MLB teams have their reasons for not signing former Cy Young pitcher Trevor Bauer, and it has been a frustrating road as the pitcher tried to clear his name in the aftermath of sexual assault accusations, which he denied.
Despite still not being approached by an MLB club, Bauer is receiving some form of vindication as one of the women who accused the former major league pitcher of sexual assault has been charged with defrauding the baseball player.
An indictment unsealed Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court charges the unnamed woman with fraud and theft by extortion, but details about the alleged crimes are sparse. It says Bauer and one other person were defrauded in a scheme that potentially spanned several years.
Darcy Adanna Esemonu — who sued Bauer and allegedly demanded $1.6 million after claiming he impregnated her — was charged with one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices on Monday.
Bauer and another man were listed as the alleged victims in the case weeks after a grand jury handed down the indictment. She was also charged with theft by extortion, but only against the other alleged victim.
The woman sued Bauer in December 2022, accusing him of rape two years earlier that she said resulted in pregnancy in late 2020.
Back in October of 2023, Bauer and Lindsey Hill, the San Diego woman who first accused him of sexual assault, which led to an unprecedented 324-game suspension from Major League Baseball, settled their civil lawsuits outside of court, with no money exchanged between the two parties.
But Bauer kept alleged receipts, and in a video posted to social media he points to an alleged extortion attempt by Hill.
Hill accused Bauer of sexually assaulting her during two encounters in the spring of 2021. She was later denied a permanent restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court, and the district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against Bauer. But MLB decided to suspend Bauer anyway.
Bauer sued Hill for defamation in April 2022, and she countersued for sexual battery four months later. Court proceedings were scheduled to begin in February, but both sides agreed to drop their respective cases.
Hill will receive $300,000 in insurance policy proceeds that will be sent in a trust account to her lawyers’ offices, according to an email from Hill’s lawyers that was provided by a representative with Bauer.
“Trevor Bauer and Lindsey Hill have settled all outstanding litigation,” Bauer’s attorneys, Jon Fetterolf and Shawn Holley, wrote in a statement on Monday. “Both of their respective claims have been withdrawn with prejudice, effective today. Mr. Bauer did not make — and never has made — any payments to Ms. Hill, including to resolve their litigation. With this matter now at rest, Mr. Bauer can focus completely on baseball.”
Bauer also alleged in the YouTube video that Hill’s legal team approached him “multiple times” about a financial settlement that his side consistently declined. He also said that the defamation lawsuit allowed his legal team to uncover additional cellphone material that was “deliberately and unlawfully concealed” from his lawyers, most notably a video of the woman “lying in bed next to me while I’m sleeping, smirking at the camera without a care in the world — or any mark on her face” on the morning after the second alleged incident.
“Over the last two years, I’ve been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting, but hopefully this is the last time I have to do so, as I’d prefer to just remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games and entertaining fans around the world,” Bauer said in his video. “So today, I’m happy to be moving on with my life,” Bauer said.
Bauer was never arrested or charged. He countersued, saying he had one consensual sexual encounter with the woman in 2020 and then accused her of faking the pregnancy to extort money from him.
His attorneys have said that the woman made several million-dollar demands against him.
Bauer said he ultimately paid $8,761 for expenses he believed to be related to the woman’s reported pregnancy and its subsequent termination.
The woman later said that she ultimately decided not to terminate the pregnancy, but had a miscarriage.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on the criminal charges next Friday.
In a recorded video statement released Tuesday, Bauer said he is innocent.
“What else do I have to do to prove that this entire situation has been a massive lie? This is insane,” he said. “At what point do I get to go back to work and continue earning a living?”
This wasn’t Bauer’s only accusation, but innocent until proven guilty should still be a standard of law in this country, even if the initial details seem horrible.
Bauer was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in January 2023 and played last year with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Japan’s Pacific League. He pitched for a Mexican League team during the spring and is still trying to make his way back to the majors.
Let’s see if these latest turns of events help.
In the aftermath of Zion Williamson having to leave the game after scoring 40 points and watching the Pelicans’ playoff hopes go down the drain in a close play-in loss to the L.A. Lakers, his scorned IG star ex-flame Moriah Mills had no sympathy for the injury-plagued forward, who hasn’t been able to stay on the court long enough to truly impact the league on a nightly basis.
Mills posted a series of IG posts, never mentioning Zion’s name, but clearly referring to the man who she had a relationship with that went sour and she’s been expressing her feelings for him ever since. She couldn’t wait to rub it in, like a 10-year-old child. She hasn’t gotten over her failed position as once-valued side piece. It’s always venom.
“You’ll never be LeBron James, ever…, “ Mills said. Sorry. Sit this one out tonight. In another post she says, “I told yall last year, this person is a disgrace to the NBA. He has no morals or morality. What makes you think he’s going to be the face. “
Mills then places her hand over her mouth and begins laughing hysterically, undoubtedly at Zion’s recent misfortunes.
The 23-year-old forward scored a game-high 40 points for the Pelicans in their Play-In game against the Lakers, but late in the fourth quarter of Zion’s postseason debut, he appeared to be in pain after scoring a clutch bucket to tie the score. Moments later, he bounced to the locker room as the hearts and hopes of Pelicans fans were crushed in the final three minutes of the 110-106 loss.
Everything was going great for Zion. The former No. 1 overall pick out of Duke appeared in a career-high 70 games for New Orleans during the regular season. Now he’s out with a left hamstring injury for Friday’s home play-in matchup with the Sacramento Kings. Mills also attacks his bad knee, claiming that his physical limitations affect his performance in bed.
“That man knows he’s playing on a bad knee. Like literally his knee was messed up when we were sleeping together. He literally couldn’t do certain moves all freakin’ night.
“Honestly and truly I really hope they keep that man Zion Williamson benched so that the Pelicans can actually make it to the playoffs this year and be an amazing team.”
This isn’t the first Zion’s jilted ex has tried to embarrass him in the media and on social media. She’s gone on rants in the past calling him fat and names such as “Pillsbury Doughboy” and discrediting his sexual prowess. Whatever she can.
The IG model with the incredibly rotund fake backside that has made her a legendary clout chaser on IG, has brought nothing but tumult to Williamson’s life since he and his expectant girlfriend, Ahkeema, announced via a viral video gender reveal party that they were having a child.
The 23-year-old Williamson did not seem all that happy to be an impending dad, wearing a shirt that said, “I’m here because I don’t want to get yelled at,” and saying something cryptic to his unborn child in the video.
“My baby, you’re going to see this at some point,” Zion says, being embraced by Ahkeema. “I don’t know what the future holds, but Mommy and Daddy love you. If you don’t know anything else, know Mommy and Daddy love you for life.”
Around the same time, Mills posted an Instagram photo of her getting Zion’s name tattooed on her face, which later turned out to be fake.
In any event, Zion has a career troll now. It’s hard enough dealing with the pressures of being a franchise player and overcoming injuries and criticism and trying to perform and play at a high level. He realizes every day that he picked the wrong one in Moriah Mills and until somebody else comes along to divert her attention, Zion will be the target of her venom for months to come.
Laughing at a man for being injured though is just low.
Aaron Rodgers has some free time before he takes another crack at leading the Jets on a deep playoff run. Last year’s attempt lasted one game, and while he has been rehabbing, he’s also had time to do more reading and research.
We know that he has been very expressive with ideologies and beliefs that are contradictory to some conventional trains of thought, and his criticism of the government and Anthony Fauci, the American doctor and scientist who, as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID; 1984–2022), played a key role in researching and setting public health policy for a number of contagious illnesses, notably AIDS and COVID-19.
During an appearance on the “Look Into It with Eddie Bravo: podcast in March, Rodgers suggested the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s was engineered by the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with help from the federal government, who executed the same game plan with COVID-19.
“The blueprint, the game plan was made in the ’80s. Create a pandemic with a virus that is going wild,” Rodgers said. “Fauci was given like over $350 million to research this and come up with drugs new or repurposed, to handle the AIDS pandemic and all they came up with was AZT.”
“And if you do even smidge of research … I’m not a doctor. I’m not an immunologist. I can read though,” Rodgers continued. “I can learn and look things up like any normal person and do my own research which is so vilified. To question authority.”
“But that was the game plan back then. Create an environment where only one thing work. back then AZT, right now Remdesivir until we get a vaccine, which by the way, Anthony Fauci had stake in the Moderna vaccine,” he asserted.
Rodgers basically calls Fauci an evil crook, but the iconic QB does have his supporters.
