The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - GOOD FOLLOW - CBA Negotiations Continue, Has TCU cracked the Transfer Portal? Hall of Fame Class of 2026 & More!

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Today on Good Follow, Ros Gold-Onwude and Angel McCoughtry break down the stakes of this CBA negotiation deadline extension as tensions rise between the WNBA and the players. What does it mean to go to a lockout? What if the players go on strike? How can both sides come to an agreement? Next, they give their flowers to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame for this year's inductees. What do Candace Parker and Doris Burke mean to Good Follow? Then, Ros gives her DraftKings Pick of the Week. Lastly, Angel and Ros react to TCU’s transfer portal system. How does TCU’s coach, Mark Campbell, navigate all the moving parts that come with the portal? How should players use the portal? Does it take away from the college experience? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Roz Gold-on-Were, and that is Angel McGrath. Cottery, five-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist. What's up, Angel? How you doing? We're doing good, man. We had a good weekend for Halloween, right? I saw Angel out at a Halloween party. I was Red Lobster, but I really am not sure what your costume was.

What were you? I was a woman king. I was a warrior. Okay. Now that I think about it, you did have a shield. I had a shield, man. And I had my little jewelry, my Wakanda jewelry. Are you recovered from Halloween?

I'm still recovering, man. It takes two days, three days when you hit into 40. It takes a little time. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, for sure. And actually, come out of Halloween, I've actually been on the road. I'm in Nashville, Tennessee right now. Checking in on Athletes Unlimited Women's Basketball here. They had kind of like a welcome dinner and a whole lot of like kind of preseason festivities,

getting the Nashville community, you know, really excited about. the basketball that's going to be happening here. And, you know, so to check out AAU, it's a lot of, it's five on five basketball. So it's, you know, the game that you're used to watching. And it's interesting scoring because players are individually scored like positive, positive or negative based on stats and play and how the team does. And then they crown an individual champion at the end of it. So it's really focused on like player development.

It's pretty cool. But, you know, it was nice to see the returners and all. the new players. One thing I will say is AU put a really impressive roster together this season. And there's a lot of star power, a lot of great stories, and

you know, a lot of potential for players to make the most of this opportunity. Well, something's brewing there, Roz, because it's in Nashville and maybe there might be a double-based team there. So something's going on there and you're right in the midst of it. So that should be fun. Look forward to seeing you at AU. Oh, that's interesting. You bring up WNBA

teams formation and like that because we got a show menu today where we'll be tapping into a lot of these types of topics. So let me give you today's menu for the show because we've got a lot of juicy topics here. CBA negotiations are still going on. So they reached a deal to extend 30 days. October 31 came and we get more time to potentially come to agreement between the WNBA and the players we discuss. Then we're giving out flowers to the women's basketball Hall of Fame class of 2026, which was just announced. And we're going to discuss how the transfer portal has impacted the overall NCAA college landscape, but also TCU, which kind of is the

poster child, if you will, for transferring in the transfer portal and college basketball. So we'll take a deep dive as college basketball is underway at the time of taping. The NCAA season just started so season's greetings to all of you who celebrate yes well we have a good show lined up ross you guys can continue to like comment and subscribe to our show you know we drop every tuesday and thursday let's get into it ross okay let's let's start off with the the cba extension last thursday the w nbpa and the league agreed to a 30-day extension for negotiations um now making the deadline november 30th in the past couple of months tensions have been rising between the Players Association and the WNBA.

And as you remember, there were pay us, what you owe us, T-shirts, of course, at the All-Star game, then Nefisa Collier's four-minute pre-prepared statement putting Kathy Engelbert, the commissioner in the league on blast. The stage has been set for where we are now, but it seems like both sides are motivated to make this happen and given each other 30 more days to do this, although there is an opportunity to op out. and that was important for the players that they could if they don't like the way things are going they at any point you know have a chance to say forget the extension we're out um so what do you

make of the extension being a former player and like what has to happen right now what's at stake all of your favorite NBA players are back and draft king sports book and official sports betting partner of the NBA is the place to bet on NBA stars this season. New customers, download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use code Goodfellow. That's code G-O-O-D-F-O-L-O-W, bet five bucks and get three months of NBA league pass plus $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 877-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y 4667-369.

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Minimum odds required. NBA League Pass auto-renews until cancer. Additional terms at dkNG.co slash audio. Limited time offer. Well, the extension means that there is still not a solution. And what is taking so long to figure this stuff out? It's not hard. This is the stuff that the women have been screaming out for years.

