Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: I'm Jason Kelly. I'm Alex Rodriguez, and welcome to the deal.
Speaker 2: On this episode, Candace Parker. All right, Alex, we are
Speaker 2: catching Candace at an amazing moment in her career. She's
Speaker 2: stopped playing She's moved on to being a business person
Speaker 2: full stop. Reminds me a little bit in her ambition
Speaker 2: of somebody I know who used to play bass.
Speaker 3: You know, I really connected with her. I felt like,
Speaker 3: very much like I was looking in the mirror a
Speaker 3: little bit. She has such a great vision, a clear,
Speaker 3: big vision. But she's also a media star. I believe
Speaker 3: she'll be a future owner in the NBA and WNBA.
Speaker 3: She has a wonderful relationship with Adidas where they made
Speaker 3: her the president of basketball for women's basketball. And if
Speaker 3: she was a stock, Jason, I would buy as much
Speaker 3: as I can.
Speaker 2: This is a good one. Folks. Up next, Candas Parker,
Speaker 2: all right, please introduce yourself.
Speaker 4: I'm Cannas Parker, so happy to join you all.
Speaker 2: And how would you describe what you're doing these days?
Speaker 4: I'm more outside the lines, I would say.
Speaker 5: I think my whole goal is to continue to grow
Speaker 5: the game of women's basketball and women's sports in general,
Speaker 5: and so was named to dida's women's basketball president recently
Speaker 5: this year, just kind of like the business of sports,
Speaker 5: if you will. And then also doing a little broadcasting
Speaker 5: with the guys on TNT in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Early in your career, you know, you grew up in Illinois,
Speaker 2: you end up at University of Tennessee, which is already
Speaker 2: iconic at that moment when good are you made it?
Speaker 2: More so a couple of national championships you played for
Speaker 2: Pat Summit. We talk a lot about coaches being influential.
Speaker 2: I mean, Alex talks all the time about how pivotal
Speaker 2: that was for him. When you think about the pantheon
Speaker 2: of coaches Pat Summit is there across all sports. Tell
Speaker 2: us about meeting her and what convinced you to go
Speaker 2: to Tennessee, because that clearly is when you talk about deals,
Speaker 2: like making that deal really changes the trajectory of your career.
Speaker 5: Well, what's crazy was, Yeah, it was in between the lines.
Speaker 5: You know, obviously I wanted to play basketball. I didn't
Speaker 5: go to Tennessee to like be a writer, like. I
Speaker 5: went there with the mindset that I wanted to play basketball.
Speaker 5: As a career. She was landing from speaking to the
Speaker 5: CIA when I flew in for an unofficial visit, Like
Speaker 5: let that set in, and I remember my dad just
Speaker 5: kind of like sitting back in his chair. And my
Speaker 5: dad is the one that is the visionary and the
Speaker 5: like he's the one that was like, you're six or four,
Speaker 5: but you're still going to be able to dribble, shoot, pass.
Speaker 5: We're not going to stand you by the basket. And
Speaker 5: in other ways, I think it was the same. He
Speaker 5: wanted someone that would teach me not just basketball and
Speaker 5: the x's and o's, but about like after the ball
Speaker 5: stops bouncing and those lessons that you learn now are
Speaker 5: going to be applied later. And Coach Summit was the
Speaker 5: perfect example for that. Like I wanted to be a
Speaker 5: mom and to watch her just balance being a mom
Speaker 5: as well as being one of the best, if not
Speaker 5: the best coach ever and win national championships, her as
Speaker 5: a human, growing the game of women's basketball when she
Speaker 5: was at the forefront of Title nine before it was popular.
Speaker 5: So just being able to like see all of that
Speaker 5: at a young age and then now be able to
Speaker 5: learn those lessons through that, I think that's what got
Speaker 5: and sold myself and my parents.
Speaker 3: I get really nerdy about this, like Jason said, like
Speaker 3: because my father left at the age of ten, Mentors
Speaker 3: and coaches kind of you know, formulated my life really
Speaker 3: and really made such a big impression and inspiration in
Speaker 3: my life. But specifics, is there one or two things
Speaker 3: you can share because we didn't play for Coach Summit
Speaker 3: that really motivated you that to this day that you
Speaker 3: still carry with you.
Speaker 5: One hundred percent. The biggest thing with Coach Summitt is
Speaker 5: she was the same person when she was hanging banners
Speaker 5: as when she was going through rough patches. And you know,
Speaker 5: she has a definite dozen principles that she would give
Speaker 5: all of us when we first arrived at Tennessee, and
Speaker 5: she would check back in with us every year, and
Speaker 5: every year she would assigned a different definite dozen. Well
Speaker 5: I got the same one every year. It was handle
Speaker 5: success as you handle failure. And it was the opposite
Speaker 5: of what you think. I think I beat myself up
Speaker 5: when I miss a shot or when I'm not successful
Speaker 5: or when I lose a game. But it was like
Speaker 5: you move on real quick when you succeed. And so
Speaker 5: it was like these lessons every single year. I would
Speaker 5: come back and get different lessons from things that I
Speaker 5: observed about her. But Coach Summit just had a presence.
Speaker 5: I think she'd man did greatness and respect, but she
Speaker 5: was one of the best listeners, and I think that's
Speaker 5: what set me up a little bit because the expectation
Speaker 5: where was all coaches were like that because I played
Speaker 5: for my dad, my high school coach, and Pat Summit,
Speaker 5: so the expectation was like this is how it was,
Speaker 5: but wasn't. She would come to time out and be like, Parker,
Speaker 5: what do you think?
Speaker 4: Right? This coach is asking me what I think?
Speaker 5: And then sometimes we would do what I would say,
Speaker 5: or sometimes we wouldn't. But the times we would do
Speaker 5: it or not do it, I would still feel ownership
Speaker 5: and feel heard. That's what separates her is she was
Speaker 5: one of the best listeners and would really take what
Speaker 5: you said into account.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about the game of basketball at that
Speaker 2: level at that moment, because that was when if you
Speaker 2: were coming up, that was when you were going to
Speaker 2: be the most popular. So what was it like in
Speaker 2: that era? What do you remember most distinctly about those days?
Speaker 5: It was before all the Instagram and Facebook, so I
Speaker 5: look at that as like the good old days a
Speaker 5: little bit. Playing basketball at that time, it was like
Speaker 5: the intimate you watch in television or you're at the game,
Speaker 5: and that's how you kinda were able to be a
Speaker 5: part of what we were doing.
Speaker 4: But I will say I think was Diana.
