THERE IS DRAMA ON WNBA ISLAND! A shocking dumping from the Dallas Villa has Dijonai Carrington and Nalyssa Smith going their separate ways - at least for the remainder of the season. We are reacting to the news of Smith's trade to the Aces and what on earth is going on in Dallas!
We are talking all the big changes in the W this week... DaWanna Bonner's self eviction from the Fever, the tabloid rumors that Dawn Staley could be headed to splitsville with South Carolina, and three new bombshells entering the W with the announcement of Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland expansion teams. The WNBA needs to expand - but is it ready to?
PLUS we have a special guest host on this week - Blair Henley is in to talk all things Wimbledon, tennis, and what storylines to watch this month on the grass courts in England.
Buckle up, the tea is hot.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it's time Wimbledon is here.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
I did know that Wimbledon is here? I did see
something about this on my on my page.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good talk. That was great, that's really good.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I don't I gotta say, I'm not. I have never
been somebody who knows like a ship.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Ton about tennis.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
So I'm really excited for our special guest today, who's
gonna teach us some shit about tennis.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I love that It's gonna be dope.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I'm a hot I get anything out wrong.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
This is my world.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I make big moves in my big use.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Since the day there I was born.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I've been a big deal.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What'd you do? How was your weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
My weekend was well, I got detained for like momentarily
by Ice.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So that was fun.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Vanila Ice Ice baby.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
That was me at the border, which is, you know,
mind boggling because like I was the only person, Me
and my fiance were the only person in there, and
yet like the the border agent was like, well, what
are your plants for entering the US? And I was like,
I live here, Well, how do we know that you're
(01:13):
you're doing all the right things?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And I was like, sir, I don't know how to
convince you that I'm a good person. But you're just
gonna have to take it.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
If you're doing all the right things. What are the
right things? As long as I'm not smuggling drugs, smuggling people,
and I get this girl back across the country on time,
which your ticket says, you.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Can just kick rocks, you can watch.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, but he gave us this whole things. Things are
different now under.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This, Oh, things are different now? Yes, yes, let mean.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, yeah, how was your weekend?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Well, Ollie, we found out me and Allie that he
doesn't know how to pose other dogs, so he just grouts. Well,
he's so submissive, but he doesn't really know how to
make friends, and so he just growls at every dog
that he goes past. So I'm in socialization mode. I'm
just forcing him to go to the park and meet
(02:14):
other animals. And I have to be like, I'm sorry,
he's five months, he doesn't know anything.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'm sorry, you won't do anything. He's not aggressive, I promise,
And they're.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Like, oh he's They're like, oh, yeah, he's so cute. Anyway,
see you later, and they just leave. So he made
one friend this weekend, which is really cute. And the
dog's name is Tokyo. And now I have a lot
of faith and belief that yes, Tokyo the Mini the
mini labradoodle. So I have faith that Ali's going to
be able to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Ali's gonna make friends. Did you where did you find?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Did you find Tokyo the Mini Labradoodle on like Craigslist
like make friends for random?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Random?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And I saw him.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Ollie actually walked past him and ran into the baseball
diamond after him, and I'm like, oh no, what's this
about to be? And the woman's like you is this
dog aggressive? I'm like, no, I promise he's not. And
then after about five minutes, all he's laying on his
back just you know, breathing crazy, and he's chasing this
dog who's chasing the ball.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's all he wants to do is chase a dog
that chases the ball.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Why not? I don't blame him. We got a lot
to get through, though, so you better do this.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Intro Welcome to Let Her Shoot.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
The only podcast that covers women's sports in the way
that we want them cover, which is no bullshit, no
kid gloves, just respect for the athletes and all the
reasons to.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Stay locked in. You got Sarah Chavnick here on the mic.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
She's our producer, two time Emmy Award winning producer Tristter Creek.
I am quote unquote the talent, So.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
No Emmy's for me, zero ones. We have a stacked show.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
The NWSL is off for the month of July, but
we have plenty of drama the WNBA to keep you
up to date. We are talking about scheduling, scheduling, fatigue,
We're tired, Sarah, and expansion and exhaustion. The euros Earl
also starts this week. Center Court of Wimbledon is upon us.
All white on white on white, Get your Pim's Cup,
(04:07):
and we have a special guest with us today, Blair Henley,
to talk about all things tennis and what to watch for.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
As that begins, I got a lot to ask her to.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I got a lot of questions, but we got to
start with some breaking news out of Dallas.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A bombshell has been asked to leave the villa.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
A bombshell has been asked to leave the villa.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
They said, we have been voting for our favorite couple
and you, Melissa Smith, need to go to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Production sent her off, Babe.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
It's been tough. We this was a couple that has
had a rocky road. They've been with each other since
Baylor on and off, so the first time they've been
teammates since college. There was a lot of hoopla around
Melissa Smith indieje reuniting in Dallas with Page and we've
so seeing.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All the tape of them getting.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
The extracurriculars pregame. Melissa hasn't been that good either, to
be honest. The Wings have traded for Lee Ye Roue
and she's been awesome at the center position. I think
she's actually gonna catch on. She came over from the Storm.
So Melissa, when she's not playing well and she's doing
the extracurriculars, hey, we got to ship you off. I
(05:26):
think that's kind of what I think that's kind of
what happened.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And their heartbroken. They were totally blindsided by it.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
There was tons of tweets and Instagram comments and posts.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So so just for anyone who hasn't seen this news,
because it literally just came out as we were about
to get on this podcast. But Melissa Smith traded to
the Las Vegas Aces from Dallas from the Dallas Wings.
Dallas will receive a twenty twenty seven first round pick.
It feels a little like in the futury, like right,
like Dallas needs help. Now, Why is a twenty twenty
(05:58):
seven first round pick? Do you think I think this
is this strictly business or is this production interfering with
a couple in the villa that they're sending someone home
because they want to see something else going on?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What they want to want to see.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
We want to see Lee Yeru have a chance a love. Really,
we want to see how many minutes that she can stack.
She's been awesome Dallas since they've traded for her in
the last six games is four and two or four
and two and they only have five wins in total.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So she's been a revelation.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
She is that that bombshell that comes into the villa
that you're like, oh, this is not just a Jalen,
This is not just a one and done, like a
one episode and done. Like I think Lee can stay
through the seat through the full season and next season.
So that's what I think it is.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And on top of that, I honestly think probably Dallas
is like we really don't want to see Alyssa and
Djena together.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Whatever dja's declining production is, how much of that is
responsible from whatever they're doing pregame or I'm not saying
that's one hundred percent of it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm not saying it's fifty percent of it. Is it
part of it? But I remember that Angel we had
Angel Country.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
On I domber. She said, having Angel Country on you?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, and she said, which could have been we could
have posted this we didn't where she said, you can
tell which girls on the team have girlfriends and which
ones have boyfriends. Yeah, the girlfriends want to snuggle and
watch Love Island and the boyfriends want to, you know,
get your rebounds, and DJA, your girlfriend is no longer
going to be watching Love Island with you when it's
(07:36):
time for the rebounds.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I guess we'll have to see what happens if Dallas
replaces her.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
We've got we had.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Another place she is replaced.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
She's she's already been replaced.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But I meant, like in the roster spot, they now
have an open roster spot. Are they clearing cap space?
I saw some things saying are they clearing cap space?
Ford Wanna Bonner, which I think that's a no.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But Uh. No, I think that's a resounding no. We
got to talk about this self eviction because we.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Had we had another another leaving the villa here. But
do Wanna Bonner has opted out of continuing her journey
to love in Indiana and has has decided to leave
the team.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
But it was.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
She's She's like if rob actually left the villa, when
they would have when they would have voted Andrea out,
Like when Robin season six decides, Oh you just sent
three home and not two.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You sent three home.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, you did your beauty actually love.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
That's what the Wada Bonner would have been. So Water
gets way from the fever.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
She gets way from the fever.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
She had been out for I think like four games
due to personal reasons.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And there was a lot of speculation on what that
could mean. And then it came back that the team
had released her. Well, at least things kind of came
out in parts. First, Anti Constable said from Front Office
Sports had reported that de Wanna Bonner had no interest
in returning.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Then the next day we hear they've waived her.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And then after that we hear not only have they
waived her, but they're asking teams to not claim her
off of waivers, so she's been She said that she
wanted to go to the Mercury, which is where Alisa
Thomas plays.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I feel like a lot has been.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Being made out to be do Wanna Bonner's unprofessional to
Wanna Bonner's acquitter.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Do Wanna Bonners doesn't want to be there. I feel
like it's not that deep. I feel like it's not
that deep.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Honestly.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
It feels like if the Fever said, hey, don't claim
her off of waivers, and they didn't pursue a trade
for her, which I don't think that they did. It
feels like they're working with do Wanna Bonner to get
to Wanna Bonner to wherever is going to make her happy,
whether that's the Mercury, whether that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I think she also said she would go and play
for the Atlanta Dream.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
It feels very motivated by personal reasons, right, like very much.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
She's in a.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Was there sixteenth year something like that.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
She's been in the legal thirty seven times, married to
Alyssa Thomas who lives in Phoenix now, and they have
kids and I don't know where the kids are, but
obviously when they've been teammates for with Connecticut for as
long as they have, They've built a little family unit.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's not the same as Djna and Alyssa. And so
to me.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
It feels like, well, if my production or my role
is declining and I'm no longer a starter and.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Whatever I'm getting out.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Of this is not what I thought, and I'm sacrificing
my family time. I would just prefer to take a
smaller role for less money on the team where my
family unit is.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think we. I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Christine Brennan said that she heard do Wanta Honor wanted out.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Because she couldn't handle the spotlight. Like fuck, give me
a fucking break the pro.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
She's honestly like, honesty, you need to talk about this
for a second.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, we got to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Let's talk Christine Brennan.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
First of all, let me just say I've worked with
Christine for like many on many occasions, she's been nothing
but nice to me. I've had multiple Hey, can I
pull you for a chats on a professional level where
she gave me a lot of insight, gave me a
lot of insight on the business. She loves the new
wave of media. She is not the new wave of media,
(11:27):
but she was very.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Supportive of me in my early journey at USA.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Today she has accolades up the wazoo. So I'll preface
that all by saying large amount of respect for Christine
Brennan on a personal and professional basis. But what we
are seeing from Christine Brennan is in terms of like
how she's covering the WNBA and leaning all the way
in on the WNBA around Caitlin and the Caitlyn Clark book.
(11:55):
To me, as someone who likes Christine, and again I
will continue to say, I like Christine. This is grifting.
This is like she went on OutKick. We cannot we
can't go on OutKick. We can't do this. And as
someone who's been on out Kick as a contributor, we
cannot be peddling a conservative.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Rhetoric on OutKick.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
If you're gonna go on out kick, you need to
put ten toes down and not be doing the whole
Angel Reese versus Kaitlin Clark thing.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You gotta be the shutting that down. Yeah, you gotta
be shutting it down. And it seems like she's feeding
into it by saying, I mean, because we're hearing all
this stuff about Dwana Bonner. Dwana Bonner doesn't like the
politics of the Fever. She doesn't like Caitlin Clark, she
doesn't like the coaching is too it's it's homophobic there, which,
by the way, Stephanie White Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
White gay and married to a black woman.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So I highly doubt that you're getting a lot of
racism and homophobia from Stephanie White, like I don't. I
just don't see a culture in which she adopts that
to be, you know, a topic of conversation in the
locker room, and I think it's they're responsible to sit
here and drag Dawana Bonner's name through the mud, when
in reality she wants to be with her kids, or
(13:08):
Alyssa Thomas wants to be with her kids. One of
them probably wants to be with their kids. And I
don't think it's that deep.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Here's how it goes, Here's how it goes. Hey, baby,
you're playing six minutes a game. I know you're making
two hundred K, but what are we really doing? You
know what I'm saying. Maybe you want to come on home, Phoenix.
The roads are great this time of year.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I know it's getting hot, but why don't you just
figure it out. I don't think that this is as
deep as people want it to make it out to be.
And I think just everything around the fever is so
politically charged that anything when there's something that's not quite
giving us all the information that we want, we assume
just the worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
I'm not doing just like the just like the fever
monkey sounds, I'm not fucking buying in.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Are gonna bite on this.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I'm not gonna snoke the idea.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
We're not. We're snooked. We're gonna snookes this right out.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Let's talk about another rumor that's going around Don don Staley,
Don Staley to the next is the rumor that is
So that was my love Island sound?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You didn't get that? Okay, that was the coming back? Yeah, okay,
we're just gonna take this right through.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
So Don Staley has been linked to a possible the
next pulled Don Staley for a chat chat is what
they're saying, is what the streets are saying.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the Knicks have been single for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The Knicks have been single for a while.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
And they're thinking that Don Staley is the new bombshell.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They could come in and stick for.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The wa They could come in and stick Don Staley.
