Hope And Dream(s)

I can't recall the specific context, but a while back on "Podcast Ain't Played Nobody," Bill Connelly and Steven Godfrey were discussing the point at which enough recurring disappointment can curdle a fan base into overt, permanent pessimism. Where, precisely, the threshold of soul-crushing losses is crossed and it would take a literal miracle to ford back across that Rubicon to the banks of hope. Godfrey, a fellow lifelong Atlanta sports fan, quipped that in terms of memories, he'd go ten or eleven deep on instances of misery before even getting to the solitary happy example of the '95 Braves. That team is still the only one to bring a Championship to Georgia. Not just in my lifetime. Ever. 

The heartbreak has come in every conceivable fashion and from every possible vector. I won't bore you with all of it because we'd be here all day, but in this decade alone, Atlanta has been through:

A 60-win Hawks squad finishing with a 1-seed and making their first ever Eastern Conference Finals, only to be swept in humiliating fashion by LeBron and the Cavs. Then they let their best players, including my beloved Alfred Joel Horford, walk for no returns, signed Dwight Howard, and pretty much fell apart. I like the general direction they're heading with the current rebuild, but so help me if Luka Doncic winds up a 10-time All Star and Trae Young winds up just being OK, I'm gonna be mad.

The Braves had The Infield Fly Game, utterly cratered afterwards and then got busted for international scouting violations which resulted in sanctions and a regime turnover. This season's Baby Braves have been a genuine delight, and the franchise is on the upswing, but it'll be another year or two before the young pitching prospects are ready to solidify the whole operation.

The Falcons ... well shit, y'all. 28-3 happened. Then we hired friggin' Sark as OC. Now Julio is holding out for a restructured contract, and speaking of contracts, Matt Ryan better damn well stay healthy and keep playing at a high level after we dumped Fort Knox on his doorstep. Yeesh.  

(I should add that while UGA football is not a universal going concern in the state, we Dawgs fans also had to deal with the 2012 SEC Title Game and last year's 2nd-&-26 absolute life wrecker. PS - Fuck 'Bama. PPS - No, Georgia Tech, your bullshit 1990 Natty you split with Colorado in the pre-BCS era don't mean shit.)

The Atlanta Dream were born in 2008, and I was in love from day one. The WNBA had come into existence just over a decade earlier on the heels of USA Women's Basketball putting on a display for the ages during the 1996 Olympics. I was lucky enough to witness some of those games in person, and I was immediately and totally hooked. I've loved basketball since about the time I could walk, but I'd never seen high-level women ballin' out before because of the chronic underexposure that plagued the game back then and is, frankly, only somewhat better now. (HEY SPORTS MEDIA: COVER THE LEAUGE. COVER THE COLLEGE GAME. WATCH THEM WORK. HEY HOOPS FANS: THIS SHIT IS GREAT. DON'T BE MISOGYNIST FUCKHEADS. WATCH THEM WORK.) Anyway, when my home town got a team, even though I was long gone and living in Boston, I was all in. We've had good seasons and lousy ones, but since their inception, the Dream have followed the familiar template of Atlanta/GA sports misery. They have been to three WNBA finals and lost every time. Back-to-back killers to the 2010 Storm and 2011 Lynx, then to the Lynx again in 2013.  They finished last season 12-22.

But this year? This year might be something special.

As you'd expect under any first-year, first-time head coach, Atlanta started off the season in a somewhat janky fashion with Nicki Collen at the helm. They were a spectacular defensive outfit from jump, and currently sport a league-best 95.9 Defensive Rating (per WNBA.com.). Through most of the season, the Dream have used their intelligence and relentlessness on that end of the floor to prop up a schizophrenic and often listless offense. But then things started to coalesce as the players gained more comfort in Collen's system. A mid-season trade that flipped Layshia Clarendon for the Sun's Alex Bentley cemented the roster into a mean, flexible squad. (Full disclosure: I hated the trade at the time. It made perfect sense for both teams, but I so adored Layshia and hated to see her go so much that I was salty about it, logic and necessity be damned. Nonetheless, we brought our girl Alex home and ever since, things have kicked up a few considerable notches.)

