🎙️ Episode 10: “Valkyries Queen: Laeticia Amihere Rules the Court”

This episode highlights Laeticia Amihere, the Valkyries’ dynamic forward known as The Black Queen, rocking jersey #3. A national champion with South Carolina under Dawn Staley, a 2023 WNBA first-round pick, and an Olympic medalist with Team Canada, Amihere is one of ESPN's 25 under 25 to watch this season!

How about off the court? When the W is done, she’s an outspoken advocate, mentor, and role model, using her platform to empower others in Africa, Canada and the US.

Tune in as we discuss why she's the best. We love Laeticia Amihere!  🏀👑🖤💜

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Valkyries.

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Valkyries. This is Reina. And Vanessa. And this is Valkyries Say Less.

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And by that you know we really mean.

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We're going to say so much more. Welcome. We are two

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ex-hoopers, mom, teachers, and entrepreneurs.

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Living in San Francisco.

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And it's been a minute.

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Woo, it's been a summer. Oh my god, I feel so good. Okay, where are you? Tell me where you are. I am in San Juan, Puerto Rico with Oli. And we are doing our mother-son trip. Coming back to get to know his country and see family. So it's been really, really amazing. Where are you? How's your summer going?

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I'm back in the Alps for just a few more days. I head to San Francisco on Monday, August 11th, which is perfect timing because I land at 2.30 p.m. at SFO. And what's happening that night?

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Balhalla,

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baby. So I keep asking the pals if they're going to the game. And I'm like, please, meet me at the game. I miss Balhalla. It's not the same being so far away.

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So you're just going to be fighting jet lag and going straight to the game. That's amazing.

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And then directly to work the next morning at 8 a.m.

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Go hard or go

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home. But watching the games on League Pass really makes you miss the high-intensity joy of experiencing it firsthand. So Mama needs to come back to SF and experience that wild, unleashed joy. Unbridled. That's what I meant. Joy of Mahala. I can't wait to see the players. I know. It's been really a

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struggle on my phone when I refuse to download the League Pass app. Oh, yes. And then I have to, like, log in.

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Classic. Everyone is true to form.

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Classic. But they've been busy. It's also been hard with time changes. Like, they've been playing at, like, crazy times. Like, at 10 in the morning their time, but then they're on the East Coast and sleepy and then getting on another flight.

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Yeah. Everything is crazy to me because of being nine hours ahead when they're on the West Coast. So it's always like one in the morning and I'm like, league pass. My eyes are closing and it's time to go to bed.

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Watch the highlights. No more. No more. Life. We got a couple injury reports, though. Who's on our injury list for today? So we have some injuries. The good news is we have Kyla Charles stepping up. She's on a seven day hardship contract. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. out because she really stepped into the game coach nakase was um very pleased with how the whole team rallied around charles and you know they they put it together and it wasn't like as awkward as one might think charles is in bahala because we have mo billings out

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mo billings is out with

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a left ankle

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injury for at least three weeks

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okay

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and then kt

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well kt is our our most serious injury um kt got injured right after the all-star game in practice and had surgery and now is out for the rest of the season. Yeah. So that was terrible

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news. Our fearless leader. I know.

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She

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was really stepping up. That was a major blow. Okay, so that's for today. Other big news, though, that has been... Ridiculous. Big news. Did you see what I did there? My pun? Thank you.

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Your pun. Keep it clean. It's clean. Yeah, I mean, the adult neon green toy is, I don't know, it's making too many headlines. It just feels like a huge distraction from important things in the world. Yeah. Like it's in The Guardian. That's nuts. I know. My British friend here in

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the

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Alps

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sent it to me, and I was like, oh, this is the news that we're reporting on.

