October 22, 2025 • 49 mins
On today’s episode, Lexie and Mariah are answering your submitted questions! Are the Aces a dynasty? What would you like to see more of in the W next season? What would a WNBA lockout look like? All these questions and more are on the menu for today’s mailbag.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Full Circle is an Iheartwoman's sports production and partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
What's good, y'all, Welcome back to another episode of the
Full Circle Podcast. I'm Mariah Rose and I'm here with
(00:20):
none other than Lexi Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What a new do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Honey?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, period, and next week it's going to be new again.
As I saw my agent when I was in Phoenix
for the finals, and I had a new Every time
I see him, I have a new hairstyle and he's like,
who are you hiding from?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Who are you running from? I'm like, that's funny, And
no one's ever like put it that way. Why I
change my hair so much?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I just really like changing my hairstyles, Like it's a
very expensive hobby I have.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh girl, I'm the same way every two weeks. I
cycled in the same but so I'm not like really
switching it up, but I'm gonna do something new every
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I've never seen it. Like, are you ever would
you ever do like a color? Yes? I used to do.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Blonde all the time, but like blond braids, braids raids, yes.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Not, but I love to be like, yeah, I think
you need to bring the well it's it's fall wintertime.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, maybe next time, as I have as.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I have blonde in my hair right now, but it's
more of like a brown, a brownish blonde. Okay, guys,
that's enough hair talk. This is a basketball show. So
welcome back to another episode of Full Circle.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We are kind of in a dead period right now,
we'll call it of women's hoops. You know, WBA's over.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
College hasn't quite started yet, so we're trying to figure.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Out stuff to talk about.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Every once I had a cannon in the back again,
just wanted to be in the mix. We did say
that we wanted to do a little Q and A episode,
so I think that's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Answer some of these.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Questions that were and to me on threads and some
of the things I saw in the YouTube comments. So again,
this episode short and sweet. It's gonna be fun. And yeah,
where do you want to start? Which you want to
start with first?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I think we start out hot.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I love this question, how do you define a dynasty?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
That's a great way to start this because we can
quickly talk about the Aces and their championship parade. Yes,
and I obviously didn't watch the parade. I just saw
all of the social clips. I don't know if Ma,
you were tuned in. I don't know if it was
who was They was all on live live streaming. I
will say it was not the same without Sydney Coulson's
(02:40):
live streaming.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
During the festivities, I will say I miss that. But
the highlight for me personally was seeing Kirstabel in that
pink wig, like, no, hilarious, like and then it was
and then suddenly it was off. Was like, bro, I thought,
you have to commit to the pink wig.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was an Asian shirt for me, the back of
Asian shirt being petty for me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I love that. I one of my bigg one of
the back of her shirts say, oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Said re apostrophe aggression because somebody tweeted that they didn't
expect for this to be her regression year whatever whatever,
and it was like regression question mark. And then she
had the Thanos rings and so she was being petty.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The Thano's hand was crazy. Yeah. I was like, oh
she I'm like oh she popping it, Yes, as she should.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
The back of her shirt said re apostrophe regression.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I think didn't everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I think everybody had like a personal shirt y'all have
Tom pissed the aces off all summer long.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I blame y'all for why they did what they did.
I mean supposed to.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You're supposed to do that, like talk your mess and
come back and wear shirts. You know they're.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Supposed to know. But like, but it ain't.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Nobody Like every player had like their own individual beef
with an anonymous a non account on Twitter or on Instagram,
like everyone every Like, it wasn't just one tweet that
pissed everyone off. Every player had a very specific thing
that was said about them and they put on the shirt.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That's one of my fearst covering sports is that I'm
going to say something od at the beginning of a
season or when something is going.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Wrong and be like they they are terrible or this,
that that.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And then it comes back to bite me later, like
them wearing a T shirt with my tweet on it,
or you know those yes, you know those edits where
it's like, we don't think the Golden State Warriors win
in that championship, we think the regression, yes, and then
it's highlights.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I'm ter, that's why we don't do hot That's why
we don't do hot takes here, Yes, because we we
know how sports are, we know how quickly things can change.
And if you get stuck doing hot takes all the time,
you go get put on a T shirt, TikTok edit
or something like that. So, I mean, I do remember
when we were talking about in the beginning of the year,
(05:14):
how the sky weren't going to be able to play
a certain way, and someone tried to make it into
something it wasn't on the internet, and I'm like, I
wonder what that person is doing right now.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, that turned out to be the opposite of what
I'm afraid of.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We were exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We were exactly correct, And sometimes I don't want to
be correct. Sometimes you just call something how it is
and if you happen to be correct, cool, If you
happen to be wrong, cool, But the hot takes the
direct shots at people's character, personality.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Da da da da da.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Like calling this a regression year was so crazy because
the aces were not winning, but Asia was still playing really.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well right and was same, the aces are going to
regress this year. He was saying that Asia Wilson personally
was going to regress.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
This exactly, yeah, exactly, Yeah, I know she.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I know she hit favorite screenshots. She put it in
a private folder, she put it in her bedroom, put
it in her locker, put it in her suitcase every
time she packed for the road trip, like she was waiting.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
She couldn't wait.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So yeah, the pettiness of that team, like we said
last week, is hilarious. I think every I love that
they gave the mic to like a few of their players.
Like usually it's just like the stars of the of
the team that talk at the parade. I think Meg
and Gustison spoke on the mic, Dana spoke on the mic.
Jewels like everyone was talking, and you could tell that
(06:50):
this championship just was super.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Special to them well, and it was really nice to
see they've won so many times in the last few
years that most of those people have already got this
week on the mic and the parade, they're like.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Y'all got it. They might as well spread the love,
right right.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Becky was cutting up, Oh my god, Yeah, you know
what's so funny. It's like the championship parade because when
we had ours in Chicago, we was cutting up. But
like when I tell you, like our season was like
the last season before the WNBA like blew up like crazy,
like as far as like the personalities and all that stuff,
(07:29):
and I was like our team was like I love
that Chicago Sky team, and I feel like that championship
we had like it was celebrated for like five minutes.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Like I remember, I'm pretty sure like we won on
like a Saturday.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The parade was like on a Tuesday, and I personally
was in France like that next week, playing my next
season already.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I always wonder women's basketball time moved so quickly with everything.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's it's we're saying we're on a down period today and.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Week it's gonna be like so much going on again,
But there's so much quick turnaround. Y'all are always on
the move.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Like people are already playing overseas, like people are already
playing full games overseas right now. And the WNBA season
just ended a week and a half ago, not even
like for example, And we're gonna get back to the
initial question, which what a dynasty is in a second,
like Mac McKenzie on our team. She's in Australia, like
(08:30):
she's already playing. She's been in Australia for like two
weeks now, so it's like it moves quickly. I've seen
a bunch of players in Turkey playing. Kaylea McBride just
touched down in Turkey, and I think everyone was like shocked.
But kay Mick loves hooping overseas, so I know everyone
was like, why is she playing unrivaled well because maybe
she wanted to play five on five I don't know,
(08:52):
but she loves playing in Turkey and playing in euro League.
I personally would love I still have a dream of
playing in euro League. I don't know if I'm able
to because I don't know if I can go over there,
But some of them play over there for like two
three months, like they dibble and dabble. Like Monique Billings
is over there playing right now, and I don't know
if she's staying for the whole year because she's playing
(09:13):
on rivals pretty.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Sure, so that would ever be possibility for me.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I would love to go playing EuroLeague for like a
month or two, but we'll see. We have a lot
of things going on in the States. I just don't
want to leave. But it could be an experience.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
We do the pod Global, that'd be fire, that'd be fire.
You talk to some of the international girls.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, so maybe next year we can we can explore overseas.
But okay, back to the answer for what is a dynasty.
So the literal definition of a dynasty. So you know
how we always say it means four more like, no,
that's that's not even the definition of a dynasty. So
a dynasty in sports me a team or individual who
(10:01):
dominates their sport for an extended period, typically marked by
winning multiple championships and achieving sustain and success. While historical
definitions require consecutive championships, modern interpretations are more flexible and
can include winning three or more titles within a five
to ten year span. So that makes the ass dynasty.
(10:26):
That makes them a dynasty for sure. Three championships in
the last four years. I think because the WNBA has
had such dominant teams. You have the Houston Comments who
won four, you have the Links who won four. I
think that's always been the standard. But I would I'm
throwing I'm throwing this Aces team in there.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, I would agree because the time period is so short.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I will say.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Part of me does want to say it's for because
for for to sounds for to sounds out.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That makes sense in my brain.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But because I mean three in the last four years,
that's a very short time period, and it spans across
a period, like you said, right after that Chicago Sky
Championship and things blowing up in the w all these
new w fans really know is the Aces wedding, Like
that's all they know. Like they they have established themselves
(11:24):
as we are the team who wins the championship to
this new era of fans, and I think that adds
something to it. And I mean, spanning across sports, you
typically start to consider a team a dynasty once they
win three, I would say, especially if two of them
are back to back Kansas City Chiefs. There are three,
but in the MMBA, most of them we consider them
dynasties after four.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I guess the MMBA geez.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I will say that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
In this context when the most recent dynasty in the
NBA was the Golden State War years, and I think
their dominance coupled with how they transformed how the NBA
is played now, I think that's what made them stand
out so much, and why, you know, compared to other
teams that won a bunch of championships, why everyone always
(12:16):
goes right to the Golden State Warriors as like one
of the most dominant dynasties in NBA history. And I
think we're gonna say the same things about the Aces
because they are.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They have transformed how basketball is being played in the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And I thought that back when they won their first championship,
the way that they were playing, the way Becky came
in and just ran the table initially, the way she
utilized all the stars that she had on her team,
you know, having four All Stars or almost I think
I think one season it was all five of them,
Like being able to do that in the WNBA. I
(12:54):
always tell say how hard it is to spread minutes
and shot attempts and what I ever to how much
talent is in this league.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And the way Becky was able.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Just to come in and do that with that team
full of number one picks, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You have superstars on your team, was very impressive.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
And I don't know why more coaches haven't like followed
her lead, because she literally is the blueprint right now.
