Talking WNBA Draft, the future of women's college basketball and 'Sports Jeopardy!' with The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant
Turns out modern medicine’s loss was sports writing’s gain.
With aspirations of becoming an orthopedic surgeon, Sabreena Merchant was studying pre-med at Duke University and applying to medical school. Merchant had always loved sports and believed becoming a physician for a pro team would quench her athletic thirst. But she started dabbling into sports writing in high school and when a friend coaxed her into tagging along to a newspaper staff meeting in college, she was hooked. Merchant wanted to give this journalism thing a try.
In recent years, the Los Angeles native has found her niche covering women’s basketball for various sites including Sports Illustrated and SB Nation. Since November 2022, Merchant has covered the WNBA and women’s college basketball for The Athletic.
I met Sabreena almost a decade ago, in the summer of 2015. We were both contestants on season two of the ill-fated but insanely fun “Sports Jeopardy!” hosted by legendary sportscaster Dan Patrick. Catching up last week via Zoom, Sabreena shared memories of her “Sports Jeopardy!” experience, thoughts on probably the most anticipated WNBA Draft in league history, women’s college basketball in the post-Caitlin Clark era and much more.
Q: What do you remember the most about your “Sports Jeopardy!” experience?
A: I had a lifelong dream of being on “Jeopardy!” and producers from the show sent out an email to people taking the online test saying, “Hey, there’s also this other opportunity to be on ‘Sports Jeopardy!” I remember going to the audition and feeling much more comfortable with the subject matter as opposed to regular “Jeopardy!”
I probably didn’t take it as seriously as I should have in preparing. It was kind of like, “Eh, I’ve immersed my entire life in this stuff. I don’t need to study sports.” But it was so funny because I remember going to the taping and being the only girl on the call sheet and everybody knowing who I was. “Oh, you must be Sabreena. You’re the only girl here among 14 other dudes.”
I was actually really relaxed the whole day. It was a fun time. And the way they had the studio was set up, you had that little space where you got to chat afterwards with Dan Patrick. It was just fun to be able to chat about sports all day which is a lot of what I do on a daily basis now.
Q: The show only lasted three seasons. Why do you think “Sports Jeopardy!” didn’t have a longer run?
A: Well, it spent at least the first season on Crackle, which is now a defunct streaming platform. That’s likely part of the reason. I don’t think a lot of people knew about it. When I told people I was going to be on it, their reaction was, “Oh, I’ve never heard of it, but send me a link and I’ll watch it.”
They started airing re-runs on NBC Sports Network, which doesn’t even exist anymore. With “Jeopardy!” they have people on there that seem to know everything. That’s the appeal. That’s the hook. With sports, it’s more of a niche, and they’ve tried that with other shows. “Sports Jeopardy!” could never replicate that over-arching appeal.
Q: What were some of your favorite teams and who were some of your favorite athletes growing up?
A: I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so it was very much expected I would root for the L.A. teams growing up, like the Lakers. My dad immigrated to L.A. from Pakistan in 1980, right at the beginning of the Showtime era, so the Lakers were a big part of his indoctrination to becoming American. My brother actually wouldn’t bring in the morning newspaper the day after the Lakers lost because he didn’t want to see the headlines in the sports section.
Our family rooted for the Dodgers too.
I didn’t really have a football team growing up because the Rams left L.A. in ’94. I got really into USC football when Pete Carroll took over the program.
I remember when the WNBA started and the Sparks being in L.A., but I had no idea how to watch them. Up until I was an adult and got to go to Sparks games on my own accord, that was not something that was part of watching sports.
Q: You’ve always been a big basketball fan and then you attended Duke, a big basketball school. What are games like at Cameron Indoor Stadium?
A: Well, when I was applying to college, I basically had three prerequisites: I wanted to go out of state, go to a private school, and I wanted to go to a school that had a really big athletic fandom. Duke checked all those boxes.
The writing all started back in high school. As a senior, I wrote for our student newspaper, covering the football team. When I came to Duke, I also wrote for the student newspaper there. I also had to wait in line to get in like all the people you see on television.
