WEBVTT - Work in Progress: Malika Andrews 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:16.000 Hi everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello friends, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:20.840 and particularly today fellow sports fans, we have someone in 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:22.640 the hot seat at Work in Progress today that I 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.200 am so excited about. I am sitting down with ESPNS 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:31.000 Malika Andrews. She made her debut as a sideline reporter 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.839 during the twenty nineteen and twenty twenty season, and in 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.120 twenty twenty one, at just twenty six years old, she 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.960 became the youngest sports broadcaster to host the NBA Finals 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.600 trophy ceremony. She then made history again in twenty twenty 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.080 two as the first woman to ever host the NBA Draft. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.880 She's won an Outstanding Personality Emerging on Air Talent Sports Emmy. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:58.200 She's appeared across multiple platforms on the Disney family of networks, 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.200 from GMA to Sport Center to ESPN dot com and radio, 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.080 and prior to joining ESPN, she worked for both The 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.600 Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. I am so 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.880 jazzed to ask Malika all of my nerdy fellow journalist 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.960 questions about how she studied, how she has achieved so 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.800 much at such a young age, and my most pressing question, perhaps, 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.960 which is can she watch basketball. Just for fun, let's 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:26.480 dive in with Melika Andrews. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.360 Hello, Hello, how are you? 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:40.720 I'm well, thanks? 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.560 How are you? I am doing this signe? Are you 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.040 from LA? Originally I'm not. I'm from northern California. I'm 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.320 from Oakland. I was born and raised in Oakland. I 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.240 went to boarding school in Utah, but I was raised 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.800 in the Bay Area, and then I went to college 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:01.320 and Portland moved to New York Chicago, LA. So that 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:08.280 was my winding major metropolitan city road. I was in 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:14.320 Portland when my little sister, who is two and a 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.280 half years younger than me, called me and said, you know, 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.400 there's a fun little television show I think you should watch. 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.480 And that's when I was introduced. Brooke introduced us. Your 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.400 character introduced us, I guess. So my first experience with 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.360 you and your work was was her, and so watching 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.440 you there and seeing everything that you have done and 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.520 become since then has really been I told Kendra that 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.359 I was going to do this today and she was like, Oh, 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.160 that's so cool. That's so cool. Life kind of comes 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.600 in these circles, and so I think that that's really 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:49.040 a very cool thing for me. 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.760 Oh that's so neat. Thank you so much for sharing that. 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.360 And hello to Kendra. I love I love that nice 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:56.200 little connection. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.079 Yeah, I'm so. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.200 Curious what was it that made you want to go 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:06.080 into I mean journalism first and foremost, but sports journalism 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.520 because my my weird winding path. 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.040 Yeah, we all have a weird winding. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:13.960 I went to school for theater, and then the theater 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.600 department felt a little restrictive for me, and I wound 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:21.280 up studying journalism alongside theater, and that really, I think 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.680 activated me as a storyteller, as an activist, as a writer. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.720 You know all these things, and I can see how 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.839 it all connects now, and I wonder for you, where 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.280 where did the journalism passion come from? 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.200 So it's funny you say connects now because I think 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.800 the things that I'm going to say about how it 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.640 connected are not what I was thinking at all in 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.560 the at the time. I knew at the time, I 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.280 went to boarding school, and I felt like I had 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:55.640 missed out on high school because I went to and 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:02.360 I'm talking twenty kids going to individualized schooling where you 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.040 go and you are going to school in a classroom 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.720 and you work on your binder and you flip through it, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.360 and you have to take three tests a week to 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.120 stay on track. And that sort of was the experience 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:15.640 of what it was. And so when I got to college, 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:20.039 I really I wanted to do college. I wanted to 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.840 really stop missing out. And I was someone who deeply, 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:30.479 deeply feared fomo. I deeply feared missing out. I deeply 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:35.240 feared being left out. I deeply feared being different. And 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.240 now I kind of see all of that is I 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.600 was the only black girl in my class growing up 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.880 except for Amina Lukeman, and you know, the education that 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:45.560 I have, I always sort of felt like I didn't 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.640 quite fit in. But I then for me, it was 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.000 just this drive of I want to go to parties. