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00:03what's up everybody welcome back to liberty lately there's a lot going on in the offseason
00:07liberty they have some big offseason decisions to make the w they've got a championship to settle
00:12and we've got the perfect guest to talk all about it joining me to talk about hoops permission to
00:18open doors for girls in africa through the queens of the continent it's a former wmba all-star and
00:25espn analyst the one and only shanae agumike shanae how you doing i'm doing great thanks for having
00:31me no glad glad to have you uh busy times um for everybody i know you've been enjoying your
00:37coverage with the w finals right now and uh that's been that's been really great for you and everybody
00:43else i just want to start to how are you enjoying the finals thus far what have you thought of
00:46it
00:46thus far so first of all i you know when the finals were starting i was like these are two
00:52beautiful
00:53stories that are being written the golden state valkyries in year two um a team with the most
00:57revenue in wmba history a team that has built its own home in balhalla in such a beautiful way
01:05that identity just rapid is so cool and then on the other side you have the a and i'm just
01:10like every
01:11time i scroll tiktok i see i saw this tiktok about how they have mastered the timeout performances
01:16meaning like i saw a little scrappy come out um two chains performing quavo did his viral thing
01:23but most importantly you have angel reese who made a beautiful transition and and now is on a team that
01:28appreciates her and celebrates her in a city that has that same energy and so it's just cool like to
01:36see these two unique storylines that are kind of at the beginning of the year people like oh you know
01:40golden state's gonna be good but will they you know how good will they be angels coming but it's
01:45gonna take some time to adjust i just love how we've seen a superstar franchise and a superstar
01:50and gabby williams and literally a superstar and a celebrity and angel and then loving jordan and
01:55you know alicia and it just has been a really if you're a basketball fan you're gonna love this even
02:01though it may not be the as many buckets that we might be used to but if you love basketball
02:07you also
02:07love the fundamentals of defense and these are two of the best defensive teams so i've been having a
02:11i've been having a blast yeah i've really been enjoying it i want to get back to the finals with
02:15you um in a little bit i want to talk to you since this is a show i do on
02:18the liberty i do want to talk
02:19to you a little about the liberty because they got swept you know excuse me they swept the links and
02:23then they got swept by the dream when you watch those two series with the liberty what changed for
02:30them and which version of the liberty that we saw tells you more about who new york really is
02:34not to be harsh but when i was doing my new york liberty post-mortem okay on their season i
02:40was like oh
02:40they went down and the way the way that they went down was a microcosm of what the season had
02:45did
02:45they had high highs and low lows and the only thing consistent about them was the inconsistency
02:50unfortunately now there are bright spots meaning brianna stewart had another amazing career year
02:55um pauline sta came out and emerged like there there are uh things that you can be happy for
03:01barclays is always rocking i was just at the women's sports foundation and the two people getting honored
03:06one was claire wussi which was awesome because of what they built in barclays i think that was a
03:11standard you know like back in 2023 ahead of their championship in 2024 like everyone would go and
03:19experience barclays and be like all right like there's something special happening here and the
03:23product off the floor match the product on the floor i mean big ellie to the towels i think you
03:29guys
03:29do it like the last time out before the fourth quarter or something like that yeah you know so when
03:34i look at
03:35new york there are so much good happening for the game that was ahead of its time to what we're
03:39experiencing right now but as it pertains to the basketball i just think the lack of consistency
03:44that we saw in the overall collective performance because as i was going game by game i was like okay
03:50the guards showed up but not the bigs all right the big showed up and then not the guards and
03:54then
03:54it just was like you're fighting for your lives and it just it was never the full contingent at that
04:00semi-final level whereas in the first round right um it was great you know like it was cool to
04:07see
04:07this team live up to potential you guys know jj is my sister like that's my dog yeah and i'm
04:12so proud
04:13of her because i think this was probably her best career statistical year maybe other than the
04:17championship so there are a lot of bright spots only one team can win i just wish that you know
04:21anytime you have a first-time head coach there's a lot of like learning curve and i just wish that
04:25there
04:25was more um of more of a i guess you can say like as an analyst on the outside like
04:30i can go and tell
04:31you what the atlanta dreams identity is right now i can go and tell you what the gold state valkyrie's
04:35identity is right now you know with the liberty it was kind of like i'm not sure what it is
04:41and stewie's
04:41going to try to put the team on her back until they figure it out and you know at this
04:45level you have
04:46to have something you fully believe in yeah they didn't have an identity all season shanae i was saying
04:51this on the show i don't feel like they had an identity all season whatsoever and i guess
04:55you kind of hit on where i wanted to go next because obviously you've been inside w locker rooms
