Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to the Big Kniang Theory. Thank you, George.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiide is in the building is the one. The
Speaker 1: way he tells me that I suck. Think about where
Speaker 1: you were and like, where are you right now? Thank
Speaker 1: you for making time for the Big Niang Gary, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you have me bro Welcome back everybody to the
Speaker 1: Big Niang Theory. I'm George Niang with my co host
Speaker 1: Lauren Rosen. Today we have a unique situation. We have
Speaker 1: a returner to the Big Kniang Theory. Shake Milton, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming back on. But the real woman of
Speaker 1: the hour on this show is the great Kate Scott. Kate,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining. It's great to be here. Say how
Speaker 1: much did George have to pay you to come back
Speaker 1: to that? To take out a loan charge. We're gathered
Speaker 1: to do two things. We want to hear Kate's life
Speaker 1: story the same way that we've heard so many of
Speaker 1: your teammates life stories. We're also celebrating Women's History Month
Speaker 1: in the month of March. Kate someone who has made
Speaker 1: regular history and women's history I suppose, and plays a
Speaker 1: huge role in all of our lives. So Kate apologies
Speaker 1: for being here, and I think somewhere interesting maybe to start,
Speaker 1: is that you guys have a really beautiful relationship, and
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear sort of how that got going
Speaker 1: and the bond that you have with these players As
Speaker 1: your first nbat, I'm trying to think how did that
Speaker 1: get I feel like we just kind of just shot
Speaker 1: the breeze, like when she was around for shoot around,
Speaker 1: we did, and one of these strange good things to
Speaker 1: come out of COVID. I still don't know how to
Speaker 1: phrase it correctly, but so my first year was obviously
Speaker 1: last year, and you guys were still having to sit
Speaker 1: out for portions of the season when you contracted the virus.
Speaker 1: So that forced you to have to sit at home
Speaker 1: and listen to me, because I'm sure most of you
Speaker 1: were like, who's this chick that's at our shoot around
Speaker 1: sitting up there on the balcony looking down at us.
Speaker 1: So George Aculey actually sent me a message while he
Speaker 1: was out with COVID saying, oh my gosh, I heard
Speaker 1: you call a game last night. I freaking love your energy.
Speaker 1: Man here. So obviously George was drinking or something, but
Speaker 1: it was really nice that he reached out because he
Speaker 1: didn't have to do that, he's an NBA player, but
Speaker 1: it meant a lot that he took the time to
Speaker 1: send me a note. So when he got back and
Speaker 1: was healthy, we just started chatting and things took off
Speaker 1: from there. Where did you look at that? Now she's
Speaker 1: rocking the mini van hoodie. So for all of you
Speaker 1: that don't have a minivan hoodie, go get one, Go
Speaker 1: get that. George Bang dot com, you got one yet? Shake?
Speaker 1: Not yet. I'm still waiting on my man like he's
Speaker 1: supposed to ask for, you know, the sizes they're having
Speaker 1: trouble making that the factory die the high demand. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on pe Read too, man, I asked for you know,
Speaker 1: I know we're getting off track here, but pe Read
Speaker 1: will actually make his teammates pay for those hoodies. So
Speaker 1: everybody's like, man, a hundred dollars is a lot, Like
Speaker 1: he's not even giving us. It's like a hundred dollars
Speaker 1: no matter where where you're from, A funny story. That's
Speaker 1: a smart business man. Can we can cut this out
Speaker 1: if it doesn't really feel But you know, we were
Speaker 1: talking to Paul and Tobias, who is basically like a
Speaker 1: money savant, right, you know, he's always giving advice on
Speaker 1: you know, how to save here, how to you know,
Speaker 1: incorporate different things, you know, the Crumble ambassador himself. Um,
Speaker 1: so he said to Paul. He was like, Paul, how
Speaker 1: about for your demographic you lower the price so that
Speaker 1: you know people can't afford, you know, because one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars is a lot for a hoodie that you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of money out the mud. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: said Tobias, like, if they can't pay a hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for it, then they ain't getting it out the mud.
Speaker 1: Oh that was so funny. But that just tells you,
Speaker 1: like how like innocent to the world Paul Reid is
Speaker 1: and just he's just an innocent human and just a
Speaker 1: great person. I think it's so funny that he's taking
Speaker 1: his slogan and putting it, you know, on a hoodie
Speaker 1: multiple colors. I saw pink one yesterday. Shake. What do
Speaker 1: you I mean you're real big with fashion, So tell
Speaker 1: me what you think about that. Yeah, man, pauliad is,
Speaker 1: he's a different character, you know what I mean. He's
Speaker 1: somebody who likes to push the boundaries in anytime. I
Speaker 1: have a conversation with him. I'm leaving with a different,
Speaker 1: different perspective, so I always enjoy being around my man.
Speaker 1: We have some shake coming. Do we have some sniper shakeyer? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta. We gotta have that on the way. I've
Speaker 1: already started working on it. I gotta. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's going to be quite one hundred dollars, Gee,
Speaker 1: how much you sell yours for mine? Or half of that?
Speaker 1: Half that fifty? You know what I mean? So budget?
Speaker 1: Paula over here, Yeah, you know, Lauren is always good
Speaker 1: at you know, coming at me. But it's all right.
Speaker 1: You know, we work through it. Hey, Shake, As you know,
Speaker 1: you got to work through some problems. Shake almost gotten
Speaker 1: a physical I know. I didn't want to bring that up,
Speaker 1: but since you did, I'm glad to see that you
Speaker 1: guys are chatting again. Well, I just want to shed
Speaker 1: some light on that. No, well, I mean we could
Speaker 1: talk about it. I think it was just funny because
Speaker 1: Shake is like the most mild manners and that's why
Speaker 1: I love it. And everybody knows I'm like so emotional.
Speaker 1: So it's really like Shake was caught in the crossfire
Speaker 1: because I think I was just ready to blow pretty
Speaker 1: much anybody, like where it could have been Tyreese, it
Speaker 1: could have been Joel, and I just would have stumped
Speaker 1: my feet, like if you watched the replay of me
Speaker 1: jumping up and down, like my mom was like, could
Speaker 1: you act anymore like a twelve year old? I think
Speaker 1: the cool thing is now that we've incorporated you know
Speaker 1: what I mean that little scuffle into our pregame handshake,
Speaker 1: So the best you're going to shed a little light
Speaker 1: on how oh so before so before every we always
Speaker 1: high five each other and hug So now I incorporate
Speaker 1: or shake incorporated like he's putting his hands up and
Speaker 1: then we high five and shake hands. So it's been
Speaker 1: kind of cool. But you know, obviously, you know we're
Speaker 1: teammates and that comes from a different kind of perspective
Speaker 1: where you know, we're on the court, like we're grinding together,
Speaker 1: where for U Kate, it's totally different where I've kind
Speaker 1: of had a perspective where you know, when you hop
Speaker 1: in the booth with someone that you don't really have
Speaker 1: chemistry with, like you kind of have to work through that,
Speaker 1: and you kind of being like a pioneer a woman
Speaker 1: in a kind of a male dominated industry. How did
Speaker 1: you overcome some of those challenges because that you can't
Speaker 1: go home and be like, oh, I just don't measure
Speaker 1: this person like I need a new match. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: you need to figure it out. Yeah, and make yourself
Speaker 1: look good, but also make this whole production look good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think you hit the nail on the head by
Speaker 1: just saying figure it out like that has been my
Speaker 1: entire life because too, and I'm sure Shake as well,
Speaker 1: and Lauren too. Because I was never trying to be
Speaker 1: a pioneer. I was never trying to be a trailblazer.