Rodgers continues: “And we know Pfizer is one of the most criminally corrupt organizations ever. The fine they paid was the biggest in the history of the DOJ in 2009. What are we talking about? We’re going to put our full trust in science that can’t be questioned?”
Aaron Rodgers Is Attacked On X For His Comments About AIDS and COVID
Rodgers isn’t the first person to criticize and politicize Fauci and his response to and handling of the COVID epidemic back in 2020. His position and ostensible Democratic allegiances made him a political lightning rod during the public health emergency.
Of course, Rodgers was attacked by Fauci supporters and people who find him incredibly annoying off the field.
“Can someone please take Aaron Rodgers home and make him stay inside until his head is fixed?” one person asked.
“Just a reminder, Dr Fauci is a hero. Aaron Rodgers is a clown,” said another X/Twitter user.
“Aaron Rodgers is the worst type of idiot—the one who’s convinced he’s a genius,” another Xer wrote.
Another lashed out: “Please keep Aaron Rodgers & his weird conspiracy theories off of my timeline. Dude has choked on one too many shrooms dipped in acid.”
If ARod was on something, it was probably the psychedelic drug ayahuasca. He went on an offseason soul search back in 2022 and discovered that getting lit lead to spiritual calm and overstanding.
“I had heard about ayahuasca and I think there’s so many myths and rumors about it,” said Rodgers on the “Aubrey Marcus Podcast.” “The fear around it is, you’re going to s*** yourself, it’s just a big throw-up fest … but the negative framework of it is that is the experience, not the deep and meaningful and crazy mind-expanding possibilities and also deep self-love and healing that can happen on the other side.”
Maybe he was high when he decided to make these divisive and unfounded comments. the Jets surely don’t need a fractured fan base entering such a crucial season. The Jets hope Rodgers can keep a zip on his lips until he delivers what he came to New York to do. It certainly wasn’t to offer his conspiracy theories.
Minnesota Timberwolves star Rudy Gobert is the betting favorite to win his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award this season.
The defensive anchor for the surprising T-Wolves squad that finished (56-26) and the No. 3 seed in the very competitive Western Conference, Gobert would join Hall of Famers Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace who both won the award a league-record four times each.
While Gobert’s basketball career has been stellar since he arrived from France in 2013, growing up the man known as “Stifel Tower” faced racism within his own family. Per Gobert in a letter to The Players’ Tribune, he was told by his mom and other family that he wasn’t accepted as a child because he was born to a white mom and black father. In the letter Gobert details a myriad of things told to him by his mom, and none of it was pretty.
“It’s a painful memory, but one that I need to share,” Gobert mentioned in the piece about that landmark moment.
Gobert talked about how his mom and dad met while his dad, a Caribbean immigrant was playing basketball in France. In his mom’s family’s eyes having a baby with a black man was frowned upon, and they disowned her and Rudy for it. Gobert says a family member told him things went awry when the family didn’t want his mom to bring him to a Christmas dinner.
“We don’t want that baby in our house,” an alleged family member told Rudy’s mom.
The family’s racist ways forced Rudy’s mom to choose, and she most definitely chose her son. Although it hurt her to the core, she had to be was her son, and she was responsible for his well-being.
“She was devastated,” Gobert wrote. “And obviously, she spent Christmas with me instead. She told them, ‘If that’s the way you think, then you’re not going to see me anymore. Not at Christmas. Not ever. I don’t want anything to do with you.”
Like any parent, Gobert’s mom made sure to protect him from those who may attempt to cause harm.
Mom’s Love And Motivation Is Why Gobert Is In The NBA
In the past Gobert has gone on record talking about his upbringing in France, and how it wasn’t easy on his mom. In this piece he mentioned that no matter what they may have lacked she always made up for in how she motivated him to be great. His mom told him to never stop dreaming and to chase those dreams, telling him this.
“Go after your dreams. I’ll be fine.”
That’s all Gobert, who fell in love with be game of basketball at the age of 12 needed to hear. He used that to put himself in position to be a first-round pick in the 2013 NBA draft. In fact Gobert just finished year three of his monstrous five-year, $205 million deal signed in 2021.
Bet you the family is regretting disowning him now. Took a lot of courage on Gobert’s part to tell this story, and it goes to show you that racism is still alive and kicking even amongst families.
The way Caitlin Clark is covered by the mainstream media and she was raved about by the WNBA and its commissioner, you would assume that she would at least be making as much as she did in college, where she had an NIL valuation that peaked at $3.1 million.
The NIL bag is almost 10 times more than what Clark will be paid in her first four-year WNBA contract.
As the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, Clark will receive a four-year contract worth a total of $338,056, which is the same for the top four draft picks according to the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Cameron Brink was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks at No. 2 overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, and her contract details are similar to Clark’s and Cardoso’s.
According to Spotrac, Brink will sign a four-year contract worth $338,056 and will make $76,535 during her rookie season. In 2025, Brink will make $78,066 and will then make $85,873 in 2026.
Kamilla Cardoso, the 6-foot-7 national champion out of University of South Carolina via Brazil, received a four-year deal, valued at $338,056, according to Spotrac, and Cardoso is set to earn $76,535 in her rookie season. Additionally, the contract includes a fourth-year option worth $97,582.
Jackson has a four-year deal valued at $338,056. She’ll have an option in Year 4 of the deal once the 2027 cycle begins. The No. 4 overall pick is the highest pick out of Tennessee since Diamond Deshields was pick No. 3 in 2018.
Jackson was one of two lottery picks for the Sparks, and general manager Raegan Pebley called them “foundational.”
Since Sheldon was taken with the fifth pick, the pay slots begin to decrease a bit. She falls into the second highest-tier for WNBA rookie contracts. Sheldon is expected to make $73,439 as a rookie and that amount will increase every year of her deal.
Based on the league’s CBA, 2024 rookies taken anywhere from the fifth to eighth picks will make $324,383 if they remain under contract for all four seasons, with the fourth year being a team option.
As the No. 6 pick in the draft, Edwards will also make over $324,000 as a new post piece for Cheryl Reeves’ Minnesota Lynx.
Angel Reese was the No. 7 overall pick of the Chicago Sky and the franchise’s second pick of the draft.
Reese will reportedly sign a four-year deal worth over $324,000 with the Chicago Sky. In addition to her NIL valuation, which exceeded $2 million in college and her 2.9 million Instagram followers, which is 1 million more than Clark has, Reese won the Most Outstanding Player award in the Final Four and guided the Tigers to the 2022–23 national championship. She was also voted BET Sportswomen of the Year and unanimously selected to be on the first team of the All-America squad.
We know people will complain that the men make so much more, but that’s really not the point. Women’s hoops has to find a way to make itself more marketable in addition to the new eyes that are on it for the time being. The brands these women have already created will elevate to a next level on the professional stage without the restrictions of amateur rules, and off the court, through endorsements, is how most of them will make the bulk of their riches. As well as push the WNBA forward.
They say don’t let childhood grudges stop you from discovering life’s greatest gifts. Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, once fierce and hated competitors on the college basketball court, are now teammates on the rebuilding Chicago Sky.
The most unlikely pairings ended up in Chi-Town, with the 6-foot-7 Cardoso, who came to America from Brazil at the age of 15 with no family and no grasp of the English language and the girl from Baltimore who beat the odds and became a star.
Both won national championshipa during their times in college and continued the tradition of elite post players that have always been a staple of the women’s game from Lisa Leslie to Sylvia Fowles to Tina Charles, A’ja Wilson and Brittney Griner.
Cardoso and Reese have had some contentious matchups. Reese pulled Cardoso’s hair during an SEC championship match between LSU and eventual national champion South Carolina. A contest that involved Cardoso pushing LSU guard Flau’Jae Johnson onto the floor, where a melee then ensued.
The dueling post forces were often engaged in some very physical battles in the SEC and both were sparks of energy and intimidation for their respective teams.
So it’s no surprise that people found it very interesting, if not awkward, that both would end up on the same team, when their history is taken into consideration.
In fact, social media had a ball, calling Reese and Cardoso the new “Twin Towers.”
Both players were complimentary of each other and ready to go after it in practice, steel sharpening steel, also lifting the Aces out of their second-to-last-place ranking in WNBA team rebounding.
I think it’s gonna be great,” Cardoso said. “She’s a great player, I’m a great player, so two great players together. Nobody is going to get any rebounds on us.”
Both player profiles are similar with their defensive and rebounding attributes being the staple of their games. There’s room for improvement on the offensive end for both players, who at the very least are very effective as well on the offensive boards. Reese took just 32 3-pointers in college and Cardoso probably took less.