04:59how can you fairly evaluate chris demarco's first season because you talked about the first year
05:04head coach do all the injuries right yeah and i guess here's the thing because the fan base has
05:10been it's been very interesting how they talked about chris demarco if you were making the call
05:15would you bring him back because some fans want change would you bring chris demarco back look i am a
05:20god-fearing woman i never come for anybody's job i always celebrate people so i'm not going to
05:25put myself out there that way but i can't evaluate as an analyst and what i saw you know i
05:30think the
05:31biggest issue that i first of all let me say the bright spots yeah being being uh immersed into the
05:35wmb out you know because i'm not sure how i know he followed the league but i'm not sure how
05:40immersed
05:41when you're coming from the nba that's a that's a whole different level of how you have the prep and
05:46game plan for 82 games and then also the offseason and summer league like you essentially have no life when
05:51you're in the nba because you're moving so much and so it's hard to follow the wma the way that
05:56we
05:57follow it who live eat and breathe it and so already like you know that there's going to be a
06:00little bit
06:01of a learning curve it's different for someone like becky hammond who played in the w then you know
06:07coach the nba and then can step right in because she knows this league because she's a part of it
06:12you
06:12know what i'm saying so i think for anyone that jumps in typically we see um that if you have
06:17no
06:17attachment it's already going to be like a lot of um i guess yeah learning curve yeah and yeah and
06:24i
06:24think for me i think some of the decisions so i'll just say i give grace there to christa marco
06:29um
06:30because some my the one phrase i say on air all the time you got to go through it to
06:34get to it
06:35right and so he had to go through everything that didn't work to find what could and i still don't
06:39think he found the right like or the answer that helped them when they needed the most but it was
06:44still
06:44year one i think my biggest issue um was like the moment the timeout country timeout moment you had
06:51to talk about that and and it's not even the fact that like everyone makes mistakes everyone forgets
06:56like i fouled out of games thinking i only like i got ejected from a game because i didn't remember
07:00i
07:01had a technical early in the game like what happened oh yeah i they called a flail on me i
07:06was
07:07playing against dallas back in the day and i didn't realize that a flared flail gets a technical
07:12or whatever a flagrant one or whatever the case is like and so i was going up against liz and
07:16liz was
07:17doing something crazy and so i yelled at her and i yelled at the ref and then i got my
07:20second and
07:20then i was ejected and so i didn't i wasn't aware so every athlete every hooper every coach has a
07:25moment where you're like dang i wish i knew right i think for him that was like that moment times
07:30a
07:30million i don't even care about that so much because we all make mistakes in the game it was more
07:34the
07:35demeanor right like like you know if you think you have something or you're not sure man i'm gonna
07:42be doing bat flicks in circles and i and i do also think that they're different coaches and he comes
07:46from the um he comes from the why i'm uh steve kerr coaching tree where steve kerr is very chill
07:53he's
07:53very players first you know he'll get fired up occasionally but he really is a nice guy right so
07:59i can see how that might apply in how he uh coaches right but like look at who's in the
08:05finals right
08:05now hey look at what angel reese is doing look at what she's bringing out of her team you know
08:11what
08:11i mean look at how these players are like have that's what the liberty needed like and you know who
08:18had that she left in benijah laney hamilton she was that type of person that like was you you always
08:26need one person on the floor at least a coach to be like all right it's in the mud it's
08:30a matchup
08:30that's in the mud i'm gonna go out there and rumple some feathers or i'm gonna go out there and
08:34compete
08:35as hard as i can you know what i'm saying and i think that they were missing that one person
08:39that
08:39could play that like dog factor and when you don't have it on the floor you have to have it
08:44from your
08:45coach that's why we see coaches get ejected all the time i mean you see big cheryl big cheryl will
08:49do
08:49that all the time like your team's going down i'm gonna do something crazy get you ejected get you
08:54riled up right exactly and so again i think when you're on this learning curve you you try to like
08:59not you don't try to do as much you try to observe before you you do stuff but at that
09:05moment i think
09:05that was my issue but like i don't want it to seem like it's any shade this is just me
09:09being analytical
09:09no right and i think you've talked about it with nuance like i think you've proposed this with some
09:15nuance in in that fans are not giving him the grace you've given you gave him here i think you
09:20were
09:20rightfully giving him some grace and acknowledging that there is a learning curve fans sometimes don't
09:27want to hear that they're like i want the results now now you're also saying and i agree with you
09:31if you're going to be in that seat i need a little bit more out of you for this team
09:35where you may not
09:35have that kind of personality yeah on the court and so i completely get that i guess that brings me
09:41to
09:41my next question shanae if you are jonathan cole this offseason what's the first offseason priority
09:50for this team are you shopping for another big name or is it a specific skill or kind of player
