Sports War with Ronny Chieng and Jordan Klepper | Monica McNutt Breaks Down the Broader Issues in the WNBA
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You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey there, it's Michael Kosta. The Daily Show's on a break this week, but don't worry, we handpicked some of our favorite recent moments from the show in case you missed them. We'll be back with brand new episodes next week. Until then, enjoy today's episode. Welcome back to The Daily Show. There's been a lot of sports news recently, so for some thoughtful, nuanced debate, we turn to sports war. It's time for...

Brought to you by Gambit. Gambit. God wants you to do it. What's up, morons? I'm Ronnie Chang. And I'm Jordan Klepper. This is Sports War, the show where we are legally not allowed to agree with each other. For example, if I say Ronnie Chang doesn't suck... Well, then I have to disagree with you on that, Jordan. Everybody knows I'm a bad son and a selfish lover. Yes. Yes.

You left out that you're also rude to service workers. Let's start with the biggest story in sports, the shove heard round the world. This physical moment involving the WNBA's most high-profile rookie raising questions. Chicago's Kennedy Carter shoulder-checking the fever's Kaitlyn Clark, knocking her to the ground. Oh! Oh! Oh! Throw the flag! Send her to the hay! Come on!

Caitlin Clark is clearly getting bullied. I'm sick of it. You can't just push people in sports unless it's football, hockey, dude basketball, the Little League World Series, or being drunk dad at the Little League World Series. Well, I hope one of those dads shoves you into traffic, Jordan, because you couldn't be more wrong.

As a lifelong WNBA fan since Caitlin Clark joined the league a few weeks ago, I can say with absolute certainty that that shove was barely a foul. Hey, WNBA needs to get harder if they want me, their target demographic, to keep watching, okay? You hear that, WNBA? Just because you don't have a penis doesn't mean you can't get hard. Just ask Jordan. Are you saying my penis is soft or nonexistent? Whichever hurts your feelings more. Uh-huh.

Joke's on you, Ronnie. I'm dead inside. Look, I relate to Caitlin Clark, a superstar at the top of her game, surrounded by jealous peers. Caitlin, I see you. I am you. And we're not going to let bottom feeders like Ronnie Chang push us around. Which brings us to tonight's Jay Kleps Can't Lose Bet of the Week. What's the source of Ronnie Chang's crippling inferiority complex? Brought to you by gambling. Gambling. You can only lose if you stop.

Okay, moving on from the greatest women's basketball player to the greatest men's basketball player's son. Bronny James, the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, will remain in the NBA draft. His agent confirmed his decision today. James will forego his college eligibility after playing one season with USC. LeBron and Bronny James could be the first father and son duo to play at

the same time in the NBA. He's projected to be a second round pick primarily because his father is LeBron James.

- Yo, Bronny should not enter the NBA at all, okay? There's zero chance he can live up to the legacy of his father. Go do something else, like being a tall dentist, or a tall architect, or a medium-sized, world's tallest man. Quit while you're not ahead. - Oh yeah, that's good advice, Bronny. You should take it. Of course, Bronny should join the NBA. The children of great people are always great themselves. Don, Jr. RFK, Jr.

Carl's Jr. All great men. The only pressure here is on LeBron. If his sperm can't produce a 12-time NBA all-star who reinvigorates the Space Jam franchise, LeBron is overrated. Overrated? That's just what your mom said to me last night. So you made love to my mother poorly?

Like I said, Jordan, I'm a selfish lover. Which brings us to Ronnie's slam dunk bet of the night. Who will be a greater disappointment to their father, Ronnie James or Jordan Klepper? As always, brought to you by gambling. Gambling is like taking candy from a baby, but the candy is money. Finally, we turn to the shocking retirement of a sports legend. Well, he has won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest sixth time.

times, but Takiru Kobayashi is retiring from competitive eating. He says he has health concerns now he needs to tend to. He's 46 years old and says decades of overeating has left him with no appetite or sensation of fullness.

