ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne’s Top Takeaways from the WNBA’s First Week

The WNBA opened with a buzzer-beater in Portland, a 100-point shootout in Dallas, and a number one overall pick who suddenly was not playing. Ramona Shelburne came on the show to walk through the first week and the message the league still has not figured out how to send.

The Portland Fire put on a clinic right out of the gate.

"This is two years in a row, an expansion team has been good," Shelburne said.

The Fever-Wings game on Saturday was the show's main hook. The doubleheader started with Beckers vs the four-number-one-pick Indiana team. The number ones balled out, with one exception. The most recent number one overall, Paige Bueckers, was essentially benched at the end.

"All balled out except the most recent first overall draft choice," Rich said. "She was essentially benched towards the end of that game."

The story got more interesting the next day. Bueckers, listed as probable, did not play in the Wings' home opener against the Dream.

"She went from probable to home opener, by the way, and now precautionary reasons," Rich said. "I don't recall her being banged up."

Shelburne brought the receipts.

"She's had knee surgeries," Shelburne said. "Tim Kawakami had something on that in his column today that she had swelling or something in her knee. I checked on it this morning. I don't get the sense it's anything serious."

The actual problem, in Shelburne's framing, is messaging.

"They're just bringing her along slowly, which, by the way, is totally understandable when you're talking about a number one pick who just got done playing," Shelburne said. "The everything is so condensed in women's basketball. She just got done playing in the Final Four. She didn't have an offseason. You just got to go straight into playing in the WNBA training camp."

The injury management decision is right. The execution is not.

"This is what you do that. This is how you do it," Shelburne said. "You message that. You do it right from the beginning. You set expectations that we're going to bring her along slowly. She may not start right away. She may take a few games off. We're going to manage this condition. Instead, they feel like they've been reacting to things and hoping that people don't notice."

The bigger pivot is happening to the league itself.

"This is now a new environment," Shelburne said. "You guys are legit. We're talking about you every day on the show. We're talking about the WNBA, not in a general sense. We're talking about day-to-day things that happen. And that's everything you want for the WNBA. You're part of the daily conversation."

The standard, in Shelburne's view, is the NBA.

"This is what we talk about Joel Embiid all the time," Shelburne said. "He'll show up as doubtful and then be upgraded one hour before game time. And then guess what happens when you do that? You get fined for not reporting injuries accurately."

Her conclusion was the headline.

"This has got to happen in the W," Shelburne said. "They've got to start enforcing injury reporting policies."

Olivia Miles balling out in her first outing is going to add pressure to whatever the Wings tell their fans about Bueckers.

"With more eyeballs on the sport, there's going to be more scrutiny, and that's a good thing," Shelburne said. "You got to lean into it."

The case for the Wings being interesting is built on the roster, not the lottery.

"They're not your typical team with the number one pick," Shelburne said. "They went out and signed a bunch of free agents this year. They're not your team with the number one pick. They're going to be better this year. They already have Paige. Paige is great. She's so good."

The freedom that gives Bueckers, in Shelburne's framing, is the freedom to wait.

"AC can take her time coming along slowly," Shelburne said. "If she's got a knee that she's got to manage, just message that. Or if you think she's worn down from the college season, just message it. Take some pressure off of her. Don't say, oh, I'm not going to give any details."

Rich pivoted to the LA Sparks, where Shelburne is going for the doubleheader.

The Cam Brink situation got the same treatment Shelburne gave the Bueckers one.

"They're bringing her along slowly," Shelburne said. "They went and got Azura Stevens. They can bring her along slowly. She just came back from a knee injury."

The Golden State Valkyries roster mess got pulled in too.

"It's hard to make the Valkyries' roster," Shelburne said. "They wanted one of the three players who got taken ahead of her. They wanted Gabriella Hawkins from UCLA, and she got taken earlier than their pick at number eight. They had already discussed with Seattle that they would trade the pick if one of their players wasn't there."

The post-draft handling, in her telling, was the bigger problem.

"The press conference afterwards was not messaged correctly," Shelburne said. "It became more of a story than it needed to be. And then they draft somebody in the second round, they cut her, and they waver. You know why? Because it's hard to make their roster."

The pattern Shelburne keeps coming back to is the same.

"It's hard. And this all comes back to explaining yourself, dealing with things on a level like you do when there's more scrutiny," Shelburne said. "I think this is good for the league. Having more talent, having more teams, having more scrutiny. That's good. You're part of the daily conversation now."