Maya has covered the Golden State Valkyries since before their first game, but she’ll be the first to tell you that Bay Area women’s basketball history began long before that. She was born and raised in Oakland and moved home from Chicago two years ago to cover the WNBA and the Valks full-time. If you read her women’s basketball Substack Rough Notes, you’ll quickly learn that Maya writes from the gut, and her work spans on-court coverage and the cultural phenomenon that surrounds the game. I would say we got properly into the guts of things during our convo <3

We recorded on November 3rd, just a few days after the Valkyries won the 2026 WNBA Championship. Here’s what we covered:

• How the Valkyries’ title, just two years into the team’s existence, is sinking in

• Valks tech-rich owner Joe Lacob and the blessing and curse of how the Bay got its well-resourced WNBA team

• The Valks as a “misfits to champions” story, and Ballhalla as a refuge for fans and players alike

• Independent writers in the press room and the WNBA’s new media policies

• How regular fans are included in and affected by a team’s success, with the Valks and the Liberty as case studies

• Bay Area women’s basketball history: Natalie Nakase and the Japanese American leagues she grew up in, the San Francisco Pioneers of the WBL, and Anna Johnson, the Bay Area’s first pro women’s basketball player

• Queer elders in women’s basketball and some of Maya’s favorite stories from the Bay Area fan community

• Why it’s up to fans and independents to claim the meaning of the WNBA and its team fandoms

Quick note: a technical glitch made it so we lost our trivia and closer segments, so our convo ends a bit abruptly. The audio is crispy tho…and that’s what counts.

Enjoy :) Thank you, Maya, for coming on.

LINKS

• Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

• Subscribe to WNBA Rough Notes on Substack

• Follow Maya on Instagram and Bluesky

• Read Maya’s SFGATE story on the Espinosa-Jones family

• Come to Reading for Sport, Good Sport x Reading 101, Wed 11/11 at Nightclub 101 - RSVP

• Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram

• Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

Christiana: First things first. How do you feel physically today?

Ciara: I’m in pain. I can’t walk downstairs, I can’t sit down, and it feels so good. That type of soreness that just makes you kinda proud.

Christiana: I’m so curious about what your inner world was like during this experience. What was going through your head?

Ciara: I felt at ease in a weird way, I didn’t get too nervous. At the end of the day, I knew I was just going for a really long run. I was trying to live in the moment and take it all in, from Frank Sinatra playing at the start gun to the thousands of people on the streets; I wanted to soak it up. I thought about where my friends were, how I both couldn’t feel my legs at all, but at the same time they were hurting from the start. I listened to my friends’ texts come through Siri each mile, I thought about how amazing it is to do this with 60,000 other people, and how I’m appreciative that my body is capable of these things and I know that’s a privilege. I thought about when the hell it was going to end and that I didn’t want it to end.

Christiana: Not wanting it to end…you’re crazy for that (positive). What made it so special for you?

Ciara: I smiled for more than half of this race, and I wouldn’t necessarily say it was easy at any point. From the beginning, it was such a community moment; doing something with 60,000 other people is not a common experience. You could feel that from the moment it began on the ferry at 5:45 AM. I also was so grateful to do it with so many friends on the sidelines. From my girlfriend running around the city to see me in three spots, to her besties popping up and calling my name, to my besties flying in from SF, to, of course, you and Sabine cheering me on in your magical city! It was truly incredible, and I felt so loved by all of you and all of the strangers.

Christiana: So you’re really fast. You PR’d at 3:24:37. You told me you didn’t really have a goal other than getting under 3:30 again, as you did in your first marathon in SF. What did it feel like to realize you were on pace to PR?

Ciara: I knew I was on pace to PR from the beginning, so it was mostly about keeping that going for the entire 26.2. But my girlfriend texted me around mile 20, “Just a heads up, you’re projected to finish at 3:24:50. Boston qualifying is 3:25 but no pressure.” (I asked her to do this, she’s not toxic.) So that was the moment I set my mind on that goal, and there was no looking back. I had some out-of-character moments at the end and got the crowd going to give me some extra boosts of adrenaline and just kept pushing.

Christiana: You’ve always been athletic and super active, but you only started running two years ago. What has running come to mean to you?

Ciara: It’s my pick me up, it’s my happy place. I don’t always love it, but it feels so good. It helps my mental health, it helps me wake up, and although I’m not in run clubs or anything like that, it brings me a sense of community and shared experience that I love.

Christiana: I hate running but I want to like it. Any advice?

Ciara: I think my biggest piece of advice is that you can run at any speed. I feel like there’s this myth that you’re not a runner or you can’t run unless you’re running at the fastest speed possible. Just go at whatever speed and for as long as you feel good. Also get a drippy outfit, that always helps.

Christiana: Another highlight from this weekend: Your Valkyries won the WNBA Championship. What’s your standout memory from this season?

Ciara: The Valks bring sooo much joy to the game. They really do look like they’re out there having a good time and doing it for each other every single game. My highlight is bringing Gabby Williams to the team, seeing Kaitlyn Chen jump up and down for every point scored, and becoming champs in year two of the franchise! I was heartbroken to go to bed at halftime during the final so I could wake up for the marathon, but they did it!

* * *

Thank you, Ciara, for indulging my questions and for being Good Sport’s biggest day-one believer. You heard about this idea years ago, and your support and feedback have meant the world to me. You are very fast, and you are a very, very good friend. Congratulations, love you 4ever!

Now, here’s the rest of this week’s newsletter.

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On the Good Sport podcast: This week, I’m chatting with the writer behind WNBA Rough Notes and Valkyries fan-in-chief Maya Goldberg-Safir. We’re talking the big Valkyries win and the 2026 WNBA season as a whole. Hitting your inbox by Thursday.

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The Valkyries win the 2026 WNBA Finals. Just two years into franchise history, the Golden State Valkyries brought a championship home to the Bay. No matter who you rooted for in their series against a formidable and star-studded Atlanta Dream squad, the Valks sealing the deal makes for an amazing story. Tiffany Hayes said it best on the court after their win: “This is what happens when you invest in women’s sports.” In 2023, Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid a $50 million expansion fee to acquire the team. Golden State opened a dedicated training facility in Oakland, and Lacob promised “unlimited resources.” Team president Jess Smith led an effort to break away from a Warriors-led brand, building a new identity made for the Valkyries, centering the players and local fan community. Ballhalla became one of the best stadium experiences in sports, selling out 22 regular-season home games this year.

   Today, they are the first WNBA team—and the first women’s pro sports team—to exceed $100 million in annual revenue, according to Sportico. CNBC’s 2026 franchise rankings put the Valkyries at a $1 billion valuation, making them the first women’s sports team ever to reach that mark. That is a 20x return on the expansion fee paid three years ago. And to top it off, they won it all, with a team accused of having no stars, with a head coach in only her second year at the helm. They did it while being themselves, keeping it fun, and standing up for inclusion. Finals MVP Gabby Williams is a vocal trans rights advocate, and she continues to use her platform to represent and shine a light on the LGBT+ community. It was an epic end to a remarkable 30th WNBA season, and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.

   

2. Gotham FC secures the franchise’s first NWSL Shield. Genuinely go girls! The NWSL Shield is awarded to the team with the best regular-season record. We clinched it with a 2-0 win against Utah Royals FC this past weekend. The award comes with a big shiny trophy and a $15,000 bonus for each eligible player. Perfect little morale boost heading into playoffs. Sunday was Gotham's 18th victory of the season, a new club record. We’ve got our first playoff game at home this Sunday against the Seattle Reign. Go bats!

3. Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya wins the NYC Marathon. She did it in 2:24:36. It’s beautiful to think about how she ran 26.2 miles in that time, while I sometimes struggle with conceptualizing doing one errand AND making it to the gym in an 8-hour period. This was Chepkirui’s second title in three years. This article from letsrun.com (nice) outlines the field for the top women’s runners this year. American Jessica McClain finished second, ending an eight-year American Podium Drought(tm). I can hear an eagle’s caw just typing that…

What to watch this week

Sunday 11/8

⚽ Gotham FC hosts Seattle Reign FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium in their NWSL playoff quarterfinal. Kickoff time is 12:30 pm ET. Watch on ABC and ESPN Deportes.

And that’s a wrap…

Thank you for reading! If you liked today’s newsletter, I’d love it if you shared it with someone. See you next time.

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State Farm Arena is where the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks play, and they have a home game against the Cavaliers on Thursday night. Thus, a scramble ensued to find a solution. Per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, it seems like the league and other stakeholders (the teams, the NBA, broadcast partners) were considering two options to keep Game 6 during primetime: 1) Move the venue back to where the Dream normally play, Gateway Center, which only seats 3,500 fans, or 2) Move it to Friday, and a potential Game 7 to Tuesday. Tuesday is Election Day, and there were concerns about long gaps between games and the logistics of moving two Finals games. And in the end, it seems the WNBA prioritized potential attendance over viewership and went with the matinee showing at State Farm, which can seat 17,000 fans.

There is a lot I don’t agree with in that decision—how many people can realistically get to a game at 12:30 in the afternoon? And I don’t want to downplay the logistical complexity of this situation. But they shouldn’t have had to make this call at all. It is the 30th year of the WNBA. Viewership and attendance are at record highs and have been improving year over year. And yet, women athletes and their fans are treated as tenants, as B teams. I refuse to believe a better solution was impossible to find, especially given how long we’ve known that the Dream are serious contenders. I refuse to believe that an early-season NBA game couldn’t be rescheduled or moved to a different venue to allow for Game 6 to have the primetime slot. Shelburne wrote that moving the Hawks-Cavs game to Friday would have created bad back-to-back games for both teams, but that if the requests had come weeks or even a week earlier, more could likely have been done. Women’s sports have had to contort and compromise around men’s sports for… ever. Getting some well-paid operations folks to take a crack at this situation under the premise that a WNBA Finals series simply cannot be decided at 12:30 pm on a workday sounds like a good place to start to me! So when folks say this was the best of bad options, I can’t help but feel exasperated. Get that lesser-of-two-evils energy away from me and my home girls. It’s a lazy way to analyze how we got here.