And I think the way Asia has developed as a player,
how she's expanded her game, how she's gotten better every
single year, is something that you know, you you don't
see in a lot of organizations and a lot of
franchises one because players don't stay on one team for
(13:36):
as that long, like that is not normal in the
W and I hope that becomes the new norm when
you have players and groups that stay together for like
four or five six seasons, because that's really how you
win championships together. I think the Minnesota Lynx dynasty was
super impressive because they weren't They weren't only winning those championships,
(13:59):
they were always in the finals as well. So even
if they didn't win that year, they was in the finals.
That's a great point. So that's a great point. They
were in the finals for like seven straight years or something.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Crazy like that is a great point. Spanning across sports,
you do feel as though a dynasty is there. You
stamp their name already in the finals, conference finals, semi finals, whatever,
You kind of already stamp them to be there because.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
They're so good. And that makes more sense to me.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Why earlier I was saying, Okay, well, sometimes like with
the Chiefs, they won three, so I would, but they
also win their division every single year. And it's but
that also adds to the aces point of having.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Asia be this shoe in MVP.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We even compared her to Yokichen the sense where it's
like or the Lebron or a Jordan, where it's like,
you can't win every year, so you might eventually it's
going to be voted fatigue. Right, So when you have
a player like that who was winning Defensive Players of
the Years awards and winning MVP awards and winning finals MVP,
and so her name is always out there, then you've
got Becky who her name is always out there when
(15:05):
it comes to coaching.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And then you've.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Got all of their players being this, oh, number one pick,
she was number one pick.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh, she's an All star too.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, and she just came from this situation where she
was the main girl and now she's coming off the
bench here. It's like it's kind of a compilation of
just winners there, and so that gives them that dynasty prowess.
I don't think it's just championships.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
No, and I think it's again culture, it's everything.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
So the fact that even the season that they started
to have, everyone was so super critical of them, but like,
that's the expectation you set for yourself, and the fact
that they were able to pull themselves out of that
rough start is a credit to the culture they've created,
the players that they have, the coaching, the development, all
of those things.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So shout out to the Aces. They are a dynasty.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
If they want another one, it's you know, definitely a dynasty.
But I'm just very interested to see, like who's stays
and goes with this new CBA, like if we are
able to get that done. But there was a question
about the CBA, so we'll get to that later. This
(16:21):
is a really good question too. This question was what
do you think the big trends will be in the
WNBA next year? I love this As a spectator, Mariah,
what would you like to see more of in our game?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Like as a fan, we talk about these things all
the time.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I feel like I broke a record, but spreading the
love as far as minutes are concerned, simply because I
don't want to see as many injuries next year at all.
I would love to see the love spread a little
bit more as far as minutes are concerned youth teams
using their benches. Okay, I don't want everybody. I don't
want to torn the acls left and right. I don't
want to see that. So I would love to see
(16:58):
teams use their pinches a little bit more or you.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
We talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I love I love threes, love love threes. So I'm
cool with lived by the three, dad by the three situation.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I would love to see more.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Shooters out there, which I feel like is also dip
it into your bench a little bit. Just letting the
shooters go out there and shoot. That would be very
nice because I love like Caitlyn Clark in college shooting
from the logo and I just love that stuff. I
would love to see that. I'm okay, we just got
done talking about the aces. I wore an aces jersey
on here, love them down, Love you Asia.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I would like to see new champion, see another team.
I would like to see a new champion. I would
love to see that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'd like to see a new champion, maybe a new
rivalry brew But I feel like it's hard for me
to make predictions when I have no idea where anybody
other than you is going to play but yeah, my
main thing would just be I would like for it
to be more of a trend to dip into your
bench more and to have steady backups for your stars
so that they can get a little bit more rest. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I agree, And it is because we are at like
a hard reset right now. Like you know, you guys
like research your whole phone to factory settings, Like I
feel like that's what we're at in the WNBA, and
that has never happened in sports before.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, ever, the entire league being free agents.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
When I found out about that, which I knew about,
like I said, when I signed my extension, I knew
that everyone was planning on being a free agent when
the CBA expired. At first, I thought it was like
really cool, Like that's awesome that everyone is going to
be able to basically.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Be free to do whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Now that I've sat with that for some years, months, whatever,
it's actually ridiculous that everybody is a free agent. It's
actually insane, and I don't know what to expect. I'm
still very much excited to see the movement, but I
still don't have that much faith in a lot of
these front offices.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So it could be amazing or it could be horrible
and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
This coupled with the CBA not being done yet, like
could turn this into a real shit show.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Well honestly, I also as a spectator, I forgot about this.
Another trend I want to see next year slash I
don't know. I want to get I want to get
your take on this. But one of my favorite things
about the W.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Is the physicality.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm not saying I want people to get her every
day or the thing that happened to feed or the
drama I'm not I'm not condoning any violence in the W.
I'm just saying I'm just saying I enjoy that. Like
the fact that WBA player I was watching with my
boyfriend and he was like, I would rather watch this
in the NBA because it's like they don't be playing
defense and this is more fun to me. So like, well,
(19:43):
I like how y'all play defense. I want the roughing
to get better, but I don't want that to be
taken as take all the physicality out of the game.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I know you don't like to get hit.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
LEXI watching I'm like, I would like a little bit
of that, to say, I don't want people getting her
being reckless, but I don't want the physicality to go.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean, I think that leads into the conversation about
having like the part time refs. You know, you have
some refs that are in college, they come to the
w they go to the NBA. College rules are different overseas,
and then you have players that are overseas, where like
y'all thought this was physical, overseas is like times ten,
Which is why player we play the way that we
(20:25):
play because so many of us spent time at Europe
playing where it's it is worse as far as the
physicality goes like overseas. Like when my first year overseas,
I was like, oh my gosh, I was like I
was blown away at the physicality overseas. And that's why,
you know, when players come back over here, they play
the way that they play. I think that with these refs,
(20:47):
they have to study the women's game, like it's changing.
We have more skilled players, we have more athletic players,
so you're gonna have to ref a little bit differently.
And yeah, some players like you're gonna know better than others,
and they might get favorable calls if you're refing their
game because that's a player that you're more familiar with,
like that, everyone's human. I understand that, But I do
(21:09):
think that what people love about the w NBA is
the physicality how we like to play defense. But there's
there has to be a bounce because the game has
to become more fluid, because there are times where it's
hard to watch and it's even harder to play. My
issue is always been with the freedom of movement, Like
once I'm guarding you i have the ball, I'm off
(21:31):
of the physicality. When I don't have the ball and
I'm trying to get to where i need to go,
you have to be I have to be able to
go where I need to go without you holding me
down or football holding me Like I could gather clips
of players just being wrapped and held, and yeah, you
can do that to an extent, but to when it
(21:52):
gets to the point where I can even run in
a straight line without you just laying me out, Like
that's not that's not.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
How basketball is supposed to be played.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But we'll see how the refing goes next season. I mean,
we have some of the WNBA refs come REFAU and
for me, I think AU like I mean, we score.
Like in the nineties, every game pretty much like our game,
is very fluid. So I'm really excited for people to
(22:21):
tune into Athletes Unlimited because I think we'll have a
lot more eyes on it this year than any years
in the past. And I've we personally haven't had too
many complaints about the officiating and au but we promote
like a more free, flowing, fluid game anyway, and that's
like how people come in. And then obviously people don't
(22:43):
want to get hurt in the off season things like that.
So I know y'all like the WWE. I know y'all
like the spiciness.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I know y'all like that, but I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Really like, of course you out, Yeah, we're just watching,
But what do you think they're trying to be?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I think one of the biggest trends I think this
is just my opinion, guys.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Okay, the re emergence of a true point guard.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And what I mean by that is past first point
guards that can score. Obviously, everyone is, like I said,
more skilled, but the last five WNBA championships have been
won by true point guards. Chelsea Gray, sue Bert, and
Courtney Vanderslute have all won the last in the last
five years, Chelsea obviously has won three SUE one, one
(23:33):
and twenty twenty, and then Courtney vanderslute one two, one
with Chicago and one with New.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
York last year.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So I think point guard is a lost art in
the women's game. I really do, which is why we're
going to college real quick, which is why everyone is
so enamored by Olivia Miles because we don't see we
haven't seen a point guard like that in college in
a long time. Like it's been like Kaitlyn as far
as passing ability, it's been like Kaitlyn Clark, and now
was Olivia Miles in my opinion as far as their
(24:03):
IQ and passing ability.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Last year when she did declare, the WBA almost exploded
because I feel like there's just so many teams that
are that are needing a true point guard, and I
think that that is going to be a hot commodity
and free agency. I think it's going to be a
hot commodity in the draft this upcoming draft. But I
(24:32):
have I have yet to like play real minutes with
a true true point guard. For well, I played with
Jordan Canada, and I would consider her a true point guard,
and I had a really successful season as her with
her as my point guard. But we had our one
season together and then my second year she was my
point guard, I got sick and then she ended up
(24:52):
going to the Dream So I haven't really had any
long stints with the true point guard. I played point
guard all through college. I really would love to get
back to that position. I think I'm a natural one
that has been pushed to the two because I can shoot.
