Transcript
Speaker: DJ from Infinity TV. First off, congratulations on your success with the USA Basketball team. My question is regarding that. You've had a lot of chances and time scouting with that team. How do you think that's helping your second half of the season personally?
Speaker: Yes, certainly it was an unbelievable opportunity and you're with USA Basketball in a cycle. So after the 20 Olympics, which we're actually playing 21, it's been an unbelievable journey from mini training camps to training camps to opportunities in qualifying events to the gold medal in the World Cup.
Speaker: I've been with that team since twenty the 21 Olympics and um it's just been a truly humbling opportunity to be with them, including the qualifying tournament where I was actually on the bench because the college coaches weren't available.
Speaker: ah First, you know thank you. Again, Paris was an unbelievable journey when we know the pressure to try to acquire that eighth straight you know gold medal for the team and and that everybody's gunning for you. so you know just It was an incredible experience. I've really enjoyed collaborating, working with Cheryl um and then the other head coaches. you know Mike Tebow and I have a history together of when I was in Connecticut and and some of those epic battles that in that 19th century. Final so just being around coaches all the time the head coaches and and Understanding the collaboration that went behind the scenes was remarkable how it translates back to the league is you learn you pick up things that Cheryl or Mike or even the collegiate coaches and in And in Tunisia, right with Atlanta was in the same role as I was. So, you know, you pick up things, you you pick up tendencies, you pick up terminology that could help our team. And in the 48 hours that I've been back, I've changed some of our terminology that I think makes things easier. So you're never as a coach, I don't believe ever not learning. You know, like I take pride from 17 to 22.
Speaker: those six seasons we won the most games in the league in in connecticut uh but you better still be learning you better still be adapting and so you know i'm taking things from that experience and watching the best players in the world on how they were coached uh help terminology to help them actions on the floor all that's going to benefit us uh these last 16 games when we have the opportunity to practice and in and you know implement some of the things that I feel really correlate back to our team. Sorry for the long answer.
Speaker: What's going on? Sparks fans. It's the one and only DJ tree see trees. And welcome back to another episode of the spark. My personal fan commentary podcast for the l LA sparks that clip that you just heard at the beginning of this show was coach Kurt Miller. And my question that I asked him in the press conference in the first game back from the Olympics where the sparks failed to the New York Liberty one Oh three to 68.
Speaker: You can already feel the vibes of what I'm about to say, Sparks fans, based on the title of this episode. They are my Sparks and I'ma stick by them. I'm gonna make a strong message out to the people here because We knew that the Sparks were already in a rebuilding year. Any team who loses their generational ah MVP as we did with NECA O 'Gouma K and she went to the Seattle storm, we were going to then have a storm because you have to rebuild a team. The team was built around NECA and Candace Parker and all the success that they had here. l LA is known for winning basketball and it's okay that right now we're not in that place.
Speaker: My question to you though is, where are my real Sparks fans at? You can ask more of the team, but also recognize where we are and continue to stick by your team no matter what. We are 10th in the WNBA right now.
Speaker: Granted, not where we need to be, that's not in playoff contention, but that doesn't mean that things can't rapidly change because the most successful teams in the WNBA are the most healthy teams overall. We have an overwhelming amount of hardship.
Speaker: that Coach Miller talked about. Lexi Brown was out this game. Eric McDonald was out this game. Steph Talbot was out this game. um And of course, Cameron Brink was out. So we only had nine active players, and we played the New York Liberty, the number one team in the WNBA right now, ah the runners up to a WNBA championship last year, y 'all. It was gonna be tough.
Speaker: True. They didn't lose at this magnitude of margin. 35 points is the highest that we've lost to the New York Liberty this year. The first two losses were, I believe seven and then 13 points or something like that. It was close. It was, it was more of a competition. Those two games were on the road. This was a rough home loss.
Speaker: The players are shook up about it. Coach Miller is shook up about it. There's nothing any of us can do about it when you have this unsurmountable amount of injury. I'm not making any excuses. I understand that there are no moral victories in basketball, as everyone in the press room says, but there comes a point where Criticism doesn't even make sense in some areas because you fundamentally understand where your team is. True. The effort wasn't where the team wanted it to be. The Olympics had passed. Some of them, the and the the whole team wasn't together like everybody else in the WNBA. So again,
Speaker: no judgment there on people who are like, well, everybody had the same struggle. I don't believe in subscribing to the struggle Olympics. And again, my specific stance is.
