Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do what good do? They's getting down
Speaker 1: to do it? Good do it. We asked the questions
Speaker 1: you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all given. That
Speaker 1: hit the stands nothing, that's that's old school right there.
Speaker 1: What's on your mental? What's on my mental? So I
Speaker 1: did this fantastic. So I'm not bragging, but I'm I
Speaker 1: am going as you listen to this podcast, you will
Speaker 1: find out. Um, I will let you into my life.
Speaker 1: And so I have a Peloton treadmill. Okay, I love
Speaker 1: the Peloton treadmill. Huh No, they're not paying us, but
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you I like the treadmill. And hopefully
Speaker 1: if I continue to explore how the treadmill is intertwining
Speaker 1: itself with my life, maybe something to come out of it.
Speaker 1: If not, I will be in Paleton. Brought to you
Speaker 1: by I will be in studio at some time, at
Speaker 1: some point, though I already have linked up with them somehow,
Speaker 1: some way and getting into the Peloton studio in New York.
Speaker 1: So um, so I'm starting to become an avid runner.
Speaker 1: So I was running the other day and there is
Speaker 1: this thing. It's a heart rate zone. And his heart
Speaker 1: rate zone was a power run and it was forty
Speaker 1: five minutes, and so I'm going in his heart rate
Speaker 1: and so I'm I know my heart rate and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And I was in a in a UH
Speaker 1: zone three up for four and we're probably about ten
Speaker 1: minutes left for this forty five minute run. And we
Speaker 1: have probably five minutes a run, three minutes of of
Speaker 1: short bursts, and then a two minute cool down. So
Speaker 1: that's ten minutes. So we hit the regular five minutes
Speaker 1: back and go the last two minutes. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you something, these these last two minutes, this machine is
Speaker 1: really showing me that it is not just a machine
Speaker 1: that just sets up in the up in the room.
Speaker 1: It is a machine that it can. Really it's given
Speaker 1: me a perspective of life that I never knew. So
Speaker 1: this ain't it's a two wheel with coat. This is
Speaker 1: using it. Yeah, I'm using it. Like so here's how
Speaker 1: I use it. I got in mid September. I ran
Speaker 1: about October build up to forty two miles November fifty two.
Speaker 1: Look at you, right, I'm enjoying the space. But on
Speaker 1: this treadmill has a big old screen, and then it
Speaker 1: has two buttons. One button is a stop, and then
Speaker 1: that stop in the middle says stop. On the right
Speaker 1: it says sleep. On the other part of the stop
Speaker 1: it says wait, just to get it going. Then there's
Speaker 1: this button that I have not known. I've had a
Speaker 1: six September. I have not known what this button is for,
Speaker 1: but I damn show found out this week. I had
Speaker 1: a moment of discovery. No, I didn't have a moment
Speaker 1: of discovery. I had a crashing burn on on this button.
Speaker 1: You know what the word is free? And what's what's free?
Speaker 1: Please ask me what free is? What's free? Free is
Speaker 1: free mode? Yes? That was my mom was going there too.
Speaker 1: But guess what was no pleasure in this one, bro
Speaker 1: Free is when the treadmill comes to a complete stop
Speaker 1: and you now have to make the treadmill move on
Speaker 1: this You know what I got off that treadmill and
Speaker 1: these are my words directly off the treadmill. I don't
Speaker 1: want nothing else for free. No more. I kind of
Speaker 1: joke around and say, hey, you know you can always
Speaker 1: get a free bu whipping. But I'm telling you that
Speaker 1: is I didn't want know, I want no more free ship.
Speaker 1: I don't want any more free stuff. It's yes, hey,
Speaker 1: what you liking? No no, no, no, I have post
Speaker 1: them out of stress. If you say free, I just flinched, bro.
Speaker 1: It was so crazy in this free mode is basically
Speaker 1: you can't you go to a complete stop? Did you
Speaker 1: run holding the bar and you make it go? And
Speaker 1: she see that to tell us by your own strength, yes,
Speaker 1: at what speed we're supposed to go? This is this
Speaker 1: is like your old school training, like you in the league.
Speaker 1: You ain't want that. I don't want a free exercise
Speaker 1: like that. That that is, let's make money for workout.
Speaker 1: It's different levels to it. I got off that treadmill.
Speaker 1: I looked at that treadmill and I flinched at it
Speaker 1: like I was. It might have in the way it
Speaker 1: was going, it might have jumped, but it was such
Speaker 1: an awesome moment because this treadmill is really I'm starting
Speaker 1: to discover and figure out in this trip, in this
Speaker 1: world of running, what a recovery run is what a
Speaker 1: endurance run is is. I am learning how to exercise
Speaker 1: without the money carrot being dangled. This is more of
Speaker 1: a health It's just a lifestyle for me. And I'm
Speaker 1: extreme workout guys. So when I say extreme, like I've
Speaker 1: been able to lose five or six pounds in a week, right,
Speaker 1: I'll starve myself. Then I become angry because I'm hungry
Speaker 1: and angry. Right I I've been on crashed, I've done
Speaker 1: all of this stuff, but this this time has really
Speaker 1: been pretty cool to see. How do I slowly just
Speaker 1: create good happens? And I'm telling you that free molde
Speaker 1: it made me question myself no more. I don't if
Speaker 1: someone would have walked up to the door, rang the door,
Speaker 1: be say hey I got a free dozen of donutam right?
Speaker 1: Don't I don't want any? It was it was crazy,
Speaker 1: but so think about it in three months. So my
Speaker 1: question is for the listeners right now, take this moment.
Speaker 1: What things in your life or person or or household
Speaker 1: item has been there for years but you never really
Speaker 1: known is there? You never really pushed that free button
Speaker 1: to discover what does this really mean? Look at you
Speaker 1: dropping knowledge? But I'll take you on the motivational Speaking
Speaker 1: to It, I ain't free. Hey, who we got next?
Speaker 1: Coming up on the Cut to It Podcast, We've got
Speaker 1: Chastity Melvin, an assistant coach with the w NBA's Phoenix Mercury,
Speaker 1: a star at North Carolina State, and the author of
Speaker 1: At the End of the Day. Chastity Melvin on the
Speaker 1: Cut to It Podcast. Chastis, thanks for coming on the
Speaker 1: Cut to It Podcast. Hope you're doing all right. I'm
Speaker 1: doing great. You know, I can't complain. I got back
Speaker 1: to basketball, I was able to coach, so I'm okay.
Speaker 1: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Hey, coming up, we have our
Speaker 1: own version of our Icebergers called get iced Up. So
Speaker 1: they're gonna be random questions. You have no idea what's coming,
Speaker 1: may or may not have a follow up. You just
Speaker 1: don't know, right, So I'm gonna let Steve go ahead
Speaker 1: and fire off the first question to you. You ready,
Speaker 1: I was born? Ready, let's go, since you were born?
Speaker 1: What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten? Then? Strange? That
Speaker 1: ain't strange? Chart that was baked? Okay, look at you up?
