Monica McNutt
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
All right. So the conversation, John, it started about this foul over the weekend that Kennedy Carter for the Chicago Sky fouled Kaitlyn 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? Are we really leading sports with a foul?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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 of the show, John...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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 Caitlyn is fantastic, and I think she's gonna 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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
Let's do it. First take. I'm on first take. All kidding aside, yes, right? And listen, again, I am by no means gonna 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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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 off season they're not kicking it. They're in Europe playing in leagues that are arguably even more physical. And so the brand of basketball just has a level of toughness.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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 asset?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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 that... we just opened up your show. Talking about valuing these things, right?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
outside of the fault lines of regular society and isn't a reflection of those things and a continuation in some respects of those battles 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
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
we could be not talking about basketball, and we got plenty of women's issues that we know have our country on fire, right? 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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
The eyeballs and the visibility and the growth is better for all involved. I mean, frankly, John, like, Kalen Clark got me here, right? You know what I mean?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
Thank you. OK. I appreciate that. By the way.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
Whoa, 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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
I mean, if you pick up a Rolling Stone, Asia 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 I may. Absolutely. Right? Absolutely. And so I think it's a really unique time. And even with this Olympic team stuff, right?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
Kaitlyn Clark, who you had 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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
Like, I would hope, and I know this is not a thing in sports, we got to 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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
To that point, John, the conversation about marketing, yeah, sure, got it, makes sense, right? But there's also gotta 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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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. Right. That is changing. I do think that this class and Clark is all a part of it changing.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
I am, 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?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
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.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
And for me, that has been beautiful. Who... It is beautiful.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Jon's 2024 Interviews
I want them to be great. Listen, I think they're on the right track.