May 14, 2024 • 43 mins
Can you make 2400 free throws in one day? Today's guest can! Action Network's Chad Millman and WNBA betting enthusiast Simon Hunter talk to Indiana Fever play-by-play voice and legendary women's basketball figure Debbie Antonelli about her impression of the WNBA's development, the increased exposure that's come from Clark, and her absolutely Herculean fundraiser for Special Olympics this weekend. Antontelli was a key part of the 1984-1985 NC State basketball team that went undefeated in the ACC regular season and tournament, and she'll be making 2400 free throws in 24 hours as part of her 24 Hours Of Nothing But Net effort.
A favorite among inveterate gamblers for almost 30 years, the WNBA tips off tonight. It will be the professional debut of Caitlin Clark for the Indiana Fever, and Antonelli talks Caitlin Clark, her own career as a beloved basketball broadcaster, her longtime passion for Las Vegas, and more.
And those interested in donating to Antonelli's Special Olympics fundraiser, all of us here at the Favorites encourage you to visit 24HoursNBN.com now to support this wonderful cause.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the Favorites. The podcast presented by BET three
sixty five. We are part of the Action Network. I
am Chadmilman, Chief Content Officer of the Action Network. Tonight
is the tip off of the most anticipated w NBA
season in the league's history. Caitlin Clark making her professional
(00:30):
debut on National TV and ESPN two against the Connecticut Sun,
joining us to discuss the new season. One of the
most beloved broadcast voices in basketball, a veteran of every
WNBA season since the league's inception in nineteen ninety six,
the most recent recipient of the Naysmith Basketball Hall of
(00:52):
Fames Kurt Goudy Media Award. It's one of like three
Hall of Fames that she's in the original play by
play voice of the Indiana Fever, which means she is
the voice of Cleitland Clark's Indiana Fever this season, Debbie Antonelli.
She will come on in one second, joining me for
this conversation as always, my co host, my companion, Michael
(01:15):
Padre BFF professional Better, Simon Hunter et O, Simon.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Hello, Chad. Just the best time in sports, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
We have playoffs, we got women's coming back, we got
NFL scheduler release, just all of it, Like even the
hockey has been amazing. So yeah, if you're a fan
of sports, it doesn't get much better. And I love that.
You know how much I love betting the WNBA. So yeah,
excited to talk about kicking off the season.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So I don't know if de Wie knows this, and
I'll bring her out on a sack, But like WNBA
has been a massive sport for betters almost since its inception.
And I will say, simon calling Caitlin Clark's games this
upcoming week maybe the second most interesting thing Debbie does
(02:05):
over the next week. We are going to get to
all of that in a second. As a reminder of
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(02:48):
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Speaker 2 (02:53):
Live on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For those enjoying on YouTube, don't forget to give us
a like. Subscribe to the Action Network YouTube. Pay Debbie.
Sorry for the preamble, official welcome. Tell everybody where you
are right now and why Well.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
First of all, thank you guys for having me on.
I'm excited to be with you and spent some time.
I'm in Las Vegas right now. I have the Phoenix
Vegas game tonight, which is a doubleheader. Caitlin Clark in
the Fever play Connecticut first and then tonight later tonight
on ESPN two. I get to work with Tiffany Green
and Angel Gray on the Call of the Phoenix and
the back to back WNBA champions Las Vegas. A says
(03:31):
it's a big bling night the rings will be passed out,
the banners will be dropped. It would be a lot
of fun in the arena.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you've been doing WNBA since its inception. You had
a Hall of Fame career at NC State. You know,
basketball generally, women's basketball specifically, as well as anybody when
you're feeling when you're in the middle of a moment
like this, what is it like specifically to be in
(04:03):
the middle of this chaos and storm right now?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, I would use chaos and storm as positives in that. Yeah,
but chat, I mean, come on, man, it's about damn time.
I mean, I've been waiting a long time for this.
I have in different times in my career. You know,
I've served as a director of marketing and athletics at
Kentucky and at the Ohio State. So I have been
pushing and promoting and marketing the women's game in particular
(04:30):
for a long time. This will be my thirty seventh
year on the air coming up this college basketball season.
So with the WNBA, I was there with the ABL
before that. And this is what I call clarkonomics. It's
a confluence of many things coming together at the right time.
And I am so excited about the season and where
(04:52):
the w can go and what an incredible foundation that
has been laid before someone like Caitlin Clark who comes
along as the greatest disrupt her in our game. And
that is a positive because it's made everyone pay attention,
look through a different lens, see the game and the
product for what it is, and start investing. And we've
never had anyone do that, And that's what's so exciting.
(05:14):
Even talking about it right now gives me chills thinking
about what's coming.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, when you're looking at Caitlin Clark specifically, what do
you expect to see from her at the WNBA level.
We've seen a little bit of it in preseason. You know,
there was a ton of chatter when Sue Bird and
Diana Tarassi we're talking about how different it will be
for her when she gets to the WNBA. What are
(05:39):
your expectations.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Well, first of all, it's challenging for anyone because now
there's no weak link on the court, so defensive schemes
are different. There'll be different rotations that she'll have to
adjust to. Offensively, I'm not worried about anything about her game.
She stretches, traps, she got sized to see over the top.
She has a high IQ reading the second level, so
if you do Trapper in ball screen action, she will
(06:02):
find the right play. That side of the ball doesn't
concern me at all. The other side of it is,
you know, Iowa did play a lot his own. They
are going to put her in multiple screening coverages. When
you run her through multiple ball screen coverages and you
make her play defense, of course she's going to pick
up some fouls. She's going to have to adjust to
the physicality on that side. So defensively, when you say
(06:23):
she's going to have an adjustment, yeah, Jackie Young, who
I'll see tonight, was the number one pick in twenty nineteen.
She averaged less than seven points her first season, So
every rookie has an adjustment period, but no rookie has
had this kind of skill set on the offensive side
of the ball, and they have enough weapons around her,
so I think she will have to adjust defensively. That's
(06:45):
the biggest part is that I'm running stuff right at
her on the defensive end to try to make her
guard and put her at a deficit so she can't
impact the offensive side.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
The challenges on defense people trying to defend her, people
having an attitude about defending her, which they should. I
don't mean that in a pejorative way. How much do
you think the WNBA needs Caitlin Clark to be magnificent
from the beginning to maintain this momentum.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Well, first of all, let me say this about Caitlin,
because I think she's a remarkable twenty two year old
young woman who I'd like to call it kid. Okay,
I've got kids older than her, So she's a kid
to me, all right. And when I look at her
and you listen to her, not one time, not once,
(07:38):
has there been a mic in front of her face
where she didn't say the right thing, takes the high road,
says the right things, talks, team talks, coaching staff talks,
growth of the league. That's what she's always done. That's
her habit. It's incredible the amount of incredible publicity she's
helped create because she's been such a great ambassador by
handling it that way. So anybody who's taking shots at
(08:02):
her is really you know, if you're going to take
a shot at her, describe it the way I did defensively.
This is where the issues could be. This is what
could be a challenge, not overall sweeping. She's going to struggle,
because everybody struggles. There'll be times in the season where
she might not get double figures, or she might not
get more than a couple of assists, or there might
be a game where she has more turnovers than assists.
(08:23):
I doubt it, but it could happen. And if it
does happen, I'm not going to be throwing a bunch
of shade at her because there is an adjustment. Okay,
So let's figure out how and why those things are happening.
If they do, I think she's managed all of what
has come at her for a twenty two year old
as well as you could have ever imagined. So, yeah,
(08:45):
is there trash talking? Is there going to be some
cheap shots? Are they going to try to be physical? Yes,
they're going to do that. But wouldn't you do that
with any great player? I think you would. Because she's
so good at what she does. You have to take
something away, right.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And I just piggybacking off of that. It's anyone that's
a basketball fan. She's part of this generation of the
Steph Currys, like she is Steph Curry and women's basketball.
Go back and watch what he was like when he
left Davidson to go to the NBA. He took a
lot of elbows to the chin a lot of people.
They watched him in March Madness, right, So now he's
(09:21):
coming and hyped up. She's gonna go through these growing things.
I mean, there's gonna be women that are gonna be
rough on her. That's just part of sports, that's part
of coming into the league. And it's like, I think
she's like what we just talk about, she's an excel offensively, defensively,
it's gonna be tough. She's never played against women that
are in their late twenties that are freak athletes, the
best athletes in the world. So for a basketball fan,
(09:44):
I love this. This is this is so fun because
you're gonna see her game evolve and that's what's so
cool about this.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So my question he was just you probably don't even
realize this.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
If the last thirty years you've been in women's basketball,
you've had diehard NBA fans, the other half of your
fan base are gamblers. I don't even know if women
realize that, but their biggest half of their fan base,
we're sports betters. I think that's the coolest part. The
change has been. The common fan now is fans of
the WNBA. Where you usould just be Literally it was
(10:15):
just me professional betters talking and like the crazy dared
hoop fans. So what is your feeling about the NBA
has embraced sports betting WNBA. I know they're going to
embrace it. What's your view on it now that it's
going to become a huge part of this whole Peyton
Clark experience. Our proct bets is probably one of the
biggest bet props of the entire women's basketball college season.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I have a huge smile on my face because let
me give you a little history and you hit, you
strike a chord with me, Simon. That is exactly something
I love talking about. Now, I'm going to preface it
with saying this, I've never bought a lottery ticket. When
we're here in Vegas, I'm not gambling. My husband throws
the dice.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I drink.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
The drinks were perfectly fine. Right, But let me say this,
if you go back and look, this is my fifteenth
year that I have talked about this. Fifteen years ago,
I was looking for this kind of disruption in our game,
and I wanted the Sweet sixteen to come to Vegas.