Speaker 1: It was bag. How many states have you been to
Speaker 1: as at least all right, tell tell me a random
Speaker 1: one that just like, why were you there? Wisconsin? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I can get that. Are you thinking Wisconsin? I've been
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. I know it's Wisconsin is like outside of cheeseheads. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Wisconsin is one of those places if you've never been
Speaker 1: and then you go. It's like when you walk into
Speaker 1: a store and you realize, uh, whoops, Steve, you couldn't
Speaker 1: explained it any better exactly. You know. I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: I'm coming in. I went to a pizza's joint. I
Speaker 1: just sat down and then I sat there for a
Speaker 1: while and everyone was staring at me. And then I
Speaker 1: looked around, like, oh I was I went there. Me
Speaker 1: and my son went there. The Dodgers were playing the brewery,
Speaker 1: so we went out there and uh went to a
Speaker 1: Dodgers game. Uh, unbelievable stadium. It was. It was remarkable.
Speaker 1: Then we also went myself was like, hey, dad, let's
Speaker 1: go to mall, you know, to get a souvenir or something.
Speaker 1: All right, same thing like that piece of when we
Speaker 1: walked in the mall. I don't really call it them
Speaker 1: all so, but it was cool. Okay, when did you
Speaker 1: first feel like an adult when I first got my
Speaker 1: first check as a pro and I saw the taxes
Speaker 1: taken out of it. Oh, that's the way. That is
Speaker 1: the humbling part of it. I gotta check who is
Speaker 1: what's good. I actually called my mother and said yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, Mom, that's something wrong with my check.
Speaker 1: She's like, I gotta give him money. She said, welcome,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the grown world, honey, welcome to the world.
Speaker 1: All right, last one, what's your dream job? A dream?
Speaker 1: My dream job would probably be traveling all over the world,
Speaker 1: just having campers and clinics and someone else paying for
Speaker 1: everything in first class trouble. That's my dream job. Oh
Speaker 1: so you wanna be a rich kid then huh. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to have the money, but someone can,
Speaker 1: you know, fund me, you know, fund my travel, fund
Speaker 1: all the expenses. I'm not asking for much, Steve. That's
Speaker 1: not asking a lie, I know it's not. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just want to travel around the world, no responsibility, someone
Speaker 1: else pay dreamers. Yeah, I gotta get it all right,
Speaker 1: let's get right into it. You really appreciate you coming
Speaker 1: on and and and we really just want to know
Speaker 1: who is Chastity Melvin, Like, why what when where? So, uh,
Speaker 1: we have some staples that we always go to. And
Speaker 1: I always love asking this question because the response that
Speaker 1: we usually get it is always well received. So where
Speaker 1: are you from? And the place you call your hometown?
Speaker 1: So my home, I'm from Humble Beginnings in Roseville, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's a small town right southeast of Fayeville, so
Speaker 1: fayet nomen as they call it, or whatever Port Bragg
Speaker 1: area basically there. You know, my town wasn't even really
Speaker 1: twelve hundred of people. My graduating class was. I had
Speaker 1: ninety eight kids and my senior class and I graduated
Speaker 1: from high school. I can. Yeah, just a very small town.
Speaker 1: And I came up playing basketball in the dirt rose
Speaker 1: and you know here I am. So that's the brief story.
Speaker 1: What's humble Beginnings, man? Because it means different for everybody.
Speaker 1: It means different everybody. I'm from the city, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm from inner city of l A. So different from
Speaker 1: someone in Lexington, like like gee, Gee's from Lexing to
Speaker 1: North Carolina. I got back up with me today, careful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so my humble Yeah, you know what, Steve, I've I've
Speaker 1: actually throughout my travels and Obviously, when I went to college,
Speaker 1: I learned my humble beginnings were a lot different from
Speaker 1: like some of my teammates that grew up in Jersey
Speaker 1: and Newark in different places. Obviously, I was raised by
Speaker 1: a village, so you know, I felt a lot of
Speaker 1: love and I always had food to eat, so I
Speaker 1: was it was, you know, it was. It wasn't anything
Speaker 1: as a bigger sacrifice as that, but I mean basically
Speaker 1: growing up, I guess for us growing up in a
Speaker 1: single wide I had two sisters, two brothers with my
Speaker 1: mom and dad and a single wide trailer. Um just
Speaker 1: kind of like sleeping together on top of each other
Speaker 1: pretty much. And my my dad and my mom didn't
Speaker 1: really didn't go to school. But my dad was a minister,
Speaker 1: so our foundation was based on you know, it's just
Speaker 1: our faith and um, my parents, my dad. You know,
Speaker 1: it was just drove us stat station wagon, drove us
Speaker 1: all around. So we got made fun of a lot
Speaker 1: growing up. But you know, when the the you know,
Speaker 1: when the welfare when they had extra food to come,
Speaker 1: like I had, my mom was sent me out to
Speaker 1: get the welfare cheese and the extra food that you know,
Speaker 1: they passed out in Sampson County. So, um, it was
Speaker 1: really humble beginnings. Grew up working on the farm with
Speaker 1: my grandmother, um cropping tobacco, and I knew very early on.
Speaker 1: I told my grandmother was gonna be doing this when
Speaker 1: I grew up. So I knew there was only a
Speaker 1: better life for me somewhere. How did she take that
Speaker 1: that responds to your grandmother when you said, um, no,
Speaker 1: she was very she you know, she said, as long
Speaker 1: as you worked hard and get your education, you can
Speaker 1: do what you you know. She she believed in me
Speaker 1: from day one, and she just told me to give
Speaker 1: everything to God and give my desires to God. And
Speaker 1: so she was very instrumental because growing up in the
Speaker 1: country as a southern girl, I wasn't really supposed to
Speaker 1: be playing with the boys, and so I had to
Speaker 1: fight to get on the basketball courts out on the
Speaker 1: dirt courts, and I remember they wouldn't let me play.
Speaker 1: So I went to my grandmother. She was kind of
Speaker 1: the matriarch of the family, and I'll never forget she
Speaker 1: came out to the court with me. She was holding
Speaker 1: my hand and I was scared. I was like, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: I got everybody in trouble. Grandma's name. Her name was Dixie,
Speaker 1: but everyone called her mother. Everyone called her mother in
Speaker 1: the town. So I walked over there and she was
Speaker 1: like and the guy stopped because they saw walking, and
Speaker 1: she said, okay, boys. She was like, do we all
Speaker 1: eat together? And they said yes, ma'am. They was like, well,
Speaker 1: Chastie doesn't play, you guys won't be eating today. So
Speaker 1: I was on the court from then all. Yeah, Miss
Speaker 1: Dick did Miss Dixie? Did she have how shoes on
Speaker 1: most of the time. No, But she always wore a dress.
Speaker 1: She always wores Yeah, she always wore a dress. She
Speaker 1: never wore pants, So we struggled with that a little bit.
Speaker 1: I remember coming home for church. I had gone overseas.
Speaker 1: I thought I was growing up. I was an adult,
Speaker 1: and I came to the church with the pants soon
Speaker 1: all and I'll never forget she she and all her
Speaker 1: other free as at the church, though, Liken, it was
Speaker 1: gonna strike like they couldn't believe I walked in church
Speaker 1: with the pants suit. She the reason why. She sounds
Speaker 1: like she wore house shoes like she always needed to
Speaker 1: be ready and got in case something dropped. We went
Speaker 1: got that house coach that's missing the tile around, so
Speaker 1: she gotta hold it like, you know, button together with
Speaker 1: the fingers pinched together with her fingers thing. I say,
Speaker 1: she's a looking at you know. For sure she had
Speaker 1: a rope. My mom's mom was the one that had
Speaker 1: house shoes and was ready to go. She was my
Speaker 1: real life media, my mom's mom. And her name was Geebo.
