May 11, 2026 • 42 mins
Following a very busy weekend of women’s sports action, Big Citrus gathers to discuss the start of the WNBA season, the latest nail-biter in the PWHL playoffs, and the potential perils of hockey expansion. Sarah also shares her experience attending the inaugural game for the W’s first Canadian franchise, the Toronto Tempo. Plus, a second chance for some fan faves, Temwa heats up, and the bird’s the word.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're back
in the States after a wonderful weekend watching history in Toronto,
the first ever tempo game you always remember your first.
It's Monday, May eleventh, and on today's show, Big Citrus
gets together to talk about the start of the WNBA season.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
All the highs, lows and hellos.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yovanna Nokic stand up my weekend of w's the espnW
summit and Game one for the w's first Canadian franchise,
and of course the PWHL playoffs, which are full of
surprises this year, plus a second chance for some fan faves,
nail biting hockey and hat tricks. It's all coming up
(00:40):
right after this Welcome back Slices, Happy Monday. Here's what
you need to know today, starting with hoops. Of course,
the thirtieth season of the WNBA tipped off for the weekend,
(01:00):
and y'all, if the opening games are any indication, we
are in for a very good season.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The Connecticut Sun and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
New York Liberty were the very first to take the court,
with the shorthanded Liberty beating the Sun handily one oh
six seventy five. The Brooklyn crowd was treated to a
wop in thirty one points and ten rebounds from Liberty
forward Brianna Stewart and twelve points eleven assists from Julie
Van lou Just one day after getting added to the
New York roster. She was waived by the Sparks Tuesday
(01:27):
and picked up on a hardship contract on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
In Action on Friday. More on that later in the show.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Also on Friday night, the Golden State Valkyries beat the
Seattle Storm ninety one to eighty. The Valkyries Janell Salon
put up twenty off the bench and Caitlyn Chen had
a career high fourteen. Up above the border, a young
Washington Mystics team managed to hold off the Toronto Tempo
sixty eight sixty five, preventing Canada's team from grabbing a
dub in their inaugural game. Yours truly was in the
(01:56):
building for that one. I got a whole lot more
to say about it in just a minute. The action
picked back up on Saturday with arguably the biggest game
of the weekend, the Dallas Wings versus the Indiana Fever,
featuring the league's last four number one overall draft picks and.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Boy did it live up to the hype. The game
was tied eighty.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Apiece going into the fourth and it was a battle
down the stretch, with the Wings ultimately pulling out the
win one oh seven, one oh four. Each team had
three players with twenty plus points, Odyssey Simms, Page Beckers,
and Arika Agunbowale for the Wings and Eliah Boston, Caitlin Clark,
and Kelsey Mitchell for the Fever. According to ESPN's Alexa
philip Who, this was the first season opening game in
(02:35):
WNBA history where both teams scored at least one hundred
points more on that one, including two very different debuts
for Azy Fudd and Jessica Sheppard.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
A little later in the.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Show, perhaps the most surprising game of the opening weekend
saw the Phoenix Mercury upsetting the defending champion Las Vegas
Aces ninety nine sixty six in a rematch of last
year's finals. You remember the Mercury were swept by the
Aces for the title.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Having to sit through the Aces.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Pregame ring ceremony and watching Asia Wilson and company get
their twenty twenty five bling got the Mercury fired up
because they went off in particular Yovanna Nogich, who had
one of the best WNBA debuts you've ever seen nineteen points,
four assists, and two steals for the Serbian who clearly
heard me say the Mercury didn't add any noteworthy talented
(03:21):
free agency in my WNBA season previews message received Giovanna.
Later on Saturday, Olivia Miles made clear that she's ready
for the w already by making her official debut one
to remember. Miles, a rookie guard for the Minnesota Lynx,
led her team in minutes, points, and assists in their
season opener against the Atlanta Dream. Even though Atlanta ultimately
(03:42):
won by a hare ninety one to ninety, Miles finished
with twenty one points and eight assists for the Links,
becoming only the fifth player in league history to record
at least twenty points and five assists in her first game,
joining the likes of Cynthia Cooper, Don Staley, Tanya Edwards,
and Candace Parker on that list company. The game also
saw Angel Reese get in her first official minutes for
(04:04):
the Dream after leaving the Chicago Sky in the off season.
She had eleven points and fourteen rebounds for a double double.
In her debut, the fiftieth double double of her career
in just sixty five games. She's the fastest to reach
that mark in WNBA history. Also Saturday, the Portland Fire
set a new WNBA attendance record for an expansion team's
(04:24):
first game with nineteen thousand, three thirty five at the
Moda Center, also the second largest crowd for a home
opener of any kind in WNBA history. Unfortunately for the Fire,
the Chicago Sky spoiled the party, grabbing a ninety eight
eighty three win. Skyler Diggins had twenty one points, eleven rebounds,
and seven assists in her Sky debut. A handful of
(04:46):
teams were back out on the court on Sunday, and
the La Sparks had their season debut Sunday, so we'll
have takeaways from all those results in tomorrow show. Some
w news from the weekend, A couple of athletes found
new homes before the start of the season after being
waived by the t Rono Tempo. Aliah Ni was claimed
by the Atlanta Dream. Hayley van Lyth was claimed by
the Connecticut Sun after being waived by the Chicago Sky,
(05:07):
and she took the court and the Sun's opener Friday night,
scoring nine points for her new team. Also, two recently
Wave Valkyrie's players joined new team's ondevelopmental contracts. TCUs March
Swarez joined the Phoenix Mercury and fan favorite Kate Martin
joined the La Sparks. Both are on player developmental contracts
that's part of the WNBA's new CBA. Under those contracts,
a player can practice and travel with the team and
(05:29):
can be on the active roster for twelve games while
receiving a weekly stipend of seven hundred fifty bucks and
a pro rated minimum salary of six thousand dollars to Hockey,
One half of the pwhol Finals matchup is set. The
number four seed Ottawa Charge Is headed back to the
finals for a second straight season after defeating the number
two seed Boston Fleet three games to one in their
(05:50):
semi final series. After Ottawa took a two to one
lead in the series Friday night, Game four on Sunday
afternoon was do or die for Boston. Took a two
to zero lead three minutes into the second period and
Boston looked down and out, but they stormed back with
three goals within two minutes to take a three to
two lead, the fastest three goals in PWHL playoff history,
(06:11):
but Ottawa leveled to score three to three heading into
the third, and a scoreless third period meant overtime again
and then a second overtime, until finally the Charges. Mikhaela
Coava played hero, scoring a minute twelve into the second
extra session for the win. Ottawa will look to avenge
last year's finals loss with a win this time. As
for their opponent, well, the semi final series between Minnesota
(06:33):
and Montreal is headed to Game five after Minnesota pulled
off a three to one comeback win over the Victoire
on Friday night, scoring all three of their goals in
the final twelve minutes of the third period. That included
two from the frost breakout star of the playoff, Sydney Morn,
who tallied both the game tying and game winning goals.
Game five of that series is tonight in Montreal, starting
(06:53):
at seven pm Eastern to soccer. As if all that
w and hockey action wasn't enough, the NWA cell also
had a full slate of games over the weekend. On Friday,
Sophia Wilson stayed hot, scoring again, but her Portland Thorns
fell to Racing Louisville three to one on Saturday, with
NYC mayors or on Mom Donnie and US women's national
team manager Emma Hayes among the over eleven three hundred
(07:16):
in attendance. Defending league champs Gotham FC had to settle
for a one to one draw with the Boston Legacy.
Gotham took the lead on a Jaden Shaw goal in
the thirty seventh minute, but the Legacy responded just three
minutes later with the goal from Alba Kanyo, her second
of the season. The Boston expansion team is starting to
build some momentum after losing their first five games. The
Legacy are unbeaten in three straight and there's maybe a
(07:38):
budding rivalry.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Growing between those two sides.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Gotham played Renee raps I hate Boston as the Legacy
starting lineup was announced, and Boston gave them a reason
to keeping them from getting a win in their special
partnership game with the Mayor's Office. Speaking of expansion teams,
the Denver Summit took down the Houston Dash four to
one on Saturday, with the Summits Geni and Sonis both
opening the scoring and finding the back of the net
(08:02):
for Denver's final goal.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Also on Saturday, the San Diego Wave.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Best at Angel City two to one, a game that
saw acfc's Claire Emsley returned to the pitch for the
first time after missing a year on maternity leave, getting
back on the field on Mother's Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Who's right in this stuff? Perfect?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
On Sunday, the Casey Current shutout the Chicago Stars three
to nothing. Well, time was Shawenga shut out the Stars
three to nothing. The current Star player had an electric
hat trick. It's the Current's first NWSL regular season hat
trick and might just be the spark they need to
get back to form after a slow start to the season.
Shout out to the OPTA jack account on Blue Sky
(08:40):
for this cool stat with Showenga's hat trick on Sunday,
the last seven regular season NWSL hat tricks have been
scored by players from seven different countries Malawi, Japan, Nigeria, Brazil, Zambia, Canada,
and the US. The NWSL truly is a global league.
To the Olympics, The International Olympic Committee made a few
(09:01):
key decisions at an executive board meeting last week. First,
the IOC says they no longer recommend restrictions on Belarussian athletes,
either an individual or team sports along with Russian athletes.
Belarussians were banned from international sport in twenty twenty two
after the countries invaded Ukraine. Belarussians and Russians were allowed
to compete as individual neutral athletes starting a year later.