Every time I'm in Vegas, I think about it because
what I was trying to do was eliminate Well. There
(11:15):
was a whole plan. You can read it in the
New York Times, the Washington Post USA today. You can
read the plan. It was there, and it was an
effort to scrap the way we were running the NCAA
tournament at the time. We didn't need four regionals. I
wanted to have one. I wanted to be here. Part
of the reason why I wanted to be here in Vegas,
because that's where I am right now, is the NCUBA
(11:37):
at the time was not allowing any postseason NCUBAA championships
to be held in Vegas. Yet every conference on the
West Coast was having their post season conference basketball tournament here.
There were other nc DOUBLEA events that were being hosted here,
but the NCUBA had their head in the sand over
the whole gambling thing. Okay, they then don't bet on
(11:58):
a video. All of that, I felt college students, and
I have three boys. I would rather not see that,
don't bet on a video. I'd rather see safe sex,
responsible drinking to be honest with you, that's what I
think college kids need. Anyway, I digress, all right. So
I thought that this demographic was a demographic at the
(12:19):
time in women's college basketball that we had not tapped into.
The eighteen to thirty five year old male demographic that
you know when we're at Vegas, and when you're in
Vegas in March during March Madness, that every casino sportsbook
has the games on. The sportsbooks are crowded. If we
just had one TV that had a women's basketball game
(12:42):
on it because we were here in Vegas, I thought
that would have moved our metrics a lot sooner than
where we are now. So I'm not saying that I
had it all right, but I am saying that, yes,
I am one hundred percent into believing that this aspect
of college sports, women's sports in particular and the WNBA,
(13:04):
is a really important facet to bring that male demographic
into our game.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When we first launched Action in twenty eighteen, before sports
betting became legal, we were sitting in our office in
New York and there were thirty of us spread throughout
the country.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And it was.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
May or June of twenty eighteen, and I heard this
loud gasp and someone started swearing, and I'm like, what
is going on? There was a shared Google sheet that
all of the high stakes betters were using to model
the WNBA games, and someone had screwed up the Google sheet.
(13:52):
And it's an indicative of what Simon is saying and
what you're saying, that there is a audience there that
has been the beat of what this was. And look,
he used your marketing background and said we should have
been in Vegas a long time ago. It's interesting to
me that you say there should be more you know,
sex and drinking PSAs than betting PSAs. I don't disagree.
(14:17):
I got a kid in college. I'm more worried about
the first two than i am about the third one.
So why what's your take on that?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Well, that's it right there. I mean, you get what
I'm saying. I mean, I think. And fifteen years ago,
betting wasn't legal across states, right, so there was a
whole opportunity there to lead on the women's side, to lead,
take a chance. It's a little risky, change what we're doing,
change the thinking at the time. Over the course of
(14:48):
fifteen years, even Mark Emrick who was the president of
the time, said, you know, there's so much hypocrisy about
what we're doing in Vegas. You know, we've got all
these other championships there, yet we can't have an NCAA
title there. He admitted it, and I was like, you know,
like hallelujah, Like honestly, I've been pushing and actually I've
not had one coach say it was a bad idea
(15:08):
on the women's side. So I do think that there
are other vices that we should be worried about for
our young people, and gambling obviously is one of them. Now,
I'm not going to advocate gambling. I hate to say
I don't know exactly what my own boys are doing,
but I really, because of my job, I really don't.
I do give them warnings that you better be careful
(15:28):
because you guys know the obvious can happen, you know.
So I don't want to make it sound like I've
got my head in the sand, because I definitely don't.
But I do think there are other things that we
ought to be concerned about with the young people, not
just gambling, but safe sex, responsible drinking would be on
my list.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
With three boys, it is great though, where to get
people into sports. Betting responsibly is a great gateway to
get into it. Where you know, I've never watched a
WNBA wright some guy today he's never watched before you
listen to the show, he's gonna put five dollars down
on the or the over of Kaitlin Clark's prop and
he might watch twenty minutes today that he had never
(16:05):
in his life was ever going to watch, and he
might realize quickly like, actually, this is just the same
as NBA. It's just as fun, it's just exciting. It's
actually I believe it's better on the eyes. I think
it's more appealing to watch. So to me, it's a
great thing that the WNBA to embrace a little bit
because it is a way to get people into the sport.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It's a gay way to get them the footing.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Because I have friends who never in their life did
they ever watch Premier League soccer, but they made a
little bet on it and now they wake up Saturday
morning they watch Premier League soccer. It becomes part of
their routine. So that to me is the battle for
the WNBA. You guys have the summer. You have the
summer like people just do not like baseball. It's slow,
(16:47):
it's born to some people. There's a whole demographic out
there for them to kind of corner in those dead months.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So I love it.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I just keep on thinking it's going to keep growing
so much. It's just there's so much untapped potential and
we just like you talked about the pealing Clark has
come in already made a big change. We saw online
yesterday them flying in the private jets.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
That's just one. That's another step. So I just show
on your view.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Can you believe how much it felt like it was
a slow burn, but now it's speeding up. Now everything's
happening so fast. What do you think the WABA is
gonna be like in just the next five to ten years.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Well, let me comment on what you said first signment about,
because you're absolutely right that was the premise fifteen years
ago about having the gambling aspect inside the women's game
be a part of the whole Sweet sixteen to Vegas concept,
because I thought if people were putting money on it,
they would watch. If they were watching, ratings would go up.
If ratings went up, we'd have something to sell. It
seemed to me to be an easy equation because we
(17:45):
needed something that was different. And that's why I was
so keen on it and so big on it and
so big on it that if I talk about it anymore,
I'm going to get fired because the ESPN asked me
not to talk about it anymore. THEA is our partners, Okay,
So I'm not speaking on half on behalf of ESPN.
I'm speaking on a half of Debbie anton La right now,
so I can't speak to that. I will say that
(18:07):
I did push to get the WNBA on some betting
platforms on ESPN, and I was doing that the last
couple of years. They FaceTime me in my house and
I give them some b roll in the morning and
I'd say, hey, you know, Phoenix and Vegas, this is
some things to look for, and I'd stay away from
the numbers in the line. So that way, because I'm
calling the game, I can't do that tonight. But you're
(18:28):
absolutely right. Somebody is gonna throw ten bucks down on
a prop and see what happens, and they're gonna stick
around and watch, and you know what's gonna happen when
they watch, They're gonna find out that man, Connecticut's pretty
good too. And that Vegas tonight, back to back champs.
Asia Wilson, she might be the best player in the league.
I think she's gonna probably be the MVP. She's the
front odds winner to win it again. She's won it twice,
(18:51):
so you know, I think that's a tripical effect. I
do think that expansion is coming. I think charter flights
is definitely coming. Nobody has a bigger brain around the
economics of the league than the commissioner, Kathy Engelbert. You
can't just wish for charter flights to happen or want them.
You've got to find the economic money. You got to
forecast forward. And I think that's the other part of it,
(19:13):
that Caitlin's not getting enough credit for the forecasting forward
of what the w can be because of the amount
of presence, and not just Caitlin. She's the headliner, but
Angel Reese, Camilla Cardoso, let's see starting the season hurt.
What can she do? Rakia Jackson in LA, Cameron brink
in LA. I mean, you can go on and on
(19:34):
with the amount of talent that's entered the league. But
every year we have great talent that enters the league.
There's a different spotlight on these players because their college
time allowed them to have name, image and likeness and
social media and to be able to hire agents and
do all the things that the current WNBA or the
older players could not do. So it has elevated the
(19:56):
platform on one that believes that rising tide lifts all both.
And honestly, the only thing I'm looking at is the
color green, because everyone's going to make more money because
of the way the game is right now, And how
could you not be happy about that? As a player,
a front office member, a staff. I can't tell you
the number of people that say to me, yo, the league.
(20:17):
They players don't get paid. Yeah, they deserve more. Yes,
how are they going to make more money? You have
to grow the league. It can't just be like snap
your fingers and all of a sudden. It costs money
to do the things the players want. Yes, the players
deserve it. I'm not saying they don't. But you have
to be able to have the economics to be able
to do it. That's why I say. Kathy Engelbert she
(20:40):
ran one of the top four accounting firms in the world, Deloitte.