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Yeah, at first I thought it was funny, but now the joke is being dragged, as the kids would say. They're dragging it, and there are serious consequences. At first I thought it was just kind of like a queer... Toy that was like, yeah, we're totally free and this is confetti, an expensive piece of confetti. Who has money for that? But it turns out some dude thought it would be funny and wanted to go viral. And now people are like, oh, that was so funny. I'm going to copy it. I really, I don't get it. Not into it. So I think the WNBA is putting its foot down, threatening, you know, one year ban. He's arrested. The dude that did it was arrested and charged with disorder. He faces counts of disorderly conduct. No, it's insane. It's dumb. And ideally,

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it's not going

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to happen again. Okay,

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but going back to the injuries. Also, I am so surprised at how many injuries we have because we've had only one player on the Valks who hasn't been out a single game, Veronica Burton. Everyone else has missed at least one or two games and it seems like this is a thing. We're hearing from, you know, a lot of players on other W teams. I know we were talking about a study that you'd read recently. Yeah.

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Right, about injuries and about how there's hormones.

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ACL

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tears. ACL injuries. Yeah, there's ongoing research on that, and I just wonder how we're going to respond. I think at least I hope the CBA includes a better schedule where you're giving athletes more time to recover when they're getting off a plane. Yeah. And maybe spread the games apart. If you have so few players playing so frequently...

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yeah, it is interesting because I'm like, why is it happening in the W? Is it because the games are too close together? Or is it and because they need to hustle on the offseason in either play overseas or an unrivaled and they just don't have enough time to rest? Also, I don't know enough about the MNBA to know whether the men are experiencing like the same level of injuries as the women. Well, they're

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experiencing better contracts, Yeah. So if someone gets injured, they have longer, less pressure to get back on the court.

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Yeah. We really need to increase our roster from 12 to 15.

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But yeah, there's all the, I think it's probably all of it. Find the money.

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Okay, well, this is our plug that we, Valkyrie Say Less, highly support the labor negotiation contracts right now. We support the players and what they're requesting, which is also not, they're not requesting the same thing as the men in the MNBA. They are requesting better contracts, better pay, better benefits, not the same as the men. Mm-hmm. you know, a person in 2025, it's important to support the W and to pay these women more since they are starting with$60,000 salaries, which is just not enough.

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Agreed.

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Okay. Soapbox done. I think that's why I

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relate to the WNBA. Working women that just deserve a break.

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Folks who have taught, you know what we're talking about. A break and a better salary. Team two steps forward. Team

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two steps forward. I love it. We are on our soapbox here. I'm going to create

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new merch.

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New

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merch. Okay, so what are we getting into today? Who are we talking about? Which

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player? Oh, we are into Leticia Ami here. I am so excited for this one. Are you in love again? Did you fall in love again? Of

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course, I'm always in love. Every single time, it's like the first time. Of course, I love her. Yes. I thought she was so cool when I would watch her play knowing like very little about her. And of course, now that we've done our deep dives, I'm just like, girl. Yeah. You are completely amazing. Right. Like, they all are peeling the onion back, getting to know the numerous layers of Leticia. Okay, if you just, before we do our game, can you give me layers of the players? Before we do our game, give me two words that come to mind with Leticia Amir.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

Serious? And resilient. Resilient is like a very 2024 word, 2023 word. But I just, yeah, I just love her bio.

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Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Keep it secret. Keep it secret. We're going to get into it. No, I'm not like, don't explain resilient here. I just want a little teaser. Oh, that was my teaser. This is a teaser to the listeners. Okay. My two words are block. Block. Oh, God, I shouted that. Excuse me. Block and international. Okay, not saying anything. Okay. Okay, not saying anything. So you've got some teasers now. Let's get into it. Okay.

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Okay.

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You took it. I gave it to you. You took it. What's our game today? Our game

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is a little teacher trick called detective. And so I think it's kind of like one of those personality quizzes where we ask students about like, if you were a breakfast food, which one would you be? But we're asking each other about Leticia, me here. So we'll see how this goes. So some fun little questions and kind of like quizzing each other on the research we've done and pulling in like whatever little tangents we can pull in. Let's see how we do. Do you want to start the prompt? Sure.