(09:22):
But now the IOC recommends that sports global governing bodies
allow Belarussians back to the field of play with their
flag and national anthem. The IOC clarified they do not
recommend that Russian athletes get the same treatment. Now it's
up to the global governing bodies for each sport to
decide how they want to proceed. The first governing body
to respond to the new recommendation was World Athletics. A
(09:43):
spokesperson for the track and field body rejected the idea
and said their restrictions of Belarussians remain in place. One
more note that came out of that IOC meeting We've
mentioned before, there's been a significant push to add cross
country running to the Winter Olympics, with some hoping to
see the sport make its winter debut as soon as
twenty thirty, but IOC president Kirsty Coventry said late last.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Week not going to happen just yet.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The twenty thirty Games will continue to only feature sports
held on snow and ice, finally to tennis arena. Sabalanca
has been on a bit of a tear so far
this year, rallying from an Australian Open finals loss to
win both Indian Wells and the Miami Open. But over
the weekend, the world number one suffered her earliest tournament
exit in fifteen months, after a third round defeat to
world number twenty six Sarana Cristeia at the Italian Open.
(10:28):
Sabalanca won the first set, but lost her way after that,
ultimately taking a medical time out for a lower back
and hip problem.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Midway through the third set.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Because of the injury, she was able to skip the
post match press conference, but she did tell the WTA
Tour that her lower back and hip were limiting her
from full rotation. The loss marks just her third of
the entire year, with the French Open starting in less
than two weeks. Also over the weekend, IGOs fiantec Naomio
Osaka and Americans Cocoa GoF and Jessica Pugula all won
(10:57):
their third round matches. We'll keep you posted throughout the
week as the women make their way towards the finals.
This weekend, All right, y'all, we're going to take a break.
When we returned, the gang's back together. Big Citrus talks,
PWHL playoffs and WNBA openers. Next, welcome back slices. Let's
(11:21):
get Big Citrus in here. Alex Bianca, Hey, Hello, I
had such a blast in Toronto. I did reluctantly return,
but not before leaving a post it note on a
big wall at a store that said, like.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
How are you really feeling?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Post a note and I wrote, feeling sorry about Donald
Trump and America.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
We'll try to do better.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I left my mark in Canada, and most of
the time a friend of the show, Clayon Connichen, and
I just pretended to be Canadian.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No one needed to know.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We didn't need to make clear that we were coming
from the US. We blended right in. We'll talk about
Toronto though, in just a few minutes, because I was
furiously taking notes all weekend long while paying attention to
the rest of the w action and just so excited
that we're back in action, and I already feel like
this historic thirtieth season, it's it's clear it's going to
be different. There's me more people watching, more people talking
(12:11):
about it, better marketing, better commercials. Like everything just feels
bigger and better, and I'm so psyched for it.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I do want to caution.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
People after this first week and of action to save
their big dramatic proclamations, And that was clear after the
very first game, because if you watch the New York
Liberty game, they.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
You know, they absolutely dusted them.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
They looked fantastic against the Connecticut Sun, but they were
without sabritan Escu with an injury, Rebecca Allen with an injury,
Satu Sabai out with a syst Raquel Carera, and Leoni
Phoebitch who are still fulfilling overseas commitments, and they literally
had to sign multiple hardship contracts just to have people
on the court for the first game. So whatever you
thought about them, much of it might remain the same
(12:50):
because of their core. But it was just a great
example of how teams are still coming together and a
lot of teams in the league are waiting for overseas talent,
are incorporating new talent. So yes, get excited, but also
don't get too sad if your team looked weird or
bad or slow or ugly, which some of the games were,
just you know, just want to throw that out there.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So are you saying that now isn't the time, Sarah
to say the Las Vegas Aces are going to win
it all again based only on that sixty six to
ninety nine loss to the Mercury.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean, honestly, when it comes to the Aces, all
bets are off. You can say confidently throughout the season,
regardless of the outcome of a single game, that they're
going to win it all unless they are so bad
that they are hinging on not qualifying.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
For the postseason.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
But as I said in my previews, they could be
literally the last team in and they would still be
the scariest once you got to the postseason because we
all know what they can do. But yeah, so what
does I say about the Liberty though? That was like
a perfect example of that is Julie van lu gets
waived by the Sparks, and you remember that she's also
someone who last year was going to the Valkyries. Flew
(13:52):
like an eighteen hour flight out of her own money
to get there in time for the game and then
got waved.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So she's had this like up and down, up and down.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So after she got waived by the Sparks on Tuesday,
she literally was exercising in California and thought about not
even trying to get back in the w She was
ready to just call it quits. Her agent calls her
up and says, the Liberty want to add you to
a hardship contract on Thursday, the day before the season opener,
And she's like, I don't know if I want to
do it. The ups and downs are too much. She
(14:21):
calls her mom. Her mom's like, don't forget who you are.
You're not a quitter, You're a winner. She lands in
New York at one am on Friday, hasn't practiced with
the team, doesn't know the playbook, gets on the court,
twelve points, eleven assists, double double, Like it's incredible, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Beauty on as wild.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
But it's hard because you're like, is she going to
stick there when all those players come back?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Is there still room for her regardless of what she does?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
But that's the beauty, and that's what hurts about this
league is it is the most talented players in the world,
and there is very little room for fluff, and so
you got to prove yourself every single day.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So let's talk.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
About some of the other games. I took notes on
that fee Wings game. Something to keep an eye on.
Caitlin Clark was two of nine from three and yes,
she missed a lot at the end of last year
to injury, but if you go back to the last
eight or so games before she was out for the
season last year, she also was shooting terribly from beyond
the arc. This is her signature, this is her calling card.
(15:20):
We got to figure out what's going on with Caitlin
from beyond the arc? Is it because she's beat up
all game dealing with double teams since she's too fatigued.
Is it because her posture, her form, the way she
shoots is fundamentally screwed up right now because of injury.
We're going to have to find out, because she did
step out of this game multiple times to deal with
issues with her back, and in fact, after the game,
(15:42):
head coach Stephanie White had to address that as far
as she know, the back is the problem. Even though
the broadcasters were surmising that it had something to do
with groin and hip issues from last year, so whatever
is still ailing Caitlin. She had to come out of
the first game of the season multiple times to deal
with it and still didn't quite look like herself, at
least from those deep threes.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So something to watch.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Also something to watch Jessica Shepherd thirteen points, nine rebounds,
nine assists in her debut with the Wings, almost a
triple double in her very first game, and she was
the lesser of the two Links players that arrived with
the Wings that we were excited to see in a
new spot. Obviously, Lena Smith great game too, but I'm
going to be keeping an eye out on Jessica Shepherd
and what she's able to do in a new place
with a little bit more of an opportunity. Aizy Fudd
(16:25):
one for two, three points in her debut. She's gonna
have a little bit more trouble than a lot of
number one picks. Then most number one picks finding a
place in this roster. Usually you're going somewhere that desperately
needs you if your team has the worst record in
the league. The Wings are an interesting team that have
added a bunch of talent and don't need Asy Fudd
to play as big of a role right away because
of the logjam in the back court.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But I will say the three that she made was beautiful.
She made it count.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Absolutely and we love to do it in style, even
if it's just one shot. Also just wanted to mention
Caitlin Clark after the game. I think it was Saturday night,
Morgan Wallin's and Indy for a concert and she makes
the decision to walk out with him for the beginning
of the concert, and I just have to say, for
the millionth time, not specific to Caitlin, but for everyone,
(17:13):
once someone uses the N word multiple times, it's fine
to just say that's the deal breaker and not support
them anymore. I have personal friends who I give this
message to as well, Hey, can you stop posting his
music or supporting him. He's a terrible person and he's
done multiple terrible things in addition to using the N word.
But when he uses the nword and his sales triple,
(17:33):
and he becomes the face of something more than just
shitty music but instead a representation of terrible racist ideas,
and you decide that you still want to be a
part of that, I have some real questions. And let's
say Kaitlin just really likes his music, you still, in
my opinion, need to make the choice not to walk
out on stage with him, unless you're just not trying
to beat the accusations, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I feel like we just kind of keep waiting
for Caitlin to send a message, and she keeps not
sending it. I think at this point fair to say
maybe that is the message, or.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
She has sent the message once alongside many other messages
that seemed to contradict it. Right, Yeah, let's get to
another game, because Olivia Miles, holy shit, twenty one points,
eight assist, three rebounds.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Two steals, two blocks.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Speaking of opportunity, asy Fud might not have it with
the Wings, but Olivia Miles is going to have it
with the Lynx. And even though there was a comeback
win for the Dream in that one and they didn't
get the dub, that was a really fun game to
watch and it was fun to see Olivia Miles already
in her bag like confident swaggy. At the end, she
drives in massive moment in the game and gets blocked
(18:38):
and I'm like I guess that's your welcome to the
w moment. But it's only so humbling if the rest
of your game is on fire, which it was, so
that was that was super fun. Speaking of on fire,
I mentioned earlier Yovanna Noviitch for the Mercury like, truly
the story of the offseason was they didn't add anyone
that was going to be a difference maker in free agency,
(18:59):
and she was like, let me go ahead and put
up fifteen points in the first half.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Just unbelievable, and.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
The Aces man, you know, it's funny, as I was
talking to Juel Lloyd just a few days before the opener, saying,
you guys are gonna be off to a great start.
You're returning so much talent, so many other teams are
having to adjust to new look rosters, and you're gonna
hopefully like hit the ground run and gonna be nothing
like last year when you started off slow and then
they got absolutely worked by a Mercury team that we said,
why didn't they do anything in.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The off season? So what the do we know?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I guess, speaking of what the does anyone know? The
ring ceremony announcer for the home team in Vegas said
Dana Ellis.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Oh no, her name is, of course Dana Evans.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So even though they had a string quartet playing Knuck
if You Buck, which was frankly fantastic, you still should
get the names of the players who just won the
title correct. Frustrating the Seattle game, the Vlks went over Seattle.
