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Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sailin and Chris

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Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and

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Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson, You're now

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Speaker 1: Tom kJ Live, today's guest on the show. Is a

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Speaker 1: fourth time w NBA All Star. She's a Chief Doublin

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Speaker 1: in sixteen w India champion and considered one of the

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Speaker 1: greatest players in the history of women's basketball. She has

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Speaker 1: currently partnered with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group

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Speaker 1: and together they focused their efforts on bringing a w

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Speaker 1: NBA franchise to the city of Oakland. It is my

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Speaker 1: great honor to welcome a lot of beard to the show. Hi, kJ, Hi,

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Speaker 1: how are you for having me? Thanks for reaching out

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Speaker 1: to get me on absolutely. I mean, once I read

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Speaker 1: about what you're doing, Uh, it was fascinating for a

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Speaker 1: lot of reasons. And I'll get into that a little

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Speaker 1: bit later, but I really want to hear all about

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Speaker 1: what you're doing. But something I wanted to ask you

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Speaker 1: when I because I heard about it, when you when

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Speaker 1: you shut it down when you retired, what made you

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Speaker 1: decide to walk away from the game. I was ready right. UM.

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Speaker 1: I I think I was in a position that not

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Speaker 1: a lot of athletes are in UM towards the end

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Speaker 1: of their career. I was fortunate to be able to

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Speaker 1: make that decision, and I was ready to make that decision.

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Speaker 1: I was craving something new. I was craving the transition

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Speaker 1: to the business world. UM. And on top of that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I've always been I've always been that athlete

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Speaker 1: that never wanted to cheat the game. Right And to me,

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Speaker 1: if my body wasn't producing the way that I needed it,

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Speaker 1: you are wanted to UM considering the amount of work

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Speaker 1: that I put in on a daily basis, right, it

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Speaker 1: didn't make the game fun for me anymore. UM. And

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Speaker 1: And to add to that, there are only a hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty four spots in the w n b A,

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Speaker 1: and I knew that I could stay in that league

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Speaker 1: for as long as I wanted to stay in that

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Speaker 1: league because of what I brought to any locker room. UM.

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Speaker 1: In fact, when I, you know, announced that I was retiring,

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Speaker 1: which was a mistake because I just wanted to just

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Speaker 1: roll on out, UM, coaches were reaching out to me

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Speaker 1: to come on board, and I was like, no, I'm done,

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Speaker 1: And I've always been big on mentoring, and I knew

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Speaker 1: that if I had stayed, I was taking up another

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Speaker 1: position and taking that away from young women who have

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Speaker 1: dreamt for years upon years of being in the w

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Speaker 1: n b A. Absolutely you touched on your your desire

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Speaker 1: to mentor um A lot of times the professional athletics,

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Speaker 1: you don't you see it, but you don't hear about

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Speaker 1: enough stories about the pros mentoring. I UM, I watched

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Speaker 1: some of the video of you and Marissa Coleman, I believe,

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Speaker 1: and you guys, actually you co owned a restaurant together.

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Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about that partnership, how that developed,

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Speaker 1: in that, in your role in that, in that relationship.

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Speaker 1: So Marissa and I met when I was playing in

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Speaker 1: Washington for the Washington Mystics. I was our best she

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Speaker 1: was my Rickie, right, And you know, I've always been

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Speaker 1: that that individual to where I don't I don't speak

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Speaker 1: very much. I don't I don't force anything on you.

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Speaker 1: If you if you come to me and if you

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Speaker 1: want to know certain things, I'm going to take the

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Speaker 1: time to explain it to you. But more than anything,

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Speaker 1: I lead by example, right, And so I think Marissa

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Speaker 1: Coleman saw sort of my approach to sort of the game,

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Speaker 1: but also so my approach to you know, life outside

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Speaker 1: of the court. And we would we would have many, many,

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Speaker 1: um conversations about what's the next step, even at you know,

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Speaker 1: even four and five years and we would still have

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Speaker 1: those conversations. And so she knew that I had interests

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Speaker 1: of one day being a franchise z because I had

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Speaker 1: this grand plan of building out a portfolio of franchises

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Speaker 1: and operating it right. But thank god, a mentor of

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Speaker 1: mine kind of like you know, encouraged me to start

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Speaker 1: to dig into the venture capital space. But Marissa, you know,

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Speaker 1: she was always there, always digging in, always interested in

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Speaker 1: what I was doing, and I was always providing information.