She certainly knows what she's doing from an economic standpoint.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
When you watch women's hoops, whether it's college basketball or WNBA,
and you're also doing men's hoops as well. When you
think about the w NBA's development and the development and
women's college troops, Simon said, like, it's a more fun.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Game to watch.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
It's lower to the ground, there's a lot more passing,
it's a lot more fluid. It just feels like you're
watching a game where it's not the stopping and starting
and sort of of the NBA give a preference when
you're watching these games. Do you like watching women's college
basketball more than men's college basketball or vice versa.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
So I love all basketball, and it's going to sound
like a cop out, but I watch it all. I
love it that much and nothing has taken me away
from the game to not want to love it right,
So I will even give up a tea time if
it's a game I need to see. That's my second
favorite sport. So and all the resource we have now
you can watch a game anytime, anywhere. So that has
(21:51):
helped somebody like me who just absolutely loves it. I'm
a big time junkie. Here's what I'd say about the
women's game. Yes, we play maybe at not above the rim,
the below the rim. Game requires incredible skill set, and
especially in the WNBA. I mean, if you can't handle
and can't finish on the left side of the floor
and fundamental things that you teach little kids, you got
(22:13):
to be able to do all those things. Something I
say on the air under overheadstrap, by stamp, switch, drop,
the eight different ways you can guard a ball screen,
you don't need all those in college women's basketballmen the
w you have to mix it up a little bit
more so just that one piece of it from which
was an equal opportunity offense when I played a lot
(22:34):
of motion, a lot of screen off the ball, pass
and cut. We still have that in the game, but
we have more isolation, more two man game. Even the
stuff that I have a team, my high school team,
I'm teaching them two man side, clear it out. What
can we get on the two man side? How many
options do you have and what matchups can you put
in that? How can you isolate somebody? I think that's
(22:56):
where the game and the scouting part of it has grown.
And that's where to go back to Caitlin Clark. That's
somebody that has an incredibly high IQ. She can force
a mismatch in certain options in their offense, and when
she gets those mismatches, she can take advantage of it.
That's the part for me. Guys, for being around the
game so long that I've watched evolve. You know, players
that have always been good. Skill set's been good. I
(23:18):
think the best field goal percentage and the history of
women's college basketball was in the mid eighties when I
was playing. So the shoot the players were good. Everybody
could still shoot it. But the guy's game is very physical.
There's no freedom of movement. They like to think that
there is. It depends on if you like that style
of play in the playoffs. I do like it because
(23:39):
I don't like to hear as much whistle. But during
the regular season, especially in college men's game, you know,
they're the only sport right now that plays two halfs.
They don't play quarters. Everyone plays quarters. When the women
put the quarters in. Honestly, at first I thought it
was window dressing. I thought it was just a you know,
a disruptor or changed to look at the game in
(24:00):
a different way. But it does give you a little
more strategy more too. For ones, it feels like the
game's a little faster. I do miss the one in one.
I do think the women's college game. I'd like to
have that come back because I do think strategy at
the end of the game when you have two free
throws as much different than when you have it one
in one. So I don't know what the reason was
(24:21):
for taking that out. I still have never gotten a
good reason from the NCAA or the rules committee on that.
Something that I think FEEBO was doing, so they just
adapted it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
By the way, as you were talking, one of our
producers slacked a story from the La Times of you
pushing to have the Sweet sixteen in Vegas from like
a decade ago. Yes, kudos, kudos, thank.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
You for looking that up. I'm sorry I didn't mention
the La Times. I should have mentioned it too. No,
that's all right, I wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Set quick read here, Simon. Can you name the fastest
growing ticketing app in the United States?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Game Time?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That's right, It's game Time. I love Game Time for
two reasons. First, they still sponsor this show. Second, I
actually use game Time all the time. They've amazing last
minute deals, including pro and college sports, speaking of which,
I'm opening the game Time app right now from my
house here in central Connecticut. No matter where you live. Oh,
by the way, I'm opening from my house here in Connecticut.
(25:17):
I can get into the Mets game tonight for less
than ten bucks. No matter where you live. Download the
game Time app. Get out have some fun this week.
You deserve it, and you can redeem code favorites for
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(25:38):
We've talked about how much people like to bet on
the WNBA. For any listeners interested in betting basketball, actually,
Action Networks NBA podcast Buckets has spun off its own
WNBA episodes into an all news show. If you're looking
to bet the WNBA this season, check out the new
(26:00):
podcast Buckets WNBA, That Buckets WNBA wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay,
I feel like we're thirty years into the WNBA. The
game has evolved from players like Dawn Staley, who is
now a legendary coach at South Carolina, two players like
(26:25):
Caitlin Clark, from Sue Berd to Candice Parker who just retire.
Like the the litany of WNBA players who have now
become legends to sports fans is long enough. And also
the game has evolved enough that it puts people like
you in a tough spot because now you'll be asked
(26:46):
questions like if you're naming the five best WNBA players,
who are you naming?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Oh you're not asking me that, are you?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I'm asking you right now because it's like, well, because
the game has changed so much, and like you know,
those first few years, like Houston is dominating and Cheryl
Swoops is amazing, and now all of a sudden, like
people like that, people who are coming to the WNBA
right now might not even remember or know that that
was something that was incredible when the league was first starting.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Well, I'm running through my list of people in my mind,
and there's so many. I mean, if I just went
from Naysmith and looked at you know, someone like Cheryl
Miller didn't even get to play in the WNBA, right,
so that would be one of the all time greats.
But you know, Teresa Weatherspoon and Michelle Tims, two people
you might not think about are in Nasmith. Lauren Jackson
(27:41):
is Naysmith two Australian Tims and Jackson Australian players. Then
you have the Houston dynasty that you just mentioned, Cooper,
Swoops Thompson, Okay. Then you have la Lisa Leslie Hall
of Famer. I mean it's a tough list. Then you
go to the Connecticut group Yukon. You mentioned Sue and Diana.
(28:06):
Diana's not and Sue are not eligible for Naysmith, but
they'll be first ballot Hall of Famers. Brianna Stewart would
be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Maya Moore. I
just helped induct her into the Women's Basketball Hall of
Fame this year. Simone Augustus going into Nasmith this year.
So I mean, I say that that is a tough list.
(28:27):
That is a really hard list to come up with because,
as you said, the game has evolved so much. Cynthia
Cooper is always a great story for me because she
spent twelve years in Europe and came back later in
her playing days and dominated the league, like if we
had had the league before she had to go overseas.
And then right now we're watching Asia Wilson in just
(28:50):
seven years, got two MVPs, got two Defensive Player of
the Year awards, has two titles, is an All star,
she said, in the next couple of years. I mean,
she could wipe away everyone else's credentials. That's how good
she is. So I'm excited about what's coming. It's hard
(29:10):
to pick five. I don't know if I can get
to five, but I know Katie Smith is a Naysmith
Hall of Famer. You know, you could just keep going
through the list. There's so many greats that have played
the game that came before this group of young talent
that's that's entered into a new era that has elevated
everybody's eyeballs, right, So that's a good thing. So I
(29:32):
can't get you five. That's too hard. I just rattled
off a bunch of names. I'm sure I lost somebody
there that I should have probably mentioned. Tamika Catchings, you know,
Tamika Catchings, nay Smith hall of Famer. You caught me
off guard a little bit, But that's a good conversation
for me to be thinking about.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Well, you did give me a roster. You can't give
me five, but you can give me a roster, which
is which is which is still pretty good because even
some of those names like I've forgotten to Meek a
catch right, like you forget like I had forgotten Lisa Leslie,
like so many players who were so dominant and help
move the league in the direction that it is now.
(30:11):
Who Like when we talk about Caitlin Clark, you talk
about Angel Reich, They're standing on the shoulders of all
these players, right who over the years have had their
moments where they were going to be the face of
the league. Is that as it transcended. That's what Caitlyn
Clark like is taking it to the charters, taking it
(30:31):
to a double header on national TV to open the season.
But that's something that Auto m.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Domickson.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, it's Clarkinomics. I coined it in November. Yeah, it's
a phrase I came up with. I have actually have
T shirt clarkonomics.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You're getting paid for that. I hope you're getting paid
for that, because you're not getting paid for the Vegas ideas,
so you might as well get Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
No, no, no, my best ideas result in zero incomes
to the Anton La Fa and So family. So no,
I'm not getting paid for that.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Speaking of Antonelli family. Very smooth transition. You will be
very soon. Probably what is it the three days from now?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I think.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Doing an endurance test that very few people can match.
For the Nothing but Net charity that you run. Explain
what it is and what you're going to be doing.
I have a lot of questions about this.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Yeah, thank you guys so much, or give me a
chance to talk about this. Twenty four hours Nothing but
Net is a twenty four hour free throw shooting marathon.
I make one hundred free throws on the top of
every hour for twenty four straight hours. So at the
end of twenty four hours, I've made twenty four hundred.
This is year six and I will be in my
driveway once again on May eighteen and nineteen. I start
(31:55):
at noon and I end at noon. It takes me
fifteen minutes to make a hound. We live stream the
entire twenty four hours. I have pre taped and some
live interviews of actors, celebrities, coaches, players. It's entertainment. The
other forty five minutes, or what we try to create
is entertainment. In the first five years of the event,
(32:18):
all everything goes to special Olympics. There's no very little
overhead in my driveway. So this is a fundraiser for
Special Olympics. I have three boys. My middle son has
Down syndrome. Special Olympics was a great spot for him
to compete and train and organize and socialize, and we're
trying to help other families do the same thing. It
(32:40):
allowed my son to have confidence to go to college.
