EPISODE 1 - Why Double Drivel?

Sylvia and her 14-year-old daughter, Madeleine, introduce “Double Drivel,” a mother-daughter WNBA podcast for longtime and new fans that avoids gatekeeping, isn’t expert analysis, and rejects hate while prioritizing accuracy.

 They explain the name as a play on “double dribble” and “drivel,” while respecting the league’s history and growth. Sylvia traces her basketball fandom from Iowa men’s teams in the late ’80s to the WNBA via Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever; Madeleine became a Dallas Wings fan through Paige Bueckers. 

Living in San Diego, they attend Sparks games and plan trips to Portland and Indianapolis to see the Wings and the Fever this season. They discuss offseason moves (Fever re-signing Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston extension, adding Mo Billings and drafting Raven Johnson; Wings additions including Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard) and other team changes, offer early finals picks, share what they’re excited for, and end with a positive “Swish List” segment.

Transcript

Intro

Why Double Drivel?

Basketball Origin Stories

Podcast Values

Offseason Vibes

Swish List

Close

0:01

Welcome. I'm Sylvia, and I'm the mom. And I'm Madeline, and I'm the daughter. I'm 14. Not sharing my age. This is Double Drivel, a mother-daughter podcast about the WNBA. We love to watch together, and we're always talking about it. Last season your dad and sister were always complaining that we were talking about the WNBA too much at the dinner table, and we started joking we should start a podcast. Then we kept joking about it, and as this season approached, we figured, why not? Let's give it a try. This podcast is about loving the WNBA. And talking about it across generations. It's for longtime and brand-new fans. We're newish fans ourselves, so it will be accessible for everyone. It's for people who just wanna enjoy the game without gatekeeping. Why the name Double Drivel? Well, first, the low-hanging fruit. It's a playoff double dribbling in basketball. So double, two of us and two generations. Drivel is useless, boring, or nonsensical chatter. We're not experts, so we're kind of poking fun at ourselves a little bit here. Women's sports have also unfairly not gotten the attention they deserve for much of history. Some considered them drivel. We ramble. But with full respect for the WNBA, its history, its incredible growth, and the undeniable talent and passion of the players. Welcome to Double Drivel. In this episode, we will be sharing how we got into basketball in the W, our favorite teams, our podcast values, our thoughts on off-season moves, and what we're excited about. When did you start watching basketball? I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. That might be a little bit of foreshadowing about my fandom in the W. I initially fell in love watching the Iowa men's basketball team in the late'80s during the B.J. Armstrong and Roy Marble era. I said I wasn't going to share my age, but that probably gives you a clue. Didn't you get B.J.'s autograph once? Yes, at the JCPenney in Valley West Mall. I loved watching the fast transition plays, the aggressive defense. I loved the whole team, but B.J. was definitely my favorite, and I just started loving watching basketball in general. All basketball? Any and every game that I could find on TV. NBA? No Iowa team? Definitely no team in Iowa. First it was the Lakers, because if you didn't have a local team to root for, that was a very obvious choice back then. It was the era of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and many others. But once B.J. got drafted to the Bulls, I became a Bulls fan. What about Michael Jordan? He was definitely a nice bonus, but I was really there for B.J. People thought anybody that became a new Bulls fan during that time was bandwagoning, but I was not. I was just following BJ. Were you watching women's basketball back then? It really wasn't on TV back then. That's definitely more of a recent development. I do remember when Iowa Women's coach C. Vivian Stringer took them to the Final Four in 1993. Was that their first time? It was, and their last until exactly 30 years later when Caitlin Clark came along. I fell out of watching basketball over the years, and Caitlin and the Iowa team pulled me back in. Naturally, that turned me into an Indiana Fever fan when Caitlin was selected as their first 2024 draft pick. Your turn. When did you start watching? So when you started watching, uh, Caitlin on TV, I naturally... It was on TV, so I just started watching it too. And then the first season I was j- I was a Fever fan, and then I saw different compilations of just, like, Caitlin Clark clips, and then one day I came across a compilation with Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, and from there I became a Paige fan. And when she got drafted to the Wings, I kind of abandoned the Fever and became a Wings fan. Traitorous behavior, honestly. So as you can see, we're fans of different teams, and we quickly realized we'd