Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning,
Speaker 1: Everybody's d J n V.
Speaker 2: Just Hilarius Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: We got a special guest.
Speaker 1: In the building, the icon living Dawn Stanley. Welcome back.
Speaker 3: How you feel? Thank you, thank you. Thank y'all usually
Speaker 3: come back and I'm invited when we win the championship.
Speaker 3: We lost this year, So thank y'all for.
Speaker 1: Talking about you.
Speaker 2: Start that you're always invited. Uncommon favorite is out right now.
Speaker 2: Basketball in North Philly, my mother and the life lessons
Speaker 2: I learned from all three is out right now.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling great, Like I mean, my my friends have
Speaker 3: received their books and they have nothing but like great
Speaker 3: things like I am my cup running over.
Speaker 1: Yeah he did.
Speaker 3: I gotta I gotta give you a shout out. And
Speaker 3: you you sparked the conversation. So many people have asked
Speaker 3: me to write a book, and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: like yeah right, but it came from so many different people.
Speaker 3: And then when I came on the show in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, we talked about it, and you just you
Speaker 3: kept the conversation going. You're real persistent with it, and
Speaker 3: you know that's that's what I'm attracted to most. It's
Speaker 3: like somebody that actually is it persistent yet persistent and
Speaker 3: know the process, Like you knew the process. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you knew my story, so to speak, but
Speaker 3: you knew enough to know that you know this, this
Speaker 3: book will be received well. And I appreciate that well.
Speaker 4: People like you don't come around too often. Don Like
Speaker 4: you're a once in a generational just person, you know,
Speaker 4: and you really learn that when you read the book,
Speaker 4: not even just as a coach, but as a basketball player,
Speaker 4: but more so as a child of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: Man, I mean, it's it's I mean I had fun,
Speaker 3: Like the process was fun. It's liberating. It is you know,
Speaker 3: you don't really know how you're going to be received,
Speaker 3: but every person, like I'm actually waiting for a critic
Speaker 3: liked what didn't go right in the book, and then
Speaker 3: we have yet to get to that point. And I
Speaker 3: just my one of my friends was, you know, listening,
Speaker 3: had a long road trip, listened to the entire book
Speaker 3: yesterday and she was like, I'm in tears. I'm laughing.
Speaker 3: I get it, Like the leadership part of it, Like
Speaker 3: I mean, the emotions that are in the book, and
Speaker 3: it's it's me. So some of it is emotional me.
Speaker 3: Some of it is just I'm able to just get
Speaker 3: it out because I remembered most of it, and I
Speaker 3: had to call on my my siblings and kind of
Speaker 3: fill in the gaps. But it's it's me, like it's
Speaker 3: it's so me, it's so relatable, it's so just. It
Speaker 3: was an easy process, so it was there was the
Speaker 3: therapeutic at all to do it. No, it was just natural.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like it was natural. And I think sharing
Speaker 3: my story is just relatable to people. It's not like,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't think it's a you know, like
Speaker 3: in we don't overdo it with the accolades. It's like
Speaker 3: the accolades are intertwined and everybody's accolades won't be like
Speaker 3: Olympian and actual champions, but on on a certain level,
Speaker 3: like if you if you graduate high school, it's relatable,
Speaker 3: if you graduate college is relatable. If you if you
Speaker 3: can pull yourself out of the projects of any city,
Speaker 3: it's it's relatable. And and there's no there's no wrong path,
Speaker 3: like there's no like you can get off tilted, but
Speaker 3: then you got to come back by like habits come
Speaker 3: back by. You know. The the lessons in the book
Speaker 3: are just just it relates to every single thing that
Speaker 3: you would want to accomplish in life. And I'm not
Speaker 3: just saying that the pump the book, but it really
Speaker 3: is like I'm only giving what other people are giving me,
Speaker 3: the feedback they're giving me, and it's cool to hear
Speaker 3: people just relate to the book.
Speaker 4: The beautiful thing about Uncommon Favor is you get to
Speaker 4: tell your own story. So when you're when you're writing
Speaker 4: the book, what part of your story that you want
Speaker 4: to tell because you think people misunderstood it are overlook it.
Speaker 3: Well. One is when I when I when I speak
Speaker 3: on things that are controversial, you know, racial things, like
Speaker 3: it's it's it's my perspective. Like a lot of times
Speaker 3: people can't see what you see because it's not their experience.
Speaker 3: Their experience is only hearing you and commenting on how
Speaker 3: you feel about certain things. When anybody can feel strongly
Speaker 3: about certain things. I feel strongly about everything in this
Speaker 3: book because it happened to me. Like it's personal and
Speaker 3: it's my perspective, but it's it's not harmful, like allow
Speaker 3: people to tell their stories without hurting your feelings. It's
Speaker 3: it's it's personal to me. Now you could be a
Speaker 3: critic of the book, or you can enjoy the book,
Speaker 3: and you can do all those things. But now everything
Speaker 3: in this book is is my story is a part
Speaker 3: of who I him. It's allowed me to grow and
Speaker 3: learn and and succeed and fail and and all those
Speaker 3: things that happened to everybody you know sitting around this table,
Speaker 3: and everybody that will we'll read it or not read it.
Speaker 3: It's going to happen to you no matter what. So
Speaker 3: I think you know some of the stuff. You know,
Speaker 3: like you know the you know when when when I
Speaker 3: sue the A d a Missouri. You got to get
Speaker 3: the whole backstory, because if you only hear one side
Speaker 3: of it, you only hear snippets of it, you'll think, oh, well,
Speaker 3: why does she do that? Like or equal pay? You know,
Speaker 3: why why would you you already make it a lot
Speaker 3: of money, Why would you want equal pay? Well, Well,
Speaker 3: because I know my worth, like like it's not it's
Speaker 3: not hard to see. I think this book is very simple,
Speaker 3: like very simple lessons that I'm hoping that people can
Speaker 3: can take and utilize in their their daily lives.
Speaker 2: I love it because you know, people know you from
Speaker 2: different things, right. Some people know you as a player,
Speaker 2: some people know you as a coach. But with this book,
Speaker 2: it starts from where you came from, which is North Philly, right,
Speaker 2: And you talk about housing projects, and you talk about
Speaker 2: you know, you said growing up in the projects was
Speaker 2: the best decision your parents made. Explain that a little
Speaker 2: bit and how that formed to the woman that you
Speaker 2: are today.
Speaker 3: It just imagine the people that that don't grow up
Speaker 3: in the projects. What you think happens in the projects.
