Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

I have rooted for many, many teams over the years. But only once have I been conscious of and paying attention for one of my true number one teams winning a championship, back when the Yankees won it all in 2009.

This weekend, that changed. I got to see it for a second time.

And depending on how things go in the next week or two, it may happen a third time soon.

I’m wishing you the opportunity to enjoy a title for your favorite team sometime soon. Unless you’re a Dodgers fan. You’ll have to wait another year.

Ok, let’s go!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s the New York Liberty (finally) winning their first championship.

When I was really little, basketball was at its peak. NBA games were thrilling, defensive battles, anchored by iconic, generational stars: Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal. Every weekend, you could flip to NBC and get a game that always felt like a playoff game. Crowds were going nuts. Players were leaving blood, sweat and tears on the court. Broadcasters left you hanging on every word.

But many of us might forget that the NBA wasn’t the only thriller. The league had a high-profile rollout for the WNBA in 1997, with female stars who had already won national championships and Olympic gold medals boldly proclaiming: “We Got Next.”

The New York Liberty were one of eight original franchises, filling up Madison Square Garden for women’s pro basketball. They made the Finals in the first season. It was a one-game matchup and they lost to the Houston Comets. In 1999, they made it again, forcing a deciding game three but ultimately falling short again to the Comets (but not before Teresa Weatherspoon’s legendary buzzer-beater half-court shot.)

In 2000, the third time against the Comets had to be the charm, right? It was not. Two years later, they had another chance in the Finals against the Los Angeles Sparks. No luck. 

For decades afterward, they were relegated to bottom-feeder status among MSG’s sports properties. MSG kicked them out in the summer of 2004 during the Republican National Convention, leading to games being played on the stage of Radio City Music Hall.

A special WNBA All-Stars vs. Team USA game was held there, too, and you can see how weird it was. Players came through the aisles for their pregame intros!

The team struggled to duplicate its early success and by 2015, things became so bad that James Dolan let the Liberty become the place where Hall of Fame player turned disgraced executive Isiah Thomas could rehabilitate his career. Thomas was fired from the Knicks in 2008 after basically mismanaging the team into the ground and settling a lawsuit over his alleged sexual harassment of at least one employee along the way.

While the team hung in the middle of the pack of the league, MSG and owner James Dolan were looking to sell. After finding no buyer in 2017, they sent the Liberty to a small 5,000-seat arena in Westchester County, far from Manhattan and nearly a death sentence for the franchise.

Chinese billionaire Joe Tsai and his American-born wife Clara saw an opportunity to invest. In 2019, they bought the team and immediately fired Thomas. They moved the team to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, investing in improving the team on the court, building up community outreach and giving New York basketball fans something to believe in.

One by one, they added players who would become core pieces of a team. Sabrina Ionescu, the University of Oregon guard who was a phenom in college, became the team’s #1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft. Betnijah Laney, the 2020 Most Improved Player, signed on for 2021. Another University of Oregon standout, Nyara Sabally, came in 2022 through the draft.

And in the face of a dominant Las Vegas Aces team, the Liberty built a “superteam” of their own, trading for 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones and signing 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart.

Off the court, crowds grew and grew for games that increasingly became an event. Traditions like the “Light It Up” torch lighting after wins and the sassy antics of the iconic Ellie the Elephant, the Liberty’s mascot, helped the team sell out the roughly 18,000-seat Barclays Center.

So when the Liberty won the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday on their home floor, it felt like everything had finally come together. Sure, Breanna Stewart probably was not fouled and the game may not have even merited overtime. But what is basketball without at least one terrible call?

ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, one of the best advocates this world has for the growth of women’s sports, could not have put it better postgame, when she stood with her microphone in front of a jubilant Liberty team, turned to the camera and said “this is what women’s sports can be when you will invest.”

On the court, we even had a brutal, Jordan-era rock fight of a game, with the Liberty winning 67-62 in overtime. Every possession felt like a team effort to score points. The crowd was electric. The play was so physical. The commentary team of Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo were left in awe by some of the biggest moments. 

It felt like it had every ingredient of what made some of those ‘90s NBA moments the very best of basketball.

Sabrina Ionescu narrowly avoided John Starks infamy by going just 1-19 from the field, but making a key basket in overtime, and unlike Starks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals, was on the winning team.

Nyara Sabally came out of seemingly nowhere, having averaged less than 3 points per game in the Playoffs, to score 13 points. Jonquel Jones had a team-high 17 points before being named Finals MVP.