Speaker 5: Tarasi said to me, and this is when we played
Speaker 5: together in Russia. She said, your heyday is when you're
Speaker 5: playing in college and then people slowly but surely forget
Speaker 5: about you as you progress in the WNBA. And I
Speaker 5: just thought it was so weird because it's like opposite
Speaker 5: for the men. We were winning national championships. We were
Speaker 5: rock stars on the road. I mean we sold out
Speaker 5: arenas and we had the highest attendance at home games,
Speaker 5: and I mean playing in front of twenty four thousand
Speaker 5: screaming fans at Thompson Bowling Arena in Knoxville on a
Speaker 5: random Sunday against Vanderbilt or against Yukon on national television
Speaker 5: with that rivalry, and I think it set the stage
Speaker 5: for solidifying that women's basketball was special. But it also
Speaker 5: was like, this is what we're capable of if it's
Speaker 5: properly invested in. And I think that was the whole separation.
Speaker 5: I don't think it was the talent. I think it
Speaker 5: was the proper investment that we needed within the WNBA.
Speaker 3: And when you were in college and you're playing in
Speaker 3: front of sold out crowds and you guys were rock stars,
Speaker 3: did Candice Parker already start thinking about life after WNBA
Speaker 3: and being a rock star in the world of business
Speaker 3: and where you are today? How far back do you
Speaker 3: go back to visualizing the future?
Speaker 5: Well, for I would say a semester and a half
Speaker 5: I was a finance major because I really wanted to
Speaker 5: do that, and then coach Summit wouldn't change practice and
Speaker 5: I needed a pre wreck and I was like, I'm
Speaker 5: not staying here another year and a half for finance.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I always wanted to do and be a
Speaker 5: part of and learn outside of basketball, And you know,
Speaker 5: that includes asking questions. I think immediately in broadcasting, just learning,
Speaker 5: you know, learning about media, learning how to communicate, learning
Speaker 5: how to be behind the camera and what goes on
Speaker 5: and what you know, what the expectations are, but also
Speaker 5: just asking why you know and when you're walking into
Speaker 5: meetings you sign a business manager finance team like learning
Speaker 5: to ask questions. I think was my end to a
Speaker 5: lot of different things. And I learned that early on
Speaker 5: in college where people like answering questions. You know, I
Speaker 5: think a lot of people are scared to ask them,
Speaker 5: but if you ask, usually there's a relationship that's developed.
Speaker 5: Questions are answered, you know, and you learn more. And
Speaker 5: so I think that was kind of my Okay, the
Speaker 5: more questions I asked, the more lanes are going to open.
Speaker 4: And so that's kind of what I did early on.
Speaker 2: Where does that come from? Do you think? Because there
Speaker 2: are a lot of people in your shoes who had
Speaker 2: a big content, especially given the level of fame that
Speaker 2: you're achieving at the college level, like this is awesome.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to do this as long as I can.
Speaker 2: What gave you that need? It sounds like to look
Speaker 2: around the corner and to think about what was next?
Speaker 2: Is that from growing up? Like where does that come from?
Speaker 5: I'm like the annoying little sister that I always asked
Speaker 5: why I have two older brothers there eight and eleven
Speaker 5: years older than me, my heroes. I always ask why,
Speaker 5: and we always debated, And so I think that was
Speaker 5: also people are like, how do you sit at the
Speaker 5: desk with Chuck and Shack and Kenny and d Wade
Speaker 5: and you know, Jamal and all of those guys, how
Speaker 5: do you sit there? And I'm like, that was every
Speaker 5: Saturday and Sunday in our house, right, And so I
Speaker 5: think it just comes from wanting to ask. I think,
Speaker 5: being okay, being embarrassed at times if people are like,
Speaker 5: how does she not know this? But a lot of
Speaker 5: times I learned when I'm asking questions people might not
Speaker 5: want to ask that they didn't know the answer either,
Speaker 5: And so like I don't know that came from being
Speaker 5: on team sports as well, Like I would raise my
Speaker 5: hand and be like, I don't understand the scout or
Speaker 5: I don't understand the defensive coverage, and so it just
Speaker 5: kind of became a habit of just wanting to know
Speaker 5: and wanting to know more.
Speaker 2: And given what you said, and Diana Tarossi's observation was
Speaker 2: exactly right at that moment, like this this is it,
Speaker 2: like or at least this is this is the peak,
Speaker 2: given that what are the decisions or how do you
Speaker 2: make the decisions coming out of college as to what's
Speaker 2: going to happen.
Speaker 5: Next when you're young, and especially I had my daughter
Speaker 5: after my first season in the WNBA. I think you're
Speaker 5: automatically thinking about your brand and getting better at your sport,
Speaker 5: but you're also thinking about your finances and making sure
Speaker 5: that you can take care of your family the best
Speaker 5: way you can. I was fortunate to be able to
Speaker 5: have long standing partners Adidas, I've been with sixteen years
Speaker 5: of my career, Gatorade. I mean, you go down the line,
Speaker 5: Karmat like, I've been blessed to have the ability to
Speaker 5: do other things outside of the lines, but overseas was
Speaker 5: forefront because that was the way that you could take
Speaker 5: care of your family at a different level, and that
Speaker 5: was the sacrifice, but it was also a foresight of like, Okay,
Speaker 5: later on, I'm able to do the things that I
Speaker 5: want to do. I just have to, you know, kind
Speaker 5: of grind right now. And so that coming out was like,
Speaker 5: you play in the WBA, that was a summer job. Yes,
Speaker 5: the endorsements came for that, and there was money made
Speaker 5: off of endorsements and things like that, but direct WNBA,
Speaker 5: I mean you look at my rookie salary. I think
Speaker 5: it was like fifty six fifty seven thousand dollars. And
Speaker 5: as a kid, you always dream of going to the WNBA,
Speaker 5: and I remember telling kids like, no, you s stream
Speaker 5: to go overseas, Like, right, this is you know, that's
Speaker 5: that's actually the dream. That's how you take care of
Speaker 5: your family.
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too far away from this
Speaker 2: idea of what coming into the pros was like. And
Speaker 2: I'm going to turn this on you for a second.
Speaker 2: I mean, can you imagine if you're you're getting drafted,
Speaker 2: so you got this contract with the Mariners, but the
Speaker 2: Mariners are like, yeah, we're gonna give you a few bucks,
Speaker 2: but you actually need to go to Japan and play there.
Speaker 2: I mean that, I mean that would be wild, that
Speaker 2: would be wild. Yeah. Did it feel wild? I mean
Speaker 2: or did it just feel like this is this is
Speaker 2: what you do.
Speaker 5: At the time, all of us were saying that we
Speaker 5: hope at some point in time we don't have to
Speaker 5: go overseas, but I think you go where the money is.
