Episode 27 BASKETBALL BUZZ

WNBA Energy    Mary Lou and Phyllis talk about the 30th WNBA season that is bringing high energy, breakout performances, and major attention across the league. Veteran stars are holding it down while a new wave of talent is helping make this season one of the most exciting and competitive yet.

The Next Generation is Here!    The OGs are hyped about the 2026 NBA Playoffs, where a new generation of stars is taking over. Is there a single dominant force?  The Knicks and Thunder would like you to think so, but the Spurs are in it to win it and the Cavs are in the mix of a wide-open postseason race. Also, curiosity killed the cat, but not the OGs — they couldn’t resist digging into how these teams got their names.

🏀🏀🏀With Spring in the air and the summer months coming, the OGs are easing-off weekly recording sessions to every other week until we take an official break later in the summer.🏀🏀🏀

Thanks for listening and we’ll keep you posted.

Follow us on Instagram #OGs Talkin' Ball

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to OG's Talk and Ball. This is Phyllis and my friend Mary Lou. Am I still your friend? Yeah. This is number what, 27, and we're still speaking to each other, Phyllis. This is like record setting, you know? Well, we are speaking to each other for the next half hour anyway. And then we're going out to lunch after. Yes. That's one of those days that we have the time. Sports place. Right. That's uh we'll tell you about it later, but uh it's uh basically um run by women for women, honoring women's sports, all kinds of women's sports, not just basketball. So we'll leave that as a teaser. Yeah, right. Like nobody will catch on that actually knows about it. And there's one in Portland, and they're opening up like four or five in other places in the country. Anyway, moving on, Phyllis. I'm sorry I interrupted you. Well, we have two 15-minute, roughly-ish um sessions today. One the first one's gonna be on the WNBA, and the second one on the NBA, right? Similar to the last podcast. Right, right. It's kind of our summer schedule, I guess. But no, actually, we already developed next topics and it's gonna be three, ten minutes again. So you never know what you're gonna get. You have to kind of just tune in to know. That's right. So there so here we are talking about the WNPA. Yes, and you know, you can't say the WNBA without talking about uh the aces. You know, the Las Vegas Aces and Aja Aja Wilson, Chelsea Gray. I mean, there are so many great women um ball players on that team. They really do set the tone and set the mark, I think, for others to, you know, want to be. Yeah, we're we're just really early into the season still. There's they're four and one right now, so they've won. They lost that first game, and since then, uh-uh. You know what I mean? They've been they were put on report. I am sure their coach had many things to say about that loss to them. Well, it must have been very shocking to lose to it. Was Phoenix. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was like, okay, here we go. So um, yeah, that was interesting. And that's the night they got their rings and everything. I yeah, oh my gosh, that that had to have been difficult. That had to have been difficult. But I'm sure Phoenix was happy that they are the ones that it was kind of like how we felt around about the how the Blazers, how we felt as Blazer fans when they were the first team to beat OKC last year in early November. That was like, yay, we did it, we did it, and since then from that point where you know where OKC landed. So enough said about that. Anyway, so what else about the aces? Is there anything there that stands out to you other than the players that we mentioned? Is there a style that they play, do you think, that really um sets them apart from every everyone else, other than they're four and one? Well, that's not they may have one more by the time this drops. Oh, this is true. Uh at as of today, which is a couple of days ahead of the drop date uh for this podcast, they are four and one. So how about if we just say they've only lost one, but we'll see what happens over the weekend here. So You know, I want to uh um talk about something called the Com the Commissioner's Cup Tournament. Oh, that's coming up. Okay, so you're off the are you finished with the Aces? Well, they're they're included in this a little bit, you know, because um And that happens in June. June first. It starts June first. So that's coming right up. Yeah. What does that mean? How many games is it different than their regular games or what have you? Well well they count as regular season games. They're they play five tournament games. Okay, five different teams? Um yes. Uh-huh. Each team plays five different tournament games. Um and it will be from June 1st to the 17th. And this this tournament's only been going on until