Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Sailin and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson, You're now
Speaker 1: Tom kJ Live, today's guest on the show. Is a
Speaker 1: fourth time w NBA All Star. She's a Chief Doublin
Speaker 1: in sixteen w India champion and considered one of the
Speaker 1: greatest players in the history of women's basketball. She has
Speaker 1: currently partnered with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group
Speaker 1: and together they focused their efforts on bringing a w
Speaker 1: NBA franchise to the city of Oakland. It is my
Speaker 1: great honor to welcome a lot of beard to the show. Hi, kJ, Hi,
Speaker 1: how are you for having me? Thanks for reaching out
Speaker 1: to get me on absolutely. I mean, once I read
Speaker 1: about what you're doing, Uh, it was fascinating for a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. And I'll get into that a little
Speaker 1: bit later, but I really want to hear all about
Speaker 1: what you're doing. But something I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: when I because I heard about it, when you when
Speaker 1: you shut it down when you retired, what made you
Speaker 1: decide to walk away from the game. I was ready right. UM.
Speaker 1: I I think I was in a position that not
Speaker 1: a lot of athletes are in UM towards the end
Speaker 1: of their career. I was fortunate to be able to
Speaker 1: make that decision, and I was ready to make that decision.
Speaker 1: I was craving something new. I was craving the transition
Speaker 1: to the business world. UM. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: you know, I've always been I've always been that athlete
Speaker 1: that never wanted to cheat the game. Right And to me,
Speaker 1: if my body wasn't producing the way that I needed it,
Speaker 1: you are wanted to UM considering the amount of work
Speaker 1: that I put in on a daily basis, right, it
Speaker 1: didn't make the game fun for me anymore. UM. And
Speaker 1: And to add to that, there are only a hundred
Speaker 1: and forty four spots in the w n b A,
Speaker 1: and I knew that I could stay in that league
Speaker 1: for as long as I wanted to stay in that
Speaker 1: league because of what I brought to any locker room. UM.
Speaker 1: In fact, when I, you know, announced that I was retiring,
Speaker 1: which was a mistake because I just wanted to just
Speaker 1: roll on out, UM, coaches were reaching out to me
Speaker 1: to come on board, and I was like, no, I'm done,
Speaker 1: And I've always been big on mentoring, and I knew
Speaker 1: that if I had stayed, I was taking up another
Speaker 1: position and taking that away from young women who have
Speaker 1: dreamt for years upon years of being in the w
Speaker 1: n b A. Absolutely you touched on your your desire
Speaker 1: to mentor um A lot of times the professional athletics,
Speaker 1: you don't you see it, but you don't hear about
Speaker 1: enough stories about the pros mentoring. I UM, I watched
Speaker 1: some of the video of you and Marissa Coleman, I believe,
Speaker 1: and you guys, actually you co owned a restaurant together.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about that partnership, how that developed,
Speaker 1: in that, in your role in that, in that relationship.
Speaker 1: So Marissa and I met when I was playing in
Speaker 1: Washington for the Washington Mystics. I was our best she
Speaker 1: was my Rickie, right, And you know, I've always been
Speaker 1: that that individual to where I don't I don't speak
Speaker 1: very much. I don't I don't force anything on you.
Speaker 1: If you if you come to me and if you
Speaker 1: want to know certain things, I'm going to take the
Speaker 1: time to explain it to you. But more than anything,
Speaker 1: I lead by example, right, And so I think Marissa
Speaker 1: Coleman saw sort of my approach to sort of the game,
Speaker 1: but also so my approach to you know, life outside
Speaker 1: of the court. And we would we would have many, many,
Speaker 1: um conversations about what's the next step, even at you know,
Speaker 1: even four and five years and we would still have
Speaker 1: those conversations. And so she knew that I had interests
Speaker 1: of one day being a franchise z because I had
Speaker 1: this grand plan of building out a portfolio of franchises
Speaker 1: and operating it right. But thank god, a mentor of
Speaker 1: mine kind of like you know, encouraged me to start
Speaker 1: to dig into the venture capital space. But Marissa, you know,
Speaker 1: she was always there, always digging in, always interested in
Speaker 1: what I was doing, and I was always providing information.