There is much more to be said on this by people with more information and expertise than I have. But the bottom line, in my opinion, is that investment in women’s sports is measured in more than just money and TV ratings and butts in seats. It’s also about respect and dignity. Operational excellence is a part of that. Shelburne said on NBA Today that a championship celebration after Game 6 might have to move to a practice court so the arena can turn over in time. A team could win its first title and not celebrate on the court where it happened. I don’t want to see the players on the Dream or Golden State get their moment on a random court while I watch from my office TV. If Angel Reese gets her ring, I’ll have to cry at work! I hate that kids in school will miss it, and people who have less cushy jobs than me will miss it.

And yet. Time to go have a beer and watch Game 5. Here’s the rest of your newsletter.

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Event Alert: Good Sport NYC is collaborating with READING 101—a quarterly reading series—to present Reading 4 Sport on November 11th at Night Club 101. It’ll be a night of athletics-related readings from five local writers, with music by DJ Big Dumb Baby. Get your free ticket here.

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The WNBA Finals series is tied at 2-2. The Golden State Valkyries leveled it during Game 4 on Saturday, led by Gabby Williams, who had 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. The Valks managed to shut down Angel Reese, holding her to 8 points and 9 rebounds. Full Finals schedule below.

2. Can we make a lil noise for Midge Purce? In addition to being a charismatic baddie, Gotham FC’s Midge Purce is very good at soccer. In Gotham’s key matchup against the Orlando Pride in their chase for the NWSL Shield, Purce scored in the 22nd minute with a header from 10 yards out after Guro Reiten sent a well-placed ball into the box. ’Twas a beauty. Then captain Tierna Davidson scored in the 62nd minute, and the game ended with a 2-1 win over the Pride. I love when a defender scores. Gotham can secure the Shield in their last regular-season game against Utah, happening this Sunday.

   

3. I hate WNBA gay Halloween. Thank you, WNBA Gay, for bringing this Marine Johannes clip to my attention via your Halloween meme. I have never heard “baddie” in a French accent before. Très magnifique.

   

What to watch this week

Monday 10/26

🏀 WNBA Finals, Game 5 (series tied 2-2): The Golden State Valkyries host the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on USA or Peacock.

Thursday 10/29

🏀 WNBA Finals, Game 6: The Valkyries are at the Atlanta Dream at 12:30 pm ET. Watch on USA or Peacock.

Saturday 10/31

🏀 WNBA Finals, Game 7 (if necessary): The Valkyries host the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on USA or Peacock.

Sunday 11/1

⚽ Gotham FC hosts the Utah Royals FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium at 5:00 pm ET. It’s the last regular-season home match before the playoffs.

That’s a wrap…

Thanks, as always, for reading. A new podcast episode will hit your inbox later this week. Bye!

My genius friends Alexis Nowicki and Maria Robins-Somerville run READING 101. Alexis is a publicist and writer, and Maria is a poet and podcast producer. But more importantly, they are retired youth athletes. Maria did soccer and taekwondo, and reports that she was bad at both. Alexis’s parents made her try a new sport every year until she found the only one she was good at: running. If only you could get varsity letters in reading… these two would’ve been named team captains.

See you at Reading 4 Sport on November 11th. Doors at 6:30 pm, readings at 7 pm. Now here’s your newsletter.

Subscribe now

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. Gotham FC went down to D.C. and so did I. The only difference is they took an L, and I took only Ws as I celebrated my friend’s birthday. Gotham lost to the Spirit 0-1. It was a high-stakes game the Bats would have loved to win, as the loss denied them the chance to secure the NWSL Shield, an annual trophy given to the team that finishes with the best regular-season record. Trinity Rodman and the Spirit clinched a playoff spot with the win, and got some momentum back against their rivals; Gotham beat them in the 2025 championship, and more recently at the Queens Classic matchup at Citi Field. It’s getting tighter at the top of the NWSL standings. Ranked #1, Gotham once had a comfy 8-point lead, but now only has a 1-point buffer on #2 San Diego Wave.

   

2. The WNBA finals are underway. And the matchup between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream is set to be a fun one. The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant wrote, “There is no meaningful separation between these two teams on the court.” ATL and GSV share defensive powerhouse identities; they’re both physical teams. But they’ve got two very different franchise stories. Golden State is two years into its existence, and was accused of not having a star player—though Gabby Williams has shut that idea down, emerging as the team’s leader and a fan favorite, even if you’re not a Valks fan. Important NY Liberty lore: Gabby is dating Libs point guard and fellow French national team member Marine Johannès, who was cheering Gabby on during Game 1 on Saturday in SF. Gabby and Marine are my favorite WNBA couple <3 And then there’s The Dream, who certainly have their star in Angel Reese, who just scored her first DPOY award. She’s surrounded by vets with experience playing at the highest level, including Jordin Canada, who’s been on an absolute tear this postseason. Game 1 was tight and looked like it could be anyone’s game, but the home team took the W to start the series. And the Valks have arguably the best home court in all of the W. The full WNBA finals schedule for this week is listed below.

   

3. A look at the trend of women’s sporting events taking place in historically men’s venues. I liked this piece from Kaitlyn McNab and TOGETHXR on this recent pattern. NYC has been the backdrop for a few of these games: Gotham FC hosted the Queens Classic at Citi Field for 42,000+ fans, and our PWHL Sirens hosted the Seattle Torrent for a sold-out crowd at MSG. McNab says these venue takeovers are a necessary act of expansion while more women’s sports-specific venues are built. My requirements for those venues: Way more women’s bathrooms and guaranteed access to Diet Coke.

What to watch this week

Monday 10/19

🏀 WNBA Finals Game 2: The Golden State Valkyries host the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center at 8:00 pm ET. Golden State leads the series 1-0. Watch on USA Network, CNBC, or Peacock.

Wednesday 10/21

🏀 WNBA Finals Game 3: The Atlanta Dream host the Golden State Valkyries at State Farm Arena at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on USA Network, CNBC, or Peacock.

Saturday 10/24

🏀 WNBA Finals Game 4: The Atlanta Dream host the Golden State Valkyries at State Farm Arena at 1:00 pm ET. Watch on NBC or Peacock.

Sunday 10/25

⚽ Gotham FC are at the Orlando Pride at Inter.co Stadium at 3:00 pm ET. Watch on CBS Sports Network.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

Before you go…

We hit 400 subscribers over the weekend. I am honored and excited to keep growing this damn thing! I’d be stoked if you shared Good Sport with someone in NYC who loves women’s sports. Thanks for being here <3 See you next week.

Share Good Sport NYC

Harry is a co-host of Defector’s Nothing But Respect basketball podcast and a media consultant. I’ve long been drawn to Harry’s way of relating to the sports world. True to his metatextual form, he holds up a mirror to this thing many of us are obsessed with, and makes it bigger and more interesting. Some might call this … meaning-making.

Harry and I dug into the idiosyncrasies of sports media and some of the biggest conversations happening in women’s basketball right now. Here’s everything you’ll find in this episode:

• How editing Stav Halkias and Sam Morril’s Pod Don’t Lie basketball show led Harry to sports media

• Harry’s media roots (early Vice docs, Chuck Klosterman’s “Celtics vs. Lakers” essay) and sports as a metaphor for everything

• “Platform physics” and sneaking something interesting into the algorithms

• The origins of Nothing But Respect

• Why the metatextual x cultural commentary lane is wide open in men’s basketball but crowded in the W

• Thinking about the WNBA like a subculture and why attendance-comparison discourse is dumb

• Socio-political controversy in women’s basketball and potential ways to dismantle the idea that “toxic discourse” dominates the scene and fan experiences

• #ValkTheLine

Enjoy :) Thanks, Harry, for coming on.

LINKS

• Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

• Follow Harry on Instagram, Substack

• Listen to Nothing But Respect

• Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram, TikTok

• Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

• Check out Harry’s cool project: THE WORLD’S FIRST COMPLETELY DECENTRALIZED NBA SEASON PREVIEW

So now my team got swept, and my hand is broken. I’m chopped. At least I have an unbreakable spirit, a community of readers I cherish, and a loving girlfriend, amongst other blessings.

Now I’m in Paris for my 9-5 job, and I’m the first American with a broken hand to do something like that. I’m also on like 3 hours of sleep, so if you see any typos or think to yourself, hmmm Christiana isn’t really making a lot of sense today, you’re so true for that, and it’s out of my hand. More on the Liberty below, and other stuff you should know.

On the Good Sport podcast: Major fella of the pod and co-host of the Nothing But Respect podcast Harry Krinsky is making his Good Sport NYC debut this week. My convo with sports media’s nicest boy is hitting your inbox Thursday.

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The Liberty go 0-3 against the Dream and exit the 2026 WNBA playoffs. What went wrong? Every time our shots were falling, or we seemed to get into a groove, Atlanta had an answer. Their defensive intensity—behind DPOY Angel Reese—is remarkable to watch. But with the season in the rearview, most thoughts are on the Liberty’s Head Coach, Chris DeMarco, and whether he’ll be here next season. There was the reset timeout fiasco from Game 2, which ended with us losing by 3 points. And then there was his decision not to make any subs for the entire second half of Game 3, so Stewie, JJ, Leonie, and Sabrina never left the court. We lost that game by two points. The post-game presser was a tough watch, with Sabrina, JJ, and Stewie all not willing to speak on whether they wanted to see DeMarco come back for 2027. I think it’s going to be an interesting and potentially painful off-season for many folks involved in the organization—and some fans if any of the trade rumors come true—but based on how this season went, I think we’ve got to switch things up.