Holy shit! This guy can't tell when he's hungry or full. It sounds like his stomach just pulled a Jerry Maguire on him. Just grabbed the goldfish, said adios to the kidney, and walked right out. Does not sound like it was worth it. This was absolutely worth it, okay, Jordan? He got to eat tons of hot dogs, and now he has no appetite. It's like free Ozempic, okay? Kobayashi's a legend, not to mention he's Asian. Shout-out Asians. Asian athlete! Yeah!

That's right. I've only gotten to use that like four times in my life. And shame on you, Jordan, for not supporting the work of one of our greatest Asian athletes. Hey, you are wrong. You're wrong, Rodney. I fully support his decision to step away from the game. Which brings us to our Double Down Bed of the Night. Which Asian that hosts this program will retire next?

Brought to you by gambling. Have you lost the ability to experience sensation? Try gambling. See how worse it can get. Well, we are out of time. Well, I'm not retired. Well, it's too late. The fans have spoken, Ronnie. Join us next time on Sports War. We'll be debating pickleball. Better with guns? No, no. I think it is. I do. Are you kidding? When you look.

A basketball analyst, host and reporter for ESPN, as well as the voice of the New York Knicks radio broadcast. Please welcome to the program, Monica McNutt. Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica! Monica

Everyone is aware there was a huge viral moment in sports reporting. And you, Monica, were at the center of it concerning an appearance on Stephen A. Smith's show and a young basketball player on the fever. Mm-hmm.

who's apparently generating quite a bit of controversy. Tell us a little bit about that viral moment. All right. So the conversation, John, it started about this foul over the weekend that Kennedy Carter for the Chicago Sky fouled Kaitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever. And I'm not going to lie to you, John, if I take you through my day that morning, I get the call or the text rather than I'm like, are we really leading sports with this?

A person got knocked over in a basketball game. In sports. All right, I'm like, fine, let's just do it. So we have the conversation with colleagues and friends, Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharp, and my larger point in the conversation was the tenor and the prevailing narrative that has been created around this season's WNBA play is that it's the league versus Kaitlyn Clark, and that is just absolutely false. It is unfair to the women that have been there building this league to this moment so that Kaitlyn Clark's popularity could take it to the next level. And so, by the end

So John this the tone and changed and I just kind of need to put my foot down a little bit there was some defensiveness on the part of the individuals you've covered basketball for many many years. You played basketball. You follow the NBA for many years. You know what you're talking about. The tenor of the conversation as I could tell was they were saying to you no we know what we're talking about even though we just tuned into this whole thing last Wednesday.

And there it is, right? And so, as I have said about this, it was a little bit of a challenge, right, to a gentleman that I admire in terms of what they've built. Because if you haven't been here, I need three years. I need you to kind of have jumped in when Sedona Prince went viral for calling out the NCAA. I need you kind of to be here as this league has seen its best viewership year to year. Now, yes, it has absolutely been taken over the top this year, but this has been a snowballing effect.

to get to this moment. And so while Kaitlyn is fantastic, and I think she's going to have an incredible career in the WNBA, there are women that were worthy of coverage prior to her arriving. And I just will not be silenced when it comes to that. Right. Beautifully said. Now, and I'm going to tell you this. Tell me. I have not particularly followed the WNBA on a day-to-day. I follow women's basketball sometimes more in college, I think. And in the old days,

Don Staley and those players. I did follow that. But I have incredibly strong opinions about it anyway. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But what did strike me when I started watching the highlights is, you know, this is a very physical league. You know, so many people complain about the NBA now as the league is soft and they don't play like they did, like the Knicks did in the 90s with Oak and with Mason and all those guys.

And then you see this physical league and now they're saying hey, why so physical? And I guess I'm struggling to understand is it because so many new fans are being introduced to this who don't have the context? Bingo. Nailed it. You can have a talk show, John. Let's go. Let's get out of here. I nailed it. Let's do it. First take.