Speaker 5: And it was just you know, the ability to take
Speaker 5: care of my family. And over there, I played for
Speaker 5: one of the best clubs in Russia. We had chefs,
Speaker 5: we had drivers, we flew private, amazing apartments, and so
Speaker 5: it was like, yes, it was a sacrifice, but you
Speaker 5: were also being I was able to capitalize on the
Speaker 5: things that I was missing in the league, like the
Speaker 5: things we didn't have, and it was just unfortunate that
Speaker 5: we had to go thousands of miles away to actually
Speaker 5: get you know, equitable pay and to be taken care of,
Speaker 5: you know, like we should.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And by the way, also pointing out, you're in
Speaker 2: the WNBA. You're both the Rookie of the Year and
Speaker 2: the MVP. So you're not You're not a scrub player.
Speaker 2: You are there. You're literally the best player. And this
Speaker 2: is the economics of the situation. So fast forwarding just
Speaker 2: for a minute, do you have some measure of cognitive
Speaker 2: dissonance then looking at where the w is now and
Speaker 2: thinking about what it was not that long ago. You're
Speaker 2: not You're not an old person.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: How do you process that?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm pissed that they started chartering the year I retired.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 5: Because our back to backs used to be we would
Speaker 5: play and then we'd go to sleep, and we'd wake
Speaker 5: up to take the six am flight, and then we
Speaker 5: still play the next day. Yeah, so you know, it
Speaker 5: makes me a little angry because it would have been
Speaker 5: nice to, you know, for your body to kind of catch.
Speaker 4: That charter flight.
Speaker 5: But I mean, I feel like all of us feel
Speaker 5: a responsibility and a part of the growth that's happening
Speaker 5: right now. I mean, the league was hard for so
Speaker 5: many years, and that's what I said when I retired,
Speaker 5: I hope that it's not so hard for the next
Speaker 5: so difficult. I wanted to get better, but finding a gem.
Speaker 4: That's open, that can be open.
Speaker 5: It was so hard out in LA and I lived
Speaker 5: out here because we didn't have a practice. So more
Speaker 5: so I'm mad because I'm thinking of how much better
Speaker 5: I could have been if I had an off season,
Speaker 5: if I didn't have to go overseas, and I could
Speaker 5: have put weight on, and I could have bulked up
Speaker 5: in the weight room and focused on what I wanted
Speaker 5: to improve on. But I also look at the doors
Speaker 5: that are opening now and where the sport is. And
Speaker 5: you know, I play with a lot of angry old heads,
Speaker 5: is what we call them. I work with a lot
Speaker 5: of angry old heads. I don't want to be the
Speaker 5: angry old heads. So I'm not going to be, you know,
Speaker 5: shack coming in like we all, you know, man up.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna be back.
Speaker 5: I'm going to be the person that's like, I'm happy
Speaker 5: where it's at. But man, like if I would at
Speaker 5: Nil and kind of you know, you got to think
Speaker 5: about what if occasionally, and but I'm happy for the
Speaker 5: doors that are open right now, and I hope to
Speaker 5: be a part of the process of continuing to open
Speaker 5: those doors.
Speaker 2: What do you make of Nil, I mean, you've lived
Speaker 2: a very different existence.
Speaker 5: Is extremely Papa John's for for pregame meals and trying
Speaker 5: to figure it out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like they couldn't feed us when I was there.
Speaker 4: It was illegal. You couldn't.
Speaker 5: You couldn't feed us, Building number three Jerseys, you know,
Speaker 5: walking around. But I think that this is an exciting
Speaker 5: landscape because really athletes are brands, and to be able
Speaker 5: to see individuals like Caleb Williams that are actually capitalizing
Speaker 5: on opening up private equity firms and you know, fresh
Speaker 5: out of college, investing in acquiring equity in something at
Speaker 5: a young age, I think that that's where you really
Speaker 5: see generational not just wealth, but change. And so for
Speaker 5: so long, I think we've idolized you know, rock stars,
Speaker 5: movie stars, all that. Now it's it's athletes, it's athletes
Speaker 5: like it's athletes with some of the biggest following on Instagram,
Speaker 5: and so it's I think it has a lot to
Speaker 5: do with why the NCAA knew that they had to
Speaker 5: allow NIL inside. Now it's a while while West and
Speaker 5: I think there's a lot of things that need to
Speaker 5: be figured out. But I hope in Tennessee can pay
Speaker 5: pay a bag so that we can continue.
Speaker 3: You speak about the NC DOUBLEA, I'm going to let
Speaker 3: you put the commissioner of the NC double A and
Speaker 3: the head of NIL if there's one or two adjustments
Speaker 3: that you can make. Because there's so many things that
Speaker 3: are good, and you mentioned there's some challenges. What are
Speaker 3: some of the quick fixes that you would do now
Speaker 3: and maybe some long term?
Speaker 5: Well long term, I think we're taking care of the
Speaker 5: front and center athletes, but there's very few front and
Speaker 5: center forward facing that would have probably made their money anyway.
Speaker 5: And I think over time, as we're looking the WNBA,
Speaker 5: the MLB, you always got to take care of your
Speaker 5: median income like you always have to take care of
Speaker 5: the middleman. So where is that within the NC double A.
Speaker 5: I think that's something health insurance, whether it's you know
Speaker 5: stipends whether it's are they actually going to be considered
Speaker 5: a union at some point. I think those are all
Speaker 5: things that should come up for conversation, just because the
Speaker 5: NCUBA is a business and we're seeing it's necessary to
Speaker 5: be able to take care of your athletes, not just
Speaker 5: the ones that are going to be able to sign
Speaker 5: the endorsement deals and get the national commercials.
Speaker 2: So one of the key decisions you clearly make is
Speaker 2: getting into business with Adidas as an endorser. Initially, they
Speaker 2: come in and they want you to endorse their product.
Speaker 2: How did that happen? Like, I mean, because that feels
Speaker 2: like we talk about signature deals. That feels like a
Speaker 2: signature deal for you.
Speaker 4: It's so interesting. They sent me.
Speaker 5: A pair of red Tracy mcgrady's when I was fourteen
Speaker 5: years old.
Speaker 2: People are now googling tracing.
Speaker 5: Better better know Teamate, and I thought I was the
Speaker 5: coolest person in the world, and I wore those everywhere.
Speaker 5: And then it was the Pro Models that came out
Speaker 5: and I had the green and the red one.
Speaker 4: And then the next year they sponsored my team.
Speaker 5: My high school team, no kidding, and so they sent
Speaker 5: us a whole box of things.
Speaker 4: I got like exclusive stuff.
Speaker 5: And then I went to the University of Tennessee, which
Speaker 5: was also Adidas at the time, and so it was
Speaker 5: this relationship and I knew everyone there and I felt comfortable.
