Five Out: First Impressions, Remembering Richie Adubato and The Poison of Self-Interest in the WNBA Labor Battle
Between the WNBA and NCAA, there was plenty to talk about in the world of women's basketball this week. Let's get you caught up on what's happened in the last few days and what to look for this week.
The opening week of the NCAA women’s basketball season came and went with a couple of interesting upsets, high quality matchups and plenty to overreact to early. UConn certainly looks the part of title contender, the biggest stars in the sport cruised in some cupcake non-conference matchups and the WNBA’s labor fight is becoming more fluid by the day.
Usually, when the college season gets started, the weekly column starts to become a bit less WNBA-centric. But, given that there was so much happening at the pro level this week, we’ll touch on everything equally and get you fully up to speed on what’s happening in our world.
One new thing we’ll be adding to the column is a small content calendar, so everyone can keep an eye out for what we’re going to have on the site this week. There will be some changes, as our newsletter migration to Beehiiv should be done by the end of this week. When that’s fully completed, you’ll get a small announcement from us celebrating the milestone (and cheaper monthly subscription price too!). So let’s take a look at what you can expect this week.
For Free Subscribers
Monday - Five Out
Tuesday - Weekly Watch Guide
Wednesday - Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast
Thursday - The Legendarium
Friday - Weekend Watch Guide
For Paid Subscribers
Monday - How Ally Has Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is For Women’s Basketball
Tuesday - Rashard Hall’s NCAA Power Rankings 1.0
Wednesday - Sticky Notes, Vol. 1 (NCAA Edition)
Thursday - Luxury Tax: Oklahoma Center Raegan Beers
Friday - No Cap Space WBB Monthly Mailbag.
Now, onto the column…
1. New Fans, Welcome To The Old World…
It’s kind of wild to wrap your head around it but last year’s NCAA title was Geno Auriemma’s first since 2016. If you became a fan of women’s basketball at any point in that span, you probably have gotten used to the idea of UConn as a contender but not UConn as death machine. During the Breanna Stewart era, there was a reasonable conversation to be had about whether or not a run of dominance that pronounced was helping or hurting the game as a whole. A big reason that the 2017 NCAA Tournament was so historic was because it marked the end of that reign. Whether it’s South Carolina or LSU or Iowa, every fanbase has gone into games against Geno’s team in the last nine years and felt, “We’ve got a shot at this.” That simply was not the case prior to Mississippi State’s upset victory in the 2017 Final Four.
If you’ve never experienced women’s basketball when UConn is that level of dominant, now is your chance. To be clear, there is plenty of time, plenty of star players and plenty of good teams that can challenge the reigning national champions. But through just a couple of games it looks pretty obvious that losing Paige Bueckers is more of a speed bump than a full on hindrance on the road to winning another tite. Azzi Fudd has immediately stepped into the role of leading scorer, Sarah Strong still looks like the best player in the country and Kayleigh Heckel seems more than able to play the point guard position. Simply put, there aren’t a lot of teams this year that will be able to match the Huskies from 1st to 8th player on the roster. And that’s before you consider that there’s only a small handful of coaches that can schematically go toe-to-toe with Geno, especially in March and April. We’re only a couple of games into the year but this season may be one of those special UConn eras where they remind the world why they are synonymous with ‘the standard’ in this sport.
2. A Message To The Smoke Duckers…
For those that enjoy our historical profile series, The Legendarium, I’m happy to announce that Volume Two will be dropping this week. Last season, we put together the history of women’s basketball from pre-Title IX through the AIAW and into the early era of the NCAA’s governance. Now, we’ll be looking at collegiate teams from the 80’s and early 90’s, leading us into the founding of the WNBA in 1997. That will lead us into Volume Three, where we dive into all the professional leagues prior to the W that existed and built the game we have today.
I bring up The Legendarium here because of a truism that seems to be shared among many coaches of the early era. Whether it was Louisiana Tech’s Sonja Hogg or Pat Summitt, the idea of scheduling the best of the best was a necessity because they all understood the assignment of selling the game to be people. In order to get press, on television or in the conversation, the Lady Techsters would have to play the Lady Vols. Old Dominion wouldn’t duck Texas and USC would be fine facing Long Beach State.