The NBA has had its notable twin tower combinations from Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon to Patrick Ewing and Bill Cartwright and most recently Tim Duncan and David Robinson, both Hall of Famers who led the San Antonio Spurs to championship glory and sparked a dynasty.
The Duncan-Robinson memes were flowing on X.
With NBA fans so invested in these WNBA draft picks and flooding social media with Tweets and memes on draft night, it’s possible that this wave is sustainable.
The women’s game wants to be seen on par with the men’s game, so when comparisons to past NBA greats start preceding draft picks who haven’t even stepped on the court, then that’s a great sign for the league.
A 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-3 frontcourt in the WNBA isn’t common, it’s as unique as two 7-footers continue to be in the NBA after all of these years. Something for the basketball fan to buy into, celebrate and create anticipation for the future.
Both players will provide the grit that new head coach WNBA legend Teresa Weatherspoon will build hes team culture upon.
“This is a chess match,” Weatherspoon said, after the Sky traded up with Minnesota for the seventh pick to take Reese. “And we actually got every player that we had designed to get. This is (an) exciting moment for us, exciting moment for the city, and this is (an) exciting moment for the Chicago Sky organization.”
The Sky, who won the championship in 2021 with Candace Parker and the crew, went 18-22 last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Former coach and general manager James Wade bounced midseason to take an assistant coaching job with the Toronto Raptors.
The Sky hired Naismith Hall of Famer T-Spoon as coach in mid-October.
The friendship that will most likely develop between these two fierce competitors and champions will permeate the Sky’s locker room and immediately create a new culture, Not to mention both women are growing in celebrity status, so Angel Reese will bring her celebrity affiliates as well as her 2.9 million Instagram followers to tune in and watch “Bayou Barbie” do her thing. The Brazilian Bombshell Cardoso can add her 500,000 followers and her international crowd, and it’s a party in the Chi.
The WNBA draft had a heightened sense of excitement this season and that’s of course, because of the women’s basketball wave that has taken over sports since the first Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark faceoff.
Among the celebrities of the basketball world in attendance was Sonya Curry, mother of Golden State Warriors legend Stephen Curry, who was sitting among the supporters for No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink out of Stanford.
It just so happens that the 6-foot-4 Brink is Curry’s goddaughter.
Brink was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks and was projected to go right after Clark.
The Curry genes have definitely rubbed off on Brink in some way because she was a dominant baller in college. Her game is based on her height, width and defensive prowess, however, which is quite different than what the Curry family is famous for.
During her time at Stanford, Brink won Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year three times. She also won a national championship and was named the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
Sonya and Brinks deeply embraced prior to the Stanford legend walking onto the podium, hugging WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert and holding her L.A. Sparks jersey.
Clearly Cury’s mom has been a huge influence in Brink’s life because she gave the basketball mom a shoutout during her interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe.
“I think I just need to keep leaning on my people,” Brink said. “My Godmother Sonya Curry is over there.”
She also reportedly got some words of encouragement on a FaceTime with Steph Curry prior to the draft.
Dell and Sonya Curry are both Brinks’ godparents. The relationship dates back to college, before Steph and Seth were born and starting to forge their paths to the NBA, following in Dad’s sharp-shooting shoes.
Dell and Brink’s father, Greg, both played at Virginia Tech. Sonya and Brink’s mom, Michelle, were roommates at the school.
Curry has known young Cameron his entire life and attended several of Brink’s games throughout her life.
Brink is a defensive force, but she’s not without touch on her perimeter jumper, proving she didn’t waste her relationship with Steph at all. Curry played a part in the development of her all-around game. In 2021, the year Brinks won the national championship, Curry gave some insight into his relationship with Brink.
“She was trying to develop her jumper and I spent a little bit of time with her, gave her some pointers,” Curry told USA Today reporters. “My dad did as well. But just in terms of your development, you put the work and the time in, every year, you’re going to get better. She’s taken advantage of that.
“To see her in college, I know she’s gonna keep getting better, honestly. I don’t really have to tell her much now. She’s kind of off and running, so it’s been awesome to watch.”
Brink averaged 17.8 points and 12.0 rebounds per game this season with Stanford and led the nations in blocks (3.5 per). She will be counted on heavily to lift a once-proud franchise back to prominence.
NIL Deals
Brinks has also benefited from the NIL explosion in college sports. Before the season started, he became the first women’s basketball player to sign with New Balance.
“Cameron’s exceptional skill on the court and her desire to give back align perfectly with New Balance’s desire to change the game for the better,” the Boston-based athletic company said in a statement.
She is also a brand partner with Buick and was a part of their “See Her Greatness” campaign last year.
According to NIL website On3, as a college player Brink had deals with Icy Hot, Chegg, Daps collectibles, and Stanley cups.
Brink says she recalls attending Davidson Wildcat games when she was a tyke. She admits she probably wasn’t paying much attention to the game, but it was the atmosphere and environment that initially captivated her and eventually the game.
“I loved him and I loved the atmosphere,” Brink said about watching Curry in college. “I loved putting on the outfit, but I was not good at paying attention. It sounds terrible, but it all felt so normal to me. It was just what we did. I grew up around it.”
With support like the Currys’ Brink will be ready for what whatever the WNBA throws at her, and if she ever needs to expand on her range, she can go right to the plug — no middleman.
Angel Reese has built a brand almost as big as Caitlin Clark’s. They both have become the voice of a new generation, NIL money blessed them in college, and at this very moment, both are raking in money with brand collaborations as they stand just hours from becoming pro players.
There aren’t five WNBA players more popular than Angel Reese right now, so how can she be projected to go any lower than Top 3?
As the women’s game tries to capitalize on this current wave of interest, you can’t do that by putting one of the women who made it happen on the back burner.
The WNBA has basically announced that it is putting all of its money behind Clark because of the fan base she’s accumulated. In addition to her skills, she’s moving the needle as a transcending personality.
Same can be said for Reese, even if on a slightly smaller scale. The audience that she resonates with might not be the same mainstream, middle America audience that elevates Clark, but they spend money, attend games and drive the game all the same.
Angel Reese is no slouch when it comes to being popular and having a fan base that she travels with. Her 2.9 million Instagram followers are nothing to sneeze at. In comparison, NBA star Anthony Edwards has 2 million. Clark only has 1.9 million followers. You do the math.
Back in December of 2023, nine months after she won Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament and led LSU to a national title, a WNBA mock draft on ESPN, had “Bayou Barbie” projected to be selected eighth overall.
At that time, Reese stepped away from the team for personal reasons and the media went wild with the narrative, especially since the cause of the absence was a perplexing mystery. Also, the Caitlin Clark Effect was just getting started, and Reese was still recognized as a contender for top player in the country and top pick in the 2024 WNBA draft entering 2024.
So the mock draft was considered a snub to some, certainly to Reese and her coach Kim Mulkey.
“That was an insult to her. We talked about the things she needs to work on. Whether she gets picked higher than that or not, it still motivates her. She gets motivated in practice with someone going head-to-head with her or talking trash back at her. She’s a competitor,” Mulkey said when the mock draft debuted.
Reese went to her X account at about 1:30 a.m. on Friday morning, feeling froggy again, tweeting a message to anyone who doubted and disrespected her along the way, telling them to “make sure that apology is as loud as the disrespect.”
Recent Mock Draft Has Angel Going To Minnesota Lynx At No. 7
Fast-forward to this April’s draft, and Reese would be lucky to be taken in the Top 10. ESPN has her landing at No. 7 to the Minnesota Lynx.
ESPN: “With the personnel they already have, the Lynx seem likely to look for the best player available with this pick. The big question: Will they think that player is Reese? Rebounding is her top strength; she’s exceptional there.”
The concern is whether her offensive skills can grow to the point where opposing teams think they have to guard closely even when she is not in the paint.
If anyone knows how to elevate Reese’s game and maximize her current skill set, it’s Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeves, entering her 12th season at the helm. Reeves has won four championships coaching and meshing players of all sizes, skill sets and talent levels from Maya Moore to Seimone Augustus to Lindsay Whalen and Sylvia Fowles. She’s coached MVPs and Hall of Famers.
An April 15 mock draft has Reese falling to No. 8 to the Atlanta Dream.
