July 21, 2025 • 51 mins
Sarah and producer Mish are back from WNBA All-Star in Indianapolis and they dish on allllll the weekend happenings. From Sarah’s live shows with Candace Parker and Azzi Fudd, to the StudBudz stream, star sightings at the game, and, of course, the parties. Plus, broken records, the WNBPA makes a statement, and Trinity Rodman’s return to training.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're back
from WNBA All Star Weekend and Dragon ass like the
stud Buds after a seventy two hour live stream, somebody
get the ivs. It's Monday, July twenty first, and on
today's show, I'll be joined by producer Meich to debrief
on this weekend's All Star festivities, from the game to
the parties and the live shows to the live streams,
(00:21):
the latest on the negotiations between WNBA players and the league,
and seeing slices in the wild, plus Hooper soupod, signs
of another trend spin and a real life reboot takes shape.
It's all coming out right after this Welcome Back Slices.
Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with
(00:44):
the WNBA and this weekend's All Star festivities in Indianapolis,
Nafisa Collier scored an All Star record thirty six points
to win MVP honors as Team Callier beat Team Clark
one fifty one one in the All Star Game Saturday night.
Skyler Diggins, who competing with Team Collier, put up the
first triple double in All Star history with eleven points,
(01:05):
eleven rebounds, and an All Star record fifteen assists in
the win. Neka Ogumkay, another member of Team Collier, also
made some history as she broke the record for most
career All Star field goals.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
A head of the All Star.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Game, individual pride, along with some cash money, was on
the line with the three Point Contest and Skills Challenge
on Friday night the New York Liberties. Natasha Cloud won
the Skills Challenge, recording the fastest time in both rounds,
overcoming a rough shooting performance with a whole lot of speed.
After the win, she embraced girlfriend and teammate Isabel Harrison
and told ESPN's Holly Row she'd be using the money
(01:41):
she won for a down payment on a house. Cloud said, quote,
that's Izzybee's money. She told me to go win this
money for a home, and that's what it's going down to.
Plenty to say about that moment later in the show.
It was a great night for the Liberty overall, as
Cloud's performance was followed by teammate Sabrini and Escu winning
her second WNBA three Point Contest, scoring thirty of the
(02:02):
possible forty points. Both Cloud and Yenescu are getting paid
for the performances, but most of the money they won
isn't coming from the WNBA itself. The league cut both
winners a check for just two thousand, five hundred and
seventy five dollars each, an amount agreed to in the
most recent collective bargaining agreement. The majority of the winnings
instead came from insurance company AFLAC, which teamed up with
(02:25):
the Players Association for a second straight year, paying Yenescu
sixty thousand dollars for her three point win and Cloud
fifty five thousand for her Skills Challenge win to ensure
that WNBA players take home the same payout that MNBA
players received from that league's individual.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
All Star contests.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Shout out to AFLAC for that and for bringing the
AFLAC duck to the WNBPA lounge. Or I got to
snap a pick best celebsiting all weekend for me. There's
another very cool moment that happened Friday night in the
press are after the competitions, as Yunescu announced that she'd
be giving half her winnings to Washington Miss Stick's guard
Sonya Citron for being the only rookie in the contest.
(03:04):
Said Yenescu quote, I told Sonya that I would give
her half if I won when we were sitting on
the bench.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Being the only rookie.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
She was nervous, and I was nervous for her. Obviously,
have to hold up my end of the bargain, so
half is going to her end.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yanescu is planning to give the rest of her prize
money to her charitable foundation SI twenty. And while the
extra dough is great on its own, the Affleck partnership
is also a very strategic move by the Players Association
as they look to highlight how the league continues to
undervalue players through low salaries and prize money. Speaking of
with the Players Association and WNBA currently negotiating a new
(03:39):
collective bargaining agreement, more than forty players attended a meeting
between the PA and the league on Thursday, marking the
largest in person player turnout in union history for CBA talks.
I tuk to a couple players that were in the
room and they said that Kathy looked a little agog
at the number of players walking through the door, and
they actually had to spread out the desks and chairs
(04:01):
to make room for all of them.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The meeting did end up.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Without resolution, leading the Players Association to issue the following statement, quote,
the WNBA's response to our proposals fails to address the
priorities we voiced from the day we opted out. A
transformational CBA that delivers our rightful share of the business
we built, improves working conditions, and ensures the success we
create lifts both today's players and the generations that follow
(04:27):
end quote. WNBA Commissioner kat The Engelbert meanwhile called the
meeting a constructive dialogue.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Obviously part of the process is to go back and
forth and listen to the players, they listen to us
and the owners who represent the board of governors. I
still feel really optimistic that we can get something transformational
done by the end, but it's a process.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
During warmups ahead of Saturday Night's All Star Game, players
made a statement about the ongoing negotiations, wearing shirts reading
pay us what you owe us, and fans at India's
Gainbridge Field House took that message and ran with it.
When Engelbert stepped on the court at the end of
the game to award Collire with her All Star MVP trophy,
the sold out crowd of sixteen thousand fans chanted pay Them,
(05:11):
Pay Them over and over again. We'll chat about that
moment later in the show too, when I'll be joined
by producer Miish to recap the whole weekend some more.
Hoopstews ucon star Azy Fudd is launching her own podcast
right here on the Iheartwomen's Sports Network. The show, called
fud Around and find Out, officially launches on August seventh.
I actually interviewed Asy while I was out in India
(05:33):
as part of a live Good Game show, so you'll
get to hear a lot more about her new podcast
and whether her Husky alum girlfriend Paige Becker's will be
a guest during Tuesday's episode of Good Game. And lest
you think, I interviewed just one superstar Hooper with a
new podcast this weekend, Think Again. I also hosted a
live conversation as part of the Wiser Symposium with the
(05:54):
one and only Candice Parker, in which we talked about
her new book, The Can Do Mindset. You know, Candace
Parker's stays busy too, so in addition to the book,
she's also launching a new show with Indiana Fever star
Alliah Boston. The show called Post Moves will premiere on
July thirtieth, and just like with Azy, you'll get to
hear my conversation with Candace right here on Good Game
(06:15):
to tune in on Wednesday. And I want to give
a big thanks to Wise for giving every attendee of
the symposium a copy of my book Runs in the
Family and hosting a book signing during the symposium. It
was so fun to sign books, chat with the ten
d's about it, and meet lots of slices to the NWSL.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
The league is.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Still on a summer break through the end of the month,
but that doesn't mean the players aren't training. And that
list of players training now includes Trinity Rodman, who practiced
with her Washington Spirit teammates on Saturday for the first
time in three months. Rodman has been sidelined by an
ongoing back injury that has severely limited her time with
both the Spirit and the US national team during the
last year. A Spirit spokesperson told the ESPNS Jeff Casoof quote,
(06:55):
player health and well being are always our top priorities.
He has put in a tremendous amount of work to
return to training. She's an important part of our team.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
No word yet on when Rodman will be back on
the pitch for games, but we're happy to hear she's
back training again and getting one step closer to another
trend spin more NWSL News Got Them FC's Jess Carter,
who's been competing with England during the ongoing European Championships,
shared on social media she's been dealing with racist treatment
from fans throughout the tournament. On Sunday, Carter wrote on Instagram,
(07:29):
quote from the start of the tournament, I've experienced a
lot of racial abuse. Whilst I feel every fan is
entitled to their opinion on performance and result, I don't
agree or think it's okay to target someone's appearance or race.
As a results of this, I will be taking a
step back from social media and leaving it to a
team to deal with, she continued. Hopefully speaking out will
make the people writing this abuse think twice so that
(07:50):
others won't have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
In response, the England Lionesses said that the team would
stop taking a knee before matches, a gesture meant to
stand against racism, saying in a statement it is quote
clear we in football need to find another way to
tackle racism end quote. Back in the US, the NWSL
and WSL Players Association and GOTHAMFC all issued statements condemning
(08:14):
the racist abuse, with Gotham saying quote, we are heartbroken
and outraged by the racist abuse directed at Jess Carter.
Jess is not only a world class football player, she
is a role model, a leader and a valued part
of our Gotham FC family. To tennis, where Venus Williams
is competing for the first time in sixteen months. The
forty five year old Williams was offered a wild card
(08:35):
for the DC Open this week, her first tournament since
the Miami Open in March of twenty twenty four. She
opens play today with a round a thirty two match
against fellow American Peyton Stearns at ten am Eastern. At
a pre tournament press conference on Sunday, Venus said she
wished younger sister Serena, who retired in twenty twenty two,
would make her return to the court too, noting that
(08:56):
Serena even joined in for fifteen minutes of a recent
practice session. Quote, she can take six months off and
she clocks it clean. You can't teach that kind of talent.
She's just so good end quote. For now, we're just
going to enjoy seeing Venus back on the court. But
can you imagine finally a little bit of baseball news.
Many of you might remember Monet Davis, who in twenty fourteen,
(09:18):
at the age of thirteen, became the first girl to
pitch a victory and a shutout during the.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Little League World Series.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Well ahead of the launch of the Women's Professional Baseball
League next year, Davis is planning to try out. Davis
is now twenty four years old, and she's expected to
be one of six hundred players competing at tryouts in Washington,
d C. From August twenty second through the twenty fifth.
From those six hundred players, one hundred and fifty will
be selected to be eligible for the league's inaugural draft
(09:45):
in October. The Women's Professional Baseball League, the WPBL, is
aiming to launch next summer with six teams, and it'll
be the first women's baseball league to launch since the
All American Girls Professional Baseball League aka the inspiration for
a league of their own, shut down back in nineteen
fifty four.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All Right, we got to take a quick break. When
we come back.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Me and Mish dish on everything that went down in
Indy back in.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
A Jeff.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I am now joined by producer Mish, who was also
in Indie for All Star.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Hey Mesh, what's up Sarah Spain?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, it's nice to see you again, but it was
better to see you in person. And now we're back
on a zoom. Yeah, it was nice for all of
the two seconds. It's like an annual hang Yes, just
one time of year.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We get to kick it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
We got to get Alex out there. We've never many
of us been in the same place.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I know, it's so crazy. We got to do that,
all right.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
There's so much to discuss from this weekend. As I suspected,
Indie crushed it, and one of the reasons is because
everything is so close.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I imagine on a game night when there's a lot
going on, it's probably annoying to have so much traffic
in one area, But for something like this event, being
able to walked to so many places and being able
to hit up a bunch of events and parties without
having to go too far was key. Because meischh, this
weekend was packed full of things to do.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
There was so much to do.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Let's start with kind of the point, which is the contest,
the skills, and three point in the game itself. Shout
out to the espnW folks for the suite on Friday.
It was super fun to hang out in there with
my girls from the gist and a bunch of other
folks and always nice to hang with my espnW crew.
