ESPN’s WNBA commentators Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and LaChina Robinson answered questions on Wednesday via Zoom to preview AT&T WNBA All-Star 2024 on ESPN and ABC. Ruocco, Lobo and Robinson will be part of the coverage of the Kia WNBA Skills Challenge and the WNBA STARRY® 3-Point Contest on Friday, July 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, as well as the 2024 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game that will be broadcast live on ABC in primetime for the second consecutive year.

In addition, Sara Gaiero, ESPN Vice President, Production, discussed the production highlights for ESPN’s coverage for the weekend.

A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION IS BELOW:

Q. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for doing this. This question is actually for everyone on the panel, LaChina, Ryan, and Rebecca.

We’ve seen obviously having an outstanding draft class. We’ve seen the incredible efforts from Angel Reese as well as Caitlin Clark, but I wanted to get your perspective on is there somebody else who could be entering that Rookie of the Year conversation, and could it be Rickea Jackson of the Los Angeles Sparks?

RYAN RUOCCO: I don’t think anybody else is going to enter the Rookie of the Year conversation, but that doesn’t have to do with — that’s not a slight to the production of anybody else, like Rickea or Aaliyah or Kamilla. That’s just how good Caitlin and Angel have been, with the history they’ve continue to set.

But I’m glad you bring up Rickea because she has been awesome, and there are a lot of years, especially recent years, where her season absolutely would be putting her in the conversation for Rookie of the Year.

I was talking about this just with Rebecca the other day that there have been seasons in recent years where we are struggling to fill out five players for our All-Rookie Team. We literally get to the fourth or fifth player, and we’re just trying to find somebody who gets minutes, regardless of their production or lack thereof.

What’s amazing about this year is how many quality rotation players you already have emerging from this rookie class and quality starters, Rickea being a quality starter.

Do I think she’s going to have her name in the conversation in earnest about winning Rookie of the Year? No, I think to say that would be disingenuous. But is she worthy of acknowledgement and is she having a really good rookie year? You bet she is, and there are a lot of other years where she would be in that conversation.

REBECCA LOBO: I agree with Ryan. One of the things that’s exciting about this rookie class too, when you talk Caitlin and Angel and Rickea and Cameron Brink in particular, you’re looking at players you could forecast being perennial All-Stars as they go on in their career.

Even though someone may not win Rookie of the Year, when you forecast down the road, Rickea is certainly a player that is going to be very impactful. I think, as her game continues to grow, could be somebody that we see year after year in All-Star games.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: Yeah, I definitely have been impressed with Rickea. I think there was a big shift for her when she was moved from the power forward position to the 3 spot. I think playing on the perimeter has allowed us to see a lot more of her versatility.

Coming into the draft, I definitely thought she was at the top, when you talk about pro ready players in terms of her skill set.

Will she be able to push her way into the race? I don’t know. We still have a whole half of basketball left.

I think some of that will depend on how the Sparks do in the second half of the season. I, for one, am the type of voter who does take team performance into consideration when it comes to awards like Rookie of the Year, but she is absolutely fantastic. She’s special.

But I would have to agree that Caitlin and Angel are definitely running away with the race as of now.

Q. I was going to try to sneak in two questions here if I can. One is it looks like the WNBA did a $2.2 billion media rights deal; it was reported yesterday. What is the significance of that for the league, and what are the chances that will help increase the salaries of players like Caitlin and Angel?

And I have another question, maybe for Rebecca or anyone who wants to answer it, it seems like in comparing Cooper Flagg to Caitlin, Cooper Flagg just played with the select team, he was embraced by older vets like LeBron, they hugged him, they embraced him, whereas Caitlin’s entrance into the WNBA, she hasn’t necessarily been embraced by vets. Some people, Sheryl Swoopes and Diana Taurasi came out and said critical things about her. Why do you think that is that the NBA players are more likely to embrace their younger players versus the WNBA players?

REBECCA LOBO: I’m going to go ahead and answer the second part of that because I don’t think it’s an actual, real narrative. I mean, it’s a narrative, but it’s a false one.

I don’t know if you saw when Phoenix first played Indiana and kind of Diana standing next to Caitlin chumming up with her. They had a really nice interaction, both of them were laughing. I don’t know if you saw when Vegas played Indiana, and Caitlin was coming down full speed, lost her footing, and kind of skidded on her knees and the ball went out of bounds. Jackie Young bent down immediately, untied her shoe, tied her shoe, to give Caitlin some time while she talked to her, are you okay? Do you need some time? That sort of thing.