And the Lynx were constantly consistent, never rattled. Some Hall of Fame-caliber coaching from four-time champion Cheryl Reeve, leadership on both ends of the floor by star forward Napheesa Collier, and the ability to always get a clutch basket from guard Kayla McBride meant this game was about as well-fought as you can get.

Collier played all 44 minutes until fouling out with a little over a minute left in OT. Stewart played all 45 minutes.

I don’t think we need to wonder where the basketball glory days of the ‘90s went. They’re right here.

My Reporting

With the Scripps clock running down, I headed into DC for soccer once again, covering the local Washington Spirit’s final regular season home game against the Chicago Red Stars.

Before we jump in, there will be up to two more playoff games in November but… I’ll need more sports to cover.

I’m looking at potentially NBA, NHL and anything else that will be local and accessible to me. Any ideas? Send them my way!

Although both Washington and Chicago have locked in playoff berths, both teams still had plenty to play for as they chase the highest seeds they can get. Washington can finish anywhere from the second to fourth seeds, while Chicago could end up anywhere from sixth to eighth. 

It’s also a matchup full of Olympic and national team stars—the Red Stars put US national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and star striker Mallory Swanson into their Starting XI, while the Spirit rely on star winger Trinity Rodman. 

Two more Spirit players—defender Casey Krueger and midfielder Hal Hershfelt, have earned post-Olympic callups for the national team’s games next week.

For me, some of the things happening outside the game drew the most attention for me.

I was in the right place at the right time when Rodman snuck up behind Naeher, who was standing in the tunnel fully in the zone before the game. The two shared a big hug and both lit up, presumably having not seen each other for a while after the rush of winning Olympic gold together.

The game itself was a fairly straightforward affair. It stayed quiet until the 31^st minute, when rookie midfielder Heather Stainbrook found the ball at her feet at close range and scored her first career goal.

Postgame, I asked her what it was like, to which she replied with a big smile, “something I’ll never forget, to be honest. I had chills.”

Things went quiet again until the 70^th minute, when a physical exchange between Washington’s Rosemonde Kouassi and Chicago’s Ludmila ultimately led to both being sent off with red cards.

Ludmila pulled at Kouassi’s hair as they tussled for the ball, prompting Kouassi to swing around and hit Ludmila. Kouassi was sent off first, but a review of the video prompted the rest of the game to be a 10-on-10 affair.

Apparently TV and in-stadium replays didn’t make things very clear but I was on the field and able to get the moment on video. Definitely a moment where both players earned red cards.

In the 83^rd minute, Washington netted a goal that sealed their win, with a turnover in Chicago’s third allowing Trinity Rodman to rush toward the center of the field, find striker Ashley Hatch, who drew Alyssa Naeher out of position and found winger Makenna Morris running down the middle of the field and straight into the goal. (Morris took a tumble into the net itself but confirmed postgame that she was not injured.)

It was the third goal in two games for the rookie Morris, who has been on a roll this homestand and, as a Maryland native, is putting on a show for her hometown crowd.

“I haven’t been on the team long,” Morris said postgame, “but I can speak from being from Maryland and it’s a lot, a lot different and a lot more fans, a lot more people than when I was a little kid coming to games.”

After the final whistle, there was a celebration on the field. Owing to it being the final regular season home game, the team held Fan Appreciation Night and brought members of the club’s fan supporter groups onto the field. 

The Spirit Squadron, the group that anchors the main supporters section with drums, flags and chants, brought their big drum out to lead their usual postgame chant. 

But it quickly became a team and even a family affair. Trinity Rodman took the mallets and drummed, and injured star rookie midfielder Croix Bethune took her turn at the drums next.

Before things wrapped, defender Casey Krueger joined in with her two-year-old son Caleb, who also happily tapped the drum as his mom held him.

“It’s definitely special,” Krueger told me postgame. “I’m so thankful for every moment he gets to be around but that was pretty cool. He’s in a drumming phase right now so it was a super good opportunity for him to practice.”

Last time I was on the field postgame, I talked about how much the human side emerges postgame. It felt particularly visible after this one, especially with just how many links there were between people on the two teams.

Krueger played for Chicago until last season. Two Red Stars players, Camryn Biegalski and Sam Staab, played for Washington last season.

Biegalski and her old Spirit teammate, injured defender Anna Heilferty, caught up postgame. My camera just missed a big hug they shared.

One hug it did not miss was between Staab and her former partner in crime along the Spirit’s 2023 back line Annaïg Butel, who shared what quickly became a very big hug.