My biggest takeaways from those were some of the moments
(11:32):
that happened during them, more so than the outcomes. It
was awesome to see Natasha Cloud and Sabrina win. It
was awesome to be court side for the game. Thank
you to Gatorade for the amazing court side seat and
get to see all the players close up. But neither
of them was something really to write home about.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
For me.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It was the moments that happened during them, and Mesh,
I have to imagine that you were with me in
thinking how cool it was to see on national television
Natasha Cloud when embrace her girlfriend, have this moment of
just proud black queer joy and.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Have it be like this celebration.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It was so much cooler than just tugging your teammate,
which she did, but it was so much cooler to
have that moment.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
It was and it it filled my heart, was so
much joy because it wasn't just her and we'll get
to more of the black queer joy that was on display.
But to do that and have that kind of vibe
in Indiana in a place that personally, I was worried.
I can't lie to you. I was worried about how
things might go. I was worried about how, you know,
die hard Fever fans and some of the ones who
(12:39):
are you know, kind of on the extreme side and
doing a lot and being disrespectful, controlling on social media.
Like I was worried that the mishmash of all these
different people would create some issues. And seeing that on
the court that set the tone for everything right and
Completeeing that on the court and what we saw off
the court, which we'll get into in a second, I
think really, you know, created a culture around the weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I agree, And I also think during the game itself,
it was really really cool during the introductions to hear
a fan base in that building that recognized greatness. They
lost their minds for Asia, they lost their minds for Fee.
You know, it wasn't just about the Fever players. It
(13:22):
certainly wasn't just about Caitlin Clark. They lost their minds
for Angel Reese, which I was wondering if there'd be
any of like there's a beef. It just felt so
nice in person to have it not be how it
feels online.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yes, and it's a great reminder that, like the Internet
is not real life. Yes in a good way and
a like in a bad way. Of course, when you
talk to people online you talking crazy. That's also not
real life. Get you, you know, say it with your chest.
But it's also a great thing that we have real
connections with real people in real life, and it was
great to have that confidence restored in the fan base.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Producer Alex just asked a great question in the chat.
If you're the kind of fan who's not actually a fan,
you're a fan of Caitlin, not basketball, not the w
then maybe you stayed home. And I'm sure a lot
of Fever and Caitlin fans who are legit Hoops fans
were in the building. There was tons of Caitlyn gear,
there were tons of people there. They went nuts for
(14:18):
her when she got introduced, even though she wasn't playing.
But maybe that subset of folks who have mal intent.
Either they're literally just online trolls who stir up shit,
or they stayed home.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, you know, I have another take on this. I
think I'm still very not disappointed but sad that Caitlyn
didn't get to participate because obviously everybody, including herself, wanted
her to participate. But I think because All Star tickets
cost money, there were a lot of people who probably
bought the tickets to go see Caitlyn saw that she
(14:52):
wouldn't be participating in anything, and were like, well, I
got the tickets, I gotta go anyway, and then we're
proven wrong, We're showed how much the rest of the
league has to offer. Were reminded, Oh, this league's made
up of damn near one hundred and fifty two hundred
people who also have stories, who are also extremely cool, wonderful,
personable people who have a lot of characters who are funny,
(15:16):
and so I like to think that's kind of what happened.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I like that spin on it. I hope that's true.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
The mascots were all there, which was so much fun
for me, especially because Ellie ended up hanging out near
my seat for most of the game.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And was just doing her ellie thing.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I was a couple of people down from Don Staley, who,
by the way, at one of the events earlier in
the day, had been joking about how the tickets were
going for so much she might sell her to make
some money because of how much demand.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
There was for game tickets.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
But Don Staley bam out of bio plies like just
row of celebs to my right, and it was really
fun watching them all interact with the players during the game,
and I think being so close being on the court
for it, I was able to really see the little
moments of fun that the players had together, the kind
of like aggressive fake fouls where they're just hugging each
(16:09):
other and preventing them from moving Asia, you know, getting
fouled by her former teammate Kelsey Plumb coming all the
way down the court and yelling foul bow Bow bow
as you're being bear Hunt was right in front of me.
The moments where you could see them kind of trying
to set up places for each other. I think my
favorite moment in the game, besides at the half, when
I was waiting the bathroom line with Tamika Catchings and
(16:30):
a couple other legends and we were talking about shit'
me excuse me, yes, Candice to pre Tamika catchings.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I listen, Mesh.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We could spend the whole podcast talking about just me
dropping names, just you tripping over all the names I'm
dropping because I'm telling.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You it was unreal. This weekend the.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Below the court club before you got to the court
side seats. Again, shout out to Gatorad because this was
the coolest experience. Was full of hanging out with Robin Roberts,
hanging out with Steph White, you know, hanging out with
legends of the game. Took a picture with Kate Martin
for my friend, who literally said she'd leave her husband
for She's like, I'm not into that, but I'll leave
(17:12):
an upband for Kate Martin. So I'm like, God, I
think God to get a helpie. It was just so
much fun. But I was in line with Tamik and
all them, and someone was like, who you think is
gonna get MVP? And I had not looked up at
the box score at all because it's an All Star game.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I'm just not paying attention in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And I was like, someone tells me, Fe's just going
to keep hitting those like six footers without ever missing
while everyone else is trying to jack up four pointers
and end up having some crazy number of points that
we don't even notice.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I came back from the half look up she.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Had thirty already, you know, I was like, oh wait,
this is already happening. But I think my favorite moment
of the game was the very end less than like
a minute to go, less than like ten seconds to go,
when Kiki Eriefen missed a four pointer. Brianna Stewart got
the rebound and instead of the game ending, she passed
it back to her to try again and she made it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
On the other team.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, the other team. It was just like the w
in a nutshell.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah, I think so too. Of course, I was happy
to see that because my rookie, you know, Okola eria
Fen all right, the mystics were representing very well. But yeah,
I just thought that was so dope as well. But
my favorite moment was during halftime. It wasn't the main
focus of the broadcast because Gloilla was obviously performing, but
after the fact on social media, when I saw how
(18:25):
much fun the players were having on the side by
watching that performance, that's that's what this league needs.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Man.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
It's just watching them be human beings, be real people,
interact with each other, show you fun, joyful yes with
each other, showing y'all. Yes, we can compete at an elite, elite,
best of the best in the world level on the court,
and we can be cool.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
We can kick it.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Like.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I just thought that was so cool man.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I completely agree.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know if you saw any of my stories,
but everyone had to come past me to go on
and off the court, including Glowrilla.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So when she went by, I was like, okay, I
let her cook. Let her cook, she please.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know, Ared Glow has such an impact, like she's
such a performer, and I'm glad people got to see
that in the in the w space. But you know,
Britney Sykes doing her little drum major majorrette dance.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I took video of all those players who there. I
could see them in front of me.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I said to my friend, I'm like, why haven't they
left the court. It's halftime and I'm watching the court.
They're all staying for Glow like they don't want to leave.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, so fun. I agree with you. That was
also a super super fun moment.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Also wanted to point out that we got some good
presser moments both I mentioned earlier the Sabrine Escu giving
half of her winnings to.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Sonya, that was great.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We got some really funny sound from Fie and Caitlin
throughout as the two captains. One, for instance, wanted to
shout out when Nancy Armor was on. We had a
question about who suggested the coach swap, and Fee did
confirm this weekend that she was the one who's said
she wanted Cheryl Reeves. So you know, my bad on
assuming that maybe Caitlin didn't want to play for her
or maybe that was still part of it. But I
(20:08):
liked to hear that that she was the one who
initiated that. But they also were joking about partying a lot,
and I think we have the sound from that. Y'all
just have to hear it for yourself.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Hi, Tiana Randall Forbes question for both of you. Also,
our weekend is notoriously a very fun weekend for both
the players and people who come, and we've seen through
like live streams and videos that you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Guys are having way more fun and staying out a
little bit more late than you may have anticipated. What
is some of them.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Messaging to do that normally you just never saw it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Fee seven shoot around.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
There was no shoot around today. I brought team's canceled.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I heard, I heard, I hear I got picking up.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
So as captains, what type of messaging are you guys
sending to your players about balance and just making sure
you are still wanting to get the win.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
I mean, I told my teams have as much fun
as possible at practice. We just shot a little bit
and then we shout at half course shot and we
headed out. But I mean, like that's all start weekend,
like we joke about winning, but at the end of
the day, like it's it's not that serious. It's been
cool just to see, you know, everything that's been going
on and how much everybody's enjoying it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I mean, exactly the same.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I wasn't telling them anything about preparing for the game.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
We were preparing to be on sub buds.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Now listen, we're going to talk about the stud buds
in a minute, just MVPs of the weekend, so we'll
get back to the stud buds. But I did like
to hear them just kind of acknowledging that this was
less about the basketball. It was about basketball, but also
just about the event and having fun and coming together.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Which was really cool. It was also about some work stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Some of us had to work in between the partying
and the fun and the games, So tell us about
what you were up to.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I was there with they can't retire from this
collective storytelling collective that I'm a part of, and we
host the podcast called Sideline Stories. So the big marquee
event for us this weekend, we held a live podcast
with three ladies from the WBL, the Women's Professional Basketball League,
the first ever women's pro league in the United States.
We talked to shar mccordter, Liz mcquitter, and Adrian Newell.
(22:26):
Thank you to the three of them for joining us,
and had a really robust discussion about the history of
that league and how you know we're at WNBA All
Star and this is a prime example of a time
that would be great for the league to use to
educate fans on the leagues that have come before, the pioneers,
the stars that have come before. You know, Muffat McGrath
played in the WBL. We had machine Gun, Molly Bolan
(22:48):
who was Clark before Caitlin Clark was out of Moravier, Iowa.
Those are names that people don't know, you know what
I'm saying, And I feel like having the space to
talk to them and let them share their stories was
extreme special to me into our entire group and frankly
to them as well, and I got to have some
really emotional conversations with them off mic as well. That
we stayed at the same hotel, which was serendipitous, so
(23:10):
got to spend more time with them. But that was
definitely a big highlight. Shout out to all of the
people who came to that. Shout out to the Tunnel
Fits Pod. Those folks came through, My Rising Media Stars family,
rolled through, Latna Robinson of course, the head Honchow came
through and a few of the other members of the group,
and then WNBA Live. That was a big portion of
what I did this weekend. We were at the Round
(23:32):
twenty one booth doing some content capture, so we got
to capture some stuff with Paige Becker's, with Rakia Jackson,
with Aleah Boston, all the different star players who came
through to the booth and talk to a lot of
fans and a lot of folks who are in spheres
of influence around in and around the game as well.
So all in all, it was it was exhausting. You know,
(23:53):
it was full days, as I imagine you're about to
tell us about your full days as well. But in
the end, you know, it's always beautiful to be in
community with the people who love this game in this
league as much as I do, and I already can't
wait for next year.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. My full day was really Friday.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I got to hang more or at tend things with
that having to be on stage performing on Thursday and Saturday,
But Friday, I actually started my day by going.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
To a brunch.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It was the WNBPA and the National Women's Law Center
hosting an event at the WNBPA lounge talking about it's
called Don't Bench Our History, and it was about the
combined sort of feeling of trying to erase the history
of black people, both as players and as people who
founded this league and just in general in society, and
how do we address and work through what's going on
(24:40):
at the very highest levels in this country right now,
and then what's going on with players in this league.
