Sports
How big should ESPN go on Caitlin Clark during WNBA playoffs? Our experts debate
You always want a viewership story to sell if you are a professional sports league and the WNBA has a great metrics story to sell in 2024. Last week ESPN announced that its WNBA regular season was its most-watched ever for games across ESPN Networks airwaves (including ABC). Games averaged 1.2 million viewers, a massive jump over last year’s games (440,000 viewers). These are unheard of percentage increases in sports television.
Something even more impressive? The WNBA had 22 regular-season games that averaged more than 1 million viewers — the first time since 2008 that a WNBA game topped one million viewers. If you want to add in the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA Draft, it makes 24 programming events during the 2024 calendar year that topped 1 million viewers (Caitlin Clark was part of all but three of these windows, per Sports Media Watch).
On that note: The WNBA All-Star Game averaged 3.44 million viewers on ABC, crushing the previous audience record set in 2003. The WNBA Draft, featuring Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, averaged a record 2.446 million viewers, which is a 307 percent increase in viewership over last year.
What else? There were seven games on ION this season that topped more than 1 million viewers including last Friday’s game between Indiana and Las Vegas, which averaged 1.2 million viewers. Finally, Sports Media Watch reported that the Sept. 11 game between the Fever and Aces drew the largest WNBA audience ever on NBA TV at 678,000 viewers. The previous high was also set in 2024 with a Fever-Wings game on Labor Day weekend that drew 652,000.
Just an insane viewership number for this league. The new deal also means better programming windows for the WNBA on ABC. pic.twitter.com/l44E9mGzqm
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) September 11, 2024
The Athletic often asks ace women’s basketball writers Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman to debate a WNBA issue but we’re going to change it up a touch here by adding a third voice (me) as we embark on the most anticipated postseason in the league’s history, at least based on viewership interest. The postseason starts Sunday with four nationally televised games.
Richard Deitsch: So Ben and Sabreena, some kind of season, eh? I wanted your input on some media-centric storylines as it relates to the WNBA season. Let’s start with Caitlin Clark because she has been a transcendent viewership draw. That doesn’t take away from the brilliance and interest in other players, but Clark has been the game-changer, and the data overwhelmingly shows that. If I am an ESPN/ABC programming executive, I am treating the Fever like the Dallas Cowboys. I am putting them in my highest profile window and hoping at a minimum I get three games out of them against the Sun. I’d do a live pregame and postgame show onsite prior to Game 1. I’d also load up all my social media firepower on that opening round series. That’s not to disregard any other series, but you want to take advantage of what might be a short stay from Indiana. How would you promote the Fever if you are ESPN?
Sabreena Merchant: It doesn’t seem as though the Fever need any additional promotion, considering how they have drawn regardless of network, time slot and lead-in, but giving them all the bells and whistles seems to be the right play. I expect ESPN to send the No. 1 crew of Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo to wherever Indiana starts the postseason, even if that means neglecting the two-time defending champions in Las Vegas, though it helps that the Fever have a reasonable shot of a first-round upset. Speaking of the Cowboys, however, Game 1 of the WNBA postseason is going up against the NFL, which presents an obstacle that Clark hasn’t yet had to face in her pro career. Will the draw of Clark competing in her first playoff game eat into football, or are we due for a ratings letdown?
Ben Pickman: If you’re ESPN/ABC, you’re certainly hoping to avoid that letdown. But even if Indiana’s postseason opener doesn’t match, say, the first Sky-Fever game of the season, it wouldn’t be shocking, based on precedent, for Indiana’s opener to average seven-figure viewership.
Game 1 of last year’s WNBA Finals aired on a Sunday and was the most-viewed Game 1 ever on an ESPN network. Still, it averaged only just over 700,000 viewers. Game 3, which also tipped on a Sunday, averaged 889,000 viewers on ESPN. Fever games have blown those numbers away all season long, so even going up against an NFL slate, they seem likely to pick off viewers.
The league hasn’t announced its full playoff schedule, but Game 2 of the Fever series likely will be Tuesday or Wednesday (a non-NFL night), meaning another record could be set. To your original question, Richard, I think what you mapped out — a live pregame and postgame show onsite — and lots of social media content seems like reasonable choices.