Speaker 1: And then eventually our relationship progressed to the point to
Speaker 1: where we had enough confidence and trust in each other
Speaker 1: that we decided to move forward. Um, you know, from
Speaker 1: a business perspective. But that opportunity came about because Marissa
Speaker 1: Coleman family had a had a family friend who had owned,
Speaker 1: my goodness, at least forty franchises, um, from Domino's Pizza
Speaker 1: to to Jersey Mike's. And so he literally took us
Speaker 1: underneath his wing and took us through the process, step
Speaker 1: by step by step to teach us um the process
Speaker 1: of building out of franchise, and Mariska Coleman and I
Speaker 1: were all over it. Were very like minded in terms
Speaker 1: of how we see ourselves UM transitioning and living life
Speaker 1: beyond the game. That is some very valuable experience, a
Speaker 1: very very good blessing to have someone walk you through
Speaker 1: those particular ropes. Having a little bit of business background
Speaker 1: myself and been involved in franchising. If there's there's so
Speaker 1: much I wish we would have did differently in those
Speaker 1: first three months. Okay, that that just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: changes the game for you. But but but knowing those
Speaker 1: things and getting that information is a valuable experience. Now,
Speaker 1: how early in your w NBA career did first, did
Speaker 1: life after basketball becomes sort of the priority for you
Speaker 1: to start strategically setting it up? And then how early
Speaker 1: was it did you have that business that first for
Speaker 1: the business side of things. Was it as a graduate
Speaker 1: from Duke or did it start earlier than that, or
Speaker 1: or you know, no, it's it started. It started in
Speaker 1: high school, right and and it's impite started because you know,
Speaker 1: I would leave the gym after practicing for hours after hours,
Speaker 1: and I would go straight to I would go straight
Speaker 1: to the Smoothie Key. And so I was spending all
Speaker 1: my money at a Smoothie King. And in my mind,
Speaker 1: why would I spend all my money when I can
Speaker 1: just own one? And then um, on top of like,
Speaker 1: you know, loving smoothie King, I found out that the
Speaker 1: headquarters were you know, it was in New Orleans, right,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, I'm gonna own hundreds of
Speaker 1: Smoothie Kings, right. And so that was something that started
Speaker 1: in high school and I've always had that in mind.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you if you go back to sort
Speaker 1: of a few interviews that I maybe did in college.
Speaker 1: I think it was like our Duke Media Guide or something.
Speaker 1: They asked me like who do I admire? Who do
Speaker 1: I want to be? I was like, I want to
Speaker 1: be the second richest African American woman behind Oprah went Free.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't say the first, but
Speaker 1: I just said behind Oprah Remfrey because she was the standard, right,
Speaker 1: And so I've always been in that mindset. So with franchising,
Speaker 1: I I followed that trend through through high through college, right,
Speaker 1: and then I got to the professionals. We started having
Speaker 1: more and more time on our hands, and I kept
Speaker 1: following that that that trend, and then I didn't have
Speaker 1: a problem connecting with people. Right if I wasn't that
Speaker 1: athlete that walked around with a big head and an ego. Right,
Speaker 1: if someone approached me, I'm extremely approachable. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a conversation with you. We're all human, right, and you
Speaker 1: will be surprised how many connections you make just by
Speaker 1: sitting at a coffee shop and engaging with people, instead
Speaker 1: of being so consumed in your own world that you
Speaker 1: don't see the life that's around you. Um. So I
Speaker 1: think that was how I I kind of started, um,
Speaker 1: you know, developing start of the business acumen. Right. Um.