What everybody saw was the one foul from Chennedy Carter in that first matchup between Chicago and Indiana. I don’t think the veterans have been anything other than trying to stop Caitlin and trying to slow her down as competitors.

I think there have been some nice moments between some of the veteran players and Caitlin. It’s just that this narrative got fueled early on, and I didn’t know quite where it was coming from. Then you saw the foul from Chennedy that sort of gave it teeth.

I really don’t think — I don’t think it’s fair to say the men are welcoming Cooper and those women are not welcoming Caitlin. I haven’t seen that at all.

Q. I mean, you did have like Sheryl Swoopes give that whole thing about saying Caitlin played five years and took more shots than she did and wasn’t deserving of the record. There was some of that, right?

REBECCA LOBO: I don’t know that Sheryl said she wasn’t deserving of the record. I don’t know exactly what Sheryl said. She said what she said, and Diana said reality is coming, and she proved to be right, right? Like the first couple of weeks of the season was certainly an adjustment period for Caitlin, and part of that was because she was going against the best teams in the league and the best players in the league, and she has adjusted since then.

I think Diana’s comments were sort of overblown a little bit because saying, reality is coming, that things were going to be harder in the WNBA was, in hindsight, a very true statement. Caitlin has since been able to adjust.

RYAN RUOCCO: Can I add one thing to that too, if you don’t mind? Not only was the Diana comment, like everybody only took the “reality is coming” portion, but then on the end of it, she also went on to say, and “She’s going to figure it out, like every great player does and she’s great.” And nobody wanted to highlight that.

Then in their last meeting, or their first meeting, not only did they have that moment at center court with her, but then post-game Diana went out of her way to in long form compliment Caitlin, her game, how great she’s going to be, how great she already is in multiple languages.

One thing we know is game recognize game. All these people that are stepping on the floor with Caitlin know she’s a baller, and you can see them respecting that and adjusting to that.

I just want to add those little factoids there because I understand what you’re saying, but I do think that premise got blown out of proportion and then kind of caught fire.

Q. Any thoughts on the new media rights deal and what that means for the league and maybe salary rights going up down the road?

RYAN RUOCCO: I don’t know what’s official and what’s not. I think we’re all excited for the growth of the league, and we all hope that everybody makes more money — the broadcasters, the players, everybody involved makes more money as we move forward.

I think it clearly is a really exciting time, and I hope that all these women get and are getting what they deserve because it’s an amazing property to be a part of and one that’s clearly growing.

REBECCA LOBO: They’re opening the CBA right after this season, and then they’ll negotiate next season, I believe how the timing works. I would anticipate these salaries will be much higher in the next CBA than they were in the last one, that’s for sure.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: I would just add that I hope more than anything that the WNBA continues to be more accessible in this new media rights deal. Yes, the money is not official. I hope it’s way more than our current deal. I hope the players get what they deserve, and the league continues to grow.

Part of that media rights deal is like being able to turn on the television and find the WNBA easily. That’s what the fans want. That’s what the players want. So, I’m looking forward to learning what those nuances are as we move forward.

Q. This question is actually for Ryan and Rebecca. Why do you think the Rookie of the Year race — and actually, LaChina too as well if you want to chime in. Why do you think the Rookie of the Year race is such a hot button topic?

RYAN RUOCCO: I think first and foremost because these two players came into the pros with unprecedented followings. Caitlin and Angel both had just incredible, incredible fanfare in college, and their matchups obviously lived up to and exceeded the hype.

The first one, we didn’t get enough of was the Caitlin-Angel rivalry heading into the National Championship Game, but obviously that shattered ratings records and was an incredible basketball game.

Then last year for the Elite Eight, the performance and the game and the attention around it blew away expectations. Then you’ve had them both doing historic things. Like they came in with these followings and this fanfare, and they both have delivered in huge ways on the floor.

So that has made it a really interesting conversation, an intriguing conversation because these two players who were already kind of had this blossoming rivalry, if you will, then become the two premier candidates for Rookie of the Year. It’s almost too good to be true for sports television. So that’s why I think it’s taken off.

REBECCA LOBO: I would agree. You had the interaction at the end of the National Championship Game, and then in the regional finals game in Albany, it was all about the basketball. There was nothing extra in that game whatsoever.

Then their first meeting in the WNBA involved the Chennedy hit, so that was a little bit different. But their second and third meetings were really high-level play, exciting, fun, close basketball games, nothing extra, just great basketball. I think people just love watching these two women compete against one another.