A first take. All kidding aside, yes, right? And listen, again, I am by no means going to be naive to the popularity of Kaitlyn Clark, but there is a contingent that followed her. And let's expand it out to bigger other women's college programs that have been terrific. South Carolina, LSU, we'll just go with those three. Stanford, if you will, right? If you've only watched the college game for however long and not followed the WNBA, you don't know that not only are these 144 of the best women basketball players in the world, most of them in their offseason,

They're not kicking it. They're in Europe playing in leagues that are more physical. And so the brand of basketball just has a level of toughness. Now, to me, I think the part of this conversation, John, that has been daunting for me is sports is about competing. It is literally the foundation. We need score. We got to compete. And in the conversation around how we navigate the attention on the women's game, somewhere in there, competition should be watered down to protect the athletes.

Yeah. No, that's... But you know in your heart there is another layer of conversation going on beneath this that has been introduced onto the stage, and that is, look, we all know everything that underlines society in many ways goes along race, class, and gender. Mm-hmm.

and race, class, and gender has entered the conversation. In a very large way. And I think what is interesting, and I'm hoping that more folks are like, "Yo, this basketball is great. Like, I want to learn more about these women." Race, culture, gender are things that the women of the WNBA have never shied away from. -Right. -Right? A part of the bubble in 2020, they impact the election that goes down in Georgia in terms of standing on their values, right? But if we have a conversation about the societal totem pole, if you will,

Black women, a large representation of queer women, like, these are all things that sit at intersectional identities

we just opened up your show. Talking about valuing these things, right? That's exactly right. And so there are all these isms that have made the WNBA beautiful for 28 years, including this season. And even the WNBA has had to have its arc in terms of growth and leaning into who they are and who these women are both on and off the court. But it is at the base of it. If we for a second can take all that out, you're really about to tell women how to compete and you just got here? Right. What are we doing? And what's so amazing about it is

What I have heard from some of the commentary are people who just got there saying, this is so unfair to the sweet white girl. Now, first of all, Kaylin Clark looks like a competitor. She looks like somebody who's really a competitor. But the odd part is I'm always interested in this idea that sports exists outside of the fault lines of

of regular society and isn't a reflection of those things and a continuation in some respects of those battles. Mm-hmm. That existence is for probably like

20% of men's sports and then you got to deal with race and then there's other things that you got to deal with but like we said women's sports sits right in the midst of all of that we could be not talking about basketball and plenty of women's issues that we know have our country on fire right right and so I think it's a beautiful time and I don't think anybody that is a part of this league or has covered this league sure we lament kind of keeping this little thing that we love to protect it from all of the noise right right but in the same breath yeah

The eyeballs and the visibility and the growth is better for all involved. I mean, frankly, John, like, Caitlin Clark got me here, right? You know what I mean? Not true. No, let me tell you this. So I am going to tell you this. The viral moment maybe brought you to some national attention. I have been loving what you do. You are such a good basketball analyst and announcer. I've been following you on the New York Dates, you and O'Keefe. Some of my favorite moments are the two of you. O'Keefe is the... Pat O'Keefe, my partner. The play-by-play guy.

I mean, you're so knowledgeable. I love basketball. I've been following the Knicks for 130 years. Okay. All right. Yep. I was in the stands in Madison Square Garden at the very top of it when they played the Celtics in double overtime when they won the championship in 72 against the Celtics when it looks like all was lost. I've loved it for a long time.

Your voice, your knowledge, your passion has cut through it for me. It's very rare that I turn on the radio or hear a new voice and go, oh, that person, they can explain this to me. And you really do. I appreciate that, John. You're a wonderful actor. Thank you. I mean that wholeheartedly. That's how you got here. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate that. By the way.

I'd have had you on every day during the playoffs. Oh, wow. My guy. We had fun. That was a good one. Is there some sense of like a little bit of like when an indie band hits it big? Are there people within the WNBA community who feel like I don't want this to belong to everybody? I want it to belong to this band of sisters that have worked so hard to make it something.