Speaker 1: I didn't set out to try to be a first.
Speaker 1: I loved sports from the time I was a little girl,
Speaker 1: and my mom still tells these stories about when I
Speaker 1: was five and six at recess at school. It was
Speaker 1: me and all the boys playing soccer, and I was
Speaker 1: the one who was like the coach and the referee.
Speaker 1: If somebody picked the ball up, I'd be like the handball,
Speaker 1: put the ball down, free kick for this team back
Speaker 1: up ten yards. Like that was me when I was
Speaker 1: six years old. And then when your parents could kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, allow you to make breakfast or pour your
Speaker 1: own bowl of Cereal on the weekends so they could
Speaker 1: sleep in maybe a little bit longer. They would never
Speaker 1: wake up and find me watching Saturday morning cartoons. I
Speaker 1: was watching Sports Center on Loop a half hour sports Centers.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe those had turned off by the time. You
Speaker 1: guys get annoying after you watch it third. So so
Speaker 1: sports has been my life since I was a little girl. Um,
Speaker 1: and then as I got older, I started to realize
Speaker 1: that a lot of the stuff that I wanted to
Speaker 1: do when I was drawn towards was stuff that only
Speaker 1: guys had done. Like, uh, when I got to cal
Speaker 1: I went to UC Berkeley for college out in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area, and I went to football game my freshman
Speaker 1: year and it was awesome because they were actually good
Speaker 1: when I was there, and they were they were like
Speaker 1: three or four dudes down at the front of the
Speaker 1: students section leading cheers, and they were in khaki pants
Speaker 1: and blue button down shirts and blue and gold time
Speaker 1: because those are the school colors. I was like, that's rad, man,
Speaker 1: how do I get to do that? And everybody looked
Speaker 1: at me. It was like you got to try out
Speaker 1: in front of the student section, and like, no chick's
Speaker 1: ever done that. And I was like, great, that's cool.
Speaker 1: Can I try. Everybody kind of like looked at me like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, she's gonna food off the stage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who is this crazy chick? Right? And then I did it,
Speaker 1: didn't get boot off, people cheered for me. I was
Speaker 1: a yell leader for three years at Cal when we
Speaker 1: had Aaron Rodgers and the basketball team was getting to
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament every year, so traveled with a football team,
Speaker 1: got to hang out the basketball team anyway. So long
Speaker 1: story long, My whole life has been about figuring it out.
Speaker 1: And I credit playing sports when I was a little girl,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you guys can relate to. So many
Speaker 1: times you experience failure. Right, You're not making your shots,
Speaker 1: your defense sucks, there's just something that's not going right.
Speaker 1: You're not doing what your team needs at that moment,
Speaker 1: and the coaches or your teammates are challenging you to
Speaker 1: figure it out. And you either do and you succeed
Speaker 1: and you get better and you move on to the
Speaker 1: next level, or you're done. So I've had to run
Speaker 1: into that a ton of times as a sideline reporter
Speaker 1: and as an anchor, and then when I started doing
Speaker 1: play by play and I'm just kind of continuing to
Speaker 1: figure it out. So it's awesome to not be here
Speaker 1: figuring out with all of you. Yeah, you know, the
Speaker 1: crazy part is, you know, we're together so much, and
Speaker 1: it's almost like you take for granted everybody else's journey,
Speaker 1: but we are like one percent of the one percent,
Speaker 1: and I constantly have to remind myself of that. And
Speaker 1: I feel like the one thing that all of us
Speaker 1: can have a commonality and can get along with is
Speaker 1: that we've all had our own unique journey of figuring
Speaker 1: it out. And I always tell people that are like,
Speaker 1: what do you think makes a successful person? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: it really is like grit, Like it's how long can
Speaker 1: you withstand like the pressure, the trials and tribulations. And
Speaker 1: I mean we look at all of our careers. You
Speaker 1: just touched on yours, Lauren. I know you have your story,
Speaker 1: but even like you shake, like coming in signing a
Speaker 1: two way, you know, having injury, then like this offseason
Speaker 1: is like going to be like the real time, you know,
Speaker 1: for you to like reap all those rewards of everything
Speaker 1: that you've had to go through and being in the NBA. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I think you know, for myself. You know, life is
Speaker 1: just it kind of goes in waves, right, you know,
Speaker 1: you're being up, you're down the highs and lows of it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like earlier and my career, at times,
Speaker 1: I would just kind of be drawn by those things,
Speaker 1: so like just the way I feel, my mood or
Speaker 1: whatever would just kind of go up and down with
Speaker 1: those highs and lows, you know. But as I got
Speaker 1: a little older, I just you know, started to find
Speaker 1: ways to kind of just maintain a certain level of
Speaker 1: steadiness and tranquility and not being so so so much
Speaker 1: on that roller coaster anymore, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm able to just kind of look at things, take
Speaker 1: things for what they are, and then kind of pivot
Speaker 1: and adjust how I need to. And you know, ultimately,
Speaker 1: I feel like that has just taken not only my mindset,
Speaker 1: but just my life to a whole other level. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure, you know, Kate, you can expound on just
Speaker 1: having to pivot, uh, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 1: continuing to elevate and grow, you know, through just the
Speaker 1: whole process of this whole thing. Can I just give
Speaker 1: a shake a hard time by saying, as he got older,
Speaker 1: what are you twenty six right now? Shake, I'm serious,
Speaker 1: we're going to professional athlete years, so that years you
Speaker 1: like time to buy two three, expand on that, because
Speaker 1: I think that's totally true because the wisdom that I
Speaker 1: think you guys have and I mean that, and you
Speaker 1: guys are both still very young men to me, is
Speaker 1: it because you've been thrown into things at such a
Speaker 1: young age when it comes to professional sports. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll say it first, I mean year, what year did
Speaker 1: you first GIVEBA? Like twenty two, twenty one, twenty three
Speaker 1: in the league? Yeah, twenty eighteen, So how was I
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty one? Yes, so I was. I would
Speaker 1: just turned twenty three, and like the responsibility. I remember
Speaker 1: looking at my first paycheck and I'm like, who is Fika?
Speaker 1: And why are they taking all this money? Right? You know?
Speaker 1: So it's just like it's true, you just have to
Speaker 1: grow up so fast. Whereas like, and I hate saying
Speaker 1: this because I always look at myself as a normal person,
Speaker 1: Whereas like other young adults, they have chances to like
Speaker 1: mess up and like be able to pick themselves up.
Speaker 1: It's like when I mess up, it's like they're like,
Speaker 1: how could you possibly do that you have your whole
Speaker 1: life given you. And it's like when I was first
Speaker 1: in the NBA, like I didn't know like what to
Speaker 1: expect or that, you know that what people expected of
Speaker 1: me outside of basketball, like being an adult, like in
Speaker 1: college and like all these other places, you're kind of
Speaker 1: like sheltered from the world. When you're in the NBA,
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, we have an off day in this city.