Speaker 1: People called her Geebo. Her name was Geneva, so yeah,
Speaker 1: Gibo was Yeah, you didn't mess with Gibo at all.
Speaker 1: So are you from a generation of are you that
Speaker 1: from the time out generation or to go get your
Speaker 1: switch generation? Now I'm from the go get the switch generation? Yes,
Speaker 1: very much so. And you got to pick the right one.
Speaker 1: I got to pick the right one. And if my
Speaker 1: mom and dad weren't available to get you know, make
Speaker 1: me go get a switch. And my grandparents on my
Speaker 1: aunt and uncle like, I was raised by vility, so
Speaker 1: everyone had, you know, equal rights to giving you a
Speaker 1: butt whopping. What experiences? What experiences did you have growing
Speaker 1: growing up there? I mean outside of you know what
Speaker 1: you've just explained to us that and and how did
Speaker 1: those experiences really shape you, um and impact you to
Speaker 1: see the world today? Basically almost of my experiences are
Speaker 1: you know, I guess I like idea because, um, she
Speaker 1: reminds me of my my grandmother's. But just my faith
Speaker 1: based being in church all the time, that was my foundation.
Speaker 1: So my dad was a minister, so I was basically
Speaker 1: in church Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We were just
Speaker 1: joking when I was at home. We would come home
Speaker 1: and everyone's on our basketball court when we would come
Speaker 1: home from church, and we had to wait, you know,
Speaker 1: three or four games to get in on our own court.
Speaker 1: So just that foundation has carried me. I think it's
Speaker 1: just given me a sense of peace. Um always obviously
Speaker 1: always hope, you know, always having hope, and a bigger
Speaker 1: understanding that you know, the world is a bigger place,
Speaker 1: and I could obtained pretty much anything I wanted with
Speaker 1: my faith in my work ethicum. Growing up under my
Speaker 1: grandmother's they always woke us up early the crack of dawn.
Speaker 1: They thought we were lazy if we slept past six o'clock,
Speaker 1: so you know, they would come get us up over
Speaker 1: the summer and work in the field. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I learned about hard work. And I always
Speaker 1: also learned how you have to work smarter to really
Speaker 1: make the most money. So they taught me. They gave
Speaker 1: me a lot of wisdom early on. But just coming
Speaker 1: from a big family, whether it was playing outside with
Speaker 1: my cousin's basketball or riding dirt bikes or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: just to learn how to play, how to be a
Speaker 1: team player. And I learned a lot about loyalty and
Speaker 1: being good to people. Is always going to come back.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty much it. Walk this through the process
Speaker 1: as a young young chastity picking tobacco. And the reason
Speaker 1: I asked is we're here. We're based here in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. I live in between and then I live
Speaker 1: in between Charlotte slash rock Hill. So I'm in between
Speaker 1: North and South Carolina. Outskirts on the outskirts and there
Speaker 1: are some back rolls if you could hit the left
Speaker 1: to hit the right. The first time out I've ever
Speaker 1: seen cotton out of outside of a shirt, of a
Speaker 1: of a package, a cotton ball or swab or some
Speaker 1: of that has been you know, in the spring and
Speaker 1: the winter or whatever, wind winds blowing and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what is this white stuff cotton? And seeing that, So
Speaker 1: I've experienced a lot of different things here living in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. I never experienced back home, and so you
Speaker 1: give me that opportunity of you know, you've born here
Speaker 1: in the South and then such a young girl getting up,
Speaker 1: getting woken up, and your family faith based telling you
Speaker 1: and teaching you about hard work. Yeah, it was terrible.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. My younger sister always struggled because
Speaker 1: she never quite got out to the fields on top.
Speaker 1: She's still late to this day, so I don't know
Speaker 1: she learned much from that. But the momentum, um, no,
Speaker 1: it's just for me. You know. It just gave me
Speaker 1: a sense of what our ancestors went through. I mean
Speaker 1: it was very backbreaking work. I hated the flies, the
Speaker 1: farmer's ten and just getting your hands dirty with the
Speaker 1: you know, getting all the green from the tobaccos, the
Speaker 1: tobacco worms. I was afraid of the worms. So my
Speaker 1: cousins thought that was cool to chase me around with
Speaker 1: tobacco worms. Uh. So, um, you know, we picked cucumbers.
Speaker 1: I was joking with someone yesterday, like we made Kate's
Speaker 1: pickles in mount all of rich because we used to
Speaker 1: pick cucumbers. And then you know that was like the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we get all the back of
Speaker 1: the pick up with my uncles and take all the
Speaker 1: cucumbers over there and distribute them to Kate's Pickles. And
Speaker 1: that's how my grandmother got paid. So um, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: all that's hard work and this is all we get.
Speaker 1: And and as young as the kids, we never saw money.
Speaker 1: Our our reward was like navs and a coat or
Speaker 1: a piece of candy from the store and the coat.
Speaker 1: That's how we got paid. You getting paid through You're
Speaker 1: getting paid through the labor. Yeah, yeah, more with food.
Speaker 1: So from our early age, I was like, there's gotta
Speaker 1: be more. This can't be like we have to take
Speaker 1: a break and morning any thing. We gotta pay some bills.
Speaker 1: You got check. I love cut to It and I
Speaker 1: love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie
Speaker 1: where where at? That's at cut to It on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. You've told us a lot about kind
Speaker 1: of painting the picture of what it's like in rural
Speaker 1: North Carolina outside of basketball. What are the sports did
Speaker 1: you play? And you mentioned playing boys versus girls? How
Speaker 1: How did how did that impact your life playing with
Speaker 1: the boys playing basketball so early and what other sports
Speaker 1: were you playing? I played everything. I played everything that
Speaker 1: we had our high school. I played in middle school.
Speaker 1: I played volleyball, basketball, softball, and I ran track. Um.
Speaker 1: Just being able to play with the boys obviously made
Speaker 1: me the player I am today, obviously prepare me to
Speaker 1: be a professional athlete, because I had to be able
Speaker 1: to handle the basketball i'd be. I had to be
Speaker 1: able to have a quick release on my shot, or
Speaker 1: I didn't. I wasn't able to stay on the court.
Speaker 1: You know, guys are a lot faster, stronger. They blocked
Speaker 1: my shot a lot when I first started playing, So
Speaker 1: I had to, um really developed my game just to
Speaker 1: be out there with the boys and be able to
Speaker 1: be successful. So I think that's I know, that's what
Speaker 1: helped me become not only a great college athlete but
Speaker 1: a great bro At what moment did you start to
Speaker 1: think about playing in basketball beyond high school or or
Speaker 1: starting to play a U When did you take that serious?
Speaker 1: I started taking it serious pretty much in the fifth grade.
Speaker 1: Um there was another, uh, one of my classmates that
Speaker 1: was taller than me, and he was a guy. He
Speaker 1: played football, and we kind of just made a pact.
Speaker 1: He said he was going to be a professional football player,
Speaker 1: and I said I was gonna be a professional basketball player,
Speaker 1: even though there weren't professional basketball teams at the time.
