Bomani Jones reacts to Azzi Fudd, Paige Bueckers & the Dallas Wings PR Mess

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Ryan. So, I was in South America minding my own business, occasionally tapping in, kind of seeing what's going on. You know what I mean? Like, I I enjoy what I do. I don't feel the need to like I'm not going to pay attention to any sports. That's that's ridiculous.

[00:00:16]I don't I don't want to do that. Uh me and the homie Vinnie, we once uh made a run. I think we went to like Padel Carbon, right? You know, see what's cracking out there and it was when Eay got fired by the Celtics.

[00:00:29]I'm sure that was a fun night, >> dog. We were just It was the whole day.

[00:00:32]We are just on each of us. You hit up who you know, I'mma hit up who I know.

[00:00:36]We're just on our phones and it's like this is like otherwise you kick with a beatw writer, beat writers are always on the beat, right? It's all like, "No, man. Put your phone down." No, not for that one.

[00:00:46]>> Not for that. Because we forget how like scandalous that was and how out of nowhere that was and it was just rumor and innuendo and uh that that's the best time.

[00:00:56]>> Yes. Like that was a phenomenal time.

[00:00:59]But I say all that to say when I'm ON VACATION, >> I'LL POP IN a little bit, right? Like even Ryan was like, you know, I know you're on vacation. I'm like, >> I probably won't mind what you have to talk about, >> right?

[00:01:10]>> You know what I mean? Like, okay, we'll do that. So, a story popped up while I was gone. I felt like it was still going strong through Friday, Ryan. Am I wrong about this?

[00:01:18]>> Yes.

[00:01:19]>> Okay. And it's the the a FUD situation in Dallas. Now, I have discussed before and I understand if you are a WNBA fan and you wish that we would talk about the basketball more and not all this other stuff that comes around it. I understand why you feel that way. But again, people don't seem to enjoy when I try to talk about the basketball and it makes it less fun for me in reverse. I saw somebody saying they're like, "Oh, you blaming it on haters." I'm not blaming it on haters. I'm just saying we ain't got a chemistry about those things, right? But larger macro issues, wheelhouse, baby. That is what I do. And that situation I think is so interesting and so amazing.

[00:02:06]Amazing is maybe going too far. It just felt right when I said that. I do think it's very interesting, right? And I think it is a reflection of something.

[00:02:14]And Ryan, you know me, I love talking about this ABOUT HOW THE INTERNET HAS BROKEN OUR BRAINS, RIGHT? And the internet has turned just about everything into something for people to fight about and everything to get tribal about and everything else. And the WNBA is so online to its own detriment. I would make the argument, right? And it's online in a very particular way that feels very familiar like 5 to 10 years ago. like it's it's it's a league in search of a safe space, which I'm not saying is an insult, right? I'm not saying that to be dismissive. Um it is understandable, right? Like it's a it is a league full of people who are members of a a marginalized group, then further marginalization below that. Um and it's often very very young people that are involved in this league. And on the internet at least, I find that women older than those women have a tendency to be very protective when they see up and cominging women in their late teens and early 20s that they like that they want to protect them from the big bad world or if nothing else protect them from a lot of the things that they went through coming up, right? All of that.

[00:03:32]But it makes a very interesting stew when something crosses over that involves a certain measure of controversy. And the discussion can truly become maddening at points, at least for me, because the conversations deviate from most of the established paradigms that I understand in terms of how we talk about and how we cover sports. Now, this is something that I've talked about in the past, which is the reason that it can feel that way with the WNBA because these paradigms are built around the idea that sports are played by men with implicit in men, straight men, right? Like everything, so much of what we do, what is okay, how we go about things is based on that, right? Men part first. The straight men part is implicit but is important as we'll get into here.

[00:04:25]But for example, um, watch a women's basketball game and see if you ever hear anything involving the word big.

[00:04:40]It's impolite to say a woman is big, so we don't say big. I've seen heard the phrase good size, right? But uh what's the woman's name that played for Iowa State and just transferred? Audi Crooks.

[00:04:52]>> Audi Crooks. Yeah.

[00:04:55]>> Imagine the nicknames that we would have for her, right? If she were a man. And I know this because I can think of some of them. You're probably too young to remember the meat hook.