The stand up for it was Jade Melbourne, who busted
her tooth. It was like, first game of the season.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Balls to the wall.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm going to prove that, like, I'm happy to be
back in Seattle, ready to go.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's the same tooth.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
This is the third time she's chipped that same tooth,
and I'm sure every time she's like, gosh, darn it,
I got to get this thing capped again.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it's right up front.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So maybe if she was like a hockey player, dude,
she'd be like, I'm just gonna wait to the end
of the season. But she's not spending an entire season
with a giant hole in the front of her mouth
like a three year old who's waiting for the tooth.
Very so, how old are you when.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You lose your teeth?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Three?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't have kids, I think much later.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, I just realized that happy Mother's Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
None of us know shit about children anyway.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I just was like, this is the w in a nutshell,
Like everyone wants the NBA games to be more physical,
and meanwhile the women are just getting their asses beat
on a nightly basis and she's coming out with a
broken tooth within the first game. Finally, the Portland game, guys,
what a beautiful scene. Over nineteen thousand people absolutely packed.
Ashanti did the halftime and in kind of a cool
(21:06):
full circle moment, her first album came out in two
thousand and two, which is when the original iteration of
the Portland Fire closed their doors, so she was back
around like, let me help you bring it back. The
crowd was incredible. They had really cool Like one of
the cool things about watching on WNBA League Pass, which
is how Coleein and I were watching from our hotel
room up in Toronto, is that they show a lot
(21:27):
of the game break action while you're watching, and so
we could see some of the activations they were doing
and the way they were engaging the.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Crowd, and man, I was just really excited.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
You know, in my previews I mentioned, you know, Portland
gets a second chance to support a team, and someone said,
I don't know if you meant it this way, but like,
it wasn't us not supporting the team that made it
fold last time.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It was ownership And I was like, that's not at
all what I meant.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I just meant, this is a second chance to have
the w in your city. And man, they showed up
and showed out and it was really really cool. Speaking
of first games, I got to be at the inaugural
game for the Toronto Tempo Friday night against the Washington
Mystics Coca Cola Coliseum, sold out game. As I mentioned,
Clayton Connigan, friend of the Show, is with me. She's
(22:12):
a noted Mystics fan, so she was very happy to
see her team pull out the dub. But she was
also very generously cheering for the Tempo in certain moments,
like understanding what it meant for Canada to have its
very first team and very first game. Before I get
to an actual game at Mispherre, I'll just say we
had some fun things before. We went to this pregame
event for the Collective Slash. The team like formerly Wasserman
(22:33):
and Silas Swords of Michigan was there and got announced
as Nike's newest Canada athlete, so I was very exciting
for her and cool to hear her. She's a Canadian
national and on the Canadian national team, so she was
really excited to be there and help launch the big day.
Then we went to the VIP party for the tempo itself.
Kathy Engelbert was there, so the commission I are guests
(22:53):
making the same moves as the season gets going.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But she wearing a dress with Toronto CM tower on it,
I hope.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And was it made I coach? She was not.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
She was not.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
She was a neutral colored Based on what I saw.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
She was neither repping the mystics nor the tempo, which
seems like.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
A good solid move nor. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
A friend of the show, Teresa Resh, was there and
got up to give a little speech and brought up,
you know, the heads of Sephor and CIBC who were
their main sponsors, and shouted out some of the OG's
and whatever and started tearing up multiple times, and like
was very surprised. She surprised herself at how emotional she
was in the moment. But it was really cool to
see what it meant to everyone. There lots of slubs,
at the game. You know, Serge Ibaka Canadian big cheer,
(23:34):
but he was right before Christine Sinclair and it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
How they were like, yeah, Surge, we love Surge.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And then Christine Sinclair gets on he was like, and
she's such an introvert that she was just like, oh
my god, make it stop.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Like I'd like to be anywhere but here. But it
was just so cool.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I was like, the crowd knew the assignment and it
was really cool, and they did some nice first moments,
you know, bringing out some basketball OG's and they do
this poem at.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
The beginning of the game.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Somebody came on the court to recite a poem called
Together We Win, and it definitely seemed like something they're
probably going to do at each game, and it specifically
shouted out the inclusivity of the experience for trans, queer,
non binary anybody who shows up, they all are part
of this family and the story, and it was really cool.
Keia Nurse also, who's a Canadian, pretty fantastic every time
(24:19):
she literally did anything, and that was very fun to see.
So the vibes were high, even though the venue was small.
It's where the scepters play it's where the Marley's play,
which is an AHL hockey men's team. And so having
gone to the one preseason WNBA game in Toronto that
was at the Scotiabank Arena where the Raptors play, in
(24:40):
my head, I was like, Oh, we're going to be
at an arena like that, and instead it's only you know,
eight thousand something people that fit in it, so sold
out very loud, but small compared to most professional basketball games.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
But is it better to have a sold out eight
thousand person stadium or arena or a thirty thousand person
home opener life the Boston Legacy at Gillette, which you
know we talked about, you could really feel the emptiness there.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, it's tough to say, and I think we're going
to find out, right because the Valkyries last year sold
out every single game eighteen thousand plus people in an
NBA arena every single game. Will Portland be able to
sell out the Moda Center every game that nineteen thousand people?
Is that going to be sustainable or will it start
to have the feel where you can tell the building
(25:29):
is in full and is Toronto going to be held
back by the size of the place They're right, or
will it be a good size for the start, especially
since they're playing a couple of games in different places
in Canada to sort of establish that they're Canada's team.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
That will be something to watch for for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, it's funny that you say that, because we
have seen so many attendance records broken in women's sports
over the last couple of years. It feels like half
the time we write a need to know there's an
attendance record in there.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
And yet the WNBA's.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
All time attendance record is twenty two thousand and seventy
six people from two thousand and seven when the Detroit
Shock hosted.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
The Phoenix Mercury.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And the real reason we haven't seen that record broken
is because we haven't seen a WNBA game in a
larger venue. A lot of you know, the Indiana Fever
games over the last two seasons, they have been in
smaller venues than twenty two thousand people. And so if
I was in charge of a WNBA team right now,
I would be looking and saying, how can we get
into a venue that fits more than twenty two thousand people?
(26:28):
Because right now I would feel pretty confident about being
able to sell that out and get a new record
in the league.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, and you saw, even with unrivaled selling out the
seventy six ers, it still wasn't more than twenty two
thousand people. So even though they set a venue record
because the court was even smaller than an NBA court,
so they could sell more seats than an NBA game
and take the venue record, they still weren't able to
surpass the WNBA record.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I completely agree with you, and we'll have to see
because I think Gamebridge Arena had some empty seats for
the Fever opener, which was surprising this year. So we'll
see if that status for those Fever games remains, you know,
peak every single time like it has been. I would
imagine to your point, if they play in a specific
special arena and there's some good marketing around it, they
(27:13):
will be able to sell.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Out and set that new record.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
There were a couple things to get right early in
this one that they didn't quite Namely, the announcer who
did the intros set Kiki Erie.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Often it's Erea.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Fen That used to be the name that everyone called her,
but a couple of years ago she came out and
told everyone it's Eria fen and Georgia Amore, not Georgia Amore,
and I know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That's not the home team.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
You should be getting everyone's names right the opposing team
as well. They also didn't have replays for the first half,
and in the second half when they started having replays,
I realized it was probably some sort of production to
arena issue, but it does feel bush league if you
have a professional game and you can't see the play
that's being you know.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Whether it's a foul or a great play.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Second half, I was so glad to see them up
there and that they had figured it out. But it's
also a pretty small scoreboard, so there's no stats on
the video boards anywhere. It just has the score and
the teams and timeouts and fouls. It doesn't have the
ability to show you who's on the court at a
given moment and what their statistics are for the game
so far. So that does feel like a lower level
(28:22):
game than most professional games.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
But the merch was insane.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Almost every single person in the building already had tempo merch,
and it was at least twelve different kinds jerseys, rugby sweaters,
actual sweaters, tank tops, t shirts, hats of every kind
like they have crushed the merch and the representation. And
it's also so clear to me that the new teams.
(28:47):
Colleen and I were talking about this because we've got
og teams in the Sky and the Mystics, and we're like,
they're so stuck in having existed for so long and
maybe not hiring new people.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And the new.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Franchises come in and crush the marketing and the and
the vibes because they're starting in a modern time when
they anticipate the needs and desires of the modern fan. Meanwhile,
a lot of the Sky merch kind of looks like
it's for kids, so I was really excited to see that,
and I thought it was really great. There's also a
couple of funny things. When the scoreboard said defense defense,
(29:17):
it was with a C. And then also when they
did the T shirt like guns and all that stuff,
instead of having a sponsor yet, they just had all
over the scoreboards free stuff, free stuff, which I thought
was hilarious, like, we all know that's what it is.
And then finally there was a little girl dancing that
they caught and she was doing like a sort of walk,
like an Egyptian dance. And then this weird, like almost
(29:40):
like rabbit ears flipping backwards and forwards. I don't know
if it's a TikTok thing. I'm sure someone will tell
me if I'm missing it. But everyone fell in love
with her, so they kept cutting back to her, and
she never got shined, she never stopped.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
She was probably like five, she was very little.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then the next big break, they were so smart
they grabbed her out of her seat and brought her
onto the court with the dance team, and they brought
her to every corner of the court to do her dance,
and the whole entire stadium's doing walk like an Egyptian.
And this rabbit ears, she like invented a whole thing
in a stadium game one.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And in my mind, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Like, twenty years from now, they're gonna have flashback video
of this like four year old girl at the very
first game, and they're gonna bring her out. She's gonna
be the starting point guard and she's gonna do walk
like an Egyptian when she.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I'm like writing a movie for them.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
But I just love that they were agile in that
first game to recognize that this is what the crowd
was losing their mind over and like decide just a
little bit later in the game to like lean into it.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So yeah, I mean that that was all really cool.
I love all that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
But yeah, for the most part, it felt pretty much
like a very educated audience. You know, the people behind me.
