- 6 minutes ago
Willard and Dibs open the show by reacting to the Valkyries parade down the Embarcadero.
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00:00The sun is shining, and there are thousands upon thousands of you that made your way out and showed out
00:07to Parade Day here in San Francisco.
00:11You don't get to do this very often, even though here in this city it sort of feels like we
00:16do.
00:16Eight and 16 years.
00:18That's every other year. That's a lot.
00:20But I want to start the show with two things, the first of which is an invitation, a very special
00:30invitation, to any of you who got to be a part of that parade today.
00:36Or if you were out there, or if there's something you want to share with regard to the experience, the
00:42Valkyries, the inspiration, the emotions surrounding it, give us a call right now.
00:49Because, again, we do have a hefty guest list later today, but we would love to hear directly from people
00:56who experienced this with friends, with families, with the Valkyries, as they moved along the Embarcadero today.
01:04888-957-9570 is the number.
01:09Dibs and I have been sitting here kind of watching the video of it for the last handful of I
01:14don't know how long.
01:15And I'm yet again impressed.
01:20We've been impressed all year, all two years by the organization.
01:25We were impressed on Monday when this station was just taking emotional phone calls from listeners, new listeners, all day
01:36long, celebrating a Valkyries championship.
01:38So I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and maybe I wasn't, but I was impressed at the way the day
01:43looked out there today.
01:44Well, it helped that the weather was phenomenal, and then they come in on the ferry, which was awesome.
01:48And, you know, there's so much violet out there.
01:50And I was telling somebody out in the green room earlier where I was looking to drive in my usual
01:55time, and I looked, and it said it was going to be almost double what it usually is coming in.
01:59And I thought, okay, this bodes well, not for my own commute, but for this parade and the crowd.
02:05And the crowd was out there, and they were positive, and there's still many of them celebrating.
02:09Some people are shuffling off to head back home.
02:12I'm hoping that Stiney gets a seat on Bart because Bart was going to be super packed because there's a
02:17lot of people who came in.
02:18And I don't know what the official number will be.
02:21It's always kind of guesswork, you know, in terms of how many fans were there, but just an outstanding, spectacular
02:28thing to watch.
02:28I love that the Valkyries have a championship parade, and everybody here at Odyssey San Francisco seems more worried about
02:36Stiney.
02:38That's question number one today.
02:39Is Stiney okay?
02:41He had to talk a lot, a lot of energy out there.
02:44Looked like he had a sweater on on a hot day.
02:47And now is he going to be able to get home?
02:49And then, man, he needs to double back with a six-hour show tomorrow with a halftime in the middle
02:53of it of a summit that will take place both here in the Bay, in the city, and then out
02:58in Pleasant Hill.
03:00Godspeed, Matt Steinmetz.
03:02I hope everything is okay.
03:03But, yeah, it's a day to celebrate.
03:05And I just want to say this.
03:08I thought Stiney and Goo had a question that was a fun one, a thoughtful one to ask, which is
03:14how did they do this?
03:16We're all either impressed, inspired, whatever you can get into the X's and O's of basketball.
03:22Fun to hear Joe Lacob the other day on the station even say, I don't know that we were the
03:26most talented team, but we won.
03:28And he had confidence that they would win.
03:31But I was thinking about if I was going to circle one thing as to why they won, I was
03:39thinking a lot about this today.
03:41If I asked you that question, what would you say?
03:44Like what?
03:45Because there's a lot of credit to go around.
03:46But what stands out as to how and why they did this?
03:52They did it in the way that Joe Lacob has really run the organization since he took over, which is,
03:57all right, we're going to do this.
03:58We're going to have not only a logo and a color scheme, and we already have an amazing building,
04:03but we're going to set out to get the best possible people and the best possible places, and we're going
04:08to go forward with an identity.
04:10And he comes out and he says to Natalie Nakase, the head coach in the interview, you got five years,
04:15and she's so excited that she can't wait to get started,
04:18and she's not shying away from the challenge.
04:20And so I do think, and this is just my own guess from the outside looking in, but they built
04:26the team in a certain way.
04:27They built it around not only what they could get, but they wanted to have this identity.
04:32And I think identity is so important in sports.
04:35We talked about it with the Giants this year.
04:37They don't really have an identity.
04:38You're not pitching in defense.
04:40You're not developing the young people.
04:41Who are you?
