The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Good Follow - All Eyes Are On The WNBA Right Now, Caitlin Clark Stands With Napheesa Collier, WNBA Finals & More!

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Today on Good Follow: Ros Gold-Onwude and Angel McCoughtry break down all of the attention the WNBA is getting because of Napheesa Collier’s callout to the WNBA leadership. Where have these major media voices, like Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and Dave Portnoy, been all season? Why is there no etiquette in the house of women's basketball? Then, Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham respond to Phee’s callout against Cathy Engelbert during the Indiana Fever’s exit interviews. Finally, when people counted the Phoenix Mercury out, Ros stood with them and has the receipts to prove it! Will the Mercury prove the doubters wrong? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We'd like to make up your own rules. Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition. The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment.

You're listening to Draft King's Network. Hey, what's up? Welcome to Good Follow show, presented by Draft Kings and young. It's just the two. Two of us make it if we try. You ain't know I had that. Hey, I'm getting you on the track, Ross. Two of us.

Two of us. She got a voice, y'all. Two of us. Not going to be. Anyway, we are in L.A. And Angel McCotry five-time WNBA All-Star. And I'm Roz Gold on Wooday. Well-known on the good teammate wall at Stanford University.

Can you explain to that, us, what that means? That you're a five-time All-Star, and I'm on the good teammate. wall. So you're the good teammate wall. So there's different walls. There's different walls. So, okay, y'all. Oh, there it is.

Okay. So I just recently came in from the Bay Area. I was at Stanford University visiting with my alma mater. I visited with the woman's basketball team. Really excited for them as they head into year two in the ACC. And I did some media training sessions with them. And it was awesome. But they gave me a tour of their brand spanking new locker room.

Child to be born. And I don't even know what year, 2000. Five, ten. 2010 it's a nice life it's luxurious in that locker room my goodness they got mirrors and lighting and all high ceilings oh wow i want to live there yeah anyway so there's different walls and one of the walls was for all of the all-americans one of the walls was for all of the wnba players that came out of basketball and then kate pay the new coach at the stanford walked me over she said here you are ross you're on the wall for good teammates. And I love that, though. Like, I was mad proud. First of all, it's a sisterhood. I was

proud. I had a very nice slice of real estate on the good teammate wall. Hey. She's up on the wall, okay? That's all that matters. She's on the wall. I made a wall. And it was sisterhood and all that. And all that. But we had a good chuckle when I was telling him that before the show. I was like, yeah. I love it. You want a good teammate. Hey, she's a good teammate, man. Absolutely. And five-time W&B All-Star Angel. So, McHodry, All-American in college. I'm on the All-American Wall, but that doesn't matter. You're on a good teammate.

Did you win national player the year in college, too? I don't even remember. I want so many others. Did I? I don't remember. I think you did. Anyway. All right.

Moving on to today's show. People are talking about the WNBA that have not talked about the WNBA either before or in a very long time. I guess all of this attention is good attention. I don't know. We'll discuss it. And then as we head into the WNBA finals, between the Las Vegas Aces and the Phoenix Mercury,

we will break down the chip on the shoulder of the Phoenix Mercury and how they've been carrying that around and can they silence the doubters and maybe get a win over the Aces? Hey, maybe. We saw she. We so see.

Well, guys, you can check us out Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thank you for supporting us at the Goodfowlo Show. Link, comment, subscribe. We love hearing your comments. Let's get going. Bam! That was your best one yet. That was my best one.

That was your best one yet. Finally, I got the key. You're right, guys. Angel has like one, like assigned line. The rest of this is all just like off the top, you know, just speaking at each other. But it's just, and this is your best rendition of it. We should do a clip. We should do like a montage of all of angels.