Speaker: Those are my sparks. Imma stick by them. You not going to hear me talk bad about them. So on my show, the LA Sparks Weekly Show, ah we had a round table where we got all the journalists together. Shouts out to Jackie wa Ray, Edwin Garcia, and Elam Square for just coming on the show and talking to us because they are in the room with us. They're giving us their predictions. They write for different media outlets. And nobody believes in us.
Speaker: Nobody believes in us. I sounded crazy saying, I think the Sparks can make a playoff run. I will not give up hope until all options are exhausted. That's how I operate as a Sparks fan. You can choose to operate any way you want to operate, but I'm gonna stay locked in with my girls. I don't got nowhere to go.
Speaker: I don't got nowhere that I want to be. I want to be a Sparks fan. I've been a Sparks fan. So right now it's tough. We having some bad years, but there are terrible franchise who haven't had the years that we've had, to be honest, let them rebuild, give them time, stop all this coach Miller crap. He just helped scout to a gold medal.
Speaker: He knows what he's doing. You have to rely on the pieces that you have. We had a number two draft pick who unfortunately injured herself. So we don't have, we would have been in a completely different place if we had have had a Cameron Brink, a healthy Lexi Brown, always praying for Lexi's Brown's recovery and her return back to the W. No rush, do what's best for you sis. We understand we are interested in you holistically.
Speaker: want you to be healthy and successful and prosperous. That's my take. That's my take. They asked me who I thought would be the star of the second half of the season. I said Zaya Cook.
Speaker: Because I believe she's a winner. And when winners get put in positions like this, where they're the only option, they show up in a different way. She's still got that South Carolina in her. She got that dog in her. She going to show up. That's just how I feel. We saw Ray Burrell show up in the New York game. Rekia Jackson. She was, she was so ashamed of this 35 point loss that she didn't even want to talk at the press conference. And that kills me because this is a part of the process.
Speaker: If you're ever going to be successful and win at something and go and work towards something that matters, you need to feel moments like this. Because how else are you going to build the grit, the character, all of the things that are necessary to push through to that next level? We've got a young team. We've got a learning team. We're being led by De 'Erika Hamby, who's a champion. Globally, bronze medalist, Olympian. She didn't even know she was going to be at the Olympics at the beginning of the year.
Speaker: Huh? Stop playing. Like we just, you have to let some things form and some people are impatient. They want to just come and see the winning games. I want to see the losses turn into wins. That's me. That's who I am. And that's me getting off my soapbox. So right now I'm saying the sparks are six and 19 on the season.
Speaker: We'll get a great draft pick. We'll get some people in free agency. We'll bank on assistant coaches and coach developing the players over time. Leah Rue is only going to get better with time. De 'Erika Hamby is becoming more and more of the leader that we all knew she could be, but above and beyond queen of the double double. She right up there with Asia Wilson and Stewie with the double doubles. That's me getting off my soapbox.
Speaker: Winning basketball is coming back to LA, but once you pick another side, don't come back over here. That's just me. You can go over there and, and abandon ship if you like, but real l LA Sparks fans are going to be here. We are, that is what we're here for.
Speaker: Good and bad, we gonna go out and see the girls. And with that being said, tomorrow is Saturday. We play the Chicago sky. I will be in attendance, not only shooting my show, but my wife is coming out. We gonna make it a date afternoon. And then on Sunday, we gonna be at the SWB concert. So if you're in LA this weekend, there's a lot going on y 'all. My voice is crazy.
Speaker: right now i sound like oscar grouch but i was hollering last night i got the interview robin thick on the la sparks weekly show um which if it drops by now i will link in the comments but i'll make sure i go back as well so just check the comments um i was in there talking to him that was cool we got to talk to a lot of players that not lathe was in the building a tray young was in the building it was good vibes We're still this, we're we're Hollywood over here. So don't listen to that chatter online with all this sparks. Hate. None will be tolerated on over here. Pick us. I picked this side. You pick somewhere else. Go back there. Is he that Tracy treats y 'all. And thank you so much for
Speaker: listening to another episode of The Spark. If you want to follow me and see what I'm talking about on social media, you can follow me at DJ -T -R -I -C -E -Y -T -R -I -C -E. I will see y 'all soon. I'll definitely check back in with y 'all on Sunday night. If not, I will post from the road because I'm headed to DC for a podcast movement. Of course, I'm in a podcast.
Speaker: you know, listen to the pot, tell people about the pot. um The link is in the description. Y 'all have a good rest of y 'all day, great weekend, and of course, go Sparks.
