Happy Tuesday, Ball-Knowers!

Tonight is our season opener at No Cap Space, as Tyler provides ‘Boots on the Ground’ coverage from Dallas, where Paige Bueckers and the Wings host Angel Reese and the Dream. This year, those that pay into the Ball-Knowers tier will get a postgame ‘sidebar’ that usually will profile one player or highlight one moment that made the evening.

Those of you that are with us on YouTube will get a postgame recap on site from Tyler and, in the future, whomever is at the game. Chauny and myself are planning on being in Atlanta this Sunday when the Dream welcome A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces, so now is the perfect time to upgrade and get all our coverage in one place.

Additionally, if you are a paid subscriber and want access to our exclusive Discord server, where we are providing live updates from the game, talking shop and dishing some insider tea for your eyes only, send me a message and we’ll get you right.

Now, o

My overreactions from Five Out and a special announcement about our very own Tyler DeLuca…

Tyler then welcomes Nathan Canilao from Bay Area Sports Group to talk about Gabby Williams’ perfect fit in Golden State and the fallout from a weird WNBA Draft night…

And for those that want it in podcast form…

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert knows how to manufacture some drama, I’ll give her that. Without any Monday games, fans managed to overanalyze, debate, critique and disagree on anything and everything. One game sample sizes? Doesn’t matter. Content was going to be made one way or another.

While there’s only three matchups on the docket tonight, it does feel like the foundation of season-long narratives, right or wrong, will start to be built. In the absence of actual games, Dallas Wings fans debated the usage of rookie Azzi Fudd and her almost inexplicably quiet rookie debut. Will we see more shots for the 2026 No. 1 overall draft pick or will head coach Jose Fernandez continue to slow-play her into the rotation?

And what of the Dream? After a last second win over Minnesota, is Atlanta ready to face off against a team with deeper talent particularly at the guard position?

We’re still way too early into the year to try and draw major conclusions, but each game represents a data point that fans will take to either make or counter an agenda.

Elsewhere around the league, I expect New York to roll Portland pretty easily. The most interesting aspect of the Fire will be who among their young core begins to stand out in Alex Sarama’s system.

If you can, stay up for Minnesota and Phoenix. Olivia Miles dazzled in her rookie debut and the Lynx surprisingly hung with the Dream up until the very end. As the Mercury have shown us their best and arguably worst, I’m curious who comes out on top here. In short, there’s a lot of great ball, so be sure to tap in!

I chatted briefly with Upshot League commissioner Donna Orender today and, as you can imagine, she’s a busy, busy woman. With $40 million in upfront investment and a YouTube channel set to broadcast all games, the organization that fashions itself a “WNBA G-League” is off to a red hot start.

What’s helping bolster their early hype is some new additions to their player base which were announced earlier this week. Former Ivy League Player of the Year Harmoni Turner will be involved as well as former Oregon star Deja Kelly and MEAC Player of the Year Diamond Johnson.

A couple other veterans, from former No. 2 overall 2020 WNBA Draft pick AD Durr to former Maryland star Shyanne Sellers, are also signed on to join a bevy of other names that populate the inaugural four rosters.

It’s a great start on a number of fronts.

Many women’s college basketball fans find themselves disappointed around this time of year, when some of their favorite players can’t find a home in the WNBA for whatever reason. Most times, those same players will pull up stakes and head to Europe where the next best opportunity lies. But what this first set of signings prove is that Upshot has effectively positioned itself as a viable alternative to France, Turkey, or Spain. Almost every roster includes at least three to five players that were WNBA Draft selections but didn’t make it through training camp.

Personally, I’m excited to watch Maria Gakdeng (North Carolina), Khayla Pointer (LSU), Olivia Cochran (Louisville) and Reigan Richardson (Duke) back on the floor doing what they do best. There’s a lot of moving pieces and, of course, a need for an audience for Upshot to thrive. But Orender is doing all of the right things to make sure the foundation is stable and secure moving forward.

Ball-Knowers can expect a feature on this to come later this week before the league debuts on Friday.

Front Office Sports ran a story on Monday about how the WNBA’s media deal now exceeds $3 billion, a landmark accomplishment for women’s sports on a number of levels.

The league’s main broadcast deal was negotiated as a package with their partner league, the NBA, and baked into their overall cost. But what was surprising to me was to see what open market value actually looks like. In total, the WNBA made another $900 million through ancillary broadcast agreements with Scripps and Paramount.

Confused? I’d imagine.

Does it make sense that on two side deals, promising substantially less tonnage and programming than the main broadcast partnership, is worth almost half of the main deal? If anything, it reaffirms to me what I’ve long argued: the WNBA being baked into the NBA’s broadcast deal is actually hurting the league’s value on the open market.

What is the WNBA worth, if the side deals can amount to nearly a billion on their own? How much more money could they have gotten given how much more programming was available? The CBA discussion laid bare one large stumbling block for revenue-sharing in the future: that the cut going to the NBA and the investor group from 2021 is going to cap the players’ financial opportunities. That is, unless the WNBA tosses out their independent owners. And given how all of them have managed to position themselves this offseason, I think it would be patently absurd to do that.

No, the real issue is that enmeshment between leagues. And while it’s all gravy right now, I have some concerns about what is on the horizon and always will…

A’ja Wilson Is Going for GOAT Status: “I Want to Prove That I’m the Best” by Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair

Jacksonville Waves women's basketball ready for season opener by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union

Ossining's Aubrey Griffin gets another shot at WNBA with NY Liberty by Stephen Haynes, Westchester Journal News

Our buddy Sean Highkin is doing the lord’s work with the Portland Fire…

As is Marisa Ingemi at Valkyries Beat…

And Justin Russo, who is covering the Sparks really well to open the year…