He went to the Clemson Life Program. Life as an acronym.
Learning is for everyone. He graduated. He lives at Clemson
independently with support, and he works two jobs. It's an
incredible community that they've created there for people with intellectual
(33:00):
and physical disability. And so in the first five years
of our event, we raised eight hundred and sixty thousand.
This year I am poised and plan on and say
good prayer that we can cross a million dollars. So
hopefully on May nineteenth, at noon, when I'm finished shooting,
(33:20):
we will have raised a million dollars for Special Olympics.
It's not something that I thought of. I came up
with the idea. It was kind of a crazy whim.
I didn't know if I could do it. I didn't
know if anybody would watch, and I didn't know if
anyone would give. And six years in we're about ready
to raise a million dollars for Special Olympics. So it's
(33:42):
it's incredibly crazy and amazing and very emotional, and I'm
sure it'll be very emotional when we get to the
end on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, I'm going to donate. I can guarantee Simon's going
to donate. I would hope that a lot of our
listeners are going to donate as well. When is it
the hardest window to make the shots?
Speaker 4 (34:04):
So after doing it for five years, the first year
I was in the gym, and then COVID put us
outside and the first year we raised eighty five thousand,
and I didn't want to not do it. So we
just went in the driveway and sort of did it
by ourselves and live streamed it and made it work
the best we could. The training is the hard part,
(34:24):
because it's the fitness part of it that it's not
the you know, I have muscle memory and the ability
to self correct. I probably shot the ball billion times
in my lifetime. I'm still shooting it.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
It.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The hardest hours are the first couple of hours. The
emotion and the adrenaline all that and then I was
saying that in my training I would be thinking about
pushing through that two, three, four am, five am. But
those hours I seem to shoot my best. So I
didn't tell you. My five year average is ninety four percent.
(34:59):
I have had a couple of hour that I did
not miss I've had several hours where I've missed one
or two. Those usually come in the middle of the night.
So the first couple of hours, in the last couple
of hours are really the hardest. And listen to this.
The first hour the Mount Pleasant other than Mount Pleasant,
South Carolina, the police department runs the torch into my yard.
(35:22):
We have a cauldron, a mini cauldron for special Olympics.
The torch burns for twenty four hours. We have a
lot of people that are there. Last year, Roy Williams,
the Roy Williams showed up in my driveway for the
first hour. You talk about being nervous shooting one hundred
free throws, I mean that was incredible. I missed seven
the first hour. So it's not about the free throws.
(35:46):
That is the platform and the vehicle to share the
stories and most of the live stream has special Olympic
athletes from all over the country coach k Dabo Sweeney,
Shane Beemer. You know, I've had Jim Ants, I've had
Ernie Johnson. I dig deep into my basketball rolodex to
try to come up with as many big names as
I can and ask them to push it out on
(36:07):
their social It's all helped us raise some money. So
it's quite crazy. It sounds crazy. I do get AARP mail,
but I'm out there hustling and scraping and grinding and
trying to raise as much money as we can to
help special Olympics, help families like mine, because I know
how important it is.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
What do you do for the other forty five minutes
it takes your fifteen minutes to make free throws?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Well, there's a lot you guys might be too young
to remember Jerry Lewis and the Muscular District v telethon,
But that's sort of what I'm doing. I'm in the driveway.
I might be leading to the next interview. I might
be doing a live interview. I might be, you know,
capping off something we just ran to tell a story.
It's a constant effort to try to ask people to give,
(36:53):
and what I ask everyone I meet is, for one
penny for every free throw. That's twenty four dollars. Most
people can do that or a little bit more. And
that's how we've raised it. It's been very much grassroots.
It's all a grassroots effort. I have a lot. The
average donation I think was one hundred and fifty dollars
over from when we get to a million, I think
it's probably gonna be about one fifty to two hundred
(37:14):
is the average donation.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Very important question for a gambling podcast. Have you ever
hustled anybody who didn't know who you were in a
free through contest?
Speaker 4 (37:29):
No, I've never had a chance to do that, but
I would like to.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I have.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I do have one donor that gives me two hundred
and fifty dollars for every hour over ninety percent, and
last year I only missed two and those are the
last two. So that's the kind of I wish I
could come up with some more of that because that
puts the moneyball equation into it, because in my mind
I know how many I've missed. So I mean, so
(37:54):
it's the other forty five minutes. I'm I'm I'm not sleeping.
I don't go to and I don't start drinking coffee
till about six. So I've figured out a way to
manage the hydration. And there's a lot of people in
the driveway. I mean all hours of the night, there
are people there and they're having a good time. So
(38:17):
it's fun. I can just say this that people come
and they say, like my two sisters who from my
entire life never rebounded for me in the driveway or
everyone out there, you know, but they're like, what are
we gonna do? Come down there and watch you shoot
free throws. We've watched you shoot your whole life. I'm like, well, yeah,
you're gonna watch for fifteen minutes, but there's a lot
of stuff going on and pretty soon it's time to
(38:37):
shoot again. So it's been amazing. It's been amazing. It's
been amazing the amount of impact the money has had
and the awareness that has generated for Special Olympics. And
I wish I had started it fifteen years earlier. If
i'd started fifteen years earlier, I can only imagine how
many millions of dollars you might have raised by now.
(38:57):
But this is the first million, and I'm going to
keep working on the second million. And like I say,
on the air. I'm gonna shot till my armfalls off,
and it literally is falling off in the driveway. So
I wish people knew how hard I worked and trained
to get ready, because it's not easy. That's the hardest part.
That and maintaining the emotions in the last hour is
(39:18):
pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
To twenty four hours NBN dot com is the fundraiser
website to donate twenty four hours NBN dot com. Last question,
if you can make a prediction for who will win
it all? Where do we want to make our futures bets?
(39:41):
You don't have to say it's a future's bet. Are
we going with the Aces third time in a row?
Is it a super team.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
From New York?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Where would you say the best? Who's most likely to
win the WNBA title?
Speaker 4 (39:58):
Well, it's not a a great money line for you guys, right,
but it is Vegas. I do think they're the best team.
They averaged over ninety points last year. They have four
all stars on their roster, They got Asia Wilson, They
won more games than anyone last year. They went over
the thirty win mark. They have everything in place to
do it again. Vegas is on fire for women's hoops,
(40:18):
it's a great environment to be in. But I do
think that I'm keeping my eye on for a couple
of sleeper teams like Dallas. Enrique Agumbawalle. She's such a
big time scorer. They have an injury to start the
season with Satu Savaly. She's not available right now. Keep
my eye on Dallas. Of course, Indiana hasn't been in
(40:41):
the playoffs since twenty sixteen. I think if there's a
prop out there, whether they make it or not, I
would definitely pick them to make it. I think they
will make it. I think not only a Leah Boston,
but Melissa Smith is a big time player. She could
be an All Star this year. I think she is
equally adept at handling the two man game with Caitlin
as Elia does, which gives them other options. Kelsey Mitchell
(41:03):
is one of the all time great scorers in the
history of the NCAA. Caitlin passed her along her rise
this season, and I've got great faith in Indiana. The
other team is Minnesota. Cheryl Reeves won four of these,
she had a dynasty herself. I would keep my eye
on them. Those are the teams I'm watching right now,
and then the next super team that people are talking
(41:24):
about is Seattle because they got Skylar Diggan Smith, who
did not play last year. She's back in the backcourt
with Jewellloyd. Jeweloyd's a big time scorer, and Nekogumacay moved
over from La over to Seattle. So those are a
couple of teams and storylines I'm keeping my eye on.
I do think Vegas has the ability to repeat that
hasn't happened since the two Sparks during Lisa Leslie's time.
(41:48):
So that is a couple of storylines to keep your
eye on. But most importantly for the w fans is
please buy a ticket, Please go to the games. Please
support the league, Please turn the TV on. It's going
to help the league continue to grow and help those
players get paid more, and it will help the charter
flight situation as well.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Also donate twenty four hours NBN dot Com Debbiantonelli is
gonna make twenty four hundred free throws over twenty four
hours straight. As a reminder, the Favorites podcast is presented
by bet three sixty five. Bet three sixty five doesn't
do ordinary That's why you get more boosts with them
than with anyone else. Every day they power up the
(42:30):
odds on hundreds of bets to give you a chance
to win more. Bet three sixty five boost specific markets
your winnings and even parlays, and they don't stop. They're
keeping out for their biggest and best odds with the
incredible super boosts. Check out the Boost and see why
it's never ordinary at Bet three sixty five. Must be
twenty one or older in present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, or eighteen and older
(42:53):
in Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or
one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditioned restrictions applied.
Don't forget check out Action Network's new podcast Buckets WNBA.
That's Buckets WNBA wherever you listen to pods. Simon and
I are back on Thursday with the next episode of
(43:13):
The Favorites on the Action Network YouTube page. Eleven AM
Eastern NFL Sports, Betting and Sports Business with Joe Pompoliano.
Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods wherever you get your pods,
Rate review, subscribe, leave us five stars, Say whatever you want.