Speaker 3: You you think probably only one thing, crime like bad
Speaker 3: things like And for me, it was the foundation of
Speaker 3: of giving me the scars I needed, the chinks and
Speaker 3: the armor I needed to succeed. Like there was unity
Speaker 3: in the projects. There was discipline in the projects. There
Speaker 3: there was there was manicure lawns. There was my block
Speaker 3: I grew and never had trash in it, like it was.
Speaker 3: It was captain in a way that would would compete
Speaker 3: with any suburban lawn like or neighborhood. So it was
Speaker 3: it was all those things that help build you up,
Speaker 3: Like I'm unbothered and unafraid to tackle on the most
Speaker 3: challenging things in life because that's nothing compared to what
Speaker 3: that's nothing like. So I think it gave me the
Speaker 3: foundation I needed to just be able to, you know,
Speaker 3: coach every day, like coach young people, like generations are
Speaker 3: changing coaching, coaching talent and individuals and young people nowadays.
Speaker 3: It's very, very challenging.
Speaker 2: I can imagine, because you know, being a player, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you gotta scream that crazy.
Speaker 1: But if you dare talk to your girls like that.
Speaker 3: You can. You gotta office exactly. So if you're not
Speaker 3: able to pivot, if you're not able to handle different
Speaker 3: challenges that you're faced with, like I feel bad for
Speaker 3: coaches who are or aren't like like I'm I'm a
Speaker 3: traditional coach, will I like order? I like? You know,
Speaker 3: people call them rules. People think I'm very strict and disciplined.
Speaker 3: Not I am. I am, but all of our rules
Speaker 3: are are just good character themes, like good it's a
Speaker 3: good character. It's not like be on time. That's that's
Speaker 3: not a rule, that's that's a character trait. That's not
Speaker 3: that's not hard to do. If there's something that you
Speaker 3: want to do one of the lessons you have to
Speaker 3: do what you don't want to do to get what
Speaker 3: you want. Like yeah, like like you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: you're you're a renowned comedian, right, like you know how
Speaker 3: many stand up shows you have to do that maybe
Speaker 3: you were you weren't very good at at the beginning, Like,
Speaker 3: but you you want to be where you are today.
Speaker 3: You just kept at it and kept at it and
Speaker 3: kept at it. It's no, it's no different than you know,
Speaker 3: a child that that wants to grow up and be
Speaker 3: in the w n b A or the NBA. How
Speaker 3: much competitions out there, So you gotta work when nobody's working.
Speaker 3: You gotta do. You gotta get up and work out
Speaker 3: and sacrifice. I mean I sacrifice proms, I sacrifice all
Speaker 3: these things, family reunions, because I wanted to be the
Speaker 3: best in my in my profession. And that's all. It's okay.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to choose. You definitely gonna have to
Speaker 3: choose certain things over over other things in order for
Speaker 3: you to really be the best at it.
Speaker 4: I love how you embrace your in a child That's
Speaker 4: what I love this picture on the past. What's the
Speaker 4: moment from your childhood that still shapes how you like
Speaker 4: handle pressure today?
Speaker 3: You know, there's a there's a story that I that
Speaker 3: I share in the book about my father. Who I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm over fifty now, right, but when he I
Speaker 3: don't know if I was twelve fourteen, maybe I got
Speaker 3: a chance to I got invited to play on this
Speaker 3: team and this competition outside of Philly, like it was
Speaker 3: a road trip, and my father was like, no, you
Speaker 3: can't go. Like that hurt me, Like it really hurt me.
Speaker 3: And I remembered it so vividly that for him to
Speaker 3: deny me that because it was one of the first times.
Speaker 3: But I'm thirteen, fourteen years old, whose parents gonna let
Speaker 3: them somebody else take their child out of state? Like
Speaker 3: I wasn't thinking about that. I was solely thinking about basketball.
Speaker 3: But it was one of the one of the experiences
Speaker 3: that drove me Like I didn't like my father for that,
Speaker 3: Like I didn't like him for the decision parental decision
Speaker 3: that he made. But as I'm older now and reflecting
Speaker 3: on and writing a book, it is I need conflict.
Speaker 3: I know that about myself that I need conflict, Like
Speaker 3: everything can't be comfortable, Like if I have you know,
Speaker 3: ten people supporting me, you know, here I need about
Speaker 3: ten to twelve people that hated like I need it.
Speaker 3: I mean it helps me, it drives me like it
Speaker 3: drives me.
Speaker 1: I don't have a critic yet.
Speaker 3: I'm waiting for the book right now, right, So it's
Speaker 3: that is the ability. Like, you know, we lost the
Speaker 3: Yukon this year, Like you know, the critics are saying
Speaker 3: I can't coach like that, that's what they say. But
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, well but but but again, everything that
Speaker 3: I've needed in my life, you know, failure success happens
Speaker 3: to me, critics, It's uncommon. Like, but I know, I
Speaker 3: know our loss this year will somehow help us. It will.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, I'm not just I'm not just
Speaker 3: relying on it helping us. I'm gonna put put action
Speaker 3: to it. So so it means something.
Speaker 1: I love them.
Speaker 4: You said that in a post game conference. You was like,
Speaker 4: I hope that they're crying. I hope that my players
Speaker 4: are crying. I hope that it hurts. That'll make them
Speaker 4: be better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the most growth takes place when you're uncomfortable,
Speaker 3: the most if you're comfortable all the time. And I've
Speaker 3: said this as well, like parents really don't want their
Speaker 3: kids to feel what they felt like pain, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I want them to feel a little pain. I want
Speaker 3: them to hurt. I want them to be uncomfortable, and
Speaker 3: I love them enough to allow them to sit in
Speaker 3: that space because not for long, but they need to
Speaker 3: fight their way out of it, because nothing's going to
Speaker 3: be given to me. I don't like that place. I
Speaker 3: don't like to feel that, so I fight like hell
Speaker 3: to try to not feel that, by reppering, by doing
Speaker 3: everything I need to do to not feel that. It's
Speaker 3: almost like when you grow up in the projects and
Speaker 3: you grow up in poverty, you don't want that anymore.
Speaker 3: Like you don't want that. Once you've lived and you've
Speaker 3: you know you've earned a certain keep. You want to
Speaker 3: keep that because you want to change generations in your
Speaker 3: in your family, and I hope I'm able to do that.
Speaker 4: Like You've always been a natural born leader, like throughout
Speaker 4: your whole life, even when you were the child. So
Speaker 4: it made me wonder if coaching never entered your life,
Speaker 4: where do you think your leadership would have shown up?
Speaker 3: Oh man, that's a hard question. Like I'm I'm competitive.
Speaker 3: I probably would have been a losing gambler, but trying,
Speaker 3: like like trying, like I don't know. I mean, I do.
