Because I'm that Fan
I don't have a clue where I was the day the Las Vegas Aces, my hometown's WNBA team, started it's season. If I had to guess, I'd say Austin, Texas, though I'm not entirely sure what month that would have been. May? Hang on a sec. Let me Google it. Yep. May. The WNBA season starts in May. So yeah, I was in Austin.....and never imagined that three short months later I would be a fan....or that four months later I would bootleg cable from a friend to watch the final game of the season, a 94-90 loss in the WNBA Semifinals to the Washington Mystics. And I sure never ever ever imagined I'd be sitting here a few days after that loss writing these words wearing a Kelsey Plum jersey.
I've hated (not merely disliked) women's basketball my entire life. This includes the four years I spent playing in junior high and high school. Oh, I liked basketball ok. It was just the women's version that made me shake. I never understood how a 6'8" women couldn't dunk the f***ing ball while guys a good six inches shorter could all f***ing day long. Because look, if I could reach up my really long arm, jump a couple inches, and end up above the rim, you can bet your ass I'd never take another jump shot in my life. For me, the game wasn't about ball movement and good defense, it was about fast-breaks and backboard shattering dunks. The women's game - traditionally - was plodding and painful to watch. No one defied gravity, no one lit it up, no one brought an entire arena to it's collective feat. In other words, Women's Basketball = Boring.
I've been openly disdainful about women's sports over the years. I still maintain that historically I'm right. Women athletes in the 70s and 80s, the Title IX babies, paled in comparison to their twenty-first century counterparts. Why? F***ing access. To access to what? F***ing everything. Coaching, science, training, financing, equipment, sports bras, contraception, scholarships, camps, professional sports leagues, sponsorships, salaries, the mere knowledge that they had potential, the mere knowledge that they could. Could what? F***ing play at an exceptionally high level, succeed, Jesus....Dream what all the boys spent their childhood's dreaming about.
So back to me and the WNBA. I moved to Las Vegas in July. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Las Vegas has a WNBA team, the Aces. Not that it would have made a wit of a difference in my decision to move. You see, even in July, I was still a non-believer. I didn't know what I didn't know. Then a woman I'd never met - a friend of a friend of a friend - asked if I'd like to go to an Aces game. A quick Google search told me that she'd invited me to a WNBA game. Hmm... Well, I need friends and it couldn't be that bad and it's at the Mandalay Bay, right down the road from my apartment. I recall thinking all those things. I even remember telling my dad that I didn't like women's basketball but it's always fun to go to sporting events in person. Plus since my (now) friend had gotten the tickets for her birthday, the ticket was free. What did I have to lose?
I got a lot for my money that Friday night. Sure, no one dunked (I'm still stumped about that one), but the game was fast-paced and the players exceptionally athletic and intense. Music blasted near constantly. The crowd, though moderate in size, was juiced and loud. Las Vegas clearly loved their Aces. And.....I'll tell you.....by the end of that game so did I.
I'm seriously as shocked as anyone. This afternoon my dad said to me - as I was showing off my new jersey - "You're becoming quite a fan." He also recently asked, when I told him I was going to my third game, "But I thought you didn't like women's basketball?" Yes, yes.... I'm ready to eat crow, admit I was wrong. I f***ing like it. I like women's basketball, and after doing a little reading about the WNBA, I kinda like them, too.
And the Aces? That's my team. Like the rest of the fans, I cheer them on using first names. I Googled each and every player on the roster. I know who's who, where they grew up, where they played college ball, where they play overseas. My favorite? That's easy. From Day 1/Game 1, it's been Kelsey Plum, a ferociously talented guard from......wait for it...... Poway, California, my hometown. 5'8" and nearly the smallest player on the Aces roster, she can run the floor, play lockdown defense, and knock down ice cold three point shots from well beyond the arc. The NCAA's all-time leading scorer during her time at the University of Washington, Kelsey (Remember it's all first names?) is just arriving in the WNBA. Did I mention that I'm wearing her jersey? Did I also mention I've never owned a player's jersey, not in any sport....ever? Yet here I am.
Oh, and I'm considered getting season tickets for the 2020 season. For the cost of an international flight, I can attend every Aces home game next year. I know what you're thinking, right? Did Stacee just say she's considering forgoing travel - European travel - to buy WNBA season tickets? Women's basketball. Stacee doesn't like women's basketball. Oh, but YES. SHE. DOES. The way I see it, a season ticket package supports my hometown team and women's athletics. (Plus, my MGM Players Card will get an auto-upgrade to Pearl status, meaning I get free parking all year long at all the MGM properties on The Strip).