Feedback is a gift until Thursday.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Love You Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly. If
you or someone you care about has a gambling problem,
help Us available twenty four to seven at one eight
hundred gambler
Welcome to the Favorites. The podcast presented by BET three
sixty five. We are part of the Action Network. I
am Chadmilman, Chief Content Officer of the Action Network. Tonight
is the tip off of the most anticipated w NBA
season in the league's history. Caitlin Clark making her professional
(00:30):
debut on National TV and ESPN two against the Connecticut Sun,
joining us to discuss the new season. One of the
most beloved broadcast voices in basketball, a veteran of every
WNBA season since the league's inception in nineteen ninety six,
the most recent recipient of the Naysmith Basketball Hall of
(00:52):
Fames Kurt Goudy Media Award. It's one of like three
Hall of Fames that she's in the original play by
play voice of the Indiana Fever, which means she is
the voice of Cleitland Clark's Indiana Fever this season, Debbie Antonelli.
She will come on in one second, joining me for
this conversation as always, my co host, my companion, Michael
(01:15):
Padre BFF professional Better, Simon Hunter et O, Simon.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Hello, Chad. Just the best time in sports, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
We have playoffs, we got women's coming back, we got
NFL scheduler release, just all of it, Like even the
hockey has been amazing. So yeah, if you're a fan
of sports, it doesn't get much better. And I love that.
You know how much I love betting the WNBA. So yeah,
excited to talk about kicking off the season.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So I don't know if de Wie knows this, and
I'll bring her out on a sack, But like WNBA
has been a massive sport for betters almost since its inception.
And I will say, simon calling Caitlin Clark's games this
upcoming week maybe the second most interesting thing Debbie does
(02:05):
over the next week. We are going to get to
all of that in a second. As a reminder of
the Favorites podcast is presented by bet three sixty five.
Bet three six five doesn't do ordinary. That's why you
get more boosts with them than with anyone else. Every
day they power out the odds and hundreds of bets
to give you a chance to win more. Bet three
sixty five boost specific markets you're winnings and even parlays,
(02:26):
and they don't stop there, keep it out for their
biggest and best odds with the incredible super Boost. Check
out the boost and see why It's never ordinary at
bet three sixty five. Must be twenty one or older
and president in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina,
New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, or eighteen and older in Kentucky.
Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler or one eight
(02:48):
hundred bets off. In Iowa terms, conditional restrictions apply. Every
episode of The Favorites is.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Live on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For those enjoying on YouTube, don't forget to give us
a like. Subscribe to the Action Network YouTube. Pay Debbie.
Sorry for the preamble, official welcome. Tell everybody where you
are right now and why Well.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
First of all, thank you guys for having me on.
I'm excited to be with you and spent some time.
I'm in Las Vegas right now. I have the Phoenix
Vegas game tonight, which is a doubleheader. Caitlin Clark in
the Fever play Connecticut first and then tonight later tonight
on ESPN two. I get to work with Tiffany Green
and Angel Gray on the Call of the Phoenix and
the back to back WNBA champions Las Vegas. A says
(03:31):
it's a big bling night the rings will be passed out,
the banners will be dropped. It would be a lot
of fun in the arena.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you've been doing WNBA since its inception. You had
a Hall of Fame career at NC State. You know,
basketball generally, women's basketball specifically, as well as anybody when
you're feeling when you're in the middle of a moment
like this, what is it like specifically to be in
(04:03):
the middle of this chaos and storm right now?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, I would use chaos and storm as positives in that. Yeah,
but chat, I mean, come on, man, it's about damn time.
I mean, I've been waiting a long time for this.
I have in different times in my career. You know,
I've served as a director of marketing and athletics at
Kentucky and at the Ohio State. So I have been
pushing and promoting and marketing the women's game in particular
(04:30):
for a long time. This will be my thirty seventh
year on the air coming up this college basketball season.
So with the WNBA, I was there with the ABL
before that. And this is what I call clarkonomics. It's
a confluence of many things coming together at the right time.
And I am so excited about the season and where
(04:52):
the w can go and what an incredible foundation that
has been laid before someone like Caitlin Clark who comes
along as the greatest disrupt her in our game. And
that is a positive because it's made everyone pay attention,
look through a different lens, see the game and the
product for what it is, and start investing. And we've
never had anyone do that, And that's what's so exciting.
(05:14):
Even talking about it right now gives me chills thinking
about what's coming.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well, when you're looking at Caitlin Clark specifically, what do
you expect to see from her at the WNBA level.
We've seen a little bit of it in preseason. You know,
there was a ton of chatter when Sue Bird and
Diana Tarassi we're talking about how different it will be
for her when she gets to the WNBA. What are
(05:39):
your expectations.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Well, first of all, it's challenging for anyone because now
there's no weak link on the court, so defensive schemes
are different. There'll be different rotations that she'll have to
adjust to. Offensively, I'm not worried about anything about her game.
She stretches, traps, she got sized to see over the top.
She has a high IQ reading the second level, so
if you do Trapper in ball screen action, she will
(06:02):
find the right play. That side of the ball doesn't
concern me at all. The other side of it is,
you know, Iowa did play a lot his own. They
are going to put her in multiple screening coverages. When
you run her through multiple ball screen coverages and you
make her play defense, of course she's going to pick
up some fouls. She's going to have to adjust to
the physicality on that side. So defensively, when you say
(06:23):
she's going to have an adjustment, yeah, Jackie Young, who
I'll see tonight, was the number one pick in twenty nineteen.
She averaged less than seven points her first season, So
every rookie has an adjustment period, but no rookie has
had this kind of skill set on the offensive side
of the ball, and they have enough weapons around her,
so I think she will have to adjust defensively. That's
(06:45):
the biggest part is that I'm running stuff right at
her on the defensive end to try to make her
guard and put her at a deficit so she can't
impact the offensive side.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
The challenges on defense people trying to defend her, people
having an attitude about defending her, which they should. I
don't mean that in a pejorative way. How much do
you think the WNBA needs Caitlin Clark to be magnificent
from the beginning to maintain this momentum.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Well, first of all, let me say this about Caitlin,
because I think she's a remarkable twenty two year old
young woman who I'd like to call it kid. Okay,
I've got kids older than her, So she's a kid
to me, all right. And when I look at her
and you listen to her, not one time, not once,
(07:38):
has there been a mic in front of her face
where she didn't say the right thing, takes the high road,
says the right things, talks, team talks, coaching staff talks,
growth of the league. That's what she's always done. That's
her habit. It's incredible the amount of incredible publicity she's
helped create because she's been such a great ambassador by
handling it that way. So anybody who's taking shots at
(08:02):
her is really you know, if you're going to take
a shot at her, describe it the way I did defensively.
This is where the issues could be. This is what
could be a challenge, not overall sweeping. She's going to struggle,
because everybody struggles. There'll be times in the season where
she might not get double figures, or she might not
get more than a couple of assists, or there might
be a game where she has more turnovers than assists.
(08:23):
I doubt it, but it could happen. And if it
does happen, I'm not going to be throwing a bunch
of shade at her because there is an adjustment. Okay,
So let's figure out how and why those things are happening.
If they do, I think she's managed all of what
has come at her for a twenty two year old
as well as you could have ever imagined. So, yeah,
(08:45):
is there trash talking? Is there going to be some
cheap shots? Are they going to try to be physical? Yes,
they're going to do that. But wouldn't you do that
with any great player? I think you would. Because she's
so good at what she does. You have to take
something away, right.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And I just piggybacking off of that. It's anyone that's
a basketball fan. She's part of this generation of the
Steph Currys, like she is Steph Curry and women's basketball.
Go back and watch what he was like when he
left Davidson to go to the NBA. He took a
lot of elbows to the chin a lot of people.
They watched him in March Madness, right, So now he's
(09:21):
coming and hyped up. She's gonna go through these growing things.
I mean, there's gonna be women that are gonna be
rough on her. That's just part of sports, that's part
of coming into the league. And it's like, I think
she's like what we just talk about, she's an excel offensively, defensively,
it's gonna be tough. She's never played against women that
are in their late twenties that are freak athletes, the
best athletes in the world. So for a basketball fan,
(09:44):
I love this. This is this is so fun because
you're gonna see her game evolve and that's what's so
cool about this.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
So my question he was just you probably don't even
realize this.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
If the last thirty years you've been in women's basketball,
you've had diehard NBA fans, the other half of your
fan base are gamblers. I don't even know if women
realize that, but their biggest half of their fan base,
we're sports betters. I think that's the coolest part. The
change has been. The common fan now is fans of
the WNBA. Where you usould just be Literally it was
(10:15):
just me professional betters talking and like the crazy dared
hoop fans. So what is your feeling about the NBA
has embraced sports betting WNBA. I know they're going to
embrace it. What's your view on it now that it's
going to become a huge part of this whole Peyton
Clark experience. Our proct bets is probably one of the
biggest bet props of the entire women's basketball college season.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I have a huge smile on my face because let
me give you a little history and you hit, you
strike a chord with me, Simon. That is exactly something
I love talking about. Now, I'm going to preface it
with saying this, I've never bought a lottery ticket. When
we're here in Vegas, I'm not gambling. My husband throws
the dice.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I drink.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
The drinks were perfectly fine. Right, But let me say this,
if you go back and look, this is my fifteenth
year that I have talked about this. Fifteen years ago,
I was looking for this kind of disruption in our game,
and I wanted the Sweet sixteen to come to Vegas.