Michael Voepel, ESPN.com on Reese:
“There isn’t a more polarizing player in the draft regarding how her talent projects to the pro game,” ESPN added. “Some think her quickness and length will help her as a defender, something Dream coach Tanisha Wright excelled at herself as a player. Others say Reese lacks offensive versatility and will struggle against the WNBA’s paint protectors. Reese (20.1 PPG, 11.5 RPG) doesn’t have a lot of range. But she’s solid at what she does, plus she has a nose for the basketball as a rebounder.”
So while players such as Caitlin Clark are seen as lead offensive players, Reese is more of an exceptional piece to a strong team. Problem is that her star shines as bright as all of the others projected to be chosen before her.
Franchises in need of publicity and craving to be more visible to the casual hoops fan would be fools to ignore Reese. The charismatic power forward, who already has a Sport Illustrated spread on her résumé, incites a flurry of emotions and opinion from people who want to see her, win or lose. That’s great for the WNBA.
Rickea Jackson, Aaliyah Edwards and Alissa Pili can ball, but let’s be real. They aren’t that much better than Reese that you’d risk half the publicity, fans at the game and prime time attention.
Fortunately for Reese, with her brand and marketability still high, her deal with Reebok in place and her popularity coming out of college, she will still be one of the immediate and most recognizable faces of the WNBA, regardless of draft position or how the league manipulates the narratives.
With all of the adulation and understanding bestowed upon Caitlin Clark and the other women basketball players credited with helping the game’s visibility and marketability reach new heights, the one player who may have sacrificed the most to represent everything that team sports is about is former LSU guard Hailey Van Lith.
Tonight was supposed to be a WNBA draft that saw her possibly going in the first round, clearly as one of the best women’s players in the country. Instead, she’s in the midst of finding another home after leaving the LSU drama train behind and entering the transfer portal, where she’s currently the ninth-ranked player, according to the Athletic.
The feisty, sharp-shooting guard, who transferred to Baton Rouge from Louisville to elevate her status in college hoops and join the national champions with hopes of helping LSU win another, had three elite seasons with the Cardinals, averaging 15.4 points on 13.2 shots per game and developing a reputation as a marksman.
She was supposed to add another dimension to LSU and a strong complementary perimeter and play-making piece to an offense predicated on the post contributions of first option Angel Reese.
But the partnership did not work out as planned for either party. The more athletic Flau’Jae Johnson was clearly going to get more freedom in an off-ball role, with Van Lith shifting to point guard. Though she tried her best to be a team player, accepted her new role, supported Kim Mulkey and her teammates throughout all of the trials and tribulations that transcended the basketball court, it was clear that Van Lith wasn’t comfortable playing the background.
All of that grace didn’t benefit her in the end.
When the lights went out, the crowds dispersed and all of the corporate carnivores finally take a breath to count the money, Van Lith was one of those unsung players who sacrificed their own journeys for the cause.
She clearly wasn’t happy on the court. Getting benched for the first time had to be a torturous blow to her ego.
When she saw her Louisville team roll to 24 wins and then lose to No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee State in the NCAA Tournament, that had to sting. They could have used her 20-point potential. She was a star there. Maybe she shouldn’t have left. The conversation had to be going on in Hailey’s head as she watched Johnson’s brother leap over the scorer’s table during the SEC Tournament scuffle with South Carolina.
Do I need this? Is this what I came to LSU for?
Even though she played the supporting teammate to perfection, bravely jumping into the middle of a battle between Mulkey and Reese and certain media, proving to be an advocate and ally on issues of racial equality and boldly defending Reese and her teammates against what they see as racial and gender persecution.
Between all the fanfare and NIL deals for her surrounding cast, Van Lith’s hoop dream, to be a WNBA draft pick in the 2024 draft, started slipping away. There were too many stars and too few cameras, content or basketballs to go around.
Mulkey recently spoke out about her one-year experiment, after news of Van Lith transferring out of LSU for her final season, surfaced.
“She had to embrace a change in her mindset of not shooting it 20-30 times a game, but finding who’s open and getting them the ball,” Mulkey said. “And sometimes it was hard because she would be pressured, and she’d be pounding the heck out of that ball.”
So while her teammates soared, she suffered, posting just 11.6 points on 9.9 shots per game with the Tigers.
Her deft shooting took a dive from 42.2 percent to just 37.8 percent. Her three-point shooting was about the same (33.7 to 33.9 percent).
Mulkey Says Having Point Guard Skills Is Van Lith’s Only Hope Of Playing In “W”
Van Lith is only 5-foot-8ish and a solid 170 pounds. She can hold her weight, but she’s not a physical specimen and the guards are averaging 6 feet and better in the WNBA nowadays. The 5-foot-4 Mulkey knows a thing or two about undersized guards doing big things, The championship coach was an All-America point guard at Louisiana Tech University back in the day, winning two national championships as a player: the AIAW title in 1981 and the inaugural NCAA title in 1982.
“She wanted to improve her strengths by coming to LSU with a goal of expanding her game by learning a position that I played my entire life,” Mulkey said, per Nola.com, “because she knows at the next level that’s her only chance — to be able to tell them somewhat, ‘I can handle the ball if you need me to.’”
Mulkey understands the game, and the way she’s wired she probably wanted a season to get Van Lith more work at the point, more touches, and make her a larger part of a new LSU Tigers offense for 2025. At the same time, Mulkey has some fire recruits coming in, and she understands Van Lith is on the clock.
“Her aspirations were to get drafted this year, and she realized, ‘I need another year and I need to go back to a place where I can relax and get back to my normal position,” Mulkey said at a team banquet, according to Nola.com. “And what do you do? You hug her, and you wish her well.”
Van Lith can ball, so she will land in a place where she can put up some shots and try to work her way into the WNBA. She’s already visited conference rival Mississippi State. Some are surprised she would go to a team that was seventh in the conference, but Van Lith played under the Bulldogs head coach Sam Purcell for two seasons, while he was an assistant at Louisville. She would surely get to put the ball up more and prove her worth.
No more sacrifice.
The Caitlin Clark wave seems to only be gaining steam. With the Iowa Hawkeyes sharpshooter set to become the No. 1 overall pick in tonight’s WNBA Draft, the league is hoping to capitalize on the fame and hype that Clark has brought the women’s game over the last couple seasons.
Clark’s Steph Curry-like range (led nation in threes made per game), her ability to make teammates better (led nation in assists per game), and her scoring prowess (led nation in scoring) have put the dynamic hooper from West Des Moines, Iowa, on front street.
The WNBA has hovered right around the $60 million per year revenue mark, and while that’s not bad for the league’s 12 teams, league commissioner Cathy Englebert is striving to double the bag.
In a recent interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Englebert, who’s done wonders just keeping the at-times cash-strapped league afloat let it be known that reaching the $120 million revenue threshold is the goal. She also didn’t hesitate to mention that they’re looking to take advantage of the Caitlin Clark hype that’s helped push women’s basketball to heights not seen.
Let’s not ignore Angel Reese who is also an “it” girl as one of the pioneers in the recent explosion of women’s college basketball. Her tenacious, All-American play on the court, personality, NIL deals and social media presence has elevated her to one of the WNBA’s Top 5 most marketable brands. Teams would be foolish to allow her to fall out of the Top 5.
“We hope to at least double our rights fees,” Englebert said. “Women’s sports rights fees have been undervalued for too long, so we have this enormous opportunity at a time when … the media landscape is changing so much.”
WNBA could Separate from NBA, Get Separate Rights Deal
The WNBA under Englebert’s leadership is so confident with their standing right now reports are they could even make an unprecedented move and explore a separate rights deal from its big brother the NBA.
This is a direct result of Clark arriving in the league this season after her stellar career at Iowa, where she single-handedly guided a pretty stagnant program to heights they’d only dreamed of previously. When Clark arrived in 2020, they’d been to just one Final Four, when she left they added two more trips to their program’s resume coming up short in back-to-back championship games.
Despite the losses the women’s game won because of Clark both seasons. Both championship games set records with this past one having more viewers than the men’s game for the first time ever.
Thanks to years of shrewd business deals and a strong business plan to keep the league moving forward the league can in many ways write its own ticket. That’s due in large part to the many years of investments and of course, NBA support, but setting record numbers in the television markets and game attendance has really given the league a serious jolt.
With the TV deal ending just as women’s basketball takes off into orbit, the WNBA has to go for it to set the league of for the next 30 years.
The WNBA’s current TV deals with ESPN and Ion, conveniently are both set to expire in 2025, and the league has an opportunity to negotiate a larger deal based on the growing visibility of women’s college basketball and Clark’s projected effect on the league.
