Nancy Armour

We saw a lot of conversation around the transparency of financials, not just during CBA negotiations, but after the announcement of the initial media rights deal.

And that media rights deal is something that many, including Nancy Armour, in a piece that could be subheaded, don't let the door hit you on the way out, Kathy, included in their conversations about why they thought maybe Kathy didn't live up to the moment.

And we have talked about this with that deal, where it certainly felt like a lot of money to get $3.1 billion, but it ended up being about 3% of the total deal that the WNBA and MNBA agreed to, as opposed to, say, 14%, which would be more in keeping with the percentage of viewership that the W gets and so there are those moments throughout where a big number looks good but when you dig into the details it's maybe not as good as it seems and same goes for our conversations around CBA yes there is a massive massive jump in terms of what the players are being paid but that jump is mostly due to the fact that they were making a pittance before not because they are now potentially getting what they are really owed in accordance with the viewership and revenue and everything else.

Again, these are all tough things to discuss, though, because there is no transparency about the revenue, about whose money is whose, and how the NBA doles things out, and which of the owners for the NBA are truly invested in the success of the WNBA independently and separate from their interest in their MNBA teams.

I think, number one, I have empathy for human beings in difficult jobs.

And number two, it is so much more complicated than just looking at her tenure and saying she failed and that she didn't live up to the moment.

I will say that in Nancy Armour's piece writing about Kathy's tenure, one thing she brings up that I don't think you can argue— is that she dragged her feet too much on signs of progress that had she been more willing to stick her neck out and make a bit more of a leap of faith on would have helped.

One being expansion.

We'll continue now with our reading of articles from today's issue of the USA Today.

Your reader for this hour is Nancy.

It's the Life Section, which is Section B. Mayday sends out the call, Top Gun style.

It's a story from streaming.

The time is 35 minutes after the hour.

Now for the sports section, which is section C.

World a real obstacle for women's hoops now, from Nancy Armour.

The days of cakewalks for the U.S. women's basketball team are over.

Moving on in the sports section,

the next headline reads, Browns pick now over future at QB1 by Nancy Armour.

The Cleveland Clown Show continues.

By settling on Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterback, the Cleveland Browns managed to stick both a finger in the eyes of their fans and a fork in yet another season.