Deitsch: Indeed, Clark likely has found the one entity that can slow her down as a television draw — the NFL. Another topic: One thing I’ve liked this year has been the increase in national pregame coverage. ESPN’s WNBA Countdown is a prime example of that. The show averaged 503,000 viewers during the regular season, a massive increase over last year. I think the WNBA should really push ESPN to have a daily studio show presence somewhere within the ESPN family of networks during the 2025 WNBA season. If I made you media czar of the league for 2025, what would you try to implement for the major media partners?
17,000 🤯
First in women’s sports history, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We can’t wait to tip off the season and create an incredible home court advantage at Chase Center. Let’s keep making history together! pic.twitter.com/YXgUMZfF2Q
— Golden State Valkyries (@wnbagoldenstate) September 13, 2024
Merchant: I couldn’t agree more about an ESPN studio show because there is absolutely an appetite for WNBA conversations that aren’t being had by media personalities who wade into women’s basketball once a month. NBA TV has tried one before, and there have been WNBA segments on NBA Today, but the league needs a dedicated show on a channel that most people have access to. The other main thing I would try to address as media czar is some level of consistency in WNBA programming. The NFL exists on several different platforms, but fans know that Monday is ESPN, Thursday is Amazon, and Sunday night is NBC. The WNBA needs that type of rotation with its bigger partners. Amazon and ION already have their own nights, but it would benefit the league to have CBS Saturdays and ESPN Sundays, for example, so that people know where to turn.
Pickman: In addition to achieving more network consistency, fans often complain about the lack of staggered start times over the course of a day, so that’s something that should be top of mind. Airing more preseason games (even if it’s just streaming them on WNBA League Pass) should also be a priority. There is demand among viewers to see top rookies in action for the first time and avoid having to watch on streamed cellphone footage.
One other new wrinkle will be the addition of the 13th team, the Golden State Valkyries. I’m curious to see how adding just one more team alters things. No longer can the entire league play on one day. On the NBA side, the Golden State Warriors have been a ratings draw in recent years. The Valkyries share ownership and are obviously in the same market. They might lack the star power of other franchises in the WNBA in Year 1, but there is clear interest as last week they surpassed 17,000 season-ticket deposits, becoming the first professional women’s sports team to pass that mark. How much will major partners lean into broadcasting a new franchise?
Deitsch: You make a great point, Ben. I’m curious about the new WNBA franchises, including Golden State, Toronto and Portland. They could end up with a transcendent viewership draw (think Paige Bueckers or JuJu Watkins). Okay, let’s finish up with this. Give me the best viewership WNBA Finals for the sport, and because it’s obvious that the Fever being in the Finals would generate the highest viewership, give me one involving the Fever and give me one without the Fever.
Pickman: Fever-Liberty has to be the finals option that has the highest viewership potential, with Aces-Fever being the second option. If you’re looking for a realistic (meaning without a Phoenix Mercury Diana Taurasi swan song) matchup sans Fever, it’s Liberty–Lynx.
Merchant: The series I would expect to draw the most eyes would have to be in the semifinals unless the standings shake up in a major way, and that’s Aces-Liberty. I’m eager to see how that number compares to the 2023 matchup so we can learn how much of the viewership rise is the Clark effect. As for potential finals matchups, Fever-Aces has to be the biggest draw, right? Clark versus the two-time defending champions, the upstart versus the establishment with Dawn Staley forced to decide between rooting for Aliyah Boston or A’ja Wilson? If the Fever aren’t involved, the Aces still have to be it. The Aces going for a three-peat will be great theater.
(Photo: Ron Hoskins / NBAE via Getty Images)
Sports
Dispatch audio reveals what was heard inside Josh Jacobs’ home before alleged domestic violence arrest
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Released dispatch audio has added some context to the alleged domestic violence incident involving Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, one of which came from inside his Wisconsin residence.
The audio, obtained by TMJ 4, reveals a dispatcher speaking with a police officer about the “yelling and screaming” she could hear on an open line within Jacobs’ home.
“Things being thrown, open line,” the dispatcher tells the officer. “…Possibly a male and female.”
Josh Jacobs of the Green Bay Packers jogs off the field after a 26-34 loss to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Dec. 14, 2025. (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
Then, a second call’s audio was added, as a dispatcher describes a neighbor calling about what they can hear from Jacobs’ home.
“The neighbor is calling now, saying that her neighbor was assaulted,” dispatch called out.