So I would love to like dabble back and forth
(25:14):
between the one and the two because I do think
I have, you know, high level playmaking abilities. But obviously
I'm not going to put myself in the category of
like a Chelsea Gray assue a salute because they're different.
But I mean, if you look at the trends of
who's winning these championships, it's teams that have true point guards.
So we're going to see what happens in this free
(25:36):
agency because it's a last start, and even in the
NBA you're seeing that re emerge a little bit as well.
You know, having true point guards, I can play make
but also score handle the ball.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So that's what I think that that's a great point.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Why do you think in the woman's game that we
obviously talked about the warrior effect.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And that it had.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
On basketball, but why in the women's game, where did
that impact come from? Typically it's like a team wins
the championship and then everybody becomes them.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
But what do you think, Oh this is I mean,
I could get really deep dive into this. I think
the development at the for young players on the women's
side is like nonexistent, And we see the guys complaining
about aau's killing everything and peak kids only know how
to train just one on one. They don't know how
(26:30):
to play in live game situations. They just know how
to dribble a thousand times instead of learning how to
make the right play. And if the guys feel that way,
like it's probably even worse on the women's side because
we already have less resources and trainers and development than
the men do, just like just off the strength of
being girls.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So I just.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Feel like the game is just not being taught the
right way to players at a young age.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And now we're in.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
This era of highlights and let's make a video of
this and that, and people only value scoring. So I
feel like it starts at the It starts very very young.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So when you.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Have players make it through college and have a high
i Q, you're always kind of like, oh, whoa IQ
does exist. It's still there, like people are still working
on their craft and being students of the game. But
that's been We've been complaining about AAU and stuff like
that for years and I haven't been to an AU
tournament in a long time, but the last one I
(27:34):
went to, I was like, what is.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Going on here?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Like it was just bad. And then there's like eighty
games going on at once. There's five thousand teams, Like
no one is really being taught how to play basketball
the right way.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And I think that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
That's concerning because I always considered as a spectator trends
in basketball to come from what's working at the top,
and then everybody kind of wants to do that, which
makes the kids want to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Steph Curry is a point guard.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And he shoots from he he he once he brings
the ball up, he shoots immediately, so does.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
He pass half court? So that's what kids do.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Right, And yeah, nobody makes TikTok edits of good passes, right,
I mean I guess somebody's probably making them, but they
don't make that many assess exactly, so yeah, it's probably
not as like to them.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, but I mean, I know everyone has seen like
Steph Curry's pregame routine, his ball handling, roots shooting routine,
like yeah, it's like amazing. So it's very monotonous as well.
Like I remember growing up, the drills that I was
doing with my dad like very boring. You do the
same thing over and over again, and then you fast
forward to the middle of your professional career and people
(28:52):
are just seeing, you know, you shooting threes and winning championships,
but not knowing all of the hours and hours and
hours of you put in growing up to get to
this point. And I think that's what's being missed.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I read that Asia Wilson when she first started playing
basketball with her dad, thought it was torture.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, Like I think even like there's a whole thing
about like the girl girls dropping out of sports that
like way faster than boys drop out of sports, Like
I can't imagine. Like I was even talking to one
of my friends yesterday and she said that her dad
was like this athlete and she just wasn't very athletic,
but he was like wanted her to play sports so
(29:45):
so bad, and it like turned horrible for her, Like
she couldn't even enjoy doing anything because her dad puts
so much pressure on her.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And I feel like a.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Lot of people might feel that way, Like it's not fun.
It's not always fun, like growing up going to work
and working out like seventy percent of the time until
I was like sixteen, seventeen years old, it was not fun.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
It was it was torture. It was hard. But that's
when you really like discover like who has the.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Potential to be a pro and who doesn't because it's
not it's not easy, Like it's hard.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's hard more times than it is easy.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
One hundred percent, and you lose more than you win.
It's not Sports are not for the week and most
of the time you're in practice, especially in high school
and in a you like in volleyball and club, you're
in practice most of the time. And then you get
to play like on the weekends a couple times a
week so most and hopefully you win more than you lose.
(30:45):
But at a young age, you're winning, losing, winning, losing.
It's only fun when you win. It sucks when you lose,
so it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Most of the time.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But that's a whole other side point of how I
think kids we're going to do a scary point because
there's so much quick value. I can't remember the right
way to say that with TikTok and.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Everything, participation, participation trophy.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yes, everybody when they don't win now, they don't get that.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
They want to quit it later.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
They don't like it, and that can't continue.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
No, and it's okay to lose, Like you don't want
to lose, but it's okay to lose. Sometimes you just
have to learn your lesson and keep it moving. But
I completely agree with you, Like, I'm very scared for
this next generation of kids because the like, people just
don't know how.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
To handle failure.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
People don't know how to handle criticism, and people don't
know how to grow from their experiences. I'm just talking
about sports. We're just talking about yea sports Tom Brady
was I forgot where he was talking about. I saw
a video. Basically he feels the same way, like this
era of instant gratification and players not learning how to
(31:58):
get through hard to situation or you know, dealing with
maybe a coach that they don't like, or dealing with
team is that they don't like, or learning that success
is not just yours, like, it's a team and sometimes
if you win, it's about everybody. If you lose, it's
also about everybody. People point fingers too much. All of
those types of things is just oh, it's ruining. It's
(32:21):
ruining sports. It's it makes me sad because sports are
supposed to be fun, but it's just turned into a beast.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
But that's what happens when things are money money. At
the end of the day, I will.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Say, wall sports wall sports are supposed to be fun.
For example, me, I'm not a professional athlete, obviously, but
I spent my entire life most of probably ninety percent
of my life up until the time I was eighteen,
was spent on sports, and then the other ten percent
spent in school. So I'm like, but I feel like
being involved in sports taught me so much, just discipline
(32:56):
and failing and getting back up and having different experiences and.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Social situations like being in sports.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You are experiencing this as an adult in your career now,
but I'm experiencing a different way. You have a boss,
and you have a coach, and you have a manager,
and you have these people that you turn to, and
you have these teammates and you have captains, and there's hierarchy.
Like you learn those things in sports, and it's not
supposed to be everybody's not the captain, everybody can't play,
some people sit on the bench.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Like you learn those things through sports.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I feel like, especially for women, it's really important for
us to experience that.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yeah, and it's like there is a healthy competitiveness even
within your own teams, and I feel like even not
work or something like there's a healthy competitiveness, but there's
also a cohesion that you have to have if you're
working with a.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Group of people.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I can't imagine what I would because I'm already kind
of like I don't like to call myself anti, but
like I if I didn't have sports, I don't even
know if I would have any friends.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Like sports has.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
He has helped me so much in so many different
ways out side of just actually getting to the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So I encourage, I mean, I do always encourage.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
People to like put their kids in sports and like
not always for them to like be super good at them.
But it's like, just just with the way people are
now and the way the world is, I feel like
sports is something that is always going to be a unifier,
and it keeps you in shape, it keeps you healthy,
make some friends, Maybe you win, hey, maybe you will
(34:27):
become a professional athlete. I don't know, but I've always
been a big proponent of kids playing sports.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
That's why the WNBA and everything that's happening right now
is so important though, because I think little boys get
this opportunity to grow up with this dream of they
can go pro and anything and be a millionaire and
be rich and do whatever, Like they can pick any
sports they want and it would benefit them all the
same and.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Woo yay sports. I'm a boy. And women.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
The careers that are kind of glamorized for us as
like making your dreams come true is very entertainment and
based like oh, I want to be a model, I
want to be an actress, I want to do that
and this and.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That, and now in this new era, women like you.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Women like Angel, women like Sunny Lee, wom like simallon
bios like, I think it's really important for y'all not
to be put in a box as just oh, I'm
a basketball player, but you can see all of the
different places that sports can bring you, like Angel Rees
being good at basketball and all of those probably annoying
workouts and practices she had to go through got her
the Victoria's Secret.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Runway, Sudy Lee, same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
She gets to travel the world and win gold medals
and stuff and then go walk with the Victoria's Secret
Runway and work with Lululemon, and that you get to
do media and be on TV and be on podcasts
and work with Fashion Nova and do your thing, you
know what I'm saying, Like you get to experience some
of the things because of your sport.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think it's important for girls to get to see that.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
And I'm glad that now, like this is all happening,
and I know for me, like when the Victoria's Secret
Thing happened, like my timeline was overwhelmingly positive, Like I loved.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It, same, I just see it was really yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Saw it like eventually, but then I'm like not interested,
not interested, not interested, Like I've really enjoyed seeing how
positive that was received, how positively that was received, at
least in my in my bubble, it was very it
was very positively received. And I remember, I wasn't gonna
(36:27):
tell this story, guys, I would tell it.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So when I got drafted, there was a coach. I'm
not going to say what coach.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
There was a coach, and this message was brought this,
this was brought to my attention very recently that said
that I wasn't gonna make it in this league because
I rolled my shorts and they don't do that.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That's not something that we do in the w NBA.