2. Rebecca Allen is officially retired. Bec came into the 2026 WNBA season knowing she wanted it to be her last, and holding true to her word, the Liberty’s loss to the Dream on Friday marked her final game. The Aussie says she’s interested in becoming a sports agent or returning to work as a commentator, which she did previously for the Melbourne Basketball League.

3. A moment for some of the courtside baddies who came to Barclays for the playoffs. I love when athletes from different NYC teams go to each other’s games; it’s like That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana.

What to watch this week

Saturday 10/17

⚽ Gotham FC are at the Washington Spirit at 12:30 pm ET. Watch on CBS.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks for reading <3 Have a good week!

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Working on Good Sport in a booky environment makes me think about one of my favorite cultural intersections: Literature x Sports. When I was in college, I took a writing course where we read So Many Olympic Exertions by Anelise Chen. It’s an experimental debut novel, where Chen combines autofiction and sports writing to create a world where her protagonist—a grad student and former competitive swimmer—gets back in the pool to help cope with anxiety and grief. Chen uses athletics as a lens to explore the human psyche around winning and quitting in a capitalist society that demands success, and causes collapse.

I first read the book in 2018 and it remains a favorite to this day. It’s a great read, especially if you are a former youth sports standout who still has stress dreams like it’s game day.

Anyways. Here’s your newsletter :)

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On the Good Sport podcast: Ashtyn Butuso—Co-Founder and EIC of Flagrant Magazine, writer and on-screen host at Offball, and renowned courtside baddie—joined the pod to talk sports-head roots, what’s missing from women’s sports media, her favorite interviews, and more. Listen wherever you get your pods.

Check out the podcast

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The NY Liberty take an L in ATL. We are 0-1 against Angel Reese and The Dream after yesterday’s Game 1 of the semifinals series. A boy whose job involves cords helped get the game on the TV at my friend’s housewarming party and well, that’s allyhood. But soon he saw my anguish. The Dream scored 32 points off 21 forced turnovers. Their relentless defensive pressure combined with our struggle to make shots allowed them to defend their lead, even after we got some things going in the last quarter. Next game is in Atlanta on Wednesday. LFG Libs.

   

2. Addressing the Liberty swagless allegations. It’s been said on various WNBA internet corners—and to me directly via iMessage from one beloved unnamed Sparks fan—that our players are devoid of swag. While I can’t say much to defend some recent fashion choices from Stewie and Sabrina…I must remind everyone to not sleep on the limitless swag of Jonquel Jones. JJ reposting my ode to her best fits speaks for itself.

3. Rose Lavelle signs through 2029. Oh happy day. Gotham FC extended its contract with the star midfielder for three more years. When we signed Sam Kerr I was starting to sweat about how all the numbers were going to work under the $3.7 million NWSL salary cap. We have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to personnel, and they all deserve to get paid. Lucky for us, the Gotham front office seems to know how to make it happen in the spreadsheets—and they also got very lucky with the timing of the new (and controversial) High Impact Player rule, which allows clubs to spend up to $1 million outside the standard salary cap to sign or retain elite, highly marketable global stars. This rule is often called the “Rodman Rule” as it was introduced in 2025 to keep Trinity Rodman from moving to a European club. While it seems to be doing the job of keeping stars in the States, the NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA) heavily criticized the rule, arguing it was implemented without proper bargaining and creates a restricted parallel pay system instead of a general cap increase. Two things can be true at once: I am stoked we got Rose signed before she could get swiped as a free agent, and I want the NWSL to create a salary environment that doesn't shaft 95% of the players in the league.

   

4. Pro women’s hockey is 62 days away. The PWHL dropped the 2026/2027 season schedule last week, and the NY Sirens have their home opener at Prudential Center on Sunday, December 6th against the Boston Fleet. I’ll be recovering from surgery so I can’t be there IRL, but trust I’ll be watching on ION, where you can catch all of the games. Not paid marketing for ION it’s just the truth. WEE WOO!

What to watch this week

Wednesday 10/7
🏀 The Liberty are at the Atlanta Dream at 7:30 pm ET for Game 2 of the WNBA Semifinals. Watch on ESPN.

Friday 10/9
🏀 The Liberty host the Atlanta Dream at Barclays Center at 7:30 pm ET for Game 3 of the WNBA Semifinals. Watch on ESPN2.

Saturday 10/10

⚽ The USWNT plays in a friendly match against reigning World Cup champs Spain in Washington DC at 2:30 pm ET. Gotham FC players who’ve been called up to the team include Tierna Davidson (Defender) and Rose Lavelle (Midfielder). Watch on TNT or HBO Max.

Sunday 10/11
🏀 The Liberty host the Atlanta Dream at Barclays Center for Game 4 of the WNBA Semifinals, if needed. TBD on tip-off time. Watch on ABC.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

And fin…

Thanks for reading. Go Liberty, talk to you next week!

Share Good Sport NYC

As for me, that person is Ashtyn Butuso. But she’s so much more than that. Let me tell you…

Ashtyn is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Flagrant Magazine, the only women-founded basketball magazine in print. She’s a writer, producer, and on-screen host, and she's behind a lot of the sports media company Offball's best stuff. She’s a Cool Girl™️ in sports and a salt-of-the-earth type of sports fan. And she’s on the podcast.

Here’s what we covered:

• Coming out of the womb a sports head in Portland, OR

• Tracing Ashtyn’s sports career trajectory, from growing up obsessed with Chiefs RB Priest Holmes, cutting film for Oregon State football, working at the Pac-12 Network, a stint at an ahead-of-its-time women’s sports media co., and more

• Why it’s important to post no bills and how enforcing that can make you the proud owner of a Marine Johannès poster

• Ashtyn’s take on what’s missing from women’s sports media and what she’s paying attention to in the scene

• Why the e-haters should fear @lil_buts <3 She replies, and frankly, so do I

• Ashtyn’s favorite interviews: Aaron Gordon on art critics and Carl Jung’s Red Book, and Cameron Brink on dorodangos

• The story behind Flagrant and what it takes to publish a print basketball magazine

• Fun stuff like Ashtyn’s swag starting five and trivia

Enjoy :) Thanks, Ashtyn for coming on.

LINKS

Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

Follow Ashtyn on Instagram, X, TikTok, Substack

Subscribe to Flagrant and follow on Instagram

Follow Offball on Instagram

Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram, TikTok

Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

Here’s the other thing I wanted to tell you all about: I was very lucky to go to the Liberty’s final regular season game last week with Pinterest. Pinterest is doing a lot of brand activations around analog hobbies, so they locked our phones up and gave us digital cameras to use during the game instead. I don’t have a future as a photographer <3 but I do think it was fun to go no-phones mode at a game.

We played the Atlanta Dream, which meant I got to watch Angel Reese in person for the first time. Major for me because she’s a Player I Don’t Play About(tm). Credit to my friend Ish for coining that term.

But enough about me! Here’s your newsletter.

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NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The Liberty win Game 1 in Minnesota. After limping through two stinkers against Atlanta to close out the regular season and nail down the no. 8 seed in the playoffs, the Liberty headed to Minnesota to play the Lynx in the best-of-three Round 1 series. We came in as the clear underdogs, and it showed. But Stewie did what your star players are supposed to do. She put the team on her back and got the win. She reminded everyone why she’s one of the greatest players in the WNBA—and in women’s basketball history, period—finishing the game with 34 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks. The Lynx tried to shut Stewie down by sending extra defenders her way, giving Sabrina Ionescu and Leonie Fiebich the chance to get their shots off, adding 13 and 16 points respectively. It’s not called Stew York City for nothing.

   

   Game 2 is on Tuesday at 8:30pm. The Liberty are hoping to become the first No. 8 seed in WNBA history to win the championship. My take: Stewie going Herculean can get us through a few rounds of the playoffs, but we need our other players to step up if that championship can become a reality.

2. At Gotham FC, young stars and vets shine. In Friday’s 3-1 win against the Chicago Stars, Gotham’s prowess was on display (though we shouldn’t crow too much, Chicago isn’t having a great season to say the least). Highlights include a brace (two goals) from Jaedyn Shaw, making her the youngest player in NWSL history to net 25 regular season goals. Plus, Sam Kerr scored a header after a cross from Guro Reiten, a duo that previously played together at Chelsea. I love it here.

3. PSA: Clinton Hill women’s sports bar Athena Keke’s opens early. In case you didn’t know, Athena Keke’s is open for café hours on weekdays starting at 9am. Laptops are welcome, and they’ve got pastries, coffee, espresso and tea. I will certainly be hitting some WFKeke’s moments this fall.

What to watch this week

Tuesday 9/29

🏀 The Liberty play at home against the Minnesota Lynx at 8:30 pm ET for First Round Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs (Liberty lead the series 1-0). Watch on USA Network/CNBC.

Thursday 10/1

🏀 The Liberty play Game 3 at the Lynx, if necessary — time TBD, broadcast not yet listed on the official schedule.

Sunday 10/4

⚽ Gotham FC host Angel City FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium, 1:00 pm ET. Watch on ABC.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks for reading :) New podcast episode hitting your inbox this week. Come to the watch party tomorrow! Bye.

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Part of my motivation behind Good Sport is to help move the culture of women’s sports beyond a sort of girl boss sheen and into a more authentic world that can hold things like rivalry and bitterness and nastiness, in addition to the more joyous parts of sports, like friendship and sportsmanship. Less she believed she could and so she did, more she is ruthless and really good at sports and so she did.

