are sitting there
and the biggest star on the team is on the
bench in history close and he.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Not even hurt.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So I'm not even trying to hear that number two.
I don't think it's fair for I guess this might
get me in trouble, but regular people. I feel like
this comes up a lot with like regular people and athletes,
where people are like, well, we show up to work
every day and blah blah blah, but you did. They're
different things, Like I don't like the what aboutism of
(19:12):
social media where everybody applies their situation to every single situation.
It's just different people are different. People have different situations.
At the end of the day. Athletes work really really hard,
But I don't like the what aboutism of social media
where people are like, oh, we do this, so you
should have to do that. A lot of y'all sit
at desks every single day, and some people do harder things.
But like, you're not a professional athlete. You don't go
(19:33):
to work and you're like running, jumping, shooting, exercising every
single day. If she has an issue with her schedule
or if she doesn't want to do this, or if
she doesn't want to do that, I feel like that's
her prerogative to complain about. But at the end of
the day, this might sound bad for me. But when
I hear quotes like that, I take it with a
grain of salt, because at the end of the day,
this is y'all's job.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's not like she's like she's saying, like, oh, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Like, at the end of the day, if she has
to play back to back and you'll have to play
back to back or we have to play back, it's
gonna happen anyways, you know, right, So I don't really care.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I mean, and that's exactly what she said. She was like,
I'm gonna show up and do my job every day.
But this is how my body's feeling, this is how
my mind is feeling about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Like, let's do something about it.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I think, Yes, it is a league wide problem of
the condensed scheduling. We've maxed out at games per season
at forty four, Like we literally cannot play more than
forty four regular season games based on the CPA, so
we've capped out on that.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I'm looking at the coach like, this is a coaching thing.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
If you see that your players are tired and exhausted,
then play them last minutes like simple fix.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
You have a team.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Full of professional basketball players sitting right there at your disposal,
most of which are very well rested because.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You don't play them.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I see both sides of this because I've never
played more than thirty minutes per game in my entire career,
and that's only happened one time. The other times where
I've played, I've laid between eighteen and twenty five minutes
per game in three or four seasons, and then two
seasons like I haven't played three seasons, I barely play,
(21:15):
So I don't have the same perspective in point of
view of these players that I've logged thirty plus minutes
almost every year of their careers. So I, personally, I
don't really have anything to say about that because it's
something that I personally haven't experienced.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But I know how I feel.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
And how my body feels after a flight after a
hard game of me just sitting there watching going through
pregame warm ups doing my lifts during the day, like
I know how my body feels, so yes, I put
myself in their shoes constantly because I'm like, I know
that they're run down, but there's benches on every team
(21:50):
full of players that never get any playing time, So yes,
the back to backs are annoying. I did look up
about the back to backs in the past. There's been
back to backs, like since the beginning of the league.
Like I looked it up. There's not an exact number,
which I even asked chat GBT, I need us to
like tighten up on that because I found the exact
(22:12):
number of back to backs of the NBA seasons, but
for the WNBA there's not an exact number, so we
need to tighten up on that. I didn't have enough
time to go look at every schedule and see where
the back to backs were, but the number I did
find was that in twenty ten, the Minnesota Links had
four back.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
To back sets.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Perspective, last year in the NBA, every team had between
thirteen and sixteen back to backs on top of playing
eighty two games. So apples and oranges, yes, but I
just want to put that into perspective.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Why Pat BEV decided to weigh in.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
He's been part of a league where you have a
ton of back to backs, So I get why he
needed to put his two sentence because he did say
he's a big advocate for the w he wants us
to get everything we deserve.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He did preface his statements with that.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
But again, I'm like you, sir, zip it, I do
have one more thing they.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Say from his comments and Sattoo's comments and what I
just heard from you, I've said this before and I'll
say it again.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I also don't like the NBA schedule.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
No, I think it's either. I think them playing that
many back in the backs is crazy. It's way too
many games. It's insane.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And as a fan in somebody who covers the league like,
I'm just keep it up a stack with y'all. I'm
not trying to watch all them games.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
There's so many and not at eleven PM.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I don't get me started on that.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
That's the whole other side thing. I'm so mad about that.
