Great podcast plan for you today. We have a very special guests one of our favorites. Espn and espn w writer. Michelle voelpel will join us. Because there's a lot happening right now. Around the women's gain the wnba did announce that there will be an all star game. Yes we are pumped for that for the fans the players for all of us media who love all star weekend it is going down in vegas so we will talk a little bit about that about the format and how you can get in on the voting. We will also touch base on big news out of usa basketball. They have named our national team that will compete for their seventh straight gold medal in tokyo. And we have named are usa olympic three on three team. Congratulations to kelsey plum. Katie samuelson alicia. Gray and also stephanie. Dosen head coach care loss in that will compete on a three on three side on the usa. Women's national roster really really excited for everyone. I mean we talk about it all the time. How hard it is to make the usa roster how we have a one hundred and forty four the best players in the world and the wnba so to make this roster it to get an opportunity to represent your country. I can't even imagine what that is and what it was like to receive that phone call so if you missed it. On this year's olympic team ariel atkins the washington mystics. Sue bird who will play for her fifth straight gold. Tina charles nafisa collier skylar diggins smith. Sylvia fowles chelsea gray out of duke university brittany. Griner jewell loyd a stewart. Diane's rasi who's also going for five in asia wilson. The staff dawn. Staley dan hughes cheryl read. And jin residing so congratulations to all. We are super pumped about tokyo and at the same time. There's been a lot of controversy a lot of conversation this week. And that's where michelle vogel comes in. Because there are a lot of disappointed fans members of the media players of the wnba that neka goo mckay the former wnba mvp. Nwa champion of the la sparks was not a member of this twelve player. Roster now again this is the roster right and usa has so many great players but neka. We'll talk about a little bit later. This has been a life goal of hers and she put herself in position. After being snubbed watts. Some people say twice off the olympic roster to work really hard to put herself in position to be selected. And i just wanna say before we even get into that conversation if you listen to our podcast. We give everyone women's basketball their love. That's what we do on this podcast. We believe in the sport you know. All all thoughts and ideas are welcome. Obviously to reconsider journalists. So it's our job to put all opinions and thoughts out there And i have. I expressed my disappointment. That necker was not selected on twitter. I know you did as well to rica but whether it's geno auriemma or whether it's who should or should not beyond the team. These are all topics that we are exploring and talking about because women's basketball deserves it. Transparency is something we had to have in our sport. Discussion and debate is something that we have to have in our sport because we need growth and any of us. That has a job whether it's espn whether it's down the street at office depot like people can weigh in on how they feel about the way we do our jobs. I work this authority. I was not good at restocking. The tennis shoes like i always messed it up rica. you know what i'm saying so am i. evaluations. I would get some feedback there. There's always things that people can say. Wanna say or whatever about about various things. And i just want to set the table to say that you can also weigh in on this discussion because it is an important one. Netflix is someone who has been valuable to our sport. The usa basketball selection process is something that we all don't really know a lot about but it's important so anyway as as usual to reconized are bringing you. What we feel like is a discussion. That needs to be had anything else to rica. Now but i will say if anyone wants to weigh in they definitely give us an email at around the rim podcast at gmail.com. After they've listened we'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this topic all right in with that. Let's jump into the pot all right basketball fans well you may have noticed. There was a huge void in our espn coverage for a while as we were missing one of our favorite writers and she was getting a little much deserved. Art are and that is none other than the goat herself. Michelle voelpel welcome back. Michelle ayla trying thank you. Yeah we missing you. I was like wait a minute. Where is michelle in. You know one thing about those of us that covers sports. Twenty four seven is. It's hard to get a break right like women's basketball calendar for people that always say well. When is your off season it. there really isn't one. I mean it's a sport that for the college season technically starts in october. That's where most practices tip off. That's when you start preseason and even before that with what you do with who's going to be the top twenty five you know. What should you be looking for the schedule. Like you have to be way ahead of the and what's also happening in october's wnba season's ending so beginning in an ending in an a job that as much as we love it can be very taxing. So we're happy that you were able to get away and get a little time off now with that being said coming back on the scene there is so much happening in our sport. And it's like exciting time right. We've got the season that's going. Everyone's looking at the commissioner cup scores We just had our team named we will get to that in a moment but there's going to be a wnba all star game this summer. Let's start there because it's not easy for the league to pull this off right in summer where there is an olympic Happening historically that's been a tough time to have an all star because usa in very understandably wants to have as much time as they can with their players together and gelling in doing all the things they need to do to get ready for tokyo and yet we find ourselves having an all star. It will take place in vegas on july. Fourteenth of voting is actually open. As we speak started june fifteenth. You can vote on the wnba app or wnba. Dot com and voting. Ends on june twenty-seventh. Now the makeup or the format of this game will be the wnba all-stars which it's an all star game so yes. There will be one team of.