ESPN DEAL
The WNBA’s ESPN Deal highlights the 27th annual WNBA season with 25 national broadcasts of regular-season games across its family of networks, as well as coverage of the playoffs.
ION TV DEAL
Ion Television Deal the NBA has, televises Friday night regular-season games, totaling 44 games over 15 weeks from May 26 to September 8.
The contract aligns with the current TV rights deal through ESPN and also concludes in 2025. Specific terms and details were not disclosed, but WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert described it as a significant rights fee.
PRIME VIDEO
And most recently, the WNBA ran it back with Prime Video, as the streaming service expands its venture into live programming, announcing a multi-year rights extension in which Prime Video will continue to be the exclusive national streaming partner of 21 WNBA games each season, including the Championship Game of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup presented by Coinbase.
The women’s game, at least in the moment, has become a must-see and that was never more evident than this past season’s March Madness. Many analysts, broadcasters and fans didn’t hesitate to say the women’s tournament as a whole put the men’s to shame.
Again, Clark’s popularity, swagger and overall ability to galvanize fans everywhere was the sticking point, but she wasn’t alone. There were plenty of other players who helped along the way, but none have the popularity of Clark who made her Saturday Night Live debut on Saturday.
Exciting times for the future of the WNBA.
The 2024 WNBA draft will take place on Monday night in New York City. Projected No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark isn’t messing around during her down time in the Big Apple.
The reigning two-time Naismith Player of the Year and AP Player of the Year even embarked on a new television journey. On Saturday night Clark made his debut on the hit comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live.”
In a week of firsts for the sharpshooter from Des Moines, Iowa making the big screen at 30 Rockefeller Center and the “SNL” set had to be the highlight. That is until Monday night when her name will be the first one called by WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert to kickoff what’s to be a pretty heavy talent-laden draft.
During her skit, Clark was quick to honor all of the great women players who helped pave the way for her and so many others like Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper who led the Houston Comets to the first four WNBA championships.
Appearing on the ever popular “Weekend Update” segment of the show Clark took a subtle jab at comedian Michael Che, who’s long taken shots at both women sports and the WNBA. Although Clark’s response to Che’s jabs was definitely scripted as is all SNL skits, she didn’t miss. Clark even asked Che to read some jokes she wrote for him.
“The Indiana Fever have the first pick in this Monday’s draft. A reminder that the Indiana Fever is a WNBA team and not what Michael Che gave to dozens of women at Purdue University.”
Clark quickly jumped in saying….
“Now that’s a joke about women’s sports.”
“This year, Caitlin Clark broke the record for three-pointers in a season, and I have three-pointers for Michael Che. 1- Be, 2- Funnier, 3. Dumbs—.”
The attention Clark continues to receive is a bit bothersome for many. Some fans were wondering why Clark — and not Angel Reese or a player from the champion South Carolina Gamecocks squad — was the choice for SNL.
It’s the same question they asked when Ice Cube offered Clark $5 million to be the first woman to play in his 3-on-3 BigLeague.
Point-blank, no current basketball player in the NBA or WNBA moves the meter quite like Clark, who’s got the world at her feet.
She’s so popular that the reigning two-time defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces moved their only regular season home meeting with the aforementioned Fever from the 12,000- seat Michelob Arena at Mandalay Bay to the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena.
This has got to be a whirlwind from Clark. The jealousy, the adulation, the expectations, the challenges, the apprehension. She is carrying the weight of women’s basketball on her shoulders and the casual fan can sometimes have expectations that exceed that of the regular basketball viewer. Let’s see if she can handle the whole weight, once she’s selected as the No. 1 overall pick in Monday’s WNBA Draft.
The 2024 WNBA draft is set to take place on Monday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Here are five can’t-miss prospects expected to hear their names called early.
Caitlin Clark, who led the Iowa Hawkeyes program to back-to-back national championship appearances will be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever.
Clark’s rise to prominence has done wonders for the women’s game, in fact last Sunday’s title game between Clark’s Hawkeyes and the now champion South Carolina Gamecocks for the first time had more viewers than Monday’s men’s title game between the Purdue Boilermakers and Connecticut Huskies.
The dynamic guard will be teamed with 2023 No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), giving the Fever a dynamic inside-out punch they’ve lacked since Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas led the Fever to its only WNBA title in 2012.
Clark led all of college basketball (men’s and women’s) in scoring (31.6), assists (8.9) and three-pointers made per game. The newly crowned NCAA’s all-time leading scorer was praised by Dawn Staley in the aftermath of the title game loss to the Gamecocks.
“She’s one of the GOATs of our game. I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport.”
South Carolina star Kamilla Cardoso stands 6 feet 7, and that type of size just isn’t something you see often in the women’s game.
The 2020 No. 4 overall recruit just led the Gamecocks to an undefeated 38-0 season and coach Dawn Staley’s third title. Cardoso waited her turn and learned behind the aforementioned Boston, finally taking the reins this past season.
The belief is Cardoso will be taken third overall by the Chicago Sky, a spot higher than originally believed in most previous mocks. Her ability to finish around the basket is a coveted skill that all teams crave.
The aforementioned Staley also raved to ESPN about Angel Reese following a huge in-season matchup between her team and the LSU Tigers.
“Angel is a talent. She’s aggressive. She’s poised. She’s very unselfish.”
Two-way star Cameron Brink will very likely be staying close to where she played her college ball (Stanford). The 6-foot-4 rim-running big is just what the Los Angeles Sparks ordered as they look to replace franchise stalwart Nneka Ogwumike who left for Seattle in free agency. Brink would follow in the lineage of one Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and the aforementioned Ogwumike.
The best scorer in this draft not named Caitlin Clark is Rickea Jackson, the former Tennessee Volunteers star. Jackson is likely to go fourth to the Sparks, forming a pretty dynamic duo with the aforementioned Brink.
Jackson displayed her three-level scoring ability this past season by adding a three-point shot to her repertoire. That should bode well with Brink’s ability in and around the paint area.
In the end Jackson’s name may not resonate like those of Clark, Cardoso, Reese or Brink, but her scoring prowess speaks for itself.
On a recent episode of Gil’s Arena podcast, the hate surrounding Caitlin Clark was a hot topic, and Los Angeles Sparks veteran guard Lexi Brown, who was very vocal when Ice Cube reportedly offered Clark $5 million to become the first woman to play in his Big3 League, joined the podcast.
Arenas opened the conversation by explaining that people need to stop taking the Clark hype personally. She’s the WNBA’s meal ticket and they would be fools not to ride it.
“Same thing with Wemby, they put him on TV every day too,” said Brown, acknowledging that Caitlin Clark is a golden goose for the WNBA, but it doesn’t mean she’s going to come in and dominate the league.
“Let’s not overreact about this,” Brown cautioned, echoing the sentiments of several WNBA players who are licking their chops in anticipation of testing Clark’s skills. “There’s smart business decisions being made.”
Arenas is all in on the business side of things and with the over-the-top promotion of Clark that is sure to dominant next season’s WNBA coverage.
Brown just doesn’t want people to confuse the media hype with the actual player.
Gilbert says all of that is irrelevant. If the WNBA wants to grow it has to ride the Clark wave until the wheels fall off and some of the current stars will suffer in that process.
“For the game to grow, hands have to be cut off, period,” Arenas said.
“The NBA does it all the time,” he continued. “You see Wemby with the new Nike commercial? They capitalize in real time right now. The ‘W’ needs to see, ‘Alright’ this what the NBA is doing. We need to do it.’ There needs to be a Caitlin Clark logo. You need to start putting these things in place so you can run with it. “
Arenas says that in order for the WNBA to take off and capitalize on the Cailtin Clark Effect, the old heads like Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart, who have forewarned Clark that her WNBA life won’t be the walk in the park it was in college, have to accept their position as irrelevant to this new wave.
Arenas predicted how the situation will go for these current stars once Clark takes the court against them.
“Diana Taurasi and all of them, as soon as the game starts…(makes a whistle sound), two fouls, sit yo old ass down…because I don’t need you anymore,” Arenas said.
The WNBA is already capitalizing, having boosted the amount of nationally televised games that the Indiana Fever will play next season, because Clark is projected to be taken No. 1 overall by the franchise.
The WNBA announced that it will show 36 of the Indiana Fever’s 40 games on its national broadcast and streaming partners, starting with the season opener at Connecticut on May 14. Last season, the Fever had only 22 of their games shown nationally.
The Fever will appear eight times across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, as well as eight times on ION and twice on CBS. In addition, the Fever will be highlighted 13 times on NBA TV, four times on Prime Video and once on CBS Sports Network.
