Latest / We Got Next / Women’s pro baseball returns, Valkyries resume after All-Star break, WNBA trade deadline breakdown

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Women’s pro baseball returns, Valkyries resume after All-Star break, WNBA trade deadline breakdown · We Got Next

• 0:03
  Michelle: Welcome, bienvenidos to We Got Next, a podcast for fans by Fans, where we center athletes who identify as women, femmes, and thems, and who are changing the game on and off the court, the field, the pitch, the pool, and more.
• 0:25
  Filiberto: Just can you just briefly describe for our audience, how hot it's been lately in in this, lovely Sacramento climate?
• 0:35
  Michelle: It's a lot. We're on, I think, day six
• 0:39
  Filiberto: Day six.
• 0:40
  Michelle: Of of if if it didn't hit quite a 100, it felt like it definitely hit a 100.
• 0:45
  Filiberto: Because of the humidity that feels like is definitely we're we're over a 100. Yes. Yeah. It's painful, y'all. It's difficult.
• 0:55
  Even with the AC going, you still feel the heat somehow. It still penetrates you and it dehydrates you. I don't even
• 1:00
  Michelle: Yeah.
• 1:01
  Filiberto: This is new. This is very uncomfortable.
• 1:04
  Michelle: And I will say, if you can't tell from my cartoonish kind of photo on our socials, I'm a fair skinned person.
• 1:14
  Filiberto: Are you now? You've got your Irish spots.
• 1:15
  Michelle: And
• 1:17
  We went to San Francisco on Sunday. So we're recording this August 4. So we were in town for the Golden State Toronto game.
• 1:24
  Filiberto: And to hang out with my bro ski.
• 1:26
  Michelle: The first one. What's up, Ernie? And we knew like, you know, we go to San Francisco a lot, so I know to dress in layers. I'm always cold anyways. So I dressed in layers.
• 1:35
  But I wore a tank top because I was like, we're gonna walk around. Yeah. We're doing some bar hopping before the game. So I wore a tank top and I got burned. I cannot remember last time I got sunburned in San Francisco.
• 1:49
  That never happens to me.
• 1:49
  Filiberto: And my forehead was glowing. Yes. Glowing in the exuberance of the sunlight. Yeah. Well, and then it's like in San Francisco and it was 75, but it should have I don't know.
• 2:00
  We just burnt. Because it was over a 100 in Sacramento, we just didn't think through it. We're just like, well, as long as it's below 80, we're great.
• 2:06
  Michelle: Yeah. I mean, I still had my short sleeve shirt. Mhmm. And then my long sleeve jacket, and I had to put the jacket over my shoulders a little bit, try to cover my shoulders while we were at
• 2:15
  Filiberto: Absolutely.
• 2:16
  Michelle: At lunch. So that was fun. But a gorgeous day in San Francisco. Super excited to get out of the Sacramento heat.
• 2:25
  Filiberto: Yeah. So for for maybe folks that are listening to this podcast that never have gone to a Valkyries game and want to go, yeah. Chase Center is gorgeous. It's lovely. It's right on the water.
• 2:34
  And bring layers. Yes. And don't forget the sunscreen.
• 2:37
  Michelle: Yes. Since we're describing the weather, do you also want to describe the state of our podcast studio right now?
• 2:46
  Filiberto: Oh, yeah. So y'all we just need to give you a little warning. We have fostered a brand new kitty cat tentatively named He Man Thunder Kitty. Tentatively. We're not committing to anything.
• 3:00
  I just needed to we needed to call him something.
• 3:01
  Michelle: Well, and this is our first time, like, officially fostering with a shelter. We already have a foster cat from from our neighbors.
• 3:07
  Filiberto: Right.
• 3:08
  Michelle: But this is our first time going through the shelter program and
• 3:11
  Filiberto: He's one point five pounds.
• 3:12
  Michelle: I know.
• 3:13
  Filiberto: He's a little guy.
• 3:14
  Michelle: He's like nine weeks. He's he's like I think they they call him like an American curl. So like the ears are a little curled back. Super cute. Looks a little bit like a bat.
• 3:23
  Filiberto: Yeah. And we presently don't know where he is. But
• 3:26
  Michelle: I do. I saw him.
• 3:27
  Filiberto: Oh, you did see him. Good. Yes. So he may pop up at some point and, or he may drop an, he he also has some intestinal problems. And whenever he drops a deuce, it just like, wafts throughout the house.
• 3:38
  And so we may have to pause for a second to deal with that because it's a little distracting.
• 3:43
  Michelle: But the the it'll wake you up from your sleep. I you know, we know from experience. But the reason I wanted to mention the shelter was when I picked up our kitty and the supplies we need for him, I asked like, what's his name? And the volunteer was like, oh, a foster parent, you get to name the cat. And I was like, yes.
• 4:05
  Filiberto: What an honor.
• 4:06
  Michelle: Just knowing your creativity. We've got children in our fit, like Yeah. That's our immediate family. We'd like have Yeah. We will try to post a photo on socials.
• 4:17
  He's like I said, nine weeks, so he's still in that kinda early, like, doesn't quite look like a cute kitten just yet.
• 4:24
  Filiberto: He's he's pretty terrified of existence right now. And it's it's, you know, age appropriate.
• 4:28
  Michelle: We are in, like, the first three day like, this the initial three days where you kinda, like, put them, you know, in a small room and let them get used to the the sights and the smells and the sounds. So
• 4:38
  Filiberto: And we also decided it would it'd a good idea to keep recording the podcast in here because then he can just get used to our voices and just our smells and not be so alarmed with our presence. He doesn't have to come out. He's good. But Yeah. We're just giving him a little contact time without being too forceful.
• 4:53
  Michelle: And it appears he did come out today though because we have, like, a small storage, not bookcase, but cube. And I had, like, some of his medicines and other things that we came in and, like, he had pulled on the the textile that was holding it and it came crashing down. So I was like, okay. So he's he's out stretching and testing his claws.
• 5:15
  Filiberto: His 1.5 pounds really did it.
• 5:17
  Made it happen.
• 5:18
  Michelle: He might have had to jump to, like, reach that.
• 5:19
  Filiberto: Oh, absolutely. He can't
• 5:21
  Michelle: Like a tiny kitten jump.
• 5:22
  Filiberto: tug. That wasn't a little tug. Yeah. That was his mighty leap from his little frame.
• 5:27
  Michelle: Yes.
• 5:28
  Filiberto: Michelle, So finally. Yes. What are you drinking?
• 5:33
  Michelle: Again, it's it's warm. That's kind of a common theme in last several episodes. We're drinking a rose, again from one of those fantastic wineries that we are a member of in Sonoma. And I tend to like the roses that are more that you can really taste that red part of it and not like it's not too heavy on the white side.
