In this episode, Noel White from 929 The Game in Atlanta discusses the Atlanta Dream's elimination by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA playoffs, analyzing the impact of the new playoff format (01:40) and the team's future prospects (03:12). The conversation shifts to potential league lockout concerns in 2026 (05:51) and Angel Reese's future with the Chicago Sky (07:24).

Transitioning to football, Noel shares insights on the Atlanta Falcons' promising start to the 2025 season (08:50), the release of kicker Younghoe Koo, and the team's defensive challenges and quarterback setup (10:46).

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Opening and closing music courtesy of Jeremiah Alves - "Evermore".

we are going to get into the WNBA playoffs where the Atlanta Dream were

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eliminated by the Indiana Fever early on.

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We have an upset there, but to take us

through that and the wider landscape for

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the league, it is friend of the show,

Noel White from 92 9, the game in Atlanta.

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Noel, how's, thanks.

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A. Noel White:

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All things considered?

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Pretty good.

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Pretty good.

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I think I'm still in shock that

the Atlanta dream is one of those

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upsets that you spoke about.

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I knew this series was gonna go

three, to be honest with you.

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Let's take it further back.

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I knew this was going to be a series once

they had their matchup at State Farm.

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Like I, I know the WNBA has a lot of

set rivalries, and I think this is one

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that's gone under the radar a little bit.

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These two teams have been back

and forth and chippy and had

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headline incidences damn near.

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Every time they play it it never fails.

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And so I figured with the new

format of one, one, and one,

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that the fever would take one.

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In Indiana, they have a bigger arena.

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They have a very feverish,

obnoxious crowd as they should be.

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That's what the home crowd should be.

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Shout out to them and everything else

that goes along with that, right?

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Like media wise, the dream, no

matter three C, eight C, they

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were gonna be the underdog in

every matchup, even in this one.

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And it, it showed itself and you saw a

little bit of youth in their franchise

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player, Ryan Howard and in their new

head coach Carl Esco you saw a little

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bit of youth coming down the stretch.

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And they just couldn't hold onto the rope.

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PSP: Now, Noelle, this is a new

playoff format for the WNBA.

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How do you feel about that?

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A. Noel White:

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Overall, I like it.

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I actually lobbied for it last year

because I felt like the dream would've

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at least gotten a game off of the

liberty if they could have got back home.

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Now I think it's ironic and hilarious

that this format in its first year was

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absolutely to the dreams, misfortune.

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It did not help the dream at

all to be in Indiana in that

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atmosphere, in that bigger arena.

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I think.

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If you have the two one

format, they take the sweep.

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I think they, they went

up there to Indiana.

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They got rattled a little

bit mentally with some of the

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calls and the physical play.

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And it, they were able, the people

were able to get them out of their

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game and out of the way that they play.

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I knew they would be a little

more mentally tough when they got

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home and they were mentally tough.

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That last 30 seconds.

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Ryan Howard took some threes that were

probably ill-advised and look it reminded

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me of Troy Young in a way, right?

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Because they, they weren't airball threes

like you talking about, off the rim,

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at the rim, shots that she can make.

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We all know she can make those shots.

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The problem is situational basketball,

you left too much time on the shot clock.

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You put up , maybe a Iage three instead

of really working through your offense.

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I think she did that twice coming down

the stretch in the last 90 seconds,

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and it just gave the fever more

opportunities to go after the ball and

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really dig in and still won, like the

one in, Indiana, they earned the game

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three, they, they stole game three.

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PSP: What does the future look

like for the Atlantic Dream?

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Heading into 2026?

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A. Noel White:

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First of all I love the press

conference between Alicia Gray,

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coach Esco and Jordan Canada.

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And I think that really

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They were salty, not whiny, and that's

what I wanna see after a defeat like that.

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They were retrospectively, salty.

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There were things we could have done

better, should have done better.

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These are the things that we wanna learn

from and grow going into next year.

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And Alicia Gray said something in that

press conference that I thought was

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pointed, even though she sound dejected

when she said it, but when she said, I

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was focused on what I'm supposed to do,

that's how she got in this MVP race.