These these rumors are completely unsubstantiated.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
However, she has said in the past she doesn't really
have an interest in going in coaching the men's game
on any level. I feel like she's got a little
bit of that Nick Saban and her where she rather
build her dynasty in college and develop players for the
next level rather than go and be that coach at
the next level that can get because what's gonna happen
(15:17):
and she goes to New York and she's gonna get
destroyed by the NBA fan base because that's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Yeah, And it's like one of those things where on
one level, I would love to see a woman coach
an NBA team, and that's the pinnacle NBA team to
coach the Lakers, the Celtics, the Nicks, one of those
three their storied franchises.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
The fan bases, though, are insane and sane.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
If you think it's bad when a female woman ref
makes a bad call in a men's game, let me
introduce you to how bad it'll get for someone even
as storied and as legendary and as capable and qualified
as Don Staley. It so her horrendous and the commentary
(16:03):
will be probably racist, definitely sexist, and some combination of
like go back.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
To your fucking sport. Nobody cares about.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
That's what people will say that. On one hand, I
want to see it happen for progress, and Don Stanley
would certainly you know that Portland, the Portland Trailblazers interviewed
or or wanted Don Staley before they UH before they
hired Chauncey Billups. And I remember, though it's quick side
(16:33):
road that Don said in that particular case, if she
would have been offered that job, she would have felt
like she had to take it.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I don't know what's changed, and I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Like whether she was being I don't know honest at
the time, it's like kind of it's it's too late,
So I'm just gonna say that. But I don't think
you wreck your legacy for an opportunity that will be
right for scrutiny and criticism. However, I do think it's
got to be someone, and if it is someone that
(17:08):
someone like Don Staley would be the best someone.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I also think we just need to change this narrative
a little bit that a woman getting a job in
a men's sport is a step up from a woman
getting a job in a women's sport.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I think it is a step up. Money wise, it
is a step up.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
But what I'm saying is I think the goal eventually
is to get to a place where it's.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Not a step up.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's just a lateral move because women's sports are treated
equally and we don't need to look at it that way.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Let's go on into some WNBA news. I want to
ask you the way again.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We were in the news again, but before we even
get to that, because the topics of this is hilarious.
Did you see the video of Kelsey Plum being picked
up and dragged away by Rikia Jackson from getting a
foul like she was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum
in a store?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I did, h Keusey Plumb is a deeply unseerious person.
But let's watch the tape.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
This is one of my favorite clips.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So she's trying to grab the jump ball. Is that
kea nurse?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
She's getting into it with kea nurse and Rickya is like, no,
I'm gonna need you to go all the way that way.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
The way she picked her up.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Rickia straw for this. Rickia's got some guns to be
able to because.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
She swooped in. You know what she swooped in.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
She swooped in like I swoop in on Ollie when
he's about to lick diary off the cement.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Okay, that scoop Like, oh no, you're not about to
do that. We're no interested to know there.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
If she gave her the old scoop and pole, which
was poop, I call it the scoop a loop, the
scoop a loop. It was like literally like watching yes
a dog owner pick up their dog and then men
being like, no, no, no, we're not gonna fight with
that dog.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
That one's bigger than you. No, we're not doing that.
That one's bier than you. Let's back off. That was
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And her facial reaction to on top of it was
like it was like it.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Was immediate too.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
It was before anything even had the possibility of happening.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
It was you're gone. I said, nope, we're not doing it.
We're not doing it.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
We're not getting you attecked today Kelsey Plum is tired.
That's what we know. We know Kelsey Plum is tired.
And why do we know that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Her Instagram fingers are vibrant inactive.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You posted a a little stat on your threads.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Yeah, because I think what was happening was everybody was
kind of like, you know, being insane, which I'm pretty
sure that WNBA fans there's a sector of them that
are just looney tunes.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
YEA sports fans in.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
General, No, but like this group of women's, like the
WNBA fans, it's almost like they've never been a fan.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Of any other sport before. And the way that it's all.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Centering on Caitlin Clark Weather poor against just is continuously
driving me nuts. So, you know, the slump we talked
about last week, turns out a lot of WNBA players
that are great shooters.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Are in a slump, Kelsey Plum being one of them.
So I posted about it, and a.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Lot of people, including other journalists, were like, this is
just you making excuses for Caitlin and I'm like, whoa.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Which is because there's like fifteen names on that list,
But okay, I.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Was just saying, well, because it started out by saying, hey,
everybody's saying Kaitlyn's in a slump, but DC that these
people are also in a slump, correct, And so they heard, oh,
she's protecting Kaitlin, and I was not protecting Caitlin. I
just was pointing out that, hey, this is maybe bigger
than just Caitlin, for all the people who are so
hyper focused on Kaitln and to other people got upset
(20:55):
and then all of a sudden, I think I texted
you immediately or maybe even called you immediately, and Kelsey
Plumb commented on it and said.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We're tired, laughing face, We're tired. It's because we're tired.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And I can't blame her because when you look at
this schedule, I don't know how you could not be tired.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Everybody's gonna say, and there's a lot of people who
are saying, well, these WNBA players want more money, so
that's what needs to happen if you need to schedule
more games, or the men's game they have back to backs,
the men's game play eighty two games.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But the problem with that argument.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Is that it's not just that they're playing back to
backs or specific amount of games per week. It's that
sometimes you play five games in eight days and sometimes
you play two games in eight days, and all of
that is centered on what do you think that's centered
on these schedule.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I know, I know what it's centered on. It's centered on.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Getting can Clark in prime time?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, scheduled on in getting Caitlin on TV.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And maybe if the w actually promoted some of their
other athletes instead of just Caitlin, they wouldn't need to
put Caitlin in primetime every week, and they could put
some of these other people in primetime every week because
people would be just as excited to watch them play
as they are to watch Caitlyn play.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Or maybe they could think to themselves, even if we
are so high on Caitlyn, we think all like forty
one of her forty four games should be nationally televised.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
What happens if.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Caitlyn Clark has a quad injury? What happens if Kaitlyn
Clark has a groin injury?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
What happens if she has both of those things? Due
to the fact or at least in some.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Correlation with the fact that this schedule is insane, and
it was insane for them.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Last year, so what are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do if there's a bunch of Indiana Fever
games on National TV and Kaitlyn Clarke is sitting there
in street clothes, what are you gonna do? Then, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Someone asked Natalie mccassi after the Valkyrie game if she
thought that fatigue could have been in a factor, and
her answer was wild to me because she said, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I guess I should probably ask them if they're tired.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's an insane answer.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
What that's an insane you know if your players are tired?
How do you not know?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I think the best part is that we've gotten into
the news cycle again and started a conversation again because
nobody listened when Satoo Sobbly said, Hey, this schedule's insane.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Were playing too much? This is too much.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Now everyone's asking.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Sonya Citron was asked directly about fatigue, Page was like, yeah,
we are tired. I don't know how these players have
back to backs. Paige Becker's talked about the schedule, Natalie
Nikassi's having to take questions about it as well. So
to me, I think that there's something needs to change,
especially considering that we had more games added to this
(23:56):
season and we didn't change the length of the season
at all. And now we have two more teams coming
next year, possibly a fifty game season. What's gonna happen
with the length of the schedule and the length of
the season.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Just real quick, do you know who's not in a
slump right now? You know who's not tired right now?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Do you mean Katelyn?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
I'm having a hard time you even say this without
loving Caitlyn Clark's Clark's at arch nemesis, Caitlin.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Clark's arch nemesis, Angel Reese.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Who has a joke, big joke. I don't mean this.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's a joke. It's a joke.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
They are able to exist on the same plane without
having to be each other's rivals and brought up in
the same sentence. But Angel Reese the other night set
a record for the most games of fifteen rebounds or
more at four.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
She had four in a row fifteen or more rebounds.
You know what. The previous record also held by Angel rees.
She now has the most.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Rebounds six hundred and forty four in the first fifty
games of.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A career in history. And for all the people who
are gonna sit there and say, oh, these are.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Rebounds, mebounds, meanbounds, mean bound. She also had twe four points, So.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Let's just go home and shut that down right now.
Her last because.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
In her last three games she has twenty four points,
seventeen points and eighteen points, sixteen rebounds, eighteen rebounds, seventeen rebounds,
and then nineteen rebounds of the game before seven assists
to assists, six assists and four assists. She has steals
in all four of those games. Actually, she has steals
in every one of her last six games, seven games,
(25:29):
eight games, nine games, nine games. Excuse me, she has
blocks in four of the last six games. And she
has some threes that she's taking as well, so she's
stretching the floor a little bit. This is not an
Angel Ree's apology page. This is an Angel Rees truther
page podcast, So we're not about to slander her name.
(25:49):
Like all she does is get her own rebounds. And
by the way, even if she did.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Even if she did, why can't you stop her? Why
can't you stop her? Why can't you even.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Why is she scoring twenty four points? Is all she
does is get her own rebounds. Love to know that answer?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Anderfield wal percentage in their last three games is pretty
damn good.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
fIF fifty.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Let's stop. Let's stop the man.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, we gotta stop. Stop the cap, stop the cap expansion.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Though, like you said, another big breaking news before we
came on this podcast, The the W has announced that
there will be three additional teams added between now and
twenty thirty Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Still not a Houston team, still in a Denver team,
Still not a Kansas City team.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Which a lot of people were hoping for one of
those three to have a place.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
But what do we think this means? I mean, there's
some pros and cons of this.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think you know what, like, do you ever when
you were in middle school or elementary school, Like, did
you ever have that kid in school who like, they
did something and so like Johnny broad Is old game
boy to class and he fucked it up for everybody.
So nobody can even bring any electronics into class anymore.
(27:09):
And so because one kid did something that they weren't
supposed to do and it was such a mess, now
everybody is ruined.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That was probably me, by the way, I was probably
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I remember I got like in detention once for like
popping some kids science project.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
A balloon.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I got.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
I got kicked off of a school trip because I
was stealing Goosebumps books and putting in another kid's desks.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So I was literally like cousbumps.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Gousbumps were great though.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Yeah they were uh, And I got snitched. I got
there was a snitching incident over that. Anyway, That's what
this is to me is the things were going well,
and then you actually got two scenarios, two things because
you also have the kid that has outperformed everybody, and
now the teacher thinks that everybody should be doing what
(28:05):
that kid does as well. So you have the class clown,
the Portland franchise, the brown brown nose. Yes, you have
the brown noser, the top of the class. Nobody's ever
going to be that kid. And then you have the
class clown that brings things down. Now we can't have
nice things anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
So you got Portland. Portland doesn't even have a team name.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Portland doesn't have a logo, which you would need if
you would have, like you need a team name.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
But the president, a GM, or a coach.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Either they don't have a president, they don't have a GM,
they don't have a coach. We don't know what is happening.
We know that some sort of practice facility is being built.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
A team that is what we know.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
We will be a team in less than twelve months.
So that's a mess to me.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
That's like, and that's a team that's owned by how
do I pronounce their name?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
What are the ball Tolls? The Talls Batalls.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Batalls, the ones that are also the Thorns. Yeah, yeah, okay,
it's Soland historically has had has help had ownership issues
like yes as a whole in women's sports.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
And the issue is that you couldn't get the Allen
family to own another Portland team because they already did
that and the team collapsed and folded. And that team,
the Portland Trailblazers, are being sold right now. So if
you're gonna get a Portland expansion team, you'd either have
to wait for the Blazers to sell in that new
owner to want to buy a WNBA team, which, by
(29:36):
the way, right now we're seeing that the prices have
gone way.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Up, or you try to get the Batalls to do it,
which they did, and it's a mess. On the other hand, you.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Have the Valkyries who bought an expansion team for fifty
million dollars and in less than two months of having
a team on the floor, they are now worth five
hundred million.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Just like that, they have and then contention.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
They're in playoff contention.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
They have seventy million dollars in revenue so far this year.
They're selling out every game. They've sold ten thousand in
season tickets.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Real quick, because this isn't the point of it, but
I just want to tell you I know exactly why
they're worth that now because well, they'll throw your visa,
but also they're doing Sephora drops during.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's not why, like time out, that's not why though.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
But it is why because what it shows is that
is a that is a front office that cares about
the people in their stadium, in their arena.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They care about the fans that are coming and showing up.