Speaker 3: I love kids, so my work would have been with kids.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad that coaching found me. Like I'm glad
Speaker 3: somebody saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.
Speaker 3: I didn't see coaching. I didn't want to coach at all,
Speaker 3: and and I don't know why, because I had great coaches.
Speaker 3: I had great people in my life that that challenged me,
Speaker 3: that were good at it. But when I when I
Speaker 3: had coaching friends, the only thing they talked about where
Speaker 3: they're you know, were their teams in basketball. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is what I do every day. I do this
Speaker 3: every day. Why would I want to talk about it
Speaker 3: every day? Why would I want my life consume with it?
Speaker 3: And here I am, twenty five years later, like loving it,
Speaker 3: like it's I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3: Then when you when you're able to live out your passion,
Speaker 3: it's the most beautiful, liberating and an incredible experience. Like
Speaker 3: I know my players really get something out of our relationship.
Speaker 3: They do, they get they build character, they navigate life.
Speaker 3: But for me, it's I'm overjoyed when they graduate. I'm
Speaker 3: overjoyed on draft night. I'm overjoyed when they're able to
Speaker 3: see their hard work produce what they want, like like
Speaker 3: what they wanted, Like even if they don't make it
Speaker 3: to the league, they're equipped, they're equipped with with being
Speaker 3: successful with anything. Like seriously, that is that that does
Speaker 3: something to my heart when when young people are able
Speaker 3: to get what they're supposed to get.
Speaker 1: And how do you block out the noise? Or do
Speaker 1: you like the noise because you said.
Speaker 2: You like the haters, you like the people that's doubting you,
Speaker 2: But do you need to block that out when you're coaching,
Speaker 2: when you're teaching your girls or teaching your women, Like,
Speaker 2: how do you deal with that?
Speaker 3: I mean that that hate usually comes from like social media,
Speaker 3: Like yeah, I read it, I see it all, you know,
Speaker 3: and sometimes you dive into it. No, I mean I
Speaker 3: look at it again and then I sometimes I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: ten nine eight seven, I got I gotta take a
Speaker 3: ten count. Some people go like this and delete like
Speaker 3: they right, and they delete. I'm like, I'll give them that, Like,
Speaker 3: but my life is living proof that you're what you're
Speaker 3: saying doesn't impact me. In the way that it was
Speaker 3: dealt out. It impacts me in a way of proving
Speaker 3: you wrong, like I'm an odds beater, Like I beat
Speaker 3: the odds, so the odds say I've already won. Okay,
Speaker 3: this is really just icing on the cake. So it
Speaker 3: drives me for sure.
Speaker 1: You know, you talked about your players.
Speaker 4: You got a lot of success stories from your time
Speaker 4: coaching at the University of South Carolina, But.
Speaker 1: In the book, you make it no secret that Asia
Speaker 1: Oshan is your favorite. M M.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I mean, here's why, here's why, And
Speaker 3: I don't I've coached a lot of great players, like
Speaker 3: Asia was the very first player that was the number
Speaker 3: one play in the country to decide she wanted to
Speaker 3: come play for us, and I know it's in her backyard,
Speaker 3: but she had and we didn't. We didn't look like
Speaker 3: a national championship team, Like we never won a national
Speaker 3: we had never been to the final four. So for
Speaker 3: her to trust us with that part of her career
Speaker 3: meant that she believed in us. She trusted us, She
Speaker 3: knew that we were going to get her to where
Speaker 3: she needed to go. As far as still being the
Speaker 3: number one draft pick, like four years later, like when
Speaker 3: someone and it wasn't just her, it was her entire
Speaker 3: family believed in it. And it took it took some
Speaker 3: you know, it took us at times them thinking did
Speaker 3: we make the right decision because she didn't. She started
Speaker 3: her first game and then she was terrible, like scrub
Speaker 3: like right, scrub like scrub like. So I was like,
Speaker 3: I gotta, I gotta take you out of start lineup.
Speaker 3: But I ain't even taught her that. I told her
Speaker 3: parents first, and her mom even was like, you're sure,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to trust me on this one, Like
Speaker 3: You're just gonna have to trust me, And she was
Speaker 3: like all right. But at the end of her freshman year,
Speaker 3: she was National Rookie of the Year, she was first
Speaker 3: team All SEC, she was Rookie of the Year in
Speaker 3: the Essa's like she got all the accolades coming off
Speaker 3: the bench. And when someone believed, like when someone as
Speaker 3: a coach and leader and mentor young people, young people
Speaker 3: believe in you like they really do, when that's reciprocated.
Speaker 3: Because I believed that, I knew that she was going
Speaker 3: to be the one that takes us to that next
Speaker 3: level when when you're able to have the same synergy, right,
Speaker 3: And you know, Asia was hell to deal with, right
Speaker 3: because she's young, like she with the private school for
Speaker 3: like twelve years. All of her school was a private school,
Speaker 3: and so she needed to be roughened up a little
Speaker 3: bit to get her ready for what she faces. Like
Speaker 3: she faces the critics right now, but I know I
Speaker 3: know she can handle them because we took her through
Speaker 3: all of that, Like she had this leg see her
Speaker 3: right throughout her college career. And I'm like, Okay, you're
Speaker 3: going to read in front of the team every time
Speaker 3: we have a game because we have a like a
Speaker 3: you know, you know, we have a scripture reading and
Speaker 3: an inspirational reading before every pregame meal and there's somebody
Speaker 3: that has to read it. So I was like, you're
Speaker 3: gonna read it took her or her senior year, couldn't
Speaker 3: do it the first second, the third her senior year,
Speaker 3: she read out loud, and she had fun with it.
Speaker 3: She had y'all, this is alone, y'all gonna have to
Speaker 3: bear with me. Like it was that kind of liberation
Speaker 3: someone when she gave her entire self to me, the good,
Speaker 3: the bad, the ugly, entire and you know that's why.
Speaker 3: I just have a really strong like relationship with her,
Speaker 3: Like she could tell me anything, Like I'm non judgmental,
Speaker 3: Like young people won't want to tell you everything because
Speaker 3: they think you're going to judge them. I don't judge.
Speaker 3: Like there's nothing that any one of my current former
Speaker 3: future players can tell me that that's gonna rock me
Speaker 3: that I haven't seen, like everybody's been through. Like there's
Speaker 3: no new problems, it's the same old, recycled problems. So
Speaker 3: just give it here so you're not dealing with it
Speaker 3: longer than you need to.
Speaker 4: What's something about your relationship with Asia that the fans
Speaker 4: and media don't see what it means the most to you.