Atlanta entered the All-Star Break on a thunderous mic drop. They ripped off 8 straight wins including games over three top-5 opponents in the Sparks, Storm, and Mercury. The offense is finally matching the defense, and the result is a team sitting at 16-9, second in the league behind only Seattle. (Check out Her Hoop Stats' Megan Gauer for a full breakdown.) Gauer points out the uptick in scoring efficiency from Renee Montgomery and Tiffany Hayes, and the increased production on the offensive glass from Angel McCoughtry, Jessica Breland, and Elizabeth Williams. What's really incredible is that the individual play is so seamlessly tethered to the team and the system. The league is loaded with talent, and Atlanta is no exception, but checking player-by-player stats, something jumped out at me: much like that 60-win Hawks team I mentioned up top, by the numbers there ain't nobody on this roster who is a legitimately elite two-way player.  Close, but not quite.

Seriously, I went to both the official WNBA and the wonderful Hashtag Basketball advanced player stats pages and sorted and sorted by stats groupings until my eyes bled and y'all: in metrics grading overall efficiency (and I adjusted the sortable categories all over the place but always kept at least one offensive or defensive stat in play in each instance), the closest any Dream player got to the top was Tiffany Hayes. Tiff clocks at 11th in WNBA.com's PIE metric; 10th if you remove teammate Alexis Prince's four minutes in one game played this season. Sooooo, I guess ATL "technically" has two players in the Top 10? Kinda?* Further proof of the Dream not having any truly First Class Ballers (by the numbers, not in my heart) is the fact that the 2nd best team in The W has one measly damn All Star in Angel this year.** 

*The best result I got on any statistical breakdown, unsurprisingly, came when I used Hashtag Basketball to isolate defensive stats (defensive boards, steals, blocks, turnovers, and fouls). That put Jess Breland #1 and Liz Williams #8 in the league. Breland is also 5th in the league in total boards.)

**We should, at a minimum, have two. Tiff got fuckin' robbed. Don't @ me.

Anyway, the point is, the Dream don't have a singular game-wrecking talent or clear best player. We surely don't have an offensive dynamo like DT to propel this team. What we have is a murderous defense, and something that's pretty cool and interesting on the other end of the floor: a well-calibrated roster capable of multiple effective looks whose individual skill sets perfectly compliment each other. Nicki Collen's system works, and now that they've acclimated to it and to each other, the offensive production is close enough to the defensive dominance to resemble something that looks very much like a serious title contender. No one player is going to pour in buckets night after night or rack up insane assist numbers. But together, in this system, they are making beautiful things happen by moving the ball, working their asses off, and trusting each other.

And they are fun as hell to watch. They clearly love playing together, and they've got that special aura of "fuck-you" invincibility turned all the way up right now. They are joyful and fearless and borderline unhinged in the best possible way. I live in Chapel Hill, NC, so I watch the games mostly through a computer screen, but I swear I can feel McCamish Pavillion humming with electricity through the pixels every time I boot up League Pass. It's phenomenal when a team you love, when YOUR SQUAD gets to cookin' and really levels up and you start thinking "wait, how far can this really go? Can we go all the way this year? Why the hell not?"

And God help me, because I've been through this over and over and over again as a fan, but this feels real. The tumblers are clicking into place, and the Dream have their collective ears pressed against the door of the safe, working with power and precision to dial in those last, crucial digits and unlock this thing. And awwww, damnit. Now I'm starting to hope again. If they can sustain this coming out of All-Star Weekend, I don't see any reason they can't ride this beautiful brand of collective, gorgeous basketball they're playing through the playoffs. History and experience are screaming at me "NO, DON'T DO IT." Atlanta fans get invested and we get crushed. It happens. Other than 1995, it's always happened. You know what? I don't give a fuck. I love this team. They are great and they are special and they can do this. Let's ride. Let's go. Let's watch them work. #OneDream.