These are the same issues. You know what the girls want. I mean, how hard is it to give the 50% revenue share off their jersey sales or their image and likeness? That's not a hard thing to do. You know what I mean? the pensions, the salary, the bonuses, what is taking so long? And I just hope that there is not a lockout and they can come to this agreement

and forces can come together because we keep hearing different things, oh, we're going to get another league, girls are going to go more than arrival. We don't want to see that happen because the WBA has been such a pivotal force for us as women's basketball players. So let's get this thing together, y'all. Figure it out, man. Yeah, I think it's really important for people to understand that there is a language criteria here when discussing the CBA and that there's different terms to use. Like,

a lockout is if the WNBA and its owners decide like, hey, we're good here, no deal, right? And if a lockout occurs, players no longer have, you know, access to facilities. But on the other side of that, a strike is different. That's if the workers go on strike. So if the players decide that, that, like, this is a no-go, then, you know, that's really disrupt. They can't talk to executives, coaches, wouldn't have facilities. But I've been doing some reading in different articles and just kind of seeing what's possible here. There is something where if they don't reach the extension by November 30th, so this like extra 30 days, there's something called a status quo period where the rules from the previous CBA would still be able to apply.

And you could continue to move forth, like using facilities. you'd continue to, you know, work with the team, things like that. So there's a lockout, there's a strike, there's a status quo that could be reached here. There's a big timeline ahead. There's a lot of reason, motivation to get this right. Like, there's a draft lottery next season. There's an expansion draft. There's a free agency period that's going to be huge for most all the league.

You know, there's a regular draft. Like, there's so much beyond just like, is the season going to start late? and Angel as a player, would you be, like, well, how would you be approaching this? Would you be nervous to potentially miss out on these things? And not only that, what else is at stake is lack of visibility, lack of ability to have marketing for the players in the league. You could lose momentum. You could lose fans.

Honestly, remind me of COVID season, where you just didn't know what was going to happen. You didn't know if you were going to have a season or not. You know, you want to work. You want to play. You need the competition. You need to make a living. And it kind of reminds me of that where we just got to figure this thing out. Because even with the new teams coming in, they're excited.

They have a fan base building. They're ready to get going. And to have things hold up with new franchises that can potentially hire new girls in this league. It's just so unfortunate. So I'm really hoping that, you know, I'm glad you explain the difference between the lockout and a strike because many people don't even know that difference. Yeah. And I'm just hoping either one of those don't.

come about. Right. You know, it's a very different time than that bubble COVID season. And I remember listening to Kathy Engelbert speak about that bubble season during COVID. And like, there was a consulting firm that gave the league overwhelming possibility that the league was going to fail and die during the pandemic. And that the, I don't remember the exact number, but like the main point that Kathy was, is that that's how dire things were. And so it was really important that they got the bubble season off and executed it, and it worked. And so, like, that's not where the league is right now. The league has, you know, the league has media rights deals.

They're getting money from expansion fees from different teams coming in. There's hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in billions of dollars pouring in, billions of dollars pouring in now to the league. And everyone wants a slice. The players want to slice. owners want a slice and what's complicated about the ownership thing is that the WNBA's ownership structure

it's not like it's just like team owners it's according to an article on NBC I want to make sure to give credit 42% of the league is owned by WNBA owners 42% is owned by NBA owners

right? Wow. And then there is a 16%. Remember when the WNBA and Kathy Engelbert, like, made this small, like, investment vehicle that people could get in on. Well, guess what? Who was part of that investment vehicle? It was some of the already WNBA team owners. So there are some WNBA team owners that have two slices of the pie, which is crazy, who doubled down.

There's companies who own a part of the league, like Nike, wants their slice. and then individuals. And so there were various individuals of star power that got in on this. And like, boy, how lucky they were. When you talk about revenue sharing and getting your slice of the pie, it's very complicated for the WNBA. Like, it's hard to figure out how that goes. And also to get everyone on the same page to say, yes, this is the CBA we're agreeing to. It sounds just like with all the money coming in, the girls want to see the books.

That's what it sounds like. And they're not handing over those books. That's what I'm thinking is really the big issue here. Let's figure out these numbers because like you said, everybody wants their slice. According to reports, transparency has been an issue. And there was an article on ESPN that kind of outlined that players have asked for numbers where revenue sharing would, you know, start to tap in at a certain level of, you know, making money. and they were not given access to that information for whatever reason. And lack of transparency often leads to lack of trust.

And look, the players want higher salaries. It seems like everyone's aligned on the players are going to get paid more, right? In fact, that's already been offered. But where the issue, the main issue, I mean, there's other things like lifestyle that they're working on, et cetera, et cetera. But the big issue here is a revenue sharing model. where it's directly tied to the ups and downs of the business. And so, like, if the business is soaring, they don't want to get stuck in some kind of antiquated or outdated model.