the twenty f since the um 2021. Oh, relatively new. Yeah, and it's divided into the east and the west, you know, so there'll be a winner in the east and the west. And that final game, the best of the east and the best of the west, doesn't count again in their season. But all the other games do. It's like an extra game. Yeah. Kind of like the Emirates Cup for the NBA, right away, you know, and similar, similar anyway. That's what I think too. Yeah, that it's embedded within whoever they're gonna play anyway at that point in the season, but they just have a little bit of a different prize, like a midseason prize kind of thing. Right. And talk about prize. There's a prize pool of five hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

And each team picks uh a charity that Oh, I like that. Yeah, that um is involved with the social awareness. Uh-huh. Um, and the rest uh that it has to be involved with the social justice system. That's their that's the goal of that whatever the charity is. Right. That's in their constitution or whatever you want to call it. They share some of their winnings, the rest of the money goes to the players, including the the bench players. Oh wow. Everybody, it it's not a good thing. And their support staff, uh-huh. Right. Uh-huh. That's great. That's great. That's great. And but and we may see some really high-scoring games because point differential matters. It's a tiebreaker in this tournament. That is, whoever has the most wins is um, you know, makes it. Right, right, right. But if there's a tie for the most wins, yeah, it's whoever has the highest point differential. Got it. So instead of at the end of the game, if you're behind 30 points and there's five minutes to go, they may sub out um the the starting players. They are they are going for the highest point total that they can get. Okay. Because it makes a difference in this tournament. Well, with that said, too, you know, the New York Liberty is scoring over a hundred points per game as an average. So there somebody, you know, before it used to be the W would be 70s, 80s would be kind of top score, not before, but in years past, I guess I should say it that way. But this year it seems like everyone is not a lot of the teams have really escalated that benchmark of how many points per game. So yeah, the scores the scores are higher. Yeah, you know, there'll be the familiar teams in the mix with the Aces and the Las Vegas Aces. So everyone's in the New York Laboratory. Everyone's in the mix, right? But you're talking about winners. Probably excelling, Minnesota Lynx. Last year's winner was uh Indiana Fever. Oh, okay. And Caitlin's back playing, she's still a little hobbled. You know, I think it was maybe a week ago that I watched a game, and she landed like right on her back. And so that put her out of playing uh this past week when the fever when the Portland uh fire visited the fever. Uh-huh. But that didn't seem to stop the fever in having an escalated score. They did well without her, and I'm sure she was happy that they did. But um, yeah, so they're another team. Um Yeah, and then there's yeah there's the Dallas Wings that are really coming along. They have excellent offense. But do they do they are they gonna be able to correct their defensive weaknesses um enough to s to really do something in the tournament? That would be the question. That would be interesting to know because yeah, we know that they've got Paige Beckers and then AZ Fudd, uh, who are number the number one draft picks from the for past two years. Right. So and they were scorers when they were at UConn, and then none of that's changed. You know what I mean? That they're still, but you do it's it's I think if you take a look at the aces and how ace the aces have gotten as good as they've become, it a lot of it has to do with defense. Yep, you know, yep, that everybody it's kind of the same. We we said this uh a few times during the podcast that we know that that every team, college, NBA, and WNBA, it's if you're not if you don't have defenders or if your guards can't defend, you're gonna be behind the eight ball. Well, it's the famous quote you know, defense wins games, offense sells tickets. Right, right. Yeah, people want to see those fancy shooters, but bottom line, if you want to get the W, you're gonna have to um, yeah, do something a lot different. Yeah, and Golden State Valkyries, they could present some issues. Yes, they can, because they beat the Liberty the other day. Um, Liberty has two l two losses up to this point in time. And uh, you know, and there they have another, you know, Brianna Stewart, who we saw play in person not too long ago, you and I. Uh she's like okay, she was kind of quiet to start with, and then all of a sudden, she every time you looked, every time she got the ball, the ball was in the basket. You know, she's pretty darn good. Yeah, averages 