Major Milestones: A Touch More on Legacy and Impact

Introduction - Welcome back everybody. We have had an incredibly eventful weekend. We can't wait to share with you. It's been really meaningful for us, but we're in Seattle. We're super hyped to be here. Let's go back home. We're gonna go over, like Sue said, everything that happened this weekend. It was very, very special. We're also gonna go over all the results from last week of, are you a Megan or a Sue? The game results teams clenching playoff spots and we're back with the Who Sue does not want to see in the WNBA. It's probably gonna change, change every day, every week. But yeah, that teams are hot and sometimes from week to week. That's how, that's how it goes. Support for a Touch more comes from L'Oreal Paris. You'll be hearing more about them throughout the episode, but for now a heartfelt thank you. And we'll leave you with their immortal tagline "Because you're worth it." Megan’s jersey retirement All right, well we're gonna start with you. Megan had a big, big weekend. Her jersey was retired, number 15 will be worn by nobody else from this day forward, all rise, all hail. The queen has been crowned, her jersey has retired. You are both the first player in Reign history, but I think maybe one of the first women in professional soccer in terms of America, to have their jersey retired. There are couple going on a limb here, right? There are a couple more. I think I'm totally blanking. We'll put it in the show notes or however that works. But yeah, definitely the first for the Reign, which is just so special and one of very few, if not the first. So what was it like? What'd it feel like? Oh gosh. Well you were there. I was there. I was really overwhelmed all weekend. Like in a, in a overwhelmed way, but also in like a really beautiful way. I had so much of my family up here. My sister Jenny, my sister Rachael, her partner Mary and their two boys, Elliot and Nao. Austin was up here. My little brother, mom and dad were up here. Uncle Bob, aunt Tina, Natalie and little Reese were up here. Obviously you were here, you know, so many friends and family and just obviously the organization is here. I was really trying to just take it all in. I just keep coming up to this like hilarity for myself that I obviously am fine being the center of attention, but then being in the center of attention, I'm like, this is a nightmare. You don't like it when it's planned? I don't like it when it's planned. You like spontaneous center of attention. Yeah, I wanna like bust a move in the middle of the dance floor. Yeah. You know, or do something else. But yeah, it was, it made me a little uncomfortable but also in a, in a good way. There was like so many people that I love that I've shared so much with, you know, Laura, Jess, Lou, Bill, obviously everyone. Theresa couldn't make it. She was taking one of her daughters to college, one of the original owners of the Reign. But so many people and just to have that ability to hear them say these nice things, but also to thank them as well. And then obviously the moment in the stadium was incredible. And shout out to the Reign. They did a really, really good job. They did, they did. It was incredible. I always find, I always find I had one retirement myself and what I have found, I always find in my retirement parties, what I have found in retirement parties is it feels like both a wedding, like what a, I've never been married but obviously I've been to a ton of weddings. It feels like what a wedding feels like. It's like all your people, there's so much excitement you're going to share it but simultaneously like what a funeral might have felt like. Yeah. 'cause you're getting these people to say not getting to all these people are saying these nice things about you while you're there. Yeah. So it can be uncomfortable, but it is because you've done so much for this organization, for the world of soccer. So when you think about your legacy, how would you speak on it when it comes to the Reign and the city of Seattle? Oh, I mean, I think in a lot of ways seeing all the fans and seeing the way that the organization sort of put on the whole weekend like speaks to, I guess what a legacy. It's weird to speak about your own legacy. I feel like other people write those and say those things, but it was just like so special to see the way that the fans showed up. There was a great crowd. The winning goal, I guess that's a little piece of, oh perfect. That's a little piece of my legacy Emeri hitting, hitting the pose, which was just like making me tear up now That was really sweet Chef's kiss on that one. Yeah, shout out Emeri. That was, that was baller. That was a baller little move. You should like 90 need to thank her. Yeah, I did. Sounded like a real cool way. I did. Yeah. Yeah. Like I texted her last night, but it was like so sweet. But just seeing like all the people in the stands with pink and purple hair and like seeing how, you know, equality focus and like activism focus our fans are is always like flags, you know, going off, whether it's like pride flags, I said during my speech on the field, pride flags or trans flags or Black Lives Matter flags, like there's always, you know, that is present. Just the whole sort of like motif was all like a light purple was really beautiful. And then obviously being able to share those special moments with, you know, the people that I love the most. So hopefully I left people being entertained and feeling like they can be themselves. I know I always wanted that, but I feel like I shared just a really amazing 10 plus years here and hopefully people felt the same way. I think they did. I think they did. I certainly did. It was very emotional walking, even just being in the tunnel before I even kind of walked out. The tears were, were flown. I had halves from the locker room chirping. Chirping in my ear. Trying to get you to smile. Yeah. To get me to smile. Had some tears and then once I got out there I just really tried to like soak it all in and and live in the moment you told me that I was asking you all, all the advice leading into a weekend like this in all your retirements and you really just said like just really try to like soak it all in and just kind of take in every moment. It's a lot. It's overwhelming fast. Yeah. It goes so quick. You have a lot of people around. There's always a lot of events and to be able to just kind of like chill and try to take it all in and really enjoy it was, it was really amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Well it was amazing for me to watch. Yeah. How was it? How was it watching? Yeah, no it was great. It's a done deal. It's now officially, yeah, officially a wrap over here. The two of us. Yeah, we're, we're done you guys. We promise it's been cool because for both of us, right? Like we finished a career and there was celebration around the final seasons, final games and so you get to have these little moments and then you fast forward a year, so a year goes by where you've been retired and then you get to close, as you said the chapter this one last time. It does put, this is gonna sound more, but I don't mean it that way at all. It does put this final little, you know, it puts a little cherry. I was gonna say nail in the coffin. No we won't go there. Nail in the coffin. It's gonna put, it's really gone morbid on us guys. It's putting a little cherry. We're not like going away away on top. Yeah. But it is, it is the final moment of of a career and On Legacy and what I always say about this question around legacy, the