I still consider the Lakers to be my No. 1 fandom just because it’s been a lifelong thing, but it’s sort of amazing how I’ve backfilled my Duke fandom with all these things that happened before I got to school. I have strong opinions about the ’91 and ’92 teams or whether Gerald Henderson actually elbowed Tyler Hansbrough in the face. It was funny, I was watching a package of all the NCAA Division I women’s championships over the last 40 years and there’s a moment where Kristi Toliver hits this game-tying three-pointer for Maryland, and it physically hurt me again because it was against Duke. I wasn’t even at Duke yet when it happened but it’s very funny how I’ve just absorbed that into my consciousness.
Q: With your writing and sports loving background, did you always have a goal to pursue sports journalism?
A: I was definitely a math and science kid growing up. I was going to school for pre-med. I always wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon and maybe become a team doctor, always being around sports. I didn’t see myself as a writer. I did football writing in high school because I was the manager for the football team and the school newspaper needed somebody to cover games and I was already there, so I just did it.
In college, I got into the newspaper because the girl who lived across the hall from me didn’t want to go to the newspaper meeting by herself so she asked if I would come with her. Obviously, I ended up really enjoying it. While I was in school, I was still taking all these pre-med classes but then spending all my free time at the newspaper and I though OK, this would be a nice diversion to add to my resume when I apply to grad school.
If I had had a better sense of myself when I was younger, I probably would have realized that this was something I was meant to do but it actually took me longer, even after I was done with college to realize, OK, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to combine my passion with what I want to do for work and not have to be some noble servant of the world. I can just go about enjoying my job.
At The Athletic, on the women’s basketball beat, we have three reporters, so divvy it up on what makes sense location-wise. Out of the three of us, I’m more in the middle. We have one writer whose more WNBA focused, and the other writer is a lot more college focused. Our beats cover some international basketball too, so we pay attention to Team USA. There are other leagues trying to take a foothold in the U.S. too. We haven’t given them a ton of attention because we’re not so certain about their staying power. There’s another 3-on-3 league that’s starting next year that I’m hoping to cover because it’s supposed to have some pretty epic star power, like Breanna Stewart, Chelsea Gray and Napheesa Collier.
Q: This year’s No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft (owned by the Indiana Fever) is probably the most obvious pick in the history of sports – Caitlin Clark. I think her game translates well to the pros and she’ll do well, but I do see a few aspects she’ll need to improve upon. Will she be one of the all-time greats? Who the heck knows. What do you think?
A: I think she’ll be given a lot of opportunities this season because … she’s Caitlin Clark. The news just came out that the WNBA will put the Indiana Fever on national TV 36 out of 40 times. That’s unbelievable considering they had all of one game on ESPN last year and none in 2022. They’re definitely riding the Caitlin Clark wave as much as possible, and good for the “W.” They’re definitely a league that struggles to market their stars. Having someone who already has the star power she has, you got to take advantage.
It's obviously helping the Fever sell tickets and it’s helping their opponents sell tickets. When the Fever comes to town, they’re selling those tickets in groups that people have to buy five tickets at a time just to get the Indiana ticket. We’ve seen the Las Vegas Aces move their game from a 10,000-seat arena to an 18,000-seat arena when they play Indiana.
Basketball wise, she already has a couple of pro-level skills. The shooting. She can shoot from really deep and that just changes the geometry of your offense right away because you have to guard her out there. Passing; she’s an A+ passer, whether you’re out in transition or playing off the pick and roll, finding cutters at halfcourt or hitting your post inside, she’s really an A+ point guard and that’s going to endear players to want to play with her. I think the volume of her shots will tone down a bit when she gets to Indiana because she’ll have higher-quality teammates around her.
I think Indiana will make her as pure as a point guard as possible, just let her distribute, shoot off the ball. Not necessarily be the go-to scorer on every possession like she has been in the past. I think that’s going to take some time, dealing with bigger, stronger defenders that can get up in her face. We’ve already seen really physical defenders that can get her out of rhythm in college, whether that was in the West Virginia game, Nika Muhl in the Final Four game, Raven Johnson in the national title game. The body is going to have to change a little bit when she gets to the WNBA and that’s fine, everybody has to when you’re playing against grown women as opposed to 18 to 23-year-olds.
But I don’t expect it to be a super-long transition. Look at Diana Taurasi, probably the best shooting guard prospect of the last 20 years. She was an Olympian right out of college, an all-star right away, MVP within three years. I would expect a very similar trajectory for Caitlin because she has the benefit of playing next to Aliyah Boston who’s just going to make everything easier for her at Indiana.
