Good Game with Sarah Spain

The WNBA season begins tomorrow, which means it’s time for the return of The Shootaround, Good Game’s WNBA season preview. Sarah breaks down each and every W squad to get you prepped for tipoff, starting with the Eastern Conference squads. Plus, grab your mittens, it’s the 11th hour, and complaints hit the clay.

• Listen to Napheesa Collier’s full interview on NPR here 

LA Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts joins Sarah to talk about her early impressions of this year’s Sparks squad, the lessons she’s learned from mentor Tara VanDerveer, and how she had to change her coaching style for the WNBA after spending 27 years in the college system. Then, with Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, Roberts talks about how being a mom made her a better coach, changes to the CBA that will help mo...

Las Vegas Aces guard and defending WNBA champion Jewell Loyd joins Sarah to talk about why returning to the Aces was an easy choice, trying to run it back with A’ja Wilson and company, taking her first offseason vacation, and why she sees Project B as more than a basketball league. Plus, take a seat, one big beautiful Cloud in the Sky, and two of our favorite worlds collide. 

• Read The Athletic&rsq...

Seattle Storm guard and one half of the StudBudz, Natisha Hiedeman, joins Sarah to talk about leaving the Minnesota Lynx to sign with the Storm, saying goodbye to StudBudz twin Courtney Williams, and her early impressions of new Storm coach Sonia Raman. Hiedeman also shares some of her top StudBudz moments of all time. Plus, playoff hockey delivers, what comes after the golden ticket, and ‘til death do us part – vows th...

Montréal Victoire forward Abby Roque joins Sarah to talk about her team’s upcoming semifinal series with the Minnesota Frost, finding her groove with a new team this season, playing alongside a legendary duo, and being a role model for indigenous athletes. Plus, dipping a toe back into the ownership waters, fold and advance, and in this case the first cuts AREN’T the deepest.

It’s Good Game’s 450th birthday – aka our 450th episode – so Big Citrus gets together to celebrate the milestone. Sarah, Alex, and Bianca discuss how the women’s sports landscape has changed since the show's launch in the summer of 2024, the highs and lows of the current women’s sports boon, and why they're worried about WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s comments about “fragility.&r...

Professional runner, med student, and newly published author Mary Cain joins Sarah to discuss her memoir “This Is Not About Running" and the decision to use first-person present tense to share her meteoric rise as a running phenom and eventual abuse at the hands of a famed coach. Cain opens up about the struggles she encountered in high school before joining the Nike Oregon Project, the lies she was told as a member of that e...

With season two of Canada's Northern Super League (NSL) kicking off, league president Christina Litz and Ottawa Rapid FC star DB Pridham join Sarah to discuss their biggest takeaways from year one, growing and evolving the league's voice and point of view, DB’s decision to leave Europe to help launch the NSL, and how the PWHL helped change the landscape for all women’s sports in Canada. Plus, someone is cutting onions, ...

Boston Fleet captain and U.S. Olympic hero Megan Keller joins Sarah to talk all things PWHL playoffs, what it was like taking on the role of captain for the Fleet this year, and her favorite memories from the Milan Cortina gold medal game and ensuing celebrations (like going on SNL and meeting Connor Storrie!). Plus, the W is soooo back, all good things must come to an end, and the field in Madrid is sick. Not siiick. Like, actuall...

Andrés Martinez, the author of the new book “The Great Game: A Tale of Two Footballs And America’s Quest to Conquer Global Sport,” joins Sarah to discuss what it took for the U.S. to finally speak the language of soccer, FIFA finally reaching stateside audiences in the most ironic way, the surprising root of the term “soccer mom,” and how women’s soccer is a U.S. export despit...

Indiana Fever GM and COO Amber Cox joins Sarah to discuss the opportunities and challenges of having a player like Caitlin Clark on your team, welcoming fans from around the world to Indy, the Fever’s entry into the WNBA’s facility wars, and how her GM job looks different as a result of the new CBA. Plus, silencing the Sirens, the NWSL is on a knee-d to know basis, and you gotta start somewhere. 

Major League Volleyball Commissioner Jaime Weston joins Sarah to discuss her main priorities as the league’s new leader, what her years at the NFL taught her about establishing a brand image and message, the differences between MLV and their top competitor LOVB, and why history shows that two leagues won’t work forever. Plus, growing up a few floors above the place to be in NYC. 

• Th...

New York Sirens forward Casey O’Brien joins Sarah to discuss her fantastic rookie season in the PWHL, hearing ads for the Sirens everywhere she goes, the team’s last-minute push to make the playoffs, and processing the emotions of just missing the cut for the U.S. Olympic team. Plus, Audi finds a home, all roads lead to Rome, and sphincters pucker for the final playoff push.

• The PWHL sch...

The Athletic’s Chantel Jennings joins Sarah to talk about the biggest WNBA storylines as training camps get underway, how new CBA provisions like EPIC contracts and developmental player spots will change the league, which draft picks seem best set up for success in their new cities, and which rookies might have trouble sticking. Plus, back-to-back back-to-back champs, not winning fast enough, and if there’s snow on the ...

Kansas City Current midfielder and captain Lo LaBonta joins Sarah to talk about surviving the uncertainty of the NWSL’s early days, the shaky start for the Current this season, new coach Chris Armas, her viral cellys and why she wants everybody to get paid. Plus, a Prime Minister plants his flag and a commissioner digs a bigger hole.

• Check out super slice Joey Maldonado’s women’s s...

Sarah sits down with Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer at the Deep Blue Business of Women’s Sports Summit to get an update on Ally’s 50/50 pledge and discuss the future of women’s sports. They chat about how to keep fans from getting priced out, how to validate sponsors and partners who have been there from the beginning, and how to make choices that ensure continued growth. Plus, the clock is ticking, something’s NOT...

Top Chef host and Traitors star Kristen Kish joins Sarah to discuss how competitive cooking is like a sport, the drama that comes with getting a whole bunch of really good cooks in the same kitchen, and shitty dudes in Scottish castles. Plus, Big Citrus in the flesh, an introduction to frozen toilet paper and our prayer that you never need to use it. 

• Follow Kristen Kish on Instagram here

In honor of the WNBA Draft we’re throwing our usual show format out the window so Sarah can provide her on-the-spot draft reactions. From the streets of New York City (literally), with a man peeing nearby (no joke), Sarah dishes on the 'fits, the picks, the family reactions that made her a lil emo, and her run-in with Cathy Engelbert. Plus, everything else you need to know today, a rant about the state of WNBA media...

USA Today women’s hoops reporter Meghan L. Hall joins Sarah to talk through a busy weekend of WNBA free agency signings. They make some very-early-sure-to-go-wrong predictions about which teams will thrive and which will flail this season and assess how the last 48 hours or so will impact tonight’s college draft. Plus, things are starting to click, the Garden is blooming, and competency porn is everyone’s kink.&nb...