It’s Happening Again…

What's up you guys? I'm Rachel Dita and

welcome to the Courtside Club. Short and

sweet episode for you guys today, but I

did want to give you some WNBA updates.

And the first thing I wanted to talk

about is the viewership numbers from the

New York Liberty versus Indiana Fever

game. And that game has now become the

most watched WNBA preseason game ever on

ION, averaging 743,000

viewers and peaking at 822,000

viewers. And that's great. That's great

for the WNBA's 30th season. And like

I've been telling you guys, I feel like

the WNBA has a chance to make this

season the most successful season ever

in the WNBA. And that's why during all

of the CBA things, I was like, "Please

don't lock out. Please don't strike.

Please have a season. You guys have so

much momentum. Keep the momentum going."

And clearly that is happening in the

very first preseason game featuring the

Indiana Fever and Caitlyn Clark. But I

did think this was kind of interesting

because if you guys were on the live

stream with me, you will know how many

technical difficulties they had during

this broadcast and they actually ended

the game early. I believe it was like

midway through the fourth quarter. We

got a graphic on screen that basically

said the game has ended. And it happened

to all of us. Anyone who was watching on

the WNBA app, they just kind of ended

the game. They ended the game for a

couple minutes and then they put it back

on the screen. And there were multiple

times during the broadcast where it

would go to a commercial break, but then

it would never come back from a

commercial break. And depending on where

you were watching the game. Anyway, I'm

saying all of this to say, please, WNBA

technology, get it together. I know this

is just a preseason game. Maybe there

were things that you were working

through. Maybe we clogged the servers.

Maybe they weren't expecting that many

viewers to tune in to the game. Whatever

it is, fix it before the regular season.

Okay. I also saw so many people talking

online about how some of the preseason

games were blacked out for them. And

that has been an issue with the NBA,

with the NFL, because the media rights

deals are just including more and more

networks as the years go on. And

obviously, these media rights deals are

worth billions of dollars. So, it's good

for the league. But at the same time,

like I heard some creators saying like,

"This is my favorite team." and my team

was blacked out for their preseason game

because I lived in the area and you

basically have to have all these

different streaming services in order to

watch the games. But of course you guys,

we go live for a lot of the Indiana

Fever games during the season. And so I

will keep you posted on where you can

watch these games, what channel it's on,

if you need leak pass, all of the

things. But it is very cool to see that

the viewership is still very high

heading into the 30th season. Now with

that, the Indiana Fever have their

second preseason game against the Dallas

Wings tomorrow and Stephanie White did

come out and practice today and she said

that Aaliyah Boston, Ty Harris, and Lexi

Hall will likely not play again in the

game against the Dallas Wings. She said,

"I think we'll probably be cautious with

that. I think the goal is probably to

get some of them minutes on Saturday if

we can." And Stephanie White even said

like the game on Saturday, they still

have one more week until the start of

the regular season. And so it seems like

they are just being extra cautious. But

what I will say from the discourse that

I'm seeing from Fever fans online, a lot

of fans are really worried about this.

They're worried about this because of

what happened last year with the Indiana

Fever and all of the injuries that they

had and specifically the soft tissue

injuries that Caitlyn Clark was dealing

with and also how secretive they were

about her injuries. And we talked about

it even with Scott Agnes when he came on

the show and he was the first one to

report that the reason that Caitlyn

Clark was out towards the end of the

season was not actually because of her

groin injury or her leg soft tissue

injuries that she was having. It was

actually because of a bone bruise in her

ankle. And the fever never came out and

said that that was the true reason. Now

they came out after the season and

finally disclosed that really was the

reason why Caitlyn was sitting out. But

the fever have been very secretive about

injuries. So with Lexi Hall, supposedly

it's some tightness in her leg. And

again, I feel like they're just using

extra precautions to make sure that it's

not something lingering like what

happened to Caitlyn last season. But

then with Aaliyah Boston's injury, this

is something that started in Unrivaled.

Aaliyah Boston reportedly got injured in

Unrivaled. She didn't play during the

playoffs in Unrivaled. And she also

missed out on the FIA World Cup

qualifier games. So, it has actually

been quite a long time that Aaliyah

Boston has played 5v5 game speed

basketball and we still don't really

know the details on that injury. Now, I

will say that there are a lot of

organizations who like to keep these

injuries under wraps, not only for just

the media circus that can come with some

of these injuries, but also to protect

their players. It protects their players

because then other teams can't target

them in a sense, but it also protects

their players when it comes to these

contract years. because once these

injuries start going on record, that

does actually affect your money. So,

we'll just have to see. I'm hoping that

we do see Aaliyah Boston, Ty Harris, and

Lexi Hall in the game on Saturday

because I do think that this Indiana

Fever team will look very different when

Lexi Hall is getting minutes, especially

when Aaliyah Boston's getting minutes

because the play between Aaliyah Boston

and Caitlyn Clark is something that's so

very special. And Caitlyn Clark help

helps Aaliyah Boston's game so much.

Aaliyah Boston helps Caitlyn's game so

much. and Lexi Hall and Aaliyah Boston

are both arguably starters for this

team. So, we'll just have to see. But, I

did want to give you guys the update

there. And I just also wanted to say

that I understand the concern from Fever

fans because last year when they were

telling us that they were lingering

injuries and it was just precautionary

ended up being something where the star

player was out for the season and then

we also had multiple players who had

season ending injuries. Now, I will also

tell you guys this, and sorry to be kind

of rambling about this situation, but I

did hear that the fever upped their

medical staff or kind of re-evaluated

their medical staff, and they're being a

lot more just careful and purposeful and

basically like they're making sure that

the players are not getting injured if

it's anything that they can control.

Even when we talk about Aaliyah Boston's

injury that happened during Unrivaled,

the Phoenix Mercury actually just

announced that Cat Westbeld is going to

be out for the entire season. He said

she tore her ACL in her right knee in

the last game overseas. She'll miss the

whole 2026 season. And this is something

again when we're talking about these

offseason leagues and with the new WNBA

CBA now that players are going to be

making so much more money than they were

in the past. I think that we are going

to be seeing a lot of players opting out

of these offseason leagues. And one of

the biggest reasons is because of

injury. If you get injured in the off

season, there might start to be a caveat

in your contract in the WNBA. The WNBA

owners are not just going to be like,

"Yeah, sure. We'll give you a supermax

deal. We'll give you a max deal. We'll