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November 3, 2025 12 mins
For the "Legends of the Locker Room," we have on Lifetime Longhorn Basketball Legend Fran Harris. She will host the Austin Sports Awards on December 17 alongside our own Mark Henry. They talk about Austin's fight to land a WNBA team.  She explains how to support and attend the event at AustinSportsAwards.com. What awards will be awarded at the event, and what is the criteria to be eligible for an award? What are her thoughts on the next step in the WNBA negotiation for collective bargaining and possible work stoppage? She gives her opinion of WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. The hype is on for the excitement of the Texas Longhorns Women's Basketball team, who start the season tonight. She tells us what she expects from the team and looks forward to calling tonight's game. You can hear it all here on "The Morning Kickoff Show!"
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Let's just.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to the Morning Kickoff. As you know, this
is the Legends of the Locker Room segment that we
normally have on Thursdays, but since basketball season tipped off
already today, I think it's only right that we bring
on a lifetime Longhorn legend, fran Harris to join us
today to talk all things basketball, from w n BA

(00:37):
to NBA and of course the Texas Longhorns. Good morning,
frid Where are you guys, How are y'all? We're good,
We're good. We're excited to have you on. Mark was like,
we got to get.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Her back on. Basketball season is about to start.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
But before we get into basketball, I know that you
guys are gonna be hosting the Austin Sports Awards on
December the seventeen. Is this the first or second time
that you've been able to host us?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
This is the inaugural ASAS and the ASA goes to
the Austin Sports Awards. It's the first time anyone has
gathered specifically for the Central Texas, if you will, Metro
Austin area to really acknowledge and celebrate the greatness and
sports in this area.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
So it's the first one, but it won't be the last.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
And of course you got the big fellow to sit
in with you, so that that always does that too.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Takes it a little, takes it a little over the
top with the crazy, but that's exactly what I want.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
We can't have both of us in the same room.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Nevertheless, the same stage.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, let's get it.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
We didn't want we didn't want this to be a
whole you know, the kinds of programs you have at
your church and those kinds of things. And I was like, hmmm,
who couldn't be my co conspirator. Who is going to
be off the charts? You know, right I'm in People
always said bring her back in, bring her you know,
that's what I wanted for the Austin Sports Awards, and
so I know Mark's going to deliver on that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, you know, I'd try to do that every morning.
I try to bring him in every single for both
of y'all on the city.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
We might need somebody to come moderated in between us.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Keep it on the rails, keep it on the rails. Well,
let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I wanted to talk w NBA real quick because I
know the last time that we talked to you, we
were talking about trying to get a team here in Austin.
It ended up going to a different franchise. But the
fight is still going on, correct, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
We remain interested.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
I mean, obviously it would be a different conversation if
the the awards had.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Gone to.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Independent cities like Austin or Nashville or Kansas City. But
they went to to NBA owners, which wasn't arise as
an insider, wasn't a surprise at all.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
That that's what they decided to do.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
They want the NBA owners to eat because the economics.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
Are great right now in the w NBA.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
So while I was very irritated by that, I also understood.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
That, Oh I don't know, I still don't like it.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
I think that it's unfair for teams that actually had
they had franchises before, and those those franchises didn't succeed
because of support, and you don't give somebody else.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
A shot, like I thought that was all that was.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
That was horrible, But friend, I'm looking so forward to
sharing the stage with you at the Austin Sports Awards.
Can you tell everybody how they can support and come
and be entertained by two of Austin's most accomplished and
absolutely crazy people.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yes, so support looks like getting your cheeks in the seats.
So cheeks in the seats, Okay, you can go get
your that's that's I love them.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
That's my moniker. Get some cheeks in the seat.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
So you can attend on the seventeen, which is a Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
By the way, it's a Wednesday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
It's more like a tailgating celebration, so you should feel
very comfortable in the space. But yeah, you can go
to Austin Sports Awards dot Com get all the details
me and mark On on the website and talking about
what the show is going to be like. But you've
never been to an awards show like this that much,
I can tell you. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna
be light, it's gonna be crazy, gonna be some good grub,

(04:24):
and we're gonna recognize some great folks in Austin who
have been doing their things in sports.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
So what is it wrapped around?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
What is it? What is it for college? High school?
Everybody's best up?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, it's the best of Yeah, the best of auston
great questions. So, for instance, Athlete of the year. I
didn't say college, I didn't say high school. I didn't
say pros. I said, who do you think has had
the best year? So that could be an athletic kid,
that could be a kid in high school, that could
be a kid in you know, in college.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
It can be whatever. So that's what's great about the
Austin Sports Awards.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
I didn't want it to feel like we were narrowing
the awards or the audience. So you're going to see
people in the room who are in college. You're going
to see people who have been here for forty years.
You're going to see some high school coaches get some
legacy awards. So it's a combination of audiences that have
really done it in sports over the last year. So
and you have to be a twenty twenty five participant,

(05:18):
So no awards from twenty twenty four to twenty five.
Literally your feats have taken place in the calendar year
of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
We're talking to friend Harris, lifetime Longhorn and a legend
on the forty Acres as she continues her quest to
bring Austin back onto the map. Because Austin definitely deserves that.
We deserve it. We deserve it. So I wanted to
ask you this because you know the WNBA, we've talked
about that and they're in the process of an injunction

(05:48):
right now. If I'm not mistaken for work stoppage the CBA,
you said it, you mentioned it yourself. They've been making
a lot of money this past year. The players are
starting to get a little restless and want a big
piece of the pie. What is the next step for
this to work out well?