Speaker 1: But I just made that my goal and I fell
Speaker 1: in love with the game the moment I scored my
Speaker 1: first basket. So I went home and told my mother
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna do. So I've just been
Speaker 1: pretty focused. I don't know if it was just because
Speaker 1: I was young, country, you know, naive girl, but uh,
Speaker 1: that's that's what. That was my story, and I was
Speaker 1: sticking to it. So what was your mom's response when
Speaker 1: you said you wanted to play basketball for a living?
Speaker 1: She just said, they don't have professional teams here, baby,
Speaker 1: And I said, well they will when I grew up
Speaker 1: and That was pretty much it. That was the end
Speaker 1: of the conversation because of you or mom, Like who
Speaker 1: walked away for hers? I did? I said, well they
Speaker 1: will when I grew up and I walked away. That
Speaker 1: was it. I was into the conversation. So it's all
Speaker 1: corner pocket. You're growing up, you're in high school, you
Speaker 1: your knee deep in basketball. Now. Yeah, men and women's
Speaker 1: basketball in North Carolina has always been a big deal, right.
Speaker 1: It's it's always you know, it's it's inspiring, and then
Speaker 1: it's the gift. You know what, How was it for
Speaker 1: you as your love for basketball grew? How was you?
Speaker 1: How was watching basketball and seeing basketball? How is portrayed
Speaker 1: here in North Carolina? Men and women like men and
Speaker 1: women basketball? Back in the day you had what Tennessee
Speaker 1: North Carolina like, it was some especially to women, it
Speaker 1: was some baller's back then. Um, I'll never forget. In Fabville,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, they hosted the a SEC tournament and my
Speaker 1: uncle told my mom she needed to take me, and
Speaker 1: so we went to that a CEC tournament. And I
Speaker 1: think that was the I guess, like the change the
Speaker 1: point as far as mentally and um, just really realizing
Speaker 1: that I could achieve my dream and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Was Carolina and NC State the championship game, and afterwards
Speaker 1: I was able to get some autographs from the NC
Speaker 1: State players and I told my mom, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can do it, Like I like driving back home,
Speaker 1: I was like, that just made it a reality. So
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer in Like I know it's cliche,
Speaker 1: but people say, you gotta see it. You know, see it,
Speaker 1: believe it, and achieve it. And once I was able
Speaker 1: to see that there were so many other females like
Speaker 1: me that really loved the game, that just kind of
Speaker 1: solidified my dream and the fact that I could achieve it.
Speaker 1: And I grew up with my dad and my brothers
Speaker 1: watching the NBA, so I'm very old school NBA. We
Speaker 1: were a Lakers family. My dad, my brother loved Matthew Jock,
Speaker 1: Matthew Johnston. So um, I never really got to see
Speaker 1: female pro athletes. Um, but I still held onto my
Speaker 1: dream and UM so for me, I mean, I still
Speaker 1: have a very find I mean, I'm very fond of
Speaker 1: the NBA because I took a lot of my moves
Speaker 1: from like Karl Malone and Chris Webber and uh uh
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan inside of the post, like I was still
Speaker 1: moves from the post. Players like watching the NBA games
Speaker 1: and that helps shape shape me as a professional athlete
Speaker 1: as well. So still in the moves. Yeah, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: So I you know, you know, you obviously with your
Speaker 1: upbringing a c green. He was known for being a virgin.
Speaker 1: So did you like, did you memic his Jerry curl too? No?
Speaker 1: I did member his Jerry curl? But I did players
Speaker 1: that I was gonna be a virgin until I got married.
Speaker 1: Um so I did. I mean I was, and he
Speaker 1: was you know obviously he did that because of his faith.
Speaker 1: So that was, Um that was big for me as well.
Speaker 1: So I kind of, you know, I kind of admired that,
Speaker 1: like wow, this and then obviously you always heard the
Speaker 1: guys talking about heat maying me he maying, So you know,
Speaker 1: I was caught in between like is it a lie?
Speaker 1: Or is he really that steadfast? This is cut to
Speaker 1: a podcast. I'm just gonna cut right to it. I
Speaker 1: had the Jerry curl. I mean I was like, how
Speaker 1: many times a day did you sprinch your Jerry curl? Like?
Speaker 1: Was it? Guys? I got made fun of a lot
Speaker 1: because I never I hated the the sprints and the
Speaker 1: juice stuff. So it's a dry asked Jerry. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I was terrible. I don't want to you didn't want
Speaker 1: to have the juice and berries. No, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to have to juice some berries. And I was sweating
Speaker 1: a lot playing and I was like, this is way
Speaker 1: too much. I think that scarred me for life. But yeah,
Speaker 1: my middle school years where the Jerry curl was, my
Speaker 1: middle school years were terrible on up until my tenth
Speaker 1: grade years. So I was really like, uh, what's the
Speaker 1: rapper like back then? Then? Want me now my whole story,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Quite curl all the way
Speaker 1: over because it was yeah, yeah, we're wrong, all right,
Speaker 1: so we're moving on. Let's skip over to Jerry Carroll
Speaker 1: so we don't slip and fall, and let's get up
Speaker 1: into your career. Right. So, doing all the research and
Speaker 1: some of that stuff, and I went in there and
Speaker 1: I just saw some things that I just needed clarification on.
Speaker 1: It says that you played in the a b L League.
Speaker 1: What what is the a b L? So the a
Speaker 1: b L was American Basketball League and it was the
Speaker 1: first professional league for women. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't talk about it in the history of the women's
Speaker 1: game because it was kind of like just I don't know,
Speaker 1: there was a riff between the A b and the
Speaker 1: w NBA because a BL felt like they folded because
Speaker 1: the w b A took all the market sponsorships and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and that's why the league folded. So
Speaker 1: they were actually played year round in the States before
Speaker 1: the w n B. A was um creative and I
Speaker 1: chose the A b L out of college because I
Speaker 1: wanted to play year round and I didn't I wanted
Speaker 1: to stay in the States pretty much. How different when
Speaker 1: you look at when you look back, how different was
Speaker 1: the A B L compared to the w n B A. Well,
Speaker 1: I just thought, um personally, for me and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the players, like we are slogan was
Speaker 1: real basketball and we played with the men's basketball. We
Speaker 1: played during the regular basketball season along with aside the
Speaker 1: NBA and college Um, we had fans. Um. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like a jam packed season. It was just you know,
Speaker 1: just real basketball, like we played like you know, everyone else.
Speaker 1: And so for us, we just found pride in that.
Speaker 1: And it had the best basketball players. And there were
Speaker 1: a lot more teams um than the w n b A.
Speaker 1: I think we had at least um, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: we had at least twenty two three teams UM. And
Speaker 1: it was just great basketball and the players were passionate
Speaker 1: about it because it was the first league. But unfortunately
Speaker 1: just couldn't get the sponsorships, couldn't get TV time, and
Speaker 1: it folded my rookie season. It folded at Christmas, and
Speaker 1: that was a really traumatic experience for me a little bit,
Speaker 1: just you know, learning, you you reach your dream and
Speaker 1: then it's kind of like taking away and you're just
Speaker 1: blindsided by like, you know, you get the call from
Speaker 1: the GM, like we no longer have a league, we
Speaker 1: no longer have a team, and you no longer have
Speaker 1: a paycheck, and you know, it's just it was a
Speaker 1: tough situation. Professionally, you played all around the world, yes,
Speaker 1: so where are so many places you've played? And also
Speaker 1: by playing there, you live there. Um, you know what,
Speaker 1: so just take us through that first, you know where
Speaker 1: where around the world, where did you play? You know,
Speaker 1: did you stay there after the season? Just kind of
Speaker 1: walkers through that, um through that because a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know, maybe they do. Um, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of European basketball, not just in men's but also in
Speaker 1: women as well. Oh yeah, definitely. I love playing overseas.