This was on my mind when I watched Chris & Martina: The Final Set, a Netflix documentary about the decades-long tennis rivalry and real friendship between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert was a blonde American girl next door, and Navratilova was a butchy immigrant who defected from the Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia. As the credits rolled, I felt so wistful. They’re great friends now, but during their playing years, their relationship was complex, riddled with jealousy and intensity as the two best tennis players in the world. At some points, they hated each other. And in that way they couldn’t have respected each other more.

Without further ado, here’s your newsletter.

On the Good Sport podcast: I spoke with Faith Morley, a professional women’s rugby player for the NY Exiles. We talked about what life actually looks like for an athlete in startup leagues like the WER, and what the Exiles are hoping to achieve next season. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Check out the pod

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The NY Heights’ first WPBL season comes to an end. After putting up a strong fight in their semifinals series against the LA Queens, the NY Heights lost 1-2, ending their inaugural season. I’m assuming a message from the team is forthcoming as the championship wraps up, but it’s sweet to see all the supportive comments on their last post. The LA Queens moved on to the championship series against the SF Firebells, which is currently tied 2-2. The championship will come down to Game 5, happening this Tuesday at 7pm ET.

   

2. Gotham FC: We’re still #1. Our soccer team is just really good. After a hard-fought battle with the NC Courage, and two goals scored by the rookie Jordan Dudley, Gotham FC defended its number 1 spot in the rankings with a 2-1 win. We also officially clinched our playoff spot on Sunday, locking us into the post season through November. Our team is just looking nice across the board, with standout performances from defenders Tierna Davidson and Jess Carter. Here’s a look at the Top 3 spots in the rankings:

   

3. Mandatory women’s soccer lore. Gotham FC’s forward Sam Kerr is married to Kristie Mewis, a former Gotham FC player and 2023 NWSL Champ, who has also played with the USWNT. You may recall the viral “sportsmanship” moment between them during a game. Kristie’s younger sister is Sam Mewis, who is an American soccer legend with a World Cup championship and multiple NWSL titles to her name. Sam is now the editor-in-chief and podcast host of The Women's Game from Men in Blazers. So Sam Kerr and Sam Mewis are sisters-in-law, and here is wife Sam attempting to pants sister Sam <3

4. Buckle up for WNBA playoffs. The NY Liberty have two regular season matchups this week, and then it’s time for playoffs. We won’t have the exact details on our first-round opponents until the regular season is done and seeds are nailed down, but we are locked into the lower tier of the 8-team playoff field, making our most likely first-round opponents the Minnesota Lynx (projected No. 1), Golden State Valkyries (projected No. 2), or Las Vegas Aces (projected No. 3). All formidable matchups…Let’s see what happens.

What to watch this week

Monday 9/21

🏀 The Liberty host the Atlanta Dream at 8:00 pm ET, Barclays Center (Noche Latina Night). Watch on Peacock and NBCSN.

Wednesday 9/23

🏀 The Liberty host the Atlanta Dream at 8:00 pm ET, Barclays Center. Watch on local TV or USA.

Friday 9/25

⚽ Gotham FC host the Chicago Stars at 8:00 pm ET, Sports Illustrated Stadium (Teachers Night). Watch on Prime Video.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks for reading, folks. By the way, today happens to be my birthday, so sign your friend up for Good Sport as my present or something…love you bye.

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In 2025, Women's Elite Rugby played its inaugural season, marking the first time women in the United States had a professional avenue in the sport, with six founding teams.

Two years into the league’s history, the growing pains aren’t hard to miss — most visibly this season, when fans organized a league-wide blackout in protest of the WER’s trans-exclusion policy.

But no one feels the reality of a new league like the players do. These athletes are playing at a pro level on top of careers and other jobs, commuting hours to practice, and training without access to a dedicated facility. That might sound bleak, and while I do resent the conditions women pros have to deal with in startup leagues, I can’t help but feel proud of what these players are doing: building a legacy of professional women’s rugby because they love the game that much, and care about its future.

Today’s guest, Faith Morley, put all of this into perspective. We talked through:

• Faith’s journey to rugby, out of spite for her older brother

• Her college career and experience playing abroad in Ireland

• What life actually looks like for an athlete in startup leagues like the WER

• Two years of the WER in review, and what Faith hopes to see going forward

• The league's 2026 trans-inclusion controversy, and how players and fans showed their solidarity with the trans community

• The story of the 2026 Exiles season and why they’re coming back hungry next year

Enjoy!

LINKS

Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

Follow Faith and the NY Exiles on Instagram

Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram, TikTok

Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

We also had a very fun Good Sport event last night: Sports PowerPoint Party. Our speakers treated us to a perfect blend of funny, interesting, and compelling talks. Thank you, Blazers, for hosting us <3 and thanks to everyone who came out.

Now here’s your newsletter.

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NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. Elena Rybakina wins her first US Open. This slam could not have gone better for the Kazakhstani player, who clinched the World No. 1 ranking and won the whole damn thing in NYC, despite coming into the tournament with a foot injury. She defeated hometown favorite Coco Gauff in the semifinals and Aryna Sabalenka in the finals, the latter of whom she had just overtaken in the rankings. The ever-stoic Rybakina came into this tournament looking to cement herself as a force to be reckoned with after an up-and-down few years, and it’s safe to say it was mission accomplished. More on what was at stake for her here.

   

   A nice thing about the women’s finals is we didn’t have to watch a man with multiple domestic violence allegations play tennis. Hunter Harris said it best:

2. Taylor Townsend had a US Open that she—and everyone else—will never forget. First, the doubles specialist had a great singles run, reaching the Round of 16 before losing to Sabalenka, the #1 seed. But the real highlight: Townsend won the US Open doubles championship with her partner, Kateřina Siniaková. This marked the pair's completion of a Career Grand Slam, which for anyone less familiar means a player (or a doubles duo) wins all four major tournaments at some point during their career. Townsend’s star is rising on and off the court, and she’s doing it her way, with brand collaborations, authentic pressers, and fashion pop-ups in Bed-Stuy. Can’t help but root for her.

   

3. Team USA wins its fifth FIBA World Cup in a 97-79 victory over France. That’s five consecutive wins, btw. ’Twas a Liberty family affair at this tournament: It marked the first time in history that a WNBA team had players on each World Cup semifinal team, which makes me test positive for New York pride. Breanna Stewart was named MVP of the tournament, and she had 22 points and nine rebounds in the final game. I’m sad for our girls, Marine Johannès and Pauline Astier, on Team France, but hopefully it gives ‘em some juice to play hard for the Liberty coming back to the W this week.

   

4. The NY Heights head to a decisive Game 3 in the WPBL semifinals. After losing Game 1, the NY Heights leveled the series and won Game 2 against the LA Queens 9-7, thanks to back-to-back home runs. Game 3 is tonight (Monday 9/14), and it’s win or go home. LFG Heights.

What to watch this week

Monday 9/14

⚾ The New York Heights play the Los Angeles Queens in a decisive Game 3 of their WPBL semifinal series at 7:00 pm ET at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, IL. Watch on ESPN Select.

Friday 9/18

🏀 The NY Liberty are at the Minnesota Lynx at 7:30 pm ET. This is New York's first game back from the WNBA's FIBA Women's World Cup break. Watch on ION.

Saturday 9/19

⚽ Gotham FC is at NC Courage at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ION.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks for reading, as always! New pod episode coming later this week <3

Subscribe now

Enjoy, and tune in to these games tonight!

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The top 4 seeds make it to the US Open semis

Christiana: As of about two hours ago, the semis were finalized: we’ve got Aryna Sabalenka and Jess Pegula, and Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina. It’s the first time all four top seeds have reached the women’s semis since 1975. So, looking at that field, what were you tracking coming into this?

Ryan: My first Courtship newsletter was about how these were the four women that stood a chance at getting the world number one ranking. Sabalenka held that ranking for 99 consecutive weeks. Going into the US Open, any of the four could have come out the other side as world number one, depending on how they did. And we now learned today that no matter what happens after today, Rybakina will be world number one, because she won her quarterfinal.

Christiana: How does that work?

Ryan: It’s the live rankings, basically a yearly calendar, so your ranking points are really relative to how you did last year. Because Sabalenka won the Open last year, she can’t actually win any points in these two weeks — all she can do is defend her points. She got 2,000 points for last year’s Open. If she loses in the final this year, she’ll lose points, even though she made it all the way to the final. In a vacuum, that should be enough for her to remain number one, because it’s quite a feat to hold onto those 2,000 points. But she hasn’t had the best year, and she hasn’t scored the most points in other tournaments. Rybakina won the Australian Open, which she didn’t do particularly well at last year — she went out in the round of 16. So just by getting to a semifinal here, Rybakina’s now earned enough points to put herself in front.

Christiana: So it’s like, great, you got the number one spot, now turn around and defend it as best you can.

Ryan: Right, Elena Rybakina will gain more points by winning the final, but she doesn’t need to to hold on to number one — the margin is such that whether Coco, Jess, or Aryna win their semis, that will not be enough to catch her. So that was really the story I was tracking most on the women’s side, and it’s fun that even though we got a little bit of a premature ending to it, these are the four women at the end anyway. There’s still so much at stake — emotionally, resume-wise, bucket-list-wise.

The stakes: Aryna Sabalenka

Christiana: So let’s go through the stakes for each of them individually. Starting with Aryna Sabalenka.