BROWNS ROOKIE QUINSHON JUDKINS ARRESTED IN FLORIDA FOR ALLEGED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
When authorities arrived at Jacobs’ residence, he wasn’t there. He left the scene in his Mercedes G-Wagon, though police tracked his license plate readers. A call went out to stop the vehicle if it was seen on the road.
Jacobs was arrested on Tuesday following an investigation by the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department, and he was booked on five domestic abuse-related charges.
The department said in the statement that Jacobs was booked into Brown County Jail on charges of domestic abuse battery, domestic abuse criminal damage to property, domestic abuse disorderly conduct, strangulation and suffocation, and intimidation of a victim. According to Brown County Jail records, strangulation and suffocation is a felony, while the other four are misdemeanors.
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs runs the ball and stiff arms Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trikweze Bridges during the second half of an NFL game in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessica Tobias)
The investigation remains active and ongoing, the statement added.
Jacobs’ attorneys, David Z. Chesnoff and Clarence Duchac, say the 28-year-old denies all charges.
“Josh vehemently denies the allegations, and this matter is in the early stages of investigation with important evidence that has not yet been made public,” the attorneys’ statement read.
“We ask for fairness and restraint while the judicial process takes its course.”
The NFL was made aware of the situation and has contacted the Packers. Green Bay also told The Athletic that it wouldn’t make comment due to the ongoing investigation on the matter.
Josh Jacobs of the Green Bay Packers stands for the National Anthem before an NFL wild card playoff game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 10, 2026. (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
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Jacobs finished his second season with the Packers, tallying 929 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 1,234 carries in 2025. In 2024, he racked up 1,329 yards on 301 attempts with 15 touchdowns to lead the way for the Packers’ ground game in his inaugural season up north.
Jacobs, who spent five seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders prior to his time in Green Bay, has led the league in the past with rushing yards. His 2022 campaign saw 1,653 yards and 12 touchdowns across a full 17-game slate.
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Sports
Alyssa and Gisele Thompson joined NWSL in high school. Their younger sister might be better
Few players are driven to club soccer practice by a national team player. But then few players have two sisters who play for the U.S. women’s team.
Also Zoe Thompson is just 14, so you can’t expect her to drive herself.
But here’s the thing that truly sets Zoe Thompson apart. Although eldest sister Alyssa, 21, has already played in a World Cup and middle sister Gisele made 38 NWSL appearances and played four times for the national team before her 20th birthday, Zoe may actually be the best of the three.
“She’s better technically,” said her father Mario Thompson, who coached all three.
“I think she’s the combination between Alyssa and Gisele,” said Carlos Marroquin, owner of the pre-professional women’s team that gave Alyssa and Gisele their start.
So maybe there should be a line of coaches, teammates and family members waiting to drive her to practice or to her debut with Marroquin’s team, the Santa Clarita Blue Heat, on Saturday evening at The Master’s University.
The Santa Clarita Blue Heat coach Leonardo Neveleff, center, talks to his team before a practice at Valencia High. Zoe Thompson makes her debut with the team Saturday.
The team, which competes in USL W league, has long been a summer proving ground for elite college players and aspiring pros with alumni that includes Venezuela’s Deyna Castellanos, once a finalist for FIFA’s world player of the year award; World Cup veterans Savannah DeMelo and Ashley Sanchez; former Chelsea and Atlético Madrid star Ana Borges of Portugal; and Natalia Kuikka, a five-time Finnish player of the year.
This year’s roster includes more than two dozen Division I college players, meaning Zoe Thompson will be playing with and against women much older than her.
Did we mention she’s still in middle school?
“She’s always having to get out of her comfort zone, no matter what,” said Mario Thompson, whose job as Zoe’s father is to both nurture and protect his daughter’s talent.
Zoe has followed a different path than her sisters. Alyssa and Gisele were born less than 13 months apart and grew up playing together, practicing together and pushing each other. Zoe, born seven years later, grew up watching them, imitating them and wanting to be them.
But she had to do the work alone.
“It’s a unique dynamic where Alyssa and Gisele had each other,” their father said. “It wasn’t just Alyssa by herself. She always had a partner.”
Zoe, however, observed a lot by watching.
“I feel like their mistakes helped me,” she said. “But at the same time, there are some mistakes that I’ve made that they haven’t. I’m learning differently, but I’m more learning from them.”
Zoe Thompson hugs her father Mario Thompson after practice at Valencia High.