• 5:53
  Filiberto: It's like I'm just like, tasting the skin of the grape.
• 5:57
  Michelle: Yes. So I prefer the ones that are a little stronger and bolder like that. Not necessarily as sweet as some of the roses out there. So it's a really good one, but it still feel it still feels light and kinda refreshing in the heat.
• 6:10
  Filiberto: Yeah. Just a little substantial, a little mature, but still light and, good for these horrible, horrible hot summer days.
• 6:25
  And we're just gonna drive right through here, Michelle. We're gonna drive right through. Yeah.
• 6:29
  What is the news of the week or the last several weeks maybe?
• 6:33
  Michelle: Yeah. I can't put weeks because we we skipped a week.
• 6:36
  Filiberto: Skipped a week.
• 6:36
  Michelle: To take a break.
• 6:37
  Filiberto: Took that break. Took that all star break ourselves. Because you know what, Michelle? We are all stars too, and we deserve a break.
• 6:43
  So there we go.
• 6:44
  Michelle: We weren't intending to take this break or we at least we took a longer break than All Star break.
• 6:49
  Filiberto: We knew there would be a break. We just extended it.
• 6:51
  Michelle: So this might be going a little back for people, but just a lot of great stuff happening. The first one I wanna mention is the professional I have this acronym wrong.
• 7:04
  Filiberto: Oh, yeah. That's definitely wrong.
• 7:08
  Michelle: Women's Professional Baseball League. WPBL. They just they started August first and second with their first games. We had LA versus New York in the first game, which had a massive rain delay. They're they're playing all their games in Illinois.
• 7:24
  Filiberto: Yeah. It was it was, like, poetic in terms of just how bad the game was from, like, a a conditions perspective. There was a rain delay. You can the camera was clearly on some aluminum rafters. So anytime anything happened, it would shake.
• 7:41
  You're like, aw.
• 7:41
  Michelle: It got really blurry.
• 7:42
  Filiberto: Homies. Like Yeah. There was some business going on, but it's, you know, it's the glory and the the romance of a new business, a new entity, another stacking of women's professional sports on top of other the great things.
• 7:53
  Michelle: Well, just like to add an asterisk there. So ESPN is streaming them. Mhmm. They're not gonna be on their actual, like, quote unquote TV stations, but that's streaming. However, part of that deal is that the league is responsible for the actual production of it. So the production might suffer a little bit, at least in the beginning, but hopefully it'll get better.
• 8:15
  Filiberto: Yeah.
• 8:17
  Michelle: And then the second game so the first game, LA won. LA had to come from behind. They were down, like, five to eight for a lot of the game, they came back.
• 8:27
  Filiberto: And lost the mascot again? LA? Queens. LA, Queens.
• 8:33
  Michelle: And then it's New York Heights. Mhmm. So LA did come back and win that game, so it was really cool. It was kinda like you had this huge rain delay. Some of the fielding wasn't great probably because it it was raining
• 8:45
  Filiberto: throughout It was the slick out there. It was a Yeah. It was a consistent drizzle.
• 8:48
  Michelle: So fielding, like, infield, outfield, not great. But then LA put some hits together and they were able to come from behind and win 10 to eight. And it was really cool because we have had baseball leagues in the past, anyone who's watched League of Their Own. So there are and there's still some like living legends who were some of the first women to play baseball.
• 9:11
  Filiberto: There's not many left, there's still a couple out there.
• 9:13
  Michelle: So you had Maybelle Blair. Se's awesome and actually, I forget which team it is, but one of the teams has taken on like a mascot of her. She's Mhmm. Older lady. She's like 90, maybe 99.
• 9:27
  But she was there with some of the other like original players. But she's great. She's got this kinda like almost to her shoulders, white hair and she wears kind of those larger like, wraparound sunglasses.
• 9:41
  Filiberto: Kinda like the baseball or bicycle bros.
• 9:43
  Michelle: Yes. And so she there is a mascot that is like looks exactly like her. So it's really cool just like to hear her story. We'll put we'll put a link to in the story notes about some of the coverage that she's gotten to kind of like revive her story and
• 9:59
  Filiberto: So she's All the Way May? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just looking at notes.
• 10:04
  She's 99 and she's all yeah. So she's the Madonna character.
• 10:07
  Michelle: That's yeah. Let's say the Madonna character. Right. Because the the mascot is definitely wearing the skirts Yeah. Uniform that you saw in that movie.
• 10:14
  Filiberto: Yeah. We'll we'll definitely get put some links in the show notes.
• 10:16
  Michelle: And then the second game so on the next day, August 2, we had the San Francisco Firebells play the Boston Hunters. That was kind of a blowout. SF won that game 11 to three. Unfortunately, we were in San Francisco, so we couldn't watch the game live on ESPN. But but just super exciting.
• 10:37
  They did real you know, they have kinda like limited resources if the league's having to like do a lot of production themselves. But they did a good job like their sideline I don't know what that's called. Their kinda sideline reporter did a really good job of like talking to just regular fans who came there with their kids, talking to some of the alumni and kind of the OGs. So they did just a really good job of kind of like coming full circle and talking to a lot of people in the stands, especially during, you know, the rain delay from the first day.
• 11:05
  Filiberto: Absolutely.
• 11:07
  Michelle: So it's really cool. And I'm excited to keep watching games.
• 11:11
  Filiberto: Yep. And it's a it's a four game league right now. It's six weeks, and everyone's in the playoffs. And so, you know
• 11:17
  Michelle: Four team.
• 11:18
  Filiberto: Four team. Thank you. Mhmm. And so as things expand, we expect to see more teams too. And it's
• 11:22
  Michelle: Yeah.
• 11:23
  Filiberto: We get to be on the ground floor in this one, y'all. Yeah. It's exciting.
• 11:27
  Michelle: I think next up, just a quick mention of She Weekend. I know it's been a couple but there's still like a lot of positive vibes out there on socials from people who attended. And again, this is the weekend where Flavor Flav invited a lot of women's Olympic athletes to come party in Vegas because he noticed there was some discrepancies with how men athletes and women athletes were being celebrated by their respective countries.
• 11:59
  Filiberto: The champions. The champions.
• 12:01
  Michelle: So he and then he just kinda is I think it first started with the women's hockey team, the USA women's hockey team, but then it just kind of expanded to other Olympians, then he expanded to Paralympians. So super cool. And also it's it was like mid July. So again, really hot in Vegas for them. But it looks like people were just having a blast.
• 12:19
  Holly Rowe was there. She's like really well known in women's sports. She was having a blast. And I just wanna highlight what's her name? Bren Hucks.
