Where the Mind Wanders

01Late-night notes

Who doesn’t love a good standalone game? Up until the past month, I lived in Las Vegas, which is in the West Coast time zone. If you want to bet for a living, that is hands down the best, as you’re the latest of all the time zones, so the games usually end around 9 PM and you get to have your whole night. It was a bonus that early games for you are actually early. The NFL London game would start at 6ish AM, and I’ll say one habit/activity I’m going to miss now that I’ve moved away is staying out all night and taking a quick nap before the international game. It was just a great flow to then watch Redzone all day. I say all of that to transition into how now in Texas, these games end so damn late for me. If I want to watch, I really can’t go out with my friends. No offense to anyone, but you don’t exactly find WNBA games on at local bars around these parts. In Las Vegas, it wasn’t uncommon to see them in Sportsbooks, but bars with actual young people seldom have a WNBA game on. So, it’s late as I’m typing this.

My first thought is that I hate the nickname VB for Veronica Burton. I have stuff to say about the broadcast later, so I’ll just harp on this for now. When I heard the commentators say VB for the first time, I twitched a little bit. It just does not sound right. Veronica Burton was actually one of the players whose name sounds better when you say her full name. “Burton” just doesn’t sound right. “Veronica Burton” has a much better flow and sound to it. So a general question or plea, is can we relax with abbreviating players' names? It’s almost like when people call Jaylen Brown “JB.” It just is not as smooth as the full name. So, please, can we kill the acronym nickname now before it has the chance of catching on?

03The Tempo, the Fire, and the broadcast

I like watching Kayla Thornton. Seeing Aneesah Morrow next to her, I started to wonder if there could be any comparisons between the two. It would be great if Aneesah Morrow could reach the individual impact level Thornton is at, but I do think, based on what I’ve seen, Morrow might have one more level to get to. Her three-point shot has been surprisingly good, but I wouldn’t read into that too much, and beyond that, her game just needs a little more refinement and reps. Anyone who watches her will be able to see her competitiveness jump off the screen. I’ve been thinking about this trade, and I’m starting to love it. I’m starting to like the Tempo overall, but to preface, I may have had a few sips of overreaction juice tonight. I’ll just say that she’s going to get much better, and I think a lot of that is going to happen this offseason. I love players like Morrow. If you want to become a competitive team, then you need competitive motherf***ers on your team to play the part, and that's exactly what she is. I’m happy to see her get pulled out of a toxic situation as well (I’m sorry, new future team) and get a chance at a very different career arc.

I have typed in my notes twice actually: “Nyara Sabally might have some juice.” She has been overshadowed in a lot of respects throughout her career, and that’s more of a testament to her sister and a reflection of injury issues, and not necessarily based on Nyara being bad. In fact, Nyara is not bad at all, and I think if she can string together a few more games, I think we’ll begin to be stunned by how much she’s developed. She used to be a player who I could tell was trying hard, but was not as polished as others on the court. She was pretty limited offensively and still made some lazy or flat-out mistakes in the other aspects of the game. However, now, she is kind of a veteran. I was watching her, and she’s more comfortable with the ball and shooting with more decisiveness. I can tell she’s put in some work, and I hate to compare siblings, but I could see her actually having a more productive second half of her career than Sabally, who has been amazing up until this point.

Shoutout Kiah Stokes. I didn’t keep an eye on her too much offensively tonight, but her defense on switches caused some real problems for Toronto. A lot of those possessions to end the game tonight ended with Kiah Stokes sliding her feet and truly clamping the guards of the Tempo. I was trying to think of NBA comps, and I landed on Rudy Gobert, which doesn’t do her justice because tonight she did the thing Gobert gets critiqued about, which is switching onto perimeter players well. Regardless, that’s what her offensive limitations kind of remind me of. She’s one of those players that might not always have the smoothest game, but she tries hard and undoubtedly impacts winning.

I’ll preface this rant by saying I was quite grumpy today. I had to spend a few hours going back and forth with customer support for a refund only to not get it, and f*** I don’t want to rehash this today because typing about it makes my blood kind of boil. So, I’m already not in the most pleasant mood, so this could be totally uncalled for, but the broadcast tonight got on my nerves a lot. The two announcers were fine, I guess, but there’s this shameless homerism that I can’t stand the entire broadcast. I actually had to mute it and was perfectly fine just kind of sitting silently in my room watching the officials replay something. It almost got to a point where it feels like we were watching a different game. Like every call against the Valkyrie is iffy, and the Tempo get lucky here, and they’re so much happier for GSV when they score. I don’t think I’m asking for equal enthusiasm for both teams, but I’m asking for a little closer to neutrality. I’m asking them to dial it back like two dials on the cheering and applause scale. In hindsight, after typing this, I could be overreacting, so let me know if I’m the only person who gets annoyed by broadcast announcing homerism. Like, at least give the other somewhat comparable validation and praise. They too have an interesting story with players and careers all worth acknowledging and praising. It might just be me, but I think it's an announcer's duty to be a close-to-neutral host and messenger of the game, but if they’re instructed otherwise, then I will gladly stand corrected.

Lastly, since the Tempo and Fire got added in the same year, they will forever be attached and measured against each other. When one achieves success, the other will be under pressure and vice versa. In their first year, I think the Fire will end a little more competitively and be more memorable for THIS YEAR. They do have something great going on with a unique system and players who are up for the challenge, and I can easily see they aren’t afraid of the top competition. However, the Tempo have a higher ceiling with their higher-end talent, especially with Morrow now added to the team. It's safe to say they both have the right coach, so now it’s about building on what currently exists and developing winning systems. You have to put more faith in Sandy since she’s a certified g, but Alex Sarama has kind of shown us how hung he is. I like both these teams going forward, but directly comparing them will be unavoidable as each year goes by. All of these expansion teams having success and at least proof of culture after one year should put some pressure on these other franchises. None of the three recent coaches seem to be getting fired anytime soon, which should expose how some of these franchises like the Sun or Mystics, who are stuck in the middle and have been rebuilding for a few years now, are just kind of twiddling their thumbs. We’ve now seen 3 teams enter the league and either become an instant contender for the championship or show that they can establish a distinct culture and identity and raise the current talent levels of their rosters. It should be embarrassing how, in one offseason, GSV leaped from a top-half team to a top-3 team for teams like the Sky or the Sparks who keep missing every offseason. There’s a little bit of Love Island to this when you add bombshells; it puts real pressure on all the other contestants and exposes flaws that are no longer avoidable. Same with adding these sexy expansion teams and putting some competent people on the coaching staff and front office. It’s a great reminder to never get too comfortable because there’s always a hot new big shot that can be dropped into the island at any time.