ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
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NADWORNY: The WNBA season tips off. The NBA draft lottery is tomorrow, and your next March Madness brackets are going to be a lot bigger. Michele Steele of the Big Ten Network joins me now. Good morning.
MICHELE STEELE: Good morning, Elissa. Let me be the first to say congrats to your New York Knicks. Nice win against the Sixers last night.
NADWORNY: Oh, thank you. Thank you. OK. So let - actually, let's go to the WNBA season, right?
STEELE: Yep.
NADWORNY: Because that started last night. It comes with huge expectations. And, Michele, I'm curious, like, this is seeming to be a pretty crucial season for the league - like, higher salaries, more teams. They've even got the superstars Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever...
STEELE: Yes.
NADWORNY: ...And A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces - are, like, kind of vying, who's going to be the MVP. Set the stage for us.
STEELE: Yeah. There's so much excitement for the WNBA's 30th season. It did tip off last night, and we saw a big game from Breanna Stewart dropping 31 points for the Liberty. The Toronto Tempo played their first game as Canada's first-ever WNBA franchise. But the biggest story, Elissa, is off the court. You know, one of the first stories I did as a young sports reporter - profile WNBA players who had to travel overseas every offseason to supplement their salaries. You know, you mentioned Caitlin Clark. She made $76,000 a year as a rookie, and she was one of the biggest stars in the country.
NADWORNY: Yeah.
STEELE: This year, the WNBA got a labor deal - a new labor deal that will boost average salaries to $583,000 a year. That's less than the men, but that's game-changing money. For the first time in league history, some players will earn over a million dollars. So this isn't just, you know, another basketball season. It's really a before-and-after moment for women's sports.
NADWORNY: Wow. Yeah. OK. So the NBA playoffs are well into the second round. We mentioned those Knicks that did such a good job last night. But tomorrow, basketball fans are going to turn their attention off the court for the NBA draft lottery. It's being hyped as one of the, you know, most high-stakes drafts. Why is that?
STEELE: There's just so much talent. I mean, you have 14 NBA teams in that room on Sunday in Chicago, and the stakes are very high in this draft class. The headliner is a guy named AJ Dybantsa, 19 years old, 6-foot-9. People are comparing him to Larry Bird. And scouts say there's basically no serious concerns about his game, which is, you know, essentially unheard of in the draft world. And reportedly, as many as nine teams, Elissa, spent the back - not the Knicks - but spent the back half of this season losing on purpose to improve their odds of getting him - a third of the league. So you've got the Wizards, the Pacers and the Nets with a 14% shot at that No. 1 pick. So if you guys, you know, want something to do for Mother's Day, forget brunch. Watch the NBA draft lottery.
NADWORNY: Amazing. OK. Let's talk about the NCAA announcing that they're going to expand the number of teams in March Madness from 68 to 76. Is it better to have more schools involved? Does it dilute the level of play?
STEELE: The answer to both of those questions could be yes. We'll see. You know, it's a bold move. Everybody's kind of happy with the way the bracket is now, but the dilution argument is real. These are teams that, by definition, weren't good enough to get in before, but the magic, many people say, of March Madness comes from those Cinderellas - the programs that maybe squeaked in. So we'll see what it looks like next year.
NADWORNY: Yeah. OK, finally, media mogul Ted Turner died this week at age 87. He's being remembered for his impact on journalism and television, but he also had a big impact on sports.
STEELE: I think the sports piece is underappreciated. He essentially invented the idea that live sports is the backbone of cable TV. He put the Braves on a satellite superstation. He built a national audience around a local team. He founded TNT, which played a huge role in the professional wrestling world, you know? He was also an American original. He won the America's Cup himself. He got into fistfight challenges with Rupert Murdoch. I mean, someone tweeted this week, Ted Turner was what I would do if I were a billionaire - spend your money on baseball and wrestling.
NADWORNY: I love it.
STEELE: So he had a huge impact. Eighty-seven years old, still larger than life.
NADWORNY: Michele Steele, thank you.
STEELE: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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