Speaker 1: Once the ABL folded, I got the opportunity to go
Speaker 1: to Spain and that's where I played my first year
Speaker 1: in Northea, Splain, in the city called Vego and Uh.
Speaker 1: Then I was fortunately drafted by the w n b
Speaker 1: A after that season. So that summer I got drafted
Speaker 1: by the w b A and then from then on
Speaker 1: it was w n b A in the summer and
Speaker 1: overseas in the fall. So I played in UM, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Korea, China, UM, Italy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I played in Italy. I played in Russia, UM and
Speaker 1: I had a wonderful time. My favorite country is Israel.
Speaker 1: I played there for the most part five years off
Speaker 1: and on in Israel, so I have family there, my
Speaker 1: doctor Israeli family. So I was looking forward to going
Speaker 1: back this year because of COVID. It hasn't happened, but
Speaker 1: Israel is by far my first favorite country. But I enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I mean I enjoyed Turkey, I enjoyed it is I
Speaker 1: enjoyed every country because for me, a lot of people
Speaker 1: made fun of me. But I mean I was from
Speaker 1: a small town and growing up, our biggest dream outside
Speaker 1: just playing was like, okay, if we can get the
Speaker 1: New York City. You know, we felt like we made
Speaker 1: it so for me to be able to travel to
Speaker 1: a different country and not only play basketball, but live
Speaker 1: and experience the culture. I took full advantage of it.
Speaker 1: So I enjoyed pretty much every country. Said Russia, Russia
Speaker 1: was just Russia was a lot. It was too cold
Speaker 1: and there was no sunshine, so that was that was hard.
Speaker 1: What's the difference in company tension between overseas and then
Speaker 1: basketball domestically here w n b A. You see a
Speaker 1: lot of players, like when you coach Diana Tarassi, what
Speaker 1: is the difference in that in that competition if there
Speaker 1: isn't well, I mean, obviously we have the best players
Speaker 1: you can tell. You can obviously tell that from USA basketball,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot of talented players in your
Speaker 1: The basketball is great for me personally, and I think
Speaker 1: every player from America when you go over there, you
Speaker 1: are the catalyst for that team making it to the championship.
Speaker 1: So for me and like dinosaurrocis and different players that
Speaker 1: go overseas, and the same for the guys, you have
Speaker 1: all the pressure, like you can't have bad games, you
Speaker 1: gotta just make it happen game in and game out.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of pressure. So it's basically like
Speaker 1: it's my team going against if I'm playing against Diana
Speaker 1: Troci teams, So which American is basically gonna play the
Speaker 1: best and and develop and make their other teammates look
Speaker 1: the best. But obviously the European players can play. They're
Speaker 1: very great offensively, but as far as physically and defensively,
Speaker 1: you know, they're still a little bit behind as uh
Speaker 1: compared to us. But I think that's evolving and that's
Speaker 1: changing now because so many of the players are coming
Speaker 1: to the w n b A or they're coming to
Speaker 1: play here in college, so they're learning the more physical
Speaker 1: side of the game and defensively, but they're they're well
Speaker 1: oil machines offensively overseas. So basically you'll go over there
Speaker 1: and you're the dragon. Back in the day, I would say,
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, you know, um, just because we're
Speaker 1: just it's just mentally tougher. I think it just it
Speaker 1: just takes time. As you see now with Luca coming
Speaker 1: over here, like these younger kids are playing, they're playing
Speaker 1: more physical and also able to score and do different moves.
Speaker 1: That um that the games evolved and change. And obviously
Speaker 1: we've had some players in the d w n B
Speaker 1: that have come from overseas. Uh, like one of the
Speaker 1: Brazilian kids killed us in the semifinals. Dantists for Minnesota
Speaker 1: links from Brazil and she dominated us. You know, so
Speaker 1: back in the day that would have been kind of
Speaker 1: hard to really do for a kid coming from overseas.
Speaker 1: So now that's changing. So either Americans got really stepped
Speaker 1: their game up, or maybe it's just that's the way
Speaker 1: the game evolves. What did you discover about yourself in
Speaker 1: those places, because you obviously are going to those places.
Speaker 1: You you have no family. You talked about adopted family,
Speaker 1: but you're in Russia, you're in Spain. You are not
Speaker 1: Roles borrowed North Carolina. You ain't no Italians up in
Speaker 1: picking cucumbers, no, right. I think that's where my box
Speaker 1: um became more open. Um. I was more so closed
Speaker 1: minded because because the NC state wasn't that different from
Speaker 1: my real town. A lot of um, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was Riley was still North Carolina's still southern, the southern mentality,
Speaker 1: the kind of the same ideal. So once I started
Speaker 1: going overseas, it just really opened my mind and I
Speaker 1: couldn't be as close minded as I was before. But
Speaker 1: as a person as a female, for me, it just
Speaker 1: really built my confidence as an African American woman. Um,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think here in the States and
Speaker 1: obviously you guys wouldn't really experience this, but um black,
Speaker 1: being a black female wasn't always beautiful, especially in our
Speaker 1: natural states. So once I started going overseas to Spain
Speaker 1: and Italy, I will say, like, they really you know,
Speaker 1: I really thought, yeah, they thought beautiful. So I enjoyed that,
Speaker 1: you know what the female I mean, I just a
Speaker 1: lot of people say with chat that's because you were
Speaker 1: a past small player, But I got I got engulfed
Speaker 1: in the call. Sure, and I think, um, for overseas,
Speaker 1: there aren't that many Black Americans there per se in general,
Speaker 1: so for them to experience me in their culture and
Speaker 1: to you just learn to appreciate and value like opposite
Speaker 1: of whatever they've seen on television. Because literally, I mean
Speaker 1: the Americans that are over there are pretty much the
Speaker 1: only black American black people there that they see, so
Speaker 1: you know, they want to touch your hair, they want
Speaker 1: to like they're watching everything you do and they're just
Speaker 1: appreciative of it. And then when they realize, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't act like what we see on television. UM,
Speaker 1: it just showed me. UM it just you know, really
Speaker 1: opened my mind and I was like, wow, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the stereotypes of us and how it it's all the
Speaker 1: you know, it goes all the way overseas and and
Speaker 1: people look at us a certain way when it's and
Speaker 1: we're totally opposite. So for me, that was kind of
Speaker 1: mind boggling. And so how would it make you feel?
