ESPN’s Elle Duncan on this year’s “social media draft,” the best storylines in the WNBA, imposter syndrome in women’s sports, and that time Tony Parker cheated on Eva Longoria
The Sports Gossip Show
The Athletic
4.8 • 738 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Madeline and Charlotte could not be more thrilled to have ESPN's Elle Duncan on the show! Elle is the anchor of the 6 p.m. SportsCenter, co-host of her YouTube show and podcast “The Elle Duncan Show,” women’s college basketball host for ESPN’s College GameDay, and host of WNBA Countdown’s studio coverage throughout the WNBA season with Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter.
Elle just wrapped up a very busy women’s college basketball season and is heading into the WNBA season, so who better to talk about the draft and look ahead? Elle talks about why this year’s ratings can't be compared to last year’s and why there’s such exponential growth in women’s basketball. She tells Madeline and Charlotte whether anything in this year’s draft shocked her, why she loves Hailey Van Lith’s story, why she’s intrigued to see how Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale play together in Dallas, why the women’s college game seems more popular than the men’s these days, and why this year’s WNBA draft was “the social media draft.”
Elle also tells the gals what it felt like to start working in women’s sports, how welcoming the women’s basketball world has been, and why hockey fans are the most intense. She reveals her favorite sports gossip moment of all time (when Tony Parker cheated on Eva Longoria with his teammate’s wife). And, finally, the show ends with Elle’s signature vibe check, but she's the one who has to answer the questions!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We are thrilled to welcome to the show, sports media legend L. Duncan, the anchor of 6 p.m. Sports |
| 0:19.1 | Center, host of YouTube show and podcast, The L. Duncan, the anchor of 6 p.m. Sports Center, host of YouTube show and podcast, the L. Duncan |
| 0:23.2 | show, Women's College Basketball host for ESPN's College Game Day and WMBA countdown, |
| 0:30.3 | studio coverage host throughout the WMBA season with Cheney, Ogumicay, and Andrea Carter. |
| 0:35.3 | Elle, welcome to the show. Yes, thank you for having me. |
| 0:38.5 | I'm a big fan, so this is great. |
| 0:40.2 | We're such a huge fan. |
| 0:41.3 | If you're like, anytime you are hosting something, |
| 0:44.0 | it's so fun, it's so lively, it's so informative. |
| 0:47.2 | I feel so safe in front of my television. |
| 0:50.9 | So we're just so thrilled that you could join us. And I think we're just going to start off with you've had pretty much as front row seat as anyone can have to the explosion and popularity of women's basketball. |
| 1:06.0 | What has it been like? |
| 1:07.2 | And was there a moment where you were like oh i think things are shifting here yeah it's |
| 1:13.7 | been really uh amazing this was i just wrapped up my fourth season um in the college space i |
| 1:20.0 | started wmba last year i think last year it was probably when me and dray and cheney got a really |
| 1:26.4 | robust reaction to our in-studio coverage during |
| 1:29.4 | the tournament. |
| 1:30.4 | Like the president of our company was like, President Obama asked about y'all. |
| 1:34.3 | We were like, what? |
| 1:35.1 | And you guys know, like, yeah. |
| 1:37.2 | And, you know, social media is a nasty place and you certainly can't go there for affirmation |
| 1:42.1 | in any type of way. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.