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Speaker 1: And then eventually our relationship progressed to the point to

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Speaker 1: where we had enough confidence and trust in each other

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Speaker 1: that we decided to move forward. Um, you know, from

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Speaker 1: a business perspective. But that opportunity came about because Marissa

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Speaker 1: Coleman family had a had a family friend who had owned,

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Speaker 1: my goodness, at least forty franchises, um, from Domino's Pizza

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Speaker 1: to to Jersey Mike's. And so he literally took us

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Speaker 1: underneath his wing and took us through the process, step

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Speaker 1: by step by step to teach us um the process

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Speaker 1: of building out of franchise, and Mariska Coleman and I

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Speaker 1: were all over it. Were very like minded in terms

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Speaker 1: of how we see ourselves UM transitioning and living life

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Speaker 1: beyond the game. That is some very valuable experience, a

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Speaker 1: very very good blessing to have someone walk you through

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Speaker 1: those particular ropes. Having a little bit of business background

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Speaker 1: myself and been involved in franchising. If there's there's so

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Speaker 1: much I wish we would have did differently in those

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Speaker 1: first three months. Okay, that that just kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: changes the game for you. But but but knowing those

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Speaker 1: things and getting that information is a valuable experience. Now,

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Speaker 1: how early in your w NBA career did first, did

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Speaker 1: life after basketball becomes sort of the priority for you

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Speaker 1: to start strategically setting it up? And then how early

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Speaker 1: was it did you have that business that first for

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Speaker 1: the business side of things. Was it as a graduate

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Speaker 1: from Duke or did it start earlier than that, or

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Speaker 1: or you know, no, it's it started. It started in

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Speaker 1: high school, right and and it's impite started because you know,

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Speaker 1: I would leave the gym after practicing for hours after hours,

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Speaker 1: and I would go straight to I would go straight

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Speaker 1: to the Smoothie Key. And so I was spending all

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Speaker 1: my money at a Smoothie King. And in my mind,

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Speaker 1: why would I spend all my money when I can

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Speaker 1: just own one? And then um, on top of like,

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Speaker 1: you know, loving smoothie King, I found out that the

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Speaker 1: headquarters were you know, it was in New Orleans, right,

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Speaker 1: and so I was like, I'm gonna own hundreds of

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Speaker 1: Smoothie Kings, right. And so that was something that started

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Speaker 1: in high school and I've always had that in mind.

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Speaker 1: In fact, if you if you go back to sort

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Speaker 1: of a few interviews that I maybe did in college.

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Speaker 1: I think it was like our Duke Media Guide or something.

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Speaker 1: They asked me like who do I admire? Who do

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Speaker 1: I want to be? I was like, I want to

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Speaker 1: be the second richest African American woman behind Oprah went Free.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't say the first, but

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Speaker 1: I just said behind Oprah Remfrey because she was the standard, right,

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Speaker 1: And so I've always been in that mindset. So with franchising,

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Speaker 1: I I followed that trend through through high through college, right,

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Speaker 1: and then I got to the professionals. We started having

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Speaker 1: more and more time on our hands, and I kept

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Speaker 1: following that that that trend, and then I didn't have

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Speaker 1: a problem connecting with people. Right if I wasn't that

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Speaker 1: athlete that walked around with a big head and an ego. Right,

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Speaker 1: if someone approached me, I'm extremely approachable. I'm gonna have

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Speaker 1: a conversation with you. We're all human, right, and you

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Speaker 1: will be surprised how many connections you make just by

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Speaker 1: sitting at a coffee shop and engaging with people, instead

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Speaker 1: of being so consumed in your own world that you

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Speaker 1: don't see the life that's around you. Um. So I

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Speaker 1: think that was how I I kind of started, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, developing start of the business acumen. Right. Um.

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Speaker 1: But I can admit that when I was injured in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, when the doctors told me I

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Speaker 1: had a ten percent chance of returning to the court

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Speaker 1: at an elite level, I became hyper focused. I'm preparing

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Speaker 1: for life after basketball. Um to where I was like,

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Speaker 1: I was reaching out to people. I actually reached out

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Speaker 1: to this to this one guy. He was the founder

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Speaker 1: of a cybersecurity company in Washington, and I was like, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I was like, can we meet up at Starbucks once

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Speaker 1: a week for you to give me many lessons um

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Speaker 1: in business. Dude was like, yeah, we can do that.