The guy was explaining to the girl who was with
him some of the you know, she just won a
championship with UCLA. Keiky Rice is out there and now
she's playing against Lauren Betts and they just want a
title together. The woman next to me is explaining to
her girlfriend about like why she's dogging the official and.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yelling eighty eight, you suck get off the court. Like
she's like, who is eighty eight?
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Like it the official?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So it was like everyone was in from the beginning. Yeah,
and it was a pretty ugly game.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It was.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It was not pretty. It looked like a first game
of a season. The Mystics are very young, the Tempo
are a brand new team.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
So yeah, it was a.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Low scoring game. Laurd That's in particular, looked really nervous.
I think she was zero for five maybe, and a
lot of it was right next to the bucket clean look,
and she just she just looked nervous, so I'm hoping
that she settles in. Rory Harmon when she came on,
it was so funny because I was like ostensibly rooting
for the tempo. I was wearing full head to toe
(31:44):
temple gear that they've set me over the last year
or so, and yet I was like basically just rooting
for anybody on both teams who did anything good. Like
Marina Maybry went off for a little bit. I was
excited Rory Harmon. I'm like, oh my god, look at
our little girl. She's going, you know, she's.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
All girls up.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
But yeah, I did feel like a little bit like
Amy Poehler in Mean Girls.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Like literally everyone, I'm like, you're doing great, sweetie.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
But all in all, it was really really really cool
to be there in person, and you know, I was
telling Colleen, you can see why like coming up to
Toronto and Canada so much, because everywhere we went, I
ran into people that I had met from hosting the
three espnW summits up there, and everyone is so excited
to see me, so kind, so friendly, so excited about
(32:30):
what's going on up there. Diana Mathieson, who's Prego, was there.
I was so happy to see her, and we went
to the Toronto Blue Jays game on Saturday. Colleen works
with Legends and they did that ballpark, so we had
the sick setup in the suite and ended up sitting
right next to someone who works for the Tempo who
I had met last year, and we were chatting about
the game the night before, and like if Teresa was
there with her family and got to go out on
(32:51):
the field before the game as part of the like
Toronto Tempo's big weekend in the city, and it just
feels like it's a massive city and it feels small
the number of times I'm walking around. Ran into Renee
Stubbs right outside the stadium friend at the show, who
was Renee Stubs Tennis podcast, who's bff with Sandy Brundello,
so she was trying to find Sandy's Sun to head
in and sit courtside.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
But everywhere we went, we ran into people that I'd
met and knew and it was really really fun.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And speaking of the espnW, some I had flown there
literally straight from hosting the summit, which was fantastic. We're
going to play some great interviews from that on the
show later on in the next couple of weeks, but
I was exhausted and I was like kind of like,
no many dragon ass all day, and instead it was
just like the vibes were so high and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So fun, those Canadian vibes. Canadian vibes. Man, I'm part Canadian,
I think in spirit. Yeah, that's awesome, that sounds so fun.
I want to get up there. Yeah, yeah, me too.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
When it comes to the issue you were talking about
before with player pronunciations, I want to continue my thought
experiment of being a WNBA president because that is the
second thing I would do is I would have all
of my players say their pronunciation, because the NBA website
has pronunciations, but it's a robotic voice, and most of
the time they're not correct. And this is just such
(34:08):
an easy thing. We spend a lot of time. Bianca
can confirm, Sarah can confirm a lot of time trying
to figure out the correct pronunciation of athlete names.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
And it shouldn't be this hard. And shout out to
the NWSL and the WTA.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah exactly, the other leagues have got it right. And
now that Kathy and I end up in all the
same places, I'll just shoot.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Her a note. I'll just be like, hey, CAF, CAF,
can you get on this.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I'd like all the players to say their names and
put it on the website please.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
And then finally, the third thing I would do as
a WNBA president is maybe recent the first thing I
would do as a WNBA president, because in the last
few minutes I have googled largest NBA venue and it
turns out that there is no NBA venue that is
as big as the record that the Detroit Shock set.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
The record.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
We gotta go football.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
We got to pull in Nebraska volleyball and play in
a football stadium.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Right, it needs to be an outdoor game, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, that's an interesting find. Al all right, well, good notes.
Speaking of Alex, what you've been researching. I'm sure you
were watching the w all weekend, but also you're a
hockey girally, so I guarantee you were watching a lot
of hockey.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
I was, including maybe having my eye on a screen
as we were recording this Big Citrus because PWHL Boston
and Ottawa went into overtime and Ottawa won.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
They're going to the finals.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Crazy for Boston and it was a wild game. At
least what I saw out of the corner of my eye.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I gotta say I'm bummed.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
I am too.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I just want these teams that have great regular seasons
to be able to finish it off in the postseason.
I know it makes for exciting hockey and completely unpredictable
to not know what's going to happen, and it shows
the parody of the league, but damn, it's disappointing tap
such a great season of your Boston and not have
a chance to play for the Cup.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Absolutely, I mean I think for starters, I want to
see seven games There'm curious how that could change things potentially.
So Ottawa back in the PWHL finals just really exciting
for that fan base, in particular given their crazy support
for the team. And then we'll just have to wait
and see if they face Minnesota or Montreal. You know
(36:20):
history is going to say Minnesota, but that Game five
is tonight and we'll see if the curse of the
Higher Seat is broken.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And I never thought i'd say this, because you know,
we got friends of the show, Kendall Coin, Schofield and
Kelly Panic and.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I want Montreal to win.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I know we have friends of the show in Montreal too,
But I just feel like we want something different.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
We want one of the one of the top seeds
to make it, and.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
We want maybe a new champion, just to make things
up a little. Forget me, Minnesota, don't at me. You know,
we love the parody, but we haven't had parody for
who wins It All?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
So maybe this year.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
I love that you brought up the parody aspects, Sarah,
because to me, there's truly nothing better in sports. It's
the playoff hockey. I just love how quickly games can change.
And I'm a little bit worried about what that parody
could or would look like if the league expands to
a full twelve teams next season. And the reason I
bring that up is just looking at kind of the
(37:17):
pipeline of players getting into the PWHL, and I realized
this is maybe a bit of a controversial take, but
I worry that the pipeline isn't quite there.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Yet to have the type of roster depth that the
league would want.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
And you know, earlier in the show, you're talking about
seeing some incredible players get cut from the WNBA. And
what I ended up doing was I ran some numbers
looking at the current roster spots across the PWHL, the NWSL,
and the WNBA, and then I compared it to the
D one college pipeline, just because most players are entering
(37:52):
these leagues from the college game. In the ratio for
this to give you guys a sense, this isn't the
percent chance that a player has of going pro, but
it gives you a sense of just how many players
are in each place at any given time. So essentially,
in the PWHL right now, for every PWHL player, there
are four point eight NCUBLA Division one players, so essentially
(38:13):
a ratio of one PWHL player for every five nc
DOUBLEA Division one players. In the WNBA, for every WNBA player,
there is twenty four point five NCUBA D one players.
And in the NWSL, for every NWSL player there are
twenty eight point four NCBLA Division one players. And if
(38:37):
the PWHL expanded to twelve teams, the PWHL ratio would
become one PWHL player to three point two nc DOUBLEA players,
And that's just a crazy ratio to me. You know,
most international players in the PWHL have gone through the
NCAA pipeline NCAA hockey is one of the highest international percentages,
(38:57):
both men's and women's across the board. So unlike basketball,
where it's more common for an athlete to go straight
from their home country to the WNBA, in hockey, they
usually are coming over to the NCAA first, just because
the development opportunity is so much stronger at that level
than it is at the club countries.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, so that ratio is like even more noteworthy.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Yeah yeah, And so I think, honestly, the best case
scenario here is can the PWHL be like if you
build it, they will come type of thing where this
is going to hopefully help NCAA programs invest and fund
their women's teams more because they are seeing so many
of the players go onto the pro game.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
That to me is the best case scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I would love for that to be the case.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I'm just curious if there's any incentives at the NCAA
level for places to add programs. It's already more of
a taking away of spots, especially in women's programs across
the NCAA, so adding hockey programs you'd probably have to
have some financial reason and not just the glory of
knowing you're sending players onto the so I hope that
(40:01):
that's the case. But it's a really great point to
bring up. All right, so much more WNBA and PWHL
stuff we could say, but we got to save some
for future episodes. So we're going to take another break
when we come back. Aha, that's what the Senate is
busy doing. Welcome back slices. We always love to hear
(40:23):
from you, so hit us up on email good game
at Wondermedia neetwork dot com, or leave us voicemail at
eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, and don't
forget to subscribe. Rate and review slices. It's easy watch.
Sometimes goats can fly too. Rating Two of these three
birds aren't like the other review. All fifty states and Washington,
(40:44):
d C. Have a state bird. For Connecticut, it's the
American Robin. It's been that way since nineteen forty three,
but now, for one month a year, the state of
Connecticut could be welcoming two more birds to the mix.
State basketball heroes Jordan Hawkins and Sue They each led
Yukon to national titles during their college years, and they
(41:04):
both have decidedly Avian surnames, so The Connecticut State Senate
passed an amendment last week to honor both Hawk Inns
and Bird as state birds every March. The bills now
headed to Governor Ned Lamont's desk for a final signature.
No word yet on how the American Robin feels about
the additions. Speaking of the Robin, Louisiana the bulls in
(41:26):
your court. As the state where basketball Hall of Famer
Robin Roberts found basketball fame, this seems like a great
time to kick the old brown Pelican off its high
horse and make the Robin your state bird, at least
for a month a year. You can go ahead and
take our idea. Now it's your turn, y'all, rate and review,
Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good Game Alex and Bianca.
