Fantastic News for a Gaming 'Fanatic': Parker Is First Woman to Grace NBA 2K Cover

CBSSports.com reports on the news that Chicago Sky forward Candace Parker, a 14-year WNBA veteran, will be the first woman to ever be a cover athlete for the NBA 2K series. "As a kid growing up, you dream of having your own shoe and dream of being in a video game," Parker said. "Those are an athlete as a kid's dreams. To be able to experience that, I don't take it lightly."

Lost Without Translation

The Washington Post covers the fallout (and internal pushback) to comments from ESPN's Stephen A. Smith about the Angels' Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani. Smith said “I don’t think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying.” Prior to this incident, we spoke with Suzanne Medina, VP of Spanish Content for MLB about many aspects of translation, including what teams need to do for players. “[Teams] need to be ready on the language side. If the player doesn’t speak any English, you got to be prepared to be able to communicate with him internally, and with the media. Even if the player speaks some English, sometimes, especially when English is not their first language, they may not be comfortable in front of all the lights with all of these questions from the media, coming after them."

Little League, Big Message

We happened upon this new MassMutual ad recently, which features the father of a little leaguer in the stands 'supporting" a child while he's at bat. His words of encouragement, after the boy's mother says "you got this!" is to reassure him that even if he doesn't "he's got other options." 

It reminded us of a conversation we had recently with Jon Solomon, Editorial Director, Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute about his perspective on youth sports from a parenting perspective. “I never think I was an overbearing parent, but I now know what good looks like in youth sports and how to speak up and feel empowered to which I think is one of the challenges for parents."

We're super excited about our upcoming guests and conversations. Check back for conversations with:

• Brian Dombrowski, Founder and CPO of Fantag (Acquired by ScoreVision)