Speaker 3: She gives me her darkest moments. Wow, like her darkest
Speaker 3: like you see a an incredibly like gift. I think
Speaker 3: she's the best player in the world, right, Yes, she's
Speaker 3: the best player in the world. I mean she she
Speaker 3: has doubts at times, like whether she's going to perform
Speaker 3: at this level, and she she gives me that, and
Speaker 3: I you know, I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 3: So you know, I've had experience with it because I
Speaker 3: played with the best player in the world during my
Speaker 3: day Lisa Leslie. Same conversations I had with Lisa, like Okay,
Speaker 3: it's time for you to be the best play in
Speaker 3: the world, like come championship time, come go medal time,
Speaker 3: like I'm used to giving them, I'm used to pumping
Speaker 3: them up. And at the end of the conversation, thank you, coach.
Speaker 3: I mean, and it's not much, it's just boom, be
Speaker 3: done with.
Speaker 5: It, even in less than four right, when you say
Speaker 5: you have to do what you don't want to do
Speaker 5: to get what you want, you weren't even good with
Speaker 5: people at first. You said you could not. You had
Speaker 5: a job that you had got through your mom's cleaning.
Speaker 5: She would get your jobs through her cleaning company, and
Speaker 5: you didn't even.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a company. My mom was a one woman
Speaker 3: show these jobs.
Speaker 5: And you did not do good with greeting people because
Speaker 5: that means you had to talk to people. That's not
Speaker 5: even what you wanted to do. And then look at
Speaker 5: you now, like that journey from there to there?
Speaker 3: How it like?
Speaker 5: How did you get there doing that you didn't even
Speaker 5: want to do?
Speaker 3: Communicate with people? Well, when when you're when you're the
Speaker 3: youngest of five, you don't really get to say, I
Speaker 3: grew up in the household, I'm the youngest, Like nobody
Speaker 3: gave me any credit. I couldn't speak, Like I got
Speaker 3: an older brother who's like eight years older my my
Speaker 3: deceased next oldest brother seven years My sister's six years
Speaker 3: older than me, and I got another brother that's two
Speaker 3: years older than me. Like, you're not getting to say
Speaker 3: in our household. So I was quiet, observant, listen, really
Speaker 3: form discernment, you know, doing those doing those times. And
Speaker 3: then you grow, like you really grow. When I went
Speaker 3: to college, I was still the same way, Like I
Speaker 3: never talked. I was shy. And then and then you know,
Speaker 3: things start happening to you, and you're like if I
Speaker 3: don't say anything, they're gonna start taking advantage of me.
Speaker 3: So now you know, I think growing up and seeing
Speaker 3: things and that's you know it. It's so cool that,
Speaker 3: you know how I explain myself in this book. It
Speaker 3: lends itself to another lesson, which is look, sound feel.
Speaker 3: If something looks, sounds or feels off, oh, I'm addressing it.
Speaker 3: I can't like it's in me to address it. If
Speaker 3: it looks sounds or feels off, I mean off, I'm
Speaker 3: addressing if it looks, sounds and feels good, I'm encouraging
Speaker 3: it like it is. It is. It is that that's
Speaker 3: where I found my voice when something just didn't seem
Speaker 3: right or something that really seemed right that that I
Speaker 3: wanted more of.
Speaker 1: What accolade meant the most to you.
Speaker 3: I would say, I'm so far from my plan days
Speaker 3: that I don't even really count that. Probably when when
Speaker 3: my players graduate, that's that's that's the best feeling, because
Speaker 3: because we sit in the living rooms and we say
Speaker 3: your child will graduate, and sometimes it's the first national
Speaker 3: college graduate. Do you know what that means to the family,
Speaker 3: Like it's not it just doesn't impact that my player
Speaker 3: in impacts everybody that comes after her or everybody in
Speaker 3: her current family that that desires to get a higher education.
Speaker 3: They'll they'll go out and do it because it's not
Speaker 3: tangible in some homes, it's not it's not something that
Speaker 3: someone has ever done in their household, and for that
Speaker 3: to happen, their their generations will change from that. So
Speaker 3: it's just the impact of that.
Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting record. I was watching you yesterday.
Speaker 4: You did Good Morning in America to view Kobe all
Speaker 4: of that stuff like that. So you was working, but
Speaker 4: I still know you're still the coach at the University
Speaker 4: of South Carolina. But I was like, oh, you know what,
Speaker 4: she'll be fine because she used to play ball and
Speaker 4: coach at the same time, which I found out about
Speaker 4: in the book.
Speaker 3: That was insane six years. That's crazy six years. I
Speaker 3: mean when I when I got into coaching, I was
Speaker 3: like in my prime, so you know the ad at
Speaker 3: the time. He kept asking me like he was persistent,
Speaker 3: like I'm like, no, no, I'm not interested. I'm playing
Speaker 3: in a WNBA and this is and then he just
Speaker 3: kept asking. And then then I ended up having to
Speaker 3: go meet with him because the final four was in Philly.
Speaker 3: I'm from Philly. He knew I was going to be there.
Speaker 3: So I went and sat down with him and he
Speaker 3: asked me two questions. He was like, can you lead?
Speaker 3: Did you do your research? Like did you like And
Speaker 3: I was like yeah, I basically was the captain on
Speaker 3: every team that I played on, right, And then he
Speaker 3: was like, can you turn Temple women's basketball program around?
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, is that a challenge? Like
Speaker 3: is that really a challenge? Because I'm drawing the challenges
Speaker 3: and I and I never looked at it that way,
Speaker 3: and I never answered the question. I don't even think
Speaker 3: I answered the question. He was like, hey, can you
Speaker 3: just come down the hall and meet some people. So
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, I'm here, and he took me
Speaker 3: in this conference room, sat me at the head of
Speaker 3: the table and they were like ten to twelve people
Speaker 3: sitting around this table, and they're asking me questions like
Speaker 3: what do you see yourself in five years? I'm like
Speaker 3: playing in the WNBA. And they were like, do you
Speaker 3: haven't seen yourself coaching? And I'm like no, Like y'all
Speaker 3: they were interviewing me. I was on a job interview
Speaker 3: and I didn't know it because all my job interviews
Speaker 3: were tryouts like basketball like physical tryouts. And needless to say,
Speaker 3: I took the job two weeks later and they just
Speaker 3: agreed to allow me to continue to play and coach.
Speaker 3: So I was in like basketball utopia because I was
Speaker 3: coaching and I'm actually still able to express myself on
Speaker 3: the court because I wasn't ready to hang up my shoes.
