In a special, WNBA-focused episode of You Got Boston, CLNS Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell recaps a historic night at TD Garden. More than 19,000 fans filled the stands on Tuesday night in honor of Boston's first-ever WNBA game, and the Connecticut Sun beat the Los Angeles Sparks after a late 14-0 helped them regain control. The run was spearheaded by Sun standouts DiJonai Carrington, Ty Harris, and Alyssa Thomas.
Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, and Celtics draft picks Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson sat courtside and watched.
Noa dives into what made Tuesday's game so special -- and how the WNBA could grow in the city.
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Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, and Celtics draft picks Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson sat courtside and watched.
Noa dives into what made Tuesday's game so special -- and how the WNBA could grow in the city.
*********************************
CLNS Media is Powered by:
Prize Picks - PrizePicks.com/CLNS
Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100!
Gametime - https://gametime.co
Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply.
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00:00What's up, everyone? This is Noah Dalzell and I'm here with a special WNBA-focused edition
00:20of You Got Boston. And that's the good thing about this podcast name is that it is, you
00:25know, this is the podcast mostly focused on the Celtics, but the big news of the week
00:29right now, you know, as it relates to Boston basketball, is the Connecticut Sun playing
00:33their first ever WNBA game at TD Garden in front of a sold-out crowd. So that'll be the
00:40focus of this episode. And because I know that most of the people that listen to this
00:43show and that are part of my audience are not necessarily super clued in with everything
00:49related to the Sun and the WNBA, I'll provide a little bit of back, you know, some context
00:53and some background so you don't have to be an expert to listen to this episode and get
00:58a sense for why I thought, honestly, August 20th is going to go down as a really special
01:03day in women's basketball history. And hopefully it's a moment that will have far-reaching
01:09implications. So with that, welcome to the show. Thanks again for tuning in. And for
01:16those of you that don't know me, my name is Noah Dalzell. I cover the Celtics for CLNS
01:20Media and I cover women's basketball for SB Nation. And I've been doing this for about
01:25a year, covered the Celtics this whole past season. Honor of a lifetime is the best way
01:30to describe covering the road to banner 18. And I'll also say it's a huge honor to be
01:35covering women's basketball right now in this moment when people care, people are starting
01:39to tune in and watch. And not just for the basic storylines, but actually to care about
01:45the players and their skill levels and, you know, not just one or two players either,
01:50but a whole cast of characters. And so I'll just start off by just a little bit of a summary
01:55maybe. And so the Connecticut Sun announced about a year ago that they were going to play
01:59a professional game, an official WNBA game at TD Garden against the Los Angeles Sparks.
02:05And I think the Sparks were chosen just as a Boston, LA rivalry sort of thing. This was
02:11before teams' rosters were finalized or draft picks or things like that. So this team, this
02:16game was, you know, chosen. It was on the books. It was going to be a big undertaking
02:20For those of you that don't know, Connecticut normally plays at the Mohegan Sun Arena in
02:25front of about 6,000 fans. So it's a much smaller arena. They're very passionate fans.
02:30They love watching the Sun play. They love the WNBA. They love basketball. But again,
02:36you know, it's in a small town in Connecticut called Uncasville. And it's nowhere near the
02:41media market that Boston is. And so I live in Boston, I actually live in Cambridge. And
02:46most of this past year, I covered the Celtics. And I also went to Sun games whenever I could.
02:51But there's no good public transit to take you to Mohegan. It's actually easier to get
02:54to Maine. So I was able to get to the Maine Celtics games with more ease than to Mohegan
02:58Sun. And so it creates a situation where I don't think a lot of Boston fans are able
03:03to go to Mohegan. And also, from a media standpoint, there's normally just a handful of reporters
03:08that are there. So the Connecticut Sun are actually the team that have the least amount
03:12of Instagram followers, the least amount of Twitter followers. And those things don't
03:16always indicate the popularity or success of a franchise. And they certainly don't
03:20indicate who's good at basketball, who's worth watching, because the Sun are actually the
03:26team with the highest win percentage of all time of all WNBA teams. And though they've
03:30never won a championship, they're consistently very good. And there's actually a lot of parallels
03:35between the Celtics and the Sun. So 2022, the Sun lost in the finals. 2023, the Sun
03:41lost in the semifinals, which are effectively the WNBA's version of the conference finals
03:45when there's four teams left. In 2024, we don't know what's going to happen yet. So
03:50maybe they'll have the Celtics' luck and win the championship. And I don't think they look
03:55quite like the leading contenders right now, but they're certainly in the mix.
