A Las Vegas Aces mini-update — Sue Altman talks women’s hoops, congressional run

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The WNBA’s investigation is ongoing. And unfortunately, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which had been dragging its feet on the public records requests it is legally obligated to fulfill, have reached another level of obstruction.

Back on August 14, we reported here that senior members of the Aces’ front office — including Matt Delsen, the team’s Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and son of longtime Mark Davis consigliere Larry Delsen — worked directly with the Aces on both the coordination of the LVCVA’s plan to pay Aces players directly, and even advised the team to keep aspects of the plan from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

The precise nature of the plan, what needed to be kept secret from Engelbert and the why of it all appears to exist in a few places that, according to an attorney familiar with Nevada public records law, should have been turned over to The IX when we originally asked for it this summer. But after weeks of silence from the LVCVA, only some additional signed agreements between the LVCVA and Aces players were disclosed this week. (For those keeping score at home: A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray have now signed, while Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum appear to be unsigned still.)

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But the LVCVA did not respond to a request from The IX to confirm if, indeed, Young and Plum have signed or not. And far more significantly, the LVCVA still hasn’t turned over the attachments to any of the emails they have acknowledged fall under the umbrella of our public records requests by turning over those emails, a distinction an attorney familiar with Nevada public record law tells us is not supportable. Nor has the LVCVA provided a reason for or description of this redaction:

The IX has advised the LVCVA that we are considering our legal options should the LVCVA fail to comply with these requests. Other requests also remain unanswered as this newsletter publishes Wednesday afternoon.

Of course, nothing is stopping Kobre & Kim, the firm the WNBA has hired to conduct this investigation into the Aces, from moving to compel the LVCVA to turn over the attachments and provide at the very least a reason for this redaction in the service of finding out how much, if any wrongdoing here runs afoul of the collective bargaining agreement — that is to say, a context for what is already public knowledge of collaboration between the LVCVA and the Las Vegas Aces around this arrangement.

We will continue to report on this story. And if you value this work…

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This week in women’s basketball

Ben Strauss on Monica McNutt.

This is how to feel about the LA Sparks, imo.

Sean Highkin on next steps in Portland.

Katie Barnes spent a ton of time with the Aces.

Cheryl Reeve joined Sarah Spain’s podcast.

Jackie Powell goes deep on Breanna Stewart.

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Five at The IX: Sue Altman, NJ-7 congressional candidate

Friends, it is not something you hear much about, but it turns out there’s an election day coming up with some pretty significant stakes! So I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce you to Sue Altman.

While there are numerous reasons you should know about Sue — she’s running in a true toss-up district against a sitting congressman, Tom Kean Jr., who has endorsed Donald Trump — Sue is also a basketball star and WNBA superfan. Altman played at Voorhees High School in New Jersey, the greatest of all states, winning all-state honors before heading to Columbia. She was all-Ivy there, playing alongside Megan Griffith, another Lion who has gone on to impact the world. She played professionally overseas, leading Dart Killester to the Irish Superleague semifinals in 2006-07, averaging 23.7 points and 9 rebounds per game that year.

Please enjoy this Q&A with Sue. And if you are of the belief that not only is a victory by Kamala Harris important, but she should have a majority to sign legislation to codify Roe v. Wade into law in both houses of Congress… this is a race you should really, really care about.

1. What are your earliest memories of basketball, playing or even watching and falling in love with the game of basketball?

I loved the game from the first time I can remember holding a ball. I remember being the only girl on a team of all boys, and from the beginning realizing I wasn’t being taken as seriously in spite of outplaying them. It activated the competitive part of me that wanted to prove something, and it left me with an early awareness of how hard I would have to work to get recognition and respect as an athlete – especially back in an era when women’s sports were still being established. 

2. You made all-state at Voorhees High School, switching to point guard ahead of your senior year. How much do you think that positional move helped you, not just at Columbia, but in the leadership work you’ve taken on in your professional career?

Being a point guard, you learn a lot about managing tempo – how to push the ball and manage pace so your team can execute your game plan and keep the other team outside of a place they’re comfortable. It’s true on offense and defense. Obviously basketball and politics aren’t always a direct comparison, but I’d like to think that the communication skills — and the art of balancing teamwork with letting everyone’s individual skills shine — gave me a good blueprint for how to organize people, which eventually led me to be a candidate. 

My transition from being a forward to guard happened because a coach pointed out that I would never be able to play in college as a forward – I am only 5’9. The process of becoming a guard was a reinvention of my game and my skill set – it was very challenging. This proved to me that I could do hard things – even if it was painful, not always linear, and included a lot of bad days and frustrating days in the park. 

3. Throughout your playing career, your intensity and fearlessness are the attributes most commonly cited by teammates and coaches. Where does that come from and how central is that to your ability to fight on behalf of causes others shy away from, whether corruption from either party in New Jersey politics or winning a toss-up district against an incumbent in NJ-7?