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Question number one. What's in her game day bag? So what kinds of things are in her giant tote? Raina, if you know her, what's in there?

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Does she have a giant tote?

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Girl has. Is that a thing? No, I mean, I just invented that. Is she a bag person? Probably. She's got like tons of different outfits, fashionista, modeling. I'm sure she's got loads of different size purses for the various events. Back to what's in there, though, Raina, if you know her. How can you teach us about her?

SPEAKER_04 11:19

So I would probably guess that there's something representing her family, like maybe some family photos. She was really, really close to her two big brothers. She was their water girl growing up and just, like, idolized them and then wanted to play. And finally they were like, yeah, you can play. And, oh, boy, can she play. Some other things, she played in the Olympics, so maybe some, like– Good luck charms from the Olympics.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Ooh, what Olympics did she play in? Say more. She played in two Olympics.

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I know.

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Can you

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believe it? Of Tokyo and Paris. Yeah. And she's so young. She's so young. Just a little babe. She's 24. She was born in 2001.

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Yes, she literally turned 24 and has played in two Olympics for what team?

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Canada. Thank you. Bingo.

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Did I say that weird? Canada?

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Canada. What else would she have? So maybe a water bottle for Water Girl with her brothers, some photos. I

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have an idea.

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Think.

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What? I bet she has some cool sneakers. She reps Under Armour and she has... really, like, hella cool sneakers in bright colors. She's got probably several awesome pairs of Under Armour sneakers. Now I want some Under Armour sneakers.

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Second question, you ask. Okay, second question. What does she do on a Sunday off?

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All right, since we say Sunday, and she has listed... in several different places that she is Christian, then I'm going to say one of the things she might do on Sunday is go to church. Catholic. I wasn't sure if she was, is she Catholic? I

SPEAKER_04 13:05

think so. Her, what I learned in my research is tragically her brother passed away There's still a GoFundMe up. He passed away when he was 30 years old. And the services, they also went to Catholic school, but the services were at a Catholic church for him. So I think like myself, she was raised Catholic, but she also used the word for God as Jah on her most recent Instagram

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post.

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I saw that. So spiritual person, really another woman of faith.

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Another. I know there are several. Yeah.

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And

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she posted pictures of her also with the scripture and studying as some of our other vows have.

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And also, like, in that, like, she got some awards in college for volunteer work, you know, living her faith in service. And then she has a community organization as well.

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Her nonprofit?

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Yeah.

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Yeah. Okay, so she has a nonprofit. And

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that's called Back to the Motherland?

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Yes. Okay, so we were mentioning ACL injuries earlier. She has had two of them. She has had, prior to the W, two different ACL injuries. And I bring this up because it was while she was recuperating from her injuries and not playing that she was having some deep reflection about who she was and like, you know, point of her life and all this stuff, which again, like let's think she's 24 right now. So this was happening when she was in her earlier 20s. She created Return to the Motherland, which is a nonprofit to help underserved youth in either Ghana or the Ivory Coast have access and education. She is someone who believes that she has been given a lot, that she has a lot of privilege, and that she wants to give back, and that that is a deep family value. And so I really think that that's awesome. Again, another one of our VALX players who has a huge side passion that she is pursuing. They're unbelievable. These women are incredible.

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Age 21 founded her nonprofit. Incredible. And then like came back to Canada and then did some all-girl camps as well.

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I think her mom also has a similar nonprofit. And so I think she was modeling it after that.