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.880 I never went to prom I want to make friends 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:55.480 because all of the friends that I had before I 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.680 left for boarding school, they didn't carry through with me 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.640 because I sort of just disappeared one day, didn't come back. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.160 And that feels like the end of the world when 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.320 you're fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. Yes, so I was. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.520 I went to college, I think with a loneliness that 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.680 I was looking to fill and I was really lucky 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.200 that I made a very good friend Claire Duffy in 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:21.479 my freshman dat's class that I was terrible at, and 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.640 she worked for the school paper. I always loved to write, 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.240 and that writing, though, was journaling for me when I 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.600 was in high school, and I'm so glad I did 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.880 to be able to sort of look back and see 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:35.720 what I was thinking at that time, because it was 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:40.160 so different than what so many people in our country 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.280 how high school looks. But I knew I wanted to write. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:51.040 I knew I was good at capturing feelings with written 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.200 words because I had the time to go over them 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.560 and probably the time to perfect them a little bit 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.360 before I shared them with people. But I had no 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.719 idea what I wanted that to be. I just knew. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:05.760 I was told I was bad at math, and so 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.080 I believed that, and I felt I was good at writing, 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.359 and so I kind of went with that. And because 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.200 I had a friend who worked with the school paper, 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.960 that's sort of the direction I went. And then at 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.360 some point, I don't know if this makes any sense 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.599 at all, but if I was going to be the 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.919 odd one out anyway, let me be the person to 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:32.479 decide it. And so in sports, I was so used 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.920 to being the first and the only that in that space, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.440 I said, well, at least I know I'm walking to 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.360 it into this as that you know, there's only one 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.520 other black woman covered in basketball in the country, and 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.480 it was just at the time when newsrooms were starting 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.280 to see that as a problem. And it's like, well, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.280 this thing that has been a problem for me, you're 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.320 telling me that that's something that now people are saying, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.040 we need this. This is an asset. I don't even 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.640 know if that makes sense. That's about it. Now. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.000 Wow, there's so much I relate to and what you're saying. 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.279 I went to an all girls school of fifty five 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.520 girls in my graduating class. It's why I wanted to 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.080 go to USC. It's why I wanted to experience Greek life, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.520 It's why I went to the games on Saturdays, the 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.800 whole experience, and it was why, in a weird way, 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.640 going and shooting my show was it was my first 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.560 high school experience. I'd never had one. 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.080 Yeah, and I know. 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.920 How much in my bones I feel what you're saying, 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.400 the intensity of the fomo I had at that stage, 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.000 at that age in my life, all of it, and 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.800 I still just experienced that as a girl who didn't 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.360 have what I thought was the normal experience. I wasn't 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.239 experiencing it as the only black girl in my class 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.960 or my boarding school or my you know, like, I 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:53.840 know how hard it was for me to get over 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:58.440 that loneliness, and I was still. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:01.040 Not as. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.640 Isolated in my identity as you're explaining. So it's like 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.600 I feel it so deeply I could cry, And I'm 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.120 also like, I know how hard it was for me, 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.160 and it wasn't nearly as hard for me as as 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:18.200 it was for you, and my God, like, it's it's it's. 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:24.040 Just your you know, the loneliness that you used to experience, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:30.320 can you. It was only recently that I started to 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:36.200 feel good about not even wanting to be alone, but 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:40.239 wanting to do what I enjoy doing, which isn't necessarily 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.520 the hobbies that are expected of me or the things 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.360 that are expected of me, and being okay with that 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.720 of being like that being something, I'm like, what are 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.160 your what are your quirky hobbies? I'm dying to know 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:55.040 for sback riding. I have been an avid a questry 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.120 in my entire life, and that's another space where there's 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.880 just not a lot of people who look like me 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.000 that do it, and I've found pockets right, Like there's 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.600 the Compton Cowboys here in Los Angeles that are really 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.079 really cool and awesome, and I am not that cool 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.720 and not that awesome, but horseback riding and skiing and like, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:19.000 that's what my family did and enjoyed doing. But I 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:24.520 just didn't see that as a an option to live 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.959 out loud without judgment, which sounds so silly. I recognized, 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.840 like how silly that sounds, But that's how it felt 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:39.679 to me, because that sport was reserved for an affluence 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.960 that my family didn't have. My dad just so happened 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.640 to be a ski patrolman like that. It wasn't it 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.600 wasn't an There was assumptions that were made based on 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.720 that that I didn't I didn't feel comfortable with because 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:56.400 I already felt so different. And so I think that 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:03.160 only only very recently, and still sometimes I find myself asking, 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.120 you know, do people really want to know this about you? 