Speaker 5: And I think when I did sign with them, when
Speaker 5: I became a pro, like we knew each other very well.
Speaker 4: So we worked through the kinks.
Speaker 5: We worked through me going overseas, we worked through obviously
Speaker 5: my pregnancy, my injuries, and I stuck with them through
Speaker 5: some things as well. And so I think it became
Speaker 5: when it becomes a partnership and a collaboration where you
Speaker 5: feel heard, you're trying to really genuinely enjoy the brand.
Speaker 4: Like everybody knows in my house, don't come in my
Speaker 4: house with Nikes.
Speaker 5: I don't come in my house like I leave the
Speaker 5: Nikes at the door, and it's a joke.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a joke in my house.
Speaker 5: And it's been amazing to have a partnership with them
Speaker 5: and to grow through all phases of life. And I
Speaker 5: think now sitting as Adidas Women's Basketball as president, I
Speaker 5: feel like a responsibility. Likes it's an ownership, it's a
Speaker 5: part of me. I feel part of the brand, and
Speaker 5: I'm just growing it trying to grow it from a
Speaker 5: different vantage point.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that moment where they call and say,
Speaker 2: we want you to take this role, like this is
Speaker 2: a not just we want you to wear a shoe,
Speaker 2: not just a signature shoe. But talk about that moment
Speaker 2: where they say we want you to have a different job.
Speaker 5: It was so interesting because again I'm planning for the
Speaker 5: next phase of life, but I really want to know
Speaker 5: what goes into building a brand, building a collection. So
Speaker 5: as we were doing my collections that were coming out,
Speaker 5: the eight Collections, and it was, you know, a clothing line,
Speaker 5: I wanted to be in the meetings. I wanted to
Speaker 5: be in the planning. I wanted to talk to Dick's
Speaker 5: Sporting Goods where it would be carried. I wanted to
Speaker 5: be in the design. I gave feedback, real feedback about shoes.
Speaker 5: I didn't just come in to check a box like
Speaker 5: I came into office. And so I think through those
Speaker 5: conversations again, developed a lot of relationships. Nobody is at
Speaker 5: Adidas now that was with me when I first signed,
Speaker 5: so it's all new people. It's just new relationships that
Speaker 5: were developed and the trust and all of that.
Speaker 4: And so this was kind of in the making.
Speaker 5: I felt I didn't know it was going to be
Speaker 5: like this, but I'm always super passionate about growing the
Speaker 5: brand and especially growing it for women's basketball. And so
Speaker 5: when when they kind of made the pitch to me,
Speaker 5: it was a random meeting, I went down to la
Speaker 5: their office here and it was a video and they
Speaker 5: had like this briefcase what's going on and on? You know,
Speaker 5: they pull out the jacket and on it it's like
Speaker 5: Adida's you know, women's basketball president.
Speaker 4: And I was like, wait, what you know? And they
Speaker 4: were like, we would love for you to be a
Speaker 4: part of the brand.
Speaker 5: It made me a jacket, a letterman's jacket, and it
Speaker 5: was really cool because they were like, we want you
Speaker 5: to continue to grow the game, but just differently.
Speaker 3: So Candice, I've been in those meetings too, but with
Speaker 3: the rival company up in the same way up there
Speaker 3: in the Pacific Northwest in Portland. So you go through
Speaker 3: the presentation, walk us through how do you go from
Speaker 3: that presentation to actually putting some type of term sheet
Speaker 3: in front of you and your agent and does it
Speaker 3: go back and forth a couple of times? Do you
Speaker 3: redline it? Walk us through that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there are questions all the time about
Speaker 5: you know, filling in defining a role, and I think
Speaker 5: that's the biggest thing. But at the end of the day, yes,
Speaker 5: we did go back and forth, but I think having
Speaker 5: trust in somebody to fulfill promises and having a reputation
Speaker 5: and having experience with them, you trust that even if
Speaker 5: everything isn't you know, boldline or whatever, that they're going
Speaker 5: to deliver on what they're going to say.
Speaker 4: And so I think that was the thing.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, we agreed in principle pretty quickly,
Speaker 5: but it was just the underlying things of what you know,
Speaker 5: I wanted to do with this role and what was
Speaker 5: expected of me and you know what I would need
Speaker 5: to be able to succeed and to really continue to
Speaker 5: grow it from that perspective, and honestly, I can say
Speaker 5: from day one, the first meeting we've had, it's been amazing.
Speaker 5: My imprint won't be on it until twenty twenty five,
Speaker 5: because you know how the brand works, it's a year ahead.
Speaker 4: But already, like just.
Speaker 5: The conversations that we've had and you know our focus
Speaker 5: and you know what our intentions are.
Speaker 4: I think grassroots.
Speaker 5: You see a kid like me at fourteen years old
Speaker 5: put on some Tmax.
Speaker 4: It had a lasting impact.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so I think we're realizing not to give
Speaker 5: away secrets to the you know, to the other brand.
Speaker 5: We're realizing, like it's super important to find that fourteen
Speaker 5: year old kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I don't want to get too far
Speaker 2: away from this signature shoe conversation. Swap some notes here.
Speaker 2: What was it like when that happened, you know, when
Speaker 2: when you put on your own shoe, It.
Speaker 4: Was nothing like it.
Speaker 5: I think I love the design process because I was
Speaker 5: a sneakerhead back in the day.
Speaker 4: You know, I wore the kg's when.
Speaker 5: He was there, wore the you know this, you know,
Speaker 5: the pro models, the Tmax, the.
Speaker 4: AIS, I mean all that.
Speaker 5: So I was always into like, okay, so you're able
Speaker 5: to start from the ground up. There's no design and
Speaker 5: you can design whatever you want. And at the time,
Speaker 5: it's so funny. The first thing I said, I was like,
Speaker 5: I like skittles. I want to have like smash skittles
Speaker 5: on the bottom of the shoe.
Speaker 4: And they came in.
Speaker 5: Like fifteen designs of like smash skittles, Like what would
Speaker 5: that look like? And spark colors and all this stuff.
Speaker 5: So I just I had the coolest experience creating the shoe,
Speaker 5: and then when it finally came to life and I
Speaker 5: actually put it on, I think I was more excited
Speaker 5: because I had replica shoes for all my nieces and
Speaker 5: nephews and my daughter, and so it was really cool
Speaker 5: to see like my shoe and what came about from
Speaker 5: that on other people's feet.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you.
Speaker 3: I remember one of the kind of meetings of creative
Speaker 3: where they were asking me, what's your favorite car, what's
Speaker 3: your favorite watch, what do you order a Starbucks? And
Speaker 3: like all these questions, but they asked me like fifty
Speaker 3: questions and then they came up with this awesome killer shoe.