23 points a game. That's pretty, pretty good. For the liberty, yes, yeah. Liberty. Yeah. And and that is interesting that you brought that up because I saw some um older uh and WNBA players talking and they said, you know, when we were when we were playing, I wanted to grow up to be um Michael Jordan, and you know, and now now the girls are wanting to be Stewie. Yeah, I love it. Brianna Stewart. Yeah. That's so cool. That the whole thing has shifted. Yeah. The paradigm has shifted. And again, you know, we have said too, this is the 30th year for the WNBA. It takes a while, you know, for things to kind of kick in and for people to pay attention and to try to get a broad range of an audience. And, you know, a lot of people I know that I personally know that follow the NBA are starting to kind of dip their toes into the WNBA water. And so it's very helpful that so many games are televised, you know, on US. Which is a change. I on, you know, some it's not NBC or ABC, like where that has the um or ESPN. I think there's a couple games that I've seen that it will be on ESPN, but it's great. That's a huge shift. That's huge. Because it would be four, it's like, when do you ever see a game? They're not going to be televised. So um, and for me, I don't mind listening to a game on the radio if I know who's on that team, but just to you know, randomly listen to a team if I'm not sure who those players are, what team they're on, I I don't do so well listening. Yeah, because they say their names and you don't know which team they're playing for sake. I don't have the schema behind. First, you have to know the players, and TV is what does that. Yep. You know, the Phoenix Mercury are are really a deep veteran-led team, too. Yeah and they have one of the best offenses of the season. You know, their their rookie, um Jovan Nojic, I think that's how you say her name, is hitting two-thirds of three. Is it Giovanna? Is that her first name? No, Giovanni. Jovan, okay. Um two-thirds of her threes. Wow. It's like 66%. 66%. Isn't that amazing? Well, you know, and then on the opposite side of that spectrum, the Chicago Sky started really great, and they still are doing well, but they're one of their key players, Rakia Jackson, is now out um from a torn ACL. Oh, out. You know, and that's so early. I just don't, you know, none of us like when anybody gets injured, you know, we certainly don't wish that upon anyone, our worst enemies. And um, yeah, I that was really sad to see that because they were doing they had kind of found a rhythm. I saw them play when they were here in Portland, and they were like, oh my gosh, and um Gabriela Jaquez looked like she had been in the league forever, you know, the uh young lady from UCLA that they drafted. Yes. So they just had a nice flow and everything going, and then this kind of um happened with Rakia. But uh we wish her well and hopefully she mends quickly, and but we probably won't see her the rest of this season, I would imagine. Well, no. Oh, you know, look at Jason Tatum for heaven's sakes. Yeah, but it wasn't that uh Yeah, f only forty games left in in that season. Right, right. Right I would Mary Lou, have you heard of the um Line 'em up initiative by the WNBA? No, tell me. Tell me about it. Um it's an attempt to improve the equity for girls and women in um in the park basketball world. Parks and wreck? Yes. Parks and rec, okay. Yes. Okay, so this is like community-based country-based uh across the country. They they are wanting fire orange three-point lines drawn for the women. Yes, because there's a difference in where the men throw their or have their three-point line and where the women are a bit closer. And you know, the all of this time the girls and women who play park basketball, you know, you don't think of the three-point line. I don't think of that stuff. That's a great initiative. And they want it, you know, they want it bright orange so that it's good very welcoming to women and girls playing basketball. Cool. And that, you know, it acknowledges that they are part of that scene. You know, it's that's great. That's not just the men's basketball court. Yeah, I like that. That is, I think that's really that is a huge statement, you know, to be sent to the communities, to the NBA, to the WNBA, to the basketball world. Well, Phyllis, you know, I I have to admit I started this segment today after I did my research thinking, I don't know if we're gonna have 15 minutes worth of stuff to talk about, and here we are flirting with the 15-minute mark. What else do we want to say about this? Anything about the W at this point? Except if you haven't had, folks, if you haven't had the opportunity to watch a game, find one. They are very, very entertaining, and you're gonna see some really top-rated, top-notch basketball. It's not good basketball game, it's not pavement behind the garage, you