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:11.240 Or just because you don't post it, it doesn't mean 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.600 it's not something that is a huge part of your 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.480 life and existence. You know all of this stuff, of. 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:24.480 Course, absolutely, And look, I think and we're all guilty 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.880 of it right. We assume that because so much is online, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.760 so much is in our faces, that we know so 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.920 much and we know so little. Oh, we have no 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.120 idea what's going on in people's lives. We have no 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.640 idea what people's days actually look like. You know, we 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:45.520 just have no idea. When I think about how little 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:50.440 the world really knows versus how full and complex and 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.960 beautiful and tragic and all of the things my life is. 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.520 I know that's true for all of us. But I 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:01.720 do think it's so special when you when you start 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:06.400 to listen to what your soul wants. And you know, 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.640 it's interesting you say that because my best friend has 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.679 been getting back to a barn that she rides at 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.959 in Detroit, and it's something I really want to get 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.840 back to doing too. And you know, very similarly to you, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.880 it comes with this sort of assumption. And you know, 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.240 I didn't grow up in like a fancy riding world 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.600 by any means, but I grew up for a portion 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:37.240 of my life around horses, and the sort of like 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:43.640 normalcy and the cowboy culture is so great is something 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.120 that you know, I think it's okay to say I 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.120 want to do that more than I want to do 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.280 this other thing that everyone wants to do. But I 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.600 know what it's like to want to do the thing 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.400 everyone's doing when you haven't had it, and I certainly did. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.360 It was why I chose such a big college. It 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.440 was why, you know, I think in some ways I 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.520 was able to play a high school kid when I 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.560 would have been graduating college because I was that naive, 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.920 because I'd never heard the experience. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.679 Right, you know, when you're tapping into that that thing. 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:22.840 And I still, you know, honestly, up until maybe in 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.560 the last five to seven years, when people asked me 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.880 where did you go to high school? I had to 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.560 fight the instinct to want to lie because it's something 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.680 that's very basic. You know, you said, where did you 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:37.800 where'd you grow up? I grew up in Oakland, Oh. 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:39.360 I grew up in the Barrier too. Where'd you go 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.200 to high school? It's the natural next question that somebody 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.960 else were speaking for community, right, no ill intent, but 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:50.800 looking for community and something to bond over. And for me, 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:55.520 that opened up a whole new chapter of my life 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.600 that I wasn't always sure how I felt about. And 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.400 when I talk about college sometimes even I went to 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.200 the University of Portland. I went to the university. Why 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.640 did you choose the University of Portland. I went to 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.080 the University of Portland because I had class sizes of 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.360 six people and I hadn't taken the SATs, and so 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.640 coming off of that experience, small class sizes and something 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.559 that felt like I could reassimilate and take white sizes 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.079 of was really important. And when I went to the university, 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.520 it was beautiful, and the professors were interesting, and all 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.199 of those things existed. But I didn't even allow myself 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.000 to think about what a bigger school could look like 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.520 because I was scared. I was scared that I was 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.320 going to be outed as someone who didn't come through 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.719 the same path as everybody else, and therefore I was 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.840 weird and the last thing I wanted, after being different 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.160 for so long, was to be the weird girl. And 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.760 so that sort of narrowed my focus very very quickly. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.120 And I am so glad that I went to UP 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.600 and that I joined the school paper, and then I 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.560 became a sports writer and I love what I do. 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.440 But it's interesting the stories we tell ourselves and we've 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.080 repeated so very often about our journey sort of just 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.480 become your go to truth, and every once in a 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.239 while sometimes you have to pause and maybe re examine 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.440 are those the stories that have just been coming out 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.160 for so long or is there something else there? And 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.200 for me, it's probably a little bit about. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:30.200 Well and not a lot of people choose their university 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.720 perhaps because they're healing from something that's true. But you're 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.280 talking about your healing journey, and I think one of 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.720 the things that doesn't get talked about a lot is 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:45.320 that healing can also be really painful, and it's important 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.640 and it's beautiful. I mean, my god, I've been through 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.520 such a period of this in the last couple of 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.080 years in my own life. And you know, I'm forty, 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.640 I'm in my forties. I'm an adult, and I'm still 0:14:55.880 --> 0:15:01.960 working on things. And I I think when you when 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:06.000 you find yourself wanting to maybe tell that bigger truth 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.520 to say the things, oh, these these things I was 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.840 processing at the time were influencing my decision, I think 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.760 that's kind of a mark of healing. I think that's 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:20.320 a mark of like self acceptance and a kindness to 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.960 yourself and how special that this thing that you were 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.040 working on processing not wanting to feel weird not wanting to, 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.720 you know, jump into too big of a pool at 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.160 the time, is exactly what led you to find your 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.680 voice and find your writing, and find sport and find 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.040 all these things. Like the thing that you that you 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.360 might have looked at as a self protective decision actually 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.480 opened the doors to your whole life in a way. 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.040 So how cool the beautiful trips of life, right Like, 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.320 that's that's sort of the things when you're lucky, and 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:57.400 I'm I am so very lucky, you know, that's that's 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.680 one of the things that that I get to have happened. 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.920 Yeah, and now a word from our sponsors who make 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:18.040 this show possible. Well, and it's crazy too to hear 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.280 about some of those things and then think about where 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:25.000 you are today. You know, the list of accolades that 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:26.640 we can read that you know, we do in the 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.400 intro for every guest who comes on the show, and 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.800 it's like, I think about what I'm learning about you 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:36.320 as a person, and then also the fact that you're 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.840 a literal history maker. I mean, you're the first woman 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.840 who's ever hosted the NBA Draft And if I know 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.840 anything about women, you know, knocking down doors and breaking 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.040 glass ceilings, it's that no one's trying to give us 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.880 any power. It's always something we have to fight for. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.680 It's always something we have to, you know, be twice 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.720 as good as the men to get and yet you 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.480 managed to do it. You cracked it. How as the 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:09.080 sports journalist you are today, how did you overcome whatever 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.359 obstacles were like laid in the minefield in front of 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.080 you to get there? What was it like to find 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:17.639 out that you were going to do this? Because this 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:19.800 was just in twenty twenty two, you know, it's like 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:21.320 it's essentially yesterday. 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.520 Yeah, it's funny how time works. How did I do it? 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.160 I stood on the shoulders of the women who came 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:35.480 before me. I mean, truly, I find that no one 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:43.439 is able to History is long and it's winding, and 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.000 no one makes it alone. You may be the one 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.880 who is the person who is the faith of the change, 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:58.120 But it's because of Doris Burke who was able, who 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.800 became the first woman to recall the NBA finals and 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:07.520 was already on that trajectory. It's because of all of 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.439 the women who had put in that work that I 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.479 was then able to sort of be the beneficiary of 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.760 It's also working really hard and being good. And I 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:23.479 think that it sometimes amazes me the ease in which 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.960 I love when a player tells me like they're the best, 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:29.800 I'm the best at what I do, because it comes 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.359 out with such an ease that I actually like, I genuinely, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:38.320 that's admirable that oftentimes in the sports world, like saying 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.160 out loud, well, because I'm the best and I expect 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:45.440 the best of me, that's something that I don't do 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.479 and we as women, are not conditioned to do. But 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.680 sports is Sports is about beating your chest, and sports 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.000 is about who is the best, and there are winners 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.480 and there are losers, and that may make some people uncomfortable, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.720 and so I always admire there was an ease in 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.920 which athletes say that. Now there's a conversation to be 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.880 had about when women athletes say that, you know what 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:15.480 the response has been, which is silly, But I think 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.600 that that's it. It's like, you don't, I don't. You 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.679 don't do these things alone. But what was it? Like? 