WEBVTT - Crystal McCrary McGuire: Lawyer, Author, Documentarian, & 'GameUp’ Co-Founder 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.600 Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Crystal McCrary maguire. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.759 Welcome to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk with 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.079 women who dared to pivot out of one career and 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.480 into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:33.840 these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Welcome back Pivoters. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.080 This week, I'm joined by the lovely Crystal McCrary. I 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.519 first met Crystal through my mom, the way I meet 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.640 most people in my life. But right away I could 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:48.400 tell this woman was impressive, which explains why Sex and 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.440 City and just like that, based a character off of her. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.720 Her superpower is combining fine and fabulous energy with an 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.880 unparalleled drive and desire to tell stories that uplift and 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:05.679 power black culture and black women. Crystal is an accomplished producer, director, lawyer. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.840 Growing up in Detroit, Cristal always knew she wanted to 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.800 do something bigger, and throughout her life she's always pivoted, 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.560 leveraging her circumstances to create new iterations for herself, from 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.760 being a two time New York Times bestselling author to 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.240 appearing on numerous television networks as a cultural legal and 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.680 political pundit and who can forget? She also co hosted 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:32.000 the view She's Really Done It All? On top of 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.000 it all, Kristal's life has revolved around basketball for decades now. 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.160 Her oldest son, Cole Anthony, now plays professionally for the 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.360 Orlando Magic, and her other two children, Ella and Leo, 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.000 also excelled in the sport, taking up nights and weekends 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.080 for as long as she can remember. After years in 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.800 the youth basketball scene, she's teamed up with her son 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.560 Cole to share their experience and connect young basketball players 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.000 with local basketball resources through. 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.560 Their new app up. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.240 Crystal embodies someone who's always allowed herself to steadily explore 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:12.280 and pivot, leading with the personal hope you enjoy. Welcome 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.480 Crystal McCrary maguire. I am so excited to have you 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:16.359 on she pivots. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.520 I'm really excited to be here. Emily, Thank you so 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:19.320 much for having me. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.320 You have been a long inspiration in the pivoting for 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.320 me and just in general in the like you bring 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.480 the kind of energy that I aspire to bring into 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:29.000 the world. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:30.400 Thank you, like with. 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:35.280 Generosity and with kindness and general boss ladiness. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.120 But let's take it back. Let's go to the beginnings. Okay, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.920 so you grew up in Detroit, Yes, I did. Did 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:44.440 you think you were going to stay in Detroit or 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:45.399 did you think you'd ever leave? 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:50.280 Well, I always knew I want it out. I mean, listen, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.280 I love Detroit and it's had an incredible resurgence right now. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.959 But I just was more so interested in the arts. 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.640 I was interested in creating and content creation. And I 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.240 didn't have anyone in my family who'd ever had a 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.120 quote unquote creative profession. I had a lot of lawyers, 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.760 few doctors, and I really didn't have that roadmap in 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:13.760 front of me. And I guess as a kid, whatever 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.600 it was that was incoming on my end, I was 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:22.240 informed that there's something in New York City that's pretty cool. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:23.000 You know. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.520 I didn't know what it was. I'd never been, but 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.840 I really did always want to move to New York City. 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.440 If you hadn't actually been, do you remember, like, was 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:33.160 it images? 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.080 Was it movies? Like what kind of drew you to 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.600 the city. Sure, I mean it was certainly images. You know, 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.960 I will say this not the most glamorous, but certainly gritty. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:48.080 But I do remember as a child seeing the movie 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:49.640 Fame Ough. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:51.920 With Irene Kara Debbie Allen. 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.760 Oh my god, that Times Square. I mean, well, first 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.200 of the dancing up on the taxi. 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.080 Of course, of course, in the in the school, the 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:03.920 liberal arts school, the just the diversity, you know, the music, 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.240 the excitement. There was just something that I saw in 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.840 that film and all of sort of the imagery and 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.560 messaging around New York City. And I think I had 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.359 a cousin that had moved to New York City, and 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.400 there was something sort of exotic and far off, and 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.040 you know, but I will say, you know, the part 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.760 of Detroit that I grew up in, you know, we 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.279 used to joke it was like a little mini United Nations. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.279 And I grew up in the seventies in downtown Detroit, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.920 and so I grew up really and I feel very 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.200 fortunate to have have grown up in a community that was, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:48.159 you know, just multi cultural, ethnicity, gender, everything. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.680 Despite living in downtown Detroit, Crystal started to travel out 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.440 to Gross Point to go to school, a wealthy and 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.080 largely white area just a few miles from downtown. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:00.560 Yes I did. I was. 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.040 I wasn't like bussed in the traditional sense that I 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:09.280 now understand busting to mean, but in hindsight, there was 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:13.200 that feeling that I imagine a kid, you know, going 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:19.440 from a fairly urban community out to the suburbs, you 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.279 know where like the Fords of you know, their family 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.839 went to school an industrialist and you know, people whose 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:31.599 families were much more financially well off, so to speak, 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:38.480 than my family. And frankly, racism me being other was 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.599 made aware to me at the schools I went to 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.760 in gross Point in a way that they had never 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.200 been made aware to me going to school in downtown Detroit. 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.520 I became aware that, oh, you're a black girl. I 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.320 remember going to a party in middle school because I 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.600 went to the school called gross Point Academy and then 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:04.960 this University of Ligott. They they sound like they are, Yes, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.560 I think I can picture it from the Point Academy 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.200 and I remember going to a party at a classmates 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.800 class and this is actually, can't make this up. As 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.320 I'm thinking about this, and I'm thinking about this young 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.960 lady's name you but we did. We had Muffy's, we 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:20.919 had Carrington's. No, we really did. I mean it was 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.080 remember like the preppy handbook, But I remember going to 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.359 a party and she lived in this mansion. You know, 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:31.599 I didn't know that people could live in houses like this, right, 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.599 And I remember a bunch of kids being outside and 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:37.719 I don't know what we were doing. I was the 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.440 only black girl. But then I saw this black boy 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.240 there that had never seen before. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:44.280 He wasn't a classmate. 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:49.080 And my host said, oh, you'll like so and so 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.280 he's like you, and I. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:51.839 Was like, whatnot? 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.200 And then and then I gathered that he was the 0:06:55.240 --> 0:07:00.719 son of their Jamaican nanny, and they placed us together 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.480 based on, you know, our skin color. And again I 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.160 just I had no problem meeting him and talking tom 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.960 but the fact that I'm the only black girl. He's 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.040 not even there really as a guest. He's like just 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.440 there as the nanny's son. And I was made acutely 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.760 aware of I was different than the rest of the 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:21.760 kids at this party. 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:22.280 Things like that. 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.320 I mean, it wasn't you know, that wasn't like overtly 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:27.840 you know, rude. I don't know how to you know, like, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.000 I know it wouldn't happen to my kids in the 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.440 same way growing up in New York City, but I was. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:37.440 I was definitely made aware of my otherness and how 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.480 I was raised. You know, we actually we didn't really 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:45.840 talk about race, you know, we didn't talk about political 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.040 issues that that just was not what we talked about. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:50.440 I mean I was raised, I mean I was actually 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:55.560 raised by my maternal grandparents. They raised me as my 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.240 mother and father because my mother, my biological mother, had 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.280 me in a very young agd. She basically left me at 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.160 their door step and there my parents, right. But they 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.080 were Depression era parents born in the Jim Crow South 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:15.680 who their families migrated north to Detroit for economic opportunity 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.640 during the you know, the Great Migration, as Isabella Wilkerson 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:21.280 writes about in the Warmth of other Sons. 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:22.360 I mean, it was very much that. 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:27.280 And so they came through the Depression, and they weren't 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:32.120 children of the sixties, so it was just a different 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:38.160 way of There wasn't like activism around civil rights in 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.599 our household. I mean, I really didn't start learning and 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.920 leaning into that part of who I am really until 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:47.840 I was in college. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.319 Did they just not discuss civil rights or was there 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.200 did you get the sense that you really shouldn't be 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:56.160 talking about it? 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:58.360 They just didn't discuss it. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.680 They didn't and you know, again it was this prop 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.280 you know, I'd say quote unquote properness. Right, my mom 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.120 she was born and she turns in ninety eight, but 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.079 she was born in nineteen twenty five. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.400 She's still alive. It's incredible. 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.439 My dad was born in nineteen twenty three. He passed away. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.560 And also just the age wise, I mean when I 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:28.640 was as my parents slash grandparents, they were older parents, 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.000 and look at this in the in the seventies, you know, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.360 they were already married, had a family established. As you know, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.080 my mom was a school teacher and then a principal, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.040 public school teacher and principal. My dad was worked for 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.000 Ford Motor Company, and so it was the era of 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:45.520 where you didn't change jobs. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.720 Right, there was no pivot, right, there was no pivot. 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:50.880 There was no pivot. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.720 You know this that was not that same type of 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:59.920 optionality and even awareness of particularly as it relates particularly 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.240 as it relates to women in my mom. On one hand, 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.439 she was made money as a school teacher and then 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.199 a principal, but she wasn't going to do anything. There 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.880 was I'm going to stop being a teacher and go 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.400 and start a singing career or start a podcast or 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:15.800 there was. 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:16.240 None of that. 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.319 Yeah, it just wasn't the vibe for moving through the timeline. 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.120 So did you always think that you were going to 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.080 go to law school like so much of your family. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.960 Well, I did really look up to the lawyers in 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.400 my family, you know, because they were sort of that 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:38.560 next generation of getting advanced degrees beyond the undergraduate degree, 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.640 and there was this upward mobility associated with one that 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.640 had a law degree. I can't say that I was 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:55.000 particularly interested in it other than it to me symbolized stability. 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.439 There was a certain status to it, you know, particularly 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.920 as I juxtaposed that to the people that I went 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.760 to school with. I just looked at that as, oh, 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.720 this is an opportunity to sort of excel. I wasn't 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.240 particularly interested in it. I was an English major in 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.160 undergrad and would have loved to have gone straight from 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:18.640 undergrad into a creative profession. I didn't know what that 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.000 could have been, what that looked like. 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:20.600 As I said, I. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.000 Didn't have anybody in my family that was in the arts. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.319 In my family, like so many families of my generation, 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.120 were what are you going to do with a quote 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.920 unquote creative profession? Are you going to get health insurance 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.040 with that? And so I sort of took that path 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.880 of least resistance, which is law school. Took that path 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.240 that had a level of familiarity and went to law school, 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:52.320 graduated from law school in nineteen ninety five, and went 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.920 to a farm in New York City called Paul Weiss. 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.680 And I did what many people who wanted to go 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:02.040 into the arts. I became a shadow artist as a lawyer, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:07.520 what Julia Cameron writes about in the Artist way so eloquently. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.880 And I was an entertainment lawyer. So I wasn't, you know, 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.800 earning a living as an artist, but I was representing artists. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.080 But I got through. You know, I got through. I graduated, 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.680 I got a job. You've got a guide I got 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:23.680 I got a good. 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:24.600 I got a good job. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.000 I passed the bar exam on the second time. 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:33.600 Well, all that matters is that we're barked out right 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:44.120 and started practicing law representing all of these really extraordinary entertainers, writers, playwrights, choreographers, authors, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:45.920 visual artists, et cetera. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:54.439 And really hated every minute of it. Wow, But my one. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:13:00.120 Big butt in that is it showed me that they're 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:05.559 is a road map for one to have a creative profession. 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.920 And so from that perspective. It was instructive. That was 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:11.719 one of the great things that came out of it. 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.560 I did learn, you know, just the reasoning that one learns, 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.880 the writing that one must practice to be a lawyer. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.720 And then I also met a lot of really fantastic people. 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:29.359 In fact, one of the men who was an associate 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.800 at Paul Weiss, a senior associate when I was a 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.240 young associate, a man by the name of Andrew Hurwitz, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.000 left Paul Weiss also like I did, a little after me, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.560 but he started this company called the Film Sales Company 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.679 flash forward many years he actually sold. I went to 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.920 him to sell my first film that I produced and 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.840 met him because of being you know, at Paul Weiss together. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:56.600 So it wasn't totally for nothing. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:01.400 Absolutely no. I do believe though that every saying so cliche, 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.280 everything does happen for a reason. Every coincidence is a 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:12.600 meaningful coincidence. I do believe in serendipity, and so I 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.720 can sort of sum up my whole legal journey as 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:21.560 being a part of that. That was a huge stepping 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.560 stone for me on the next path in my journey. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.360 We talked so much on this show about how every 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.240 pivot is different and the time frame is differently. You know, 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.240 some happen in an instant, but some happen over time. 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:38.360 So what was that timeline for you of starting to write, 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.560 staying at the firm, and what was the thing that 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.400 made you feel like, Okay, it's time to leave the firm, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:43.960 I'm ready to go into this full time. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.880 I think I knew that my days were numbered at 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.960 the firm because I just had it was. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:49.360 It was. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:54.200 I was less than passionate. I was barely making it there, 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.960 just emotionally and mentally, and it's kind of making me 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.880 depressed is not the right, but just down. It was 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.080 every day. I just really did not look forward to 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.200 going to work, and I took enough time to kind 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.400 of save up some money. I did have a husband 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.480 that was making some money, but I didn't want to 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.880 have to rely on him. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.160 Crystal was married to her first husband, Greg Anthony, an 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.440 NBA player for the New York Knicks at the time. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:23.920 So I kind of got a plan in order that 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.040 I said, you know, let me finish working on this book. 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.520 And I think it was when Rita and I. 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.640 Rita Ewing, one of her best friends, who in fact 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.360 introduced Crystal to Greg and was writing the book with. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:42.600 Her Rita, and I got a completed draft of the book, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.000 found an agent, and I think it was right around 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.200 that time that I felt ready to make the leap 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.400 and leave the firm. And so that was sort of 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.920 like the first pivot. Didn't have a buyer yet, didn't 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.440 have a publishing house yet, but I felt pretty confident 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:00.920 about it. I felt like, I'm sure you've talked to 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:06.800 people who are passionate about a particular profession or a 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:12.000 dream or an idea or something, and they bulldoze ahead 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.320 with it and they don't necessarily have a plan B. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.600 I guess my plan B was to stay at the firm. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.600 But I knew that I had to cut those ties 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:22.880 if I was really going to ever give it a 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.320 go to have a creative profession. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.200 So Crystal cut ties. She leaned into her book, eventually 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.560 publishing Home Court Advantage in nineteen ninety nine. The book 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.680 explored the flip side of the basketball scene, highlighting the 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.960 stories of the women who lived in the shadows of 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.720 quote great men. Though she never says it directly, the 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.560 book was almost certainly a reflection of Cristal's personal life 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:48.320 and the other accomplished women around her. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.080 We would joke about it or talk about it all 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.920 the time, the wives and girlfriends of that New York 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.560 Nicks team and that era. Like, let me set the 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.200 stage for you, Like, so pat Riley was the coach, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.520 and so you had Patrick Ewing at the time, his 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.160 wife Rita Ewing, who's a very good friend of mine. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.600 She's a lawyer and she's also an entrepreneur. You had 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.639 herb Williams, his wife had a PhD. You had Lisa 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.560 Bonner at the time, She's a lawyer, entrepreneur, real estate developer. 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.199 I mean, I could just go on and on with 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:32.000 that list of really impressive women. Home court advantage was 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.840 derived out of something called the Morning Pages, which was 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.000 an exercise in that book The Artist Way, which was 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.479 written by Julia Cameron, which she recommends for people that 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.119 want to begin writing. She recommends this thing called the 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.520 morning Pages, which are you wake up every morning and 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.720 before you do anything else, write a minimum of three 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:58.359 pages in a brain drain style. Don't edit yourself. 0:17:58.960 --> 0:17:59.679 Just do that. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:05.240 Commit to that act of writing and the discipline of it. 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.400 Don't edit yourself, and just see what you get after 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.400 a few months of doing that and I did that. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.920 You know, in hindsight, I'm proud that I actually had 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.600 the discipline to do it. But I got up every 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.720 morning like an hour before. This was while I was 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.199 actually still at Paul Weiss and did that. And that 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:30.600 was the beginnings of Home Court Advantage. And I said, Rita, 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:31.680 I was like, I've been doing this. 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:32.239 This came up. 