And what’s exciting and intriguing for me is we’re talking about teams that are not in the top five or six in the standings. In the next few years, if Indiana and if Chicago get to a place where they’re contending for a championship and these two young women are helping fuel and lead those teams, how great that in addition would be for the league to have the kind of energy that people have around Caitlin and Angel, and if it also involved championship stakes. It’s a good future for the league.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: I echo everyone’s sentiments. I definitely have enjoyed the moments that Caitlin and Angel have gone head-to-head. People want to watch them, to consume them, whether they’re playing basketball or walking down the hallway or showing off their fits.

They have really entered into new territory where not just sports fans are interested in Angel and Caitlin, but they’re household names. So, I’ve enjoyed watching them really take the league to new heights, both with their play on the court and who they are as people.

I do think we’ve seen a trend of them being used for divisiveness, and I do hope we see that part of it taper down over time. I do know that comes with sport, but some of the narratives and just some of the terrible comments that are made towards these women that are non-basketball related have really been disappointing.

Other than that, I really do think, with Caitlin and Angel leading the way, from what we’ve seen, women’s basketball is in good hands.

Q. My question is for Rebecca. During our preseason conference call back in May, out of the Indiana-Connecticut game, you said you anticipated this season being the most watched, the most exciting season since the inaugural one in ’97. I’m just curious if the first half of the season has lived up to those expectations.

REBECCA LOBO: Yes. I don’t know if the numbers would bear it out if it’s been the most watched since the first year, but it seems like we’re hitting numbers that we haven’t hit, at least in the last couple of decades. And the play on the floor has been exactly what we had hoped for. We’ve had great matchups.

Those who on the East Coast stayed up and watched the Chicago-Vegas game last night, great example. It was an incredibly exciting, entertaining, high-level basketball game, and we’ve seen a lot of those. We’ve seen the ratings play out in a big way, not only when Caitlin Clark is playing, but when other teams are playing as well, we’re way above where we were a year ago in terms of average ratings, average attendance, all of that.

I think we kind of saw what was coming, and the players, which we all knew they would, have delivered. Hopefully, the Olympic break will be nothing but more fuel in terms of the excitement level when people come back and get re-engaged with the W after the break.

THE MODERATOR: As a quick follow-up to the question, ESPN platforms have featured the top six most-viewed games ever on ESPN and the most-viewed game ever on both ABC and ESPN2 this year.

Q. My question will be for Rebecca. As someone who knows what it’s like to win in New York, the New York Liberty are currently at the top of the All-Star break standings right now. What has been the biggest difference with this team? And how can they keep the momentum alive when everyone reconvenes after the break?

REBECCA LOBO: One of the things that Sandy Brondello low has talked to us repeatedly, because we’ve done a number of New York games, is just having that year ago. They had so many new pieces a year ago, the players were learning one another, they were learning the system, they were learning and developing chemistry, and she has pointed to that repeatedly as how much better that is this year. You can see it translate on the court with the way they’re sharing the basketball.

I think also their bench this year has been really impressive to me. Considering last night, they did not have either Breanna Stewart or Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, that they were able to beat a really good Connecticut Sun team has been very impressive.

Kennedy Burke has been very impressive to me, especially without Laney-Hamilton in the lineup. And they’re going to need those pieces. Once they get the lineup back intact, they’re going to need those bench pieces, especially in the playoffs, and if they’re going to be facing, in particular, the Vegas Aces.

New York is to me much better than they were a year ago. They’re deeper than they were a year ago. They have lineups that can be better defensively when they need that than they were a year ago.

New York fans, when you’re winning in New York, granted, my experience is in Madison Square Garden; theirs is in Barclays, but those fans are pretty incredible. I’m excited for New York. I’m excited for the Liberty fans.

Q. I’m wondering, two-part question. One is for LaChina about her comment about the Phoenix Mercury being a dark horse that she’s going with Phoenix as far as possibly knocking off the Las Vegas Aces. Do you, LaChina, see this possibly, with the Olympic break, with all the injuries Phoenix has had, that that could help them in the second half stay above .500 and still continue that dark horse run that you had mentioned?

My second part is for the panel. Is there any team that you see in the first half of the season that have been disappointments and teams that have been surprising thus far?

LaCHINA ROBINSON: Thank you for that question about the Phoenix Mercury because I feel like I tried to pivot the other day to Minnesota as being a little bit of my front-runner that no one’s talking about. To be honest with you, I really still believe in the Phoenix Mercury.

