Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our heart radio and partnership with Showtime. M
Speaker 1: hm hm Welcome back to another edition All the Smoke
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Happy New Year's Stack, Happy New Year.
Speaker 1: My brother was good man, I can't call it man.
Speaker 1: Just got done with ESPN, hurried home, excited about our
Speaker 1: guests today. Yeah me too. W n B a legend,
Speaker 1: North Phillian n C double a champ, Olympic gold medalists,
Speaker 1: the highest paid female coach. Is it in sport to
Speaker 1: a basketball? I'm thinking sports? So yeah, man, welcome to
Speaker 1: the man. That's crazy. That's not a sports Serena. Serena
Speaker 1: tops that big time. No, I'm talking about as far
Speaker 1: as coaching coaching. Coaching yea, the highest paid women coach
Speaker 1: period though, right No, no, I think uh gino yukon okay?
Speaker 1: Are were you up there? You make good money man,
Speaker 1: Congratulations first and foremost on that deal. Obviously, your your
Speaker 1: your track record speaks for itself. But I love to
Speaker 1: see that you're rewarded because it's given women now another visual.
Speaker 1: You know you you did it in the sports, now
Speaker 1: you're succeeding in coaching too. So we definitely want to
Speaker 1: congratulate you on your big deal and all this success.
Speaker 1: Thank you appreciate that, and uh, thank you all for
Speaker 1: having me starting episode off, I watch y'all. I mean,
Speaker 1: I listen to y'all. I appreciate you guys giving raw
Speaker 1: thoughts and and letting us in the inside of your
Speaker 1: your thoughts and your vision. And that's that's pretty darn cool.
Speaker 1: So if you watched, So, if you watched, you know,
Speaker 1: you're my favorite female player of all time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I say that, I said all the time. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: That's what's up. So again, seven year deal? Has you
Speaker 1: through the twenty seven season? UM? Looking back on your
Speaker 1: journey starting as a child player, UM, now a coach
Speaker 1: and and what do you make of all this? UM?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I mean I love basketball
Speaker 1: like I you know, it was I never cheated on it,
Speaker 1: like it was the one thing that I I was
Speaker 1: loyal to. UM. I didn't care what anybody else was doing.
Speaker 1: I was singularly focused on sports. And it wasn't just
Speaker 1: basketball because I played I played football tackle like on
Speaker 1: the CEMENTUM, I played baseball, softball. I mean we I
Speaker 1: used to live in the projects. Yeah. We I used
Speaker 1: to live in the projects and they were like row
Speaker 1: homes around this big field. And this big field had
Speaker 1: it had a basketball court, that had a softball field,
Speaker 1: that had a baseball field, and then it had just space.
Speaker 1: And when you have just space, you know you're resourceful.
Speaker 1: You you create like we could get we could get
Speaker 1: a five gallon can of paint and we used to draw,
Speaker 1: not straight. We used to paint lines to create like
Speaker 1: a track. So we had like the Olympics out there
Speaker 1: in the middle of the project. So, I mean, I
Speaker 1: was doing what all the neighborhood guys were doing, and
Speaker 1: it's certainly it's paid off. So cool feeling. Were you
Speaker 1: the only girl back then battling with all the boys,
Speaker 1: the girl that you not only do you get ridiculed
Speaker 1: from the guys, but their girlfriends thought I was. I
Speaker 1: had an alternative motives like I'm just right really, like
Speaker 1: do you do you understand? Like I'm playing with like
Speaker 1: they're dirty and sweaty at this point, they don't look good.
Speaker 1: That's how the season going so far in South Carolina
Speaker 1: this year, we're doing pretty good. We actually, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we we we were the number one team in the
Speaker 1: country for a while. We took l last Thursday in Missouri. Um,
Speaker 1: but something just happened today where the new Pole came
Speaker 1: out in and they actually they continue making us the
Speaker 1: number one team in the country. I haven't called that before,
Speaker 1: but we played a tough sketch, but like we played
Speaker 1: probably six out of the ten top teams in the country.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's good to see the you know,
Speaker 1: the decision makers and women's basketball, especially the Pole treat
Speaker 1: us and respect us in that in that man, because
Speaker 1: it's not often felt in that regards. Well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you kind of earned that respect last season. You
Speaker 1: took the team to the final four, you lost, you
Speaker 1: lose the Stanford. Um, what are you building on the
Speaker 1: different this year than last year? I know you're still
Speaker 1: trying to get healthy. My favorite Raven, Raven is still
Speaker 1: dealing with an injury. You know what I'm saying, my girl, UM,
Speaker 1: the first ever playing the all boys High School All
Speaker 1: American Game. You know what I'm saying, shout out the Raven.
Speaker 1: But what are you gonna change this year? What are
Speaker 1: you working on this year to be better from last year? Well, UM,
Speaker 1: appreciate you shouting out raving because it came at a
Speaker 1: time and what she she was down, Um, the injury
Speaker 1: just happened, and you send the video while appreciate that stax.
Speaker 1: But but we we lost in the final four the Stanford.
Speaker 1: We we had two opportunities to to to win the game.
Speaker 1: So one one player had to lay up, she missed it.
Speaker 1: We had another players follow it up and try to
Speaker 1: how to live in and and it's that margin of
Speaker 1: error that we're working. We're working with like that inches
Speaker 1: and when we when we practice, we practice from that
Speaker 1: margin of era. When we play, we keep that margin
Speaker 1: of error in mind because we don't want that heartbreak
Speaker 1: of of if we're that close to competing for a
Speaker 1: national championship, we want to make sure that we we cover.