It’s that history of embracing competition that makes decisions like Kim Mulkey’s all the more disappointing. This is a coach, mind you, that grew up and directly benefitted from that style of scheduling. While the game has changed and there’s more money involved, those coaches that are trying to game their non-cons are putting their own self-interest above the sport and their players. The fact of the matter is that live sports still drives the audience. We want box office matchups and to see the best stars play one another. In an NIL and revenue sharing era, I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen scheduling hard non-cons used as more of a recruiting tactic. Do players (and their agents/teams) think it helps their brand to have no one be interested in watching them for the first two months of the year?
While women’s basketball has grown to a point where there is real investment in the product, it still has to sell itself. Every sport does, even the NFL (and you could argue they’re better at it than anyone else). The minute you rest on laurels and punt on your marketing because your conference slate is hard, you start to indirectly downplay your own program and sport. There has to be a better reward structure competitively for scheduling hard non-conference schedules because, ultimately, everyone leaves a winner regardless of results. Just some food for thought.
3. What Is the New York Liberty’s Plan…?
Is everything okay in the Big Apple? While the rest of the WNBA has filled their open coaching vacancies, the Liberty are still reportedly trying to find Sandy Brondello’s replacement. Former Nets assistant Will Weaver, Phoenix Mercury associate head coach Kristi Toliver and Rockets G League coach Joseph Blair, according to the New York Posts’ Madeline Kenney, have interviewed for the position. Lakers assistant Lindsay Harding was reported to have been in the mix as well.
So what, exactly is the hold up?
Outside of Toliver, who would probably take that job tomorrow, the other options have just started their NBA seasons and may not be leaving anytime soon. Additionally, you’ve got all sorts of weird rumors flying around about potential discord between New York’s three biggest stars: Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu. While the latter is locked in with the franchise for the long term, Stewart and Jones will both be free agents this upcoming offseason.
While the Liberty did manage to win their first WNBA title in 2024, it’s worth noting that there’s been ebbs and flows under owners Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai. Since buying the franchise in 2019, New York had a somewhat lengthy rebuild with Sabrina Ionescu that saw head coach Walt Hopkins depart under still mysterious circumstances. They pulled off a coup in 2023 by getting Stewart and Jones but for two of the three years of their tenure, there’s been regular chemistry and fit questions around the roster. While winning can solve a lot of things, the coaching search feels a bit more like the ‘old Liberty’ longtime fans have grown accustomed to. Now more than ever, Jonathan Kolb has to nail this hire. Whether that’s the reason it’s taking longer than any other franchise this offseason is anyone’s guess.
4. Remembering Richie Adubato, a WNBA Legend.
Former New York Liberty head coach Richie Adubato passed away over the weekend at age 87. A longtime fixture of the early WNBA, I wanted to take some time to remember an early advocate of the game and the leader of some of the most memorable teams we’ve ever seen.
Once a Division III coach in New Jersey, Adubato found himself the interim head coach of the Detroit Pistons in 1979 after the firing of Dick Vitale. That kickstarted a decade in the NBA, taking him to New York, Dallas, Cleveland and Orlando. While Adubato could’ve figured out a way to stick around in the NBA — he replaced Brian Hill in 1997 and managed to bring them to the playoffs — he instead joined the New York Liberty in 1999. That year, four of his players — Rebecca Lobo, Teresa Weatherspoon, Kym Hampton and Vickie Johnson — were all named WNBA All-Stars. For three of his four seasons in New York, he led the Liberty to the WNBA Finals, losing twice to the Houston Comets and once to the Los Angeles Sparks. It was during this time that Weatherspoon hit ‘The Shot’ during Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals, one of the most famous heaves in the league’s history.
Adubato finished his WNBA coaching career with a 134-116 record spanning two teams and made the playoffs in six of his nine years coaching. While it’s economically and professionally more interesting to join the W now if you’re a coach, Richie Adubato made the move when some may have considered it career suicide. Early advocates are always the people worthy of remembrance when they go, and I think it’s fair to say you can’t tell the story of the first era of the WNBA without Richie Adubato. He’ll be missed.
5. The Paradox of Self Determination and The WNBPA At A Crossroads…
This past week, Nneka Ogwumike completely changed the complexion of the WNBA’s labor fight by announcing her signing with Project B, the upstart women’s basketball league run by two former tech executives with vague and uncertain ties to the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. The move could be read as another shot across the bow at the WNBA and a leverage play against an ownership class that seems to believe women’s basketball would die without them. Conversely, it can just as easily be seen as a move purely rooted in self interest, with huge dollar figures and equity stakes being exactly what a player, on the other side of her prime and looking for one last payday, is wanting. As has been the case in every other sport where the Saudis have gotten involved (directly or indirectly), Ogwumike’s choice became a Rorschach Test for everyone’s own individual price.