Ryan: She’s just lost that #1 ranking, which is really hard. To get to 99 consecutive weeks, you want to hit 100. 99 weeks total already puts her in a really elite club, but still, this has got to sting. And we all know this has not been a fantastic year for her. When the hard court season started after Wimbledon — hard court is really her surface — we might have expected a little more domination from her, and instead there were early exits. She hasn’t beaten a top-10 player since Miami, which was back in the spring.

So what’s really at stake for her isn’t just proving “yes, I can still do this, you should still be afraid of me, I’m still the tiger queen.” It’s that this would be the third time in a row she’s won the US Open — the three-peat, which is so rare. She had a chance at doing it this year in Australia, and the person who took that from her was Rybakina. It’s very possible they’ll show down again in the final, and that would be an incredible story: can she get her revenge, can she get this three-peat, can she get back on top mentally and performance-wise?

Christiana: So for people who haven’t followed her year as closely, what’s the story behind her struggles lately?

Ryan: My interpretation is she has a hard time when the match isn’t already going her way. Coco knows how to do what we call “winning ugly”. Her former coach, Brad Gilbert, wrote a book called Winning Ugly, and his whole philosophy is win the match even if that means dragging your opponent down into the mud with you. That’s kind of a Coco Gauff special—she doesn’t have to play her best tennis; she’ll make sure you play your worst tennis with her, and hers will somehow be good enough.

With Sabalenka, her firepower and her weapons are so central that when they’re not firing, I don’t see her finding another gear. So I think there’s maybe a little bit of versatility and imagination missing. She’s so dominant, and when she’s not, she can unravel.

Christiana: Do you think the loss of the number 1 ranking matters to her? Or do you think she’s not even thinking about that and just wants to win the tournament?

Ryan: She probably has an attachment to number one that the other women hadn’t necessarily formed in their minds, because she had it for so long. So I do believe this stings, but she had to have come into this tournament with a much bigger goal than that, because she didn’t know how this was going to play out. I’d imagine her larger motivation is to prove what a champion she is. To have been number one for as long as she has, but not been able to beat the people at her elite level for going on five months now, I think that’s actually the fire under her. If I were in her shoes, this would really be about reestablishing what her name means and the kind of dominance she’s tasted in the past, especially at this point of the year — from now through next March we’re on hard court, so she wants to scare the other women a little. I’m rooting for all of them in different ways, but as Sabalenka fans, we’ve had a hard time knowing she can play better than this, because it has to be mental — the skill is there.

Christiana: I’m curious: Do you think it’s better for her opponents that she just lost the number one ranking now, because maybe it knocks her confidence going into semis? Or should they actually be more scared, because now she has something to prove?

Ryan: I wish it were the latter. It’s a better story; I love the idea of her going in fired up. And no matter how she performs, she will be fired up. She’s not one to come in cool as a cucumber. But looking at her past results in these high-stakes, something-to-prove moments, I’m actually not sure that’s where we see her best tennis. So if I’m the other three…obviously Rybakina’s thrilled this happened, since she’s the one who has number one now. But even if you’re Coco or Jess, I think you’re feeling a little bit better that this happened before the semis.

The stakes: Jess Pegula

Christiana: Let’s move on to Jess Pegula, who will be playing Sabalenka in the semis. What’s the story for Pegula here?

Ryan: If I had to give it to you in one sentence: always the bridesmaid, never the bride. She’s performed at an incredibly high level for a while now—a top-five, top-ten staple—and has never won a Grand Slam. That’s not very rare on the men’s side, because we’ve had the dominance of the Big Three—Federer, Nadal, Djokovic—and now Sinner and Alcaraz. On the women’s side, part of why I prefer women’s tennis is the sheer unpredictability. You have so many one-time Slam winners. I think this year alone, and it extends into last year, every Grand Slam has had a unique winner. That’s what’s so fun: the suspense of it all. So if you’re Pegula thinking, “How has it never been my turn? I know how to beat these players, but I don’t know how to win the big one,” she’s got yet another chance to do it. There’s just not necessarily an indicator that there’s a deeper well or another gear for her to shift into when she gets there. American tennis fans always love a hometown favorite, and I think the odds are on Coco, just because of past performance. Even a few years ago, when the Netflix documentary series Break Point came out, you could hear the pain in Jess’s voice when she was talking about how a Grand Slam win hadn’t happened for her yet. Fast-forward to 2026 and it’s still the same story. So I think for her, it’s a story she’s absolutely ready to rewrite.

Christiana: Has she made it to a lot of finals before, and it’s just never dropped her way?

Ryan: For singles, she’s got to one major final—the 2024 US Open—and she lost to Sabalenka. Making it to finals isn’t really a staple of her career outside the Slams either. She has won some titles already this year, but the most recent one was in April. Coco has a much more recent one, from Cincinnati. I think if this plays out and she can get to the final, it would be the sign of a new level for her.

Semi-Final Matchup: Sabalenka vs Pegula

Christiana: So that’s a big thing at stake — proving she can do it, and tomorrow being a rematch of that final. What are you thinking about going into their matchup?

Ryan: They’ve played 13 times, Sabalenka’s won nine of them. On paper she’s the favorite, but obviously anything can happen — they both played really tough three-set matches yesterday, with points where it looked like the match was slipping out of their hands before they clawed their way back. I think the question is just which version of each of them shows up. It’d be exciting to watch the underdog shock us all.

Christiana: Anything on the style of play you’re looking at?

Ryan: They’re both incredibly flat hitters. Not to get too into the weeds with technique, but that’s what distinguishes them from a Coco Gauff or an Iga Świątek, who hit with a lot of topspin and really like to shape the ball. Sabalenka and Pegula clobber it flat — Sabalenka with even more power, while Pegula is known more for her depth and consistency rather than everything being a straight-up winner. I believe she’s known for having the flattest shot shape across the entire top 100 of the women’s tour. That’s not necessarily a detriment against a Sabalenka, since she’s going to hit you a flat ball back too. But if she makes it into a final against a Coco, where the ball has more shape, that’s the clash of the titans — and it’s often a disadvantage to the flat hitter, because Coco’s ball bounces really high, and hitting that flat can just sail long.

The Stakes: Coco Gauff

Christiana: Perfect segue over to Coco. Her match today almost killed me. Tell me about your thoughts on Coco coming into this tournament, and what it all means for her.

Ryan: Coco is the hometown favorite — she’s not from New York, she’s from Florida, but New York really claims her as their own, as all of America does. She’s so beloved. She’s 22 years old and still somehow feels like the most mature player on tour. She’s so graceful speaking on anything from her own shortcomings to issues with decisions made at the institutional level. You can’t help but root for her. Sometimes I emotionally struggle to root for her because it’s just too stressful — this time last year I said, “Coco, love you girl, I gotta pick another favorite ‘cause you’re gonna kill me.”

Christiana: Sometimes we have to take a tolerance break even from our favorites. What else should we know about Coco going into these finals?

Ryan: The on-paper story for her is: can she win the US Open again, after winning it all in 2023? But the more interesting story is that she parted ways with her coach last year because she knew something wasn’t working.

There have been persistent issues in her game — her serve and her forehand, both really important shots; some would say the two most important shots. A good serve wins you a lot of free points, but Coco’s led the tour in double faults the last two years. She’s constantly giving points away, and if she wasn’t as mentally tough as she is, that would break another player. Her forehand is so error-prone that if you watch a Coco match knowing that, you’ll see every ball that comes in goes to her forehand — opponents don’t want to send it to the other side, because it’s more consistent. So at her young age, she was smart enough to recognize she needed a change, and brought in Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics and serve expert who, funnily enough, fixed Sabalenka’s serve several years ago. Sabalenka used to be so mired in her double faults she’d cry on court mid-match, and now her serve is a weapon.

We’re already starting to see it with Coco — she won Cincinnati, the big lead-up tournament right before the Open, and it felt like everything clicked — all the pieces of her game came together into one whole. It’s been exciting to wonder: does that mean she’ll pull it off here too, across seven matches? I’ve been ready to see her win from the beginning—and I say that as someone who, a year ago, kind of disowned her as a stan—she’s made that much progress. Today was kind of the first sign that maybe there’s still some inconsistency, but I give her the benefit of the doubt that it was one match, and if anything, surviving it gives me even more hope. So I think the Coco Gauff story right now is: is my new and improved game as new and improved as I think it is? Is this where I get to say, as much as I’ve accomplished by 22, I’m still just getting started; I’m only going to keep getting better? And I think the answer, if she can win the US Open, would be a resounding yes.

The Stakes: Elena Rybakina

Christiana: Tell me about Elena Rybakina — she just became the world number one in the rankings. What’s at stake for her this last weekend?

Ryan: She’s such an interesting, enigmatic figure on tour, from her level of consistency to her demeanor. She’s mostly known for how little emotion she shows. After she won the Australian Open, she barely looked like she’d won a point, like it was a casual match against a friend.

Christiana: She’s incredibly stoic. I feel like that sets her apart from these other women.

Ryan: Right, it’s so much easier to map the emotional stakes onto these other players because they’ll show them to you. Today, when she got the world number one ranking, she was just like “cool.” Big moments of emotion are just not her thing.

But getting to world number one — it’s the first time she’s ever gotten here — is a huge achievement, especially for someone who won Wimbledon in 2022 and then didn’t have a whole lot else to her name until this year. That’s three and a half years of “will I ever get back to that peak?” Then she wins the Australian Open this January, but then she went a little more MIA than you’d expect again.

She had an ankle injury that pulled her out of Cincinnati right before this tournament, and in the middle of “can she reach world number one,” a lot of us assumed that chance was over for her. Instead, she comes here and plays her ass off. One thing I love about her: when she’s on, I don’t know that anyone can beat her — she’s breathtaking to watch.