been missing out on the W as a whole by not watching it for its first many years. They're having their 30-year anniversary this year, which is very exciting. There's so much talent, passion, and competitiveness in the league, and much like when I first started watching Iowa men's basketball in the'80s, I quickly got immersed in watching, liked watching a bunch of different games and learning about the whole league and the players. I'm definitely most invested in the Fever, but I love the league as a whole, especially rooting for former Fever and Iowa players that have moved on. Erica Wheeler and Temi Fagbenle are a couple of my favorites. Obviously my favorite players are on the Wings, like Paige, and my other favorite player is JJ Quinerly, even though she never really starts, and I'm kind of sad she hasn't played yet, but hopefully she'll be recovered enough to play soon. I don't just like players on the Wings. I obviously, even though I don't like her as much as Paige, I still like Caitlin, and I like, Jewell Lloyd and other players. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of players to like out there. We've mostly watched on TV. We live in San Diego, so we don't have a direct local team. The closest thing we have is the LA Sparks. Um, so we have been to watch them a couple of times We went twice last season together. Once to see them play the Fever. Do you remember the other one? It was the game against, it was the Sparks against the Valkyries the night before we went to the Kendrick Lamar concert. Yes. And I was excited about the Valkyries last year. It's just cool to have an expansion team. I love the team name and the colors, but I was especially interested since Kate Martin from Iowa and Temi Fagbenle, who had been on the Fever the year before, were on the Valkyries. Unfortunately, neither of them are on the Valkyries this year, so I think my interest in the Valkyries is probably waning a little bit. But yeah, that was a fun weekend when we saw the Valkyries and Kendrick Lamar. I also went to see them play the Fever early in Caitlin's rookie year. It was the first win that, for the Fever that season after a rough start. And I saw them play the Fever another time last season without you, with my friend Sarah, who went to University of Iowa, and is my, Fever-watching friend. This year we're going to see Paige and the Wings up in Portland against the new expansion team, the Portland Fire. Eh, we're going right before school is over, or after school is over. After school is over. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, unfortunately, both the Fever and the Wings are only in LA once this season, and they're both early in the season, like in the middle of the week at times, that don't work for us. So I'm excited for us to be going up to Portland together. I've only been there once, and it was for work, like 20 years ago. So- I'm excited to explore the city with you, as well as see the game. I'm also going to be flying to Indianapolis to see two back-to-back home games against the Storm and Liberty in July of this season. I'm very excited, excited to see the Fever home crowd. That's how we watch basketball. Did you ever play? I'm not sure if you could really call it that. I played two short seasons in a YMCA rec league in middle school. My height did not translate to basketball talent, unfortunately, so that ended pretty quickly. What about you? For a very short period of time, for like two months, I went to the park and I just shot baskets by myself, but I kinda gave up. So we're better fans than players. We can admit that. That's okay. We will talk about the Fever and the Wings a lot, obviously, given our fandom, but we'll definitely talk about the whole league and other players and teams. There'll be something for everyone. Obviously we're not experts. Or what some would call ball knowers. We won't be doing any detailed analysis or dissecting plays. That's way above our pay grade. Are we casuals? I feel like that's used in a derogatory way. We're newer W fans, yes But we also work to educate ourselves and love and respect the league as a whole, and I think we're too obsessed to be casual. What's a bit more than casual? Business casual? Semi-formal? That doesn't seem right. No. She's shaking her head at me in disgust. Before we go further, we want to be clear about our podcast values. The W has many amazing fans, but just like any sport, there are pockets of toxicity, and we are not here for that. So we do not stand for any form of hate, like racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, or attacking players personally. Basketball-focused critique is of course fair, but hate is not welcome here. We also care about accuracy. If we get something factual wrong, please let us know. So how are you feeling about off-season, even though regular season is sort of starting? Yes, we're admittedly a little bit behind in getting this first episode out but please bear with us. So on the Fever side, obviously first and foremost, super excited that Caitlin is healthy and hopefully back to play a full