Speaker 1: But I can admit that when I was injured in
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, when the doctors told me I
Speaker 1: had a ten percent chance of returning to the court
Speaker 1: at an elite level, I became hyper focused. I'm preparing
Speaker 1: for life after basketball. Um to where I was like,
Speaker 1: I was reaching out to people. I actually reached out
Speaker 1: to this to this one guy. He was the founder
Speaker 1: of a cybersecurity company in Washington, and I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I was like, can we meet up at Starbucks once
Speaker 1: a week for you to give me many lessons um
Speaker 1: in business. Dude was like, yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 1: So for over a year, every week I would meet
Speaker 1: up at Starbucks with this guy for like two or
Speaker 1: three hours a day and just sit there and go
Speaker 1: through my own m b A. Right, because I'm no
Speaker 1: type of person that UM. I I learned by doing
Speaker 1: right and and having someone sort of just walk me
Speaker 1: through and step by step I get it, like just
Speaker 1: like that, like with means. And so that was kind
Speaker 1: of my first maybe introduction into just really understanding what
Speaker 1: mentors are. Right. I think a lot of people can
Speaker 1: have people in their lives and they can say that
Speaker 1: they have mentors, but how you engage with that mentor
Speaker 1: is super important, right, because it's you to dictate the
Speaker 1: journey that you want. Absolutely something. Yeah, and that's something
Speaker 1: that is basketball athletes. I won't say basketball players, I
Speaker 1: won't just generalize like that, but as athletes sometimes we
Speaker 1: take for granted is that the related ship, how to deal,
Speaker 1: how to behave with a mentor, how to maintain and
Speaker 1: cultivate UM. That's I think more of those type of
Speaker 1: classes need to be taught or seminars or whatever. But
Speaker 1: the next generation definitely needs to understand that. But staying
Speaker 1: on that topic, on that topic, now, when did you
Speaker 1: as a player first start to think, Okay, did you
Speaker 1: think about being an owner of a of a franchise
Speaker 1: even back then? So when was that day or when
Speaker 1: was that moment that you had that that thought. I
Speaker 1: don't know that I can put like a moment on it.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was when I was injured came back after
Speaker 1: two years of being off the court in the Washington
Speaker 1: mystics kind of said, yeah, you're not gonna be good anymore,
Speaker 1: so we're not going to resign you. Right. Maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know. That was my first lesson in business. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm probably gonna go off the routes here.
Speaker 1: But I always bring Lebron James into this conversation because
Speaker 1: I respect him for what he did right um, and
Speaker 1: when he made the decision to go from Cleveland to Miami.
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily like how he did it and announced it,
Speaker 1: but I respected it because Lebron James was probably one
Speaker 1: of the first athletes to start to do to an
Speaker 1: organization what organizations kind of do the athletes all the time.
Speaker 1: Like when they can't when you can't do anything for
Speaker 1: that organization anymore, it's business. Gloyd's means nothing, right, And
Speaker 1: so Lebron was that athlete that took control of his
Speaker 1: own journey, right, and he made that decision. You know what,
Speaker 1: Cleveland isn't ready for me just yet. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to Miami. I'm gonna build up my brand, take control
Speaker 1: of my brand, win some championships, and then I'll come
Speaker 1: back to my hometown and win it for you went
Speaker 1: out to work, so you know, and that's what I respect.
Speaker 1: So I think that the thought of like becoming an
Speaker 1: owner has always been in my mind, whether it's a
Speaker 1: w nb A team, UM an NBA team, NFL team, like,
Speaker 1: nothing is off limits, right the w b A. Why
Speaker 1: wouldn't I want to do this when I have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to do it? Right? Were there inspirations that you
Speaker 1: drew upon, uh, black women women in general that you said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I looked at this person as someone that inspires me
Speaker 1: to do better and achieve the highest of heights. Oprah
Speaker 1: Winfrey think it's as simple as that. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey. I think Oprah Winfrey is every black girl's
Speaker 1: role model, or at least in my generation. It was
Speaker 1: right you you saw her just carry herself with such grace,
Speaker 1: um that that you, I don't know, I was intrigued.
Speaker 1: I was intrigued early on. I'm still in tregued. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When when when you they say that representation matters, what
Speaker 1: does that phrase mean to you personally? It means a ton.