Okay, guys. Wait, when do I go? Every Tuesday and Thursday, we have a show. Now you did great. Let's go. Now we're going to have a good show. After Nefisa Collier's exit interview, the entire basketball world. In fact, really the sports world was shamed.

taken up. And she has everyone talking. And I guess it's a good thing all of this exposure. I mean, I think it is. But let's just check some of the coverage out that that's coming out right now. Kyer says it's not about W's and else. Yes, it is. You lost the game. You lost the ball and you're frustrated. B, your coach acted like a complete, you don't act like that. You don't act like that. And she should apologize. You know what I was out of line? The court was right. I can't run it. court curse out the fans and then on top of it destroy the officials when my season she deserved

the suspension oh my god you know i bless monica mcnutt's heart i forget she did they didn't called monica in and monica came to work she was itching like ugh she i don't even think she expected to see or hear for a second there i was like is he going to call shir or reeva her name i was Like, wait a minute. Oh, my God. But that was from Mad Dog, Chris, Chris Rousseau on first take. Let's hear some more. Skip Bayless chimed in.

If Caitlin Clark out since July 15th had returned for the playoffs, the fever would be in the finals. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for your, for chiming in, Skip. So great to hear from you this WNBA season. Just like, not that, and this is no shade to Caitlin. Like, it's probably possible, sure. We like, Caitlin's an excellent player.

This is not even about Caitlin. It's just about, oh, okay. I see that you've made it to the, to the conversation. Thank you, Skip. And this is your, this is your contribution, some hypothetical. Like, there's so much actual things that actually have happened. You could comment on and you're just going to. And for Skip, Skip, my message to you is, let's nothing against Caitlin.

Can you give the girls props who made it to the semifinals? Oh, he didn't watch that. Girl, stop. Who, they only lost by what, two points or something like that? Child. The fact, okay, let's keep going to keep going to. Because that's not even all of the big talking heads, huge platforms that are now speaking about the WNBA. And we're happy to have the word, I guess, or the brand get out there.

But I mean, perhaps how it's being discussed is so inflammatory or just crazy. But let's go on. Going back to first take, bless Monica McNutt. Now, let's hear from Stephen A. Kathy Ingleberg, the commissioner of the league, you need to resign, period. When a player, any player, but especially one of that magnitude, attacks you publicly like that. That weak-ass statement, Commissioner Engelberg game is not good enough. She basically provided no defense of herself.

Her words were piercing. That was an attack against your leadership. It was an attack against your integrity. It was an attack against your character. Against your character. And that's the statement you came out with. Mmm, it's getting spicy. Yeah, I mean, and actually, it's not even that,

sometimes the comments being made are things you may even agree with. But later he full on came out and was like, Kathy Englebert needs to resign and just a really bold statement, you know, to come out and declare that the commissioner of a professional sports league needs to be fired. And for that to possibly be one of your three public statements on the WNBA for the season is bold, is bold. Okay, we got one more person. So Dave Portnoy, actually not only does he think that Kathy should be out. But he thinks he could do a better job as commissioners. Oh, really? Let's tap in.

What if the WMBA approached you to be the commissioner? There we go. I said it. All these women who think they hate me, Angel Rees, she thinks she hates me. The one with the fingernails thinks she's hate me, Dijon, Carrington. These girls would be whining and dying and be like, oh, my God, it's not about the color of skin. It's about sports, basketball. And this guy's putting money in my pocket.

He's a genius. We would be flying, dining, and driving. It would be unbelievable. I would absolutely take this league to a level it has never seen. Kathy Engelberg can't market her way out of a paper bag. Embrace the stuff that's going on this league. She's doing investing. Who invests an entire fan base over nothing and creates everyone who wants your fans to be called racist for no reason?

This woman's a moron. Well, for me, there's certainly people, there's fan bases that agree with Dave and he's talking to somebody there. But I'm not even here to critique what some of these people are or not saying. It's just the manner in which they have plowed their way into the WNBA conversation, Angel. First, I'm going to say for Dave, Portnoy. Portnoy. The first thing is, I need to talk to your wife or girlfriend or whoever to see how. you're going to manage all these women.

If it's going to be another commissioner in our WBA, it's going to be someone who has dealt with the blood, sweat, and tears in this league. And who I nominate? NECA Agumachia as our next commissioner. Ooh. Well, she's already, you know, president of the Players Association.

There you go. And as somebody who has been a player under her tutelage or her leadership, what stands out about NECA? She's an amazing person, number one. She's been to the blood, sweating too. She's a great leader. I play with her. She just knows how to weather this storm.

She's been fighting for us for the CBA for a long time. And you've been her teammate. Yeah. So you know these qualities that she would be a great leader for. Oh, I would run through a wall for NECA. There you go. I think she's a great human being, a great leader, a great teammate. You know, and so I didn't even know you were going to make a nomination.

