Working with designer Peter Moore — the graphic genius behind the eternal Air Jordan 1 — Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu unveiled her Nike signature shoe, the Sabrina 1. Reflecting on the design process, Ionescu told Boardroom that her roots go back to the Swoosh. “Nike was my first basketball shoe that I’ve ever played in. The first basketball shoe that I put on my foot. They were actually Nike Dunks.”

The New York Liberty superstar sat down with Boardroom’s Ian Stonebrook to discuss the road to her first launch.

The World Baseball Classic has put some of the sport’s biggest stars on a global stage. Amidst all of the excitement, there was a scary moment following Puerto Rico’s defeat of the Dominican Republic. Mets’ closer Edwin Diaz suffered a torn patellar tendon that’ll likely keep him out for the entirety of the 2023 season. Diaz, who is widely regarded as one of the best closers in the MLB. He inked a five-year, $102 million deal in the offseason — the richest contract ever among relief pitchers.

Zoom’s newest client? The MLB. On Thursday, the league announced a deal with Zoom Video Communications Inc. As part of the new arrangement, giving umpires a lens into what video is being evaluated by the replay operations center during games. By the numbers, 50.2% calls were overturned out of a total of 1,434 reviews last season.

Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone is joining digital sports media company Jomboy Media. He’ll host a weekly segment on Talkin’ Yanks. Boone will join Jomboy founders Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Storiale for 15-20 minutes. He becomes the first active manager to have a platform like this to discuss the season in real time. Boone said his agents brought it up to him and “I thought it was a really interesting opportunity and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business, and they’ve built a massive young following… it’s my chance to set the record straight every now and then.”

The Atlanta Hawks are launching a $50 million venture capital operation to help support women and minority-owned businesses, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “Sports is this giant megaphone. A lot of opportunities come to us that you want to look at and want to invest in,” Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said, and later explained that it’ll expand beyond funding, beneficiaries will also have access to customer service, food, entertainment, media training and more. The timing comes when venture capitalists are holding more than spending. As AJC points out, Georgia’s venture capital funding dropped 43% from 2021’s record-setting $4 billion.

The Women’s World Cup is getting $152 million in funding for the first 32-team tournament, which includes $110 million earmarked for the prize pool, while the remainder will go to team preparation and payments to player clubs. The capital boost is a 300% increase from 2019 and 10 times what it was in 2015. However, even with the marked change, the women’s total is still one-third of the men’s.

Former USWNT star Ashlyn Harris joined Boardroom’s Out of Office where she discussed the issues she confronted due to inequitable pay in the global game.