word legacy, they're really only asking people like, actually lemme phrase that. If they're asking you about your legacy, it actually means you already did it. It's 'cause you actually have one. One because they're not asking people. Yeah. Nobody's asking someone about their legacy if they haven't done shit. Yeah, true. So that in and of itself I think says it all. But yeah, I enjoyed it. I had a great time. It was fun to watch you doing your thing. Your speech was great. You got the pose at the end. Yeah. Got the little, that's poetic. So yeah. What a nice, that was good. I, speaking of, I saw Jane just absolutely sprinting getting over to get the pose. That's why I did a, the second time Jane longtime photographer, shout out Jane for the rain and the storm and Jane G and Jane g Jane g photo iconic. I just saw her just cute little self scurrying on over. So I was like, okay Jane, we'll get, we'll get this moment. Well we've put a ribbon on your career but obviously a big part of what you've done has nothing to do with scoring goals and doing poses. It has to do with the impact. And there's been big news in the soccer world in the NWSL Details of the new NWSL CBA world, there is a new CBA you were a big part of negotiations before, especially with the national team. Yep. Now the NWSL has their own CBA believe this is the second iteration. Yep. And what we've seen some of the highlights in the deal include increased freedom of movement with total free agency upon the expiration of contracts, the elimination of the draft, a higher salary cap, a sizable increase in minimum salaries. And then things like expanded parental leave and childcare benefits. But obviously a lot of people have been talking about taking away free agency. Everyone's a free agent. You can't be traded unless you approve it. A lot of like power to the players. It's amazing. And I think like to, to have the first CBA really be like a sort of, this was in 2022 I think a sort of like reckoning within the league part of the CBA was like joint investigations into all the abuse. So that was like the first iteration. And this is just like so much about player empowerment and player choice and player movement. I'm really interested to see kind of how it all like plays out and like how it act. Because there's one thing to have CBA and then you gotta live into it and that's the real well the dust has to settle. That's the real CBA, the one you like live into as a, as a living document as they say. But to me it screams like much more Euro model. And I think it's going to easier allow younger players and talent to integrate into teams. It's already kind of happening. It's like we still have the college system obviously, but then younger players are signing. We've seen, you know, like Alyssa Thompson I think is like perfect example. Olivia Moultrie another example. So now I think that's gonna be a lot easier. The draft is just gonna be wide open. It's all gonna be, there is no draft, well there is no draft. Yeah. Players coming outta college who would've gone into the draft. It's just gonna be teams having to, you know, recruit them or players trying to, you know, knock on doors and, and make a team. I love the idea of the player movement and the free agency and the autonomy over where you live, how you set your life up, a life up, what team you wanna play for. I think also in attracting international talent, I think international players are like, what do you mean I can be traded? This is like insane. I signed in, you know, wherever Seattle and now I'm going somewhere. Like it's just insane to them. And I think it does really turn them off a lot. Like at any time you could just move and change. So I love that for international talent. But also, I mean I've been obvi, you know, a part of teams in in, luckily I've never been traded, but were people just up in one day, they're moving their whole life and it's not a lot of support and like you didn't choose to live there. So I love it. I am interested to see how the parody goes in the league with this. Obviously there's salary cap, which is going up in the next few years. Minimum salaries are maybe going up in the next few years, but is this like whoever has the most money is just gonna be the best? Well something that I read, Lindsay Gibbs did a, CBA and audits a great little breakdown that I read the other day and something I noticed that is really interesting because I know this come up in the WNBA negotiations at times is this idea of an audit. So yes, no, you know, player movement, no free agency. All the things, to your point about parody, the way that they're trying to like counteract that is, I forget the terminology, but even though there's no max salary, there are audit rights. Okay. So teams can be audited. Oh. And so people can deep dive into their, I think that's how I read it. Well I'd like to submit a couple teams. Okay. To some auditing. What are you trying to say? Well some, some teams are just signing a lot of people all the time and I'm like two. Yeah. So that was interesting because I don't remember if we had it or didn't have it, but auditing always kind of came up and it's like, oh, can we pull back the curtain? Yeah. And you can't always pull back the curtain Yeah. In some of these, these deals. So I thought that was, was was interesting. The guaranteed contracts also huge. You y'all been having guaranteed contracts for a long time? Well you have like a limit, but yeah. Okay. They're basically all guaranteed. Yeah. So all the contracts are now gonna be guaranteed, which certain limits, which obviously like gives players security and the ability to, you know, and now with having to consent to trade, just giving the ability to like have an off field life and also balance out with their on field life. I think there's gonna be extended parental leave and childcare benefits, which is most likely drafting off what the WNBA has, which is exceptional. So it's just really exciting. I'm really proud of the players and the league also to come together and be like, okay, I think the CBA wasn't set to expire for two more years and it just, they've already outgrown it. So like let's just do it. It's better for everybody. Move it forward and it's really exciting. Yeah. The conversation around that I thought was really interesting. It was basically off the back of the last World Cup and seemingly every other country was catching up and the US you know, you guys didn't, is it called meddling at the World Cup? Just, we just didn't now didn't do that. Didn't at the World Cup or whatever it's called. We didn't win it. And there was a concern. And that to me, what I love about this is I think there, there are times when a league, meaning when the, the players of a league, the union and the league itself do have to kind of, you know, fight with each other. Chip, chip away. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the negotiations can get a little feisty. Then there are times where it's gotta be kumbaya. Yeah. Like listen, we're trying to figure this out. We're all doing the same thing. We need the best deal for both sides. Like there's no point in scratching and clawing at all times. You have to have a little bit of a kumbaya. And I thought the fact that the World Cup performance set off some alarm bells and that both sides were like, okay, we gotta make sure we can bring international players here. Yeah. We gotta make sure we're track talent. Yeah. Making this a global, a global CBA really because it does fit, you've told me this, it does fit into the European soccer model. Yeah. Honestly, basketball, this, I, I don't even, this would never work. Why? It just, it would never work. It would just never work. Why, why is it not gonna work? I, I wanna say like the no trades and, and draft and no, the, it's the lack of free agency. The no draft. Although I am curious, I've read this as well and I agree the draft is an event. So you guys, I would love to like replace the draft with something. I don't know what that would be. Maybe like how kids do letter college letter of intense, where it's like, yeah, a great international player sitting in front of three hats, dun duh duh and she picks up one. Anyways, rain fc. CBAs in soccer vs basketball The thing about basketball in our conversations is where I've landed the difference and why it wouldn't work. Basketball, it's like the rosters are smaller. You're only playing five players, so you can't afford a league can't afford to have 12 people. The 12 best players go to one team. Yeah. And like there's parody. Yeah. And I think in soccer it's a little different. You can actually have super teams and it doesn't automatically lead to some form of domination. The games just don't lend to that in the same, whereas the game of basketball lends to domination if you're too stacked. Yeah. So you have to have things in play and you ask, you're like, well what about Europe? And it's true in Europe it is kind of like highest bidder, but they have limits on how many Americans, which is really actually saying how many non-Europeans are on each team. So even though there's no salary cap built in parody in other ways. Yes. And you have to, you know, in Russian league we had to have two Russians on the floor at all times. Okay. Every country has different rules. Yeah. But there was like ways around it. Yeah. In a sense. So that's what I think is so interesting, but I love that it's power to the players question. This might be a, a tough one. Do you, you obviously can pinpoint a lot of positives and a lot of times what we learn in these CBA negotiations is you start to live into it and then you start to see like, oh, for the next one we're gonna have to do this. Can you even project like a hole that's holes gonna get exposed where the holes are? Oh, I don't know. I mean it, it's, you know, in a way it's like, is everybody gonna wanna choose to go to the same place? But it's like everybody's not gonna be able to go to the same place. And then how, how our team's going to recruit. I don't really know like where are the holes in the salary cap? Where's the fungible areas where you can pay players more Or loophole. Yeah. Where's the Lenny Loopholes? I'm not really sure. I haven't had the document in Reddit and like, or had someone do a debrief on it and gimme the bullet points. That's not, I'm not really sure. I wanna see how sort of the media deal interacts with it as well. Over time. I wanna see like, are those salaries really going up? Obviously the minimum of salaries I think I saw in like five years, it's gonna be up around 80,000, which is so much better. So I, to your answer, your question, I don't know. And I, I'm not, it was a tough question. I'm not seeing the loopholes, but they're always, they're always present themselves will be, and it'll be in, I think what's more interesting even for, for me is like it's changing so quickly. The league is changing so quickly. I think the WNBA is the same and I think women's sports in general, so like how quickly is this gonna be totally obsolete? The other one. Yeah. The minute you sign it, it's already old. It's already old. Yeah. It's outdated. Right. We gotta update you. We're gonna talk about this, you know, sort of adjacent in a little bit but, or the, a sort of similar topic but like how quickly things change and like that's part of why I love this CBA so much is everyone just came to the table and was like, this isn't working anymore. Yeah. This is like I a lot of work, a lot of clearly not where we're at. That's not easy. Not easy, not easy really. That's, you gotta admit to a lot. Own a lot. You gotta put ego to the side. So yeah. Applause. Yeah. So I'm excited. Support for a touch More comes from L'Oreal Paris. Let's talk a little bit about inspiration. While it's everywhere, some moments and people really stay with you. Do you remember a specific moment that inspired you? Megan? I think my specific moment is going to the '99 World Cup and seeing the gals dominate and I was like, oh my gosh, this is a real thing. This could be me. This could happen. See it, be it. Yeah. Exactly. That moment of inspiration is different for every woman. And what happens after that inspiration? That's your journey. L'Oreal Paris wants to help women embrace that spark and discover where it leads their beauty essentials. Combine innovative products with feminine mindset, all topped off with an elegant french touch that can help women everywhere embrace their self-worth and take on the world. That's L'Oreal Paris Because you're worth it. Learn more at lorealparis.com. Okay, moving on from the soccers and getting into the basketballs. The WNBA rundown. WNBA rundown Before we get into all the great games that happened over the past week, I was up on my feet. Sue Bird Court We're gonna talk about a really special thing that happened this morning. As Sue said, we're in Seattle and Seattle has named a street after ours truly, Sue Bird. It's called Sue Bird Court, right outside of Climate Pledge Arena. Tell me about the ceremony today and how special it was even though I was there. But tell me what it means to you to have a literal street in the city forever. Immortalized a literal street. Like there are people that are gonna be doordashing and when they type in their address and they'll be like, can you come to 101 Sue Bird Court please. One zero Sue Bird Court. Yeah. 10 Sue Bird Court. Who would be so lucky? It's pretty crazy. It's pretty crazy. You don't see many athletes get streets named after them. Yeah, it exists though, right? I'm actually, I sue Bird Court runs right into Lenny Wilkens way. So shout out to Lenny Wilkens. But, but the athletes you do see that, that have this honor are men. So it's not that many women always Yeah. Who are out there getting streets. So it's pretty special. I think the ceremony was perfect. Short and sweet, but perfect. Got to, you know, have nice people say nice things about me. Yeah. But also got to share what I feel like my connection is to this city. And how having a street kind of just makes sense because I really do feel like I'm a part of this city, the fabric of this city very much. But it's also very much a part of me. And a lot of what we've accomplished here with the storm is gonna last forever. Right. And you know I said it today, it's like records. Yes. Tell like records. Yes. Tell the people what you said for all people. Tell the people I said give my speech. Lemme see if I can get it again. Yeah, get your speech going. It was great. Thank you to the city of Seattle for the special honor. Now I basically just talked about how in sports we always say records are meant to be broken. And I've said this so many times, especially when my retirement was, was was like in real time. So people have definitely heard me say this, but records are meant to be broken. That's the point. Yeah. The point of records are to push the envelope and you know, change what the standard, what the expectations are and then for the next one to come and break it. But there are some things in sports that you can't take away from someone. There are some achievements that you can't take away