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Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black

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Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back Man, season two of All the Smoke. We got

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Speaker 1: a real special guys. What's up with your Brode with

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Speaker 1: the virtual headshake? I'm gonna tell ya something that I

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Speaker 1: never told her back. I want to smoke. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to another edition of All the Smoke. Jack, what's going

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Speaker 1: on my brother? What's up with you? Man? I can't

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Speaker 1: call it just enjoying this beautiful California weather is. It's

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Speaker 1: still ugly out there. It's not as ugly as it

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Speaker 1: was the other day, but sun coming out a little bit,

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Speaker 1: but still cool. You got a little bit of hope.

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Speaker 1: We got a special guest tonight, very excited. Um, a

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Speaker 1: legend in her space. It's an honor to have her tonight.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Cheryl swoops, Cheryl, how are you doing?

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Speaker 1: I'm doing great? Like it's such an honor for me

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Speaker 1: to be here with you too, because I hear y'all

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Speaker 1: get down on this show. Look at my smile, Shayl.

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Speaker 1: I'm happy. I'm so happy to see you. I still

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Speaker 1: got a bone to pick with you, though this is

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Speaker 1: the place to pick it. Go ahead and pick that ship.

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Speaker 1: It's not that big to do. But it is like

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Speaker 1: like you have my number, but you have to call

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Speaker 1: my brother to get me to come on the show

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Speaker 1: or actually let me. I'm actually your brother reached out

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Speaker 1: to me and we have been talking and it didn't

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Speaker 1: have nothing to do with you. Actually we were talking

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Speaker 1: about something else and we talked about Then he came

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Speaker 1: back and saying, hey, bro, when we gonna get sharer

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Speaker 1: on the show? I said, you know what, We're gonna

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Speaker 1: make it happen. Well, Matt, you and I can just

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Speaker 1: have a conversation and how about that. But I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you guys allowing me to be in your space for

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Speaker 1: a little bit. We appreciate it. Obviously, very very well decorated.

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Speaker 1: M v P four time champ Olympian. The accolades. Go on, um,

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Speaker 1: tell me tell us one thing you took from whether

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Speaker 1: it be good or bad. Damn um. The life is

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Speaker 1: too short, absolutely, I just you know, it's hard to

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Speaker 1: just pick one thing. But was a hell of a

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Speaker 1: year I think for everybody, And if I had to

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Speaker 1: pick one, I would say that life is too short,

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Speaker 1: so embrace every moment. Embrace spending time with friends and

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Speaker 1: family and loved ones, because you never know when you're

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Speaker 1: gonna get that opportunity again. Absolutely. We're just a little

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Speaker 1: over a year since Kobe passed, and one of his

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Speaker 1: favorite quotes that I love is he said, we all

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Speaker 1: make the mistake of thinking we have more time. No,

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Speaker 1: you got to be in the moment and enjoy it. Um,

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Speaker 1: how is coaching college basketball? Because that's what you're currently doing.

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Speaker 1: How difficult has has been during the pandemic. Well, so,

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Speaker 1: actually I'm not coaching. No. I was a head coach

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Speaker 1: for three years in an assistant in my alma made

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Speaker 1: for a year. What I would tell you is I

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Speaker 1: found out quickly that that's not my space. I love

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Speaker 1: the game. Um. I love being a part of the game.

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Speaker 1: I love what the game's done for me. But kids

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Speaker 1: today are different just the I mean, their mentality, their

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Speaker 1: work ethic. They're so entitled and like you can't seriously

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Speaker 1: like you can't coach them. And I just decided that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the space for me. I am currently, um actually

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Speaker 1: working for Nike, So I'm super excited about that. That's awesome. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna send our shoes sides as soon as the

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Speaker 1: interviews over anyway, And if y'all don't have the hook

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Speaker 1: up already, okay, Jack Jack Jack Jack has a plug.

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Speaker 1: But it's funny you say that because I coached, you know,

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Speaker 1: I jumped in after I retired in seventeen, and I

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Speaker 1: actually had a few NBA opportunities. Obviously would I have

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Speaker 1: had to start at the bottom, but I I passed

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Speaker 1: on that too, because to me, there was there is

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Speaker 1: a disconnect between the way even we came up and

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Speaker 1: the way we approached the game and the way we

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Speaker 1: look at the game and the way um, you know,

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Speaker 1: these younger athletes do. Now I do coach my my

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Speaker 1: twelve year old twins. They're au team. So I got

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Speaker 1: them early enough to kind of put some kind of

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Speaker 1: structure and discipline. But you know, I've seen these high

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Speaker 1: and there's no knock on them. It's just this what

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Speaker 1: the world is these days. But there is a definitely

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Speaker 1: a sense of entitlement and privilege, and you know, few

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Speaker 1: and far between actually have to put the hard work

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Speaker 1: in it takes to to get to that next level.

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Speaker 1: They expected to be given to him. Well, and you're right,

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Speaker 1: like it's not or not but I will say this,

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Speaker 1: first of all, how is it coaching your boys? I

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Speaker 1: love it. I have a great connection, you know. And

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Speaker 1: it's funny too, because Jack has a similar situation where

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Speaker 1: he has a kid, but he found that he's better

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Speaker 1: off just me and the dad in the support system.

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Speaker 1: And I actually liked being in the trenches with my

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Speaker 1: kids and teaching them and their friends. But Matt, you

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Speaker 1: know what I found is it's different with boys and girls.

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Speaker 1: For whatever reason, I grew up, I played for male coaches,

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Speaker 1: I played for female coaches, and I was the type

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Speaker 1: of player that it didn't really matter if it was

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Speaker 1: a male or female. Like I wanted you if I

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Speaker 1: wasn't doing my part, I needed to be coached hard.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to be coached hard. I didn't mind you

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Speaker 1: yelling at me. You know today I say I can't

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Speaker 1: coach today because you can't. You can't coach play. You

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Speaker 1: can't coach girls like that. I'll say that because I

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Speaker 1: have a coach boys. But you can't coach girls that way.

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Speaker 1: I hear that. So raised by your mom, brought up

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Speaker 1: in Texas, what was your childhood like? What you know

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Speaker 1: about Brownfield? Um Man? It was, you know, it was.

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Speaker 1: Here's what I'll say now that I'm older, I look

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Speaker 1: back on it and say, like, our childhood was tough,

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Speaker 1: but when you're going up in it, and that's all

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it is what it is. Like.

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Speaker 1: All I saw was my mom busting her ass every

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Speaker 1: single day, um to provide for us. And my dad

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Speaker 1: was not in the picture. My mom and dad got

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Speaker 1: divorced when I was three months old, so I never

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Speaker 1: knew my dad. Um, da're you're making me get chucked up.

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Speaker 1: I met my dad, you know. I met my dad

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Speaker 1: for the very first time when I was thirty years old,

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Speaker 1: and there was no emotion because I, you know, like

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't know him, and yeah, and so

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Speaker 1: he was like, I think expecting something from me as

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Speaker 1: far as like being emotional, But I'm like, dude, I

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Speaker 1: just met you. I don't I don't know who you are,

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Speaker 1: So how can I be emotional with someone that I

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Speaker 1: don't know? But what I would tell you is what

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Speaker 1: I saw was my mom just God rest her soul.

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Speaker 1: My mom passed away three years ago, but I just

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Speaker 1: I just saw her work hard. That's all I knew,

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Speaker 1: and I know that's what she instilled in me and

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Speaker 1: that's where I got it from. Um. And it was

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Speaker 1: just one of those things that whatever you gotta do

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Speaker 1: to make it happen, you just gotta do it. And

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Speaker 1: and that's what I kind of felt about, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, like people people out there struggling and

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Speaker 1: and suffering and not to mention you know, everything else

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Speaker 1: that that even that we as black people have been

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Speaker 1: dealing with and are going through, we just you know,

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Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta get through it. We gotta figure

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Speaker 1: it out. How this sports play a role in your

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Speaker 1: upbringing and you know, and talk about your sivelers as well.

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Speaker 1: So I have two older brothers and a younger brother

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Speaker 1: the one that you know you' are having a conversation

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Speaker 1: that they had nothing to do about me. So, but

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Speaker 1: you know what sports was. Sports was huge in my life. Um.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, I grew up with two older brothers

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Speaker 1: and the only way my mom would really let me

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Speaker 1: leave the house is if I told her I was

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Speaker 1: going to go play basketball with my brothers. My mom

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Speaker 1: was very, very, very strict, and at the time, I

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Speaker 1: was just like, damn, she's just so mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: That's what I thought. But looking back, on it. I'm

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Speaker 1: so glad that she raised me the way she did, um,

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Speaker 1: because at any moment, you know, I could have taken

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Speaker 1: the wrong turn and ended up being somewhere different, just

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Speaker 1: like a lot of my friends were. But you know, sports,

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Speaker 1: and I think people talk about this a lot, but

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Speaker 1: I think more so for for girls or women. Sports

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Speaker 1: was a huge part as far as helping me with

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Speaker 1: my with my self confidence, um, and my self esteem.

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Speaker 1: I grew up in a very small town. We didn't

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Speaker 1: have a lot and you know, people told me all

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Speaker 1: the time that I couldn't do something because one because

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Speaker 1: of the color of my skin. UM, that I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be good enough because I was a girl, because I

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Speaker 1: was to this, I was too bad, I wasn't good enough. Um.

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Speaker 1: But because I believed in me and I had the

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Speaker 1: right people around me, meaning my mom and my brothers, UM,

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Speaker 1: it didn't really matter what everybody else said to me

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Speaker 1: because I was determined that I was going to be

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Speaker 1: successful and prove all those people wrong. And it still

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Speaker 1: happens today. It's an ongoing battle. It don't stop just

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Speaker 1: because you saying like you guys know that right, you

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Speaker 1: guys know that what was your what was your introduction

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Speaker 1: to basketball. I started playing ball when I was seven,

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Speaker 1: and back then we had what we called and West

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Speaker 1: Texas um little dribblers, and I just I knew at

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Speaker 1: a very early age, at the age of seven, that

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Speaker 1: basketball was was was gonna just change my life. Like

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Speaker 1: I knew that there was something about having a basketball,

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Speaker 1: dribbling a basketball, and I didn't have to be in

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Speaker 1: a gym. I could be in the streets, you know,

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Speaker 1: the lights are off. There was something about having a

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Speaker 1: basketball in my hands that just made me feel invincible.

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Speaker 1: To be very honest with you, and I could never

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Speaker 1: find enough girls that were interested in playing the game.