Every time I'm in Vegas, I think about it because
what I was trying to do was eliminate Well. There
(11:15):
was a whole plan. You can read it in the
New York Times, the Washington Post USA today. You can
read the plan. It was there, and it was an
effort to scrap the way we were running the NCAA
tournament at the time. We didn't need four regionals. I
wanted to have one. I wanted to be here. Part
of the reason why I wanted to be here in Vegas,
because that's where I am right now, is the NCUBA
(11:37):
at the time was not allowing any postseason NCUBAA championships
to be held in Vegas. Yet every conference on the
West Coast was having their post season conference basketball tournament here.
There were other nc DOUBLEA events that were being hosted here,
but the NCUBA had their head in the sand over
the whole gambling thing. Okay, they then don't bet on
(11:58):
a video. All of that, I felt college students, and
I have three boys. I would rather not see that,
don't bet on a video. I'd rather see safe sex,
responsible drinking to be honest with you, that's what I
think college kids need. Anyway, I digress, all right. So
I thought that this demographic was a demographic at the
(12:19):
time in women's college basketball that we had not tapped into.
The eighteen to thirty five year old male demographic that
you know when we're at Vegas, and when you're in
Vegas in March during March Madness, that every casino sportsbook
has the games on. The sportsbooks are crowded. If we
just had one TV that had a women's basketball game
(12:42):
on it because we were here in Vegas, I thought
that would have moved our metrics a lot sooner than
where we are now. So I'm not saying that I
had it all right, but I am saying that, yes,
I am one hundred percent into believing that this aspect
of college sports, women's sports in particular and the WNBA,
(13:04):
is a really important facet to bring that male demographic
into our game.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
When we first launched Action in twenty eighteen, before sports
betting became legal, we were sitting in our office in
New York and there were thirty of us spread throughout
the country.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And it was.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
May or June of twenty eighteen, and I heard this
loud gasp and someone started swearing, and I'm like, what
is going on? There was a shared Google sheet that
all of the high stakes betters were using to model
the WNBA games, and someone had screwed up the Google sheet.
(13:52):
And it's an indicative of what Simon is saying and
what you're saying, that there is a audience there that
has been the beat of what this was. And look,
he used your marketing background and said we should have
been in Vegas a long time ago. It's interesting to
me that you say there should be more you know,
sex and drinking PSAs than betting PSAs. I don't disagree.
(14:17):
I got a kid in college. I'm more worried about
the first two than i am about the third one.
So why what's your take on that?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Well, that's it right there. I mean, you get what
I'm saying. I mean, I think. And fifteen years ago,
betting wasn't legal across states, right, so there was a
whole opportunity there to lead on the women's side, to lead,
take a chance. It's a little risky, change what we're doing,
change the thinking at the time. Over the course of
(14:48):
fifteen years, even Mark Emrick who was the president of
the time, said, you know, there's so much hypocrisy about
what we're doing in Vegas. You know, we've got all
these other championships there, yet we can't have an NCAA
title there. He admitted it, and I was like, you know,
like hallelujah, Like honestly, I've been pushing and actually I've
not had one coach say it was a bad idea
(15:08):
on the women's side. So I do think that there
are other vices that we should be worried about for
our young people, and gambling obviously is one of them. Now,
I'm not going to advocate gambling. I hate to say
I don't know exactly what my own boys are doing,
but I really, because of my job, I really don't.
I do give them warnings that you better be careful
(15:28):
because you guys know the obvious can happen, you know.
So I don't want to make it sound like I've
got my head in the sand, because I definitely don't.
But I do think there are other things that we
ought to be concerned about with the young people, not
just gambling, but safe sex, responsible drinking would be on
my list.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
With three boys, it is great though, where to get
people into sports. Betting responsibly is a great gateway to
get into it. Where you know, I've never watched a
WNBA wright some guy today he's never watched before you
listen to the show, he's gonna put five dollars down
on the or the over of Kaitlin Clark's prop and
he might watch twenty minutes today that he had never
(16:05):
in his life was ever going to watch, and he
might realize quickly like, actually, this is just the same
as NBA. It's just as fun, it's just exciting. It's
actually I believe it's better on the eyes. I think
it's more appealing to watch. So to me, it's a
great thing that the WNBA to embrace a little bit
because it is a way to get people into the sport.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It's a gay way to get them the footing.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Because I have friends who never in their life did
they ever watch Premier League soccer, but they made a
little bet on it and now they wake up Saturday
morning they watch Premier League soccer. It becomes part of
their routine. So that to me is the battle for
the WNBA. You guys have the summer. You have the
summer like people just do not like baseball. It's slow,
(16:47):
it's born to some people. There's a whole demographic out
there for them to kind of corner in those dead months.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So I love it.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
I just keep on thinking it's going to keep growing
so much. It's just there's so much untapped potential and
we just like you talked about the pealing Clark has
come in already made a big change. We saw online
yesterday them flying in the private jets.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
That's just one. That's another step. So I just show
on your view.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Can you believe how much it felt like it was
a slow burn, but now it's speeding up. Now everything's
happening so fast. What do you think the WABA is
gonna be like in just the next five to ten years.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Well, let me comment on what you said first signment about,
because you're absolutely right that was the premise fifteen years
ago about having the gambling aspect inside the women's game
be a part of the whole Sweet sixteen to Vegas concept,
because I thought if people were putting money on it,
they would watch. If they were watching, ratings would go up.
If ratings went up, we'd have something to sell. It
seemed to me to be an easy equation because we
(17:45):
needed something that was different. And that's why I was
so keen on it and so big on it and
so big on it that if I talk about it anymore,
I'm going to get fired because the ESPN asked me
not to talk about it anymore. THEA is our partners, Okay,
So I'm not speaking on half on behalf of ESPN.
I'm speaking on a half of Debbie anton La right now,
so I can't speak to that. I will say that
(18:07):
I did push to get the WNBA on some betting
platforms on ESPN, and I was doing that the last
couple of years. They FaceTime me in my house and
I give them some b roll in the morning and
I'd say, hey, you know, Phoenix and Vegas, this is
some things to look for, and I'd stay away from
the numbers in the line. So that way, because I'm
calling the game, I can't do that tonight. But you're
(18:28):
absolutely right. Somebody is gonna throw ten bucks down on
a prop and see what happens, and they're gonna stick
around and watch, and you know what's gonna happen when
they watch, They're gonna find out that man, Connecticut's pretty
good too. And that Vegas tonight, back to back champs.
Asia Wilson, she might be the best player in the league.
I think she's gonna probably be the MVP. She's the
front odds winner to win it again. She's won it twice,
(18:51):
so you know, I think that's a tripical effect. I
do think that expansion is coming. I think charter flights
is definitely coming. Nobody has a bigger brain around the
economics of the league than the commissioner, Kathy Engelbert. You
can't just wish for charter flights to happen or want them.
You've got to find the economic money. You got to
forecast forward. And I think that's the other part of it,
(19:13):
that Caitlin's not getting enough credit for the forecasting forward
of what the w can be because of the amount
of presence, and not just Caitlin. She's the headliner, but
Angel Reese, Camilla Cardoso, let's see starting the season hurt.
What can she do? Rakia Jackson in LA, Cameron brink
in LA. I mean, you can go on and on
(19:34):
with the amount of talent that's entered the league. But
every year we have great talent that enters the league.
There's a different spotlight on these players because their college
time allowed them to have name, image and likeness and
social media and to be able to hire agents and
do all the things that the current WNBA or the
older players could not do. So it has elevated the
(19:56):
platform on one that believes that rising tide lifts all both.
And honestly, the only thing I'm looking at is the
color green, because everyone's going to make more money because
of the way the game is right now, And how
could you not be happy about that? As a player,
a front office member, a staff. I can't tell you
the number of people that say to me, yo, the league.
(20:17):
They players don't get paid. Yeah, they deserve more. Yes,
how are they going to make more money? You have
to grow the league. It can't just be like snap
your fingers and all of a sudden. It costs money
to do the things the players want. Yes, the players
deserve it. I'm not saying they don't. But you have
to be able to have the economics to be able
to do it. That's why I say. Kathy Engelbert she
(20:40):
ran one of the top four accounting firms in the world, Deloitte.