When I look at their roster and the lineups they can put out on the floor, they have everything that you need to contend for a championship. Obviously, Diana Taurasi playing great this season, Brittney Griner, no one can guard her with two feet in the paint. Kahleah Copper is having a breakout season with more 30-point performance than she’s had in her career by far. And Natasha Cloud, who’s not only continuing what she’s done on the defensive end but is also adding an offensive spark.

Rebecca Allen has had her moments. You still have Sophie Cunningham coming off the bench.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I just believe on paper this team has all the pieces to compete for a championship. Now, health has been the issue to date, starting without Brittney Griner. Rebecca Allen has been in and out of the lineup. Diana Taurasi has been out and injured. Even Cloud missed a game a bit ago. If they can stay healthy, they have all the pieces, but it takes time.

In adding in two good players in Copper and Cloud and working on that chemistry is a big part, but you’ve got to be healthy to do that.

So, yes, I am sticking with Phoenix as my dark horse. Hopefully, they earn the right to be contenders or at least be in the conversation at the end of the regular season once they can get healthy and get everything together.

Q. Want to give your surprise team of the first half?

LaCHINA ROBINSON: Minnesota. It’s not even close. Minnesota is my surprise team. To me they’re the biggest surprise in the WNBA so far this season.

I don’t think Cheryl Reeve gets the credit how she’s able to — I know she’s not technically GM by title anymore but put pieces things together. Especially because they didn’t make a big splash in free agency. There weren’t any major super headline signings, but she got the right pieces. The improvement in Courtney Williams, improvement in Alanna Smith, the way Napheesa Collier is playing. Kayla McBride is obviously having an All-Star season.

They are a low-maintenance team. They just go about doing the work. Scouting report defense, they’re not going to blow you away with their speed or their athleticism, but they’ve gotten a lot of interchangeable pieces, especially at the forward position. I can’t leave out Bridget Carleton who’s been exceptional this year.

Yeah, Minnesota is my biggest surprise.

Q. This question is for Sara, although certainly any of the on-air people can weigh in if they want. Sara, obviously you know the All-Star Game is very, very unique in that we have this format that’s very, very rare in sports and really kind of interesting. Then obviously you have the — you know, the prospect of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark playing together for the first time. I think that will be interesting in itself. I wonder from a production end for those two things, the fact that these two very, very iconic rookies will be on the same team, and then obviously as well the Olympic team playing a current All-Star team, what has the production group just been thinking about as to how you can highlight these very, very unique things for this particular broadcast?

SARA GAIERO: It’s a good question. Thank you. Honestly, we’ve taken an approach that is somewhat different from a traditional All-Star Game where this is going to be very competitive. It’s not going to be sort of exhibition style in terms of what you normally expect when you tune in to watch the All-Star Game.

So, I think we very much conversed about how best to document and deliver, knowing that it will be competitive, knowing we’ve got these really unique pairings and matchings that will just generate interest. So, keeping the sort of focus on what’s happening on the court, knowing that it’s going to be different than an exhibition game. It’s not your traditional All-Star Game when you tune in on Saturday night.

I think that will just provide some really fun elements for people. We’re going to continue to embrace the access that we receive, and hopefully with some of the player mic opportunities that we have, we can gain some really cool insight into what it’s like to be on that team, what the teammates are saying to each other. Again, I hope that can be a really fun piece that just humanizes these players a little bit, and we get a little bit behind the curtain during the game with that level of access that we have.

Then really just it’s a sendoff for the Olympic team too. It’s our opportunity to highlight what the Olympic team is going to prepare and get ready to go do in Paris. So, we’ll take that opportunity to go tell some of the stories for that team composition and what they’ve got ahead. That’s a really unique opportunity for us as well as we hand it off to our NBC colleagues.

That’s somewhat of how we’ve approached the weekend. We’ll continue to tap into the access. We’ll continue to document. But I think it’s going to be more than an exhibition game. I think it’s going to be very, very competitive. We’ll have our normal game hat on, if you will, as opposed to more of an entertainment hat.

Q. This question is for Rebecca. This is kind of along the lines of something you were asked earlier, but you were in the league when it was really, really popular at the outset. Obviously when the viewership was higher than it is even today. The crowds were very energetic when it first came out. Can you just contrast with what the atmosphere is like now at these games compared to what it was like when you were playing in the late ’90s?

REBECCA LOBO: I think it’s a great comparison actually. There was so much excitement about the unknown, especially leading into 1997, and that translated into huge TV numbers. It’s a different media climate, I’m aware of that.

Our first season at Madison Square Garden, I think we averaged upwards of 10,000. I think we may have even averaged 13,000, 14,000 a game that year. There was just an excitement and an energy level that I feel this year.