• 12:32
  She is a five time Paralympic medalist in snowboarding. And we'll put a link to her Instagram in the show notes. But she she attended, she had a blast, and she kinda did like some diaries after the fact on her Instagram where she breaks it down like what she was doing, who she saw, and just kind of like just the joy and the, you know, the awesome people she met. But just kinda like it was it's a really good overview of the weekend and like the different events they had and just kinda how Flavor Flav and his kind of, like, event planning team went all out and just really and and Las Vegas, like, made made the athletes feel really welcome. And especially, like, when they did the parade down the Strip, lots of young girls just really excited to cheer them on, and it was really exciting.
• 13:24
  Filiberto: Well, and I think what's I mean, who added on their bingo card the Flavor Flav would be the massive advocate for women's sports. But I think it's just a message to all men. The best way to be an advocate is just to fucking do it. Yeah. Just start doing it.
• 13:37
  Go out there, have an interest, be respectful, and engage. Right?
• 13:43
  Michelle: Yeah. And it's, you know, it's never too late to wake the fuck up and become an ally of people you may have overlooked in the past.
• 13:50
  Filiberto: Because probably could guarantee that Flavor Flav wasn't always a Yep. You know, devout supporter of women's sports.
• 13:55
  Michelle: I mean, Flavor of Love, like, let's be real.
• 13:57
  Filiberto: It's a different it's a different sort of women's sport, Michelle.
• 14:03
  Michelle: So that was really cool. Again, I'm I'm still, like, a lot of good vibes coming through my feeds on that. So I just wanna uplift that again.
• 14:19
  Another kind of cool story. I have like mixed thoughts on this, but I think overall it's a great sign.
• 14:27
  But we have, there's this European broadcast group. It's this group that kind of put together some guidelines on how to cover women athletes. And this one specifically really focuses on like, track and field, like pole vaulting, triple jump, other things. But I think, like, there's absolutely takeaways for covering any sports. Yeah.
• 14:57
  Like, not just that. They actually have some drawings and they show examples of like, this kind of frame is bad coverage. This kind of frame is positive, respectful, dignifying coverage. And so I think, you know, a lot of other sports could take lessons from this. But it's also just about reminding people that there's times when you're part of the problem.
• 15:20
  Whether you're a broadcaster, you're a TV camera person, but the way you show women athletes can be kind of demeaning. And it can be not that that's your intent, but it can be used on social media later on. Part of the problem is these slow mo replays where it's zoomed in have been weaponized against women athletes and like really sexualized them. And I think that's kind of this acknowledgement that we could do better. And let's cover women better with the different camera angles, the way we zoom in.
• 15:56
  So there were some Olympians that were part of drafting these. They included people who run a video camera, people who are producers. They included a lot of people, a lot of women, which was nice. So it's it's kinda like, you know, don't focus on the torso, the behind, the legs. These are human beings.
• 16:17
  Show their freaking faces.
• 16:19
  Filiberto: Yeah. And I think what we're seeing is we're seeing and this is also true for journalism. You know, we're seeing this a lot more last year with the W and certainly this year is that you have an infrastructure that's mostly designed to cover men's sports, and they're suddenly shifting to women's sports. And there hasn't been a thoughtful process to help these institutions transition. Yeah.
• 16:38
  But then also there hasn't been a thoughtful process of making sure that there are more women and femmes running cameras.
• 16:44
  Michelle: Exactly.
• 16:44
  Filiberto: Training folks, making sure that they're in positions of authority. Because again, like what we're seeing for the most part and it's changing now because of the money involved is everyone just shifting the male operation to the woman's game. And that is causing a lot of problems.
• 16:57
  Michelle: Right. It's not it is not absolutely not a one size fits all. And I think like, we talked about this, like, how, you know, for certain sports or certain industries like, I'll use teaching as an example just because I've been involved in education for a while. But, like, teachers start their school year kind of like sports has seasons, and teachers start their school year with not only teachers, but administrators, classified staff. Like, they start their school year with some professional development time.
• 17:27
  And for some people, that's a couple of days. They update them on the latest teaching trends, the latest laws they have Yeah. To adhere Absolutely. They bring in, you know, motivational speakers and all this stuff. So they make sure that people are updated and have exposure to, like, new ways of doing things.
• 17:43
  And sports could take a page out of that book. There's a lot of for example, broadcasters who keep getting their context renewed, but is there any education about language justice? And I I think this is like a good start of conversations, and hopefully it keeps going. Like, again, the guide kind of focuses on track and field, but this can be brought down to other sports. And I I think it's not just about the camera angle.
• 18:11
  It's also when you are doing some replays, the people who are talking, the commentators also have to kind of, you know, change, update the way they cover the sport, the way they cover the athletes. And I think for me just watching a lot of the WNBA, there are a few broadcasters for the teams, the local broadcasters. There is someone in the Pacific Northwest who I will not name, but he has made some just really disparaging comments about women talking about like, if if I if it wasn't for my wife, I wouldn't know how to separate the laundry from like whites and, you know, clothes with colors or I wouldn't know how to, like, load a dishwasher. And it's like, what are you talking about? You're covering a WNBA game.
• 19:01
  It's so is that's an example of, like, dude, you're part of the problem. Stop demeaning, stop generalizing, stop gendering people like that.
• 19:11
  Filiberto: But I think, yeah, to the point where you're where you're suggesting also reflects that there's a failure of the institutions. And somebody needs to sit his ass down and be like, yo, bro, like Yeah. We need to stop talking like that. And I'm sure he gets that feedback in other parts of the broadcasting experience, but is he given direct feedback about that aspect of the way he's talking? And it doesn't really seem like it.
• 19:31
  Michelle: And I'm gonna just put a finer point on this. He's an older white gentleman, and he's a play by play. He's got a Black woman, a younger Black woman next to him doing kind of the analysis of the game and like, that's not on her. That is absolutely not on her to have to explain it to him. Someone else needs to do it.
• 19:49
  Yeah. And so it's this recognition that a lot of the producers, a lot of the editors, all these people tend to still be men. The camera operators tend to still be men. And so we need to kind of broaden our perspectives and make sure we're doing better.
• 20:03
  Filiberto: Yep.
• 20:05
  Michelle: So I'll put the guide in the show notes. It's really fascinating. Has some great drawings to just make sure people understand what they're talking about.
• 20:23
  Also big news in LA, and we're not talking about the trade deadline for the W, Nneka Ogwumike is a player for the Sparks. She kind of started her career there after Stanford, went to Seattle, has come back.
• 20:39
  She recently took over the top all time scorer for the LA Sparks franchise. She's now sitting at 6,281 points. She unseated Lisa Leslie, close to our hearts, Lisa Leslie. So Lisa retired with 6,263 points. And so Nneka now is 18 points above her and will keep, will keep climbing.
• 21:08
  But just a historic number, someone who's given a lot of time and sweat to the Sparks. So she's just having like a really great homecoming year. So kudos to her.