Ain't nobody doing that. I'm sorry, I got plates at
seven thirty.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
No, I got time for that.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I have to watch now. I'm going to watch the
highlights on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
As a West Coaster.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
I'm not mad at it, but I clutched my pearls
when I saw that announcement, and I said, who is
stayed up to eleven PM to watch a basketball game?
A lot of people, apparently because they did it for
a reason, you know, I don't know. So it's going
to be interesting to see what those numbers look like
in my research.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
As well as looking up.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
These back to backs, I stumbled across a cute little
article from two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
An ESPN article from two thousand and three interviewing the president,
the WA president at the time, who her name is,
val Ackerman.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think that was a woman.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
I'm pretty sure it was a woman, but vow you
don't know, pretty sure that was a woman. So, you
know how I always am talking about the distribution of
minutes and how it's crazy and how.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
In two thousand and three, they asked her about making
the games potentially forty eight minutes as well, because they
have so much talent in the league.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
In two thousand and three, they were asking.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Her that, so she said, you know, probably not, because
we need to have our slots in the two hour
for the media the TV. But okay, I for thinking
about what the TV was like in two thousand and three,
it was very like you had the TV, had cable,
that was it. You ain't have streaming, you ain't have
all these websites. You didn't have Amazon Prime, you didn't
have Disney Plus, you didn't have all these things. Also,
(25:09):
it was funny that I saw that the WNBA used
to have their games on Oxygen, which I'm like, that's
so girly and fun, like I want our games to
be like put our games on Bravo or something like
I know what's on Ion right now, because you imagine
like in between an episode of Housewives WNBA game, Like
I think that would be so cute. Okay, anyway, and
(25:31):
then they also asked, I know this is like no
longer about back to backs, but this was just all
in the article that I was reading. They asked about
opening up early entry because Diana Tarassi was in college
two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So guys, these conversations have been happening for over twenty years,
over twenty years, So it's nice to see that because
you people think like all these conversations all these ideas
are like, oh, why not. No, you're not reinventing the wheel.
You know, there's people who have been watching women's basketball
for a long time who have asked these questions about
(26:08):
extending the games because of the talent, or opening up
of college or lowering the college age so talented players
can come to the league early. Been there, done that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
She said, absolutely not, We're not lowering the age. I
don't care who you are.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
That was Diana Tarassi, guys, who we claimed as our
goat last week. So I'm just saying things change, takes time.
I don't think that age limit thing is going to change.
I do think that that forty to forty eight minute
could change, but we'll see.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I think they're gonna have to give there's gonna have
to be more roster response if they're gonna do that,
am I yeah? Or it's just like that also goes
into the back to backs thing, though, is what I
was gonna say.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
I guys just keep saying, y'all, it's a slippery slope
of CBA things of front office things of coach things.
Another thing that I looked up today, I looked up
a lot of stuff this morning guys, I was at
a low coffee shop.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
We're in Indianapolis. There's not much to do here.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
I went in, sat in the coffee shop and just
did my little research.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
This morning.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
We're talking about minutes played per game for these players,
these super talented players. I looked up the minutes per
game played for NBA players last season, and not a
single player played more eighty percent or more of their
(27:33):
forty eight minutes per game. Not one in our league
right now. I think there's like around fifteen players that
play eighty plus percent of the forty minutes.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
So it's that's a lot of minutes.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And the fact that how talented the NBA is, they
have more time and they still are not getting to
that eighty percent threshold. And we have a plethora of
players that are and a lot of players that are
like very very close as well. You know, I think that, yes,
these players deserve to be on the court. They help
you win, do all the things, coaches trust you. But again,
(28:12):
there's just a lot of untapped talent on these WNBA benches,
as y'all are seeing on the valkyries before our very eyes,
a team full of players that were not getting the
opportunities that they probably thought that they deserved, and now
they are in playoff contention, legitimate playoff contention in their
first year being an expansion team.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So that's all I'm.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Going to say about that back to backs minutes, all
of these fun numbers that I discovered today.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
No, those numbers at the end really put it in perspective,
because I mean, there's so many bodies in the NBA
that allow them to have that flexibility to not have
to play their best players more than eighty percent of
a game. And in the WNBA, fifteen players are going
over that threshold.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah, and again that goes with their eighty two game season.
