July 25, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: The Shakira Austin birthday episode
By The Next
Reacting to the latest player added to Unrivaled, going deep on Shakira Austin's career and trajectory
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Gigi Speer brings you news from around women’s basketball and does a deep dive on the career of Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin, in honor of her birthday.
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First, Speer covered the latest player set to join Unrivaled (the off-season 3-on-3 league started by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart): Angel Reese.
“How huge is this news? Because with Angel Reese, you also get an entire generation,” Speer said. “… I’m so excited to watch this because this is going to give fans something to look forward to when it’s not the [WNBA] season and I’m not gonna lie, I do love Athletes Unlimited (AU). I love AU hoops. I actually think it’s a great league. But the broadcasts sometimes aren’t as exciting as they could be. So I’m wondering if with the 3-on-3 league, the Unrivaled League, six teams, 30 players, and all the founding players receive equity in the league.”
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“So there’s built in not only a system of fair payment, it’s fair ownership, but then basketball wise, you imagine, six teams 30 players … that’s about five players per team, and just think of the 10 that they’ve named already, in addition to Stewie, and Collier … and now I’m just left to wonder how great Angel Reese as an addition to this league is going to be,” she continued.
Then, Speer talks through Shakira Austin’s journey to the WNBA, using past interviews and her own time speaking with Austin to piece together a story from Austin’s high school playing days all the way through WNBA Draft night and beyond.
“She’s actually the oldest of seven kids and she said once, ‘I’ve been a mom since I was 13.’ Her uncle had played [basketball] at Oregon and overseas. But there’s something about being the oldest child,” Speer explained. “… She then goes on to not only grow to be 6’5, but to be really, really talented because of hard work. … She’s training with her trainer Mike McMiller, and she really expanded her game when this started. She said, ‘I hated him for it.’ He had [Austin] going against his daughter, Kiyomi McMiller and elevated her game.”
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