Speaker 1: And how will you navigate through it? Now? I just
Speaker 1: can't being myself. I mean at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I kept being myself. And I think they gained a
Speaker 1: greater appreciation. I think the great gain to UM great
Speaker 1: appreciation for other Americans UM inviting them over and now
Speaker 1: it's like you can have two or three Americans on
Speaker 1: the team. And so most of the clubs and the
Speaker 1: organizations UM really follow that pattern and enjoyed have making
Speaker 1: their teams more diverse. So I think it's a great
Speaker 1: experience for anyone, Um that can go overseas and and
Speaker 1: and and kind of get an intertwined with the culture
Speaker 1: and they'll learn a lot about themselves. But I didn't
Speaker 1: speak the languages, and just learning that, Um, there are
Speaker 1: so many different things that are just understood whether you
Speaker 1: speak the language or not, like general manners and having
Speaker 1: a certain sense of respect for the elders and the
Speaker 1: young people, like that's how the young people treat the
Speaker 1: older people. It's across the board. So UM, for me,
Speaker 1: I just learned basketball, spoke all languages, and UM, it's
Speaker 1: really bigger than race and um and gender. I think
Speaker 1: it's about that time, just so we'll take a little breathing.
Speaker 1: Good do it good? Do it's get down to do
Speaker 1: it good. Hey Gerard, why didn't you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Let's talk bud and when in talking ball,
Speaker 1: just really give you an opportunity, opportunity to just talk
Speaker 1: ball and talk shot with us and again, like I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I really don't know basketball that well.
Speaker 1: And give yourself some more credit, you know, bab, I
Speaker 1: don't know it to the way I wish I knew it.
Speaker 1: I'm always impressed and impressed the with how people talk
Speaker 1: about it, and so I wanted to ask you, Um,
Speaker 1: why has an analytics become a focal point of basketball
Speaker 1: and other in other sports? UM? So much? Well, I
Speaker 1: just think it provides jobs for people who can't really
Speaker 1: get into coaching, or can't who haven't played or aren't
Speaker 1: as successful in the court and player development. Um. I
Speaker 1: think it's great because I think it does provide you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's an asset to coaches and teams, and
Speaker 1: obviously it provides some other jobs for people to be
Speaker 1: a part of the NBA organization or I mean even college.
Speaker 1: I think it's become the focal point because people, you know,
Speaker 1: as in all professional sports, someone wants to have an edge,
Speaker 1: someone wants to know something different than uh maybe another
Speaker 1: organization has, and so that's kind of having a leg
Speaker 1: up if they can go by the analytics and make
Speaker 1: it work for their team. UM. For me, Um, I'm
Speaker 1: not against analytics, but I do feel like some things
Speaker 1: can't be measured, and I think that's why right there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm super old school, but I've learned it from coaching.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at the Miami Heat. Now, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler is still shooting, uh, you know, the mid range.
Speaker 1: He still has the mid range game. They're still getting
Speaker 1: the old fashioned and and once. And that's what I
Speaker 1: used to tell people all the time, like I'm okay
Speaker 1: with the three point shot, but it baffles me while
Speaker 1: you drive all the way to the basket and then
Speaker 1: you kick it out and then the guy misses the
Speaker 1: three when you could have still got an old fashioned
Speaker 1: three point play. So as far as analytics, you can
Speaker 1: still get three points, you know, the old fashioned way.
Speaker 1: So for me, I have my little qualms with it.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it does help
Speaker 1: in certain aspects. As I mean, Charles Barkley wouldn't say this,
Speaker 1: but it does help. Is like if you're in a
Speaker 1: regular season and they can pretty much calculate, Okay, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have been on the road for five games. When
Speaker 1: they come home and whoever travels there, the percentages of
Speaker 1: these guys shooting a bad percentage or basically they can calculate,
Speaker 1: you know, how the game's gonna go. Um. For former players,
Speaker 1: we already know, I mean when we travel, how it's
Speaker 1: gonna be. We already know those teams coming into Atlanta
Speaker 1: probably gonna have an off night. But the reasons that
Speaker 1: most of the analytics people walk, I won't know why
Speaker 1: those guys don't always play well in Atlanta, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So um, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you know, players are pretty much like looking at analytics like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not rocket science, like because we just know or
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas for instance, like you know he lost his sister,
Speaker 1: I believe it was, or you know, we have deaths
Speaker 1: in the family, Like, it's not rocket side. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get lit up by that dude the next game if
Speaker 1: he decides to play, or that female. Like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can't measure the heart. You can't measure just the focus
Speaker 1: that a player is gonna have. Um. But but obviously
Speaker 1: it I mean there's you know, it does have its
Speaker 1: credibility as far as overall giving you a picture of
Speaker 1: like eight two games season and just the different highs
Speaker 1: and loads of the team. So there's some good things
Speaker 1: with it. But at the end of the day, there
Speaker 1: are some things that I I believe aren't miserable. What
Speaker 1: was the draft process for w NBA player, Because you know,
Speaker 1: obviously with everything going on and television, we see the documentaries,
Speaker 1: but the w n B A does not have They
Speaker 1: haven't had that access displayed on the television like you've
Speaker 1: seen in other documentaries of higher pink um. So you know,
Speaker 1: walk us through that process, um, even for yourself and
Speaker 1: for other players that we don't get to see because
Speaker 1: sometimes we see it and we just see what the
Speaker 1: camera shows, which is the glitch and glamour. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of things that go on behind the scenes
Speaker 1: that we have no idea about. Yeah, there's so many
Speaker 1: untold stories as a w BA and they're great stories, um,
Speaker 1: but because of the short amount of coverage we get
Speaker 1: and just the fact that I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: networks or just individuals don't want to put a camera
Speaker 1: on that or don't think it's significant enough. But there
Speaker 1: are so many different factors affecting female athletes and more
Speaker 1: so just off the court, um, just as a female athlete,
Speaker 1: a female in general trying to join um professional sports,
Speaker 1: and just kind of male dominated era arenas. UM. So
Speaker 1: for the fortitude the player, UM, a female athlete has
Speaker 1: to have just becomes stereotypes and um the different challenges
Speaker 1: that come with wanted to be a professional ball player. UM,
Speaker 1: not only from you know, just those in their circle
Speaker 1: and their culture. I mean black males, black females, like
Speaker 1: you have a lot of black females are like looking
Speaker 1: at black UM female athletes like what the hell are
Speaker 1: you doing? You know, or like putting certain negative stereotypes
Speaker 1: on us on the way we looked where our bodies
Speaker 1: are and um, um you know everything that comes along
Speaker 1: with that, whether they're straight, gay, whether they're UM, whatever
Speaker 1: their political activists, whatever they go for. Like there's we're
Speaker 1: always being criticized. So I think it would be great
Speaker 1: to get the behind scene stories of a player getting
Speaker 1: drafted and everything they've gone through their through their college
Speaker 1: career on from their high school career to become a
Speaker 1: pro UM. But it's challenging, and I hope that I
Speaker 1: just told someone. Being in the wall whole it was
Speaker 1: an eye opener for me because of everything that's going
Speaker 1: on in the world, UM with racism and just poor leadership, UM,
Speaker 1: police brutality, everything that's going on. Like we were in
Speaker 1: the wobble, we had you have the male w NBA coaches,
Speaker 1: we have the female w NBA coaches. We have black, white,
Speaker 1: we have Australian, different nationalities in the bobble. We have
Speaker 1: players from overseas. Like I said, then we have you know,
Speaker 1: your mama, your mothers were there with their baby daddy's.
Speaker 1: Then we had wives there with their husband and their kids.
