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New York Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Watch: Candace Parker on coaching, commentating and coming out
Candace Parker is a role model whose legacy extends far beyond the basketball court. A three-time WNBA champion, finals MVP, two-time regular-season MVP, seven-time All-Star and All-WNBA first-team member, Parker is sharing her story in a new memoir, 'The Can-Do Mindset.' For all the brilliance she showed on the court, Parker had to navigate many challenges away from the bright lights, so the release of her memoir — which coincides with the start of Pride Month — seems especially fitting. Advertisement On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant interviewed Parker about her path to self-acceptance, coming out and embracing her sexuality. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: Candace, in your book, you wrote about your internal struggle, coming to terms with your feelings with women, and how there was a significant difference in how you were treated before and then how you were treated with your wife after coming fully out. What do you think made that so hard for you, even in a league where many players are very out and proud of it? Parker: Well, going through it, I've supported someone who has come out before, and at the time I was dating men, so I just looked at it like, 'Why is this so difficult for you? Nobody cares, it's OK and it's accepted.' But when it's you, it's different. Growing up and reading the trashy magazines where you do the little tests to see who you're compatible with, based on movies and colors and all that stuff, I always envisioned a Prince Charming. So it's scary when you envision something your entire life, and then all of a sudden life hands you something not in the package that you expected it to come in. So it took a long time for me to be OK with it myself, and there's no way that you can fight a battle trying to explain yourself and validate who you love with others before you've officially done that, and come to grips with it yourself. Everyone probably knows someone who has gone through this struggle, and you can't explain it until you're in it. I understand that the world now sees it as great, and sees the fight as behind us and all those things, but it's not. You're still looked at in a different light based on who you love, and you still get the looks and the glares and all of those things. Advertisement So as an individual and as a person who wants to be a role model, the hardest thing for me was with my family, because I wanted my nieces and nephews to still look up to me. I wanted them to still love me, and I wanted my brother's kids to still look at me as a role model. So I had to come to grips with that, and honestly, it's been my daughter, nieces and my nephews that have legit been so important for me. We told my nephew, and my nephew was literally like, 'What's for dinner?' Like, he didn't care. So just getting the support from my family and my friends was so important. And yes, I have lost some friends, but that's OK. You have to be at a point where it's OK in your journey to be able to withstand that, so I'm super grateful my our support system. It's just crazy because I cannot believe it's only been three years; it seems like it's been forever. But that just shows that we need more visibility, and we need more people out there who are just living their lives and can provide some sort of roadmap and hope for those who are struggling. I can't imagine if someone was in control of my finances or where I lived or how I supported myself, and my decision of who I loved impacted that. So my heart and love go out to all of those people who are struggling with this. The mother who doesn't know how to support their daughter who's coming out, or kids seeing their parents choose love. This isn't easy to navigate, but at the end of the day, it's about having conversations and truly about being authentic and being open and honest in those conversations. Keita: With this shift in transition, what are your thoughts on the term 'pretty baller' because when I was coming up, you were the definition of a 'pretty baller.' I remember I had my baby hairs like you did and all of that. But as the league continues to evolve, this concept of what basketball should look like and being feminine in basketball has evolved as well. Do you have any thoughts around that? Parker: Here's the thing, now with social media I think that you're going to see people be able to follow who they follow. And again, I say numbers don't lie, check the scoreboard. There were so many times when people said females in general couldn't sell shoes and couldn't be on the covers of video games. But now we're seeing more women have the opportunity to do that, and the key is opportunity. Females come in all shapes and sizes, and when you talk about clothing, the runway and the ability to show off who you are, and your personality and being unapologetic about that, it's so important. So I'm proud of the WNBA because I don't think anybody has dimmed their light to fit into a box. I know myself that I couldn't control what other people thought of me. But I knew what I wanted to bring to the table every single day, which was Candace Parker. And every single day, I wanted to work harder to get closer towards being authentically myself. But for women in society, it's hard because you're judged by everything other than playing basketball. Then when you play basketball, it's not good enough. And when you play basketball, you've got to be competitive, but you can't be too muscular. I remember worrying about that in college when I was power cleaning because of my shoulders. And you would have seen at the ESPYs I was wearing this dress, and I remember seeing a comment when I accepted the Women's Sports Award from David Beckham, and someone saying, 'Well, she's pretty, but she's too muscular.' And I remember going home, looking in the mirror and being like, really? But now I bench 125 pounds easy, and I don't care. It's one of those things where with time, you realize that everybody is trying to critique everything in this culture. And everybody has a voice now with Twitter fingers and all that stuff. So you've just got to be you, and I think your community will find you. You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube. (Top Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Our experts' takes from the opening WNBA weekend