03:59So all that's to say is that this is a team that I've been following closely and covering
04:04all year. If you want to read any of my coverage on the Sun, you can do so on The Next Hoops,
04:10which is where I was writing about women's basketball during the season. And then now
04:14it's for SB Nation. So daily coverage. I have a bunch of stories from this week, just being
04:18around the team at practices, shoot-arounds, and then obviously at the game on Tuesday.
04:23So I'm recording this late Tuesday night. This episode will be out on Wednesday.
04:26But this Sun team is really unique for a number of reasons. And I asked both Dijon
04:31Ed Karrington, who's one of the stars on the team, and head coach Stephanie White,
04:35who's kind of just a women's basketball legend in her own right. I asked them both,
04:39what do you want people to know about this team that are tuning in for the first time?
04:43And I'm assuming for some of you, maybe you tuned in on NBC Boston and watched this game,
04:48and maybe it was your first time watching the Connecticut Sun, or maybe you've been a
04:51diehard fan for a long time. But in either case, both of them really stressed to me that
04:56their number one priority was ensuring that this team, the people understood that this team was
05:02defensively focused, and the people understood that this team was just a hardworking team.
05:07Stephanie White actually said, we're a blue collar organization. And you can kind of get
05:12that energy from going to their games. It has this feel of just grit and grind and just make
05:19it happen somehow. And it's not pretty. It's not the prettiest brand of basketball. It's not a
05:23bunch of three pointers, although they had some tonight, but it consistently is not. It's not
05:28really who they are. But they're just defensive minded, and they just find a way to win. And I
05:33fall in love with watching this team, I'll be honest. I'm covering the WNBA at large for
05:37ESPY Nation. So I'm not on the Sun beat anymore. But I do I will say I've enjoyed covering this
05:43team. And you know, being around this team in Boston this week has been really special. The
05:47team is really anchored by Alyssa Thomas, who's, she's also known as the engine. She is the all
05:53time leader in triple doubles in WNBA history. And she's just one of those players that kind of
05:58like the Sun as a whole, she just finds a way to make it happen. So she's a prolific rebounder.
06:03She's a very good passer. And she's so strong. Like I watched her in the Olympics. And if you
06:09almost feel bad for the player that she's going up against, because it's not that she intentionally
06:13hurts people, but it just she rams into someone, they almost have no chance that they're going to
06:19get out of that altercation unscathed because or not altercation, but out of that bump or whatever
06:24it was unscathed. The other thing about Alyssa Thomas that you may notice if you watch her play
06:29is that she has a very unorthodox shot, it's almost like a push shot. And the reason for that
06:33is that she's playing with two torn labrums. She plays year round, she plays overseas in the off
06:38season. She's never wanted to take nine months off to, you know, repair those torn labrums. She
06:45probably has other medical reasons why she opted not to. So she's effectively playing without the
06:50ability to shoot. And it's an ability that she had earlier in her career when she was in college.
06:54So when you watch her play, you might think, this is their best player, like she can't shoot, you
06:58know, it looks kind of weird. And then you realize how she's literally dominating every aspect of
07:02the court, every aspect of the game, getting her teammates involved. She's the emotional leader.