She certainly knows what she's doing from an economic standpoint.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
When you watch women's hoops, whether it's college basketball or WNBA,
and you're also doing men's hoops as well. When you
think about the w NBA's development and the development and
women's college troops, Simon said, like, it's a more fun.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Game to watch.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
It's lower to the ground, there's a lot more passing,
it's a lot more fluid. It just feels like you're
watching a game where it's not the stopping and starting
and sort of of the NBA give a preference when
you're watching these games. Do you like watching women's college
basketball more than men's college basketball or vice versa.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
So I love all basketball, and it's going to sound
like a cop out, but I watch it all. I
love it that much and nothing has taken me away
from the game to not want to love it right,
So I will even give up a tea time if
it's a game I need to see. That's my second
favorite sport. So and all the resource we have now
you can watch a game anytime, anywhere. So that has
(21:51):
helped somebody like me who just absolutely loves it. I'm
a big time junkie. Here's what I'd say about the
women's game. Yes, we play maybe at not above the rim,
the below the rim. Game requires incredible skill set, and
especially in the WNBA. I mean, if you can't handle
and can't finish on the left side of the floor
and fundamental things that you teach little kids, you got
(22:13):
to be able to do all those things. Something I
say on the air under overheadstrap, by stamp, switch, drop,
the eight different ways you can guard a ball screen,
you don't need all those in college women's basketballmen the
w you have to mix it up a little bit
more so just that one piece of it from which
was an equal opportunity offense when I played a lot
(22:34):
of motion, a lot of screen off the ball, pass
and cut. We still have that in the game, but
we have more isolation, more two man game. Even the
stuff that I have a team, my high school team,
I'm teaching them two man side, clear it out. What
can we get on the two man side? How many
options do you have and what matchups can you put
in that? How can you isolate somebody? I think that's
(22:56):
where the game and the scouting part of it has grown.
And that's where to go back to Caitlin Clark. That's
somebody that has an incredibly high IQ. She can force
a mismatch in certain options in their offense, and when
she gets those mismatches, she can take advantage of it.
That's the part for me. Guys, for being around the
game so long that I've watched evolve. You know, players
that have always been good. Skill set's been good. I
(23:18):
think the best field goal percentage and the history of
women's college basketball was in the mid eighties when I
was playing. So the shoot the players were good. Everybody
could still shoot it. But the guy's game is very physical.
There's no freedom of movement. They like to think that
there is. It depends on if you like that style
of play in the playoffs. I do like it because
(23:39):
I don't like to hear as much whistle. But during
the regular season, especially in college men's game, you know,
they're the only sport right now that plays two halfs.
They don't play quarters. Everyone plays quarters. When the women
put the quarters in. Honestly, at first I thought it
was window dressing. I thought it was just a you know,
a disruptor or changed to look at the game in
(24:00):
a different way. But it does give you a little
more strategy more too. For ones, it feels like the
game's a little faster. I do miss the one in one.
I do think the women's college game. I'd like to
have that come back because I do think strategy at
the end of the game when you have two free
throws as much different than when you have it one
in one. So I don't know what the reason was
(24:21):
for taking that out. I still have never gotten a
good reason from the NCAA or the rules committee on that.
Something that I think FEEBO was doing, so they just
adapted it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
By the way, as you were talking, one of our
producers slacked a story from the La Times of you
pushing to have the Sweet sixteen in Vegas from like
a decade ago. Yes, kudos, kudos, thank.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
You for looking that up. I'm sorry I didn't mention
the La Times. I should have mentioned it too. No,
that's all right, I wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That's all right.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Set quick read here, Simon. Can you name the fastest
growing ticketing app in the United States?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Game Time?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That's right, It's game Time. I love Game Time for
two reasons. First, they still sponsor this show. Second, I
actually use game Time all the time. They've amazing last
minute deals, including pro and college sports, speaking of which,
I'm opening the game Time app right now from my
house here in central Connecticut. No matter where you live. Oh,
by the way, I'm opening from my house here in Connecticut.
(25:17):
I can get into the Mets game tonight for less
than ten bucks. No matter where you live. Download the
game Time app. Get out have some fun this week.
You deserve it, and you can redeem code favorites for
twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Just
download the game Time app, use code favorites for twenty
dollars off your first purchase. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guarantee.
(25:38):
We've talked about how much people like to bet on
the WNBA. For any listeners interested in betting basketball, actually,
Action Networks NBA podcast Buckets has spun off its own
WNBA episodes into an all news show. If you're looking
to bet the WNBA this season, check out the new
(26:00):
podcast Buckets WNBA, That Buckets WNBA wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay,
I feel like we're thirty years into the WNBA. The
game has evolved from players like Dawn Staley, who is
now a legendary coach at South Carolina, two players like
(26:25):
Caitlin Clark, from Sue Berd to Candice Parker who just retire.
Like the the litany of WNBA players who have now
become legends to sports fans is long enough. And also
the game has evolved enough that it puts people like
you in a tough spot because now you'll be asked
(26:46):
questions like if you're naming the five best WNBA players,
who are you naming?
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Oh you're not asking me that, are you?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I'm asking you right now because it's like, well, because
the game has changed so much, and like you know,
those first few years, like Houston is dominating and Cheryl
Swoops is amazing, and now all of a sudden, like
people like that, people who are coming to the WNBA
right now might not even remember or know that that
was something that was incredible when the league was first starting.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Well, I'm running through my list of people in my mind,
and there's so many. I mean, if I just went
from Naysmith and looked at you know, someone like Cheryl
Miller didn't even get to play in the WNBA, right,
so that would be one of the all time greats.
But you know, Teresa Weatherspoon and Michelle Tims, two people
you might not think about are in Nasmith. Lauren Jackson
(27:41):
is Naysmith two Australian Tims and Jackson Australian players. Then
you have the Houston dynasty that you just mentioned, Cooper,
Swoops Thompson, Okay. Then you have la Lisa Leslie Hall
of Famer. I mean it's a tough list. Then you
go to the Connecticut group Yukon. You mentioned Sue and Diana.
(28:06):
Diana's not and Sue are not eligible for Naysmith, but
they'll be first ballot Hall of Famers. Brianna Stewart would
be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Maya Moore. I
just helped induct her into the Women's Basketball Hall of
Fame this year. Simone Augustus going into Nasmith this year.
So I mean, I say that that is a tough list.
(28:27):
That is a really hard list to come up with because,
as you said, the game has evolved so much. Cynthia
Cooper is always a great story for me because she
spent twelve years in Europe and came back later in
her playing days and dominated the league, like if we
had had the league before she had to go overseas.
And then right now we're watching Asia Wilson in just
(28:50):
seven years, got two MVPs, got two Defensive Player of
the Year awards, has two titles, is an All star,
she said, in the next couple of years. I mean,
she could wipe away everyone else's credentials. That's how good
she is. So I'm excited about what's coming. It's hard
(29:10):
to pick five. I don't know if I can get
to five, but I know Katie Smith is a Naysmith
Hall of Famer. You know, you could just keep going
through the list. There's so many greats that have played
the game that came before this group of young talent
that's that's entered into a new era that has elevated
everybody's eyeballs, right, So that's a good thing. So I
(29:32):
can't get you five. That's too hard. I just rattled
off a bunch of names. I'm sure I lost somebody
there that I should have probably mentioned. Tamika Catchings, you know,
Tamika Catchings, nay Smith hall of Famer. You caught me
off guard a little bit, But that's a good conversation
for me to be thinking about.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Well, you did give me a roster. You can't give
me five, but you can give me a roster, which
is which is which is still pretty good because even
some of those names like I've forgotten to Meek a
catch right, like you forget like I had forgotten Lisa Leslie,
like so many players who were so dominant and help
move the league in the direction that it is now.
(30:11):
Who Like when we talk about Caitlin Clark, you talk
about Angel Reich, They're standing on the shoulders of all
these players, right who over the years have had their
moments where they were going to be the face of
the league. Is that as it transcended. That's what Caitlyn
Clark like is taking it to the charters, taking it
(30:31):
to a double header on national TV to open the season.
But that's something that Auto m.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Domickson.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, it's Clarkinomics. I coined it in November. Yeah, it's
a phrase I came up with. I have actually have
T shirt clarkonomics.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
You're getting paid for that. I hope you're getting paid
for that, because you're not getting paid for the Vegas ideas,
so you might as well get Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
No, no, no, my best ideas result in zero incomes
to the Anton La Fa and So family. So no,
I'm not getting paid for that.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Speaking of Antonelli family. Very smooth transition. You will be
very soon. Probably what is it the three days from now?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I think.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Doing an endurance test that very few people can match.
For the Nothing but Net charity that you run. Explain
what it is and what you're going to be doing.
I have a lot of questions about this.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Yeah, thank you guys so much, or give me a
chance to talk about this. Twenty four hours Nothing but
Net is a twenty four hour free throw shooting marathon.
I make one hundred free throws on the top of
every hour for twenty four straight hours. So at the
end of twenty four hours, I've made twenty four hundred.
This is year six and I will be in my
driveway once again on May eighteen and nineteen. I start
(31:55):
at noon and I end at noon. It takes me
fifteen minutes to make a hound. We live stream the
entire twenty four hours. I have pre taped and some
live interviews of actors, celebrities, coaches, players. It's entertainment. The
other forty five minutes, or what we try to create
is entertainment. In the first five years of the event,
(32:18):
all everything goes to special Olympics. There's no very little
overhead in my driveway. So this is a fundraiser for
Special Olympics. I have three boys. My middle son has
Down syndrome. Special Olympics was a great spot for him
to compete and train and organize and socialize, and we're
trying to help other families do the same thing. It
(32:40):
allowed my son to have confidence to go to college.
