Tag: wnba (page 1 of 1)

A black and white image of the jumbotron in the Michelob Ultra Arena highlighting an older Las Vegas Aces fan
October 3, 2025 / 0 Comments

The WNBA is for EVERYBODY

After the epic Game Five between the Aces and the Fever, I stopped for dinner and a drink at a gastropub inside Mandalay Bay. Vegas fans were still buzzing in the casino walkway. Inside, I was chatting with the bartender about how packed the Michelob Ultra Arena had been.

That’s when the woman sitting next to me chimed in:

“That’s all because of Caitlin Clark.”

I couldn’t let that pass.

“Well, no, the Aces were selling out long before Caitlin.”

She went quiet for a beat. Then she opened up.

“You know this was my first sporting event ever, and we came here just for this. I used to make fun of the boys for loving sports, but now I get it.”

From there, the script melted away. The Indiana Fever fan lit up about Vegas’s Chelsea Gray and A’ja Wilson. She loved watching the coaches prowl the sidelines, their passion and bluster on full display. She and her husband told me they were from near Fresno and were thinking about attending games in the state. The Valkyries were closer, obviously, but they had Southern California roots and might want to spend more time with my beloved Sparks.

“I’m 70 years old and I’m having so much fun,” she said.

Of course, she was having a great time. Despite her opening salvo, she respected the players, the atmosphere, and the community. That Fox-News-crafted passive-aggressive comment was a line that could have ended the conversation before it began if I’d let it.

The reality? You don’t spend time and money on the WNBA because of one player. You stay because the league is joyful, inclusive, and impossible not to love once you’re inside it.

So I offered a light corrective, not an attack. Just enough space for this new fan to reveal those true feelings. And once she did, we kept talking until the restaurant lights came on—about basketball, about California, even about AI.

I began this season worried that the newcomers were barbarians at the gate, eager to transform the vibes and culture of this league into something I wouldn’t recognize. By the end of my last game of the year, I’d found common ground with folks who, on the surface, embodied exactly what I feared.

Instead of us playing to type, though, we found shared joy because if you love this game, you love this game. You might be able to connect with your tribe online by celebrating Caitlin Clark and no one else, but after cheering in person with thousands of other fans, you’ll come to realize that this is your real community, and it’s better over here.

And if we get into conversation, I’ll politely remind you that the WNBA is for everybody.

Leslie Jones and Sparky, the Los Angeles Sparks' mascot, are singing courtside at Crypto.com Arena with each other.
Leslie Jones and Sparky, the Los Angeles Sparks' mascot, are singing courtside at Crypto.com Arena with each other.
May 23, 2025 / 2 Comments

Loving the WNBA in a Season of Change

How can I follow the WNBA without being online? There must be a way because being online with the WNBA makes me want to drown myself. I hate all of you! And the biggest reason I can’t stand online WNBA discourse: it’s hardly ever about basketball.

Bomani Jones

Women’s basketball is on the rise. Many more people are watching at all levels. The players are securing the type of fame and notoriety that they have long deserved. Money is pouring in through exposure and expansion, and the paydays will soon follow.

But alongside the good tidings has come a growing fanbase, some of whom seem disinterested in respecting the WNBA’s culture, vibe, or history. All the things that I have cherished over 11 summers as a season ticket holder with the Los Angeles Sparks and cultivated as a fan of these athletes since before the league began.

I attended SXSW religiously between 2005 and 2011. In ‘05, the tech part of the festival was mostly a sideshow to the main event film + music tracks. Tech was active but quaint. There was little fanfare and a lot of camaraderie. It felt like we were all in on a secret: the internet was cool. By 2010, the event had grown so big that I half-jokingly said there were enough other black folks in attendance that I could afford not to like some of them. By 2011, I felt like an outsider and decided it would be my last.

A week before the 2025 WNBA season started, I worried that this summer might mirror my separation from SXSW. 

“This might be the summer where we start losing the magic,” I said in the group chat.

The online discourse was overwhelmingly driving that feeling of dread. After months of quiet, the battle lines reappeared in the culture war over Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese—stans vs. fans, bluster vs. reason, aggression vs. inclusion. The tribalism that is a hallmark of college basketball fandom was rearing its ugly head during the draft and training camp as social media stans caped for their school’s players and jumped in the mentions of any person who dared critique them. Wannabe basketball influencers delivered hot takes in bad faith, seeking attention and engagement. 