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Speaker 1: So for over a year, every week I would meet

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Speaker 1: up at Starbucks with this guy for like two or

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Speaker 1: three hours a day and just sit there and go

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Speaker 1: through my own m b A. Right, because I'm no

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Speaker 1: type of person that UM. I I learned by doing

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Speaker 1: right and and having someone sort of just walk me

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Speaker 1: through and step by step I get it, like just

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Speaker 1: like that, like with means. And so that was kind

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Speaker 1: of my first maybe introduction into just really understanding what

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Speaker 1: mentors are. Right. I think a lot of people can

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Speaker 1: have people in their lives and they can say that

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Speaker 1: they have mentors, but how you engage with that mentor

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Speaker 1: is super important, right, because it's you to dictate the

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Speaker 1: journey that you want. Absolutely something. Yeah, and that's something

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Speaker 1: that is basketball athletes. I won't say basketball players, I

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Speaker 1: won't just generalize like that, but as athletes sometimes we

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Speaker 1: take for granted is that the related ship, how to deal,

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Speaker 1: how to behave with a mentor, how to maintain and

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Speaker 1: cultivate UM. That's I think more of those type of

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Speaker 1: classes need to be taught or seminars or whatever. But

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Speaker 1: the next generation definitely needs to understand that. But staying

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Speaker 1: on that topic, on that topic, now, when did you

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Speaker 1: as a player first start to think, Okay, did you

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Speaker 1: think about being an owner of a of a franchise

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Speaker 1: even back then? So when was that day or when

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Speaker 1: was that moment that you had that that thought. I

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Speaker 1: don't know that I can put like a moment on it.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it was when I was injured came back after

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Speaker 1: two years of being off the court in the Washington

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Speaker 1: mystics kind of said, yeah, you're not gonna be good anymore,

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Speaker 1: so we're not going to resign you. Right. Maybe I

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Speaker 1: don't know. That was my first lesson in business. Um,

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Speaker 1: And you know, I'm probably gonna go off the routes here.

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Speaker 1: But I always bring Lebron James into this conversation because

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Speaker 1: I respect him for what he did right um, and

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Speaker 1: when he made the decision to go from Cleveland to Miami.

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Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily like how he did it and announced it,

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Speaker 1: but I respected it because Lebron James was probably one

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Speaker 1: of the first athletes to start to do to an

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Speaker 1: organization what organizations kind of do the athletes all the time.

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Speaker 1: Like when they can't when you can't do anything for

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Speaker 1: that organization anymore, it's business. Gloyd's means nothing, right, And

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Speaker 1: so Lebron was that athlete that took control of his

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Speaker 1: own journey, right, and he made that decision. You know what,

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Speaker 1: Cleveland isn't ready for me just yet. I'm gonna go

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Speaker 1: to Miami. I'm gonna build up my brand, take control

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Speaker 1: of my brand, win some championships, and then I'll come

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Speaker 1: back to my hometown and win it for you went

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Speaker 1: out to work, so you know, and that's what I respect.

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Speaker 1: So I think that the thought of like becoming an

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Speaker 1: owner has always been in my mind, whether it's a

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Speaker 1: w nb A team, UM an NBA team, NFL team, like,

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Speaker 1: nothing is off limits, right the w b A. Why

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Speaker 1: wouldn't I want to do this when I have the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to do it? Right? Were there inspirations that you

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Speaker 1: drew upon, uh, black women women in general that you said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I looked at this person as someone that inspires me

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Speaker 1: to do better and achieve the highest of heights. Oprah

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Speaker 1: Winfrey think it's as simple as that. It's it's it's

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Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey. I think Oprah Winfrey is every black girl's

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Speaker 1: role model, or at least in my generation. It was

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Speaker 1: right you you saw her just carry herself with such grace,

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Speaker 1: um that that you, I don't know, I was intrigued.

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Speaker 1: I was intrigued early on. I'm still in tregued. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: When when when you they say that representation matters, what

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Speaker 1: does that phrase mean to you personally? It means a ton.