09:54as you alluded to that you believe this team needs again i'm an analyst i'm not a coach and i'm
10:00not
10:00trying to get your job please i got 11 jobs already um i think that there were you know my
10:08mom has
10:08this saying tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean and when you have that ocean those tiny drops
10:15turn into an ocean that has waves and can turn tides i think what we saw this offseason
10:19season were big swings and those big swings um and it may not seem big to most people but like
10:28you
10:28know acquiring a saw to saw believe right um that's a big move right and things some things are in
10:35your
10:35control some things are out of your control like health is not in your control right um but i do
10:40think
10:40that locker room chemistry matters and when you make you know when you make moves and there are pieces in
10:47and out like there's something missing from this liberty squad that we've known like in 2024
10:54they knew what their mission was you know what i'm saying and this year it just felt like um watching
11:00from the outside that if you look at a team go out there and perform and if i'm jonathan cold
11:05i'm like
11:05okay there's something here that's missing there's something here that's not connecting
11:09sabrina yanescu i've always loved sabrina because i'm a pack 12 girly and she's one of the best
11:14shooters and she's one of the most exciting players and i'll never forget during the broadcast
11:17uh i think it was candace parker that said it but i i can't remember exactly she said nothing lights
11:23up
11:24and turns up barclays more than sabrina knocking down threes like the energy she hits threes you know
11:31and like just and i'm glad you agree because you're there all the time but my thought is you know
11:37even when she came back and she fought back you know coming back from injury and all that stuff
11:42it it just i don't know there's a positional question where it's like okay let's play at the
11:48point or let's play at off ball or you know and if i'm a gm and i'm watching that happen
11:52your job is
11:53to like help create that clarity and not let the players have to navigate that themselves and i go back
11:59to the sound of sabrina after one of the losses i think verse you know in in the semis and
12:05she said
12:06oh man i i scored i think she had like 20 something you know 27 or something i scored but
12:11man i gotta
12:11pass the big the bigs the ball and so the next game she focuses on passing the bigs the ball
12:16and
12:16and jj and stewie i think combined for like near 50 points and like 25 rebounds and something like that
12:21and it was great but it just felt like okay you have a coach that can help you figure out
12:26how to
12:27do that while also being a lethal threat and you have a gm that should be putting you in position
12:31like okay that's our point guard or that's our shooting guard our off guard or you know pauline
12:35was doing a great job defending i saw so many advanced analytics about pauline sda's defense defense
12:40but then um was it fatukes that literally yeah yeah but she starts going off and so like yeah
12:50you know it's it's interesting because these are pieces but i'm not sure it's
12:56it was it felt kind of fandom whereas you know if izzy poor ladies in the finals goes off know
13:02that
13:02that's coming because she comes to do that you know what i'm saying and like they have a system
13:08that they're playing that makes it make sense like ron is going to get her shots or her minutes
13:12it's and you know alice gray is going to do her thing is he going to come in and hit
13:16you with a
13:16crossover to knock down a big three that's wide open nazi you know like it does feels intentional
13:20whereas with the new york liberty i'm looking at pieces and however they're out there it doesn't
13:26seem as such it feels like oh this person's doing it and now we we don't know how to react
13:30and so i
13:31think those are the things that i see from the outside and like you know teams that are great have
13:36this chemistry that you don't even have to think like you already know where people are going you
13:40know what people are doing if the bids are open i'm always passing the ball if i'm shooting like
13:45the bigs are passing me the ball so i can shoot but you could see so many of the players
13:49put on the
13:49weight of having to figure it out themselves individually and then try to do that together
13:54as a team you heard stewie stewie would step into the bike and say like it's all me experience like
13:58you know so i feel like the players were carrying a lot out of the way a front office and
14:03the coaches
14:03you know can help alleviate some of that so all they had it was go out there and just play
14:08that's
14:09what they did in 2024 you know what i mean everyone had a very divine role i know i'm going
14:13off but
14:14and i again like these are my thoughts like you know i don't ever really share my intrinsic
14:19intrinsic thoughts because my job is to always like break down specific plays so i want this to
14:24be a safe space and i'm not like i think everyone at the w is trying their best i these
14:28are just if i
14:29was looking from the outside in okay we're back if you see shanae's background looking different is
14:34because she had to move we had some technical issues but we keep it up we keep rolling shanae
14:38you're looking at the w finals right now it is two to one in time we're recording this atlanta
14:42with the lead if you're golden state what's the adjustment you're making to get back to the series
14:46man i think my adjustment is it's more mental than it is physical atlanta did one thing they
14:52took away probably the biggest thing golden state's bread and butter and that is driving kick