Speaker 1: You could do whatever you want. We'll meet you tomorrow
Speaker 1: for a shoot round. And it's almost like when you're young,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I have a day off, But now
Speaker 1: that we've like four or five years in, we're like, no,
Speaker 1: I have to get my treatment. I have to get
Speaker 1: my work in because when the lights are on, they
Speaker 1: expect me to perform it. And if I don't do
Speaker 1: the stuff behind the scenes, yeah, then you know I'm
Speaker 1: in trouble. And I know that Shake is one of
Speaker 1: the most regimented on our team. Comes to that. When
Speaker 1: did that? When did that shift happen? Or has he
Speaker 1: always been like that? Since I've been here, I've always
Speaker 1: like he always like shoot around off days like he
Speaker 1: you and t Lash. I feel like have like something
Speaker 1: that's just yeah, I don't know. Like I remember early
Speaker 1: on they used to have to tell me to not
Speaker 1: come to the gym, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 1: just to go sit down, And even now they tell
Speaker 1: me to watch it. But like, I don't know. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, some guys are just super talented and can
Speaker 1: just play the game and just be great, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But I also just love the game too,
Speaker 1: so like I always want to be out there hooping
Speaker 1: and then just watching some of the greats and watching
Speaker 1: interviews and things like that and talking about how they
Speaker 1: go about their craft, and it's just it's just the
Speaker 1: love that I have for it, really, so I want
Speaker 1: to be great, and I just I feel like I
Speaker 1: know what it takes. So I'm just trying to put
Speaker 1: in as much work as I can really to tie
Speaker 1: together two of our topics the way that you just
Speaker 1: talked about having to figure out how to stay level
Speaker 1: and not ride the hides and the lows. It's interesting
Speaker 1: to be that George opened the conversation about your little
Speaker 1: scuffle by saying that you're one of the most level people,
Speaker 1: because I think that's a testament to your evolution, right.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the first couple of years that
Speaker 1: you were here, you would have considered yourself one of
Speaker 1: the more level people. Really, Yeah, I mean probably not, Man,
Speaker 1: I was just just just young, right, you don't know,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean, Like when things are
Speaker 1: going great, you're just in a great mood, and then
Speaker 1: when things are going bad, you're just like, oh man,
Speaker 1: the whole world is coming down, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But now just stayed of course, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You've got goals in mind. You have just continue to
Speaker 1: put intension behind them and continue to trust things and
Speaker 1: you know things will always fall into place like they should.
Speaker 1: I just think the fact that George called you that
Speaker 1: is a testament to the fact that you're doing it
Speaker 1: well right, that you have figured out what that balance
Speaker 1: is and like what that level headedness is. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: talk a lot. Balance is sort of like a theme
Speaker 1: on our podcast, like how do you find balance in
Speaker 1: your crazy life with these high standards and for UK,
Speaker 1: you're of the four of us, the newest to the
Speaker 1: NBA schedule and lifestyle and the demands that this life
Speaker 1: eskus of you. How have you started to find your
Speaker 1: balance in your role? Still definitely in search of it.
Speaker 1: This is a grind well because this is the first Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you had to find your nichel like out even
Speaker 1: having relationships with like ye because we didn't start traveling
Speaker 1: with you guys because of COVID again, back to that
Speaker 1: on the balcony, but calling her first NBA games, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, like I'm going to brag on Kate
Speaker 1: for a second, there's so much pressure associated with the
Speaker 1: role that she has, and she took over for someone
Speaker 1: Mark Zumof, who's one of the greatest to ever be
Speaker 1: a local play by play announcer for a team like
Speaker 1: you guys. He's so well respected, and whoever came into
Speaker 1: that role next was going to have tons of pressure,
Speaker 1: even if it was a white man that had similar
Speaker 1: qualities in style to Mark Zumof. Right, And then they
Speaker 1: bring in this young woman from California whom no one
Speaker 1: has heard of in the market. And it's not that
Speaker 1: anyone set you up to fail, but the challenge was
Speaker 1: greater based on your identity. Then they tell her Mark
Speaker 1: was at every game meeting you guys on day one.
Speaker 1: It's COVID. You can't go to every game. You're going
Speaker 1: to call some of the games off of monitors, you're
Speaker 1: not going to meet the players one by one. You're
Speaker 1: going to just have to sort of go. So you're
Speaker 1: already set up for this huge challenge, and then there
Speaker 1: are all these extra challenges in place, and now we
Speaker 1: ask you how you found your balance, Like, what was
Speaker 1: it like to come in such a sort of volatile
Speaker 1: environs start off off battle, But if you can figure
Speaker 1: it out in that environment, maybe this environment actually feels
Speaker 1: kind of stable. Well, And as I kind of referenced earlier,
Speaker 1: my whole career has been a challenge. It's just been
Speaker 1: figuring it out. There is no in broadcasting, and this
Speaker 1: is one of the most frustrating thing for young kids
Speaker 1: who are getting into this while they're friends or consultants
Speaker 1: or lawyers or doctors. There's a ladder that they see, Right,
Speaker 1: if I go to this grad school, then I will
Speaker 1: have the degree that will get me that first job.
Speaker 1: I know the name of that first job out of school,
Speaker 1: and then after two years there I will get a promotion.
Speaker 1: Like it is easy to see that progression in broadcasting.
Speaker 1: I like to say, it's just this giant oak tree
Speaker 1: with a ton of branches and you just got to say,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna pick that one, and you walk
Speaker 1: out on it and you're like, Okay, I like it.
Speaker 1: It's working, and then you try to hop to a
Speaker 1: higher one, but it's just there's no ladder. It's really confusing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the balance. That's why I chuckled as soon
Speaker 1: as you said it. I've been in this industry now
Speaker 1: for twenty plus years and I'm still searching for it.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to the NBA season, I'm considering
Speaker 1: this kind of my first full season because I got
Speaker 1: to start traveling with you guys and actually seeing you
Speaker 1: face to face and talking to you back a training camp.
Speaker 1: I got to go to training camp in Charleston. But
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, I think it's really
Speaker 1: easy from the outside looking in. Oh, you guys travel
Speaker 1: on your own plane, right, you stay at these fancy hotels.
Speaker 1: But I tell people, Yeah, but we had four games
Speaker 1: last week in four different cities, and two of those
Speaker 1: cities we got into at two in the morning. I
Speaker 1: don't know how the guys who were between you know,
Speaker 1: six three and seven feet tall, you're still on a
Speaker 1: plane after you played a game when you're actually wanting
Speaker 1: to get like massaged or something. Because you just beat
Speaker 1: the snot out of each other. Like I don't think
Speaker 1: people understand the physicality of basketball because again I've called football,
Speaker 1: I've called hockey. But comes in and if you can
Speaker 1: somehow get a first ten rows at an NBA game ticket,
Speaker 1: you guys beat the crap out of each other and
Speaker 1: you don't have any pads on um, and then go
Speaker 1: straight to the airport, get on a plane, change time zones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get a nice bed and stuff, but then we
Speaker 1: need you up at night the same size of the
Speaker 1: beds that you and I are and and then do
Speaker 1: it all again that night exactly. But I just it is,
Speaker 1: it's so much for me just as a broadcaster. What
Speaker 1: what day of the week is it? Like some nights
Speaker 1: on the top of my board, because I have a
Speaker 1: little eight by eleven board in front of me that
Speaker 1: has pertain in information about you guys and our opponents
Speaker 1: all literally right like Wednesday at the top, because I
Speaker 1: won't know what day it is, and all right Indianapolis
Speaker 1: because I won't know what city we're in either. Um,
Speaker 1: So it's been it's a grind and I am still
Speaker 1: adjusting to that because again this is just my first
Speaker 1: full season traveling. But it just my respect for you
Speaker 1: guys continues to grow because of the fact that I'm
Speaker 1: calling your games and yeah, I have to do hair
Speaker 1: and makeup, big deal, But you guys actually have to
Speaker 1: get out there and do battle for two and a
Speaker 1: half hours, yeah every other night. I mean the physical exertion.
Speaker 1: I think we have that over you. But that brain
Speaker 1: of yours definitely out Trump's us. I know, because she's
Speaker 1: talking about a calling card and if people don't know
Speaker 1: what that is. In broadcasting, you have a card and
Speaker 1: I think it's with every player's name and where they're from.