• 21:21
  Filiberto: Yeah. And just legends doing legend stuff.
• 21:23
  Michelle: Yep. Yep. This was a bit ago, but just talk a little bit about the All Star weekend in Chicago. So people had a lot of fun, including reporters. You know, a lot of , the content creators, reporters haven't seen each other for a while, so it was kinda cool just to kinda watch.
• 21:41
  We were not able I really wanna buy tickets. We were not able to go maybe next year because there's rumors.
• 21:49
  Filiberto: That we are going to push.
• 21:50
  Michelle: Yes. Yes. There's speculation. There's speculation that, you know, people are being asked, so where you want where do you wanna play next year? And a lot of people were talking about Golden State.
• 21:59
  So that would be really awesome in it in our backyard. So
• 22:02
  Filiberto: Yo. Everyone wants to be part of the action, y'all. Good job, Ballhalla. Yeah. People know what's up.
• 22:07
  Michelle: Exactly. They want they wanna come and be cheered for once and not booed. Yeah.
• 22:12
  Filiberto: They also probably wanna try some wine nearby.
• 22:14
  Michelle: That's true. That's true. And the nice weather. Yeah.
• 22:17
  So I thought it was great. I mean, they did this cool, like, shooting stars thing the first night. The All Star Game was the second second day. But they did the three point contest and they did this like shooting stars. You know, I kind of like I'm a little irritated with like all the skill stuff is motivated around offense, but I understand why it's a little more interesting for the average fan.
• 22:39
  Filiberto: It's just really hard to measure and do skits, skills around defense.
• 22:42
  Michelle: I always see Kiah Stokes, like, block the shit out of a ball in someone's face.
• 22:46
  Filiberto: But how do you yeah.
• 22:47
  Michelle: No. It's great.
• 22:48
  Filiberto: I would be awesome, but you just can't set that up.
• 22:50
  Michelle: Yeah. But the shooting stars was kinda cool. Lot of people were like, what the heck is this? Like, they didn't really describe what it was going into it. So they pulled a current play they they had four different teams of three.
• 23:02
  They they had a current player on a team and then they had kind of an alumni. So for example, for Washington, they had Shakira Austin was the current player and they had Elena Della Donne come back. And you can go on socials, everyone's like, you can totally come back Elena. Like, she looked great. And then they had kind of like a high school up and coming younger basketball person.
• 23:27
  And a few times like, there was I think it might have been Washington. There were a few times where the younger player because you had to shoot from seven different areas on the half court. And the younger player was actually the one hitting the threes for one team, and and it was kinda like your total points. You went to the second round.
• 23:47
  Filiberto: They're doing those drills, yo.
• 23:48
  Michelle: Yeah. I was like, you go girls. So that was really cool. Actually yeah. Just seeing kind of like the alumni who've been retired for a little bit and the the young'uns.
• 24:01
  It was it was actually a really cool vibe. And I think it's kinda like you hit your bases of like your up and coming players. And then the three point, you know, you you had a few people who got hot and then, you know, Azzi Fudd just totally did well both rounds for her. So she totally earned that.
• 24:22
  Filiberto: She want I mean, she wanted it, you know. She was putting in that effort.
• 24:25
  Michelle: She hit like 30 some 30 points, I think. And like Sabrina Ionescu, who's won it several times, I think her high was like in the thirties. So like Azzi's right there. So it was really cool. We had Janelle Salaun went for Golden State, which was fantastic.
• 24:40
  A lot of people were joking that, like, she is more clutch when they're, when the shot is being contested. No.
• 24:46
  Filiberto: It should have been a a hand in her face. And I think a lot people were volunteering to do it too.
• 24:50
  Michelle: Yeah.
• 24:50
  Filiberto: Like, I'll be that hand in that face, you know.
• 24:51
  Michelle: I'll charge right at her. Yeah.
• 24:53
  Filiberto: I'll I'll bring it to you. Close it around.
• 24:55
  Michelle: So she did not come in last, but, you know, being her first time there and just like an expansion team, I think she did, she carried herself very well. Super chatty with the other three point shooters at the game. So that was super entertaining. The game's just hilarious. I I don't watch a lot of All Star Games because it's just ridiculous.
• 25:15
  I do like watching defense.
• 25:17
  Filiberto: It is a very silly exhibition game.
• 25:20
  Michelle: I did love seeing I think between the two teams, they shot a 120 I wanna say three? Three pointers. So that just gives you an idea of the kind of I back and forth that game was.
• 25:36
  Filiberto: Well, back and forth. It was this shooting. It was yeah. They were just Not press
• 25:41
  Michelle: Not back and forth points. Back and forth running.
• 25:42
  Filiberto: Just well, they were I mean, so one of the things about guard play is if you're if you're a three point shooting guard, you're running from the three to the three. You're not actually running the full court. So I want keep that in mind. Yeah.
• 25:53
  But also it's hilarious watching A'ja Wilson just be completely indifferent to the whole enterprise. And basically, it kind of seemed like she was kind of just protecting her makeup because she looked great.
• 26:02
  Michelle: Yeah. And she had her hair down. Oh, yeah. It's usually up in some type of, like, bun.
• 26:06
  Filiberto: She was, like, at most a trot.
• 26:08
  Michelle: And there were a lot of interviews before the game or even, like, you know, they they put headphones and interviewed them during the game. And she was very clear before the game started that she was gonna hand out water. And that was her contribution. That great. So, yeah, super fun game.
• 26:23
  I don't again, I don't watch a little All Stars because it's just kind of silliness. But this one, especially with your Stud Budz doing their seventy two hour livestream, it was it is one of the more entertaining All Star weekends, I would argue. Mhmm. So lots of lots of fun I did. I didn't watch the the livestream, the the Twitch livestream all weekend, but I would check-in every once in a while.
• 26:49
  I think my favorite one was like, oh, it's like 09:00 in the morning. Let's see what they're up to. And you see Natisha Hiedeman, like, in her hotel bed getting an IV. This is That's those are the kind of nights they were having.
• 27:01
  Filiberto: Still working the night before.
• 27:03
  Michelle: Yeah. So just super entertaining. If you haven't kind of looked at the Stud Budz or at least the highlights from their feed, it's it's really great.
• 27:23
  And I think the last thing to touch on for like news or last couple weeks would be the WNBA trade deadline. So What were your thoughts?
• 27:33
  What do you see?
• 27:36
  Filiberto: Well, to me, trade deadlines are like Christmas. It's just it's the most amazing time of year. Anything is possible. Stuff, there's rumors for weeks. It's amazing.