Speaker 1: Then we had the same sex relationships. Um, we had
Speaker 1: people of voicing UM using their voice for activism. And
Speaker 1: then we have people from the league office that were
Speaker 1: also in the wobble. So for me, I said, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is the US, and this is as diverse as
Speaker 1: you can get, you know. And for me, just the
Speaker 1: total respect and admiration that everyone had for each other
Speaker 1: was beautiful And if the world could be like that,
Speaker 1: it would be an awesome place to be. So for
Speaker 1: us to get to experience each other on and off
Speaker 1: the court and see the different dynamics day in and
Speaker 1: day out, because we all were in that in that
Speaker 1: bubble together, at the hotel, at the lodges, at the pool,
Speaker 1: eating dinner together. Um, it was a beautiful thing. So
Speaker 1: I hope ESPN or someone was there with cameras to
Speaker 1: kind of get that and hopefully they can make a
Speaker 1: documentary of it because it is um. I think it
Speaker 1: would you know, opens up people's eyes a lot. Two
Speaker 1: different type of women we have in the league, not
Speaker 1: women also, but just to me, and we had great
Speaker 1: men coaches there as well that were very supportive. I
Speaker 1: love your illustration and your analogy of how everything was
Speaker 1: essentially under one roof when it came to the bubble
Speaker 1: or the bubble. How did you protect your mental psyche
Speaker 1: while you're in that bubble. They had resources for us,
Speaker 1: but I think it was just, um, just having that
Speaker 1: camaraderie and being able to talk to each other, giving
Speaker 1: our players, just still giving them a day to themselves, um,
Speaker 1: whether they just wanted to hang out by themselves because
Speaker 1: you know, obviously you're seeing the same people every day
Speaker 1: that could be overwhelmed me too, and not just kind
Speaker 1: of having to put on when you were kind of
Speaker 1: like just down or feeling like I gotta get out
Speaker 1: of this bubble. You know, like some nights I'd be
Speaker 1: like I just got to drive somewhere. It's like you
Speaker 1: can't do it. Um. But there were a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of sponsors. People did different things virtually with
Speaker 1: the players, so, um, they had a lot of things online.
Speaker 1: A lot of people were sending them free gifts and uh,
Speaker 1: free makeup, free hair products. So the females are spoiled
Speaker 1: a little bit. We were spoiled a little bit. Well,
Speaker 1: I would say we'd because the coaches didn't get it
Speaker 1: with the players got a lot of I would sneak
Speaker 1: down there and be like, I was a forward player,
Speaker 1: but they got a lot of great gifts to you know,
Speaker 1: kind of make their day, you know, by surprise. Um.
Speaker 1: And then once the game started just kind of started
Speaker 1: flying by once the game started. So I think Men's
Speaker 1: everyone was just made it through. But there were a
Speaker 1: lot of resources for them to have people to talk to.
Speaker 1: All Right, we chastity. Our Our last segment is called
Speaker 1: the Deep Three, and these are just three questions that
Speaker 1: we asked to go beyond the jersey, to go beyond
Speaker 1: the court. And so what we're gonna do is go
Speaker 1: ahead and set this up for you to me is
Speaker 1: gonna give you the first question, but it's really to
Speaker 1: just take this to a deeper level and get a
Speaker 1: better understanding of Chastity. Okay, well, Chastity, you talked about
Speaker 1: your faith. You talked about Grandma Dixon and how, um
Speaker 1: what she was, and how your dad and your mom,
Speaker 1: how you were raised faith based. When is it time
Speaker 1: of your When was it the time of your life
Speaker 1: where your faith was tested? Um. The first time my
Speaker 1: faith was tested, I believe, is when I encountered a
Speaker 1: relationship with with that of the same sex, and up
Speaker 1: until that point I had never engaged in that. And
Speaker 1: once I told my friends about did I for never forget?
Speaker 1: I actually called my ex boyfriend at the time and
Speaker 1: I told him what happened. He was like, You're gonna
Speaker 1: go to hell. It was so judgment I could laugh
Speaker 1: about it now, but it's it really hurt my feelings.
Speaker 1: Um but um, just being raised in the church and
Speaker 1: how people started, um reacting to my parents and to
Speaker 1: me per se. It was just I get where people
Speaker 1: say Christianity is so judgment people are so judgmental, and um,
Speaker 1: the fact that everything I had did up there and
Speaker 1: the fact that my personal relationship is my personal relationship
Speaker 1: just kind of went out the door, and it was
Speaker 1: just like, You're going to hell? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: So for me. My faith was tested, and I had
Speaker 1: a huge battle. You know, as far as everything that
Speaker 1: I thought I knew about God and I thought I
Speaker 1: knew about my faith, was just like, I don't want this.
Speaker 1: If this is what my faith is about, I don't
Speaker 1: want it. But obviously it also made me closer to God.
Speaker 1: And it made me learned just how much God's love
Speaker 1: for me is so real and um and ever since then,
Speaker 1: it's just it's been on a pop in DJ rocket,
Speaker 1: you know, Jesus rocks and I am forever God's child
Speaker 1: and I am I'm always promote my faith and I'm helping.
Speaker 1: I want to help others that are challenged, um in
Speaker 1: any realm of their Christian waw Um Like I look
Speaker 1: at some of the rappers now Chance the Rapper and
Speaker 1: um Lacree and how the church did them and how
Speaker 1: they still you know, spread their music regardless you know
Speaker 1: what people think about it, because it's all about a
Speaker 1: personal relationship. And so my faith was truly tested. Um.
Speaker 1: I disengaged from the church. UM, I had a rift
Speaker 1: with my family. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it made me stronger and it made my faith stronger.
Speaker 1: Now you said you were you said it hurt your feelings? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what what Obviously outside of them saying you're going to
Speaker 1: help what particular if if it's if it's okay for
Speaker 1: me to ask what was what particular thing or singular
Speaker 1: multiple things that they do or say that that that
Speaker 1: hit that chord that made that wound. I believe, you know,
Speaker 1: the wound was more so when I talked to my
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend. It was like, I told you guys, I
Speaker 1: wanted to wait till I got married. And obviously that
Speaker 1: wasn't an issue with my boyfriend. You know, I was
Speaker 1: still gonna go to heaven if I I was with them,
Speaker 1: you know, even though we weren't married, and you know,
Speaker 1: just seeing a lot of the um, the negativity that
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw a lot of guys doing a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. Obviously I hung out with a lot
Speaker 1: of guys. I was friends with a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: but it was okay for them to do certain things
Speaker 1: and not pay respect to the women or you know,
Speaker 1: just and I never judged people. I never I was
Speaker 1: never looking, but it was just like when that happened
Speaker 1: to me, it was like all this stuff people are
Speaker 1: doing and you know, I'm the bad person. For it.
Speaker 1: So Um. I think that's why the wound was so
Speaker 1: big because um, you know, I had expressed my faith
Speaker 1: so much, and I had allowed my friends and my
Speaker 1: family and people in my circle to be who they were,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, and so once I felt like wow,
Speaker 1: I did something that was basically out of my realm
Speaker 1: or people didn't see it coming. Um, it was just
Speaker 1: the end all. And so for me, I think that's
Speaker 1: why the wound was so big. Like I think if
Speaker 1: I would have had a baby, or if I would
Speaker 1: have dated a married man, or I could have done
Speaker 1: anything else and it wouldn't have been as bad as that.