Speaker 1: Everybody's different. Yeah, well, so you want to have the
Speaker 1: information about the players, whether if you tie in, you
Speaker 1: loop in and say that they went to college with
Speaker 1: this person. Which is why Kate is like, it's important
Speaker 1: that she's around to ask all these questions because when
Speaker 1: I first did like broadcaster, you where I was the
Speaker 1: MBPA put it on and I got to get in
Speaker 1: my experience, you know, calling a live game with someone
Speaker 1: who does play by play. I was just doing color
Speaker 1: commentary and you're doing color commentary. You really want to,
Speaker 1: you know, show the audience what you know about the game.
Speaker 1: But tie it into the game and how the relationships,
Speaker 1: you know, how they all work, and get getting back
Speaker 1: to your calling card. You know, you you want to
Speaker 1: have information on there that's important that the audience will
Speaker 1: understand and you don't have to go on like these
Speaker 1: ten minute rants on because the play by play person
Speaker 1: is trying to call the game and nobody hear you
Speaker 1: there tell a story. So here I am taking ten
Speaker 1: minutes to tell my story. I mean, well, they've gone
Speaker 1: back and forth across the court like four times. We're
Speaker 1: getting prepared physically and mentally, but like for you to
Speaker 1: dial in and take time out of your day to
Speaker 1: find information that, frankly, in Philly there our fans would
Speaker 1: actually give a shi t about is important, you know.
Speaker 1: And the fact that you know you can do that
Speaker 1: and tie all that in to have people you know,
Speaker 1: drawn to that, I mean credit to you. You say
Speaker 1: that we have to physically do it, you know, but
Speaker 1: mentally I would be stressing myself. That's like a whole
Speaker 1: different game that you're playing, and all the while you're
Speaker 1: still on national TV too, So like that's there's no recredits,
Speaker 1: don't mess it up. But it's I think there's so
Speaker 1: many tie ins between what I do and what you
Speaker 1: guys do right, So much of what makes at least
Speaker 1: in my opinion, a good broadcaster is the amount of
Speaker 1: effort you put into your preparation. Like we were just
Speaker 1: talking about, the majority of my work is done before
Speaker 1: or the game tips off. When the game starts, that's
Speaker 1: the fun part for me. But it's as George was
Speaker 1: just talking about, have I put in all the time
Speaker 1: I know I needed to so that when the game starts,
Speaker 1: I know, man, I prepped on the opponent, I know everything.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm rarely going to even have to look down
Speaker 1: at my board because I'm so prepared for this one.
Speaker 1: I know our guys like the back of my hand,
Speaker 1: obviously because we've been together most of the year, but
Speaker 1: also because I'm reading and I'm listening to podcast and
Speaker 1: I'm doing everything I can too, because as you said,
Speaker 1: Philly fans are so intelligent and follow their teams because
Speaker 1: they're so passionate about that. It's different calling Philly sports
Speaker 1: versus calling another team in another city where maybe the
Speaker 1: fans don't care as much. You might not have to
Speaker 1: try as hard because they're not paying as much attention.
Speaker 1: They don't know as much. But that's one of the
Speaker 1: challenges I give myself, Like, Okay, I think in other
Speaker 1: cities people wouldn't know this, but I know Philly fans do.
Speaker 1: How can I find that next level nugget that fans
Speaker 1: are going to say, well, I don't know, shit, Wow,
Speaker 1: it's been that long since Shake did that. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this about George. So I'm always trying to find
Speaker 1: something a little cooler than what you can just read
Speaker 1: on the internet. You won't say it. But Kate also,
Speaker 1: at least in my experience, does a lot more preparation
Speaker 1: than a lot of folks that do what she does.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to make everything about your gender
Speaker 1: or the obstacles that you've overcome because of your gender,
Speaker 1: but I do wonder sometimes when you are putting in
Speaker 1: that preparation. I've certainly here I'll make it about me.
Speaker 1: I've certainly found in my career that if I say
Speaker 1: something about one of you guys, I'm infinitely more likely
Speaker 1: to be asked if I'm sure, or to have someone
Speaker 1: go look it up just to make sure what I
Speaker 1: said was true, especially if it's a stat especially if
Speaker 1: it's an encourt thing to double check because people aren't
Speaker 1: as likely to trust. This is where you ask so
Speaker 1: many questions. Well but oh well, actually, to be fair like,
Speaker 1: maybe it is though, right, because for me, it's really
Speaker 1: easy to tell a story when it comes directly from you.
Speaker 1: George said this shake did that. No one can question
Speaker 1: me if I'm getting it directly from what you guys
Speaker 1: say or do. And I'm curious for you when you
Speaker 1: do your preparation or over the years as you've done
Speaker 1: your preparation, do you think that you feel like you
Speaker 1: have a little something extra to prove or am I
Speaker 1: just crazy a million percent? And you know that. I
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to talk about all this because
Speaker 1: obviously the end goal for me is just to be
Speaker 1: looked at as an NBA broadcaster with all the other
Speaker 1: stuff coming second. I'm sure the same thing goes for
Speaker 1: you guys. You just want to be known as great
Speaker 1: basketball players, with everything else that you identify as falling
Speaker 1: behind that. But I know right now, I'm young and
Speaker 1: new when it comes to NBA, so a lot of
Speaker 1: people see me as the gay chick from California who's
Speaker 1: also calling games for the Sixers, and the broadcaster thing
Speaker 1: is kind of flast but yeah, what you said. I
Speaker 1: mean so many people have questioned why I want to
Speaker 1: do this, Why do I think I can do this?
Speaker 1: You know, when I got the Sixers job, I was
Speaker 1: calling a national college football package, a national game of
Speaker 1: the week with Mike Golok Senior. It was the biggest
Speaker 1: gig I'd had up until I got this job. So
Speaker 1: thirteen straight weeks, that's why I had to miss five
Speaker 1: of our games last fall. We went to Alabama and
Speaker 1: Georgia and Oklahoma State, and we were syndicated on over
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty radio stations across the country. And
Speaker 1: when you call football, you usually have somebody who keeps
Speaker 1: your stats, and then you have a spotter because you
Speaker 1: usually like eight or nine stories up in the football stadium,
Speaker 1: right you're not courtside or close to the basketball court.
Speaker 1: So I have a bigger board when I call football,
Speaker 1: and a good spotter is supposed to if number twenty
Speaker 1: makes you know, the catch point at number twenty on
Speaker 1: my board, just to kind of confirm hopefully what I
Speaker 1: could already see and know. But not just once twice
Speaker 1: in that season, as I'm calling a na A package
Speaker 1: with Mike Golik, the spotter walked in and was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: can you introduce me to the play by play because
Speaker 1: obviously it's not you and they and I knew, right,
Speaker 1: and you guys are kind of both kind of rolling
Speaker 1: your eyes and that's what are you doing? But but
Speaker 1: I didn't. As much as I wanted to punch them
Speaker 1: in the face, I knew. I knew that I was
Speaker 1: probably the first woman they had ever seen calling a game,
Speaker 1: So the best thing I could do was to have
Speaker 1: prepped my ass off and then go out there and
Speaker 1: kick the you know what out of the broadcast so
Speaker 1: that four hours later they would never again, moving forward,
Speaker 1: walk into a booth sea a woman, and not, at
Speaker 1: least for a second think before I ask her that
Speaker 1: maybe I should look at my email and see the
Speaker 1: name of the play by play who I'm working with.