That is what that shows.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's not necessarily no, the Sephora gift cards falling from
the sky is not why there are people there. But
what it shows is that this is a place that
understands here's what people want women, and there's catering towards
that base.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
You know, what's frustrating is when like you go to
a game and they and they have their little like
T shirt gun, or they put the T shirts on
the back of the seats and it's like or they
it's like double XL. That's what Portland's gonna do for
their women's team.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
It's like, you're gonna put double excel in every seat? Yeah,
what what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Are you even thinking about who's in these stands. So
it's a good point that you make about Sophore because
I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I think that has to do with just.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Knowing knowing what your brand should be and like really
leaning into it.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And and the owner of.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
The Warriors, Joe Lacup, he has done a phenomenal job
with the Golden State Warriors, turning them into like one
of the most valuable brands in the NBA, but also
doing a great job in terms of like, hey, I
want the women's brand to do just as well. I
want Valhalla to be a place Chase Center. Huge gay
(31:59):
and lesbian population by the way, in the Bay Area,
so that's huge.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, you're not getting this in Cleveland. I'm sorry to say,
you're not getting this in Detroit.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Maybe you'll have a lot of fans there, but you're
not getting this in Philadelphia and not the same way
that you're getting it in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
No, And to be honest, you've got you're sandwiching a
Philadelphia team between two already, well let me rephrase that,
one kind of struggling franchise and one really successful franchise
in the Liberty and in the Mystics. So it's just
kind of sandwiching in between. You know, there's there's sixty
miles between these cities, like you're I don't know that
(32:38):
that's really a place that you want to should be
expanding to. And that's just my personal two cents. We're
going to We've we've got a guest that just popped in, so.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Angel mccottree went, yeah, let's.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Let's I think there are certain goals that we should have,
and there are certain goals just to.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Make you laugh, make you and Blair laugh. That's my
only goal.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
It's tough.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
It's a tough goal to reach every Pup podcast episode.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It is, Blair, it's so great to have you here.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
We're so excited to talk to some tennis because this
is not Trista and Ie, this is not our lane.
We are not tennis experts, and so we need to
be educated a little bit.
Speaker 7 (33:25):
Oh my gosh, Well, I'm so excited to be here.
I wore my w That may also be for my
friends at Wilson, it's for sure for the Daily W.
So congrat I love that success. Guys, love what you're doing,
and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It's just so dope. So I was trying to tell
Sarah because I love Wimbledon.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I don't know really a lot about tennis, but I
know we got pimps cups.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I know we got white on white. I know we
got strawberries and cream. I've cued, Blair. Did you know
that I'm cued?
Speaker 7 (33:53):
That automatically vaults you into a certain stratosphere of tennis vandom.
I have not cued, nor have I really had a
desire to queue. I look at that line and I'm like,
respect to you all. I would not have the patience.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
What is queueing.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It's where you wait for tickets.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
You have to stand in line for like I think
we still like for four hours.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
To get tickets.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Wow, they're sleeping overnight in a field.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Intents.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
It is it's incredibly intense. Actually, yeah, so anyway, very impressed.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
Take the tube to Q Gardens. Then you can pay
to get to a like a main court or a court,
and you just get chosen at random. I think we
paid like ten pounds and I got to see sherif
Pova on the main court.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
So that's my only Wimbledon story.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
We like to start our segments and we like to
start our guests off with some tea. And so the
tea that we know about in the tennis world is
Trinity and Ben, and I would love to hear your
thoughts on our girl Trinity and your guy Ben.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
Well, the first thing I'll say is, as somebody who
does a lot of social media content for tournaments, the
thing that we're always trying to figure out is how
do we get cross promotion, And that could be between
the men and the women, or that could.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Be amongst different sports.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
And I just want to say a huge shout out
to Ben and Trinity for giving us the best possible
cross promotion for tennis and soccer, which traditionally, you know,
maybe for women in soccer in the US, but maybe
not the most popular American sports.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
So I love this for them, and I love this
for us.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Did you see the hard launch and at what point
did you know, Like, did you know before they went
Instagram or TikTok official. Had you been seeing in your
coverage Trinity be showing up? Is this something that like
there was insider's tea before we all found out about it.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
There was insider tea.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
I was not far enough on the inside to get
that tea prior to seeing it on TikTok. I got
to spend some time with Ben at the Australian Open.
We did an interview and I have never seen the
guy in a better mood. There was footage of him.
He was dancing in the hallways. The Australian Open has
(36:10):
all of these like undercover cameras, so the players can't
really go anywhere without being filmed. And just dancing to himself.
I'm like, and now that all sort of tracks he
was in love? Was he at that point?
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Who knows?
Speaker 7 (36:25):
But now it seems clear that they are loving their
time together and so I'm excited for them.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We've seen some there's some rumors about Alcarez maybe have
has a little bit of a has a new romance.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Is there anything about this.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
According to Emma Radikanu, absolutely not.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
She was asked about this and pressed, Wimbledon is unique
in that, and really any of the British tournaments are
unique in that you often have tabloid reporters in the
press room, which is not something you really get along
the tennis circuit elsewhere. And so she was asked, straight up,
is there anything to the time that you guys have
(37:04):
been spending together. They're playing mixed doubles together at the
US Open.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Can we read into this? And she said, nope, we
are just friends.
Speaker 7 (37:13):
And it was really funny because the moderator said, okay,
I think we're going to wrap them up there, and
Emma said, yes, what a great spot to wrap that up,
and she just popped out of the pressroom and it
was very cute.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But according to Emma, nothing but a friendship.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
I've been I've been the person that has wrapped up
a presser just based on my awful question, like my
pop culture question. So that reporter, probably, that tabloid reporter probably.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Was just crawling in his or her skin.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I don't know if you saw this, but did you
see this is trending on social as well. Alkora is
going out of his way to say hi to Cocoa Golf,
because there's been kind of a little bit of like
a little something there as well.
Speaker 7 (37:56):
I think if you've ever seen Carlos alcara As in
the wild, behind the scenes, you will know that that is.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Just how he is. He is sort of a walking
golden retriever.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
It's like oh ooh, stick, like he just is smiling.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
He's just kind of kind of bounces as he walks.
He is just that smiley guy.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
He probably wants to say hi, or probably has huge
respect for his fellow Roland Garros champion. I don't know
if that was maybe the first time they had seen
each other since they both won in Paris. So that
is really just how he is, and I hope he
stays that way forever. I'm sure you guys have seen
in other sports sometimes athletes come along and they have
(38:38):
that bounciness and golden retriever quality at the beginning, and
then maybe something's taken out of context, or they get
burned in some way, or maybe they say too much,
and then all of a sudden they kind of retreat
into a shell a little bit. Thankfully, that has not
happened yet with Carlos alcraz and we're thrilled.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Coco and Sabalanca to have put an end to any
narrative that there was beef between them. What did you
see from that moment? You know, from that initial press
conference moment that was was that taken out of proportion?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Was that blown out of proportion? And to now seeing them,
you know, dancing.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Together on TikTok and showing, hey, there's no beef here.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
Well, in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty five,
what other way is there to quash beef than to
do a joint TikTok dance.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I think that's great for them.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
But if we were rewinding back to Savalanka's trophy runner
up speech and then what she said in the press room,
I tend to have a lot of sympathy for what
players say after a lost Tennis is one of those
sports where you have to wait around and talk immediately
after what is often a crushing blow. And then she
had some time, and then she came into the press
(39:56):
room and she kind of doubled down on what she
said on court, and again I have I feel like
I have a lot of empathy for that. I give
players maybe more leeway than some others. But I felt
like she could have said the things that she said
and then also said the things that she needed to say.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Coco played better today. You know, she has beat me
now two.
Speaker 7 (40:20):
Of the last four times they played Coco as a
winning record over Sablanca six and five. Right now, there
were things that she could have sprinkled in that would
have softened the other things that she said, which were
really born out of frustration. She didn't say those things,
and as a result, it hit the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
I mean, Steven A.
Speaker 7 (40:38):
Smith was talking about this press conference, there were real
housewives commenting on it on social media. It entered the
zeit geist, It took on a life of its own,
and I think eventually, and Coco even said herself, She's like.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Kind of thought the apology would come a little quicker
than it did.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
But eventually she reached out and said what she needed
to say to Coco behind the scenes. And then obviously
they had that great practice session where they you know,
got their social media clout as well.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Felt like it was built by a pr person where
she was like, Coco.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Played the better game. It looked like she was either
had gun to.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
The head vibes or it was a PR company that said, hey,
you just write this on your story right now, so
we could.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Get in front of this or behind this or just
get it over with.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 7 (41:29):
I don't know that Arena was sitting there penning that herself,
but Coco did say that Arena reached out to her
directly after that, so yes, the apology was and then
after that there was a direct apology to Coco, which
I think you know, and Coco said she extended the
olive branch and I accepted it and we're good, and
(41:50):
so you guys should be good too.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
Was it better for tennis to have like a legit
hatred rivalry, especially with one American player.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I love a rivalry, So yes, I think that that is.
I think that's a huge bonus when those things happen.
Speaker 7 (42:05):
And I think we've sort of seen that with Arena
and Coco, And so are you are you asking like
do you should we want there to be like a
grudge match happening?
Speaker 5 (42:14):
In addition, yeah, like part of me was like, oh,
this is cute that I saw them squash this beef,
and I feel it's great that they're like there's nothing
between us, we like each other.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
YadA YadA, YadA, blase blase.
Speaker 5 (42:26):
But like if I see Goff and Sablenka and the
squashed beef hadn't happened, I'm tuning in much more readily
than I am now that they're all cozy cozy.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Again, I would agree with you there.
Speaker 7 (42:40):
I also will say I think there's gonna be some
intrigue the next time they play, because of even though
there were apologies, Arena very clearly said that she should
not have lost that match. She was the one who
likes Coco, didn't win it, She's the one who lost it,
and so I do think, just by virtue of her
say it at all, that there will be some more intrigue.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
But your point is taken. I don't. I think a
little bit of chatter is a good thing.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Casual American sports watchers, right, they don't watch much.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Other than Wimbledon or the US Open.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
So how valuable is it for the sport to have
an American like Coco in that hot seat? Because I
got a lot of pushback on this, like, oh, no,
tennis is fine without Coco, and I have to disagree.
Speaker 7 (43:33):
I think it's big and I think it's bigger. And
this might seem like a captain obvious statement, but I
think it's extra huge for people in the United States
because in the US there is so much competition. Tennis
is maybe not the first sport you're putting your child into,
and in Europe that is much more common.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
You have countries like.
Speaker 7 (43:56):
The Czech Republic, which is not a large country, that
just turns out in credble players year after year because
that is one of the sports that everybody is just
funneling their little girls into.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
That is not the case here in the US.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
I think it is huge in particular for the growth
of the sport. I think it's huge for the growth
in terms of visibility. That's obviously fantastic to have an
international superstar who's up on your billboards and you're splashing
everywhere in advance of the US Open, But I think
in terms of people actually picking up tennis.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Rackets, it's massive.
Speaker 7 (44:28):
And don't forget I mean right now we have four
American women in the top ten and Anisimova is number twelve,
so we have on the women's side sort of had.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
An embarrassment of riches.
Speaker 7 (44:40):
But you're right, the cocos star power is sort of
I don't know, it has its own life, which is
incredible for her and for the rest of us who
work in this sport.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Yeah, And I think it was maybe Serina's former coach.
There was a coach that went on a podcast and said,
you know, the women game has no American stars, And so.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
To dovetail off of that, you talk about how.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Many Americans are in the top ten, top twelve, the
only one right now with like a high level.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Of name recognition is Coco. Do you think that that's true?
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Do you think that we're lacking star power for American
women now that Serena and Venus have retired.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
I think we're doing okay. I think Arena Savalanka, it
really is a huge star. She has a home base
in the US, so she has sort of made herself
available to American fans in that way as well.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
But just a quick note on that coach that you mentioned.
Speaker 7 (45:41):
That was Patrick Moritaglu, who is the current coach of
Naomi Osaka, who is arguably one of the big sports
stars that we have, men's or women's. So I mean
there's Naomi also who has continued to transcend the sport
of tennis obviously hasn't found her best tennis yeah prior
(46:03):
to excuse me post having her little daughter. But she
is a massive star. So I think we're doing okay.
And I also think that that is on the media.