Speaker 1: That's so that was that was that was pretty challenging
Speaker 1: to deal with. And how were those relationships today? They're
Speaker 1: much better today, I will say they're much better today.
Speaker 1: And I believe they're much better today only because of
Speaker 1: the God in me and that they saw that God
Speaker 1: because of my faith. Is because my faith is so strong, Um,
Speaker 1: that they're just I think, like I like I tell
Speaker 1: people all the time, you don't have to preach someone
Speaker 1: to become a Christian. You don't have to be like um,
Speaker 1: you know, port put God on people or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Like God is bigger than all of us, and so
Speaker 1: what he does in my life is just going to
Speaker 1: be seen by others in their own way. It's nothing
Speaker 1: I have to do. So I think down the line,
Speaker 1: people saw that and my dad, UM, I think the
Speaker 1: breaking point is and my dad and I had a
Speaker 1: conversation and you know, we really talked about it from
Speaker 1: a faith standpoint, and UM, everything just kind of changed
Speaker 1: after that. So it's much better. M What do you
Speaker 1: hope a young girl that's in Roseberg today that wants
Speaker 1: to play basketball experiences differently than what you did? Um,
Speaker 1: Just to love themselves no matter what. UM, don't feed
Speaker 1: into the stereotypes, and just they get out of their
Speaker 1: own way. UM at the end of the day, And
Speaker 1: that's why I wrote my book. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day. I spoke a little bit about it in
Speaker 1: that book as a short read. But UM, God created us,
Speaker 1: each of us with a unique talent. And I believe
Speaker 1: some people feel like they don't have a talent or
Speaker 1: they don't have a gift. But everyone has a talent
Speaker 1: and a gift. So for that young girl of that
Speaker 1: young boy growing up, you know, figure out what your
Speaker 1: gift is, which your talent is no matter how big
Speaker 1: or how small. But um, what you do with that
Speaker 1: talent a gift is your gift back to God and
Speaker 1: you know He'll give you a platform to use it
Speaker 1: to the best of your ability. Mmm. Final one, you
Speaker 1: talk about your family, but you know, Um, for me, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, my mom and dad are still alive, but
Speaker 1: my grandparents had a huge impact on me. And I
Speaker 1: could tell very much so that your your grandmother had
Speaker 1: an impact on you. What would you want to hear
Speaker 1: from Grandma diction right now about the woman you are today?
Speaker 1: From both my grandmother's Jeebo and Dixie, Just that they're
Speaker 1: proud of me. Um, that's it. Um my parents, I
Speaker 1: have great parents, Um, and I am very I am
Speaker 1: who I am today because my parents and sacrifices they
Speaker 1: made and the foundation they built for me. But my
Speaker 1: grandmother's were they kind of raised me in a way
Speaker 1: because I was so different and I think, I mean
Speaker 1: grandmothers just loved their grandkids differently, so we're special in
Speaker 1: their eyes no matter what, as opposed to Mom and
Speaker 1: Dad are mad at you for mistakes or how they
Speaker 1: think you should be my grandmother's you know, me chasing
Speaker 1: a basketball and not being in the kitchen cleaning. They
Speaker 1: still loved me and respected me for who I was,
Speaker 1: so I think that was instrumental and for me, I
Speaker 1: would just love to hear them say they're proud of me.
Speaker 1: And I took advantage of a lot of opportunities that
Speaker 1: they didn't have. My grandmother's barely finished high school. They
Speaker 1: worked hard all their lives up to seven years old.
Speaker 1: They never flew on the plane. I regret not taking
Speaker 1: them on the plane, but they were scared to get
Speaker 1: on the plane, so that was hard. But so for
Speaker 1: me to have all these opportunities, I just would love
Speaker 1: to hear them say they're proud of me, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure they are. I literally can talk to you for
Speaker 1: the next five hours because you have so many nuggets.
Speaker 1: You have so much wisdom, but you also have so
Speaker 1: much experience and you've seen the world. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: and thank you for your time, um, and actually thank
Speaker 1: you for who you are. Absolutely, thank you. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you Steve. Keep being you, you guys, keep rocking
Speaker 1: it out. She said something that stuck out to me.
Speaker 1: She talked about basketball, speaking across all languages and basically
Speaker 1: being a conduit for so many different people. What's your
Speaker 1: reaction to that. Do you feel basketball or any sport
Speaker 1: is every sport because when you're playing basketball, unlike when
Speaker 1: you feel out of application, either for job, school, whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be, you have to put so many
Speaker 1: things race age, address, blah blah blah blah blah, like
Speaker 1: all these things. And then in basketball you just play right.
Speaker 1: You could be the tallest, shortest, you know, not the fittest,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be, but your race age, none
Speaker 1: of that stuff matters, doesn't It's can that female or male,
Speaker 1: tall or short put the ball in the hoops. We
Speaker 1: may not know the scheme of basketball, but you know
Speaker 1: the object is that team has to outscore the other
Speaker 1: teams put the ball in the correct And but what really,
Speaker 1: what really stood out to me the most is her
Speaker 1: talking about her trip overseas and just seeing and learning
Speaker 1: about herself. And then she said something that was interesting
Speaker 1: that we've heard from a lot of athletes is she
Speaker 1: had no confidence going overseas and and she gained confidence
Speaker 1: in herself as a black female. She's already they are
Speaker 1: paying her, they bought her flight, they put it on
Speaker 1: the airplane, they flew her over. And yet she still
Speaker 1: has no confidence. Yes, And I thought that was really cool.
Speaker 1: I love the transparency. I thought that was excellent. I
Speaker 1: also was intrigued about her different um how going all
Speaker 1: these different countries with a shape that molded her to
Speaker 1: where why she's probably gonna be a head coach pretty
Speaker 1: soon in the w NBC because she has so much diversity.
Speaker 1: She has such a great history um with people that
Speaker 1: she has the ability to connect right. She I can
Speaker 1: imagine based off she She's wroting a book, She's done
Speaker 1: all these things, right. She's the type of person, well
Speaker 1: I call it a social butterfly that you get jealous
Speaker 1: like she always can just she seems like she can
Speaker 1: spark up a conversation with anybody, right and just be
Speaker 1: the life of the party no matter what I'm And
Speaker 1: I'm always jealous of those people because I don't have
Speaker 1: that confidence in me to be able to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, maybe am I gonna say something stupid?
Speaker 1: You know? Stepping outside? Yeah, stepping on outside of yourself.
Speaker 1: She she does that very well. Um, we didn't get
Speaker 1: into it, but she has been she's assistant coach. However,
Speaker 1: she has been asked to speak to the team at
Speaker 1: times in critical situations, just very rarely is the assistant
Speaker 1: coach the voice of the team. So a lot of
Speaker 1: big personalities, solid Brittany, So that says a lot about her.
Speaker 1: It does. So I we were it was a treat
Speaker 1: for us. It was. It was definitely it was a
Speaker 1: snicker doodle right there, right it was. It was really
Speaker 1: a treat for us. So I enjoyed that. And her
Speaker 1: talking about her grandparents and talking about her humble beginnings
Speaker 1: really really cool. You are a unique person. You are
Speaker 1: well worth it, you are competent, and most of all,
Speaker 1: your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It, LLC, Ball Tool, Creative Media, The Black Effect,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard Little John,
Speaker 1: talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut Too
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Balta Chevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock,
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all