There’s no all-star game this year because of the Olympics, but I would expect her to make the Olympic team and be an All-WNBA selection by next year, which is really quick but she’s really good. With the WNBA, everyone comes in good already. Most of these players are developed. It’s not like the men’s side, where you’re drafting guys when they’re 18, 19 years old, hoping these players blossom. The WNBA players come in with the track record of already having competed against high-level competition.
Q: Looking at the other top potential picks, Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese, all pretty good post players, but do they make an impact with their teams right away?
A: Probably not. I think with Brink and Cardoso and probably Reese, a lot of it depends on the situation. It’s quite possible they go to teams that could be tanking this year so they’re not really going to be put in a position to try and win games. For them, it could be more of a skill-develop season; let’s try and find out how to get one defined post move if you’re Cardoso and if you’re Reese, let’s work on that finishing form so you’re not just lobbing the ball up to the top of the glass every time you’re going in for a layup.
They all have super-defined skills. Cam is a tremendous defender, really moves well, has great length. Same with Kamilla and she’s an awesome passer out of the post too. Angel is just a superb rebounder – one of the best I’ve ever seen. She’s got great leaping ability.
For one, they’re big so they’ll be relying on guards to get them the ball so they can’t immediately impact the game. Another point is I think the strength advantage really shows up for bigs vs. guards so I think it takes longer for bigs to develop as rookies rather than guards or smaller players.
Q: Is there a sleeper pick in the first round or maybe somebody that could jump off the board as a surprise pick?
A: Yeah, it’s kind of funny because there’s been more interest in this year’s draft than years before – a lot of that has to do with Caitlin Clark – but with that comes a lot of group think. I don’t love that because I try to avoid having the same 11 to 12 players as everyone else in my mock draft and here, we are talking about the same 11 to 12 players.
The fun thing about a sleeper is not everyone knows who it’s going to be. You can look at a team like Dallas who has a track record of doing some shocking things in the first round of the draft. Chicago too has done some truly indescribable things in the draft, and I do think they have picks 5, 8 and 9 so something weird is going to happen with one of those picks and I’m looking forward to it because I would hate for this thing to go chalk as everybody expects it’s going to.
But there are players that aren’t on some first-round boards, like Nika Muhl at UConn could do well. I hadn’t seen her in person until the Sweet 16 this year and her body pops, she is just so strong. She’s solid. You can’t move her. She works really well defensively and has a solid jumper. She’s an A+ passer too, all these things that will translate immediately to the next level.
For Texas, Shaylee Gonzalez. The stat models absolutely love her. Maybe because she plays every minute of every game, never needs a rest, defends her ass off, and shoots 38 percent on threes. You look at her and she doesn’t look like a pro quite yet, but she doesn’t get moved around and she plays for a really good team that lost in the Elite Eight and won a Big 12 conference title this year.
Another one is Kansas center Taiyanna Jackson, 6-foot-6, really athletic. Hasn’t really popped production wise at Kansas but she’s also on a team that has a lot around her. Their guards haven’t done her a lot of favors so I wonder if she could benefit from having a simplified role, getting less defensive attention where she can be more of a rim runner.
Q: The Vegas Aces have had a lock on the championship for the past two years. New York made some big moves last offseason and made it to the Finals before pretty much getting steamrolled by Vegas. Is it still the Aces’ title to lose or could another team swoop in and knock them off the perch?
A: I still think there’s as big of a gap between Vegas and New York as there is New York and any other team. They did split their regular season series but when it came to the Finals that Vegas team was significantly better than New York and part of it is that Becky Hammon is probably the best coach we’ve ever seen in the WNBA. Just the way they’re prepared for every game, the stuff that they run, how they attack opponent’s weaknesses … Becky’s really good.
And A’ja Wilson is getting better, Jackie Young is getting better, Chelsea Gray is coming off a foot injury that caused her to miss Game 4 of the Finals, that’s something to keep an eye on. They don’t have a lot of young talent in the pipeline because they basically sacrificed their first round pick the last three years, so I’m not super enthused about their development but they’re still very much the team to beat. New York is probably the next closest. Connecticut will still be there. They gave New York a decent run in the semifinals last year. Minnesota should be a lot better this year. I’m just irrationally attached to Napheesa Collier. She’s a great player and if that jumper gets more consistent, that makes Minnesota a real threat. Seattle has loaded up, putting together four all-stars in their starting lineup. If their bench is even below average, I would say that’s a really good team.