When I'm on Gills, they were always talking about how
they kind of like plan their schedules like okay, like
this is a game we could lose if we need to.
This is a game we could lose if we need to,
or this this player can sit this game, you know,
if we win this.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Game when the schedule is entirely too long, yeah, we
don't have one.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
We don't have that luxury. We don't have that luxury
to do that.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So you're not going to really see very many players
scheduling losses, scheduling games to sit out of because we
just don't have time for that. Nor I don't think
that's not like that's a whole conversation for another time.
But like you said, the season is way too long.
The players have to prioritize themselves, the organizations have to
prioritize their player health and safety, and that's kind of
been their happy medium. We're not there yet, so I'm
(29:48):
looking at coaches like your players are literally in media
saying how tired they are, and you are like, okay,
play forty minutes and yes, yeah, but hey, it's been
like that for a long long time, a long long time.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Well, hopefully she is able to get some sort of
rest and you know, the men, keep it cute.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Keep it cute, please. I appreciate your opinions and support, but.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Not to win.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
In some positive news, some records were broken in the
past week. I want to start by talking about miss Pagebeckers.
She wrote her name in the WNBA history books on
Wednesday with an incredible forty four point outing and the
Dallas Wings loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. It ended
in a buzzer beater, which is that is heartbreaking for
(30:45):
somebody who drops forty four but neither here nor there.
Incredible performance, and she attributed a lot of her success
to the long loss forgotten mid range LEXI. What were
your thoughts on pages outing and her quotes.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Well, y'all already know we love page here forty four
points on eighty percent shooting seventeen for twenty one, which
is the first time a player in the league has
scored forty points shooting eighty percent or better. She tied
Cynthia Cooper for most points for a rookie, which was
I think when did she do that?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
I can't remember the year.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
But it was a long time ago. If y'all been
tabby with the w Cynthia Cooper played a long time ago.
She's twenty nine straight games double figure scoring, which is
third all time in WBA rookie history, and she's the
fastest to reach five hundred points and one hundred assists.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I liked those.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Records fastest two because I feel like some of these
greats are about to get a race, not a race
from the record books, but they're going to probably move
down a lot quicker than they probably expected to because
of the expansion of our season and the amount of
games that we have. So until twenty twenty two we
only played thirty four games, thirty six and twenty twenty two,
(32:00):
forty games in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four,
and then this year playing forty four games, and that's
only going to continue to go up. So we're gonna
see a lot of records being broken in these next
few years because we have more games. So I want
you guys to keep that in mind when you're like,
how bad was the league back then? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
No, they just had less games, Okay, So let's keep
that in mind. And that's why I.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Really appreciate those players that do things fast, because there's
no you don't need all the games to do that.
So shout out to page. She did have a beautiful
quote about the mid range. I know you guys know
me as a three point shooter, but when you get
run off the line, you have to have a mid
range shot or you have to be a really elite finisher.
(32:44):
And I have always thought that the mid range shot
is very important the game of basketball, even though in
recent years they tried to remove it from our game completely.
Her quote said, I quote. This is right here, I
can quoting it. I truly think basketball has gotten away
from it. It's mostly layups and threes. Teams don't know
(33:06):
how to guard it. So I think it's an advantage
when you can score in the mid range.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I absolutely agree.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I can tell you right now the top five mid
range shot takers in the league one through five. We
start with Courtney Williams, who has taken two hundred and
forty six mid ranges. Page in second place with one
hundred and seventy one mid ranges, Tina Charles one hundred
and thirty, Asia Wilson one hundred and fifteen, and Arique
(33:36):
Agumbuale with one hundred and thirteen. So those are the
top five mid range shot takers. Those are their attempts.
