unrivaled has all your favorite basketball lesbians
also, links: transphobic apparel becomes trendy, angel reese covers vogue, & more
Mutual Aid LA continues to compile lists of ways to give or receive help following the devastating wildfires last week.
ICYMI, we are starting a book club here at Out of Your League and I announced details for our first book: Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League (written by me!). The Zoom discussion will feature me and my co-author, Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, as well as NWFL player Linda Stamps.
For people who have asked, Wednesday evening discussions will not necessarily be standard, this was just the day and time that worked for all three of our schedules. However, the panel will be recorded and sent out afterwards for anyone who can’t make it live. I’ve also confirmed details for a companion OOYL film screening of the documentary The Herricanes, about the Houston NWFL team. That will be happening some time Super Bowl weekend, stay tuned for more information on that.
The book club and accompanying events are only open to paid subscribers. You can upgrade here to join us:
unrivaled has all your favorite basketball lesbians
Basketball lesbians are gearing up for the inaugural season of Unrivaled in Miami! It kicks off this Friday, January 17th. Here’s how you can watch (the TL;DR is that it’s 3x3 style play (with a mid-season 1x1 tournament) and games run from January through March on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays. You can watch Friday and Monday games on TNT, Saturday games on TruTV, or any/all of the games streaming on Max).
If you’ve wanted to get into the WNBA but have been intimidated by the sheer number of teams and players, Unrivaled is a great entry point. With only six teams and six players per team, there are far fewer personalities to learn. And almost all of the Unrivaled athletes will be playing in the W come May, so there will be a ton of familiar faces for you to follow.
Unsure which Unrivaled team to root for? Want to choose the gayest one? Here’s the breakdown of openly queer athletes in this new league (at least 17 of the 36 players are out as queer! That’s 47% of the league!).1
Laces BC: Tiffany Hayes, Kayla McBride, Alyssa Thomas, Kate Martin, Stefanie Dolson (5/6)
Lunar Owls BC: Courtney Williams (1/6)
Mist BC: Breanna Stewart, DiJonai Carrington, Courtney Vandersloot, Jewell Loyd (4/6)
Phantom BC: Brittney Griner, Natasha Cloud (2/6)
Rose BC: Chelsea Gray, Brittney Sykes, Kahleah Copper (3/6)
Vinyl BC: Arike Ogunbowale, Jordin Canada (2/6, but they are also coached by legend Teresa Weatherspoon)
Before they make their Unrivaled debut, the WNBA posted some perfect photos of Courtney Williams (Unrivaled’s Lunar Owls Basketball Club, WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, and a Taurus baddie)…
…and DiJonai Carrington (Unrivaled’s Mist Basketball Club, WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, and a Capricorn icon).
The Phoenix Mercury are hyping up the Unrivaled rivalry between WNBA teammates Kahleah Copper (Unrivaled’s Rose Basketball Club and a Virgo queen) and Natasha Cloud (Unrivaled’s Phantom Basketball Club and a Pisces softie).
And the media outtakes have been wonderful. It’s so fun to see WNBA rivals becoming teammates for this winter league—that’s Chelsea Gray (The Las Vegas Aces’ Point Gawd and a Libra, which is the sign of some of the best point guards), Kahleah Copper, and Brittney Sykes (the best defensive player on the Washington Mystics and an Aquarius trendsetter) in the front of this Rose BC team photo:
And as always, my forever crush Alyssa Thomas (Unrivaled’s Rose Basketball Club, WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, Aries hottie) has looks for dayssss.
We can’t forget about Arike Ogunbowale (Unrivaled’s Vinyl Basketball Club, WNBA’s Dallas Wings, soft-hearted Pisces) and her electric smile, either.
This ratio means that gay people are obligated to watch Unrivaled, sorry I don’t make the rules.
links
Look, I’m gonna be honest: a lot of the links and reading I have to share with you this week are major bummers. Let’s get into it—but don’t forget to scroll to the end for the feel-good content, including memes and more hot photos of gay athletes.
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