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Speaker 1: They were interested in doing so much other stuff, right,

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Speaker 1: But you know, I had my brothers and I had

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Speaker 1: all the fellows that I grew up with. I was like, no,

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Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. And it's just

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Speaker 1: it's so crazy to think about something as simple as

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Speaker 1: a ball, as a basketball could give you, that could

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Speaker 1: make you feel as as invincible as powerful as I

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Speaker 1: felt any time I had a basketball. Absolutely well, you

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Speaker 1: just mentioned that not really finding a lot of girls

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Speaker 1: that wanted to do the same thing. Who were some

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Speaker 1: of the people you looked up to uh, in the

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Speaker 1: basketball game because obviously, you know, females weren't on TV

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Speaker 1: back then playing basketball, So were you looking up to

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Speaker 1: males or were there any female basketball players that you

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Speaker 1: had looked up to at that time? Unfortunately, they're like,

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Speaker 1: you're right, matth there were no girls. The only time

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Speaker 1: I actually realized girls played was the Olympics. UM. I

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Speaker 1: never really got a chance to watch the Nancy Lieberman's,

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Speaker 1: the Ann Myers, the Lynette Woodard's, um who have done

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Speaker 1: incredible things for the women's game. So yeah, like a

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Speaker 1: lot of other people out there, m J was. He

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Speaker 1: was my dude, Like I was gonna be in front

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Speaker 1: of the TV anytime MJ was on TV. I was like,

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Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta watch, I gotta watch. It was

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Speaker 1: something about, you know, and it wasn't me watching because

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Speaker 1: I wanted to be like him, Like my opinion, nobody

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Speaker 1: will ever be like him, but it was there was

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Speaker 1: something about the way he played the game and how

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Speaker 1: competitive he was and like how tough he was and

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Speaker 1: how he walked out there and was like like you

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Speaker 1: like the name of your show. It was like, y'all

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Speaker 1: don't want one to this. I saw that I saw

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Speaker 1: that in him, you know, And I was like, damn,

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Speaker 1: like like I want to be that way. I want

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Speaker 1: to be good enough where when I walk out on

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Speaker 1: the court, I feel that confidence in people, right, Like

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Speaker 1: my competition will see me and they're like, damn, here

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Speaker 1: comes share all to day. They said, I used to

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Speaker 1: see Mike walk on the court and look at other

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Speaker 1: players on the court like thanks for buying tickets to

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Speaker 1: the show. That's how Mike used to look at But

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Speaker 1: interviewing me, but that was a question I would like,

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Speaker 1: you guys played with played against like m you know, like,

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Speaker 1: how was that? Well? I personally I missed m J

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Speaker 1: by a year, So Kobe was my guy, was J.

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Speaker 1: But watching the game. Yeah, as far as growing up

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Speaker 1: watching the game, I'm a California kid, so I was

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Speaker 1: the showtime Matthew Johnson fan, so you know, trying to

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Speaker 1: emulate everything he did, and you know, he was him

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Speaker 1: and Grant here with the two guys I looked up to. Yeah, similar,

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Speaker 1: I grew up with Kobe, So I've seen Kobe a

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Speaker 1: lot of growing up. Kobe is the closest thing that

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Speaker 1: I've ever seen to Mike. But MJ was somebody always

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Speaker 1: looked up to end up playing for him in Charlotte

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Speaker 1: and end up, you know, being a part of team Jordan.

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Speaker 1: So you know, Jordan is always gonna be everybody's number

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Speaker 1: one guy. Back to Basketball's tell me about you. Tell

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Speaker 1: me about your high school experience in Texas and how

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Speaker 1: much did you put in the game when he was

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Speaker 1: in high school? Like how much did you work on

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Speaker 1: your game? Texas basketball? Like is I know a lot

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Speaker 1: of people say football is a sport in Texas. I

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Speaker 1: won't say it's probably even like Texas basketball is serious.

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Speaker 1: And again for me because I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: it is because of the way I grew up and

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Speaker 1: the way my mom raised me. I mean, I could

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Speaker 1: not get enough time in the gym and I and

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Speaker 1: I knew if I told her or if she knew

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Speaker 1: I was in the gym, that was gonna be okay, right,

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Speaker 1: But I don't know, It's so crazy when I had

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Speaker 1: friends who they were like Cheryl, it's weekend, it's Friday,

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Speaker 1: it's Saturday, Like we're going to a party, We're going

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Speaker 1: to kick it, We're doing this, we're doing that. You

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Speaker 1: want to come? And even though there were times I

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Speaker 1: wanted to go, first of all, my mom was not

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Speaker 1: having it. Mom was like, Na, you're not doing that.

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Speaker 1: And then I was like no, Like I wanted to

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Speaker 1: spend the time. I wanted to put the time in,

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Speaker 1: you know, Sundays, go to church, come home, eat, change

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Speaker 1: of clothes. It was basketball all day. We had outdoor

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Speaker 1: courts that we call the Tiger Bowl where we grew up.

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Speaker 1: There was me and one other female that played with

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Speaker 1: the guys. And I'm talking about like I'm in high

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Speaker 1: school and these are these are grown men. You know, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't really playing you know, no nets, we didn't

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Speaker 1: have nets on. But it didn't matter, Like that was

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Speaker 1: real basketball. And what I think about my my career

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Speaker 1: and why I was able to achieve a lot of

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Speaker 1: the things I did, Like I always go back to,

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Speaker 1: you know, my upbringing and my childhood and and a

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Speaker 1: lot of the old heads that I played with, because

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Speaker 1: they got me ready. What did you know you was

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Speaker 1: going to the next level? And what moment stood out

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Speaker 1: to you, you know, to give you that indication he

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Speaker 1: was going to the next level. Uh, Like I just

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Speaker 1: I always told myself one that basketball would be my

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Speaker 1: ticket to to college, and basketball would be my ticket

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Speaker 1: to not only change my life, but to change my

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Speaker 1: mom's life. And I was very dedicated. This may be bad,

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Speaker 1: but I was more dedicated to sports than I was

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Speaker 1: to the school. Although I knew I had We all

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Speaker 1: did that welcome, Welcome, welcome to the club. But I

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Speaker 1: had to make the grade so I couldn't play, you know.

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Speaker 1: So there were times where I did just enough to

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Speaker 1: get by. Um. As much as I hate sitting here

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Speaker 1: saying that, but I did. UM, I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: think at a very young age, Seriously, if we're being honest,

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Speaker 1: I think at a very young age, I knew that

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Speaker 1: God had blessed me with a talent that not a

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Speaker 1: lot of people had, and it was up to me

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Speaker 1: to decide what I was gonna do with that talent.

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Speaker 1: So when when the w n b A started, um one,

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Speaker 1: I didn't believe it was gonna happen initially, but after

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Speaker 1: it did and I signed my very first w n

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Speaker 1: b A contract, which wasn't an NBA contract, but my

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Speaker 1: I felt like all the hard work, everything I put in,

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Speaker 1: all the sacrifices that I made that my mom made, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like finally and now I can go out here and

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Speaker 1: I can I can show the world you know what

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Speaker 1: who Sheryl Swoops is and and what this game means

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Speaker 1: to me. Before getting to the w n B A though,

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Speaker 1: what college is talking about your college experience? What colleges

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Speaker 1: was that for? Um? I mean a lot um everybody.

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Speaker 1: You know. The one school that didn't recruit me was Connecticut.

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Speaker 1: I know it was one crazy thing. Here's a crazy thing,

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Speaker 1: but back back then, back in the day, Connecticut wasn't

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Speaker 1: like the Connecticut there today it was, you know, but

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Speaker 1: back then it was the University of Texas, UM Tennessee

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Speaker 1: and Tennessee stand here, and being from Texas, you know,

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Speaker 1: being from Texas, I was like, oh, no, long Horns,

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Speaker 1: it is Longhorns. So I initially signed to go play

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Speaker 1: at the University of Texas. I was there for seven

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Speaker 1: days and got homesick and didn't like transfer. But what

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Speaker 1: I would tell you is it wasn't a thing of

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Speaker 1: me calling my mom saying, hey, I'm homesick, I want

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Speaker 1: to leave. I called my mom every day, balling boo

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Speaker 1: hoo and crying, and she said to me, oh no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: you made this decision. And I didn't talk to her

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Speaker 1: about it. I just said that the long Horns are

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Speaker 1: recruiting me. That's where I'm going. So I called her

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Speaker 1: six nights straight, balling boo hoo and saying I want

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Speaker 1: to leave, I want to come home. And she said,

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Speaker 1: oh no, no, that's not what we do. You made

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Speaker 1: the commitment, so you gotta do it. And it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until the last day. I called her and I was

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Speaker 1: crying hysterically and I said, Mom, I'm leaving, whether you

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Speaker 1: want me to or not, I'm out. And she finally

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Speaker 1: gave in and said, okay, well baby, come home, and

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Speaker 1: um yeah, and so when I laughed, I transfer went

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Speaker 1: to Texas Tech and you know, as they say, the

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Speaker 1: rest is history. I want a national championship. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I had a similar situation when I was at U

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Speaker 1: c l A. I mean, I'm from northern California, so

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Speaker 1: I was only an hour plane flight or six hour drive,

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Speaker 1: but just leaving home for the first time, it was

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Speaker 1: a lot. And although I was in all of I

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Speaker 1: was in l A. At U c l A. I

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Speaker 1: had the same experience. I was driving home once a week.

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Speaker 1: You know, I make the right decision, that's should I

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Speaker 1: just go somewhere closer to home, But I ended up

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Speaker 1: sticking it out and it was great for me. But

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Speaker 1: I definitely remember those early days in college like, damn,

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Speaker 1: I'm finding away from home. But do I really want

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Speaker 1: to be away from home? I thought I did, right.

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Speaker 1: I was eight out in Austin. At Texas, I was

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Speaker 1: eight hours away, so and that was my first thought

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Speaker 1: was Damn, I just gotta it away from home. And

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Speaker 1: when I did it, I was like, I don't really

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Speaker 1: think this is for me. So you senior year, like

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Speaker 1: you mentioned, you win a national championship at Texas Tech.

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Speaker 1: UM score forty seven points in the championship game name

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Speaker 1: final for m v P. What was that experience? Like

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Speaker 1: party seventh, Lord right and the team ship. They only

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Speaker 1: won by two. The game wasn't that close. It was

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Speaker 1: one of those games it was. It really wasn't um.