Speaker 1: You got to see it in order to believe it, right. Um,
Speaker 1: when I was, you know, had aspirations of playing in
Speaker 1: the NBA because I didn't have the w n b
Speaker 1: A T to to look up to. That's that's what
Speaker 1: it means. That was my that was my meaning of
Speaker 1: of having representation. I wanted to be the next Reggie
Speaker 1: Miller the w n b A started, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be the next India Cooper. So it means a ton, right,
Speaker 1: So what the choices that I make on this journey
Speaker 1: when I tell you that me is not at the
Speaker 1: center of any of it. I have a bigger vision
Speaker 1: and I have a bigger purpose on this on this earth,
Speaker 1: right to to to sort of create and lay a
Speaker 1: foundation or lay a path, just as those that laid
Speaker 1: that path for me before, Like I have that responsibility
Speaker 1: and I don't take it lightly. So when I when
Speaker 1: I pursue these opportunities, whether it's in the venture capital space,
Speaker 1: whether it's owning a franchise, or are now you know,
Speaker 1: leading a group to to sort of bring the team
Speaker 1: to Oakland. It's about that generation that's coming behind me
Speaker 1: to be able to see that this is attainable, that
Speaker 1: this is possible if you really want it. It's cliche,
Speaker 1: but it's true, and honestly a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that people call cliche are some of the most valuable
Speaker 1: lessons if we really listened to it and it really
Speaker 1: hold onto those words, we learned something from it, and
Speaker 1: that brings me. That brings me to today. Your involvement
Speaker 1: with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and their
Speaker 1: push to bring a w NBA franchise to the city
Speaker 1: of Oakland. How did you get involved with him? Doing
Speaker 1: my homework so you made happy yourself. You reached out
Speaker 1: to the people just doing my homework right again, just
Speaker 1: as I you know, it goes back to when I
Speaker 1: was in high school. I followed the trend with franchising,
Speaker 1: eventually on my own franchise. Same thing here, right, aspirations.
Speaker 1: If I if I were to show you my white
Speaker 1: white board, you would see an org chart where I
Speaker 1: have buckets of what I want to do and they're
Speaker 1: not dreams. This is what I want to do. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I followed the trend they I think the
Speaker 1: announcement came out, um maybe in June of twenty one
Speaker 1: that they were pursuing ownership and I had my agents
Speaker 1: due to due diligence, right, UM. I asked them to
Speaker 1: get me the contacts and I reached out to to
Speaker 1: Ray Bob it Cold um and I and I sort
Speaker 1: of you know, provided a little information on my of
Speaker 1: myself through email and within an hour he responded, um.
Speaker 1: And so the synergies were there. We we had tons
Speaker 1: and tons of conversations just to understand if this made sense. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm big on vibes um and and it feels right.
Speaker 1: It feels good. It felt good obviously with the other
Speaker 1: due diligence that's needed, just felt good. Right. Their their
Speaker 1: intent is there for the right thing there um. Potentially
Speaker 1: would be some roadblocks and challenges along this road. How
Speaker 1: do you envision sort of the process to go like?
Speaker 1: Could you like because I'm you know and I know
Speaker 1: you can't really talk about too much about the particulars
Speaker 1: of it, but for the stuff you can't talk about,
Speaker 1: what is sort of the strategic roadmap owning a w
Speaker 1: NBA franchise if you will. Yeah, No, it's about getting
Speaker 1: the community to support you one to you know what.
Speaker 1: I back up. The first thing is about making sure
Speaker 1: that you have a place to host the team. A
Speaker 1: CG has already done that, right, They've laid that foundation.
Speaker 1: There's there's just there's just they have secured a lease
Speaker 1: agreement with Oakland Arena. That's there. The second is money
Speaker 1: that's there right um. And the third I think everyone
Speaker 1: needs to understand because you have to manage to use expectations.
Speaker 1: When you see the headlines, it's like, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get a team in Oakland. No, this is a process.
