The Young Americans
You Might Get What You're After
Well hey there–it’s been a minute. At the end of the season I said I’d be writing less frequently, but I didn’t think it would be one post about my many feelings about the Jordan Poole trade and then radio silence. It’s not that I haven’t been writing at all. I’ve been halfway writing a lot of things and then letting them drop. You know how it can be sometimes. This week starts NBA training camp and media days and preseason games so the end is in sight. But before it’s all NBA all the time, a few words about a few things that have captured my attention-tennis and the WNBA.
Because I’ve lived nearly my entire life on a school calendar, the new year for me starts in the fall and my sports season starts in the fall with the US Open, even though it is the last tournament of the year.
Last year the US Open made me cry. That’s not that unusual–tennis often makes me cry (and also laugh and also yell “Oh ho ho!” at different moments). But last year was actual grief. Watching Serena Williams play, trying to will her into an neverending win, watching Rafa Nadal play through crippling injuries and then with the Laver Cup, watching Roger Federer play his last match. A cycle of 25 years of tennis memories and suddenly all my favorites wouldn’t be there.
I began watching the Open this year with trepidation. Would it be as fun? Would it be enjoyable? Would I yell “Oh ho ho!” as often? And here’s the surprise - it was even more. This was the most enjoyable Open I can remember. Instead of diminished ratings and lackluster matches, we got a vision of the future–or a vision of the present—and it is bright and filled with young talent, and in a new twist, young American male talent. Tennis is even better.
Let’s start there - on the men’s side. In this year’s Wimbledon, we saw the rise of the not young but still newcomer Christopher Eubanks to the quarterfinals. This year, Eubanks saw his career wasn’t going as planned and he began to broadcast matches, seeing that as a more likely future. Surprise surprise, broadcasting made him a better tennis player. Add Francis Tiafoe, who had his first taste with tennis fame last year at the US Open, beating Nadal before losing in the semifinals. He has an unlikely backstory–his father was a groundskeeper of a tennis center and was given an office space to convert into a place to stay. Francis and his twin brother slept in the tennis center five days a week while their mom worked night shifts. Tiafoe is exuberant and emotive and also very very good and getting better.
This year featured emergence of 20 year old Ben Shelton to the national stage, in his first year as a professional with a monster serve and mountains of charisma. Add Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul to the list of up and coming American players. Only one of them in the top 10 but all of them could be next year. I don’t care at all about the Americanism of it all - tennis isn’t a U-S-A, U-S-A kind of sport. But it is fun to see these players collectively lift each other up to new heights as they get better simultaneously.
And a word about the mixed doubles team of Taylor Townsend and Ben Shelton who were the most fun tennis I think I have ever seen. I recorded their matches to save for when I need a burst of joy. Taylor Townsend is a comeback tale. US Tennis basically told her nearly a decade ago that she was too large to play tennis so they won’t financially support her. It is exactly as ugly as it sounds. She has come back on her own - unlike all the other competitive US players, she does not have a clothing contract, for instance - and she plays with a chip on her shoulder, with nothing to lose and with tremendous joy. For real, watch her matches any time she plays from now on.
And of course, there’s Coco Gauff who won the US Open, her first major in a year where she’s been increasingly winning tournaments. This year, Coco kept saying that the lesson she is learning is that she doesn’t have to be playing her best to win-it’s a huge lesson for any athlete-both to know that you can win when you aren’t your best and then figuring out how to do it. This is what distinguishes the talented from the players like Djokovic who can scrape together wins even when he is not the better player. For most of the tournament, Coco was not playing well. She was ok in stretches, but kept getting behind in matches. But as it got closer to the finish line, she kept getting better. She is a powerhouse of a player and of a person and in her championship speech she went out of her way to say “thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me…for those of you who thought you were putting water on my fire, you were putting gas on it.” I don’t know the context of the haters she was referring to, but I appreciate the ability to take naysaying and turn it into fuel.
Is this a belated tennis post or one ahead of its time because the season will start in January with the Australian Open. It’s a heads up that tennis is exciting right now. There are a boatload of talented charismatic players. So many of them. So worth watching.
