“And we’re back! So sorry for the wait… What a week… What a week of training camp…great week, splendid week of WNBA basketball in which all of our teams had a great, great week, I’m sure we’re all feeling great.” Isabel, a Mexican woman with white skin, short and sleek black hair parted in the middle, states while fixing her rectangular glasses.

The three co-hosts spend a few seconds smiling at the different cameras in their studio, the walls decorated with pictures of special moments in WNBA history, Sabrinna’s shot over Kaila to win game 3 of the finals, Sue Bird celebrating her last title and the newly added Yuki’s fadeaway game-winning shot. But all of those are insignificant at this moment, since all of the people tuning in to their podcast are doing so for their personality, the actual stars of the show. Isabel, Muhamed and Donnica are a trio that for years has been covering the league in their podcast, The Shallow Three.

“Feeling fantastic, we’re feeling so good, vindicated even,” Donnica, a black woman with cropped brown hair, almost imperceptible makeup on her face and hazel eyes that follow the chat, added.

“Vindicated? The whole city of Santa Fe is grieving and you’re happy?” Muhamed, a black man with a chin curtain beard, bald head with a beige headband covering half of his forehead, asked

“I’ll say this, for years, for years, I’ve been pushing narratives, I have talked on this mic for years about how terrible Yuki Saya is, and now, finally, people are starting to notice.”

“Noticing…”

Amidst a laugh, Isabel slightly moves her notebook away to get ready for the conversation, “Now, we know that you guys want to get into it already, stop with the whole pausing and just focus on hooping, but we can’t! We gotta talk a little bit more about the Bobcats! Don, take it away.”

With a smile on her face, fidgeting on her seat, Donnica says, “I’m so happy, I couldn't be happier that these bozos… these… bums are paying for their crimes. I’m sad for Hannah, but, like, it just doesn’t matter, right? At the end of the day, I’m right, so everyone can shut the hell up. I hate her, God, I hate her. First of all, it’s easy to hate Yuki, it’s easy to hate on somebody 7’3, 210 that wants to act like the smallest player on the floor and puts a big ol’ goose’s egg of effort on the offensive side of the ball, do you want to go with the fact she can easily get 20 points but refuses to shoot? Or that she can dunk, but never does? It’s lazy, just lazy, every way across. This is simply just karma, years of destroying my team, and now she’s destroying someone else’s.” Her co hosts open their mouths to speak, but her rant continues, not even noticing that she is interrupting them, “They pick Dina, the biggest asshole of the whole W, she’s a terrible ad for the ukrainian people, who’ve heard are pretty cool, that fake ass blond makes one play every six minutes and brags about it every day, and Star is gonna play five minutes and foul out, so like, I’m just happy that this expansion team chose an All WNBA Bozo as their starting center, freeing so much cap space for us and giving me a new team to hate watch.”

When the laughter across the studio dies down, Isabel is the first one to speak, “Damn. Well… If you don’t know, here it is,” Looking at her notebook, Isabel reads, ““Starting Center for the New Mexico Bobcats, Yuki Saya will miss the beginning of the season with a left calf sprain, it’s uncertain if she’ll be able to come back before the midpoint of the season.”, Mo, in a scale from Minnesota Lions to the Moons, how fucked are they?”

“Incredibly fucked.” Mo answers.

“The new expansion team, and the team I root for– Before she can finish her sentence, Mo interrupts.

“They aren’t even Mexican, why you rooting for them?”

“Because, they’re the closest thing to actual Mexico! they were so close to being great, there was almost something to root for…”

“And the glass bones of Yuki had to ruin it…”

“Yeah, I mean, there’s still something, they were never winning a championship, but that team could be competitive, now it’s gonna be just like the Sorcerer’s, Hannah is scoring 30 every game and losing… but at least they can probably get a good draft pick next year…”

Don adds, “But everything we've heard from Hannah is that she wants to win, and she’s one of those players that even alone will make you good enough to not be at the bottom but not great enough to be a champion.”

Isabel lets out a deep sigh, fixing her glasses with a somber expression as she states, “Which is why the Bobcats need to trade Hannah before the trade deadline.”

