August 11, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Going behind the sports scenes
Dodd: 'With NIL, the kids are making money, and... the transfer portal is like free agency'
On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Missy Heidrick goes behind the scenes with The Athletic‘s Rustin Dodd to talk about the niche content side of sports. Heidrick and Dodd discuss the new vertical covering sports leadership published by The Athletic, and nerd out on other sports stories and topics as well. Plus, an additional Lynx-specific podcast was released today, hosted by The Next’s Terry Horstman.
Continue reading with a subscription to The Next
Get unlimited access to women’s basketball coverage and help support our hardworking staff of writers, editors, and photographers by subscribing today.
Already a member?
Login
Hendrick and Dodd open the show by discussing the origins of Dodd’s career and how he feels about landing at The Athletic. “I just found it to be a really great opportunity,” Dodd says. “It’s really hard to work out a place in 2025 in media that feels like it’s thriving or growing, or that it’s, you know, trying to do new things or innovate.”
Later on, Heidrick and Dodd discuss some reporting Dodd has done on NIL and how that has affected college basketball. “The two things that have changed are, you know, with NIL, the kids are making money, and… the transfer portal is like free agency,” Dodd explains, after breaking down how coaches have historically had power in college environments. “It requires a change in the way coaches are building relationships or connecting with kids to, kind of, retain their rosters.”
Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?
Subscribe now to The IX Sports and receive our daily women’s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.
Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.
Heidrick closes out the show by asking Dodd why he thinks certain superstar athletes, like Patrick Mahomes and Serena Williams, are just so above-average. “They’re driven by something deeper than rewards,” Dodd says. “It’s something we cannot explain. It’s this deep competitiveness that athletes have.”
To stay up to date with every episode of the podcast, subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Catch up on all our WNBA coverage here. And don’t forget to watched The Next’s Terry Horstman ask the big questions about the Minnesota Lynx in a bonus episode.
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
