March 21, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Women’s basketball TV and film
By The Next
A look at a new WNBA sitcom
On the latest episode of Locked on Women’s Basketball, Chelsea Leite and Jackie Powell talk everything women’s sports television and movies. From the ones we love, to Chiney Ogwumike’s new project, as well as the importance of this media as social commentary.
Continue reading with a subscription to The Next
Get unlimited access to women’s basketball coverage and help support our hardworking staff of writers, editors, and photographers by subscribing today.
Already a member?
Login
First, Powell discussed the role of sports in movies and TV shows more broadly.
Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, released his latest book on May 7, 2024. This deeply reported story follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.
If you enjoy his coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.
“What I love about sports, film and and television shows, and why I think the ones that are successful really strike a chord is because there’s a really good balance of excellent character development and how the sports intersect with that,” she said. “I think you always see a really intersectional piece of media whenever sports are in television or film. I know there’s pushback when it comes to talking about sport and society, but it is sort of unavoidable in television and movies.”
Later, Leite and Powell discussed a new WNBA sitcom, The W, that will air on Peacock and is being developed with Chiney Ogwumike.
“I think it’s, one, it’s the right time for a women’s basketball centered sitcom,” Leite said. “And two, I just think, like this movement of women’s basketball that we’re seeing as a whole, like the Caitlin Clark the boom of the WNBA expansion, it would be a miss, if it that wasn’t leading to stories and sitcoms and media like this, like we need.”
Order ‘Becoming Caitlin Clark’ and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, just announced his latest book. It captures both the historic nature of Caitlin Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible. Interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and so many others were vital to the process.
If you enjoy his coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar.” Click the link below to preorder and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.
Added Powell: “You’re reminding me of a question that I have for Chiney and everyone who is working on this show, which is, what WNBA are they going to be portraying? And the reason what you said reminded me of this was because, as we know, the show is going to be based on when Chiney was drafted and chose Allison as her agent. So does that mean that story is happening at around the time Chiney was drafted, which was a little bit over 10 years ago, or is this story going to be taking place in the modern WNBA, which is, I mean, it’s almost a completely different league.”
Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!