It’s like because like how are these rookies going to do? How is Caitlin going to translate? What’s Angel going to look like? There’s sort of that interest, that fascination, that curiosity, and it’s translated certainly into viewership and fans in the stands as well.

Of course, every time a new person, a new — somebody new to the WNBA tunes in and watches, they see great, great basketball, no matter who’s playing, and that’s been the course of a majority of the games, at least the past couple decades of this league.

Yeah, I feel like the anticipation of this current season was similar to back when the league started, and it translated into ticket sales and people tuning in on television.

Q. Just quickly to follow up on that, a lot of what happened with the league after 2000-ish, things kind of changed with the media exposure. There were less games on television, the viewership fell off. I wanted to get your thoughts. Obviously, the league is going to be growing its TV revenue. There’s going to be new partners, maybe even — I think the report last night was 200 million a year in the next deal. How much do you think the new television situation can keep the momentum from this year going forward?

REBECCA LOBO: Hopefully, it can. Back to LaChina’s point, hopefully it’s a situation like it is now where, if I want to watch a game — not me, just in general, if somebody wants to watch a game, they can watch a game, and it’s available to them. Maybe they spend $34.99 for League Pass or have Amazon or ESPN platforms or whatever, but hopefully the access is as good going forward as it has been the past couple of years because any time, I want to watch a game, I’m able to unless it’s blacked out in my area.

I think that’s one of the things that’s really helped grow the league is that you can watch every single — if you’re an Aces fan, you can watch every single one of their games on television. If you’re a Connecticut Sun fan, it’s the same thing.

I don’t know when that became the standard across the entire league, but it certainly was not the case in the first ten seasons of the WNBA, where you could watch every single game.

Q. I’d like to ask any of you that would like to comment, what are you seeing out of Golden State so far in terms of their startup? How do you think they’re positioned to succeed right away as an expansion team?

RYAN RUOCCO: First of all, the logo and the colors are outstanding, and the hoodies they were kind enough to send all of us were really soft as well. So, we appreciated that.

I think we’ve seen them really like — I mean, you look at the season ticket numbers they already have, their season ticket deposits are — I don’t even know what the number is now. Is it like 13,000 or something? Yeah, 13,000. It’s crazy.

Anybody who has experienced Warriors games, I get to call a lot of them because of the NBA work I do, we know how passionate the fan base is out in the Bay when it comes to hoops. I have been hearing for years from fans and people in the organization there how desperately they wanted a WNBA franchise, and they are taking that desperation and putting it into the energy of now preparing and building this franchise for this upcoming season.

I think it’s going to be incredible. I think the atmosphere at the games will be amazing. From a business standpoint, it sounds like they’ve hired a ton of talented people. I know everything the Warriors do is first class. Obviously, the overlap there is great and encouraging. I think we’re all excited.

It may be a long flight for us East Coasters, but we’re all excited to get out there and cover those games next year.

REBECCA LOBO: I’m just going to add to that in terms of how good they can be quickly. Because of the way free agency is now, and I don’t anticipate it changing all that much when the new CBA comes out, is players are going to be drawn to playing for franchises that have really invested in their teams, and a lot of players are free agents in 2025. Almost everybody is a free agent that’s not under a rookie scale by 2026.

So you can certainly — we’ll talk about the expansion draft and that sort of thing, but you can certainly get good quickly by signing some quality free agents, and if you have a destination or a team that’s made themselves a destination for that, it will be a little bit easier to get good quickly than it has been with other expansion franchises.

Q. My first question is for Rebecca. A few weeks ago, we spoke about seeing your former teammate T Spoon coach the Chicago Sky so far. What’s it like seeing them first half of the season, and how can they carry this into the second half?

REBECCA LOBO: It just makes me really happy to see T Spoon as a head coach for the first time in the WNBA because she’s been playing this sport for a long time, she’s been an assistant for a long time, and she seems like the perfect person to lead that particular group of women.

Just watching how she interacts with Angel, how she interacts on the sideline with Chennedy Carter. They take on her personality in terms of how they get out and defend, and they play with fire that she had when she was a player.

I’m thrilled for her. I’m really excited to see what their team looks like in the second half of the season. They looked great last night. Chennedy Carter is a spectacular talent. I don’t know that there’s a single player in the WNBA who can consistently keep her in front of them. Angel and Kamilla are going to continue to improve with one another. Marina Mabrey, when she’s on, is as good a shooter as anyone.