And the CBA was Terry Carmichael Jackson, Temmy fag Benley,
a woman called Fatima from the National Women's Law Center,
and another woman who moderated. Also got to hear Temmy
talk about the movie she's going to be in coming
up with Viola Davis that you are so excited about.
(25:02):
I know me because you read the Book of Blood
and Bone.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Is that the name.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Children of Childreod and both children of Blood and Bone.
It was very cool, yes, to hear talk about that,
and honestly, very heartfelt conversation about the weight of everything
on the players in trying to balance and hold the
things that they represent and all of the things they
want to fight for while playing. And you know, one
thing that I heard that really stood out to me
was Terry talking about how much it matters to the
(25:29):
players to be informed and to get things right, and
how much the league leans on the National Women's Law
Center to ask about topics that might come up that
the players want to speak on eloquently, and how they
connect the players or give the players resources from the
National Women's Law Center to make sure that they're informed
and credible voices on this. And I just think people
(25:51):
don't really respect how much the w cares about that
and takes that responsibility and accountability of being voices. There
are so many athletes who will spat off about shit
without knowing anything about it or doing the work, and
in this case, I just really respected what they talked
about when it came to that. After that was when
my work started interviewing Candace Parker at the Wiser Symposium,
(26:13):
which was a great time. I loved getting to hang
out with her mom and her daughter, Layla and her
crew beforehand and just shoot the shit. She wants to
come on the show, so we'll see. I want to
run this interview, but maybe we'll have her back when
she's coming into Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
For her jersey retirement. You could never have too much
Candace and me.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She're going to be fired out because I did talk
about you in the interview and how you did I did.
I talked about how much it meant to you to
see the baby haired assassin who was this face of
straight mom WNBA players come out in her truth and
you know, have a wife and kiddos and make it
clear that you can be any and all things in
this league.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And so you loved so.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
That was great, And then later on in that day
did my interview with Azy Fudd announcing her new podcast,
Fought Around and find Out, which was great. Y'all are
going to love to hear from her, particularly, I think
the ways it feels like she's coming into her own
as an adult. She is so clearly the product of
her parents. She owes so much to two basketball playing
(27:12):
coaching parents, but also you can feel that this is
a really monumental time for her to find out who
she is independent of her family and to become her
own person, whether that's in her relationship with Page and
how they choose to discuss about it publicly, the choices
she makes around sponsors and business deals everything else. She
made a crack about missing her workout in the morning
because she partied too hard and how she's gonna make
(27:34):
up for it, but like, you know, finding that balance
of just being a twenty something kid and being someone
who has the weight of all these things on her shoulders.
So you guys are going to like that interview too.
So those are my big work. I also went to
the first annual Unstoppable Summit put on by the w
NBA and Deloitte, and that was really interesting. It was
(27:55):
interesting to hear from Kathy Engelbert in conversation with the
woman who runs the USOPC, and Val Ackerman, who runs
the Big East Conference, and how they're all battling different things,
whether that's trying to elevate and serve Olympic and Paralympic athletes,
college athletes, or professional athletes, and how the pipeline for
girls and women in sports feeds all of those things,
(28:16):
and how there's an intersection and the symbiotic relationship between
all of them.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I really love that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Then we had some breakout sessions about how to use
data to talk about fans and identify them, and then
got to hear from down Stay and Common in conversation
with Hannah Storm, and I of course love Common Chicago
guy and Dawn in her element, absolutely no filter. Just
hearing her talk is always a great time. And afterwards
(28:42):
I went up to introduce myself to Common and he
was like Sarah Spain, yo, I watch you all the
time you're Chicago and out like.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And then at the game I actually got to meet
Jay hudd to Jennifer Hudson, so it was like the
Chicago connection everywhere, which I loved, but it's.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Always it's so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I know a lot of people watch ESPN, but it's
crazy to me when it's like someone I assume has
no clue who I am. Like, I remember m NBA
All Star a couple of years ago. I said a
party with ghost Face from Wu Tang and my friend
is obsessed with Wu Tang and was like, we have
to go up and meet him, and she's like, I'm scared.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I'm my god, let's just go introduce herself.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
He was like, yo, Sarah Spine the commission, like even
going by my nickname and now ghost Face that I
are like, butts like he hooks me up at their
concerts every text like and it was just like wild
to me when that stuff happens. But it was really
really fun and that summit was interesting, and I think
they're going to start having it every year, going to
be a really cool way to keep tabs on the
(29:42):
really high level stuff the league is doing to understand
its fan base adjust and grow as you know, everything grows.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
So that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
But that was really like the serious stuff I did,
and so allowed Saturday after the summit to be about
hanging with friends, going went to a gatorade the hour,
and then going to the game and completely missing the
party Saturday night because I worked until twelve fifteen after
the game ended, and then looked and I go, oh,
twelve to fifteen. Oh yeah, I'm not putting on ad
(30:12):
dress and making it out to eddie parties starting at
twelve thirty.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm too old for.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
That, which is a bummer because Diplow and a bunch
of other people were at one of the ones I
was going to go to.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
But that does bring us.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
To the party's Meiche done it though, Let's start with
our own deep Blue Slash iHeart Slash Jam Session, Slash
Ensemble slash Say last party.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
It was the most co sponsored party of.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
The weekend in the history of the world.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And you and I really botched this one, Meche. We really,
we didn't do this right. We went early, right after
the skills competition, and it was slow. Because this is
a crowd that like goes and eats dinner at ten
thirty and rolls up at midnight and party is still four.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
That's not exactly who we Aremiche.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
No, you because.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You're an indoor cat and me because I'm old and
so we got there early.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
It was fun.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
We got to hang out with Christina and Tarika and
a bunch of other folks from the iHeart Women's Sports Network.
We got to chat it up with Asy and other
folks there. But after Flage performed and shut it down.
By the way, I saw you going back and forth
with her, which was so fun, and you, guys, I think, yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Did the same thing last year, but she was a performer. Man,
I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It was a really good time.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But after that, I'm like, I guess this is probably
gonna slow down. So I'm gonna head out and go
to super Bird and Meghan Rappino's party. You're like, okay, cool,
I'm gonna head to Kids Parker's party. And the next
morning I'm on the Socials and I'm like, oh no,
that party got really good. It was like angel Rees dance,
I got tables and the stud Bud's going off and
(31:43):
just we did it wrong.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah, Paige Becker's scream singing love by Kisha Cole, Like,
there was so much going on, and the worst part
for me is I left the iHeart party, went to
CP's party, ran into you know, a lot of folks.
So that was wonderful. But then made my way back
to the iHeart party and guess what, it was still
not the time that the Shenanigans popped in too early.
(32:05):
It was still too early, y'all. When I went back,
it was easily one forty in the morning. One thirty
in the morning. I needed to go to sleep because
there was a whole other day to do things on Saturday,
and so I was so sure that the party was
going to end. Clearly it did not.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That's how we know these players are a different time.
That's how we know these players are different, by the way,
because they were playing in a game the next day. Yeah, yeah,
we weren't doing it and we still couldn't make it.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I don't know how in the world they did it,
but it was. It was a wonderful time. Ran into
so many people. You mentioned Candice Parker. When I went
to her party, I actually ran into her mom, and
so I got to say, like, thank you for bringing
her into the world.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Basically, her mom's so great, she's the sweetest. She said.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I need to go by Sarah raw because everybody should
be because I'm so good at what I do, Like
did she really it.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Was so cute.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I cannot believe that is that is the best. But yeah,
I mean everybody y'all can imagine we're at these parties.
Ran into the China again, Drea Carter, Amadi Brooks and
Sid Colson, so that duo. I love them so much,
TP yep TP, Alicia j Ri Kayala Grady who we
just had on last week, Ros Golden Woude, Adam Johnson,
(33:18):
just these all these different people were outside having a
great time.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Jordan Robbins and I ran into Alexa Philip, who coached
Jackie Aaron Foley.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Like so many of the guests of the show.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Friends of the Show, I got to chop it up
with Marina Maybury and Sanaia Rivers, who I had no
idea that Hard Launch was dropping. And people are still like,
we can't help they're messing with us.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I still can't really tell.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
If you don't know a photo shoot that they took
in the official WNBA booth that is on the WNBA Instagram,
that is a hard Launch to me. Then you hear
them on the Live with the stud Buds talking about
how Courtney's telling Sinaia Rivers like, come with me to
this party, I have to see where the bad bitches are.
And then Marina's like, she's already with a bad bitch, like,
(34:05):
don't be trying to take my lady to another party
to meet other ladies. And then they were everywhere together
all weekend. I was literally on the street with them,
and I had already talked to Marina about insulting people's
dogs on our show, and we had laughed and gone
separate ways and ended up in the same place leaving
on the street, and I turned to go, oh, by
the way, I forgot to mention congrats on the hard launch,
(34:26):
and they both were.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Like, thanks, Wow, I must have missed that part of
the stream you just mentioned. And that's I mean, that's confirmation, man,
that's you know what, good for them, good for the
good for them because the content has been hilarious since
and I I got into the league. I can't even
lie to you.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Uh wow, wow wow wow.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Look at you breaking some news.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Kind We have to take a quick break. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Speaking of poops, engage shit stud buds were everywhere. They
have changed the game, perhaps forever, assuming anyone else has
that kind of energy and is fine with zero filter none, zero, sleep,
zero tact zero anything. The stud buds Natisha Heideman and
(35:23):
Courtney Williams Bright pink hair.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Mask, black queer.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It's the little nuggets.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
They're so small, they're like the two little small just
like powerhouses who are hilarious, shameless. And they did a
essentially live stream for the entire weekend, seventy.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Two hours, seventy two hours straight.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
From red carpets to parties, to games, to courtside to
Glow's performance. You could see it all there, and it
was so fun to watch the way they changed everyone
they came in contact with, the ones who didn't know
of them became joyful. Like I said, Kathy Engelbert was
dancing to Knuck if You Buck, Okay.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
The funniest I've ever seen, because she was doing the
white girl abouts too.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Of course that's all she knows, that's all I know.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And just it was just really fun how much they
brought the content of the weekend to everybody else. When
you hear when you listen to a podcast like this,
if you didn't go, you're excited to get some of
the behind the scenes, but you feel like a little
foam mo of like I don't really know what it's
like to be there. The stud buds took you about
as close as you could get.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
They gave you everything. They got closer with the Twitter
stream than I did the whole weekend. Literally literally we
missed everything and they caught everything, and everybody who watched
caught everything. Like they gave us Paisy Page and asy
Fudd content, they gave us Kathy, they gave us Diplo. Yeah,
how did they end up in the booth with Diplo
(36:56):
telling him how to do his job?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
That was the party I was supposed to be at,
and it's Diplo presents, someone I've never heard of. I'm like, oh,
he's not gonna be there. They're just using his name.