Speaker 1: So that was a long way of saying I've always overprepped,
Speaker 1: and I always will continue to because now it's my
Speaker 1: comfort zone. But I used to because I knew that
Speaker 1: if I did a good job in any of the
Speaker 1: things that helped me get here, there was a chance
Speaker 1: that other people who didn't look and sound like the
Speaker 1: zoom Offs and the people who had done it before
Speaker 1: might get a chance as well, because I knew that
Speaker 1: the people who were doing the hiring were watching, that
Speaker 1: the next generation was watching. So yeah, I put I
Speaker 1: put a ton of pressure on myself to always go
Speaker 1: past what I know I probably should do, just because
Speaker 1: I know the better I am, the more opportunities for
Speaker 1: those that are coming behind me. Shake, you had a
Speaker 1: strong reaction to her story that you just told, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just that's crazy. I mean, it's something
Speaker 1: I could definitely identify with myself, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: just being overlooked it But to see you, I could
Speaker 1: just relate to that, you know what I mean, that
Speaker 1: start feeling of just somebody just overlooking you and having
Speaker 1: to continue to prove yourself to the point where it
Speaker 1: just becomes like it's second nature. Like you don't even
Speaker 1: react when it feels like you're back is against the wall,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, somebody is not giving you
Speaker 1: the proper respect. You just like, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take it for what it is and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: push it to a whole nother level on you. And
Speaker 1: where are you going? What? What's what's your story that
Speaker 1: you're flashing too I mean, we'll shoot. I have just
Speaker 1: a bunch of stories. I mean, evenin me just being
Speaker 1: in the league, being a two way, hurting myself in
Speaker 1: the combine to where like I didn't really get you
Speaker 1: know what, I mean, to do the things I wanted
Speaker 1: to do, and then um getting in rotations, falling out
Speaker 1: of rotations, having to fight my way back in, and
Speaker 1: then being ready for playoffs and then making big plays
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. M just it's just like a constant thing.
Speaker 1: It's not ef We're gonna be just smooth selling. But
Speaker 1: what I've learned is, like you said, just continue to
Speaker 1: be overprepped, over ready, and when it's time for you
Speaker 1: to step up to the play, you're gonna step up
Speaker 1: and knock it out the ballpark every time. So I
Speaker 1: definitely relate to that. And that's funny that you know,
Speaker 1: this all comes back into like when we had dinner.
Speaker 1: We had dinner as a team after the Dallas game,
Speaker 1: and you know, Shake, it's obviously talking about having the
Speaker 1: right balance, and you're talking about the pressures of that,
Speaker 1: of like not losing your cool when someone comes in
Speaker 1: into questions like why you're here and not making it
Speaker 1: about like me proving them wrong and just keeping it
Speaker 1: about like your process. And that kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to what we were talking about. Um. You know, when
Speaker 1: me and Shake and the team were at dinner, Shake
Speaker 1: was kind of just talking about you know, some someone says,
Speaker 1: Paul Reid is going to get dragged back into this, right.
Speaker 1: Someone said something about visualizing, and Paul was like, how
Speaker 1: can that be possible? Just because you like see it
Speaker 1: in your mind doesn't mean that it's going to happen,
Speaker 1: and Shake was like, no, it's like, Paul, like is
Speaker 1: a real thing. It's like you visualize these things like happening,
Speaker 1: Like there's an essences as if like you know this
Speaker 1: can happen or this is going or that it's already happened.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not going to get as deep as we went,
Speaker 1: but I think it speaks volumes to like the both
Speaker 1: of you, the fact that you can actually identify that
Speaker 1: someone's disrespecting you, right, and I'm not gonna lose my
Speaker 1: cool because George Niang would be like hey mother, you know,
Speaker 1: and then and then get to the and then then
Speaker 1: try to prove you were you guys like all right cool,
Speaker 1: and then like now you guys are like, all right,
Speaker 1: identified what's going on, and now I'm gonna show you why,
Speaker 1: or now I'm gonna even prep even harder so that
Speaker 1: when you do try to question me, I'm gonna be like,
Speaker 1: look at the end result. And I think that's funny
Speaker 1: because like we basically just talked about it, and like
Speaker 1: you dialed into like visualization, and it's funny because the
Speaker 1: last couple of games, I haven't been playing that well.
Speaker 1: And when you said like just visualizing yourself like being good,
Speaker 1: like doing the right things, getting it done, and it's
Speaker 1: like it doesn't matter if you go out there and
Speaker 1: play your best or have the best stats. You just
Speaker 1: feel so much better, just f the effect of like,
Speaker 1: all right, yeah, that shot didn't go in, but I
Speaker 1: still see myself making that and feeling like I belong.
Speaker 1: Confidence is like a through line as well. And we've
Speaker 1: talked George and I a lot about each other sort
Speaker 1: of confidence journey. I'm curious about your confidence journey because
Speaker 1: I see you as an extremely confident individual with like
Speaker 1: a very clear sense of self and even the story
Speaker 1: you told about in college and being like a yell
Speaker 1: leader and the confidence that it takes to be like yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try out in front of these people
Speaker 1: as the first woman to ever do it, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be able to and then be the
Speaker 1: first woman to do this and not even have it
Speaker 1: be about being a woman, just have it being about
Speaker 1: being great. There's so much confidence that goes into that.
Speaker 1: And you guys have talked about it. You just shared,
Speaker 1: you just shared. What is your confidence journey been like?
Speaker 1: Because I don't know if you buyd this. Actually, I
Speaker 1: want to add one more thing. When I talk to
Speaker 1: young women that want to do what I do or
Speaker 1: what you do, or be sort of in this sphere,
Speaker 1: a lot of them do ask about confidence, about how
Speaker 1: you find your voice and your sense of self, And
Speaker 1: I think it's hard to grow to that place. But
Speaker 1: you've done it. Yeah. But I was super fortunate that
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram and all those things didn't didn't come
Speaker 1: about until after I had started my journey. I wish
Speaker 1: I could. I wish I could just rip the phones
Speaker 1: away from everybody, because I think that, as George was
Speaker 1: mentioning earlier about coming into the league and not getting
Speaker 1: to make mistakes at twenty one and twenty two, I
Speaker 1: wish everybody, not just you guys had that space to
Speaker 1: do that. But my confidence journey, I guess again starting
Speaker 1: when I was young. I'm really lucky to have in
Speaker 1: an eight sense of self confidence, which I know is
Speaker 1: not normal and I don't know where it came from,
Speaker 1: but I just have it. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: on the journey that I don't struggle with confidence from
Speaker 1: time to time. I think you guys do too, right,
Speaker 1: because I am relentlessly self critical. I wouldn't be here
Speaker 1: if I hadn't been harder on myself than anybody who's
Speaker 1: listening to me call a game or anybody who I've
Speaker 1: worked for, because I know that in order to be here,
Speaker 1: I had to keep getting better, right, I had to
Speaker 1: show that I was worth the risk of hiring somebody
Speaker 1: who didn't look and sound like pretty much the majority
Speaker 1: of everybody who'd come before me in any jobs I've held. Um,
Speaker 1: so there's hard times, you know. In the fall last
Speaker 1: year November December, we've crossed the country took this job.
Speaker 1: My wife and my dog are still back in the
Speaker 1: Bay Area where it was for the past twenty years. Um,
Speaker 1: you guys are on the road. I'm calling games off monitors.
Speaker 1: I'm living out of an airbnb. I don't have any
Speaker 1: of my stuff and it's just right. And every day
Speaker 1: I go on to social media because I want to
Speaker 1: interact with people. I love the positive aspects of social
Speaker 1: media because it makes people feel like they know you right,
Speaker 1: and how cool is that? Like when I was a
Speaker 1: little kid, there was none of that. So the only
Speaker 1: time I would get to interact with the athletes I loved,
Speaker 1: go to the game early for two and a half hours,
Speaker 1: hope that maybe Shake or George would wave at you.