So yeah, while I may not have known when the 2019 season started, I sure know when it ended - Sadly on a Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Mandalay Events Center in Game 4 of a best of 5 Semifinal series with the Washington Mystics (Who won the first game of the WNBA Finals this afternoon against the Connecticut Sun, by the way). The Aces fought until the end but came up just a little short. This season. Next season - which starts in May 2020 - will hopefully end differently. Regardless, I'll be there from first tip off until the final whistle of the final game. Wearing my Kelsey Plum #10 jersey. Because... I'm that fan.
Yeah, I never would have guessed either.
I've hated (not merely disliked) women's basketball my entire life. This includes the four years I spent playing in junior high and high school. Oh, I liked basketball ok. It was just the women's version that made me shake. I never understood how a 6'8" women couldn't dunk the f***ing ball while guys a good six inches shorter could all f***ing day long. Because look, if I could reach up my really long arm, jump a couple inches, and end up above the rim, you can bet your ass I'd never take another jump shot in my life. For me, the game wasn't about ball movement and good defense, it was about fast-breaks and backboard shattering dunks. The women's game - traditionally - was plodding and painful to watch. No one defied gravity, no one lit it up, no one brought an entire arena to it's collective feat. In other words, Women's Basketball = Boring.
I've been openly disdainful about women's sports over the years. I still maintain that historically I'm right. Women athletes in the 70s and 80s, the Title IX babies, paled in comparison to their twenty-first century counterparts. Why? F***ing access. To access to what? F***ing everything. Coaching, science, training, financing, equipment, sports bras, contraception, scholarships, camps, professional sports leagues, sponsorships, salaries, the mere knowledge that they had potential, the mere knowledge that they could. Could what? F***ing play at an exceptionally high level, succeed, Jesus....Dream what all the boys spent their childhood's dreaming about.
So back to me and the WNBA. I moved to Las Vegas in July. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Las Vegas has a WNBA team, the Aces. Not that it would have made a wit of a difference in my decision to move. You see, even in July, I was still a non-believer. I didn't know what I didn't know. Then a woman I'd never met - a friend of a friend of a friend - asked if I'd like to go to an Aces game. A quick Google search told me that she'd invited me to a WNBA game. Hmm... Well, I need friends and it couldn't be that bad and it's at the Mandalay Bay, right down the road from my apartment. I recall thinking all those things. I even remember telling my dad that I didn't like women's basketball but it's always fun to go to sporting events in person. Plus since my (now) friend had gotten the tickets for her birthday, the ticket was free. What did I have to lose?
I got a lot for my money that Friday night. Sure, no one dunked (I'm still stumped about that one), but the game was fast-paced and the players exceptionally athletic and intense. Music blasted near constantly. The crowd, though moderate in size, was juiced and loud. Las Vegas clearly loved their Aces. And.....I'll tell you.....by the end of that game so did I.
I'm seriously as shocked as anyone. This afternoon my dad said to me - as I was showing off my new jersey - "You're becoming quite a fan." He also recently asked, when I told him I was going to my third game, "But I thought you didn't like women's basketball?" Yes, yes.... I'm ready to eat crow, admit I was wrong. I f***ing like it. I like women's basketball, and after doing a little reading about the WNBA, I kinda like them, too.
And the Aces? That's my team. Like the rest of the fans, I cheer them on using first names. I Googled each and every player on the roster. I know who's who, where they grew up, where they played college ball, where they play overseas. My favorite? That's easy. From Day 1/Game 1, it's been Kelsey Plum, a ferociously talented guard from......wait for it...... Poway, California, my hometown. 5'8" and nearly the smallest player on the Aces roster, she can run the floor, play lockdown defense, and knock down ice cold three point shots from well beyond the arc. The NCAA's all-time leading scorer during her time at the University of Washington, Kelsey (Remember it's all first names?) is just arriving in the WNBA. Did I mention that I'm wearing her jersey? Did I also mention I've never owned a player's jersey, not in any sport....ever? Yet here I am.
Oh, and I'm considered getting season tickets for the 2020 season. For the cost of an international flight, I can attend every Aces home game next year. I know what you're thinking, right? Did Stacee just say she's considering forgoing travel - European travel - to buy WNBA season tickets? Women's basketball. Stacee doesn't like women's basketball. Oh, but YES. SHE. DOES. The way I see it, a season ticket package supports my hometown team and women's athletics. (Plus, my MGM Players Card will get an auto-upgrade to Pearl status, meaning I get free parking all year long at all the MGM properties on The Strip).
So yeah, while I may not have known when the 2019 season started, I sure know when it ended - Sadly on a Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Mandalay Events Center in Game 4 of a best of 5 Semifinal series with the Washington Mystics (Who won the first game of the WNBA Finals this afternoon against the Connecticut Sun, by the way). The Aces fought until the end but came up just a little short. This season. Next season - which starts in May 2020 - will hopefully end differently. Regardless, I'll be there from first tip off until the final whistle of the final game. Wearing my Kelsey Plum #10 jersey. Because... I'm that fan.
Yeah, I never would have guessed either.
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