So that was just eight years eight short years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
That was the sentiment towards just me rolling my shorts
a little bit and she's not gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
We don't do that here. And now we got players
walking the Victoria's Secret runway.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
So and modeling for skims and modeling for skims, makeup, hair,
all of the things. I'm just so happy that, like
you just said, the box, the box no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
There's no box anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
That's so funny because Asia literally rolls her shorts. Probably
ten thousand million.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Everybody rolls their shorts.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And the only reason why I rolled my shorts in
college was because the shorts were ugly and they fit funny,
like I just didn't like the way they looked, and
they still look goofy when I roll them, Like it
wasn't a fashion thing. Every time I look back on college,
I'm like, I looked goofy as hell, like with the
shorts roll but it was really because they were uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
But yeah, so, I mean, I'm just glad that.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Everything has just changed so much in the best way.
And we can think, you know, players in the past
that always showed up every day despite not having all
of these opportunities off the court, but still you know,
showing up every day, coming to work, playing in the WNBA,
being who they are, being themselves. So now in twenty
(38:15):
twenty five, all of these opportunities, like there's an opportunity
for everybody. Like I am so ecstatic that when I
got cut, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Like quit, like it was very close.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
But to be here in this moment, being part of
this league, in this moment, this transformative period, like it's
such a blessing and I'm just so happy to see
other players winning on and off the court. So I mean,
everybody eats in my opinions, the better they do, the
better we do. Like yup, Yes, I want everybody to
love this player. I want everyone to love this player
(38:50):
because they gonna watch all of They gonna watch our games,
they gonna see all of us, they gonna get introduced to.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
A bunch of amazing women in the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
So I'm always here for seeing people doing all types
of things.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
So yeah, I'm really happy.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Well, speaking of showing love to the league and whatnot,
let's get to our next quession. What other sponsors would
you like to see for teams or for the league?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Honestly, I think whoever got the most money, honestly, give
it to us, give it to us real.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Because who would have known how black would have such
an impact?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
You know, a flack like really like Aflexa, here have
all the coins, all the money.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I really love the Skims partnership. I love that.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
I think the makeup brands partnering with teams, with the
league and with individual.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Teams I think was great.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Like we got to work with Urban Decay when I
was with the Sparks, which was an amazing experience. Sophora
with unrivaled who else, Sophora with the Valkyries. I just
love I seeing those types of partnerships because it has
really brought an influx of women fandom to the WNBA,
(40:09):
which is something that I thought we were lacking, And
I think that's really made all of the difference is
the influx of women that have come to support the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Now, all we need to do is get them to like.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Actually love and enjoy like the game, like basketball, like
the actual sport. Like not saying that they don't know
anything about basketball. I'm not saying that, but a lot
of them have come because they're fans of you know,
individual players. Now we need them to like start loving
like basketball as a whole, and I think then the
(40:43):
phantom is going to get to another level. But I
really have enjoyed seeing more women become fans of the
WNBA because that's something that I've always been like, where are.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
The girl where are girlies at?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
We need more women fans, So I'm glad that they
they're coming.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
They're coming now, Well, Lexi, I have the solution to that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
So I would like to see.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I never knew a thing about F one, trust me,
this is related.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Never knew a thing about.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
F one, didn't care about it at all. And then
I went to see that movie with Damse and Idris
and Brad Pitt about f one and that movie was
so fine. I was like, Okay, I need no more.
So then I went and watched Driver Survive, which, if
you guys look it up, much smarter people than me
have done much better statistics in this on it. But
Drive to Survive, the Netflix show about Formula one, increased
(41:28):
the woman fandom by like, you want.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
To see a reality show, but it's not. But it's
not a reality. It's a docu series.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yes, but it really starting five yet kind of because
like I don't think because I've watched both and I
like starting five, but starting five isn't giving me the
same thing Driver to Survive did because it doesn't encapsulate
the whole league, you know what I mean. It's only
five guys. So if what you're saying is part of
(41:58):
the problem is, yes, the girls are watching now, but
the girls are.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Just kind of like tuning in.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Oh I love this girl, I love that girl. I'm
gonna go to the game and have a little kilo soda.
But we need them invested. And the thing that gets
the girls invested in sports are storylines that if they
could care less about the x's and o's of the game.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
They will care if they.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Know this player left this team and now she's playing
them in the finals, and this is that if they
just did maybe if they followed like one player from
each team or something like that, or they did like
a team a season.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Or did like a Hard Knocks. I just don't know why. Yes,
I love that. I really I don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
If I can say this right now, but I'm currently
working on something kind of like this, but because I
felt the same way, like I'm like every literally every
occupation on Earth has gotten some type of show series
documentary except for us, right, and I really enjoyed what
(42:58):
they did for They did it with the College ESPN
did and I thought that was really well done.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I think they've chose four players.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
They've been doing four players every season, so I like
what they've been doing with that. But we haven't had
it for the WNBA yet. I'm sure that there's somebody
on Earth working on it. There's I mean, I've heard
multiple pitches of something along those lines. It just has
never happened, and I feel like now is the time
to do it, especially if we have a lockout like
(43:29):
that would be a really cool thing to document. I mean,
we documented the bubble a little bit like I did.
I've documented the whole bubble. A few other players documented
the whole bubble. So if you guys really wanted to
see an inside look of some WNBA stuff, you guys
can look on the bubble. Even though that was from
twenty twenty, it was very interesting to see what we
(43:51):
were doing in there. But yeah, I feel like even
the conversations I see with women having about basketball, it's
like they're talking about housewives and stuff they like. It's
just it makes me laugh, Like just the different lenses
people see sports in. I'm always so interested by it.
But I really love the influx of women women fans
(44:11):
for our league.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I think it's so important.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I think that has been game changing for us as
a league, is how many women we have now supporting it.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
So shout out to y'all because we appreciate y'all. We've
been waiting for you. We've been waiting.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Literally, And I think, Okay, the cross between getting women
to watch it because the reason drives drive to survive
was so successful amongst women. I watched it f one
race this weekend. I could care less about racing.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I watched my mom, and.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I need to know who's gonna win because I.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Watched that show. Yes, she saw the movie and she
was like, I love F one.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah literally, okay, but what they what the good thing
about the show is like each episode is a race,
and the episode ends with the race, so we can
see what happened in the race. So it kind of
it makes me actually care about the race. It's not
just like, yeah, oh I care who they're today and
what's going on and who they have beef with, and
then I don't see the races. It's like they summarize
(45:06):
the races. So now because I can't watch the show
because the season for this season isn't out yet, I
have to actually watch the race see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
So I think thew needs that.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
So we get a context for like like I don't
know how they would do it, but for each game,
so we get contacts and we know, especially with everybody
being a free agent, bro, it's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
That's gonna be nuts.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
And I feel like if if this doesn't happen this year,
it will need to happen soon. And I'm hoping that
when these players sign to their new teams or what
current teams that they like these multi year deals come
back because this whole one year here, one year there,
one year here like.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
That gotta stop. Yeah, because you can't.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Build storylines, you can't build rivalries, you can't do any
of that stuff if people are just bouncing. Everybody bouncing around,
bouncing around, mountcing a Iro'm mounting around. So yeah, last
question before we head out is someone asked straight up
what happens.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
If there is a lockout? Lee, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
I've never experienced a lockout before. We've never had a
lockout before.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
We have one hundred and sixty eight ish.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
You know, we don't fill the twelve roster spots all
the time, So roughly next season there will be one
hundred and sixty eight total WNBA players in the off season.
Athletes Unlimited has forty roster spots and Unrivaled has fifty
four roster spots. Our roster, however, is not limited to
WNBA players, so our league is not only WNBA players
(46:36):
like Unrivaled is. So that's roughly ninety ish spots right,
So now you're left with seventy four players that are
not in AU or on rival so their options are
to chill if they can go over season play. A
lot of players join college coaching staffs in the off season.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Or get a job. I don't know, go get a
regular job. I don't know, Like I don't know what
you do in a lockout.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
We were talking about in one of our meetings, like
if we, well, we have the leagues, but like say
we didn't have the leagues, Like, would we like organize
like pickup games like the guys did that year when
they had the lockout when.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
They were all at like Rucker Park playing like randomly, Like,
would we organize that with the players Association? Organize that?
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I mean, we've had been having conversations for months about
like savior coins just in case, So it's not going
to catch us off guard if that happens. But we
don't seem to be very close to settling on a
CBA anytime soon, unfortunately, but lucky for us, our season
doesn't start until May ish, but there's.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
An expansion draft coming up.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
That is the biggest issue because that's every all, every
everything that happens in the WNB is written out in
the CBA.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
The CBA is like basically like our constitution.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
So if we don't have a CBA, Like, I don't
even know if you can have an expansion draft because
the rules and regulations of the expansion draft could potentially
be changed in the new CBA. So how do you
have the expansion draft with no rules in place currently?
Speaker 2 (48:24):
So thankfully I have AU and this beautiful show podcast.
You so say we do.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Have a lockout, I will be okay, but I want
to play next summer.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Whoever that is. Maybe it's Seattle, maybe it's somewhere else.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
You guys will get all the tea on this show.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I'll tell you that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
If y'all want to know all of the goings on
of WNBA, CBA College, y'all know where to find us.
We are right here every week.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
So yeah, lord, well that was We always say, oh
it's going to quick, it's going to be short, and
it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
But all right, it's an hour. But thank you guys
so much for listening. Lock out, no lockout.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
We'll keep you posted on everything happening in women's basketball.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's Full Circle.
