Share & Strap-On & Tell with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out.

I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

The only way people hear us is if we scream about it.

Right after this ad.

Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro?

Got it from Verizon, the best 5G network in America.

I never looked so good.

You look the same.

But with this camera, everything looks better, especially me.

You haven't changed your hair in 15 years.

Selfies, check, please.

With Verizon, new and existing customers can get the new iPhone 17 Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, plus a new iPad and Apple one, with eligible phone trade-in and unlimited ultimate.

Best 5G source root metrics in the United States 1H2025.

All rights reserve trading and additional terms apply for all offers.

See Verizon.com for details.

Looking for pieces that go places and last decades?

Discover the fall edit from Banana Republic.

Founded in 1978, Banana Republic creates classics with character that carry you from adventure to the city and everywhere in between.

Think shearling line leather that feels lived in, sweaters spun from the finest wool and cashmere, and effortless pieces designed for the journey, grounded in heritage, reimagined for today, and made to last.

Explore the fall edit now at bananarepublic.com.

Group health insurance can challenge company budgets with large and unpredictable rate increases.

Now, a new form of employer coverage called an ICHRA or ICRA can help.

ICRAs make health plan expenses more predictable and affordable by tapping into a much much larger risk pool.

That means businesses know what to expect and what to budget.

If you're tired of expensive surprises, plan on something predictable.

Plan on an ICRA.

Learn more at ambetterhealth.com/slash ICRA.

How have you been, Pablo?

I'm good.

Just been in the mines, in the podcast mines, just shoveling, shoveling content.

Giving the people what they want.

I've been living for

the ballmer pods.

Living.

It's endless.

I've been living for them.

There's so much.

Yesterday.

The person who was sitting in the chair that you're sitting in right now, Megan, yesterday was Mark Cuban, who came in.

Oh, really?

He came in.

He's back.

I've been living for that for a good time.

What is he technically now?

He's a minority owner of the Mavericks.

Okay, minority owner.

And so he can speak on this freely.

I asked him, I was like, what do you think Adam thinks?

What do you think Steve thinks?

He's like, I don't think the league loves what I'm doing.

But he is,

he's the guy talking.

Yeah.

He's the only guy talking.

I feel like the league should be like, thank you, Pablo, for

unearthing this investigation for us.

I didn't bring you guys in here to talk about.

Me, though.

Well, that's what I came in here for.

I know.

I'm like, do you want to do your own little, you know, I was like, if I don't don't have papers to flip over,

I regret not having the manila folder in front of you.

Read that quote.

Sue was the first person to walk into the studio with the cardigan.

The cardigan, guys.

Oh my gosh.

When we were talking about yesterday, I was like,

yes.

And you got to get the cardigan.

And I was like, oh my God, I have to.

This is awesome.

We addressed this cardigan.

We are now here.

We're Power Rangers.

We took your little bird off.

Well, you have, I didn't have a pin that was also my last name.

And so?

That's clearly why you kept it.

You have a beautiful,

it's like a gull,

a seabird.

I feel like we're Mr.

Rogers.

We're giving Mr.

Rogers.

It's funny.

In retirement, you have become a podcaster in ways that are even beyond my prediction.

Oh, beyond your prediction.

You are dressing like me.

Hey.

it's you know weird okay

you started another show emulate the best i did bird's eye view again the pin

doesn't seem accidental we're always watching we're always watching in addition to a touch more which you know got you know i love yeah we're straight up podcasters now you just media people

just just

i actually refuse to be called media i don't like it what would you want to be called i don't know like a player podcaster who's not a player anymore you guys are talking to microphones though and you guys are living a year that has made me laugh because every time I'm like, I wonder if Sue and Megan are in town.

I'm like, oh, no, there's another street being named after one of them.

How do you describe?

I want Megan to describe the year that Sue has had because it's, I sat down to be like,

what did I miss?

And I'm like, this is

absurd.

Okay, I'm going to start with the worst part, which has just been like multiple, with the exception of Seattle, where you got your statue, which looks amazing.

And that was, you know, in our hometown.

So we'll get to that.

We love Seattle.

Got to be there, do some really fun things.

No shade to any of these other cities, but we're spending like long weekends in these cities multiple times

in the summer.

What are we doing?

This is not what it is.

What are we talking?

What's the itinerary?

We're going to Knoxville.

Again, no shade.

It's like, it's, we made the best of it.

It's cute.

Like, they had this great bakery there.

They had some good food.

College town.

Great college town.

The weather was actually pretty good.

Then we went to Uncasville, Connecticut.

Absolutely.

Shout out to Mohegan's Sun.

Shout out to Mohegan's Sun.

I want to be in the middle of the day.

We now know that it's been a floor of Mohegan's Sun.

Man, I went to a bachelor party at Mohegan's.

Wow.

Shout out to the shout out allegedly to the gold club within walking distance.

And then we were in Springfield, mass.

So it's just not direct flights.

Flights.

We're driving.

We're driving.

We're driving.

So it was not the

direct flights to Knoxville either.

It was definitely not from Seattle.

The long weekends I was hoping for during the summer.

But with that said, it's just like incredible.

It's always like so special.

Like it was really, you know, we got to see your family a lot and just having other people come in and people came to the statue and friends.

And you've had an iconic career that deserves to be celebrated.

And I personally

enjoy being party planner.

I feel like I love it so much.

Unlike doing the part in Seattle, we rented out Rob Roy, which is one of Sue's favorite cocktail bars.

Cute little space.

It's kind of like loungy, vibey.

Like just a little bit of a fish.

We had a DJ in there.

Yeah, we had a DJ from

the family.

What were some of the names in there?

What were some of the names of the cocktails?

The Aunt Sue.

I think that was like a martini.

We had the Sue Groni.

We had the Puppeteer.

Not to be confused with Puppeteer.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

I'm sorry.

She had like a special menu made.

It was adorable with all all of these.

Yeah, puppeteer.

What is puppeteer?

The puppeteer was maybe an old-fashioned.

It was like, you know, you're like the oh, like a like a maestro kind of vibe.

Yeah, someone point guard reference.

Yeah, excuse me.

Can I have the puppeteer?

Yeah.

Or there was a point goat.

Yeah, point goat.

Yeah.

So it was fun.

I have a lot of fun with it.

I'm like, if we're doing it,

we're not going to Applebee's for dinner.

Like,

I'm going to go hard at it.

You have, in my mind, it's just like you're producing like a series of wedding receptions.

over and over again.

And there is, of course, like a standard process for how this goes.

Sue has to be regal and respectful and funny and sincere.

Well, first of all, you said wedding reception.