A lot of people disagree with her on this, but Hannah believes that there is a perfect body. The brain is the control room behind the robot that is a body; the difference in what perfection is or isn't lies in what the control room wants. A runner’s perfect body involves strong legs, just like a gymnast needs a shorter frame and a basketball player a taller one. But with the hand she was given, Court thinks, no, she knows that she has reached her physical peak.

Including her shooting, playmaking, defense and finishing, there’s nothing she prides herself more than her body. Standing at exactly 5 feet and 57 inches, weighing about 140 pounds and benching about 205 on an average day, standing reach of 7'3, wingspan of 6' 1.50' a 24.9 standing vertical leap, with a 33 max vertical. Way more athletic than the average person, all those hours doing pushups, running, jumping onto boxes, lifting and many more exercises she can’t even remember have paid off. Hannah is in the best shape she will ever be.

But it’s not enough, besides the DNPs she got on her first season, she has never missed a game, playing through injury after injury, and still filling up the scoreboard, she is happy with her frame, she is aware that her conditioning and body type helped it so that she never suffered a serious injury and she would still trade all of that, all of the hours perfecting her body just to get the thirty year old, broken down, body of Yuki.

That is basketball perfection, with shoes on, she reaches 7 feet and 41 inches, weighing 215 pounds and benching just shy of 180 pounds, the biggest standing reach of the WNBA at a 9’5 and also a 7'9.75 wingspan paired together with a standing vertical leap of 23.2 inches and a max vertical of 28.5. Yuki is arguably the greatest athlete of WNBA history. She has more than five times the amount of dunks than the whole league combined, seven times Blocks leader, and she is already closing in on Margo Dydek on the all-time list with 1.975

But once again, as Hannah stands on both of her feet, looking down at her friend receiving medical care on one of the examination beds, there is nothing she can do besides be grateful that her machine never breaks down like this. Tyler, a caucasian man in his mid-thirties with a bald head and baggy brown eyes, lets out a sigh, looking from the patient to the coach.

“It’s not as bad as it seemed, but… it’s also not good, it’s just a grade two, there was a partial tear of the muscle fibers in the calf, around 55%, it would usually require four to seven weeks to heal, but since this a recurring issue it will probably be longer, and I need to tell you,” he turns his chair to look straight at Yuki. “Do not even think of rushing back, you’re already fragile, we don’t want this turning into an achilles tear.”

The first one to react is Laura, hitting the bedside table with her closed fist, “Shit!”

Trying to keep the team's spirt high, Yuki argues, “It’s fine… I mean, not fine, but we— seven weeks is just what? One month and a half? I’ll be back in no time.”

The is a flicker of anger on Laura’s face for a second as she looks down on her player, but before she can open her mouth to speak, Tyler adds, “Actually it’s probably more like two months to three, since not only this is the same muscle you had an injury a few years ago, but you in particular needs a lot of rest to ensure the muscle fully heals and avoid further injury.”

“Jesus Christ…” the coach mutters out before exhaling with her eyes closed, her hand trembling before reaching her forehead.

After letting her emotions calm down in those five seconds of anger, Laura approaches her player, gently touching her arm, “Sorry about my… reaction, it’s fin– it’s fine, just focus on your recovery, we’ll hold it down.” she looks up, locking eyes with Tyler, “You, come with me, I wanna know the whole story without the bullshit, please.”

“I did tell you guys evert—” Tyler begins, but quickly stops talking after receiving an annoyed glare from Laura.

The two leave the room without another word, even before the door fully closes, it’s already possible to hear the questions from the coach surrounding the return of her player and how much of a liability she would be. As soon as the handles clicks and they are fully left alone in the room, the two women fall into an uncomfortable silence, both lost in their own minds, Hannah worrying about what this injury means for the chances of winning this team has; even if Yuki comes back on a heater and they have a great season after that, losing is never good, clutching a higher seed means favorable match ups, it also means home court advantage which guarantees that, if you’re good enough, every win or go home will be at your court. But most of all, if they lose a lot without her, the playoff push at the end of the season is always exhausting, both mentally and physically. Hannah lost count of how many playoff games she lost before she even had a guaranteed spot in it.