(41:50):
Good Game Expansion teams Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire for
sold out first games. It's official. Now welcome to the
w you, Morgan Wallen and anyone's still supporting him. Good
Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production
in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
(42:12):
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are alex Azzi
and Bianca Hillier.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan
and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter, Lucy Jones,
Britney Martinez and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from Avery Loftus
and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're back
in the States after a wonderful weekend watching history in Toronto,
the first ever tempo game you always remember your first.
It's Monday, May eleventh, and on today's show, Big Citrus
gets together to talk about the start of the WNBA season.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
All the highs, lows and hellos.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yovanna Nokic stand up my weekend of w's the espnW
summit and Game one for the w's first Canadian franchise,
and of course the PWHL playoffs, which are full of
surprises this year, plus a second chance for some fan faves,
nail biting hockey and hat tricks. It's all coming up
(00:40):
right after this Welcome back Slices, Happy Monday. Here's what
you need to know today, starting with hoops. Of course,
the thirtieth season of the WNBA tipped off for the weekend,
(01:00):
and y'all, if the opening games are any indication, we
are in for a very good season.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The Connecticut Sun and.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
New York Liberty were the very first to take the court,
with the shorthanded Liberty beating the Sun handily one oh
six seventy five. The Brooklyn crowd was treated to a
wop in thirty one points and ten rebounds from Liberty
forward Brianna Stewart and twelve points eleven assists from Julie
Van lou Just one day after getting added to the
New York roster. She was waived by the Sparks Tuesday
(01:27):
and picked up on a hardship contract on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
In Action on Friday. More on that later in the show.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Also on Friday night, the Golden State Valkyries beat the
Seattle Storm ninety one to eighty. The Valkyries Janell Salon
put up twenty off the bench and Caitlyn Chen had
a career high fourteen. Up above the border, a young
Washington Mystics team managed to hold off the Toronto Tempo
sixty eight sixty five, preventing Canada's team from grabbing a
dub in their inaugural game. Yours truly was in the
(01:56):
building for that one. I got a whole lot more
to say about it in just a minute. The action
picked back up on Saturday with arguably the biggest game
of the weekend, the Dallas Wings versus the Indiana Fever,
featuring the league's last four number one overall draft picks and.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Boy did it live up to the hype. The game
was tied eighty.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Apiece going into the fourth and it was a battle
down the stretch, with the Wings ultimately pulling out the
win one oh seven, one oh four. Each team had
three players with twenty plus points, Odyssey Simms, Page Beckers,
and Arika Agunbowale for the Wings and Eliah Boston, Caitlin Clark,
and Kelsey Mitchell for the Fever. According to ESPN's Alexa
philip Who, this was the first season opening game in
(02:35):
WNBA history where both teams scored at least one hundred
points more on that one, including two very different debuts
for Azy Fudd and Jessica Sheppard.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
A little later in the.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Show, perhaps the most surprising game of the opening weekend
saw the Phoenix Mercury upsetting the defending champion Las Vegas
Aces ninety nine sixty six in a rematch of last
year's finals. You remember the Mercury were swept by the
Aces for the title.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Having to sit through the Aces.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Pregame ring ceremony and watching Asia Wilson and company get
their twenty twenty five bling got the Mercury fired up
because they went off in particular Yovanna Nogich, who had
one of the best WNBA debuts you've ever seen nineteen points,
four assists, and two steals for the Serbian who clearly
heard me say the Mercury didn't add any noteworthy talented
(03:21):
free agency in my WNBA season previews message received Giovanna.
Later on Saturday, Olivia Miles made clear that she's ready
for the w already by making her official debut one
to remember. Miles, a rookie guard for the Minnesota Lynx,
led her team in minutes, points, and assists in their
season opener against the Atlanta Dream. Even though Atlanta ultimately
(03:42):
won by a hare ninety one to ninety, Miles finished
with twenty one points and eight assists for the Links,
becoming only the fifth player in league history to record
at least twenty points and five assists in her first game,
joining the likes of Cynthia Cooper, Don Staley, Tanya Edwards,
and Candace Parker on that list company. The game also
saw Angel Reese get in her first official minutes for
(04:04):
the Dream after leaving the Chicago Sky in the off season.
She had eleven points and fourteen rebounds for a double double.
In her debut, the fiftieth double double of her career
in just sixty five games. She's the fastest to reach
that mark in WNBA history. Also Saturday, the Portland Fire
set a new WNBA attendance record for an expansion team's
(04:24):
first game with nineteen thousand, three thirty five at the
Moda Center, also the second largest crowd for a home
opener of any kind in WNBA history. Unfortunately for the Fire,
the Chicago Sky spoiled the party, grabbing a ninety eight
eighty three win. Skyler Diggins had twenty one points, eleven rebounds,
and seven assists in her Sky debut. A handful of
(04:46):
teams were back out on the court on Sunday, and
the La Sparks had their season debut Sunday, so we'll
have takeaways from all those results in tomorrow show. Some
w news from the weekend, A couple of athletes found
new homes before the start of the season after being
waived by the t Rono Tempo. Aliah Ni was claimed
by the Atlanta Dream. Hayley van Lyth was claimed by
the Connecticut Sun after being waived by the Chicago Sky,
(05:07):
and she took the court and the Sun's opener Friday night,
scoring nine points for her new team. Also, two recently
Wave Valkyrie's players joined new team's ondevelopmental contracts. TCUs March
Swarez joined the Phoenix Mercury and fan favorite Kate Martin
joined the La Sparks. Both are on player developmental contracts
that's part of the WNBA's new CBA. Under those contracts,
a player can practice and travel with the team and
(05:29):
can be on the active roster for twelve games while
receiving a weekly stipend of seven hundred fifty bucks and
a pro rated minimum salary of six thousand dollars to Hockey,
One half of the pwhol Finals matchup is set. The
number four seed Ottawa Charge Is headed back to the
finals for a second straight season after defeating the number
two seed Boston Fleet three games to one in their
(05:50):
semi final series. After Ottawa took a two to one
lead in the series Friday night, Game four on Sunday
afternoon was do or die for Boston. Took a two
to zero lead three minutes into the second period and
Boston looked down and out, but they stormed back with
three goals within two minutes to take a three to
two lead, the fastest three goals in PWHL playoff history,
(06:11):
but Ottawa leveled to score three to three heading into
the third, and a scoreless third period meant overtime again
and then a second overtime, until finally the Charges. Mikhaela
Coava played hero, scoring a minute twelve into the second
extra session for the win. Ottawa will look to avenge
last year's finals loss with a win this time. As
for their opponent, well, the semi final series between Minnesota
(06:33):
and Montreal is headed to Game five after Minnesota pulled
off a three to one comeback win over the Victoire
on Friday night, scoring all three of their goals in
the final twelve minutes of the third period. That included
two from the frost breakout star of the playoff, Sydney Morn,
who tallied both the game tying and game winning goals.
Game five of that series is tonight in Montreal, starting
(06:53):
at seven pm Eastern to soccer. As if all that
w and hockey action wasn't enough, the NWA cell also
had a full slate of games over the weekend. On Friday,
Sophia Wilson stayed hot, scoring again, but her Portland Thorns
fell to Racing Louisville three to one on Saturday, with
NYC mayors or on Mom Donnie and US women's national
team manager Emma Hayes among the over eleven three hundred
(07:16):
in attendance. Defending league champs Gotham FC had to settle
for a one to one draw with the Boston Legacy.
Gotham took the lead on a Jaden Shaw goal in
the thirty seventh minute, but the Legacy responded just three
minutes later with the goal from Alba Kanyo, her second
of the season. The Boston expansion team is starting to
build some momentum after losing their first five games. The
Legacy are unbeaten in three straight and there's maybe a
(07:38):
budding rivalry.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Growing between those two sides.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Gotham played Renee raps I hate Boston as the Legacy
starting lineup was announced, and Boston gave them a reason
to keeping them from getting a win in their special
partnership game with the Mayor's Office. Speaking of expansion teams,
the Denver Summit took down the Houston Dash four to
one on Saturday, with the Summits Geni and Sonis both
opening the scoring and finding the back of the net
(08:02):
for Denver's final goal.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Also on Saturday, the San Diego Wave.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Best at Angel City two to one, a game that
saw acfc's Claire Emsley returned to the pitch for the
first time after missing a year on maternity leave, getting
back on the field on Mother's Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Who's right in this stuff? Perfect?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
On Sunday, the Casey Current shutout the Chicago Stars three
to nothing. Well, time was Shawenga shut out the Stars
three to nothing. The current Star player had an electric
hat trick. It's the Current's first NWSL regular season hat
trick and might just be the spark they need to
get back to form after a slow start to the season.
Shout out to the OPTA jack account on Blue Sky
(08:40):
for this cool stat with Showenga's hat trick on Sunday,
the last seven regular season NWSL hat tricks have been
scored by players from seven different countries Malawi, Japan, Nigeria, Brazil, Zambia, Canada,
and the US. The NWSL truly is a global league.
To the Olympics, The International Olympic Committee made a few
(09:01):
key decisions at an executive board meeting last week. First,
the IOC says they no longer recommend restrictions on Belarussian athletes,
either an individual or team sports along with Russian athletes.
Belarussians were banned from international sport in twenty twenty two
after the countries invaded Ukraine. Belarussians and Russians were allowed
to compete as individual neutral athletes starting a year later.
(09:22):
But now the IOC recommends that sports global governing bodies
allow Belarussians back to the field of play with their
flag and national anthem. The IOC clarified they do not
recommend that Russian athletes get the same treatment. Now it's
up to the global governing bodies for each sport to
decide how they want to proceed. The first governing body
to respond to the new recommendation was World Athletics. A
(09:43):
spokesperson for the track and field body rejected the idea
and said their restrictions of Belarussians remain in place. One
more note that came out of that IOC meeting We've
mentioned before, there's been a significant push to add cross
country running to the Winter Olympics, with some hoping to
see the sport make its winter debut as soon as
twenty thirty, but IOC president Kirsty Coventry said late last.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Week not going to happen just yet.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The twenty thirty Games will continue to only feature sports
held on snow and ice, finally to tennis arena. Sabalanca
has been on a bit of a tear so far
this year, rallying from an Australian Open finals loss to
win both Indian Wells and the Miami Open. But over
the weekend, the world number one suffered her earliest tournament
exit in fifteen months, after a third round defeat to
world number twenty six Sarana Cristeia at the Italian Open.