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Speaker 1: It was close, but not a two point game. It

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Speaker 1: was more like a kid point game. But yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: I had friends who played for Stanford and Tennessee and

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Speaker 1: I would always ask them because those were the schools

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Speaker 1: that every year, year after year. They were the Connecticuts

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Speaker 1: back then, right year after year, either they're gonna win

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Speaker 1: it or they're at least going to be at the

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Speaker 1: final four and I would always ask them like, what

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Speaker 1: does it feel like? How did you do it? What

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Speaker 1: you know? And they were like, you have to experience it,

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Speaker 1: like I can sit here and tell you, Oh, it's

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Speaker 1: such a great feeling. And in my mind I was like,

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Speaker 1: but that's just not good. Seriously was I was like,

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Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. I'll tell you the team I

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Speaker 1: played on at Texas Tech, we weren't the most talented team.

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Speaker 1: We played a two three zone defense the entire game.

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Speaker 1: We weren't very athletic, but we all played our roles

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Speaker 1: right like that's how we were able to win. But

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Speaker 1: the best by the way they did it was anyway.

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Speaker 1: But the best feeling was being able to have my

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Speaker 1: mom there and my brothers there and share that moment

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Speaker 1: with them, And especially when so many people said, if

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Speaker 1: you leave Texas, you'll never win a championship, and growing

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Speaker 1: up in the town I grew up, so many people

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Speaker 1: doubted that, you know, I would ever be anything and

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Speaker 1: or be successful and leave the city. So to be

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Speaker 1: able to share that moment with my family was the

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Speaker 1: best filling in the world. Winning a national championship is

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Speaker 1: it's special. It is so special. I missed it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Jack checked out of school, Jack Jack, Jack checked out

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Speaker 1: of school in high school. College was never option. It

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Speaker 1: was league or nothing. No, I was. I was on

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Speaker 1: camp as the whole pers semester that I was on

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Speaker 1: and I couldn't pass past the test because I was

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Speaker 1: too busy part of it. And they went on to

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Speaker 1: win the national championship. You oh, yeah, right, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but look but you still made it, still made What

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Speaker 1: was your basketball experience like post college before the w

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Speaker 1: NBA came around. So, Matt, my story is a little

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Speaker 1: different than probably a lot of other players if you

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Speaker 1: asked them. And and I am a firm believer that

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Speaker 1: I say this all the time that God put me

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Speaker 1: at the right place at the right time when he

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Speaker 1: wanted me there, because when I I'm when when I

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Speaker 1: graduated from Texas Tech, I went to Italy, but I

403
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: was only there for five months. Um, I played five months,

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Speaker 1: came back home, got my degree, and then ninety six

405
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: USA Basketball had put together a national team where we

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Speaker 1: were together for an entire year. We trained in Colorado

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Speaker 1: Springs in preparation for the ninety six Olympics in Atlanta.

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00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 1: We trained in Colorado Springs. We did a European tour

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Speaker 1: and they paid us to do that, so I never

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Speaker 1: was in a position where I had to go play

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Speaker 1: overseas in the off season. If I if I did it,

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Speaker 1: it's it was because I chose to do it. But

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Speaker 1: right after the Olympics, then the w NBA started take

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Speaker 1: Me Back tomics. Obviously, you guys get there, you guys

415
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: capture gold, but that's also the bombing. So what what

416
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,960
Speaker 1: was that experience like for you guys with the bomb

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00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:16,360
Speaker 1: in Centennial Park? Because I actually just watched the Netflix

418
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Speaker 1: thing and I forgot what it was called, but they

419
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 1: had the guy that they thought set the bomb and

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00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 1: he didn't really, but it really fascinated me and brought

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00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: me back to that point because I remember when I

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Speaker 1: was in high school seeing how big of a deal

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Speaker 1: that was. And it's crazy because I saw that on Netflix,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't want to watch it because I didn't

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00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: want to go back to that moment. Too close to home,

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Speaker 1: I can imagine, right. I think, first of all, we

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Speaker 1: all thought it was a joke for whatever reason, because

428
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: it's like, first of all, we're in the US, right,

429
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 1: like that's not happening here. And then Centennial Park was

430
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 1: so close to where we were staying. We didn't stay

431
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 1: in the Olympic Village with all the other athletes. We

432
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,400
Speaker 1: were in Um. Y'all forgive me because I can't even

433
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: think of the name of the hotel. Um. If I

434
00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: said the Omni, would you say, yeah, does that make sense? Yeah,

435
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: that's it. That's the Omni right to park. Okay, thank you,

436
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: because I'm like, is there even an Omni anymore? But

437
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: that's where yep, that's where we stay. So we actually

438
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 1: had a day off and I think most of us

439
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: were just kind of out doing our own thing. And

440
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: as soon as the bombing happened, we all start getting

441
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: these messages and security and everybody. We all had to

442
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: get together and they took us away from the hotel

443
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,439
Speaker 1: until they found out like what was really going on.

444
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,720
Speaker 1: And I think in that moment though, was it was

445
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: more about like like why, you know what I mean,

446
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: like why would someone want to harm a lot of people,

447
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:53,440
Speaker 1: not not just Americans, but you're talking about people from

448
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 1: all over the world. Yeah, and then just people just fans, right,

449
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 1: And it's so And that's why I saw it on Netflix, Matt,

450
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: and I was like, mm hmmm. I don't. I don't

451
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: really want to go back there. Yeah, to this day,

452
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,439
Speaker 1: they still haven't found the person they really Yeah, they

453
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,200
Speaker 1: still haven't found the person. They exonerated the person they accused.

454
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,600
Speaker 1: He ended up dying later, but yeah, to this day,

455
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: it's still an open case. It's crazy. And you learned

456
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: that after watching the movie. Yeah, okay, it was. It

457
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: was a serious It was pretty interesting, but like I said,

458
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 1: it was close to home for you. Um, the w

459
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: n b A comes around, you're the first player signed,

460
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: but you don't join the league and uh for actually

461
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 1: six weeks after you signed because you had the birth

462
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: of your first son, which I think is crazy and

463
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. The fact that you guys can go through

464
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,160
Speaker 1: the whole pregnancy, give birth and then just hop back

465
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: like right where you picked up at it. It's unbelievable

466
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: to me, Matt. It does not happen like that. Yea, yeah,

467
00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 1: I'll make it look easy. Yeah you look like that though. No, no, no, no,

468
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: no no, no, let's rewind a little bit. So here

469
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 1: here's a crazy thing. When when the after the ninety

470
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: six Olympics, or during the Olympics, I should say, I

471
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: had a conversation with Val Ackerman who when when it

472
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: first started, Val was the president, like we didn't have

473
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,880
Speaker 1: a commissioner UM and David Stern god rest his soul.

474
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: I had conversations with the two of them about UM

475
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 1: the w n B A. And you know, at the time,

476
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: there was another league, the A B L UM that

477
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,399
Speaker 1: started up immediately after the Olympics, so a lot of

478
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,919
Speaker 1: most of the players joined the A B L. But

479
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,440
Speaker 1: I had a conversation with Val and David and they

480
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 1: both asked me not to play in the A B L,

481
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 1: that the w n B A was gonna start, and

482
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: they wanted me to, you know, basically market the league,

483
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: get people excited about it. And you know, I mean

484
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 1: why not. I needed a break, wanted a break. They

485
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: were gonna pay me so I didn't have to play

486
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: in the A B L. And after that, I remember,

487
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,320
Speaker 1: I still didn't believe it was gonna happen until I

488
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:08,439
Speaker 1: actually signed that first contract with the w n B A.

489
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: And as you said, I when I signed my contract,

490
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: I did not know I was pregnant. I found out

491
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: later and my initial reaction was shit, like, what is

492
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: the league gonna think? What is the league gonna do?

493
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: I'm letting the league down. I'm letting the fans down.

494
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: I am the face of the league, like I gotta play,

495
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 1: But there was no way I could play. Um obviously

496
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: there was no way I could play, And it was

497
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: never a question of whether I was going to have

498
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: my son or not. So I waited until after my

499
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: first trimester, had a conversation with um val Ackerman and

500
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 1: told her what was going on, and she was so

501
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: supportive and was just like, well, I mean, you know,

502
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,960
Speaker 1: that's as female athletes, that is one thing that we

503
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: have to think about, right if we want to start

504
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 1: a family and have kids, we have to think about that.

505
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 1: But she said, as soon as you're you know, you're ready,

506
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: you're able, you're healthy, Like, we'll be ready for you.

507
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: But meanwhile, I continue to market the league and do

508
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: things for the league. But as you said, six weeks

509
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: after I gave birth to my son, I was back

510
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: out of the court, and not so much that I

511
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: was like, no, I gotta play, right, because that was impossible.

512
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: I gained fifty five pounds I was pregnant, so I

513
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: was like, there's no way. But the reason why I

514
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 1: did it is because I wanted to be a part

515
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: of the inaugural w NBA season, Like that was very

516
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: important to me to just be a part of it. Um.

517
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: But it was not as easy as I don't know people, yeah,

518
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,160
Speaker 1: because you made it sound like day I wish it

519
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 1: was that easy. No, it um. It took me. Honestly,

520
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,560
Speaker 1: it took me an entire year to get back into

521
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: playing shape. So you end up joining your team and

522
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: you guys from the first year established a dynasty. We're

523
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: able to win four straight titles? How tough after one,

524
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: defending two, after two, defending three, and then finally getting

525
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: that fourth. How tough was that each year with your

526
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: team considering as a league, we ain't wait more than four.

527
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: You want to know the truth, man, You know, here's

528
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: us crazy. So when the league first started that first

529
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:39,520
Speaker 1: the first season, like there wasn't a draft, like players

530
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: got to point it. So with me being from Texas,

531
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: they said, all right, you're from Texas, You're going to

532
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: play in Houston. And with Cooping living living in Houston,

533
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: they appointed her to Houston and a lot of people

534
00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: didn't know about it. They were those players' sack, but

535
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: letson know. But there were other teams that were the same.

536
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 1: But people didn't really know about Coop because she had

537
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: been playing overseas, right, she was one of those players

538
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 1: that had to go play overseas because there was no

539
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 1: professional league. So then after we get a pointed, right,

540
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: then l A gets Lisa Leslie and I don't even

541
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: know who the other player was, to be honest with you.