07:08And she's also someone who consistently flirts with a triple double. So on Tuesday night, the
07:13Sun beat the Sparks, they probably should have led with that. And Alyssa Thomas had nine points,
07:18eight assists and 16 rebounds and three steals. That's a very classical Alyssa Thomas stat line
07:24where I usually will list that when I write it out, I list the rebounds first, because that's
07:28usually the highest and a lot of times the points are the lowest and a lot of times she'll
07:32just miss out on a triple double because she had, you know, 12 rebounds, 12 assists and eight
07:37points. Like that's the category that she oftentimes, you know, lacks in the most. So she's
07:41kind of known as the triple double machine. Then there's Dawana Bonner, who is her fiance, who's
07:46also the fifth all time leading scorer in WNBA history. So she's a very special player. I think
07:53she's somebody that when I think about who has gotten a lot of the media attention for women's
07:57basketball, who hasn't. Dawana Bonner is somebody that I think has a game that would translate so
08:02well to marketing basketball, her moves, you know, she has these pull up jump shots, she
08:08crosses people up. She's 36 years old and she's still in her prime. She was an all star this year
08:15and she's almost, you know, I've talked to her about this, but it's like she's getting better
08:18every year it feels like. She called herself a late bloomer in a conversation I had with her
08:22earlier this season. And a funny, you know, backstories that Dawana Bonner and Alyssa Thomas
08:28are engaged. So it kind of just makes things interesting when you watch and you realize that
08:32the two, probably the two best players in the team also have a very deep emotional relationship
08:38off the court as well. And then the rest of the team, I'll just, I don't want to spend the whole
08:43episode just explaining who's on the team, but just because I know there's going to be a lot of
08:46listeners who are not as familiar with the roster. I figured maybe this could be helpful. There's
08:50Dejanee Carrington. She's right now a candidate for most improved player. She's also a candidate
08:55for defensive player of the year, I would say. She's a two way guard. She is really known for
09:01her defense. She consistently guards the opposing team's best player. But in the Suns win against
09:06the Sparks, she was also the offensive plug. She had a team high 19 points on 8 of 17 shooting. She
09:13hit her only three point attempt of the night. And she's kind of just a do it all type of player. And
09:18I think she's somebody that the public has grown to really like and enjoy. And she's become one of
09:23the more recognizable names on this roster. And then there's Brianna Jones, a multiple time all
09:30star. She's the team center. She has some big hustle plays against the Sparks in this game. And
09:36she's also just somebody that just finds a way and a will to get things done. She's strong around the
09:41rim. She's very good defender, previously a second team all NBA defender. So she's just another
09:47prolific player, you know, Thomas Jones and Bonner are kind of known as the big three for the Sun.
09:52They also just traded for Marina Mabry from Chicago Sky. And she's somebody that is not quite a star,
09:59maybe a star would be, you know, putting, maybe she's a star, she's maybe a borderline star, I
10:05would say. But she's a really good three point shooter. She's also a winner. She has this kind of
10:10gritty, fiery energy that she plays with. And so the Sun traded two bench players, Mariah Jefferson
10:15and Rachel Bannum, and acquired Marina Mabry during the break during the Olympic break. So it's
10:21very unusual to be able to make that kind of trade in the WNBA that there aren't usually these
10:26blockbuster midseason trades, but this was one. So that's kind of the core players in the team.
10:31But also Ty Harris, she's the other guard that typically starts it's Ty Harris and Dejanee
10:36Carrington. They're both good defenders. They're both good scorers. I think the thing with Ty
10:40Harris is they want her to shoot more. You know, Stephanie White talked about that post game today
10:44that she they want her to shoot more. She finished with 14 points in this one. So I just kind of
10:50wanted to introduce the cast is because I'll be mentioning these players and maybe for you, you
10:54watch this game, but you didn't really know who's who, who was who. So maybe this was helpful.
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11:50Really the story of this game and of this, what we saw today was that the WNBA has never had a game
11:55in Boston before. And obviously the Connecticut Sun are in a smaller town, a town of 20,000 people.
