Episode 18
· 01:08:04
Alright. If you're proud of our team, if you're proud to win the Bay Area, play. Louder Louder! We can't her.
Michelle:You have holy buckets and you're trying to like outdo yourself.
Filiberto:I was just so inspired by Natalie in her post game press comments, which we will talk about momentarily. I'll... I'm gonna... We'll talk about it more, but man, there... So one of the things I've learned over the years traveling all over the world is that there is something different about LA people and LA Mexicans in particular.
Filiberto:Like, there is something distinctive about our attitude, the way we cuss, the way we go around our world. And when Natalie represented herself at the press conference afterward, I was like, there's my homegirl. There's my motherfucker that's been hiding behind, like, the politeness of a press conference. Because that's the person that I think the the the players get. They get the cussing and the loud
Michelle:and the...
Filiberto:That's what... We got a piece of that and that was... I loved it. I saw myself in her and it was glorious.
Michelle:But, yeah, you're trying to be, like, professional to me, but also you're trying to give them something they can use. Right? And if it's literally with f bombs, it's gonna be hard for them to use that.
Filiberto:They may enjoy using it, but it's not as usable, especially on the radio. But...
Michelle:Especially during the regular season.
Filiberto:I just loved it, man. I love seeing LA all over her. Because I haven't heard it yet. And I was like, yeah, you're from LA, but where is it? And there it was.
Filiberto:And I loved it. I mean, we won the championship, that's amazing. But that that was also pretty cool too.
Michelle:Yeah. So we'll definitely have some time to talk about the champion Golden State Valkyries.
Filiberto:Like, holy shit. Yeah. My ears are still ringing. It's Tuesday.
Michelle:I know. Yeah. But it is... We are we are recording this on election day. So just wanna remind everyone to please go out and vote even though you're gonna listen to this probably after election day.
Michelle:Well... I just wanna note that.
Filiberto:And the really funny thing is we're recording this in the morning of election day. By the time we finish with the transcript and everything, we might get some results. We don't know shit right now. Right? We we know nothing.
Filiberto:We know some early vote stuff.
Michelle:Nope. Polls are closed. But... Yes. Thank you everyone who's voting.
Michelle:It's a it's a messed up system, but...
Filiberto:Well, not all of you. I'm not gonna thank all of you for voting.
Michelle:That's true.
Filiberto:For all you motherfuckers voting with hate in your heart, get out of here. Get out of here.
Michelle:Well, I'm like, why were you looking at me, a white woman, when you said that?
Filiberto:Because you're my podcast partner. I'm looking at you.
Michelle:I know. But that's who I think of when I'm like, bitches Nah. Get your shit together, white women, and vote correctly.
Filiberto:I'm thinking about Byron Donalds in Florida. I'm thinking about, like, the skin folk that ain't kinfolk. Yeah. And that's what I'm talking about too. Like, yeah, certainly white women are a problem.
Michelle:Yes.
Filiberto:There's other problems that we have to think about. So we don't know what's gonna happen. There's a lot of exciting trajectories. People are feeling enthusiastic. But Yeah.
Filiberto:Who the fuck knows?
Michelle:Yep. And then let's, you know, let's get started with what adult beverage are we partaking in today?
Filiberto:To enjoy this championship podcast. And I'll say folks, we didn't intend to do this many episodes. Yeah. We just ended up running the table and winning everything. So, you know, we're a little farther afield than we expected.
Filiberto:But to celebrate this championship podcast, we have a lovely, a lovely mimosa. Cranberry juice. What's the what's the base?
Michelle:Prosecco. Prosecco.
Filiberto:Mhmm. From the region of Prosecco.
Michelle:Kirkland.
Filiberto:Kirkland's signature.
Michelle:But it's yummy.
Filiberto:Everyone wears the same outfit in the region of Kirkland signature.
Michelle:You know, like, I got I got a few bottles of Prosecco just in case we had something to celebrate. My parents were also visiting. So I figured even if Valkyries don't win the finals, we can have some mimosas one morning with my parents while they were here too.
Filiberto:So much of our attitude going into these finals was like, oh, hell yeah. We're in the finals. But also, hell yeah. Atlanta's in the finals too. Yeah.
Filiberto:So in as much as it would have been painful to see our team lose, I was gonna be... We were gonna be super happy for Angel Reese and Atlanta and Rhyne Howard and Smesko and all those motherfuckers. They're an amazing team. It was an amazing series, iconic, legendary, everything. Atlanta is an amazing team.
Michelle:Yes. If the Valkyries were not in the finals, I would have been rooting for Atlanta.
Filiberto:Absolutely. No doubt.
Michelle:And Angel. So, kudos to them. They had a great season. I, you know, I have it in my notes to talk about injuries, but, like, it was a very close series.
Filiberto:Yeah. And I look forward to seeing Atlanta next year. They're gonna be really... We'll talk more about that later, but they're gonna be really fucking good. Yeah.
Filiberto:I just dig it. I dig their basketball. I dig the way they play for each other. And it was nice to it was nice to beat a really good team. Yeah.
Filiberto:Like, nobody can fucking shit on our championship because that was a really good team. That was a really good team.
Michelle:It was. And then, yeah, the the point that brings us all here today, the occasion is closing out our season of the podcast with a Valkyries win in game seven. First game seven played in the WNBA finals. Thank you for investing in women's sports and expanding the playoff.
Filiberto:The... On the thirtieth anniversary of the league. Yes. Incredible.
Michelle:So historic game seven played in San Francisco, Chase Center. And we kinda wanna talk a little bit about, like... So we were able... Season ticket holders. So we were able to be there for game one in San Francisco and then game seven.
Filiberto:Yeah. We sold the other tickets because...
Michelle:And we we had family visiting. So it was gonna be difficult for us to get places that weren't weekends. And game seven was played on Halloween. So that was also, you know, hey hey, family. I have to go and I'm gonna miss trick or treating.
Filiberto:Bye. And I'm not gonna be sad about it. I'm not gonna apologize either. Like, you all know the score. You all know what's going down.
Filiberto:Yeah. And as much as would have been awesome to win game six, Thursday morning,
Michelle:it was great. And then be pushed into a practice facility to celebrate.
Filiberto:And be hungover by, like, 6PM. That would have been the scenario. It was so much better to live it... To win it at home. We got a chance to be there. I...
Filiberto:You know, it's... There's no easy way to describe what it feels like to be there other than my ancestors were popping out of me as I was screaming. Like Yeah. It was just a full body sort of existential experience, y'all. Like, I know it's just sport and whatever.
Filiberto:It's a game, but, like, just something about these players and the fans and everything. It was just like, I don't know what happened. I can't describe it. I'm a writer. I've been a good writer for a long time.
Filiberto:I... I'm... I have to think about this for a couple years. Like, some shit went down. Yeah.
Filiberto:I don't know what it was. And I was a part of it, every second of it.
Michelle:Yeah. No. I've never been in atmosphere like that for, like, a sporting event or anything
Filiberto:Anything.
Michelle:In, like, public like that. We... Like, I I I also signed up... Not only did we have family visiting, I also signed up to run a 10k
Filiberto:Yeah. Let's let's get about that.
Michelle:Learning. Because again, the likelihood that the Valkyries are gonna make it in the finals and then like it would go to game seven. I was like, that's such a small...
Filiberto:Like, we couldn't look at our calendar in October and be like, alright, clear the deck. We're gonna go to seven. Like, you just can't do that. No. Can't live like that.
Michelle:No. Nobody's
Filiberto:nobody's paying us to do this. We couldn't arrange our life for that.
Michelle:There's stuff going on. A few of my friends are running the race. I've never done it before. It's kind of out in kind of a wine country area South Of Sacramento. Weather was great.
Michelle:So, like, I was really looking forward to running it. So definitely had to, like, watch my, you know, adult beverage intake the night before.
Filiberto:I was in bed reading. I was Yeah. Reading all the articles. I was loving life, man. I was by myself just Yeah.