A lot of these like retirement type moments do feel like it's like a wedding and a funeral in one.

You got to say hi to everybody.

You got to say hi to everybody, but they're saying all these nice things about you.

Right.

The way I, you know, that usually happens at a funeral.

And that's kind of the

wonderful/slash hard part is to

just constantly hear all these really nice things being said about you.

One event after another, after another.

Yeah, it's hard.

It's hard.

I don't like basket in it.

But yeah, the best part about the statue reveal day was it was a gorgeous day in Seattle.

It was outdoors, obviously, and I got to wear sunglasses.

My shades literally were like shading me from some of the eyeballs.

Everybody with us now.

10,

9,

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Not because you were tearing up, just because you were like, thank God, I don't need to emote with my eyes so deliberately with the knowledge that I'm being watched.

It's a lot of attention.

Yes.

It's a lot of attention.

But it's also, like I said, it's also like, who am I to complain?

It's amazing.

Yeah.

I mean, mean, Sue Bird Court.

Yeah.

That's now.

You can, the people who live on that have to DoorDash their food to Sioux Bird Court.

That's pretty great.

I know.

Can people tag you on that?

That's cute.

There's been mugging on Sioux Bird Court.

The street itself is like this long.

It's cute.

But yeah, me and Lenny Wilkins Way.

Which is crazy.

Crazy corner.

Right.

I was on a private plan, you know, which is, again, this is this is Seattle Sports Royalty.

The statue, though, just to be very clear about this, this is the first WNBA player to get a statue ever.

This is a huge deal from a just like history of sports statues perspective, which you know I study meticulously on this show.

Yes, we're very aware.

Do you know that, Megan?

Did you see what?

Wait, we haven't even gotten to Butter Sue.

Did you see this?

No.

You don't know about Butter Sue?

No.

This is Butters.

This is for you.

Yeah, we're going to put it down here.

Okay.

The weekend of the statue, Reverend Jago.

We did a touch more live.

Yeah.

So we did a live show.

I think it was the night before the statue, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's the night before the statue.

So Megan's present to me live on stage was a butter sue.

Oh, yes.

This was the idea.

Our good friends

Natalie and Larissa hooked this up for me.

I said, I need an AI mock-up of butter sue so I can work off of it.

That obviously

what's with the bun?

Listen, you try to do curls in the butter when it's melting when I only have a short amount of time while you're gone this morning.

That

wait, you did this?

I did it.

Was a butter suit, a bust.

It was a butter sumo.

Yeah, it was.

And Megan did it.

Megan made it.

You didn't hire the couple in the Midwest that were in Pennsylvania, excuse me, that we hired here, Pablitoria finds out, to go butter pop.

She didn't.

And honestly, it was so bad.

I mean, I looked like a sumo wrestler.

I don't even know what was happening.

My nose was like this one.

It was so bad.

The sumo wrestler was actually the hair.

She tried to get the pony.

It looked more like a sumo bike.

I didn't have a walk-in freezer to do my craft artistry.

So I was like under such a time crunch.

And then it was like to get any sort of detailing on the tree.

I was out of the house for like two hours.

And that was the only way.

But also, like, the butter melts.

It's kind of like what truly prehistoric tribes depicted.

It's almost impressionistic.

Oh, my God.

Anyway, a fan wanted it after.

So somebody has that.

Who knows what they did to Butter Soup?

Maybe they're still just scraping off it.

I followed you with the cardigan.

I had to follow you.

It's just an incredible

incredible.

I mean, I can only take it as a compliment.

Your fingerprints are all over.

A touch more.

Absolutely.

Of course.

Thank God the real statue looked a lot better.

Yeah.

So

I got to say, like, part of the the whole premise of like butter pablo and all of that and is that the history of sports statues has been horrific there have been some bad ones terrible yeah whether it's christiana ronaldo whether it's dwayne wade recently you go down the list you know um brandy chastain had a

if i may say so just like not a great not a great statue didn't really look like her the ultimate compliment to brandy chastain is that her statue did not look like her her bust this one

that's like a top it's uncanny i think it might be number one.

I think it is.

It's the statue.

Yeah.

Listen, I just told you how much I don't like the attention of that, but that statue, I'm like, that's number one.

It doesn't even look like you.

It like it is.

I walked in.

Like your hands when I saw it.

Your nose from underneath, especially because you've broken it so many times.

And like, just like your body.

Yeah.

Oh, totally.

It's like off the side.

When I walked in, it was like the clay version is all I got to see.

But it was, it was, it was in, it was the size, but it was just the clay version.

So you see you giving, I mean, it's you

doing a light layup.

So I walk in, I go underneath it.

I was like blown away by the accuracy.

I couldn't believe it.

I was ready to just clown on you.

Yeah.

And I was like, I was just, I, respect to the, to the artist, to the sculptor.

You did a lot.

You like gave a lot of yourself to it, though, a lot of feedback.

A lot, you were like, you were on the face.

So the face is, this is what I feel like I love.

You were like in the process, though.

I will say that.

I think everybody is.

I don't think that was unique to me.

well look at those other athletes were they were not in it enough so this is this is what this is my takeaway from it okay you only see it as it's clay version i saw like a 12-foot version of it and then you go back i went to the studio twice you go back you see it in full form but it's still clay i just think bronze is not a very forgiving material on the face So anytime you have a facial expression, for sure.

Anytime you have a facial expression or you see a lot of someone's teeth, I think think you're in trouble.

I think you're asking for trouble.

If it's like a lot of, you know, like creases, wrinkles, like so Dwayne Wade example, he's like very like, raw, he's got that like, this is my house look.

And so it's just bronze is not going to be forgiving.

And so my face, you know, when I'm shooting layoffs, apparently I don't emote.

I've got nothing going on there.

So it made for, you know, it looks smooth.

I was smart, though.

I didn't do it on purpose, but now this is my advice.

Look at the guns, though.

Well, they got that right, didn't they?

Just, yeah.

Just truly.

That's how your shoulders look.

That is how my shoulders look.

That's deltoids.

No longer, but.

The ponytail.

Yo, the ponytails.

That's the part.

They got the Hirachi 2K4s.

That's my favorite shoe I wore in Seattle.

Dialed.

Wow.

I mean, I've no notes.

Just, again,

impressive.

By the way, my favorite thing while I just revisit all of this is just like Megan with the camera.

Yeah.

I'm trying to learn, guys.

Naparazi.

I'm trying to learn.

It's honestly the camera does 95% of the work.

It's a great camera, but I am loving it.

It's fun.

It's a real camera.

We give you something to do.

And I'm like, I don't know.

That's what I'm saying.

I'm just looking at all these events, especially these.