UNKNOWN 15:30

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Yeah, there's a quote from her. I really want to dive deep into the connections that I make with people. It's not only trying to impact them by running camps, but also by being a great role model for them and somebody that they can look up to and reach out to. So just like not just like doing things. like actually connecting with people and I mean yes 21 years old who would predict that while you're in the NBA

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I know she said I'm really trying to pave a way for all those young women just keep going because trust me basketball is on the rise for women I love it I

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trust you I trust you Leticia

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oh my god okay next question let's keep going okay wait wait no no I want to say something else that she's doing on her Sunday excuse me oh not just a woman of service that is a huge part of her but she's also chitty chatty texting with her text group the Utes who are her Canadian basketball player colleagues that she played with she has a whole like text group with them and I was like oh I love that and she like says jokes there's like videos of her saying jokes and stuff so I was like oh I bet she's texting some jokes to the Utes to the Utes now the question is what language is So

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I'm going to say probably her. I think her first language is French. Right. I saw a lot.

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We first language is French. How

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many French speakers do we have on the team now? I

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mean, we have three French players plus Leticia. So I'm like, we have four. Yeah. I mean, my heart is pounding. Yeah. With French joy. Yeah. I've written to the consulate in San Francisco to be like, hello, I hope you are aware and supporting, encouraging our glorious players. So just a side note, the French consulate has been contacted. Let's go to the next question.

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Okay. No, I think it should get coverage more than sex toys. Okay. So next question. Do you want to do it?

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Yeah. What's her post-game meal? Love this one. I

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haven't seen her posting anything about San Francisco restaurants, but there was a really great story about her recruitment with the one and only Dawn Staley. Dawn Staley, we love you.

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No word yet if she's going to the Knicks. Oh, yeah. We don't

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know yet. We

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don't know yet. Dawn Staley we're following very closely.

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But Dawn Staley coached South Carolina where... Leticia Amihir went to college, had an amazing recruitment class. So who'd she play with? She played with a whole bunch of

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powerhouses. Oh, yeah. And like three of them were in first round draft pick the same year that she got into the W. Yeah.

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Oh, Aaliyah Boston, Zia

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Cook,

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Rhea Neal, and Olivia Thompson.

UNKNOWN 18:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Yeah, so they were the senior corps, and they only lost nine games in four years. So tell us about the Dawn Staley recruitment

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process. Can you believe that? Nine games. Oh, my God. Dawn Staley, just brilliant coach and recruiter that she is, knew that Leticia was very close to her family. So mother, Ivory Coast. Father, Ghana. And she was like, listen— We got to secure this

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deal.

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And we know that she's close to them. She's close to her African cultural heritage, though she was born and raised in Canada. Let's get some African food for this girl. And there was an African cultural fair that was going on. And at the same time, so amazing timing. And then they basically ensured that Leticia went there so that she was experiencing, you know, some delicious African food while She was in South Carolina. The caterers spoke the specific dialect that Georgette, her mom, spoke. So then the entire time Georgette was chatting with the caterers.

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Yeah, you got to woo the parents. I mean, that's awesome.

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You got to woo the parents. Yeah,

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Staley said, we searched high and low to make sure they had an African meal. We knew there was an annual African festival in town and we found the caterer. As it turned out, the caterer spoke Georgette's dialect. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Pulling the strings. I mean, Amazing. Okay. I want to say one more thing about food because I did read that in, I read the transcript for a podcast that she was doing and she was talking about how food is very important to her. So, so stoked for her to be in San Francisco where we have such an excellent food culture. Yeah. Raina, if you had to recommend any place for her to go to in San Francisco, what would you recommend knowing what we know about her?

SPEAKER_04 20:31

Well, I have my favorite Absolutely. Absolutely. I believe it's Senegalese.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Okay. And so there's several people that speak French there, too. The food is awesome. Also, they have like live music and it's incredibly festive. So wonderful spot to go check out in San Francisco. So that's our that's our rec for Leticia. OK, let's get back to the question. Is

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this the team actually listens to the podcast? That's hilarious.

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OK, that is my dream. OK, what's the next question? OK,

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next prompt. What's your signature move? I know what you're going to say, and I'm going to say you're wrong. I'm going to say a big block. Okay, but I'm going to say she's more known for her dunk. Fine at 15. She was the first Canadian player to dunk at 15. It's true. I think she's gone more viral. Fine. But her go-to right now is the block. Like, she should be playing volleyball out there. Okay, fine.