We have got to tell the stories. And I will
also say I think the teams, the players, teams have
to let us tell the stories. Tennis again very individual sport,
(46:27):
and you have people surrounding that player and sometimes it's
hard to get a sit down interview that covers anything
beyond the very basics. And so I think that that
is a huge part of it. We have to be
able to tell people why they should care. Amanda and Nisimoga,
for instance, number twelve player in the world right now,
as I said, has an incredible story. I don't know
(46:48):
that many people know it, and so my hope is
that as we ride this wave that we can do
a really good job of telling those stories and telling.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
People why they should care.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Not to put you on this, but what is her story?
Speaker 7 (47:01):
Yeah, so she actually lost her father who was her
coach a few years ago when she I believed she
was in the top twenty at the time, and everyone
thought she was going to be one of the next
big things, and that affected her in a really significant way,
as you might imagine. And last year she took some
time away from the sport, just said, I'm going to
(47:21):
take a mental health break. I know she's explored art,
which is really impressive. She took some time to work
on some other hobbies, and she's come back and is
playing the best tennis of her career. So she's taken
a little bit of extra time to do it, but
she's done it in her own time, and I think
she's comfortable in her skin now in a way that
she might not have been.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Five years ago.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
I was just going to circle back really fast.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
Before we talked to Naomi talked about Naomi about Coco
and when she beat Venus in the first round at Wimbledon,
we I think collectively there was this moment like, oh
my god, what could Coco be? How dominant can we
see her? And on grass there's been not necessarily the
(48:06):
same level of dominance as we've seen her on other surfaces,
including clay. Right, So when you're looking at her in
terms of Wimbledon performance, why do you think she is
a player that struggles on that surface? And like, what
do you think that means for Wimbledon this year.
Speaker 7 (48:23):
I think it's important to remember that she's still just
twenty one and has I think this is the sixth
time she's played Wimbledon.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
And so her experience on.
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Grass is still relatively small because there are only three
weeks between the final of Roland Garros and Day one
of Wimbledon, so the opportunity for players to get experience
on that surface is minimal.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Number one.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
But Coco's game also lends itself to loving a little
extra time, and that I think is why she's so great.
On clay, it's a little bit slower, the balls balance
a little bit higher. She hits incredibly heavy balls. That
means a lot of spin, a lot of arc on
the ball that is harder to do on grass, which
is a little bit faster. The ball doesn't bounce up
(49:08):
as high, and that exploits her weaker side, which is
her forehand side. And listen, some days, you wouldn't if
you didn't know anything about Coca Goth, you wouldn't go
out and say, wow, that's a weak forehand. But if
something's going to break down, it's often that forehand side
or the serve. And playing on grass just exploits those
weaknesses a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
You brought up Naomi and her not getting back really
to her full form since since coming back from maternity.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
What you know, what is it that we're seeing from Naomi?
Speaker 3 (49:42):
Is it is it just a matter of the minutes
getting back on the court, or you know, is there
something else there.
Speaker 4 (49:50):
I think it's going to happen for Naomi. I really do.
I think though she is such a pure ball striker.
Speaker 7 (49:58):
If you hear people talk about her that it's the
phrase that they will use pure ball striker.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
When she is playing her best.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
It doesn't matter if you've never seen a tennis match
before in your life, you're gonna be like, ooh, that
is clean coming off the strings. And one thing I
do think though in the past, maybe I don't know,
five ten years, I think players have gotten really good
at developing other tools.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
So yes, Naomi can hit it incredibly.
Speaker 7 (50:22):
Clean, but sometimes people can actually work their way into
a rhythm against that because the ball is so pure
coming off her racket, so her opponents are able to
work their way in. And I don't think she's back
to the level that she was pre baby yet. And
if it's not functioning at all. Five cylinders aren't firing.
(50:44):
It's just enough weakness that an opponent can sneak in,
and I do think it would help her if I
would love to see a little bit more variety from
Naomi Osaka in this sort of second chapter of her career.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
But I do think it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
Do you think today looked against Gibson because I was
watching a little bit on streaming and they had to
go to a tie break. There was a couple of faults. Again,
I don't know much about tennis, but I just know
that those little moments I could.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Kind of see a little bit of frustration.
Speaker 7 (51:16):
I wouldn't put too much stock into a first round
match for a lot of players, and particularly players who've
had the experience of winning a Slam. So you have
to win seven matches, and that's assuming you're not a qualifier,
as Amaradi Khonu was at the US Open a few
years ago. But you have to win seven matches to
be raising that trophy at the end of the tournament.
And so you will see a lot of players have
(51:38):
maybe scratchy first rounds, and so I think if you
can get through it, a win is a win, particularly
early in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Who was your dark horse and who's your favorite for
this for womens.
Speaker 7 (51:51):
I'm going to start with my favorite, and I am
going to hedge a little bit here, Guys, I am sorry,
but I'm gonna say my favorite is an American woman.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Is that fair?
Speaker 5 (51:59):
Trace, That's the only we're only getting None of your
favorite is one American? You got a choice of? You said,
how many in the top ten? We need a name, Blair,
we need a name.
Speaker 7 (52:11):
Okay, I can I I think I say watch out
for Mattie Keys. I think Madison Keys could be so
and she has been historically lethal on grass, maybe just
not hasn't played her best at Wimbledon.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
And but I.
Speaker 7 (52:28):
Listen, guys, we are halfway to the calendar year American
Women's Grand Slam, which is a little bit of a stretch.
But we've had two American women champs in the first
two slams of the year, which is massive.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
So my vote is that we keep that rolling.
Speaker 7 (52:44):
And sure, let's have Mattie Keys getting her second Grand
Slam title.
Speaker 4 (52:47):
Why not?
Speaker 7 (52:48):
Oh dark, I'm gonna pick another American. I'm gonna I'm
gonna Amanda and Nissimova. Listen, I'm high on the American women.
I'm gonna say I don't think people are picking Amanda
to win Wimbledon, but she's gonna be my dark horse.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
I have not heard one person.
Speaker 5 (53:07):
I've not heard one person say her name, and I've
been talking to on NBC a lot about Wimbledon.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I do want to get This is like a fun question.
Speaker 5 (53:16):
If you're like making a build a Bear or like
a Marvel superhero woman's tennis player, you've got to like
build the unbeatable tennis player using different elements of different
players games.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
What are you choosing from? Who?
Speaker 4 (53:35):
I love this.
Speaker 7 (53:36):
I'm gonna pick current players, just in the vein of
let's help people get to know who's playing today. For
serv I'm gonna pick Elena Rebakana. I am going to
pick Madison Keys for the forehand. On the backhand side, oh,
this is so hard. I'm gonna split it just because
I have such a soft spot for one handed backhands
(53:58):
and there are so few left, particularly on the women's side.
I'm going to split the backhand between Tatian Maria, the
thirty seven year old mother of two who just won
a grass court tournament a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
I am going to pick Tatian Maria and.
Speaker 7 (54:12):
Barbara Kritchikova, the defending Wimbledon champion, whose backhand is just
it's a two hander, but chef's kiss, thing of beauty.
And then for the athleticism mentality aspect of things, Cocoa
goff all the way I have a she's an insane athlete.
Speaker 4 (54:30):
But also I have not seen.
Speaker 7 (54:33):
Anyone dig like she can dig when things get tight,
and I've had the privilege of seeing it from court side.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
It is incredible. It's like what you want kids to watch.
Speaker 7 (54:46):
I mean in terms of being a role model in
that department, It's unreal.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
So Cocoa Goff for the mentality.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
Wait you think, hold up, Blair, Wait, hold on, hold up, blup.
Just you follow up, Just a quick follow up on
the mentality you think, Just to just to clarify that
Coco's mentality surpasses Serena's mentality for you.
Speaker 7 (55:05):
I like the way that it manifests itself in Coco's
It is a more fun than compelling watch. Serena was
a fun and compelling watch for many people. It just
I love the fact that Coco is just so steely
(55:28):
and steady, and you can see when she gets frustrated.
Speaker 4 (55:32):
It's not that she doesn't get frustrated, it just there.
Speaker 7 (55:35):
Is sort of a quiet best mode that's happening that.
Speaker 4 (55:39):
I so love to watch.
Speaker 5 (55:41):
I think to your point too, I remember when Serena
would have those levels of frustration, you almost felt like,
at least towards the tail end of her career, like
oh shit, like is this thing about to go off
the rails and in her spiral?
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Or is she going to take this to another level.
Speaker 7 (56:00):
You never you never knew, And that was the appeal
a lot of the time of watching, because you did
not know what are or is it.
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Going to go off the rails? Is she going to
go and win the tournament? Who knows?
Speaker 7 (56:12):
And I do think that that was compelling in its
own way. I just personally, and I think too, having
two daughters and saying this is what this is what
you want to shoot for if.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
You are playing a sport. I think it's maybe more
typical in that sense the Coco approach.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
I think we need to bring back I love the King,
I love the energy pops, I yes, I do. I
love the tantrums. I love seeing the passion.
Speaker 7 (56:40):
Well, Arena, Savalanka is your girl, show me my girl.
She was, she was self destructing and she was leading
in the first set, and that is what als.
Speaker 4 (56:53):
Up and started. So there you go, Sarah, You've got
to play.
Speaker 3 (56:57):
That's mine, That's that's my I don't know if it's
just because it's how I feel I would be on
that type of stage that like I would just lose.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
It that I would.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
I just enjoy watching like I enjoy watching the women.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Who have no no.
Speaker 3 (57:14):
I don't want to say no decorum because they have decorum,
but they have no holds when it comes to how they're.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
Going to show their emotions. I just love that.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
I don't disagree. I think that there is absolute value
in that. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (57:27):
Yeah, So if if before we let you run, if
if Coco's the steely one, if saba Anka is the
one that has that dominance but could be a train
wreck at any time, what is Fiantech, which we have
not spoken about, used to be former number one in
the world and now has sort of fallen down level.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
What would you describe her as.
Speaker 7 (57:48):
I would describe IgA as an excellent front runner who I.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Get me shivers.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
Did it really?
Speaker 7 (58:00):
I think when she was number one in the world,
and when she was you know, the joke was that
Ega had her own bakery. She was handing out, you know,
bagels and breadsticks to anyone.
Speaker 4 (58:11):
Who wanted one. On the tour.
Speaker 7 (58:13):
She was so good as a front runner, and I
think there are a lot of players who aren't great
in that position. I think she's trying to figure out
what it's like now not being at that targets on
your back every day.
Speaker 4 (58:26):
All day position.
Speaker 7 (58:27):
And granted she will be I think in the live ranking,
she's four in the world right now. She's seated eighth
at Wimbledon, but she just had to run to a
final last.
Speaker 4 (58:36):
Week, so she's not far off.
Speaker 7 (58:37):
I have no I really do think she'll probably be
back to number one in the world, but she's having
to try to figure out Ega two point Oh, what
does it look like when I am not in that
front running position?
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I gotta get my I love.
Speaker 3 (58:50):
I think my favorite part about Wimbledon is that it's
on in the morning, that like you get to wake
up and watch Wimbledon with your breakfast, Like that's I
think my favorite Like that's how tennis that's how like
I like watching tennis.
Speaker 4 (59:03):
You know it is the best, and your vision does
for sure.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
It's the best. No, Blair's the best. Blair's the best.
She gave us some hot takes, the little ones. I
know she's not used to it.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
You know, she's not used to the hot take machine.
But we're gonna get in there.
Speaker 4 (59:20):
We're gonna get it there.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
She gave us some stuff here, got the front run
and take. That one gave me shivers. The streeta take
gave me shivers. It's good stuff.
Speaker 4 (59:28):
Guys.
Speaker 7 (59:29):
Can I be your tennis correspondent if you're looking for one,
I will.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
I love it more hot take?
Speaker 5 (59:35):
Okay good, It's like call her daddy, you got a dish.
We're dishing Blair. We're not playing it safe here, Blair,
thank you so much for coming on. I love making
you laugh. You're tremendous.
Speaker 7 (59:48):
I oh great, and listen if I will come with
more hot takes next time tennis needs to be covered.
Speaker 5 (59:57):
That's all the time that we have for this episode
of Let her shoot say it for me, Blair, let
her shoot, Let her shoot.
Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
There, it is there, it is. We have more hot taste,
we have more coverage.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Coming.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
We didn't get to the NWS.
Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
We may record later when this podcast studio is back available.
We had so much more we wanted to say, but
thank you to Adrian, thank you to Blair, thank you
to the producer slash co host Sarah Chovnik aka to
Emmy Sarah.
Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
We just gotta get her two time smiling. But we'll
get her there and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
I'm a hot girl. I gave anything out wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
This is my world.
Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
I make big moves in my big us. Since I
tell you that I was born, I've been a big
deal
So it's time Wimbledon is here.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
I did know that Wimbledon is here? I did see
something about this on my on my page.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good talk. That was great, that's really good.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I don't I gotta say, I'm not. I have never
been somebody who knows like a ship.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Ton about tennis.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
So I'm really excited for our special guest today, who's
gonna teach us some shit about tennis.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I love that It's gonna be dope.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
I'm a hot I get anything out wrong.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
This is my world.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
I make big moves in my big use.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Since the day there I was born.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I've been a big deal.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What'd you do? How was your weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
My weekend was well, I got detained for like momentarily
by Ice.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So that was fun.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Vanila Ice Ice baby.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
That was me at the border, which is, you know,
mind boggling because like I was the only person, Me
and my fiance were the only person in there, and
yet like the the border agent was like, well, what
are your plants for entering the US? And I was like,
I live here, Well, how do we know that you're
(01:13):
you're doing all the right things?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And I was like, sir, I don't know how to
convince you that I'm a good person. But you're just
gonna have to take it.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
If you're doing all the right things. What are the
right things? As long as I'm not smuggling drugs, smuggling people,
and I get this girl back across the country on time,
which your ticket says, you.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Can just kick rocks, you can watch.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, but he gave us this whole things. Things are
different now under.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This, Oh, things are different now? Yes, yes, let mean.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, yeah, how was your weekend?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Well, Ollie, we found out me and Allie that he
doesn't know how to pose other dogs, so he just grouts. Well,
he's so submissive, but he doesn't really know how to
make friends, and so he just growls at every dog
that he goes past. So I'm in socialization mode. I'm
just forcing him to go to the park and meet
(02:14):
other animals. And I have to be like, I'm sorry,
he's five months, he doesn't know anything.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'm sorry, you won't do anything. He's not aggressive, I promise,
And they're.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Like, oh he's They're like, oh, yeah, he's so cute. Anyway,
see you later, and they just leave. So he made
one friend this weekend, which is really cute. And the
dog's name is Tokyo. And now I have a lot
of faith and belief that yes, Tokyo the Mini the
mini labradoodle. So I have faith that Ali's going to
be able to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Ali's gonna make friends. Did you where did you find?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Did you find Tokyo the Mini Labradoodle on like Craigslist
like make friends for random?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Random?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And I saw him.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Ollie actually walked past him and ran into the baseball
diamond after him, and I'm like, oh no, what's this
about to be? And the woman's like you is this
dog aggressive? I'm like, no, I promise he's not. And
then after about five minutes, all he's laying on his
back just you know, breathing crazy, and he's chasing this
dog who's chasing the ball.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's all he wants to do is chase a dog
that chases the ball.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Why not? I don't blame him. We got a lot
to get through, though, so you better do this.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Intro Welcome to Let Her Shoot.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
The only podcast that covers women's sports in the way
that we want them cover, which is no bullshit, no
kid gloves, just respect for the athletes and all the
reasons to.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Stay locked in. You got Sarah Chavnick here on the mic.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
She's our producer, two time Emmy Award winning producer Tristter Creek.
I am quote unquote the talent, So.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
No Emmy's for me, zero ones. We have a stacked show.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
The NWSL is off for the month of July, but
we have plenty of drama the WNBA to keep you
up to date. We are talking about scheduling, scheduling, fatigue,
We're tired, Sarah, and expansion and exhaustion. The euros Earl
also starts this week. Center Court of Wimbledon is upon us.
All white on white on white, Get your Pim's Cup,
(04:07):
and we have a special guest with us today, Blair Henley,
to talk about all things tennis and what to watch for.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
As that begins, I got a lot to ask her to.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I got a lot of questions, but we got to
start with some breaking news out of Dallas.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A bombshell has been asked to leave the villa.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
A bombshell has been asked to leave the villa.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
They said, we have been voting for our favorite couple
and you, Melissa Smith, need to go to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Production sent her off, Babe.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
It's been tough. We this was a couple that has
had a rocky road. They've been with each other since
Baylor on and off, so the first time they've been
teammates since college. There was a lot of hoopla around
Melissa Smith indieje reuniting in Dallas with Page and we've
so seeing.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All the tape of them getting.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
The extracurriculars pregame. Melissa hasn't been that good either, to
be honest. The Wings have traded for Lee Ye Roue
and she's been awesome at the center position. I think
she's actually gonna catch on. She came over from the Storm.
So Melissa, when she's not playing well and she's doing
the extracurriculars, hey, we got to ship you off. I
(05:26):
think that's kind of what I think that's kind of
what happened.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
And their heartbroken. They were totally blindsided by it.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
There was tons of tweets and Instagram comments and posts.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So so just for anyone who hasn't seen this news,
because it literally just came out as we were about
to get on this podcast. But Melissa Smith traded to
the Las Vegas Aces from Dallas from the Dallas Wings.
Dallas will receive a twenty twenty seven first round pick.
It feels a little like in the futury, like right,
like Dallas needs help. Now, Why is a twenty twenty
(05:58):
seven first round pick? Do you think I think this
is this strictly business or is this production interfering with
a couple in the villa that they're sending someone home
because they want to see something else going on?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What they want to want to see.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
We want to see Lee Yeru have a chance a love. Really,
we want to see how many minutes that she can stack.
She's been awesome Dallas since they've traded for her in
the last six games is four and two or four
and two and they only have five wins in total.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So she's been a revelation.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
She is that that bombshell that comes into the villa
that you're like, oh, this is not just a Jalen,
This is not just a one and done, like a
one episode and done. Like I think Lee can stay
through the seat through the full season and next season.
So that's what I think it is.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And on top of that, I honestly think probably Dallas
is like we really don't want to see Alyssa and
Djena together.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Whatever dja's declining production is, how much of that is
responsible from whatever they're doing pregame or I'm not saying
that's one hundred percent of it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm not saying it's fifty percent of it. Is it
part of it? But I remember that Angel we had
Angel Country.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
On I domber. She said, having Angel Country on you?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, and she said, which could have been we could
have posted this we didn't where she said, you can
tell which girls on the team have girlfriends and which
ones have boyfriends. Yeah, the girlfriends want to snuggle and
watch Love Island and the boyfriends want to, you know,
get your rebounds, and DJA, your girlfriend is no longer
going to be watching Love Island with you when it's
(07:36):
time for the rebounds.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I guess we'll have to see what happens if Dallas
replaces her.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
We've got we had.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Another place she is replaced.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
She's she's already been replaced.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But I meant, like in the roster spot, they now
have an open roster spot. Are they clearing cap space?
I saw some things saying are they clearing cap space?
Ford Wanna Bonner, which I think that's a no.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But Uh. No, I think that's a resounding no. We
got to talk about this self eviction because we.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Had we had another another leaving the villa here. But
do Wanna Bonner has opted out of continuing her journey
to love in Indiana and has has decided to leave
the team.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
But it was.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
She's She's like if rob actually left the villa, when
they would have when they would have voted Andrea out,
Like when Robin season six decides, Oh you just sent
three home and not two.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You sent three home.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, you did your beauty actually love.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
That's what the Wada Bonner would have been. So Water
gets way from the fever.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
She gets way from the fever.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
She had been out for I think like four games
due to personal reasons.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
And there was a lot of speculation on what that
could mean. And then it came back that the team
had released her. Well, at least things kind of came
out in parts. First, Anti Constable said from Front Office
Sports had reported that de Wanna Bonner had no interest
in returning.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Then the next day we hear they've waived her.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And then after that we hear not only have they
waived her, but they're asking teams to not claim her
off of waivers, so she's been She said that she
wanted to go to the Mercury, which is where Alisa
Thomas plays.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I feel like a lot has been.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Being made out to be do Wanna Bonner's unprofessional to
Wanna Bonner's acquitter.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Do Wanna Bonners doesn't want to be there. I feel
like it's not that deep. I feel like it's not
that deep.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Honestly.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
It feels like if the Fever said, hey, don't claim
her off of waivers, and they didn't pursue a trade
for her, which I don't think that they did. It
feels like they're working with do Wanna Bonner to get
to Wanna Bonner to wherever is going to make her happy,
whether that's the Mercury, whether that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I think she also said she would go and play
for the Atlanta Dream.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
It feels very motivated by personal reasons, right, like very much.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
She's in a.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Was there sixteenth year something like that.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
She's been in the legal thirty seven times, married to
Alyssa Thomas who lives in Phoenix now, and they have
kids and I don't know where the kids are, but
obviously when they've been teammates for with Connecticut for as
long as they have, They've built a little family unit.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's not the same as Djna and Alyssa. And so
to me.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
It feels like, well, if my production or my role
is declining and I'm no longer a starter and.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Whatever I'm getting out.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Of this is not what I thought, and I'm sacrificing
my family time. I would just prefer to take a
smaller role for less money on the team where my
family unit is.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think we. I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Christine Brennan said that she heard do Wanta Honor wanted out.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Because she couldn't handle the spotlight. Like fuck, give me
a fucking break the pro.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
She's honestly like, honesty, you need to talk about this
for a second.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, we got to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Let's talk Christine Brennan.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
First of all, let me just say I've worked with
Christine for like many on many occasions, she's been nothing
but nice to me. I've had multiple Hey, can I
pull you for a chats on a professional level where
she gave me a lot of insight, gave me a
lot of insight on the business. She loves the new
wave of media. She is not the new wave of media,
(11:27):
but she was very.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Supportive of me in my early journey at USA.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Today she has accolades up the wazoo. So I'll preface
that all by saying large amount of respect for Christine
Brennan on a personal and professional basis. But what we
are seeing from Christine Brennan is in terms of like
how she's covering the WNBA and leaning all the way
in on the WNBA around Caitlin and the Caitlyn Clark book.
(11:55):
To me, as someone who likes Christine, and again I
will continue to say, I like Christine. This is grifting.
This is like she went on OutKick. We cannot we
can't go on OutKick. We can't do this. And as
someone who's been on out Kick as a contributor, we
cannot be peddling a conservative.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Rhetoric on OutKick.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
If you're gonna go on out kick, you need to
put ten toes down and not be doing the whole
Angel Reese versus Kaitlin Clark thing.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You gotta be the shutting that down. Yeah, you gotta
be shutting it down. And it seems like she's feeding
into it by saying, I mean, because we're hearing all
this stuff about Dwana Bonner. Dwana Bonner doesn't like the
politics of the Fever. She doesn't like Caitlin Clark, she
doesn't like the coaching is too it's it's homophobic there, which,
by the way, Stephanie White Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
White gay and married to a black woman.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So I highly doubt that you're getting a lot of
racism and homophobia from Stephanie White, like I don't. I
just don't see a culture in which she adopts that
to be, you know, a topic of conversation in the
locker room, and I think it's they're responsible to sit
here and drag Dawana Bonner's name through the mud, when
in reality she wants to be with her kids, or
(13:08):
Alyssa Thomas wants to be with her kids. One of
them probably wants to be with their kids. And I
don't think it's that deep.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Here's how it goes, Here's how it goes. Hey, baby,
you're playing six minutes a game. I know you're making
two hundred K, but what are we really doing? You
know what I'm saying. Maybe you want to come on home, Phoenix.
The roads are great this time of year.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I know it's getting hot, but why don't you just
figure it out. I don't think that this is as
deep as people want it to make it out to be.
And I think just everything around the fever is so
politically charged that anything when there's something that's not quite
giving us all the information that we want, we assume
just the worst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
I'm not doing just like the just like the fever
monkey sounds, I'm not fucking buying in.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Are gonna bite on this.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I'm not gonna snoke the idea.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
We're not. We're snooked. We're gonna snookes this right out.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Let's talk about another rumor that's going around Don don Staley,
Don Staley to the next is the rumor that is
So that was my love Island sound?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You didn't get that? Okay, that was the coming back? Yeah, okay,
we're just gonna take this right through.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
So Don Staley has been linked to a possible the
next pulled Don Staley for a chat chat is what
they're saying, is what the streets are saying.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the Knicks have been single for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The Knicks have been single for a while.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
And they're thinking that Don Staley is the new bombshell.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They could come in and stick for.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The wa They could come in and stick Don Staley.