542
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: So then there's a draft and we end up drafting

543
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: Tina Thompson. But no one, but no one knew how

544
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: good Tina was gonna be. And so because I had

545
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: played in the Olympics and Cooper played overseas, I knew

546
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: this player from Brazil named Janette or Kane who was

547
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: like all she's like all everything in Brazil. So then

548
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: we get Janette to come and be on the team,

549
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: and now you have you have four players. Is honestly,

550
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 1: who on any given night can can give you thirty

551
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 1: or forty seriously, So now it's about, well, let's go

552
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 1: find us some role players. Some of your toughest matchups

553
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: O UM playing l A was always tough, Like Lisa

554
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: Leslie is one of the toughest competitors I've ever played

555
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: with and against UM, even though we don't play the

556
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 1: same position. Those were good battles that we had. Um,

557
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: Tamika Catchings catches just a baller, like she was gonna

558
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: defend you all night long. UM. And some you know

559
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 1: players that a lot of people probably don't know or

560
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: talk about. Like when the league first started, we had

561
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 1: a lot of international players that could go Like there

562
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 1: were a couple of players from Russia that we're not

563
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 1: I mean ice that could just play. So defending a

564
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: lot of the playing against a lot of the international

565
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 1: players was I won't say it was tough. It was

566
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 1: good competition, like like they were just good. And when

567
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: I look at current players, I know you didn't ask

568
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: me this question, but current players, UM, because the players

569
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 1: today I didn't really play against. UM. But like Angel mccatrey,

570
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: I think I think Angel's heck of a player. Loved Angel.

571
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: Angel reminds me of myself. She plays both ends of

572
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: the floor. I just I love her game, love watching

573
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: her play. Huge Asia Wilson fan, I love Asia Wilson.

574
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: I think Asia will be one of the best players

575
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 1: in the league. UM. The player I will leave with

576
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: would be Lauren Jackson, who played for Seattle. For people

577
00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: who don't to play for Seattle, Lauren, Lauren was the true. Yeah,

578
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: you gotta give Lisa problems. We gotta gives prolem she be.

579
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 1: She's the first woman. She's the first woman to have

580
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: a w NBA championship and also be the coach to

581
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 1: coach a professional men's team to a championship in the

582
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,759
Speaker 1: Big threship. Beat me in the championship with Joe Johnson team.

583
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: So salute to Lisa. Salutes. I think I was there

584
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:34,439
Speaker 1: when she beat you. So yeah, hell, goddamnito too much.

585
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:36,800
Speaker 1: Joe Johnson was too much. Actually got him on the

586
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,840
Speaker 1: show coming soon. But Joe was just too much. Let

587
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 1: me ask you a question since you brought that up,

588
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:46,720
Speaker 1: because I I heard some people saying, oh, because Nancy

589
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 1: did Nancy win the first championship. She did, she won

590
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: the second one, the second one, the second one, Nancy

591
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: won the second, and then Lisa won the third. So

592
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: I heard a lot of people saying that they were

593
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,839
Speaker 1: given players to stack their team so that they could

594
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:09,319
Speaker 1: make a big deal out of a female coaching the

595
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 1: men's teams and winning a championship. I can answer that

596
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:19,760
Speaker 1: that's absolutely false. Um, Corey mcgetty and Contino Mobley picked

597
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: Nancy Lieberman to be their coach first of all, Um,

598
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: and before John Johnson came in the league, they asked

599
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: Joe Johnson, they gave him a number of coaches who

600
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,800
Speaker 1: he wanted to play for, and he also picked Lesa Leslie.

601
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 1: So yeah, so I I have been the face of

602
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: this league. I have been the face of the Big

603
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:38,719
Speaker 1: Three since and started, and Joe took it from me now.

604
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: But that that is the facts. That's what's up. I

605
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 1: like that. I like that. So, um, you were able

606
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: to experience a lot of success early on in the

607
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: w n b A. But outside of actually playing, what

608
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 1: are some of the challenges you and some of the

609
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,080
Speaker 1: bigger name players face continuing to try to grow the

610
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: league and getting respect and getting equal pay and in

611
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,399
Speaker 1: the whole nine, Because it's still I struggled to this day.

612
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. She took a deep breath before this one.

613
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 1: Where did I did? I just listen? I take a

614
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:26,280
Speaker 1: lot of pride in watching the league succeed and doing

615
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 1: my part to try and help it succeed, right, But

616
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: at the same time, I also feel like it's one

617
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 1: of those things where it's like, thank you, guys for

618
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 1: what you did for us. Now it's time to move

619
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: on to other players, current players, and I take that

620
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 1: very personally. It's almost like a slap in the face

621
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: when you look at where the league started and all

622
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 1: the players who helped get the league to where it

623
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: is today, and for for us not to be included

624
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 1: in this may be real petty, but I don't really care.

625
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,439
Speaker 1: So when I look at the NBA, right I look

626
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 1: at NBA All Star and all the events and things

627
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 1: that are going on um surrounding NBA All Star, you

628
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: always see former players involved in some capacity, and I

629
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 1: think that's important because I also think there's a connection

630
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: that former players have with the fans and even with

631
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 1: the players. But that doesn't happen in the w n

632
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: B A, So I don't know if that was two

633
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: years ago. All Star Game is in Las Vegas, and

634
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 1: again it's not this big, grand ceremony celebration like the NBA.

635
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 1: I get that, but you still have so many former

636
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,399
Speaker 1: players who are around who want to be a part

637
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: of the league, who want to help grow the league,

638
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: but you don't take it and into that, and you

639
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,280
Speaker 1: don't use use us to help do that. So when

640
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,759
Speaker 1: I go to the Skills Challenge, this is two All

641
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,359
Speaker 1: Star Games ago. I go to the skills Challenge right

642
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,799
Speaker 1: to watch the w n b A do their little thing.

643
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: It's not packed a gazillion seats on the floor. I

644
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,840
Speaker 1: get someone walk up to me and say, sure, you

645
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: can't sit on the floor, your seat is up there.

646
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Now when I say that, maybe petty, I

647
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,319
Speaker 1: don't look at that as being petty, because the way

648
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:44,160
Speaker 1: I look at that is what your bank as disrespectful.

649
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:48,880
Speaker 1: And not not only that, y'all there's five empty seats

650
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 1: on the floor. Nobody's there watching first of all, right,

651
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: like seriously, And then I turned and look at who

652
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:00,399
Speaker 1: you who you did allow to sit on the floor,

653
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 1: And I'm like, there is something seriously wrong with this picture.

654
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 1: It really is. And I have over over the years,

655
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: I have become more vocal about the treatment and or

656
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: mistreatment and how I feel about it, because I think

657
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: if you want to continue to see the league grow

658
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,360
Speaker 1: and be successful, you have to start using your former

659
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,920
Speaker 1: players to make that happen. And a lot of the

660
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 1: fans in the w n b A are fans from

661
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: back in the day who still have that connection or

662
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: they want that connection of relationship with the former players.

663
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 1: And I just don't see how that could hurt if

664
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,520
Speaker 1: if anything, it's only going to help grow the game.

665
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,880
Speaker 1: And I do know for a fact that there I

666
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 1: am not the only player that feels that way. I mean,

667
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: like Jack said, I mean, the league was built on

668
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 1: your guys is back and the fact that there's no

669
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: homage or almost even respect um when it comes to

670
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 1: recognizing who helped the foundation of this league that has

671
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: continued to grow ever since. But like you said, it's

672
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 1: still it's funny you say that because I feel a

673
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 1: similar way with U C l A. It's almost like

674
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: we did what we did out there, and then once

675
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:15,320
Speaker 1: you're gone, you're gone, and who's next? You know what

676
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 1: I mean? We had probably arguably the most guys in

677
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:21,719
Speaker 1: the NBA, but they don't you unless you're back donating thousands,

678
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 1: a hundreds of thousands of dollars, they don't give a

679
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 1: shit about you. Like they don't use us to recruit nobody,

680
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 1: They don't use us to do anything, and we're some

681
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: of the most recognizable figures in the game, but they

682
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: don't utilize this, you know what I mean. It's like,

683
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: what's the point, you know? So it's I I could

684
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,240
Speaker 1: obviously yours is on a higher level because it's professional.

685
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 1: But I get exactly what you're saying. It's just like,

686
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: once you did what you did, it was great for

687
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: what you did, it right you thank you for what

688
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 1: you did. But who's up next now? Instead of being like, Okay,

689
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,080
Speaker 1: well we appreciate you, how can we integrate you? Because

690
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 1: to me, you can't tell me that having me call someone,

691
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: having Baron Davis called someone, Russell Westbrook call someone, some

692
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: of these guys call some of these players, and using

693
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 1: a recruiting pitch is not gonna help you recruit players,

694
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: just like it's not gonna help for you guys. Gonna

695
00:41:03,719 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 1: help you guys to be there to continue to grow

696
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,440
Speaker 1: the game, Matt. You may not they may not get

697
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 1: the players, but they're at least going to listen to you.

698
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? Like, I think that,

699
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,280
Speaker 1: to me, that's a no brainer, And why people can't

700
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:22,360
Speaker 1: see that and don't take advantage of that is beyond

701
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: me to touch on that. I know when I you know,

702
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 1: I've been to a couple of All Star Games and

703
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not know where the players in the

704
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: NBA that you were, that you was in the w

705
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: n b A and the respect that you deserve. But

706
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 1: they have tickets at All Star games and floor seats

707
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 1: for theft guy on the roster when All Star weekend

708
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,479
Speaker 1: in any city. So it's no way that the face

709
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,480
Speaker 1: of the w n b A should not be able,

710
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: you know, to set on the floor. So I I

711
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 1: totally understand your pain. But the NBA does a great

712
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,960
Speaker 1: job of bringing w n BAY players and getting them

713
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:57,120
Speaker 1: and All Star weekend, you know what I mean. So

714
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 1: so I don't understand what you're saying. No, I was

715
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:01,840
Speaker 1: just gonna say. Some people might listen to that and

716
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 1: they're like, that is so petty, but it really isn't

717
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: like I have done so much for this game, for

718
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 1: the league, and I continue to do it daily, and

719
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,399
Speaker 1: for me to expect to be treated a certain kind

720
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 1: of way, I don't think that's asking too much, not

721
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: at all. My one question is did you move seats

722
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:27,799
Speaker 1: when they came and told you that wasn't your seat?

723
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,160
Speaker 1: So listen, let me tell you. So now I tell you,

724
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:39,399
Speaker 1: let me. The angry black woman in me came out.

725
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 1: This is what I wanted to hear. I want to

726
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:46,400
Speaker 1: hear this. I wanted to I wanted to. I wanted

727
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: to cuss it the screen when you just told me

728
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: what happened, Like, what the funk? I left? I left

729
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:54,360
Speaker 1: the whole, Jim. I left the whole Jim. Then, well,

730
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: let's sence you ask that question. No, let me let me,

731
00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 1: let me finish the story. I left the gym right.

732
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: The next day was the actual All Star game. Okay,

733
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: the next day it was an actual All Star game.