season. Also was very excited that they were able to re-sign Kelsey Mitchell to a Supermax contract. That was very well deserved. She was All-WNBA last season. Uh, came in, I think, fourth in MVP voting, and really carried the team on her back literally until her legs gave out in the last game of the semifinals last season, given how many injuries the Fever had. Also super excited for Aliyah Boston, who signed a four-year,$6.3 million contract extension with the Fever, which is the biggest total contract in WNBA history. That'll be one million this season, and then 20% of the salary cap in 2027 to'29, so the Supermax for the last three years. Aliyah was eligible for this under the epic provision of the new CBA because she was All-WNBA within her first three years on her rookie contract. I'd be remiss to not mention that A'ja Wilson has the highest annual average salary in history with a three-year,$5 million Supermax contract under the Aces. Caitlin will be eligible for the epic provision due to her All-WNBA team in her rookie year next year, so we can look forward to seeing ABC squared, for several more years to come at a minimum, which as a Fever fan, you have to be super excited about. Also excited about signing Mo Billings. She played with Kelsey in Unrivaled and on the FIBA World Cup qualifying team with Caitlin, and had really good chemistry with both of those, so I think she'll fit really well into the Fever's fast-paced style of play. And of course, very excited about drafting Raven Johnson from South Carolina. She has great defense, which is something the Fever are really focusing on, her energy, and providing point guard relief for Caitlin so that she can play off ball a bit, and she just has such a fun and great personality. It's really hard not to love her. What are you excited about? Obviously I was happy that the Wings drafted AZ. I think that was the right choice, even though so far, she hasn't contributed much yet. I mean, it was just the pre-season. I'm also not sure if they're really gonna start her all that much considering they signed Arike to a longer contract for the Wings. I'm also very happy that they signed good bigs considering last year they didn't really have consistent bigs, especially on defense, which I'm really happy because we got the co-defensive player of the year, Allana Smith, and then we also got Jessica Shepard. I'm also very happy we still have Zaza and JJ on our team. I'll admit I was a little bit bummed when the Wings signed both Allana Smith and Jessica Shepard, as those were both bigs that I had my eye on, hoping the Fever might sign. But nonetheless, super excited we have Mo Billings. So both teams made some great moves with a focus on chemistry in the off-season. What do we think about moves by other teams? At least on paper. It's all theoretical right now, of course. I think the Liberty got better since they added Satou Sabally. The Aces added Chennedy Carter. I don't know if that's really gonna make them much better, but... Well, they got an extremely talented guard for their bench, which gives them a lot of depth. She was out of the league last year. She's had some trouble sticking in the league due to some off-court issues, but has been killing it playing overseas in both Mexico and I think China as well. And if there's any team that can kinda get the best out of her, I think it's Becky Hammon and the vets on the Aces, so I'm curious to see how that goes. I think the Dream definitely got better. They still have Rhyne, Alicia, Bri Jones, and they also added Angel Reese, so. Yeah. They definitely got better. And then the Sparks kept Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, and Cameron Brink- And they added a lot of other good players, including Erica Wheeler, which you were probably pretty happy about. I don't know, since I guess you could see her now that she's on the Sparks, if we ever go to a Sparks game. Yes. I actually saw, the Sparks play Nigeria in the preseason. I forgot to mention that earlier. The Sky lost Angel, but added Skylar Diggins, Natasha Cloud, Rickea Jackson, and Azura Stevens, which are all good players, but we don't know how they will really work together in the regular season. Exactly. They do have a handful of spicier personalities on that team, so it'll be interesting to see how things work. There's also a few teams that I think, at least on paper, got worse. The Lynx obviously lost Elena and Jess Shepard to the Wings, and Natisha Hiedeman to the Storm. Phe, Kayla McBride, and Courtney Williams are back, although Phe's out to start the season, still recovering from her ankle surgeries. So that's obviously a big loss at the beginning of the season. They added Natasha Howard, who I will miss seeing on the Fever this year, and with their number two pick in the draft, got Olivia Miles. So they're probably a little bit less strong this year but I never want to count out a Cheryl Reeve team, so it'll be interesting to see how they do. On the Mercury side, they kept Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas and Dewana Bonner, but they