Speaker 3: I was still very much a player, and I think
Speaker 3: that allowed me to play a little bit longer than
Speaker 3: I wanted to. And that allowed me to keep staying
Speaker 3: fresh with what was up with teaching young people because
Speaker 3: they were more enthralled with me playing because that's what
Speaker 3: they wanted, Like I was living their dream right before
Speaker 3: their very eyes. And I think it just helped me
Speaker 3: be a better coach, be a more understanding coach because
Speaker 3: I was a player receiving information from a coach, and
Speaker 3: then I just helped the dynamics of what I was doing.
Speaker 4: And I guess we learned how to get you to
Speaker 4: do things, be persistent, a challenge, right.
Speaker 3: Like as I think about it all and this is
Speaker 3: not in the book, but everybody that I have in
Speaker 3: my you know, you know, in my circle, Like I
Speaker 3: got a financial guy, he pressed me for one for
Speaker 3: a whole year when I was at South Carolina. He
Speaker 3: would come and just visit, just check in, and then
Speaker 3: you know, finally I gave all my money to him,
Speaker 3: like seventeen years where he's still with me. And it's
Speaker 3: it's the coolest thing to have someone just because you know,
Speaker 3: like pour in like I mean, you pour it into
Speaker 3: me with this book, like you you understood it. Like
Speaker 3: I didn't want to write a book, like I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know why, but I didn't want to write
Speaker 3: a book. But then when when we won last year
Speaker 3: in an undefeated way, like I'm like, this is this
Speaker 3: is my my cup running through this is uncommon favor.
Speaker 3: And we we tried to we tried to come up
Speaker 3: with different titles for the book, and it always came
Speaker 3: back to this because this really explains my entire life,
Speaker 3: Like if I had to describe my my, my life,
Speaker 3: my career, my it is uncommon favor. Like to the
Speaker 3: m degree.
Speaker 1: Have you ever question whether you were too hard or
Speaker 1: not hard enough on a play?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, yeah there was.
Speaker 1: There was.
Speaker 3: I mean it's all teaching moments where I I wanted
Speaker 3: a freshman to beat out a senior. When I kind
Speaker 3: of first my first couple of years at South Carolina,
Speaker 3: we you know, we recruited this young lady because I
Speaker 3: thought she would be the best. I was like, this
Speaker 3: is the one I want, so all of our coaching
Speaker 3: staff we zeroed in on her. She committed, she came,
Speaker 3: and then I was I was really hard on her,
Speaker 3: like like you gotta do. I tried to pour everything
Speaker 3: in because I wanted her to beat the senior out.
Speaker 3: I couldn't just give her I couldn't just give her.
Speaker 3: I just I'm not in it. You gotta earn it
Speaker 3: because you gotta you gotta protect your locker room because
Speaker 3: if you're just giving out something and you lose trust.
Speaker 3: So I wanted so I poured into her. I was
Speaker 3: hard on her, and she cried at different times of
Speaker 3: the season, and then I would talk to her like
Speaker 3: I thought everything was good. You know, we were working
Speaker 3: towards it. Sometimes they cried. Sometimes you know, they can
Speaker 3: they can take it. And then at the end of
Speaker 3: the season, like I always do, I meet, I have
Speaker 3: our postseason meeting, and she says something I just didn't
Speaker 3: It didn't dawn on me during the year, like she
Speaker 3: was like, I wasn't ready. And I never thought she
Speaker 3: wasn't ready. If she would have said that to me
Speaker 3: like during it during the season, I would have I
Speaker 3: would have backed off. But she was just like I
Speaker 3: wasn't ready, and I'm like, I'm sorry. So I do
Speaker 3: think that it strained our relationship. I think she understands
Speaker 3: it now because she's a coach now, so she kind
Speaker 3: of understands it. But I had to change how I
Speaker 3: operated in that space because and I ask our players
Speaker 3: to talk to me more like I could be I
Speaker 3: could be a better coach when you talk to me.
Speaker 3: If not, I'm assuming that everything I'm saying you're good with.
Speaker 3: So now it's like, how you feel about this, how
Speaker 3: you want to play this, how you want to do this?
Speaker 3: What do y'all think? I'm more of a listener and
Speaker 3: I involved and more inclusive with game planning, more inclusive
Speaker 3: with how we handle problems that come up on the team,
Speaker 3: between teammates, all of that. I'm just like, we talk
Speaker 3: it out. Like we talk it out. I expect like
Speaker 3: it's not a rhetorical question, it is an inclusive question. Hey,
Speaker 3: let's talk about this, because I find that if you
Speaker 3: don't address it, it grows, and then you're halfway through
Speaker 3: the season and like y'all still on that when a
Speaker 3: two minute conversation could resolve it all.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask about your father, right. You mentioned
Speaker 2: your father earlier in an interview and you said your
Speaker 2: relationship wasn't that great, but you said it got better
Speaker 2: over the years. Do you understand some of the things
Speaker 2: that your father was trying to implementing you as a
Speaker 2: young girl, because they said that your father looked at
Speaker 2: women's basketball and felt that wasn't too many opportunities and
Speaker 2: didn't know if you could sustain at that time. And
Speaker 2: do you wish that you kind of put yourself in
Speaker 2: his mentality back then as a child, because even with
Speaker 2: the name of the book, it says basketball in North
Speaker 2: Philly my mother, but not father.
Speaker 3: You know, I think I think even the one like
Speaker 3: family members that are that are closest to you, Yes,
Speaker 3: I thought, I, Yes, I should have had a much
Speaker 3: more mature outlook on that relationship now that you can
Speaker 3: reflect on it, now that you can see because I
Speaker 3: held that, and I you know, if you can hear that,
Speaker 3: I still hold that instance. But when you when you're
Speaker 3: coaching right and you come up, you know, with you
Speaker 3: come into a situation where you hurt a player like
Speaker 3: you heard that player that was like probably twelve years ago.
Speaker 3: I heard that player, like it drives me to not
Speaker 3: hurt other players, right, And I wasn't mature enough or
Speaker 3: savvy enough to handle that at twelve or thirteen. So
Speaker 3: I do think it's helped me be a better coach.
Speaker 3: It helps me be a better person to really like, again,
Speaker 3: I didn't talk about things I held that my father
Speaker 3: probably didn't, probably doesn't. He's been he's been dead and
Speaker 3: gone since two thousand and one. Like I don't even
Speaker 3: think he really knew how much that hurt me, but
Speaker 3: also use that to navigate the nose, like I handle
Speaker 3: those a lot better because of that. Because of that,
Speaker 3: it wasn't like my mom. I was the baby girl,
Speaker 3: the baby girl, so the baby girl holds a special place,
Speaker 3: and you know, with your mother. My father was a
Speaker 3: tremendously like not high education like he didn't he but
Speaker 3: he was worldly like he knew he was a carpenter,
Speaker 3: he was a mechanic, he knew everything worldly from when
Speaker 3: I was younger until adulthood. And he really had a
Speaker 3: stronger relationship with my other siblings because they were older
Speaker 3: too that they could have a conversation with him about anything.