Speaker 4 (06:07):
In a bold move? I don't know if y'all saw it.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
This past summer, the players wore black T shirts that
said pay us what you owe us, which I thought
was so so. It didn't say pay us what we
are due, which has a different residence.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
They said pay us our money.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Like literally, we see the returns, we see people in
the stands, we see the sponsorship increase, pay us what
you owe us, and so there is a good chance
there could be stoppage, which you know, people think though
a lockout and stoppage are the same thing, and they're not.
So the players we've seen in other leagues where they
have continued to work.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
While they negotiate.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
I don't know if that's going to be the case
for the WNBA because there's a lot of back pay
that needs to be addressed.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
And honestly, guys, the main thing, and.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
You guys are athletes, the main thing is is revenue share.
Like they're going to get an increase in salary. That's
already been said. Adam Silver has already said that, Kathy
Engelbert said that, but are we going to get our
fair share of the revenues that we are generating?

Speaker 4 (07:04):
And that is the big elephant in the room right now.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
Friend, do you think that Kat Ingelbert should be in
that position or should they make drastic changes and bring
someone like you who has been a high level executive
in women's basketball and WNBA, or should one of the
younger women that are right now are taking the lead

(07:28):
against this current regime.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, also a great question because that job is a
couple of things. You need to be great at getting
the bag. You got to be great at bringing the
money in, and you need to be great at relationships.
And it's a rarity. Everybody's not like us, Mark, who
you were good at both of those things, Like I'm
gonna get that bag, but you're also gonna.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
Feel good giving me that bag.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
So a lot of that is about the relationships with
the players, and we don't think that there's necessarily that
situation that exists right now. Kathy, we know, has done
record breaking back getting, She's brought in a lot of sponsors.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
She's very good at that. She comes from a corporate environment.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
But where it's been documented, very well documented, is that
the relationships with the players are.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Just not there. The truth is in fairness.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
In fairness, I think it's a unicorn, it's an elephant,
you know, not that many people who can navigate both
of those worlds really really well. So even if Kathy
is not in her role after the season, my thing becomes,
who are you going to get I've heard some former
athletes names thrown out, and I've heard some corporate names
thrown out, but we're not gonna talk about those just yet.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, keep it, keeping on the hush hush, keep it
on the hush house.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Well.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Texas Women starts their season tonight against Incarnate Word. After
a great season last year, Madison booker Rory harmon Or back,
they brought it in the freshman Aliah Krump. I've got
a time I've spent with Vick Schaeffer. It's an exciting
time for this Texas women's basketball team.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
It really is. I saw the exhibition games.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
The first exhibition game I saw, I was really impressed
candidly with Rory Harmon. I saw a fire in Rory's
eyes and I have not seen in three years. So
I was very excited to see her looking competitive out
there and just bawling. And then Crump, as you mentioned,
is a is a rookie who is not afraid to shoot,
which is always gonna be my favorite's players who just

(09:22):
let it fly like I'm not thinking about what coach
is thinking. And so they brought in some players to
really fill in those gaps where they were weak. Candidly
last year, I thought Connecticut, you know, everybody who played
them just kind of sat back on the three point
line and said that Texas can't shoot three pointers, so
we're not gonna even guard them.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
So they went out. Vic went out and got.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Some shooters, and I appreciate that as a shooter and
as a Longhorm fan, that they filled in the holes
for the gaps that they needed.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, m are you are you going to the game?

Speaker 4 (09:52):
I'm calling the game tonight.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Yeah, I'm not just.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Going I'm calling the game tonight. Yeah, I'm gonna be
sitting there. I'm doing color tonight and my first opportunity
to be back since last year, and I called a
couple of their games. But this is a decidedly better
team in many ways. So I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
Hart than I went to a couple of games last year.
We got to make an effort to do more.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes, those girls, I love watching them play because of
what you just talked about. You talked about what you
saw in Rory, but not only in Rory. They brought
in some transfers that looked to look to bring in
some damage. And that is the key for this team
to have that success.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
I mean you look at South Carolina's reloaded, Connecticut's reloaded,
you see LA's reloaded. We had to reload because people
really do sleep on Texas. They don't think about Texas
when they think of perennial you know, really great teams
right now in women's basketball, Texas went to the Final
four last year. The year before without Rory, they got
one game from the final four, so put some respect

(10:55):
on our name.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
But I get it. You got to do something.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
You honestly have to do something to get that repeated respect.
And I think Bick has done a great job at
Texas in his six I think six years that he's
been there, and he continues to understand what it takes
to stay at that level. And I appreciate that about
him as a coach.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, we'll appreciate you hopping on with us, and I
hope that you have a great call. I'll be listening
to it, making sure that you know you keep the
flow going, because I know you got the flow.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I see it.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Don't forget to go to Austin Sports Awards to get
your tickets to see Mark Henry truly truly show out
show you some of his best work.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Thanks y'all.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I get my Harry creuz On.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
I'm not doing the pickpot, but I'm still gonna be
out there having a good time.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
I pray for you, friend, I pray for you. Keep
praying for me too. Appreciate it, you got it?

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Sure? Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
There she is friend Harris coming in to let us
know about the Austin Sports Award Awards and of course
talking about the w NBA.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Will there be a work stoppage them? Girls? Won't that money?

Speaker 2 (11:59):
And she will be on the call tonight, but you
will be hearing the game right here on sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred Zone with the voice Craig Way.
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