 

Take A Second: An Appreciation Of Diana Taurasi's Ongoing Miracle.

We're just over a month from the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game. It seems crazy how fast the season is hurtling by, how many shifting narratives and brilliant performances we've already witnessed. And once again, as she has since her Rookie Of The Year 2004 season, Diana Taurasi is out here wrecking shop. And you know what? I want to stop and take a second and really, truly appreciate the magnitude of that fact. DT turned 36 on the 11th of this month. She tallied her 8,000th career WNBA point six days earlier. That the excellence behind that jaw-dropping number is still on peak display every night at her age is miraculous. She is, herself, a miracle.

Taurasi has logged a combined 636 professional games in The W and overseas. That stupefying total leaves out her UCONN career and her four runs to Olympic Gold Medals. I tried to screenshot her Wiki page's list of career awards and honors to include here and discovered it actually wouldn't fit in one frame without shrinking it to the point of illegibility. A check of her WNBA bio page showed that Wiki list WASN'T EVEN COMPLETE. She's won everything there is to win. Taken home every award and broken most every record.

 And after all of that sweat and grind and transcendent accomplishment, perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Taurasi is still absolutely killing it every time she steps on the court. She's averaging 31.4 minutes a game this year, which ties her with Chelsea Gary and presumptive ROY A'ja Wilson for 10th highest in the league. Her usage rate of 27.8% is good for 6th. (5th if you remove the statistical anomaly of Imani Wright's 50% in1 minute of 1 game.) She's averaging 20.2 points and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 42% from the floor, 37% from deep, and 97% from the stripe. That amounts to 54.4% EFG and 62.3% TS. Again, she's 36 years old and has played almost year round for her entire professional basketball life. The fact that her legs haven't fallen off is incredible, never mind being this consistently brilliant this far into a career.

The primary weapon that defines that brilliance is her jumper; a compact, graceful marvel of mechanical perfection. This seems absurd to type, but I think we take it, and her, for granted sometimes. She's been raining buckets on so many collective heads for so long that we're a little immunized to the hypnotic beauty of that perfectly calibrated release. That silky shot has been defying and destroying all comers for 18 years if you go back to her freshman season at UCONN. When she came into the league, she took on her peers and the elder stateswomen of the game and smoked all of them. Then she held the crown against the next generation when they came at her, and then the next NEXT generation. We can debate it, and there are arguments to be made for Swoopes and Catch and Bird and a handful of others, but right now DT is the consensus GOAT. She's still out here ballin' at an elite level and as we all know, ball don't lie.

Maya Moore has a lot of career left and could be coming for that crown. Stewie could be coming for it. A'ja Wilson is already close to a top-10 player in the W and she's 14 games into her career, for crying out loud. But if you had to bet your life on one shot at the end of a game, you'd still want Taurasi taking it.

The Mercury are 6-3 in conference, 10-4 overall, and have the 2nd best record in the league. If they keep rolling like this, there's no reason to think they couldn't be playing in the Finals. And Diana Taurasi, the GOAT/Goddess propelling this team and facing players nearly half her age on a nightly basis, could put a fourth ring on her hand. She may be entering the end stages of her career, but she remains automatic.

Every player in the league is possessed of incredible talent and indefatigable work ethic. Greatness is achieved when someone amplifies that talent and drive by consistency and longevity. That jumper is still money. That jumper will be true and beautiful as long as she wants to keep lacing 'em up.

There are so many wonderful players in this game right now. It's as vibrant and electrifying as it's ever been. But the fact that DT probably won't be around too much longer is sort of wrecking me, and I had to get down in writing how important and special her season feels, obvious as it seems when we're talking about the GOAT. I wrote it up top but I need to say it again: Diana Taurasi is a miracle. Time is still undefeated against all athletes and against all of the rest of us, but she's going to keep draining jumpers right in Time's face until she can't, and that's special and we are lucky to witness it.

Take a second to live this joyful, amazing WNBA year watching this joyful, amazing woman who is still and improbably at the peak of her powers. Miracles don't come around that often, after all.

