This Whole Thing is a Chess Match with Morgan Ragan and Angel Gray

Sarah Spain (0:01)

Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where Casey Musgraves reposted my photo dressed as her, alongside my husband dressed as the disco ball, Truck Nuts, prominently featured in her current tour. So yeah, I'd say we won Halloween. You can check out me and my nuts via a link in the show notes. It's Monday, October 26th, and on today's show, Good Game brings together both halves of the WNBA Finals, with Golden State Valkyries analyst, Morgan Ragan and Atlanta Dream analyst, Angel Gray joining the show together. We talk about the Bay Area and Atlanta both showing out all series long, the key to the Valks game for win and the X factors that will decide tonight's game five back at Ballhalla. Plus Cox out in Indy, a Mueller missile heard round the league, and is Trinity Rodman still Greenland? It's all coming up right after this.

Welcome back, Slices. Here's what you need to know today.

Starting with hoops. The WNBA finals are even at two games apiece after the Golden State Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream 67-62 on Saturday behind 17 points from Gabby Williams and 13 points from Tip Hayes, seven of them in the fourth quarter. The series shifts back to Ballhalla, aka the Chase Center, for game five tonight, an 8 p.m. Eastern tip off. Lots more on game four, game five, and the series as a whole, with Morgan and Angel coming up later in the show. More W. All WNBA teams were announced over the weekend with the Las Vegas Aces Asia Wilson and the New York Liberties Brianna Stewart named to the first team for the sixth and seventh time in their respective careers. They're joined on the first team by three players who are newer to the honor. Indiana Fever teammates Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, who both made the team for the second time, and Minnesota links guard Olivia Miles, who earned the distinction in her first year in the W. That plus rookie of the year, an outstanding first season for Miles despite a disappointing postseason. As for the second team, Atlanta Dream teammates Angel Reese and Ryan Howard both earned the nod, their first all WNBA honors and the distinction of being the first teammates in Dream history to earn all WNBA honors in the same season. The remaining second team spots went to Washington Mystic Center Shakira Austin, Aces guard Jackie Young, and Dallas Wings guard Paige Becker.

Even more WNBA news. Big changes for the Indiana Fever as the team fired general manager Amber Cox on Friday, just hours after team president Kelly Kroskopf stepped down from her position. Kroskopf was the franchise's original president and GM for 17 years from 2000 to 2017, leading the team to the playoffs 13 times and all the way to a WNBA title in 2012 She left to work for the MNBA's Indiana Pacers in 2018, but returned to the Fever in 2024 Cox, meanwhile, has served as GM and COO for just the last two seasons and recently made headlines during her exit interview after saying criticism of Fever fans has quote-unquote no basis in reality. We'll link to two stories about the Fever from the Athletic in the show notes if you want to read more. One's about the changes at the top, another about the Fever's reputation around the league and its potential impact on their ability to draw big name free agents.

One final piece of W News. Mark Walter is reportedly looking to sell the Los Angeles Sparks. Bloomberg was first with the news on Friday, reporting that Walter is looking to sell the franchise and their practice facility for more than $700 million.

The $150 million practice facility is scheduled to open before the start of the 2027 season. If this deal goes through, it would be by far the largest franchise sale in WNBA history. The current record of $300 million is held by Connecticut Sun Purchase, which went to Tilman Fertitta, who is in the process of moving the franchise to Houston. We've talked about Mark Walter a lot on the show, but just in case you're new here, Walter is a co-founder of the money management firm Guggenheim Partners, and he's had his hands at a bunch of teams across different sports and leagues. Amid federal prosecutors looking into dealings at his firm, he started selling some of those franchises, including the MNBA's Los Angeles Lakers, which he sold at a $12.5 billion valuation to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger earlier this year. Now, according to Bloomberg's reporting, Kushner and Iger are not potential buyers for the Sparks. Now, we'll put a link to the article in the show notes if you want to read more. Of course, we'll keep an eye on whether Walter is also looking to sell the PWHL, a league for which he is primary owner and founder.