"Get Your Trash Girlfriend Out Of Here": Things Are Getting Extra Spicy In Professional Pickleball
You want drama? You want action? You want a powder keg that has been violently building up towards an Earth shattering eruption? Well guess what, my friend--that means you want pickleball.
Tensions in the world of professional pickleball have been through the roof lately. It all started when we had the two leading leagues in the game go on an all-out war against one another a month ago, trying to lock up as many top players as possible to snuff the other league out.
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That war lasted a couple of weeks until both sides got together and agreed on a merger. But clearly it still has everybody on edge out there. The cooldown period hasn't even begun to sink in yet. You know how there were still a couple thousand soldiers who died after the armistice was signed to end WW1? Yeah, we're still in that moment of this war being over. We had moments like Tyson McGuffin going ape shit after beating Tyler Loong in Cincinnati the other week.
But at the end of the day, that's just boys being boys.
The latest dust up happened during the opening day of the new Major League Pickleball season yesterday in Atlanta. We had the Austin Pickleballers taking on the Las Vegas Night Owls. One of the mixed doubles matches featured Spencer Smith from Vegas (in black) and Daniel De La Rose from Austin (in white). These two get the party started here with a little shit talk volley going back-and-forth over the net.
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De La Rosa doesn't love how animated Smith got after that point, Smith tells him to take a fucking hike, Vegas wins the match on the next point with Smith beaming one off De La Rosa, and that's when the fireworks really get going. We get an all-time handshake snub at the net, some pleasantries continuing to be exchanged heading off to the sidelines, a shove into the benches, and then that's when the ladies get involved.
You've got girlfriends getting into the mix. You've got Tamaryn Emmrich, the playing partner for De La Rosa, going over there to get the situation under control. They start going back and forth, it looks like maybe a parent comes across the court from the stands, and all ends the only way this situation could have possibly ended. With a "get your trash girlfriend outta here".
I've said it before and I'll say it again--dink rallies just don't really translate well to television. Doubles pickleball is incredible to play, but it doesn't make for the greatest entertainment product. However…if this is the type of drama that doubles can drum up? Well now we might have a product on our hands here. I still say the future of televised pickleball is singles, but if the NBA has taught us anything it's that audiences don't actually care about the games nearly as much as they love the drama surrounding the games. So a little more of this and doubles might be the play.