Still, this is uncharted territory. No family has ever had a trio of siblings play for the women’s national team, and the pressure of having to match the success her sisters have had will be inescapable, if unfair, for Zoe.
It’s a level of pressure that has the potential to be crushing.
“She kind of has this expectation that’s put upon her already that ‘oh, she’s going to be like her sister,’” Gisele said. “But it’s her own life.”
And Mario Thompson, an elementary school principal who has been intimately involved in all his daughters’ careers, is having to negotiate all this on the fly.
“Everyone sees the glam and the glitz of Alyssa and Giselle, but people don’t really understand it’s a lot of pressure,” he said of the sisters, who will both be heading to Brazil with the national team next week. “They see all the great stuff, but it’s also their job.”
Mario Thompson faced some of the same issues with Alyssa, the second-youngest U.S. woman to play in a World Cup, so he limited her media interviews and tried to let her be a teenager — albeit it an exceptionally talented one. Zoe faces the additional burden of having do all that while following in her sisters’ footsteps.
“I’m very mindful and aware of that,” he said. “She’s already in the spotlight without having to be in the spotlight. It’s that pressure. I want her to love the sport, love this journey. That’s kind of how I raised all three of them.”
Zoe Thompson during a practice session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team.
For her part Zoe, mature well beyond her tender age, dismisses the hype with a shrug.
“There are going to be comparisons,” she said. “But we’re such different people that I think it’s unfair. At the same time, they can have those comparisons, they can have those opinions, but I’m not them. So it’s not going to be any different, how I play.”
Plus, having two accomplished sisters has its advantages. In the spring Zoe trained with the youth teams at Chelsea, where Alyssa now plays, and this summer she says she’ll train with Angel City, Gisele’s team. But the drawback of being a (much) younger sister is Alyssa and Gisele had each other to lean on growing up. Zoe has had to go it alone and that, she said, has made her stronger.
“Mentally, it is harder. But seeing my sisters and where they are, it’s kind of a motivation for me,” said Zoe, who has already been called in three times by the U-14 national team. “They were kind of at the same place I am. And it’s just very motivating to see them where they are. That’s just kind of where I want to be.”
If there’s been one constant in the girls’ soccer careers it’s been their dad, who has been intimately involved in with all three, drilling them in the backyard of their Studio City home or walking them down the street to a park, where they shared the lumpy grass with softball players and unleashed dogs.
They were often, but not always, willing participants since the family didn’t have a TV when the girls were growing up.
Zoe Thompson controls the ball during a training session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team.
And while the hours and hours of practice certainly honed the sisters’ skills, their parents can’t explain where the girls got their immense physical gifts. Mario played football and basketball and ran track at Occidental College with modest success while his wife, Karen, an occupational therapist, played basketball and ran cross-country in high school, hardly the pedigree that could be expected to produce three world-class soccer players.
Perhaps part of the answer lies in their unique DNA, a mix of Mario’s Black and Filipino background and Karen’s Italian and Peruvian roots.
“It was never the plan, ‘Hey, let’s have some soccer players’,” Mario said.
But once the sisters decided that was their plan, the parents had to adjust. The girls had rare talent, Mario Thompson quickly realized, and it had to be developed. So Alyssa and Gisele began playing with an elite boys’ team while they were still in high school and passed up scholarships to Stanford to sign lucrative contracts with Angel City while their were teenagers.
Zoe has chosen another way, playing with Tudela FC, an all-girls team that practices near her home, and with the Blue Heat, where she’ll be facing stronger, more mature players for the first time. Mario Thompson hopes those aren’t the only differences, although he said the road his youngest daughter takes will ultimately be up to her.
“My hope is she goes through college and just goes a different pathway, different journey,” Mario Thompson said. “It’s a roller-coaster ride and so for [Zoe], I think she sees that roller-coaster ride and I don’t know if it’s a rush to let me get to that. She wants to eventually be a pro, but I don’t think it’s ‘I need to get there as soon as possible.’”
“It’s Zoe, what do you want?” he added. “It’s not like you have to be here, you have to do this. It’s none of that. It’s about, ‘Hey, Zoe, this is your journey.’ We want you to enjoy it, have fun with it, be happy with it.”
She appears to be accomplishing all three of those goals. She’s also both confident and comfortable in her abilities and believes she’s already ahead of both her sisters despite the weight of expectation.