I certainly stand behind NECA for anything, full stop. But, you know, we've heard some critique coming out from players that the next commissioner, it's not just about being a good business person. You got to know ball. I think also you've got to understand the wants, needs, plights, desires, coverage, lifestyle, the nuances of the players within your league. And if a majority of them, you know, are minorities, are black, our LBGQ community. You know, you've got to be able to resonate and relate and also empathize. And it's been a lack of connection and empathy with Kathy Engleberg that keeps coming up and coming up. And this isn't just the black thing.

Like, you know, I would point out Kathy has had a few missteps now. You know, even when she came to the Bay and was supposed to give the Coach of the Year award to Natalie Nakase. And that's a huge award. It's one of the major awards for the season. and she had a blunder in mispronouncing her name. She said, in Nkase, or Nkasey or whatever. And she was corrected by the media. And at the moment did go viral?

But it's more than just like that she have a slip-up. When you're under so much critique, it actually was revealing of, well, one, was she properly prepared? Two, are you familiar with your league? Are you watching your league? How do you don't know how to say Nakase's name? This name's been said all season long. All we're talking about is the incredible coaching job happening in the Bay with all all those injuries and, you know, kind of lacking of big-name players.

Look at how well they're doing. Nakase, Nakase, Nakase. Right. And then to go back to insensitivity culturally, there was power in that name to give her the coach of the year. Now, Nakase is the first ever Asian-American head coach in WNBA history. So to go up there and have this culturally relevant, this Asian-American coach, and to say her name wrong, showed a lack of sensitivity, cultural sensitivity.

So, you know, she's had a few slip-ups like that. And to say the least, so, Dave, you got to know the player's names, okay? Right. At least. Right. The girl with the nails is crazy. The girl with the nails is absolutely insane. I want to go back because that's not, okay, he did his thing.

I want to go back to Mad Dog, Chris Rousseau. Because on first take, before he even speaks about the WNBA, he actually starts it with, well, I'm not really following this. Oh, Jesus. I don't really follow it. There's no world. Angel, there's no world where a woman could go on any national network and begin her commentary with, I'm not really following this. I don't watch.

I don't really talk about it. I likely did not prepare. Can you imagine? Did not prepare for what I'm about to say you. And then not only have some commentary, have some really strong commentary, have some really strong opinions about like what should happen here. And his whole dialogue was just lacking in the right respect and understanding of the gravitas of Cheryl Reeve. Like, of course, her behavior was poor. But, babe, this is like pop of the league.

You know, like, you're up, you kind of played down to Fisa Collier, but without having the depth of knowledge to know what the, what the battle has been with officiating for a whole season long. And, okay, I'll give you this example. Mm-hmm. when you go to someone's house for like the first time angel you go to someone's house you're usually polite yeah absolutely you might even come into the house for the first time and ask them do you guys take your shoes off here should i take my shoes off the door yeah okay you know you might even you might even you might come over with a dish yeah i come over with a bottle of wine people have come over my house they've given me a candle an etiquette etiquette right or it's just it's the first time you've been there

Maybe it's, you know, so you're still polite. And these people are coming in one or two times a year to the House of Women's Basketball. And ain't nothing like, ain't nothing about it. Like, okay, well, let me lean into you, Monica. What do you think because, you know, you've been covering it all year or da-da-da. Instead of, they in there throwing things in the fridge, drinking out, straight out the carton, talking about your family, mucking up the floor, muddle on the floor with their shoes, jumping on the couch.

That's what it feels like. Coming right in, demanding commissioners should be fired and that they could do a better job and randomly having a tweet that has like, honestly, like, not a lot to do with the moment or just coming in and doing the most being so loud. Yeah. And I appreciate the platform,

but often their coverage with these huge platforms is so, like, alarmist and often used to kind of shit on the league or used to point out moments when there's mishaps or, you know, or like talk down on the women who are playing. It's inflammatory coverage. Yeah. There were some great stories.

How about where were y'all when Kelsey Mitchell had that inspiring run? There you go. Where were y'all when the Aces were on a 17-game win streak, which was historically significant? They were almost on the verge of having the longest winning streak in the history of the league. But they fell short. That was a great story. Where were you to cover that? There were stars in that story.