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I think about her in her gigantic wingspan. Yeah, she's only 6'3",

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and then she has this wingspan that's 6'10". Is that an urban myth, or is that, like, for real?

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It's unbelievable. You think about, like, the Leonardo da Vinci thing? Her arms just look like they go on for days. They would just go, like,

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outside the circle.

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We should just, like... Amazing. We both have our arms just like totally spread out

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right

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now.

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Taking a picture of you spreading your wings. Completely. Okay. Sorry. I'm not making fun of you, but it's cute that you're trying to be Leticia on this little screen in France.

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I am because when she like blocks those balls and they go out and she has her like hella serious game face. She says she has two faces. It's like one of my favorite things. Two

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personalities. Two modes of like serious face and then just like very friendly smiley face.

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Yeah. And also like don't ask me to smile on the

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court,

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which I love.

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She's down to business.

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She

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had another funny post on her on-the-court ferocity with punk music behind it and then the elegant runway queen just looking amazing in all the fashion.

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Like a model. Back to the dunk, though. Who texted her after the dunk? Shaquille O'Neal. Famous MNBA, exactly. How

SPEAKER_04 23:00

did he text her? I don't even get it because she wasn't famous then. Shaquille

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was famous. I'm thinking when you're Shaquille and you want to text someone, people will get you that number. He texted her, which I'm just like, that's awesome. And then somebody else. So

SPEAKER_04 23:17

did Drake.

UNKNOWN 23:18

Yeah.

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Yep. A fellow Canadian.

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Next prompt. Who's

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got her back?

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Who's got her back? Well, we know Dawn Staley. And now we know Shaquille O'Neal. Yep. Who else? Oh, who else? Who did she play with on her first WNBA team? She was drafted.

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Bingo. This leads us to... The Atlanta Dream. The Atlanta

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Dream. She was drafted number eight.

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Two seasons. In the first round. Yep. Okay, so who from the Valks were on The Dream? There

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were

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some

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brief overlaps. Well, first of all, she only played two seasons with The Dream. They didn't play her a lot, which kind of reminds me of our convo about Tip Hayes having like a rocky kind of departure from The Dream and not being pleased with what was going on there. And so she She was two years, two seasons with the dream. And in that overlap, she kind of almost overlapped with Tiffany Hayes. Or was Tiffany Hayes gone? Tiffany

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Hayes was gone. Okay. In 23.

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And so it was, she got to actually play with other Valkyries. Oh, Rupert. She got to play with Rupert until like July and then Rupert left to go do her Euro thing. And then Mo

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Billings. Little French chitty chats. And

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so Mo Billings and Rupert and then almost Tiffany Hayes, but then Tip was traded

SPEAKER_02 24:42

to the Suns. Yeah, somebody else who was on the Valks, but isn't here anymore. Unhappily.

SPEAKER_04 24:45

Oh, and then the other person, yeah, you're right, was Ariel Powers, who played with us during the Eurobasket. You're right. You're right. Ariel Powers played with us, but also played for the Dream in the 2024 season with Ami here. So there's, I mean, it's a small league, so there's lots of overlap. It's just fun to think of like, oh, these people aren't playing on the court together on the same team for the first time. All these onion

SPEAKER_02 25:10

layers. What's one of her quotes from? that she had about how small the league was. We got a lot of notes. Okay, found it. There's only 144 athletes in the WNBA, and it's a very competitive association. It's very hard to make it, very hard to stay in it. Being able to hear my name and being the first Ghanaian woman to be drafted into the WNBA, I think that's one of my biggest prizes. There was a really cute text that she posted. It was basically she was screenshotting texts from her dad and she was like, oh, daddy's girl. And he was just like so proud of the fact that she was representing Ghana.

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And

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I loved that. So it was a reminder of how close she was to Ghana. to her fam.