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Speaker 1: You got to see it in order to believe it, right. Um,

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Speaker 1: when I was, you know, had aspirations of playing in

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Speaker 1: the NBA because I didn't have the w n b

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Speaker 1: A T to to look up to. That's that's what

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Speaker 1: it means. That was my that was my meaning of

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Speaker 1: of having representation. I wanted to be the next Reggie

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Speaker 1: Miller the w n b A started, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: be the next India Cooper. So it means a ton, right,

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Speaker 1: So what the choices that I make on this journey

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Speaker 1: when I tell you that me is not at the

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Speaker 1: center of any of it. I have a bigger vision

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Speaker 1: and I have a bigger purpose on this on this earth,

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Speaker 1: right to to to sort of create and lay a

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Speaker 1: foundation or lay a path, just as those that laid

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Speaker 1: that path for me before, Like I have that responsibility

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Speaker 1: and I don't take it lightly. So when I when

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Speaker 1: I pursue these opportunities, whether it's in the venture capital space,

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Speaker 1: whether it's owning a franchise, or are now you know,

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Speaker 1: leading a group to to sort of bring the team

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Speaker 1: to Oakland. It's about that generation that's coming behind me

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Speaker 1: to be able to see that this is attainable, that

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Speaker 1: this is possible if you really want it. It's cliche,

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Speaker 1: but it's true, and honestly a lot of the things

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Speaker 1: that people call cliche are some of the most valuable

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Speaker 1: lessons if we really listened to it and it really

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Speaker 1: hold onto those words, we learned something from it, and

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Speaker 1: that brings me. That brings me to today. Your involvement

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Speaker 1: with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and their

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Speaker 1: push to bring a w NBA franchise to the city

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Speaker 1: of Oakland. How did you get involved with him? Doing

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Speaker 1: my homework so you made happy yourself. You reached out

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Speaker 1: to the people just doing my homework right again, just

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Speaker 1: as I you know, it goes back to when I

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Speaker 1: was in high school. I followed the trend with franchising,

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Speaker 1: eventually on my own franchise. Same thing here, right, aspirations.

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Speaker 1: If I if I were to show you my white

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Speaker 1: white board, you would see an org chart where I

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Speaker 1: have buckets of what I want to do and they're

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Speaker 1: not dreams. This is what I want to do. Um.

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Speaker 1: And so I followed the trend they I think the

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Speaker 1: announcement came out, um maybe in June of twenty one

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Speaker 1: that they were pursuing ownership and I had my agents

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Speaker 1: due to due diligence, right, UM. I asked them to

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Speaker 1: get me the contacts and I reached out to to

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Speaker 1: Ray Bob it Cold um and I and I sort

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Speaker 1: of you know, provided a little information on my of

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Speaker 1: myself through email and within an hour he responded, um.

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Speaker 1: And so the synergies were there. We we had tons

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Speaker 1: and tons of conversations just to understand if this made sense. Um.

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Speaker 1: I'm big on vibes um and and it feels right.

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Speaker 1: It feels good. It felt good obviously with the other

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Speaker 1: due diligence that's needed, just felt good. Right. Their their

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Speaker 1: intent is there for the right thing there um. Potentially

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Speaker 1: would be some roadblocks and challenges along this road. How

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Speaker 1: do you envision sort of the process to go like?

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Speaker 1: Could you like because I'm you know and I know

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Speaker 1: you can't really talk about too much about the particulars

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Speaker 1: of it, but for the stuff you can't talk about,

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Speaker 1: what is sort of the strategic roadmap owning a w

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Speaker 1: NBA franchise if you will. Yeah, No, it's about getting

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Speaker 1: the community to support you one to you know what.

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Speaker 1: I back up. The first thing is about making sure

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Speaker 1: that you have a place to host the team. A

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Speaker 1: CG has already done that, right, They've laid that foundation.

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Speaker 1: There's there's just there's just they have secured a lease

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Speaker 1: agreement with Oakland Arena. That's there. The second is money

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Speaker 1: that's there right um. And the third I think everyone

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Speaker 1: needs to understand because you have to manage to use expectations.

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Speaker 1: When you see the headlines, it's like, oh, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get a team in Oakland. No, this is a process.