I’m excited to see what they do in the second half. I’m thrilled for Spoon. It just seems like she’s the perfect fit personality-wise, she and her staff, with the players they have for this season.

Q. My second question is for LaChina. Talk about Tina Charles, how she’s able to continue to play at such a high level and how she has the potential to be the second all-time scorer soon. Talk about what you see from Tina Charles this season.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: Boy, I can’t say enough how underrated I think Tina’s career has been. I think because she has not yet won that championship, she hasn’t been elevated to that level in terms of her visibility, but she’s been quietly doing the work for a very long time.

She’s a pro, and so Tina keeps herself in shape. She works consistently on her game. She has arguably one of the most complete skill sets that we’ve seen in the history of this league. From her ability to finish around the bucket and rebound consistently as she’s climbing those numbers as well. Her faceup game from the center position or forward, wherever she is on the floor, is really complete.

In watching her in this chapter up close in Atlanta, this chapter of her career, it’s been fun because Tina has taken a backseat and allowed the young leaders on that Atlanta Dream team to kind of find their voice. I think maybe not demonstratively, but in past stops in Washington and New York, Tina was the voice in that locker room. So, she’s created space for other leaders on that team to develop.

Yeah, it’s going to be exciting to see, once she does decide to hang it up, where she ends up in the record books. I think people would be surprised to see how many all-time records she is holding currently, either in the top 10 or top 5.

Yeah, Tina, she’s had a Hall of Fame career. I hope that whatever is going to make her happy on the back side of her career, that she finds that and that her journey, she can look back on her journey and be proud whether she ever wins that championship or not.

Q. This question is for anybody on the panel. The Fever have obviously turned things around after a bit of a slow start. I’m just curious what kind of adjustments have you seen on Caitlin Clark’s end to kind of engineer this turnaround that they’re having right now?

REBECCA LOBO: I can start. Ryan and I were able to call the first game, their first game at Connecticut, and the way she was blitzed on every ball screen, kind of took her out of her game. Now when she gets blitzed on ball screens, it’s a quick pass to a short roll. Oftentimes it’s to Aliyah Boston. She doesn’t get sped up anymore. She sees the defensive coverages, and she knows how to get rid of the ball.

It might lead to assists. It might lead to a hockey assist. It might lead to a good play on the offensive end of the floor. She’s handled better when she gets picked up and she doesn’t have the basketball in her hands.

I think, not just Caitlin, but the whole team and the coaching staff and everyone have adjusted and did it relatively quickly to how to counter to what the defenses were doing to Caitlin. We’ve seen a stretch, I think five of her last six games, were incredibly efficient, where she had the double-digit assists in five of those as well. She’s figuring it out, and it hasn’t taken very long.

Considering how much defensive attention she is getting and the way her team and this young group has adjusted to that defensive attention has been pretty remarkable because overall it happened really, really quickly. It felt in the moment, in those first two weeks, like, oh, this is taking a while. Two weeks is not long. I feel like she and her teammates and her coaching staff have really handled it all very, very well.

RYAN RUOCCO: One of the things just to add to that that Christie Sides said to us quite a few times throughout the first couple weeks of the season and then since they started playing better is that her teammates — a lot of what we were seeing was her teammates needing to learn her as far as just things Caitlin sees too. Caitlin sees the floor in a way that very few have ever seen the floor.

As much as we talk about the shooting off the dribble and the distance, which is obviously one of one, something we’ve never seen before in the women’s game, her vision, and her ability to see things develop is very uncommon. So, it has taken her teammates just a little time — not that much time, as Rebecca said, but just to learn the timing on different things, where to be to provide some relief for her on those blitzes and whatnot.

It’s amazing, you can see the connection between her and Aliyah and how special that already is, how special that’s going to continue to be. Even something like Kelsey Mitchell in transition, right? You don’t typically think of guard-to-guard transition running the floor, passing for easy buckets, but Kelsey is so fast, and Caitlin’s passing is so absurd, and her vision is so great that there’s so many opportunities in transition.

I know Kelsey drops some, which people like to highlight, but now she’s starting to convert some of those into easy buckets, where once or twice a game, Kelsey’s leaking out, getting a layup on those passes from Caitlin.

Then the other thing that I don’t think can be underscored enough is we are talking about an all-time transcendent player, who is already proving to be one of the best players in the league. Forget just rookies at this point, if you’ve watched Caitlin Clark over the last month, it is very clear that, by the end of the season, we’re going to be talking about whether or not she is First Team All WNBA. That’s how great she is already.

The way she’s been able to dissect and adjust and compile information and get better, I just think we’re seeing the team benefit from that as well.