Speaker 3: And then that led to my first commercial with Nike,
Speaker 3: where I took the shoe and put it in a
Speaker 3: blender and then I drank the drink and it was
Speaker 3: a dream come trure. I mean, I'm a kid from Miami.
Speaker 3: I collected my mom collected food stamps, and here I
Speaker 3: am wearing my own Nike sneakers with my teammate Griffy,
Speaker 3: And in many ways I felt like, you know, Jordan
Speaker 3: and Pippin, because they both had their sneakers and he
Speaker 3: and I had our own sneakers, so I thought it
Speaker 3: was awesome.
Speaker 5: Let me ask you this, what was that feeling like
Speaker 5: the first time you saw somebody else wear it like
Speaker 5: when you just were driving to your car and you
Speaker 5: just looked and you saw somebody or whatever, Like, what
Speaker 5: was that feeling?
Speaker 3: I wish I had an iPhone so I could take
Speaker 3: a picture, but I told a bunch of people. I
Speaker 3: don't think they believed me, but the first time was like,
Speaker 3: it's a surreal moment. You like, how are they wearing
Speaker 3: my sneakers? That's pretty cool? And it just gives your
Speaker 3: sense of pride for sure, and a real connection to
Speaker 3: the company that they believe so much in you. I mean,
Speaker 3: think about it. They just can pick anybody in the world,
Speaker 3: and they picked Candice Parkering to be the president of
Speaker 3: women's basketball. You have a fiduciary duty to that company.
Speaker 3: And the fact you've been with them for sixteen years,
Speaker 3: it's amazing. I've been with nik for twenty five years, right,
Speaker 3: that's all I've worn and Lawyersy's a big thing to me.
Speaker 3: So it's been a great relationship for me as well.
Speaker 4: Amazing.
Speaker 2: So when you think about kind of this next chapter.
Speaker 2: It's something you've been working on for a while. But
Speaker 2: I want to read a paragraph that jumped out at
Speaker 2: me and I read it to Alex earlier. I'm going
Speaker 2: to read it back to you. So this is a
Speaker 2: paragraph from your retirement announcement on Instagram. I'm quoting here.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, know all caps, I'm a businessman, not
Speaker 2: a businessman. This is the beginning. I'm attacking business, private
Speaker 2: equity ownership. I will own both an NBA and WNBA team,
Speaker 2: broadcasting production, boardrooms, beach volleyball, Domino's. This is apparently in
Speaker 2: the side. I think to your wife, Sorry, baby, it's
Speaker 2: going to get more real with the same intensity and
Speaker 2: focus I did basketball. Wow, break that down for us.
Speaker 2: That's like a mission statement, I think unpacking.
Speaker 5: I always believe in speaking things into existence, and that
Speaker 5: is a goal of mine and I'm not going to
Speaker 5: shy away from it. I think everybody assumes, you know
Speaker 5: WBA players own a WBA team, but I'm a huge
Speaker 5: fan of the NBA as well, and I think that
Speaker 5: that's a possibility as well. And I think just taking
Speaker 5: that mindset of being an athlete on the court, you
Speaker 5: set all of those microscopic and telescopic goals, but really
Speaker 5: the work comes behind figuring out how I'm going to
Speaker 5: do that, and every single day putting yourself in a
Speaker 5: position to be better than you were the day before.
Speaker 5: I really, I really think it's just recreating the blueprint
Speaker 5: of what you had as an athlete. I mean, you
Speaker 5: look at seasons, you figure out what your goals are.
Speaker 5: Obviously the championship would be owning a team. And we
Speaker 5: know some people, we know a couple, we know a
Speaker 5: couple of people, people that have and people that will hopefully.
Speaker 5: But I think it's it's the relationships, it's learning. It's
Speaker 5: so crazy because you know, I'm a huge Malcolm Glawell,
Speaker 5: like I read all his books.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you.
Speaker 5: Talk about outlier and it talks about ten thousand hours.
Speaker 5: You talk about the time, and I think you know
Speaker 5: you've experienced this with with your kids as well, where
Speaker 5: you're trying to teach them that if you put the
Speaker 5: time in, you can have these God given abilities. But
Speaker 5: if you put the time in, then you're going to
Speaker 5: be better. Right, you can turn into greatness just from
Speaker 5: putting the time. And I think athletes when they endo career,
Speaker 5: you forget how much time you put in to be
Speaker 5: really good at your sport. And I have to remind
Speaker 5: myself that I need to put the time and the
Speaker 5: energy and the effort. And sometimes that's goal setting, and
Speaker 5: sometimes that's like like now my Google calendar, it's it's
Speaker 5: for real, like I have to stay you know, I
Speaker 5: have to stay on top of that because that's what
Speaker 5: I want to do.
Speaker 3: And so that's going to give me there So can
Speaker 3: does this talk about that? You talk about the reps
Speaker 3: and I'm a big believer of that. I've always said,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be the smartest. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to be like obviously, I didn't go to any ivy
Speaker 3: leave college.
Speaker 2: I didn't go to college.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to be the hardest work and first
Speaker 3: one there, last one to leave, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: grind and I'm going to study. But talk about studying
Speaker 3: for you, how do you make up the time because
Speaker 3: you were playing basketball to compete in the world of
Speaker 3: the Mark lazwis that David Blitzers, what kind of studying
Speaker 3: do you do? And walk me through your mindset of
Speaker 3: how do you fill that gap?
Speaker 5: I love asking people for twenty minutes of your time
Speaker 5: bi monthly. I just need twenty minutes of your time,
Speaker 5: and can we go over this deck and you teach
Speaker 5: me what you saw or past decks that have been
Speaker 5: successful or companies that you've passed on. What did you
Speaker 5: look at? What did you see? What did the margins
Speaker 5: look like? What made you lean towards this? What are
Speaker 5: the qualities? Because here's the thing you can probably I
Speaker 5: always say this when I'm scouting somebody in basketball, there's
Speaker 5: that like intangible that your brain's putting together, but it's
Speaker 5: all things that you've learned over time.
Speaker 4: How do they move?
Speaker 5: Like, how are they handling? Are they looking up? Are
Speaker 5: they seeing the floor? Are they making their teammates better?
Speaker 4: All those things?
Speaker 5: And I think in business it's like that as well,
Speaker 5: especially when you're picking between you know, apples to apples
Speaker 5: and you're picking between people because honestly, that's what it is.