from somebody. Championships of course for them, thanks. But I think in my case it's more so the people that I've met, the lifelong friendships, relationships, the memories that we've all created and then there's this impact part off the court. Right. Actually CBAs you know, one of those arms, let's go. Very much so. So when you think of it that way, it's like, oh these things last forever. And so what I was trying to do is just make that connection between the things we've done together in the city, myself, the city itself, the franchise, so on and so forth. And how a street is also something that lasts forever. Yeah. I was like, so now I can add this to this wonderful list to the forever category we have. Yeah. And just how it's, it's really, again, back to Seattle being a part of me and me being a part of it, this is, this street is just a celebration of that. And that was kind of the, the gist that I was going for. So it was really cool. I was glad I got to share that. You know, shout out to everyone who made it possible, the ownership. Dawn Trudeau for sure. Mayor Bruce Harrell was there. He said some nice things, which is wonderful. All the council people who are getting it done. It's brown right now, the science brown. But it'll be great. Temporary brown. Temporary brown. It's going green. Yeah. Nobody likes a, nobody likes a permanent brown. No, no, no, no, no. So we're changing that up. Yeah, we're going green. No, it really was like very special and very sweet. And I think anybody who knows you in Seattle, anybody who's walked around with you in Seattle, the same thing always happens. Everyone does feel a part of you and you feel a part of them. And this is how everybody greets Sue in Seattle. Hey Sue. Literally everyone is just like, Hey Sue. I know. Like, I'm just like a neighbor. You are. I mean I am. It's you're everyone's, everyone's neighbor. You're like everyone's local neighbor. You've been been such a cornerstone obviously of the franchise but of the city and just like people love you so much and you love the city so much and it was a really, really beautiful thing to see. It actually did get me thinking something we've talked about before, only recently. The athlete/fan connection I think, and this is where I've landed on it, I think that athletes go through their career and we're very connected to our fan bases. But we're, and we're thankful for our fan bases. But there is something about the relationship where it's like meaningful, it's meaningful to the athlete but it's really meaningful for the fan. Right? Like when the fan, the fan, when a fan comes up to they're having this like super meaningful interaction with you. Yeah. And it's not that it's not meaningful for the athlete, but you're in your career and you're kind of, you're getting stopped here and there so you just like keeping it moving and then when you retire, I think it flips a little bit. I think all of the sudden, and for me now that I'm two years out, I could even imagine 10 years, 20 years from now. 'cause the flip has already happened and I imagine it'll just gonna grow exponentially through time. Which is wow. They were actually more meaningful to me than I ever could have been to them because this was my life. So for me, they played such a dramatic role in my life for them it's like a moment in their life. For me it was my life. Yeah. And that's kind of, you know, a blanket statement way of saying it. There's obviously a bunch of nuance in there, but it is, it is this interesting thing that after you retire it, it just switches just a little bit and you realize just how impactful it was on you as as a human. Yeah. So it's been, yeah. So I'm actually, I'm gonna circle back on this in one year and I'm gonna see how you're feeling about it. Okay. Well you'll be in year two at that point. Full disclosure. Sue's my ghost writer. And you did, you gave an ultimate assist for what I said on field during the Jersey retirement. Well it's because I regretted not saying it at mine. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I was like, tell me how this goes. Let's nail this thing. Like you, you went through it and just, you know, you gave me the line basically of like, you know, the fans are gonna look up and see the jersey and they're gonna think of me. Of course that's like my jersey and all the things I've done here. But really like when I look up at it and when you look up at yours and when you see to what you're saying, like you're gonna see this your whole life, you're gonna see 20 years of your life and the ups and downs and you know, all the people that you literally have seen for 20 years be there for all of these moments. So it's like incredibly special. And I, I agree. I feel like it's only just gonna get more and more. 'cause it's such just like nostalgic, beautiful part of both of our lives and we're so lucky to have played here for so long and have amazing fan bases. So we're very lucky. Another assist, another dime. Who Sue doesn’t want to see in the WNBA playoffs Okay, speaking of dimes, let's dive into the W. It's been wild. Is it? I think it's been great. It's always wild. The wild part has, you know, we had in the last like 24 hours, 48 hours, we've had two like very close games. We basically had two buzzer beaters in the same game. Yeah, that was crazy. We saw also the sun and the Lynx clinch, playoff births. Exciting for them. It seems really early, but I guess they're just doing great and we're gonna, as we alluded to earlier, play another game of who Sue does not wanna see in the playoffs. But take us through what's going on. Give us all the dates. The Lynx Yeah, well you mentioned the Lynx and they had pretty darn good matchups. Pretty darn good. Yeah, pretty darn good. Yeah, we didn't talk about 'em last week. I purposely didn't because they were already a team. The minute I saw them game one, I was like, oh, it's got legs. Mm this has legs. I'm familiar with all the, and the way I would describe the makeup of this team is you have a lot of steady eddies. You have a lot of people on that team that don't hurt themselves, which means they don't hurt the team. Smart players. Yeah. You have a lot of people who have been role players on, on very successful teams at in other franchises. And now they're all being brought together to essentially surround this budding star, which is Napheesa Collier. And I don't know, they're vets, they're mature. And then of course I'm very familiar with Cheryl Reeve. Cheryl Reeve’s coaching style and just how she coaches and every team you play against every Minnesota Lynx team I've ever played against, they're disciplined as fuck. Yeah. They don't make mistakes. Yeah. Even by the way, so even if you're predisposed to making mistakes on that team, you just don't, it's like something happens the minute you walk in those doors. So even though these players aren't really like that anyway, she's now, you know, bringing a whole their layer to it and they just, they're they're, they're super god, they're really detailed defensively. And I, I learned this about Cheryl when she was an assistant with the USA team, when it was her scout, it was like, all right, they like to pass, you know, the ball to this wing and then it's gonna come through the post and then it's gonna go over there. And she'd be like, so we're gonna deny that pass and if you deny that pass, oh okay you're screwing everything up. She like pulls the pin out of things. Yeah, okay. So they're very detailed. I can get in the nitty gritty of all that. We'll leave it at that. And then offensively