(10:28):
Sabalanca won the first set, but lost her way after that,
ultimately taking a medical time out for a lower back
and hip problem.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Midway through the third set.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Because of the injury, she was able to skip the
post match press conference, but she did tell the WTA
Tour that her lower back and hip were limiting her
from full rotation. The loss marks just her third of
the entire year, with the French Open starting in less
than two weeks. Also over the weekend, IGOs fiantec Naomio
Osaka and Americans Cocoa GoF and Jessica Pugula all won
(10:57):
their third round matches. We'll keep you posted throughout the
week as the women make their way towards the finals.
This weekend, All right, y'all, we're going to take a break.
When we returned, the gang's back together. Big Citrus talks,
PWHL playoffs and WNBA openers. Next, welcome back slices. Let's
(11:21):
get Big Citrus in here. Alex Bianca, Hey, Hello, I
had such a blast in Toronto. I did reluctantly return,
but not before leaving a post it note on a
big wall at a store that said, like.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
How are you really feeling?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Post a note and I wrote, feeling sorry about Donald
Trump and America.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
We'll try to do better.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I left my mark in Canada, and most of
the time a friend of the show, Clayon Connichen, and
I just pretended to be Canadian.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No one needed to know.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We didn't need to make clear that we were coming
from the US. We blended right in. We'll talk about
Toronto though, in just a few minutes, because I was
furiously taking notes all weekend long while paying attention to
the rest of the w action and just so excited
that we're back in action, and I already feel like
this historic thirtieth season, it's it's clear it's going to
be different. There's me more people watching, more people talking
(12:11):
about it, better marketing, better commercials. Like everything just feels
bigger and better, and I'm so psyched for it.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I do want to caution.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
People after this first week and of action to save
their big dramatic proclamations, And that was clear after the
very first game, because if you watch the New York
Liberty game, they.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
You know, they absolutely dusted them.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
They looked fantastic against the Connecticut Sun, but they were
without sabritan Escu with an injury, Rebecca Allen with an injury,
Satu Sabai out with a syst Raquel Carera, and Leoni
Phoebitch who are still fulfilling overseas commitments, and they literally
had to sign multiple hardship contracts just to have people
on the court for the first game. So whatever you
thought about them, much of it might remain the same
(12:50):
because of their core. But it was just a great
example of how teams are still coming together and a
lot of teams in the league are waiting for overseas talent,
are incorporating new talent. So yes, get excited, but also
don't get too sad if your team looked weird or
bad or slow or ugly, which some of the games were,
just you know, just want to throw that out there.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So are you saying that now isn't the time, Sarah
to say the Las Vegas Aces are going to win
it all again based only on that sixty six to
ninety nine loss to the Mercury.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean, honestly, when it comes to the Aces, all
bets are off. You can say confidently throughout the season,
regardless of the outcome of a single game, that they're
going to win it all unless they are so bad
that they are hinging on not qualifying.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
For the postseason.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
But as I said in my previews, they could be
literally the last team in and they would still be
the scariest once you got to the postseason because we
all know what they can do. But yeah, so what
does I say about the Liberty though? That was like
a perfect example of that is Julie van lu gets
waived by the Sparks, and you remember that she's also
someone who last year was going to the Valkyries. Flew
(13:52):
like an eighteen hour flight out of her own money
to get there in time for the game and then
got waved.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So she's had this like up and down, up and down.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So after she got waived by the Sparks on Tuesday,
she literally was exercising in California and thought about not
even trying to get back in the w She was
ready to just call it quits. Her agent calls her
up and says, the Liberty want to add you to
a hardship contract on Thursday, the day before the season opener,
And she's like, I don't know if I want to
do it. The ups and downs are too much. She
(14:21):
calls her mom. Her mom's like, don't forget who you are.
You're not a quitter, You're a winner. She lands in
New York at one am on Friday, hasn't practiced with
the team, doesn't know the playbook, gets on the court,
twelve points, eleven assists, double double, Like it's incredible, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Beauty on as wild.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
But it's hard because you're like, is she going to
stick there when all those players come back?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Is there still room for her regardless of what she does?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
But that's the beauty, and that's what hurts about this
league is it is the most talented players in the world,
and there is very little room for fluff, and so
you got to prove yourself every single day.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
So let's talk.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
About some of the other games. I took notes on
that fee Wings game. Something to keep an eye on.
Caitlin Clark was two of nine from three and yes,
she missed a lot at the end of last year
to injury, but if you go back to the last
eight or so games before she was out for the
season last year, she also was shooting terribly from beyond
the arc. This is her signature, this is her calling card.
(15:20):
We got to figure out what's going on with Caitlin
from beyond the arc? Is it because she's beat up
all game dealing with double teams since she's too fatigued.
Is it because her posture, her form, the way she
shoots is fundamentally screwed up right now because of injury.
We're going to have to find out, because she did
step out of this game multiple times to deal with
issues with her back, and in fact, after the game,
(15:42):
head coach Stephanie White had to address that as far
as she know, the back is the problem. Even though
the broadcasters were surmising that it had something to do
with groin and hip issues from last year, so whatever
is still ailing Caitlin. She had to come out of
the first game of the season multiple times to deal
with it and still didn't quite look like herself, at
least from those deep threes.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So something to watch.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Also something to watch Jessica Shepherd thirteen points, nine rebounds,
nine assists in her debut with the Wings, almost a
triple double in her very first game, and she was
the lesser of the two Links players that arrived with
the Wings that we were excited to see in a
new spot. Obviously, Lena Smith great game too, but I'm
going to be keeping an eye out on Jessica Shepherd
and what she's able to do in a new place
with a little bit more of an opportunity. Aizy Fudd
(16:25):
one for two, three points in her debut. She's gonna
have a little bit more trouble than a lot of
number one picks. Then most number one picks finding a
place in this roster. Usually you're going somewhere that desperately
needs you if your team has the worst record in
the league. The Wings are an interesting team that have
added a bunch of talent and don't need Asy Fudd
to play as big of a role right away because
of the logjam in the back court.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But I will say the three that she made was beautiful.
She made it count.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Absolutely and we love to do it in style, even
if it's just one shot. Also just wanted to mention
Caitlin Clark after the game. I think it was Saturday night,
Morgan Wallin's and Indy for a concert and she makes
the decision to walk out with him for the beginning
of the concert, and I just have to say, for
the millionth time, not specific to Caitlin, but for everyone,
(17:13):
once someone uses the N word multiple times, it's fine
to just say that's the deal breaker and not support
them anymore. I have personal friends who I give this
message to as well, Hey, can you stop posting his
music or supporting him. He's a terrible person and he's
done multiple terrible things in addition to using the N word.
But when he uses the nword and his sales triple,
(17:33):
and he becomes the face of something more than just
shitty music but instead a representation of terrible racist ideas,
and you decide that you still want to be a
part of that, I have some real questions. And let's
say Kaitlin just really likes his music, you still, in
my opinion, need to make the choice not to walk
out on stage with him, unless you're just not trying
to beat the accusations, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I feel like we just kind of keep waiting
for Caitlin to send a message, and she keeps not
sending it. I think at this point fair to say
maybe that is the message, or.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
She has sent the message once alongside many other messages
that seemed to contradict it. Right, Yeah, let's get to
another game, because Olivia Miles, holy shit, twenty one points,
eight assist, three rebounds.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Two steals, two blocks.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Speaking of opportunity, asy Fud might not have it with
the Wings, but Olivia Miles is going to have it
with the Lynx. And even though there was a comeback
win for the Dream in that one and they didn't
get the dub, that was a really fun game to
watch and it was fun to see Olivia Miles already
in her bag like confident swaggy. At the end, she
drives in massive moment in the game and gets blocked
(18:38):
and I'm like I guess that's your welcome to the
w moment. But it's only so humbling if the rest
of your game is on fire, which it was, so
that was that was super fun. Speaking of on fire,
I mentioned earlier Yovanna Noviitch for the Mercury like, truly
the story of the offseason was they didn't add anyone
that was going to be a difference maker in free agency,
(18:59):
and she was like, let me go ahead and put
up fifteen points in the first half.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Just unbelievable, and.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
The Aces man, you know, it's funny, as I was
talking to Juel Lloyd just a few days before the opener, saying,
you guys are gonna be off to a great start.
You're returning so much talent, so many other teams are
having to adjust to new look rosters, and you're gonna
hopefully like hit the ground run and gonna be nothing
like last year when you started off slow and then
they got absolutely worked by a Mercury team that we said,
why didn't they do anything in.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The off season? So what the do we know?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I guess, speaking of what the does anyone know? The
ring ceremony announcer for the home team in Vegas said
Dana Ellis.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Oh no, her name is, of course Dana Evans.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So even though they had a string quartet playing Knuck
if You Buck, which was frankly fantastic, you still should
get the names of the players who just won the
title correct. Frustrating the Seattle game, the Vlks went over Seattle.
The stand up for it was Jade Melbourne, who busted
her tooth. It was like, first game of the season.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Balls to the wall.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm going to prove that, like, I'm happy to be
back in Seattle, ready to go.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's the same tooth.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
This is the third time she's chipped that same tooth,
and I'm sure every time she's like, gosh, darn it,
I got to get this thing capped again.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it's right up front.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So maybe if she was like a hockey player, dude,
she'd be like, I'm just gonna wait to the end
of the season. But she's not spending an entire season
with a giant hole in the front of her mouth
like a three year old who's waiting for the tooth.
