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During the Final Four in Cleveland, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe revived their hit pandemic-era social media series, “A Touch More,” with a live taping of “A Touch More Live.”
Bird and Rapinoe provided their perspective on this moment in women’s basketball before chatting with the ESPN’s iconic “BIG 3,” Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike.
Here’s a look at some of the shows most insightful moments:
Bird and Rapinoe recognized that while women’s basketball is on the rise, reaching a new, wider audience, the sport was not previously a wasteland—far from it. Albeit oftentimes in the shadows, women’s basketball has been successful, supported and full of superstars. Here’s how Bird put it:
There’s two truths happening. On one hand, I’m thrilled for this sport, I’m thrilled for this moment. On the other hand, when you start to hear things like, “Oh, we finally have superstars.” Or, “Oh, the games are finally entertaining.” It kind of hurts a little bit because that’s not the case. The case was you weren’t watching, you weren’t paying attention. It’s always been there.
As evidence, Bird highlighted that the Final Four during her senior season was held at the Alamodome, where the semifinals and final attracted more the 29,000 fans, saying:
My senior year we played in the Alamodome, which is obviously ginormous. And both the semifinals, both games, and the finals were sold out to capacity, which is 29K plus….when we say this has been happening, that is exactly what we’re talking about. Because that was 22 years ago.
Bird and Rapinoe then pivoted to the player who has inspired proclamations about women’s basketball’s purported arrival: Caitlin Clark. After Rapinoe set the stage, Bird provided a nuanced perspective of Clark, appreciating how she is “meeting this moment” but also “how this moment was prepared for her.” Here’s Rapinoe:
There’s so many players who are capturing the moment right now, but we would just be foolish to not talk about Caitlin Clark. And I want you to talk about her meeting this moment, but also how this moment was prepared for her and what went into the preparation for her to be able to do what she’s done and basically what all you guys have done in the landscape around women’s basketball for so long.
And here’s Bird extended response:
There have been watershed moments that have turned women’s basketball totally upside down in a really wonderful way in the last couple of years. And then you have current players, we’re talking about Caitlin now, that have 100 percent grabbed the moment. The thing that is most impressive about her is she meets every moment. Every time her team needs her, every time she’s in a press conference, you name it, she finds a way to meet that moment and show up. And that’s unique to her. There is something very difficult about that, and is unique to her and it’s what makes her so special.
I think her game is also suited for this. Where I have landed with this…is Caitlin’s long-distance shooting is very special and nobody has really done it before. I’d like to say that someone like a Diana probably could have if they were encouraged, but that’s how the game evolves. That’s how it all works out. But what makes Caitlin, I think, different truly from any other player, she is absolutely thrilling. Every time she raises up, you are on the edge of your seat. When it goes in, you’re thrilled. When she misses, you’re still thrilled because you’re like, “Damn, she shot that?” She shot that one logo three last night. I was like, “Holy shit, she shot that?”
So her style of play, her style of play does matter. And it’s not to say that Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese and JuJu aren’t equal, but her style, it is unique, and it does meet the moment that has been built up by all the people before. It does meet it in this unique way that is so special, and it’s really going to catapult things. It already has.
Rapinoe then addressed the BIG3’s offer to Clark, criticizing men’s sports for suddenly caring—or wanting to be seen as caring—about women’s sports. Rapinoe proclaimed:
It was such trash. It was like you didn’t even talk to her. You weren’t even in a negotiation. You used Caitlin’s name to coattail on her so that you could be seen as an organization or an entity that cares about women’s sports. No, you don’t. And it’s fine. And you can now. We want you. Come. But that to me, I was like, “Oh my gosh, what a blatant attempt to get attention on yourself.” Let Caitlin do her thing and let her get all the shine….Women are saving men’s sports while also saving ourselves because we are just building this shit and it is so cool and it is such a beautiful thing to be a part of you.
The duo later emphasized the importance of recognizing the young women athletes themselves, not just for what they’re doing on the court but also how they deftly navigate an off-court world that still is not set up for their success. Here’s Rapinoe:
And just what they’re having to shoulder at 18 while going to class, while trying to be a basketball player, while trying to just be a kid is unbelievable. So I just want to really shout out the players.
Let’s just follow them. They’re leading us exactly where we need to go. And I just really love to see it. I love players who own their own platform and who own their own narrative, and they’re the ones who are setting the stage for everyone else. They’re the ones on the intimate details and they know all the nuance. So seeing players at such a young age and just seeing women, Black women, gay women, straight women at such a young age, owning all of that is so impressive and so important. And I just wanted to shout them out, all of them.
Rapinoe then shouted out some—but certainly not all—of the individuals influential to the exponential ascent of the game:
Sedona Prince blew this shit open with her TikTok. This is not what it is today if two years ago, Sedona doesn’t do this. That’s unbelievable. Angel Reese, I’m going to say it again. Angel Reese, unbelievable. Bayou Barbie. Shout out to her. Dawn Staley….and what she’s done in South Carolina. What Dawn is building in South Carolina is generational, and you couldn’t give her enough flowers. Unbelievable….All of the legends. Cheryl, Cynthia, the other Sheryl, Sue, Diana, Lynette. It’s pretty good.