they're sharing the ball really well. They're playing together. I think that speaks to who these, each individual players like who they are and they just played at their strengths. So it's been really interesting to watch them throughout the course of the season. Again, didn't mention 'em last week 'cause they played Washington twice and they won both games. Wait, say about Washington. There wasn't, they're in the lottery. It wasn't like a lot to in the lottery as of right now. No, it wasn't about Washington per se, but it wasn't, there wasn't much to, you play the same team twice so it's like there's not much to get into but now you move forward. The Aces Well they played another team twice. Vegas Aces. And even though the Aces are sitting in fifth, they still have this and it's gonna linger for a while. There's still like a little bit of an X on their backs. So even though their record doesn't say it. Oh yeah, they're chance they're in fifth place. Yeah. Everybody, there's still a little bit of the barometer, they're the chance for sure. So when you play play against them, something's different. And it was just really impressive to watch the Lynx essentially handle the Aces two times one at home or actually one away. The first one, one at home. And this is where you can bring up the thesis play. She had 23 and seven, the first game the next time 27 and 18, the 18 rebounds out rebounded the entire opposing team, which is nuts. So those are crazy numbers. Yeah. But then, oh my goodness. You gotta also talk about in this particular conversation Courtney Williams bucket, the game we, what was the game we were watching? I think it was the one at Vegas was the first one. Yeah. And then so yeah it was at at bay and it was just, Courtney just hit every big shot every time they needed a bucket. It was crazy. Yeah. So Courtney's been playing really well in that particular game. It was, and this is also what's gonna make the links dangerous and why I don't wanna see them in the playoffs. The real answer is I don't wanna see them in the playoffs 'cause they're surging. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Momentum, by the way, the answer to this question always is you never wanna play who's peaking? No. You never. And the way the WNBA season is set up, it's short, but it's long. It's quick, but it's not. Yeah. Before you know it you blink it's playoffs. And so it really is at times just about who's playing their best basketball. So that's what's scary about the links. But as I was saying Courtney Williams, that was her day. But like, you know, you're gonna look back on box scores you like, oh that was Kayla McBride's day. Oh that was Alanna Smith's day. Everybody at some point is gonna have their day and that's what makes them dangerous. You don't know which role player it's gonna be. And they have a lot of 'em. Yeah. Surrounding a lot of experiences. It's a great play of nafisa. So that was, that was really, it was, it was, it was interesting to watch them this week. I love that. Another huge storyline in the W is Gabby Williams back to the Storm she's French but she's not, is she? But she is. She's coming back to Seattle. Gabby Williams. She is French. She really is French. Yeah. You wanna know when I knew she was French Gabby and I played together my last season 2022. Love Gabby. I knew she was like really French, like listen, I knew she had a passport. I knew she spoke it to like some degree when when she was do I, she actually sat next to me in the, in the locker room where we practiced and I came to the locker room once and she was doing voice notes in French. I was like, oh you're French, French, French, French. And I was like, do you dream in French? And she was like, sometimes I was like, game over. Yeah. Alright, just gimme your passport. Yeah. Gimme your American passport right now. Yeah, you're outta here. So the storm of resign Gabby, tell me about it. Yeah, it's exciting. I feel like exciting feel this is a good thing for us. Yeah, it's a great thing for the storm. Okay. She's now been here, you know, 2022 for a full season last year for the, the latter part. So similar scenario. So she's familiar, she's comfortable, she's talked about how much she enjoys playing here, which is great on the court. It because she has a history here and with Noelle especially. And then with some of the other players of course hopefully that transition of like getting into it happens pretty quick. But the beauty of Gabby is she can kind of just do anything you need her to do in whatever moment you're in. And so that will allow, I think that process to move quicker and then hopefully she can start to find herself within that. But yeah, she's been playing great. She looks great. The minute we walked in to the arena at the Olympics and we saw Gabby live, I was like, oh damn Gabby, that's good. I was like, uhoh. Yeah. I was like uhoh. Someone's been like, she was always in great shape, but there was just a difference in like the Yeah, yeah. Composition. Very informed, very in shape. Coming off an incredible Olympics where she led her beloved French team to the silver. So that's super exciting and I'm so excited for the storm. Yeah. I love Gabby. We're, so we're recording this on Monday the 26th. Yep. And the storm play, speaking of the mystics, they do play DC tonight so it'll be a good, you know, a good step into, into what is this new roster. We'll see how it all fits. But I'm excited. I'm really excited. I think just like the infusion of like confidence and spice and like everyone's excited she's back. I think she's excited she's back. That's always a nice thing for a team to get. Like you're kind of in the second part of the season, like you're saying it could be long, it could be short. We had the Olympic break this that I feel like it's a good infusion infusion of energy. Yeah, for sure. Is that right? And and what I was getting at when I was talking about Gabby being able to impact the game. So Gabby can literally win you a game without scoring a point, without having an assist, without grabbing a rebound. Now is she gonna get those two? Absolutely right. But her, she just is God, she's almost just like she plugs, she just plugs some of the holes. Yeah. Intangibles. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think that's gonna really fit with this team because we have already in Jewell, in Skylar, in Nneka. I mean I can go down the list. Those three especially, we have people that you know are a little bit more like alphas, you know, they, they're, they're gonna have the ball, the plays, a lot of the plays are gonna be run for them rightfully so. And so Gabby can kind of fill in, you know, get in where she fits in and then build from there. So hopefully it does move. I love that. It does move quick. Okay. Looking back at the past week, who's your player of the week? Player? The week. Oh, the week. Yeah. I kind of already, you know, spilled the veins. I think it might be the entire Lynx bench. No, it might be, no, I'm joking. I think player of the week. It's tough. We're gonna go, I'm gonna give Courtney Williams a little more love so she could, she's up for player of the week. I don't want this to be like the only player so No, no, just, just bright spots from last week. Right. Thank you. Bright spots from the week stars of the week. I think Courtney Williams is in there. Yeah, of course. Napheesa already discussed those two. I think the next one you have to talk about is Angel Reese. She's continuing to just rack up the double doubles. Angel Reese double doubles So she now it's crazy, has tied a record. So she's tied Tina Charles record for the amount of double doubles in a rookie season. So she'll likely break that. Tina one the, the best ever. Yeah. She just had back to back to back 20 rebound games. That's wild. Yeah, it's crazy. That's so many rebounds. So many remember like when people have like a specific skill and it's just like they're, they're the best at this. Like one thing. It's just so cool to see that. I love that. Yeah. I remember when Lauren Jackson first got a 20 rebound game and we all knew it was coming. 