know, scrappy um uh uh we pickup. It's not a pickup game, you know what I mean? That they used to call those back in the day. This is like the real deal. And they made a they made uh a different rule this um year that they're they're not putting up with as much physical play. Oh so to help cut down on the injuries. Okay, amen to that. Yes, absolutely. Somebody else should take a lesson. Okay, so let's take a break and come back and talk about the NBA. Perfect. Thanks everyone. We'll see you in a few. And we're back. Okay, Phyllis, so we're gonna talk a bit about the NBA and um talk about a couple of different things because you know, I think we have always tried to make a concerted effort, you and I, if I can speak for the both of us for a moment, um, on not trying to repeat what everyone's already heard on either ESPN, the national news, or whatever about what's going on currently with basketball as far as scores, teams, those kinds of things. We try to kind of take a look at it in the with a little bit of a different lens in what's what we want to know more about, maybe it's just our own personal different lens. Would that be like after cataract surgery? Yes, like brighter, clearer lens. You know what I mean? On some things that people probably talk about all the time and know little about. Uh-huh. So we like kind of digging. I guess what what I'm trying to say is we like digging a little bit deeper, not only for our own satisfaction, but to kind of share those tidbits with who's listening. Yes. So we get down those rabbit holes, and they're very interesting rabbit holes. They are. They are, and you look up and it's an hour later, and it's like, where did that time, you know, end up going? So anyway, just first of all, I want to give a shout out to the rookie teams, NBA 2026 rookie teams. No surprises. Cooper Flag, Con Kanipple, VJ Edgecombe, Dylan Harper. Oh my goodness, what a player! And we're seeing him more and more because he's on the Spurs and um doing well in the playoffs. Dylan is. And one that kind of fell off a lot of radar was Cedric Howard from Memphis Grizzlies. He made that team. So those are the five. That's very nice. And I don't even remember him. I know, I know. He was just, but apparently he made a big difference when he played, so that's why they honored him. Second team, Ace Bailey from the Jazz, Jeremiah Fears, we hear a lot of his name mentioned, as well as Derek Queen from the Pelicans. Those are two that we'll be really watching next year. Colin Murray Boyles from Toronto and Maxime Reynaud. I was look at that name and think it's Maxine, you know, a woman's name, but it's not. This is Maxime Reynault. He's uh a French connection guy on the Sacramento Kings. So I just wanted to start with that and kind of take it, let you kind of piggyback on whatever you want to say. Well, I'd like to send those NBA those people some cookies. Well, there is fresh baked. They made the rookie all NBA team. And that's a one and done kind of thing. You don't make it your first year, you're not going to be the rookie of the year. Try to make it next year, it ain't gonna happen. No, right? Okay, so good job. Good job with the cookies. I like that idea. Yeah, so here we are, right in the middle, uh hot and heavy in the playoffs. And uh yeah, you know, and we by the time this drops, we may even know who's playing in the finals. Finals, right. So we're in the conference finals, right? Or not uh divisions, so we're western and eastern, and uh oh my gosh, your poor Detroit guys. I really thought they were number one. I know they were number one, and they lose to the Cavs. Isn't that sad? Well, here's the shocker is that the Celtics were up by th three to one, three games to one to the 76ers, and the 76ers beat them. Yeah. Whoa. And then the 76ers lost, of course. Met the machine of the New York Knicks. Yeah, but they really got it together at the end of their season. They sure did. Uh up until then, they they were not stars. No, no. And and no one has been surprised that we're looking at uh the uh OKC and the Spurs as the one and two teams that are now vying for whoever's gonna go next. So right. Regular season in the East in the Western Conference, they were one and two. So it's there they're kind of you know messed with our minds on that a little bit, but that's okay too. So um what else do we want to talk about? We have some fun facts, a fun fact, and I've got some I thought was very interesting stuff to share too. Well, I found um in this age of extremely detailed statistics, there's something called gravity leaders. You ever heard of that? I might have in passing, but it it never I didn't make sense of it, so I let it go. I never registered that at all. Gravity. Gravity leaders. This is the uh there's a group of stats that addresses who is attracting the most attention on the court by the defense. Okay, and they keep