SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Now it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: The championship of women's soccer, LeBron James' year 23 in the bigs and a town in California takes after pickleball. Sports reporter Michele Steele joins us. Michele, thanks so much for being with us.
MICHELE STEELE: Sure, Scott.
SIMON: National Women's Soccer League championship tonight. Washington D.C. Spirit faced New York's Gotham FC. They play in the Bay Area. Washington has the star power in for Trinity Rodman. How do you see the game playing out?
STEELE: Yeah. Scott, you're a Chicago guy. There's actually a Chicago Bulls connection here. Dennis Rodman's...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: Yes, yes. Dennis Rodman, the legend, the Hall of Famer, his daughter, Trinity Rodman, is the superstar in Washington. And they're the favorites in this game. They score a lot. They play real fast. And New York's Gotham FC, meantime, is really the Cinderella here. They're the lowest-ranked team ever to make the final. I think Gotham is definitely going to try to shut down Rodman, but I think Spirit fans should feel pretty good about this one. Her speed should break through, and I see Washington winning in a low-scoring game.
SIMON: Let me ask you about a game tomorrow in the NFL. Cleveland Browns, the Las Vegas Raiders - two of the worst teams in all of organized sports. But the game is getting a lot of attention. Why?
STEELE: Yes. Two words - Shedeur Sanders. That is why plenty of NFL fans are going to be watching an otherwise terrible matchup. If the name sounds familiar - at least the last name - he is the son of NFL legend Deion Sanders, and he's now the starting rookie quarterback...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...For the Browns. And he's making his first professional start. Now, he was the absolute talk of the draft this year 'cause he slid from what some thought would be the first round to the fifth round. The Browns then made him as their fourth-string quarterback. But thanks to injuries and classic Browns bad luck...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...He was thrown into the game, middle of the game last week - did not play well. Tons of hype, tons of pressure around this kid. And that's why this otherwise meaningless game has turned into a little bit of a national audition for the future of the Cleveland Browns, perhaps. I just want to see if he's the real deal or not, or if he's going to be as bad...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...As the teams playing in the game.
SIMON: Something - an event to mark in basketball Tuesday. LeBron James is going to return from an injury to the Los Angeles Lakers' lineup. He will become the only player in NBA history to play in 23 seasons, and he is 40. Turned pro when he was 17, an Akron, Ohio, high school kid. And he's still performing at a very high level, isn't he?
STEELE: Oh, yeah. Scott, I was trying to think of real-world analogies to this - right? - and I thought, OK, imagine if an actor started their career on a big show when they were a teenager. And now, 23 television seasons later, they're not just on the show...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...They're still the main character, and they're winning awards. You wouldn't know what it's like to be on a show for that long, right, Scott?
SIMON: No, certainly not.
STEELE: And still performing at a very high level.
SIMON: I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah.
STEELE: (Laughter).
SIMON: Well, I certainly wouldn't know how to do it, performing at a very high level. Let's put it that way.
STEELE: Hey. Well, what LeBron is doing is truly unprecedented - the only player in the history of the NBA to be on the court, step on the court as a player in his 23rd season. And let me tell you this last season averaged 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists per game.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: That's a man in his 40s, folks.
SIMON: Boy. Finally, Carmel, California. I think they call themselves Carmel-by-the-Sea...
STEELE: Yes.
SIMON: ...Or somebody does - is moving to try to ban the playing of pickleball because people there complain that, you know, ping, plack (ph), bop, bop, ping, ping, ping, that sound is just unnerving. Why are they doing this?
STEELE: Well, you heard about the NIMBYs - right? - not in my backyard.
SIMON: Right.
STEELE: Maybe they don't want pickleball in their backyard. They've - pickleball, the sport that so many of us love but many of us who don't play it, perhaps love to hate because it all kind of comes down to the acoustic properties of a wiffle ball. I wish we could get one of your audio engineers to explain this because they could probably do a better job than I could.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: But the impact of the paddle on that ball creates a very high-pitched popping sound that is jarring to the ear. It's a noise that cuts through. It's like the beep on a - like on a smoke alarm.
SIMON: Right. Yeah.
STEELE: And the Carmelites. They want to enjoy the beach, the waves, and their charming town in peace, thank you very much.
SIMON: Oh, all right.
STEELE: Yeah.
SIMON: Sports reporter Michele Steele. And peace be with you, too, Michele.
STEELE: (Laughter).
SIMON: Thanks for being with us.
STEELE: Peace and pickleball be with you, too, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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