Filiberto:Enjoying the morning.
Michelle:Yeah. But I remember, like, that next day, I'm getting ready to run. I'm stretching and everything. And I'm like, man, my lower back hurts. And I haven't even run a 10k yet.
Michelle:And it was like... It's because I was jumping up and down on the cement. Yeah. Like where our And seats so that, you know, just a lot, like, for the last five minutes, the fourth quarter. So, yeah, it was just like my back's already sore before I even start running, but it was well worth it.
Filiberto:Well, and it's also just wild too because, like, at least one of the things when I started doing CrossFit was, like, the sounds that would emanate from me when I would try to do, like, a heavy deadlift. I didn't know where that shit came from. Like, I was like, what the fuck? Yeah. And that same...
Filiberto:I had that same feeling at Ballhalla. Like, I was jumping, was screaming, was just doing all sorts of stuff. The spirit moved me. Yeah. It moved me.
Filiberto:Yeah. And it was amazing. Yeah. And we won. And it was incredible.
Filiberto:And we won... We were competing right to the last second. Like, y'all, that was just... I... I'm sure y'all have seen it by now, but watch it again.
Filiberto:Watch it again because we we watched it a second time. I'll probably watch it a third time. Like, obviously, we were there, so it's hard to capture everything. Watch ing it a second time, you notice a lot of things, but just like, it takes a while to appreciate how incredible that game was. It really, really does.
Filiberto:And to see it again, you just notice more things and it's just... You see how much more spectacular that game was.
Michelle:I just wanna kinda like go through just the games and the scores, and then we came up with names for each game.
Filiberto:They get they all get nicknames. So we'll run through the games real quick, and then we'll get into some other...
Michelle:Yeah. I was like... For those of you... Because again, I I second what Fili is saying about watching the games again. League pass is real...
Michelle:Definitely affordable compared to other league passes.
Filiberto:Best deal in pro sports, y'all. Best deal in pro sports.
Filiberto:So go back and watch it. The parade will be Wednesday. So that'll be fun to watch too. But...
Michelle:So we had game one and, you know, this is two weeks. This was October 17. So it was two weeks for them to play their seven games. This one we won somehow, 68 to 64 at home. And this is what Fili and I are calling "The Gritty Win".
Filiberto:It was it was ugly.
Michelle:It was an ugly win no matter who was gonna win that game. Both teams did not play great.
Filiberto:I loved it.
Michelle:Yeah. Game two also in San Francisco. This was October 19. This is when we lost at home by 14 points. The final score was 65 to 79.
Michelle:Atlanta was able to steal one on the road. And this is what we have called "One Quarter Ain't Enough." We had... The Valkyries had a great first quarter and that was it.
Filiberto:And that was it. Angel Reese just took it to us. Like, we just had no answer. It was it was ugly, y'all. Like, probably the worst win or worst loss we've had all season too.
Filiberto:Like... Or at least maybe even last two seasons.
Michelle:No. It's pretty demoralizing. Yeah. And then we shifted over to Atlanta. They had some scheduling issues with getting into the right arena, but they figured it out.
Michelle:So on October 21, we played in Atlanta. We lost 71 to 97. And this was just bad shooting games. So what we think in it is "I Just Can't".
Filiberto:This is... Yeah. I actually did watch it again too. I did watch two and three again. And I think one of the things that stood out to me was if Kiah Stokes isn't active on offense, it allowed Angel Reese to be...
Filiberto:To... It allowed Atlanta's defense to play five on four. Yeah. And that really fucked us up for game two and three. So it's not surprising that Kiah just started shooting a lot more because it was like, girl, you gotta just...
Filiberto:You have open looks. You gotta take them, not just be... You don't have to make them, but you have to take them so that's
Michelle:like a threat.
Filiberto:Yeah. So that they know they have to close out. Yeah. Then, yeah, please make them so that we can get some points. But Yeah.
Filiberto:You have to you have to extend that defense because they're... They were collapsing all over us.
Michelle:Which she did.
Filiberto:Yeah. Which she did and obviously who won and everything. But, yeah, was amazing adjustment. A really big adjustment.
Michelle:So then the Valkyries are heading into game four down in the series two to one. It's kind of a... Gotta win this game in Atlanta before you head back to San Francisco. So we did... He got a win sixty seven sixty two.
Michelle:This would have been October 24.
Filiberto:Mhmm.
Michelle:And this is when Natalie Nakase Nneka changed up her starting roster. So we've nicknamed this one "Tactical Move Pays off."
Filiberto:Mhmm.
Michelle:And then tight series tied, best of three now going back to San Francisco. Game five, October 26. The Valkyries did win this one sixty four to 55. Angel Reese was held to seven points. And this is when Kiah started shooting more.
Michelle:Just had just just really productive game on both sides for her. So this is "The Kiah Stokes Game". And then game six, so now we're up three to two headed back to Atlanta. This was like, dude, we're not gonna lose This this would be great, but also another scheduling issue. For some reason, again, people didn't think this series would go to six games.
Michelle:So they... When they had the scheduling issues for game three and four in Atlanta, just decided not to figure out game six at the same time. I don't know why. So unfortunately, they did move it to the men's arena, but they were play... Men were playing back to back, so they could not play an earlier game.
Michelle:So the women had to play the earlier game. So this is a 09:30 start time on a Thursday morning for San Francisco. Yeah.
Filiberto:And not surprisingly to anyone, it just didn't work out very well. Yeah. And I was...
Michelle:So we lost. We lost. This had been October twenty ninth, Thursday. So we lost 80 to 69. And this is the "Too Early in the Morning Game."
Michelle:Game seven, y'all probably way more familiar with would be, Halloween, Boo Haula.
Filiberto:Everything was going down.
Michelle:But Halloween and Boo Haula.
Filiberto:San Francisco was rocking y'all. My brother was on the... Was on the Castro, like, in the Mission area. Like, yeah, it was bumping everywhere.
Michelle:Lots of lavender. So... And again, we won this game 68, 63 to take the finals, to take the championship. And this game is the "Gabby Williams Ascends" game.
Filiberto:Absolutely.
Michelle:Yeah. Fantastic.
Michelle:So what are some kind of like thoughts or themes that you're kind of like just have processed, still processing for this series?
Filiberto:Yeah. I think I think one of the things that we've had in the podcast for a while around the playoffs is is just really straight up. Right? Like, they find different ways to win. Right.
Filiberto:And, you you know, one of the things I kept thinking in this series was if we just start making threes, we can beat... Win every game. And we didn't we didn't actually do that at all. Yeah. Like, we were not even the...
Filiberto:Like, we were... We... When we lost, we weren't ourselves. Right? The first three games, we didn't play good defense.
Filiberto:The players kept saying that over and over again. Don't recognize ourselves. So we started playing a really, really good defense, but we managed to win this series without depending on our three that much. I mean, Gabby just went off in the last game, but that was just the last game. So it is impressive, absolutely impressive how much they figured out how to, like, dig deep and just seize this.
Filiberto:Because it's not like Atlanta played badly. We just beat them. Yeah. We really just beat them. Atlanta is a really, really good team.
Filiberto:So it is... I think in a lot of ways does come down to like, just did you want it? Did you want it bad enough? And that you hear that with... In some of the articles we've been reading, Kaila Charles really stands out as the person that was like, y'all, we gotta step up.
Filiberto:We gotta get tougher. They're overwhelming us. Like, it's... We have to win here. So that game four was like the pivotal game to me.
Filiberto:It was really the the pivot game, if you will.
Michelle:Yeah. I think I alluded to earlier injuries, think, were... There's a few x factors for each team each round. But I I think, you know, you saw in the the series with Vegas, they've they've dealt with injuries. They've lost people for the season to injuries.
Michelle:So you had your starters playing more minutes. They got more... You know, they got tired earlier. Same thing I think with Atlanta, they just don't have a deep bench. They had a few injuries.