We might be less than a week into the 2025 WNBA season, but opening weekend already delivered plenty of drama, excitement and storylines for our reporters to dive into. On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,',Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant dished out their 'half-baked takes' from the early games. Advertisement Watch the discussion below. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: The WNBA season is officially underway, and we have got some early takes and overreactions — we're calling it our 'half-baked' takes. Guys, I want to know your best half-baked take after opening weekend. Ben, you're going to go first, and Sabreena, we'll see if this one's worth eating. (laughs) Pickman: My take is a broad one, and it's that the WNBA's middle tier, which we were so high on in thinking many teams were going to be really competitive because there was so much stacked talent around the league, is actually just not as good as we thought. There are four really good teams in the WNBA, and then there's a huge gap between (them) and the rest. I have the first four being New York, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Indiana, in no particular order. And I'm just going to throw out some quick facts on some of the other teams. The Seattle Storm had a really underwhelming performance with Gabby Williams and Ezi Magbegor shooting 2-of-18 from the field. Atlanta took a franchise record 36 3-pointers in their opener against Washington, but didn't really execute down the stretch. Clearly, they have a lot to learn and figure out, especially on the defensive end of the floor in Karl Smesko's first year. Phoenix had a great win over the Storm, but Kahleah Copper is out with a knee injury, and she's going to miss four to six weeks to start the season, so that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a team that already doesn't have a ton of depth. The Chicago Sky shot 29.1 percent from the field, 22 percent from 3, and had 17 turnovers. I get that they were playing the Fever, but it still wasn't a great performance. And with the Dallas Wings, I understand they have a lot of new players, and we're giving them time. But one of the things that stuck out to me is that there were eight times in that game, per Synergy, that they got scored off cuts. If you look at Minnesota, they were just slicing through back door, baseline cuts and slicing through the paint. So especially defensively, Dallas has a lot of room to grow. Advertisement Those were some of the teams people were really high on when they thought, 'Wow, every team is going to be so close and maybe someone can jump into that next tier.' But I came away thinking, 'Not so fast, maybe we still have a big gap between the legitimate finals contenders and everybody else.' Keita: If you're watching this on YouTube, you're seeing me wince. And if you're not watching this on YouTube, I hope you can feel me wince. Mainly because Ben just went through three teams that we all said were sleepers, and they showed up looking a little half asleep. It was a rough opening for some of these teams, and I was disappointed in Seattle because it still looks like they haven't really figured it out on defense. I was also a little disappointed in how Dominique Malonga looked because of all the expectations we had out of the No.2 overall pick. But we'll see what happens there as the season goes on. Merchant: In fairness to us, we did say that there was a big gap between tier one and tier two in the WNBA, and that gap was apparent. You're not going to pick a sleeper team from tier one, … shame on us for no one picking Washington (laughs). But when given the choice of those teams, you do what you've got to do. Half-baked is a good word for my take here. Which is I think it's low-key a good thing for Phoenix that Kahleah Copper is going to be missing the first month of the season, because they have so many new things to integrate and to do it all at once would be a little challenging. I like the way they looked where you got the Alyssa Thomas minutes, you got the Satou Sabally minutes, and each of them just got to cook. … We're really going in on those words. But I think it'll be better in the long term to get those superstars more time on the court where they get to be the lead actor versus bringing all three of them in together. Keita: OK, interesting, I was not expecting that. Ben, what do you think about Sabreena's half-baked take? Advertisement Pickman: The benefit is that it allows these role players who may not have a ton of WNBA experience to actually settle in, get more comfortable, get live game reps and adjust to the WNBA. We saw Kathryn Westbeld making her WNBA debut as a 29-year-old rookie, having never played in the WNBA before. And she scored nine points, made an early impact in the first quarter, and had five rebounds. And Lexi Held had 11 points in 22 minutes off the bench for Phoenix. So there are players who are big question marks who are forced into bigger roles and will gain valuable experience, so there's truth there. I do think it felt comfortable to watch the Phoenix Mercury without Kahleah Copper, in that it felt like we were watching Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Sun. Satou Sabally was also playing a little point guard, bringing the ball up the court and orchestrating the offense, and Thomas was doing the same at times when Sabally wasn't on the floor. Those players know how to play those roles, and in that way, the comfort is good. But I don't know how much that will impact the reintegration of Copper when she comes back. And when she does come back, there's still going to be a lot they have to figure out because although she's a very good player, she's a very high usage player who will have to fit in next to them. The other thing — and this is why this is a half-baked exercise — is that they played the Seattle Storm, who put up a real stinker with just 59 points. So let's wait and see a little bit on the Phoenix Mercury. I'm not ready to give a stamp of approval on my take yet, so I'm not ready to say, let's take this out of the oven, it's ready to go, on Sabreena's take either. You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What do the Cavaliers need to bounce back next season?