He went to the Clemson Life Program. Life as an acronym.
Learning is for everyone. He graduated. He lives at Clemson
independently with support, and he works two jobs. It's an
incredible community that they've created there for people with intellectual
(33:00):
and physical disability. And so in the first five years
of our event, we raised eight hundred and sixty thousand.
This year I am poised and plan on and say
good prayer that we can cross a million dollars. So
hopefully on May nineteenth, at noon, when I'm finished shooting,
(33:20):
we will have raised a million dollars for Special Olympics.
It's not something that I thought of. I came up
with the idea. It was kind of a crazy whim.
I didn't know if I could do it. I didn't
know if anybody would watch, and I didn't know if
anyone would give. And six years in we're about ready
to raise a million dollars for Special Olympics. So it's
(33:42):
it's incredibly crazy and amazing and very emotional, and I'm
sure it'll be very emotional when we get to the
end on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, I'm going to donate. I can guarantee Simon's going
to donate. I would hope that a lot of our
listeners are going to donate as well. When is it
the hardest window to make the shots?
Speaker 4 (34:04):
So after doing it for five years, the first year
I was in the gym, and then COVID put us
outside and the first year we raised eighty five thousand,
and I didn't want to not do it. So we
just went in the driveway and sort of did it
by ourselves and live streamed it and made it work
the best we could. The training is the hard part,
(34:24):
because it's the fitness part of it that it's not
the you know, I have muscle memory and the ability
to self correct. I probably shot the ball billion times
in my lifetime. I'm still shooting it.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
It.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
The hardest hours are the first couple of hours. The
emotion and the adrenaline all that and then I was
saying that in my training I would be thinking about
pushing through that two, three, four am, five am. But
those hours I seem to shoot my best. So I
didn't tell you. My five year average is ninety four percent.
(34:59):
I have had a couple of hour that I did
not miss I've had several hours where I've missed one
or two. Those usually come in the middle of the night.
So the first couple of hours, in the last couple
of hours are really the hardest. And listen to this.
The first hour the Mount Pleasant other than Mount Pleasant,
South Carolina, the police department runs the torch into my yard.
(35:22):
We have a cauldron, a mini cauldron for special Olympics.
The torch burns for twenty four hours. We have a
lot of people that are there. Last year, Roy Williams,
the Roy Williams showed up in my driveway for the
first hour. You talk about being nervous shooting one hundred
free throws, I mean that was incredible. I missed seven
the first hour. So it's not about the free throws.
(35:46):
That is the platform and the vehicle to share the
stories and most of the live stream has special Olympic
athletes from all over the country coach k Dabo Sweeney,
Shane Beemer. You know, I've had Jim Ants, I've had
Ernie Johnson. I dig deep into my basketball rolodex to
try to come up with as many big names as
I can and ask them to push it out on
(36:07):
their social It's all helped us raise some money. So
it's quite crazy. It sounds crazy. I do get AARP mail,
but I'm out there hustling and scraping and grinding and
trying to raise as much money as we can to
help special Olympics, help families like mine, because I know
how important it is.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
What do you do for the other forty five minutes
it takes your fifteen minutes to make free throws?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Well, there's a lot you guys might be too young
to remember Jerry Lewis and the Muscular District v telethon,
But that's sort of what I'm doing. I'm in the driveway.
I might be leading to the next interview. I might
be doing a live interview. I might be, you know,
capping off something we just ran to tell a story.
It's a constant effort to try to ask people to give,
(36:53):
and what I ask everyone I meet is, for one
penny for every free throw. That's twenty four dollars. Most
people can do that or a little bit more. And
that's how we've raised it. It's been very much grassroots.
It's all a grassroots effort. I have a lot. The
average donation I think was one hundred and fifty dollars
over from when we get to a million, I think
it's probably gonna be about one fifty to two hundred
(37:14):
is the average donation.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Very important question for a gambling podcast. Have you ever
hustled anybody who didn't know who you were in a
free through contest?
Speaker 4 (37:29):
No, I've never had a chance to do that, but
I would like to.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I have.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I do have one donor that gives me two hundred
and fifty dollars for every hour over ninety percent, and
last year I only missed two and those are the
last two. So that's the kind of I wish I
could come up with some more of that because that
puts the moneyball equation into it, because in my mind
I know how many I've missed. So I mean, so
(37:54):
it's the other forty five minutes. I'm I'm I'm not sleeping.
I don't go to and I don't start drinking coffee
till about six. So I've figured out a way to
manage the hydration. And there's a lot of people in
the driveway. I mean all hours of the night, there
are people there and they're having a good time. So
(38:17):
it's fun. I can just say this that people come
and they say, like my two sisters who from my
entire life never rebounded for me in the driveway or
everyone out there, you know, but they're like, what are
we gonna do? Come down there and watch you shoot
free throws. We've watched you shoot your whole life. I'm like, well, yeah,
you're gonna watch for fifteen minutes, but there's a lot
of stuff going on and pretty soon it's time to
(38:37):
shoot again. So it's been amazing. It's been amazing. It's
been amazing the amount of impact the money has had
and the awareness that has generated for Special Olympics. And
I wish I had started it fifteen years earlier. If
i'd started fifteen years earlier, I can only imagine how
many millions of dollars you might have raised by now.
(38:57):
But this is the first million, and I'm going to
keep working on the second million. And like I say,
on the air. I'm gonna shot till my armfalls off,
and it literally is falling off in the driveway. So
I wish people knew how hard I worked and trained
to get ready, because it's not easy. That's the hardest part.
That and maintaining the emotions in the last hour is
(39:18):
pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
To twenty four hours NBN dot com is the fundraiser
website to donate twenty four hours NBN dot com. Last question,
if you can make a prediction for who will win
it all? Where do we want to make our futures bets?
(39:41):
You don't have to say it's a future's bet. Are
we going with the Aces third time in a row?
Is it a super team.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
From New York?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Where would you say the best? Who's most likely to
win the WNBA title?
Speaker 4 (39:58):
Well, it's not a a great money line for you guys, right,
but it is Vegas. I do think they're the best team.
They averaged over ninety points last year. They have four
all stars on their roster, They got Asia Wilson, They
won more games than anyone last year. They went over
the thirty win mark. They have everything in place to
do it again. Vegas is on fire for women's hoops,
(40:18):
it's a great environment to be in. But I do
think that I'm keeping my eye on for a couple
of sleeper teams like Dallas. Enrique Agumbawalle. She's such a
big time scorer. They have an injury to start the
season with Satu Savaly. She's not available right now. Keep
my eye on Dallas. Of course, Indiana hasn't been in
(40:41):
the playoffs since twenty sixteen. I think if there's a
prop out there, whether they make it or not, I
would definitely pick them to make it. I think they
will make it. I think not only a Leah Boston,
but Melissa Smith is a big time player. She could
be an All Star this year. I think she is
equally adept at handling the two man game with Caitlin
as Elia does, which gives them other options. Kelsey Mitchell
(41:03):
is one of the all time great scorers in the
history of the NCAA. Caitlin passed her along her rise
this season, and I've got great faith in Indiana. The
other team is Minnesota. Cheryl Reeves won four of these,
she had a dynasty herself. I would keep my eye
on them. Those are the teams I'm watching right now,
and then the next super team that people are talking
(41:24):
about is Seattle because they got Skylar Diggan Smith, who
did not play last year. She's back in the backcourt
with Jewellloyd. Jeweloyd's a big time scorer, and Nekogumacay moved
over from La over to Seattle. So those are a
couple of teams and storylines I'm keeping my eye on.
I do think Vegas has the ability to repeat that
hasn't happened since the two Sparks during Lisa Leslie's time.
(41:48):
So that is a couple of storylines to keep your
eye on. But most importantly for the w fans is
please buy a ticket, Please go to the games. Please
support the league, Please turn the TV on. It's going
to help the league continue to grow and help those
players get paid more, and it will help the charter
flight situation as well.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Also donate twenty four hours NBN dot Com Debbiantonelli is
gonna make twenty four hundred free throws over twenty four
hours straight. As a reminder, the Favorites podcast is presented
by bet three sixty five. Bet three sixty five doesn't
do ordinary That's why you get more boosts with them
than with anyone else. Every day they power up the
(42:30):
odds on hundreds of bets to give you a chance
to win more. Bet three sixty five boost specific markets
your winnings and even parlays, and they don't stop. They're
keeping out for their biggest and best odds with the
incredible super boosts. Check out the Boost and see why
it's never ordinary at Bet three sixty five. Must be
twenty one or older in present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, or eighteen and older
(42:53):
in Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or
one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditioned restrictions applied.
Don't forget check out Action Network's new podcast Buckets WNBA.
That's Buckets WNBA wherever you listen to pods. Simon and
I are back on Thursday with the next episode of
(43:13):
The Favorites on the Action Network YouTube page. Eleven AM
Eastern NFL Sports, Betting and Sports Business with Joe Pompoliano.
Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods wherever you get your pods,
Rate review, subscribe, leave us five stars, Say whatever you want.
Feedback is a gift until Thursday.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Love You Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly. If
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