[00:05:06]>> That's before That's before my time.

[00:05:08]>> Yeah, you don't remember the meat hook.

[00:05:09]But Glenn Davis was like a more athletic version of the meat hook, right? But all those guys, Kylin Elamine, the way we used to joke about him and everything else, we joke about fat basketball players. We love fat basketball players, right? There's a whole like we kind of have eradicated them from the game now.

[00:05:24]But you know, >> Joic has Joic and Luca have their moments.

[00:05:27]>> Yes. But that but they ain't no Stanley Roberts. They ain't no Ben Davis. It ain't the M look. Um like those guys aren't t-shirt fat, you know?

[00:05:35]>> Or Shaq on, you know, certain basketball teams in the end of his career. But we don't talk about women that way, right?

[00:05:43]It's it is the paradigm is different.

[00:05:46]But the paradigm seems that it has not like been fully established. Like I wonder if we need to have meetings, right? And what I mean by meeting is Ryan, you and I both have a tendency to read doom and gloom books about technology, right?

[00:05:58]>> I read a different one. Did I tell you about this one? It's called um this is for everyone.

[00:06:01]>> I have not read that one. No. So it is a book by the literal inventor of the worldwide web >> which is a fascinating idea to consider that somebody could invent the worldwide web but he did right. Um but one thing that was interesting in reading that book they talked about was that so much of like what the internet is like HTTP as a protocol HTTPS as secure um the use of HTML mark HTML language and everything all of these things were determined in conferences right like it started small enough that they all get together and be like okay so this is how we're going to write for the internet this is how we're going to code for the internet these are the protocols that we're going to use so forth and so on and it all built up to where all these things are established in the internet through all these changes, it still builds upon what was there, right? I feel like we need to get together and have a conference about this in terms of how we talk about women's basketball or something because it seems like something happens and as a media in some total we are wildly unprepared for what to do even though something might happen that we know happens like two players dating.

[00:07:06]This happens in this world, right? And it's interesting for me because I used to date a basketball player and she told me that the one rule of teams and I'm going to sanitize this for the audience a little bit is don't sleep with your teammates.

[00:07:22]Apparently that rule is not as ironclad as she had me to believe. So I realize I've gone a long way around this. Here's what happened for those of you who don't know. Ay Fud played at Yukon. Um, she was the national player of the year this year. Paige Beckers played at Yukon last year. She was the national player. Well, no, Kate Clark's national player of the year. No, she was not. She was really good at play.

[00:07:47]>> Yes.

[00:07:48]>> Say again.

[00:07:49]>> She was really good at Yukon.

[00:07:50]>> Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Look at me showing all that knowledge. Anyway, um, Paige plays for the Dallas Wings. She was the number one overall pick. They got the number one over number one overall pick again this year. They drafted A FUD. The thing is those two dated or I'm saying dated in the past tense because I know that in the past they had dated. I have no idea whether they date right now. Okay. But they have dated.

[00:08:16]>> Right. That that is uh on the record by their by their own words.

[00:08:21]>> It's on the record by their own words.

[00:08:22]It's on the record by the time I saw a picture of a foot at a basketball game with a phone case that said on the back Paige Becker's girlfriend. I have seen video them on Instagram with the how well do you know your your basketball playing girlfriend spouse whatever it is and Paige Beckers just running through all the things like >> it it's not a secret it was not a secret >> yeah I've seen people talk about this as though it was some kind of rumor and I'm like it can't be cuz I know like it got all the way here this is a thing that people know and people are aware of and so after FUD got drafted there I saw THAT THERE WAS DISCUSSION ABOUT. SO, LIKE, are we going to talk about the thing here? And the thing is, you got a franchise player and it looks like you just drafted a girlfriend. That's a thing, right? Okay. Now, what kind of thing you can say on your in your head right now, whatever it is, but the bottom line is that is a thing. Now, let's fast forward to the uh introductory press conference that she has when she gets to Dallas. And I imagine Ryan, that was a room full of people saying the following.

[00:09:32]>> You gonna ask?

[00:09:35]>> Which one of you? Me? Me? You? Yeah.