04:42And the Niners, this whole thing with Ayuk, your identity is now to the point where you don't want to
04:47bring in somebody who could be a distraction.
04:49I think the Valkyries looked at it and said, okay, we are going to be an expansion team.
04:54We probably can't go out there and get the best player offensively in the world, so how do we go
04:59about being competitive?
05:00You find a ferocious head coach who is a tireless worker.
05:04You bring in defensive-minded players who are going to fight for you and fight for their coach.
05:09And, you know, you're ahead of schedule in year one, and now in year two, you pick up Gabby Williams,
05:13who turns out is a pretty good player, and you're able to take that step.
05:17But for me, it all goes through the word, which is identity.
05:20Okay, that's a good word.
05:23My word, here's my word, overachievers.
05:27And sometimes that has a negative connotation to it, as if I'm saying, oh, they're not as good as the
05:32people around them, but they overachieved.
05:36So that's not what I mean here at all.
05:38The reason that the word overachieving is in my mind today and why I think the Valkyries story is so
05:44incredibly inspiring,
05:46and really I hope it to be a mirror for the entire country, especially with what happened yesterday.
05:53To me, what the Valkyries are a story about, the Valkyries are a story about what happens when you provide
06:01good people with resources,
06:04resources that they may not normally have, when you look about sports and you think of organizations,
06:11and you're like, that's a well-run organization.
06:14What do you actually think that that means?
06:16I tend to think it means a good organization.
06:19It's not just sports.
06:20It might be the organization that you work for.
06:23It might be the organization we work for.
06:25A good organization is an organization that provides good people with all of the resources they need,
06:34and once they have those resources, I think you'll be surprised at what they can achieve.
06:39And let's be honest, the Valkyries are champs, and they don't have the MVP,
06:45and they don't have sparkly offensive players, and they don't have history.
06:50They've been here for less than two years, and they're already having a parade.
06:55And for me, that's what this is a story about.
06:57It's not to give Joe Lacob all the credit, but it did start there.
07:00It started with his vision, and Natalie Nicasse said something the other night after they won the game,
07:07and I thought it really stuck with me.
07:10And that's what she said about Joe.
07:12It wasn't just like, thanks for hiring me.
07:14She's like, this organization is filled with people from the top down
07:19that provide all of their people with the resources they need to do their job the best.
07:27And that's going to stick with me forever with regard to how the Valkyries did this.
07:33That is people in positions of power giving resource to the people who don't necessarily have the power.
07:42And that's why, and I'm not, we're not going to get political on this,
07:47but no matter where or what you feel about yesterday, for me, that's a big part of why everything was
07:55so overwhelming yesterday.
07:56Because this country has felt like a lot of people at the top, they're just holding all of the resources
08:02for themselves.
08:03But when you let people beneath or in other walks of life have resources, it's amazing what they can achieve.
08:12They can achieve a lot more than it seems like they could.
08:15And that, to me, is the story of the Valkyries.
08:18They are a mirror of what I think a lot of people in this country want and hope for
08:24and what they voted for yesterday.
08:26And so that's what was sticking out in my mind today as I watched emotions flow
08:32and people scream and laugh and smile and cry out on the Embarcadero today.
08:38Because this means so much more than a group of ladies putting the ball in the bucket a lot more
08:44than others.
08:45It means that.
08:46It means that they were given the resources and therefore they overachieved.
08:51And it's to women for the most part.
08:53And it's O'Haman Nianen, who I don't think is getting nearly the credit she deserves as the GM.
08:58And, you know, you've been talking about how did they do it?
09:00And so I started going through the nuts and bolts of, well, how do you do it?
09:03So you get an expansion draft and you get Veronica Burton and you get Chechi and you get Kayla Thornton
09:10and you just get them in the expansion draft and they're all core players.
09:13And then this year in the free agency, you go out and you get Gabby Williams and Kia Stokes.
09:18And you re-signed your people.
09:20You brought back Caitlin Chen, who didn't have a huge impact,
09:23but she's absolutely the emotional lifeblood of that second unit.
09:27And so you empowered a female GM, O'Hama, and you got a female head coach.
09:32And you basically said, go out there and tear it up.
09:35Like, do what you need to do.
09:37And so I do like the idea of empowerment, especially when it comes to women.
09:41And I do think that some of the things that have happened in our country have been rollbacks of, you
09:46know,
09:46female rights and things that, you know, women have fought so hard for.