Speaker 1: I compare this to a political campaign. Right now, we
Speaker 1: have to make the push to convince not only the
Speaker 1: community but also the w n b A and and
Speaker 1: the owners within the w n b A that this
Speaker 1: is a viable that Oakland is a valuable market. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a ton of work, but I
Speaker 1: think that's the one thing that attracts me more than anything.
Speaker 1: Not not that I can, you know, sort of position
Speaker 1: myself to sort of be a catalyst for change at
Speaker 1: the league level, but the process of it all, that
Speaker 1: is the most intriguing thing to me, right because there
Speaker 1: are going to be challenges, there are going to be roadblocks,
Speaker 1: but we'll figure out how to get around them or
Speaker 1: get through them. And and I think the other hard
Speaker 1: part to this is that we can do all of
Speaker 1: this work and the league is making that decision. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also the LEA, the decision ultimately rests with the other
Speaker 1: owners to vote on this. Absolutely the league. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, okay, um,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. You know, I looked up, I looked up
Speaker 1: all the information that I could on the group, and
Speaker 1: I read a ton of letters of recommendation from all
Speaker 1: over the community, from every corner of the community, which
Speaker 1: is super impressive. I've actually reached down and talked to
Speaker 1: some folks in Oakland. They're extremely excited about it. They
Speaker 1: feel like this is something that definitely will go in Oakland,
Speaker 1: in particular because of how they get down in Oakland,
Speaker 1: and that that's what I mean. I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: is just what people have to understand like Oakland moves
Speaker 1: in a different way, Berkeley moves kind of in a
Speaker 1: different speed than everybody else, and they really don't really
Speaker 1: care about what the outside world thinks of them. But
Speaker 1: they're gonna get behind a team and a franchise to
Speaker 1: support them. Bringing me to my next to my next question,
Speaker 1: what do you want the identity of this organization? Is
Speaker 1: there a name for the organization and what do you
Speaker 1: want the identity for the organization to be? Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna get into a part of the name, um
Speaker 1: but um, I think I've mentioned this and I will
Speaker 1: always mention is about being authentic to who I am
Speaker 1: as an individual, but more importantly, being authentic to who
Speaker 1: OPEN is. That's as simple as that. Mm hmm, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't get more simple. Final final questions, final question
Speaker 1: for you, um Elena, What I'm a part of the
Speaker 1: global basketball community is what I call it. So it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what love you played on. If you hoop,
Speaker 1: you love the game, then you're part of the community.
Speaker 1: What can the global basketball community do to help bridge
Speaker 1: the gap surrounding the inequities and not only women's professional basketball,
Speaker 1: but in c double a basketball high school on down
Speaker 1: what can we do as a global community to bridge
Speaker 1: that gap? Show up, right, show up and respect what
Speaker 1: we do as women athletes. Understand that just because our
Speaker 1: counterparts are making millions and millions of more dollars than
Speaker 1: we are, it doesn't negate the amount of work we
Speaker 1: put into our craft and perfecting it. It's all the same.
Speaker 1: It's all the same, right, and that's what we we
Speaker 1: have to get people to sort of understand. Um, it's
Speaker 1: not about tearing someone else down, is about lifting those
Speaker 1: around you up. So if if there's anything, um, the
Speaker 1: global sports community can do, it's just show up, be positive.
Speaker 1: Support um, because at some point you're gonna have a daughter,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna want your daughter to play sports, and
Speaker 1: your daughter maybe one of those elite individuals that make
Speaker 1: it to the professor at a level, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: want people to support them as well. So just be kind,
Speaker 1: be nice, UM, just do good. Pick a person, right,
Speaker 1: I I can't imagine it being that hard. We'll say it,
Speaker 1: We'll see Elena. Yeah, thank thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time today. UM, best of luck in your push
Speaker 1: to bring that professional basketball franchise. If anything that I
Speaker 1: could do to help, please let me know. I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's anything I can do, but if there's
Speaker 1: anything I could do, please let me know, because this
Speaker 1: is something I definitely want to get behind and you
Speaker 1: have my full support upon Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining kJ Live, Ladies and gentlemen, Elena Beard, thank you kJ.
Speaker 1: This was a pleasure.