While Arenas says he respects the fight that the OGs have in trying to stand their ground and protect legacies, it’s a battle that they already lost.
When Taurasi says in reference to Clark that, “Reality is coming. There’s levels to this thing and that’s just life, we all went through it,” Arenas believes that Taurasi is the one that should be re-adjusting her reality because the league no longer needs to promote the old guard.
Clark represents the fresh juice, freshly squeezed for taking the baton and elevating the league to new heights. Keeping these eyes that women’s basketball has gained and that will only increase as they dominate at the Paris Olympics this summer.
“I don’t need you. Listen, you held (the league) down for 20 years…congratulations,” Arenas said.
The conversation switched to who would win a matchup today between the two without — as Arenas kept referencing — the refs blowing the whistle and creating ticky-tack fouls on Taurasi to give Clark an advantage.
Brown said she believes this is Taurasi’s final season, but the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer would give Clark a 40-piece because “she’s smart and that Phoenix offense is built for DT.”
“[The league] gave this team 35 national televised game for a reason,” Arenas responded. “If you think about touching her (Caitlin Clark), I’m blowing the whistle. I’m thinking about the future and the ratings.”
Brown says people want to see a fair matchup between Clark and other WNBA stars. Arenas replied, “It’s been 20 years, and a needle hasn’t been moved,” as far as the league growing in revenue, stature and popularity.
Gil wants everyone to prepare for Caitlin Clark mania, and, according to the former NBA shooter, the WNBA should and will do everything it can to make sure that Clark rises to the top of the food chain, regardless of what these prideful veterans try to do.
Former NFL MVP Cam Newton has successfully made the switch from the gridiron to the podcast world. Newton, the host of the rising “4th and 1” podcast, has been in the news quite a bit over the last couple of months.
From the physical altercation he was involved in at his youth football camp to his being on press row at the Super Bowl, Newton has been a busy man.
The former Heisman Trophy-winning signal-caller recently made the stop by the “Club Shay Shay” podcast to discuss a bevy of topics.
One being how he ended up at Auburn after leaving Florida, where he was teammates with Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Joe Haden and the late Aaron Hernandez. For years the rumor has been the Tigers gave him and his family $180K for him to transfer there after a season at Blinn College, where he also led them to the JUCO national championship in his lone season.
At the time of his transfer to Auburn, Newton’s former offensive coordinator at Florida, Dan Mullen, was hoping to land Newton at Mississippi State. When that didn’t happen, Newton says Mullen and his wife began to spread rumors that Newton chose Auburn because they illegally paid him $180K.
That rumor has long stuck with Newton, who felt the need to clear it up during his interview with Shannon Sharpe, the Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Newton says he would’ve had a new car, house or something that told on himself. That was never the case and because of that it’s never been anything more than a rumor.
Newton also mentioned how his dad Cecil empowered him to be a man, and why he still lives by those principles. Newton told Sharpe this:
Strong words spoken by Newton’s dad to him, and how he’s let it resonate with him ever since says a lot about who he is as a person.
As a result of the rumor, Newton’s father Cecil had to tak the fall in order for his son to continue to be able to play. But as a result he was banned from all remaining games that season and the subsequent Heisman Trophy ceremony. Because of that disrespect to the man that raised him, Newton has vowed to never attend a Heisman Trophy ceremony with the award’s past winners.
What’s crazy is you never see Newton on the Heisman House commercials that run on ESPN randomly. Meaning he’s pretty serious about not attending the ceremony or participating in other facets of the winning the prestigious award.
Taylor Rooks and Joy Taylor are considered two of the most beautiful women in sports broadcasting and podcasting.
Both have built successful careers by being not only comforting to the eyes, but aware of the sports landscape and what it entails. Joy is the sister of former Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer Jason Taylor, and she’s steadily built her media empire by holding her own on various high-profile debate shows with titans of the talking head game from Skip Bayless to Colin Cowherd.
Taylor gained notoriety with her work on NBA coverage as well as her one-on-one interviews and her ability to find the legs to a story and coerce honest feedback from her subjects, many who are male athletes with their guards up.
When Jemele Hill and Cari Champion got together and did their groundbreaking show “(Don’t) Stick to Sports” on Vice, it received mixed reviews and at times turned off male viewers because of the hard-edged stances and attack mode culture that sometimes permeated the show, as both women are beautiful but some complained that they were more interested in teaching lessons and voicing objections than playing to their feminine attributes.
Jemele is married and off the market and Cari gives off an unobtainable vibe at times.
While the aesthetics are pleasing to the male audience, the delivery sometimes obliterated the male fantasy that is such an important part of a successful sports show featuring two women.
As the careers of Joy and Taylor have progressed, it was a no-brainer that the tandem would come together, shedding any male influence, on a podcast where their voices are the predominant ones and the subject matter is delivered in a way only a lady can present it.
On the “Two Personal Show,” the women touch every topic from sports to lifestyle, beauty — and the popular one with women — relationships.
Neither woman is married, so their perceived availability also inspires men to freely give compliments. Anytime Rooks or Taylor steps out for a night on the town, the cameras are out and social media is buzzing.
For Rooks, whether she has the internet drooling over pics with her and Halle Berry, or her latest photo from a Global Diversity event that is breaking the internet, she always understands the assignment.
Everyone seems to have a glowing opinion about how Rooks wore that dress, how it sat on her curvaceous body and the movie star look she gives off that makes her in the opinion of every man and woman in the world; a whole snack … respectfully.
Rooks knows it and she plays to that advantage to perfection, while executing her job like a consummate pro to re-establish that line of respectability. Taylor is a winner in that regard as well.
The tight-fitting, olive colored dress radiated off of Rooks’ illuminating chocolate skin.
Her full lips colored to perfection, eyebrows laid like train tracks, and the next thing you know, she’s out-trending the field.
The frequency with which women are now in these announcer positions has made the arrival of Taylor and Joy’s show perfect timing.
Men are already tuning in. Some do it because they have never seen two gorgeous women of color, emitting beauty, a strong opinion and being respected sports minds at the same time — without twerking.
Their celebrity extends beyond the athletes and sports they cover, so their opinions on all subjects are now valued, and evokes emotion and feedback whether positive or negative. Men are often captivated by their physical appearances and offended at times by their sports knowledge. The women respect both Taylor and Rooks for holding their own in a male-dominated business and also wait in anticipation to hear their opinion on beauty tips, men, relationships, personal experiences and philosophies on life.
At the end of the day, they also make women feel way more comfortable to be themselves than on male-hosted shows.
When you talk about rising value versus dormant existence, that’s half of the sportscasting landscape against these two rising stars, because as we know how far you transcend the occupation depends on how much they will pay you. To be recognized as a goddess of sports isn’t a bad gig.
It gains you a ridiculous fan base and leads to big branding dollars at the end of the day. And with more power and influence they can continue to support women in the business and influence change in that regard.
Gawking admirers just comes with the job.
GloRilla is one of the young rising artists from Memphis, Tennessee. Her convergence with the new media world of former professional athletes who’ve turned broadcasters and podcasters led her to “The Pivot” podcast.
During the interview, co-host and former NFL player Ryan Clark asked the artist what her dating life was like now, and he received an earful about young trauma that has shaped her current dating reality.
“I’ve only been in two relationships my whole life and my first relationship fed me up because that was the first time I ever got cheated on,” said Glorilla. “I used to always feel like I was the friend that didn’t have n***a problems and all my friends, like, they got pregnant early, and they always used to get cheated on and they’ll be crying ,and I used to be like, ‘Damn, I don’t think it was that crucial; what you crying for?'”
However, like many, Glo couldn’t avoid the gamble of trust in another person romantically, and when that covenant of trust was broken, she entered a new reality: heartbreak.
“When it finally happened to me and I actually felt where they were coming from, I lost my appetite real bad,” GloRilla continued. “My first heartbreak, it was the same n***a. I never physically caught him cheating, but it was just like clues that I’d be like, ‘I know you are cheating.’ Every time, it’s just a different feeling, like my heart dropped to my ass. I can’t eat for so many days. I remember one day, I was on the way to my mama’s house and I was in the car crying to God.”
“I was like, ‘God, please, if you let me get over this n***a, I won’t ever do this again. Please restore my appetite, take this heartache away; I said I will never do this again if you let me get over it.’ So I don’t be trying to just really get into that no more because that’s not a good feeling getting your heart broke at all, and I thought it was for fake at first, and when I really felt it that’s why I be so hard now.”