Speaker 1: If you're lucky, maybe get a wristband or something. But
Speaker 1: now you have a chance to interact with broadcasters and
Speaker 1: athletes if you're not too much of a jerk, or
Speaker 1: maybe if you are jerk, and that's who they interacted with.
Speaker 1: If you're a jerk, you'll get a reaction on exactly.
Speaker 1: But but I go on to social media because I
Speaker 1: wanted to start conversing with Philly fans and Sixers fans
Speaker 1: and letting them get to know me and understandably. I
Speaker 1: knew it was going to be really hard at the start,
Speaker 1: and it was just awful message after awful message. Right,
Speaker 1: go back to California, we hate you. Bring back zoom off,
Speaker 1: and I again, I knew that all of this was
Speaker 1: going to be there. As Lauren referenced, I've been a
Speaker 1: first in a lot of places before here, but that
Speaker 1: didn't stop it from occasionally affecting my confidence and making
Speaker 1: me think. As you're sitting alone without anybody you love,
Speaker 1: without any of your creature comforts, right, and you're like,
Speaker 1: maybe they're maybe they're right, Maybe I maybe I should
Speaker 1: go back to California. Maybe this is too much, you know,
Speaker 1: and then somehow having to find your confidence again waking
Speaker 1: up the next morning because I got to go back
Speaker 1: and make up and call the game again to the
Speaker 1: best of my ability. So so yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a day by day thingum. But as I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys do, I have my friends outside of the industry
Speaker 1: who I check in that's important. I have my friends
Speaker 1: in the industry who I really respect and care about
Speaker 1: their opinions, and I know that those are the opinions
Speaker 1: that matter because they understand the broadcasting industry. They know
Speaker 1: what good is, they know what bad is. They know
Speaker 1: how to offer constructive criticism things that can actually help
Speaker 1: you get better versus people just saying you suck. You
Speaker 1: should never play basketball again. Yeah, those little selve year
Speaker 1: olds in their basement hiding behind their Twitter. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: find you a right. So, yeah, it's a journey. But
Speaker 1: but how fortunate that for the most part, I have
Speaker 1: a lot of self confidence because I know that, as
Speaker 1: you said, especially for a lot of young women, it
Speaker 1: is a is a real big time struggle. I was
Speaker 1: not like that. I was not born with the confidence
Speaker 1: that I have now at all. Like I had a
Speaker 1: very different journey, and for me, a lot of it
Speaker 1: is what you were actually just saying about visualization and
Speaker 1: like imagining myself doing something that I'm not sure I
Speaker 1: can do, and convincing myself, like tricking myself into thinking
Speaker 1: that maybe I could, and then just like trying it.
Speaker 1: I'm not scared of anything, so I'll try anything, right.
Speaker 1: But the confidence for me wasn't there right away. So
Speaker 1: it's cool to hear that you can arrive whether or
Speaker 1: not you're born with it, you know what I mean. Well.
Speaker 1: And and fear, And I'm sure you guys have talked
Speaker 1: about this before and would love your thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: But fear is present. And I don't think anyone who
Speaker 1: says like fear doesn't exist, or just look past the
Speaker 1: fear that that didn't work for me, because fear is
Speaker 1: very present and very real. But but somebody told me
Speaker 1: a number of years ago, fear is a liar. It's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna tell you things that are not true.
Speaker 1: It's gonna try to make you believe stuff that that
Speaker 1: you shouldn't. But you can also ask it to just
Speaker 1: kind of sit with you, because the harder you work
Speaker 1: to write, the more energy you spend trying to push
Speaker 1: it away, probably the bigger it's gonna get. But if
Speaker 1: you just say, hey, fear, Wow, I'm I've been invited
Speaker 1: to be the TV voice of the Philadelphia is seventy
Speaker 1: six ers. This is terrifying. Come on, Fear, get on
Speaker 1: the plane with me, like we're going to do this together,
Speaker 1: and no, you're not going away. But it kind of
Speaker 1: takes some of the the overwhelmingness out of it, and
Speaker 1: it lessens the fear for me. So I've learned the
Speaker 1: things that I'm most afraid of have forced me to
Speaker 1: do the most growing in my broadcasting career, and at
Speaker 1: the same time, the fear has never gone away. So
Speaker 1: now it's just kind of like it's just chilling here.
Speaker 1: There's an empty seat. What's up? Fear Like I'm talking
Speaker 1: to George and Shake. There's probably going to be at
Speaker 1: least a couple of people listening to this podcast. This
Speaker 1: is this is I mean George's mom speaking of moms.
Speaker 1: Let's pivot into part of how Shake ended up at
Speaker 1: the table today, we talked about doing some special content
Speaker 1: for Women's History Month, and just for those listening that
Speaker 1: don't really understand how the NBA season works, when we
Speaker 1: do content Day and media Day with you guys, at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season, we sort of run through
Speaker 1: like the whole calendar of this season, right, so we
Speaker 1: want to bank content for everything that's coming in the
Speaker 1: next seven months, including Women's History Month. So, long story short,
Speaker 1: everyone sits in the chair, everyone talks about women that
Speaker 1: inspire them. And Shake really stood out this year because
Speaker 1: of how specific you were about who inspires you and why,
Speaker 1: and because you were so good, and because not everything
Speaker 1: that was recorded that day makes it to air or
Speaker 1: to Twitter, to Instagram or wherever people see stuff. I
Speaker 1: was hoping you'd share a little bit more or at
Speaker 1: least repeat yourself. Even I remember specifically you talking about
Speaker 1: Serena Williams and Angela Davis. I don't know if there's
Speaker 1: anyone else you want to highlight, but just because it
Speaker 1: is Women's History Month and you were so eloquent about it,
Speaker 1: why are those women and maybe who else so inspiring
Speaker 1: to you? Uh? Well, I mean you look at somebody
Speaker 1: like Angela Davis and all she's meant to my people,
Speaker 1: and just you know, her just sort of story, just
Speaker 1: the type of courage and the type of strength that
Speaker 1: she has to have to go through the certain things
Speaker 1: that she went through, the type of strength and courage
Speaker 1: that Serena had had to have to kind of fight
Speaker 1: her way to the top. It's just it's really just inspiring.
Speaker 1: And for me, I'm gonna pivot a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the most inspiring person is my mom. Honestly,
Speaker 1: she's just like, without a doubt, she's my rock and
Speaker 1: she's just just growing up and watching the way that
Speaker 1: she kind of maneuvered and handled the situation with my
Speaker 1: little brother and my little sister as well, It's just
Speaker 1: like I know that I can turn to her for
Speaker 1: anything and she's going to be there. I have the
Speaker 1: type of mom that's just so supportive. Like I could
Speaker 1: tell her that I want to quit basketball today and
Speaker 1: I want to become a comedian or I want to
Speaker 1: be a lawyer or you know, a garbage man or anything,
Speaker 1: and she would support me one hundred percent. So like
Speaker 1: I hope everybody in their lifetime as somebody who supports
Speaker 1: them the way that my mom supports me. But it
Speaker 1: just continue. When you're able to see things like that,
Speaker 1: you just become inspired and it just rubs off on
Speaker 1: you in a way that like you shine differently than
Speaker 1: everybody else is able to kind of react and fell
Speaker 1: off of the love that you're pouring out. And I
Speaker 1: think a lot of that just comes straight from my
Speaker 1: mom and straight from other women influences that you're able
Speaker 1: to see through day to day life. I don't want
Speaker 1: to stretch it too much, but I remember something you
Speaker 1: said on media Day about Serena is that she's not
Speaker 1: just an inspiration to young women, she's an inspiration to
Speaker 1: young men as well. And like, when you think about
Speaker 1: your family story, right, your mom has had to play
Speaker 1: a dual role for a while. Yeah, how much of Again,
Speaker 1: I don't want to like overstretch my comparison here about
Speaker 1: like watching women be able to handle both needs or
Speaker 1: the needs that any gender could provide, whether it's for
Speaker 1: children or for fans like Serena. How much do those
Speaker 1: things sort of play together when you think about the
Speaker 1: people that inspire you, Um, they definitely play together. Um.