09:50And this is not that.
09:51But this today, what I saw from the parade was a lot of women and men who were out there
09:56just celebrating the joy of,
09:59you know, kind of the come up.
10:00Well, I mean, in general, and to bring it just to kind of sports organizations,
10:06I feel like the best ones are the ones where the people who are in power,
10:10they hire people and then they trust those people.
10:13Like, that's the whole idea, right?
10:15Like, ask Guru, how come the Cowboys haven't won in 7 billion years?
10:21Well, their owner still thinks he's the GM.
10:23And he recycles coaches.
10:26And the story that comes out today where he privately said,
10:29I'm not paying top dollar for a coach.
10:32Well, that's why you're not getting top coaching.
10:34Because you won't hire people underneath you, empower them, and then let them do their job.
10:42It applies to Steph Curry.
10:44People are always amazed.
10:45I know fans who are upset at Steph Curry that he won't, like, act as the de facto GM of
10:51the team.
10:52Not his job.
10:53Like, the best organizations, I think, are organizations where, from the top down,
11:00you hire good people.
11:02Like, go through an exhaustive search, hire good people, and then let them do their jobs.
11:07And I think that Joe Lacob has shown now, with two different organizations in this town,
11:12he does that.
11:13Like, that's his best asset.
11:15Not his money and his vision.
11:16Those are great.
11:18His best asset is that while he is involved, and many have accused him of being too involved,
11:23but he hires people, and then for the most part, he lets them do their job.
11:29If you're not going to do that, why hire them?
11:32Why?
11:33You just do it yourself and save some money.
11:35What if you think about the first go-round with the Warriors, he was able to bring in, you know,
11:40all kinds of people, such as, I don't know, the logo, Jerry West, one of the most successful
11:45on-court and off-court figures in the history of the association.
11:49And you bring in Rick Welts, who used to work with the league, and he was a genius in the
11:53front office,
11:53and Bob Myers, and Steve Kerr, and Rick Celebrini, and it goes on and on and on.
11:58You found great people, and like you said, you bring in great people, and you let them do their job.
12:02And for the Valkyries to do this, this quickly in two years, I think it's a testimony to the players
12:08in the front office,
12:09certainly, but also the owner, for having that identity he was looking for,
12:14finding the people that he thought could execute it, and then let them do their thing.
12:18Cast-offs.
12:19A lot of them, yeah.
12:21The roster is...
12:22Yeah, expansion draft, so you've got to expose people.
12:24Right, but they weren't protected.
12:27Right.
12:27They weren't protected.
12:28Tip Hayes was going to retire.
12:30Veronica Burton's dad was on with us earlier this week.
12:34He's just like, yeah, just kind of wasn't feeling very confident.
12:37And even Gabby Williams, she's your big free agent signing.
12:42That means anybody else could have had her.
12:44That means who did...
12:45I mean, I don't actually have the story on how hard did Seattle try to keep her.
12:52I have no idea how that all went down.
12:56But the Valkyries roster is made up largely of players who were just kind of allowed to go.
13:05Nobody was going to make any of these players the centerpiece of their franchise.
13:10And they have all come here, and then everyone goes, man, where did that come from?
13:16I didn't know Gabby could play like that.
13:18I didn't know Burton could do that.
13:20I didn't know Tip Hayes still had that in her, you know, this late in her career.
13:24All of these things.
13:25That, for me, is what this is about.
13:27And I really think that Valkyrie fans, the ones I've talked to, kind of feel the same way.
13:33Like, what's different maybe about a WNBA title as opposed to one of these sports that have been a tradition
13:40around here for a long, long time?
13:42Is it's a little bit less about X's and O's.
13:45And it's more about the story.
13:48It's more about the social implications of what this all means.
13:53Like, that's what I've found in talking to fans.
13:56A lot of fans, this means something to them.
13:59Not just we won, and I've been waiting my whole life for them to win.
14:03This means something to them on a little bit of a deeper level, which I think is a really, really
14:09cool part of this.
14:10Well, especially if you're a woman, and I can't really put myself fully into that space, but I have a
14:14daughter and so do you.
14:15And you just see the joy that so many of the fans who are female are experiencing with this team.
14:21Because you can be a fan of any team, the Niners, the Giants, the Warriors.
14:25And that's great, and you can be the most diehard fan, heck yeah, like Jan in the world.