Very so, how old are you when.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
You lose your teeth?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Three?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't have kids, I think much later.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, I just realized that happy Mother's Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
None of us know shit about children anyway.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I just was like, this is the w in a nutshell,
Like everyone wants the NBA games to be more physical,
and meanwhile the women are just getting their asses beat
on a nightly basis and she's coming out with a
broken tooth within the first game. Finally, the Portland game, guys,
what a beautiful scene. Over nineteen thousand people absolutely packed.
Ashanti did the halftime and in kind of a cool
(21:06):
full circle moment, her first album came out in two
thousand and two, which is when the original iteration of
the Portland Fire closed their doors, so she was back
around like, let me help you bring it back. The
crowd was incredible. They had really cool Like one of
the cool things about watching on WNBA League Pass, which
is how Coleein and I were watching from our hotel
room up in Toronto, is that they show a lot
(21:27):
of the game break action while you're watching, and so
we could see some of the activations they were doing
and the way they were engaging the.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Crowd, and man, I was just really excited.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
You know, in my previews I mentioned, you know, Portland
gets a second chance to support a team, and someone said,
I don't know if you meant it this way, but like,
it wasn't us not supporting the team that made it
fold last time.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It was ownership And I was like, that's not at
all what I meant.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I just meant, this is a second chance to have
the w in your city. And man, they showed up
and showed out and it was really really cool. Speaking
of first games, I got to be at the inaugural
game for the Toronto Tempo Friday night against the Washington
Mystics Coca Cola Coliseum, sold out game. As I mentioned,
Clayton Connigan, friend of the Show, is with me. She's
(22:12):
a noted Mystics fan, so she was very happy to
see her team pull out the dub. But she was
also very generously cheering for the Tempo in certain moments,
like understanding what it meant for Canada to have its
very first team and very first game. Before I get
to an actual game at Mispherre, I'll just say we
had some fun things before. We went to this pregame
event for the Collective Slash. The team like formerly Wasserman
(22:33):
and Silas Swords of Michigan was there and got announced
as Nike's newest Canada athlete, so I was very exciting
for her and cool to hear her. She's a Canadian
national and on the Canadian national team, so she was
really excited to be there and help launch the big day.
Then we went to the VIP party for the tempo itself.
Kathy Engelbert was there, so the commission I are guests
(22:53):
making the same moves as the season gets going.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But she wearing a dress with Toronto CM tower on it,
I hope.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And was it made I coach? She was not.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
She was not.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
She was a neutral colored Based on what I saw.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
She was neither repping the mystics nor the tempo, which
seems like.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
A good solid move nor. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
A friend of the show, Teresa Resh, was there and
got up to give a little speech and brought up,
you know, the heads of Sephor and CIBC who were
their main sponsors, and shouted out some of the OG's
and whatever and started tearing up multiple times, and like
was very surprised. She surprised herself at how emotional she
was in the moment. But it was really cool to
see what it meant to everyone. There lots of slubs,
at the game. You know, Serge Ibaka Canadian big cheer,
(23:34):
but he was right before Christine Sinclair and it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
How they were like, yeah, Surge, we love Surge.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And then Christine Sinclair gets on he was like, and
she's such an introvert that she was just like, oh
my god, make it stop.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Like I'd like to be anywhere but here. But it
was just so cool.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I was like, the crowd knew the assignment and it
was really cool, and they did some nice first moments,
you know, bringing out some basketball OG's and they do
this poem at.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
The beginning of the game.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Somebody came on the court to recite a poem called
Together We Win, and it definitely seemed like something they're
probably going to do at each game, and it specifically
shouted out the inclusivity of the experience for trans, queer,
non binary anybody who shows up, they all are part
of this family and the story, and it was really cool.
Keia Nurse also, who's a Canadian, pretty fantastic every time
(24:19):
she literally did anything, and that was very fun to see.
So the vibes were high, even though the venue was small.
It's where the scepters play it's where the Marley's play,
which is an AHL hockey men's team. And so having
gone to the one preseason WNBA game in Toronto that
was at the Scotiabank Arena where the Raptors play, in
(24:40):
my head, I was like, Oh, we're going to be
at an arena like that, and instead it's only you know,
eight thousand something people that fit in it, so sold
out very loud, but small compared to most professional basketball games.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
But is it better to have a sold out eight
thousand person stadium or arena or a thirty thousand person
home opener life the Boston Legacy at Gillette, which you
know we talked about, you could really feel the emptiness there.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, it's tough to say, and I think we're going
to find out, right because the Valkyries last year sold
out every single game eighteen thousand plus people in an
NBA arena every single game. Will Portland be able to
sell out the Moda Center every game that nineteen thousand people?
Is that going to be sustainable or will it start
to have the feel where you can tell the building
(25:29):
is in full and is Toronto going to be held
back by the size of the place They're right, or
will it be a good size for the start, especially
since they're playing a couple of games in different places
in Canada to sort of establish that they're Canada's team.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
That will be something to watch for for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, it's funny that you say that, because we
have seen so many attendance records broken in women's sports
over the last couple of years. It feels like half
the time we write a need to know there's an
attendance record in there.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
And yet the WNBA's.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
All time attendance record is twenty two thousand and seventy
six people from two thousand and seven when the Detroit
Shock hosted.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
The Phoenix Mercury.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
And the real reason we haven't seen that record broken
is because we haven't seen a WNBA game in a
larger venue. A lot of you know, the Indiana Fever
games over the last two seasons, they have been in
smaller venues than twenty two thousand people. And so if
I was in charge of a WNBA team right now,
I would be looking and saying, how can we get
into a venue that fits more than twenty two thousand people?
(26:28):
Because right now I would feel pretty confident about being
able to sell that out and get a new record
in the league.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, and you saw, even with unrivaled selling out the
seventy six ers, it still wasn't more than twenty two
thousand people. So even though they set a venue record
because the court was even smaller than an NBA court,
so they could sell more seats than an NBA game
and take the venue record, they still weren't able to
surpass the WNBA record.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I completely agree with you, and we'll have to see
because I think Gamebridge Arena had some empty seats for
the Fever opener, which was surprising this year. So we'll
see if that status for those Fever games remains, you know,
peak every single time like it has been. I would
imagine to your point, if they play in a specific
special arena and there's some good marketing around it, they
(27:13):
will be able to sell.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Out and set that new record.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
There were a couple things to get right early in
this one that they didn't quite Namely, the announcer who
did the intros set Kiki Erie.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Often it's Erea.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Fen That used to be the name that everyone called her,
but a couple of years ago she came out and
told everyone it's Eria fen and Georgia Amore, not Georgia Amore,
and I know.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
That's not the home team.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
You should be getting everyone's names right the opposing team
as well. They also didn't have replays for the first half,
and in the second half when they started having replays,
I realized it was probably some sort of production to
arena issue, but it does feel bush league if you
have a professional game and you can't see the play
that's being you know.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Whether it's a foul or a great play.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Second half, I was so glad to see them up
there and that they had figured it out. But it's
also a pretty small scoreboard, so there's no stats on
the video boards anywhere. It just has the score and
the teams and timeouts and fouls. It doesn't have the
ability to show you who's on the court at a
given moment and what their statistics are for the game
so far. So that does feel like a lower level
(28:22):
game than most professional games.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
But the merch was insane.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Almost every single person in the building already had tempo merch,
and it was at least twelve different kinds jerseys, rugby sweaters,
actual sweaters, tank tops, t shirts, hats of every kind
like they have crushed the merch and the representation. And
it's also so clear to me that the new teams.
(28:47):
Colleen and I were talking about this because we've got
og teams in the Sky and the Mystics, and we're like,
they're so stuck in having existed for so long and
maybe not hiring new people.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And the new.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Franchises come in and crush the marketing and the and
the vibes because they're starting in a modern time when
they anticipate the needs and desires of the modern fan. Meanwhile,
a lot of the Sky merch kind of looks like
it's for kids, so I was really excited to see that,
and I thought it was really great. There's also a
couple of funny things. When the scoreboard said defense defense,
(29:17):
it was with a C. And then also when they
did the T shirt like guns and all that stuff,
instead of having a sponsor yet, they just had all
over the scoreboards free stuff, free stuff, which I thought
was hilarious, like, we all know that's what it is.
And then finally there was a little girl dancing that
they caught and she was doing like a sort of walk,
like an Egyptian dance. And then this weird, like almost
(29:40):
like rabbit ears flipping backwards and forwards. I don't know
if it's a TikTok thing. I'm sure someone will tell
me if I'm missing it. But everyone fell in love
with her, so they kept cutting back to her, and
she never got shined, she never stopped.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
She was probably like five, she was very little.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then the next big break, they were so smart
they grabbed her out of her seat and brought her
onto the court with the dance team, and they brought
her to every corner of the court to do her dance,
and the whole entire stadium's doing walk like an Egyptian.
And this rabbit ears, she like invented a whole thing
in a stadium game one.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And in my mind, I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Like, twenty years from now, they're gonna have flashback video
of this like four year old girl at the very
first game, and they're gonna bring her out. She's gonna
be the starting point guard and she's gonna do walk
like an Egyptian when she.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I'm like writing a movie for them.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
But I just love that they were agile in that
first game to recognize that this is what the crowd
was losing their mind over and like decide just a
little bit later in the game to like lean into it.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So yeah, I mean that that was all really cool.
I love all that.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
But yeah, for the most part, it felt pretty much
like a very educated audience. You know, the people behind me.
The guy was explaining to the girl who was with
him some of the you know, she just won a
championship with UCLA. Keiky Rice is out there and now
she's playing against Lauren Betts and they just want a
title together. The woman next to me is explaining to
her girlfriend about like why she's dogging the official and.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yelling eighty eight, you suck get off the court. Like
she's like, who is eighty eight?