14:56if you look at the paint defensively for atlanta it's like there's an electric fence around the
15:01paint they said you're not going to be able to get inside and so by taking away that you took
15:06away
15:06their offensive flow and so i think they just have to find different ways to be creative and create
15:11you know opportunities by by drawing to whether that's in transition whether that is moving the
15:16ball from side to side to get people out of position and so i think the biggest adjustment
15:19is really dictating but also it's like the mental factor you're in atlanta everything's going atlanta's
15:25way you should feel like oh my gosh no one thinks we can do this now based off our last
15:29performances
15:30like if there's one team that should be able to fight back despite the odds it's a goal and save
15:35valkyrie so if they take that mental edge and just play harder and um i think the crazy thing is
15:41angels not going to be like take the foot off the gas they're gonna have to snatch that but the
15:45good
15:45sign is that they made a couple of shots janelle salon got going in the last game so did
15:49tachese and elicini and so maybe building off of that knowing that everyone has to be aggressive
15:54and knock them knock on their shots they can't just wait for gabby to save them yeah they she's
16:00still gonna it's still gonna need that can't just wait on gabby williams the whole time angels looked
16:04really good she's looked tremendous in this series who was your pick to win the series before the
16:08series started so when the series started i thought it was going to be golden save valkyries because i
16:12it was going to be very close between the two i was looking at how golden state looked going
16:16up against las vegas but let me tell y'all if real hoopers know if you have eight days off
16:21you could
16:21be a whole different team when you come back and i think that lack of playing games and rhythm
16:26um hurt golden state whereas it helped atlanta because it allowed alicia to get you know right
16:32and they had another weapon out there um so i think before going in i thought it was going to
16:37be
16:37golden state because they played the first two at home and balhalla is like where people take their
16:41superpowers away right but the fact that atlanta split and if you look at actually how atlanta
16:46played atlanta should have probably if they hit more than one or two more shots should have won
16:50game one they won game two they're at home they won game three like atlanta has played the majority
16:55of the minutes as the better team um and so now i reevaluate and now i i think i've got
17:00atlanta in six
17:01i like that okay here's before before we get out of here uh i know you've been doing a lot
17:05you had some
17:06things going on for yourself uh you founded the queens of the continent to create opportunities
17:10for girls and young women can you tell us a little bit more about that yeah so obviously basketball is
17:15a global game and the time you know the time i went back home to the continent that changed my
17:20life
17:21was when i was studying abroad during my time at stanford under my international relations major
17:27and i saw so many young girls by working um you know a camp that wanted to play but just
17:32didn't think
17:32the path was possible and then now as a part of the nba africa group and basketball africa league
17:37as the first female ambassador i see so many programs that are here to help the global game
17:41but they go to boys or young men first instead of women and to me that's problematic because there
17:46are something you walk down the streets of lagos nigeria kigali rwanda to hannesburg south africa
17:51nairobi kenya you're gonna see 6-6 you're gonna see medina okat you know what i mean you're gonna see
17:57you're gonna see you know these beautiful model-esque athletic women that have interest
18:03in doing something creative particularly sports but everything is going to the boys or young men
18:08first and so my foundation queens of the continent is here to fill in the gaps to create a programming
18:14where they get camps they get access to high level coaches they get you know confidence building
18:18activities and they get the visibility that they deserve so that maybe they can get to college
18:22whereas before there are no programs looking out for them maybe they can get you know some
18:26resources so that they can make it pro and so that's what we do we create winning opportunities
18:30we just had a partnership with the president madam president her excellency
18:35nitumbo and daitwa um who is amazing in namibia and it just is like so great to see
18:43the a group of women and young women uh come together and celebrate sports and i'm just pushing it
18:50pushing it for those it's not just in the u.s and africa it's globally uh where we're trying to
18:54touch
18:55and so yeah i'm trying to just fill in the gaps like people filled in the gaps for me
18:58there you go it's giving back i i love that look i know you got to run i appreciate the
19:02time you're
19:03doing a great job being in coverage of the finals and we'll have you back again on liberty lady to
19:07talk about the liby hopefully when it makes some moves and they they get some of the people they
19:12need to get in there y'all know i don't like to fire any shots y'all i was trying
19:15to peace and love
19:15to everybody to everybody out there gm coach i want to see everybody win okay so you guys ask me
19:21questions i'm gonna always give y'all the 100 answer so it's with love it's with love all love
19:26appreciate you shanae thank you so much for joining us a little bit lately appreciate you
19:28no problem y'all take care thank you i'll see you around yep see you around
19:32you
19:33you
19:38you
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