In a matter of less than three weeks, two female basketball players made appearances on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” One is a legend of the game, Lisa Leslie, and the other a lesser known bench player, albeit one who has won back-to-back WNBA Championships with the Las Vegas Aces, Sydney Colson.
Colson was the first to appear, being interviewed by the show’s guest host, Desus Nice. This one caught my attention because Nice made some not-so-positive jokes about the WNBA on his Showtime series “Desus & Mero.” When he spoke about attending the WNBA Finals game of the New York Liberty versus the Aces, I felt a distinct shift. It’s no longer cool to make women’s basketball the butt of a joke. Rather, we can focus on funny but respectful things, like trash talking.
“Y’all are killing it,” said Nice. Colson spoke about seeing WNBA players in TV commercials. “Especially as a young Black player, to see women that look like me doing it and killing it, it was like I just have to keep working,” she said.
Since sponsors aren’t casting Colson yet, she and friend Theresa Plaisance have created an unscripted comedy series, “The Syd + TP Show.” “The logline is two WNBA benchwarmers who try to become the face of the league even though nobody asked them to,” said Colson.
Hall of Famer Leslie’s appearance was quite the lovefest as that week’s host, Leslie Jones, played college basketball and at one time considered playing professionally overseas. Jones was wearing a pair of bedazzled Lisa Leslie Dunk Lows, a shoe created by Nike to mark the 20th anniversary of Leslie’s first WNBA dunk last year. Even though they agreed that Leslie was the superior player, she gave Jones props for being a legit baller in her day.
“We didn’t get as much spotlight as the young women get now…but having that opportunity and that platform to be a role model for the next generation, that’s all I kept thinking about,” said Leslie, who made a point that she is still available for endorsement deals. She also spoke about financial literacy and money management for student-athletes now earning NIL (name, image and likeness) money.
Leslie and Jones shared a laugh and a little trash talk about the WNBA doubters, which shows that a new era has arrived.
