Transcript of GOOD FOLLOW - CBA Negotiations Continue, Has TCU cracked the Transfer Portal? Hall of Fame Class of 2026 & More!

You're listening to DraftKings Network. Hey, what's up, everyone? Welcome to Good Follow Show, presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Goldanwere, and that is Angel McCartiery, five-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist. What's up, Angel? How are 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 what, jury, my Wakanda jury.

Are you recovered from Halloween?

I'm still recovering, man. It takes two days, three days when you hit into 40. Takes a little time.

Yeah, for sure. 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 a welcome dinner and a whole lot of preseason festivities, getting the Nashville community really excited about the basketball that's going to be happening here. To check out AU, it's five on five basketball. It's the game that you're used to watching. It's interesting scoring because players are individually scored, positive or negative based on stats and play and how the team does. Then they crown an individual champion at the end of it. It's really focused on player development. It's pretty cool, but it was nice to see the returners and all new players. One thing I will say is AU put a really impressive roster together this season. There's a lot of star power, a lot of great stories, and a lot of potential for players to make the most of this opportunity.

Well, something's brewing there, Raj, because it's in Nashville, and maybe there might be a WNBA 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 team's formation and things 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 an 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. We're going to discuss how the transfer portal has impacted the overall NCAA College landscape, but also TCU, which is the poster child, if you will, for transferring in the transfer portal in college basketball. So we'll take a deep dive as college basketball is underway. At the time of taping, the NCAW season just started. Seasons' greeting 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 start off with the CBA extension. Last Thursday, the WNBPA and the League agreed to a 30-day extension for negotiations, 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 Nafisa Collier's four-minute pre-prepared statement, putting Kathy Inglebert, 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 opt out, and that was important for the players, that they could, if they don't like the way things are going, at any point have a chance to say, Forget the extension, we're out. So what do you make of the extension being a former player, and what has to happen right now? What's at stake?

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Well, the extension means that there's 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 down rival. 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, you 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. A lockout is if the WNBA and its owners decide, Hey, we're good here. No deal. If a lockout occurs, players no longer have access to facilities. But on the other side of that, a strike is different. That's if the workers go on strike. If the players decide that this is a no-go, then that's really disruptive. They can't talk to executives, coaches, wouldn't have facilities. But I've been doing some reading in different articles and just seeing what's possible here. There is something where if they don't reach the extension by November 30th, so this 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 using facilities. You'd continue to 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 motivation to get this right. 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 of the league. There's a regular draft. There's so much beyond just like, is the season going to start late? And Angel, as a player, would you be... 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.

It 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 want to work, you want to play, you need the competition, you need to make a living. And it 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... I'm glad you explained the difference between the lockout and a strike because many people don't even know that difference. And I'm just hoping either one of those don't come about.

Right. It's a very different time than that bubble COVID season. For sure. I remember listening to Cathy Inglebert speak about that bubble season during COVID, and there was a consulting firm that gave the league overwhelming possibility that the league was going to fail and die during the pandemic. I don't remember the exact number, but the main point that Cathy 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 that's not where the league is right now. 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 now to the league, and everyone wants a slice. The players want a slice, owners want to 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 Inglebert made this small 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 double 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. 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 outlined that players have asked for numbers where revenue sharing would start to tap in at a certain level of 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, etc. 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 if the business is soaring, they don't want to get stuck in some antiquated or outdated model. They're preparing not only for this year or next year, but for the next generations of players.

And that's 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 every 10 years. It's time for a new system. Things have changed, and give the girls what they deserve. You just can't tell me their brands are even less than a million dollars. You can't even tell me the last decade of girls' brands were less than a million. Deladonna, you know what I mean? Candice Parker, Diana Tarassi. Their brands were still no less than millions.

In addition to updating the revenue sharing model and updating salaries. We got to update attitudes, and specifically of those decision makers at the top. Maybe there was a time back in the day, many years ago or decades ago, where 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, product, media, media coverage, and also the product is better. 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. I also think ownership groups updating maybe an attitude of... And 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 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.

This is continuing to go forward. But the last thing you want to do is have this CBA potentially stop the momentum before it could really skyrocket. Hey, welcome back to Good Follow, you all. Today's episode is presented by DraftKings. She's 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 Elaina Deladon, Candice Parker, Isabelle Fijakowski, and Amaya Valdimora. Coaching-wise, they're honoring Sheryl Reeve and Kim Muhl. Doris Berk 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. When you think about Candice 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 we knew about them because they were in those high school basketball magazine covers. It was LeBron, it was Sebastian Tell Farouh, it was Candice Parker. We knew about Candice's edges being laid, her swoops. We knew about Naperville. 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, won in the Olympics and internationally, and all of this very publicly. She had champion in the WNBA in 2016, '21, 2021, 2023. There was a gap there, though, between 2016 and 2020, where I feel like she was counted out and in some ways misunderstood or people... It's just funny how the narrative changes around stars, right? And that's why for me, when Candice 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 later on Good Follow 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, 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 one of the biggest ambassadors of the women's game right now.

So credit to Candice Parker there.

I do want to give a quick shout out to some of the underdogs. Kim Moll, 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 hoop lobby at this stage to be at a 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 the Hall of Fame. And Doris Burke, who's been around forever, right? 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. Yeah. So shout out to them.

Yeah, Doris has been a mentor of mine. I remember when she was calling Final Four 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. But she really is a pioneer and made it possible for us to be doing a podcast like this. She's truly excellent. I want to shout out Sheryl 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 slept on or discarded, her international success. And the last thing I'll say about Elaina Deladonna, it's incredible. The way she had to fight through Lyme disease and incredible back pain, like excruciating back pain and kept trying to play ball. Her career was highly disrupted, and she was still a great. So shout out to all of the Inductees.

It's now time. Let's go to the DraftKings' Pick of the Week, presented by DraftKings. We're going to take the end of our show to College Basketball because women's College Basketball just started today, you all, and we will be covering this season on Good Follow Show. This week, I've got my eye on matchup between North Carolina ANT and TCU. I'll be watching Paris Locke 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 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 DraftKings. Draftkings, the Crown is yours. Okay, okay, okay. Talking about TCU, it's 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's 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 Sure, Kennedy Bascham, 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 in 18 transfer players, which really tells me, Angel, too, it takes a certain 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. 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 blossom and grow into things. And it takes the right roster construction. So you've also got to be a good GM in this because essentially it's new talent, potentially it's new strategy every 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. Eighteen transfers? I mean, but he's shown 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 be out there?

I would just be worried about... These are still young adults, 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, people can bounce and maybe not see the benefits of 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 lawn. Nobody wants to hear that anymore. But now, for real, though, it's something to consider. 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. It's a lot of kids, over hundreds of kids sitting there waiting to be 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. And also, again, Mark Campbell is a proven coach. This isn't some swindler guy selling dreams. He has a track record and a reputation, especially of working with strong, great guards. Sabrina Onescu at Oregon, he was integral to her success. Haley Van Lyth last year, I think he saved her pro-career. And now he brings in Olivia Miles out of Notre Dame. So 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. 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 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 disruptive and hard. 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, W-8 players, to give you advice. I 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, you 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.

That's good advice. Anyway, you all, we got to go. Good follow Tuesdays and Thursdays. Subscribe, follow, watch She's Angel. I'm Roz. We're out.