We were not asking you to cover something small. I was big. So you only come here to shit on the league and talk about when things are on fire? I guess. But it's wet. It's given bandwagon behavior. But like you said,

like if we did that, we would get roasted. We could never do that in football. We can never do that in the NBA. But you guys can come in our league and shit on it, like you said. No research done. And brag about it.

I don't want to. I'm the next commissioner. Or I don't follow this. How can you even be? allowed to speak on a professional platform? First of all, where's your, where's, where's, bring back shame. How can you speak so strong when you are willingly willing to admit I don't watch, I don't follow.

And like, if it was me, I would have come in and had a much more demure, cutesy, you know, take like, you know, I think what's happening in the league is, you know, it's a lot happening. The ladies have a lot at stake. We'll be following. But you just come in and fire and just everything. And let me say this to Chris. Rousseau, the last thing you want to do is injure three ligaments in your foot, right?

You have a career in the injury in this league. The workers can't finish. You're done. Remember, we don't have pension. So that's the last thing you want to do. But that's a whole other story. So to what you said, we could never. Oh, we could never.

All right, let's take a break. Yeah. We back. Do do do do do do. Hey NFL fans, what's your favorite touchdown? For me, mine, it's always the next one. With Traff King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, every touchdown could put cash in your hands.

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Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Hey, welcome back to Good Follow Show presented by Draft Kings. I'm Roz. She's Angel. And today was the exit interviews for the Indiana fever. And you know everybody's been waiting to hear from Caitlin Clark and what she has to say about Fee's comments and everything about the commissioner in a league and all the things. So she spoke on it. Here's what Caitlin had to say.

I have great respect for Fee. and I think she made a lot of very valid points and, you know, if you said it all, this is straight up the most important moment in this league's history where this league's been around for 25 plus years. Caitlin Clark basically, you know, unified front with all of the players,

which I think is really important right now as they head into CBA discussions and the end of October date is looming here and likely not to be met. But Sophie Cunningham also gave her two cents during exit interviews for the fever, and she had this to say, I'm just tired of our league.

Our leadership from top to bottom needs to be held accountable. I think that there are a lot of people in a position of power in the WNBA who, they might be really great business people, but they don't know shit about basketball.

Oh, Sophie. Sophie going to tell you like it is. She's going to tell you exactly how she feels. What do you make of this, Angel, you being a former player? I wouldn't, Sophie, I wouldn't say I'm just tired. of our league. I wouldn't say that part. I would have left that part out and just talk about

the leadership we need. But it's speaking to a level of frustration that everyone's at right now. No, it's definitely a big level of frustration. And shout out to Caitlin, because we needed to hear your voice. You know, we need you. You are a big voice in our league. So I'm happy to hear what she had to say. Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to hear from Caitlin because so much of momentum has come with her joining the league. You know, look, you can't deny that there is some kind of Clark effect here, she definitely demands attention, eyeballs, dollars. So this is the WNBA's newest, most attention getting asset right now. You want to hear that who was she wit? And if she didn't, if she didn't endorse fee and the players and come in the unified front, she didn't have

to say, oh, I'm pro, Kathy in the league. It would be taken as that. It would have been. So to continue to stay quiet, it would be taken as that. Instead, she made a decision, and I'm sure there's got to be meetings with her team and whatever, like, all eyes on you, here's how we're going to approach it, here are some good words to say. I'm sure they don't just let her come up there and wing it. Absolutely. But she gave an endorsement of fee and unified front for the players. Anything you want to add on what's going on with the CBA? Actually, I do. I got, you know, I kind of hear what's going on in the meetings. I'm not going to disclose the information. But I will say that from what I've heard, And the discussions and negotiations is disheartening.

I'm just going to put it at that. And just know that there could be possibly a lockout. Yeah, I think a lockout is likely to happen. You know, we're not, I don't think they're going to suddenly have an agreement by the end of October. Yeah. But more what I'm concerned about is just, you know, what this means for things like draft and training camp. And isn't there supposed to be like an expanse in draft and all these new teams coming in? And, you know, I want the season to start on time.

and obviously, you know, I think there's so much momentum and it does feel like at this moment we're not running. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track side. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Presale tickets for future events subject to availability

and varied by race. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at MX.ca slash Yannex. With it. Yeah. So I hope. We shall see. We shall see.