Speaker 5 (31:06):
Like it the official?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So it was like everyone was in from the beginning. Yeah,
and it was a pretty ugly game.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It was.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It was not pretty. It looked like a first game
of a season. The Mystics are very young, the Tempo
are a brand new team.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
So yeah, it was a.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Low scoring game. Laurd That's in particular, looked really nervous.
I think she was zero for five maybe, and a
lot of it was right next to the bucket clean look,
and she just she just looked nervous, so I'm hoping
that she settles in. Rory Harmon when she came on,
it was so funny because I was like ostensibly rooting
for the tempo. I was wearing full head to toe
(31:44):
temple gear that they've set me over the last year
or so, and yet I was like basically just rooting
for anybody on both teams who did anything good. Like
Marina Maybry went off for a little bit. I was
excited Rory Harmon. I'm like, oh my god, look at
our little girl. She's going, you know, she's.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
All girls up.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
But yeah, I did feel like a little bit like
Amy Poehler in Mean Girls.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Like literally everyone, I'm like, you're doing great, sweetie.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
But all in all, it was really really really cool
to be there in person, and you know, I was
telling Colleen, you can see why like coming up to
Toronto and Canada so much, because everywhere we went, I
ran into people that I had met from hosting the
three espnW summits up there, and everyone is so excited
to see me, so kind, so friendly, so excited about
(32:30):
what's going on up there. Diana Mathieson, who's Prego, was there.
I was so happy to see her, and we went
to the Toronto Blue Jays game on Saturday. Colleen works
with Legends and they did that ballpark, so we had
the sick setup in the suite and ended up sitting
right next to someone who works for the Tempo who
I had met last year, and we were chatting about
the game the night before, and like if Teresa was
there with her family and got to go out on
(32:51):
the field before the game as part of the like
Toronto Tempo's big weekend in the city, and it just
feels like it's a massive city and it feels small
the number of times I'm walking around. Ran into Renee
Stubbs right outside the stadium friend at the show, who
was Renee Stubs Tennis podcast, who's bff with Sandy Brundello,
so she was trying to find Sandy's Sun to head
in and sit courtside.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
But everywhere we went, we ran into people that I'd
met and knew and it was really really fun.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
And speaking of the espnW, some I had flown there
literally straight from hosting the summit, which was fantastic. We're
going to play some great interviews from that on the
show later on in the next couple of weeks, but
I was exhausted and I was like kind of like,
no many dragon ass all day, and instead it was
just like the vibes were so high and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So fun, those Canadian vibes. Canadian vibes. Man, I'm part Canadian,
I think in spirit. Yeah, that's awesome, that sounds so fun.
I want to get up there. Yeah, yeah, me too.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
When it comes to the issue you were talking about
before with player pronunciations, I want to continue my thought
experiment of being a WNBA president because that is the
second thing I would do is I would have all
of my players say their pronunciation, because the NBA website
has pronunciations, but it's a robotic voice, and most of
the time they're not correct. And this is just such
(34:08):
an easy thing. We spend a lot of time. Bianca
can confirm, Sarah can confirm a lot of time trying
to figure out the correct pronunciation of athlete names.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
And it shouldn't be this hard. And shout out to
the NWSL and the WTA.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah exactly, the other leagues have got it right. And
now that Kathy and I end up in all the
same places, I'll just shoot.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Her a note. I'll just be like, hey, CAF, CAF,
can you get on this.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I'd like all the players to say their names and
put it on the website please.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
And then finally, the third thing I would do as
a WNBA president is maybe recent the first thing I
would do as a WNBA president, because in the last
few minutes I have googled largest NBA venue and it
turns out that there is no NBA venue that is
as big as the record that the Detroit Shock set.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
The record.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
We gotta go football.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
We got to pull in Nebraska volleyball and play in
a football stadium.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Right, it needs to be an outdoor game, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, that's an interesting find. Al all right, well, good notes.
Speaking of Alex, what you've been researching. I'm sure you
were watching the w all weekend, but also you're a
hockey girally, so I guarantee you were watching a lot
of hockey.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
I was, including maybe having my eye on a screen
as we were recording this Big Citrus because PWHL Boston
and Ottawa went into overtime and Ottawa won.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
They're going to the finals.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Crazy for Boston and it was a wild game. At
least what I saw out of the corner of my eye.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I gotta say I'm bummed.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
I am too.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I just want these teams that have great regular seasons
to be able to finish it off in the postseason.
I know it makes for exciting hockey and completely unpredictable
to not know what's going to happen, and it shows
the parody of the league, but damn, it's disappointing tap
such a great season of your Boston and not have
a chance to play for the Cup.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Absolutely, I mean I think for starters, I want to
see seven games There'm curious how that could change things potentially.
So Ottawa back in the PWHL finals just really exciting
for that fan base, in particular given their crazy support
for the team. And then we'll just have to wait
and see if they face Minnesota or Montreal. You know
(36:20):
history is going to say Minnesota, but that Game five
is tonight and we'll see if the curse of the
Higher Seat is broken.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And I never thought i'd say this, because you know,
we got friends of the show, Kendall Coin, Schofield and
Kelly Panic and.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I want Montreal to win.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I know we have friends of the show in Montreal too,
But I just feel like we want something different.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
We want one of the one of the top seeds
to make it, and.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
We want maybe a new champion, just to make things
up a little. Forget me, Minnesota, don't at me. You know,
we love the parody, but we haven't had parody for
who wins It All?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
So maybe this year.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
I love that you brought up the parody aspects, Sarah,
because to me, there's truly nothing better in sports. It's
the playoff hockey. I just love how quickly games can change.
And I'm a little bit worried about what that parody
could or would look like if the league expands to
a full twelve teams next season. And the reason I
bring that up is just looking at kind of the
(37:17):
pipeline of players getting into the PWHL, and I realized
this is maybe a bit of a controversial take, but
I worry that the pipeline isn't quite there.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Yet to have the type of roster depth that the
league would want.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
And you know, earlier in the show, you're talking about
seeing some incredible players get cut from the WNBA. And
what I ended up doing was I ran some numbers
looking at the current roster spots across the PWHL, the NWSL,
and the WNBA, and then I compared it to the
D one college pipeline, just because most players are entering
(37:52):
these leagues from the college game. In the ratio for
this to give you guys a sense, this isn't the
percent chance that a player has of going pro, but
it gives you a sense of just how many players
are in each place at any given time. So essentially,
in the PWHL right now, for every PWHL player, there
are four point eight NCUBLA Division one players, so essentially
(38:13):
a ratio of one PWHL player for every five nc
DOUBLEA Division one players. In the WNBA, for every WNBA player,
there is twenty four point five NCUBA D one players.
And in the NWSL, for every NWSL player there are
twenty eight point four NCBLA Division one players. And if
(38:37):
the PWHL expanded to twelve teams, the PWHL ratio would
become one PWHL player to three point two nc DOUBLEA players,
And that's just a crazy ratio to me. You know,
most international players in the PWHL have gone through the
NCAA pipeline NCAA hockey is one of the highest international percentages,
(38:57):
both men's and women's across the board. So unlike basketball,
where it's more common for an athlete to go straight
from their home country to the WNBA, in hockey, they
usually are coming over to the NCAA first, just because
the development opportunity is so much stronger at that level
than it is at the club countries.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, so that ratio is like even more noteworthy.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Yeah yeah, And so I think, honestly, the best case
scenario here is can the PWHL be like if you
build it, they will come type of thing where this
is going to hopefully help NCAA programs invest and fund
their women's teams more because they are seeing so many
of the players go onto the pro game.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
That to me is the best case scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I would love for that to be the case.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I'm just curious if there's any incentives at the NCAA
level for places to add programs. It's already more of
a taking away of spots, especially in women's programs across
the NCAA, so adding hockey programs you'd probably have to
have some financial reason and not just the glory of
knowing you're sending players onto the so I hope that
(40:01):
that's the case. But it's a really great point to
bring up. All right, so much more WNBA and PWHL
stuff we could say, but we got to save some
for future episodes. So we're going to take another break
when we come back. Aha, that's what the Senate is
busy doing. Welcome back slices. We always love to hear
(40:23):
from you, so hit us up on email good game
at Wondermedia neetwork dot com, or leave us voicemail at
eight seven two two o four fifty seventy, and don't
forget to subscribe. Rate and review slices. It's easy watch.
Sometimes goats can fly too. Rating Two of these three
birds aren't like the other review. All fifty states and Washington,
(40:44):
d C. Have a state bird. For Connecticut, it's the
American Robin. It's been that way since nineteen forty three,
but now, for one month a year, the state of
Connecticut could be welcoming two more birds to the mix.
State basketball heroes Jordan Hawkins and Sue They each led
Yukon to national titles during their college years, and they
(41:04):
both have decidedly Avian surnames, so The Connecticut State Senate
passed an amendment last week to honor both Hawk Inns
and Bird as state birds every March. The bills now
headed to Governor Ned Lamont's desk for a final signature.
No word yet on how the American Robin feels about
the additions. Speaking of the Robin, Louisiana the bulls in
(41:26):
your court. As the state where basketball Hall of Famer
Robin Roberts found basketball fame, this seems like a great
time to kick the old brown Pelican off its high
horse and make the Robin your state bird, at least
for a month a year. You can go ahead and
take our idea. Now it's your turn, y'all, rate and review,
Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good Game Alex and Bianca.
(41:50):
Good Game Expansion teams Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire for
sold out first games. It's official. Now welcome to the
w you, Morgan Wallen and anyone's still supporting him. Good
Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production
in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
(42:12):
find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are alex Azzi
and Bianca Hillier.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan
and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter, Lucy Jones,
Britney Martinez and Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from Avery Loftus
and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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