The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the Eastern Conference from the jump this season, becoming just the fourth team in NBA history to start a season 15-0 and amassing 64 wins in the regular season, the second most in franchise history. As the No. 1 seed, the expectation was a conference finals berth at minimum. But after just five games in the second round, Cleveland's season is over following a 114-105 loss Tuesday to the Indiana Pacers. Advertisement On the latest episode of 'The Athletic NBA Daily,' Dave DuFour and Zena Keita broke down whether the Cavaliers should run it back with the same core, the need for Cleveland to add more depth to the roster and whether Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury, which has cast doubt over the Boston Celtics' future, opens a door in the East next season. Check out the discussion below. Watch the full episode of 'NBA Daily' below or on the YouTube channel or via the 'NBA Daily' podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
CBS News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
How to watch the Golden State Valkyries vs. Phoenix Mercury
Golden State Valkyries getting ready for their first game on the road Golden State Valkyries getting ready for their first game on the road Golden State Valkyries getting ready for their first game on the road The Golden State Valkyries are playing the first away game in franchise history on Sunday. The team is playing a preseason game agains the Phoenix Mercury. How to watch the Golden State Valkyries vs. Phoenix Mercury on PIX+ Pre-game with Vern Glenn and analyst Zena Keita Tipoff: 3pm Post game analysis with Vern Glenn and analyst Zena Keita The pre-game and post game shows will also be available streaming on CBS News Bay Area. CBS News Bay Area is the official broadcast partner of the Golden State Valkyries. Fans will be able to watch 37 games across KPIX and PIX+ channel 44 cable 12. See the full broadcast schedule.
New York Times
19-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Are NBA referees given enough credit?
Refereeing in the NBA is a tough, often thankless job. Every night, tens of thousands of fans pack arenas to watch their favorite teams and players go head-to-head. But what often goes unnoticed is the crucial role the men and women in black and white play in the game. Just like players go onto the court with a host of different play calls in their heads, referees step onto the hardwood having to ensure they're well-versed with the 75-page rule book that governs competition — that is before we get into the distance they cover getting up and down the floor to keep up with play. Advertisement On the latest episode of The Athletic NBA Daily, Dave DuFour and Zena Keita were joined by The Athletic's Shakeia Taylor following her recent deep dive into the NBA's referee crisis. Shakeia elaborated on the problems with the league's rulebook, and how RefMasters – an app launched by league officials James Williams and Kane Fitzgerald – is helping to educate up-and-coming referees. Dave and Zena also discussed the Golden State Warriors (40-29) getting back to winning ways without Steph Curry in the lineup, after their 104-93 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks (38-30) as Jimmy Butler led them with 24 points. They also examined the Cleveland Cavaliers (56-12) dropping their second straight game after a 132-119 loss to the L.A. Clippers (39-30), with Kawhi Leonard tying his season-high of 33 points. Watch the full episode of 'NBA Daily' below or on the YouTube channel, or via the 'NBA Daily' podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. (Top Photo: Jim Poorten / NBAE via Getty Images)