Bye 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
(49:34):
by Lexi Brown and Maria Rose. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fused. Our producer
is Zoe Danklab. 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. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
What's good, y'all, Welcome back to another episode of the
Full Circle Podcast. I'm Mariah Rose and I'm here with
(00:20):
none other than Lexi Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What a new do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Honey?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, period, and next week it's going to be new again.
As I saw my agent when I was in Phoenix
for the finals, and I had a new Every time
I see him, I have a new hairstyle and he's like,
who are you hiding from?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Who are you running from? I'm like, that's funny, And
no one's ever like put it that way. Why I
change my hair so much?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I just really like changing my hairstyles, Like it's a
very expensive hobby I have.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh girl, I'm the same way every two weeks. I
cycled in the same but so I'm not like really
switching it up, but I'm gonna do something new every
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I've never seen it. Like, are you ever would
you ever do like a color? Yes? I used to do.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Blonde all the time, but like blond braids, braids raids, yes.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Not, but I love to be like, yeah, I think
you need to bring the well it's it's fall wintertime.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, maybe next time, as I have as.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I have blonde in my hair right now, but it's
more of like a brown, a brownish blonde. Okay, guys,
that's enough hair talk. This is a basketball show. So
welcome back to another episode of Full Circle.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
We are kind of in a dead period right now,
we'll call it of women's hoops. You know, WBA's over.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
College hasn't quite started yet, so we're trying to figure.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Out stuff to talk about.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Every once I had a cannon in the back again,
just wanted to be in the mix. We did say
that we wanted to do a little Q and A episode,
so I think that's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Answer some of these.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Questions that were and to me on threads and some
of the things I saw in the YouTube comments. So again,
this episode short and sweet. It's gonna be fun. And yeah,
where do you want to start? Which you want to
start with first?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I think we start out hot.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I love this question, how do you define a dynasty?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
That's a great way to start this because we can
quickly talk about the Aces and their championship parade. Yes,
and I obviously didn't watch the parade. I just saw
all of the social clips. I don't know if Ma,
you were tuned in. I don't know if it was
who was They was all on live live streaming. I
will say it was not the same without Sydney Coulson's
(02:40):
live streaming.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
During the festivities, I will say I miss that. But
the highlight for me personally was seeing Kirstabel in that
pink wig, like, no, hilarious, like and then it was
and then suddenly it was off. Was like, bro, I thought,
you have to commit to the pink wig.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
It was an Asian shirt for me, the back of
Asian shirt being petty for me.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I love that. I one of my bigg one of
the back of her shirts say, oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Said re apostrophe aggression because somebody tweeted that they didn't
expect for this to be her regression year whatever whatever,
and it was like regression question mark. And then she
had the Thanos rings and so she was being petty.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The Thano's hand was crazy. Yeah. I was like, oh
she I'm like oh she popping it, Yes, as she should.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
The back of her shirt said re apostrophe regression.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I think didn't everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I think everybody had like a personal shirt y'all have
Tom pissed the aces off all summer long.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I blame y'all for why they did what they did.
I mean supposed to.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You're supposed to do that, like talk your mess and
come back and wear shirts. You know they're.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Supposed to know. But like, but it ain't.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Nobody Like every player had like their own individual beef
with an anonymous a non account on Twitter or on Instagram,
like everyone every Like, it wasn't just one tweet that
pissed everyone off. Every player had a very specific thing
that was said about them and they put on the shirt.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That's one of my fearst covering sports is that I'm
going to say something od at the beginning of a
season or when something is going.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Wrong and be like they they are terrible or this,
that that.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And then it comes back to bite me later, like
them wearing a T shirt with my tweet on it,
or you know those yes, you know those edits where
it's like, we don't think the Golden State Warriors win
in that championship, we think the regression, yes, and then
it's highlights.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I'm ter, that's why we don't do hot That's why
we don't do hot takes here, Yes, because we we
know how sports are, we know how quickly things can change.
And if you get stuck doing hot takes all the time,
you go get put on a T shirt, TikTok edit
or something like that. So, I mean, I do remember
when we were talking about in the beginning of the year,
(05:14):
how the sky weren't going to be able to play
a certain way, and someone tried to make it into
something it wasn't on the internet, and I'm like, I
wonder what that person is doing right now.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, that turned out to be the opposite of what
I'm afraid of.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We were exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We were exactly correct, And sometimes I don't want to
be correct. Sometimes you just call something how it is
and if you happen to be correct, cool, If you
happen to be wrong, cool, But the hot takes the
direct shots at people's character, personality.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Da da da da da.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Like calling this a regression year was so crazy because
the aces were not winning, but Asia was still playing really.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well right and was same, the aces are going to
regress this year. He was saying that Asia Wilson personally
was going to regress.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
This exactly, yeah, exactly, Yeah, I know she.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I know she hit favorite screenshots. She put it in
a private folder, she put it in her bedroom, put
it in her locker, put it in her suitcase every
time she packed for the road trip, like she was waiting.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
She couldn't wait.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So yeah, the pettiness of that team, like we said
last week, is hilarious. I think every I love that
they gave the mic to like a few of their players.
Like usually it's just like the stars of the of
the team that talk at the parade. I think Meg
and Gustison spoke on the mic, Dana spoke on the mic.
Jewels like everyone was talking, and you could tell that
(06:50):
this championship just was super.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Special to them well, and it was really nice to
see they've won so many times in the last few
years that most of those people have already got this
week on the mic and the parade, they're like.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Y'all got it. They might as well spread the love,
right right.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Becky was cutting up, Oh my god, Yeah, you know
what's so funny. It's like the championship parade because when
we had ours in Chicago, we was cutting up. But
like when I tell you, like our season was like
the last season before the WNBA like blew up like crazy,
like as far as like the personalities and all that stuff,
(07:29):
and I was like our team was like I love
that Chicago Sky team, and I feel like that championship
we had like it was celebrated for like five minutes.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Like I remember, I'm pretty sure like we won on
like a Saturday.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The parade was like on a Tuesday, and I personally
was in France like that next week, playing my next
season already.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I always wonder women's basketball time moved so quickly with everything.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's it's we're saying we're on a down period today and.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Week it's gonna be like so much going on again,
But there's so much quick turnaround. Y'all are always on
the move.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Like people are already playing overseas, like people are already
playing full games overseas right now. And the WNBA season
just ended a week and a half ago, not even
like for example, And we're gonna get back to the
initial question, which what a dynasty is in a second,
like Mac McKenzie on our team. She's in Australia, like
(08:30):
she's already playing. She's been in Australia for like two
weeks now, so it's like it moves quickly. I've seen
a bunch of players in Turkey playing. Kaylea McBride just
touched down in Turkey, and I think everyone was like shocked.
But kay Mick loves hooping overseas, so I know everyone
was like, why is she playing unrivaled well because maybe
she wanted to play five on five I don't know,
(08:52):
but she loves playing in Turkey and playing in euro League.
I personally would love I still have a dream of
playing in euro League. I don't know if I'm able
to because I don't know if I can go over there,
But some of them play over there for like two
three months, like they dibble and dabble. Like Monique Billings
is over there playing right now, and I don't know
if she's staying for the whole year because she's playing
(09:13):
on rivals pretty.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Sure, so that would ever be possibility for me.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I would love to go playing EuroLeague for like a
month or two, but we'll see. We have a lot
of things going on in the States. I just don't
want to leave. But it could be an experience.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
We do the pod Global, that'd be fire, that'd be fire.
You talk to some of the international girls.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, so maybe next year we can we can explore overseas.
But okay, back to the answer for what is a dynasty.
So the literal definition of a dynasty. So you know
how we always say it means four more like, no,
that's that's not even the definition of a dynasty. So
a dynasty in sports me a team or individual who
(10:01):
dominates their sport for an extended period, typically marked by
winning multiple championships and achieving sustain and success. While historical
definitions require consecutive championships, modern interpretations are more flexible and
can include winning three or more titles within a five
to ten year span. So that makes the ass dynasty.
(10:26):
That makes them a dynasty for sure. Three championships in
the last four years. I think because the WNBA has
had such dominant teams. You have the Houston Comments who
won four, you have the Links who won four. I
think that's always been the standard. But I would I'm
throwing I'm throwing this Aces team in there.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, I would agree because the time period is so short.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I will say.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Part of me does want to say it's for because
for for to sounds for to sounds out.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That makes sense in my brain.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But because I mean three in the last four years,
that's a very short time period, and it spans across
a period, like you said, right after that Chicago Sky
Championship and things blowing up in the w all these
new w fans really know is the Aces wedding, Like
that's all they know. Like they they have established themselves
(11:24):
as we are the team who wins the championship to
this new era of fans, and I think that adds
something to it. And I mean, spanning across sports, you
typically start to consider a team a dynasty once they
win three, I would say, especially if two of them
are back to back Kansas City Chiefs. There are three,
but in the MMBA, most of them we consider them
dynasties after four.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I guess the MMBA geez.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I will say that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
In this context when the most recent dynasty in the
NBA was the Golden State War years, and I think
their dominance coupled with how they transformed how the NBA
is played now, I think that's what made them stand
out so much, and why, you know, compared to other
teams that won a bunch of championships, why everyone always
(12:16):
goes right to the Golden State Warriors as like one
of the most dominant dynasties in NBA history. And I
think we're gonna say the same things about the Aces
because they are.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They have transformed how basketball is being played in the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And I thought that back when they won their first championship,
the way that they were playing, the way Becky came
in and just ran the table initially, the way she
utilized all the stars that she had on her team,
you know, having four All Stars or almost I think
I think one season it was all five of them,
Like being able to do that in the WNBA. I
(12:54):
always tell say how hard it is to spread minutes
and shot attempts and what I ever to how much
talent is in this league.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And the way Becky was able.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Just to come in and do that with that team
full of number one picks, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
You have superstars on your team, was very impressive.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
And I don't know why more coaches haven't like followed
her lead, because she literally is the blueprint right now.