12:00So it's nowhere like Boston. And it's been very clear from me talking to the players this week
12:05that they want to be in Boston. I don't know that they necessarily want the Sun to relocate, but they
12:09want more of these opportunities. They want to be able to play in front of bigger crowds. They want
12:14to be able to have their own practice facility and really good equipment and resources. A lot of other
12:20WNBA teams have their own facilities. So the Aces, the Mercury, the Sky just announced they're
12:28building one. So other teams are making sure that they have designated spaces where players can go
12:33and shoot even if it's not during designated practice time. Players can go and shoot at night or on the
12:38weekends. During the Olympic break, the Connecticut Sun actually had to go practice in Rhode Island and
12:44stay in a hotel. And this is the second best team in the league, right? So they're at a competitive
12:48disadvantage because they don't have the same resources that other teams do because they're owned
12:53by the Mohican Sun tribe. And so it kind of creates this difficult situation where they don't
13:03they're limited in what they can do because it's not just one billionaire that owns the team. And
13:08there's been some good reporting on this. I know Maggie Benoni has did a good article I just read
13:12today, where she interviewed some of the tribal leaders that are involved in kind of what some of
13:17the obstacles are. So I don't know how feasible, how realistic it is right now that the Sun will move
13:22to Boston. But I can say that what this game showed us is that there's a lot of interest and
13:27momentum. So the Sun hosted the Sparks, which are tied for the worst team in the league right now
13:32record-wise. The Sparks don't have any huge media names, and neither do the Sun. So this is, you
13:38know, there was no Katelyn Clark in this game, there was no Angel Reese in this game. And even so,
13:43you saw a huge, huge turnout. 19,000 fans, complete sellout, so much energy. I tweeted this after the
13:50game and everybody's got all mad at me, but I felt like there was as much energy in this game as
13:56there was in really any game that I've covered at TD Garden this year. It was up there because, A, I
14:02think there was just a lot of genuine excitement and joy and energy around this. It wasn't just
14:06about the win. And a lot of times, like in playoff games, you sense that the crowd kind of loses
14:11momentum because there's just so much anxiety around, like, are we going to get this done? Am I
14:15going to, the $1,000 that I spent, is it going to be for a win or for a loss? And so the crowd kind
14:20of ebbs and flows with the success of the team in that game. And it's human nature, I get it. But it
14:25creates sometimes an environment where the crowd isn't, like, amazing the whole time. And I thought
14:29the crowd was great throughout this game. You know, it was a lot of families, a lot of young
14:33girls, I think a lot of young female basketball players. I know myself as somebody that grew up
14:38in Brookline, right outside of Boston, basically in Boston, that I played basketball my whole life,
14:43you know, watched basketball my whole life. I would have been thrilled at the opportunity to
14:47watch a WNBA game at TD Garden. And so for that reason, you know, I think this was a really special
14:52occasion for me on a personal level to be able to be there and to cover this game and to see
14:56so much excitement and enthusiasm. And before the game, there was, like, a block party outside
15:01of TD Garden where there was music and signs and they had a little mini hoop on the hoop bus.
15:08And there were Celtics players at the game. Drew Holiday was sitting courtside with his family.
15:12Jason Tatum was a second half arrival. Anton Watson and Baylor Shireman, two of the Celtics
15:20draft picks this year, they were also sitting courtside. So it was cool that the Celtics were
15:24kind of bought into this and that they were a part of this almost, even though obviously the
15:28Sun are not officially affiliated. They're NBC Sports Boston's team. And they also are New
15:34England's basketball team. And that was kind of the point of this, I think, in a lot of ways,
15:37was to give people the chance to recognize that this team is New England's team. And so if you're
15:44a Boston sports fan and you want to watch professional sports in July, like this team
15:48is available for you to watch. And they're really good. They're the second best team of the WNBA
15:52right now. And they're contending for a championship. And I would say right now the New
15:56York Liberty are the favorite, but they're certainly up there. And so this was a really special night.