“Why not let these women make as much money as they want? Who cares where it comes from?”
“Like you wouldn’t take a few million if offered by the Saudis…”
“If it’s leverage against the WNBA, what’s the issue? Is this not what Unrivaled is doing?”
That last question is one I’ve wrestled with for a few days now. As someone that has lauded the 3x3 league, along with the other options and alternatives, I’ve believed that any type of leverage that is player led and not deeply pocketed yet is a positive in this fight. It shows that the investment is there, the interest is plentiful and that the players have options in the event of a work stoppage. So what was my hang up about Project B? Was it a bias against the presence of the Saudis? Of the two tech guys running the league? Did I dislike the format or was it simply an issue of the countless human rights violations the Saudi government has been credibly accused of?
After a few days to think it over, I think I’ve finally understood my issue…
For starters, I don’t trust that Sela Sports, a marketing company that is owned directly by the Saudi PIF, is simply a partner in this league. There’s been multiple examples in the past of groups like Sela or the PIF in general, operating on the fringes and convincing leagues and media members that they’re just silent partners or not the money behind new ventures. Then, when the ink is finally dry, we see the influence and money start to freely show itself. Project B founders Grady Burnett and Geoff Prentice, along with Candace Parker, Sloane Stephens and Nneka herself, can claim that everything is above board. But, quite frankly, we’ve seen this movie a couple times before.
Which brings me to the root of my unease around Project B. If you live under the assumption that, sooner or later, the PIF is going to exercise its considerable financial influence over a league that they work with, you’re going to realize that Sela Chairman Yassir Al-Rumayyan, the brains behind Saudi Arabia’s push into sports investment, fundamentally misunderstands athletic competition.
You can see shades of their ethos around sports at F1, or LIV Golf events, or when looking under the hood at Newcastle United (80% of which is now owned by the PIF). The competition aspect, the very thing that brings us to sports in the first place, has been made secondary to the pomp of the event. After all, that’s what the PIF has turned so much of this stuff into: a playground for the wealthy elite to flaunt their status, bet on events that have no real implication for anyone that cares. If anything, it seems that the Saudis care less about using the sport to sanitize their image and more about running their sports portfolio as a private equity firm would.
Make no mistake, that sportswashing still does exist. And yet, it’s been a little disappointing to watch many WNBA fans adopt a so-called ‘tankie’ mindset of “The United States also has their share of human rights flaws so what is the difference between playing here and playing there?”
While our own country has their own flaws with regards to racism, homophobia, misogyny and what is, in essence, a rogue authoritarian regime flirting with all out fascism, I do think there are levels to this. The Supreme Court, just this morning, struck down another attempt to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that set the precedent for legalized gay marriage. In Saudi Arabia, being LGBTQ+ at all is punishable by law, up to and including lashes or even the death penalty. While I don’t expect every player to have the same moral code, I have a hard time understanding someone who watched, in essence, a coworker in Brittney Griner make this very same Faustian bargain — playing for a franchise with corrupted leadership in a country with codified law against their very personhood —, pay a massive price for it and think, “Well that wouldn’t happen to me.”
Self-determination is the very foundation of humanity. It’s the thing that separates us as a species and those that we evolved from. But when society begins to value that self determination and that self-interest over everything else, eventually it becomes a paradox. What is good for you may good in a vacuum, but now you’re actually creating less choice for others. Unrivaled may be a similar conflict-of-interest in terms of union leaders having equity in another competing product, I think it was at least fair to say that the 3x3 league was rooted in the idea of collectivism. Much of the ethos around Unrivaled is “We want to make a league that puts its players first in more ways than one.” With a year of positive growth, TV ratings and player feedback, I find that easier to trust than a league that feels like they’re trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes by obfuscating who their key investors actually are.
I don’t know if the move will be good for women’s basketball but I do know that, up until a week ago, the perception was that the WNBPA was in lockstep against the ownership class. Now, there is a legitimate concern about players trying to look out for themselves at the expense of the whole.