I’m not going to pencil in New York and Las Vegas in the Finals yet because I do like a lot of these teams that have made some moves in the offseason.
Q: Does Becky Hammon one day become an NBA head coach?
A: It’s an interesting question because I saw recently that the Charlotte Hornets are interviewing Lindsey Harding for their head coaching vacancy. She has been on the Sacramento Kings’ staff, was the head coach of their G League team, and was the G League Head Coach of the Year this year. She also had a pretty stellar playing career at Duke.
And it’s suddenly struck me – would it be unfair if somebody didn’t hire Becky Hammon as the first female head coach in the NBA? I don’t think the Aces would begrudge her one bit if an opportunity came and she left to be a head coach. She would be breaking a barrier and it’s a whole new challenge. Not that the WNBA isn’t a challenge but she’s pretty much crushing it there.
She’s absolutely capable of being an NBA head coach, you just need the right situation where an owner either doesn’t feel any pressure or wants to make a story. I think it’s a matter of when and not if she becomes an NBA head coach because she has the opportunity to be a little choosy. When she went into job interviews before becoming the head coach of the Aces, she didn’t have any head coaching experience. They held that against her, which is stupid because male assistants are hired all the time without head coaching experience – how else would we get new coaches? She doesn’t have to take a Charlotte Hornets’ job. With all due respect, that’s a terrible organization. They’ve had no playoff series wins in the last 15 years.
I do believe Becky will end up in the league at some point and it’s going to be a better job than she would have gotten before coaching Las Vegas.
Q: The Caitlin Clark Effect has brought a lot of momentum and new viewers to the women’s college game. With her heading to the WNBA, do you see some of that momentum dipping or do you think fans will still tune in to see stars like Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins ball out next season and beyond?
A: I think what’s cool about Caitlin is when people tuned in to watch her, it helped so many other players. I think about that Elite Eight night when it was LSU-Iowa and UConn-USC. UConn vs. USC would have been the highest-rated Elite Eight game of all time had it not just come after Iowa and LSU, so there’s definitely eyeballs tuning in for non-Caitlin games.
Next year it could come down a bit, but I don’t think we’re going to lose the wave. I don’t expect 18.9 million to tune in to next year’s title game even if it’s UConn vs. USC or Notre Dame or South Carolina gets in there again. But I don’t think we’re going to lose everything because there’s so many players people have been exposed to. They’re obviously not Caitlin Clark-level stars but they do have some of the magic she left behind. You see that with JuJu’s scoring exploits, or the way Paige can handle a game or Hannah Hidalgo at Notre Dame, just how exciting she is as a ballhandler. LSU still has Flau’jae Johnson and people love watching her. South Carolina … they’re coming off an undefeated season and they’re bringing the whole band back together, so people are going to want to see that.
I was just so heartened by the numbers we saw for the non-Caitlin games like the 7 million who tuned in to watch South Carolina vs. NC State where South Carolina just put the burners on after halftime. I think we’re going to see a little bit of a dip and that’s OK, because the whole point of Caitlin Clark being generational is she is once in a generation. The major pros of the game still work, like having four-year players stick around at one school. For all the complaining about foul-baiting, there’s still some appreciation for a below-the-rim basketball game. Also, the players are marketable. You’re going to see JuJu Watkins in commercials, and you’ll want to see her play basketball.
Q: Speaking of JuJu, who do you see picking up the mantle post Caitlin? Bueckers still has one more year at UConn, Hidalgo is coming off a great freshman year, Kiki Rice is lighting it up at UCLA, and of course South Carolina will still be force.
A: We just posted a story at The Athletic on the ten stars who are poised to pick up the mantle. Lauren Betts from UCLA is one, Audi Crooks from Iowa State, just a good, old fashion, back-to-the basket post player. Kiki Iriafin at Stanford is poised to have a big year, but I don’t know if it’ll be there now that coach Tara VanDerveer has retired. But I think Paige and JuJu are probably the main ones and that works as a geographical sell too, the modern superpower at UConn vs. the traditional program, USC. These two players taking those programs back to elite heights is a strong narrative.