July 22, 2022
Locked on Women’s Basketball: A preview of a big Storm-Mercury game—and the WNBA stretch run
By The Next
Alex chats with Em to discuss the home stretch of the WNBA regular season and the Sue and Diana matchup
It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. This episode features host Alex Simon and The Next’s Seattle Storm beat reporter Em Adler. Sue Bird and the Seattle Storm visit Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury for the final regular season matchup between the two superstars and best friends.
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Em talks about Sue and Taurasi’s last regular season matchup and possibly their last overall:
“Yeah, it’s funny. There’s a lot of overlapping storylines one of them is Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi; possibly this might be their last; sorry, this is the last game against each other. This might be each last game against the other team ever, depending on what Diana Taurasi does at the end of the season. But other than that, none of the other storylines really tend to overlap. You’ve got two teams heading in extremely opposite directions. Seattle Storm is heading towards the top of the league if they can manage it. They just took what was essentially a one-possession loss to the Chicago Sky.”
Alex talks about Tina Charles‘s return to Phoenix and Briann January’s homecoming:
“Tina Charles’s return to Phoenix, the team that she left on what the WNBA loves to call contract divorce, what really are just buyouts but truly left in a way that there is a lot of animosity from all parties. And this will be the first matchup between these two since that breakup happened. And I feel there’s gonna be little extra eyeballs not just on the fact that this is a Sue and Diana matchup, but because of this reunion if you will, with Tina and her former team.
Briann January’s returned to Phoenix that’s genuinely her final season, by the way, her return to Phoenix, where she played college ball as well as Pro Bowl. So for Briann January, this is an even bigger homecoming for her than it is for Sue Bird and I would at least anticipate, expect and be shocked if the Phoenix Mercury are somehow giving Sue more flowers than they are giving Briann in any pregame ceremony they do.”
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For more of Em’s coverage of the Seattle Storm, click here.