I’ve said it once but I’ll say it again: it’s about so much more than the competition on the field.

Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

A Huge World Series: Juan Soto’s massive 10^th -inning home run sealed the deal for the Yankees, who left Game 5 in Cleveland with their 41^st American League pennant and first since 2009. (Side note: Hal Steinbrenner, if you’re reading this, give Soto ownership if you have to. Just keep him in the Bronx.)

The Mets, meanwhile, head back to Queens after their Cinderella run turned into a pumpkin at the hands of an absolutely loaded Los Angeles Dodgers roster.

But now, we get a star-studded World Series for the ages. Aaron Judge and Juan Soto lead the Yankees into battle against the Dodgers and stars Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani (yes, he of the 50+ home run/50+ steal season.)

As a Yankee fan, this World Series will be absolutely terrifying. As a fan of good-quality baseball, this will be the most talent-heavy World Series in a long time with the number one teams in the two biggest TV markets facing off. You couldn’t script it any better.

NFL Injury Bug Spreads: It has been a brutal stretch for injuries in the NFL. The San Francisco 49ers are down two star wide receivers, as Deebo Samuel had to check into the hospital with what coach Kyle Shanahan described as pneumonia and Brandon Aiyuk tore both his ACL and MCL in his knee. (Side note: Samuel tried playing with pneumonia, fluid in his lungs and gastrointestinal issues. After trying to play through it, he needed an oxygen mask, was coughing furiously and then went to the hospital. I’m no conspiracy theorist but has anybody given that man a COVID test?)

At the end of Monday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, star Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin was still being sent out to play, despite the Bucs likely being too far behind to win. He went down with a brutal fall and what appears to be a significant leg injury.

“We don’t second guess. We got our guys, we’re playing everybody we’ve got. And it’s unfortunate he got hurt and we feel bad about that but he’s a football player and he wants to be in the game,” Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles told reporters after the game, defending the decision to have Godwin on the field when he got hurt.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who has faced accusations of sexual misconduct from 30 different women, ruptured his Achilles in Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. No extra comments there from me.

NBA Season Starts with History: The NBA tips off its 2024-25 season Tuesday night. The defending champion Boston Celtics will host the New York Knicks in Boston for the first of two games on night one. The second game is where history will be made, though, as LeBron James and his son Bronny James will play together as teammates for the Los Angeles Lakers as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves.

No NBA team has ever had a father and son play together as teammates. But they’ll share in the moment with one of the few other father-son duos in American pro sports. Ken Griffey Jr. told MLB Network Radio on Monday that he and his father Ken Griffey Sr. plan on attending the game. The two Griffeys became the first father-son duo to play together in MLB, doing so for the Seattle Mariners in 1990. 

And several players have opportunities to enter some rarefied air this season. Reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets could become just the sixth player ever with four MVP awards if he repeats this year. LeBron James could also join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Bill Russell as the only players with five MVP awards if he snags his first MVP since 2013.

Something Good I Ate

This week, we’re going back to last fall and my trip to San Diego. I headed down to the Mexican neighborhood of Barrio Logan to partake in the food at Las Cuatro Milpas. 

Inside a run-down building lies a San Diego institution that has been family owned since 1933.

At a simple counter with a menu behind it made with a letterboard, orders are quickly and dutifully made, plated and packed for the rush of people who swing by for homemade tortillas and other servings of classic Mexican cuisine.

I dined in at one of their covered picnic tables with a tray full of too much food, all of it tasty. I got the “chorizo con huevo,” which despite the name, has chorizo, beans and rice in a soupy mix, albeit with no egg. Two chicken flautas with a ton of cream and lettuce on top and a tomato sauce below. A big bagged-up homemade tortilla. And a classic chicken taco.

The tortillas are extraordinary. They’re so fresh and so lardy that they have a flavor all their own. Everything this place served was so rich and flavorful that it was all clearly made with love and with generations of refining each item.

I bring this place up because there have been rumors emerging in recent days that the church next door may be buying the building that houses Las Cuatro Milpas, and that the restaurant may close as soon as January of next year. Local blog SanDiegoVille heard as much from employees, but records show the Estudillo family, who have run the restaurant for its full history, still own the place. They also denied reports they are selling. 

While the restaurant has long been the subject of closing rumors due to the gentrification of the surrounding neighborhood, it is a San Diego institution and will be for at least as long as its doors are open. I’m glad I had the tortillas but also annoyed I didn’t think to buy a bunch more and freeze them.