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Another person that has her back is Hayley Jones. They played together on The Dream, and there was a cute, very supportive quote that Hayley Jones said. I'm excited to see Miss Two-Time Olympian get out there in Paris, dunk on somebody, and get crazy. Oh,

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my

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God. So it's cute to see. Oh, absolutely. Just rooting for each other.

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And I would say, who has her back, even though she's not with us anymore, but her aunt was someone who was very important to her, and though she had been She listens to old voice memos before the games, which I thought like that's another.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

Of her aunt? Of her aunt, yeah. Oh. I do that with my dad. Do you? Yeah,

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I've got a couple saved.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

That's awesome. But yeah, that's a very precious ritual, would you call it? Or practice?

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Tradition, yeah, ritual. She

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does that before the games, just sort of tradition, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

This is a good way to get to uncover different things about her. All right, do you have another question? I

SPEAKER_04 27:25

do. If we were going to give a title to her memoir or like a bio film of a me here, what would be the title or like what would the movie be like?

SPEAKER_02 27:35

The Black Queen. I mean,

SPEAKER_04 27:39

she

SPEAKER_02 27:49

had to mess around a little bit to get it. But I love that because she also says that Dawn Staley really talked about her leadership capacity and stuff. Owning it. I think about that a lot when I think of The Black Queen, where I'm just like, wait, what is the show? Bridgerton? I think of Bridgerton.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

And she's just so elegant.

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The

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royalty.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Mm-hmm, royalty. Yeah, and so I'm just like, oh. Or that picture, who is it? Is it Beyonce, that meme? That's what I'm talking about, where it's just like you write queen, and it's just Beyonce walking forward in her queen outfit. I'm just like... Yes. Queen. And then.

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Anyways,

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that's the title of her memoir. That's the title

SPEAKER_04 28:29

of her memoir. And then what would be, like, what would it be about? Or what style would you do the film in? Any

SPEAKER_02 28:35

ideas for like. I kind of feel like we have, like, she's got this, that dual, that dual nature that she embodies, which is serious, baddie, athlete, and then smiley, top model. Right. Queen. I just saw Superman. It's kind of like

SPEAKER_04 28:52

that, like Clark Kent. And then, yeah, like maybe it's a superhero, a superhero movie.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

He is a superhero. Yes. The Black Queen is a superhero. Oh

SPEAKER_04 29:03

my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 29:05

Another sequel to Black Panther. We need it. Womanifesting. Awesome. Constantly

SPEAKER_02 29:14

womanifesting. Okay. Love that. Okay. So what have we not covered enough? You know what we haven't covered enough? The Valks. We haven't covered her time on the Valks. So question about that. What's her life been like since May? Raina, how would you describe her duality since May? Or since February. She was signed in February.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

If she were in ice cream, to bring it back to the silly prompts, she would be a Rocky Road ice cream. She was like, got all this fan following and had a killer. I think she was a star player. I'm going to say that. Of the first preseason game that we were at. It was amazing. It was such a fun game. 20 points! And she had 20 points in the preseason game. I think that might, I mean, definitely her career high because she didn't get many playing minutes at the Dream. And so she just like came out yeah a star and then played another game and had like a decent game no crazy amounts of turnovers or anything and then all of a sudden she was waved she was dropped from the team and it was our first wave of waves of like you get the Instagram message of thank you yeah it was not a fun it was like this first moment of like I don't know if I like this GM I don't know like what's going on here and so That was really sad, and we kind of just had to trust the process. And then during Eurobasket, we got her back. Yeah, we got her back. Right? Yeah. We brought her back for it, and then we kept her. It was, like, unclear if she was going to get dropped again, and same with Caitlin Chen. We're like, don't do this to these people again.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

I mean, it's, I know, it's the business part of it that it's messy, it's hard. They did

SPEAKER_04 31:01

all that training, and then they get two games, and then they get dropped, and

SPEAKER_02 31:04

then they get brought back. But then they really proved, they really proved their value. And it's like, they're all, like, awesome. And of course, you know, we're thrilled that Julie Van Loo found another spot on the Sparks and that she's there.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Tell Talbot, too, is lighting up. Talbot's really settling in.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Oh,