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.399 It was originally actually called Seasonal Ties because it was 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.520 about the season ties, you know, And she said, because 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.440 you and I would laugh so much about the various 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.000 stories being these wives. And we talked about it and 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.880 thought it would be really fun to write it together. 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.760 And we did and it became Home Court Advantage, and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.719 we were fortunate enough to, you know, get the first 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.440 book published and it was a New York Times bestseller, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.400 and many efforts to. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:18:59.960 Make it into a movie a series. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.640 I think I was just telling somebody the other days 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:06.560 and I think I made more money from optioning that 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.520 book than I did for my actual advance. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.000 Even after Crystal's divorced from Greg Anthony, basketball was ever 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.760 present in her life because of her children. When we 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.560 come back, Crystal talks about balancing the demands of her 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.840 own life with her kids, extremely active youth basketball career. 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.879 Now back to the show. You have three children who 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:36.199 are very involved in basketball. In particular, you are a 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.800 very present parent, and you've said that you started in 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.800 national championships with your oldest when he was as young 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.199 as fourth grade, and even younger once you got to 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:44.879 the third child. 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.760 Yes, but that takes time. That takes time, and that takes. 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.480 Brain power and bandwidth and time in your It takes 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.480 space in your life and in your thinking. How did 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.520 you navigate, Like I don't think there is such a 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.520 thing as work life balance, but how did you navigate it? 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:00.480 Being so present? 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.160 You know, it's been a real journey. I mean, what 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.159 is it you hear you can have everything, just not 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.359 at the same time. And then the great Jackie Oh 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.639 quote of I'm only as happy as my least happy child, 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.000 and so there's kind of like a mashup of those 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:20.080 that I think that every working mom tries to walk 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.840 in balance of that. And I have tried to be 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.239 as present as I could possibly be, but I know 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.840 that a lot of things have fallen through the cracks. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.119 And your kids are approximately ten years apart, like the 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:35.359 two and then right. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.760 The younger, right, right, So Yeah, Leo's eleven, and Ella 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.600 is twenty one and Cole is twenty three. So I 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.840 have like the ten year age difference between my youngest 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.760 and my middle and then the twelve year age difference 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.120 between my youngest and my eldest. So in any event, yes, 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.359 of course stuff falls through the cracks. You know. Of 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:01.919 course I have not always given the best advice, but 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.119 I guess what I have sort of gotten to the 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.760 point of, you can always be doing more, but you 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:08.920 can always be doing less. 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.600 Also, what do you mean by that? 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.439 I've struck a balance with myself and have decided to 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.840 be a little easier on me than these last several years. 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:26.000 I've decided to show myself some grace and do what 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.919 I can do, you know, because now I like, I 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.800 have three kids in three different states, at three very 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.919 different stages of their lives. You know, I have a 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:40.920 fifth grader who that's the hands on, taking to basketball practices, 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:45.760 taking to birthday parties, taking to mommy and me activities, 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.000 taking a Broadway. But then I have a college student 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.840 who's a junior in college, who there's parent weekends, there's 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:56.720 you know, she wants me to be there, ready to edit. 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:58.639 She writes for the Harvard Crimson. She wants me to 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.400 be there to edit something for her, her or you know, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.879 there's a breakup or something to talk about that, you know, 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.639 just there to be present in in that way. But 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.399 there's never just enough time. Like there's parents weekend. I'm sorry, 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:13.679 I can't come up for the whole weekend. I can 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.560 come up for one night. Well, mom, that's not enough. 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.320 Why you know things like that, My you know, eldest 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.040 who's a professional basketball player in place with the Orlando Magic. 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.600 And you know, there's a part of me that, gosh, 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.359 I wish I wish I could live down in Orlando. 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:27.919 Well maybe not. 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.520 I wish I could be at every game home and away, 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.440 but I can't. And he has, you know, like he's 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.359 like other parents are down here, other parents, you know, 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.919 but other parents have packed up and moved. All my 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.119 teammates parents they packed up and moved to Florida, and 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.760 our neighbors with you know, like. 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:49.640 I have things to do here. 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:52.080