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That's why the dream of the third seed

and her, along with Ryan Howard and Nas

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Hillman, are why this team are going to.

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Progress going forward.

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When the game was all done and I cut the

TV off, 'cause I didn't wanna watch any

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of the post game, I'm that kind of salty.

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I tweeted Great season, run the

squad back because outside of one

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or two pieces, this is the squad.

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This is the squad, this is the coach.

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I wanna see them run it back.

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Now with this experience and this feeling

that salt in the wound that you gotta

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sit with watching the Indiana fever

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it's interesting because the fever

just showed me up close and personal.

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A lot of grit.

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And I say that not because I haven't

been watching them all season, but

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because they've been a different

lineup every seven games, right?

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Like they're, as I've called them,

the all WNBA hurt team, which

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is why I'm so hurt that we lost.

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But moving forward Ariel Powers and

Odyssey sims clap it up for them.

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They were, late editions, the

injury, signings whatever.

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They really found roles in this playoff

series, and especially a Ariel Powers

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in game two around the midway mark.

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And mind you, this is a player

I saw last year in Atlanta, so I

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know how tough, aggressive, and

physical that she plays, right?

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And when she got out there on the court

and she really started working and digging

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in and making some things happen, and

I went, oh, so you are gonna play the

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Sophie Cunningham role on this floor?

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And she played it well.

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And to be honest, she probably

should have fouled out of that game.

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The physicality was absolutely

through the roof, but she saw

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the way the referees were calling

that game and she went for it.

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And to be honest, for somebody that's been

on two teams this year, didn't really get

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picked up to be away through the season.

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She had no, no reason not to go

all out in this playoff game.

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And that really worked well for them as

well as the ball control and the score

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you was able to get from Odyssey sims.

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And, we are not even gonna

talk about Kelsey Mitchell.

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We just, we not even gonna

talk about Kelsey Mitchell.

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She did her thing.

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PSP: Now stepping away from the court

for a second, Noel, last time you came

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on our show, you said you could see

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Do you still think that's the case?

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A. Noel White:

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Yes, I do.

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And it's because I don't think.

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The league really understands the shift

between power and financial ability

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that a lot of the top players have.

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And because you don't have deep

rosters, let's say a MLB team or NFL

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team, you have more top players that's

making money, the money is top heavy.

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So if a lot of these top

heavy players decide.

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Reebok pays me enough and they're okay

with me sitting out a year, or Nike is

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fine with me sitting out a year, or I can

collect these X amount of sponsorships or

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I can go overseas and collect, make even

more money than I'm making here anyway,

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and still keep my presence in the US with

social media and all these other things.

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If you're Stu.

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Are you really worried about

a lockout when you can promote

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yourself anywhere that you are?

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The two of y'all could just sign a

contract somewhere overseas or whatever

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and keep the cameras on and people

will still tune in because they've

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created their own visibility at this

point, and a lot of these players have.

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So it's, it is, the league is different.

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I don't think that the powers at B really

understand that the league is different.

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I think they have fingers in their ears.

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I don't think they really want to see

where the league is because it does,

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it's not really an advantage to them.

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Let's take the Chicago sky as a franchise.

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For instance.

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The whole suspending Angel Reese for a

half a game thing that was for leverage

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that they found out they really didn't

have, majority of the basketball world was

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on Angel Re side at that point because.

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The Chicago Sky have a track

record of being cheap and of being

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underhanded with their players and

put their players in situations

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that aren't really best for them.

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And people that follow

this league know that.

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So that situation fell flat and

I think the league as a whole are

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gonna try to do something similar

to what Chicago did to Angel Reese.

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PSP: Now on Angel Reese, do you

think her future lies in Chicago,

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or do you see her getting a trade

elsewhere within the league?

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A. Noel White:

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I don't know if she gets a trade.

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If I'm Chicago, I don't give her a

trade because you're good for business.

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But I think the moment she's

a free agent, in the words of

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Julio Jones, she's outta there.

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I don't think she stays in, in my opinion.

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Because we've all heard the

stuff that's going on in Chicago.