Michelle:So their starters were playing a lot. And I think that, you know, there are few games toward the end of game we saw, like, some of the shots they usually make, Atlanta usually makes weren't going in. That's tired legs. That's tired arms. So Yeah.
Michelle:Injuries definitely. I do wanna, like, make a point of saying that some of the Valkyries players in their exit interview also acknowledge that that because of some of that rest and recovery that the Valkyries coaches...
Filiberto:The year long emphasis. Right? Not just in the playoffs, that commitment to rest and recovery.
Michelle:So I think, obviously, during the season, there were times where I was like, why is Natalie not resting Veronica right now? Yeah. So that was a little frustrating. But but overall, I think there's such an emphasis and intentionality with that. Knowing that, you know, we've got some veterans, we've got some older players, so that's gonna be important.
Michelle:But I I think also that rest and recovery helps your body maintain. And if you do get like bumps and bruises, your bodies weren't able to heal from that. And it's not gonna be as devastating or, like, you have to sit a game or two. Right?
Filiberto:It won't be debilitating. Yeah. Well... And I think, you know, one of the keys for this team is how much they love each other. And we've been saying that from day one in this podcast.
Filiberto:It just comes across, like, the commitment, the affection, the sort of, like, just all that. It's really, really beautiful. And, you know, honestly, part of that is, like, if you're not injured, you're not irritable. Like, you just come into the office in a better attitude if you're not dealing with intractable pain, year long pain Chronic.
Filiberto:If you go into your office, your work, knowing that when you... If you get forced to play thirty five minutes, you're gonna be hurting for three days. Yeah. Like, players know... These players can trust their coaches to look out for them in a really, really intimate way.
Filiberto:And I think that clearly clearly made a difference to this team. And along with the injuries in Atlanta, I think what we saw in the playoffs last year was it is a game of attrition. Whoever can figure out how to just stay the healthiest probably is gonna win. Yeah. And it's skill and it's strategy and all those other things, but that's also a big part of it too.
Filiberto:Right. And unfortunately, because Atlanta didn't have as much depth, Smesko was kind of limited, I think, in what the strategies he was able to deploy to try to counter some of our things. Yeah. So he he was a little limited too. And that's, I think, kind of doomed them quite a bit.
Michelle:And I think part of rest of recovery, we can talk about, you know, physical injuries and stuff like that in in health, but also the mental health part of it. I think that's part of the... Part of rest of recovery is part of some of team building exercises they did when they were on some road trips. And I think that also kinda helps lead you having that mental health and that leads to the composure conversation that a lot of people picked up on in the in the second and third rounds of the playoffs where you weren't doing well. There there was not players yelling at each other or blaming each other or pointing fingers.
Filiberto:There wasn't any, like, visible frustration with each other on the court.
Michelle:You see that... You saw some of them take a collective breath at one point.
Filiberto:Constantly huddling, constantly reorganizing themselves.
Michelle:And And there were there were times... Don't get me wrong, like, you know, games two and three against Atlanta, there were a lot of frustration fouls. And so a little bit unraveling of that composure. But for the most part... And Atlanta, especially in the finals, Atlanta, part of their game plan Yeah.
Michelle:Is to, you know, create contact in getting a foul. Frustrate. So you can shoot some free throws. And, you know, they talked a little bit about their shit talking and like how I think Angel likes to use that to not only kinda hype herself up, but also to try to get in the head of the opposing players.
Filiberto:And also mess with Ballhalla too. Yeah. It kinda messes with with us as well.
Michelle:Yeah. So I think those are definitely something... You know, those are things that Guein Sait had to kind of just navigate through. And I think having like this, you know, higher emotional IQ that we've talked about on other episodes and just maintaining that composure. Because it'll start getting to you, it'll start dictating your play.
Michelle:Right? And you don't wanna do that. You wanna kinda remain in control with what you do well. And I I think, you know, they had some dips, but I think they did a good job overall.
Filiberto:You have to... I mean, that's the point. You're not gonna... You can't expect that you're gonna be operating at a 100% throughout the game. It's about recovering from those dips.
Filiberto:It's about recovering and readjusting and reorganizing. Like, I think one of the things you see throughout the series is one of the keys for Atlanta is if they can get Jordan Canada running, if they can run ahead of our offense or defense, they have a chance to win. They'll get easy transition points. Their athleticism, their speed, their... Just the the great athletes that they have on that team can really do something.
Filiberto:Yeah. And our ability to undermine that attack and limit their both ability to get fast break points, but also limit their ability to turn us over and then get points off our turnovers, I think were two of the keys to the game here. Right. And it's just... It goes back to both the depth of this team.
Filiberto:Like, we didn't actually use our entire bench.
Michelle:Mhmm.
Filiberto:But it allows Nakase to strategically set up matchups that work really well against Atlanta, namely shutting down Jordan Canada and then developing strategies around shutting down Angel Reese. Like, it worked. Yeah. Worked really well. Yeah.
Michelle:I think also, you know, and I and I know Coach Nakase has said in some of her post game press conferences that sometimes she's just changing something and change it.
Michelle:So there's no like strategy the play.
Filiberto:one of ther funnier moments. Yeah.
Michelle:And it... And she's like, you guys are all trying to read into something, but, like, I just had to change something. And... But I think she's definitely... She's shown herself this season, last season to be a player's coach.
Michelle:She'll talk about times when she takes some of the blame for a loss. Yeah. Or she wants to share share the flowers with her assistants or whoever did scouting for a win. She wants to talk about, you know, asking her players what they need from her instead of always it being like a one way conversation. So...
Filiberto:Just talk about getting feedback from players, adjusting adjusting your style, and growing as a person. Yeah. Like, it's really beautiful to see a grown ass person in a position of authority to be like, hey, man. I... I'd grow with these people too.
Filiberto:Like Yeah. There's no hierarchy here. I grow with them.
Michelle:And I think you kinda talk about those... Some of them are off court, right, intangibles. And I think... And I I do think Karl Smesko is a great coach, but I think you saw some weaknesses in his coaching Yeah. That, you know, or something he can work on the off season.
Michelle:That there there were times whether it was a full game or just stretches of games where she was just really out coaching Mhmm. Smesko, like, in the moment.
Filiberto:Mhmm. When I think another another... Like, just to make the point here, like, a really measurable area of improvement that Nakase had from beginning into the season, from beginning of playoffs to the finals is the use of the challenge. Yeah. Like, early in the season, it just looked like she didn't...
Filiberto:And we talked about this in the podcast before. It looked like she just didn't even have a strategy. Wasn't even thinking about it. Yeah. And then at the end of the season, you see that they...
Filiberto:And then they tried to do it. She got a bunch of, like, delay of delay of game penalties because they didn't have a quick enough strategy. So you see the development and the approach. Her challenging game seven was, I think, kinda key. Every...
Filiberto:I think what made this series and game so exciting was at the end of the day, for a lot of the games, the really pivotal games, every possession mattered. Yeah. You had to take every possession so seriously. So So being able to get a possession back or adjust the possession using challenges ended up being really important. And Smesko kind of burned his.
Filiberto:Like, tactically, he just kind of fucked those up. Yeah. I think one of the things that has been really compelling... So throughout the playoffs, a lot of awards were announced. And there's been a lot of conversation around how Valkyries players didn't make the first team and all this other stuff.
Filiberto:Who cares? Whatever. And I think one of the things that that really reflects though is is a lot of the things that the Valkyries do really, really, really well are not measured. Right. They're not taken seriously.
Filiberto:They're not just... I don't know. It's... There's no statistic for it. So for example, we talk a lot about, Kiah Stokes and how she doesn't score a lot of points, blah blah blah blah blah.
Filiberto:No. She contributes a lot to the offense. Why can't Kiah Stokes get a fucking assist for setting a screen that allows, her teammate to score? How is that not a play that gets measured and identified? Like, if we measured that, her her offensive production would look a lot different.