Speaker 3: And I still used to sit back, even as an adult,
Speaker 3: sit back and kind of listen to them have these
Speaker 3: conversations about prime ministers and presidency and politics. Like I
Speaker 3: wish he was alive today to hear his perspective on
Speaker 3: what's happening in our world today, because he was super
Speaker 3: up with everything.
Speaker 4: I love to respect the power of habits chapter and
Speaker 4: in that chapter, you speak extremely highly of South Carolina's
Speaker 4: own Malaysia for a while, and you even refer to
Speaker 4: her as a younger, savvier version of you. You say,
Speaker 4: and this is a quote I heard from so many
Speaker 4: adults who gave their own parents hell, only to see
Speaker 4: that teenagers return to favor. Now it's my turn in
Speaker 4: the battle. So when I see you had When I
Speaker 4: read that, and I was like, she had so much
Speaker 4: love from Malaysia. What was your initial reaction when she
Speaker 4: decided to enter the portal?
Speaker 1: And was it surprising you?
Speaker 3: So surprising? No, I think, you know, being in this space,
Speaker 3: you you you, you become, you know, to expect the unexpected, right.
Speaker 3: I still have much love for Malisia, like much love.
Speaker 3: Like I want her happy. She came in, said she
Speaker 3: and a mom came in. She said, I think I'm
Speaker 3: going to get into the transfer portals. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: well you think or you know? And she said I know,
Speaker 3: And I said, well, I said, I only want you happy,
Speaker 3: like I really do. Only want our players happy, whether
Speaker 3: that's that's with us or somewhere else. Just be happy.
Speaker 3: And I told her, don't look back. I know it's
Speaker 3: probably gonna be hard to not look back to see
Speaker 3: you know, you leaving your hometown and all that I said,
Speaker 3: don't look back like you know you made this decision.
Speaker 3: Just go forward with it and don't look back. Uh,
Speaker 3: you're always gonna be a game cock. You're always gonna
Speaker 3: be welcomed here. I wish her the best. And when
Speaker 3: I say that, people probably think, oh, but I do,
Speaker 3: like I really do, like, cause I am what's for
Speaker 3: us is for us. What's not it was not let's
Speaker 3: keep moving. I don't stay in I don't stay in despair.
Speaker 3: I don't stay in those spaces for very long. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we gotta we gotta get we gotta get recruiting. We
Speaker 3: gotta get back into this portal to see who we
Speaker 3: can get, you know, to to help us. I think
Speaker 3: she's gonna have a promising career. I do think she's
Speaker 3: a generational talent that will never leave.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 3: She does things on the basketball court that I've never
Speaker 3: seen a woman do, and she's she'll continue to do
Speaker 3: that and will continue to be happy for her except
Speaker 3: the one or two times that we have to play
Speaker 3: them like it's on, like it's this. She's gonna be
Speaker 3: super competitive against us. We're gonna we're gonna want to win,
Speaker 3: and it's gonna be a pride thing that comes with
Speaker 3: just being, you know, a competitor. And we got much
Speaker 3: love for her in the family.
Speaker 4: What do you feel like the transfer portal era forces
Speaker 4: coaches to.
Speaker 1: Evolve faster when it comes to like player relationship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well for me, I need that, like I need
Speaker 3: to have a relationship with you. I need I need that,
Speaker 3: Like I'm not good and you know, one off, so
Speaker 3: I'm not good at at you know, transactional relationships, like
Speaker 3: I'm not good. You know, I don't want to turn
Speaker 3: my heart off, you know, like my heart is the
Speaker 3: is the thing that leads me, and I need that
Speaker 3: type of connection and I'm never gonna I'm never gonna
Speaker 3: go there. With the transfer portal transactional mindset, it's it's
Speaker 3: helped and it's hurt. Like I do think that, I
Speaker 3: do think that something needs to happen regarding how many
Speaker 3: times you can transfer, like how many? Like how many
Speaker 3: is how many? Like one I think is great, Like
Speaker 3: you pick the wrong school, you find the right school
Speaker 3: transfer now. I think when you're able to transfer two three,
Speaker 3: you can be at four different schools in four years
Speaker 3: and does it create more opportunity for them to be wealthier. Yes,
Speaker 3: it does. And I think us women are trying to
Speaker 3: get all of that back because I think our game
Speaker 3: has been held down for so long that now that
Speaker 3: this space is open to us and we're thriving in it,
Speaker 3: We're thriving in the name, image and likeness space. We're thriving.
Speaker 3: But I don't want people to lose sight of what
Speaker 3: team is.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 3: My whole life is built around team. My personal life.
Speaker 3: I got a team of people, team of friends that come,
Speaker 3: hell of how water, We're gonna stick together. Whether we
Speaker 3: agree or disagree, we're gonna do it agreeably. And I
Speaker 3: just I want that for our game. I don't want
Speaker 3: I don't want our game to lose that part of
Speaker 3: it because it's the very thing that's been attracting and
Speaker 3: magnetic to the fans.
Speaker 2: Now this this has nothing to do with the boat,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to ask this were talking about players.
Speaker 2: You know, the WNBA has has taken a huge jump
Speaker 2: in the last couple of years, and I love it.
Speaker 2: My daughters love it, my sons love it. What do
Speaker 2: you think what's going on in the WNBA with it.
Speaker 2: It seems like they're pitting, you know, Caitlin Clark against
Speaker 2: Angel Reese, right, kind of what they did in the
Speaker 2: NBA back in the day. But it was more teams, right,
Speaker 2: I guess not maybe not teams. It was Magic Bird,
Speaker 2: this one is that one, but this one, it just
Speaker 2: seems like it seems very personable. So what are your thoughts,
Speaker 2: Like even the other day with that foul and they
Speaker 2: called it a flagrant foul. I don't necessarily agree, but
Speaker 2: what are your thoughts on it?
Speaker 3: You don't think it was a flagrant foul.
Speaker 1: I think it was just a foul.
Speaker 2: From what I've seen, me playing basketball and me watching basketball,
Speaker 2: I think if it would have been anybody else, it
Speaker 2: might have just been a foul.
Speaker 1: I don't don't know if it's a flair. So just
Speaker 1: asking your thought.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the officiating has a has a hard job.
Speaker 3: That's one the decipher whether or not that's a flavored
Speaker 3: one or not. Hard job, hard job, And I do
Speaker 3: think they understand the dynamics of Angel and Caitlin. I do.