I'm just like, obviously, I'm your plus one and I'm there.

So I'm like, I'm going to make myself.

And all the photographers, they, they like see and respect.

It's a real camera.

This is not digital.

This is a film camera.

She has to get the exposure right.

Obviously, you have to focus it.

Yeah, you know, you're doing better trying.

This is like a real deal camera.

All the photographers, they're always like, oh, is that a Leica?

Like, oh,

yeah, I want to be good over this one, obviously.

It's like instant respect.

I like Megan just wearing like, you know, the photographer's like vest.

Oh, I'm going to get in there.

We need to get you a neon joint.

Yeah, I'm going to get in there.

I need to properly shoot a game.

But there's a thing in sports where a lot of like Hall of Fame retired athletes, you've seen Marshawn Lynch do it, Randy Johnson, formerly.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Seattle thing.

Why do you think pro athletes as a pro-athlete?

Why do you think photography is this thing that, like, I don't know, it seems like you people are into?

I think sports people too, I think sports people, athletes,

sportsters.

You guys really are becoming podcasters.

Yeah, I know.

What do you call it?

You sports people

are like inherently creative in some kind of way.

And when I stopped playing, I found that there was a big absence in like creativity and being able to just like do stuff and have fun and whatever.

So

but what's funny is like Hall of Fame, Springfield in the big hall of immortals.

And Megan's like right there with the camera.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Seat right next to Sue, just like real close up.

Yep.

You looked calm.

You looked, did it feel?

What's again, I want your point of view, Megan, on just like, did that feel a moment apart from the previous things?

Because it was the thing.

It's the Hall of Fame.

You did feel calm.

I think your statue and the Naismith Hall of Fame know those too.

I know, but I had done the work.

Yeah, you'd already done women's basketball.

You'd already done all the retirement stuff.

Like you're kind of seasoned in it.

I feel like you were like, this is amazing.

And like, you're so proud.

And this is incredible.

There's no way to like feel.

really truly like the magnitude of what that means.

It's like you can't really like take all that in.

That's going to be like a lifetime sort of thing that you just have.

But you were like really relaxed.

I think the hardest part was like writing all these speeches in such a short

amount of time.

And by the way, unsurprising to hear and learn in context now that like you've had a whole, by that point, you've just been doing stuff along these lines.

Yeah.

So you're just like ready for this.

It was like 10,000 hours.

Absolutely.

I was at my 10,000 hour moment.

That's what you got at the Naismith Hall of Fame for sure.

This moment is truly overwhelming.

There are hundreds of people in here I could thank, and those are probably just my surgeons.

It's been so wonderful, though, seeing so many familiar faces.

In terms of just like how to write, I remember talking to Ezra, our friend Ezra, being like, can we write Suze?

Can we just

contribute?

Can we?

I think my jersey is getting retired at UConn.

So if I need a speech, it's on you too.

I'm calling you guys.

Honestly, just bring them up.

We're on behalf of.

Super.

It's a vanilla folder.

Put down in the podium.

Ezra, flip that paper over.

Oh, man.

But yeah, no, I think there is something to

having to do a bunch of speeches in a short period of time on the same topic.

Yeah, exactly.

And trying to figure out.

So in this really wonderful way, well, man, if we take it back, this one still is tough.

If we take it back to my retirement speech, okay, this is what happened in my retirement speech.

I don't know if you've ever looked this up.

It was over an hour.

I literally talked to her.

It was over an hour.

Yeah.

That's like a professional filibuster.

You have no idea.

She was filibustering.

I really felt like little did I know I was going to give like three more speeches in the next two years.

I felt like it was my last chance to talk to the city of Seattle.

And I got it all out there.

Seattle wasn't always home, but that's exactly what it became.

And that's in large part to all of you.

And I may have given you.

The minute I walked off, the first thing I said was like, was that too long?

I said, no, baby.

But totally.

Everyone was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Real thing is like three hour pods.

That's totally fine.

That's why.

I held that whole arena hostage.

But I really felt, I was like, for me, it wasn't just a career.

It was a life that I, that I lived there.

And I was, I needed to thank everyone.

And I think the best thing, you know, other than being completely embarrassed about that, the best thing that happened was I really thanked everybody.

So now when you look or you fast forward or I fast forward to these other speeches, I didn't feel that pressure.

I got to say what I wanted to say.

And especially since Naismith was last.

So I did Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

I did the statue.

And now I could really just talk about more of a theme.

And the theme of my speech was belonging and how sports gave me, like basketball specifically gave me a belonging.

My mom, Nancy, didn't care whether I won or lost.

She just gave me the freedom and space to find my belonging.

My dad, Herschel, loves the game and always challenged me to be my best, which eventually backfired when I started beating him one-on-one.

And my oldest person.

Had you heard her rehearse it a bunch by that point?

I mean, probably nine thousand times.

She's still an outward processor.

She's still.

Oh, yeah.

But she also External processor.

We like stopped listening.

Yeah.

Like you were there in body, but not like, I don't think her actual ears are.

No, I was.

I was.

Cause I've tightened that up or tighten this one more time.

Can you say this one more time?

Also, it got to the point where we were like, oh, you don't even have to listen.

I'm just going to say it loud.

And I'm like, I'm not.

I'm not.

Because there were a couple of things timing-wise I wanted to nail.

Yeah.

There was like some comedic timing I wanted to nail,

which I do like that.

I like workshopping a joke.

Yeah.

You had a joke about

LeBron and D-Wade and Chris Bosch.

Yeah, that's the true story, by the way.

You were a beat at the 2000 Olympics in Beijing.

It was a joke, but it's also true.

I remember that Olympics well.

It was a great Olympics.

Both teams hanging out, winning gold.

I mean, it was kind of weird how LeBron, Chris, and Dwayne kept yapping about three-year deals with a player option.

And where do you want to take your talents?

Where do you want to take your talents?

I don't know.

I tuned it out.

I'm sure Mickey could probably tell you guys about that later.

But Beijing was fun.

The true story is like they have a player's lounge.

We all hang out.

Only the players can go in there.

So it's the men's and women's teams.

We're talking card games, hanging out, the whole nine.

This one particular night, I was talking to D.

Wade about who knows what.

And he kind of said something like, yeah,

Carmelo, he like signed the extension.

He's locked in for like however many years.

He signed the extension.

He's like, we all opted out.

So because we opted out, we're all going to be free agents at the same time.

And I was like, oh, interesting.

Honestly, he was just talking.

He didn't actually make reference to them joining, you know, to taking their talents.

But it's the we that he's referring to.

Yeah.

It was him, Chris, and LeBron for sure.