And then I saw the clips and again I was like,
damn yeah, almost in my room I could have been
at Diplo. But that was the best part was Court
Williams going up to Diplo, one of the most famous
DJs in the world, in the middle of his set,
and being like, Hey, can you stop playing EDM and
(37:19):
play some.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Other music for me? And he's like, no, I'm Diplo,
this is what I do. They were just it was.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Just so fun and to my point from Friday to
have centered and bringing so much joy black queer women
in a league that has so much of that. And
it's not to say it's at the expense of anything else.
It's just that that so often gets buried in favor
of other things, and for it to be centered and
(37:48):
for again Kathy Engelbert to be embracing in part of
it in multiple streams. She was there in one party,
she was there in another party. You know, I think
I think she probably know, Oh, she's got to do
some of that right now. Is she's trying to make
nice with the players for CBA negotiations. I gotta look
like someone who knows what's going on.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
One thousand percent. And the one thing I'll also say
is I love that Court and Natsha. It was such
a simple idea. But they would not be refused. They
would not be you know, deterred. They were just gonna
do it the way that they were gonna do it.
And I can't lie to you. Before the weekend started,
I had seen a couple posts about the content that
they had already put out, because they've been going live
(38:29):
at like six pm every Wednesday or something like that
for the last month or so, and I'd seen some
posts from the league and from other sources not calling
them stud buds, calling them best buds, or misspelling the
name of their duo, and I was just like, we're
not gonna do this. I want you to know this
isn't gonna happen because he the two of them aren't
gonna let it happen. And b we're at that point
(38:50):
with the w where we need to stop pretending like,
you know, we got to cater to the family, friendliest whatever,
like babes, they're studs. They are the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
We're gonna use the words you brought me to the
next part and the closing part of this recap perfectly
because I want to do a little winners and losers.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
So the winners very clearly are the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Right, Everybody got to learn, if they didn't already see
content from them leading up to this weekend, that they
have something special and that it's a lot of fun
to just embrace it and be a part of it
and let them kind of be your hosts for the
weekend and take you around and be authentically and truly
and genuinely themselves. The loser for me and I'm not
going to call out this person by name. I think
(39:33):
this person actually does a good job at their job.
But an executive from the league on a panel I
heard said Natasha and Courtney as the stud buds. Her
name is Natasha. And you have to know your players.
They have to be the most important thing. And we've
(39:55):
talked about this when it comes to media and access,
that if you let people in to interview these players
who clearly don't watch, don't know them, ask bad questions,
ask things that make it clear they don't know any
history or context or nuance or anything. You make it
okay and not shameful. And in men's sports, you cannot
(40:15):
walk into a locker room and get names wrong and
facts wrong and not feel embarrassed by that. There's an
expectation that you know the topic you're there to cover
when you get there. And that's not to say everyone
always does in men's sports, but you come in with
some nerves if you don't know your shit. And in
women's sports, we got to stop allowing for the wrong
names for not knowing your history, especially for someone who
(40:39):
works for the league. And if you're in the middle
of CBA negotiations, and you're trying to tell us that
you understand that the players are the reason that fans
are there, that the money is coming in, that investment
is going up, that the players are everything, and you
call Natisha Hideman Natasha, that ain't it. And so again
I try not to blow up little things, but to me,
(41:02):
that should roll off your tongue.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. That's you. Gotta know it,
because you get ridiculed. On the other side, you will
get ridiculed. You will get trolled like all of it.
And not to say that that's great, but you know,
there's definitely that culture there that needs to be brought
to the w as well. Goodness winner for me is
the city of Indianapolis and the Fever organization putting together
(41:27):
an All Star that I do think top last year's
All Star and last year's All Star was pretty damn
good in Phoenix. We were both there for that too.
I mean from the names they brought in we mentioned Glorilla,
but I think also the branding in the ways that
those parties and events were executed. I haven't heard any
(41:47):
bad things about those, and that's not necessarily the Fever,
but that's just you know, it's a part. It's a
byproduct of, you know, the tone that they set. I
think Glow being there, I think at Feverfest. So I
didn't go to the All Star Game. I went to
Feverfest and said just to see what it was talking about.
They had Cedric the entertainer, Leslie Jones, Dion Cole, d
(42:07):
Nice Okay, they had beer performing there, they had g Easy.
Like the way that the organization in the city came
together to put on such a great event. Again, everything
was walking distance, they had petty cabs for people. It
was just it was beautiful to watch it all come together.
It was pretty seamless from my experience. So shout out
to the Fever organization and shout out to the city
(42:28):
of Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Quickly, I want to add if you saw my face
when they showed Leslie Jones next to G Easy on
the JumboTron at the game, and I was like, oh,
mouth a gape, that's g Easy, Like just calling myself
out as someone who did not know what G Easy
looked like.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
That was not what I was expecting.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, And to your point about the city, I ran
into Kelly Cross Coops a lot throughout the weekend, the
president of basketball for the Fever or someone who helped
build that team from the ground up and then came
back around to take over again, and just had a
lot of praise for the way she talked about their
planning and everything they were doing for the city, the
(43:12):
way she was checking in with folks to see how
things were going.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
They even had trolleys.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
There was a trolley that passed by me on the
street blasting be our guest, with just people waving at
everyone like they were determined to make everyone feel welcome.
And to your point, there were some concerns about that,
and they were they were completely erased.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, picking losers is hard, Sarah, and I'm glad to
say that picking losers is very hard. Honestly, I'll say
anybody who was also working and tried to ensure I'll
start working was a loser.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Our livers, our vocal cords.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
The bags under my eyes are designer, as they say,
I've never had this much purple on my face, under
my eyes and my entire life. But that doesn't make
us losers, really, no, it just makes me.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I had a good time enjoyed the league. You and
I both were mature.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You had an early flight, so you skipped the partying Saturday.
On Thursday night, when I first got in, I went
to the together party and it was awesome, and I
had to leave because it was so loud that my
voice was starting to go. And I knew I had
my interviews all day the next day and my work stuff,
and so I very maturely had ad drink and then
(44:23):
made myself leave at midnight. And that is progress for me,
because it was a raging party and it was really fun.
Ed I had to show myself the door so I
could work the next day.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Patting myself on the back. Okay, my last Winners and
Losers is actually kind of the same.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
The league is a winner to your point, because it
was a great event, But the league is also a
loser to me in the sense of the moment during
the game when the band started chanting pay them It
to me immediately evoked the World Cup when the US won,
and instead of the fans in a different country chanting USA, USA,
they were chanting equal pay, Equal Pay. When you win
(45:04):
a World Cup and your fans are so directly tied
to your fight for something beyond that victory that they
in that moment, start chanting equal pay in a stadium
of people is standing behind paying women what they're worth.
That was a no going back moment for me with
the US women's national team in US soccer.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
They were not going to win that fight.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
And as I stood and turned behind me to look
at a whole section of fans, some of them holding
up signs that said pay them, chanting, pay them, pay them.
When Kathy got on the mic, instead of just cheering
for Fee winning MVP, they had a mission to make
sure that their voices were heard. In that moment, I
already knew it was lights out for the league in
(45:47):
this fight, but the public pressure in addition to the data,
in addition to the valuations, in addition to Claudia Golden,
who I got to talk to and asked to come
on our show to talk about the economics behind the
paying of the players, you know, based on revenue, all.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Of that added up and the fans chanting, that's.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
A that's a win for the PA in my opinion,
and the players.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And also shout out to Rebecca and Ryan, Andrea and
El and Cheney for tea in Holly row for teeing
up the players on the live broadcast to talk about
the CBA negotiations and not shying away from that conversation.
I also thought that was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I got to see all them.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I got to shout out my girl, Elle Duncan, because
she went from the US Women's National Team Players Association
Ball on Tuesday, where I saw her, to the SP's
on Wednesday, where she walked the red carpet, was on
the live air, and then flew to Indy where she
hosted All Weekend and is flying straight to fill in
for Mark.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
And Kelly hasn't been home.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
In three weeks and she sprained her ankle so well
down the stairs right before the All Star Game. So
I see her coming into work and she is limping,
and I'm like Domino's injury because I saw her at
Kandae Parker's party, and she's like even lamer. I tripped
on some stairs dead sober, so shouts to Elle for
(47:13):
being a workhorse and heal up girl.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
But yeah, you're right. They all did a fantastic job.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
We could say so much more, but we've gone on
too long. As always, we got to take another break.
When we come back, we wear the moment and I
almost die.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
That's next. Welcome back, Slices.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day. You can get your
own pay us what You Owe Us t shirt. The
WNBA Players Association is selling the T shirts that the
players wore in warm ups for the All Star Game
via Breaking Tea, and we'll put a link to it
in the show notes if you want to rock your own. Also,
(47:58):
speaking of wearing the Moment and Breaking t shirts, it
was really fun to run into Slices wearing Good Game
Merchant Indie. In fact, I sat down to interview Azy
Fudd and immediately spotted a pair of Slices front row
wearing I'm a Slice and.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Good Game, Good Game f you shirts, which was a joy.
It was great to meet you, Megan and Jenna, thanks
again for coming. And they got to meet you too, Mesh.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Right, yes they did. They came over to the Round
twenty one booth and at first, I can't lie to you,
I was like, who are these two people just walking
towards me right now? Because I was there to do
content capture and there was so much other stuff going on,
but they came up to me. It was like producer
mees amazing the live podcast and I was like, how
can you recognize what? And I guess my face does
(48:41):
end up on the graphics.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Yeah, that was weird.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Really you're on there, those really cool speaking Around twenty one,
they sent me a shirt that I did not order.
I ordered a T shirt and they sent me a
couple other things and I was like, this looks too
cool for me to ever order it, which means I
should wear it.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
And then I got so many compliments.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
If anyone wants to style me by sending me stuff
they think I should be wearing instead of the stuff
I order, much appreciated at eight two thank you. Thank
you as for the slice merch and those fans we
saw that could be you next time if you get
your merch. So go check out our show Merch on
Breakingta dot com slash Spain. We'll also link to it
in the show notes. All the cool kids are wearing it.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Get you some.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
We always love to hear from you, so hit us
up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or
leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two O
four fifty seventy, specially if you were at All Star weekend,
tell us if you did anything cool, saw anything cool,
something we'd love to hear about. Don't forget to subscribe
Rate and Review too, y'all. It's easy watch closing out
an epic All Star weekend with a white knuckle drive
(49:42):
home in a thunderstorm rating zero out of zero visibility review.
Nothing like capping off a great weekend where you lived
it up VIP style. Quite like driving your own ass
home three hours in a rental through a thunderstorm, popping
on the hazards, squinting to see that there is a
ahead of you and wondering if it's all going to
(50:02):
end Final destination style right there on I sixty five North. Thankfully,
I exercised some patience for the first time in my life,
slowed down to a snail's pace, and literally weathered the storm,
making it home in one piece. A napp is very
much in my future. Now it's your turn, Rate and Review.