SPEAKER_04 31:20

yeah. Over on the Liberty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, who wouldn't want to be on the Liberty right now? It looks like so much fun. But Amir! So, yeah, I think everyone's finding a new spot. It's a lot of shuffling, though. And Amir is back, and she's awesome. Amir

SPEAKER_02 31:34

is here. Amir is here. Okay, so she's at the Valks. We're a little past halfway of the season, so we still got several games. We are still a contender for the playoffs, but there are two Too many games right now, I think, to say yet. What's up? We're like in eighth place.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

But she's already scored more points in half a season than she did in her entire two seasons with The Dream. Oh, yeah. They're giving her minutes and she's playing them. Oh, yeah. She's got a good plus minus. And then, yeah, she's played... 18 games already. Her last year with Atlanta, she only played 17 in the whole season. So I think she's an example of someone like, yeah, you do need someone to believe in you. Totally. And give you that time and that trust and that encouragement. And she's just taking advantage of every minute she gets on the floor. And she's loving, I mean, the fans were crazy that first game. Oh, yeah. Actually, you know what? Let's talk about fans. She's a big fan of fans.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Let's talk about– she's a big fan of fans. She really appreciates, really loves the fans. Also, let's talk about the fans because you know how on Facebook and Instagram prior to us recording the episode, I love to say, you know, tell me why you love and then name the player. And so what was– awesome was that the responses for Leticia, they wouldn't stop rolling in. And partly, you know, the more times we do this, the more exposure we have and whatnot. But people were just going on and on about all the different reasons that they loved her. So one of our last Instagram posts, I posted it, and it was eight, nine, 10 pages deep of just screenshots of what people have to say about her. And so, bravo. I

SPEAKER_04 33:27

thought you were going to say 10 replies. Oh, no, no, no. It was like so Oh, many replies. We're getting some exposure. Wow, 10 pages. Any good ones? Say more.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Okay, someone by the name Perky Carla. L.A. plays with the elegance of a gazelle, but brings that dog every game, period, with muscle flex, fire, heart emoji. I mean, absolutely. Okay, what else? Tenly Yovne, lanky, graceful, and fierce determination. All right. Since we're going to take a moment to just make a connection. She herself was talking about how she was so tall and lanky growing up that that was also, it wasn't just watching her brothers, but her first sport was what? What was her first sport? It wasn't basketball. Soccer.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Yeah. Her first sport was soccer, but then totally, then she's Just continued to grow. Continued to grow. And so she went into basketball and then just totally dominated. Okay, wait, I'm going to go back to the comments. Last comment, Abigail Jung. She's a bouncing bundle of joy. Exclamation. She has such energy and gives a thousand percent when she's on the court. She's fearless from driving to the basket and she always has such a big smile and looks so happy. Yeah. Interesting. But that is to say we haven't talked about what position she plays or has played. So here

SPEAKER_04 34:59

playing for us, she is number three. So she's number three and she's playing forward. She's small forward? Well, she can play everything. She's kind of what Coach Nakase looks for in all these players. like these very versatile, skilled players. She can pull up for threes. She can play everything. Dawn Staley was big on that. I think Dawn Staley's quote was she was the most versatile player ever that she's ever coached.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

That's

SPEAKER_04 35:24

a huge compliment coming from Dawn Staley. Let me find that quote. She's the most versatile player that I've ever coached. She can play one, which is a point guard, through five. So she can be anything. Yeah. She welcomes all the roles that she's given. A renaissance woman. Yes, bow down, flowers. Yeah, so she's on the roster as a forward, but very gifted, very talented.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Melissa.