14:31But when you have a team that you can directly associate with because they are the same gender, and yes,
14:37it's new.
14:37And if you are a day one Valkyries fan, you get that extra little shot of pride.
14:43I've been with them since day one, and even though it's only like day 11, you still couldn't say that
14:48you were one of those people.
14:49But I do think that the ability to assimilate with the team and with a population, and if you're LGBTQ
14:56+, if you're in that community, you're represented by this team.
15:00And there's so many different niches, I think, among the population where you can look at this team and feel
15:06heard and seen.
15:08Yeah.
15:08Who was at that parade?
15:09Who wants to share with us what the experience was like out there today?
15:13It looked like an absolute blast.
15:15888-957-9570.
15:17Oh, by the way, who's, and maybe this was a collaborative deal, but you mentioned the way they arrived.
15:22Who's in charge?
15:23Who's, I would love to find out.
15:25Can we go on a fact-finding mission?
15:27Whose idea was it to have the team arrive on the ferry boat?
15:33I'm on a boat.
15:34Because that was freaking awesome.
15:37That is how you make an entrance.
15:39I don't know if you've all seen the video of this.
15:43Gabby driving the ferry?
15:45If you haven't seen the video of this team arriving on the ferry, just boom.
15:52Pull right up to the Embarcadero and go.
15:55And then get out there with the fans.
15:57That was a good idea.
15:59That was a very, very good luck.
16:02I'll see if I can find out.
16:03I have some people who work inside the organization, the Valkyrie side of the organization.
16:08And it's weird because it's not like you have a lot of time.
16:11You don't want to jinx it if you're superstitious.
16:13You're not planning the parade back in July.
16:15And so you lose in a matinee.
16:17You come home and you're thinking, okay, we do need to kind of come up with the what-if scenarios.
16:22And so the date, the route, fine.
16:25Do we have enough of those metal barriers?
16:27Can the city give us a thousand metal barriers?
16:29Okay.
16:29We got that taken care of.
16:30But how do we make this special?
16:32Yeah.
16:32You got to plan it before it's reality.
16:35You and I were sitting in a meeting, I think it was two weeks ago.
16:39And Higgins, look, look, look.
16:41We have to be ready for a parade.
16:42Okay.
16:43And I think you actually said, we do.
16:46We have to be ready.
16:47But, boss, it's not looking great.
16:50Like, they're in trouble.
16:51Down two games to one.
16:53And Atlanta was, I mean, they were blowing them out.
16:55They're blowing them off the floor.
16:57But planning continued.
17:00And then here we are.
17:02And today was the day.
17:03And did you say eight now in 16 years?
17:06Yep.
17:06Giants got 10, 12, and 14.
17:09The Warriors had three over there and one here.
17:11And now you get the Valks.
17:12It's a lot of parades.
17:13Eight parades.
17:14And I think three or four different routes.
17:17And the thing about these championship parades, they just don't get old.
17:22I wasn't in today's.
17:23I didn't get a lot of time down there with it.
17:26But as I'm driving on the freeway, my normal exit couldn't go that way because traffic.
17:31And I'm sure it was blocked.
17:32And so you could roll down your window and hear the little buzz and the clamor from the 101 freeway.
17:38Five blocks away, you could already hear it.
17:40And in some cases, smell it.
17:42Well, that's great.
17:43Good.
17:44Good.
17:44Good.
17:46Party on a Wednesday.
17:48How high are you?
17:50Droppy doesn't use anymore.
17:51Oh, hi.
17:52I don't even know if you can find that one.
17:54So high.
17:55That's a lot of parades, dude.
17:57That's a lot of parades.
17:59Eight parades in 16 years.
18:02And I know Niner fans.
18:03I know.
18:04I know.
18:05I know.
18:06I know.
18:07And so who knows?
18:08Maybe it's going to be nine and nine and 16 and a half come February.
18:15I don't know.
18:16How high are you right now?
18:18I'm high, bro.
18:19Took me a sec, but I found it.
18:20You got it.
18:21You got so many buttons.
18:22I appreciate that.
18:23The find right there.
18:24I was also reflecting on this, Mark, as far as the, what, the seven other championships.
18:30This is number eight in 16 years.
18:32Is this the most unlikely?
18:34Or what else would you put in that bucket?
18:36Oh, man.
18:37Kevin Durant's, no.
