opening up the great basketball escape posts to help you enjoy this moment of women's basketball *joy* in march: wnbaroughnotes.substack.com/t/road-trip

PEOPLE ARE WEARING THE SHIRT AAAAAAH the-olive-street-agency.printavo.com/merch/roughn...

my traditional march madness vibe = why did i just spend the last 2 hours making this collage idk but im so exciiiittteeedd & this year is no different:

okay realizing that some dudes made like 15 brackets with bad names in the rough notes bracket challenge pool so im now removing the extras and limiting entries to 5 xoxoxo <3 my bad

less than 24 hours to fill out yr bracket for the rough notes + wubble bracket challenge that has... over 125 entries?! (but low key you can make as many as you want) JUST MAKE THE BRACKET NAME(S) GOOD :)

HUGE congrats to the players of the WNBA for securing a major pay raise!! As fans of the Valkyries, we love to see it. For old times' sake, read @roughnotes.bsky.social's compelling account of the long battle to secure equal pay in the WNBA. www.coyotemedia.org/watch-partie...

featuring words & reporting by some amazing thinkers in this wbb community: @mingemi.bsky.social @wagesofwins.bsky.social @aghaubner.bsky.social @nocapspacewbb.com @thefrankiedlc.news

quick & honest reactions to the new CBA & what it means for wnba players, fans & the arc of wbb history:

two more days to join the madness!

here are the prizes for the rough notes + wubble bracket madness challenge & some of my favorite bracket names so far, can't wait for yours:

what.... about.... the pensions....

i love yr bracket names

LAST DAY to order a Rough Notes tank top (WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!) if you want yours to arrive before the Final Four:

also the entire point of march madness bracket-making is to come up with a fireeeee name for yr bracket, right?!?! show off here:

here are a couple of my faves from march madness + MAKE YR BRACKET NOW! (all experience levels are welcome):

The winner will receive a prize package with a copy of the new book Court Queens; a year’s paid subscription to @roughnotes.bsky.social newsletter; a $25 gift card to JustBook-ish; a “Lesbian Fans Fill Your Stands” print from Snatch Magazine; & a “No One Watches Men’s Sports” mug.

Come join the Out of Your League Women's March Madness Bracket Pool! Are you a superfan choosing teams based on rankings and your ball knowledge? Amazing! Are you clueless and choosing teams based on mascots, team colors, or perceived gayness? Perfection! Everyone is welcome.

just remember....

This is really phenomenal and a breath of fresh air (the reporting, not what there is to be reported on which is saddening)

this is an incredible piece

i am just going to repost this all fucking day long, because everyone should read it if you care at all about the WNBA, and honestly even if you fucking don't.

i don't usually like the substack graphics but this guy is kinda good, read the piece here: wnbaroughnotes.substack.com/p/rough-note...

done & done

Fantastic piece. This line really stuck out "You can’t negotiate with something that doesn’t care. You don’t have any leverage." And he's right, the bulk of WNBA ownership doesn't care about the WNBA at all.

In former generations the secrets of #NBA corruption + establishment media complicity w misogynist billionaires was not made known to humankind. Now it is revealed by the apostles of The Point God: David Berri + Maya Goldberg-Safir. -Ephesians 3:5 on the best #WNBA CBA coverage yet. Read! Follow!

Very much hope this discussion with @roughnotes.bsky.social helps! Remember I am talking about the WNBA off the top of my head (no notes). And... well, I get excited!! Love all the links and pics @roughnotes.bsky.social found to go with my stories!!! wnbaroughnotes.substack.com/p/rough-note...

this is all I think about: " How is it that the NBA can continue to lowball WNBA players with such impenetrable authority?"

Well, it confirms that the league is specifically framing its offers this way on purpose. (Which is deliberately obfuscating so many things while trying to sensationalize how a handful of big stars will benefit.)

Present your journalistic credibility as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to The Point God, which is your reasonable act of worship. -Holly’s morning devotional before, intentionally or not, taking up her cross to whistleblow on @espn.com doing free PR for #WNBA management. Romans 12:1

This is so worth reading. “I get irritated by people online demanding the women negotiate better. You can’t negotiate with someone who doesn’t care whether they make a deal or not. There’s no way that works.” #WNBA

It is unfortunate that in far too many instances “reporters” and outlets who purport to cover the #WNBA simply regurgitate the talking points of the WNBA.

"I don’t think the NBA really cares... If the WNBA vanished, I don’t think Adam Silver would lose any sleep over that. If the NBA vanished, I think Adam Silver would crawl into a ball & cry himself to sleep." @wagesofwins.bsky.social is the expert WNBA economist that ESPN *won't* tell you about:

"David Berri: [Reporters] are not calling me, and I know why. It’s because if you quote me or talk about what I’m saying about the NBA in your article, and you work for ESPN or any of the major news sites, the NBA will give you a call and they will tell you, “stop doing that.”"

This is very, very good and also bummed me out. “You can’t negotiate with someone who doesn’t care whether they make a deal or not. There’s no way that works.”

WNBA CBA UPDATE: still no contract. Here's why that puts us on the WRONG side of history, with @wagesofwins.bsky.social:

im dying

the power of women's basketball is its capacity to change the woooooooorld: the-olive-street-agency.printavo.com/merch/roughn...

As CBA Endgame Nears, WNBPA Set to Learn Tough Lessons For Future Labor Fights, writes our Andrew Haubner in his deep dive of last night's WNBPA news. www.nocapspacewbb.com/p/as-cba-end...

What the NBA is doing now is directly from their historical playbook. The NBA makes up a story about losses. They demand the players take less. The media takes the NBA's side. Players eventually cave. The NBA does this because it always works! wagesofwins.substack.com/p/the-import...

I have been seeing quite a bit of criticism of how the WNBA players have handled these negotiations. Most offering this criticism have generally ignored how badly the NBA (the primary owner of the WNBA) has negotiated. Here is a quick thread detailing what I have written about this.

Today is the LAST DAY to support the @burnitalldownpod.com kickstarter! We are trying to get to $29k by the end of the day, which will allow us to make 7 episodes and pay back fees incurred over during the relaunch. We are SO CLOSE to getting there!! Every drop helps. Thank you all for everything.

new gay wbb shirt

first-ever rough notes merch: WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHANGES EVERYTHING !!!!! $36 tank tops to support rough notes & make a bold wbb fashion statement <3 pre-order to get yours in time for the final four & a summer of transformative wnba unknowns + all the radical possibilities of women's basketball:

Cardte Hicks played above the rim and ahead of her time: defector.com/cardte-hicks...

Incredible reporting. Moving prose. Thank you @roughnotes.bsky.social for writing this, and thank you Defector for supporting writing like this. Another important reminder that women have been hooping continuously since 1892. Its just that most men weren't paying attention.

Really great work here from @roughnotes.bsky.social

thank you @jessicawluther.com! i love being in community with other people doing this work <3 subscribe to rough notes here:

Brilliant feature by @roughnotes.bsky.social about a forgotten era of women’s basketball, and one particularly fascinating player within it: defector.com/cardte-hicks...

writing this feature about the legendary cardte hicks for @defector.com made me feel more connected to the heart & soul of women's basketball! as a player & person, cardte was singular - but her experience of systemic racism in wbb was not. i hope this piece helps crack open more convo about it <3

all of my unrivaled 1-on-1 predictions will prove 100% correct ;) marina > sonia (relates to betrayal & siblings & lovers) rhyne > rae (very close one, but there's twitter beef) laeticia > aliyah (oh yeah, the hot take)