A play caught my attention while watching the opening weekend matchup of the Chicago Sky at the Indiana Fever with the sound off. I commented about it on Threads: an off-the-cuff observation that in most basketball conversations would be pretty milquetoast. It happened to be about Angel Reese in reaction to a hard foul from Caitlin Clark, though, and it brought to my doorstep the exact kind of interactions I don’t want to be having around this sport I love.

The home opener for the Sparks was the next day, and I was anxious like a kid on the first day of school. I often say that Crypto.com Arena has long felt like church. I go there to find fellowship, community, and to feel the spirit. Well, my spirit, at least. Even when we lose, those three hours are my respite. But this summer, there were changes afoot: our long-time in-arena host is with the expansion Golden State Valkyries; our long-time account reps had been replaced; there had been little communication from the organization about what to expect. 

I need not have worried, though. While some things had changed, the good vibes were in plentiful supply. Familiar faces greeted us everywhere, and friends new and old were all around us. Neither the bad actors present in Indy the previous day nor the ever-present online drama followed us into my sacred place.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship with social media recently. The telltale signs that I need a break from the apps are here: increased time spent, decreased satisfaction with the experience, doomscrolling, and fomo.  Despite my frustration with some interactions, discussing the W online is still one of the best parts of today’s internet.

Unlike Bomani, I don’t hate this community. He must not run in the same circles I do because I still make meaningful connections with WNBA fans via online social spaces. I find plenty of folks who want to talk basketball. On a different episode of Jones’s podcast, Elle Duncan compared WNBA fans to NBA Twitter—caring and communicating about the whole culture of the sport from the games and its stars to fashion, jokes, memes, themes, and even the playful pettiness of fandom. All that is still here if you know where to look and who to give your time to. The rhythm, hustle, flow, and beauty of the W are also represented by its very online community. It might be dispersed across many networks but hasn’t gone anywhere. 

Just because the barbarians have broken through the gate, that doesn’t mean we have to cede our ground. I walked away from SXSW, but I’m not giving up on the WNBA. It’s my home. It’s our house. 

There’s too much magic amongst the mess. There’s too much love in the game.

Seasons change, we remain.

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August 12, 2018 / 0 Comments

Smile (Living My Best Life)

“If you’re breathing, you’re achieving.”

— Snoop Dogg

An accounting of good things from the last three weeks:

  • Ridiculous slack conversations at work about Chantel Jeffries, why she’s famous, why she is able to put out music, and who Vory is, exactly
  • We got a new stove, and it’s the fanciest kitchen appliance I’ve ever used
  • Surviving a Lyft ride that included unexpected debris on the freeway and getting a check-in from the company, a rebate, and credit for some free trips in the future // I didn’t even complain, the driver did a good thing and informed Lyft of what happened
  • Watching my intern flourish during presentations this past week
  • Having a pretty exceptional work dinner at Norah turn into an endurance challenge as the food just. Kept. Coming.
  • Making it home from NYC despite 7 hours of delays due to weather
  • The Bibimbap lunch special at Epicé Cafe
  • Finally making my way to the Tenement Museum for a tour and getting to eavesdrop on white folks (domestic and from abroad) reckon with the realities of immigration and poverty throughout history
  • Spending a few brief minutes with Catherine in a different city
  • If a random restaurant name generator were to spit out three words that would definitely pique my interest, they would be Turntable Chicken Jazz

WNBA All-Star 2018 was so spectacular it deserves its own section

Loews Minneapolis is a lovely hotel, and while the WNBA players didn’t stay there, AC Milan did. It shares space with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx practice facility, so we saw many a basketball player throughout our stay. The lobby bar was great for people watching and drinking and eating throughout the day.

In the newly renovated Target Center, there is a gym. It is the most beautiful gym I have ever been in, and I suspect nicer than 99% of the gyms in Southern California. They have a juice bar and a real bar. At the gym. Their standard locker rooms are more luxurious than the executive locker rooms at most LA gyms I’ve been in. I loved that place. The only thing they didn’t have was the kind of elliptical machine I like but, seriously, if they had hotel beds, I’d just stay there my next visit to Minny.