Thanks for listening, y'all. See you tomorrow when you'll hear
(50:23):
my interview with Azy Fud, Good Game Team Callier, Good Games,
Sabrina and Tosh.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You racist euro fans.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
(50:53):
Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones. Production assistance
from Avery Loftus and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're back
from WNBA All Star Weekend and Dragon ass like the
stud Buds after a seventy two hour live stream, somebody
get the ivs. It's Monday, July twenty first, and on
today's show, I'll be joined by producer Meich to debrief
on this weekend's All Star festivities, from the game to
the parties and the live shows to the live streams,
(00:21):
the latest on the negotiations between WNBA players and the league,
and seeing slices in the wild, plus Hooper soupod, signs
of another trend spin and a real life reboot takes shape.
It's all coming out right after this Welcome Back Slices.
Here's what you need to know today. Let's start with
(00:44):
the WNBA and this weekend's All Star festivities in Indianapolis,
Nafisa Collier scored an All Star record thirty six points
to win MVP honors as Team Callier beat Team Clark
one fifty one one in the All Star Game Saturday night.
Skyler Diggins, who competing with Team Collier, put up the
first triple double in All Star history with eleven points,
(01:05):
eleven rebounds, and an All Star record fifteen assists in
the win. Neka Ogumkay, another member of Team Collier, also
made some history as she broke the record for most
career All Star field goals.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
A head of the All Star.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Game, individual pride, along with some cash money, was on
the line with the three Point Contest and Skills Challenge
on Friday night the New York Liberties. Natasha Cloud won
the Skills Challenge, recording the fastest time in both rounds,
overcoming a rough shooting performance with a whole lot of speed.
After the win, she embraced girlfriend and teammate Isabel Harrison
and told ESPN's Holly Row she'd be using the money
(01:41):
she won for a down payment on a house. Cloud said, quote,
that's Izzybee's money. She told me to go win this
money for a home, and that's what it's going down to.
Plenty to say about that moment later in the show.
It was a great night for the Liberty overall, as
Cloud's performance was followed by teammate Sabrini and Escu winning
her second WNBA three Point Contest, scoring thirty of the
(02:02):
possible forty points. Both Cloud and Yenescu are getting paid
for the performances, but most of the money they won
isn't coming from the WNBA itself. The league cut both
winners a check for just two thousand, five hundred and
seventy five dollars each, an amount agreed to in the
most recent collective bargaining agreement. The majority of the winnings
instead came from insurance company AFLAC, which teamed up with
(02:25):
the Players Association for a second straight year, paying Yenescu
sixty thousand dollars for her three point win and Cloud
fifty five thousand for her Skills Challenge win to ensure
that WNBA players take home the same payout that MNBA
players received from that league's individual.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
All Star contests.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Shout out to AFLAC for that and for bringing the
AFLAC duck to the WNBPA lounge. Or I got to
snap a pick best celebsiting all weekend for me. There's
another very cool moment that happened Friday night in the
press are after the competitions, as Yunescu announced that she'd
be giving half her winnings to Washington Miss Stick's guard
Sonya Citron for being the only rookie in the contest.
(03:04):
Said Yenescu quote, I told Sonya that I would give
her half if I won when we were sitting on
the bench.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Being the only rookie.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
She was nervous, and I was nervous for her. Obviously,
have to hold up my end of the bargain, so
half is going to her end.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yanescu is planning to give the rest of her prize
money to her charitable foundation SI twenty. And while the
extra dough is great on its own, the Affleck partnership
is also a very strategic move by the Players Association
as they look to highlight how the league continues to
undervalue players through low salaries and prize money. Speaking of
with the Players Association and WNBA currently negotiating a new
(03:39):
collective bargaining agreement, more than forty players attended a meeting
between the PA and the league on Thursday, marking the
largest in person player turnout in union history for CBA talks.
I tuk to a couple players that were in the
room and they said that Kathy looked a little agog
at the number of players walking through the door, and
they actually had to spread out the desks and chairs
(04:01):
to make room for all of them.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The meeting did end up.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Without resolution, leading the Players Association to issue the following statement, quote,
the WNBA's response to our proposals fails to address the
priorities we voiced from the day we opted out. A
transformational CBA that delivers our rightful share of the business
we built, improves working conditions, and ensures the success we
create lifts both today's players and the generations that follow
(04:27):
end quote. WNBA Commissioner kat The Engelbert meanwhile called the
meeting a constructive dialogue.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Obviously part of the process is to go back and
forth and listen to the players, they listen to us
and the owners who represent the board of governors. I
still feel really optimistic that we can get something transformational
done by the end, but it's a process.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
During warmups ahead of Saturday Night's All Star Game, players
made a statement about the ongoing negotiations, wearing shirts reading
pay us what you owe us, and fans at India's
Gainbridge Field House took that message and ran with it.
When Engelbert stepped on the court at the end of
the game to award Collire with her All Star MVP trophy,
the sold out crowd of sixteen thousand fans chanted pay Them,
(05:11):
Pay Them over and over again. We'll chat about that
moment later in the show too, when I'll be joined
by producer Miish to recap the whole weekend some more.
Hoopstews ucon star Azy Fudd is launching her own podcast
right here on the Iheartwomen's Sports Network. The show, called
fud Around and find Out, officially launches on August seventh.
I actually interviewed Asy while I was out in India
(05:33):
as part of a live Good Game show, so you'll
get to hear a lot more about her new podcast
and whether her Husky alum girlfriend Paige Becker's will be
a guest during Tuesday's episode of Good Game. And lest
you think, I interviewed just one superstar Hooper with a
new podcast this weekend, Think Again. I also hosted a
live conversation as part of the Wiser Symposium with the
(05:54):
one and only Candice Parker, in which we talked about
her new book, The Can Do Mindset. You know, Candace
Parker's stays busy too, so in addition to the book,
she's also launching a new show with Indiana Fever star
Alliah Boston. The show called Post Moves will premiere on
July thirtieth, and just like with Azy, you'll get to
hear my conversation with Candace right here on Good Game
(06:15):
to tune in on Wednesday. And I want to give
a big thanks to Wise for giving every attendee of
the symposium a copy of my book Runs in the
Family and hosting a book signing during the symposium. It
was so fun to sign books, chat with the ten
d's about it, and meet lots of slices to the NWSL.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
The league is.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Still on a summer break through the end of the month,
but that doesn't mean the players aren't training. And that
list of players training now includes Trinity Rodman, who practiced
with her Washington Spirit teammates on Saturday for the first
time in three months. Rodman has been sidelined by an
ongoing back injury that has severely limited her time with
both the Spirit and the US national team during the
last year. A Spirit spokesperson told the ESPNS Jeff Casoof quote,
(06:55):
player health and well being are always our top priorities.
He has put in a tremendous amount of work to
return to training. She's an important part of our team.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
No word yet on when Rodman will be back on
the pitch for games, but we're happy to hear she's
back training again and getting one step closer to another
trend spin more NWSL News Got Them FC's Jess Carter,
who's been competing with England during the ongoing European Championships,
shared on social media she's been dealing with racist treatment
from fans throughout the tournament. On Sunday, Carter wrote on Instagram,
(07:29):
quote from the start of the tournament, I've experienced a
lot of racial abuse. Whilst I feel every fan is
entitled to their opinion on performance and result, I don't
agree or think it's okay to target someone's appearance or race.
As a results of this, I will be taking a
step back from social media and leaving it to a
team to deal with, she continued. Hopefully speaking out will
make the people writing this abuse think twice so that
(07:50):
others won't have to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
In response, the England Lionesses said that the team would
stop taking a knee before matches, a gesture meant to
stand against racism, saying in a statement it is quote
clear we in football need to find another way to
tackle racism end quote. Back in the US, the NWSL
and WSL Players Association and GOTHAMFC all issued statements condemning
(08:14):
the racist abuse, with Gotham saying quote, we are heartbroken
and outraged by the racist abuse directed at Jess Carter.
Jess is not only a world class football player, she
is a role model, a leader and a valued part
of our Gotham FC family. To tennis, where Venus Williams
is competing for the first time in sixteen months. The
forty five year old Williams was offered a wild card
(08:35):
for the DC Open this week, her first tournament since
the Miami Open in March of twenty twenty four. She
opens play today with a round a thirty two match
against fellow American Peyton Stearns at ten am Eastern. At
a pre tournament press conference on Sunday, Venus said she
wished younger sister Serena, who retired in twenty twenty two,
would make her return to the court too, noting that
(08:56):
Serena even joined in for fifteen minutes of a recent
practice session. Quote, she can take six months off and
she clocks it clean. You can't teach that kind of talent.
She's just so good end quote. For now, we're just
going to enjoy seeing Venus back on the court. But
can you imagine finally a little bit of baseball news.
Many of you might remember Monet Davis, who in twenty fourteen,
(09:18):
at the age of thirteen, became the first girl to
pitch a victory and a shutout during the.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Little League World Series.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Well ahead of the launch of the Women's Professional Baseball
League next year, Davis is planning to try out. Davis
is now twenty four years old, and she's expected to
be one of six hundred players competing at tryouts in Washington,
d C. From August twenty second through the twenty fifth.
From those six hundred players, one hundred and fifty will
be selected to be eligible for the league's inaugural draft
(09:45):
in October. The Women's Professional Baseball League, the WPBL, is
aiming to launch next summer with six teams, and it'll
be the first women's baseball league to launch since the
All American Girls Professional Baseball League aka the inspiration for
a league of their own, shut down back in nineteen
fifty four.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All Right, we got to take a quick break. When
we come back.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Me and Mish dish on everything that went down in
Indy back in.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
A Jeff.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I am now joined by producer Mish, who was also
in Indie for All Star.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Hey Mesh, what's up Sarah Spain?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, it's nice to see you again, but it was
better to see you in person. And now we're back
on a zoom. Yeah, it was nice for all of
the two seconds. It's like an annual hang Yes, just
one time of year.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We get to kick it.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
We got to get Alex out there. We've never many
of us been in the same place.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I know, it's so crazy. We got to do that,
all right.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
There's so much to discuss from this weekend. As I suspected,
Indie crushed it, and one of the reasons is because
everything is so close.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I imagine on a game night when there's a lot
going on, it's probably annoying to have so much traffic
in one area, But for something like this event, being
able to walked to so many places and being able
to hit up a bunch of events and parties without
having to go too far was key. Because meischh, this
weekend was packed full of things to do.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
There was so much to do.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Let's start with kind of the point, which is the contest,
the skills, and three point in the game itself. Shout
out to the espnW folks for the suite on Friday.
It was super fun to hang out in there with
my girls from the gist and a bunch of other
folks and always nice to hang with my espnW crew.
My biggest takeaways from those were some of the moments
(11:32):
that happened during them, more so than the outcomes. It
was awesome to see Natasha Cloud and Sabrina win. It
was awesome to be court side for the game. Thank
you to Gatorade for the amazing court side seat and
get to see all the players close up. But neither
of them was something really to write home about.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
For me.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It was the moments that happened during them, and Mesh,
I have to imagine that you were with me in
thinking how cool it was to see on national television
Natasha Cloud when embrace her girlfriend, have this moment of
just proud black queer joy and.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Have it be like this celebration.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It was so much cooler than just tugging your teammate,
which she did, but it was so much cooler to
have that moment.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
It was and it it filled my heart, was so
much joy because it wasn't just her and we'll get
to more of the black queer joy that was on display.