REBECCA LOBO: I’ll add one little piece because I had our research people look this up yesterday. Indiana has played the toughest strength of schedule until the Olympic break, that’s a fact. Of course, that means they have the easiest strength of schedule after the Olympic break.

But all of this has happened when you’ve been thrown into a blender. To start your career going against the Connecticut Sun’s defense isn’t fair to any rookie, but they’ve seen the best.

Q. Thank you for taking the time. This is a question for Ryan, LaChina, and Rebecca. All three of you, what has it been like for you just to call all the WNBA games throughout the years and even this year? Let’s talk about what does it mean for all three of you to be part of the WNBA and covering them and seeing all the players develop and grow in a positive way?

RYAN RUOCCO: It means everything, man. It’s been so awesome. First of all, we’ve talked about this before, but something that I know we all really feel on this project is an ownership of it that I don’t think you get on every project you’re on, but the people who work in women’s basketball desperately care about women’s basketball.

Honestly, that’s something we also feel from the other side that is unique, I think, to women’s basketball. The players, the coaches, they get it. They get the role that we all play in building this sport up, and because of that, it really does feel like this connected community amongst all of us.

So then when you’ve been on this journey — for me, it’s 12 years — and you see the success that it’s had, it’s not only exciting and fun, it’s also incredibly rewarding.

Then when you have people like LaChina and Rebecca and Holly Rowe, who have been at it far longer than me, and I know about the internal advocacy they’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing for years. We talk about visibility of the game and getting better programming windows.

I mentioned this last year when we did one of these Zooms, but I think it bears repeating. Those three women for years have been fighting for that and now are seeing the results. All of them could easily be sitting here saying, I told you so. I told you, if we did this, we’d get those results because those are the kind of internal advocates we’ve been.

Then we have executives like Sara Gaiero who comes in and loves this project and has continued to push so we can get the programming windows. Dave Roberts, who’s one of our big bosses, who made it a point to have studio get more time and want that as well.

I feel like we have the right internal team battling here, and then it makes it that much more rewarding.

Then you have the basketball at an all-time high so that everybody who comes in who’s obviously observing this for the first time is saying, oh, this is awesome. This is great. I want to stay. It just makes it a fun time for all of us.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: I agree with Ryan, and it kind of makes me emotional sometimes to think about it because I’ve been in this 17 years. I know that there have been upticks in the attention around women’s basketball, like when Rebecca’s career started, and there’s been some low moments, like I can remember covering teams along the way where you come into the gym and you’re like where are the media members and where are the fans? Where we’ve had to play some games without a lot of attention.

I’m just grateful for this group that I get to work with and everyone who’s been a stakeholder in this game who’s been really bullish about pushing women’s basketball. I don’t quite remember the quote, but first they laugh at you and eventually they join you.

I’m just grateful, to Ryan’s point, about all the decisions made by leadership along the way. People that have been in the trenches covering this sport sometimes without the pay they deserve and long hours, et cetera. It’s amazing to see where the game is now and how much it’s grown. And not just even with those of us who are ancillary to the game, but on the court. The women that are playing this game night in and night out between the lines who have gone overseas and refined their skill over time. The game is faster, it’s more athletic.

This is really a beautiful moment in what we’re seeing now, and it’s what the league has always deserved. I just feel really honored to be part of it.

REBECCA LOBO: I’m going to add super quickly, since I was able to be a part of it at the very beginning, I’m proud. It’s super gratifying because we’ve kind of gone from a place where you’re looking around, like anybody want to talk to me about the WNBA? To everyone literally wants to talk to me about the WNBA. I walk into an appliance store, it’s like, hey, what’s going on with Caitlin Clark and blah, blah, blah?

It’s awesome. It’s because it’s what we love and we’ve been doing it for a long time, and now people are seeing sort of this hidden gem is no longer hidden. It’s polished. It’s out there, and people are appreciating it. We love it. It’s awesome.

Q. This goes to Sara and the rest of the panel. We talk about media and the advancement of it and more of the visibility of the game itself, but how close are we — and this is for Sara in particular. How close are we to getting daily programming for all of women’s basketball, in particular, from college all the way up to the WNBA? And how close are we to getting more of the NBA-type centric shows that’s transferable for WNBA-centric shows like a First Take or an NBA Today?

SARA GAIERO: Thank you. It’s a great question and transitions perfectly off of the sentiments that were just shared because I was having a feel-good moment inside with all the pride and hearing these guys talk about how great it is to see the progress of the WNBA.