We found the official hotel of WNBA All-Star a couple blocks away from us and spent way too much time in their lobby restaurant gawking at and interacting with players, coaches, officials, and other fans. Tiffany got pictures with nearly every player in town at one point. We had a brief interaction with Sparks All-Star and current fave, Chelsea Gray, and she found us during the open practice the next day and gave us a tee. During the same event, we also got called out by Coach Cheryl Reeve for being the lone Sparks fans in the building (we weren’t, but we were definitely the loudest), got a pair of free tix from the Sparks for making the trip, and got accosted with an abundance of Minnesota Nice from county fair award-winning jam maker. She gave us a sample of her jam and her hand-picked wild rice. It was so weird and so delightful.

We had excellent seats at both the open practice and the actual game courtesy of Erica Mauter. It is always a delight to see her. My only other time in Minnesota was for her wedding 8 years prior. She, her wife, and her sister are some of the best people we know, and it was exceptional to spend some quality time with them. Beyond Tiffany and Erica making NBA security a little nervous when they ran up on some players in the lobby of the hotel, I most enjoyed our dinner at Hai Hai. The food was excellent, and the drinks were five bucks cheaper than any fancy cocktail here at home. We’ll just ignore the dude in the MAGA hat who walked past us as we were waiting to be seated.

That he was such an anomaly during these last few weeks in which I spent most of my time with people and in experiences that represent the world I believe is the most ideal and optimal is a reminder that despite the onslaught of terrible news and uncertainty and anxiety and the on-going reminders that we live in a society that has throughout its history rewarded awful men, that is not the only reality.

This, all of this, is real too. And we’ve been living our best life.

I’ve got my grin on.

December 25, 2014 / 0 Comments

2014 Annual Report

“You know you’re better than that.” – Little Dragon, Mirror

I didn’t make goals for 2014. I had professional ones, sure, but no overarching personal plan like I had in 2013. This year rapidly got away from me and I never caught up.

2014 was hard. Is hard. A review of my activity on Thinkup would lead you to believe that this year started in August with the murder of Michael Brown and the rising tide of emotion and action that has come since. This is what I leave this year with: that racism continues to dominate the institutions that make up our society and it is quite literally killing and terrorizing black people and this must change. Black lives matter. I want to scream it.

sometimes i do.

Also, men are terrible. And the evidence suggests want to be and want to continue to be. This too must change. I apologize for any and all actions during my life where I wasn’t the man, the human, I like to think I am. 

See? 2014 got me fucked up.


I’ve thought about this a lot since I tumblr’ed it in September. I’ve failed at this professionally since about August. I haven’t “made fun” but I’ve definitely leaned towards complaint over action. I hope to shake that off over the next 2 weeks and begin 2015 in Just Do It mode. No excuses. Make cool shit. Every day.

This is not to give short shrift to the accomplishments of the year at work. We started publishing live entertainment stories on AXS.com in April, right before Jazz Fest. Speaking of, I got to attend my first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year! I wrote a few things I liked. We took what we learned from our first six months in responsive design on Examiner.com (I may not be proud of a good chunk of what gets published there but I’m proud of our UX work) and kicked it up several notches. I got to be creative in ways I haven’t been since I left The Mouse.

But I end the year feeling like we worry about the wrong things and not chasing greatness with what we publish.

Make cool shit. Every day.

At home and with friends, I’ve felt, I don’t know, distracted or distant, maybe? I’ve been so consumed with navigating work, I haven’t had mental space for much else including those I love. I don’t mean the grand gestures or the emergencies and the like. It’s easy for me to come through in those situations. It’s easy for me to give. But in the every day? In the small moments? I don’t think I really had it for y’all this year like I would want and I’m sorry. Brotha’s gonna work it out.

A toast to my health. Despite carrying 10 pounds more this year than last, I’ve been consistent with a personal trainer for the last six months. I’ve taken much greater advantage of my insurance and I’m getting every closer to buying a ticket on the eat right train. My doctor says I’m strong like bull so we’ll stick with that. I just want to be a more fit bull who is slimmer around the middle.

I also have to be more honest about my needs emotionally.

https://twitter.com/misterjt/status/545357397296807936

I tend to keep it pretty level but, this year, I think I’ve needed more…something. I don’t know what it is so I haven’t been able to say out loud to anyone, give me this, but there’s a hole. I’m feeling some kind of way about the world, about what I’m doing or not doing to make it a better place, and about the life I’m leading and I need…something. The early part of 2015 has got to be about figuring that out and saying out loud the answer to the equation.