• 27:44
  I love it. I love trade deadlines. Wasn't that exciting, though. But the thing I think that's important here is I kinda I'm kinda mad at Valkyries fans on this one. Like, over and over again, we saw all over the place on Reddit and in the comment section on Twitter that people expected and wanted a Kelsey Plum trade.
• 28:01
  And I I just what are you all thinking? Like, Kelsey Plum is an amazing player. We love her. I smoke her cigars. Like, no big deal.
• 28:07
  But, like, she just doesn't fit what we're doing, y'all. Like, why did you all get caught up in that? Like, do you do you not believe in the Valkyries? I I doubt your commitment a little bit here.
• 28:18
  Michelle: Well, I think they want someone and we and we'll talk about this a little bit
• 28:22
  Filiberto: Don't you defend them.
• 28:23
  Michelle: No. But I see where they're coming from. I I'm with you. I I I think it seems like it came down to a choice of of team chemistry that already exists and bringing in someone who, you know, quite frankly wants to be an alpha, wants to be kind of the star on a team. Right. Which can mess with your team chemistry, especially a team that, like, prides itself on its selflessness.
• 28:47
  Filiberto: Yeah.
• 28:48
  Michelle: And it's not that Kelsey's not not selfless, but But. There's shades. And
• 28:53
  Filiberto: But she has her priorities, and she's very clear about them. Yes. And those priorities don't fit what the Valkyries do.
• 28:58
  Michelle: Absolutely.
• 28:58
  Filiberto: I don't know why my fellow colleagues and friends in the in the fandom just kinda didn't get that one.
• 29:04
  Michelle: I think they especially watching again, we'll get to this later in the show, but especially watching the Valkyries' lack of ability to close out certain games Yeah. And not have kind of this playmaker type person.
• 29:16
  Filiberto: Someone that's just create their own shot. Certainly, it's a problem for us sometimes.
• 29:20
  Michelle: Yeah. So I I think that's kinda what was driving some people is we just need a little bit more I mean, we have the worst field goal percentage in the league. Part of that's because of our three pointers. Right?
• 29:29
  That's gonna drive that down a little bit. But that number's pretty low and so you want you need someone to help with scoring. So I totally get what people are saying. But I I do agree with what the Valkyries eventually decided was that that was gonna probably be a little bit too much.
• 29:45
  Filiberto: And I think and I think, you know, the other thing is the actual trade of Kelsey Plum and what they had to give up to get her suggest that many other teams could have acquired her. Like Right. Everyone had an asset that could have been attractive to Los Angeles given what they received. So Right. I think that says a lot.
• 30:03
  But, what was I? Oh, shit. I was thinking about something. But oh, the the so we didn't do an episode before the trade deadline. But the speculative thing I would have suggested would have been Nneka to Golden State.
• 30:14
  That's what I was thinking, especially once they were pretty committed in trading Kelsey. It was like, oh, maybe they'll trade Nneka. Nneka, I think, have really fit us really well. Think she could have.
• 30:24
  Michelle: Yeah. And she would be that playmaker, right?
• 30:26
  Filiberto: That playmaker, that person that can just work the basket underneath, rebounding. She shoots her threes now. That would have been a lot of fun.
• 30:32
  Michelle: Yeah. We need we need help in the paint. And she would have been that person. And just and she's able
• 30:37
  Filiberto: Back to the basket.
• 30:38
  Michelle: To move the ball a lot sometimes too and kinda see for transition points because that's another area that we need to improve on is to do better with transition. But and, you know, she played Stanford, so she knows the Bay very well. Yeah. So it would've been a good fit. Maybe maybe next year.
• 30:53
  Filiberto: And, we'll talk about this a little later, but that Morrow trade kinda slapped us in the face today. Yes. So that was the other trade that happens. It's actually kind of a boring trade deadline.
• 31:02
  Michelle: Yeah. There were kinda two big moves.
• 31:03
  Filiberto: Speculations, interest, and that's just kinda what.
• 31:05
  Michelle: I mean, there's been moving with, like, developmental players and
• 31:08
  Filiberto: of moving at the ends of rosters all over the place.
• 31:11
  Michelle: But as far as kind of, like, bigger contracts
• 31:14
  Filiberto: Big name players and stars.
• 31:16
  Michelle: Yeah. Or people who are just getting a lot of minutes in games. Those were the two. Aneesah Morrow went from Connecticut to Toronto. Toronto.
• 31:23
  Filiberto: That's what you thought. Yeah.
• 31:24
  Michelle: I'm like, oh, we just we just watched that game.
• 31:27
  Filiberto: Like I said earlier in the podcast, we're we're gonna bring it up again.
• 31:30
  Michelle: Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, not super not too much. I mean, people expected Kelsey to move. I think that was not a surprise, but, like, not too many, like, blockbuster ish type things.
• 31:40
  But happy for Aneesah. I think she's a great player, and hopefully, she'll get some more minutes and and she'll she'll be able to impact a little bit more with Toronto.
• 31:47
  Filiberto: That's my minor rant for the day. What's up, Valkyries fans? Why are y'all tripping? Y'all are wild. Love y'all.
• 31:54
  Listen to our podcast. Share with friends.
• 32:20
  Alright. So as you may have noticed, we didn't do an episode last week. We took a break.
• 32:24
  So we got six games to talk about. We're not gonna talk about them consecutively like that because that'd be really boring. But we are gonna cover just sort of some general trends that we observed over the course of the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Since July 15.
• 32:38
  Michelle: Yeah. We had a game against the Fever in Indiana. Two against Washington. One against Phoenix in Phoenix. And
• 32:46
  Filiberto: And in case you all forgot, we had this amazing streak for a while. I know. It was pretty incredible. And special times.
• 32:52
  Michelle: We close out two in Toronto at home. So a lot to talk about. I think there's some definitely some themes going on here. But, yeah, we were able to have a franchise record nine game winning streak, heading into the All Star Game. Unfortunately, we lost that last game to Washington who, by the way, I didn't know this, they had never beaten Golden State.
• 33:17
  Filiberto: Like ever?
• 33:18
  Michelle: No. Before that yeah. Before they beat us.
• 33:20
  Filiberto: Like last season too?
• 33:21
  Michelle: Yes. Dang. Yeah. So we still have not beat Minnesota.
• 33:25
  Filiberto: They look they look like they wanted to beat us really bad too. It was like, what because I didn't realize what's driving them. Like, is there's an extra energy to what they were doing.
• 33:33
  Michelle: Yes. I think it might have been
• 33:35
  Filiberto: That makes a lot of sense.
• 33:36
  Michelle: It might have been their last game going to All Star too. So I just wanna, like, close on a high note. But yeah. So we in this six game chunk we're talking about, we played two two teams consecutively, not back to back nights, but consecutively. So but the the good news is we we ended up with a strong win against the Fever in again, on the road.
• 33:58
  Filiberto: Mhmm.