So he was just like telling me about NBA free agency.

And it wasn't until, what, two years later, a year or two later, when they all go.

And I was like, oh, like, that's what he was referring to.

I didn't know in the moment that they were plotting.

But then you rewind, you look back on that conversation, I was like, oh my God, I saw like the genesis of the super team, the big three

you've revealed yourself to truly not be a journalist sue you just heard that and you're like

and two years later oh yeah i'm like that makes sense yeah like yeah we can all be free agent at the same time i was like cool whatever that seems fun for you and then mellow i talked to mellow about it he was like i didn't think we were gonna lock out i didn't think there was gonna be i don't know what the what the lockout like how that played into it but that was his thinking on it oh he wanted the uh he wanted the opt-in guarantees, yeah, yeah, yeah, something like that.

Not one, not two.

By the way, I toyed with that joke.

So, you want to hear another true story about my Hall of Fame speech?

The original joke, as written on the teleprompter, even when I got up there, was

yeah, and then I overheard them being like, Not one, not two, not three.

That was gonna be the joke, but Mickey Erison did his speech before me, owner of the heat, owner of the heat, and he made that joke.

But then, in 2010, with Dwayne, LeBron, and Chris Bosch, we knew we could win.

Not one,

not two.

I guess it was just two.

So in real time, I look at Megan.

I'm like, I think I have to change the joke.

I can't make the same joke.

What am I going to do?

So the next like 30 minutes in my head was like toying with what to do.

And then I went with take my talents, which is what I wanted originally.

That is what you wanted originally.

I want to observe one thing before seizing on a segue that you've offered me there, perhaps inadvertently, which is

I was like, what is Megan's timeline on Hall of Fame stuff gonna be and I was just like googling and the first article I found was an article from Reuters it was June 21st 2024

fact check colon

Megan Rapino not disqualified from US soccer hall of fame

for what what someone there had been there had been for kneeling there there had been some social media post that Reuters needed to fact check that claim and the caption was Megan Rapino has been disqualified from the soccer hall of fame, quote, she's a bad role model, end quote.

And

I'm happy to announce that this has been labeled, hold on, where is it?

False.

False.

They picked a real good picture of you.

Great photo.

That's tough.

So congratulations on not being disqualified.

And remaining eligible for what are the roles?

Five years or something?

After retiring?

Five years or three years?

Ours used to be five, and now it's I think it's three.

I think it's three.

You're on the clock.

2027.

2027.

Yeah, the first year.

Where is it?

You're eligible.

Frisco, Texas.

Oh, another banger of a city we're headed to.

Feeling safe in your home is one of the most important things in life.

You might be scared of fire or burglary, or, you know, maybe they're somewhere between zero and three active federal investigations related to your reporting going on at the same time.

Whatever it is that keeps you up at night, SimplySafe is there to help you sleep better.

SimplySafe isn't just a home security system that responds.

It is actually designed to stop crime before it happens.

They utilize AI-powered cameras that detect threats while they are still outside your house, and they alert real security agents.

And this is the real game changer.

The agents take action while the intruder is still outside.

They confront the intruder.

They let them know they're being watched on camera and that the police are on their way.

They can even play a loud siren and trigger a spotlight.

That is real security.

But don't just take my word for it.

SimplySafe has been named best home security system by the U.S.

News and World Report five years running with no long-term contracts or hidden fees.

You are free to cancel any time.

Plus, there's a 60-day money-back guarantee so you can try it and see for yourself.

I know I'm excited for my system to show up and the 24/7 protection it's going to provide.

And right now, listeners can save 50% off on SimplySafe home security system at simply safe.com/slash Pablo.

That's S-I-M-P-L-I-S-A-F-E dot com slash Pablo.

Fall is planting season.

And did you know that many plants and trees actually do better when planted around this time of year?

Well, you have to know where to start.

And that's why I love fastgrowingtrees.com.

Doesn't matter if you live in the sunny south or if the air is getting chilly wherever you are, their plant experts can help you find the perfect fit for your space.

Now, if you're like me, you don't have a ton of time between raising

this kid and investigating billionaires.

It can be hard hard to find time to go to a garden center, even if plants are in fact central to my life, which they are.

But fast-growing trees makes it easy to get your dream yard, or if you're like me, apartment.

So order online and get your plants delivered directly to your door in just a few days without ever leaving the store.

No dirt in your trunk, no awkward Uber from the garden center, no fuss at all.

And all their plants and trees are grown locally in the United States, ensuring that they will thrive in your yard.

For instance, I've just added a spider plant and eucalyptus to my cart, and I cannot wait to see them in my living room.

And if you aren't already a tree and plant expert, do not worry.

They have got you covered there as well.

With a full resource center, growing zone finder, and plant experts ready to help you, you'll know exactly what will thrive in your backyard.

Plus, every plant comes with instructions and tips on how to best care for it.

And this fall, they have you best deals for your yard with up to half off on select plants and other deals.

Listeners to our show also get 15% off their first purchase when using the code PTFO at checkout.

That's 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code PTFO at checkout now is the perfect time to plant use ptfo to save today offer is valid for a limited time terms and conditions may apply check out the link below or in the show notes and support the show

dude did you order the new iphone 17 pro got it from verizon the best 5g network in america i never looked so good you look the same but with this camera everything looks better especially me you haven't changed your hair in 15 years selfies check please with verizon new and existing customers can get the new iPhone 17 Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, plus a new iPad and Apple one, with eligible phone trade-in and unlimited ultimate.

Best 5G source route metrics aid in the United States 1H2025.

All rights reserve trading and additional terms apply for all offers.

See Verizon.com for details.

The other segue that I was about to seize upon when you mentioned lockout is just what a time to be a power couple, as I've long established, you guys, in which both of you have had experience, like truly unparalleled collective experience, trying to deal with the issue of players' salaries and women's sports.

Indeed.

The state of the union.

Indeed.

It's become a thing that's broken, contained.

Yes.

The biggest news in the W is the searing comments from Nafiza Collier in her exit interview earlier this morning.

At arrival this past February, I sat across from Kathy and asked how she planned to address the officiating issues in our league.

Her response was, well, only the losers complain about the refs.

I also asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin, Angel, and Paige, who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years.

Her response was, Caitlin should be grateful she makes $60 million off the court because without the platform that the WBA gives her, she wouldn't make anything.

And in that same conversation, she told me, players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the meteor rights deal that I got them.

I'm a human too.

I have a family.

I have two kids who are devastated by these comments.

And so all I'll say is just,

you know, it's obviously been a tough week.

And I just think there's a lot of inaccuracy out there.

This has, of course, been the thing that has been very near and dear to you guys.