They're preparing not only for, you know, this year or next year, but for the next generations of players. And that's what is what it's all about, that next generation. So they need to come up with this model. Get rid of all the BS old stuff. You got to upgrade everything. years. It's time for a new system. You know, things have changed and give the girls what they deserve. You just can't tell me, like, their brands are even less than a million dollars.

You know, you can't even tell me the last decade of girls' brands were less than a million. Deladon, you know what I mean? Like, Candace Parker, Diana Tarasi, too. Their brands were still no less than millions. In addition to updating the revenue sharing model and updating salaries, like, we've got to update attitudes. And specifically of those decision makers at the top, Maybe there was a time back in the day many, many years ago or decades ago where, you know, WNBA players might be lucky for this platform. But players are bringing so much to the table before they ever step on a WNBA court. A lot of that has to do with NIL, social media, star power, increasing investment into the product, media coverage, and also the product is better. And so, like, I think you've got to update attitudes that understand the women here are business partners.

This is not charity case anymore. And you've got to update that. And I also think, you know, ownership groups updating maybe an attitude of or even and society, not society updating attitude of like they should be lucky we're watching or this is a losing league. like women's basketball is up and in the midst of all of this chaos this season that has nothing to do with ball and all to do with CBA and you know reaching out to the public and trying to get the public's favor and blah blah blah guess what ratings are up buts and seats are up marketing is up attention is up you know like it's it's it's continue this is continuing to go forward but the last thing you want to do is have this moment this CBA potentially stop the momentum before it could really skyrocket. Hey, welcome back to Good Follow, y'all. Today's episode is presented by Draft King. Angel. I'm Roz. And the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame has officially announced its class of 2026. And the drum roll, please. They are honoring players Elena Deladon, Candice Parker,

Isabelle Fijikowski, and Amaya Baldemora. Coaching wise, they're honoring Cheryl Reeve and Kim Mule. Doris Burke and Barbara Kennedy Dixon are being honored as well. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is a huge honor. I want to give a few flowers out real quick. You know, when you think about Candace Parker, for me, she reminds me a little bit of LeBron James in the sense that we watched them from childhood. They had the magnifying glass on in a way that this was before social media. So like, we knew about them because they were in those like high school basketball magazine

covers. It was LeBron. It was, you know, Sebastian Tellfair was Candace Parker. We knew about Candace's edges being laid, her swoops. We knew about Naperville. And she really delivered, much like LeBron, really lived up to the standards or the expectations, and then some. She went on to Tennessee, delivered a championship. She was player of the year, rookie of the year, MVP, champion in the WNBA, you know, won in the Olympics and internationally.

And all of this very publicly. You know, she had championships in the WNBA in 2016, 21, 2021, 2023. There was a gap there, though, like between 2016 and 2020, where I feel like she was counted out and in some ways misunderstood or people, you know, it's just funny how the narrative changes around stars, right? And that's why for me, when Candace won the championship in Chicago in 2021, and she said, Time tells the story, remember that famous quote at the end at the podium? And it's just, you know, later on Goodfollow Show, in our interview, she explained that time tells the story because if you let the year 2017 or 2016 tell it where she won a championship and wasn't put on the Olympic national team, or if you let the year 2018 tell it, you know, people would tell you she wasn't one of the greatest ever or she wasn't going to be a Hall of Famer, but time tells the story.

And over the course of a body of work, you're looking at a Hall of Famer and one of the most celebrated and, you know, one of the biggest ambassadors of the woman's game right now. So credit to Candace Parker there. You know, I do want to give a quick shout out to some of the underdogs. Kim Mole, who was at the Kirkwood Community College, he went to 33 regional finals, 23 national championships, all at a community college. And it goes to show you don't have to make this big hoopla,

be at this big stage to be at the Hall of Fame. And I want to say rest in peace to Barbara Kennedy, who's also in the Hall of Fame. She died in 2018 from cancer. She scored over 3,000 points at Clemson. So shout out to her for making a Hall of Fame. And Doris Burke, who's been around forever, right? Yeah.

I mean, people don't even know she, played basketball at Providence, and she was the first woman to serve as a game analyst for the 2024 NBA championship. I can't believe that was just in 2024. So shout out to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Doris has been a mentor of mine. I remember when she was calling final fours in college, women's college basketball, and Stanford was playing. I went up to her, I said, Doris, I want to do what you're doing. And she said, well, then come and shadow me. And she took me to shadow her at all sorts of games, even the NBA finals. And I learned a lot. lot. But, you know, she really is a pioneer and made it possible for us to be doing a podcast

like this, you know, and she's truly excellent. You know, I want to shout out Cheryl Reeve as well, who feels a little bit like pop to me in the woman's game. I don't know if that comparison works for you, but for me, it's her fire. It's the dominance across decades. Most recently, bringing out the best in players who may have been, you know, slept on or or discarded her international success. And the last thing I'll say about Elena Deladon, it's incredible. You know, the way she had to fight through Lyme disease and incredible back pain, like excruciating back pain and kept trying to play ball.