• 33:58
  Michelle: So we gave us our eighth win in a row. We had we we went on our road trip five o, and it helped it led to us getting the series win against the Fever, which might come in handy when it comes to playoff seeding.
• 34:14
  Filiberto: Yeah. Because it's gonna be really, really important for us all to be as high as possible if we want a chance to get into the second round.
• 34:21
  Michelle: I think the the strong push here, we've talked about this how Coach Nakase has the team kind of in this playoff push, this playoff mentality right now. Yeah. You can it it's not a far leap to say that they really, you know, last year, first year made the playoffs. Could have had a five seed, kind of finished the season not the strongest, ended up with an eight seed, which means you're playing the number one seed in the first round, which kinda sucked. I think it it's very apparent the team is really trying to push for a top four finish, which gives you home court advantage. Well, at least the first round.
• 34:57
  Filiberto: Yeah, they're not They're not thinking, oh, let's get into the playoffs. They're thinking, let's dominate so we can be have a good position in the playoffs.
• 35:03
  Michelle: Yeah. So we can win a first round series.
• 35:06
  Filiberto: We expect because we expect to get past the first round. I mean, that's the attitude on the court. Yeah. It's impressive.
• 35:11
  Michelle: Yeah. If you're gonna win that championship in the first five years, what's all you gotta do?
• 35:14
  Filiberto: Like, Nakase was already coach of the year, but it really shows how much she's elevating her own game as a coach.
• 35:20
  Michelle: Yeah. So I the only other thing I wanna I mean, there's two more things I wanna mention about the Fever game is, Caitlin Clark had a blowout. And y'all it's been a while. You guys can get your coverage of that on social media. We don't need to go into that again.
• 35:35
  Filiberto: Plenty of hot takes.
• 35:36
  Michelle: Don't need to give her more air than she deserves. But, like, we've got a lot of, like, players that are just doing, like, really great on the plus minus. So Kayla Thornton just did really great contributing to the team with, like, points and rebounds in that game. So I just want to, like, shout out to her. But the Valkyries were shooting 52% in that game.
• 35:56
  The Fever shot 40. So that was kind of like the big takeaway for me. That was like the main difference in that game.
• 36:02
  Filiberto: Mhmm.
• 36:05
  Michelle: Yeah. And Washington, I mean, those two games against Washington before the All Star break. Again, Kayla Thornton was huge with rebounds if if she's not gonna be able to contribute points wise. I think, you know, the loss against Washington showed a little bit of the weakness in the Valkyries. They it's we saw shades of them from their first year last year where they couldn't close out games.
• 36:29
  Yeah. So kinda troubling.
• 36:31
  Filiberto: I think at that point too, I forgot, how many games over how many days, but they were pretty tired as well. And that was also something that Nakase talked about at the press conference. Again, not that there's an excuse, etc., etc., all those cliches, but there is a we do have to sort of account for the reality that there are physical limits to what these women can do. And the schedule isn't all that forgiving Yeah. In a lot of ways.
• 36:54
  Michelle: Yeah. So we beat Washington the first game 74 to 69. Second game, again, that game that stopped our win streak, we could have got to 10, but we ended up losing 82 to 90.
• 37:05
  Filiberto: Oh, I never actually watched that game. I forgot. No. I didn't. I was like, no.
• 37:10
  Michelle: You haven't.
• 37:10
  Filiberto: No. I was so upset that they I was at work and then I was upset that the streak was broken. And Yeah. The fourth quarter was a mess from what I read. Yeah.
• 37:18
  I have to remember that.
• 37:19
  Michelle: And that is the Hello Kitty game. So those of you who do not know, the Valkyries
• 37:23
  Filiberto: Is it the Hello Kitty curse?
• 37:24
  Michelle: It might be. No. I was thinking that going to the game. Was like, this
• 37:27
  Filiberto: Hello Kitty's curse.
• 37:28
  Michelle: This white cat our foster cat our foster kitten is white. Better not jinx us. But, yes, the Hello Kitty was very popular. They gave away a plushie to the first, like, first half of fans. Yeah.
• 37:41
  Lines around the block to get into that.
• 37:44
  Filiberto: That took us so quick, y'all.
• 37:45
  Michelle: Yeah. And they actually had, like, a Hello Kitty mascot too that was at the game. Super jealous.
• 37:52
  Filiberto: I forgot what gender, if at all.
• 37:54
  Michelle: Yeah. No. But I mean, you know, we had stints in that game where we were great and then not so well. I think Kaitlyn Chen had a really good game. She had a she had 20 points, a career high for her.
• 38:08
  Filiberto: That's right.
• 38:08
  Michelle: Yeah. Brought a lot of energy. But again, the team kinda, you know, squandered that in the end.
• 38:14
  Filiberto: And I think, you know, as they headed to the All Star game, I think the one of the big statements going the two of the big sort of themes going into the break was, holy shit, Janalle Salaun is probably gonna win the Sixth Player of the Year award.
• 38:26
  Michelle: She's a front runner.
• 38:27
  Filiberto: Front runner. And her only competition possibly is Kaitlyn Chen. Serious competition. Teammate. Her teammate.
• 38:32
  And then Kaitlyn Chen is just really showing out. Yeah. Mad props to her. I think they definitely use her as a change of pace. She definitely has her defensive liabilities, but she brings so much in terms of the change of pace and just squeezing in some points and attacking that defense that, you know, kind of makes up for what she doesn't bring on defense.
• 38:51
  Michelle: Yeah. I think that's something just watching the most recent game tonight, that second game against Toronto. It's something that like I've noticed that can be you know, as a fan is frustrating sometimes. Is, you know, there are the two players for the Valkyries that are consistent with just crashing the net, knowing that we're close to bonus or in a bonus. So I'm just gonna go the basket, hopefully get fouled, right, and make my bucket.
• 39:17
  But it feels like Kaitlyn Chen and Tiffany Hayes are the two players that just really will go for it. There are other players like are looking for it, but they're just hesitant. And so we struggle in the paint sometimes.
• 39:29
  Filiberto: You can see them like jab forward and then kinda pull back sometimes.
• 39:33
  Michelle: And then it's like passing along the perimeter, which again is great. We do score a lot on threes, but there's times where it's just like the game is so close. The other team knows we're not gonna go in the paint. So they're not even like they're not really guarding it sometimes.
• 39:46
  Or you have that three second rule, so exploit it. Like the three seconds and the key on defense, so exploit that. Or even if you're close to bonus or in the bonus, go to the bucket. These are not this is not like rocket science. Like, are basic game management stuff.
• 40:01
  And it's just it can be frustrating sometimes when the Valkyries kind of, like, hesitate to do that.