GloRilla is still reeling from being cheated on, but Channing Crowder has some words of encouragement when she asks the trio of Clark, Crowder, and Fred Taylor, “Do yall lose yall appetite when yall have heartbreak?”
“He couldn’t have been Black because Black men don’t cheat,” said the always-affable “Pivot” co-host Channing Crowder.
Yeah, Glo! That part.
NBA superstar Kevin Durant has long had his issues with things said about him via social media. The former league MVP even went as far as to have burner accounts to respond to naysayers speaking on his name.
That wasn’t the case as it pertains to the latest rumor being spread about Durant which stems from a pickup basketball played during the 2011 NBA lockout.
During the lockout KD and other NBA stars regularly participated in pickup games at New York City’s famed Rucker Park. One game KD went for a reported 82 points while hitting 9-11 from the three point line, including five consecutive at one point.
Rapper Fat Joe who’s had team’s participate in Rucker Park hoop events for years jumped on “The Roommates” podcast to talk about the aftermath of Durant’s huge night.
Fat Joe Says Other Hoopers Wanted To Resort To Violence
During the segment, Joe, who’s mentioned time and time again that 95 percent of what he raps about is false, had this to say about the comments.
“He scored like 82 points in the third quarter. He doesn’t like me telling this story but they chased him out of Rucker Park. They wanted to beat him up. He whipped their a** so bad they tried to beat him up out there. He was checking it out and then — whoosh, a three. I was there at the game. He scored like 80 points and I was out there and they chased him into the truck. He had to go.”
Wild story told by Joe, and while he said KD wouldn’t want him telling it, he did, only to have the 14-time All-Star call cap (lies) on what Joe said. It didn’t take long for Durant to take to X to sound off on the situation.
Thursday afternoon Durant shared a clip of Joe’s interview and captioned it this.
“Another podcast lie. It was nothing but respect and love out there that night, didn’t feel unsafe for one second.”
Sounds like Joe was either having fun at KD’s expense or hoping to go viral. It’s safe to say he seemed to do both. As for KD, one thing for sure and two things for certain, KD will defend himself against things said about him on social media.
The biggest difference now is he isn’t hiding behind burner accounts to do so.
Through all the media hype and preparation for next college football season, and the pressure to be better than a four-win team in the new Big 12 conference, lost in the commotion was the fact that Deion Sanders will soon become a grandfather. His elder daughter, Deiondra, 31, is expecting a child with R&B singer Jacquees.
Initial reports said Sanders was not in approval of the situation, but in a recent discussion with People, Deion admitted that he hasn’t “fully digested” the reality of being a grandfather, but he supports his daughter as she enters another stage of adulthood.
“I haven’t digested that whole thing yet,” Sanders confessed, also admitting that he can’t find a thing to be excited about when it comes to transitioning into grandparenthood.
“I’m proud of my baby that she’s at least waited until her 30s to give me this gift of life,” he said. “I’m happy about that, but I want to make sure she’s straight emotionally and psychologically as well.”
Since announcing the impending birth of their child on Instagram last month, the couple appear to be happy and healthy.
Deiondra had had a series of health complications in the past, and in her post she said she’s proud to “give hope to all the other women that may be in my situation.”
“Even though this was not planned or expected, this is something that God allowed to happen. I’m not having my baby to keep a man. I am having my baby for all the times I was told I wouldn’t be able to,” she wrote.
“I’m having my baby for the four myomectomy surgeries I have had. I am having my baby for all the years I stayed on birth control even though it gave me breast tumors. I’m having my baby for all the doctors that told me I wouldn’t make it out of the first trimester.”
The reality star went on to write that she’s having the baby “for the 7 current fibroids that surround my uterus to this day” and “the high-risk moms that was scared everyday thinking they would miscarry.”
She also revealed that she experienced bleeding “every day” in the first trimester of her pregnancy.
“I’m having this baby to give hope to all the other women that may be in my situation.” she wrote
Who knows how stable the relationship is because Jaquees and Deiondra, were recently part of a dramatic scenario that unfolded on social media, where infidelity involving a rapper named Dreezy, who allegedly had a prior relationship with Jaquees, seems to be exposed, which further feeds Deion’s concerns.
Deion shares Deiondra — along with son Deion Jr., 30 — with his first wife, Carolyn Chambers.
It’s clear he’s not taking this well, but then again, Deion has always been a protective father and keeps his children close. In addition to his sons Shedeur and Shilo, Sanders brought his youngest, 20-year-old Shelomi to Colorado with him. She plays on the women’s basketball team.
In all honesty, Deion lost the time and energy to try and manage his adult kids’ lives long ago. Deiondra’s journey is one of inspiration and however it plays out, he has a beautiful gift on the way.
Now, as far as the business side of things go on the football field, this is the most important coaching year of Deion Sanders’ career. He’s proved he can recruit and promote with the best of them. Now people want to see him coach, and it appears the confidence in his ability as he enters the Big 12 is not high.
Even with Texas’ Steve Sarkisian and Oklahoma’s Brent Venable headed to the SEC, the Big 12 still had some heavy hitting coaches. Arizona’s Brent Brenna, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham are also joining the conference.
On Monday, On3’s Jesse Simonton released a spring ranking of the 16 Big 12 football head coaches, and Coach Prime came in among the bottom rung at 12, which seems a bit low based on how well Colorado is expected to do.
Sanders did a solid job in his first season after inheriting a one-win program from 2022. He definitely reinvigorated the fan base and brough national attention the program hasn’t ever seen. He hit the transfer portal and went 4-8 which is definitely successful if he continues to improve by 3 games each season.
So, there’s a lot of business to handle, and as long as Deiondra is in good health Prime doesn’t need to be so grumpy.
They say money is the root of all evil, and we should know better than any country, but our tennis and golf players and organizations across the world have been getting in bed with a nation whose civil rights and beliefs on gender equality don’t exactly coincide with ours.
And it’s all for the sake of a dollar. Once we make these deals for billions and accept money from nations with political and moral constructs that clash with ours, we also must deal with the consequences.
We take the Saudi bag and agree to compete in their country, then they call the shots. It was recently confirmed that the Saudi Tennis Federation had struck a deal worth over $40 million to host the WTA Finals for the next three years.
According to reports, Women’s Tennis Association players have been warned they could be ‘jailed and tortured’ for speaking about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
Tennis is the latest sport linked with accepting investments from Middle Eastern countries after a merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour sent shock waves through men’s professional golf.
There have also reportedly been ‘positive’ talks between Andrea Gaudenzi — chief of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) — and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) about a potential partnership.
Saudi Arabia’s investments in various sports has attracted criticism, and some prominent U.S. tennis players such as Andy Roddick, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, have accused the nation of sportswashing due to their poor human rights record and subsequent desire to reshape their global image.
Which means they are trying to buy our compliance in their unhumanitarian and oppressive governing through sports. The money seems to be talking.
British tennis legend Andy Murray says it is “unfortunate” that Saudi Arabia’s influence on sports is growing around the world.
The Saudi Tennis Federation is all in, having committed to awarding $15.25 million at this year’s WTA Finals – an increase of $6.25 million from the 2023 event in Cancun.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek said earlier this year that it was “not easy for women in these areas” but also offered her opinion that nations like Saudi Arabia wish to “change.” Although she did not specifically reference the government or how they would institute change.
Saudi women have made some legal rights advances since 2017, but widespread discrimination in the areas of marriage, family and divorce still exist as the government has reportedly intensified its targeting ad repressing of women’s rights groups.
Saudi Arabia is reportedly in the midst of constructing a $1.5 trillion city to be just 1.4 miles long. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says he hopes it can expand to over 100 miles, rivaling the pyramids of “Egypt as an icon of timeless grandiosity,” according to reports.
The money is flowing, and everybody wants a piece. But at what cost?
A leading human rights group has reportedly sent a warning to WTA players about the dangers of standing up for women’s rights in the country.
“If you complain, you go to jail,” Human Rights Watch director of global initiatives Minky Worden told iNews. “So that puts the WTA and players in a super bad spot. You complain about women’s rights conditions, you end up in jail and tortured.”
“So which women’s tour player wants to be asked about the women’s rights defenders who are in jail while they’re playing tennis? Whatever the prize money is, it puts them in a very difficult moral spot and ethical spot,” Worden added.
“It’s only since 2018 that women and girls have even been allowed to drive and play sports. Yes, there has been some progress in that area,” Worden continued, “and it has been due entirely to the women’s rights activists, many of whom have suffered imprisonment and torture.”