But to do that and have that kind of vibe
in Indiana in a place that personally, I was worried.
I can't lie to you. I was worried about how
things might go. I was worried about how, you know,
die hard Fever fans and some of the ones who
(12:39):
are you know, kind of on the extreme side and
doing a lot and being disrespectful, controlling on social media.
Like I was worried that the mishmash of all these
different people would create some issues. And seeing that on
the court that set the tone for everything right and
Completeeing that on the court and what we saw off
the court, which we'll get into in a second, I
think really, you know, created a culture around the weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I agree, And I also think during the game itself,
it was really really cool during the introductions to hear
a fan base in that building that recognized greatness. They
lost their minds for Asia, they lost their minds for Fee.
You know, it wasn't just about the Fever players. It
(13:22):
certainly wasn't just about Caitlin Clark. They lost their minds
for Angel Reese, which I was wondering if there'd be
any of like there's a beef. It just felt so
nice in person to have it not be how it
feels online.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yes, and it's a great reminder that, like the Internet
is not real life. Yes in a good way and
a like in a bad way. Of course, when you
talk to people online you talking crazy. That's also not
real life. Get you, you know, say it with your chest.
But it's also a great thing that we have real
connections with real people in real life, and it was
great to have that confidence restored in the fan base.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Producer Alex just asked a great question in the chat.
If you're the kind of fan who's not actually a fan,
you're a fan of Caitlin, not basketball, not the w
then maybe you stayed home. And I'm sure a lot
of Fever and Caitlin fans who are legit Hoops fans
were in the building. There was tons of Caitlyn gear,
there were tons of people there. They went nuts for
(14:18):
her when she got introduced, even though she wasn't playing.
But maybe that subset of folks who have mal intent.
Either they're literally just online trolls who stir up shit,
or they stayed home.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, you know, I have another take on this. I
think I'm still very not disappointed but sad that Caitlyn
didn't get to participate because obviously everybody, including herself, wanted
her to participate. But I think because All Star tickets
cost money, there were a lot of people who probably
bought the tickets to go see Caitlyn saw that she
(14:52):
wouldn't be participating in anything, and were like, well, I
got the tickets, I gotta go anyway, and then we're
proven wrong, We're showed how much the rest of the
league has to offer. Were reminded, Oh, this league's made
up of damn near one hundred and fifty two hundred
people who also have stories, who are also extremely cool, wonderful,
personable people who have a lot of characters who are funny,
(15:16):
and so I like to think that's kind of what happened.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I like that spin on it. I hope that's true.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
The mascots were all there, which was so much fun
for me, especially because Ellie ended up hanging out near
my seat for most of the game.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And was just doing her ellie thing.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I was a couple of people down from Don Staley, who,
by the way, at one of the events earlier in
the day, had been joking about how the tickets were
going for so much she might sell her to make
some money because of how much demand.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
There was for game tickets.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
But Don Staley bam out of bio plies like just
row of celebs to my right, and it was really
fun watching them all interact with the players during the game,
and I think being so close being on the court
for it, I was able to really see the little
moments of fun that the players had together, the kind
of like aggressive fake fouls where they're just hugging each
(16:09):
other and preventing them from moving Asia, you know, getting
fouled by her former teammate Kelsey Plumb coming all the
way down the court and yelling foul bow Bow bow
as you're being bear Hunt was right in front of me.
The moments where you could see them kind of trying
to set up places for each other. I think my
favorite moment in the game, besides at the half, when
I was waiting the bathroom line with Tamika Catchings and
(16:30):
a couple other legends and we were talking about shit'
me excuse me, yes, Candice to pre Tamika catchings.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I listen, Mesh.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We could spend the whole podcast talking about just me
dropping names, just you tripping over all the names I'm
dropping because I'm telling.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You it was unreal. This weekend the.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Below the court club before you got to the court
side seats. Again, shout out to Gatorad because this was
the coolest experience. Was full of hanging out with Robin Roberts,
hanging out with Steph White, you know, hanging out with
legends of the game. Took a picture with Kate Martin
for my friend, who literally said she'd leave her husband
for She's like, I'm not into that, but I'll leave
(17:12):
an upband for Kate Martin. So I'm like, God, I
think God to get a helpie. It was just so
much fun. But I was in line with Tamik and
all them, and someone was like, who you think is
gonna get MVP? And I had not looked up at
the box score at all because it's an All Star game.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I'm just not paying attention in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And I was like, someone tells me, Fe's just going
to keep hitting those like six footers without ever missing
while everyone else is trying to jack up four pointers
and end up having some crazy number of points that
we don't even notice.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I came back from the half look up she.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Had thirty already, you know, I was like, oh wait,
this is already happening. But I think my favorite moment
of the game was the very end less than like
a minute to go, less than like ten seconds to go,
when Kiki Eriefen missed a four pointer. Brianna Stewart got
the rebound and instead of the game ending, she passed
it back to her to try again and she made it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
On the other team.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, the other team. It was just like the w
in a nutshell.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah, I think so too. Of course, I was happy
to see that because my rookie, you know, Okola eria
Fen all right, the mystics were representing very well. But yeah,
I just thought that was so dope as well. But
my favorite moment was during halftime. It wasn't the main
focus of the broadcast because Gloilla was obviously performing, but
after the fact on social media, when I saw how
(18:25):
much fun the players were having on the side by
watching that performance, that's that's what this league needs.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Man.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
It's just watching them be human beings, be real people,
interact with each other, show you fun, joyful yes with
each other, showing y'all. Yes, we can compete at an elite, elite,
best of the best in the world level on the court,
and we can be cool.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
We can kick it.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Like.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I just thought that was so cool man.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I completely agree.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know if you saw any of my stories,
but everyone had to come past me to go on
and off the court, including Glowrilla.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So when she went by, I was like, okay, I
let her cook. Let her cook, she please.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know, Ared Glow has such an impact, like she's
such a performer, and I'm glad people got to see
that in the in the w space. But you know,
Britney Sykes doing her little drum major majorrette dance.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I took video of all those players who there. I
could see them in front of me.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I said to my friend, I'm like, why haven't they
left the court. It's halftime and I'm watching the court.
They're all staying for Glow like they don't want to leave.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, so fun. I agree with you. That was
also a super super fun moment.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Also wanted to point out that we got some good
presser moments both I mentioned earlier the Sabrine Escu giving
half of her winnings to.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Sonya, that was great.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We got some really funny sound from Fie and Caitlin
throughout as the two captains. One, for instance, wanted to
shout out when Nancy Armor was on. We had a
question about who suggested the coach swap, and Fee did
confirm this weekend that she was the one who's said
she wanted Cheryl Reeves. So you know, my bad on
assuming that maybe Caitlin didn't want to play for her
or maybe that was still part of it. But I
(20:08):
liked to hear that that she was the one who
initiated that. But they also were joking about partying a lot,
and I think we have the sound from that. Y'all
just have to hear it for yourself.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Hi, Tiana Randall Forbes question for both of you. Also,
our weekend is notoriously a very fun weekend for both
the players and people who come, and we've seen through
like live streams and videos that you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Guys are having way more fun and staying out a
little bit more late than you may have anticipated. What
is some of them.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Messaging to do that normally you just never saw it.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Fee seven shoot around.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
There was no shoot around today. I brought team's canceled.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I heard, I heard, I hear I got picking up.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
So as captains, what type of messaging are you guys
sending to your players about balance and just making sure
you are still wanting to get the win.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
I mean, I told my teams have as much fun
as possible at practice. We just shot a little bit
and then we shout at half course shot and we
headed out. But I mean, like that's all start weekend,
like we joke about winning, but at the end of
the day, like it's it's not that serious. It's been
cool just to see, you know, everything that's been going
on and how much everybody's enjoying it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I mean, exactly the same.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I wasn't telling them anything about preparing for the game.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
We were preparing to be on sub buds.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Now listen, we're going to talk about the stud buds
in a minute, just MVPs of the weekend, so we'll
get back to the stud buds. But I did like
to hear them just kind of acknowledging that this was
less about the basketball. It was about basketball, but also
just about the event and having fun and coming together.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Which was really cool. It was also about some work stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Some of us had to work in between the partying
and the fun and the games, So tell us about
what you were up to.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I was there with they can't retire from this
collective storytelling collective that I'm a part of, and we
host the podcast called Sideline Stories. So the big marquee
event for us this weekend, we held a live podcast
with three ladies from the WBL, the Women's Professional Basketball League,
the first ever women's pro league in the United States.
We talked to shar mccordter, Liz mcquitter, and Adrian Newell.
(22:26):
Thank you to the three of them for joining us,
and had a really robust discussion about the history of
that league and how you know we're at WNBA All
Star and this is a prime example of a time
that would be great for the league to use to
educate fans on the leagues that have come before, the pioneers,
the stars that have come before. You know, Muffat McGrath
played in the WBL. We had machine Gun, Molly Bolan
(22:48):
who was Clark before Caitlin Clark was out of Moravier, Iowa.
Those are names that people don't know, you know what
I'm saying, And I feel like having the space to
talk to them and let them share their stories was
extreme special to me into our entire group and frankly
to them as well, and I got to have some
really emotional conversations with them off mic as well. That
we stayed at the same hotel, which was serendipitous, so
(23:10):
got to spend more time with them. But that was
definitely a big highlight. Shout out to all of the
people who came to that. Shout out to the Tunnel
Fits Pod. Those folks came through, My Rising Media Stars family,
rolled through, Latna Robinson of course, the head Honchow came
through and a few of the other members of the group,
and then WNBA Live. That was a big portion of
what I did this weekend. We were at the Round
(23:32):
twenty one booth doing some content capture, so we got
to capture some stuff with Paige Becker's, with Rakia Jackson,
with Aleah Boston, all the different star players who came
through to the booth and talk to a lot of
fans and a lot of folks who are in spheres
of influence around in and around the game as well.
So all in all, it was it was exhausting. You know,
(23:53):
it was full days, as I imagine you're about to
tell us about your full days as well. But in
the end, you know, it's always beautiful to be in
community with the people who love this game in this
league as much as I do, and I already can't
wait for next year.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. My full day was really Friday.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I got to hang more or at tend things with
that having to be on stage performing on Thursday and Saturday,
But Friday, I actually started my day by going.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
To a brunch.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It was the WNBPA and the National Women's Law Center
hosting an event at the WNBPA lounge talking about it's
called Don't Bench Our History, and it was about the
combined sort of feeling of trying to erase the history
of black people, both as players and as people who
founded this league and just in general in society, and
how do we address and work through what's going on
(24:40):
at the very highest levels in this country right now,
and then what's going on with players in this league.
