Dan Zaksheske, Outkick Joins!

**Nigel** (0:00)
My name is Nigel, Jason Hammer, right over there with a very special guest on the hotline.

**Jason Hammer** (0:06)
One of the best in the business, he's a writer for Outkick. Dan Zaksheske joins me.

**Nigel** (0:13)
Big fan.

**Jason Hammer** (0:13)
Dan has been breaking a lot of these stories about the nonsense in the WNBA.
We do a segment on Outkick with Dan Dachich every Friday. Dan's on the panel with me. And Dan, last week, I said the WNBA wasn't just the worst-ran sports league. It's one of the worst-ran businesses that I can think of. So let's get everybody caught up here. A lot's gone on since the last time you joined the program here. Walk me through you trying to become a credentialed member of the media to that Minnesota-Indiana game yesterday.

**Dan Zaksheske** (0:53)
OK, I'm going to try.
As you said, a lot's going on.
First of all, I want to address when you said it's the worst-run business. Guys, the problem is, you have to understand that the entire leadership structure that is in place at the WNBA has been in place for years. And that includes five, six years ago when the league literally existed to lose money. It was something that the NBA could say, hey, we pay for women to play basketball. Yeah, we lose $40, $50 million a year, but whatever. It makes us feel good about ourselves. So you had a bunch of people running this league. What was essentially not even really a business, like it wasn't operating in a system where it was trying to make money. It was basically a social justice project. So everyone at the top of the league, that's all they know how to do is run a failing business. What Caitlin Clark brought to the WNBA and what I think they resent her for more than anything, is capitalism. I think that the WNBA was essentially this giant, perfect encapsulation of what socialism is about. Which is that the players demanded all this money, even though the league was making no money. The media was basically what you would call state run, except it was run by the WNBA. All the messaging was consistent. Like this was like this little socialist enclave that existed in our society. And it didn't work. And then Clark comes along, introduces capitalism, and now all of a sudden, you have all of these executives who legitimately have no idea how to operate in a capitalistic business society. So that is the key issue there. Now, sorry, what was your original question? Because I don't even remember.

**Jason Hammer** (2:33)
So you being with Outkick, which is basically ran by Fox, you tried to get a credential to yesterday's Minnesota-Indiana game. This is a Sunday afternoon WNBA game from a major media outlet. And correct me if I'm wrong, they denied your media request.

**Dan Zaksheske** (2:55)
Yeah, they deny our media request all the time. This is pretty standard. We've been battling with this league forever. And I love all the people who suddenly have become experts on sports media credentialing. Like I'm getting all these people that are like, you applied four days in advance. That's not enough time. Of course, they denied you. It's like, bro, I work for Fox News, the biggest news organization in the entire country. It's the WNBA. It was a marquee event. It was a WNBA regular season game. Like, how marquee are we talking? And by the way, guys, I was credentialed for all seven games of the NBA Finals. Well, theoretically, they obviously had ended in five, but I was credentialed for all of those games. I was credentialed for the men's sweet 16, the final four. I went on freaking Air Force One with Donald Trump and attended an NBA Finals game with him. You're telling me that I can't go to a regular season WNBA game because it's too marquee and I didn't apply in time? GTFO, bro.

**Nigel** (3:51)
Yeah, but what are they afraid of? What are they afraid you're going to ask their players at the post game press conference? What do you think?

**Dan Zaksheske** (4:00)
Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what it is, right? They know what we're there to do, which is like, look, they keep saying, let me make another point real quick. I'm sorry, guys. I can't answer questions directly because I just get, my brain just goes off on these tangents. But all of a sudden, we're now hearing, oh, you just want to go to these games and ask non basketball questions. Yeah, the WNBA has all been all about basketball only.
So hold on a second, the WNBA defenders are now playing the stick to basketball card? Wait a minute. Isn't this the same league that the players were wearing both Warnock shirts and were literally trying to affect an election? In fact, woke ass Holly Rowe went on a podcast and said she credits the WNBA for helping flip the Senate in this country. Okay, this is a league that has prided itself on not sticking to basketball. It's part of the league identity. One of the highest ranking officials in the WNBA once said, this league is about more than women's basketball. It is about social and political change. Okay, so if you're going to weave that into the fabric of your league, then don't you dare complain that we're there to ask non-basketball questions.