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's hard to even describe because I
Speaker 1: feel like even for myself as a man, it's even different.
Speaker 1: But just being able to see how they act and
Speaker 1: how out women are able to not only you know,
Speaker 1: take all the outside forces that are coming their way
Speaker 1: and still find a way to maneuver and um, um
Speaker 1: just to shine with their influence and how strong they
Speaker 1: are and how they able to just continue to to persevere.
Speaker 1: I find that a lot when I see when I
Speaker 1: look at like somebody like Serena, one of the greatest
Speaker 1: athletes of all time period, or somebody like Angela Davis
Speaker 1: who's gone through what she's been through and um continues
Speaker 1: to just be role a role model or an icon
Speaker 1: for so many people. It's just like it makes it
Speaker 1: inspires me to get up every day to be my best. Definitely,
Speaker 1: So um, it's definitely always something that I looked to it.
Speaker 1: I was actually just watching one of her interviews the
Speaker 1: other day, um on YouTube, and I was just like, man, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have that type of courage,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So, um, it's definitely something
Speaker 1: that stays with me. Yeah, I can't top that. So
Speaker 1: please do you have well, I guess like in a
Speaker 1: similar vein though, do you guys have women influences that
Speaker 1: you want to shout out personal or historical? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: mean to be honest with you, I obviously I the
Speaker 1: woman that you know is most influential in my life
Speaker 1: is my mom. But I think you know, having her,
Speaker 1: how do I say this take care of me or
Speaker 1: you know, developed me as a young man, as I
Speaker 1: you know, was growing up at it helped me appreciate
Speaker 1: the role of women in everyday life. And the fact
Speaker 1: that you know, women you know, obviously you know Kate
Speaker 1: like that are pioneering in different avenues or jobs where
Speaker 1: it's just like, hey, like this may have been a
Speaker 1: male dominated industry, but I can do this too, And
Speaker 1: I think that's so cool because my mom was always
Speaker 1: showing me how strong she was where to the point
Speaker 1: where I thought we were rich when I was younger.
Speaker 1: Because you want to know why my mom never told
Speaker 1: me no. It was like can I play baseball? Can
Speaker 1: I do this? Can I do that? And it was
Speaker 1: always like yes. There was no like hey George, we
Speaker 1: can't afford this, Like she was going to figure a
Speaker 1: way out to do that. And it just made me
Speaker 1: realize that, you know, for whatever messed up reason it
Speaker 1: is that society thinks that men are the strongest or whatever,
Speaker 1: it showed me that like women are, if not stronger,
Speaker 1: just as strong. So the fact that you know, my
Speaker 1: mom could raise me in a sense to where she
Speaker 1: showed me what you know, strength and perseverance was. And
Speaker 1: whenever I'd come home and be like I'm quitting, I'm
Speaker 1: not there, she was like, no, you're not quitting, because
Speaker 1: if it was easy, everybody would be doing it, and
Speaker 1: just a strength to keep going. It allowed me to
Speaker 1: respect women, you know, like Serena Williams who came from Compton, California,
Speaker 1: and you think about what twenty years ago looked like
Speaker 1: as a black woman in a sport that was dominated
Speaker 1: by you know, Caucasian women, and you know, for her
Speaker 1: to just get out there and be a sensation, you
Speaker 1: think about what her resume looks like, it's like, and
Speaker 1: she was still going. So I definitely, you know, my
Speaker 1: mom definitely allowed me to see the strength and women
Speaker 1: and respect it, you know, from whether if you're a lawyer,
Speaker 1: a garbage woman, a doctor. You know, play by play,
Speaker 1: the line is endless. Yeah, strong women make an impact,
Speaker 1: don't they. I love that. You guys are right, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter that they were women that Shake and George
Speaker 1: are both inspired by them and by Serena and Angela.
Speaker 1: And at the NBA we have NBA broadcast meetings there,
Speaker 1: just a couple of days at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: season where all the different broadcasters get together, and I
Speaker 1: was ms seeing a panel up on stage and speaking
Speaker 1: of fear and confidence. We didn't have those my first year,
Speaker 1: so this was my first time going. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I M seen things since I was in eighth grade.
Speaker 1: And I'm up in this giant ballroom and it's just
Speaker 1: all men. And I know that are out there, right,
Speaker 1: I know that this is pretty much everybody who I'm
Speaker 1: working with, But something about just being in a ballroom
Speaker 1: with all of them at the same time, with all
Speaker 1: of them staring at me, I was nervous for the
Speaker 1: first time in a long time, emassy and anything anyway,
Speaker 1: pass forward to the end, there's questions and it was
Speaker 1: right after Serena played her last match at the New
Speaker 1: York Open, I mean at the US Open in New York,
Speaker 1: and just randomly, I think that some of the guys
Speaker 1: just didn't know what to ask us. So one guy
Speaker 1: raised his hand, He's like, what do you think about
Speaker 1: Serena Williams. And we hadn't talked about Serena all during
Speaker 1: our panel, and I could tell that the women who
Speaker 1: were on the panel with me didn't really know what
Speaker 1: to say. So I just decided to take it. Because
Speaker 1: I played tennis growing up, and I loved playing tennis.
Speaker 1: I was a soccer basketball player, but I loved the
Speaker 1: individuality of tennis. Right I played team sports, but tennis
Speaker 1: was a different mental challenge. And I also loved kicking
Speaker 1: the crap out of rich girls at country clubs. Not
Speaker 1: all of them were, but I like winning. I'm very competitive,
Speaker 1: so I was usually this soccer player who didn't have
Speaker 1: the right gear. I was usually out there in my
Speaker 1: soccer shorts, not like a white skirt, and I didn't
Speaker 1: train at a country club, and I was going to
Speaker 1: beat the snot out of you. And then here comes
Speaker 1: this chick from Compton who everybody's saying she doesn't belong.
Speaker 1: And it sounds weird that a blonde, white girl in
Speaker 1: the middle of California who was doing okay. You know,
Speaker 1: we were lower middle income. We, like George said, my
Speaker 1: parents never said no. I didn't realize till when I
Speaker 1: got to college. Like, oh, that one San Francisco Giants
Speaker 1: baseball game we went to as our vacation was because
Speaker 1: they had to pay for all my travel sports, thanks Mama, Dad.
Speaker 1: But but like I had Serena's red Puma shoes before
Speaker 1: she was sponsored by Nike, because here was this girl
Speaker 1: who didn't belong beating everybody. So I just love when
Speaker 1: people who may may not look or sound like you,
Speaker 1: or even be the same gender as you, can inspire
Speaker 1: you just by their greatness and their drive to be great.