'cause like, you know, they have the stats up there. Yeah. You look, everybody looks a little bit and she was at 19 and we're all like, you're at 19. You're at 19. Like go get it. Go get it. Go get it. Go get it. Go get it. That was a 2020 game for her too. Yeah. So it is. Yeah. Big game. Strange. Incredibly impressive. Very quickly. Speaking of Tina Charles, this is also a, a star of the week. Tina Charles Tina a bright spot of the week. Tina has now moved in to number two on the WBAs all time scoring list. Wow. So impressive. Says so much about her work ethic, her obviously ability to score, which, you know, goes without saying. It also speaks to longevity. A lot of these league records, well they're gonna be totally different as we start to extend games and you know, we're at 40 games now. Yeah. It's gonna go, who knows? It's gonna be like the first iteration of the w the first X amount of years. Yeah. And then like everything after that we're gonna be because Yeah, it's all different now. Yeah. We're all Roger mes at some point. So Yeah. So, but it does speak to longevity. A lot of these league records to me is more so about the longevity piece, which is not easy. And Tina, you know, as everybody knows, wasn't in the league last year. So I just think this, this has so much meaning for her, for what is gonna be her legacy and I'm just so proud of her. So shout out to Tina. Number two. Will she go for number one? She is a always off. Yeah. But it's like she's only she can for it. She's not, she's like, I'd have to Google it. She's only like 35. She 35? Yeah, she's about 35. Yeah. All right. D's 42. I know saying you got two Husky sitting at the top of the top of the what do you know? No wonder we're on the Olympic team and Yeah, no, literally I know you, me and another one that we're gonna talk about. Yes, there was, there was another big retirement celebration. Retirement celebration. Jersey retirement celebration in Minnesota. Take this one away. Miss Maya Moore. Maya Moore. I mean, what do you say? Maya Moore Just, I still want the wings poster. I know how lucky she got to do that. Amazing. That's your child injury Jordan brand wings poster. No, I mean it's just, this is just taking a moment to talk about one of the greatest of all time. Anytime I'm asked, you know, who's on your Mount Rushmore, what's your starting five? Maya comes to mind immediately. Yeah. She's one of the best ever. You know, obviously the length of her career might not be or won't be the same as some of the others, like a Diana, that type of thing. But what she did in that time, pretty tough to beat. Pretty tough to beat from the moment she stepped on the college campus at Yukon. You knew she was special from the moment she got drafted with the Lynx. I mean, they won her very first year and then I actually played against her. So in this time span I was playing against her in the WNBA, I was playing against her overseas. So I saw her play in n Spain. I mean this is what's interesting about Maya's career within one to two seasons with every team she's ever joined for the first time they've won. So in college it, it took a beat. So she didn't win till her sophomore year. But then after that joins the links, they win, goes overseas, plays for Rose Cassars, they win in Valencia, they win Euro league. That's when I broke my nose and I couldn't play against. Now poor in warmups. I broke my nose in warmups. Who did it? Shay Duran. If you had to say one thing about what makes Maya a goat, one of the best of all time worthy of having the jersey up in the rafters, what, what is the, the one thing that you'll say? So what I think makes Maya special is, okay, so she's an exceptional score. Right? Okay. But, but, but that's not, there's been a lot of exceptional scores. She can hit threes. She can, her pull up is God, it's beautiful. Yeah. Her ability to finish around the rim. She's strong. Yeah. She's actually a really good passer as well. But, but a lot of people, the grates, a lot of the grates have those skills. What makes her a little different, and this is in my experience in watching her firsthand with USA basketball, is she is unfazed by anything happening around her. Wow. If the game is going well, if the game is going bad, if the, if the defense is tough, if the defense is easy, it's like, it doesn't matter. She's just so locked in on, and I don't know if that's a, a mental preparation thing or just who she is. I think it's just who she is. Yeah. And she probably leaned into it. She was never faced it, it was from the moment. I mean, she joined the USA team when she was still in college. We played on a World Cup team together. But really what stands out is in London, we had some tough games in that London Olympics. It's her first Olympics. She's, you know, a, a pro of maybe a year, maybe going into her, you know, probably in her second WBA season. And we had some sticky spots and Maya just, it's like, does she even know Yeah. That this is sticky. So it's like consistency and like showing up in the biggest moment because she's just like, you couldn't face her. Gimme that ball. You couldn't phase her. Yeah. If that was the day Maya was scoring 40, there was nothing you could do to stop it. Mm. You know, of course you try to make it hard. She's inevitable. You know, you're doing all the locker room like, Hey guys, like, make older people beat us, you know, like Maya be the one to beat us. And it's like, yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay coach. Well we are right on that. There were times though, pull up when Jenny was our coach, there were times where we basically tried to take her outta the game. We called it like no leave or something where we were saying like, okay, Alysha Clark, that was our best defender for, you know, a good period of time there. Alysha, AC you're guarding Maya. That's it. Don't let her catch it. But we weren't playing zone. You've, I'm sure you've heard of boxing ones. It wasn't that we were playing man to man, but we were trying to just like take her out and then just try to play four on four. Meaning even if AC was in a position where it was her help on a drive. Yeah. AC wasn't going. Somebody else had to go. Did it work? No. Absolute. They don, we didn't, we didn't, I think we lost to the links like 305 times in a row. At one point we were just talking about the Ace, how they're the barometer. That was the Lynx. Yeah. Those Olympians again where they didn't win. Well they always finish like first dish. But even in the years where they weren't like first, you still felt like you were playing against the champion. Yeah. So yeah, we had, we had, we had a bad little stretch there with the storm, but finally in 2018 we came back, we got 'em, got 'em, got granted. Like they were totally different by that point. Yeah, yeah. They were tough. That whole team, I mean, I don't wanna go too deep dive, but up until this Vegas back court came together, Jackie Young, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray, it was without a doubt