WNBA thread… 28.5 ain’t your pay cut

[DanOregon]

When do we hear the "outrage" that Clark isn't on the Olympic women's team?

 

[Della9250]

When do we hear the "outrage" that Clark isn't on the Olympic women's team?

They haven't announced the team yet. They have until July 7 and I assume they will wait to the deadline to see if there are injuries during the season leading up to the break

 

[DanOregon]

While I don't know if Clark is the fourth or fifth or sixth best guard in the US - I'm sure NBC - and the women's USA hoop squad would welcome the attention she would bring to the team. Jealousy? Sure. But the US women's team gets very little pub during the Olympics because there is so little drama in their games, I actually think the other players would welcome a little more primetime coverage than they usually get during the Games - which is maybe some look-ins on the early rounds - and the final.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Is he the last guy left that thinks regional columnist is some big swinging deck deal like it's 1995? "Gotta set the conversation for the market!"

I think this is actually it. Gregg, for better and worse (and this is definitely for worse), leans into where he is and makes it who he is. He was the fork you let's forking rumble guy at CBSSports.com. Then he went to Indy and he became the small-town sentimentalist sticking up for oft-beleaguered Indiana/Indianapolis. The Colts are mostly a mess w/Irsay running the show, the Pacers haven't won a playoff series since 2014, the Fever were bad enough to get Clark, Purdue kept finding new and interesting ways to choke and Indiana hoops is irrelevant and clinging to past glories. So there's not much going their way.

But this month has been great for Indiana and great/awful for Gregg's persona. Purdue made it to the national title game and he turned it into good vs. evil and wrote about Dan Hurley's insane sideline demeanor. Is Hurley insane? Yes. But he's just the most honest of his peers, all of whom are as insane but have a filter. Also, he's an incredible coach who just built a back-to-back champion. Also, Gregg writes in a state where Bob Knight is an icon. Maybe lay off on writing about how poorly behaved coaches are bad!

Getting Clark is a huge boon for the Indy area so my guess is Gregg went all-in on the Chamber of Commerce angle and the word diarrhea tumbled from his mouth. The heart thing was bad enough and the comment thereafter was just the dumbest doubling down. But let's be careful about piling on the guy and joining alliances with the bad faith actors looking to get their hypocritical pounds of flesh. fork Dave Portnoy, who is a walking sexual assault. fork Outkick too, which wants to screech about how trans athletes are dangerous to women athletes but couldn't name every WNBA franchise if you gave them an hour on Wikipedia.

 

[Twirling Time]

To advance the calendar comp, they put Laettner on the Dream Team and not Shaq.

 

[Della9250]

While I don't know if Clark is the fourth or fifth or sixth best guard in the US - I'm sure NBC - and the women's USA hoop squad would welcome the attention she would bring to the team. Jealousy? Sure. But the US women's team gets very little pub during the Olympics because there is so little drama in their games, I actually think the other players would welcome a little more primetime coverage than they usually get during the Games - which is maybe some look-ins on the early rounds - and the final.

This is your starting point, the training camp roster, and one isn't going to make it because the limit is 12:

Diana Taurasi
Ariel Atkins
Chelsea Gray
Brittney Griner
Jewell Loyd
Kelsey Plum
Breanna Stewart
A'ja Wilson
Jackie Young
Shakira Austin
Sabrina Ionescu
Aliyah Boston
Rhyne Howar

If you look at the last Olympic roster and want to assume, these seven would be back:

Taurasi
Atkins
Gray
Griner
Loyd
Stewart
Wilson

Of the onthers:

Skylar Diggins-Smith
Sue Bird
Napheesa Collier
Sylvia Fowles
Tina Charles

Diggins-Smith and Collier would be the only potential keepers.

 

[JC]

I was thinking about what the WNBA needs - and it is a) never refer to them as "girls" - imagine someone trying something similar in the NBA....whoa. b) the basketball isn't going to cut it. But don't worry, actual coverage of the games isn't what creates fan interest - whether its the NBA, MLB or NFL, what drives coverage is who is pissed with who, who is following who on IG, which star wants a coach fired or a trade or a new contract, etc. etc. A good fight in the WNBA in an early game would do a lot for the league - and I'm not kidding. Clark drives to the hoop and gets hammered the the rest of the Fever start going five-on-five hockey style. Maybe a gambling scandal, shady refereeing,

This is a Devil 93 post. Wow.

 

[JC]

You mean it's not a good thing that A.J. Storr started as a freshman at St. John's, started as a sophomore at Wisconsin and will now start as a junior at Kansas?

It's good for the player.

 

[micropolitan guy]

"On our next 'Good Bones,' Mina and Karen are back in Fountain Square refurbishing a quaint but expensive cottage-like home for Caitlin Clark!."

 

[jr/shotglass]

So Clark hits her first two 30-foot bombs. She'll be OK.

In other news, I am watching a WNBA preseason game. So there's that.

 

[playthrough]

A friend told me that Doyel got suspended for a couple weeks at the IndyStar. That seems to check out, with him not tweeting for a week and his last columns being on April 29 on Chris Ballard/Colts draft stuff and Pacers/Bucks Game 3. Nothing since about the Pacers actually winning the series.

 

[Starman]

Silent punishment