Let's get to what is exciting and happening. And the momentum that is happening is the WNBA finals. Yeah, we lost touch of that. Absolutely. Okay. The Phoenix Mercury, the Las Vegas Aces, they face off in the WNBA finals. Very interesting. That's a 45-minute flight.

You can just pop right back. Pop back and forth. Go to all the games, do everything. But the Phoenix Mercury in particular, they are playing with a chip on their shoulder as they have all season. And, you know, this is actually from their own Twitter account. They've been posting receipts. Anybody who picked against them, which seemingly was almost everyone in their route to taking down the liberty, taking down the number one seed links.

But while others doubted, I've been. Rath gone on what I've been saying, do not sleep on the mercury. And guess what? I got receipts. You got receipts. Receits. Y'all better not sleep on the Phoenix Mercury. Do not sleep on the Phoenix Mercury.

Do not sleep on the Phoenix Mercury. Do not sleep on the Phoenix Mercury. But let me tell you right now, if all of them get healthy, and then all of those international players in that deep bench, then you got a big four of Alyssa Thomas, Dewana Bonner, Collier Copper, and Satu Sabli. That's a very dangerous team. That team is a crazy team to see in the playoffs,

and it'd be hard to bet against them. Wow. All I say is, wow. I'm watching them play all season. It's not even like, am I some smart person or something. Literally, I watched them. I've covered the Liberty. I watched them play the Liberty all season. And I've been looking at them and going,

but you saw it. If you're watching, it's not surprising. Like, they have an identity. This is a talented team. They're tough. They're physical. They play defense. They have players on this team.

It's not some Cinderella group of, you know, never been here before. These are experienced players. Let's pull this up from Christina Williams. Okay, so look, DeWana Bonner, two-time champion, Sammy Wickham, two-time champion, and Kalia Koppur, one-time champion.

She's a finals MVP. You got players who have been to the finals. Don't forget, Alyssa Thomas been there a bunch of times. You got Olympians on this team. Like, there's a lot of reasons why this team is prepared for this moment. And then also, again, they love this chip thing, you know. I love that. Yeah.

They were slided on the all-ruiki team. Monika Koa Makani. She absolutely had a case for all-Rookie team. I think all of those players that did make it are deserving. But when you look at her minutes, points, and assists, it's notable, especially at the point guard position and her impact on a high achieving team. A rookie point guard, that's crazy. Coaches got slighted. You could argue, or executive staff, Nick Yoran had an executive of the year case.

You know, they got a lot of critique hiring Nate Tibbitts. He came from the NBA side, and people were really upset. You know, people want to see women in these roles. But he came from the NBA side and look, he's winning. He's getting results in year two. And Nick Yeren changed up the whole culture. New era, got rid of players, brought all these different pieces in and it's working. So, you know, I think they both could have, you know, could deserve more flowers for what they've been able to do to this point.

Think about Alyssa Thomas, another season, no MVP. But she's coming for that chip. You look at, you look at Satu Sabli, New Chapter in Phoenix. She heard y'all talking about her in Dallas. She told me that. And she took it personally. And DeWana Bonner had a debacle in Indiana with the fever. And it looks like she's getting the last laugh.

She's the one going to the finals again. Hello. So I don't know. Can the Mercury just silence all the doubters here and pull this out? One more seating upset over the Las Vegas Aces? I think so, Roz. You dropped the mic on it and gave all the facts. So can y'all just stop treating them like a Cinderella team already?

It's funny because the aces feel like they've been slept on all season. This is a chip off. This is a who has a bigger chip in their shoulder. Both of them are looking at the other one. Like, I'm an underdog. Nobody believed in us. I like that. It's a chip off.

It's a chip off. It's a chip. We're out of time. Guys, we'll be back to discuss probably the first game or two of the WNBA finals. Tune. It starts on Friday night. Thank you for watching Goodfellow. She's Angel, five-time WMA All-Star.

I'm Rosal-Wood-A. Great teammate. And we will see you next time. Ha ha ha ha.