And I think the way Asia has developed as a player,
how she's expanded her game, how she's gotten better every
single year, is something that you know, you you don't
see in a lot of organizations and a lot of
franchises one because players don't stay on one team for
(13:36):
as that long, like that is not normal in the
W and I hope that becomes the new norm when
you have players and groups that stay together for like
four or five six seasons, because that's really how you
win championships together. I think the Minnesota Lynx dynasty was
super impressive because they weren't They weren't only winning those championships,
(13:59):
they were always in the finals as well. So even
if they didn't win that year, they was in the finals.
That's a great point. So that's a great point. They
were in the finals for like seven straight years or something.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Crazy like that is a great point. Spanning across sports,
you do feel as though a dynasty is there. You
stamp their name already in the finals, conference finals, semi finals, whatever,
You kind of already stamp them to be there because.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
They're so good. And that makes more sense to me.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Why earlier I was saying, Okay, well, sometimes like with
the Chiefs, they won three, so I would, but they
also win their division every single year. And it's but
that also adds to the aces point of having.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Asia be this shoe in MVP.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
We even compared her to Yokichen the sense where it's
like or the Lebron or a Jordan, where it's like,
you can't win every year, so you might eventually it's
going to be voted fatigue. Right, So when you have
a player like that who was winning Defensive Players of
the Years awards and winning MVP awards and winning finals MVP,
and so her name is always out there, then you've
got Becky who her name is always out there when
(15:05):
it comes to coaching.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And then you've.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Got all of their players being this, oh, number one pick,
she was number one pick.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh, she's an All star too.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, and she just came from this situation where she
was the main girl and now she's coming off the
bench here. It's like it's kind of a compilation of
just winners there, and so that gives them that dynasty prowess.
I don't think it's just championships.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
No, and I think it's again culture, it's everything.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
So the fact that even the season that they started
to have, everyone was so super critical of them, but like,
that's the expectation you set for yourself, and the fact
that they were able to pull themselves out of that
rough start is a credit to the culture they've created,
the players that they have, the coaching, the development, all
of those things.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So shout out to the Aces. They are a dynasty.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
If they want another one, it's you know, definitely a dynasty.
But I'm just very interested to see, like who's stays
and goes with this new CBA, like if we are
able to get that done. But there was a question
about the CBA, so we'll get to that later. This
(16:21):
is a really good question too. This question was what
do you think the big trends will be in the
WNBA next year? I love this As a spectator, Mariah,
what would you like to see more of in our game?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Like as a fan, we talk about these things all
the time.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I feel like I broke a record, but spreading the
love as far as minutes are concerned, simply because I
don't want to see as many injuries next year at all.
I would love to see the love spread a little
bit more as far as minutes are concerned youth teams
using their benches. Okay, I don't want everybody. I don't
want to torn the acls left and right. I don't
want to see that. So I would love to see
(16:58):
teams use their pinches a little bit more or you.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
We talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I love I love threes, love love threes. So I'm
cool with lived by the three, dad by the three situation.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I would love to see more.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Shooters out there, which I feel like is also dip
it into your bench a little bit. Just letting the
shooters go out there and shoot. That would be very
nice because I love like Caitlyn Clark in college shooting
from the logo and I just love that stuff. I
would love to see that. I'm okay, we just got
done talking about the aces. I wore an aces jersey
on here, love them down, Love you Asia.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I would like to see new champion, see another team.
I would like to see a new champion. I would
love to see that.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'd like to see a new champion, maybe a new
rivalry brew But I feel like it's hard for me
to make predictions when I have no idea where anybody
other than you is going to play but yeah, my
main thing would just be I would like for it
to be more of a trend to dip into your
bench more and to have steady backups for your stars
so that they can get a little bit more rest. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I agree, And it is because we are at like
a hard reset right now. Like you know, you guys
like research your whole phone to factory settings, Like I
feel like that's what we're at in the WNBA, and
that has never happened in sports before.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, ever, the entire league being free agents.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
When I found out about that, which I knew about,
like I said, when I signed my extension, I knew
that everyone was planning on being a free agent when
the CBA expired. At first, I thought it was like
really cool, Like that's awesome that everyone is going to
be able to basically.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Be free to do whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Now that I've sat with that for some years, months, whatever,
it's actually ridiculous that everybody is a free agent. It's
actually insane, and I don't know what to expect. I'm
still very much excited to see the movement, but I
still don't have that much faith in a lot of
these front offices.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So it could be amazing or it could be horrible
and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
This coupled with the CBA not being done yet, like
could turn this into a real shit show.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Well honestly, I also as a spectator, I forgot about this.
Another trend I want to see next year slash I
don't know. I want to get I want to get
your take on this. But one of my favorite things
about the W.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Is the physicality.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm not saying I want people to get her every
day or the thing that happened to feed or the
drama I'm not I'm not condoning any violence in the W.
I'm just saying I'm just saying I enjoy that. Like
the fact that WBA player I was watching with my
boyfriend and he was like, I would rather watch this
in the NBA because it's like they don't be playing
defense and this is more fun to me. So like, well,
(19:43):
I like how y'all play defense. I want the roughing
to get better, but I don't want that to be
taken as take all the physicality out of the game.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I know you don't like to get hit.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
LEXI watching I'm like, I would like a little bit
of that, to say, I don't want people getting her
being reckless, but I don't want the physicality to go.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean, I think that leads into the conversation about
having like the part time refs. You know, you have
some refs that are in college, they come to the
w they go to the NBA. College rules are different overseas,
and then you have players that are overseas, where like
y'all thought this was physical, overseas is like times ten,
Which is why player we play the way that we
(20:25):
play because so many of us spent time at Europe
playing where it's it is worse as far as the
physicality goes like overseas. Like when my first year overseas,
I was like, oh my gosh, I was like I
was blown away at the physicality overseas. And that's why,
you know, when players come back over here, they play
the way that they play. I think that with these refs,
(20:47):
they have to study the women's game, like it's changing.
We have more skilled players, we have more athletic players,
so you're gonna have to ref a little bit differently.
And yeah, some players like you're gonna know better than others,
and they might get favorable calls if you're refing their
game because that's a player that you're more familiar with,
like that, everyone's human. I understand that, But I do
(21:09):
think that what people love about the w NBA is
the physicality how we like to play defense. But there's
there has to be a bounce because the game has
to become more fluid, because there are times where it's
hard to watch and it's even harder to play. My
issue is always been with the freedom of movement, Like
once I'm guarding you i have the ball, I'm off
(21:31):
of the physicality. When I don't have the ball and
I'm trying to get to where i need to go,
you have to be I have to be able to
go where I need to go without you holding me
down or football holding me Like I could gather clips
of players just being wrapped and held, and yeah, you
can do that to an extent, but to when it
(21:52):
gets to the point where I can even run in
a straight line without you just laying me out, Like
that's not that's not.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
How basketball is supposed to be played.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But we'll see how the refing goes next season. I mean,
we have some of the WNBA refs come REFAU and
for me, I think AU like I mean, we score.
Like in the nineties, every game pretty much like our game,
is very fluid. So I'm really excited for people to
(22:21):
tune into Athletes Unlimited because I think we'll have a
lot more eyes on it this year than any years
in the past. And I've we personally haven't had too
many complaints about the officiating and au but we promote
like a more free, flowing, fluid game anyway, and that's
like how people come in. And then obviously people don't
(22:43):
want to get hurt in the off season things like that.
So I know y'all like the WWE. I know y'all
like the spiciness.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I know y'all like that, but I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Really like, of course you out, Yeah, we're just watching,
But what do you think they're trying to be?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I think one of the biggest trends I think this
is just my opinion, guys.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Okay, the re emergence of a true point guard.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And what I mean by that is past first point
guards that can score. Obviously, everyone is, like I said,
more skilled, but the last five WNBA championships have been
won by true point guards. Chelsea Gray, sue Bert, and
Courtney Vanderslute have all won the last in the last
five years, Chelsea obviously has won three SUE one, one
(23:33):
and twenty twenty, and then Courtney vanderslute one two, one
with Chicago and one with New.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
York last year.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So I think point guard is a lost art in
the women's game. I really do, which is why we're
going to college real quick, which is why everyone is
so enamored by Olivia Miles because we don't see we
haven't seen a point guard like that in college in
a long time. Like it's been like Kaitlyn as far
as passing ability, it's been like Kaitlyn Clark, and now
was Olivia Miles in my opinion as far as their
(24:03):
IQ and passing ability.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I think that's why.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Last year when she did declare, the WBA almost exploded
because I feel like there's just so many teams that
are that are needing a true point guard, and I
think that that is going to be a hot commodity
and free agency. I think it's going to be a
hot commodity in the draft this upcoming draft. But I
(24:32):
have I have yet to like play real minutes with
a true true point guard. For well, I played with
Jordan Canada, and I would consider her a true point guard,
and I had a really successful season as her with
her as my point guard. But we had our one
season together and then my second year she was my
point guard, I got sick and then she ended up
(24:52):
going to the Dream So I haven't really had any
long stints with the true point guard. I played point
guard all through college. I really would love to get
back to that position. I think I'm a natural one
that has been pushed to the two because I can shoot.