These these rumors are completely unsubstantiated.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
However, she has said in the past she doesn't really
have an interest in going in coaching the men's game
on any level. I feel like she's got a little
bit of that Nick Saban and her where she rather
build her dynasty in college and develop players for the
next level rather than go and be that coach at
the next level that can get because what's gonna happen
(15:17):
and she goes to New York and she's gonna get
destroyed by the NBA fan base because that's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
Yeah, And it's like one of those things where on
one level, I would love to see a woman coach
an NBA team, and that's the pinnacle NBA team to
coach the Lakers, the Celtics, the Nicks, one of those
three their storied franchises.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
The fan bases, though, are insane and sane.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
If you think it's bad when a female woman ref
makes a bad call in a men's game, let me
introduce you to how bad it'll get for someone even
as storied and as legendary and as capable and qualified
as Don Staley. It so her horrendous and the commentary
(16:03):
will be probably racist, definitely sexist, and some combination of
like go back.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
To your fucking sport. Nobody cares about.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
That's what people will say that. On one hand, I
want to see it happen for progress, and Don Stanley
would certainly you know that Portland, the Portland Trailblazers interviewed
or or wanted Don Staley before they UH before they
hired Chauncey Billups. And I remember, though it's quick side
(16:33):
road that Don said in that particular case, if she
would have been offered that job, she would have felt
like she had to take it.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I don't know what's changed, and I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Like whether she was being I don't know honest at
the time, it's like kind of it's it's too late,
So I'm just gonna say that. But I don't think
you wreck your legacy for an opportunity that will be
right for scrutiny and criticism. However, I do think it's
got to be someone, and if it is someone that
(17:08):
someone like Don Staley would be the best someone.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I also think we just need to change this narrative
a little bit that a woman getting a job in
a men's sport is a step up from a woman
getting a job in a women's sport.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I think it is a step up. Money wise, it
is a step up.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
But what I'm saying is I think the goal eventually
is to get to a place where it's.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Not a step up.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's just a lateral move because women's sports are treated
equally and we don't need to look at it that way.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Let's go on into some WNBA news. I want to
ask you the way again.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
We were in the news again, but before we even
get to that, because the topics of this is hilarious.
Did you see the video of Kelsey Plum being picked
up and dragged away by Rikia Jackson from getting a
foul like she was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum
in a store?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I did, h Keusey Plumb is a deeply unseerious person.
But let's watch the tape.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
This is one of my favorite clips.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So she's trying to grab the jump ball. Is that
kea nurse?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
She's getting into it with kea nurse and Rickya is like, no,
I'm gonna need you to go all the way that way.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
The way she picked her up.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Rickia straw for this. Rickia's got some guns to be
able to because.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
She swooped in. You know what she swooped in.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
She swooped in like I swoop in on Ollie when
he's about to lick diary off the cement.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Okay, that scoop Like, oh no, you're not about to
do that. We're no interested to know there.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
If she gave her the old scoop and pole, which
was poop, I call it the scoop a loop, the
scoop a loop. It was like literally like watching yes
a dog owner pick up their dog and then men
being like, no, no, no, we're not gonna fight with
that dog.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
That one's bigger than you. No, we're not doing that.
That one's bier than you. Let's back off. That was
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And her facial reaction to on top of it was
like it was like it.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Was immediate too.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
It was before anything even had the possibility of happening.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
It was you're gone. I said, nope, we're not doing it.
We're not doing it.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
We're not getting you attecked today Kelsey Plum is tired.
That's what we know. We know Kelsey Plum is tired.
And why do we know that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Her Instagram fingers are vibrant inactive.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You posted a a little stat on your threads.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Yeah, because I think what was happening was everybody was
kind of like, you know, being insane, which I'm pretty
sure that WNBA fans there's a sector of them that
are just looney tunes.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
YEA sports fans in.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
General, No, but like this group of women's, like the
WNBA fans, it's almost like they've never been a fan.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Of any other sport before. And the way that it's all.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Centering on Caitlin Clark Weather poor against just is continuously
driving me nuts. So, you know, the slump we talked
about last week, turns out a lot of WNBA players
that are great shooters.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Are in a slump, Kelsey Plum being one of them.
So I posted about it, and a.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Lot of people, including other journalists, were like, this is
just you making excuses for Caitlin and I'm like, whoa.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Which is because there's like fifteen names on that list,
But okay, I.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Was just saying, well, because it started out by saying, hey,
everybody's saying Kaitlyn's in a slump, but DC that these
people are also in a slump, correct, And so they heard, oh,
she's protecting Kaitlin, and I was not protecting Caitlin. I
just was pointing out that, hey, this is maybe bigger
than just Caitlin, for all the people who are so
hyper focused on Kaitln and to other people got upset
(20:55):
and then all of a sudden, I think I texted
you immediately or maybe even called you immediately, and Kelsey
Plumb commented on it and said.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
We're tired, laughing face, We're tired. It's because we're tired.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And I can't blame her because when you look at
this schedule, I don't know how you could not be tired.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Everybody's gonna say, and there's a lot of people who
are saying, well, these WNBA players want more money, so
that's what needs to happen if you need to schedule
more games, or the men's game they have back to backs,
the men's game play eighty two games.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But the problem with that argument.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Is that it's not just that they're playing back to
backs or specific amount of games per week. It's that
sometimes you play five games in eight days and sometimes
you play two games in eight days, and all of
that is centered on what do you think that's centered
on these schedule.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I know, I know what it's centered on. It's centered on.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Getting can Clark in prime time?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, scheduled on in getting Caitlin on TV.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
And maybe if the w actually promoted some of their
other athletes instead of just Caitlin, they wouldn't need to
put Caitlin in primetime every week, and they could put
some of these other people in primetime every week because
people would be just as excited to watch them play
as they are to watch Caitlyn play.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Or maybe they could think to themselves, even if we
are so high on Caitlyn, we think all like forty
one of her forty four games should be nationally televised.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
What happens if.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Caitlyn Clark has a quad injury? What happens if Kaitlyn
Clark has a groin injury?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
What happens if she has both of those things? Due
to the fact or at least in some.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Correlation with the fact that this schedule is insane, and
it was insane for them.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Last year, so what are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do if there's a bunch of Indiana Fever
games on National TV and Kaitlyn Clarke is sitting there
in street clothes, what are you gonna do? Then, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Someone asked Natalie mccassi after the Valkyrie game if she
thought that fatigue could have been in a factor, and
her answer was wild to me because she said, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I guess I should probably ask them if they're tired.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's an insane answer.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
What that's an insane you know if your players are tired?
How do you not know?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I think the best part is that we've gotten into
the news cycle again and started a conversation again because
nobody listened when Satoo Sobbly said, Hey, this schedule's insane.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Were playing too much? This is too much.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Now everyone's asking.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Sonya Citron was asked directly about fatigue, Page was like, yeah,
we are tired. I don't know how these players have
back to backs. Paige Becker's talked about the schedule, Natalie
Nikassi's having to take questions about it as well. So
to me, I think that there's something needs to change,
especially considering that we had more games added to this
(23:56):
season and we didn't change the length of the season
at all. And now we have two more teams coming
next year, possibly a fifty game season. What's gonna happen
with the length of the schedule and the length of
the season.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Just real quick, do you know who's not in a
slump right now? You know who's not tired right now?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Do you mean Katelyn?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
I'm having a hard time you even say this without
loving Caitlyn Clark's Clark's at arch nemesis, Caitlin.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Clark's arch nemesis, Angel Reese.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Who has a joke, big joke. I don't mean this.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It's a joke. It's a joke.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
They are able to exist on the same plane without
having to be each other's rivals and brought up in
the same sentence. But Angel Reese the other night set
a record for the most games of fifteen rebounds or
more at four.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
She had four in a row fifteen or more rebounds.
You know what. The previous record also held by Angel rees.
She now has the most.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Rebounds six hundred and forty four in the first fifty
games of.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
A career in history. And for all the people who
are gonna sit there and say, oh, these are.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Rebounds, mebounds, meanbounds, mean bound. She also had twe four points, So.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Let's just go home and shut that down right now.
Her last because.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
In her last three games she has twenty four points,
seventeen points and eighteen points, sixteen rebounds, eighteen rebounds, seventeen rebounds,
and then nineteen rebounds of the game before seven assists
to assists, six assists and four assists. She has steals
in all four of those games. Actually, she has steals
in every one of her last six games, seven games,
(25:29):
eight games, nine games, nine games. Excuse me, she has
blocks in four of the last six games. And she
has some threes that she's taking as well, so she's
stretching the floor a little bit. This is not an
Angel Ree's apology page. This is an Angel Rees truther
page podcast, So we're not about to slander her name.
(25:49):
Like all she does is get her own rebounds. And
by the way, even if she did.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Even if she did, why can't you stop her? Why
can't you stop her? Why can't you even.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Why is she scoring twenty four points? Is all she
does is get her own rebounds. Love to know that answer?
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Anderfield wal percentage in their last three games is pretty
damn good.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
fIF fifty.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Let's stop. Let's stop the man.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, we gotta stop. Stop the cap, stop the cap expansion.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Though, like you said, another big breaking news before we
came on this podcast, The the W has announced that
there will be three additional teams added between now and
twenty thirty Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Still not a Houston team, still in a Denver team,
Still not a Kansas City team.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Which a lot of people were hoping for one of
those three to have a place.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
But what do we think this means? I mean, there's
some pros and cons of this.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think you know what, like, do you ever when
you were in middle school or elementary school, Like, did
you ever have that kid in school who like, they
did something and so like Johnny broad Is old game
boy to class and he fucked it up for everybody.
So nobody can even bring any electronics into class anymore.
(27:09):
And so because one kid did something that they weren't
supposed to do and it was such a mess, now
everybody is ruined.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That was probably me, by the way, I was probably
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I remember I got like in detention once for like
popping some kids science project.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
A balloon.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I got.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
I got kicked off of a school trip because I
was stealing Goosebumps books and putting in another kid's desks.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So I was literally like cousbumps.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Gousbumps were great though.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Yeah they were uh, And I got snitched. I got
there was a snitching incident over that. Anyway, That's what
this is to me is the things were going well,
and then you actually got two scenarios, two things because
you also have the kid that has outperformed everybody, and
now the teacher thinks that everybody should be doing what
(28:05):
that kid does as well. So you have the class clown,
the Portland franchise, the brown brown nose. Yes, you have
the brown noser, the top of the class. Nobody's ever
going to be that kid. And then you have the
class clown that brings things down. Now we can't have
nice things anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
So you got Portland. Portland doesn't even have a team name.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Portland doesn't have a logo, which you would need if
you would have, like you need a team name.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
But the president, a GM, or a coach.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Either they don't have a president, they don't have a GM,
they don't have a coach. We don't know what is happening.
We know that some sort of practice facility is being built.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
A team that is what we know.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
We will be a team in less than twelve months.
So that's a mess to me.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
That's like, and that's a team that's owned by how
do I pronounce their name?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
What are the ball Tolls? The Talls Batalls.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Batalls, the ones that are also the Thorns. Yeah, yeah, okay,
it's Soland historically has had has help had ownership issues
like yes as a whole in women's sports.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
And the issue is that you couldn't get the Allen
family to own another Portland team because they already did
that and the team collapsed and folded. And that team,
the Portland Trailblazers, are being sold right now. So if
you're gonna get a Portland expansion team, you'd either have
to wait for the Blazers to sell in that new
owner to want to buy a WNBA team, which, by
(29:36):
the way, right now we're seeing that the prices have
gone way.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Up, or you try to get the Batalls to do it,
which they did, and it's a mess. On the other hand, you.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Have the Valkyries who bought an expansion team for fifty
million dollars and in less than two months of having
a team on the floor, they are now worth five
hundred million.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Just like that, they have and then contention.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
They're in playoff contention.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
They have seventy million dollars in revenue so far this year.
They're selling out every game. They've sold ten thousand in
season tickets.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Real quick, because this isn't the point of it, but
I just want to tell you I know exactly why
they're worth that now because well, they'll throw your visa,
but also they're doing Sephora drops during.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's not why, like time out, that's not why though.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
But it is why because what it shows is that
is a that is a front office that cares about
the people in their stadium, in their arena.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They care about the fans that are coming and showing up.