Bird added:
It goes Annie Myers, Nancy Lieberman, Klein, Carol Blazejowski, Rebecca Lobo starts the league. The list goes on and on and on.
Soon, Duncan, Carter and Ogwumike joined the pair on stage, discussing all dynamics that made the trio instantly become the best studio show in all of basketball. As Ogwumike put it:
It’s been a wild two weeks for us. It feels like we were trapped in a closet, but then film cameras were running and they pumped us with coffee and drinks, and we just went out there and talked hoops. And then to get the reception, to get the love. I mean, you guys are calling us the “BIG 3”. We never even thought we were a thing.
Duncan then shared what makes Carter and Ogwumike such incredible analysts, saying:
And you guys, it’s all real. They’re that passionate. They’re that interested in not only growing the sport, but making it digestible….I think the one thing that women do so incredibly well, amongst the many things that we do well, is that we’re a space that is inclusive….So we’re going to make you fall in love with the game by not talking over your head or talking around you, but not calling you out by calling you up. Let me show you what I love about this game so much.
Carter then captured why the three established instant chemistry, sharing:
I think that’s the biggest thing is we can be ourselves. And we’re all so different, but I hope people that watch us on the stage together, they’re like, “Oh, I want to be on TV and be myself. I don’t want to be like Dray. I don’t want to be like Chiney. I just want to feel as good as they feel on air.” But the only reason we feel as good as we feel is because we can be ourselves.
Carter then explained how remaining cognizant of her experiences as a player—and, in turn, the experiences of the players she discusses—is foundational to her analysis. Here’s Carter’s extended explanation:
Drawing on our own experiences and remembering things that I felt as a player and remembering things that stood out to me, when I’m watching the game or I’m playing the game, and trying to explain to people at home this stuff they’re doing is really hard. Not just the X’s and O’s, but the mental aspect of letting go of a mistake or trying to do something that maybe you’re not usually supposed to do, but you have to play a little bit bigger than yourselves. And so I think just our understanding of just the game, but also what it means to be a person. And what it means to be a human, and fight through mistakes.
And for me personally, basketball didn’t go the way that I wanted it to go. And so just remembering what disappointment feels like, remembering what being let down feels like. Remembering what feeling like you let your team down feels like. And so for all of us, we’ve overcome a lot, not just in the sport, but in life. We’ve all been through things. And so I think just remembering what we’ve been through, and using that as we talk about these athletes. Yes, we have to be critical. We’re going to call things out in the game, but remembering that these are women, these are athletes, they’re humans. And I think that helps all of us when we speak about them.
Ogwumike then spoke to their collaborative approach, emphasizing how they reject the tendency to pit women against each other and instead are committed to elevating each other. Ogwumike said:
We’re put in environments where we’re meant to be competitive. You have to be the only one in that seat, you have to be the best analyst, all that type of stuff. I think what we’re experiencing right now is the power of collaboration, and I think a great example of this has been this week.
So Dray and I have been splitting a lot of hits. But then we realized, we have more fun when we do things together. And so we reached out to the First Takes to the SportsCenter and said, before these games, “Can we just come on together instead of staggering?” Because it’s like, we just vibe off of each other and to be real, we really are the ones that know the analysis versus more so… I mean, no shade Stephen A., but sometimes it’s tree stuff.
And so have the ability to share our platform, to me, I think that’s powerful. I think that’s one of the first times that we’ve experienced something like that. And to me it’s part of the investment, but it’s also the allyship to say this platform matters. Do it the way you guys feel authentically.
The group closed out the show by noting the teams they expect to be at the top of the sport next season: UConn, Notre Dame, USC and, of course, South Carolina. As Carter put it:
So there are a lot of big teams that you see them now, but the pieces that they’re adding, you’re just like, “Oh, it gets better.” It even gets better from here. It’s crazy.
Duncan then made sure to shout out Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair, whose accomplishment—rising to third on the all-time NCAA women’s basketball scoring list—was too-often overshadowed by the attention on Clark. Here’s Duncan on Fair:
Caitlin has been out of this world, but we didn’t even mention at all that she moved up to third on the all-time scoring list at Syracuse. And there’s so many qualifiers like, “Oh, she played this amount of games.” I’m like, “So the f*** what?” She scored buckets in every one of them. She’s a bucket. She’s a bucket. But because these girls here were like, “We need to be talking about her on College Gameday,” I was able to then on SportsCenters to say, “We need to talk about Dyaisha Fair.” She lost, she’s not in the tournament anymore, but we’re still going to give her flowers and show her love. So anyway, I just wanted the opportunity to shout out Dyaisha Fair.