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:24.159 It was really cool. I was proud of myself, you know. 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:30.560 I think that being able to put my messes into 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.000 a neat package that I could put a bow on 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.399 and say here, look what I did that felt really 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:44.399 good and to my perfectionist self who needs a reason 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:48.840 for everything for so many years right when I was 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:50.560 going through stuff. And by the way, this isn't I've 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.560 said this before. This isn't like a before and after story. Sure, 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.320 tough days, you know now, I think we all do. 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.359 But I was asked so many times what's wrong? And 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.480 I didn't have an answer. A lot of the time 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.359 it was just like, I just feel this thing that's 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.840 too big to put a name on, to be able 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.359 to have a name to all of it right, to 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.840 put it in a neat package of Well, I went 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.960 to boarding school and I overcame these things, and here 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:24.040 I am doing this for someone who needs things to 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.080 be neat and needs things to come out right and 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.920 to do the right thing that in itself felt a 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.040 little bit like a bomb that then allowed me to 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.760 go back and re explore some things that I hadn't already. 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:42.239 Wow, that's really cool. So it's interesting because I mean, 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.040 you're talking about processing in real time, how certain achievements 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.040 in your career allow you to go back and kind 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.480 of reshift how things feel in your life and in 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.000 your past, which again speaks to me on such a 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.640 deep level where I go, oh, now, I get that, right, 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.159 I get that phase, get what I put up with 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.200 at that time. I get what I was seeking at 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:08.160 that time, whatever it might have been. You know, there 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.560 is there is such an added layer of pressure in 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:19.840 any version of a public career. So as you're processing 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:24.160 your very personal life, you're also doing it publicly as 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.520 an on air personality. 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:27.800 How do you. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:31.600 How do you handle the pressure that comes with the 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.119 forward facing parts of the job while you're both moving 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:37.800 up the ranks in your career and also like reaching 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:43.440 back for these passed versions of yourself that you're you know, reparenting, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.040 recaring for, re experiencing with, Like, how do you how 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:48.840 do you handle all of that? 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:52.640 Some days I don't, But cool, cool me neither. 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:53.439 Glad it's not just me. 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:56.760 Yeah, Like some days I don't, But I know I 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:03.760 I think that for me, it's I have therapy at 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.280 seven o'clock every Monday, and it's a little bit late, 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:10.960 and I always feel like I need but I need 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.879 to make sure that I can fit it in. I 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:17.679 don't have a neat answer to this. I'm like searching 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:19.560 for the way to describe this and the best that 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:24.360 I can do it is saying that every day it's 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.840 kind of looks a little bit different. I'm in a 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.240 really good stretch right now. I feel really lucky to 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.520 get the do the job that I do with the 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:35.959 people that I do it, particularly with everything going on 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.800 in Los Angeles right now. Anytime something like that happens, 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:44.040 it sort of recenters you on what's important. I have 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:52.080 the most incredible support system of work, wives, of best friends, 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:57.760 of the sweetest, kindest, funniest don't tell them I said 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.879 that most supportive husband in the entire world. And like, 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:06.640 I have this army of people that I can turn 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:10.000 to that when I don't feel like I can, they 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:14.760 remind me how. Yeah, and that looks a little different 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:20.280 every day. But finding those places in between, I am 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.480 I'm not the hour that I spend on TV every day. 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:26.600 I'm sure, Like, I'm curious how this is for you, 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:30.280 Because when people have a not only a perception of you, 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:34.440 but also perceptions of a character you play, or maybe 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:36.760 they don't even know, they call you the name of 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:43.560 somebody that you've portrayed, how do you decide? I have 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.760 been put into this box. I want to let people 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:51.240 know me because I think I'm liking who I've become. 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.080 But I'm almost afraid to put that version out because 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:57.679 what if other people don't like it? Yeah, And I 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:01.360 think that that's something that everybody sort of even more 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:03.800 in like a social media world, has to contend with. 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:08.320 And that's sort of what I've I've asked myself really 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:11.280 hard questions. I've looked at the mistakes that I've made. 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:13.960