Watch The WNBA, Y'All.

What we now think of as organized professional sports in North America (baseball excepted) began largely with at least some tenuous collegiate affiliation. *I use "official" in the following because history is a little murky on this stuff but these are consensus college-vs-college first match-ups and do not include prior intramural or informal games, etc.*: All of these are the first "formally recorded" in their respective sports: The first "official" American football game was between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869. The first "official" hockey game was played between members of the Victoria Skating Club, which included many McGill University students, on March 3, 1875. The first "official" men's basketball game was played between Hamline and the School of Agriculture (affiliated with the University of Minnesota) on February 9, 1895.

And the first "official" women's basketball game was Stanford vs. Cal at The Armory in San Francisco. The date was April 4, 1896.

Which is to say: if someone tells you they don't follow women's basketball because it lacks the historical gravitas and lineage of its male counterpart, you can tell them to fuck right off.

Even if you're the most cursory sports fan, you undoubtedly caught Sports Center highlights from the Final Four of this year's Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament. At the very least, you saw clips of: the all-time behemoth UCONN Huskies going down in overtime to Notre Dame.  Mississippi State blitzing past an incredible Louisville squad, also in overtime. And the absolutely incendiary final minutes of the Championship Game; especially Arike Ogunbowale's insane buzzer beater to clinch the title for Muffet McGraw's Irish squad.

This shit was straight-up electric. It was the hair-raising and gasp-inducing reason we watch sports in the first place. We had apex players going outside their minds even by their own ridiculous standards. We had unlikely saviors perpetrating subtle brilliance. We had ecstasy and heartbreak and the sheer wonder of a beautiful game played at the highest possible level.

In the women's pro game, we've had an equally explosive run over the past few seasons. People talk about how the recent Cavs/Warriors feud in the last three NBA Finals has echoed the Lakers/Celtics rivalry that sustained and grew the league before Jordan came along and turned basketball into a global phenomenon and the NBA into a ratings juggernaut. The epic WNBA Sparks vs. Lynx Finals the past two seasons has been every bit the captivating clash of those NBA battles. Two teams absolutely stacked with legendary talents have waged epic battles and compiled a truckload of incredible moments. From Maya Moore to Sylvia Fowles to Lindsay Whalen to Nneka Oguwumike to Candace Parker to Kristi Tolliver, the WNBA Finals has been chock-full of badasses. It has been some of the most compelling television of any kind I've watched over the past couple of years.

Which is to say: If someone tells you the don't like women's basketball because the storylines and stars aren't compelling enough, you can tell them to fuck right off.

Do you like basketball? Do you like good basketball? Do you enjoy players filling the wings on the break and crisp passing and beautifully designed half-court sets and immaculate shooting and crafty handles and defenses rotating on a string? Do you enjoy personality and joy and verve and hustle and pure improvisational artistry? Do you really really love a monstrous dunk thrown down with emphatic sauce and malice? Yeah, women's hoops has you covered and then some.

Which is to say: If someone tells you they don't like women's basketball because they don't think "those girls" can play with the same athleticism, or that they like the men's game better because it's played more "above the rim": you can tell them to fuck right off.

If they insist on arguing, tell them to go talk that shit to Sue Bird or Candace Parker or Diana Taurasi or Chiney Ogumwike or Angel McCoughtry or Brittney Griner. Tell them you'll wait. Then laugh at them when they come back.

 (Brief aside: the NBA playoffs are rolling right now, and they are spectacular and please don't think I'm writing this to denigrate the NBA, I fucking love the NBA so much, but ALSO ALSO ALSO AND THIS IS SO GREAT AND WONDERFUL AND IMPORTANT AND AWESOME: THE WNBA SEASON TIPS ON MAY 18!!!!!!!!!!!!)

In a recent press conference, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (who by extension also kind of controls the WNBA as they operate under the same auspices) had some thoughts about the problems facing the women's pro game. 