And the CBA was Terry Carmichael Jackson, Temmy fag Benley,
a woman called Fatima from the National Women's Law Center,
and another woman who moderated. Also got to hear Temmy
talk about the movie she's going to be in coming
up with Viola Davis that you are so excited about.
(25:02):
I know me because you read the Book of Blood
and Bone.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Is that the name.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Children of Childreod and both children of Blood and Bone.
It was very cool, yes, to hear talk about that,
and honestly, very heartfelt conversation about the weight of everything
on the players in trying to balance and hold the
things that they represent and all of the things they
want to fight for while playing. And you know, one
thing that I heard that really stood out to me
was Terry talking about how much it matters to the
(25:29):
players to be informed and to get things right, and
how much the league leans on the National Women's Law
Center to ask about topics that might come up that
the players want to speak on eloquently, and how they
connect the players or give the players resources from the
National Women's Law Center to make sure that they're informed
and credible voices on this. And I just think people
(25:51):
don't really respect how much the w cares about that
and takes that responsibility and accountability of being voices. There
are so many athletes who will spat off about shit
without knowing anything about it or doing the work, and
in this case, I just really respected what they talked
about when it came to that. After that was when
my work started interviewing Candace Parker at the Wiser Symposium,
(26:13):
which was a great time. I loved getting to hang
out with her mom and her daughter, Layla and her
crew beforehand and just shoot the shit. She wants to
come on the show, so we'll see. I want to
run this interview, but maybe we'll have her back when
she's coming into Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
For her jersey retirement. You could never have too much
Candace and me.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She're going to be fired out because I did talk
about you in the interview and how you did I did.
I talked about how much it meant to you to
see the baby haired assassin who was this face of
straight mom WNBA players come out in her truth and
you know, have a wife and kiddos and make it
clear that you can be any and all things in
this league.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And so you loved so.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
That was great, And then later on in that day
did my interview with Azy Fudd announcing her new podcast,
Fought Around and find Out, which was great. Y'all are
going to love to hear from her, particularly, I think
the ways it feels like she's coming into her own
as an adult. She is so clearly the product of
her parents. She owes so much to two basketball playing
(27:12):
coaching parents, but also you can feel that this is
a really monumental time for her to find out who
she is independent of her family and to become her
own person, whether that's in her relationship with Page and
how they choose to discuss about it publicly, the choices
she makes around sponsors and business deals everything else. She
made a crack about missing her workout in the morning
because she partied too hard and how she's gonna make
(27:34):
up for it, but like, you know, finding that balance
of just being a twenty something kid and being someone
who has the weight of all these things on her shoulders.
So you guys are going to like that interview too.
So those are my big work. I also went to
the first annual Unstoppable Summit put on by the w
NBA and Deloitte, and that was really interesting. It was
(27:55):
interesting to hear from Kathy Engelbert in conversation with the
woman who runs the USOPC, and Val Ackerman, who runs
the Big East Conference, and how they're all battling different things,
whether that's trying to elevate and serve Olympic and Paralympic athletes,
college athletes, or professional athletes, and how the pipeline for
girls and women in sports feeds all of those things,
(28:16):
and how there's an intersection and the symbiotic relationship between
all of them.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I really love that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Then we had some breakout sessions about how to use
data to talk about fans and identify them, and then
got to hear from down Stay and Common in conversation
with Hannah Storm, and I of course love Common Chicago
guy and Dawn in her element, absolutely no filter. Just
hearing her talk is always a great time. And afterwards
(28:42):
I went up to introduce myself to Common and he
was like Sarah Spain, yo, I watch you all the
time you're Chicago and out like.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
And then at the game I actually got to meet
Jay hudd to Jennifer Hudson, so it was like the
Chicago connection everywhere, which I loved, but it's.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Always it's so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I know a lot of people watch ESPN, but it's
crazy to me when it's like someone I assume has
no clue who I am. Like, I remember m NBA
All Star a couple of years ago. I said a
party with ghost Face from Wu Tang and my friend
is obsessed with Wu Tang and was like, we have
to go up and meet him, and she's like, I'm scared.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I'm my god, let's just go introduce herself.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
He was like, yo, Sarah Spine the commission, like even
going by my nickname and now ghost Face that I
are like, butts like he hooks me up at their
concerts every text like and it was just like wild
to me when that stuff happens. But it was really
really fun and that summit was interesting, and I think
they're going to start having it every year, going to
be a really cool way to keep tabs on the
(29:42):
really high level stuff the league is doing to understand
its fan base adjust and grow as you know, everything grows.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
So that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
But that was really like the serious stuff I did,
and so allowed Saturday after the summit to be about
hanging with friends, going went to a gatorade the hour,
and then going to the game and completely missing the
party Saturday night because I worked until twelve fifteen after
the game ended, and then looked and I go, oh,
twelve to fifteen. Oh yeah, I'm not putting on ad
(30:12):
dress and making it out to eddie parties starting at
twelve thirty.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm too old for.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
That, which is a bummer because Diplow and a bunch
of other people were at one of the ones I
was going to go to.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
But that does bring us.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
To the party's Meiche done it though, Let's start with
our own deep Blue Slash iHeart Slash Jam Session, Slash
Ensemble slash Say last party.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
It was the most co sponsored party of.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
The weekend in the history of the world.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And you and I really botched this one, Meche. We really,
we didn't do this right. We went early, right after
the skills competition, and it was slow. Because this is
a crowd that like goes and eats dinner at ten
thirty and rolls up at midnight and party is still four.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
That's not exactly who we Aremiche.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
No, you because.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You're an indoor cat and me because I'm old and
so we got there early.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
It was fun.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
We got to hang out with Christina and Tarika and
a bunch of other folks from the iHeart Women's Sports Network.
We got to chat it up with Asy and other
folks there. But after Flage performed and shut it down.
By the way, I saw you going back and forth
with her, which was so fun, and you, guys, I think, yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Did the same thing last year, but she was a performer. Man,
I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
It was a really good time.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
But after that, I'm like, I guess this is probably
gonna slow down. So I'm gonna head out and go
to super Bird and Meghan Rappino's party. You're like, okay, cool,
I'm gonna head to Kids Parker's party. And the next
morning I'm on the Socials and I'm like, oh no,
that party got really good. It was like angel Rees dance,
I got tables and the stud Bud's going off and
(31:43):
just we did it wrong.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah, Paige Becker's scream singing love by Kisha Cole, Like,
there was so much going on, and the worst part
for me is I left the iHeart party, went to
CP's party, ran into you know, a lot of folks.
So that was wonderful. But then made my way back
to the iHeart party and guess what, it was still
not the time that the Shenanigans popped in too early.
(32:05):
It was still too early, y'all. When I went back,
it was easily one forty in the morning. One thirty
in the morning. I needed to go to sleep because
there was a whole other day to do things on Saturday,
and so I was so sure that the party was
going to end. Clearly it did not.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That's how we know these players are a different time.
That's how we know these players are different, by the way,
because they were playing in a game the next day. Yeah, yeah,
we weren't doing it and we still couldn't make it.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I don't know how in the world they did it,
but it was. It was a wonderful time. Ran into
so many people. You mentioned Candice Parker. When I went
to her party, I actually ran into her mom, and
so I got to say, like, thank you for bringing
her into the world.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Basically, her mom's so great, she's the sweetest. She said.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I need to go by Sarah raw because everybody should
be because I'm so good at what I do, Like
did she really it.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Was so cute.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I cannot believe that is that is the best. But yeah,
I mean everybody y'all can imagine we're at these parties.
Ran into the China again, Drea Carter, Amadi Brooks and
Sid Colson, so that duo. I love them so much,
TP yep TP, Alicia j Ri Kayala Grady who we
just had on last week, Ros Golden Woude, Adam Johnson,
(33:18):
just these all these different people were outside having a
great time.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Jordan Robbins and I ran into Alexa Philip, who coached
Jackie Aaron Foley.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Like so many of the guests of the show.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Friends of the Show, I got to chop it up
with Marina Maybury and Sanaia Rivers, who I had no
idea that Hard Launch was dropping. And people are still like,
we can't help they're messing with us.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I still can't really tell.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
If you don't know a photo shoot that they took
in the official WNBA booth that is on the WNBA Instagram,
that is a hard Launch to me. Then you hear
them on the Live with the stud Buds talking about
how Courtney's telling Sinaia Rivers like, come with me to
this party, I have to see where the bad bitches are.
And then Marina's like, she's already with a bad bitch, like,
(34:05):
don't be trying to take my lady to another party
to meet other ladies. And then they were everywhere together
all weekend. I was literally on the street with them,
and I had already talked to Marina about insulting people's
dogs on our show, and we had laughed and gone
separate ways and ended up in the same place leaving
on the street, and I turned to go, oh, by
the way, I forgot to mention congrats on the hard launch,
(34:26):
and they both were.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Like, thanks, Wow, I must have missed that part of
the stream you just mentioned. And that's I mean, that's confirmation, man,
that's you know what, good for them, good for the
good for them because the content has been hilarious since
and I I got into the league. I can't even
lie to you.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Uh wow, wow wow wow.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Look at you breaking some news.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Kind We have to take a quick break. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Speaking of poops, engage shit stud buds were everywhere. They
have changed the game, perhaps forever, assuming anyone else has
that kind of energy and is fine with zero filter none, zero, sleep,
zero tact zero anything. The stud buds Natisha Heideman and
(35:23):
Courtney Williams Bright pink hair.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Mask, black queer.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It's the little nuggets.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
They're so small, they're like the two little small just
like powerhouses who are hilarious, shameless. And they did a
essentially live stream for the entire weekend, seventy.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Two hours, seventy two hours straight.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
From red carpets to parties, to games, to courtside to
Glow's performance. You could see it all there, and it
was so fun to watch the way they changed everyone
they came in contact with, the ones who didn't know
of them became joyful. Like I said, Kathy Engelbert was
dancing to Knuck if You Buck, Okay.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
The funniest I've ever seen, because she was doing the
white girl abouts too.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Of course that's all she knows, that's all I know.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And just it was just really fun how much they
brought the content of the weekend to everybody else. When
you hear when you listen to a podcast like this,
if you didn't go, you're excited to get some of
the behind the scenes, but you feel like a little
foam mo of like I don't really know what it's
like to be there. The stud buds took you about
as close as you could get.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
They gave you everything. They got closer with the Twitter
stream than I did the whole weekend. Literally literally we
missed everything and they caught everything, and everybody who watched
caught everything. Like they gave us Paisy Page and asy
Fudd content, they gave us Kathy, they gave us Diplo. Yeah,
how did they end up in the booth with Diplo
(36:56):
telling him how to do his job?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
That was the party I was supposed to be at,
and it's Diplo presents, someone I've never heard of. I'm like, oh,
he's not gonna be there. They're just using his name.
And then I saw the clips and again I was like,
damn yeah, almost in my room I could have been
at Diplo. But that was the best part was Court
Williams going up to Diplo, one of the most famous
DJs in the world, in the middle of his set,
and being like, Hey, can you stop playing EDM and
(37:19):
play some.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Other music for me? And he's like, no, I'm Diplo,
this is what I do. They were just it was.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Just so fun and to my point from Friday to
have centered and bringing so much joy black queer women
in a league that has so much of that. And
it's not to say it's at the expense of anything else.