Filiberto:You know, we don't measure Gabby's deflections. That's not really, like, thought about as a stat. Like, hustle isn't a statistic. So a lot of things we do really, really well just don't carry over. But, you know, you notice it and it led to a championship.
Filiberto:But this is also, I think, why reporters and stuff just never understood the team and they were always being talked down to most of the season. They just... They don't get these things because it doesn't get measured very well.
Michelle:Right. And I think... And also just, you know... And and this is not just specific to the w. It's in a lot of leagues, but there's just...
Michelle:There's been a lot of rule changes over the last decade or so as, like, some sports are shifting more to, like, entertainment based. So there's gonna be this larger emphasis on offense and, like, the points and scoring because for the average fan who doesn't necessarily pay attention, that's what's exciting or entertaining for them. So they've written rules like that. Right? Like some of the fouling and stuff like that.
Michelle:Those... These are rules, like, to make the offense easier to score and then to make it harder to defend. And so there is that bias toward offense. And so sometimes the defense or someone who's really good at that or those stats get left out of conversation. You're right.
Michelle:It's it's... What's the word I'm looking for? It's not injustice. But it's it's... I mean, yeah.
Filiberto:It's a it's a gap.
Michelle:To certain to certain players, that's...
Filiberto:That is injustice. And if... I mean, it's an injustice for Kiah Stokes. She had an amazing Yeah. Defensive series.
Filiberto:Like, we don't get here without her.
Michelle:Right.
Filiberto:She shut down Angel Reese. She shut down A'ja Wilson. Yeah. Like, holy shit. Well, not forget about the sweep.
Filiberto:Yeah. Like, we got a sweep here. We got... Atlanta swept to get here, but we also had a sweep.
Michelle:Yeah. Due to large part to Kia. And I I think that's part of, like, what... I'm just really conflicted with the the finals MVP choice of Gabby. Great player.
Michelle:She's, you know, she came out and scored a lot in game seven. I think for a lot of people, Kia Stokes was, like, their front runner. And it... This is media votes on this.
Filiberto:Nine votes, I think, what we saw.
Michelle:Yeah. For me, it's it's not MVP of game seven because obviously that was Gabby Williams. It's like MVP of the the finals, all all seven of the games. And I do feel that Kiah Stokes earned that honor. When Kiah Stokes played bad, the teams lost.
Michelle:Yeah. The team lost. When Gabby played not great, they still were able to figure out some wins. I do... But I also get that Gabby is a two way player.
Michelle:She plays defense and offense.
Filiberto:At a super high level.
Michelle:And she's just been a great presence for them. So, you know, it's not to take away from Gabby because she's a phenomenal player. I think she's... And it's the way she invests in the community too. Like, she's just like a really great, important, phenomenal presence.
Michelle:I just wish that we would have honored and celebrated a defensive player on a defensive team that, like, won a championship via defense. I think that would have been like just a great thing. Because most of the time, people who are in the MVP conversation, the Heisman Trophy... Like, all this stuff, most of these people are gonna be offensive players.
Filiberto:There's there's
Michelle:no I think it's a shame.
Filiberto:There's no grit and grind award, unfortunately. And there damn well should be. And, like, even thinking about, like, the defensive player of the year, how about the top rated defensive team? Right. Like, there's just a...
Filiberto:There's a bias and there's a distortion around what we prioritize and what we value in some of these awards and some of these conversations.
Michelle:Well, because there's no offensive player of year because everyone assumes that's the MVP.
Filiberto:Right. Right. So like... That's the presumption.
Michelle:I would I would assume they created a defensive player of the year award
Filiberto:As a response.
Michelle:In a lot of leagues. Right? Not just the w, but as a response to the MVP. Because they did... They're like, oh, yeah.
Michelle:We're not honoring defense. We should, like, have an award for it. But I think they could go a little further.
Filiberto:Yeah. They could think about it in a more creative and, like, a responsive way. Yeah.
Filiberto:A couple of things that, like, came out of this series too that are now definitive. I think Natalie Nakase establishing Veronica Burton as the best point guard in the league.
Filiberto:Yeah. Like, holy shit. Yeah. Like, she showed up. People were not believing that until...
Filiberto:People wouldn't believe that from Veronica until she won a championship. Like, that's just... There's a weird bias around her. I don't get it, but that's where it's at.
Michelle:Even the way that they call fouls on her.
Filiberto:Absolutely.
Michelle:Like, we were thinking of... We didn't get around to it because, again, family visiting. But we were gonna do a bingo card heading into, like, game six and seven. And on that was gonna be a space, like, you, you know, get to, like, mark bingo if a Valkyries player gets punched or slapped or hit in the face and no fouls called. Because that happened to every game of the series.
Michelle:And Veronica took most of that.
Filiberto:Veronica, this portion took most of it. And then below that, you got Chetchy or Tiffany just kinda... Yeah. Because damn, Ceci gets hit in the face
Michelle:so goddamn much. She does.
Filiberto:Like, why do y'all hate her so much? She does. She seems like a really sweet lady. Like, nice Italian lady. Why are y'all going after her like that?
Filiberto:And Veronica too and Tiffany and all the people. Yeah. Right. Goddamn. Yeah.
Filiberto:But I think so so Veronica established herself as the top point guard in the league. Gabby Williams, I think, established herself as the top two way player in the league. Yeah. Like, no. Hands down.
Filiberto:Hands down. What next season looks like, I don't know. But at least for this season, she was the best two way player by far. Kiah... And also not forget about the two other things about Kiah Stokes that's really incredible is she wasn't even supposed to be a starter.
Filiberto:No. Rupert. Y'all remember Rupert? Like, she's just hanging out with her kid of... Hopefully.
Filiberto:I don't... We haven't gotten any updates about her, but, you know, she's gonna be here next season. Yeah. Like, she's a legit starter in this league, and she wasn't even around. Kiah Stokes backed it up, and she played a bigger role than she expected to.
Filiberto:She was barely above the veteran minimum in terms of the contract you got, and she played starter minutes, played even more minutes in the playoffs, improved our team rebounding incredibly. Like, there's so many... Mean, you can do this with every single player. Like, Kaila Charles just contributed so much, became a starter in this series, brought that energy, brought that grind, brought that, like, life, brought that, like, edge. Every player contributed, and it's really fun.
Filiberto:Even all the bench players hopping around and having a good time down there. Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle:So any other thoughts on the series that we haven't mentioned? It was just a wild ride, and we're still gonna... I'm gonna watch that game game seven, like, several times.
Filiberto:No. I mean, there's there's just... You know, when we bought our season tickets, like, you know, two years ago, we were just like, this is gonna be fun. Whatever. And we spent a lot of time talking about the games and watching them and going to games.
Filiberto:I was like, I I need to do something. So let's do this podcast. I didn't expect that we would be like kind of documenting a championship season. Right. Like I just need to just take a second to acknowledge that.
Filiberto:Like this wasn't in the game plan. We were just trying to have a good time. And suddenly we go from like this really funny Bay Area story to a national story overnight. Like the amount of reporters, the amount of attention, even our listens have increased like pretty substantially over the last week. So I don't know how to understand the wild ride that we've been on.
Filiberto:We're obviously not players. We're not tied to the team in any meaningful way. We're just fans and having a good time with it. But, like, it's gonna take me a long time to figure out how special this was. But I just know it was really special.
Filiberto:Mhmm. And I don't even know how it's gonna affect me. Like, I don't know how I'm gonna carry this, but it's gonna be nice. I'm gonna enjoy it. Yeah.
Filiberto:I'm gonna enjoy it.
Michelle:Yeah. And I think you talked about, like, watching that first preseason game of season one. It was like, oh, Jesus. Like, how do you describe it earlier?
Filiberto:Well, I remember I remember we were there and just like, who is this coach woman? Who are these players? Like, what's going on? And the team is running... Veronica has the ball, and it's a five across offense.
Filiberto:And someone shoots a bad three and nobody rebounds. And we're like, holy shit. This is gonna be a really shitty season. Like, we're happy to be here. Like, nothing about that game was gonna change my enthusiasm for this inaugural season.
