Alexa Philipu, this is a little off topic, but I read this morning that Portland was getting another

W-N-B-B-A team. There are cities I would have picked ahead of other cities in the Pacific Northwest and I don't want to get you in

trouble as much as I like the idea of the Portland team being named the Roses to

couple with the Thorns. I might have gone Houston or even Charlotte before that if you could have picked a city that had a team before in the

W NBA that wasn't Portland who would you have picked? I mean it's got to be Houston right? Like everyone

wants the comments back or you know some version of what existed there.

I also think, you know, there's obviously a history in Miami,

so a South Florida Miami team could be interesting

and now that there's all this talk of having unrivaled that new three

and three league there I wonder if that's like the beginning of something that

we'll see laying the grassroots for a W&B team so I mean I loved I was in

Portland for the regional this past year and I thought that was a really fun place for women's basketball.

Obviously a lot of women's There will be a 16th team hopefully by 2027-28.

So if it's Houston, if it's Miami, if it's, who knows,

Philly, we'll have to see where it goes.

We're gonna act like they're not just getting a Wnba team because they have an all-female

sports sports bar in Portland. Shouts to the sports bra. That's a cool idea and I'm glad it's

working. They rock there. Love the owner. very nice person. The Indiana Fever will be in the mix when the W NBA begin on Sunday.

Not an outcome that seems certain when they started the 2024 season.

So today, E-SPN women's basketball reporter Alexa Philippu explains how a rough first month and a

firestorm of media distractions swirling around them for much of the season, helped Caitlin Clark,

Alia Boston, and the rest of the team forge an identity

...