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They're talking about practicing

at the Y, and there's no massages.

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There's no cold tubs, there's

no rehab, there's no meals.

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Like I remember when Angel set

the rebound record or whatever it

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was, and they got her a little.

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White brown cake with black

lettering that said, congratulations.

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And like even the cake was cheap.

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No I think she goes to a contender that

has money, like the Liberty or the ACEs,

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or, somewhere with money and visibility,

one of the, one of the big market teams.

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PSP: Now just switching gears,

let's go from the hardwood to the

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football field, the grid iron.

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The Falcons have had a pretty

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One of the casualties though, is

kick a young way coup, who's been

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released and has been replaced by Omo.

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How are you seeing the F

constructed this season so far?

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A. Noel White:

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Yeah, big ups the young way.

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Lot of good times.

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You were on the marketing the

posters, the cups for a while.

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It was you scoring a lot

of points for a while.

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So big ups to you.

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We appreciate it.

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But it is time.

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For Parker Romo to take

over, so that's great there.

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Look I've seen him gotten the tag

and I understand why as the WNBA girl

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and as much as I love my dreams, I

do the Falcons are my first love.

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I absolutely love football.

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I absolutely love my Atlanta

Falcons, and I have been begging

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and pleading and praying for a

pass rush for a literal decade.

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Outside of John Abraham.

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Really?

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20 years.

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But it was super exciting to see.

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Flashes against Tampa.

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'cause I was at that game.

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So I saw a lot of those

drop picks in person.

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, As frustrating as it is to see

those balls get put on the ground.

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'cause in my opinion, offenses typically

punish you After that, they typically

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score you saw the flashes of what these

rookies could be and then you get to.

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Minnesota, which has been a

house of horrors for Atlanta.

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Atlanta usually doesn't play

Minnesota and we usually have

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to go to Minnesota to play them.

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So to be able to quiet that crowd

and that skull clap and come out

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of there with the wind was amazing.

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But even more amazing was that the

defense and special teams, 'cause

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I'm a big believer that football is

all three phases, but the defense

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and special teams really came through

and we are just hoping that this is.

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The beginning of what's to come.

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PSP: defensively, what are the falcons

gonna do about stuffing the run?

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'cause that seems to be a little

bit of an issue this season.

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A. Noel White:

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I agree with you that my,

my largest concern before AJ

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Terrell's hamstring injury.

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Was being able to stuff the run,

because even though Grady Jarrett does

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not look great in Chicago and that's

because they're using him as a DN a

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lot, and it just doesn't look great.

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However they're using him in the

scheme it just doesn't look great.

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But we're missing a 97 size hole

in the middle, in my opinion.

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It's kind like a, work by

committee to stuff the run.

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And so far pretty good.

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B Bucky Irvin didn't get

too loose in that game.

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The Vikings weren't able to do

much of anything, so we'll see

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but that's one area where maybe you

could get somebody in to shore up a bit.

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And then corner, I guess we'll see.

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What they'll do with that between

the next six and eight weeks.

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I know they're trying to be coy about the

timeline, but a hamstring's, a hamstring,

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a tissue injury is a tissue injury.

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So in my mind, that's six to eight weeks.

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We'll see 'em, we'll see 'em soon, but

we'll see what the offer has this week.

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And if they activate Clark Phillips and

I guess we'll they'll go from there.

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PSP: Yeah, that's fair.

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And when it comes to the quarterback

room, the Falcons have one of

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the best backups in the game with

Kirk Cousins still on the roster.

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What's gonna happen with him?

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Is he gonna be trading

before the deadline?

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. A. Noel White:

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Right now it's, it is looking like it.

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It is looking in my opinion, the

Falcons have decided we gave them

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the money, we took the ridicule.

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What is the point now if

anything dire happens?

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He's the best backup in the league,

and if not, which is what we really

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want, then you have the best scout

team quarterback you can have.

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Unless you know you're going up

against one of these moving and

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shaking quarterbacks like a Lamar

Jackson or Josh Allen, then he

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probably doesn't do you as much good.