SPEAKER_04 35:53

Anything else we're missing? Well, I would say. So the Olympics, she also played in Australia for the Perth Lynx. Yeah. And had averaged 15.5 points a game in Australia during the 2021 And I think that's where you really see the nerdiness of Coach Nakase. yourself to a whole European season. She said it definitely takes a toll on your body and it also takes a toll mentally on you. Athletes Unlimited helps alleviate the toll on your body that men's players don't have to experience because they're able to just stay and do their full season in North America. So back to our soapbox, sort of going back

SPEAKER_02 36:57

to the contracts.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

I'm sure European League wouldn't love to hear that. The Australian League. We just want to keep all our WNBA players safe at home and some QT

SPEAKER_02 37:07

with We want them to do what they want to do. We want them to go play overseas if they want to go play, but not because they have to go play. It's a difference. If they want to go play to represent their country or for the experience and to travel, amazing. We just don't want to have to be that they need to do that in order just to make a living. Seems like we're stating some very obvious things here, and we're going to see it change. I just have faith. I have faith that it's going to change. Now, we've got two more things to do. Oh, okay. One, We have to do our countdown on which player we're doing next. I

SPEAKER_04 37:42

don't know

SPEAKER_02 37:42

why I

SPEAKER_04 37:42

feel so much

SPEAKER_02 37:43

pressure to

SPEAKER_04 37:45

get the... We're going to do

SPEAKER_02 37:47

them all. We're going to do them

SPEAKER_04 37:48

all. So there's no pressure. It's not like favoritism. It's just kind of like who's... I've

SPEAKER_02 37:53

been ready. I'm ready. Are you ready to count down or do you want to talk about... One, two, three. Janelle. I knew you were going to say Janelle. Okay, well, let's rush him out. All

SPEAKER_04 38:02

right, let's do Janelle next because Chechi is...

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Both Janelle and Chechi went away for Eurobasket and came back. They both were there from the beginning, so there's no difference in their standing. Caitlin had been waived and then returned and stayed. Ileana was on the team from the beginning but just joined. So we do Janelle, Chechi, Caitlin, Ileana. I like it. Let's see. I

SPEAKER_04 38:26

like that logic. Okay, we're going to go with Janelle Salon. Okay,

SPEAKER_02 38:30

so the last

SPEAKER_04 38:31

bit. The last bit is our chance.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Chant. I don't have anything.

SPEAKER_04 38:37

Did you talk to your brother about this, though? So we're on our own again today because you're on my phone. And we'll bring him back. Phone a fan when we have free cell phones. But right now I'm on the phone with you. And we're in the bunk bed. Back in the recording studio, bunk bed recording studio. Can't wait. So do you have any chants?

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Well, mine is from my favorite Tom Petty. And instead of it's good to be king, it's good to be queen.

SPEAKER_04 39:04

Can you sing it?

SPEAKER_02 39:06

It goes a little something like this. It's good to be queen. If just for a while. To be there in velvet, yeah, to give him a smile. All right, that's it. What's yours?

SPEAKER_04 39:24

Oh, I found mine. Okay, what's yours? So I was singing Love Me Not by Raven Linnaeus. It's... And I miss you on me here. Yeah, I miss you on me here.

UNKNOWN 39:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

So it's kind of like a, I miss you, come here, but we need you, Leticia Ami here.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

And I miss you, Ami here.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

It's pretty silly. Do you think we have enough where we can just be like, goodbye? I don't think I can wrap this, but let me see. Okay, it's by Don Tolliver, but it has Doja Cat in it. So it's really just the Doja Cat part that's necessary here.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

I've

SPEAKER_04 40:08

been going over the top where no queen been. Die with no regrets. This is my season. Did Leticia write this song?

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Amazing. All right. Well, here we go. Thank you, listeners. Thank you,

SPEAKER_03 40:21

listeners.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

And up next with Janelle and back in Bahala. We'll be back in Bahala soon. Thank you so much for listening to Valkyries Say Less.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

This is Raina.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

And Vanessa.

SPEAKER_04 40:33

And this is Valkyries Say Less.

UNKNOWN 40:39

Bye.