lost Satou Sabally, and no big name addition, so I suspect they're probably not quite as strong as last year, and I wouldn't see them as a finals team this year. And on the Storm side, they lost Nneka and Skylar and Erica Wheeler. They added Stephanie Dolson, Natisha Hiedeman, and on the rookie side, some exciting adds with Flagé and Awa Pham. But they're probably in a little bit more of a rebuilding mode for them. Yeah, I also wanted to say I'm gonna miss the stud buds on the same team, I know. That is a bummer. Hopefully they'll be recording virtually together still, but, it, it's not quite the same, not being in person, I'm sure. Do you have any early predictions for the finals already? Well, very predictable, but I, I have to go with Aces versus Liberty. They both were strong teams last year and somehow got even better in the off-season, which doesn't really seem fair. I would like to say the Fever, and hopefully that will be true, but that feels like an aggressive choice right now. Hmm. I'm not sure. I actually don't think the Aces are gonna be in the finals this year. I'm just gonna be really out there and say the Wings are gonna be in the finals because they just beat the Aces in the preseason, which obviously means- That they're gonna be in the finals You know the pre-season doesn't mean anything, right? No, it means they're gonna be in the finals. So who do you think will be playing the Wings in the finals? Um, I don't know. Not the Fever. Brutal. Okay. So let's talk a little bit more about what we're excited for this season. We've covered some of it already. But I'm excited to see which of these teams' off-season moves really gel, and which ones end up not quite fitting. It's always fun to see the expansion teams and how they do. Seems like Toronto's trying to be good, similar to the Valkyries last season, and it seems like Portland is not trying to be good. They've have made a couple trades, late in the off-season, and yeah. I, you know, we've got a c- a, some very stacked drafts coming up in the next couple of years, and they might just be saying,"Okay, we're gonna hope that we're in the lottery for-" Juju or Sarah Strong or players like that," and, and not trying to win right now. Hopefully that means that there's, we'll get to see a win of the Wings against Portland when we go. I feel like that's probably a pretty safe bet, but we'll see. But, uh, overall, just excited to see who will surprise us in either a good way or a bad way. What are you excited about? Uh, obviously I'm excited about seeing Paige and AZ back together. Obviously they have a lot of on-court chemistry. I saw the clip, I didn't get to watch the game, but I saw the clip of Paige passing to AZ for a three, so obviously you can tell they're still able to work together well. I'm also excited that, you know, I feel like maybe the rookies will be able to surprise us again. Obviously Azia was able to score, I think it was, like, 18 points in, like, 15 minutes or something like that, and I think that's really good. Obviously, even though JJ's injured, I wanna see her back and getting points as well. Yeah. Speaking of rookies, very interested to see how the Mystics do. They're an extremely young team. They had a ton of draft picks last season and this season as well. So a lot of really talented recent college players. Still developing, so I don't think they're championship contenders or anything, but I could see them being a playoff contender for this year. So excited to see how those players develop. So we're gonna end every episode with a segment we're calling Swish List. Try saying that five times fast. Wait, let me try. Swish l- wait, swish list, swish list, swish list, swish list- Swish list. I did it. One thing we're excited about or want to celebrate. No negativity. Mine is definitely that I'm excited to see the Wings do better,'cause last season obviously they didn't do very well. But I think they're gonna do a lot better this year, especially considering they have good defensive players, which I think was their big issue last year. They also have a more proven coach with Jose Fernandez. Oh my gosh, yeah. And Campfire Chris is a thing of the past, which I think just about every Wings fan is probably pretty happy about. Yeah. Probably the players too, if we're being honest. Yeah, I think they all hated him. Oh, wait. We said no negativity for switch list. Oh, whoops. Whoops. We'll do better next time. Oh. Oh, wait. I forgot my switch list. Sorry. Mine is getting to share basketball on this podcast with you, and now with our listeners. Is that too corny? Yeah. Thanks for joining us for our first ever episode. If you liked this episode, or even if the jury's still out, please subscribe to dr- Double Drivel You can also follow us on Instagram and Threads at Double Dribble Pod. Share it with someone who's just getting into basketball. Or anyone you think might like it. Next episode we'll start covering the regular season, especially the Wings and Fever games, obviously. That might get spicy. Thanks for being here. See you next time. See you next time.