Filiberto:Right? Like, we were just committed. It was dope. But like, I was like, oh, fuck. Is this gonna be really boring?
Filiberto:Like, what's gonna happen?
Michelle:Well, I think that was kind of, you know... Again, the Valkyries... There wasn't an expansion team for Years. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years. And the landscape of the W has changed.
Michelle:Right? There are owners actually investing in their teams. So it's like, what does a new expansion team look like? And we've got several down the pike. Right?
Michelle:The season was was Toronto and We'll skip a year this year, but then Houston and and Philly and some others are coming on. But like... So I... You know, we're watching some of the the expansion draft, and then we watch the draft. And we're kinda like, you know, and we love women's college basketball.
Michelle:So we're coming off from March Madness tournament. And and we're kinda scratching our heads like, who are these people? A lot of... You know, there's a fair amount of international players that we just hadn't...
Filiberto:Janelle was a free agent. Like, who are these players?
Filiberto:So we were just kinda like, what is happening? And, you know, it's hard to attract, you know, a free agent to like a new team and because, you know, no one really knows like what's culture, what are they trying to accomplish.
Filiberto:And the expectation is it's gonna be a shitty season.
Michelle:Right. Exactly. And that's kind of what we were just preparing ourselves for. And I think like, you know, people like the Ohemaa, the the general manager.
Filiberto:The legendary.
Michelle:Yes. The general manager.
Filiberto:She gets an asterisk now. Legendary.
Michelle:But, you know, like, a lot of people will be like, here's my apology card to so and so, you know. And so it's like, yeah, a lot of us owe Ohemaa apology cards. And we're like, what the hell are they doing? And then now it's like, oh, oh, okay. Okay.
Michelle:Got it. You were looking for selfless Yeah. Two way players.
Filiberto:And and, you know, it... They kept saying we're we're gonna be a three and d team. And we saw all these European players, and we know that the European style is more three and d and passing and, you know, top of the key screens and stuff. So it it sort of made sense in that sense. But I think across the league and it stayed until the championship, people just couldn't perceive the sophistication of what they were trying to accomplish, including us.
Michelle:And it looks different.
Filiberto:It looks different than anything else that you've seen out there. And I think that bias and that confusion just persisted until this week. Right. Where people were like, oh, fuck. I guess this is gonna...
Filiberto:This is... This is... It works until it works. And it... Until it works, it doesn't work.
Michelle:Right.
Filiberto:And that's been the attitude towards us from day one. Yeah.
Michelle:Yeah. So now now I now I understand the
Filiberto:The genius.
Michelle:Magic Crystal ball, the genius that they had Genius of it. Going in there.
Filiberto:And let's forget... Let's not forget the anger around the Flau'jae Johnson draft. Yeah. I mean, it was... People reposed.
Michelle:People remember that was the season. Yeah. And then at the end of the season, they're champions. Right? So it's like you may not initially understand in the moment.
Michelle:And yeah, I mean, lot of time, like, being a fan is trusting the front office a lot. Most of time you get burned by trusting the front office. But lots of times, it pays off like it did this season.
Filiberto:And I think just, you know, watching the the win and then the on court celebration, that's three women leading. Yeah. That's beautiful. Jess Smith.
Michelle:That was not lost on people.
Filiberto:Natalie Nakase, three very diverse women, different types of women. Yeah. It's beautiful, man. It's just beautiful. I just dig it.
Filiberto:Yeah. It's a nice story. It's beautiful.
Michelle:Yeah. The three of them hugging on the court was just really nice.
Filiberto:Because they did...
Michelle:And then Lacob came over the owner, came over the the white guy. Yeah. Came over. So it was like... But it it was very cute because these are people who had that foresight and that they've seen it through and and they've shown the league that you can win with defense, you can win with love.
Filiberto:Well... And I think it's like... It's also like they literally were the only people that believed in what they were doing. Mhmm. Like, no joke.
Filiberto:And it's, you know
Michelle:And the players.
Filiberto:And, yeah, and the players because they were brought in. But as a fan base, it's not like we didn't need to or not need to believe. We were just fucking excited to be there. Yeah. And it wasn't even, like...
Filiberto:I think I think it wasn't really until that giant win streak in the middle of the season where I was like, holy fuck.
Michelle:No. Because you could see like, hey, we're... Because the goal was to get a top four seed so you could have home court because Ballhalla is amazing in their second year. But it was like, when they went on these win streaks, you're like, holy shit. Like, we're gonna have a chance at having a top 4 seed.
Filiberto:Yeah. We were sniffing number two at that point. Was like, are we really gonna do this?
Michelle:We were sniffing number one, I think, too. During that one streak.
Filiberto:Right to the end of the season, we were sniffing number one. So I... You know, obviously, in retrospect, home court advantage was extraordinarily important for us.
Michelle:I don't think we win it without
Filiberto:We absolutely do not win it. Yeah. It was... Each one of these games was way too contingent. What helped them get those fifty fifty balls is our...
Filiberto:Us screaming our asses off. And they acknowledge that shit. I'm just making stuff up. Yeah. They told that over and over again.
Michelle:Shout out to Atlanta fans. You guys had a lot of last minute... Here are the tickets. We have more of them now. Last minute, like, Man.
Michelle:Scheduling Even... Like, we complain about a 09:30 game on Thursday for game six.
Filiberto:Y'all had to show up to it.
Michelle:But y'all had, like, your lunch break in the afternoon. So, like, everyone... Both fan bases were calling in sick. But Atlanta, they had a lot of last minute things and that... Just that dedication from their fans to still be there and sell out and, like...
Michelle:And those were tough places to to play in and just kudos to the... Their fans.
Filiberto:No. And they took it to a seven. Like, that's extraordinary. Extraordinary. And that we did have we did have two Atlanta fans behind us in the lower bowl.
Michelle:For game seven, they really loved Borlase. Borlase.
Filiberto:Yeah. They were really into Izzy.
Michelle:They were try... I think at one point, they were trying to get the Izzy Izzy oy oy going, and we're like, no.
Filiberto:And, you know, everyone was respectful. Nobody was going after them, whatever. But it was like, man, sorry. And that... We don't even know when they left.
Filiberto:They left at some point well before
Michelle:the game ended. Like, once we won, because it was close. Once we won, I turned around to see if they're... And they were gone. Yeah.
Michelle:Yeah. Yeah. But we had... We actually had a lot of Atlanta fans in our section.
Filiberto:No. It was cool, man. It was cool. Yeah. We're behind their...
Filiberto:Tickets are, like, kinda behind their bench.
Michelle:But I think that helped I think that helped though because, like, anytime that they try to get a Go Dream chant going, they just got drowned out. And so that... I think that helped because it was, like, some slow times and I was, oh, no. So... And that helped get Ballhalla back in
Filiberto:It got us rocking. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Michelle:Yeah. So thank you.
Filiberto:Because we don't normally have opposition fans.
Michelle:That's that's
Filiberto:really rare. That's really rare. So the playoffs definitely brought out a different sort of vibe to the to the arena too.
Michelle:As it should.
Filiberto:Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I think in terms of just thinking through the season and what we saw, we talked about this earlier, but injuries were a massive, massive factor. And in one of the articles, there were a lot of articles, I can't quote specific to all of them.
Filiberto:But they talked about how that was a a institutional priority from day one, and I think that's where you get the rest of recovery. Right. It's like you only stay healthy if you give your body a chance to recover and not just grind and grind and hurt those ligaments and just, you know, cause a lot of problems.
Michelle:Well, I would think like as a player... Because a lot of times in sports, it's like you're people, but it's easy to be kind of treated like or feel like a commodity sometimes. Right? When you're about people's contracts or just their stats, it can be a little dehumanizing, especially with some of the productive sports, you know, markets and the sports gambling and that
Filiberto:Oh, the predictive markets. Yeah.