So I would love to like dabble back and forth
(25:14):
between the one and the two because I do think
I have, you know, high level playmaking abilities. But obviously
I'm not going to put myself in the category of
like a Chelsea Gray assue a salute because they're different.
But I mean, if you look at the trends of
who's winning these championships, it's teams that have true point guards.
So we're going to see what happens in this free
(25:36):
agency because it's a last start, and even in the
NBA you're seeing that re emerge a little bit as well.
You know, having true point guards, I can play make
but also score handle the ball.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So that's what I think that that's a great point.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Why do you think in the woman's game that we
obviously talked about the warrior effect.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And that it had.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
On basketball, but why in the women's game, where did
that impact come from? Typically it's like a team wins
the championship and then everybody becomes them.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
But what do you think, Oh this is I mean,
I could get really deep dive into this. I think
the development at the for young players on the women's
side is like nonexistent, And we see the guys complaining
about aau's killing everything and peak kids only know how
to train just one on one. They don't know how
(26:30):
to play in live game situations. They just know how
to dribble a thousand times instead of learning how to
make the right play. And if the guys feel that way,
like it's probably even worse on the women's side because
we already have less resources and trainers and development than
the men do, just like just off the strength of
being girls.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So I just.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Feel like the game is just not being taught the
right way to players at a young age.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And now we're in.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
This era of highlights and let's make a video of
this and that, and people only value scoring. So I
feel like it starts at the It starts very very young.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
So when you.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Have players make it through college and have a high
i Q, you're always kind of like, oh, whoa IQ
does exist. It's still there, like people are still working
on their craft and being students of the game. But
that's been We've been complaining about AAU and stuff like
that for years and I haven't been to an AU
tournament in a long time, but the last one I
(27:34):
went to, I was like, what is.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Going on here?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Like it was just bad. And then there's like eighty
games going on at once. There's five thousand teams, Like
no one is really being taught how to play basketball
the right way.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And I think that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
That's concerning because I always considered as a spectator trends
in basketball to come from what's working at the top,
and then everybody kind of wants to do that, which
makes the kids want to do that.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Steph Curry is a point guard.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And he shoots from he he he once he brings
the ball up, he shoots immediately, so does.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
He pass half court? So that's what kids do.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Right, And yeah, nobody makes TikTok edits of good passes, right,
I mean I guess somebody's probably making them, but they
don't make that many assess exactly, so yeah, it's probably
not as like to them.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, but I mean, I know everyone has seen like
Steph Curry's pregame routine, his ball handling, roots shooting routine,
like yeah, it's like amazing. So it's very monotonous as well.
Like I remember growing up, the drills that I was
doing with my dad like very boring. You do the
same thing over and over again, and then you fast
forward to the middle of your professional career and people
(28:52):
are just seeing, you know, you shooting threes and winning championships,
but not knowing all of the hours and hours and
hours of you put in growing up to get to
this point. And I think that's what's being missed.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I read that Asia Wilson when she first started playing
basketball with her dad, thought it was torture.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, Like I think even like there's a whole thing
about like the girl girls dropping out of sports that
like way faster than boys drop out of sports, Like
I can't imagine. Like I was even talking to one
of my friends yesterday and she said that her dad
was like this athlete and she just wasn't very athletic,
but he was like wanted her to play sports so
(29:45):
so bad, and it like turned horrible for her, Like
she couldn't even enjoy doing anything because her dad puts
so much pressure on her.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
And I feel like a.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Lot of people might feel that way, Like it's not fun.
It's not always fun, like growing up going to work
and working out like seventy percent of the time until
I was like sixteen, seventeen years old, it was not fun.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
It was it was torture. It was hard. But that's
when you really like discover like who has the.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Potential to be a pro and who doesn't because it's
not it's not easy, Like it's hard.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's hard more times than it is easy.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
One hundred percent, and you lose more than you win.
It's not Sports are not for the week and most
of the time you're in practice, especially in high school
and in a you like in volleyball and club, you're
in practice most of the time. And then you get
to play like on the weekends a couple times a
week so most and hopefully you win more than you lose.
(30:45):
But at a young age, you're winning, losing, winning, losing.
It's only fun when you win. It sucks when you lose,
so it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Most of the time.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
But that's a whole other side point of how I
think kids we're going to do a scary point because
there's so much quick value. I can't remember the right
way to say that with TikTok and.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Everything, participation, participation trophy.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yes, everybody when they don't win now, they don't get that.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
They want to quit it later.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
They don't like it, and that can't continue.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
No, and it's okay to lose, Like you don't want
to lose, but it's okay to lose. Sometimes you just
have to learn your lesson and keep it moving. But
I completely agree with you, Like, I'm very scared for
this next generation of kids because the like, people just
don't know how.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
To handle failure.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
People don't know how to handle criticism, and people don't
know how to grow from their experiences. I'm just talking
about sports. We're just talking about yea sports Tom Brady
was I forgot where he was talking about. I saw
a video. Basically he feels the same way, like this
era of instant gratification and players not learning how to
(31:58):
get through hard to situation or you know, dealing with
maybe a coach that they don't like, or dealing with
team is that they don't like, or learning that success
is not just yours, like, it's a team and sometimes
if you win, it's about everybody. If you lose, it's
also about everybody. People point fingers too much. All of
those types of things is just oh, it's ruining. It's
(32:21):
ruining sports. It's it makes me sad because sports are
supposed to be fun, but it's just turned into a beast.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
But that's what happens when things are money money. At
the end of the day, I will.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Say, wall sports wall sports are supposed to be fun.
For example, me, I'm not a professional athlete, obviously, but
I spent my entire life most of probably ninety percent
of my life up until the time I was eighteen,
was spent on sports, and then the other ten percent
spent in school. So I'm like, but I feel like
being involved in sports taught me so much, just discipline
(32:56):
and failing and getting back up and having different experiences and.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Social situations like being in sports.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You are experiencing this as an adult in your career now,
but I'm experiencing a different way. You have a boss,
and you have a coach, and you have a manager,
and you have these people that you turn to, and
you have these teammates and you have captains, and there's hierarchy.
Like you learn those things in sports, and it's not
supposed to be everybody's not the captain, everybody can't play,
some people sit on the bench.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Like you learn those things through sports.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I feel like, especially for women, it's really important for
us to experience that.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yeah, and it's like there is a healthy competitiveness even
within your own teams, and I feel like even not
work or something like there's a healthy competitiveness, but there's
also a cohesion that you have to have if you're
working with a.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Group of people.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I can't imagine what I would because I'm already kind
of like I don't like to call myself anti, but
like I if I didn't have sports, I don't even
know if I would have any friends.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Like sports has.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
He has helped me so much in so many different
ways out side of just actually getting to the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So I encourage, I mean, I do always encourage.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
People to like put their kids in sports and like
not always for them to like be super good at them.
But it's like, just just with the way people are
now and the way the world is, I feel like
sports is something that is always going to be a unifier,
and it keeps you in shape, it keeps you healthy,
make some friends, Maybe you win, hey, maybe you will
(34:27):
become a professional athlete. I don't know, but I've always
been a big proponent of kids playing sports.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
That's why the WNBA and everything that's happening right now
is so important though, because I think little boys get
this opportunity to grow up with this dream of they
can go pro and anything and be a millionaire and
be rich and do whatever, Like they can pick any
sports they want and it would benefit them all the
same and.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Woo yay sports. I'm a boy. And women.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
The careers that are kind of glamorized for us as
like making your dreams come true is very entertainment and
based like oh, I want to be a model, I
want to be an actress, I want to do that
and this and.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That, and now in this new era, women like you.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Women like Angel, women like Sunny Lee, wom like simallon
bios like, I think it's really important for y'all not
to be put in a box as just oh, I'm
a basketball player, but you can see all of the
different places that sports can bring you, like Angel Rees
being good at basketball and all of those probably annoying
workouts and practices she had to go through got her
the Victoria's Secret.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Runway, Sudy Lee, same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
She gets to travel the world and win gold medals
and stuff and then go walk with the Victoria's Secret
Runway and work with Lululemon, and that you get to
do media and be on TV and be on podcasts
and work with Fashion Nova and do your thing, you
know what I'm saying, Like you get to experience some
of the things because of your sport.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think it's important for girls to get to see that.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
And I'm glad that now, like this is all happening,
and I know for me, like when the Victoria's Secret
Thing happened, like my timeline was overwhelmingly positive, Like I loved.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It, same, I just see it was really yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Saw it like eventually, but then I'm like not interested,
not interested, not interested, Like I've really enjoyed seeing how
positive that was received, how positively that was received, at
least in my in my bubble, it was very it
was very positively received. And I remember, I wasn't gonna
(36:27):
tell this story, guys, I would tell it.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So when I got drafted, there was a coach. I'm
not going to say what coach.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
There was a coach, and this message was brought this,
this was brought to my attention very recently that said
that I wasn't gonna make it in this league because
I rolled my shorts and they don't do that.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That's not something that we do in the w NBA.