separate um stats for close to the basket in the paint, uh farther out from the three-point line, who attracts the most with the ball and without the ball. Interesting. And then um then they come up with the the leaders and these are people that are able to work on their passes and identify who's going to be open because they have got two or three even people. Are you talking about players on the court? Who they're talking about? Yeah. Okay, so it doesn't matter if their defense or offense players or just who uh can you help me help me understand this, it'll be a little bit more specific. Okay, so there's there's a uh offensive player, and he has attracted two or three defenders. Okay. Because they know simultaneously or just in the same time. Oh my word. Okay, so more than double team even sometimes. Sometimes you know, everybody is focused on him because they know that he's going to make a three-pointer if they aren't very aggressive with him. Got it. Well, that guy knows that somebody's open because he's got more than one defender on him. Oh, I see, I see, I see. Okay. They work with him, the coaches work with him to s be able to see the open passing lanes and the um unguarded other offensive players. So they they get um assists. They should be able to get a lot more assists, but it it doesn't always work out that way because sometimes the ball is passed more than once. Right. You know, because there'll be the defense is scrambling then after they pass the ball. Yeah, yeah. And they can end up with mismatches, like, you know, somebody a uh sh a foot shorter trying to guard them and so they may get the ball. And be able to shoot it. So I bet everyone could pick a player on a team that they follow that would be that player that either gets double or triple team. Yeah, I was surprised at who the leaders were. One of them wasn't a surprise. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, uh and what's with all the flopping? I'm sorry. I okay, I'm sorry. I'm taking you off your subject, and I think that's so let that go, but I just had to say that. It's like, come on, stay on your feet. The the other gravity leader is uh Anthony Edwards. Oh, okay. He has the highest um gravity gravity scores during the darn. Uh-huh. Well, he's a slippery dude, you know what I mean? Because you don't know if he's gonna take a step back and shoot or ram right through you and try to make uh yeah, interesting. Yeah, so the I could see. Is Wemby on that list? Do they even try to do that? No, he's down quite a ways. Oh, interesting. Yeah, interesting. But you know, think the statistics might be different for playoffs because we have seen certain players really come to the forefront in playoffs that we hardly noticed um in the regular season. Yeah. Interesting. So the they there are teams there are players that shine for one game sometimes just stand out in one game. And other players that uh, you know, are good all the time. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. All right, you have okay, you have names. Well, you know, I'm always intrigued, and I will probably bring this to the forefront more often, maybe next year as or next season when we do episode our episodes of season two of OG's Talk and Ball, but to find out where the origins of some of these team names come from. And some of the college and and the mascots, you know, like uh TCU, the horned frogs, where the heck's that from? I mean, is there a swamp that they're built? Anyway, I don't know, so those are things I want to check. So I'm looking at the four playoff teams right now that we know that are in it, and uh the one that first one that jumped on uh my thought process were the Knickerbock Knicks, the New York Knickerbockers, the New York Knicks, and a knickerbocker is a term dating back to the Dutch settlers of New York back in the 1600s, and they called them knickerbockers, and you know it, knickers are pants that only come to the knee, and men would wear those too with their long socks. And this just kind of all evolved, and there was a gentleman who um founded the team of the New York Knicks in 1946 by the name of Ned Irish, and he picked up on that whole Knicks knickerbockers thing, knickers, knickerbockers, Knicks, and decided that the team would be called the New York Knicks. Well, that's just weird. It's weird. Be named after a pair of pants. That's 80 years ago. I know. But it was, you know, I think in if you take a look at I'm gonna look at it a little bit differently, Phyllis, then a bigger picture is that it's paying homage to the original settlers of New York, the Dutch. Okay. So uh back in the 1600s, that's a long time ago. So, anyway, that's good. I thought this was interesting because I thought Pistons, I'm moving on to the Pistons, that the Pistons would have been Detroit has always been the Detroit Pistons, and it has to do with the car manufacturing