734
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 1: And our tickets. Again, they weren't a nose bleep but

735
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 1: some bullshit, I'll say it for you, but let me

736
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 1: tell you what happened, man. So instead, I come to

737
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:23,240
Speaker 1: the game and I sat courtside. So the same person

738
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 1: that told me the day before that I couldn't sit

739
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,959
Speaker 1: there comes over to me and says, oh, you didn't

740
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:34,359
Speaker 1: pick up your ticket for the game. Um, how did

741
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:36,239
Speaker 1: you get this one? I said, first of all, it

742
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:38,040
Speaker 1: wasn't none of your business. I didn't get it from you.

743
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 1: Who is? So I ended up the owner, the owner

744
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:47,640
Speaker 1: of the aces. He gave me a ticket. He was like, no,

745
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 1: you need to be sitting courtside right next to me.

746
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 1: So that caught that was a whole anyway. I'm like, really, well,

747
00:43:57,520 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: someone someone from the w NBA is going to hear this.

748
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:01,920
Speaker 1: Y'all need to treat your legends better, especially if you

749
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: want the game to grow, if you want people to

750
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,160
Speaker 1: continue to support, if you want outside people to support,

751
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 1: you can't be treating the people that laid the foundation

752
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 1: for this game like ship and that's what you guys

753
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,240
Speaker 1: are doing. And how many players you know, got chips

754
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: out to ask man more than she can count and

755
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: v and also for the players though, right, like, there

756
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:26,640
Speaker 1: are things that the current players can learn from the veterans. Absolutely,

757
00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,239
Speaker 1: ship that we went through that you know, we can

758
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 1: share with you guys and talk to you guys about. Absolutely,

759
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:38,560
Speaker 1: that's all he wants. So three time Olympic gold medalists,

760
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 1: what were those experiences? Like? You know, obviously being in

761
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 1: the w n b A is huge because it just starts,

762
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: but it's a different kind of pride representing your country

763
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:49,359
Speaker 1: and being able to do it successfully three three times

764
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:52,239
Speaker 1: over a twelve year span. How fun was that? Man?

765
00:44:52,600 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: Like one other which want you want home? But you know, Matt,

766
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,360
Speaker 1: when I won a championship in college, I said like,

767
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:13,600
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is great and it doesn't get

768
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: any better than this. So then I go to the

769
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 1: w n b A and win championships, and I'm like, oh,

770
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 1: my God, doesn't get any better than this. But I'll

771
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 1: tell you, winning hips bad, my bad, my bad, my bad, bad.

772
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: You said it. But winning an Olympic excuse me, three

773
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:38,840
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medals is on a completely different level because

774
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:43,600
Speaker 1: you're not only representing your city or your town, or

775
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: your school or your team, it's your country, right, and

776
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 1: you're competing against other countries best that they can possibly

777
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:05,359
Speaker 1: send to compete heat and and you're playing alongside the best. Yeah,

778
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 1: we had some incredible talent on on all of those

779
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: Olympic teams. But you know, even though that was nine

780
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,640
Speaker 1: two thousand four, I still take a lot of pride

781
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:25,520
Speaker 1: in it when I look at where we are as

782
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 1: a country, right, and being a black woman in this

783
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:34,720
Speaker 1: country having an opportunity to compete on the highest level

784
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: and put on that USA uniform. And this is a

785
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: part I get a little emotional because you know, when

786
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 1: the whole insurrection and stuff happened, And if I'm supposed

787
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:46,960
Speaker 1: to talk about this, y'all, tailor, but when the whole

788
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: insurrection happened and you see some of the people who

789
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 1: were in there there's the freaking Olympic gold medalist on

790
00:46:56,239 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 1: the swimmer, right. Yeah, and so my my my response

791
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: to that when I saw it a lot, But when

792
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,840
Speaker 1: I saw him was why did you ever put on

793
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:13,840
Speaker 1: a us H jersey regardless of what you're competing in? Like,

794
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 1: do you truly understand what that represents? Because even though

795
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: I don't compete anymore, I don't play anymore, and and

796
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 1: being a black person in this country is difficult, male

797
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,120
Speaker 1: or female, it's difficult. I still take a lot of

798
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: I still take a lot of pride in representing my

799
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 1: country because it it is. It is my country. Whether

800
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 1: people want to say that or disagree or not, it is.

801
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 1: And so it's hard for me to sit back and

802
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: watch stuff like that and not feel some type of way. Yeah,

803
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: at what point in your career did you realize that

804
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 1: you would come into role model to other little girls

805
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: and even boys that look up to the game of basketball.

806
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 1: I think even in college, you know, I always take

807
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: a lot of pride in trying to do something for

808
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 1: someone else. And somebody asked me this question today. They said,

809
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: during you know, the pandemic and everything that's going on,

810
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,359
Speaker 1: how do you get through? And my response to that was, yeah,

811
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 1: you have to find time for yourself. But I try

812
00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:37,399
Speaker 1: to take the focus off of myself and think about

813
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 1: somebody else that probably has it a little bit worse

814
00:48:41,160 --> 00:48:43,920
Speaker 1: than I do, So I try to figure out how

815
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 1: can I help that person. So even playing and in college,

816
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: to me, it takes nothing to stop and sign an

817
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 1: autograph for somebody or to say hello, And you never

818
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,239
Speaker 1: know what that person is going through or what that

819
00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:02,200
Speaker 1: person has been through, and just to stop and say

820
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:06,799
Speaker 1: hi or sign an autograph could completely change that person's day,

821
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 1: if not their life. So I think for me in

822
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,320
Speaker 1: college and one growing up in a small town and

823
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,760
Speaker 1: going to Texas Tech and being in Love Book, everybody

824
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:18,840
Speaker 1: knew everybody, so I kind of was like the local

825
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: celebrity or local hero. Um so I and because of that,

826
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: I knew that and I took a lot of pride

827
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:28,759
Speaker 1: in that, and I always tried to carry myself in

828
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:32,759
Speaker 1: a way that um, when people looked at me, they

829
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,560
Speaker 1: could look at me and say, she she's just a

830
00:49:35,640 --> 00:49:38,840
Speaker 1: great person. You know, it's not about being a great athlete.

831
00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:42,200
Speaker 1: She's just a great human being. And that's what that's

832
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 1: that's what I always try to do I don't. I

833
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,000
Speaker 1: don't mean to go out to think, but I got

834
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:50,279
Speaker 1: two questions that I I just thought about. One. We

835
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,040
Speaker 1: talked to Dion Sanders and he we talked about his curl.

836
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: He said, his curl you had. You had a famous

837
00:49:56,600 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 1: curl too, said, this girl looked wet dry? Did Joe

838
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: curl look wet? Wasn't drying? I wasn't actually went on

839
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 1: the collar and all that because that she was blowing

840
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:15,920
Speaker 1: to the curl. What was it? What was that? It

841
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: was just it was a slick back. Wasn't the slick

842
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 1: back that was the college days though? Right? The curl

843
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:24,919
Speaker 1: she had, she had the slick thought she had a curve.

844
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: We thought it was a curl. Now, I don't know.

845
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 1: I had some of everything going on in college. Have

846
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 1: a curl. I had a curl that really wasn't a curl,

847
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:40,919
Speaker 1: but it was supposed to be a curl, a wet

848
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:46,760
Speaker 1: curl like the one you know where it was everything

849
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: said dr said, he look wet, but it was really dry.

850
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 1: My dad, my dad had to wet one to wear

851
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:57,200
Speaker 1: tel around his neck to make sure he didn't get

852
00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 1: all of his shirts. So yeah, I know all about that.

853
00:50:59,760 --> 00:51:04,239
Speaker 1: My my second question was how good was Don state Oh,

854
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 1: she's one of my favorite ever Mine too, so I

855
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,920
Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to play with her in the Olympics

856
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 1: and then I played with her one year for um

857
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:18,839
Speaker 1: with the comments, Dawn is you know, I hate when

858
00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:24,600
Speaker 1: people do the whole comparison thing like Lebron and m J,

859
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: because I say, it's just different, Like the timing is different, rules,

860
00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 1: the rules are different, right, fouls are different, all of

861
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:35,279
Speaker 1: those things. So even now when people say, well, Sue

862
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:39,960
Speaker 1: Bird is the best point guard ever, m maybe because

863
00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 1: you never saw Don Staley play, I mean, you know

864
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's not taking anything away from Sue.

865
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:49,920
Speaker 1: I think Sue is a good point guard, but when

866
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:54,480
Speaker 1: you start talking about the best, I don't know, I

867
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 1: don't know what That's what I would say. And Don Stateley,

868
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:03,520
Speaker 1: to me, is the epitome of what a true point

869
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:08,280
Speaker 1: guard should be. Right. She runs the team, She gets

870
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,240
Speaker 1: in your ship when she needs to, She puts people

871
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:16,560
Speaker 1: where they're supposed to be, and she is the fifth option.

872
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 1: When you talk about scoring, that's like the last thing

873
00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:23,799
Speaker 1: on her mind. And it's just a competitor. And when

874
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:29,320
Speaker 1: I look at what she has done with South Carolina. Yes, man, listen,

875
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: don't stay to me. They don't talk about her enough,

876
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:39,279
Speaker 1: what she's doing in the women's game. I love me some,

877
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:41,320
Speaker 1: don I'm glad you did because I love me some

878
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 1: down States for um. So you've got a chance to

879
00:52:46,239 --> 00:52:48,840
Speaker 1: spend eleven years in Houston. This is a two part question.

880
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,279
Speaker 1: So how how how important was it to you to

881
00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:53,640
Speaker 1: play there and be able to represent your home state,

882
00:52:53,719 --> 00:52:55,439
Speaker 1: And then how hard was it for you to leave

883
00:52:56,000 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 1: in two Seattle? That was the hardest thing ever. You know,

884
00:53:01,160 --> 00:53:06,320
Speaker 1: I always thought I would retire a Houston comment, but

885
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:10,239
Speaker 1: when the team bold and all that stuff, so like

886
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 1: I don't have a jersey that's retired hanging up in

887
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:20,360
Speaker 1: Toyota Center because the comments folded. But that was the

888
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 1: hardest thing for me to play the majority of my

889
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:28,560
Speaker 1: professional career in Houston in Texas and then go play

890
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:32,280
Speaker 1: for Seattle for a year and then go play Potrols

891
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:33,839
Speaker 1: for a year. At that point, I was like, look,

892
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be that player. Like it's it's it's time,

893
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 1: you know, it's like it's time, I'm done. But it's

894
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:44,600
Speaker 1: tough when you spend your entire career with one team

895
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 1: and then at the end of your career. You you

896
00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 1: think you can still play a little bit, but that

897
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:57,120
Speaker 1: team doesn't. So it's like, but I still got a

898
00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:59,759
Speaker 1: little juice left to give, y'all, you know. And so

899
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 1: I comes along and they're like, all right, sure we'll

900
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:05,520
Speaker 1: take you. So because I still wanted to play, I

901
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'm I'm out. But that was

902
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:13,880
Speaker 1: that was hard. I hated. I hated leaving to go

903
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:18,000
Speaker 1: play somewhere else. And it's nothing against Seattle, because we

904
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:20,840
Speaker 1: had great battles Seattle. I love the players I played

905
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 1: with there. But to to not finish my career in Houston, um,

906
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: it was tough. You just mentioned it right now. When

907
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 1: did you know, because sometimes we're the last ones to know.