So I want to just start from the perspective of like, now people are like asking who don't know anything.

And I'm closer to, I want to represent that side of the dynamic here.

So,

Sue, what is, where are we?

How can you begin to describe this with all of the caveats and disclosures in mind?

Okay.

Disclaimer incoming.

Yeah.

I know.

Sue is a minority owner of the Seattle Storm.

Sue's management.

Yeah.

Sue's management.

God, how do I explain?

I will say the one interesting byproduct of of everything we've seen really in the last like two years in the WNBA, but then if you zoom, like zoom in on the last, what, two weeks, everybody wants to talk about it.

Everybody's got questions.

People want to understand.

The wonderful thing is we have a great media deal.

There is a ton of revenue.

I think players deserve to get paid.

I think overall,

like the, I guess, company line really should be like players deserve to get paid.

Everybody agrees with that.

You know, we want the the business to be set up to grow.

And both those things I think can happen.

And if the CB, I'm not in the rooms.

If we can get to that, I think we're going to have a great agreement.

But the relationship has soured a little bit.

And that's what Nafisa and Kathy and the whole thing.

So the thing that went super viral was Nafisa Collier, just, I mean, again, one of the executives at the union, who also happens to be a co-founder of Unrivaled, the off-season league that has become, in the framing of this, both an incredible source of leverage, ostensibly, but also a competitor to the WNBA.

And your mileage varies on which one it is, depending on how tense this negotiation ends up being.

But that spotlight was shined, I think, for the first time in a very obvious way on Kathy Engelbert, the commissioner.

And quietly, as someone who has been interested in in and around various,

you know, women's basketball conversations, gatherings, games, and stuff, I'd always heard Kathy isn't perhaps the most inspiring commissioner.

The longest

sort of like view of her would be maybe she's not going to be the forever commissioner of this league.

I don't think you're allowed.

Can you talk?

Okay.

Can you?

Yeah.

What is your view of Kathy?

Well, only because we're not married.

Yeah.

Is that accurate?

Is that real?

That's like kind of accurate.

Yeah.

I don't know how, like, if it's like a rule or if it's just a,

but go ahead.

And pretty soon we'll never be able to.

So

we'll just forever be like able to talk about this stuff.

Thanks to the Trump administration.

I'd like to thank this administration for allowing a transparency.

Shout out to the homies.

Your translation of like what's really happening here from your point of view.

I think there's lots of roles and hats that the commissioner wears and has has to do.

Kathy has obviously presided over an incredible growth period.

Some of that out of everybody's control.

Some of that just like, that just happened.

Great.

Some of it, I think she's, you know, had her hand in and obviously has a lot of business experience.

And I think that's bode well for the growth of the league.

And they did the raise and all of the things.

For me, I just see there's like a relationship breakdown.

And listen, I feel like this is really normal.

When business is booming, I feel like the CBA negotiations are contentious.

Like the players want more and the owners want to give less.

It's like generally how it goes.

And this is a unique time when we're outgrown the CBA probably by like two years, but that's, that's what it is.

Like the player assigned it, the owner signed it.

Like this is, this is where we're at.

So it's just tough when the business that the players are participating in off the field, they're seeing a increase or they're seeing that business grow in their own bank account but not seeing it grow over here because it can't yet because we're negotiating the cba right now but i think with kathy if you know i have to like point to a failure it's clearly that the trust in the relationship with the players has really broken down and they're you know saying

things that happen in private meetings.

It seems like they feel like they're not being heard.

And so this is their only lever to pull to like get their side of the story out there.

And I do think that's on Kathy.

Like ultimately, yeah, everybody needs to conduct themselves in the best way possible, but like you're the figurehead.

And so I think she could have done a better job at

maybe having more open ears or hearing them more or giving in some areas where she could, knowing that she's going to have to say no in other areas.

But I think what's happened is she's just become like, the like, oh, we can just dump everything here.

Things that like aren't her fault, like things that she's not even responsible for.

It's just like, oh, now we have you to dump it on.

And she's not really able from a PR perspective to combat that or to bring her side of the story in a way that is effective ultimately.

Like it doesn't really matter if she's likable or not or blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like ultimately, you have to be effective, and especially in the court of public opinion.

And the players have been very effective.

And I don't think Kathy has been effective in that way, which is like piss the players off, frankly.

So just to explain how this all works, that was very well, well done.

That was very

record.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but you

almost buried her entire skull in her hands.

You know, she's always clear.

What is she going to say?

But the dynamic here is unique because the WNBA has always negotiated inside of what the NBA does.

And so the NBA triples its rights deal.

Fantastic for the rising tide, lifting all boats, presumably.

But the WNBA, and this is the way that I summarize for people who don't know, has gone from a thing like people used to say you should be into that because it's interesting or good or important to just like a real business that you can be into for just greedy financial just be greedy.

Just be greedy about business.

It's just

the greatest compliment you can give the rise of women's sports is that you could be in it just because you're greedy.

Yeah.

Because you want to make money.

But the way it works is, so Adam Silver is at top of all of this in terms of the commissioner of the NBA.

Of course, Kathy, in that dynamic, is the head of the WMBA, but the WMBA is inside of the Russian nesting doll that is the league broadly.

And so Kathy, when it comes to like the various things people blame her for, you didn't handle the Caitlin Clark experience well enough, didn't maximize it.

She didn't feel included enough.

Certainly, communications with FEE in terms of unrivaled, in terms of now this recent press conference,

into just who do we, to your point, Megan, who do we blame blame as things are not

happening?

CBA, boring, timeline-related reasons where you can't really just flip a switch and be like, everyone's making money in the way that you want to now.

I'm going to be realistic about that.

But the question I have for Megan.

I'll answer the best I can.

You might be able to answer.

We'll see.

Yeah, we'll see.

Is Kathy Yunkelbert somebody who can

keep that job?

I mean, maybe.

I think she could keep it through the negotiations.

I think it's going to take some repair.

I think it's both like personal and not personal.

Like it's, at the end of the day, NECA said this the other day in your

own.

Yeah, NECA Gomcke, president of the WMBP,

WMBPA.

WMBPA, I always put the

union.

Like it's business ultimately, but like you want to have.

calm labor negotiations.

You want to have the ability to, yes, like it's going to hurt both sides.

Like, that's a good negotiation when you walk out and you're like, ooh, I didn't get everything I wanted, but I got some things.

But I think that is

Kathy's

relationship to repair.

And I think she has some work to do that.

So she can, but

I don't see a commissioner presiding over a league who, you know, seemingly is this like

unliked.

It feels, I will say this bluntly as well, as much as I can.