• 40:06
  Filiberto: Well, I think what I've noticed in the last couple of games too is that when they drive hard and they get those baskets, they really demoralize teams. Yeah. Like, when they're making threes that overwhelms teams, but when they drive hard like that, like teams start breaking down and then the fan like the fans love threes, but the fans love a strong drive to the basket. Yeah. Especially when there's often a foul involved.
• 40:28
  Yeah. So I think that's been an emerging trend for them. And then the other emerging trend has just been doing more back to the basket stuff. It's they're still tentative about it, but when they do it, it works really well. Yeah.
• 40:56
  Okay. So we went All Star break. Nine days later, we're playing against Phoenix.
• 41:01
  Michelle: Yes. And that one is just an ugly game. I mean the score
• 41:05
  Filiberto: That one was just
• 41:07
  Michelle: mean, it was weird too because, like, Phoenix started the game just looking really lost. Yeah. And then we just kind of just allowed them to come back in the fourth. We had some timely threes, but like especially from Veronica, but like, we just fouled a lot. Some of those fouls I would argue.
• 41:26
  But like but we just fouled too much. It stopped our momentum, and Phoenix is a really good free throw shooting team. You did have some chippiness between Kaila Charles and Alyssa Thomas. Both of them got teed up.
• 41:40
  Filiberto: Well, they're really good at getting you to wanna foul them too.
• 41:43
  Michelle: Yes.
• 41:44
  Filiberto: That's that's a gift that they have. However you wanna take that statement.
• 41:49
  Michelle: They are a very physical team. It feels like sometimes they don't get called for fouls , but then in this game, the Valkyries did. But at the end of the day, you know
• 41:58
  Filiberto: You gotta you gotta win however you can.
• 41:59
  Michelle: Coach Nakase and the players admitted they lost their composure a lot, and this is not that's not gonna lead to victory.
• 42:05
  Filiberto: It was a tough game to watch.
• 42:07
  Michelle: It was.
• 42:07
  Filiberto: It was a tough game, especially because of disruptions because of the fouling.
• 42:10
  Michelle: Yeah. And Gabby Williams didn't play. This was the first game after All Star, so she was going through reconditioning. We're kinda joking that maybe it was a hangover. Joking.
• 42:17
  Filiberto: I need some reconditioning.
• 42:20
  I've never heard that in a deal. Like, was
• 42:21
  Michelle: That's true.
• 42:22
  Filiberto: Michelle, not like former scouts or anything, but I've never seen that.
• 42:25
  Michelle: But I've noticed looking at the injury report coming out All Star, there were a lot of teams that were using that. And after the trade, like, Aneesah Morrow.
• 42:32
  Filiberto: Mhmm.
• 42:33
  Michelle: they were using that as reconditioning.
• 42:35
  Filiberto: It's also just hard too because she's on the she's on the sidelines in street clothes just having a good time, all laughing it up. Like, girl, you look plenty conditioned.
• 42:43
  Michelle: But I think there was I don't know if it was like a pregame press conference, but the reporters kinda want to know what does reconditioning mean? Like, specifically and just and
• 42:54
  Filiberto: Like are you a robot, Gabby Williams?
• 42:55
  Michelle: Coach Nakase was like, I don't wanna bore you with the details. But the reporters are like, no. We need to know, like, examples
• 43:00
  of what you're talking about.
• 43:01
  Filiberto: It's kinda substantial.
• 43:02
  Michelle: So there there were some things, like, legit sounding things they were going through, with Gabby.
• 43:09
  Filiberto: Okay.
• 43:10
  Michelle: Yeah.
• 43:11
  Filiberto: Sure.
• 43:12
  Michelle: And then to, you know, to close this out, we had those two games against Toronto. I will say the first game, Golden State won 96, 79. And again, these are in San Francisco. But I I do wanna note that
• 43:24
  Filiberto: We somehow didn't notice that Mabrey was out.
• 43:27
  Michelle: I know.
• 43:28
  Filiberto: We didn't pick up how did we not notice that? Hey, Kiki was starting, but then we just I don't know.
• 43:33
  Michelle: Yeah. I think we're excited to see Kiki because we just watched her a lot at UCLA.
• 43:37
  Filiberto: This is so silly.
• 43:38
  Michelle: But yeah. So Toronto had several important injuries. Britney Sykes is still out. Marina Mabrey didn't play. And Aneesah Morrow, obviously, just had been traded.
• 43:47
  So she wasn't gonna play again that reconditioning for her. But, yeah, it was kind of like a hard start for us. But toward the end, we just had some massive threes. Kiah Stokes had five blocks. She was plus 30.
• 44:02
  Like, that's amazing.
• 44:03
  Filiberto: Yeah. I mean, I think this is also a game where I mean, the Phoenix game was horrible, but this Toronto game was where again, they don't do it consistently throughout the game because it's hard to keep up. But, like, when they're good, they're so good. Yeah. When they're good, they're so good.
• 44:18
  Michelle: Yeah. It was a fun game to watch. And then I just wanna shout out Janelle Salaun too. So these past three games, like Phoenix and then both Toronto games, she's been in 20 points or more for
• 44:32
  Filiberto: She's absolutely locked in. Absolutely locked in.
• 44:35
  Michelle: I think it it was 26 against Phoenix, which is a career high for her. 24 at the first Toronto, and then tonight's game was 21. So she's just she's just not gonna, like, knock it out of the ballpark to use another stupid sports reference. But the first game against Toronto, she had 24 points.
• 44:51
  She was nine of 15 shooting. That's fantastic. And then she was four of nine from threes.
• 44:57
  Filiberto: Again, folks, as a reserve.
• 44:59
  Michelle: Yeah. Off the bench. She hit two free throws. She had three rebounds, two assists, one steal, and she was a plus 17. Like, just her contributions are endless.
• 45:10
  Filiberto: And she gets very difficult defensive assignments. She does. So She absolutely does.
• 45:14
  Michelle: Yeah. And again, it goes back to that selflessness that people talk about. She started last year. She was a starter. She could be a starter on a lot of other teams, but she's loving this role for herself.
• 45:27
  Filiberto: And I think just watching her, I think I don't think there's anyone else in the league that has the same fearlessness that she does when she shoots. Like, it doesn't matter if you have a hand in her fucking face. She's gonna shoot over you. Yeah. She's tall.
• 45:39
  She has a really high, like, shooting shooting I don't know it's shoot release Motion. Release point release point. Her release point is really high. Yeah. So she's really hard to defend for most people.
• 45:49
  And that's why she can go get away with Yeah. Having a hand in her face. Yeah. But holy shit. It's amazing.
• 45:54
  I don't think any again, I don't think anyone else in the league remotely takes on shots that she does Yeah. Has that kind of confidence.