Monica McNutt, one of the bands. I have had that moment a few times. Right. Because as much as the conversation has been dictated by the audience, right,

we still haven't really sat up and talked about the actual basketball of it, John. I don't know how many people just joined the WNBA understand that the Las Vegas Aces are chasing down a three-peat, which hasn't been done since the formative years of the league in the Houston Comets. I don't know how many people know that the Connecticut Sun just lost their first game the other day. They were 9-0 to start the season, right? What names can I help introduce you to? I mean, if you pick up a Rolling Stone, Aja Wilson and Brandon Stewart are part of the next issue, I believe. And so, we've opened the door

But we're still like looking in instead of walking in if that makes if I may absolutely right. Absolutely. And so I think it's a really unique time with this Olympic team stuff right. Caitlin Clark who you mentioned is a tremendous competitor said herself that's the toughest team to make right. Not surprised. And she's a rookie. She's just coming out of Iowa. She can say that and she can also feel as if

something in her has been awoken in terms of making that a goal of her own, right? -Right. -Like, I would hope, and I know this is not a thing in sports, we gotta remember that two things can be true, right? She's been great for the league, but there were 144 women prior to her and this class that had gotten this thing up to year 28.

No question. And I think one of the difficulties of it is because it's a small league. I think people don't realize as small as the NBA is, there's still two rounds of a draft and there are guys that get picked up out of a G League and there's space on a team. There's a big roster when you're in the WNBA. Boy, there's just not that many teams. And you're talking about a draft.

Even when it's eight deep, 12 deep, some of those people may not make the team. These are women that have been playing the game for a very long time. To that point, John, like the conversation about marketing, yeah, sure, got it, makes sense, right? But there's also got to be a realization that these women that have made this thing their living, they are not necessarily chasing the financial benefit. The WNBA highest paid player makes $250,000. Right.

You know what I mean? And so there is room. It's not how Brittany Grunner ended up in Russia. She was playing overseas because it doesn't make the money. That's exactly it. So many of these women supplement their income in the league that they play out of love to play at home with their teammates in front of their families, and they go get their real money overseas. That is changing. I do think that this class and Clark is all a part of it changing. But I think just to slap on, do this because of the money, again, is disrespectful and unfair to the women that have gotten this league to this point.

As a broadcaster, your story in some ways mirrors the story of the WNBA in terms of having to fight for attention with people who, in some respects, are not particularly humble about their position and slightly defensive about those who may come at it from a different perspective.

Do you see that reflected in what you had to go through and your journey to get to the desk that you're at now?

And does that give you hope for the WNBA's future? First of all, I'm thrilled about the WNBA's future. And yes, right? I didn't go to the WNBA, but I played sports all the way through college. Shout out to my Georgetown Hoyas, right? And so that foundation, that base, that understanding, hard work, improvement, that understanding of competition, all of those things have helped me to be able to stand 10 toes down in these various rooms and these various conversations, right? It's intimidating.

It is. And in the same breath, the people that I'm having conversations with, whether they are well-established television personalities or former athletes, they have done the same in their own way, right? But it is a reminder, because of my background in sports, shout out to Keeping Young Girls in Sports for this exact reason, I too can be confident in the work that I've done to get to this place. And for me, that has been beautiful. Who... It is beautiful. And it really brings up the interesting question, who does have the worst takes? Yeah.

Final question I am a enormous next yes, you know and I want desperately to know if what I'm seeing if the love that I'm feeling I've opened my heart again, you know Monica it's been so long. It's but thank you so much. I've opened up my heart again to a basketball team. I never thought it would happen again. But Monica I have to tell you something I'm afraid to be hurt.

And will the Knicks hurt me? Life is full of surprises. That was a hesitation, Monica. That was not. That was a hesitation. I want them to be great. Listen, I think they are on the right track. All right. But you got to play the games. That's why we go to the games. And I don't want to be a sad meme anymore, which is always what happens when I'm at the games. Monica, what a delight to meet you. And I'm such a fan of yours. And I wish you all the best and continued success. Monica McDonald. Thank you, John.

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