18:39Even the first Warrior one, I think they were 67 and 15 or 60.
18:43That sounds right.
18:4560 something and not that many.
18:46I think 67, yeah.
18:47And so to me, it would either be 2010 Giants or 2022 Warriors or this one.
18:53Those to me feel like the most surprise chips.
18:56I guess I would sort of answer your question with a question or, you know, like a footnote.
19:04And it's this, the Valkyries is the most surprising from the overall view of this.
19:12Like, it's only year two.
19:14However, if I dive directly into the season that you're talking about for all of these teams,
19:21the Valkyries were one of the best teams all year.
19:23I mean, they were the two seed.
19:25So it was not crazy to think, if you're watching basketball this year, to think that they could go all
19:32the way.
19:32They were clearly one of the best teams.
19:34But, yeah, like, the idea if you and we did, you know what I mean?
19:39Grandy had that show with me where he's like, Valkyries can do this.
19:44You know, they're going to be the next team in the Bay.
19:45I don't think he meant this early.
19:47But, like, if you said this last year, you're like, well, like, wait a minute.
19:52Sure, they're coming out of the gate hot.
19:53They look good.
19:54But you've got to wait a minute before you can win it all.
19:58So the Valkyries is the overarching view.
20:00But, man, if you think back to 2010 and you entered the month of September, way back at the Padres,
20:12San Francisco had never won a World Series.
20:14We're calling it torture.
20:16They couldn't score a run.
20:17And then even when they get into the playoffs, it's like, wow, you're not going to be able to hit
20:22Cliff Lee or whatever like they were an underdog through that whole thing.
20:26So that one pops to mind.
20:28You mentioned the Warriors' first one.
20:30They felt a year ahead of schedule.
20:31You mentioned their last one.
20:33They felt like they were a year behind schedule, like it was already over.
20:37Those are the four candidates if you're making this multiple choice.
20:41Yeah, and I just was thinking about that because the reason why this one does feel unlikely, yes, they were
20:46a game out of the one seed,
20:47but you were in real trouble in the opening round, real trouble, and it was about to get spoiled, and
20:53that thing was going to end with a thud.
20:56And also, you do usually have to go through it in order to get over the top.
21:01And, yeah, they had a series last year, but they didn't even get a real home game.
21:05And so this year, I thought, was the year that they take a step forward, and then maybe next year's
21:09the year, but they skipped a bunch of steps.
21:122012 Giants twice were in diabolical trouble.
21:19I mean, they're down 2-0 in round one against the Reds, and I think, if I'm remembering correctly, it
21:26was a tie game late that they then pulled out somehow,
21:30and then obviously you were down 3-1 to the Cardinals and sending never-used Barry Zito to the Hill,
21:36which started a seven-game win streak to win a championship.
21:40But you're right.
21:42I mean, the Valks weren't just down.
21:44They weren't just down in that series.
21:47I mean, yeah, they were down.
21:50They're down 16 points.
21:52And they don't score.
21:53Getting ready for the fourth quarter.
21:55And they were dead.
21:56They're not doing points.
21:57It's not really what they do.
21:58I remember being at dinner with my son, and the game was on at the restaurant, and we're watching the
22:04game, and I sort of had this feeling like, no way.
22:07Like, this is not how I thought this story would end.
22:11But it got to a point where you're like, but it will.
22:15I just, I can't fathom them erasing a 16-point deficit in a moment like this.
22:21And then, boom, like clockwork.
22:23They did it.
22:23It's another characteristic of a great sports team is when they can sort of summon another energy level when needed.
22:32They did it in round one.
22:33They did it in game seven the other night.
22:35Yeah.
22:36And it was just a huge gut check.
22:39And Gabby Williams just absolutely takes over.
22:41One for the ages.
22:42Just doing a quick search on preseason odds.
22:452010 Giants were 25-1.
22:482012, 20-1.
22:502014, 25-1.
22:53Valkyries this year, 33-1.
22:55And that's from MGM.
22:58ESPN had them at 45-1.
23:00So just on the odds makers, the book, book, books.
23:05So far, and I don't think the Giants, or the Warriors, rather, in 2022 are going to be higher than
23:1033-1.
23:11I doubt it.
23:12I mean, they had an unbelievable start.
23:16You know, they had Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins and all of the things.
23:21So, yeah, you're probably right from an odds standpoint.
23:25Yeah, that's the list.