Yuki is not thinking about any of that, there’s not a single moment where she thinks about losses or wins, yes, she likes to play basketball, but she could do that on any team, sharing the court with the woman she loves is something she can only do with a Bobcats jersey; as the coach pointed out at their first, second, third, and will probably do it in their fourth, this team wants to win, they are not trying to tank, the best thing they can do is ship her off to a rebuilding team in exchange for some serviceable role players. Why would they keep paying for an useless asset that has not proved anything and is currently coming back from injury straight into another injury.  

Thinking that at least there is something straight about her, she lets out a slight giggle, amused by her mind, which sequentially gets her a confused expression by Hannah as she tilts her head slightly to the side, with the same neutral tone she is always carrying, she asks, “I didn’t think that there was anything funny to laugh at, if there is, why don’t you tell me?”

“I… I was just thinking that there really is no way for us to play together, y’know? We would be so good that the world had to stop us…” Yuki answers while looking at the blonde hair of her friend.

She sees the way Hannah moves closer to the bed, putting her elbows on the metal bar that keeps the cushion in place and resting her head on her hands, the left one half opened, while the right completely engulfing her cheek and reaching just shy of her forehead. All the actions that for most are negligible, to Yuki they are one of the most beautiful mannerisms there could be; still, Hannah’s words once again serve as a reminder as to why she never lies, “I don’t think that’s the truth. Can’t you just be honest? You’re a terrible liar.”

In a growl, Yuki answers, “I’m injured! You can’t let me have this one thing?”

“No. Now tell the truth, I want to hear it.”

Rolling her eyes and pushing herself back on the bed, Yuki covers her eyes as she begins to explain, “W– I was thinking about the fact that I’ll probably get traded, like, there’s no reason to keep me on this team anymore.”

It’s Hannah’s turn to growl. No words leave her mouth, just an annoyed guttural sound as she throws her arms up, slowing back on her chair, when her gaze meets the confused eyes of Yuki, she lays out her frustration, “No way you believe that! In like two months of training, you had like 200 snatch blocks; there’s probably a dent on one of the backboards from the amount of times you’ve hit it with the ball. You were playing like the DPOY we know you are, there's no way they're trading that kind of player.”

“Wow, I got injured and you’re the one going crazy, what are you even saying?”

Clicking her tongue and tightening her jaw, Hannah answers, “It’s not your bones that are made outta of glass, it’s your brain if you actually believe that.”

Yuki crosses her arms in front of her chest, pursuing her lips as she shrugs, “I’m telling the truth, I’m the most expensive player, I’ll be out for months and we haven’t played a game yet, the fanbase will get over it— I mean, my fanbase won’t but the every team needs some hate—”

“Oh fuck that.” Hannah loudly interrupts, eyes wide open with indignation as she gesticulates with both of her hands in erratic motions, “Stop being a dramatic little baby, even if they wanted to trade away or second best player, I wouldn't let them, okay? Does that make your worried heart calm down?”

“Second best player??” Is the first thing Yuki asks, before she fully understands what Hannah just said, following her sentence with a long sarcastic laugh, “When’d you become the GM and didn’t tell me? How the hell are you gonna stop the management? And wouldn't you want to play with someone that didn’t have a new injury every game?”

Angryly getting up from her chair, in a quick flurry of movements Hannah approaches Yuki, touching foreheads together and tenderly cupping the cheeks of the taller woman; the feeling of their breaths joining one another, the heat of another body touching hers, Yuki is about to try and deflect, maybe move away, but Hannah’s words come out first.

“First of all, have you seen me? I don't like to say it, but I’m undoubtedly the best scorer in the W, and probably the best player too. With you out, who do you think they’ll play for? Who are they gonna ask what package they should prioritize? IF they even mention trading you, I will tell them to ship me with you, You are my best friend, I want to play with you, and… honestly all of that kinda doesn’t matter you’re the best center in the world if they traded you they don’t see talent and would not wanna play with them.”

Yuki wants to argue, point out how she hasn't had a healthy season in years, that Julie Jones had her on a box, that she’s probably just a glorified Rudy Gobert at this point, or even the fact that Hannah probably doesn’t have all that power she thinks she has. But as she opens her mouth to say what she believes is the truth, she can’t find any words. Not because she was convinced by a speech turned into a bragging session, but because Hannah said that she was her best friend. And even if she gets traded tomorrow, this declaration of love already makes the New Mexico Bobcats' tenure worth it.