[00:09:37]>> Not a lot of elbowing. You got it, dog.

[00:09:39]You know, I was always admired you for your courage. Okay. Then a gentleman asked the question. I thought he asked it very professionally, >> right? Like he he brought it up like you said on TikTok. Like Yeah. It was it was a way of introducing the question like like not like he was inferring or making an assumption.

[00:09:59]>> No, no, he as Yeah. Like so I mean I don't remember exactly what the phrasing was, but the elephant in the room was addressed by the question and the Dallas Wings PR team jumped on that grenade.

[00:10:10]>> Right.

[00:10:10]>> Right. They're like, "Hey, hey, hey, no, we're not going to have any questions about that." And obviously there was a lot of discussion about how the PR team actually made it worse because they made it more of a story by doing that. Um, I will just throw this out there and I do not know anything. I want to be very clear about this. However, there are reasons why I could see why the PR team would decide to do that. Um, and it would be a reminder we don't know the particulars of what that relationship is. And maybe that person does and there's a reason why they jumped in, right? I don't know.

[00:10:52]However, I fully push back on the idea that this is none of our business.

[00:11:00]Yes, it is. And you know why it's our business?

[00:11:04]Cuz y'all told us. I didn't ask about any of this stuff. I know this because they told us.

[00:11:15]That I think that's fair to say. Right.

[00:11:17]>> Right. So, speaking of being extremely unwinded, >> Yeah. Yeah. Let me tell you a story.

[00:11:22]Friend of our show, I don't know if he'll even hear this, but a friend of our show had a situation once where he was married and his wife's brother came to stay with them and overstayed his welcome, but he wouldn't leave.

[00:11:39]And my man could not kick him out. And he goes and ask questions about it. He eventually had to get the sheriff to give him some paperwork. Like basically he had to go to like eviction court to evict the person from the house, right?

[00:11:58]I say that to say once you let somebody into your house, you can't just tell them to leave, >> right?

[00:12:09]>> I mean, you can, but they don't have to leave. You're the one that invited them in. Once you've invited them in, they got a seat at the table. That's how it works. And your business is the exact same way. Once you let people in, it's very difficult to then go to the, "Hey, it's none of your business." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You told me we could come in here. I didn't even want to. I was on the way to go do something else, BUT YOU WAS LIKE, "NO, NO, NO. COME ON IN HERE AND GET A SLICE OF CAKE." ALL RIGHT. I AIN'T even asked to get in there. But functionally speaking, that's how it works. Like once you make a decision that your relationship is going to be public, your relationship is public. I can understand why you might not want to talk about it, but that's how it works. Now, let's add it to this.

[00:12:58]You tell me if I'm wrong here, Ryan.

[00:13:01]If a FUD had moved to Dallas and was dating Dak Prescott, there would be a question at the press conference about it. Of course. And that would have nothing to do with basketball. Okay. If she showed up and she was dating Big X, the plug >> would get brought up.

[00:13:21]>> It would, you know, your boyfriend lives in Dallas, too. You know, what's that going to be? And look, she would have the option of being like, "Yeah, I don't even really want to talk about that right now." But, okay, cool. But that question is going to come up. But you think that you're dating somebody on the team and that's not a question that actually has something to do with basketball.

[00:13:42]And you think like people think that's not a question to ask. I DON'T THINK THAT'S THAT'S not invasive at that point. And by the way, it's endlessly fascinating for those of us who don't exist in the world of women's basketball. This don't happen over in our other world.

[00:14:02]>> Of course.

[00:14:03]>> Right. Like maybe it does happen and we just don't know. Right. Ryan, you ever heard of the culture club?

[00:14:08]>> I have.

[00:14:09]>> You know the situation they had going on over there?

[00:14:12]>> I am unfamiliar.

[00:14:13]>> All right. So, you're familiar with Boy George?

[00:14:16]>> Yes.

[00:14:17]>> He was in a relationship with the guitar player who was very not out and it was a thing. It caused him a lot of trouble or whatever it is. I say that to say maybe that's happened on one of these NBA teams that ain't nobody ever told us. Right. Right.

[00:14:32]>> But we don't we don't have this story.