that came from there. They were the Fort Wayne, Indiana Pistons. Oh. Before they went to uh relocated, they started as it was called the team owner at that time in 1941, was a guy named Fred Zolner. He ran a foundry and manufactured engine pistons for cars and trucks in Fort Wayne, Indiana. So then the team shortened the name to just the Pistons in 1948, so that was seven years later, before relocating to Detroit in 1957. And then it seemed just like it fit. It did because Detroit, we know that as the motor city, and they were gonna mess with that name. So, but that's how that one came about. Oh, Thunder, you know, of course, that's gonna cause some angst to our friends who are from Seattle who lost their team, the supersonics, to the Thunder or to Oklahoma, you know, due to about that. It was about 20 years ago, was it? I don't think it was quite that long ago. But you know, this is a fun fact. Mitch Johnson's dad was named John Johnson. Yeah, he's played for the Sonics, and he played for the Sonics. So that's just a you know, extra you know, we've always got the extra tidbits folks, so thanks for letting us uh share those with you. But anyway, um Thunder, they picked it because the location in Oklahoma City, they're in Thunder Alley. That area is known also also historically for being a um uh jet plane um flyover zone, and there's always or there was always sonic booms that were involved in that, and um that's kind of how they came about. And then the other one would be the spurs, and you know, I guess we all think about spurs from a sh a cowboy boot, you know, that uh pointy thing that what was the purpose of that? The spurs? A spur on a sh on that boot to get to hurt somebody? No, no, it was you you dig it into the horse a little bit and make him go faster. No, I didn't want to know that. I don't know. Yeah, I don't like that. Okay, anyway. Um but uh so the the team actually was um uh named uh the Dallas Chaparrals when they were in Dallas in 1967. So again, these are like a long time ago, before relocating to San Antonio San Antonio in 1973, and they did a name the team contest, and that was the name that they decided upon was the San Antonio Spurs. So that's where that came from. Okay. So that's my tidbits about all these teams. What do you have, Bills? Do you have some more fun facts that you want to know about? Some lesser-known NBA facts. Okay, go for it. Do you d do you remember a player named Tony Schnell? He he played. Yes, I do. Okay, and I know what you're gonna say about him. We had him on the Blazers for a smidge. No? Maybe I don't remember I might remember him guys. Okay, my but uh he publicly announced that he is on the autism spectrum. And he didn't discover that until he was an adult, and his young sons were being evaluated and diagnosed. Oh my gosh. So that's how he wow saying, Ah, they got that from me. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So it's a family trait. Wow. Uh did you know And he made it through the NBA because he's like retired. He played over a decade in the NBA. Yeah, and good. And this so I thought that was amazing and great. And um, did you know that LeBron James is left-handed? He eats with his left hand, he writes with his left hand, but he shoots and passes with his right hand. No, I did not know that about him. So I'll bet he's amidextrous around. Amidextrous, yep, that would be the term. Here's another thing I didn't know. Okay. Coaches in the NBA can be traded just like players. What? For cash or draft picks. I had no idea. Doc Rivers and Stan Van Gundy were both moved in that fashion. Really? Yes. I didn't know that. Did you guys know that out there in our listener land? Probably somebody did. I didn't know. I didn't know. Very interesting, Phyllis. Jason Tatum of the Celtics. Yeah. And um Ty Lu of the who is the coach of the Clippers. Mm-hmm. Are cousins. There's yes, I saw that somewhere down the line. And it's not a direct cousin thing, but it's well, it's just like uh Tracy McGrady and who's his partner there on um not to on the podcast cousins. Cousins, yeah. That they those two found out that they were uh oh, and I'm losing that guy's name. It's not Carmelo, he's on the uh prime video or prime uh uh broadcast with them too. But this is Tracy McGrady and uh anyway, I owe we owe him that one. I don't know. Anyway, we're gonna call it a day. And um it was good, Phyllis. Thanks again, and uh we'll be back in a couple of weeks with some other who knows what that we'll talk about because we haven't gotten that far yet in our planning, but we know we're gonna meet again quite soon to uh discuss some other neat things that are going on both with the WNBA and the NBA. And if we ever hear anything about what's going on with college, of course, you know we'll share that tidbit too. So, alrighty. Uh life is better with basketball, and be kind to each other out there.