Speaker 3: I think it's great for our game because it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: like it's a sport. Treat us like a sport. Don't
Speaker 3: treat us anything other than being a sport. It happens
Speaker 3: in every sport, Soccer, basketball, football, it happens in every sport.
Speaker 3: So let it be. I'm gonna I'm gonna take the
Speaker 3: lead of Angel and Caitlin. And that lead is they
Speaker 3: said it was a it was a file. The officials
Speaker 3: got it right. We're moving on. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna take their lead. Okay, I think it's I
Speaker 3: think it's it. It pulls people in, people in. I
Speaker 3: do think there are new fans that haven't watched our
Speaker 3: game and they really don't know, so they only they're
Speaker 3: only singlely focused on Kate, right, right, So when you're
Speaker 3: that and that's that's that's that's their idol, that's who
Speaker 3: attracts them. But I just hope that they'll open their
Speaker 3: eyes to the rest of the talent that that is there.
Speaker 3: Like the product. The product is incredible, like and it's
Speaker 3: in high demand. We played Caitlin in the National Championship
Speaker 3: last year, right, twenty twenty million A topped off at
Speaker 3: whatever it topped off at, the most, right, I know,
Speaker 3: I know they saw us like, I know they saw us.
Speaker 3: I know they saw US have an undefeated season. I
Speaker 3: know they saw Camilla Cardozo. I know they saw Ashland Wakas.
Speaker 3: I know they saw Tessa Johnson have an incredible care
Speaker 3: career or day. I know they saw my Lasier do
Speaker 3: some incredible things like so, so open your eyes up
Speaker 3: to seeing you know, outside of Caitlin, well not even
Speaker 3: outside included because she's a part of a part of
Speaker 3: it all. So you know, I'm looking for forward to
Speaker 3: the next time they play, too. I'm gonna be gluten
Speaker 3: just like everybody else.
Speaker 1: Yes, the wrong call in that scenario and getting called
Speaker 1: for a text.
Speaker 3: Exactly, she didn't even know until after the game. But
Speaker 3: do you feel like she's tight with her Money's like
Speaker 3: she she wants somebody to pay her fine.
Speaker 2: You feel like they let the players play because I
Speaker 2: know it's not just w n b A but NBA too.
Speaker 2: It just seems like they're taking too much control and
Speaker 2: not letting the players play.
Speaker 3: Again. Officiating hard, hard because you want them to just play,
Speaker 3: But you also know that they can escalate. And and
Speaker 3: we know when things escalate, whether it's basketball or whether
Speaker 3: it's policing, we know when they escalate. We gotta we
Speaker 3: got to learn how to de escalate and then allowed
Speaker 3: to play to do what they do. The game, The
Speaker 3: game itself is going to lend itself to whatever, whether
Speaker 3: it's really physical, whether it's you know, free flowing, it's
Speaker 3: gonna it's gonna lend itself to whatever it is. I
Speaker 3: just think that officiating is a tough, tough job, not
Speaker 3: even not even that. Like coaches are like on your
Speaker 3: on your butt all the time, like I'm include in me,
Speaker 3: like like it's it's it's it's they get I mean,
Speaker 3: they get paid a whole lot of money too to
Speaker 3: take that. But they're they're the they're the best in
Speaker 3: our game. Like they're the best. If there were better
Speaker 3: people to officiate the games, they would already be in
Speaker 3: the game.
Speaker 2: Last question about that's the replay feature?
Speaker 1: Like it? I hate it?
Speaker 3: I like it. I like it because officials make mistakes, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, it allows you, it allows them to be
Speaker 3: directed because because they're they're wrong. Like I would say this,
Speaker 3: we we have officiating conversations every year when we go
Speaker 3: to our spring meetings. Then it's it's if they have
Speaker 3: a like a ninety correct call rate, that's excellent.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Well what about the ten percent exactly what about the
Speaker 3: ten percent? Like what what's done to them for being
Speaker 3: for calling something incorrectly ten percent of the time? That
Speaker 3: has implications up for us n C double a seating,
Speaker 3: right like for you know, for the NBA. You know,
Speaker 3: like like every game matters, right, So I mean, you're
Speaker 3: they're never going to get that part right. But it's
Speaker 3: part of the game. Is it's part of of the
Speaker 3: dynamics of the game. That again is conversation, and it's
Speaker 3: we should have conversation. Like I don't think the officials
Speaker 3: want us to have conversation about this, but you're a
Speaker 3: part of it. You know, you don't get you know,
Speaker 3: if I'm gonna get criticized for losing, you should get
Speaker 3: criticized but not making a correct call.
Speaker 1: I got a few more questions.
Speaker 4: I want to go back to that that that chapter
Speaker 4: respect the power of habits right.
Speaker 1: Because when you talk about Malaysia, it is with such reference.
Speaker 4: How do you balance disappointment as a coach, which support
Speaker 4: for somebody like her who just wanted to make a
Speaker 4: decision for.
Speaker 3: Usself, Like like if if a young person is going
Speaker 3: to speak on what what what they deem is good
Speaker 3: for them. Uh, that's that's half the battle, Like half
Speaker 3: the battle is to be able to speak up. And
Speaker 3: you know how hard it was for her to do that,
Speaker 3: like really hard, really hard. So I understand that dynamics
Speaker 3: of her decision making. And then it's like, okay, well
Speaker 3: what do you do with it? Like if she was
Speaker 3: my player and you know, there was there was a
Speaker 3: chance for her to want to come back, or if
Speaker 3: she decided that this is that that's not what she
Speaker 3: wanted to do. I was going to talk to her
Speaker 3: about why, why did it, why did it come to that?
Speaker 3: What makes you think this isn't a place for you?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 3: And for whatever? She said, we would we would go
Speaker 3: from there. I thought Malaysia, Malaysia was was getting better,
Speaker 3: Like I really I saw a whole lot of growth
Speaker 3: on and off the court to where like unless she
Speaker 3: was gonna get the best of her now, like we
Speaker 3: went through the you know, we went through the hard
Speaker 3: part of just kind of smoothing some rough edges and
Speaker 3: getting her to create good habits, like like I do
Speaker 3: think habits are the thing that that allows you to elevate, right,
Speaker 3: I do, you know? So I think I think what
Speaker 3: we've given her and what she's given us will will
Speaker 3: allow her to to have much better days, much more
Speaker 3: consistent days than she had with us at her next stop.
Speaker 1: Did she know you felt that way about her? She's
Speaker 1: gonna read the book and be like, damn.