It's just that that so often gets buried in favor
of other things, and for it to be centered and
(37:48):
for again Kathy Engelbert to be embracing in part of
it in multiple streams. She was there in one party,
she was there in another party. You know, I think
I think she probably know, Oh, she's got to do
some of that right now. Is she's trying to make
nice with the players for CBA negotiations. I gotta look
like someone who knows what's going on.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
One thousand percent. And the one thing I'll also say
is I love that Court and Natsha. It was such
a simple idea. But they would not be refused. They
would not be you know, deterred. They were just gonna
do it the way that they were gonna do it.
And I can't lie to you. Before the weekend started,
I had seen a couple posts about the content that
they had already put out, because they've been going live
(38:29):
at like six pm every Wednesday or something like that
for the last month or so, and I'd seen some
posts from the league and from other sources not calling
them stud buds, calling them best buds, or misspelling the
name of their duo, and I was just like, we're
not gonna do this. I want you to know this
isn't gonna happen because he the two of them aren't
gonna let it happen. And b we're at that point
(38:50):
with the w where we need to stop pretending like,
you know, we got to cater to the family, friendliest whatever,
like babes, they're studs. They are the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
We're gonna use the words you brought me to the
next part and the closing part of this recap perfectly
because I want to do a little winners and losers.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
So the winners very clearly are the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Right, Everybody got to learn, if they didn't already see
content from them leading up to this weekend, that they
have something special and that it's a lot of fun
to just embrace it and be a part of it
and let them kind of be your hosts for the
weekend and take you around and be authentically and truly
and genuinely themselves. The loser for me and I'm not
going to call out this person by name. I think
(39:33):
this person actually does a good job at their job.
But an executive from the league on a panel I
heard said Natasha and Courtney as the stud buds. Her
name is Natasha. And you have to know your players.
They have to be the most important thing. And we've
(39:55):
talked about this when it comes to media and access,
that if you let people in to interview these players
who clearly don't watch, don't know them, ask bad questions,
ask things that make it clear they don't know any
history or context or nuance or anything. You make it
okay and not shameful. And in men's sports, you cannot
(40:15):
walk into a locker room and get names wrong and
facts wrong and not feel embarrassed by that. There's an
expectation that you know the topic you're there to cover
when you get there. And that's not to say everyone
always does in men's sports, but you come in with
some nerves if you don't know your shit. And in
women's sports, we got to stop allowing for the wrong
names for not knowing your history, especially for someone who
(40:39):
works for the league. And if you're in the middle
of CBA negotiations, and you're trying to tell us that
you understand that the players are the reason that fans
are there, that the money is coming in, that investment
is going up, that the players are everything, and you
call Natisha Hideman Natasha, that ain't it. And so again
I try not to blow up little things, but to me,
(41:02):
that should roll off your tongue.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. That's you. Gotta know it,
because you get ridiculed. On the other side, you will
get ridiculed. You will get trolled like all of it.
And not to say that that's great, but you know,
there's definitely that culture there that needs to be brought
to the w as well. Goodness winner for me is
the city of Indianapolis and the Fever organization putting together
(41:27):
an All Star that I do think top last year's
All Star and last year's All Star was pretty damn
good in Phoenix. We were both there for that too.
I mean from the names they brought in we mentioned Glorilla,
but I think also the branding in the ways that
those parties and events were executed. I haven't heard any
(41:47):
bad things about those, and that's not necessarily the Fever,
but that's just you know, it's a part. It's a
byproduct of, you know, the tone that they set. I
think Glow being there, I think at Feverfest. So I
didn't go to the All Star Game. I went to
Feverfest and said just to see what it was talking about.
They had Cedric the entertainer, Leslie Jones, Dion Cole, d
(42:07):
Nice Okay, they had beer performing there, they had g Easy.
Like the way that the organization in the city came
together to put on such a great event. Again, everything
was walking distance, they had petty cabs for people. It
was just it was beautiful to watch it all come together.
It was pretty seamless from my experience. So shout out
to the Fever organization and shout out to the city
(42:28):
of Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Quickly, I want to add if you saw my face
when they showed Leslie Jones next to G Easy on
the JumboTron at the game, and I was like, oh,
mouth a gape, that's g Easy, Like just calling myself
out as someone who did not know what G Easy
looked like.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
That was not what I was expecting.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, And to your point about the city, I ran
into Kelly Cross Coops a lot throughout the weekend, the
president of basketball for the Fever or someone who helped
build that team from the ground up and then came
back around to take over again, and just had a
lot of praise for the way she talked about their
planning and everything they were doing for the city, the
(43:12):
way she was checking in with folks to see how
things were going.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
They even had trolleys.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
There was a trolley that passed by me on the
street blasting be our guest, with just people waving at
everyone like they were determined to make everyone feel welcome.
And to your point, there were some concerns about that,
and they were they were completely erased.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, picking losers is hard, Sarah, and I'm glad to
say that picking losers is very hard. Honestly, I'll say
anybody who was also working and tried to ensure I'll
start working was a loser.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Our livers, our vocal cords.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
The bags under my eyes are designer, as they say,
I've never had this much purple on my face, under
my eyes and my entire life. But that doesn't make
us losers, really, no, it just makes me.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
I had a good time enjoyed the league. You and
I both were mature.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You had an early flight, so you skipped the partying Saturday.
On Thursday night, when I first got in, I went
to the together party and it was awesome, and I
had to leave because it was so loud that my
voice was starting to go. And I knew I had
my interviews all day the next day and my work stuff,
and so I very maturely had ad drink and then
(44:23):
made myself leave at midnight. And that is progress for me,
because it was a raging party and it was really fun.
Ed I had to show myself the door so I
could work the next day.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Patting myself on the back. Okay, my last Winners and
Losers is actually kind of the same.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
The league is a winner to your point, because it
was a great event, But the league is also a
loser to me in the sense of the moment during
the game when the band started chanting pay them It
to me immediately evoked the World Cup when the US won,
and instead of the fans in a different country chanting USA, USA,
they were chanting equal pay, Equal Pay. When you win
(45:04):
a World Cup and your fans are so directly tied
to your fight for something beyond that victory that they
in that moment, start chanting equal pay in a stadium
of people is standing behind paying women what they're worth.
That was a no going back moment for me with
the US women's national team in US soccer.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
They were not going to win that fight.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
And as I stood and turned behind me to look
at a whole section of fans, some of them holding
up signs that said pay them, chanting, pay them, pay them.
When Kathy got on the mic, instead of just cheering
for Fee winning MVP, they had a mission to make
sure that their voices were heard. In that moment, I
already knew it was lights out for the league in
(45:47):
this fight, but the public pressure in addition to the data,
in addition to the valuations, in addition to Claudia Golden,
who I got to talk to and asked to come
on our show to talk about the economics behind the
paying of the players, you know, based on revenue, all.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Of that added up and the fans chanting, that's.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
A that's a win for the PA in my opinion,
and the players.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And also shout out to Rebecca and Ryan, Andrea and
El and Cheney for tea in Holly row for teeing
up the players on the live broadcast to talk about
the CBA negotiations and not shying away from that conversation.
I also thought that was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
I got to see all them.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I got to shout out my girl, Elle Duncan, because
she went from the US Women's National Team Players Association
Ball on Tuesday, where I saw her, to the SP's
on Wednesday, where she walked the red carpet, was on
the live air, and then flew to Indy where she
hosted All Weekend and is flying straight to fill in
for Mark.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
And Kelly hasn't been home.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
In three weeks and she sprained her ankle so well
down the stairs right before the All Star Game. So
I see her coming into work and she is limping,
and I'm like Domino's injury because I saw her at
Kandae Parker's party, and she's like even lamer. I tripped
on some stairs dead sober, so shouts to Elle for
(47:13):
being a workhorse and heal up girl.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
But yeah, you're right. They all did a fantastic job.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
We could say so much more, but we've gone on
too long. As always, we got to take another break.
When we come back, we wear the moment and I
almost die.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
That's next. Welcome back, Slices.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
We love that you're listening, but we want you to
get in the game every day too, So here's our
good game play of the day. You can get your
own pay us what You Owe Us t shirt. The
WNBA Players Association is selling the T shirts that the
players wore in warm ups for the All Star Game
via Breaking Tea, and we'll put a link to it
in the show notes if you want to rock your own. Also,
(47:58):
speaking of wearing the Moment and Breaking t shirts, it
was really fun to run into Slices wearing Good Game
Merchant Indie. In fact, I sat down to interview Azy
Fudd and immediately spotted a pair of Slices front row
wearing I'm a Slice and.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Good Game, Good Game f you shirts, which was a joy.
It was great to meet you, Megan and Jenna, thanks
again for coming. And they got to meet you too, Mesh.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Right, yes they did. They came over to the Round
twenty one booth and at first, I can't lie to you,
I was like, who are these two people just walking
towards me right now? Because I was there to do
content capture and there was so much other stuff going on,
but they came up to me. It was like producer
mees amazing the live podcast and I was like, how
can you recognize what? And I guess my face does
(48:41):
end up on the graphics.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Yeah, that was weird.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Really you're on there, those really cool speaking Around twenty one,
they sent me a shirt that I did not order.
I ordered a T shirt and they sent me a
couple other things and I was like, this looks too
cool for me to ever order it, which means I
should wear it.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
And then I got so many compliments.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
If anyone wants to style me by sending me stuff
they think I should be wearing instead of the stuff
I order, much appreciated at eight two thank you. Thank
you as for the slice merch and those fans we
saw that could be you next time if you get
your merch. So go check out our show Merch on
Breakingta dot com slash Spain. We'll also link to it
in the show notes. All the cool kids are wearing it.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
Get you some.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
We always love to hear from you, so hit us
up on email good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or
leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two O
four fifty seventy, specially if you were at All Star weekend,
tell us if you did anything cool, saw anything cool,
something we'd love to hear about. Don't forget to subscribe
Rate and Review too, y'all. It's easy watch closing out
an epic All Star weekend with a white knuckle drive
(49:42):
home in a thunderstorm rating zero out of zero visibility review.
Nothing like capping off a great weekend where you lived
it up VIP style. Quite like driving your own ass
home three hours in a rental through a thunderstorm, popping
on the hazards, squinting to see that there is a
ahead of you and wondering if it's all going to
(50:02):
end Final destination style right there on I sixty five North. Thankfully,
I exercised some patience for the first time in my life,
slowed down to a snail's pace, and literally weathered the storm,
making it home in one piece. A napp is very
much in my future. Now it's your turn, Rate and Review.
Thanks for listening, y'all. See you tomorrow when you'll hear
(50:23):
my interview with Azy Fud, Good Game Team Callier, Good Games,
Sabrina and Tosh.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You racist euro fans.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.
(50:53):
Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones. Production assistance
from Avery Loftus and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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