I think we are closer. I think we are getting very close, to be honest with you. I think the success that we have seen in the last two years in the women’s basketball space has made it difficult for people to turn their eye to it. So now what it’s taking is, again, these internal stakeholders, the stakeholders on this call here within the women’s basketball space pushing our leadership team to really prioritize finding space on our linear platforms, digital platforms for this conversation.

I think, as women’s basketball continues to have the success that it is having right now, again it becomes very difficult to sort of turn your eye and say, you know, we can’t find space for that. We have a great supporting leadership supporting team within ESPN that sees what’s happening and understands how valuable women’s sports are.

So, I think we are closer than we’ve been. It’s just going to take a lot of continued pushing from a lot of partners to get us over the finish line, to get us that spot.

Then once we have that spot, once we have that programming, once we have the ability to have those conversations, then it’s just the quality of that conversation. That is what’s going to bring people to the screen, and ultimately that’s what we will need if and when we have a daily show, a weekly show. It’s then the quality of that conversation, who’s participating in that conversation, who are the voices as part of that conversation, that will be what sustains the interest level. Again, you see that in the successful shows we have here at ESPN.

So those are the two important pieces.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: For us, I just want to say really quickly, it feels closer than ever for us. Most people would think it’s because of the recent popularity of women’s basketball, but I would say it’s because we’ve had the best leadership in the WNBA from an ESPN standpoint, with Dave Roberts leading the way, as Ryan mentioned, and Sara. Like they have really pushed and made major changes to our coverage over the last few years. So, I just want to give them a shoutout that, if there’s going to be a leadership team that can really push this forward, I believe that they will.

Q. As part of media, I would like to say we cannot wait, and we appreciate all the hard work and efforts you put into that.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: Shoutout to you. You’ve got your own platform. Everyone matters.

Q. This is for all four, Ryan, Rebecca, LaChina, and Sara. You’ve all covered Final Fours and WNBA drafts and playoffs and all the big games. What makes covering All-Star Weekend so special?

RYAN RUOCCO: One thing I was actually thinking about when LaChina was talking about how different the coverage is now, like just seeing the way commentators used to go in the room, is there any media here? I remember when All-Star Weekend first evolved there wasn’t really parties. The league put on this very nice banquet after the game. There was the party, the All-Star party, and that’s it.

Now I have to debate whether or not I need to check a bag because I need outfit changes because of all the parties at All-Star, and I’m not getting the most invites. I can only imagine what it’s like for Rebecca and LaChina.

But it definitely speaks to the evolution of what a cultural, fun event it’s become. It’s become a place that people want to be, and you can feel that energy.

This year is unique obviously because we have these — this unique format, like we have team WNBA against Team USA, and we get to see Caitlin Clark go up against Team USA after she wasn’t on the team and all the conversation around that. So obviously that adds a little extra juice.

Regardless of whether it was that format or not, this weekend every year has continued to grow, and you just feel the energy and the cultural relevance of it, and I think that’s what’s been so exciting. This year just feels like it’s climbing to a new apex, and I’m sure it will continue to grow.

SARA GAIERO: I just want to acknowledge the use of “banquet” in reference to —

REBECCA LOBO: It was more like appetizers, wasn’t it?

RYAN RUOCCO: It was finger foods and conversation.

SARA GAIERO: It was like senior night in high school, like let’s honor.

I’ll add from my standpoint, again, the visibility of being able to deliver what we’re all experiencing boots on the ground out there for the moment. We have full coverage on Friday night. We’ve got ABC on Saturday, so for just three hours we can share WNBA with the world, and that feels so great because the investment that the cities and the league are making in All-Star is definitely a change too from the previous three, four years that I’ve seen.

You can see that excitement from people who are there. The crowds that are coming, the fans. Like you just feel it, and that feels much more — it compares so well to other All-Star experiences, and that, again, just speaks to the level of where the game is at right now, and that’s what makes it fun. That’s my experience.

LaCHINA ROBINSON: I would just add quickly the brand partnerships have completely changed the experience at All-Star. For the fans, for us, from a content perspective, even digitally, the conversations that are happening, the panels, the events, it really feels big.

I can remember going to an NBA All-Star in Charlotte, I don’t remember whenever that last was, and I was like, wow, is this what an All-Star experience feels like? Now the WNBA is really pushing in that direction of it feeling like a really big deal. It’s had everything to do with brand investments, and we have the players to thank for that because they bring their brands with them, and they’re creating opportunities at All-Star. But it feels like a much bigger deal now, and it’s all about investment.

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