908
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:38,719
Speaker 1: When did you know it was time? That's true, that's true. Um,

909
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 1: you know I always told myself that when it got

910
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,440
Speaker 1: to a point where there was no longer a challenge

911
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,800
Speaker 1: or anything for me to strive for, that it was

912
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:55,800
Speaker 1: time for me to retire. And when I say that, like,

913
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:02,120
Speaker 1: I accomplished far more than I ever thought I would

914
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,879
Speaker 1: accomplish playing basketball. Um, So it got to a point

915
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,239
Speaker 1: where I was like, all right, well, what's the next challenge? Um.

916
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:13,719
Speaker 1: But physically I had I had back surgery. I had

917
00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:16,399
Speaker 1: a ruptured disc. So I had back surgery in two

918
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 1: thousand and ten, and the doctor told me, if you

919
00:55:21,560 --> 00:55:24,320
Speaker 1: don't have surgery, you're done playing right, and if you

920
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:28,160
Speaker 1: have surgery, it's about a seventy five chance you can

921
00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:31,759
Speaker 1: play again. So I decided to have the surgery, not

922
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 1: not for playing purposes, but just so when I was

923
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,880
Speaker 1: done playing, I wanted to have a life right. And

924
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:42,520
Speaker 1: so after I came back from back surgery, I knew

925
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:46,719
Speaker 1: then that I would never be the same, but Seattle

926
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 1: was like, we we need you, we still want you.

927
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: So I came back played that year. And after that

928
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:55,799
Speaker 1: year with Seattle, I was like, NA, Like I don't

929
00:55:56,040 --> 00:56:00,839
Speaker 1: I don't want to end my career like this. Um.

930
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:04,840
Speaker 1: So I went through another off season of rehabbing and

931
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:08,240
Speaker 1: training and my body felt really good. So I thought

932
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,720
Speaker 1: I was gonna go back to Seattle one more year. Nope.

933
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:13,640
Speaker 1: I got the axe. And a lot of people don't

934
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:17,200
Speaker 1: know that, but I got the ax from Seattle, and

935
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:19,960
Speaker 1: that's how I ended up at Tulsa. Played one year

936
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:22,239
Speaker 1: in Tulsa and then I was like, no, y'are not

937
00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 1: gonna do me like that, I'm done so and you're right, man,

938
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:30,960
Speaker 1: because sometimes we don't right. But I never wanted to

939
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,399
Speaker 1: be that player that retired and then said, oh man,

940
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:38,000
Speaker 1: I got two more years and then try to come back.

941
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:44,040
Speaker 1: That to me was just like get it out, get

942
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:46,319
Speaker 1: it out. You only live once, do it. So two

943
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, you have the honor of being inducted

944
00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:52,440
Speaker 1: to the Nate Smith Basketball Hall of Fame. Explained to

945
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 1: us what that feeling was like, Man, you really do

946
00:56:55,800 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 1: want me to cry down, don't you. Um So, listen, listen.

947
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 1: The reason why I get so emotional when I think

948
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:14,560
Speaker 1: about that, and I'll probably talk fast, is that was

949
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:19,600
Speaker 1: the last trip that my mom was able to go

950
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:24,520
Speaker 1: on with me before she passed. And it was special

951
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:29,040
Speaker 1: because my mom passed away from colon cancer. But the

952
00:57:29,160 --> 00:57:32,120
Speaker 1: doctors had told her that she like, she couldn't even

953
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:35,000
Speaker 1: make that trip, and she said to me, she was like,

954
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 1: oh no, I can't make that trip. I will be there.

955
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:42,200
Speaker 1: Um So, when I think about that, having her front row,

956
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:47,240
Speaker 1: front and center and so so proud and so happy

957
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:51,960
Speaker 1: in you know, in that moment, it wasn't about her

958
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:55,480
Speaker 1: or her illness. It was about me. You know, and

959
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: I could see how proud she was and um to

960
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:01,240
Speaker 1: be able to share that with her after the entire

961
00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: journey that we had gone through. I started playing ball

962
00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 1: when I was seven. You know, my mom was with

963
00:58:06,840 --> 00:58:10,240
Speaker 1: me the entire time and at times telling me no,

964
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 1: you shouldn't play, you shouldn't do that, and then becoming

965
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:16,800
Speaker 1: my biggest fan. Um, you know. And I think it's

966
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 1: an athlete. We all want to be remembered for something

967
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 1: that we gave to the game, right And I think

968
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:30,760
Speaker 1: it's different for everybody, but for me in that moment

969
00:58:31,080 --> 00:58:33,680
Speaker 1: being at the Hall of Fame and this is the

970
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:35,880
Speaker 1: Nai Smith Hall of Fame where it's the best of

971
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:38,880
Speaker 1: the best. You know, it's not about it's not about

972
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:41,080
Speaker 1: being a man being a woman. It's the best of

973
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:45,000
Speaker 1: the best. And you know, and I'm sharing that moment

974
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:47,920
Speaker 1: with with with my husband, with my son, but you

975
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 1: know my mom and in this building is I say,

976
00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:57,240
Speaker 1: it's royalty. You know what I mean, you got the

977
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:03,120
Speaker 1: Dr Jay's magic. Everybody that's a Hall of Famer. And

978
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 1: I remember when I was giving my speech looking at

979
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:11,760
Speaker 1: my mom and I could see this look on her

980
00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:17,080
Speaker 1: face of like we did it, Like this is where

981
00:59:17,080 --> 00:59:20,800
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be, so to be able to share

982
00:59:20,880 --> 00:59:24,200
Speaker 1: that with her, um, you know, and then come home

983
00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:28,720
Speaker 1: and seriously, it was man, not even not even a

984
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:34,680
Speaker 1: year later that she passed, but it was like, seriously,

985
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:37,440
Speaker 1: it's still hard for me at times to really grasp

986
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:41,520
Speaker 1: what it what it truly means to be in the

987
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:44,360
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, like it really is a lot of

988
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:46,160
Speaker 1: people don't know to a lot of people understand too.

989
00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:48,200
Speaker 1: When you talk about Hall of Fame, they're not just

990
00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,919
Speaker 1: talking about your professional in your w b A. They're

991
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:55,120
Speaker 1: talking about your whole career and basketball body of work,

992
00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:57,440
Speaker 1: your body of work. That's the people that make it

993
00:59:57,480 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame, that has that have legendary

994
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:02,880
Speaker 1: he's of work in the game, and that's the testament

995
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:08,080
Speaker 1: to you. So congratulations again man, you belong n Man.

996
01:00:09,440 --> 01:00:11,320
Speaker 1: But I think that's dope though, because, like I said,

997
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 1: although different but but similar at the same time, you

998
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:16,920
Speaker 1: got to share that experience with your mom, you know

999
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:20,040
Speaker 1: what I mean. In my mentioned a second ago, I

1000
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 1: lost my mom to canterer in two thousand and eight.

1001
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:25,080
Speaker 1: I came into the NBA in two thousand to two

1002
01:00:25,160 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 1: thousand three, but bounced around really never got a chance

1003
01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:30,440
Speaker 1: to play and in two thousand and six and seven

1004
01:00:30,640 --> 01:00:33,160
Speaker 1: with our We Believe Warrior team. You know, I kind

1005
01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:35,480
Speaker 1: of really found my footing. And my mom was at

1006
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:37,920
Speaker 1: every single home game and got to see like her

1007
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:41,960
Speaker 1: baby succeed at my dream. And then she died less

1008
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:43,400
Speaker 1: than a year later, you know what I mean. So

1009
01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:45,320
Speaker 1: I know what you mean when you you say this

1010
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:48,720
Speaker 1: experienced that ultimate moment that your mom's get to get

1011
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:50,080
Speaker 1: to share with you, because she was there with you

1012
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:52,520
Speaker 1: from the beginning. So I know exactly how you feel

1013
01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:54,760
Speaker 1: to get that that that big moment quote unquote to

1014
01:00:54,840 --> 01:00:56,520
Speaker 1: share with you. You know, it's like you can take

1015
01:00:56,560 --> 01:01:01,840
Speaker 1: a deep breath right like, yeah, and that's exactly how

1016
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:06,840
Speaker 1: I felt. Yeah, special, that's beautiful. It's beautiful. Um, how

1017
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:09,400
Speaker 1: crucial was it because you know, like you said, you've

1018
01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:12,680
Speaker 1: you've been in this since the beginning, um to help

1019
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:16,240
Speaker 1: get salaries raised. You know, unfortunately the majority of these girls,

1020
01:01:16,360 --> 01:01:18,080
Speaker 1: you were one of the lucky ones, but the majority

1021
01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:20,200
Speaker 1: of these girls have to go overseas as soon as

1022
01:01:20,280 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: this season ends to kind of make ends meet. So

1023
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:26,640
Speaker 1: you guys really never get real time off. So how

1024
01:01:26,760 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: important is it to you to continue to raise awareness

1025
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 1: to help these salaries continue to grow, so these women

1026
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:34,320
Speaker 1: can make a real living and not have to go

1027
01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:37,120
Speaker 1: do crazy things just to be a professional athlete in

1028
01:01:37,160 --> 01:01:38,560
Speaker 1: the w n b A. And it's some of the

1029
01:01:38,600 --> 01:01:41,760
Speaker 1: top players too, Matt like, well for both of Yeah,

1030
01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:46,400
Speaker 1: you're right, Jack, it's it's important, you know. And here's

1031
01:01:46,440 --> 01:01:48,680
Speaker 1: the thing that drives me crazy when you see all

1032
01:01:48,760 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 1: these social media trolls, whether that's Instagram, Twitter, anytime you

1033
01:01:54,720 --> 01:02:00,720
Speaker 1: see a w NBA player comment about salaries, they immediately

1034
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:04,520
Speaker 1: go to, well, you're not Lebron James, you shouldn't be.

1035
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:09,280
Speaker 1: And no one's saying that. But what they are saying

1036
01:02:09,680 --> 01:02:14,800
Speaker 1: is we deserve to be compensated for our body of work. Right.