And then there’s the WNBA and the ending we had hoped for all season - the Aces and the Liberty in the finals, two superteams who appear to have a genuine rivalry with each other and lots to prove. Wait! Maybe you haven’t been watching the WNBA? You are missing out. This season has been gooooooood. It is not too late for you to join in for the finals that start this weekend. Sunday I watched the Connecticut Sun and the New York Liberty battle it out and wow was it was a battle. The game was the most physical women’s game I have ever seen, with officials who thankfully let them play on. They drained baskets, they played hard defense, they drove down the lane, they fought for everything they had.
And here we are - this weekend, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones go up against A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum (and Candace Parker, but she’s been out injured since July). This will be something to see. The talent level is extremely high. The chips are on everyone’s shoulders. And there is a racial component to this particular matchup. The New York Liberty are a particularly white team with Stewart, Ionescu, Vandersloot and Dolson. They get a ton of positive press. Some of this is the general media bias for teams on the east coast and games played in the eastern time zone. However, media for the WNBA has a problem of amplifying the stories of white players over all other players. In an article about the 2020 season, the Sports Business Journal writes “A’ja Wilson, the 2020 WNBA MVP who is Black, received half as much media coverage last season as Sabrina Ionescu, the first pick in the 2020 WNBA draft who played in just three games before a season-ending injury and who is white.” The article later states that Black players receive 52 media mentions to 118 media mentions for white players.
All of this is amplified by the recent MVP award which went to Breanna Stewart over A’ja Wilson. Either of them could have won and somehow A’ja came in 3rd. Anyway, when I say there are grudges - there are grudges.
When the summer started, I thought that I would write a lot about the WNBA. I expected that I would write something about the ridiculous pay disparity between the WNBA and the NBA where Steph Curry makes more in one half of basketball than the highest paid WNBA player makes all season. Or the preposterous facilities difference and how Candace Parker was excited to play for the Aces because it would be the FIRST time in her long career where she would have a locker that she could leave her stuff in, and a practice facility that she could go to at any time because it wasn’t shared. Or any of the amazing backstories of the WNBA players. Or a if you televise it they will come article, because viewership is way up once they put the games on familiar channels. I didn’t write any of those things because I chose instead to watch the game instead of being angry about what happens. But for real - the games are really really good. And you know who agrees with me and sits courtside? Your favorite NFL and NBA players.
Beyond all the cheering and watching and late nights and yelping at my television there is a lesson to be learned from the US Open and the WNBA season that is super cheesy but true. Cast your assumptions aside for a change. Sometimes things are better than you had imagined. Sometimes things that seem like a profound end are an opening to something new.
Told you it was cheesy.
Which leaves me with two thoughts and one hope:
Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend have renewed my faith in faith. So I feel optimistic about Jordan Poole’s trajectory and am now pretty darn excited about watching all those Wizards games
I’m not cancelling my Tennis Channel subscription anytime soon.
It’s close to certain that San Francisco will be getting a WNBA franchise in 2025. I expect that Joe Lacob will give them the same high level of facilities, team dinners and trainers that the Warriors have and I’m looking forward to packed crowds all summer at games.
The Timeout Books
None. I’ve been fostering a cat lately. Or at least I thought I was fostering a cat–but it turns out she is filled with kitten energy so all timeouts and large stretches of games are filled with playing Cat in a Box or Cat in a Bag while I attempt in vain to wear her out so she doesn’t run track meets through my apartment at 3 am. Though I have tried very hard, she is not really a basketball fan, but here’s a pic of her briefly taking an interest in the Suns/Liberty game.
The Spotify Playlist for A Game At A Time (i.e. the songs that pop into my head while I’m writing this)
David Bowie: Young Americans
Talking Heads: Burning Down the House. Sidenote: it’s the 40th anniversary of the Stop Making Sense movie, which simultaneously makes me feel 1000 years old and 19, dancing in the aisles of the Michigan Theater
The WNBA finals are Sunday at noon pst on ESPN. Let’s watch basketball!