Well, it’s not fearlessness, because fear is the natural response to doing risky things and facing tough situations, but I’m glad it seemed that way in the game and in New Jersey politics! 

I am an intense, focused person. But I also know (learned the hard way) that you can’t just be a pusher and tough all the time– you lose people, it’s not fun, and you can miss the big picture.  But the work ethic I practiced all of those years as an athlete definitely gives me an edge. There are the players who are talented, but precious — the ones with fancy uniforms (or famous last names, and big trust funds) who never had to work hard, never had to struggle.  But if you have those other gears – you can beat these guys. Because they’ve never really had to work as hard or grind it out, or fail and get back out there. 

I was fairly talented at basketball, but not super talented. There were a lot of girls who were prettier shooters than me, for example. But I knew if it came down to toughness, to conditioning, to a full court pressure game– I would outlast them and out tough them. I learned this by playing a lot of basketball outside in the hot summer, and losing a lot out there. The other girls were doing who knows what. I hated thinking there was someone out there, out working me, so I did all I could to make sure that was impossible. The same is true now, and if I were my opponent, I’d be really really nervous because it’s clear he’s not working as hard as our team is. 

4. Few players get to end their collegiate careers with a game-winning shot, as you did (two, really, 3-pointer to tie, two to win it) to beat Yale in the season finale your senior year. What do you remember about that game?

I remember how hard the whole team worked throughout that game to keep us in it, and it was certainly a sweet note to end my career at Columbia on – not only to hit those shots, but for my team to trust me with the ball in that moment. 

During that period, I had some very complicated feelings about my time in the program, because I knew how much potential we had as a team with the right infrastructure. There was a lot of coach turnover, really weak athletic administration, and, at that time, Columbia treated women’s basketball as a kind of second-class afterthought. It was ridiculous, the stuff that never would have been allowed to occur on the men’s side, and the more distance and time away from that era the more it makes me incredibly grateful that times have changed. 

Our teammate Megan Griffith is the coach at CU now, and she’s doing an incredible job. She’s turned Columbia basketball into a great program, and I’m so delighted to see it grow and be successful. 

5. Please contrast Columbia’s excellent non-conference schedule in 2023-24 — giving the Lions the resume they needed to reach last season’s NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid — with Tom Kean, Jr., your Republican opponent in NJ-7, and his unwillingness to do virtually any town halls or interviews of any kind.

The lack of leadership is a complete dereliction of duty. It provokes far too many obvious sports metaphors for me to cram into one answer. You can’t score from the bench. You can’t play if you’re afraid of the ball. There’s no place to hide on the court. 

When I travel around the district- people everywhere tell me that we deserve better representation. Our campaign and this movement see a vacuum of leadership left by him, and we are filling it. If he’s not going to show up for the district, if he is going to disrespect us by hiding from accountability, then we will occupy that space. We’re taking interviews that he declines, and talking about hard issues. We are holding public town halls across NJ-07- open to everyone – and hearing their concerns. Our district deserves basic functional leadership. And voters here are about to cut him from the team! Time to hang up the shoes, Tom! (How’s that for basketball metaphor bingo?) 

6. More seriously, in a district that went for Biden 54-44 in 2020 (note: redistricting made it a Biden 51-47.5 district since), how is it possible for Tom Kean, Jr. to represent the interests of this district, on everything from abortion to healthcare to basic questions of competence and honesty, while endorsing Donald Trump? (Will ask him to update numbers for new district)

It’s not possible, and it’s an absolute disgrace. Kean, Jr. actually endorsed Trump on the same day that he was convicted of 34 felonies. We’re a moderate district — and while he’s tried to maintain a surface level image moderat voters here, he votes in lockstep with his extremist party leadership to undermine reproductive freedom and push radical funding cuts across the entire government. He’s also refused to disown Project 2025 or Trump’s hateful rhetoric and his election denialism. Simply put, Kean Jr. does not represent New Jersey or NJ-07 values.

Why would he do this? The answer, sadly, is quite simple. He’s not that great of a fundraiser so he relies on the extremist wing to do the fundraising for him. So he’s not accountable to us — he’s accountable to Mike Johnson, the RNCC, and Trump, who are deeply out of line with the values of the district. 

7. As a longtime supporter of both the New York Liberty and the abolishing of the county line system in New Jersey primaries, which 2024 success has brought you more joy?

It’s the same story in both cases. Tons of people working together (mostly women!) without fanfare and spotlight for so long, and finally the hard work paying off in the public eye.  It really does feel like such an exciting new chapter has started for both New Jersey politics AND women’s basketball, and I’m feeling good about our campaign’s chances this fall. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Without our mothers and grandmothers struggling for years before this moment — without their leadership and mentoring, we wouldn’t be here today — in either realm. 

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Mondays: Soccer

By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer

Tuesdays: Tennis

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Wednesdays: Basketball

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Saturdays: Gymnastics

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