That is what that shows.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's not necessarily no, the Sephora gift cards falling from
the sky is not why there are people there. But
what it shows is that this is a place that
understands here's what people want women, and there's catering towards
that base.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
You know, what's frustrating is when like you go to
a game and they and they have their little like
T shirt gun, or they put the T shirts on
the back of the seats and it's like or they
it's like double XL. That's what Portland's gonna do for
their women's team.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
It's like, you're gonna put double excel in every seat? Yeah,
what what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Are you even thinking about who's in these stands. So
it's a good point that you make about Sophore because
I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I think that has to do with just.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Knowing knowing what your brand should be and like really
leaning into it.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And and the owner of.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
The Warriors, Joe Lacup, he has done a phenomenal job
with the Golden State Warriors, turning them into like one
of the most valuable brands in the NBA, but also
doing a great job in terms of like, hey, I
want the women's brand to do just as well. I
want Valhalla to be a place Chase Center. Huge gay
(31:59):
and lesbian population by the way, in the Bay Area,
so that's huge.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, you're not getting this in Cleveland. I'm sorry to say,
you're not getting this in Detroit.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Maybe you'll have a lot of fans there, but you're
not getting this in Philadelphia and not the same way
that you're getting it in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
It doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
No, And to be honest, you've got you're sandwiching a
Philadelphia team between two already, well let me rephrase that,
one kind of struggling franchise and one really successful franchise
in the Liberty and in the Mystics. So it's just
kind of sandwiching in between. You know, there's there's sixty
miles between these cities, like you're I don't know that
(32:38):
that's really a place that you want to should be
expanding to. And that's just my personal two cents. We're
going to We've we've got a guest that just popped in, so.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Angel mccottree went, yeah, let's.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Let's I think there are certain goals that we should have,
and there are certain goals just to.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Make you laugh, make you and Blair laugh. That's my
only goal.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
It's tough.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
It's a tough goal to reach every Pup podcast episode.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
It is, Blair, it's so great to have you here.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
We're so excited to talk to some tennis because this
is not Trista and Ie, this is not our lane.
We are not tennis experts, and so we need to
be educated a little bit.
Speaker 7 (33:25):
Oh my gosh, Well, I'm so excited to be here.
I wore my w That may also be for my
friends at Wilson, it's for sure for the Daily W.
So congrat I love that success. Guys, love what you're doing,
and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
It's just so dope. So I was trying to tell
Sarah because I love Wimbledon.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
I don't know really a lot about tennis, but I
know we got pimps cups.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I know we got white on white. I know we
got strawberries and cream. I've cued, Blair. Did you know
that I'm cued?
Speaker 7 (33:53):
That automatically vaults you into a certain stratosphere of tennis vandom.
I have not cued, nor have I really had a
desire to queue. I look at that line and I'm like,
respect to you all. I would not have the patience.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
What is queueing.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It's where you wait for tickets.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
You have to stand in line for like I think
we still like for four hours.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
To get tickets.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Wow, they're sleeping overnight in a field.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Intents.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
It is it's incredibly intense. Actually, yeah, so anyway, very impressed.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
Take the tube to Q Gardens. Then you can pay
to get to a like a main court or a court,
and you just get chosen at random. I think we
paid like ten pounds and I got to see sherif
Pova on the main court.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
So that's my only Wimbledon story.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
We like to start our segments and we like to
start our guests off with some tea. And so the
tea that we know about in the tennis world is
Trinity and Ben, and I would love to hear your
thoughts on our girl Trinity and your guy Ben.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
Well, the first thing I'll say is, as somebody who
does a lot of social media content for tournaments, the
thing that we're always trying to figure out is how
do we get cross promotion, And that could be between
the men and the women, or that could.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Be amongst different sports.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
And I just want to say a huge shout out
to Ben and Trinity for giving us the best possible
cross promotion for tennis and soccer, which traditionally, you know,
maybe for women in soccer in the US, but maybe
not the most popular American sports.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
So I love this for them, and I love this
for us.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Did you see the hard launch and at what point
did you know, Like, did you know before they went
Instagram or TikTok official. Had you been seeing in your
coverage Trinity be showing up? Is this something that like
there was insider's tea before we all found out about it.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
There was insider tea.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
I was not far enough on the inside to get
that tea prior to seeing it on TikTok. I got
to spend some time with Ben at the Australian Open.
We did an interview and I have never seen the
guy in a better mood. There was footage of him.
He was dancing in the hallways. The Australian Open has
(36:10):
all of these like undercover cameras, so the players can't
really go anywhere without being filmed. And just dancing to himself.
I'm like, and now that all sort of tracks he
was in love? Was he at that point?
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Who knows?
Speaker 7 (36:25):
But now it seems clear that they are loving their
time together and so I'm excited for them.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We've seen some there's some rumors about Alcarez maybe have
has a little bit of a has a new romance.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Is there anything about this.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
According to Emma Radikanu, absolutely not.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
She was asked about this and pressed, Wimbledon is unique
in that, and really any of the British tournaments are
unique in that you often have tabloid reporters in the
press room, which is not something you really get along
the tennis circuit elsewhere. And so she was asked, straight up,
is there anything to the time that you guys have
(37:04):
been spending together. They're playing mixed doubles together at the
US Open.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Can we read into this? And she said, nope, we
are just friends.
Speaker 7 (37:13):
And it was really funny because the moderator said, okay,
I think we're going to wrap them up there, and
Emma said, yes, what a great spot to wrap that up,
and she just popped out of the pressroom and it
was very cute.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But according to Emma, nothing but a friendship.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
I've been I've been the person that has wrapped up
a presser just based on my awful question, like my
pop culture question. So that reporter, probably, that tabloid reporter probably.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Was just crawling in his or her skin.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I don't know if you saw this, but did you
see this is trending on social as well. Alkora is
going out of his way to say hi to Cocoa Golf,
because there's been kind of a little bit of like
a little something there as well.
Speaker 7 (37:56):
I think if you've ever seen Carlos alcara As in
the wild, behind the scenes, you will know that that is.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Just how he is. He is sort of a walking
golden retriever.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
It's like oh ooh, stick, like he just is smiling.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
He's just kind of kind of bounces as he walks.
He is just that smiley guy.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
He probably wants to say hi, or probably has huge
respect for his fellow Roland Garros champion. I don't know
if that was maybe the first time they had seen
each other since they both won in Paris. So that
is really just how he is, and I hope he
stays that way forever. I'm sure you guys have seen
in other sports sometimes athletes come along and they have
(38:38):
that bounciness and golden retriever quality at the beginning, and
then maybe something's taken out of context, or they get
burned in some way, or maybe they say too much,
and then all of a sudden they kind of retreat
into a shell a little bit. Thankfully, that has not
happened yet with Carlos alcraz and we're thrilled.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Coco and Sabalanca to have put an end to any
narrative that there was beef between them. What did you
see from that moment? You know, from that initial press
conference moment that was was that taken out of proportion?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Was that blown out of proportion? And to now seeing them,
you know, dancing.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Together on TikTok and showing, hey, there's no beef here.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
Well, in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty five,
what other way is there to quash beef than to
do a joint TikTok dance.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I think that's great for them.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
But if we were rewinding back to Savalanka's trophy runner
up speech and then what she said in the press room,
I tend to have a lot of sympathy for what
players say after a lost Tennis is one of those
sports where you have to wait around and talk immediately
after what is often a crushing blow. And then she
had some time, and then she came into the press
(39:56):
room and she kind of doubled down on what she
said on court, and again I have I feel like
I have a lot of empathy for that. I give
players maybe more leeway than some others. But I felt
like she could have said the things that she said
and then also said the things that she needed to say.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Coco played better today. You know, she has beat me
now two.
Speaker 7 (40:20):
Of the last four times they played Coco as a
winning record over Sablanca six and five. Right now, there
were things that she could have sprinkled in that would
have softened the other things that she said, which were
really born out of frustration. She didn't say those things,
and as a result, it hit the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
I mean, Steven A.
Speaker 7 (40:38):
Smith was talking about this press conference, there were real
housewives commenting on it on social media. It entered the
zeit geist, It took on a life of its own,
and I think eventually, and Coco even said herself, She's like.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Kind of thought the apology would come a little quicker
than it did.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
But eventually she reached out and said what she needed
to say to Coco behind the scenes. And then obviously
they had that great practice session where they you know,
got their social media clout as well.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Felt like it was built by a pr person where
she was like, Coco.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Played the better game. It looked like she was either
had gun to.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
The head vibes or it was a PR company that said, hey,
you just write this on your story right now, so
we could.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Get in front of this or behind this or just
get it over with.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yes, I agree with that.
Speaker 7 (41:29):
I don't know that Arena was sitting there penning that herself,
but Coco did say that Arena reached out to her
directly after that, so yes, the apology was and then
after that there was a direct apology to Coco, which
I think you know, and Coco said she extended the
olive branch and I accepted it and we're good, and
(41:50):
so you guys should be good too.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
Was it better for tennis to have like a legit
hatred rivalry, especially with one American player.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I love a rivalry, So yes, I think that that is.
I think that's a huge bonus when those things happen.
Speaker 7 (42:05):
And I think we've sort of seen that with Arena
and Coco, And so are you are you asking like
do you should we want there to be like a
grudge match happening?
Speaker 5 (42:14):
In addition, yeah, like part of me was like, oh,
this is cute that I saw them squash this beef,
and I feel it's great that they're like there's nothing
between us, we like each other.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
YadA YadA, YadA, blase blase.
Speaker 5 (42:26):
But like if I see Goff and Sablenka and the
squashed beef hadn't happened, I'm tuning in much more readily
than I am now that they're all cozy cozy.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Again, I would agree with you there.
Speaker 7 (42:40):
I also will say I think there's gonna be some
intrigue the next time they play, because of even though
there were apologies, Arena very clearly said that she should
not have lost that match. She was the one who
likes Coco, didn't win it, She's the one who lost it,
and so I do think, just by virtue of her
say it at all, that there will be some more intrigue.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
But your point is taken. I don't. I think a
little bit of chatter is a good thing.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Casual American sports watchers, right, they don't watch much.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Other than Wimbledon or the US Open.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
So how valuable is it for the sport to have
an American like Coco in that hot seat? Because I
got a lot of pushback on this, like, oh, no,
tennis is fine without Coco, and I have to disagree.
Speaker 7 (43:33):
I think it's big and I think it's bigger. And
this might seem like a captain obvious statement, but I
think it's extra huge for people in the United States
because in the US there is so much competition. Tennis
is maybe not the first sport you're putting your child into,
and in Europe that is much more common.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
You have countries like.
Speaker 7 (43:56):
The Czech Republic, which is not a large country, that
just turns out in credble players year after year because
that is one of the sports that everybody is just
funneling their little girls into.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
That is not the case here in the US.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
I think it is huge in particular for the growth
of the sport. I think it's huge for the growth
in terms of visibility. That's obviously fantastic to have an
international superstar who's up on your billboards and you're splashing
everywhere in advance of the US Open, But I think
in terms of people actually picking up tennis.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Rackets, it's massive.
Speaker 7 (44:28):
And don't forget I mean right now we have four
American women in the top ten and Anisimova is number twelve,
so we have on the women's side sort of had.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
An embarrassment of riches.
Speaker 7 (44:40):
But you're right, the cocos star power is sort of
I don't know, it has its own life, which is
incredible for her and for the rest of us who
work in this sport.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Yeah, And I think it was maybe Serina's former coach.
There was a coach that went on a podcast and said,
you know, the women game has no American stars, And so.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
To dovetail off of that, you talk about how.
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Many Americans are in the top ten, top twelve, the
only one right now with like a high level.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Of name recognition is Coco. Do you think that that's true?
Speaker 5 (45:18):
Do you think that we're lacking star power for American
women now that Serena and Venus have retired.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
I think we're doing okay. I think Arena Savalanka, it
really is a huge star. She has a home base
in the US, so she has sort of made herself
available to American fans in that way as well.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
But just a quick note on that coach that you mentioned.
Speaker 7 (45:41):
That was Patrick Moritaglu, who is the current coach of
Naomi Osaka, who is arguably one of the big sports
stars that we have, men's or women's. So I mean
there's Naomi also who has continued to transcend the sport
of tennis obviously hasn't found her best tennis yeah prior
(46:03):
to excuse me post having her little daughter. But she
is a massive star. So I think we're doing okay.
And I also think that that is on the media.
We have got to tell the stories. And I will
also say I think the teams, the players, teams have
to let us tell the stories. Tennis again very individual sport,
(46:27):
and you have people surrounding that player and sometimes it's
hard to get a sit down interview that covers anything
beyond the very basics. And so I think that that
is a huge part of it. We have to be
able to tell people why they should care. Amanda and Nisimoga,
for instance, number twelve player in the world right now,
as I said, has an incredible story. I don't know
(46:48):
that many people know it, and so my hope is
that as we ride this wave that we can do
a really good job of telling those stories and telling.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
People why they should care.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Not to put you on this, but what is her story?
