Three and a half years ago, I took on what was then the journalistic role of my lifetime. The Athletic was launching national WNBA coverage, and I was tasked with reporting on my hometown Los Angeles Sparks. When The Athletic launched in L.A. the previous season, I refused to even subscribe until a Sparks writer was brought on board, and now that job was mine.
I’d never had an opportunity to cover a team like that. I spent most of my college years in the newsroom and contracted at several places afterward, but most of my assignments were game based. I got really good at breaking down why the Blue Devils couldn’t get the ball to Chante Black or what skills to pay attention to from Jordan Clarkson in garbage time as the Lakers stumbled toward another lottery finish. I valued those experiences, and I carry that analytical background with me today. I just wanted more.
The Athletic was the only place I’d ever worked that gave me the creative freedom to start my tenure by profiling a training camp player who didn’t make the final roster, because her journey was instructive of the plight of women’s basketball players. I got to write about an assistant coach’s musical side hustle, a rookie who had to google her coach after she got drafted, all while I broke down the stylistic changes of one of the league’s historic franchises in Year 1 under an unproven head coach. Any idea was welcomed, and I tried to chase as many of them as possible. It’s the type of environment I’ve been searching for ever since.
As it turns out, the place to tell those kinds of stories has always been here. I felt it as a freelancer, and it’s what motivated me to come back here full time to join our expanding women’s basketball team. The Athletic is making a bigger commitment to covering women’s sports — you’ve seen it prominently with Meg Linehan and Steph Yang on the soccer side — and I wanted to be at a place that values the people and teams I want to cover, the way I’d like to cover them.
It wasn’t too long ago that I was actually afraid of writing about women’s sports because I didn’t want to be boxed into this space as a woman; I wanted to have the choice to pursue any beat, whether that involved men or women. But I come here now to this position as a national women’s basketball writer having made that choice for myself: I am specifically interested in covering female athletes because of the bonds we share as women. I find their journeys reflective of the larger narrative arc of society, and it’s a challenge and privilege to uncover and share those stories.
Women’s basketball is having a moment. With NIL, collegiate players are more visible than ever, drawing more attention to an NCAA Tournament that delivers year after year. There’s no shortage of upsets — Lauren Jensen knocking out her former team on Iowa’s home court is a moment I won’t soon forget — but fans are consistently witnessing greatness at the same time. Who knows what Aliyah Boston still has in store?
The WNBA just produced one of the most dynamic individual postseason runs of all time, and Chelsea Gray carried that flame all the way across the globe just days later as Team USA embarked upon a new era. Three-on-three basketball is taking the world by storm, Athletes Unlimited enters Season 2, EuroLeague is in full swing — there are countless ways to watch women play this sport at all times.
And as long as the athletes are doing their job, we’ll be doing ours. That’s why I want to be here, to make sure the most important women’s basketball stories are being told. I’m delighted to join Chantel Jennings and Ben Pickman, two phenomenal writers, in that endeavor. The support and resources we have here will allow us to pursue really exciting projects. I know I’ll have a blast; I hope you, the readers, will as well.
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(Photo: Courtesy of Los Angeles Sparks)
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