\u201cAs you can probably tell from the tone here, this is our last show here at Locked On Women\u2019s Basketball,\u201d Megdal explained. \u201cI am immensely grateful to my incredible team who has worked with us together through the years, [from] the great Jackie Powell, \u2026 to our team of hosts, Chelsea Leite, and Missy Heidrick, and Emily Adler and Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer, Natalie Heavren, who\u2019s done such incredible work for us, as well all the hosts we\u2019ve had the privilege of working with through the years. \u2026 we\u2019re going to continue all the incredible work we are doing, of course, and that\u2019s going to extend into the audio-video space as well. So can\u2019t wait to share what\u2019s ahead for us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Order \u2018Rare Gems\u2019 and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, wrote this deeply-reported story. Rare Gems follows four connected generations of women\u2019s basketball pioneers, from Elvera \u201cPeps\u201d Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n
If you enjoy his coverage of women\u2019s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love \u201cRare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.\u201d Click the link below to order<\/a> and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a place where you\u2019ve had the opportunity to meet all of the vital people in the women\u2019s basketball space,\u201d Megdal continued. \u201c[In 2016] it was a very different time in women\u2019s basketball and women\u2019s sports, and so I\u2019ve been very proud of \u2026 [The IX] Basketball reaching 30 million people last year, and our email list, 55,000 strong and growing. The fact that we have an audience that cares \u2026 we\u2019ve been able to tell these stories and give you guys insight and context and analysis, not about what\u2019s the biggest thing to click on today, but about a greater understanding. Light rather than heat. It\u2019s something that we\u2019re dedicated to.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, Powell and the New York Post\u2019s Madeline Kenney joined the show to discuss the New York Liberty\u2019s recent struggles. The Liberty are currently sitting at No. 5 in the league, after missing star forward Breanna Stewart<\/a> for the past month:<\/p>\n \u201cAt a practice this week, I asked [Stewart], \u2026 \u2018What is the narrative surrounding this team right now?’\u201d Powell said. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018We are stacking wins. We want to be our best by the time the season ends.\u2019 No hesitation. She knows what needs to get done when it comes to so shifting into, I guess, the defensive chemistry and the rebounding issues that we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think also [Stewart] is the motor of this team, which we\u2019ve discussed in length,\u201d Kenney said. \u201cWithout having that motor, that leader, that person, \u2026 it\u2019s not that players aren\u2019t trying hard, necessarily. It\u2019s just there\u2019s another level. There\u2019s another gear that can be reached when [Stewie] is on the floor. And we\u2019ve seen that the last few games, with her being back [Aug. 28 against the Washington Mystics]. You know, the Mystics win was her second game back after missing that month absence. \u2026 once you\u2019re out of position, it\u2019s hard to get back into position. Once you have a defensive breakdown, it\u2019s hard to fix it. And there are certain players, Breanna is one of them, who can kind of make lemonade with oranges, so to speak. She\u2019s one of the few players that is excellent at seeing a defensive breakdown within her team, and being able to help fix it. \u2026 Obviously, she\u2019s one of the league\u2019s best defenders, but it\u2019s also knowing and understanding her team.\u201d<\/p>\n Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/p>\n Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n Tune in to the final episode of Locked On Women\u2019s Basketball hosted by The IX Basketball to learn more about how the Liberty are re-adjusting to Stewart\u2019s return to the court. Watch out for more audio-visual content coming from The IX Basketball, and check out our other WNBA content<\/a>!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAs you can probably tell from the tone here, this is our last show here at Locked On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,12271,18497,10728,76132,85,5941],"class_list":["post-105966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-locked-on-womens-basketball","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sabrina-ioenscu","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}