WNBA Teams: America’s Quiet Exports of Hope, Hubris, and Hustle By “Rusty” Valdez, Senior Continental Drifter, Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk Beneath the fluorescent hum of a half-empty Las Vegas arena, the Aces are busy reminding the rest of the world that the United States still manufactures something besides grievance and microchips: jump-shooting women who can…
PARIS—While diplomats elsewhere were busy failing to agree on a joint communiqué about the weather, a 17-year-old from Los Angeles quietly reminded the planet that soft power now travels faster than any G-7 motorcade. JuJu Watkins, USC’s freshman aerialist, dropped 51 points on Stanford last weekend, a haul that trended from Lagos barbershops to Seoul…
PARIS—While diplomats at UNESCO argue over whose cultural heritage gets the next plaque, a 22-year-old from Hopkins, Minnesota, has quietly become the most effective American export since the iPhone. Paige Bueckers—yes, the name that sounds like a Bavarian pastry—just led UConn to another NCAA title, and the planet took notice in that peculiar 21st-century way:…