Her story is really: I’ve gone through so many ups and downs, faced so many doubts, internal and external, just gotten through an injury that should have taken this away from me, and now I’ve achieved it — world number one. Can I cap it off in style? Can I get the kind of result that lets me actually hold onto it?

Christiana: Whoa, that’s a lot of factors for her going into this. There are a couple of ways one could think about her situation. She overcomes this injury, she’s flying through the draw, she becomes world number one. Now it’s almost like she doesn’t have anything to lose. Or, she could feel like this is her moment to underline why she deserved that number one spot and silence her naysayers.

But she’s so stoic, maybe that doesn’t even compute for her — maybe she’s just “I like tennis, and I’m good at this,” which has got to be a huge asset, I’d think, because we have these other women here whose success can be at the mercy of how they’re feeling that day.

Ryan: Definitely. In tennis, some players use their emotion as fuel; other players slip on it like a banana peel. Sabalenka’s emotional, and for her it can go either way. With Rybakina, I don’t know if it’s just the outward appearance or if it’s actually her lived experience, but she’s so even-keeled and equally detached from the outcome — and that really can be a gift, like you said. Even Sabalenka said she thinks part of why she won her quarterfinal against Noskova was that she started telling herself she had already lost, she had nothing left to lose, and that’s when you start playing free. So maybe that’s Rybakina’s secret sauce too — the more muted intensity lets her play like she doesn’t give a shit. Even though of course she does — living out of a suitcase, surgeries for injuries you’ve sustained, you have to give a shit. There’s no way she doesn’t.

Semi-Final Matchup: Gauff vs Rybakina

Christiana: Thinking of these two, Coco and Elena — what are you looking for in this matchup?

Ryan: I think this match is going to be the more interesting of the two semifinals. Their attitudes are similar — both incredibly calm under pressure — so I don’t think we’ll necessarily see fireworks in emotional displays, but I think we will in the shot-making.

Coco plays with so much variety, and she’s an incredible doubles player, so she loves coming to the net and doing things that are outside other players’ comfort zones. What she’s really known for that I haven’t touched on yet is her incredible defense — she’s just an athlete; she’ll run down any ball. I guarantee there’ll be points tomorrow that become the new highlight reel, where she runs corner to corner to corner about ten times, past the point where it stops making sense, and then wins the point anyway. You can never count her out. And that’s what you get with Elena Rybakina, who, when her accuracy is dialed in, hits the ball so fast and so cleanly and so close to the line that if you can’t move like Coco, you’re done. So I think they’re perfectly set up to handle each other.

What’s interesting is we don’t have a lot of data on how they play each other — they’ve only played each other twice, and their head-to-head is tied 1:1. Coco won their first matchup when she was 19 at the 2022 Canadian Open, but when they met most recently this year, Rybakina won. So I think this one’s pretty impossible to call. Coco can win whether she plays her A or her B level, but I think Rybakina needs her A level, because her B level has a steeper drop-off — she plays without a ton of margin, so she’s gotta be nailing it. I think this could’ve been the final, just in terms of sheer unpredictability.

Christiana: This might be the most interesting matchup we have here.

US Open Women’s Finals Predictions

Christiana: What’s your ideal final matchup?

Ryan: Not to knock Jess Pegula, I think she’s so talented, I just don’t find her tennis as compelling as the other three. If our final ends up being Coco versus Sabalenka, the story is so there — Coco’s beaten her at the US Open, she beat her at the French Open last year, she knows exactly how to frustrate Sabalenka, and when you frustrate Sabalenka, that’s when you get the fireworks and the screams — that can be really electrifying TV.

When Coco beat Sabalenka at the French Open, Sabalenka was so bitter she gave a really shady press conference afterward, basically saying, “Well, Coco didn’t win, I lost.” Though they patched it up and made a TikTok together, you have to wonder if there’s a wound there. I’d be excited for that rematch.

And for Rybakina and Sabalenka — here’s the player who just took your crown, and here’s the player who stole your Australian Open title in January, so are you going to let her take this one too? Either one would be a great final, honestly — those stories are pretty damn good.

Christiana: So what’s your prediction — who’s in the final, and who wins?

Ryan: My gut says it’s a Coco-Sabalenka final, and Coco wins. That felt dialed in until today’s Coco match gave me a little pause — but Rybakina didn’t have a great match either; she figured it out and turned it around, and she raised her level more than Coco did to get the win. I just think either of them beats Sabalenka this year, which is bittersweet to say out loud, because Sabalenka’s so good that you want her to take home more of these.

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Other Key US Open storylines

Christiana: Our focus is on these four women, but there have been a lot of cool stories at this Open — from both the women’s side and the men’s side, and all the cultural stuff around the tournament. What else have you been paying attention to?

Ryan: One storyline not connected to these four is Qinwen Zheng. She was in the top 10, an incredibly dominant player two years ago — she beat Iga Świątek at the Paris Olympics for gold, on a court that was absolutely Iga’s to lose, since they played at Roland Garros, where Iga had won four times. Then Zheng faced an injury, and her ranking fell all the way to number 121. She had to play qualifying matches for this US Open, so she played three more matches than these other women before the tournament even started. She only just lost today to Rybakina. I saw an interview she did with Jessica Schiffer, who runs Hardcourt, one of the best tennis Substacks out there, where she talks about what that does to you mentally — representing your country, being a Chinese player who’s sort of alone in the echelon she used to occupy, since there weren’t a lot of other Chinese players even near the top 10. There was so much weight on her shoulders, and not being able to find her footing again took her to a dark place at times. So I was really happy to see her make a deep run — she even won the first set against Rybakina. Zheng could have won that match, and we could have been talking about her instead. I think that’s a really beautiful story.

Christiana: I’m happy for her; that’s great. I also thought Taylor Townsend has had a really cool U.S. Open story. She had a great singles run, and her star feels like it’s rising, too. She did a fashion pop-up in Bed-Stuy here in Brooklyn, and she’s so authentic with the press — she’s like a Coco in that way, but rawer. I feel really drawn to how she carries herself.

Ryan: I wrote about her in my piece going up Friday, because I think we should all be watching her doubles final — she just won her semifinal with Katerina Siniakova, and the two of them together are unstoppable. They’ve been number one in doubles for a while now, and that’s what I love watching even when Taylor plays singles — she brings that doubles mentality, goes to the net, and does anything up there because she’s such a lethal weapon in doubles. It’s never a dull moment watching her, and she brings something a lot of other players don’t have. I’d love to see her win the US Open in doubles, and honestly I think she will — I never bet against those two.

I agree that’s not necessarily a new story for her, since she’s so dominant in doubles all the time. But what does feel new is the way she’s claiming her space as a star. I think a lot of other players focus on the tennis, and then the brands either get excited about them or they don’t. Taylor feels like someone charting her own path, saying, “I’ve decided what I want my uniform to look like, and I don’t necessarily need it to come from a big brand’s department — I’ll fashion it myself.” You can feel that, and you can see how hard people ride for her in the comments — she’s collected a really loyal following. I think it’s smart and inspiring to lean into that. Because honestly, in this world, women’s doubles doesn’t always get the respect it deserves; at the institutional level, they keep cutting resources for it, and the stories don’t get told. She feels like one of the few breakout stars we have.

Christiana: It’s so cool to see trailblazers like her in a tennis world that can be strict about how things are done and how people get deals. Black women have a legacy of doing that in tennis, obviously. She’s exactly where she belongs on this stage. Anything on the men’s side you’ve been loving before we close out?

Ryan: Now that Carlos Alcaraz is out of the tournament, I’ve been feeling Ben Shelton, too. And I have been since before Djokovic lost — I made Ben my winner prediction last week. If we get Coco and Ben as our US Open winners, to have two Americans…And the first American man to win the US Open since Andy Roddick did in 2003, and the first Black male player to win since Arthur Ashe. And to do that alongside Coco, who is also just an incredible trailblazer for Black athletes, I just can’t imagine a better story.

Christiana: It’s just so fun to root for them. And with Shelton and Tiafoe facing off in the men’s semis, a Black American man is guaranteed to reach the US Open final for the first time since Arthur Ashe. I grew up playing tennis, but this is the first year I’m following the Open to the extent that I feel the anguish of this sport. There’s something about individual athletes vs team sports where it is just so personal and intimate, seeing them get frustrated and looking at their coaches and doing all these things. It impacts me so much.

Ryan: I don’t know if you saw that emotional moment between Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen after Tiafoe won. It was tragic, but it was beautiful, too, and it just reminds you what it’s like. You don’t have a team that’s shouldering that loss with you. There’s no teammate. Andre Agassi, in his memoir Open, calls it the loneliest sport. Not only is it individual, but your opponent is also very far away from you. You’re these two gladiators surrounded by cheering fans, but you don’t ever make contact. Even when they cross at the changeover sides after the odd-numbered games, they don’t look at each other; they don’t talk to each other. It’s very isolating.

It makes these moments of victory so much more impactful. I’ll be so thrilled for whoever wins, and I just have to hope that whoever loses can carry it without letting it turn into scar tissue, because the great thing about tennis is there’s just always another tournament on the horizon — the momentum shifts just never stop.

Christiana: Before we close out, can you tell us about Courtship? What can readers expect?

Ryan: Courtship is written for tennis fans who already follow the game but are looking for a different conversation around it; I talk about these players like I’m in a group chat, bringing you their lore, keeping it real without denigrating anyone. What I think I offer that you won’t get from legacy media, or even some other Substacks that have relationships with these brands, is a really unvarnished take and a personal connection to the sport.

But if you’re someone who loves women’s sports and tennis is new to you, I’d encourage you to check us out, too — I’m breaking it down week by week, as an ongoing story of who these people are and why this week in tennis matters in a larger context. That’s what you need when you jump into any new sport — someone to hold your hand and tell you why it all matters, and why it’s worth staying up till 3 a.m. for a match.