the Minnesotans was without a doubt the best back court in WNBA history. Oh yeah. Maya and Lindsay and Lindsay. Poof. And I still think they're the best back court, but I do think the ACEs are, have, have challenged that. But more so from a scoring standpoint, the Aces back court, those three, what makes them different and special is you have three players that are constantly on the attack offensively. You can't constantly Yeah. But Minnesota had other things going for them, like size that back court. Yeah. So anyways, without further ado, congratulations Maya. Yeah. Maya super deserving. Amazing. And all your work off the court as well. Of course. And your social justice work and your commitment to that. And just the way that you've always carried yourself, you're just a legend. Some people don't need a long time to make an impact. You know, Maya said, my work's done here. Thank y'all. Appreciate it. Yeah, it was really cool. Her jacket was cool. Oh yeah, the gold shoe thing was cool. It seems like Minnesota really did it right for her and as she deserved, so yeah, that was dope. Congrats Maya. Support for a Touch more comes from L'Oreal Paris. When you hear the words because you're worth it, what do you think of? Probably L'Oreal, Paris. It's their tagline after all. But beyond that, what does worth really mean to you? Empowerment. Equity, knowing what you want. For me, knowing my worth means being able to be who I am all the time. L'Oreal Paris feels the same way. One of the ways they bring that sentiment to life is through their Women of Worth program. Every year they search for 10 extraordinary female nonprofit leaders to be named Women of Worth honorees, to receive a financial grant to support their charity. Mentorship from the L'Oreal Paris Network and a national platform to tell their stories. Because it's time to celebrate these extraordinary women and inspire the next generation of female leaders. L'Oreal, Paris. Because you're worth it. The Intersection Moving on to the intersection, moving on the intersection. What you got for us? We got one of the coolest part. I love when this happens. It's not, it, it just like nobody controls when these types of things happen. It just is what it is. And, and the right combination has to come. Angel Reese / Reese’s Pieces collab Angel Reese now has a Reese's Pieces partnership. Anytime that this is possible, it should a hundred percent happen. Yeah. This is so cool. Yeah, she's obviously gonna like put it on her shoes and stuff and do other things. But like, I think this is like so fun. Well they have a logo and so she's got hoodies and t-shirts that are, that are dropping. But I think the interesting part is just how she and her whole fan base kind of like spoke this into existence. I love it. You know, she had the Bayou Barbie thing going. Yep. When she was in LSU, she gets to Chicago. I wanna say she tweeted out something like, yo, what should my, like, what's my crew's name gonna be up here? Probably didn't say crew, but I'm 43. And from that point she, I don't even know if it was her fan. Somebody came in with, what about Reese's Pieces? And it was like, yeah, that works. I think that we should somehow try to tie in her prolific rebounding with Reese's Pieces. And is it every time she gets a rebounded to Reese's Pieces is a pack of Reese's Pieces just called like Angels rebounds. Like I don't, there's some other smarter marketing people that need to like get in on this, but I just feel like there's something, we can workshop it. There's something going on Every time she gets a rebound. Pieces of Reese's, if she gets 10 rebounds is the whole crowd. Get a pack of Reese's Pieces. Like, I don't know, something. I wanna see it happen. Yeah. So, so that was cool. Congratulations to her. Yeah. Yeah. Intersection. Pulling the, pulling the, the culture into basketball. And I just love to see it. Okay. “Are you a Megan or a Sue?” results The results are in the voicemails have come in. Thank you everybody who called in and left your responses to, are you a Megan or are you a Sue packing edition? We also got hit on the side a lot about it from just friends, family, everybody. So let's hear some of these. We can't wait. This is gonna be LOL. I know. Oh God. Tito, - From the time the trip is booked until about two days before the trip, I'm Sue, I'm planning, I'm making lists, I'm making sure I have everything. And then I start packing and I become Megan and I'm like, well I love this shirt and I don't have it planned. I'll bring it just in case. And then I end up with way too much stuff. So that's right. I am potentially in ineffective Sue and potentially an ineffective Megan also. I should probably choose one or the other, kind of go with it. My best self wants to be a sue. And then I have too many favorite items. And I become - Megan. Definitely a Megan when it comes to packing. You'll see me in my hotel room, Airbnb or whatever it may be, with clothes all over the place. I wish I was able to list it out. Sometimes it's like Megan said, sometimes you just need a vibe with it. And when that trip happens, it's, it's a different vibe and it's a mess. Exactly. But definitely a Megan on this one. - My name is Rosie. Is Rosie. And I definitely a sue. Anything that is out of order, I just can't move forward. Everything needs to be orderly and it needs to make sense to me. - I'm calling to respond to Megan or Sue for packing. And in that regard, I would say I am a SuePinoe. Reason being, I definitely roll my clothes to fit more in there, but I don't plan it out to a T. So I, I put some stuff in there to mix and match. I hope for the best. Megan, by the way, hey girl, if you're trying to pack 68 pounds in there, 'cause you need some extra, just imagine if you were to roll your clothes. I mean, girl, you could probably get 86, 87 pounds in there. - No, I carry everything. No I do not. Just saying, yeah, you do. Hey girl, it's heavy. - So regarding the ranger roll, my husband is indeed in the military. The ranger roll does work in some circumstances. In others it does not. And I just wanna say I'm a, I'm a swag here - Because okay, swag, - I write - Out W come from outfit that - I would need and I stand those. But then I walk into my closet and I say, mm, what can't I leave behind? And essentially it's all my favorites or anything that's comfortable or anything that's neon or anything that is, - That's a good turn - Needed de mere if you will. So could you guys add a third - Option here that's neon. Oh my gosh. Yeah. There's a third option. It's called swag. It's called swag. I don't know where the W comes from. I don't know, but I'm into it. Yeah. All right. I loved it. That was hilarious. I also throw my favorite things. That's also difficult when you see something you're like, oh, it's not planned. Let me just take it. Lemme just take it. I always, yeah, lean in on the side of taking, yeah, that was great. That was hilarious. I mean the ranger roll sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. I agree. Sometimes it's just like the things don't need to be, they get all wrinkled up certain items of clothing or maybe pan, I don't know. It's just you're ironing everything regardless. Yeah. Well the like the thing not, not everything. Yeah. But the things you need ironed your irony. Yeah, true. Yeah. I would say the only time I don't range roll is when I've got plenty of space. Like I'm not trying to make it fit. Yeah. Then you fit can just, just put it in, throw it in. We're good. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can't have a suitcase that's like ranger rolled up, but then there's all this dead space. No, it's just gonna move all over the roll. The ranger rolls will fall right out. Yeah. So it's pointless. I don't know if I should try a ranger roll if I'm getting up to 86, 87 pounds. That might be too much for me. Yeah. I can't even pick it up. Well, the good news is because we've had such a wonderful week and weekend, we don't have a bicker of the week, so we're gonna have to hold off. Everything's been perfect on that. Perfect. We've just been getting along great. A Touch More But we will leave you with A Touch More. Always. Yes. Obviously the opening ceremony flag bears have been picked for the Paralympics. So excited. Yes. Everybody's been like, what do we do after the Olympics? And she's like, you watch the Paralympics, you just wait a short amount of time. And then we do it all over again. Steve Serio, who's a wheelchair basketball player, and Nicky Nieves, I think is how you pronounce that, is sitting volleyball. They will be bearing the flag for us over in Paris for the Paralympics. I'm so excited. I'm thrilled. I can't wait. I can't wait. Also, I always get so into it. Yeah, I, well, I need you to get into it and with all the apps, and I know I'm working. I gotta get my, I deleted them. Yeah. Because I was like, okay, but I can't get it. We gotta get back in, get 'em back. Yeah. It's just also been really cool. I read some sort of article just about how the Olympics and also the Paralympics are, have just interacted with TikTok so much. So there's so many, like different avenues to view. Obviously peacock streaming partner, you're getting like, you can get every sport every time whenever it's live. So there's, it's just so much more accessible and you can kind of like pick and choose what you want and I'm super excited about that. Yeah, I'm excited as well. We've actually had the pleasure of meeting Tatyana McFadden. This is like her 800th Olympics, which is incredible. Amazing. I the exact number, but this is, she, I do know she's had, she already has 20 medals to her name. She's in track and field. That's so cool. Prolific. Yeah. Eight, eight of those are gold. Eight silver, four bronze. Hopefully that adds up to 20. She's gonna be doing five individual events, so just wanna give her a quick shout. Shout out. Yep. Another person I wanna shout out, Jamal Hill, he's a swimmer Black guy. He has like a nerve, nerve condition and so he can't really feel basically from like below. He can like walk and everything, but like the feeling is not quite there from like elbows down and knees down. But he's a 50 meter freestyle swimmer in the S9 category, so he could be hitting with other athletes that are similarly situated. What's really cool though is that he has this mission of teaching people how to swim and like, basically like swim safety. And by 2028, which she's from Inglewood, California, so it would be home Olympics. Oh. Wants to teach like a million people how to swim. Okay. That's amazing. So like, yeah, really opening up, especially in communities of color and making it a lot more safe. So shout out to Jamal Hill. We can't wait to watch you swim is gonna be awesome. So pumped about that. A Touch More, just the last little a touch more is something we've talked about forever. I'm gonna let you go in on this, but Dijonai brought up her feelings about the games not being televised. Maya's retirement. So get into it, Sue. Yeah. So break it down for us. So basically what's been happening recently, I mean, it's been happening for forever, but these two events, Maya's retirement back to light. Yeah. Right. And as you said, the Connecticut Sun played the LA Sparks at TD Garden in Boston. It was sold out. Both of these events were not on national tv. And so there's been a lot of conversation from players, from fans. It's been everywhere around how this could be possible. And I think really what, what, where, where I wanna take this conversation. 'cause to me what it's really about is the idea that we always talk about in terms of investing in women, but, but, but in a little bit of a different way. So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna give a pass. I'm gonna say there's a lot of of things in motion that didn't get these games on national tv. Some people blame Cathy herself. It's not Cathy's fault. Yeah. There's so many different factors and variables. So let's just, I'm gonna give it a pass. It's terrible. They should have been on national tv, but I'm gonna give it a pass. And this is why it's like from now on when I talk about investing in women's sports, this is what I mean. I mean, stop doubting it and start looking at the potential and make projections based on that. Like, enough of the doubt of enough of the like, well let's, let's circle back on this in a year or two or three and and see if it's still happening. I wonder if they can sell. We've already sell our TD garden. We can. We're already past that point. Yeah. We we are past the point. We already know it. So now investing means like investing in the projection of Yeah. The potential. Yes. Yeah. We always talk about this, whether it's like our contracts or these tv, you know, contracts or putting games on tv. It's always like men get invested based on their potential. NBA player, whoever comes outta college, he's great. They say, we think this is what we think he could do. This is what we think you could do for us. And so this is what we're gonna pay you with women coming to college. We don't get that. They're like, well, I don't really know what you're gonna do. You do the unbelievable thing. I mean, I say this literally the impossible thing. I say this about myself in 2019, and it's like, you do the absolutely impossible thing. You catch lightning in a bottle, you do all this, you win, yada, yada, yada. And then they're like, well, I mean, are you gonna do it again? No. Like, is that 'cause now we didn't pay you before because like, we didn't know. So like, we can't really take that leap of faith. I'm like, meanwhile we're taking all leaps of faith. And then you do it and they're like, well, you're probably not gonna do it again. Right? Like, we know people are coming and watching these games sold out in Toronto when it was there. So many games sold out across the W this year. Viewership numbers up all things. Same in the NWSL, same in the NWSL. Same in like everything. So like, I love that. Give the pass. This is what we mean when we talk about women's sports. Set things up in advance so we can have the ability to capture those moments the way that we need to. And there you have it. Get us off this soapbox psych. I live up here. Do you wanna, do you wanna close it? Yeah. Okay. Let's close it out. That's it for this episode. Another one. We're doing it. We just keep doing it. We're doing it weekly. I'm so proud of us. Oh my gosh. We we're actually doing it weekly. It's so much fun. Into that note. See you next week. Thanks to L'Oreal Paris for their support. We've long heard because you're worth it, but it can be hard to really take those words in and believe in yourself. L'Oreal knows that every woman's journey to discovering their own self-Worth is unique and they want to be there for every step of the way. Whether it's as simple as making you feel beautiful when you take on your day, or as impactful as giving financial support to an inspiring woman's vision to help a community. L'Oreal is there. When you embrace your worth, you can change the world, no matter the generation, no matter the obstacles. Learn more at lorealparis.com.