Can you guess who has the highest percentage in.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
That five page?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Ding ding ding? Was that a lucky guess?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
It wasn't.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
It just makes sense because I mean, talking with that
much conviction a rookie saying teams just don't know how
to guard it, like obviously, like you have to be leading.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
In that category in order to say something like that.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Because my question to you is going to be, why
is that is that just not basically because the game
has changed.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Oh no, I have I have the explanation for you
right here.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
If y'all were wondering, Oh, yeah, she's shooting forty six
percent from mid ranges, which is extremely impressive. The thing
about mid range shots is, for the most part, they
take just a lot of repetition and a lot of rhythm.
So you can't just wake up one day and be like,
I'm just start throwing up middies like it's something that
you have to.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Work on a lot.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
And I know that because before I went to AU
in February, I focused a lot on my middies and
I was hitting them at AU, and I was like
really happy about it because it was something that my
game had gotten away from since being in the WNBA,
of being a three point shooter. So I really wanted
to go into AU shooting more middies, and I did,
and I found a lot of success with my long
(34:53):
ball and getting to the rim when you get that
mid range. So Page is absolutely right, people do not
know how to guard it. What change the landscape of
basketball a little bit? You know, we talk about Steph
Curry and his three point shooting. I mean I would
throw James Harden into that three point shooting in flux
as well, and that is because of something called the
(35:14):
moriy Ball approach. Okay, So what that is is the
fuck let me I was about the curse because it
makes me so mad. The basketball nerds use data and
analytics to basically say, threes rule everything, okay, because it's
the most points, obviously, because a mid range and a
(35:37):
layup are both worth the same number of points, but
the level of difficulty of the mid range is harder.
It's less important and a bad shot because you could
just go get a regular layup or a dunk instead
of taking a difficult mid range. And then a free
throw obviously is uncontested, but it's only worth one point.
So when Darryl Moury was in charge of the Houston Rocket,
(36:00):
that's kind of when he started using his approach, and
the Rockets at the time really were one of the
best offensive teams in the NBA. So people are like, oh,
it works, you know, let's get rid of the mid range.
Just three lips, threes lips. But you have to have
an offense that caters to that. You have to have
personnel that is buying into that who has a skill
set for that, and that's not always the case. Carmelo
(36:22):
Anthony talks about it all the time because he was
on that Rockets team during this No Midi's era, And
if y'all follow basketball, Carmelo Anthony is one of the
best mid range shooters scores that we've ever seen in
the history of basketball. So this is a Hall of Famer.
And it didn't work for him, because that's important. It
wasn't his style of play, and he is very vocal
(36:44):
about how much he hated playing that way. And it's
not for everybody. So you just have to make sure
you have the right players in place, you have the
right offense in place. We just played Dallas a few
days ago. Like I said earlier, they were not at
their full strength. They were coming off of that hard
game in La or Page at forty four.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
They looked really tired, They looked exhausted.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But just looking at their offense and the actions that
they run for Page and if Arique was healthy, even
some of the actions they run for Maddie Secrets like
you can tell that they do value mid range shooting
and getting them open and getting them in space and
actions for them to create for themselves. Page is really
good at her mid post game. Like I was not
(37:26):
hit to that midpost game at she had. She didn't
really have to use it that much in college at
Yukon because she was just so much better than everybody already.
I had no idea that she posted up that much,
and she was so efficient from the mid post and
the post. So yeah, so there's a reason why she's
confident what she's saying, and I completely agree with her.