But, tonight, let’s get to the accounting of things. I traveled to San Francisco, Denver (twice), New Orleans (twice), Palm Springs, Phoenix, and DC this year (I think that’s it). My office moved to Downtown LA at the beginning of the year and I really like working in that part of the city. I’ve never driven to the office.

I really need to do a better accounting of the shows I go to each year. Ray, once again, puts me to shame. But there were a few pretty exceptional shows. My sister, Dominique Toney, essentially closing the 4th of July show at Exposition Park (sorry Troop); Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Wiltern with Sharon’s amazing post-cancer energy and short hair. Big Freedia on the Congo Stage at Jazz Fest just a few weeks after her mom passed. Laura Mvula on the Jazz Fest main stage. DJ Spinna’s Wonder-ful set at the Echoplex with Stevie Wonder showing up to surprise him and perform a bit. Har Mar Superstar in New Orleans on my birthday by myself. Also, Rhye. Jessie Ware. And a grip more at the echo/echoplex I’m forgetting. 

The best thing I experienced this year, though, hands down was the WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix. It was the most entertaining women’s basketball game I’ve ever seen live. It was amazing how much of a women’s basketball town Phoenix is (and lovely to see considering Los Angeles…isn’t.) I was high off that experience for weeks.

That game and everything around it reminded me that for all the shit of 2014, we live in a world where a rookie from a reservation can be the best baller on the floor. We live in a world where an out lesbian black woman dunks with regularity and is cheered for it. This world exists. 

The world changes. The world is changing. It starts small. It gets big. You put in the work. You make cool shit. Every day.

And some days, like on July 19th 2014, your shit is the coolest shit.

Thanks 2014. I won’t miss you but I hope to think back on you fondly as the spark.

September 25, 2013 / 1 Comment

Sparkle City

“Let my cheer be my guide.” – Shuggie Otis, Sparkle City

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This shot ruined my Monday night.

It also was the end of the best game I saw all season and the end of the 2013 run for my Los Angeles Sparks.

Yes, my LA Sparks. I’ve long enjoyed women’s basketball. From their dream team to the launch of the WNBA and those amazing nike commercials…

 

…from Dawn Staley and Cynthia Cooper to those epic UCONN/Tennessee battles. I just love basketball and the women’s game has always been apart of that.

On TV anyway.

This year, though, Tiffany and I have been even more basketball obsessed. We watched as much basketball during the Summer Olympics as we could. We picked up NBA League Pass and went to several Clippers games. Both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments were outstanding this year and the NBA Playoffs were fan-tastic as the tagline used to say.

We also attended Sparks games. Initially, the goal was to catch The 3 to See and maybe catch Angel McCoughtry (one of my favorite players) and our friend’s beloved Lynx but after the first game, we were hooked and Tiffany got a half-season package on the spot.

Being in the arena for these games is infectious. You’re close to the action. The Sparks play great music. You see passionate fans and newbies surprised by how fun it is. The crowd is an interesting mix of folks, many of whom, I’m sure appreciate being able to attend a professional sports game at a reasonable price and not be in the nosebleeds.

It’s one of the only entertainment experiences I’ve ever been to where women aren’t sexualized. There’s no sense of “the male gaze” at a WNBA game. This is about strength and skill and competition. Winning is what matters. Passion.

I have friends that snark on the Sparks as “Team Ponytail” but nobody is trying to look cute on the court. The players are stunning as athletes tend to be but I remark on pretty shots and killer crossovers not faces and outfits.

We ended up seeing almost all of The Sparks home games live and watched several on TV. TWC Sportsnet does a wonderful job of covering the team with respect for the sport and it’s players. They get the same treatment the Lakers do.

And as Brittney Griner’s shot fell and ended the Sparks quest for a championship, I was crestfallen. Almost as broken hearted as I was when Michael Jordan hit that damn shot in the Finals over my Lakers and I knew they had no shot at winning a title that year.

But, there’s always next year. And while the Sparks didn’t win that game, they won us over. I’ve got shirts and schwag and a 2014  season ticket right behind the team bench.

Welcome to Sparkle City. Thank you for a great season.

Let’s go Sparks!