Speaker 3: You know. And I want to clarify the book was
Speaker 3: written already before she made a decision. The book was written,
Speaker 3: you know, months ago. I'm sure I share my feelings
Speaker 3: like I don't. I don't have I don't. I don't
Speaker 3: hide anything. I wear my heart on my shoulder. I
Speaker 3: do think my Lasier really knows how I felt about her.
Speaker 3: I know her mother knows. I know, you know, regardless
Speaker 3: of why she came to that conclusion of of wanting
Speaker 3: to leave, I know she she knows she felt our love. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, the playing time, the whatever, the you know,
Speaker 3: for us, maybe taking her out of the game when
Speaker 3: she felt like she wanted to just kind of keep
Speaker 3: playing through some things. Now she probably questions that part
Speaker 3: of it, And I'm okay with that. A lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of players leave because of playing time. A
Speaker 3: lot of people leave. It's not for it's not for
Speaker 3: all the other stuff, because we treat them like royalty,
Speaker 3: like royalty, Like, we're probably enablers when it comes to
Speaker 3: the treatment that we give our players.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure she would have started this year her junior.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean who else was gonna hold her down?
Speaker 3: Like so yeah, I mean it wasn't. I don't think
Speaker 3: it was. I don't think it came down to starting.
Speaker 3: I really don't. I think it came down to her
Speaker 3: wanting to play free and do you know what what
Speaker 3: she wanted to do in and who's to say she
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been able to do that, you know, in
Speaker 3: her her junior year.
Speaker 1: So what's the relationship with coaches?
Speaker 4: If coach Kim Lsu calls you and asked for some
Speaker 4: tips on how to coach Relasia for a while, you.
Speaker 3: An you on your own? Yeah, like it ain't. I
Speaker 3: ain't gonna help you help her beat us. Nah. The
Speaker 3: thing about your book is like that, your stories and your.
Speaker 5: Experiences, baby, this basketball texture.
Speaker 3: What was that conversation like that?
Speaker 1: What was it?
Speaker 5: Because I know this was you wanted to do this,
Speaker 5: But did they say did they give you push back
Speaker 5: on it?
Speaker 3: Like no, we're not able to We don't know or
Speaker 3: just see just you you see a woman sees all
Speaker 3: that that that is that's a strategic part of Yeah.
Speaker 3: They we got the cover back right and it was
Speaker 3: just a smooth surface like that like the front of it.
Speaker 3: I'm like, this would be cool if it could feel
Speaker 3: like a basketball, like I mean the color, like like
Speaker 3: this would be really cool. Now, this was really late
Speaker 3: in the process, like really late. They were like, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't we don't think. We don't think we could
Speaker 3: do that and when And I didn't know they were
Speaker 3: working on I didn't. I didn't know that they were
Speaker 3: actually got it done until I got my first copy
Speaker 3: and I was like whoa, oh wow, yes, yes, like
Speaker 3: I didn't want that, I got this is so created.
Speaker 4: Yes, congratulations on your statue in Columbia, South Carolina. You
Speaker 4: and Asia Wilson got statues in Columbia. What would it
Speaker 4: take for a player to get a statue at the
Speaker 4: University of South Carolina?
Speaker 1: Because I know they come and they be like, damn,
Speaker 1: Asia got one. What can I do to get that?
Speaker 3: I mean Boston Ali, Boston had a incredible career, Like
Speaker 3: she did some things that Asia didn't do. Like she
Speaker 3: she really did did some things that Asia didn't do.
Speaker 3: I think when it when it comes to in her impact,
Speaker 3: Like I think Asia, the total person of proximity to
Speaker 3: South Carolina really helped her calls. You know, but Alia
Speaker 3: from a basketball perspective, from a community like she is
Speaker 3: all about community and what she stands for, Like she's
Speaker 3: a young lady, that's really I mean if she was
Speaker 3: from South Carolina, there will already be a statue of
Speaker 3: like already and you know the trajectory of her career,
Speaker 3: her impact that she'll have in the w n B A.
Speaker 3: I do think she's an Olympian. I I I'll start
Speaker 3: the campaign of getting Aliyah. I mean Asia's and my
Speaker 3: statue are like two blocks from each other. You know,
Speaker 3: why not go two more blocks and you can hear
Speaker 3: all the statues for Aaliyah, all the statues in in one.
Speaker 4: Pop'll go win more championships.
Speaker 3: So we we? Yeah, I willing yes.
Speaker 4: Final question Charlotte's sting, why can't we bring them back
Speaker 4: to the Carolina? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I get I get this question, and I get this
Speaker 3: question about Philly too, because Philly, Philly wants to wants
Speaker 3: a w NBA team. I do think the Hornets and
Speaker 3: the Sixers got to do better. They gotta do better.
Speaker 3: They gotta do better, you know, like it's I think
Speaker 3: it's great when when the NBA team is doing great,
Speaker 3: it helps with the whole conroderie. But I do think
Speaker 3: I will say this, Sorry Philly, Sorry Philly, but I
Speaker 3: do think Charlotte's more ready for w NBA team just
Speaker 3: from a fan perspective, Like we draw like we are.
Speaker 3: We we draw with the highest attended games in the
Speaker 3: country at South Carolina, like for the for the past
Speaker 3: ten years. Like no one's outdrawing us over the past
Speaker 3: ten years. So I do think I do think we're
Speaker 3: ready from that perspective. But it's it's more than fan support,
Speaker 3: you know, it's a business. It's resources. Who's going to
Speaker 3: pour in to the team. If the team doesn't do
Speaker 3: well in the first year or two, which is highly likely,
Speaker 3: will there be enough, you know, resources pour poured into
Speaker 3: a team.
Speaker 1: We can put together the right investment group.
Speaker 3: I think so too. I'm down because people want me
Speaker 3: to coach in the w A.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't want to coach in I want to own.
Speaker 3: I want I want ownership.
Speaker 1: There you have it. I would invest.
Speaker 4: I got a little dollars, I've got a couple of dollars.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you. Don.
Speaker 4: New book Uncommon Favor of Basketball in North Philly, My
Speaker 4: Mother and the Life Lessons I Learned from all three
Speaker 4: is available everywhere you buy books. Now go get it.
Speaker 4: You are guaranteed to learn something. You are a living Don.
Speaker 1: We appreciate your presence on this earth. We thank God
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, and listen.
Speaker 4: I want everybody to remember that today Don Staley will
Speaker 4: be at the Barns and Noble Fifth Avenue in New
Speaker 4: York City.
Speaker 1: If you're in New York City, you can.
Speaker 4: Go see Don Staley at Barns and Noble one pm today,
Speaker 4: five five five Fifth Avenue in New York. Go get
Speaker 4: a copy of Uncommon Favor, signed Don.
Speaker 1: Thank you again. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake
Speaker 1: that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club