The Fever found a new way to win tonight, putting away the Mystics, 77-70.
The Lynx upped their win streak to five, with a 87-71 rout of the Silver Stars.
The Shock stunned the Sun, 64-58.
Team news:
Sky....Elena Delle Donne is humbled by fan All-Star voting, which saw her get the most votes. That had her speechless.
Tomorrow's game previews:
Liberty at Sky
Sun at Silver Stars
Sparks at Storm
Chamique Holdsclaw:
At 9 a.m. Eastern time Sunday, Chamique Holdsclaw will discuss her journey from hoops star to behind bars, on ESPN's "outside the lines" show. Preview.
U19s at the World Championships:
Round two action saw the USA pulverize China, 103-56.
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3 comments:
Pretty disappointing piece from ESPN on the Delle Donne All Star voting thing. Seemed like Fagan and Hill had little interest in giving credit where credit was due and instead Fagan wanted to talk about how Griner would eventually "become the Britney Griner we created in the media" and Hill wanted to talk about how great the Chicago market is as justification for Delle Donne's All Star voting results.
A few observations:
- The "Experts" were saying PHX was a lock for the WNBA title preseason. The truth is that Griner still hasn't been fully integrated into their new game plan. Further a person has to wonder if her recent injury problems have anything to do with Gaines going back to a running strategy when BG spent her entire collegiate career posting up. In case people haven't been paying attention she isn't real mobile nor is her body used to that type of stress. The preseason claims and hype on both a basketball and social level didn't help Griner nor did her overt antagonism of her Alma Mater.
- Hill is right that Chicago is an affluent market but it has never been a good W market. I had to laugh when she talked about how much better the Chicago market was than PHX. Seriously. PHX has won multiple W Titles and normally their regular season gate is double what Chicago draws. In fact Chicago has been one of the worst W markets and even EDD's heroics haven't yet turned their attendance around. That said if they keep doing what they are Chicago will embrace them and it will be good for the Sky and the W generally.
What's actually going on:
1) EDD's Sky teammates and coaches have universally praised her for her BB IQ and ability to integrate into their team and make everyone better. They said the same thing about her at Delaware.
2) The entire state of Delaware Loves her and she loves them back. Probably partially because she walked away from guaranteed fame at UConn for an unsure thing back home and made it work.
3) Her niceness and class isn't fake or for marketing purposes. Everyone close to WBB knows the situation with her sister. She was an academic All American who majored in Family Policy. She doesn't have to do the self serving WNBA public service promos. She's been living it for years.
It's hardly coincidental that EDD doesn't fit the favorite demographic of Fagan, Hill or the league for that matter but it would be cool if they could be gracious enough to give full credit to the woman in spite of that reality.
Finally there is a lesson here to all WNBA Management teams that maybe they shouldn't buy into the fashionable media hype when making their draft decisions. Can anyone imagine how good PHX would be this year if they had drafted EDD instead of Griner? It would have been epic. Live and learn.
6:59... so you're trying to say that the league is discriminating against Delle Donne because she's not a lesbian (at least to the best of our knowledge)? That would make my brain hurt.
I'll agree with your last paragraph 100%, though that's an ongoing theme, and as long as ESPN is shaping the WBB narrative both at the pro and college levels, we're going to be stuck with it.
It would be cool if you didn't try to put words in my mouth. I didn't say anything about discrimination, you did. What I said was EDD doesn't fit with the narrative being pitched by Richie and the WNBA. Nor does she fit with the reporting biases of either Fagan or Hill which are well established based upon their reporting records so I don't have to repeat them here. That said it sucks if your head hurts.
The W and ESPN are hand in glove with the marketing of the W. The direction that the Disney Companies have been going with their entities is well established. So I guess I agree with you at some level, it's going where ESPN's multi-million dollar contract with the W is taking it. You are free to draw your own conclusions.
What I was trying to say is that EDD is one of the best stories to come out of the W since Parker came into the league. It would be unfortunate if it wasn't leveraged to the advantage of the league due to biases on the part of any of the four entities I have called out.
I would add that EDD doesn't deserve the lesbian shot you took at her either.
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