16:02This was one of my favorite nights that I've had at TD Garden this year. The night the Celtics won
16:05banner 18 is going to be number one. I'm not going to deny that, but it was up there because you just
16:10felt that you were a part of history, that you felt that the WNBA and the sport and women's sports
16:15in general are just growing so tremendously. And this was one of those moments. And there have been
16:21a bunch of those moments in recent years. I think the LSU Iowa game, you know, a year ago is still
16:27going to be remembered as one of the games that like started this Angela Reese, Caitlin Clark
16:31rivalry that brought in so many casual fans to watch the sport because they liked the drama and
16:36the drama and the personal stories is what sells. Right. And so that's one of those games that's
16:40going to go down in history. But there's been a lot of other games that have gone down in history
16:44and that I think will continue to be part of this arc of women's basketball being important. And I
16:49don't know that there's a better example right now in the WNBA than this game that we saw at TD
16:54Garden, because this game showed that it's not just about one player. It's not just about Caitlin
16:59Clark or Angela Reese or any one big name from the 2024 draft class. And it was it's about something
17:07bigger than that. It's about the fact that there's an appetite and an excitement and a joy for women's
17:12basketball. And for that reason, I loved being there. I loved the way the game turned out. I
17:19thought that the Sun are the much better team than Los Angeles. But it went down to the wire
17:24and actually the Sun trailed 59-54 with just a few minutes to play. And I was thinking to myself,
17:29you know, it doesn't really matter who wins this game from a regular standpoint, but I really
17:34wanted them to have this moment and to be able to have this win in front of this crowd. And it just
17:40wouldn't have been the same if they lost. So I was a little nervous there just for a second that
17:44they were going to blow this game that they definitely should have had, but they were
17:46everything. They were missing layups. They were missing, you know, open jump shots. And I was
17:51thinking to myself, like, I really hope that they don't blow this because this crowd is ready to
17:54explode right now. And they just want something to cheer for. And they made it happen. The Sun
18:01went on a 14-yard run to close the game. And D'Janae Carrington was instrumental. She had six
18:07points in the last five minutes, finished with 19. Breonna Jones had a big and one. Alyssa Thomas,
18:12or actually, sorry, Ty Harris had a big and one, Alyssa Thomas. But all those players were key
18:16down the stretch. Ty Harris was diving on the ball. Bree was diving on the ground, grabbing
18:21the loose ball. So the crowd loved that. Stephanie White mentioned after the game, like, it's clear
18:26that this is a crowd that loves hustle plays. And I was thinking, that's the understatement
18:30of the century. Obviously, everybody knows that about the Celtics is that the Boston fan base
18:34loves to see people diving on the ground. That's how Marcus Mart became a legend in the city. So
18:39it was just awesome to see them almost blow it. They were trailing by four with a few minutes to
18:43go and then go out in this massive run. Because a 14-yard run to win a game is the perfect recipe
18:49to get a crowd excited. And I thought that this crowd was going berserk. And when the game ended,
18:54nobody left. Everybody was kind of just standing there. And then D'Janae Carrington addressed the
19:00crowd and said, I hope this is not the last time. I hope this is the first of many times. And thank
19:06you all for being here, because it's a Tuesday night and everybody has places to be in the
19:10morning. And that was the general sentiment around this team all week, was that this was hopefully
19:15not going to be the last time. And in fact, they didn't say, like, we want to move here.
19:20They stopped short of saying that. But that was certainly my impression, was that the players
19:25want to be in a major city and they want to play in front of a crowd like that. After the game
19:30in the press conference, D'Janae said, this should be what it's like every single night.