Speaker 4: It's all relationships.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: You can have an amazing idea in the wrong person
Speaker 5: running it, and you can have an uh okay idea
Speaker 5: and the right person's running it. And I think that's
Speaker 5: what I'm learning the most from mentors like Mark Lazari
Speaker 5: and from you know, I've involved with other individuals. You
Speaker 5: talk about Andy Spellman, you talk about Mark Roberts, I
Speaker 5: mean down the line. But the thing that I'm noticing
Speaker 5: the most is how important it is for me to
Speaker 5: also get in rooms with women and learn and listen
Speaker 5: and be a part of that network and growth as well.
Speaker 5: So I think just picking their brain, asking questions and
Speaker 5: not being afraid to ask for time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Love that. Let's talk about Mark Lazarie for a second,
Speaker 2: because off camera I got a little intel which your
Speaker 2: business relationship with him began, I believe with you giving
Speaker 2: him a black eye.
Speaker 4: I crossed him first, then I gave him a black guy.
Speaker 4: And now I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: We were playing in a celebrity game at NBA All
Speaker 5: Star and Mark was playing and I did a fake.
Speaker 5: I did my like patent over the head fake, and
Speaker 5: he turned and looked, and by the time he reacted,
Speaker 5: I had already gone, and so we bumped heads.
Speaker 4: And his daughter's thought.
Speaker 2: That you were a professional basketball player, the only professional
Speaker 2: basketball team owner.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was an owner.
Speaker 5: He was an owner on that team, and it was hilarious,
Speaker 5: and so his daughters thought it was the funniest thing.
Speaker 5: And so ever since then, every NBA All Star We'd
Speaker 5: always seek each other out. We would always find each other.
Speaker 5: I'd see his daughters, we'd talk, we'd hang out, go
Speaker 5: to dinner, all those things.
Speaker 4: And then about.
Speaker 5: What was it twenty twenty two, twenty one when the
Speaker 5: Bucks were, you know about on the CUSPA winning a championship.
Speaker 4: He's like, we got to you your bulls fan.
Speaker 5: I'm a Bulls fan. It was great in the nineties,
Speaker 5: Now not so much. We got to get you out
Speaker 5: here to a game, and I'm like, there's I'm never coming.
Speaker 2: To a Bucks name.
Speaker 4: I can't do it. Well, he convinced me.
Speaker 5: I drove from Chicago to the Bucks and just seeing
Speaker 5: the environment, being able to see dear district, all the
Speaker 5: things that he's done, it was unbelievable. And just to
Speaker 5: continue to talk to him and catch up with him
Speaker 5: and do all that it was amazing. And then you know,
Speaker 5: he started, you know, Avenue Capital Sports, and then he
Speaker 5: called me one day and was like, I would love
Speaker 5: for you to be involved in it. And Mark is
Speaker 5: one of those people that it's super special. I think
Speaker 5: we have an amazing friendship. But also everything he says
Speaker 5: he does, and I think that's the thing that I
Speaker 5: respect most about Mark Lazarie.
Speaker 3: He's a great mentor. I got to get share one
Speaker 3: Mark Glazery store just to tell you what an incredible
Speaker 3: guy he is. Back like in eleven, a couple of
Speaker 3: years after we won the title with the Yankees, we
Speaker 3: had a date where he was going to mentor me
Speaker 3: and we're gonna go over my real estate deck, right
Speaker 3: And I said, I'll probably be there on eleven I said,
Speaker 3: Yankee rest Sox games usually go a little longer, or
Speaker 3: maybe eleven thirty. Well, of course we're going to extra endings.
Speaker 3: It's like one am. I'm texting him. I said, hey,
Speaker 3: rain check, I'm sure you're sleeping. He goes, no, come over.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, first of all, you're up, So I
Speaker 3: get I knock in his house. He's got his pajamas on,
Speaker 3: and we spend the next hour and a half on
Speaker 3: his couch, one in one and he's going red marking
Speaker 3: my deck. And then he's been a long time investor
Speaker 3: of mine. We've been partners with several other things, and
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll do other things. But when you have
Speaker 3: mentors like that that are really special, that's just an example.
Speaker 3: Nobody knows that story. But you know stories like that,
Speaker 3: and I've experienced stories like that, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 5: That's what separates it if you think about it, Like
Speaker 5: everybody wonders why Steph can shoot like he shoots. Yes,
Speaker 5: it's god given talent some of it. But like, who's
Speaker 5: the one that's in the gym getting the most shots
Speaker 5: of mm hm, And it's it's guys like Mark that
Speaker 5: put the time in, put the energy in, do the
Speaker 5: extra I think that I'm learning that are successful.
Speaker 4: But he's a nice guy.
Speaker 5: I think that's what separates him is he actually genuinely
Speaker 5: cares about you as a human and what you do
Speaker 5: and the decisions that you make.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about women's sports, you know, it's something
Speaker 2: you started this conversation talking about being committed to women's
Speaker 2: basketball and women's sports. What needs to happen next for
Speaker 2: women's sports. From a business perspective.
Speaker 5: We've always talked about properly investing in a product. I mean,
Speaker 5: we've been screaming from the rooftop that scared money doesn't
Speaker 5: make money, that you actually have to properly invest in
Speaker 5: not only the sport and the business plan, but also
Speaker 5: the athletes. The thing I respect most about the NBA
Speaker 5: is Adam Silver. He calls me, I'm just like, I
Speaker 5: don't even I mean, he asks questions to me, and
Speaker 5: I'm not part of the NBA. The stars of the
Speaker 5: NBA questions, Yeah, yeah, hopefully Lebron is on speed dial.
Speaker 4: He talks to me as a relationship with them.
Speaker 5: And I think that within women's sports for so long,
Speaker 5: it's been a separation of investment and product for a
Speaker 5: very long time. And I think the first conversation I
Speaker 5: had with Mark was what are you dedicating? What percentage
Speaker 5: of the fund are you dedicating to women's sports? Because
Speaker 5: this isn't something that I want to come into and
Speaker 5: just not make an impact on something that I'm passionate about.
Speaker 5: And he's like, we're going to invest in women's sports
Speaker 5: and we're going to do it. And this was before
Speaker 5: this last year year and a half, which was unique timing.
Speaker 5: And I said, okay, but I need more than an
Speaker 5: investment of money. I need time as well, because you
Speaker 5: can't just invest in a product that you've never seen.
Speaker 5: So I was like, come to the final four. I
Speaker 5: have a suite, Come sit with me at the women's
Speaker 5: Final four and let's watch Iowa and South Carolina go
Speaker 5: at it, and he came, you know, and he was
Speaker 5: there and you know, met everybody saw the environment. And
Speaker 5: I think that within women's sports, what we need is
Speaker 5: people that are knowledgeable.
Speaker 4: About the growth of it.
Speaker 5: But also we need the billionaire owners that are going
Speaker 5: to come in and actually make an impact and grow
Speaker 5: the game again.
Speaker 2: And so what's your role in that.