1037
01:02:15,320 --> 01:02:18,040
Speaker 1: It's not saying yeah we should. We should be signing

1038
01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:22,400
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar contracts like the NBA. No, but the NBA

1039
01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:24,760
Speaker 1: didn't sign those contracts when the NBA was in their

1040
01:02:24,800 --> 01:02:28,720
Speaker 1: twenty fifth season, you know. So, yeah, it's gonna take time.

1041
01:02:29,240 --> 01:02:32,120
Speaker 1: But the thing that that that I'm proud of is

1042
01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:36,760
Speaker 1: the new cb A that the player signed is like,

1043
01:02:36,920 --> 01:02:40,440
Speaker 1: that's a great step in the right direction. So when

1044
01:02:40,640 --> 01:02:45,600
Speaker 1: when we played, I had a child, Um, you know,

1045
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:48,520
Speaker 1: childcare wasn't taken care of. I had to pay for

1046
01:02:48,600 --> 01:02:51,280
Speaker 1: that out of my pocket. You know, if I wanted

1047
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:53,040
Speaker 1: my nanny to travel, I had to pay for that

1048
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:56,800
Speaker 1: out of my pocket. Even as a mom, I'm sharing

1049
01:02:56,880 --> 01:03:00,360
Speaker 1: a room with one of my teammates, So if I

1050
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:03,360
Speaker 1: want my own room, I gotta pay for that, pay

1051
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:06,080
Speaker 1: the difference out of pocket. So of course, if I'm

1052
01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:09,920
Speaker 1: traveling with my son and my manny, I'm gonna get

1053
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:11,760
Speaker 1: my room. I'm gonna get a room for a nanny

1054
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,960
Speaker 1: so my son can be there. So all those things

1055
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:18,480
Speaker 1: we had to go through so that the players today

1056
01:03:19,200 --> 01:03:22,760
Speaker 1: know what to ask for. Right, we didn't know. The

1057
01:03:22,840 --> 01:03:25,680
Speaker 1: league had just started. We were just happy to be playing, right,

1058
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:28,280
Speaker 1: It's like you want us to sleep in bunk beds,

1059
01:03:28,280 --> 01:03:31,600
Speaker 1: We're gonna sleep in a bunk bed. Didn't matter, right,

1060
01:03:31,920 --> 01:03:33,960
Speaker 1: because we didn't know what to ask for. So when

1061
01:03:34,040 --> 01:03:36,800
Speaker 1: I look at the players today, yeah, they're educated. They

1062
01:03:36,920 --> 01:03:39,680
Speaker 1: continue to see what's going on around them, and they

1063
01:03:39,880 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 1: understand their worth. And not to say that we didn't,

1064
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:46,840
Speaker 1: but again, the league was just you gotta start somewhere,

1065
01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 1: and I say, somebody's gotta be, somebody's gotta be. Lack

1066
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:52,920
Speaker 1: of a better word, I'll say guinea pig. Right. So,

1067
01:03:53,080 --> 01:03:57,240
Speaker 1: now we we didn't fly on private planes. We flew commercial.

1068
01:03:57,360 --> 01:04:02,720
Speaker 1: We play in Houston on a UM Tuesday at seven,

1069
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:06,560
Speaker 1: game finishes at nine. By the time you get home,

1070
01:04:06,600 --> 01:04:08,800
Speaker 1: it's midnight. We gotta be up at six in the

1071
01:04:08,880 --> 01:04:10,720
Speaker 1: morning the next day because we gotta go get on

1072
01:04:10,760 --> 01:04:13,440
Speaker 1: a plane. We have it back to back in Phoenix, right, Like,

1073
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:18,240
Speaker 1: that's what we did. But we made it work. Yeah,

1074
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:22,360
Speaker 1: we made it work. So when when I look at

1075
01:04:23,320 --> 01:04:27,600
Speaker 1: and and it's not just about them fighting for better

1076
01:04:28,560 --> 01:04:31,400
Speaker 1: work conditions and better salary and things like that, but

1077
01:04:31,600 --> 01:04:35,400
Speaker 1: they like they stand up and they speak out and

1078
01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:40,720
Speaker 1: they use their voices, whether that is around social justice

1079
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:45,720
Speaker 1: or any you know, the election politics, any of that stuff.

1080
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:50,440
Speaker 1: Like they're saying, listen, these things matter to us too.

1081
01:04:50,640 --> 01:04:54,479
Speaker 1: Just because we're athletes doesn't mean we don't care about

1082
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:56,600
Speaker 1: those things, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't have a voice.

1083
01:04:56,960 --> 01:04:58,640
Speaker 1: You know. It goes back to the whole thing they

1084
01:04:58,720 --> 01:05:02,200
Speaker 1: said about Lebron shut up and dribble. No, Like, that's

1085
01:05:02,240 --> 01:05:05,000
Speaker 1: not what we're gonna do. And so I make it.

1086
01:05:05,520 --> 01:05:08,120
Speaker 1: I take my hat off to those ladies because they're

1087
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:10,680
Speaker 1: they're not afraid to just you know, stand up and

1088
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:14,880
Speaker 1: and speak up and speak out and say right is

1089
01:05:15,000 --> 01:05:18,840
Speaker 1: right and wrong is wrong. But at the same time,

1090
01:05:18,880 --> 01:05:20,960
Speaker 1: it's because of what you guys went through that they

1091
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:26,520
Speaker 1: understand their worth now, right absolutely. But you know, and

1092
01:05:26,800 --> 01:05:28,480
Speaker 1: I hear I get a lot of people ask me.

1093
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:31,080
Speaker 1: You know, they say, well, do you wish you were

1094
01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:33,920
Speaker 1: still playing today? And then your salary would be what

1095
01:05:34,080 --> 01:05:37,280
Speaker 1: these ladies are making. So here's what I say, Well,

1096
01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:40,840
Speaker 1: that's a dumb question, because of course I would move

1097
01:05:40,920 --> 01:05:42,760
Speaker 1: to make more money right when I was playing, I

1098
01:05:42,800 --> 01:05:45,840
Speaker 1: would love to make more money. But I'm not mad

1099
01:05:45,920 --> 01:05:49,560
Speaker 1: at these ladies because they are making more than what

1100
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:51,960
Speaker 1: I made when I played. That's the way it's supposed

1101
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 1: to be. It's supposed to happen that way, right. How

1102
01:05:55,400 --> 01:05:58,800
Speaker 1: proud are you of the w w NBA players making

1103
01:05:58,840 --> 01:06:06,040
Speaker 1: a stand taking this in Um, I mean, I'm I'm proud.

1104
01:06:06,840 --> 01:06:10,360
Speaker 1: But you know what I would say is this isn't new, Like,

1105
01:06:10,480 --> 01:06:12,440
Speaker 1: this isn't anything new for the w n b A

1106
01:06:13,880 --> 01:06:17,560
Speaker 1: from from the time I feel like from the time

1107
01:06:17,920 --> 01:06:21,720
Speaker 1: the w n b A first started in n it

1108
01:06:22,120 --> 01:06:27,080
Speaker 1: was there was always something surrounding the w n b

1109
01:06:27,200 --> 01:06:30,640
Speaker 1: A the players aren't good enough, all the players are gay.

1110
01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:34,000
Speaker 1: The league's not gonna last. So we've always had to

1111
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 1: fight against something, fight for something. We always have to

1112
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:42,240
Speaker 1: stand in our ground for something. So to to see

1113
01:06:42,320 --> 01:06:45,800
Speaker 1: what the women are doing now, like it's no surprise

1114
01:06:45,920 --> 01:06:48,680
Speaker 1: to me. I think it's a surprise to a lot

1115
01:06:48,720 --> 01:06:52,160
Speaker 1: of other people because they don't know the women like that.

1116
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:55,000
Speaker 1: They've never seen them like that. And it's not just

1117
01:06:55,280 --> 01:06:57,400
Speaker 1: about what they bring to the court and what they

1118
01:06:57,480 --> 01:07:00,280
Speaker 1: have to offer the game, but it's so much bigger

1119
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:05,880
Speaker 1: than that. Like there's a lot of strong, talented, smart

1120
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:09,000
Speaker 1: women who play in the w n b A that

1121
01:07:09,160 --> 01:07:12,280
Speaker 1: are very educated and they they're very well aware of

1122
01:07:12,400 --> 01:07:14,720
Speaker 1: what's going on around them, what's going on in this

1123
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,560
Speaker 1: in this world, in this country, and they're going to

1124
01:07:17,640 --> 01:07:24,080
Speaker 1: speak up. And you know, I don't know if here's

1125
01:07:24,120 --> 01:07:26,600
Speaker 1: what makes them so powerful is that they all been

1126
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:33,760
Speaker 1: together right together, Like they all stick together. So when

1127
01:07:34,400 --> 01:07:39,400
Speaker 1: somebody comes in and says, Kelly author, who was is

1128
01:07:39,520 --> 01:07:43,560
Speaker 1: whatever the owner of Atlanta Dream, like she's wrong, yeah, right,

1129
01:07:43,640 --> 01:07:46,280
Speaker 1: Like one player comes in and says, guys, listen, and

1130
01:07:46,320 --> 01:07:49,560
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, everybody's like, you're right. So then

1131
01:07:49,680 --> 01:07:52,800
Speaker 1: you see them coming in wearing they're warnut T shirts,

1132
01:07:53,080 --> 01:07:55,960
Speaker 1: Like that's a powerful statement. Even though people may not

1133
01:07:56,520 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 1: may not think so, that's a powerful statement. So yeah,

1134
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:04,200
Speaker 1: I'm I'm very proud to see you know, what they

1135
01:08:04,240 --> 01:08:06,400
Speaker 1: continue to do on a daily basis, and they do

1136
01:08:06,600 --> 01:08:11,600
Speaker 1: so much more than that that goes unnoticed. Yeah. I

1137
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:14,880
Speaker 1: said this when I was doing ESPN. I said, obviously,

1138
01:08:14,960 --> 01:08:17,200
Speaker 1: you guys strength as in your unity. But if any

1139
01:08:17,360 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 1: group understands what fighting for equality is, it's the w

1140
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:23,280
Speaker 1: n B A because you guys have been fighting for

1141
01:08:23,360 --> 01:08:27,000
Speaker 1: equality since the inauguration of the of the league, you know,

1142
01:08:27,120 --> 01:08:29,640
Speaker 1: So if anyone understands what it's like to fight for

1143
01:08:30,320 --> 01:08:33,680
Speaker 1: whether it's equality in the game or just social equality

1144
01:08:34,120 --> 01:08:36,760
Speaker 1: in our country. And that's why you saw because the