19:35It shouldn't just be a special occasion. And so I thought that was as much as you
19:38could insinuate wanting the franchise to be based in Boston. Yesterday at practice,
19:44we asked the Wanda Bonner, the team's leading scorer, a veteran in this league, a legend,
19:49really, of the sport, if she thinks that a WNBA team is coming to Boston. And she said,
19:53it's inevitable. Maybe it won't be Connecticut, but it has to happen because this is a city that
19:58just loves sports too much. It's a city that loves basketball too much. The culture of the Celtics
20:03is so strong. And so you just, you want to see a WNBA team here with the boom of this,
20:08of everything that's happening here. And Connecticut's one of just two teams that
20:12doesn't have like an NBA team in that city, Seattle's the other. And it's hard because
20:17you don't get to ride off of the momentum of the NBA team as well. And I think there's a lot of
20:22Celtics fans that would love to watch women's basketball, but they haven't necessarily felt
20:25like they should be connected to the sun. And so in turn, they, maybe they float around,
20:29they watch Caitlin Clarke or they watch the Liberty or they watch whoever's good. But
20:33I think ultimately fandom and being connected to a particular team in a region is what
20:37really allows sports to thrive. So I'm super thrilled that this happened. I hope that for
20:42Celtics fans, this game was a moment of like, Ooh, this team's really good and really fun. And
20:47they play again this week. And maybe I'll tune in on NBC Boston and watch, or maybe I'll
20:51take, you know, go to Mohegan Sun for a night and gamble a little and go out to dinner and
20:55watch a basketball game. I love going to watch football games, going to concerts,
20:59going to any events in the Boston area. And I use GameTime for all of the ticket purchases that I
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21:30seat view is going to look like. So rather than just picking a random row and loge number, you
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22:09GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. This felt like a turning point. This
22:13felt like a monumental moment. And it was called the historic game a number of times. But it really
22:19was. That's why they said it is because it was a sold-out game, 19,000 fans, the third largest
22:24crowd this year. And it didn't have any of the biggest names from a media standpoint. And it was
22:28the first time ever that in this city, this is the basketball city, there was a WNBA game. And it was
22:33at TD Garden. And it was really cool to have the support of Celtics players there. I don't even
22:38want to say support, because it's not support. They're watching a basketball game. They don't
22:41need to be supported. That's not the right language to use. But the fact that they were able to go and
22:46to watch and to be there and to kind of signal the fact that they wanted to be there. It was
22:51Tuesday night, and they wanted to be there. And Drew Holiday bringing his whole family and
22:54everything. It was really awesome. So this will go down for me as a personal favorite as far as
23:00my first year of covering basketball. For those of you that didn't watch the game, and maybe you
23:04probably didn't get to this far in this episode, I think you should definitely watch that game,
23:09honestly. Go back and rewatch it, because you get to see TD Garden. And if you're just a Celtics fan
23:14and a TD Garden enthusiast, you just get to see basketball at TD Garden at the highest level,
23:18and it's kind of the highest level of emotion too. And if not, if you don't want to go back
23:22and rewatch games, I tend to struggle with going back to watch games that have already happened.
23:26I like not knowing what's going to happen. The Sun played the Liberty on Saturday in New York,
23:32and I'm going to be there at Berkley Center covering that game too. So this is all, I think,
23:37just a really exciting moment for basketball. It's an honor for me as someone who grew up playing
23:42basketball and now covers the sport for a living to be able to be a part of this and to be able to
23:47watch these games and talk to these players. And just honestly, the press access for the WNBA is
23:54a lot easier. So I go to shoot around, I can request to talk to any player. I go to practice,
24:00I can talk to any player. So it's just easier to be able to get an impression of how people are
24:04feeling, how things are doing. Whereas on the NBA side, normally they'll give us one or two players
24:08to talk to and you have a huge media scrum around them. So it creates, it fosters this
24:13unnatural conversation, unnatural environment. So on a personal level, from a coverage standpoint,
24:18the WNBA has been awesome too, because you can just grab anybody and talk to them. And yesterday,
24:22I was going around asking all the players, are you Celtics fans? And they are for the most part.
24:26And Marina Mabry said, she's a huge Jason Tatum fan. So it must've been cool for her to see him
24:31there courtside, cheering them on. Dawana Bonner said, since she's been a part of this franchise,
24:36she's really taken a liking to this team. Veronica Burton, who's someone I actually
24:41played against. She grew up in Newton and I grew up in Brooklyn, in town over. I remember her.