But it is something that you have to practice, and
(37:47):
I do think Courtney Williams is and has been one
of the best mid range pull up jump shooters for
like the last.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Since she got drafted.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Really, I was on her team when I was a rookie,
and I was amazed by her mid range shooting and
the fact that she despite what everybody says about threes
and layups, she has continued to shoot that little mid
range her entire career and has found a lot of
success in it. Shout out to Courtney, Shout out to Page,
Shout out to all the mid range jump shooters. The
MIDI ain't dead, y'all. Okay, this is coming from a
(38:16):
three point shooter.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
It's not dead. Practice it. You have to work on it.
It's a skill.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So yeah, and shout out to Courtney for making history
as well.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Snaps for Courtney.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Breaking the Minnesota Links season assist record, single season assist record, Yeah,
which is crazy. As I keep telling y'all, Courtney is
not a point guard. She is a shooting guard turned
into a point guard. So for her to break that
record is super impressive, especially since one of the best
(38:51):
point guards to ever play in Lindsay Whalen, was part
of the Minnesota Links. So for her to break her
record is crazy, So shout out to.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I also want to add that she has the third
most games in WNBA history with ten points, ten assists
in zero turnovers.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Wow, Corney, man, I'm so proud of her. I was,
she's like having a year.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
She's having a year, and she's like grown up so
much from when I met her in my rookie year
to now, Like just to see what she's gone through
in her career, the ups, the downs, the highs, the lows,
and for her to come out finding her home in
Minnesota of all places, because I know, like when a
lot of people when she signed to Minnesota, people were like,
how's this going to work because Corney has a big personality,
(39:33):
but she's fitting seamlessly and she's really like changed the
culture of the Minnesota Links.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Like Minnesota Links.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Have always been like very we get shit done, we
down a business, we do things like this, we do
things like that. And she's kind of like loosing them
up a little bit. Her and Na Tisha Heideman with
the stud buds Kmeack putting the little pink in her hair,
Djana pulling out the pink hair to be the fem
bud Like it's it's really cool to see because I
(40:01):
was a part of that Links organization and I did
have a great time there, but it was very like
we do things.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
This is how we do things by the book.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, So for them to be loosening up a little
bit and it's look at how they're playing.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Like I just it was just it's easy peasy.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Let people be who they are as long as they
show up to work every day and do what they're
supposed to do. Like all that extra stuff doesn't matter
as long as you keep the main thing the main thing,
And that's what the Links have done all season long.
You have players in MVP contention, breaking records, shooting this
shit out the ball k Mack.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Like, you bring in a player like Djena.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
You have a player who didn't even play last season
in the WNBA because she was playing overseas, coming in
from the bench, having the fastest WNBA triple double in history,
Like all on the same team. I just how did
this team get assembled? Like without any of us paying attention.
You were talking about super Team in Vegas, Super Team
(41:02):
in New York whole time.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
The super team is in Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Right, and it's not even it's just a good organization.
It's like super team this, superteam that. But they they've made,
like you said, kind of under the radar. Move here,
move there, everybody buying in their Coach said that Cortney's
one of the easiest players she's ever had to coach.
And you you describing or seeing her in the stud
buds and being like, oh my god, she has this
(41:27):
big personality and then coach is like, oh no, she
fits in seamlessly.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
She's great to coach. It works very well.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
And to be getting all that public attention from Stubbuds
and everything, it's like they're really having a time.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
They're having a year and they're handling it very well and.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Went nine to one without their MVP. You know that's insane.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Yeah, so they're They're a team that obviously everybody is
going to be on the lookout for during playoffs, and
you know, good luck to the team that has to
play them in the first round. It was US a
few days ago. It no longer is US, So we're
moving on up. We're six place now, guys, so we're
moving on us, right, We're moving on up. Got to
(42:07):
twenty wins, which I haven't. I haven't won twenty games
in a while. So snaps snaps for that. Snaps for that.