Michelle:Like, yeah. It... I can see how that would be really difficult. But like, as a player, I would love playing for a team that tries to center me as a human, like, more. And I think that's part of...
Filiberto:Not an object for sports spectacle.
Michelle:Right. Exactly. And I think that's something that Golden State really tries to do. I mean, there's gonna be a certain part of it where it's like you're dealing with contracts and injuries or whatever. But I think...
Michelle:I would think that's gonna be attractive to some free agents.
Filiberto:Yeah. And even when the way they treat us, the fans, like, they don't treat us as spectators or people that pay tickets. They treat us as like an essential part of the winning of the team. Yeah. That is a different vibe anywhere I know of and any other sport I know of.
Filiberto:Outside of, like, really intense, like, South American soccer stuff. Yeah. That shit is crazy.
Michelle:It definitely is.
Filiberto:So, Michelle.
Michelle:Yes.
Filiberto:What was your favorite part of the season?
Michelle:It's like... It's really hard to narrow it down to just one.
Filiberto:I know. Right?
Michelle:Let's see. I think just watching like a really diverse group of talented women win with love. And it's kinda like, and I'm not just talking about the players. I'm talking about the coaches too, you know, mainly the players. But...
Michelle:And it is how they poured that love, like, into the community, into Ballhalla, into their fans and others. And, yeah, I think that's just... I mean, it was definitely something we saw in the first season. But I I feel like the team... And you know, some of this is like their community engagement group and and others and even, know, their business side that's investing money in this.
Michelle:But I I just feel like they wanna become a huge part of the community. They're not going anywhere. And they've just built something. And I I think especially in these times, you know, it's it's easy to find negative news or to kind of get frustrated or do some of that doom scrolling. But this is like such a great story and showing that like, when you choose love over hate or divisiveness, like, can still win.
Michelle:You can still come out on top. And you can do it with grace and with composure. And we just... Class. We just don't necessarily get to...
Michelle:None of those aren't happening. It's just that it's hard for that to kinda like rise the surface. And it's like, honestly be a group of people who are... Who can inspire. And I think in this country, we just have a shortage of that right now.
Michelle:So... Yeah. I mean, I I just... Like, I wanna really emphasize that diversity. It's just been amazing at how they can make people...
Michelle:You know, people are seen, they're heard, they can be safe, they're included. And I think that's just a really powerful message for everyone to see and to be part of. And they they are... They open that up to everyone to be part of it. Like we built this together.
Michelle:It wasn't just the owner, the GM, but we all built this together including the fans, including anyone who bought a piece of swag or went to a game just like, I even know what this is. I've never been to WNBA game, but I'm gonna go... Like, all of you, like, built built this community together, and we're gonna keep building it.
Filiberto:Everyone on threads? You know what part of this too?
Michelle:Yeah. Exactly.
Filiberto:It's lit. Yeah. I I... In terms of... I...
Filiberto:Yeah. Along those lines, I think one of my favorite things as someone that's done a lot of trauma recovery work, one of my favorite things to hear over and over again from the players and the coaches is how attentive they are to wellness, how attentive they are to their mental health. And you see it and you hear it in the press conferences, the way they talk about each other, the way Gabby talks about her approach, and just the way she just, is immediately introspective in any interview. And this kind of reinforces part of the reason I I love women's basketball is because interviews are so incredible. Yeah.
Filiberto:Like, these women just are extremely articulate and they bring it and they bring so much insight and Self awareness. Self awareness. They're socially conscious. Like, these are just women. These are women to look up to y'all.
Filiberto:Like, these are absolutely women to look up to. And I think that's what makes me so excited about watching and being part of this. But I think my favorite part of this season, you know, being a cisgender dude and just sort of wondering what my place is, is just kind of finding what my place is. And part of that has a lot to do with, like, Natalie and some of the interviews that we've been getting in the finals. Excuse me.
Filiberto:Oh, I get so emotional about this. But, Yeah. I was a very young man. I'm 44 now, but I was a young man when I lost both my parents. And the thing that's difficult about it, as I didn't necessarily enjoy being raised by my parents, and I'm not gonna get too specific about that, but just kind of leave it there.
Filiberto:But the hard thing about it is how lonely it is. Mhmm. It's just so lonely not being able to connect with people because so much of our lives is oriented around our relationship to our parents, celebrating our parents, honoring our parents, not just the holidays, but just television, commercials, pop culture. And my response to that is always just avoid. And it's been like that for now over twenty years or close to twenty years.
Filiberto:And so to have, you know, Natalie really openly talk about her father, And Kenzo just encouraging, a reporter for clutch sports, encouraging and sort of agitating the conversations, is is... If I had known you can do that in sports journalism, I would have been a sports journalist. Like, I didn't think you could even do that. Yeah. So that's beautiful on its own, but I think I'm...
Filiberto:I didn't have a father that's worth talking about a whole lot. Mhmm. And I'm so glad that Natalie did. Yeah. But I also, you know, hear her grief and I hear some of the challenges of being raised by the kind of dominant sort of taskmaster father that he was.
Filiberto:And I hear this team kind of healing her from it. I hear them sort of challenging her to take care of herself, challenging her to be more sensitive and aware. And it's... Again, we don't get specifics. We just see pieces of it.
Filiberto:But the pieces of it tell a big, big story. And so just to go back to it, I just... You know, I've really appreciated Natalie and her openness and her just vulnerability around this, but I just appreciate not feeling as lonely. Mhmm. Because I don't see people like me in that regard, at least, very public.
Filiberto:And when it was happening for me, I was a very public figure. I was a labor leader. I was having to do this in public, and it was very hard. Made everything worse. And I feel for not only having to do a lot this in public, but I also really appreciate her grace.
Filiberto:And at least for me, it means a lot.
Michelle:Thanks for sharing that, Fili.
Filiberto:Yeah.
Michelle:So we did 18, almost 20ish episodes this season. Was there an episode that you would say was your favorite?
Filiberto:I think that's a fun question. I think one of our... One of my favorite episodes is when we started... This episode where we, like, asked each other questions. I can't remember which one it was.
Filiberto:We're just looking at it, and I don't...
Michelle:It was the first one. No?
Filiberto:No. It was the other... It was in, like, somewhere in the middle. Okay. We just...
Filiberto:I don't know. It was a fun one. I think the Brianna Turner one was really good, where we talked about trans rights and all that. Like, it was just... It was...
Filiberto:I think we hit a high point there too. It was like a really important moment in the league and ended up shaping a lot of the culture and like the narrative around the league too, is this tension around, trans exclusion. Certainly Gabby spoke to it really directly, and that I think meant a lot to a lot of people and certainly made... To me and makes me feel easier being attached to her and the team because they just... They stand on shit.
Filiberto:It's not just like sports entertainment. They stand on shit. Yeah. I really like that one.
Michelle:Yeah. I think for me, kinda episode five stands out for me and you can find that on our page. We'll put it in the show notes. WeGotNextPod.org. But, you know, as we close out the season, a lot of the last few episodes have focused just on the playoffs.
Michelle:But I... But we do have a few... In our normal podcast, we have some segments where we kinda talk about social justice and combating anti-blackness and misogyny, transphobia, homophobia. We've also talked about other women's sports too, other women's athletes. So I I...
Michelle:That's one of reasons I liked episode five was we talked about some good journalism. We talked a little bit about the Valkyries, a little bit about the WNBA, their CBA they had recently agreed on. We talked about the women's hockey league and then Flava Flav was doing his She Weekend, which we kinda talked about on a few different episodes. So like just being able to kind of touch base across a lot of different sports and a lot of different issues that are all kind of related.
Filiberto:And our passions and interests.
Michelle:Yeah. I also do like... I don't know. Let me find the number. But we did have kind of like a a Juneteenth episode, episode nine.
Filiberto:Yeah.
Michelle:Where we just kind of, you know, we talked to... The Valkyries did a wonderful job of celebrating Juneteenth at that game. Your family came up for you and your brother, and your brother-in-law have birthdays around the same time in June. So everyone's in Sacramento. We were able to go to game with your niece and your family.