24:46She definitely does not remember me. There was not as much to remember from a basketball standpoint,
24:50but she said she's a massive Celtics fan and she grew up a huge Rondo fan. And so for her,
24:55this was a really awesome opportunity. And I know her sister works for NBC Boston. Her dad is a
25:00Boston media legend as well. So that was cool to see all the ties there for somebody that's so local
25:06to be able to play her first ever game with Tini Garneau. I was surprised to learn that I assumed
25:09she had probably played a big game there at some point, but it never happened. So yeah, just,
25:14I guess just to wrap it up, I guess to say this was a really special moment. And I do encourage
25:20people who are not WNBA enthusiasts to give it a shot and maybe it's not for you, but I think that
25:26the general rule of thumb that I've heard people say that the Sparks head coach, Kirk Miller said
25:30that Stephanie White said a bunch of times is that if you watch, if you, you know, if you,
25:34if you play at the watch and if they watch, they'll get hooked. Like that's the general
25:38understanding of the WNBA. And I can say, I did not grow up watching the WNBA. I grew up watching
25:42the NBA only. And so I just started watching it in recent years. And I was like, where was,
25:47this has been my whole life. Like, why didn't I watch all the great legends? Like when I was in
25:51high school, when I was growing up and I wish that I had, and I think there was a lack of
25:54societal understanding and awareness about this league and the league has improved certainly too.
25:59But a lot of it comes from like, what are we talking about? And so one of the things that I
26:03find frustrating sometimes is that like people say, you know, the women's basketball, the only
26:09player that really matters is Caitlin Clark and Angela Reese. And I will say, like, I write
26:13articles and I see SEO when, when I have Caitlin Clark in the headline, the article does a lot
26:17better. Like, I'm not going to deny that. And it does a lot better. And so like, I have an incentive
26:22to include her name in the headline and to write about her because I, you know, that's my job. I
26:26need to write, you know, I need to write articles that people read. And when you write about other
26:30players that are like legends in their own right, that just don't have that mainstream, you know,
26:34familiarity with their name, like people don't click on those articles. And so your takeaway
26:40might be like, okay, I just won't cover those players anymore because nobody cares. But I don't
26:44think it's that nobody cares. I think it's that nobody knows. And so I think that what's happening
26:49right now at the WNBA with Caitlin Clark and Angela Reese and these other young stars, and those two
26:54are really like defining this, this whole era of basketball is that like, come for Caitlin Clark
27:01and stay for Jackie Young, stay for Adijana Carrington, stay for Dawanda Bonner. Like you,
27:07I think Caitlin Clark is an incredible player. I love watching her play. I'm a three-point shooter
27:11and I find three-point shooting to be the most exciting part of basketball and her passing.
27:14Everything about her game is fun to watch. But I think there's a lot of other really good players
27:18that are fun to watch too. And they're as fun to watch, but they just, nobody knows their story.
27:22It's not fun to watch a bunch of players you've never heard of. And it's not fun to read an
27:26article about a player you've never heard of. And so there's just a learning curve that needs to
27:30happen. And I think that there are certain players, not every player is going to capture
27:34the national attention of the world. And not every player is going to become a fan favorite
27:38in the mainstream name, but there's a lot of players that I do think are going to. And I think
27:43Adijana Carrington is one of them because she's outspoken, she's fiery, she's a great defender,
27:47she's a slasher. She does a lot of different things that I think just are marketable and
27:50translate well. And so she's somebody that like, maybe you didn't know her two years ago,
27:55but I guarantee you in two years when I have her name in a headline, that article is going to do
27:59really well. So my point being is that I think it's people are talking about the Caitlin Clarke
28:04stuff like black and white, like, you know, she's the only player people care about or like, no,
28:09she's getting sold by the media. And nobody actually should be watching her. And like,
28:13the reality is, is that she's a very good player. She's one of the better players in this league.
28:16She's one of the best guards in this league already, I think. But she's also getting a
28:20completely disproportionate amount of media coverage. And the reason for that is because
28:24we're incentivized to cover her right now, because that's what people are clicking on.