Last record breaking thing that we want to just give
a quick shout out to is the league breaking the
attendance record. On August twenty first, it was reported that
over two point five million people have attended WNBA games
(42:31):
this season, which breaks the record that was created in
two thousand and two.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
So yay.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It's so crazy to me whenever I hear all of
these records and then it's like, since two thousand and
I'm like, what going on to not that like what
was going on?
Speaker 3 (42:50):
But I'm like two thousand that many people.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
I'm telling you, the WNBA was like I hope that
somebody somewhere has been like just documenting all of this,
the ups and the downs of the league, because it
was cracking in the early stages of it, Like it
was cracking early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, every record I hear is like since the early
two thousands, it's like, this isn't just something that happened yesterday.
It seems to be this was something that's been happening,
took a little break, and it's happening again.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
And it's so crazy because you know, the early two thousands,
it was new, it was fun. But then I would say,
like the prime era of WNBA was that twenty tens era,
and we don't we just don't. We don't like hear
about it as much like we hear about the individual players,
but we don't hear about the rivalries this player, you know,
(43:41):
the six players at that time, like what these teams
a movement? Like, we just don't hear a lot about
any of it, Which is why I love DT's documentary
so much. It's because you got a kind of like
an inside look of that era of WNBA. But it's like, yeah,
like you said, it's either like early two thousands or
twenty twenty one and on this whole middle part of
the WBA is like dark times, the Dark Ages, and
(44:05):
some of the best basketball was being played at that time.
So I'm hoping that somebody somewhere is doing something.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
I'm sure Netflix is somewhere.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Oh gosh, I hope so because I grew up watching
that and I was like, this was just it was
so exciting.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
It was fun. But again, I also was.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
A kid, like even when I was like thinking about
when my dad was coaching in the league.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
So if anybody.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Knows the Orlando area, there's this place called like the
RDV Complex. So it was basically like a giant YMCA,
like a super nice giant YMCA, like it had weightlifting
and had basketball courts, had ice skating rink.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Like it was just like a big place.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
And that's where the Orlando Miracle would practice at like
a giant YMCA. And I thought it was like the
most amazing thing ever. But like, why is a professional
team practicing in a public space.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But when I was a kid.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
I was like, oh my god, they got this big
gym to themsel like, no, it wasn't I had no
idea what was going on. But I loved every minute
of it. And I just think that it's funny thinking back,
like they they really were just in like a lifetime
fitness essentially practicing, and I was like.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
This is so cool.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
They get to just play basketball in this big facility.
It wasn't there, It wasn't even theirs. They were visitors.
But that's just the perspective of things. And yeah, the
innocence of being a child. But that was where my
WN dream started. Guys, humble beginning, exactly, humble beginnings.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
That's important. But guys, we are going into a crazy week.
Standings are very different already.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I feel yeah from last week when we talked.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
So the season is winding down, which is so satisfying
by But me and Lexi will be back next week.
Next week, a new recap. I'm sure new records are
to be broken, new things to say.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
You keep climbing on up.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
Lexi is six point six points away, guys, hopefully next week.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
What has it been like four weeks? We will four
weeks since I've party.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Man, I'm gonna get I'm getting balloons for myself and everything.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I don't care.
Speaker 4 (46:14):
I'm gonna throw a party and see, I don't tell
myself me and Cannon. Guys, it was Cannon's birthday yesterday,
my puppy, and I wasn't with him birthday, So happy birthday, Cannon.
We're gonna celebrate his birthday, hopefully my one thousand point
and hopefully that will be before next week's episode. But
for now, thank you guys for tuning in to this
week's episode.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
We will see y'all next week.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Bye y'all, thanks for listening to Full Circle. We'll be
back next week with more basketball for the girls, by
the girls. We want to hear from you. Leave us
a review on Apple Podcasts and tell us what you
want us to talk about. Full Circle is hosted by
a Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fuse. Our producer
(46:57):
is Zoe dan Klub. Listen to Full Circle on America's
number one podcast network, iHeart, open your free iHeart app
and search Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose
and start listening.
Hosts And Creators
Lexie Brown
Mariah Rose
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