It feels like what Nafisa said was said with the intention of, we don't want to deal with her anymore.

Like, this is not a try to come back to the table.

It's like, you are, like, this is, we don't trust you.

The only thing I'm going to throw in the ring is just,

again, I do think

to understand where we are now in this moment, you have to understand the history and how it got to this point.

I think it's such a big part of it.

The WNBA players, myself included, when I was playing, were really,

I mean, a lot of times at wit's end on how to get people to see what is going on here.

Like, how do you pull back the curtains for people?

How do you get them to pay attention to discrepancies, to ways in which we've been held back?

It's been very frustrating.

And we learned and then we're incentivized to do it publicly, to take it to the court of public opinion.

And that would show up in, you know, obviously Fee sitting down with a statement for four minutes is a first to start her like exit interview for the season.

Like playoffs,

Lynx lose.

And guess what?

Here is a prepared.

Yeah, a prepared statement.

So like the length of it and, you know, the point she was making, that's unique to this, to this moment and to her.

But, you know, whether it's in the social activism space.

You guys flipped a Senate seat.

Yeah.

And how did we do that?

We wore some t-shirts.

A political statement tonight from members of the Atlanta Dream against their owner, Dream player Elizabeth Williams, tweeted this photograph right here, wearing a vote Warnock shirt,

Kelly Leffler, who was an owner,

effectively ousted from the U.S.

Senate in favor of Raphael Warnock, who remains there because of you, mother f ⁇ ers.

It's like legitimately a crazy story.

It kind of like flipped the election.

Yeah, kind of.

It was wild.

It kind of made an enormous difference in American politics.

Yeah.

And again, through the course of the last 10 years, I would say, we really learned the only way people hear us is if we scream about it and we go and we take it public.

One of the stories, I just told this one recently.

We get to the bubble, right?

So we're in this bubble season.

We've negotiated and we arrive.

And some of the housing was like townhomes.

And there was a laundry room that was, I don't know, like one on each floor kind of a thing.

And one of the players went to the laundry room the first day and it was disgusting.

It was just absolutely disgusting.

Now we're meant to live in this place for like three months and we brought it to the attention of the WNBA and like the powers that be and nothing got done.

And then it took a player, it was Alicia Clark, going on first take, I think it was, going on some ESPN show because she was friends with a producer.

So it got her on to show pictures of this laundry room, to talk about it, because somebody posted it.

Obviously, this reminds us of Sedona Prince.

I was going to say.

TikTok and the NCAA tournament.

I got something to show y'all.

So for the NCAA March Madness, the biggest tournament in college basketball for women, this is our weight room.

Let me show y'all the men's weight room.

As women, as female athletes, we have been incentivized to do this.

It's the only way people pay attention.

And so that is how and why we're able to and why we do it now.

Look, the Sedona Prince thing, I just remember it being so effective because abstractly you hear like, wow, all these women's college players are complaining about how their weight room is not good enough.

You're like, whatever.

What is that?

And then you like see the photo and it's like, oh yeah, that sucks.

Like, that's crazily different from what the men get.

All the different meals that people were getting in their COVID bubbles, where the NCAA tournament bubble, our bubble.

Right.

Like, it's just the only way you have to show people.

And the power of that is increasing because the.

The players are superstars now.

They're huge.

They're way bigger than they were before.

And they have that like attention grabbing ability that sort of like outsizes what's happening and what they feel like is happening in the league.

So it's like, you know they're making whatever a couple hundred thousand dollars in league and ten million dollars off the floor like that's just a huge imbalance and so they have this microphone so to speak that they can leverage and use and like ultimately the the league doesn't have that they have to combat that but like people want to hear from players they don't want to hear from Kathy or the league.

But when they do that, you have to have like a mechanism to capture that and be effective.

Yeah.

And the only other thing I want to add to this whole like being incentivized, the thing that we always struggled with was what is the line between pointing these things out and on yourself?

So what's the line?

Like, look how bad this is.

And yes, hopefully half the people are like, that's fed up.

But then the other half are going to be like, huh, yeah, your weight, your weight room should suck.

You don't, you don't deserve more than that.

And so to point those things out, you're taking that risk.

And the difference now is the business is booming.

Well, this is.

I don't think the risk is as great.

I think about this in terms of the wage scale.

Because the wage scale, it's like, again, we'll use Caitlin Clark because it's the most convenient example, but it's like Caitlin Clark's making $70,000 as a number one overall pick in year one in the WNBA.

And part of it is, again, sticker shock of like, holy shit.

That said,

there's also, I think, the concern of, oh, that's what they've been tolerating.

And so the question of like, how much more do you need to go above that?

It's sort of like, if that's where the bar is now, the other question is, how much more can you ask for if sort of like the standard has been so low?

Yeah, I think this is where that media deal is just the proofs and the pudding.

I don't, I don't really view it that way.

I think this,

that deal represents,

I don't know, like, so don't quote me exactly.

I think our previous media deal was like 22 million.

Criminal.

I'm not even joking.

Are you looking it up?

Can you see if you can find it before I keep

on my soapbox?

Here it is.

Right.

So in 2014, it was ESPN, it was WNBA, the TV rights deal, which was $25 million per year, according to Sports Business Journal, two Suze points.

But here we are now, and we have a 2.2 billion with a B,

billion with a B dollar media deal over 11 years.

I'm bad at math.

So that's how much a year?

Do we know?

Anyone?

I mean, off the top.

I'm going to 200 a year.

I was going to say it's 200 a year.

It's about that, yes.

Okay, so let's call it 200 a year.

We went from 20 to 30 million a year to 200 a year wild assuming some form of a rev share gets kicked into the cba which obviously they're negotiating i really don't know i'm not in the rooms i don't want to emphasize that but at the same time like you assume some this media deal obviously the players are going to get something of it already boom you're going to see salaries go up i mean who knows hundreds of thousands of dollars yeah right out the gate yeah and it's not a risk.

It's not a question mark.

It's not if we get this, we have it.

We have 200 plus million dollars a year from the media deal.

And we all know that's how sports leaps thrive.

It's this media deal.

And we finally got it.

Do you have a point of view on like how to negotiate in public about this stuff?

Because

I dare say you were aggressively.

You were allegedly disqualified from your hall of fame for having caused it.

I think about all of the time.

And this is why I love,

frankly, I love labor law is because of sports.

It's like sports provides this venue for Americans who don't care about labor and management and the dynamic therein to actually engage with it because it affects things they care about.

And

with you and the USWNT and how to

fight for fair wages, look, it's different from a pro league.

In any pro sport, I've covered

the NFL, the NBA, WNBA now, like, what's the number one threat a player has?