28:27And then it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where people are clicking on her name, because
28:31they recognize it. And they know her and they care about her storyline. And then more people
28:34clicks and more people write, more people click, more people write. And the names that people
28:38aren't clicking on are not getting written about anymore, because there's no proof that people want
28:42to read about those players. And so it's in our hands, in media's hands to tell the stories of
28:47the players that you all don't know, and to be able to sell other teams, not just the Fever,
28:54and not just not just the young stars, but also the older stars that have been doing it for a
28:58long time. I think Jwanna Bonner is somebody that should be a household name. I think everybody
29:02that watches Jwanna Bonner highlights, like will be like, Oh, she's, she's really fun to watch.
29:07And so she's somebody that like, I'm going to keep writing about and maybe,
29:10maybe less people will click. But eventually, I think people will, because they'll,
29:14they'll recognize just how fun and incredible she is to watch. So the big headline, one of the big
29:19headlines tonight is that this game wasn't on national television. It was streamed on the local
29:24broadcast on NBC Boston, on the local LA broadcast, it was streamed on X by the WNBA, and it was
29:30streamed on NBC, NBC Sports Boston and on League Pass. But it wasn't on national TV. Meanwhile,
29:38most of the Indiana Fever games are on national TV. So I think there was a sense of frustration
29:43from some players that there was this historic moment that was happening. And that even even
29:49though there was like history being made, it wasn't, it wasn't accessible for everybody in
29:53the country to watch. And even Nick Harrington said after the game, like, this game should have
29:57been accessible for everybody. This was a historic moment, and you shouldn't have had to pay for a
30:01special subscription to be able to access it. And I think she's absolutely right. Because I think this
30:05is the kind of game that if it was made easy, and you could just flip through your channel and see
30:09it, you'd watch and you would fall in love with some of these players. And the next time you go
30:13write an article about Evgenia Carrington, that's the girl from the national TV game that they
30:17watched. So even if you were a casual fan, and you didn't know her, you maybe fell in love with her
30:22in this game. And so it was a missed opportunity. I don't think it's the end of the world. I think
30:26that a lot of people are still aware that this game happened. And a lot of people, especially in
30:30the big media markets of Boston and LA, they're not small markets, really enjoyed this game.
30:35And so I'm not going to cover the WNBA a ton on this show. Most of my coverage right now is in
30:40written form on sbh.com slash WNBA. Every morning after games, I rank the best performances of the
30:47day, I write about the big stories, I'm going to be on the ground covering the playoffs. So do
30:51follow along, read those articles. You can subscribe to my newsletter, you can follow me on
30:57Twitter, I post most of my articles there. Or you can just check the URL when you want to read more
31:01women's basketball coverage. But once in a while, I will do an episode on this podcast,
31:06because at the end of the day, this podcast is called You Got Boston. So technically, I'm allowed
31:10to talk about other Boston things. And full disclaimer, I don't follow football, Red Sox,
31:16any of that stuff. So I won't ever do shows on those things. You can find great CLNS coverage
31:21on on NFL. And sure, you can find baseball coverage elsewhere. I don't even know where
31:25you'd find it. But I'm sure there's a ton. But the WNBA will do here and there some episodes. So
31:31feel free to follow along, tune in. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear more about
31:35the Connecticut Sun or the WNBA or not. Let me know if this episode was too much of an explainer.
31:41Like maybe I didn't need to explain any of the players. And I could have just started breaking
31:44down what happened in this game. The next time I will. Or if you didn't know much about the team,
31:48and this was helpful. Let me know. So really appreciate it. Again, feel free to subscribe,
31:54rate, you can give me a five stars on Spotify, Apple, like, comment on YouTube. The show is You
32:00Got Boston. Noah Dazzle with CLNS Media. And I thoroughly appreciate your time and for tuning in.
32:06And hopefully, you enjoyed this moment in women's basketball history.