Another thing about Canmore: It’s roughly 4,300 feet above sea level. Something about me: I’m sensitive to altitude change. When I went to Denver for the first time, I got the spins after one measly margarita. It makes me think about how athletes will train at higher altitudes to gain an edge over their opponents, since their bodies adjust by producinh more red blood cells and growing new capillaries (ew), which boosts oxygen delivery and muscle efficiency. So in my case, this means I’ll be able to jump to Mr. Brightside—mandatory at a wedding if one of the betrothed attended a Big Ten university—in a vastly superior manner at my next sea-level wedding. Eat your heart out…

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REMINDER: Good Sport’s next event is this week. Join us on Sunday 9/13 for Sports PowerPoint Party at Blazers. The lineup of talks is shaping up to be a mix of funny, informative, and crazy. RSVP here.

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The women of the US Open are giving us a show on and off the court. Here’s what I’ve been loving: Naomi Osaka outdoes herself with the court walk-in outfits, including a tribute to Allen Iverson during Round 1 that featured his signature cornrows and arm sleeve. Taylor Townsend’s hard work is paying off, and her star is rising; the doubles specialist made it to the Round of 16 in singles and put up a great fight against world #1 Aryna Sabalenka, showing she can compete with the world’s best singles players. Townsend’s authenticity seems to come naturally; she was open about what her success in this tournament has meant after a difficult year, and she’s gaining a ton of fans for her candor and how fun she is to watch. I liked Sabalenka telling a reporter off earlier in the tournament for implying she partied too much. My GOAT Coco doing Coco shit; I loved her yellow New Balance set from Saturday’s match. Plus, we got to see Venus and Serena hit the court as doubles partners. Lots of big matches coming this week; peep the schedule below for details.

2. The WPBL post-season picture is set. The semifinals kick off on Wednesday. No. 1 San Francisco faces No. 4 Boston in Series A, while No. 2 New York takes on No. 3 Los Angeles in Series B. Here’s how it’ll work: Each semifinal is best-of-three, and the first team to win two games advances. The Series A and Series B winners meet in the best-of-five WPBL Championship, with the first team to win three games claiming the title. Here’s a great write-up on our NY Heights semi-final match-up vs the LA Queens. We have momentum on our side thanks to a few clutch wins in the last few regular-season games that led us to clinch the #2 seed, but this is a very evenly matched series. Should be a blast…

   

3. Liberty forward Satou Sabally out for the season. Sabally suffered her second concussion in 8 months in June, and it was announced last week that she has been ruled out for the remainder of this season due to lingering symptoms. This is a huge loss for our team going into playoffs, but it is absolutely the right call for her long-term health. She is also missing out on representing Germany in the FIBA World Cup as a result. After losing Sabally, the Liberty signed developmental player Anneli Maley to a standard player contract and guard/forward Madison Scott to a developmental contract.

What to watch this week

Monday 9/7

🏀 Team USA closes out group play at the FIBA Women's World Cup against Czechia at 2:45 pm ET (8:45 pm in Berlin). USA is 2-0 in group play so far.

Tuesday 9/8

🎾 US Open women's singles quarterfinals matches. Watch on ESPN

Wednesday 9/9

🎾 US Open women's singles quarterfinals matches. Watch on ESPN

Thursday 9/10

⚾ The New York Heights play the Los Angeles Queens in Game 1 of their WPBL semifinal series at 7:00 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

🏀 Team USA plays its FIBA Women's World Cup quarterfinal in Berlin, opponent and exact time slot are still TBD until the rest of the bracket is set. Watch on TNT/truTV, or stream on HBO Max.

🎾 US Open women's singles semifinals, roughly 7-11 pm ET. Watch on ESPN.

Friday 9/11

⚽ Gotham FC is at Racing Louisville FC at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on NWSL+.

Saturday 9/12

⚾ The New York Heights play the Los Angeles Queens in Game 2 of their WPBL semifinal series at 7:00 pm ET at Robin Roberts Stadium. Watch on ESPN.

🏀 If Team USA advances, it plays its FIBA semifinal in Berlin, opponent/exact slot TBD — the two semifinal windows are roughly 10:30 am and 2:00 pm ET. Watch on TNT/truTV, or stream on HBO Max.

🎾 US Open women's singles final at 4:00 pm ET. Watch on ESPN.

Sunday 9/13

🏀 FIBA Women's World Cup third-place game (~10:30 am ET) and final (~2:00 pm ET) in Berlin: Team USA plays if it advances. USA is going for a 5th straight world title. Watch on TNT/truTV, or stream on HBO Max.

Classifieds & Community

Shouts and calls from the community. Things to do. Plus jobs.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks as always for reading! We’ll be hitting your inbox again this week, all about the last women standing at the U.S. Open. See you then.

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And I have a specific call-out for my dear readers: If you have an idea for a talk and want to participate as a speaker, I would LOVE to hear from you! For more info + to submit your pitch, head over to the beautiful Google Form here.

Can’t wait to see you there! And with that, here’s your newsletter.

On the Good Sport podcast: Our amazing pod editor Rosabelle hosted last week’s episode and interviewed ME about why I’m building a women’s sports media company. We had such fun! Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Listen to the pod

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. Former Gotham FC star Esther González sparks backlash after signing with Al-Qadsiah of the Saudi Women’s Premier League. Earlier this month, González announced her departure from the NWSL and mutual contract termination with Gotham FC, citing personal reasons that needed her attention back home in Spain. Last week, it was announced that she signed with Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia. Part of the backlash stems from her identity; González is a publicly out queer woman with a wife and child, who will now be playing in a country that criminalizes same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity. Photos with her family have been removed from her Instagram. The other bit is soccer-related; some Gotham fans are concerned she ended her contract under false pretenses, citing family reasons when really she wanted to leave Gotham after the team signed Sam Kerr. It sparks a lot of questions and feelings in me, and I think I’ll try to write a longer piece about this soon.

   

2. What’s eating Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu? During Saturday’s game against the Sky, Ionescu missed all 10 of her field goal attempts, including seven inside the arc. She’s 8-for-53 from deep over the last eight games. Naturally, critics and some fans are calling it out and saying she needs to play less, especially as the Liberty bench players like Han Xu and Rebecca Gardner make a case for more time. But Sab isn’t sweating it, at least not outwardly: “It’s not that big of a deal to me…I know who I am. I know what I’m able to do. Kind of felt like the ball was allergic to the rim there for me. Like it’s literally just toilet-bowling out. I’m not really understanding. They’re not bad misses. They’re just literally popping out, so sometimes you just gotta laugh and shake it off.”

   Her teammates and coach know who she is, too, and reiterated their support in the post-game presser. So what’s eating her? My take is her injuries are more pesky than she cares to admit, especially back pain when working through a rigorous W schedule. I think her confidence is a bit knocked as a result, and getting snubbed for the US roster for the World Cup couldn’t have helped. That said, a nearly three-week break for the FIBA World Cup to rest and get her shot back is just what the doctor (and NY fans) ordered.

   

3. Seven New York Liberty are headed to the FIBA World Cup in Berlin. We lead the WNBA in the number of players selected from a team to represent their home country in this year’s World Cup. Here’s the breakdown of who’s headed abroad and where they’re from:

• Breanna Stewart – United States

• Marine Johannes – France

• Pauline Astier – France

• Han Xu – China

• Elizabeth Balogun – Nigeria

• Leonie Fiebich – Germany

• Raquel Carrera – Spain

What to watch this week

Thursday 9/3

⚾ The New York Heights play the LA Queens at 7:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Friday 9/4

⚾ The New York Heights play the San Francisco Firebells at 7:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Sunday 9/6

⚽ Gotham FC is at Denver Summit FC at 2:00 pm ET. Watch on CBS.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks as always for reading. See you next time :)

I wanted to use this week’s post as an opportunity to spell out why I’m building Good Sport and what the big vision is here, so our editor Rosabelle did a huge coup, took the mic, and interviewed ME all about it.

Spoiler: Good Sport exists because I wanted to create a media outlet for women’s sports that I wished existed as a fan. One that’s more swaggy than girlboss, more gen-z than millennial (no shade, I’m 27 and a generational cusper), and more pro-women than clickbaity. I want to help build the cultural relevancy of this space and tell the stories that get lost in the bigger news streams. I want to celebrate the distinct cultures in different cities around women’s sports.

And I want to have fun! Is that too much to ask?! No, because I’m in charge of my own destiny…Here’s what Rosabelle and I covered:

• What Good Sport NYC actually is, and why we’re building it

• What’s missing from the current state of women’s sports media

• Cool work happening right now: the WNBA’s 30th season campaign, the New York Liberty’s retro branding, and the indie creators doing the best work out

• Three months of Good Sport by the numbers

• What it’s been like building this thing solo and on the side of a full-time job, and what I’ve learned so far

• The five-year vision: a national network of Good Sport hubs

• My sports origin story, including my soccer-themed room and Mia Hamm posters

• Women’s sports trivia: Cromer family edition

Enjoy this episode :) I had so much fun with Rosabelle talking about it all.

LINKS

Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram, TikTok

Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

Follow Rosabelle on Instagram

As reported by many outlets, and as corroborated by my friends who went to the game, it was a tense and frankly distressing experience, with anti-trans protesters clashing with trans allies who were rallying in response. The women’s sports scene in our city is a safe space for queer and trans people, and even from my personal genderqueer safe space (living room couch), I felt violated and pissed and disheartened.