Michelle:So And just, like, talking a little bit about their experience and how how cool it was for them. And we totally forgot to, like, even mention, like, all of our friends and family who got into watching the finals. No.
Filiberto:We we organize people into this. Y'all,
Michelle:like Yeah.
Filiberto:You can't deny. You can't deny what happend this year
Filiberto:Did not watch the Valkyries before.
Filiberto:We don't even really watch sports.
Michelle:We're definitely watching game seven or a few other games. We have a, you know, a Fili's family. They had gone to another sporting event earlier in the day.
Filiberto:Yeah. They watched the Kings in LA.
Michelle:On Halloween. Came back home and we got a we got a photo of your sister standing really close to the TV watching the end of...
Filiberto:To their 96 inch TV or something....
Michelle:Seven. So... But anyways, they were able to come to a game and and hopefully they'll... You know, when they're down south, they can go to... When the Valkyries play the Sparks or something, they can try to go to some of those games.
Michelle:And then I think Nneka Ogwumike had kind of announced she was retiring. And so we got to honor her in that episode as well and talk about women's hockey league in San Jose. I spent some time in San Jose. So that would be like another one of my of my favorite episodes from the season. So if you're listening, go back.
Michelle:I mean, the podcast, like Fili said earlier, this is, like, kind of like an archive of a championship season if you wanna listen to these. But those are a few that, like, would really highlight for people.
Filiberto:Yeah. If you wanna think about how this season developed and, like, what were the highs and lows, just listen to what we were talking about. It's not like, again, we're not like scouts or former players or whatever, but we did do have a strong perspective and we were there. Mhmm. You know, we were there.
Filiberto:I think I think, you know, the the other really exciting thing about this championship is we got to... Like you said, we got to share it with a lot of people. And it was just really nice to have my family with me. And when we were getting to the playoffs, they... It wasn't just something that I was excited about they have no relationship to.
Filiberto:They they had emotions about it. Felt They connected. They knew the players because we went to that one game and they just really got into it. So I think, great moments are best shared. And so it was nice to do that.
Filiberto:It was really nice to do that, especially with your family here too. Yeah.
Michelle:One... And to all those people who texted us, you know, after game seven, after we won it and we may not have responded yet or Right. Fully responded or debriefed with you, but we totally appreciate that you you all shared in that and, you know, made some time in your busy schedules to support women's sports. That was great.
Filiberto:Thank you. Really fun. I just... It... This season and this team brought out the best in people.
Filiberto:Yeah. It really did. Yeah. And it helped us identify the worst in people and get them hell out of our face. So that was pretty sweet too.
Michelle:Make them very uncomfortable just like you would on the courts.
Filiberto:That was pretty sweet.
Filiberto:So, Michelle, what are you looking forward to in the offseason, next season? What are you thinking about?
Michelle:I think, like, obviously, know, Unrivaled is gonna be great. They're coming to San Francisco, so we we have tickets. We'll be there for that in January. Yep. And college...
Michelle:Women's college basketball started, like, literally game seven was October 31, and then November 1 was when...
Filiberto:There's there's breaks in this joy, y'all. There is no breaks in this joy.
Michelle:I mean, they had some exhibition preseason games, but that's when a few teams started their regular season. So we're we're back into into basketball. I think for the podcast, I... This is our first season doing the podcast. So like just trying to get up there, trying to talk, trying to lean into our values.
Michelle:And I just wanna kinda like see how we can do that better next year and kinda do some prep in the off season. Maybe do some really cool interviews. There's like so many cool people we met or that, you know, got some some notice, maybe made some memes that we kinda wanna interview and just talk about, like, different aspects of the game, not just like the players or the trainers, but, you know, the people who make sure the the basketball court is dry and people aren't slipping and injuring themselves.
Filiberto:For for you history nerds, we're doing the EP Thompson of this thing. Mhmm. It's gonna be exciting.
Michelle:Yeah. So just like playing that out, getting getting my ass on W threads. I think it's really important.
Filiberto:Look out world. Michelle's here to talk shit.
Michelle:Yeah. So just kinda like prepping, doing some reflection, what we do well, what do we need to prove on for the podcast, and just building that out for next season. I... That's that's super exciting. It's like a project.
Filiberto:Yeah. And like we weren't... Honestly, and it sounds weird, but like we weren't that focused on growth just because we wanted to establish ourselves because we also knew that, like, as two people that don't have a profile in the league or the game, why would anyone agree to be on our podcast before we even produced anything?
Michelle:Right.
Filiberto:So for us to, like, this first year is kind of proof of concept. And so when we invite people to be on the podcast, we already can show them what our style is, what our flow is, like how we approach this. So that's... I mean, again, we weren't anticipating a championship year, so it wasn't like we were like, oh, I really gotta bust this out.
Michelle:Oh, crap.
Filiberto:But, know, for us, yeah, this is kind of like our establishing year. And then hopefully next year, we can have just a more dynamic, you know, more guests, different things like that.
Michelle:When I think like you've done a podcast before, this is my first time. So it's also just kinda like we wanna give ourselves time to develop like our voice and our values. And I I think we've done a decent job. There's, always grow on it and improve, but that helps just kind of having that space for us to do that.
Michelle:What is it that you wanna see next year for Golden State?
Michelle:But also, what is it that you wanna see next year for the league?
Filiberto:Yeah. I think that it's such an exciting time for Golden State because our salary cap situation is so good. Like, we have a lot of space to sign the best player or possibly players.
Michelle:Right.
Filiberto:Like, have enough cap space for two high level players. So we don't have to dance on this championship. We can keep growing and become a dynasty. And obviously, we trust the general manager quite a bit. And the Valkyries are the best ticket in sports right now.
Filiberto:Like, this is amazing what we have here.
Michelle:Yeah. It's like a destination, right, for some of the top free agents.
Filiberto:I don't know why you wouldn't wanna come to Golden State. Like, I don't know, as a professional player, why you wouldn't watch an interview with any of our players and be like, I wanna be part of that love.
Michelle:Like Yeah.
Filiberto:I want to be part of that sweet community that wins. Yeah.
Michelle:Team that treasures rest and recovery. Yeah.
Filiberto:That treasures each other. Yeah. So I think that's... So to me, it's like just seeing all these offseason moves, the free agency in the W starts in January. It's gonna be different than last year if y'all remember the CBA made everything kind of wild.
Filiberto:But this will be a more traditional, more like standard, free agency period. So I'm definitely looking forward to that. I think, spending a lot of time watching college basketball, I'm looking forward to all the players that are coming up. Yeah. There's so many good players.
Filiberto:There's a lot of spec... I don't think Juju Watkins is coming out of college this year, but you know, people are speculating that. So players that you and I've been watching really closely for the last couple of years. So I think that's really exciting for the W. I really think that obviously we're gonna get a new commissioner.
Filiberto:That's gonna set the tone for a lot of different things. In particular, I think it's gonna set the tone for how the league approaches the hostility and hate of the MAGAfied fan base that is, you know, sort of seen to be kind of rooted around Indiana, but exists in a lot of different ways in a lot of different places all over the league. Like it's not just... Indiana is a really focal point for this problem, but it's not just an Indiana problem. So for the league to take that a lot more seriously and preserve and protect the queerness, the Blackness, the sort of exception...
Filiberto:What's exceptional about this league and these players, I think is gonna be a major priority for them moving forward. And if it doesn't go well, this is gonna be really bad. Yeah. Like really bad. It already is kind of shitty, but like this has the potential to really implode.
Filiberto:So these are dangerous people. The kind of people that hold this kind of hate are fucking dangerous too. They're cowards for the most part, but within there, there's some fuckers that are gonna do some harm or want to do harm. Yeah. And what are we doing to deal with that?
Michelle:Yeah. I think for me, I I kind of agree with Golden State. I wanna see... It'll be interesting to see what signings the team makes. You know, I...