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Speaker 1: I compare this to a political campaign. Right now, we

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Speaker 1: have to make the push to convince not only the

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Speaker 1: community but also the w n b A and and

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Speaker 1: the owners within the w n b A that this

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Speaker 1: is a viable that Oakland is a valuable market. So

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Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a ton of work, but I

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Speaker 1: think that's the one thing that attracts me more than anything.

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Speaker 1: Not not that I can, you know, sort of position

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Speaker 1: myself to sort of be a catalyst for change at

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Speaker 1: the league level, but the process of it all, that

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Speaker 1: is the most intriguing thing to me, right because there

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Speaker 1: are going to be challenges, there are going to be roadblocks,

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Speaker 1: but we'll figure out how to get around them or

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Speaker 1: get through them. And and I think the other hard

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Speaker 1: part to this is that we can do all of

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Speaker 1: this work and the league is making that decision. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Also the LEA, the decision ultimately rests with the other

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Speaker 1: owners to vote on this. Absolutely the league. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, okay, um,

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Speaker 1: that's interesting. You know, I looked up, I looked up

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Speaker 1: all the information that I could on the group, and

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Speaker 1: I read a ton of letters of recommendation from all

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Speaker 1: over the community, from every corner of the community, which

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Speaker 1: is super impressive. I've actually reached down and talked to

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Speaker 1: some folks in Oakland. They're extremely excited about it. They

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Speaker 1: feel like this is something that definitely will go in Oakland,

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Speaker 1: in particular because of how they get down in Oakland,

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Speaker 1: and that that's what I mean. I'm just saying that

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Speaker 1: is just what people have to understand like Oakland moves

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Speaker 1: in a different way, Berkeley moves kind of in a

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Speaker 1: different speed than everybody else, and they really don't really

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Speaker 1: care about what the outside world thinks of them. But

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Speaker 1: they're gonna get behind a team and a franchise to

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Speaker 1: support them. Bringing me to my next to my next question,

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Speaker 1: what do you want the identity of this organization? Is

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Speaker 1: there a name for the organization and what do you

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Speaker 1: want the identity for the organization to be? Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna get into a part of the name, um

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Speaker 1: but um, I think I've mentioned this and I will

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Speaker 1: always mention is about being authentic to who I am

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Speaker 1: as an individual, but more importantly, being authentic to who

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Speaker 1: OPEN is. That's as simple as that. Mm hmm, and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't get more simple. Final final questions, final question

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Speaker 1: for you, um Elena, What I'm a part of the

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Speaker 1: global basketball community is what I call it. So it

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter what love you played on. If you hoop,

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Speaker 1: you love the game, then you're part of the community.

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Speaker 1: What can the global basketball community do to help bridge

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Speaker 1: the gap surrounding the inequities and not only women's professional basketball,

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Speaker 1: but in c double a basketball high school on down

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Speaker 1: what can we do as a global community to bridge

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Speaker 1: that gap? Show up, right, show up and respect what

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Speaker 1: we do as women athletes. Understand that just because our

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Speaker 1: counterparts are making millions and millions of more dollars than

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Speaker 1: we are, it doesn't negate the amount of work we

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Speaker 1: put into our craft and perfecting it. It's all the same.

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Speaker 1: It's all the same, right, and that's what we we

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Speaker 1: have to get people to sort of understand. Um, it's

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Speaker 1: not about tearing someone else down, is about lifting those

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Speaker 1: around you up. So if if there's anything, um, the

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Speaker 1: global sports community can do, it's just show up, be positive.

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Speaker 1: Support um, because at some point you're gonna have a daughter,

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Speaker 1: and you're gonna want your daughter to play sports, and

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Speaker 1: your daughter maybe one of those elite individuals that make

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Speaker 1: it to the professor at a level, and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: want people to support them as well. So just be kind,

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Speaker 1: be nice, UM, just do good. Pick a person, right,

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Speaker 1: I I can't imagine it being that hard. We'll say it,

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Speaker 1: We'll see Elena. Yeah, thank thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: your time today. UM, best of luck in your push

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Speaker 1: to bring that professional basketball franchise. If anything that I

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Speaker 1: could do to help, please let me know. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if there's anything I can do, but if there's

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Speaker 1: anything I could do, please let me know, because this

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Speaker 1: is something I definitely want to get behind and you

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Speaker 1: have my full support upon Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining kJ Live, Ladies and gentlemen, Elena Beard, thank you kJ.

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Speaker 1: This was a pleasure.