1145
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:39,280
Speaker 1: w NBA represents every color of the rainbow. There's all

1146
01:08:39,360 --> 01:08:41,640
Speaker 1: kinds of different nationalities in there, but all from the

1147
01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:44,800
Speaker 1: white to the to the every other race, they understood

1148
01:08:44,880 --> 01:08:48,439
Speaker 1: and stood you know, uh, you know, tin toes down

1149
01:08:48,920 --> 01:08:52,680
Speaker 1: with everything that these black players were doing because they understand, like,

1150
01:08:52,760 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 1: you know, these are our sisters, but at the same time,

1151
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:57,439
Speaker 1: we understand what it's like fighting for equality overall. So

1152
01:08:58,400 --> 01:08:59,840
Speaker 1: the w n b A is always to me even

1153
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:02,720
Speaker 1: special in that area one because your guys unity is

1154
01:09:03,160 --> 01:09:05,680
Speaker 1: is unmatched. But like you said, there's so much more

1155
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:07,960
Speaker 1: that they do that we don't actually get a chance

1156
01:09:08,040 --> 01:09:10,840
Speaker 1: to see. We get to see now more because it's

1157
01:09:10,840 --> 01:09:14,000
Speaker 1: talked about and everyone is doing it. But they've always

1158
01:09:14,040 --> 01:09:17,040
Speaker 1: been behind the scenes, pushing the envelope and fighting um

1159
01:09:17,320 --> 01:09:18,920
Speaker 1: even when we didn't even realize there was a fight

1160
01:09:19,000 --> 01:09:25,920
Speaker 1: to be had. Wow, you know, Matt, it's it's so

1161
01:09:26,080 --> 01:09:30,000
Speaker 1: crazy to think back when the w n b A

1162
01:09:30,160 --> 01:09:33,880
Speaker 1: first started and you know, some of the things and

1163
01:09:34,040 --> 01:09:36,280
Speaker 1: issues that we had and stuff that we had to

1164
01:09:36,320 --> 01:09:41,720
Speaker 1: fight for, but it was nowhere near the scale that

1165
01:09:41,880 --> 01:09:46,120
Speaker 1: it is today. Like you're you're talking about someone's life,

1166
01:09:47,120 --> 01:09:49,920
Speaker 1: you know what I mean that these women are standing

1167
01:09:50,040 --> 01:09:54,000
Speaker 1: up for and they're fighting for saying this is not okay.

1168
01:09:54,920 --> 01:10:00,360
Speaker 1: And to me, if if more people, right, if more

1169
01:10:00,439 --> 01:10:03,800
Speaker 1: people would take that stance when they see something is wrong,

1170
01:10:04,600 --> 01:10:10,439
Speaker 1: regardless of color, raised nationality, when they see something wrong. Yeah,

1171
01:10:10,720 --> 01:10:13,720
Speaker 1: if more people would do that, I think we as

1172
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:17,479
Speaker 1: a country would be in a better place. But what

1173
01:10:17,680 --> 01:10:20,599
Speaker 1: I think, what I think it has it has done

1174
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:25,559
Speaker 1: though it's it's given it's given people to allow people

1175
01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:32,320
Speaker 1: and insight into who who these women really are. Like again,

1176
01:10:32,560 --> 01:10:36,000
Speaker 1: they're more than athletes. And like you said, you have

1177
01:10:36,680 --> 01:10:39,960
Speaker 1: you got white, you got black. And I mean the

1178
01:10:40,360 --> 01:10:43,639
Speaker 1: w n b A just like the NBA, it's black.

1179
01:10:44,800 --> 01:10:47,320
Speaker 1: But you saw a lot of the white players who

1180
01:10:47,439 --> 01:10:50,960
Speaker 1: were at the front of the line, you know, saying

1181
01:10:51,479 --> 01:10:55,000
Speaker 1: these are my sisters and brothers, and so I am

1182
01:10:55,120 --> 01:10:57,760
Speaker 1: gonna be here with them. I'm gonna walk alongside them,

1183
01:10:57,840 --> 01:11:00,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a part of this with them. And

1184
01:11:00,560 --> 01:11:03,040
Speaker 1: I think because of that, you've got everybody together. That's

1185
01:11:03,080 --> 01:11:07,479
Speaker 1: a strong, powerful statement. Absolutely, something we can all learn from.

1186
01:11:07,600 --> 01:11:10,360
Speaker 1: Something NBA can learn from two is your guys, unity

1187
01:11:10,479 --> 01:11:13,760
Speaker 1: and togetherness. All right, coming down the home stretch, we

1188
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:16,519
Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. We got quick hitters. First thing

1189
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:27,719
Speaker 1: to come to mind, Jack ahead, your favorite teammate. Next, nice,

1190
01:11:28,200 --> 01:11:34,320
Speaker 1: we're gonna you're gonna do that to me. We're we're

1191
01:11:34,640 --> 01:11:39,120
Speaker 1: all day. You plus four going to play a pickup

1192
01:11:39,160 --> 01:11:43,760
Speaker 1: game at the park, Me plus four, Lisa Leslie of course,

1193
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:53,679
Speaker 1: Cynthia Cooper, oh my god, don stay yeah, well, y'all

1194
01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:55,439
Speaker 1: gonna play against me and at the Rutger you ain't

1195
01:11:55,439 --> 01:12:03,160
Speaker 1: going to the all day too. I want to be

1196
01:12:03,760 --> 01:12:09,320
Speaker 1: your six man. Three songs from the late nineties that

1197
01:12:09,439 --> 01:12:11,639
Speaker 1: was in your pre game playlist. I want to hear

1198
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:15,120
Speaker 1: this with some with some R songs from the late

1199
01:12:15,360 --> 01:12:19,320
Speaker 1: nineties that was in your pre game playlist. That turns

1200
01:12:19,360 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 1: you up, That turns you up from Texas, So I

1201
01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:25,880
Speaker 1: know you got something. No, here's a crazy thing, like

1202
01:12:26,560 --> 01:12:31,040
Speaker 1: I listened to Mellow music before, asked. I asked because

1203
01:12:31,040 --> 01:12:33,000
Speaker 1: I'd been listening. I'll go from park to like R

1204
01:12:33,080 --> 01:12:35,400
Speaker 1: and B. I don't know if this was nineties like,

1205
01:12:35,680 --> 01:12:39,720
Speaker 1: but my my go to song before a game was

1206
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:49,160
Speaker 1: Mary Mary though shackles. Yeah but that nineties yeah, okay,

1207
01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 1: yeah yeah and probably Whitney used to anything Whitney. I

1208
01:12:57,640 --> 01:13:00,840
Speaker 1: was good, Like, that's what I didn't listen to all

1209
01:13:00,920 --> 01:13:04,200
Speaker 1: this upb rat. That just that got me in a

1210
01:13:04,280 --> 01:13:06,400
Speaker 1: place where I was like, no, my mind is all

1211
01:13:06,479 --> 01:13:09,519
Speaker 1: over the place. I had to calm the nerves. I

1212
01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:12,760
Speaker 1: love it. I love it. Uh. Five dinner guests that

1213
01:13:12,880 --> 01:13:19,400
Speaker 1: are alive. Oh what my mom is coming back for sure? Um?

1214
01:13:19,840 --> 01:13:24,559
Speaker 1: Michelle and Barack the Obama's mm hmm, let me see

1215
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:30,280
Speaker 1: my mom, Michelle rock and you too, how about that

1216
01:13:37,479 --> 01:13:40,040
Speaker 1: time out now? But if you too, come my mama

1217
01:13:40,120 --> 01:13:49,400
Speaker 1: can't come. No, no, no, we know how mama. Okay, Yeah,

1218
01:13:50,680 --> 01:13:53,200
Speaker 1: Michelle and m Rock. I like that. That's gonna be good.

1219
01:13:53,240 --> 01:13:57,439
Speaker 1: I'm not a good time. I love it. Last question, Yeah,

1220
01:13:57,520 --> 01:13:59,599
Speaker 1: and when you ask this question, you have to help

1221
01:13:59,680 --> 01:14:02,080
Speaker 1: us with your answer, so be careful about your answer.

1222
01:14:03,040 --> 01:14:04,920
Speaker 1: One guess you'd like to see on All the Smoke?

1223
01:14:06,240 --> 01:14:14,320
Speaker 1: I know who? I want you to say? WHOA Okay,

1224
01:14:14,560 --> 01:14:18,080
Speaker 1: we need uh and it doesn't matter who I say. Okay,

1225
01:14:18,240 --> 01:14:25,200
Speaker 1: let me think. Oh, i'd like to see Barack Obama

1226
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:32,000
Speaker 1: on your show. Great, we're working on that. I can't

1227
01:14:32,040 --> 01:14:39,240
Speaker 1: help you to one and he would do it too.

1228
01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:42,000
Speaker 1: I was about I was about to say c C

1229
01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:47,839
Speaker 1: cynthing Coop, Oh, God, shouldn't do it. In a heartbeat?

1230
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:57,880
Speaker 1: Cooper is gonna show out. Yeah, yeah, I'll seend you.

1231
01:14:58,040 --> 01:15:00,680
Speaker 1: I'll send you her info. She would, she would do

1232
01:15:00,760 --> 01:15:05,559
Speaker 1: it in a heartbeat. I gotta thank you for your time.

1233
01:15:05,840 --> 01:15:08,599
Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure. Um w N b A. If

1234
01:15:08,600 --> 01:15:11,240
Speaker 1: you're listening, treat your legends right. God damn it all

1235
01:15:11,280 --> 01:15:14,240
Speaker 1: be coming for you. Um but but but thank you

1236
01:15:14,360 --> 01:15:16,760
Speaker 1: for your time. Continued blessings will to you and your

1237
01:15:16,800 --> 01:15:18,840
Speaker 1: family and best of luck and everything you're doing. Oh

1238
01:15:18,880 --> 01:15:21,800
Speaker 1: my gosh, you guys are awesome. Appreciate it. Much love

1239
01:15:21,920 --> 01:15:26,599
Speaker 1: to both of you, Thank you, thank you. That's a wrap.

1240
01:15:27,400 --> 01:15:32,280
Speaker 1: Special guest Cheryl Swoops. You can catch this on Showtime Basketball,

1241
01:15:32,320 --> 01:15:36,080
Speaker 1: YouTube and the I Heart platform Black Effects. We'll see

1242
01:15:36,080 --> 01:15:38,160
Speaker 1: you all next week. This is all a Smoke, a

1243
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:41,040
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and Our Heart Radio in

1244
01:15:41,120 --> 01:15:42,320
Speaker 1: partnership with Showtime