• 46:01
  Michelle: Yeah. So, no. She's just amazing. She's the front runner, like Fili said, for sixth player of the year. And there are definitely some obvious choices unless something goes off the railroad tracks in the second season, like, for for example, Olivia Miles.
• 46:18
  And I just really think that Janelle's just done fantastic for that award. And it's a nice game.
• 46:25
  Filiberto: Oh, sorry. And then we were talking about this with Kaitlyn Chin. But it you know, we're talking about her as jokingly as, also a Sixth Person of the Year. But, you know, she is a we talked about this maybe once before, but she definitely is in competition for Most Improved Player. Yeah.
• 46:37
  So good for both of them.
• 46:39
  Michelle: And then voters just get really tired of the Valkyries. Yeah. And then they're done with us.
• 46:44
  Filiberto: Mhmm.
• 46:46
  Michelle: And I don't know if there's anything you wanna add about this that last game that we just watched.
• 46:52
  Filiberto: I think, you know, there were so Mabrey, I think so Mabrey was in this game and Morrow were in this game, and they both had some contributions. Morrow had a really excellent game. Yeah. But there were moments where we kinda lost our grip on where the game was going, but it was it just felt like this team was very confident they were gonna win this game. Like, they played with a lot of focus, a lot of determination.
• 47:20
  The threes went away from them every once in a while, but then they started going to the basket making those making those shots. You saw on offense and defense, they made a lot of adjustments at certain points. Everyone was on the perimeter, then opened up a lot of lanes. They tried even full court press every once in a while. So there's a lot of things that Nakase was doing in this game.
• 47:40
  Just I think it felt like she was experimenting a lot just to see how the team would respond.
• 47:45
  Michelle: Yeah. There's definitely a part, and we'll we'll put this in the show notes, but there there's definitely a part, and I think it was the second quarter, where the Valkyries must have seen something on film, but they they kept kind of, like, collapsing on Toronto's offensive player
• 48:01
  Filiberto: In the corner.
• 48:02
  Michelle: On kind of the right corner. And they they had, like, three steals in a row.
• 48:07
  Filiberto: Yeah. The jumper shooter position they had Yeah. Aggressively.
• 48:10
  Michelle: So, yeah, again, they must have seen something on film. But, yeah, Toronto had a, you know, fair amount of turnovers. It was a game of runs. Golden State went on a seventeen and four run to close the the first half. But I also think this is like, you know, the you have these consecutive games against the same team, and it's like, who can make the best adjustments before game between games.
• 48:32
  And Toronto definitely played much much tighter on defense. Yeah. And then they were just quick moving the ball in their offensive zone that, like, was tiring out the Valkyries defense a lot. Lot trying to chase.
• 48:46
  Filiberto: There's lot of chasing going on, absolutely, on the perimeter.
• 48:48
  Michelle: Mhmm. I think Sandy Brondello , like, did a good job of, like, making those adjustments. And it, you know, got chippy. They had Marina Mabrey back. They had Anessah Morrow playing.
• 49:03
  But I I think you had, you know, Kayla Thornton and Janelle Salaun just were, like, on it with threes. So that kind of saved us. And I do want to shout out Gabby Williams. She hit her two thousandth career point in that game as well. So good for her.
• 49:19
  But this was both of these games, Coach Nakase said, you know, she she had to remind them during a halftime. Mhmm. Maybe dropping some f bombs.
• 49:27
  Filiberto: Some choice words.
• 49:29
  Michelle: Which the players admitted. But just reminding them like, yes, your shots aren't going in. Don't get demoralized. Your defense is gonna feed your offense. And having to remind them of like sticking to the plan and and what our identity is that the team kinda got away from in the first halves of of both those games.
• 49:47
  Filiberto: Yeah. And I think it's the feature in in the fourth quarter, you saw just how demoralized Toronto was. Yes. Like, they got Gabby was getting into Mabrey's head. Like, her defense is so elite that, like, she makes people have a psychological response.
• 50:02
  Michelle: Yes. And they were getting Chippy. Those two were kinda were were sharing some friendly words to each other.
• 50:08
  Filiberto: Some sport sports banter. Yeah. Did he come out? Is he No. He's meowing though.
• 50:16
  Oh, He Man, Thunder Catty. Thunder Kitty is meowing. Yeah. I could hear him a little bit. Yeah.
• 50:22
  It's hard with the headphones on. Can hear it. That's good. He's getting comfortable.
• 50:27
  Michelle: Anyways, you know, so a few stumbles for the Valkyries over the last couple weeks, you know, going into the All Star Game coming out of it. But they're they're in a really good position. I think, you know, they still have to again, lot of people are picking them like, oh, are they contenders? Are they not? So it's kinda like the popular story to write about them right now.
• 50:44
  But, they are gonna have to play Minnesota the next couple weeks. Our next game is against Dallas. These are gonna be some real tests for them.
• 50:53
  Filiberto: We're on the road a lot. Yeah. And I think the other thing to think about is we're at the point of the season where everyone's locked in, but you're also tired. You're grinding.
• 51:03
  Michelle: This is the grind.
• 51:04
  Filiberto: You're aching. You're sore. You're uncomfortable. Like, you're stressed because every game counts. Like Yeah.
• 51:12
  So we're gonna really see how composure and how just, you know, not being fragile is gonna really set teams apart from one another. And I think going back to the trade deadline, Kelsey Plum joining Phoenix makes them a little bit of a wild card.
• 51:25
  Michelle: Absolutely.
• 51:25
  Filiberto: Like, there's it's anyone's game. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody, and it just most whoever gets on a run, you know, who knows? Like, it's it's it'll be fun to see what happens.
• 51:36
  Michelle: Yeah. I mean, you can even see, like, Vegas's last couple games. Like, Washington beat us and then went to Vegas and also beat them, right, in a in a close game. So Vegas can attest to that. Again, they're in a different kind of a different position than the Valkyries in that they've gone far in the postseason the last several seasons.
• 51:53
  So that adds up. Ask the Golden State Warriors. Like, that adds up. So Yeah.
• 51:58
  Filiberto: A lot of tread on those tires.
• 51:59
  Michelle: This is definitely that grind part of the season. People are excited, but there's also a lot of games to play before we start, like, really looking at the standings every hour.
• 52:08
  Filiberto: And Minnesota's terrifying. Holy shit.
• 52:11
  Michelle: Valkyries still have not beat the Lynx.
• 52:15
  Filiberto: And there's nothing Yeah. You know, shameful about that. Like, goddamn, they're really good.
• 52:20
  Michelle: Yeah. Like, Napheesa's back. So dang.
• 52:22
  Filiberto: It's just I don't I don't know who can stop them. Yeah. So yeah. They're great to watch, but goddamn, they're really good.
• 52:30
  Michelle: Yeah. Mad respect.
• 52:34
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