Speaker 7 (47:01):
Yeah, so she actually lost her father who was her
coach a few years ago when she I believed she
was in the top twenty at the time, and everyone
thought she was going to be one of the next
big things, and that affected her in a really significant way,
as you might imagine. And last year she took some
time away from the sport, just said, I'm going to
(47:21):
take a mental health break. I know she's explored art,
which is really impressive. She took some time to work
on some other hobbies, and she's come back and is
playing the best tennis of her career. So she's taken
a little bit of extra time to do it, but
she's done it in her own time, and I think
she's comfortable in her skin now in a way that
she might not have been.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Five years ago.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
I was just going to circle back really fast.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
Before we talked to Naomi talked about Naomi about Coco
and when she beat Venus in the first round at Wimbledon,
we I think collectively there was this moment like, oh
my god, what could Coco be? How dominant can we
see her? And on grass there's been not necessarily the
(48:06):
same level of dominance as we've seen her on other surfaces,
including clay. Right, So when you're looking at her in
terms of Wimbledon performance, why do you think she is
a player that struggles on that surface? And like, what
do you think that means for Wimbledon this year.
Speaker 7 (48:23):
I think it's important to remember that she's still just
twenty one and has I think this is the sixth
time she's played Wimbledon.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
And so her experience on.
Speaker 7 (48:32):
Grass is still relatively small because there are only three
weeks between the final of Roland Garros and Day one
of Wimbledon, so the opportunity for players to get experience
on that surface is minimal.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Number one.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
But Coco's game also lends itself to loving a little
extra time, and that I think is why she's so great.
On clay, it's a little bit slower, the balls balance
a little bit higher. She hits incredibly heavy balls. That
means a lot of spin, a lot of arc on
the ball that is harder to do on grass, which
is a little bit faster. The ball doesn't bounce up
(49:08):
as high, and that exploits her weaker side, which is
her forehand side. And listen, some days, you wouldn't if
you didn't know anything about Coca Goth, you wouldn't go
out and say, wow, that's a weak forehand. But if
something's going to break down, it's often that forehand side
or the serve. And playing on grass just exploits those
weaknesses a little bit more.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
You brought up Naomi and her not getting back really
to her full form since since coming back from maternity.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
What you know, what is it that we're seeing from Naomi?
Speaker 3 (49:42):
Is it is it just a matter of the minutes
getting back on the court, or you know, is there
something else there.
Speaker 4 (49:50):
I think it's going to happen for Naomi. I really do.
I think though she is such a pure ball striker.
Speaker 7 (49:58):
If you hear people talk about her that it's the
phrase that they will use pure ball striker.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
When she is playing her best.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
It doesn't matter if you've never seen a tennis match
before in your life, you're gonna be like, ooh, that
is clean coming off the strings. And one thing I
do think though in the past, maybe I don't know,
five ten years, I think players have gotten really good
at developing other tools.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
So yes, Naomi can hit it incredibly.
Speaker 7 (50:22):
Clean, but sometimes people can actually work their way into
a rhythm against that because the ball is so pure
coming off her racket, so her opponents are able to
work their way in. And I don't think she's back
to the level that she was pre baby yet. And
if it's not functioning at all. Five cylinders aren't firing.
(50:44):
It's just enough weakness that an opponent can sneak in,
and I do think it would help her if I
would love to see a little bit more variety from
Naomi Osaka in this sort of second chapter of her career.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
But I do think it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
Do you think today looked against Gibson because I was
watching a little bit on streaming and they had to
go to a tie break. There was a couple of faults. Again,
I don't know much about tennis, but I just know
that those little moments I could.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Kind of see a little bit of frustration.
Speaker 7 (51:16):
I wouldn't put too much stock into a first round
match for a lot of players, and particularly players who've
had the experience of winning a Slam. So you have
to win seven matches, and that's assuming you're not a qualifier,
as Amaradi Khonu was at the US Open a few
years ago. But you have to win seven matches to
be raising that trophy at the end of the tournament.
And so you will see a lot of players have
(51:38):
maybe scratchy first rounds, and so I think if you
can get through it, a win is a win, particularly
early in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Who was your dark horse and who's your favorite for
this for womens.
Speaker 7 (51:51):
I'm going to start with my favorite, and I am
going to hedge a little bit here, Guys, I am sorry,
but I'm gonna say my favorite is an American woman.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Is that fair?
Speaker 5 (51:59):
Trace, That's the only we're only getting None of your
favorite is one American? You got a choice of? You said,
how many in the top ten? We need a name, Blair,
we need a name.
Speaker 7 (52:11):
Okay, I can I I think I say watch out
for Mattie Keys. I think Madison Keys could be so
and she has been historically lethal on grass, maybe just
not hasn't played her best at Wimbledon.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
And but I.
Speaker 7 (52:28):
Listen, guys, we are halfway to the calendar year American
Women's Grand Slam, which is a little bit of a stretch.
But we've had two American women champs in the first
two slams of the year, which is massive.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
So my vote is that we keep that rolling.
Speaker 7 (52:44):
And sure, let's have Mattie Keys getting her second Grand
Slam title.
Speaker 4 (52:47):
Why not?
Speaker 7 (52:48):
Oh dark, I'm gonna pick another American. I'm gonna I'm
gonna Amanda and Nissimova. Listen, I'm high on the American women.
I'm gonna say I don't think people are picking Amanda
to win Wimbledon, but she's gonna be my dark horse.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
I have not heard one person.
Speaker 5 (53:07):
I've not heard one person say her name, and I've
been talking to on NBC a lot about Wimbledon.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
I do want to get This is like a fun question.
Speaker 5 (53:16):
If you're like making a build a Bear or like
a Marvel superhero woman's tennis player, you've got to like
build the unbeatable tennis player using different elements of different
players games.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
What are you choosing from? Who?
Speaker 4 (53:35):
I love this.
Speaker 7 (53:36):
I'm gonna pick current players, just in the vein of
let's help people get to know who's playing today. For
serv I'm gonna pick Elena Rebakana. I am going to
pick Madison Keys for the forehand. On the backhand side, oh,
this is so hard. I'm gonna split it just because
I have such a soft spot for one handed backhands
(53:58):
and there are so few left, particularly on the women's side.
I'm going to split the backhand between Tatian Maria, the
thirty seven year old mother of two who just won
a grass court tournament a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
I am going to pick Tatian Maria and.
Speaker 7 (54:12):
Barbara Kritchikova, the defending Wimbledon champion, whose backhand is just
it's a two hander, but chef's kiss, thing of beauty.
And then for the athleticism mentality aspect of things, Cocoa
goff all the way I have a she's an insane athlete.
Speaker 4 (54:30):
But also I have not seen.
Speaker 7 (54:33):
Anyone dig like she can dig when things get tight,
and I've had the privilege of seeing it from court side.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
It is incredible. It's like what you want kids to watch.
Speaker 7 (54:46):
I mean in terms of being a role model in
that department, It's unreal.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
So Cocoa Goff for the mentality.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
Wait you think, hold up, Blair, Wait, hold on, hold up, blup.
Just you follow up, Just a quick follow up on
the mentality you think, Just to just to clarify that
Coco's mentality surpasses Serena's mentality for you.
Speaker 7 (55:05):
I like the way that it manifests itself in Coco's
It is a more fun than compelling watch. Serena was
a fun and compelling watch for many people. It just
I love the fact that Coco is just so steely
(55:28):
and steady, and you can see when she gets frustrated.
Speaker 4 (55:32):
It's not that she doesn't get frustrated, it just there.
Speaker 7 (55:35):
Is sort of a quiet best mode that's happening that.
Speaker 4 (55:39):
I so love to watch.
Speaker 5 (55:41):
I think to your point too, I remember when Serena
would have those levels of frustration, you almost felt like,
at least towards the tail end of her career, like
oh shit, like is this thing about to go off
the rails and in her spiral?
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Or is she going to take this to another level.
Speaker 7 (56:00):
You never you never knew, And that was the appeal
a lot of the time of watching, because you did
not know what are or is it.
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Going to go off the rails? Is she going to
go and win the tournament? Who knows?
Speaker 7 (56:12):
And I do think that that was compelling in its
own way. I just personally, and I think too, having
two daughters and saying this is what this is what
you want to shoot for if.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
You are playing a sport. I think it's maybe more
typical in that sense the Coco approach.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
I think we need to bring back I love the King,
I love the energy pops, I yes, I do. I
love the tantrums. I love seeing the passion.
Speaker 7 (56:40):
Well, Arena, Savalanka is your girl, show me my girl.
She was, she was self destructing and she was leading
in the first set, and that is what als.
Speaker 4 (56:53):
Up and started. So there you go, Sarah, You've got
to play.
Speaker 3 (56:57):
That's mine, That's that's my I don't know if it's
just because it's how I feel I would be on
that type of stage that like I would just lose.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
It that I would.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
I just enjoy watching like I enjoy watching the women.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Who have no no.
Speaker 3 (57:14):
I don't want to say no decorum because they have decorum,
but they have no holds when it comes to how they're.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
Going to show their emotions. I just love that.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
I don't disagree. I think that there is absolute value
in that. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (57:27):
Yeah, So if if before we let you run, if
if Coco's the steely one, if saba Anka is the
one that has that dominance but could be a train
wreck at any time, what is Fiantech, which we have
not spoken about, used to be former number one in
the world and now has sort of fallen down level.
Speaker 1 (57:46):
What would you describe her as.
Speaker 7 (57:48):
I would describe IgA as an excellent front runner who I.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Get me shivers.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
Did it really?
Speaker 7 (58:00):
I think when she was number one in the world,
and when she was you know, the joke was that
Ega had her own bakery. She was handing out, you know,
bagels and breadsticks to anyone.
Speaker 4 (58:11):
Who wanted one. On the tour.
Speaker 7 (58:13):
She was so good as a front runner, and I
think there are a lot of players who aren't great
in that position. I think she's trying to figure out
what it's like now not being at that targets on
your back every day.
Speaker 4 (58:26):
All day position.
Speaker 7 (58:27):
And granted she will be I think in the live ranking,
she's four in the world right now. She's seated eighth
at Wimbledon, but she just had to run to a
final last.
Speaker 4 (58:36):
Week, so she's not far off.
Speaker 7 (58:37):
I have no I really do think she'll probably be
back to number one in the world, but she's having
to try to figure out Ega two point Oh, what
does it look like when I am not in that
front running position?
Speaker 2 (58:48):
I gotta get my I love.
Speaker 3 (58:50):
I think my favorite part about Wimbledon is that it's
on in the morning, that like you get to wake
up and watch Wimbledon with your breakfast, Like that's I
think my favorite Like that's how tennis that's how like
I like watching tennis.
Speaker 4 (59:03):
You know it is the best, and your vision does
for sure.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
It's the best. No, Blair's the best. Blair's the best.
She gave us some hot takes, the little ones. I
know she's not used to it.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
You know, she's not used to the hot take machine.
But we're gonna get in there.
Speaker 4 (59:20):
We're gonna get it there.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
She gave us some stuff here, got the front run
and take. That one gave me shivers. The streeta take
gave me shivers. It's good stuff.
Speaker 4 (59:28):
Guys.
Speaker 7 (59:29):
Can I be your tennis correspondent if you're looking for one,
I will.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
I love it more hot take?
Speaker 5 (59:35):
Okay good, It's like call her daddy, you got a dish.
We're dishing Blair. We're not playing it safe here, Blair,
thank you so much for coming on. I love making
you laugh. You're tremendous.
Speaker 7 (59:48):
I oh great, and listen if I will come with
more hot takes next time tennis needs to be covered.
Speaker 5 (59:57):
That's all the time that we have for this episode
of Let her shoot say it for me, Blair, let
her shoot, Let her shoot.
Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
There, it is there, it is. We have more hot taste,
we have more coverage.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Coming.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
We didn't get to the NWS.
Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
We may record later when this podcast studio is back available.
We had so much more we wanted to say, but
thank you to Adrian, thank you to Blair, thank you
to the producer slash co host Sarah Chovnik aka to
Emmy Sarah.
Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
We just gotta get her two time smiling. But we'll
get her there and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
I'm a hot girl. I gave anything out wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
This is my world.
Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
I make big moves in my big us. Since I
tell you that I was born, I've been a big
deal
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