Speaker 5: I think my role in that is understanding through past growth.
Speaker 5: And that's why everybody was yelling from the rooftop. Wheah dah,
Speaker 5: it's twenty eight years young. There were a lot of
Speaker 5: leagues that it took took year thirty to really make
Speaker 5: a growth. So it's coming, whether it comes at twenty eight,
Speaker 5: twenty nine, thirty one, and we've seen it. The crazy
Speaker 5: thing that I think it's little fixes And this is
Speaker 5: where my role is is to question and to push
Speaker 5: and to encourage.
Speaker 4: ABC. It was the first time they put the women's
Speaker 4: NCAA game on on ABC.
Speaker 5: Was the first year that Kaylen Clark made the championship game.
Speaker 5: Are you surprised that the viewership was up? Are you
Speaker 5: surprised that people actually saw the product?
Speaker 4: It was buried for so long on ESPN.
Speaker 5: There's so many times during the INCA game and even
Speaker 5: WNBA playoffs, I turn on the NBA doesn't want to
Speaker 5: clash with NFL playoffs or NFL Opening Week, So why
Speaker 5: would we then put the WNBA. I don't care if
Speaker 5: that's the time slot that they're giving you. Let's fight
Speaker 5: for another one or let's find something else. And I
Speaker 5: think with streaming, with social media, now it's more front
Speaker 5: and center. You're seeing the leaders of and I'm sorry,
Speaker 5: I'm passionate about this. So now within you look at
Speaker 5: statistics within social media and following and it's page Becker's.
Speaker 5: She had more followings than Suggs, who was a top
Speaker 5: four pick. She had more following than Anthony Edwards when
Speaker 5: he was coming into the league. So now you're able
Speaker 5: to look at social media and see what the following is,
Speaker 5: the clicks, the like, the what they're selling. You know
Speaker 5: what people are looking for, and you're now able to
Speaker 5: see that, Okay, we women can sell things, and I
Speaker 5: think that that is my role is to continue to
Speaker 5: push the envelope of what that looks like, of visibility,
Speaker 5: but also like having relationships to be able to build
Speaker 5: what you're trying to build.
Speaker 2: So one of the relationships that we have watched you
Speaker 2: develop because you've done it on television, is with some
Speaker 2: of the biggest personalities in NBA history. So I want
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about broadcasting. You've had some experience.
Speaker 2: I want you guys to talk about this a little bit.
Speaker 2: A lot of people maybe who didn't know you when
Speaker 2: you were playing, now know you from giving it to check.
Speaker 2: We know you guys are good friends. We've seen the
Speaker 2: video of you hugging him after the championship game. Tell
Speaker 2: us how all that came about. Because it's not traditionally
Speaker 2: natural progression to be like a star women's basketball player
Speaker 2: and then be chopping it up on the best watched
Speaker 2: studio television show in sports.
Speaker 5: I have to pinch myself sometimes because those guys were
Speaker 5: on my wall and coming into a situation like that.
Speaker 4: I'm a basketball hoop head.
Speaker 5: Like I watch the game, and then I watch all
Speaker 5: the highlights and the analysis after. Then the next morning
Speaker 5: I wake up and I watch the analysis of the
Speaker 5: analysis of the game previous. Like I drive my family
Speaker 5: crazy with sports just being on television every type of sort,
Speaker 5: and to be able to sit at that desk and
Speaker 5: talk basketball and talk basketball with people that were on
Speaker 5: your wall, but also basketball with people that played it
Speaker 5: differently than you. And I don't mean just NBAWNBA. The
Speaker 5: battle I have with Shack all the time is He's like,
Speaker 5: just get the ball and score, and I'm like, check,
Speaker 5: not everybody is seven footless three hundred pounds. Like, it's
Speaker 5: not barbecue chicken for me. I got to do a
Speaker 5: couple moves, you know, And so to be able to
Speaker 5: sit at a desk like that and to chop it
Speaker 5: up with them on a nightly basis, it's super special.
Speaker 5: And I think early on I was a little like starstruck,
Speaker 5: but as time went on, I realized, like, I'm not
Speaker 5: trying to be one of the guys.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to be one of the players.
Speaker 5: And once we kind of like understood that and their perspective,
Speaker 5: they don't take anything I say to heart. We go
Speaker 5: back and forth and again, my brothers prepared me for
Speaker 5: it because I can take a lot of jokes and
Speaker 5: they're making fun of my outfits or making fun of
Speaker 5: how I walk. They say I walk like Kenny Smith
Speaker 5: because my knees are you know, I'm bow legged.
Speaker 4: So I can take all of.
Speaker 3: That talk to me a little bit about your preparation.
Speaker 3: Are you watching games, are you taking notes?
Speaker 2: Do you have a coach?
Speaker 3: Walk us through that a little bit.
Speaker 4: It's so interesting because I think it's changed over time.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of broadcasters that go by feel, and
Speaker 5: I think that that's a skill that's a skill set.
Speaker 5: Like you think about Reggie Miller, He's able to paint
Speaker 5: a picture of what the game is, of what this
Speaker 5: person is thinking or whatever. And you think about stan
Speaker 5: Van Gundy, who's more of like stats and like all
Speaker 5: all of these things. And you know, I'll be honest,
Speaker 5: I think Shaq would come out and tell you he
Speaker 5: doesn't prepare when he comes to show.
Speaker 4: Half the time he doesn't know who's playing, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And that's a skill set in itself.
Speaker 5: So I think for me, I just had to develop
Speaker 5: over time my way of preparation and I always have
Speaker 5: basketball on. I like knowing backstories. Scouting report is huge
Speaker 5: for me, so I know what your go to move
Speaker 5: is and so I'm going to bring it up.
Speaker 4: Kenny Smith told me something really cool.
Speaker 5: He said, when you're preparing, make sure that you're preparing
Speaker 5: to speak to the grandma, that you're prepared to speak
Speaker 5: to the person that is a basketball head, and you're
Speaker 5: prepared to speak to the novice. And so if you
Speaker 5: can say one thing and be able to speak in
Speaker 5: touch to all of those people, then you've done a
Speaker 5: good job. And so I've tried to continue to prepare
Speaker 5: so that I'm ready for that on television.
Speaker 2: So what do you do next in broadcast? I mean,
Speaker 2: do you have as your goal setting, as your Google calendaring? Like,
Speaker 2: what do you think about when it comes to the
Speaker 2: media world.