Zoe Thompson with head coach Leonardo Neveleff at the conclusion of a training session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team. Thompson, 14, is the younger sister of U.S. women’s soccer players Gisele and Alyssa Thompson.
But she’s also well aware of the pitfalls ahead, having seen Alyssa and Gisele occasionally stumble into them.
“Yeah, it is a lot of pressure but I feel like we just had different paths,” she said. “They didn’t really know they were going to do soccer. They didn’t know that was their sport. But I feel like that path was set for me.
“It was just like I grew faster. I kind of took the understanding of what they were doing, and then I did it a little faster.”
There are other differences as well. Gisele is a defender and Alyssa a forward, but Zoe plays in the midfield. And while it was sometimes difficult to get anything more than a giggle from Alyssa in an interview even after she turned pro, Zoe already gives complete, thoughtful answers to most questions.
Zoe’s game is also different; while Alyssa and Gisele are both exceptionally fast, Zoe relies more on her skill.
“Zoe’s more technical than her sisters at this stage,” her father said. “She’s better on the ball, she has a better understanding of the game. A lot of their game was because of speed. Hers is more thinking, hers is more of the ball on her feet.
“Technically, she’s better and understands the game at this age.”
Gisele, the sister who chauffeurs Zoe to practice in Santa Clarita, agrees. But, she adds, Zoe’s greatest strength may actually be her desire.
“She just has so many great qualities that me and Alyssa don’t have,” she said. “At her age, she wants it way more than we did. She loves soccer with a passion. Me and Alyssa didn’t love it as much as she does.”
And if that passion translates to performance, Zoe will someday join her sisters on the national team. By then she may even be in the driver’s seat.
Santa Clarita Blue Heat team owner Carlos Marroquin talks to Zoe Thompson after a training session at Valencia High.
Sports
Thunder lose star Jalen Williams for Western Conference Finals Game 7 as hamstring injury lingers
Spurs force Game 7 vs. Thunder, SGA struggles, Will Wemby carry this momentum? | The Herd
Victor Wembanyama scored 28 points and 10 rebounds in the San Antonio Spurs’ 118-91 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6 of the WCF. Jason McIntyre says that Wemby showed up in the biggest moments, and asks if he can carry this momentum into Game 7. Plus, he discusses Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s struggles and asks if he will cost the Thunder the series.
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The Oklahoma City Thunder will be shorthanded in Saturday’s pivotal Game 7, as one of Oklahoma’s key contributors has been sidelined with an injury.
OKC guard Jalen Williams has been ruled out for Game 7 with a hamstring issue, ESPN reported on Friday. Williams appeared to aggravate his left hamstring during the Thunder’s 122-113 victory in Game 2. He missed the next three games before returning for Game 6, but logged just 10 minutes off the bench in Oklahoma City’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, which forced a winner-take-all Game 7.
“He’s obviously not 100%,” Mark Daigneault, the head coach of the Thunder, said.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams watches during the fourth quarter against the San Antonio Spurs in Game One of the NBA Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on May 18, 2026. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Daigneault applauded Williams for fighting through the injury and doing everything he could to help Oklahoma City.
“He didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect. So, it was a matter of getting him out there in kind of an insulated role and see what he can bring to the team. He’s an All-Star player, he’s an All-NBA player. He hasn’t done a full return to play [protocol] like he would if this was the regular season, and yet, he just wants to do whatever he can to try to contribute whatever he can to the team.”
BLOCKBUSTER GAME 7 SHOWDOWN: FOUR BEST BETS FOR SAN ANTONIO SPURS AT OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
“I give him a lot of credit to get himself out there. He did the best he could. He’s certainly not the reason we lost.”
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams reacts to a shot by forward Luguentz Dort in the third quarter against the San Antonio Spurs during game one of the Western Conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on May 18, 2026. (Alonzo Adams/Imagn Images)
Williams did not talk to reporters after Thursday’s game in San Antonio.
Williams underwent surgery last offseason to repair a wrist injury but still played a key role in the Thunder’s run to the NBA Finals last season. He appeared in just 33 regular-season games before this year’s playoffs.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams drives into the paint during the first quarter of Game Two of the NBA Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on May 20, 2026. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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The winner of Saturday’s Game 7 will advance to the NBA Finals to face the New York Knicks. New York snapped a nearly three-decade Finals drought by sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals.
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