Silver floated the possibility of shifting the WNBA season to coincide with the NBA and collegiate basketball seasons. The incomparable Katie Barnes clapped back in style: 

"Would having the WNBA’s season run during the fall and winter help improve the league’s profitability? That’s a question NBA commissioner Adam Silver says he contemplates, according to an interview Friday on ESPN’s “Get Up.”
“It’s been harder to get people to come to the games,” Silver said. “It may be because the games are in the summer. One of the things we’ve talked about is do we need to shift to the so-called more natural basketball season sort of in the fall and winter?”
It’s not a new thought. Traditionally the idea goes as follows: Summer is for swimming and flip flops; it’s for running outside, not lacing up high tops or sitting in dark arenas. And there’s some truth to that argument.
But the WNBA would need to vastly restructure its compensation agreements with players for this thought to ever gain traction."

Then Silver stated his concerns that not enough young women were watching the league, and thus the next generation were not being inspired to keep balling. 

Former WNBA MVP and multi-year All Star Elena Delle Donne clapped back in style on Twitter:

 

Silver, who I think has by-and-large done well after taking over for David Stern, really fucked up here. This is supposed to be the most progressive, welcoming sports league on earth, but he royally bricked this one. The primary argument is that the NBA wants to grow the popularity of the women's game, but can't invest the advertising revenue without an assured return on investment, but can't get a return without growing the audience and putting eyeballs on the TV and people in the seats in arenas, but can't invest the money because there aren't eyeballs and seats already invested ... 

He's created a sort of misogynistic ouroboros here. The league won't spend money to grow the women's game, and then expresses concern over the lack of growth thereof. It is dumb and ridiculous and disgusting. 

But, if you're reading this, there is a mutually beneficial solution. We don't have to wait for an onslaught of advertising or promotion to prompt us. If you weren't in already, let me tell you: there has never been a better possible moment than right now to get full-tilt invested in the WNBA. You want legends; historical Titans and Goddesses who have traced and defined the history of the league? Cool: Taurasi, Moore, MccCoughtry and Parker are still out here ballin'.  

You want up and coming geniuses who are defining and redefining the game? Let me direct your attention to Alisha Gray, Breanna Stewart, Layshia Clarendon, and a score of others.

You wanna get in on the ground floor of some spectacular and brand-new pro basketball careers? The most insanely stacked draft class possibly in the history of the game just entered the league. Remember that very very recent Final Four I mentioned above?  You wanna see a bunch of those Badass Women Of The Week (TM "Burn It All Down') take a leap to the next level? You can. They're here right now. 

The WNBA is, at this moment, absolutely loaded with mind-boggling talent. No matter who you're inclined to cheer for (and if you don't have a team by geographic affiliation, trust me one will stick out that you fall in love with anyway just from watching enough) there is AT LEAST one player per squad that will make you jump off your damn couch three times a game by doing something beyond the bounds of what us mere humans are capable of. This league is so overflowing with absolute transcendence at this precise moment. We are at the fulcrum of something indescribably beautiful and perfect and it will grab you by the nerve endings and make you a better and more joyous human just for watching if you let it.

And you can experience all of this.

If you live in a city with a team (or close enough), go see a game. Hell, go see ten games. Go get a season ticket package if you have the coin. If not, tune in on TV and online. If we put enough collective eyes on this wonderful league playing this beautiful game at a breathtaking and exhilarating level, the NBA will be forced to put the financial and promotional muscle behind it that is long overdue. WNBA League Pass is cheap (like, under $20) and will give you every game streaming live, up to four simultaneously in split-screen, with stats breakdowns and the whole analytical works on top of the actual broadcast. Even if you don't want to pay for that, there are a handful of TV broadcasts and about 30 games streaming absolutely free on Twitter.  

If you want to watch genius and athleticism and grace and brilliance and power, if you want to watch history and the future running the floor together on the break, if you want to revel in brilliance, there has never been a better time than right damn now. Watch the WNBA, y'all. Hop on this train with us. I promise you, you're gonna love this journey.