It's that you don't play the games.

That's always in the back of my mind.

It's like, when do you actually threaten the thing that results in the money, the media, the rights deal, the actual gate, all that stuff.

Explain what the weapons you had in front of you were when it came to the women's national soccer team.

Well, this is why I love media because we had a media was our biggest weapon in our faces in front of the media and winning all the time, which I feel like the W has that.

They are collectively winning.

They have superstars.

They have ultra superstars in the league.

And the players have, as the owners have, and everybody has in the W, I really do feel this, like sacrificed a lot.

And so they are frustrated by that, of the amount of investment that they've had to make with like no return.

Like you made 20 years of investment and you got one good contract out of it.

And you're not going to get the two good contracts out of it.

And you're not going to get it.

And the street.

You know, and a street and a statue.

And you're not going to get the return.

So it's like owners make investments.

They get the return.

So I think at this moment, really, what's happening is like, it's like, who's going to make the bigger investment?

Because if the players make the investment, that really means like taking less to continue to grow the league so that ultimately the next CBA will be even better.

But they're never really going to see that.

Like you just get get your contract, you play for it, and then some players are going to be out of the league.

You're never going to get it back.

Owners are going to see their valuations go up.

And I think that's what players are looking at.

Like, business is booming.

Your valuations are going up.

I know you need to reinvest in the league, but like eventually, you know, Golden State, even in the first year, they can sell for 500 million or 700 million.

The Valkyries.

Yeah.

So I feel like in terms of the public strategy,

always leave the doors open.

Like, I don't think players should be like, oh, Kathy has to go or we're not playing.

I don't think, because it's just like, you never know where things are going to go.

Always leave the door open.

Negotiate in good faith.

Go really hard at it.

Work stoppages are like catastrophic.

And especially this, like everybody's winning here.

The W is doing great.

Oh, it's the nuclear.

It's the closest thing to the nuclear options, right?

Because everybody gets mad at that point.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's unfavorable in the public.

People don't want that.

Maybe it'd be more favorable for a women's team to do that, frankly.

I think a lot of times when the men's teams lock out, it's like, oh, you're making $20 million anyways.

Like, you're just whatever.

Meanwhile, the owners are greedy too.

But I do think that the players need to keep that in the forefront.

It is a tool for sure, but like it's, it's a blunt object and it's a bad one if you have to use it.

So like continue to show up, ask for the things that you want, hear the other side to you're going to have to give.

Like that's a successful negotiation when it hurts a little bit on both sides.

What I always find interesting is how soccer and basketball, how the U.S.

women's national team and the WNBA, this is like so different.

Cause the WNBA, well, now it's like 156 players, which will go up to, you know, give or take 180 or so when we add two more teams next year, but it was 144 for a really long time.

12 teams, 12 spots.

And so that's like, you're dealing with a lot of different experiences.

Whereas for you guys, it's one team and it's part of a

national governing body.

Right.

So it's like a nonprofit, whereas we're like, obviously a for-profit business.

So it's like totally different in terms of what you're negotiating, what you can ask for, the rules around it.

So there is a difference.

Yeah.

I actually don't know your answer to this question.

For me and for the WNBA and the last CBA, we really tried to set it up where come this CBA, we could just be talking about money.

So we got 100% maternity leave.

We got, this is going to sound crazy, but it was a big thing.

We got everybody had their own room on the road.

So for who knows, let's call it six, seven years prior in the CBA before the one they're in currently now.

It was like you only got your own room after six years of service.

You had a room with people in your first six years.

So we got everybody their own room.

That was, that was a win.

Things like economy to economy plus, everybody now had to be in economy plus or whatever the airline calls it.

You divas.

Yeah, I know.

But these slowly but surely, and obviously now you fast forward, they were able to do this mid-CBA.

They've got charter flights.

So that's checked.

So there's a lot of things, a lot of boxes that we got checked in the last CBA.

And there's so many things.

There's so many things.

You're lucky if you get three of them.

And we got a lot of them in the last CBA.

It almost sounds, though, like it was accomplished those things with the goal of we want to clear the decks for the actual

conversation for the fight for the money.

Yeah.

Which is always going to be the money.

Yeah.

But we knew that meant it was growing.

How would you describe the various

contract

timing decisions that have been made in terms of players who happen to be conveniently, seemingly reliant on this?

We signed that last CBA in like January of 2020.

We knew it was like a six-year deal with an opt-out, whatever it was.

Honestly, everybody, I think every player understood in that moment, we were going to be opting out no matter what.

Like I didn't see a scenario where we weren't.

So that happened.

But even prior to that, two, three years ago, you started hearing players, started seeing the contracts they were signing.

Everybody was understanding that our media deal was going to be big.

And then obviously now you enter Caitlin Clark, you enter Angel Reese, you enter this new wave of players.

And it's like, oh, it's definitely going to be big.

No player signed a deal that went past, except for like two.

I think there's two.

Out of the 144.

Out of the 144, I think there's like two or three vets have a deal that extends one more year past this year.

Wow.

And then it's all the rookies who got drafted in the last couple of years are still on their rookie deal.

And those salaries will go up to whatever the minimum.

So if Caitlin's at the whatever $1,000 mark, let's say the new minimum of the next CBA is $250, she'll jump to that.

But every single other player,

every single other player's deal ran out or is running out this year.

They will all be free agents.

Plus, two expansion drafts.

That's wild.

The GMs are about to earn every single

thing.

It's really going to separate some people.

It's going to take the first domino to fall.

So some player will get signed to something and it'll set the market value for everybody.

I don't know of a scenario that's like that

in pro sports history.

Because the entire thing I just said before is: what happens if the players don't play?

Well, here you have a true like crossroads where the players are not even under contract.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not that they have to sit out.

It's like they're just not gonna, they might not sign.

As they say in Jurassic Park, clever girl.

Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro?

Got it from Verizon.

The best 5G network in America.

I never looked so good.

You look the same.

But with this camera, everything looks better, especially me.

You haven't changed your hair in 15 years.

Selfies?

Check, please.

With Verizon, new and existing customers can get the new iPhone 17 Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, plus a new iPad and Apple one, with eligible phone trade-in and unlimited ultimate.

Best 5G source root metrics data, United States, 1H2025, all rights reserved trading and additional terms apply for all offers.

See Verizon.com for details.

Hey, I'm Paige DeSorbo, and I'm always thinking about underwear.

I'm Hannah Berner, and I'm also thinking about underwear, but I prefer full coverage.

I like to call them my granny panties.

Actually, I never think about underwear.

That's the magic of Tommy John.