So that was just eight years eight short years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
That was the sentiment towards just me rolling my shorts
a little bit and she's not gonna make it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
We don't do that here. And now we got players
walking the Victoria's Secret runway.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
So and modeling for skims and modeling for skims, makeup, hair,
all of the things. I'm just so happy that, like
you just said, the box, the box no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
There's no box anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
That's so funny because Asia literally rolls her shorts. Probably
ten thousand million.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Everybody rolls their shorts.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And the only reason why I rolled my shorts in
college was because the shorts were ugly and they fit funny,
like I just didn't like the way they looked, and
they still look goofy when I roll them, Like it
wasn't a fashion thing. Every time I look back on college,
I'm like, I looked goofy as hell, like with the
shorts roll but it was really because they were uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
But yeah, so, I mean, I'm just glad that.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Everything has just changed so much in the best way.
And we can think, you know, players in the past
that always showed up every day despite not having all
of these opportunities off the court, but still you know,
showing up every day, coming to work, playing in the WNBA,
being who they are, being themselves. So now in twenty
(38:15):
twenty five, all of these opportunities, like there's an opportunity
for everybody. Like I am so ecstatic that when I
got cut, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Like quit, like it was very close.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
But to be here in this moment, being part of
this league, in this moment, this transformative period, like it's
such a blessing and I'm just so happy to see
other players winning on and off the court. So I mean,
everybody eats in my opinions, the better they do, the
better we do. Like yup, Yes, I want everybody to
love this player. I want everyone to love this player
(38:50):
because they gonna watch all of They gonna watch our games,
they gonna see all of us, they gonna get introduced to.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
A bunch of amazing women in the WNBA.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
So I'm always here for seeing people doing all types
of things.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
So yeah, I'm really happy.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Well, speaking of showing love to the league and whatnot,
let's get to our next quession. What other sponsors would
you like to see for teams or for the league?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Honestly, I think whoever got the most money, honestly, give
it to us, give it to us real.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Because who would have known how black would have such
an impact?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
You know, a flack like really like Aflexa, here have
all the coins, all the money.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I really love the Skims partnership. I love that.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
I think the makeup brands partnering with teams, with the
league and with individual.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Teams I think was great.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Like we got to work with Urban Decay when I
was with the Sparks, which was an amazing experience. Sophora
with unrivaled who else, Sophora with the Valkyries. I just
love I seeing those types of partnerships because it has
really brought an influx of women fandom to the WNBA,
(40:09):
which is something that I thought we were lacking, And
I think that's really made all of the difference is
the influx of women that have come to support the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Now, all we need to do is get them to like.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Actually love and enjoy like the game, like basketball, like
the actual sport. Like not saying that they don't know
anything about basketball. I'm not saying that, but a lot
of them have come because they're fans of you know,
individual players. Now we need them to like start loving
like basketball as a whole, and I think then the
(40:43):
phantom is going to get to another level. But I
really have enjoyed seeing more women become fans of the
WNBA because that's something that I've always been like, where are.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
The girl where are girlies at?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
We need more women fans, So I'm glad that they
they're coming.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
They're coming now, Well, Lexi, I have the solution to that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
So I would like to see.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I never knew a thing about F one, trust me,
this is related.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Never knew a thing about.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
F one, didn't care about it at all. And then
I went to see that movie with Damse and Idris
and Brad Pitt about f one and that movie was
so fine. I was like, Okay, I need no more.
So then I went and watched Driver Survive, which, if
you guys look it up, much smarter people than me
have done much better statistics in this on it. But
Drive to Survive, the Netflix show about Formula one, increased
(41:28):
the woman fandom by like, you want.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
To see a reality show, but it's not. But it's
not a reality. It's a docu series.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yes, but it really starting five yet kind of because
like I don't think because I've watched both and I
like starting five, but starting five isn't giving me the
same thing Driver to Survive did because it doesn't encapsulate
the whole league, you know what I mean. It's only
five guys. So if what you're saying is part of
(41:58):
the problem is, yes, the girls are watching now, but
the girls are.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Just kind of like tuning in.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Oh I love this girl, I love that girl. I'm
gonna go to the game and have a little kilo soda.
But we need them invested. And the thing that gets
the girls invested in sports are storylines that if they
could care less about the x's and o's of the game.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
They will care if they.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Know this player left this team and now she's playing
them in the finals, and this is that if they
just did maybe if they followed like one player from
each team or something like that, or they did like
a team a season.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Or did like a Hard Knocks. I just don't know why. Yes,
I love that. I really I don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
If I can say this right now, but I'm currently
working on something kind of like this, but because I
felt the same way, like I'm like every literally every
occupation on Earth has gotten some type of show series
documentary except for us, right, and I really enjoyed what
(42:58):
they did for They did it with the College ESPN
did and I thought that was really well done.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I think they've chose four players.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
They've been doing four players every season, so I like
what they've been doing with that. But we haven't had
it for the WNBA yet. I'm sure that there's somebody
on Earth working on it. There's I mean, I've heard
multiple pitches of something along those lines. It just has
never happened, and I feel like now is the time
to do it, especially if we have a lockout like
(43:29):
that would be a really cool thing to document. I mean,
we documented the bubble a little bit like I did.
I've documented the whole bubble. A few other players documented
the whole bubble. So if you guys really wanted to
see an inside look of some WNBA stuff, you guys
can look on the bubble. Even though that was from
twenty twenty, it was very interesting to see what we
(43:51):
were doing in there. But yeah, I feel like even
the conversations I see with women having about basketball, it's
like they're talking about housewives and stuff they like. It's
just it makes me laugh, Like just the different lenses
people see sports in. I'm always so interested by it.
But I really love the influx of women women fans
(44:11):
for our league.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I think it's so important.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I think that has been game changing for us as
a league, is how many women we have now supporting it.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
So shout out to y'all because we appreciate y'all. We've
been waiting for you. We've been waiting.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Literally, And I think, Okay, the cross between getting women
to watch it because the reason drives drive to survive
was so successful amongst women. I watched it f one
race this weekend. I could care less about racing.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But I watched my mom, and.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I need to know who's gonna win because I.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Watched that show. Yes, she saw the movie and she
was like, I love F one.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah literally, okay, but what they what the good thing
about the show is like each episode is a race,
and the episode ends with the race, so we can
see what happened in the race. So it kind of
it makes me actually care about the race. It's not
just like, yeah, oh I care who they're today and
what's going on and who they have beef with, and
then I don't see the races. It's like they summarize
(45:06):
the races. So now because I can't watch the show
because the season for this season isn't out yet, I
have to actually watch the race see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
So I think thew needs that.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
So we get a context for like like I don't
know how they would do it, but for each game,
so we get contacts and we know, especially with everybody
being a free agent, bro, it's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
That's gonna be nuts.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
And I feel like if if this doesn't happen this year,
it will need to happen soon. And I'm hoping that
when these players sign to their new teams or what
current teams that they like these multi year deals come
back because this whole one year here, one year there,
one year here like.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
That gotta stop. Yeah, because you can't.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Build storylines, you can't build rivalries, you can't do any
of that stuff if people are just bouncing. Everybody bouncing around,
bouncing around, mountcing a Iro'm mounting around. So yeah, last
question before we head out is someone asked straight up
what happens.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
If there is a lockout? Lee, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
I've never experienced a lockout before. We've never had a
lockout before.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
We have one hundred and sixty eight ish.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
You know, we don't fill the twelve roster spots all
the time, So roughly next season there will be one
hundred and sixty eight total WNBA players in the off season.
Athletes Unlimited has forty roster spots and Unrivaled has fifty
four roster spots. Our roster, however, is not limited to
WNBA players, so our league is not only WNBA players
(46:36):
like Unrivaled is. So that's roughly ninety ish spots right,
So now you're left with seventy four players that are
not in AU or on rival so their options are
to chill if they can go over season play. A
lot of players join college coaching staffs in the off season.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Or get a job. I don't know, go get a
regular job. I don't know, Like I don't know what
you do in a lockout.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
We were talking about in one of our meetings, like
if we, well, we have the leagues, but like say
we didn't have the leagues, Like, would we like organize
like pickup games like the guys did that year when
they had the lockout when.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
They were all at like Rucker Park playing like randomly, Like,
would we organize that with the players Association? Organize that?
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I mean, we've had been having conversations for months about
like savior coins just in case, So it's not going
to catch us off guard if that happens. But we
don't seem to be very close to settling on a
CBA anytime soon, unfortunately, but lucky for us, our season
doesn't start until May ish, but there's.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
An expansion draft coming up.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
That is the biggest issue because that's every all, every
everything that happens in the WNB is written out in
the CBA.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
The CBA is like basically like our constitution.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
So if we don't have a CBA, Like, I don't
even know if you can have an expansion draft because
the rules and regulations of the expansion draft could potentially
be changed in the new CBA. So how do you
have the expansion draft with no rules in place currently?
Speaker 2 (48:24):
So thankfully I have AU and this beautiful show podcast.
You so say we do.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Have a lockout, I will be okay, but I want
to play next summer.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Whoever that is. Maybe it's Seattle, maybe it's somewhere else.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
You guys will get all the tea on this show.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I'll tell you that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
If y'all want to know all of the goings on
of WNBA, CBA College, y'all know where to find us.
We are right here every week.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
So yeah, lord, well that was We always say, oh
it's going to quick, it's going to be short, and
it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
But all right, it's an hour. But thank you guys
so much for listening. Lock out, no lockout.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
We'll keep you posted on everything happening in women's basketball.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's Full Circle.
Bye 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
(49:34):
by Lexi Brown and Maria Rose. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fused. Our producer
is Zoe Danklab. 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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