“I think the core problems of the underlying human rights crisis in Saudi Arabia are not addressed. None of the federations, not the ATP, not the ITF and not the WTA, have in place a human rights framework that would allow them to even do human rights due diligence,” the activist concluded.
Tennis players such as Andy Roddick have expressed concern about how competing in Saudi Arabia will impact the many LGBTQ+ players such as Daria Kasatkina.
“Homosexuality is illegal [in Saudi Arabia], but we have openly gay players,” Roddick said. “You know, Kasatkina came out last year. If she goes there and plays, are we just telling her to take a week off of her sexuality? How do we protect our own players?
“You know, their life choices are viewed as criminal when they enter this place. How do we protect those mechanisms? And can whatever is said now be trusted when it’s actually in practice?” he asked.
“There aren’t any women’s rights defenders in Saudi Arabia they can interview about the problem. They’re all in jail, or under house arrest,” Roddick added.
These are strong sentiments expressed by some tennis legends.
Meanwhile, Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA Tour, has to protect the bag and continues to defend the decision to take women’s tennis to Saudi Arabia. He says, “everyone is going to be welcome” and doesn’t “anticipate anything more than positive experiences.”
This is a developing story that we will keep an eye on.
At the same time, the WTA will undoubtedly also warn their tennis players to lie low, play tennis and return home. It’s not the time to take political stances, because Brittney Griner can tell you how fast an athlete can get caught up in a foreign country because of a lack of understanding of the severity that comes along with breaking their rules.
It’s often not a matter of right and wrong. Just policy. Same as there’s no justification for putting tennis players in dangerous situations just so the organization can rake in money. For now, it’s falling on deaf ears.
O.J. Simpson died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 76. The former college and NFL legend is most known for the double murder trial in which he was ultimately acquitted of stabbing to death his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles in one of the most captivating and sensational trials in the history of American Justice.
Although he was never convicted of a crime in connection to those deaths, today a great percentage of the U.S. population who are familiar in some part with this crime believe he did it. To be certain, the dynamics of race and class played to the American psyche better than puppies, cheeseburgers, hip-hop and apple pie ever could. Journalism careers were created in the maelstrom of blood, guts and personality.
In 1997, a civil jury in California found ‘The Juice’ liable in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman’s parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
O.J. got away with it is the theme that still resonates to this day, but the beloved football star’s life would never be the same after that trial, that captivated people of all ages and made Court TV the daily go-to channel.
OJ’s brand took on a different nature. He was no longer a celebrated Heisman Trophy winner and NFL icon, who did Hertz commercials, running through the airport and leaping over luggage. He was still a celebrity but carried the reputation of being a killer and all of the sensationalism and venom that comes with it.
There were documentaries and movies made that introduced generations after the mid 90s to the man who might have executed the perfect crime.
Very little is mentioned of the man who was one of the best running backs to ever do it, accumulating 11,236 rushing yards, 2,142 receiving yards and 990 kick return yards, resulting in a total of 14,368 all-purpose yards in his NFL career.
Simpson’s shining moment on the gridiron and the final affirmation of his generational greatness came 21 years prior to his life changing course in 1073. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record by amassing 2,003 rushing yards and averaging 143.1 rushing yards per game for the Buffalo Bills that season. It remains the highest mark in history.
I was a college student when the O.J trial jumped off. In fact, the gripping “30-for-30” documentary, “O.J.: Made in America,” brought back memories of my college days and the way his murder trial affected every aspect of African-American life for an entire school year.
Who can forget that 60-mile low-speed pursuit across Orange County freeways in the infamous white Bronco with his boy Al Cowlings handling the wheel, and the subsequent arrest on murder charges?
Then the eight-month long trial that had the world at a standstill, which somehow became a referendum on the state of race relations in this country instead of what it was — a tragedy inflicted by a some sick individual or group of individuals.
I was a college student at an HBCU back in ’94 and 95 when the O.J. trial was on TV every day. It was almost like the campus was on hold. Actually, the entire South was captivated by the many intriguing, racially charged, scandalous and horrific elements of the trial, which were captured on Court TV.
It was one of the most enthralling criminal trials in American History. And throughout the course of it, any off-campus crib you walked into had a crew of people either cutting class, or were between class, and they were focused on the O.J. trial. Everything during the day was scheduled around the trial.
Of course, being that the school was predominantly African American, everyone was pulling for O.J. and Johnnie Cochran to prove O.J.’s innocence. I’m sure in the back of the minds of many a militant, socially and historically conscious college student, it didn’t matter if O.J. was innocent or guilty.
The dynamics of the trial took on a White vs. Black character. Some of my schoolmates were simply rooting for Team Cochran to somehow get O.J. off, proving that the number one defense attorney in the world was of African-American descent.
The majority of Black were appalled by O.J.s actions if true and most didn’t believe he was innocent, but O.J.’s victory was more symbolic than about the man and his character as a former star athlete turned accused abuser and killer.
It was an exhale for years of oppression and false convictions perpetrated upon minority males.
Finally, we had a victory against what many perceived to be an oppressive American judicial system.
(Photo Credit: USA Today)
I also remember the verdict. I moved back home to New York and was working part-time that fall semester as a dispatcher at a security firm in Hollis, Queens. When the verdict was announced, people ran out of their homes and businesses and celebrated in the streets throughout the predominantly Black neighborhood.
But on television, we saw the reactions of non-blacks. One of horror, disbelief and anger. Most considered it the worst failure of justice in American judicial history. They said O.J. was given preferential treatment by the jury because he was a football legend. Fact of the matter is, he was still Black and everybody expected a conviction.
As much as I remember the racial elements in the trial and the brilliant legal combat executed by both sides, the O.J. trial represented the moment when reality TV met real life and it became acceptable for people to became stars off of another’s personal tragedies and burdens.
The world still hasn’t come back to its senses yet. Race relations between the LAPD and Los Angeles residents were very strained at that time. Only two years earlier, riots followed the acquittal of four LAPD officers who were videotaped beating Rodney King, so African-American youth in general were very aware of instances of police brutality and subtle and overt racism.
With the slew of killings involving young unarmed Black males by cops in the past decade, not much has changed since the O.J. trial.
He will go to his grave still considered a murderer. Barely remembered as a football icon. O.J.’s death reinvigorates memories of an unforgettable time in the life of many Americans. It’s still the “Trial of the Century” and it was the one time when everyone is in agreement that a brother beat the system.
The television series, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” debuted with rave reviews and an all-star cast featuring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Courtney Vance, John Travolta, Sarah Paulson, David Schwimmer and Kenneth Choi, among others, and directed by Anthony Hemingway and Ryan Murphy.
Like the high ratings FX enjoyed when the mini-series premiered, the actual trial and the subsequent media circus that ensued made a travesty out of what was supposed to be justice. The defense lawyers and prosecutors were popular household names. Judge Ito’s signature beard and glasses gained a celebrity unto themselves as well. Marsha Clark, Rob Kardashian, Johnnie Cochran, Mark Furman, F. Lee Bailey and many others gained infamy.
But what was not lost on the conscientious observer was the more theatrical the trial became, the more it seemed to favor the narrative of the defense.
And it was pretty hairy from the start. The moment O.J. was allowed to flee, albeit slowly, from LAPD in the Bronco the entire criminal justice system was beholden to nothing but theatrics. O.J. offering a $500,000 reward to find the real killers, Cochran’s “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit,” the alleged racism of LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman, Kato Kaelin’s hair, the conspiracy that said Nicole was killed by drug dealers whom she owed money to, all a sick, sad freak show.
Like watching a slow motion train wreck, it was impossible for the world to look away. Then, once the verdict of acquittal was announced, the nasty underbelly of our country was revealed as white people were way too mad that a Black man appeared to have gotten away with murdering two white people, and Black America was way too happy about O.J., who had long since shunned the affections of the African-American community, had gotten off.
You can say that O.J. never changed. The older he got, the more he became a cult figure. Two months before his death, he was happy, speaking to his fans on social media who reached out to ask about rumors of his declining health and give his predictions for the Super Bowl. He even had a weekly appearance on the “It Is What It Is” sports show hosted by rappers Cam’ron and Mase.
At the end of the day, Orenthal James Simpson’s life was a test of human character. A test on race, class and privilege. One we all probably failed. With reality television now fully merged with real life on social media and new developing forms of instant communication, we will never have a moment as polarizing and unbelievable as that trial. We also haven’t seen a running back who executed his duty with the grace, power, speed and overall artistry of The Juice.
RIP