Same, they're so light and so comfy, and if it's not comfortable, I'm not wearing it.

And the bras, soft, supportive, and actually breathable.

Yes, Lord knows the girls need to breathe.

Also, I need my PJs to breathe and be buttery soft and stretchy enough for my dramatic tossing and turning at night.

That's why I live in my Tommy John pajamas.

Plus, they're so cute because they fit perfectly.

Put yourself on to Tommy John.

Upgrade your drawer with Tommy John.

Save 25% for a limited time at tommyjohn.com slash comfort.

See site for details.

Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, unlocking the power of Thinkorswim, the award-winning trading platforms loaded with features that let you dive deeper into the market.

Visualize your trades in a new light on Thinkorswim Desktop with robust charting and analysis tools, all while you uncover new opportunities with up-to-the-minute market news and insights.

Thinkorswim is available on desktop, web, and mobile to meet you where you are.

It's built by the trading obsessed to help you trade brilliantly.

Learn more at schwab.com/slash trading.

My favorite moment from your parade of honors, which was

the stud buds, you guys, Adam Silver

in a photograph.

So, for those not familiar with the commissioner of the NBA, how would you describe his Instagram account?

I mean, it's just, yeah, I actually love it.

It's like a name drop, but like it's good.

It's a captionless, yeah, just like series of

I was here, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Here I am.

I love Flat Stanley.

Yeah.

Yeah.

100%.

It's a Flat Stanley in real life.

I think it's great.

It is.

It is.

These are the places I go and the things I've seen and the people I'm around.

Much like Megan, Adam Silver loves his collection of photographs.

I love it.

And the number one photograph that

took over my algorithm, my feed, was You two, the studbuds, who again, please explain the studbuds because I can't

really do justice to the term or the characters.

Courtney Williams and Natisha Heidelman, longtime teammates, the Lynx, play on the links now, have played together for many, many years, best friends, decided to start a live stream on Twitch.

Natisha basically backs Courtney up.

Like Natisha comes off the bench, and Courtney starts in.

So it's like they're in the same position.

They're best buds.

It's like the most beautiful little friendship ever.

It's so cute.

I love it.

To see them on this stream, it's great content.

It's to know them.

this is who they are this is not a performance yeah vibes are always i mean courtney is like a one-liner queen anytime she's getting pulled at halftime to do an interview do not change your channel like something's coming out of her mouth and so they came up with the name stud buds stud obviously referring to them both being gay both being more like mask presenting so that's the stud and then you know what a bud is They're buds.

They're buds.

They're buds.

So they're stud buds.

And so, yeah, the picture is you two

and them two

and the commissioner of the NBA.

And Megan, can you explain the context and the conversation that was happening?

Earlier on a previous stream, Courtney reported that she had never, ever been strapped before.

And Metisha was like,

never?

Like, really?

She's like, no, no, no, no, never.

And, and I just feel like we need to be a little more specific.

And for our audience, we really need to be able to do it.

We have to be more specific, which is basically just strap.

Like, have someone penetrating you with the strap on.

Okay.

Because she's herself.

I would have said use the word penetration.

What would you have said?

I just would have said, go ahead, you nailed it.

Yeah.

I mean, it is

technically what it is.

This is being nailed.

This is being nailed.

Yeah, exactly.

It's being nailed.

And Courtney was like, nah, never.

Hell no.

Oh, my God.

I don't play like that now.

Stravity lappy is present.

But like, you're never

ever.

Look you guys up.

And then teacher's like, never?

Like, I don't really believe you, but also, it was whatever.

So that was my burning question for all-stars.

Like, I've got to get in there.

We have to, this is no way that that is true, but also I just need to, I need to just have that conversation.

And that's the photo that Adam snapped.

The photo

snapped.

The photo that appears on Adam's grid

on his Instagram grid

is a photo of Megan

basically going to Courtney Williams on their live stream, by the way.

The live stream is happening.

So, this is recording

and saying to Courtney, like, never?

You actually never did that?

We have to address the best moment on Shudbuds.

What did that?

Are you like?

He tries these?

And, you know, Adam, I'm assuming Adam's photographer actually captured the moment.

So Adam wasn't even there.

Fun fact.

Adam texted me the next day after we talked about it.

He was like, what am I missing here?

A lot.

I was like, everything.

You're missing everything.

He's like, I see that everyone's laughing about it.

What happened?

I was like,

how much time do you have?

He knows good vibes.

He knows good vibes.

We were having time.

We were having a good time.

Yeah.

So Adam Silver does or doesn't know what strapping is.

He does now.

He definitely does now.

I'm sure he knows now.

Yeah.

If he didn't before, yeah.

I really know.

I'd like to retract what I said before when I said that I wasn't sure you guys were journalists.

Megan is just making direct eye contact with the camera.

And it's

Jim Alfred in the audience.

Can I be honest?

You're not going to love this, but this is what it's like doing a podcast with her.

You just talk right to the camera.

You never talk to me.

I got to get to my paper.

I'll be like, we're having the conversation.

Why are you talking to the camera?

Because we're having the conversation with

its

followers.

That's right.

She always goes to the tuna.

I'm one of these people.

I'm like looking at me.

I'm such a big fan of the show.

Megan, Sue.

Thank you for being in this business.

Thank you for giving me the honor of giving Butter Pablo a front.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Metalark Media production,

and I'll talk to you next time.

Dude, did you order the new iPhone 17 Pro?

Got it from Verizon.

The best 5G network in America.

I never looked so good.

You look the same.

But with this camera, everything looks better, especially me.

You haven't changed your hair in 15 years.

Selfies?

Check, please.

With Verizon, new and existing customers can get the new iPhone 17 Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, plus a new iPad and Apple one, with eligible phone trade-in and unlimited ultimate.

Best 5G source root metrics in the United States 1H2025.

All rights reserve trading and additional terms apply for all offers.

See Verizon.com for Looking for pieces that go places and last decades?

Discover the fall edit from Banana Republic.

Founded in 1978, Banana Republic creates classics with character that carry you from adventure to the city and everywhere in between.

Think shearling line leather that feels lived in, sweaters spun from the finest wool and cashmere, and effortless pieces designed for the journey, grounded in heritage, reimagined for today, and made to last.

Explore the fall edit now at bananarepublic.com.

The problem with group insurance is that healthcare isn't a group decision, it's personal.

Group insurance means businesses get one carrier and just a few plan options for the whole company, but that doesn't fit everyone's needs.

Now, a new coverage option called an ICHRA or ICRA allows employees to buy any plan from any carrier.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, plan on something personal.

Plan on an ICRA.

Learn more at ambetterhealth.com/slash ICRA.