But the thing about these people rallying around Cunningham is they aren’t women’s sports fans. This Sportico video asking protesters from both sides to name five WNBA players speaks for itself. The handful of people I’ve personally argued with about trans inclusion in women’s sports do not watch women’s sports. And that’s because, to them, it isn’t about women’s sports. It isn’t about women, either. It’s about power. If you get to your first WNBA game via the fandom of an ignorant white girl who isn’t exceptionally good at basketball, I don’t really trust the integrity of your argument.

Sophie Cunningham is now sticking to a comfy script when asked about all this; she’s glad people are exercising their freedom of speech, but she’s focusing on basketball. The Liberty beat the Fever, 109-102. Focus harder, I guess.

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NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. Fiebich back, Fever beaten. The NY Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich is back after missing 16 games with a foot injury, and all I can say is thank god. She put up 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 34 minutes in our win over the Fever, a very efficient first shift back which earned her Player of the Game. Seeing Leo impact both ends of the court made me feel a lot better about heading into the post-season…Speaking of which….

2. 2026 WNBA Playoff spot clinched by the NY Liberty. With a loss by the Portland Fire on Sunday, we stamped our ticket to the playoffs. We’re now sitting at #6 in the standings. Here’s the current picture:

   

3. Rose Lavelle exits with an injury during Gotham’s tie with Angel City. I hate seeing players get hurt. I especially hate seeing any player get what looks like a concussion. So seeing Gotham FC’s star midfielder go down with a probable concussion last night… sick to my stomach. The team hasn’t shared more details about her injury as of writing this Monday morning, but she left the game and didn’t return. Losing Lavelle for the season would be a huge blow to our team. Watch this space. And watch her guest appearance on Broadway’s Titanique as well for fun:

What to watch this week

Thursday 8/27

🏀 The Liberty host the Golden State Valkyries at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on Prime Video.

⚾ The New York Heights host the Los Angeles Queens at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Friday 8/28

⚽ Gotham FC hosts Portland Thorns FC (Pride Night) at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on Prime Video.

Saturday 8/29

🏀 The Liberty host the Chicago Sky at 1:00 pm ET. Watch: not yet announced — check liberty.wnba.com.

⚾ The New York Heights play the Los Angeles Queens at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Sunday 8/30

⚾ The New York Heights play the San Francisco Firebells at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community. Plus some jobs.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks, as always, for reading. Close to 300 subs…Love ya.

There’s a gap in local media around women’s sports. Massive growth in this space has led to more coverage and investment overall, but there aren’t enough resources dedicated to the specific women’s sports scenes and cultures in different cities. So I’m taking a whack at it myself, starting here in New York, not as a sports expert or journalist, but as a fan who felt that gap myself.

Good Sport covers the NYC women’s sports scene, mostly from a cultural lens. This weekly newsletter contains highlights from what’s going on with NYC’s pro women’s sports teams (both on and off the court), plus a weekly game schedule, events, and more fun stuff.

If you have feedback, ideas, skills to share…I want to hear all about it. Hit reply, DM me, talk to me if you see me around. I would love to know what you think.

Now here’s your newsletter :)

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On the Good Sport NYC podcast: Kenny Saint-Vil—longtime NY Liberty loyal and WNBA reporter—joined us for a temperature check on our team three months into the season. Listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. Sabrina On SLAM. The NY Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu is the latest cover star for SLAM, announcing her SLAM X Nike Sabrina 4s. I think these are fire. Nike and SLAM did some cool promo with a Sabrina 4 Slushy Truck that popped up around Brooklyn and at Barclays ahead of last week’s game against the Sparks.

2. Sam Kerr set some new records this weekend. In a 2-1 win over the KC Current, Sam Kerr scored after a pass from Jaedyn Shaw, becoming the first player in NWSL history to reach 80 regular-season goals, and setting a new franchise record (31 goals) for regular-season goals scored. Not bad for just two months back in NYC.

   

3. Gotham FC is sitting pretty at the top. Speaking of soccer, our win against KC marks our 8th in a row, giving us a 6-point first-place lead at the top of the NWSL standings. NYC is in fact a soccer town.

   

What to watch this week

Tuesday 8/18

🏀 The Liberty are at the Chicago Sky at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on ESPN or Fubo.

Wednesday 8/19

⚾ The New York Heights play the San Francisco Firebells at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Thursday 8/20

⚾ The New York Heights play the Boston Hunters at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Saturday 8/22

🏀 The Liberty host the Indiana Fever at 7:00 pm ET. Watch on Prime Video.

⚾ The New York Heights play the Los Angeles Queens at 6:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Sunday 8/23

⚽ Gotham FC is at Angel City FC at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on ION.

Events

All-Love Racquet Club just dropped three different event dates for their August NYC Tour. Dates and info here.

Women’s Sports Rally is hosting a WPBL Watch Party on Thursday 8/20 at Athena Keke’s. RSVP here.

NEW: Classifieds

Shouts and calls from the community.

And that’s a wrap…

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

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Kenny’s take was a lot more balanced than what a casual fan might see in the comment sections after a loss (or ugly win, like last night’s against the LA Sparks). He’s in the building every week, so I’m inclined to trust his read, which felt like a hopeful reality check.

Here’s what we got into:

• Why it’s a Championship or bust situation for the 2026 NY Liberty

• Placing our record in the context of player injuries and looming playoffs

• The situation with Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and her ultimate release

• This season’s standout performances from Pauline Astier and Marine Johannes

• Insights into Head Coach Chris DeMarco’s relationships with players, and whether or not he’s passed the vibe check yet

Enioy, and let us know your takes in the comments. Links below to keep in touch with Kenny’s reporting on the Libs.

LINKS

Subscribe to Good Sport NYC on Substack

Follow Good Sport NYC on Instagram, TikTok

Follow Kenny and NYLFTV on Instagram, X and YouTube

Follow Christiana on Instagram, Substack

My friend Maya Goldberg-Safir—the writer behind one of the best publications in women's basketball, Rough Notes—interviewed two legends of the New York Liberty fan base, Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld. They’re longtime season-ticket holders who are regularly featured on game broadcasts thanks to their courtside seats. Perhaps you’ll recognize them:

Justine and Scott took Maya through their nearly 30-year Liberty fandom experience, from the 90s to now. Give it a read and subscribe to Rough Notes.

Now here’s your Good Sport guide for the week.

Update on the Good Sport NYC podcast: Announcement! The pod is now on a bi-weekly cadence, so we’ll put out a new episode 2x a month. I was struggling to keep up with a weekly pace while maintaining a high-quality bar, and I want that extra time to do the research and planning each episode and guest deserves. Thanks to everyone who reached out sweetly about this move :) All that said, new episode on Thursday!

NYC women’s sports news & culture

Here’s what you should know this week.

1. The NY Liberty release Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. When I saw this news I was SICK!!! Laney is a 2024 WNBA Champion with the Liberty. She’s a 2021 All-Star and a 2023 All-Defensive Second Team selection. She’s gritty, loyal, and unafraid, perfect for representing NYC and connecting with our fanbase. But she wasn’t getting playing time, and it seemed like the coaching staff wasn’t building her into the plan for the team’s future. Despite feeling gutted, I love seeing Laney already stepping into a veteran leadership role at the Washington Mystics, the youngest team in the league. She deserves to feel valued at this next stop. She is too good to sit on our bench. We’ll talk about losing Laney in depth on this week’s podcast episode.

   

2. Denae Benites hits 4 home runs in 5 games. The captain of the NY Heights keeps hitting dingers. This one is my favorite. Our team is 2-2 after Week 2 of the WPBL. I watched some innings at Athena Keke’s this past Saturday, and I must say: The Baltimore fries were delicious.

   

3. Han Xu makes it to wnbaart™️. If you don’t know wnbaart on Instagram...well then you must. The artist behind the account quickly draws snap moments of games and then shares them for our collective enjoyment. Her bio reads “NO AI. Sharing Fine Art. Yes it’s supposed to look bad." My favorite from this past weekend was her drawing of the Liberty’s 6'11" center Han Xu guarding the Aces’ 5'5" Mai Yamamoto. Wholesome and sweet.

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What to watch this week

Tuesday 8/11

🏀 The Liberty are at the Indiana Fever at 7:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN.

Thursday 8/13

⚾ The New York Heights play the Boston Hunters at 7:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Friday 8/14

🏀 The Liberty host the LA Sparks at Barclays Center at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on Prime Video.

⚽ Gotham FC hosts the Kansas City Current at 8:00 pm ET. Watch on Prime Video.

Saturday 8/15

🏀 The Liberty are at the Connecticut Sun at 1:00 pm ET. Watch on YES Network.

⚾ The New York Heights play the San Francisco Firebells at 2:00 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

Sunday 8/16

⚾ The New York Heights play the Boston Hunters at 7:30 pm ET. Watch on ESPN Select.

The Scene Report

Here’s some fun stuff going on in the NYC W sports scene.

Spykes just announced its first ever glow in the dark beach volleyball tournament! I am still learning volleyball (ouch my wrists and stuff like that), but I want my friends to enter as a team so I can become a cheerleader. Details here.

It’s a banger of an event week at Blazers. On Tuesday 8/11, they’re having a Liberty vs. Fever watch party celebrating trans inclusion in WBB, hosted by comedian Murray Hill. Details here.

And then on Saturday 8/15, they’re hosting an arm-wrestling competition in support of the Alice Austen House, a nationally designated site of LGBTQ+ history dedicated to the photography and life of Alice Austen. Details here.

Good Sport NYC will be hanging at GUNK’s 3rd birthday party on Saturday 8/15 and participating in the raffle! Indie media supporting indie media. Come through.

And that’s a wrap.

Thanks as always for reading! Don’t be afraid to share Good Sport with a friend…a crush…an enemy.

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