Speaker 1: And just because I don't think I've ever talked about
Speaker 1: her before, I'll say real quick things about my mom,
Speaker 1: who's like five one tiniest human ever, But she taught
Speaker 1: me three things as I was flying out here to
Speaker 1: day to rejoin you guys five to one and full
Speaker 1: of pisson Vinecker and I still remember so three things
Speaker 1: she's taught me to stand up for yourself. My freshman
Speaker 1: year in high school, I was running varsity track and
Speaker 1: our four by one team made it to state, but
Speaker 1: we were like gonna get last in the first team
Speaker 1: and my soccer team and made it to regionals. We
Speaker 1: had one state and we had a chance to be
Speaker 1: good at regionals. So we talked at four by one
Speaker 1: team and we're like, okay, we're not going to go
Speaker 1: to state because we're not even getting a place in
Speaker 1: the heat and like this was a great run, amazing,
Speaker 1: We'll come back next year. Our sophomore junior years and
Speaker 1: our athletics director called me into his office as a freshman,
Speaker 1: right like thirteen, fourteen years old, This big dude, very intimidating,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, I heard you're choosing your travel
Speaker 1: soccer team over running for our track team. So I
Speaker 1: just want you to think about that because maybe the
Speaker 1: other activities you like to do at school, like I
Speaker 1: know you're in a leadership Kate, maybe maybe you won't
Speaker 1: be able to do those in the years to come
Speaker 1: because I'll remember that you didn't run track. And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I was terrified of this guy who
Speaker 1: had all this power. So I went home and told
Speaker 1: my mom. She said, get your ass back in the car.
Speaker 1: We're going straight back to school. She walked straight into
Speaker 1: that guy's office. She goes, don't you ever threaten my
Speaker 1: daughter again. You were lucky that she is a member
Speaker 1: of this school. And four years later, I was a
Speaker 1: student body president, was paying, had won a bunch of championships,
Speaker 1: and he was. But mom taught me that at our
Speaker 1: tennis matches we always had this food spread because we
Speaker 1: were in one of the better off suburbs in the area,
Speaker 1: and it was so cool that some of the kids
Speaker 1: that we played may show up to play for three
Speaker 1: hours and one hundred degree heat without water bottles. They
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't eat lunch, but my mom and the
Speaker 1: other moms on our team always made sure that there
Speaker 1: was a giant spread, a cooler full of gatorade, sandwiches, carrots, hummus,
Speaker 1: and it was for anybody, not just our team, because
Speaker 1: we'd go to other schools and it would just be
Speaker 1: for their team. And my mom said, you don't want
Speaker 1: to beat people because you have more than them, like
Speaker 1: you want an even playing field, and we want them
Speaker 1: to be just as ready as you and then go
Speaker 1: kick the crap out of the house like yeah, mom, okay,
Speaker 1: and then just giving back again. We didn't have much
Speaker 1: growing up, but every year my mom would make me
Speaker 1: and my sister I have an older sister go through
Speaker 1: our toys and go through our clothes and she say,
Speaker 1: you got new stuff this year, you don't need it.
Speaker 1: And there was a domestic violence shelter nearby, and my
Speaker 1: parents explained to me. They didn't explain to me exactly
Speaker 1: what that was, but they just explained, like sometimes kids
Speaker 1: and parents have to leave everything they have just to
Speaker 1: be safe. So wouldn't it be cool if you got
Speaker 1: to this scary place if you had some clothes that
Speaker 1: you'd be okay, we're into school and you wouldn't be embarrassed,
Speaker 1: and like maybe out a couple of toys. So wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be great if you could give some stuff to
Speaker 1: somebody else? So my mom taught me to be resilient,
Speaker 1: to always try to help people get on a level
Speaker 1: playing field as far as opportunity was concerned, and then
Speaker 1: to give back whenever I could. Um, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: just want to say thanks mom. During this Woman's History Month,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm here in large part because of you super women.
Speaker 1: We always end with a question. Last year it was
Speaker 1: advice to your younger self. This year it's been something
Speaker 1: you're proud of. Shake. You came on last year, you
Speaker 1: did advice to your younger self. Anthony hop In on
Speaker 1: this last one too. Maybe he well, he participated already.
Speaker 1: He was on the season from me here. But you
Speaker 1: want to listen to Dancy Shake Milton, not season two?
Speaker 1: Really long way to go to season two. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let you think. I'm gonna put you on the spot
Speaker 1: something that you're proud of these days in the life
Speaker 1: of Shake Milton. Can I go second? Is that possibility?
Speaker 1: Can I go second? You're ready? Oh? Wait, George doesn't
Speaker 1: have to answer. Yeah, No, I'll go. I'll go. Um.
Speaker 1: Can I say two things? Sure, I'm proud of you? Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the other one? No, I'm just I'm the next generation,
Speaker 1: not all of it, but certain members of the next
Speaker 1: generation of women who are in broadcasting who I can
Speaker 1: tell are going about it the way that I went
Speaker 1: about it, working really hard, putting in the extra hours
Speaker 1: and the extra effort, lifting up those around them and
Speaker 1: not tearing them down. You're all of those things and
Speaker 1: your career is just getting started and I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to see where it goes. And then yeah, I'm proud
Speaker 1: of I'm proud to be a part of this organization.
Speaker 1: Like how awesome are Shake and George. I had no
Speaker 1: idea what I was walking into when I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be the Andy Anthony Melton who is off mic
Speaker 1: but is listening. No, but you guys have you guys
Speaker 1: have accepted me as a broadcaster who happens to be
Speaker 1: a woman from this starts. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1: And the broadcasting world is changing because of athletes like
Speaker 1: you guys who were just looking at people as they
Speaker 1: have these jobs for the same reasons that we did. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they earned it and they deserve to be here. So
Speaker 1: now let's talk about how we can all be great together.
Speaker 1: So I'm proud of that you're turned. I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: like top that you guys crazy Okay? Um No, I
Speaker 1: would say just first off personally, like I'm proud of
Speaker 1: my little brother, Um, just like he's growing up right now,
Speaker 1: freshman in high school, having to kind of figure out
Speaker 1: a lot of things on his own, and like, of course,
Speaker 1: I'm on FaceTime and talking to him and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but he's still having to kind of navigate things, so um,
Speaker 1: big shouts out to him. But then also I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm just I'm proud of um being a part
Speaker 1: of this group where you're continuing like it's it's you're
Speaker 1: constantly having to learn and and and shift and grow
Speaker 1: and it might not always seem like a smooth ailing
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of ups and downs, but you know,
Speaker 1: everybody in this group is obviously blessed to be here
Speaker 1: in this position, and um, you know, we all have
Speaker 1: goals and things in minds that we want to accomplish
Speaker 1: together as a team but also together individually, and so
Speaker 1: just being able to wake up and you know, know
Speaker 1: everybody you know Lauren, you know KG teammates, you know,
Speaker 1: like you got that big map back there, everybody working,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I feel like everybody
Speaker 1: is just able to use one another to push each
Speaker 1: other and continue to get grow and get better. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm blessing so happy to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. So I'm thankful. That was beautiful. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't see the real thing is shake said he
Speaker 1: couldn't top that, like, I can't go above and beyond that.
Speaker 1: And you know my name's on this, so therefore I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make the executive decision that I we're just gonna
Speaker 1: leave it at that, keep winning games. Last I was
Speaker 1: so fun. I don't want to accidentally date this, but
Speaker 1: we're recording this the day after a really fun one.
Speaker 1: Congrats to you guys, Thank you for taking the time
Speaker 1: to do this. As always, we appreciate y'all and you
Speaker 1: crushed it. Thank you, Kate go sixers. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure. Yeah, you know, for for the
Speaker 1: love of Kate's god, bang bang. Yeah, that wasn't bad.