Like her career was highly disrupted. And like she was still a great. So shout out to all of the inductees. It's now time. Let's go to the draft king's pick of the week presented by, draft kings. We're going to take the end of our show to college basketball because women's college basketball just started today, y'all, and we'll be covering this season on Good Follow show. This week, I've got my eye on the matchup between North Carolina A&T and

TCU. I'll be watching Paris Lock with high basketball IQ. She's their Swiss Army knife who can do it all no matter the position. And on the TCU side, after going 34 and 4 last season, They kind of switched up the whole roster again. But they're riding high off of their best season ever coming into this year. And they added Olivia Miles. They got a powerhouse playmaker in her. And that's making them a team to watch. So I'm expecting TCU to come out on top.

This segment is presented by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Okay, okay, okay. Talking about TCU, it's kind of hard to do that without talking about transfer culture in college basketball. in the transfer portal. They're like the poster child for the transfer portal. So last season starters were all transfers, and they've all left. And now they have 10 new faces and are expected to make waves this year.

And TCU picked up top transfers, Olivia Miles, Marta Suarez, Maddie Scher, Kennedy Basham, and Clara Silver. And it's coach Mark Campbell, who is at the helm at TCU. And since coming on as a head coach in 2023, he's brought an 18 transfer players, which really tells me, Angel, too, like, it takes a certain kind of coach to be able to be talented at this, to talk to players and their families and get their trust and also have them believe that they can mesh gel and have success quickly at this program. You know, a lot of players are coming over with one, maybe two years left in their career. So it's not like they get a chance to, like, blossom and grow into things. And it takes, you know, the right kind of roster construction. So, like, you've also got to be a good GM in this because essentially it's new talent.

Potentially, it's new strategy every season. It's almost like creating an all-star team that you're constructing for one season to put it all together. What is the secret? TCU? I mean, he's figured out a new philosophy in this. I didn't even know you could do that. 18 transfers. I mean, but he's told him that he could be successful in doing that and bringing those teams together. So, hey, I would say keep doing what you're doing. I mean, it's not illegal. You can get transfers and bring them in. So, hey, that's a new philosophy out there. I would just be worried about these are still young adults, you know, kids in some people's eyes, and it's easy for them to think the grass is greener. And because you have no consequences for using the transfer portal, you know, people can bounce and maybe not see the benefits of, you know, watering the grass that you're in, advancing year after year, getting better. growing within a program, enjoying a sisterhood, pride of a school, blah, blah, blah. I sound like an old lady. Get off my law and nobody wants to hear that anymore.

But now, like, for real, though, it's something to consider. You know, isn't there value in that, Angel? There's some value, but we don't talk enough about the kids who are sitting in the transfer portal. Kids are, it's a lot of kids, over hundreds of kids sitting there waiting to be picked up. And then we don't talk about how awkward it is when you don't get picked up in the transfer portal to go back to that awkward situation in the locker room and see the coach that you wanted to leave. We don't talk about that enough. What is that like? Yeah.

But I think that's part of the culture that we're having, you know. And also, again, like Mark Campbell is a proven coach. This isn't some like, you know, swindler guys selling dreams. Like he has a track record and a reputation, especially of working with strong great guards, Sabrina Onescu at Ornesecu at Or. Morgan. He was integral to her success. Haley Van Liff last year, I think he saved her pro career. And now he brings in Olivia Miles at a Notre Dame. So, you know, he's had some talented guards that he can build this thing around and he's putting all these pieces together and he's got essentially a season to do it, you know? And I think everyone when you understand the urgency

of the timeline is invested to get it done because maybe there's no other options any further. But it will be interesting to watch how TCU does this year after a very successful year for them last year and keep an eye on whether or not things will change for college basketball and the transfer portal because both coaches and players have complained, though, that it's disruptive and hard. And it's also hard on the teams where the players leave. We need a whole show to discuss all these things because this can go on all night with this transfer portal. one thing I will say to the kids is that you have us Dumbay players to give you advice I've made a lot of money playing basketball

the one advice I would give you guys is do not make decisions off money make decisions off your heart girl it's definitely off money I guess we're going to have to do this because we're out of time y'all but it's definitely money babe I'm not saying don't take the money I'm just saying you have options

make the right decision for your heart don't make you just based off the money that's good advice that's good advice anyway y'all We gotta go. Good follow. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Subscribe, follow, watch. She's Angel. I'm Roz. We're out.