Michelle:It would be great if we can keep everyone the same, but we probably will lose some players.
Filiberto:Something's gonna change.
Michelle:And wish nothing but luck and success wherever they go. Yeah. Because these people are, you know, very amazing women. But... Yeah.
Michelle:To see kind of... I I understand it's a new expansion team. You know, free agents were just like, no thanks. So like...
Filiberto:Fair.
Michelle:I have no idea who your leaders are.
Filiberto:San Francisco's expensive.
Michelle:Yeah. Don't really know your coach at well...
Filiberto:It was a different CBA the first year too. They were making no money back then.
Michelle:Don't know the culture you're establishing, but now those unknowns are knowns. Right? And so it'll be interesting to see kinda where they land. I know that the Valkyries are very concerned about messing with what they already have going in the locker rooms. They're gonna be very intentional, very picky with anyone who's showing interest.
Michelle:But yeah, I hope hope we're able to bring players back like Tiffany Hayes and others. I think for the W, I absolutely second what you're saying about some of the the negative conversations and just people trying to distract and detract and demean the support in these women. But I also wanna add something a little a little bit more simple. These, like, fucking scheduling conflicts. Oh, yeah.
Filiberto:Let's not forget about that. OMG
Filiberto:Like.
Michelle:I'm looking forward to the w erasing these scheduling conflicts. And and it... For example, Atlanta's gonna be easier because they've already announced they will be playing Yeah.
Michelle:State Arena. Larger State Farm Arena next year.
Filiberto:We gotta do something about the Mystics. That's a nightmare.
Michelle:Yeah. So they did well with charter flights. You know, they could have done it earlier. They should have done it earlier.
Filiberto:Maybe that happened earlier. Yes.
Michelle:They got that done. So let's let's start getting like a better system going for how to work through and make sure as many people as possible can be at a game, can participate, can experience the game, but also can watch it at home, in a bar, wherever. It'll also be very telling to see who the owners choose and the MNBA choose as as our next commissioner. So that will tell us a lot about how they're gonna respond to certain challenges.
Filiberto:Yeah. It's gonna shape a lot of things. Yeah. We can't overlook that. Yeah.
Filiberto:So, Michelle Mhmm. What have you enjoyed most about just doing this podcast for the year as we wind down our first year! And we just... We finished our first year of podcasting.
Michelle:We did.
Filiberto:Congratulations. We did. Yeah. We finished our season, if you will, too.
Michelle:Yeah. No. I think kinda... You know, I I kinda referenced it earlier, but just there's there's things that I've wanted to do. But like, let's just get through the season that I wanna do for for next next season's podcast.
Michelle:But just like, kind of expand who is like part of the community and and try to interview and bring in more voices on the podcast, more diverse voices, I think, would be great. Yeah. And I think just doing a little bit more social media, just getting getting our stuff out there and and being... Playing around with it, being fun, being cheesy. Think
Filiberto:Gotta be corny.
Michelle:That creativeness. I really look forward to doing this podcast. And it's like I appreciate kind of the way that you frame a lot of things that we've seen or we've experienced together. That's helped me kind of change the way that I participate or view sports and women. So just having this conversation with you has just been really precious.
Michelle:And I appreciate it.
Filiberto:Oh, there you go.
Michelle:What about you?
Filiberto:Yeah. No. I did the same. I didn't I didn't... You know, I had some doubts whether we can even get through the seasons.
Filiberto:It's like, damn. It's hard. Like, it's hard doing a podcast. When I did my podcast before, it was just me. Yeah.
Filiberto:And I was just interviewing people all the time. So I had nobody to fight with or to have to have to deal with or to think through things with. It was just like, this is my thing, whatever. So, you know, I think this style of podcast is unique to me even though I've done podcasts in the past. And I...
Filiberto:You know, that's the thing about when we started doing this, it was like, we do not need another podcast out there. There's way too many podcasts. But, you know, I think there's a lot of validation for the importance of having done this that I did not did not anticipate. Right? Like, we had a championship season.
Filiberto:Yeah. And I think, you know, one of the things about me just personally is I've been an activist for a long time in different sort of industries since I was like 16. I've been around the world fighting for union rights, human rights. I've been a researcher, strategist. I've been a student of what the Guatemalan resistance movements and genocide.
Filiberto:I was doing a PhD in that. And one of the things that is just always compelling about what it takes for people to resist and to fight for a world they believe in. It starts with the most tender of moments. It doesn't start with some speech or somebody claiming they're gonna take the state and grabs a gun and the revolution starts. No, it doesn't.
Filiberto:These things start in tenderness and in the most unforeseen places. So I think one of the things that's really compelling about the Valkyries, not that I think it's a revolutionary moment or anything like that, but what's interesting about the Valkyries is they made the impossible possible. Like, no doubt. Nobody believed in this. Absolutely no one.
Filiberto:Yeah. And that sort of possibility around a really queer Black sort of frame just inspires things that are hard to measure. And I think that's what I'm looking forward to. I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to notice it, but things like this have an ability to just shift things Mhmm. In significant ways.
Filiberto:And I'm just... I'm speaking from twenty five years of being devoted to social change and and devoted to the individual conversations and processes that lead people to assert their rights. And there is something here, importantly, that sparks imagination. I'm looking forward to what that looks like. Yeah.
Filiberto:People can write PhDs about this shit. Like, this was a crazy ass year.
Ari:Yeah.
Filiberto:And given the political context, given the Trumpiness of it, and in the middle of what is feeling Fascistic every single day to have this massive victory for incredible women that have been overlooked, that have been, you know, all these different narratives that we've been hearing all week long about this team and the construction of this team and who Natalie Nakase is. Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
Michelle:And I think that just reminds me, maybe we can kind of just close out our podcasts in memory of Dolores Huerta. Yeah. Because I think she passed away this last week. And I think a lot of what you're speaking to is what she was fighting for, kind of what her legacy is. I know she went through some ugliness and some abuse and some harassment.
Michelle:And a lot of us have to come to terms with that. But I just hope that she rests in power because she did change a lot of the dynamics for you know, fighting for union rights for everyone, every worker, not just a certain group of them. But she also made sure that the the labor movement included the voices of women and the the voices of of specifically Black and Brown women. So I just wanna kinda, like, take a minute to acknowledge that because this is... We're all building on these foundations and these these fights and these blood, sweat, and tears that these other people have given for us to to build on that and continue continue the the fight.
Filiberto:Breanna Turner mentioned this, and we really doubled down on this concept. But it is it is worth mentioning and it's never okay to forget that this league, these accomplishments wouldn't have happened under the design of this country and this constitution. And it's not a... This isn't an argument that the constitution is great because you can adjust it. No.
Filiberto:This thing was built on genocide, slavery, settler colonialism. They never wanted this. They never not wanted what we have. So let's not just seize it, but let's claim it, own it, and fight for it. Mhmm.
Filiberto:That's what this is about, y'all.
Michelle:And this stuff isn't in the past. These are still challenges that we're fighting today. And that should be very evident to everyone again on election day. That should be very evident that a lot of those influences, of that white supremacy is alive and unfortunately well today. And that's why we've got these bound...
Michelle:These battles that we're fighting.
Filiberto:Just because you don't wanna see it doesn't mean it doesn't come for me... Coming for you.
Michelle:Mhmm.
Filiberto:So let's face it together. With Lavender and Yeah. Gabby Williams threes in our hearts.
Michelle:Defense.
Filiberto:Defense wins championships.
Michelle:For the gays.
Filiberto:For the gays. Alright. Thanks, everybody. We made it this far. It was a great season.
Filiberto:I don't even know how many people listen to this. But Yeah. For those of you that have had... Have had... Have been listening to this, we appreciate you.
Filiberto:You're there somewhere. Yep. And, yeah, we'll be back next season.
Michelle:That's a wrap.
Filiberto:That's a wrap.
Ari:We need more energy I need you loud Ballhalla We are the Valkyries and this Ballhalla.
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