Speaker 5: Baby Hair Productions is a production company I started. First
Speaker 5: passion project was Title nine documentary that we were able
Speaker 5: to complete and do with Turner. I think it's growing
Speaker 5: that and kind of being behind the camera and being
Speaker 5: able to develop stories and storytelling, because I think that's
Speaker 5: that's where you really impact people and change, is being
Speaker 5: able to tell stories of what's come before, and whether
Speaker 5: it's in women in sports, whether it's women in business,
Speaker 5: whether it's whatever it is. You know, I would love
Speaker 5: to continue to tell those stories and to be able
Speaker 5: to you know, produce and to do things like that well.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting too when you think about and we
Speaker 2: talk about this all the time, that it feels like
Speaker 2: One of the next big steps forward for women's sports
Speaker 2: is the so called shoulder programming, right, you know, the
Speaker 2: stuff that goes you know, you guys are talking about
Speaker 2: for baseball, for the NBA, there is all the pregame
Speaker 2: and post game and the storytelling that goes around it.
Speaker 2: Some of that has been I would argue missing with
Speaker 2: women's sports. So it feels like a big business opportunity.
Speaker 5: If I dare say something, I just think it's so
Speaker 5: funny because you talk about, you know, like the pre
Speaker 5: and postgame shows. I tuned in the week that Russell
Speaker 5: Westbrook and Kevin Durant we're gonna play each other, because
Speaker 5: all week all I heard was they didn't like each other.
Speaker 4: It was all these stories.
Speaker 5: And it's so funny because we turn women's sports into
Speaker 5: these like the Caddy Da Da da and all this stuff,
Speaker 5: and it's like, no, men's sports is just called something different.
Speaker 4: It's the same. It's a synonym of whatever it.
Speaker 2: Is, and.
Speaker 5: I'm like, it's a synonym of what you're calling women's sports.
Speaker 5: It's all the storylines behind the story. And so now
Speaker 5: for women's sports to be able to get pre and
Speaker 5: postgame shows, I think we're still kind of figuring out
Speaker 5: what that looks like.
Speaker 4: And I think we're still a little sensitive of.
Speaker 5: Actually saying what needs to be said because we're so
Speaker 5: protective of women's sports. Were sometimes it is hard to
Speaker 5: watch because that wasn't a good pass, It wasn't a
Speaker 5: nice move, you know. So I think we're still figuring
Speaker 5: out our lane to grow the sport but also be
Speaker 5: honest and critique in a way that the viewers would
Speaker 5: love to watch.
Speaker 2: Which is a corollary to the whole argument around women's sports,
Speaker 2: right that you know, you had a lot of I mean,
Speaker 2: you see this in your work. We've seen it in
Speaker 2: the w We've seen it INWSL where a lot of
Speaker 2: people are like, oh, we're just really rooting for these girls,
Speaker 2: and like we're going to put some money in from
Speaker 2: the foundation and hope for the best versus private equity
Speaker 2: coming in a Mark Lasry, A Joe and Clara Si,
Speaker 2: you know, coming in and being like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: we're going to make some money here. We're going to
Speaker 2: get butts in the seats, We're going to sell the
Speaker 2: media rights for a bunch of money, and this is
Speaker 2: going to be a real business going for I mean
Speaker 2: that's your interest.
Speaker 5: It sounds like the thing that irks me the most
Speaker 5: is if you go to an NWSL game, it'll say, look,
Speaker 5: he's supporting the NWSL, But if you go to a
Speaker 5: Chicago Fire MLS game, it's look, he's front and center
Speaker 5: watching these guys work, you know. So it's all in
Speaker 5: the conversation and how we are able to.
Speaker 4: Figure out what our.
Speaker 5: Fans want and need. They want to see superstars, you
Speaker 5: want to see people courtside. But it's also like the
Speaker 5: verbiage that we're using in social media posts and how
Speaker 5: we look at women's sports as a business.
Speaker 4: It's not support.
Speaker 5: This isn't a charity. I loved when Claire Lusai said,
Speaker 5: I'm trying to make money. Yeah, this isn't something that
Speaker 5: I'm coming in and I'm in a blow. I'm just
Speaker 5: gonna use my money to further the cause. No, this
Speaker 5: isn't a cause. This is a business opportunity. And now
Speaker 5: that mindset, I think is shifting. It's shifting in volleyball
Speaker 5: with the amount of people, I mean, ninety seven thousand
Speaker 5: people went and watched a volleyball game. Put that in perspective,
Speaker 5: and I'm just watching, like my daughter played front and
Speaker 5: center at homecoming. Their volleyball team was out under the
Speaker 5: lights playing and it was young boys. I mean I
Speaker 5: could almost cry looking at young boys scream for the team.
Speaker 5: So it's like, now we're having a generation of men
Speaker 5: that have grown up with women as role models and
Speaker 5: in leadership positions, and now from a business mindset, we
Speaker 5: have to take all of that information the blueprints say
Speaker 5: and just not be stupid.
Speaker 4: Honestly, like, let's just not let's just not be stupid.
Speaker 4: And I think we we could get this.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's not be stupid. That's the.
Speaker 4: Stupid.
Speaker 2: Let's wrap all right. Now we're gonna move to rapid fire,
Speaker 2: which hopefully won't be stupid. But we'll see. All right,
Speaker 2: I'll start and the will bounce it back and forth
Speaker 2: and just you know, we'll keep it tight. What's one
Speaker 2: word to describe your deal making style?
Speaker 5: Intuitive? Inquisitive? There you go, inquisitive in a deal. What's
Speaker 5: more important your instincts or data instincts? Who's your dream
Speaker 5: deal making partner with them?
Speaker 3: Mark Lazari, who's your dream co host on the NBA broadcast?
Speaker 4: Allen Iverson.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. What's the best piece of advice
Speaker 2: you've received on deal making or business.
Speaker 4: Listen to all the facts, but then ultimately you make
Speaker 4: your decision.
Speaker 3: What's the worst business advice you've ever received?
Speaker 4: Listen to everyone else and do what they want and
Speaker 4: do what they want you to do.
Speaker 2: What's your hype song before you go into a big
Speaker 2: meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5: I spray some angel perfume an honor at coach summit
Speaker 5: and I play What more can I say? By Jay
Speaker 5: z Okay?
Speaker 3: You can only watch one sport for the rest of
Speaker 3: your life. Which one is it?
Speaker 4: Basketball?
Speaker 2: What team do you want to see win a championship
Speaker 2: more than any?
Speaker 4: Chicago Bulls?
Speaker 2: What's a fun fact about yourself that your teammates would
Speaker 2: be surprised to hear? Teammates, business associates, whoever?
Speaker 4: I can juggle?
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good one. All right, Cannice, this was
Speaker 2: so fun.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you all, I really do, and I hope
Speaker 5: that we can sit down at some point chat and
Speaker 5: do this.
Speaker 2: Chop it up.
Speaker 4: Be great?
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to the deal. If you
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