[00:14:35]Yeah. This is new to us. We don't have this happen in the world of men's sports. So this coming up.

[00:14:40]>> No, this is interesting. This is a question to ask. How do you balance that? How do you manage such a thing?

[00:14:46]Right? Like I've seen things in women's games where you'll see two women who are in a relationship who play on different teams and one of them break up a fight involving the other and be like, "All right, we'll talk about this later or whatever." Like, this this league is a different kind of league. And I get that, but we don't have any rules for how it is that we talk about it or any understanding of what it is that we do.

[00:15:07]But you date your teammate. THAT'S YOU KNOW WHY THAT'S A QUESTION? It's a basketball question. I just saw something about a couple who, again, the perils of being public in your relationship, they had to put out a statement and a video because they broke up. And by the way, they not going TO DO ANY PODCAST together no more cuz that's what happens when you break up with somebody, right? Like there's there's nothing there's nothing crazy about that. That all makes sense, right?

[00:15:34]That's what happens when YOU BREAK UP.

[00:15:36]SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU break up and you're on the same team?

[00:15:40]These are legitimate real life questions. By the way, I would hate to be the coach, right? Like these are these are actual things that come up. And I was so surprised to see a number of people act as though this is not something worthy of discussion. Now, I want to be clear.

[00:15:56]I thought the majority of people involved in this did think that this was a question to be asked, right? Um it is one that requires a certain level of finesse, one that I would have been terrified to ask because I don't know if I would have enough finesse to have gotten it right. But not everything has to be a tribal fight and not everything there was no need to protect that grown woman in that time. She is 23 years old, right? Uh I feel like she was probably ready to deal with that question. Had to be in some form or fashion. If not, that's her fault. But this is this is the the this is a grown-up world. This is at least my understanding of how things work in this world. Okay, we're that's how it goes. Is it not how it works over there? I don't know. I don't traffic in that nearly enough. But I say this from the standpoint of somebody who like works in media and sees how these things go. You can't tell people they can't. Even if it's just a softball question, it's not like people are necessarily going to need to update every week.

[00:17:08]You know what I mean? Like it's not like, oh, so how you guys doing? Hey, I saw you guys weren't passing the ball to each other. What's that all about? I don't think it necessarily has to be that. Or how about this? You guys played together at Yukon where I think you might have been dating.

[00:17:24]You know what is that? And >> how's your relationship changed now that you're on the same team in the pros?

[00:17:30]>> Yes. And by the way, don't you tell me for a second the public doesn't want to know. And that's import a big part of the job of the reporters is to ask these things. But I don't know. I just thought that these were all real questions that I thought it was I thought it was all fair game for people who behave professionally about it. And I thought ultimately it was handled professionally, but it just came to be another example of how as a media in a larger way we are not prepared to deal with this league. And number two, and I think this is something I've talked about before, and we got to figure out how to deal with this part. How many people who cover this league do not treat it like a league or a business, but rather treat it like a cause?

[00:18:12]Cuz it's it's not right. Like it's it's at least in the way that I understand that we deal with these things. This is sports. Um, if we are going to treat it as a cause, that is fine. But I'm just here to let you know causes people don't get paid that much money to work for causes. You know what I mean? Like I I don't mean as much as I mean just saying just generally that's not that's not how I understand sports to work. And if sports over there is going to work completely differently and I think there's room for media coverage to be a little bit more humane. I think that's fair. But I also think we get a bad rap.

[00:18:49]I don't think we're nearly as terrible to especially in sports to the people that we cover as advertised because they have all the leverage now. You know, the people the people who are bad to the people the the the media members who are bad to the players are the people farthest removed from the players. I say that as somebody who is pretty >> decently removed from the players in the work that I do. But the ones that you got to watch out for are not the ones that are showing up to a press conference.

[00:19:14]>> Yeah.

[00:19:14]>> That man people who are coming in over the top of the internet to >> Yeah.

[00:19:20]>> win stupid tribal war points.

[00:19:21]>> Right. But like that guy right there, he did that for the squad. He need to be the beat writer of the year for whatever, you know, whatever award they give for that. He did that for everybody. Um, as for me, I'm just ready for my mentions to set on