Speaker 1: We're checking off all boxes when it comes to just
Speaker 1: making sure that it doesn't come down to that. But
Speaker 1: if it does, it's familiar to us. All Right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about how important women's basketball. I'm on it to
Speaker 1: this month to be hosting the first ever High School
Speaker 1: and the Women's Basketball Showcase hosted by n I'm the
Speaker 1: first to do it, and I'm hosting one um this
Speaker 1: in January. In a couple of weeks. Tell me, tell
Speaker 1: me how important female basketball is it to you. We
Speaker 1: had a great relationship with Kobe and he spoke on
Speaker 1: how important it was to him and it's and it's
Speaker 1: just as important to us. But to you for somebody
Speaker 1: who's being uh somebody who started it, uh founder and
Speaker 1: and somebody who a lot of people look up to
Speaker 1: it in the in the basketball space now being one
Speaker 1: of the highest paid coaches, How are poison important is
Speaker 1: it to you? And to see how it's growing? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I've I've always like I'm old school, I've
Speaker 1: been around the block. You know, I've played on every level.
Speaker 1: Um and I and I. As you were saying that
Speaker 1: this was the first and you're a part of it,
Speaker 1: I go back. I was. I was in a and
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not trying to pump up myself, but
Speaker 1: I was in there. I was in a Spike lead
Speaker 1: commercial with Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoops and they interviewed
Speaker 1: us about that particular commercial. And in that commercial I said,
Speaker 1: basketball's basketball, Like, it doesn't matter what gender, Basketball's basketball.
Speaker 1: Like you you all played at the highest level. I
Speaker 1: played at the highest level. There your thrill was as
Speaker 1: much as my thrill. You know, your your defeat was
Speaker 1: hit me as hard as my defeat. Um, you put
Speaker 1: in the work just like I'll put in the work,
Speaker 1: and it's it's gingerlest if. If you pour into something,
Speaker 1: something good is gonna come out of it. So the
Speaker 1: fact that you're you're stamping your name on it is
Speaker 1: gonna give it some validity. Um, the fact that you're
Speaker 1: the first and hopefully want me the last, it's gonna
Speaker 1: open up some doors for some some other, Um guys
Speaker 1: to the pour into two girls basketball because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, it's basketball is just basketball. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about your upbringing. Your mom started in South Carolina,
Speaker 1: moved you guys to Philly. Um, what was it like
Speaker 1: growing up in Philly? One of five children? You said,
Speaker 1: I mean outside obviously playing outside with the kids and stuff.
Speaker 1: But what was it? What was your family dynamic? Like? Um,
Speaker 1: this this, I got to give you the back story
Speaker 1: to my my mom. Just my mom was born and
Speaker 1: my my mom and dad were born in South Carolina
Speaker 1: And the reason why my mom had to travel to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was because, um, my grandmother, her mother sent her
Speaker 1: to a like a butchery to get some some meat,
Speaker 1: and Um, the butcher went to the back and brought
Speaker 1: my mother back some meat from the back. And my
Speaker 1: mom looked at the meat and was like, no, we
Speaker 1: you know, we don't we don't want that to meet.
Speaker 1: We want to meet. That's that's here, you know that
Speaker 1: I see. And and the butcher was like, no, you're
Speaker 1: gonna if you want this meet, you're gonna take this meat.
Speaker 1: And my mom is a sassy she was a sassy lady. Um,
Speaker 1: she wasn't gonna take you know, what looked like spoiled
Speaker 1: rocking meat back to back to the house. And and
Speaker 1: that butcher told her to get out of his store
Speaker 1: and to never come back. And when you live in
Speaker 1: the South, when they say those words, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: don't ever come back to the store. It means you
Speaker 1: better get out of town. That was that was back
Speaker 1: in the day. So my grandmother heard about the interaction
Speaker 1: and sent my mother to Philadelphia. And this was a
Speaker 1: time in which I wasn't born, So my mother was
Speaker 1: in Philly for a long time and then you know,
Speaker 1: she had five kids and and she built her life
Speaker 1: around being in Philadelphia. And I think it was probably
Speaker 1: the best move for for for us as children because
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was a lot more progressive than it was here
Speaker 1: in the South back in that day. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm allowed to you know, I was allowed to
Speaker 1: play a sport to you know, being the city in
Speaker 1: which um there's so many, so many resources and outlets
Speaker 1: to play. And and I grew up in the household
Speaker 1: that that was that was disciplined, right, like I was
Speaker 1: afraid of Mama. I was afraid of my mother, like
Speaker 1: she thought. At times when I was out in the
Speaker 1: big field playing at all times of the day and night,
Speaker 1: she would she would sneak up on me and just
Speaker 1: to make sure that I was where I was. And
Speaker 1: then when she saw that I was persistently going out there,
Speaker 1: she was she was good with it. So Philadelphia, North
Speaker 1: Philly projects, um Raymond Rosen Gathers grew up the same,
Speaker 1: the same projects obviously developed, you know, the love of
Speaker 1: the game and the and the passion playing outside. But
Speaker 1: when did it kind of narrowed to just basketball? How
Speaker 1: old were you been when you just knew, okay, I
Speaker 1: could really do this. You know, when I when I
Speaker 1: was in eighth grade, I I received the letter from Dartmouth.
Speaker 1: Like Dartmouth the IVY League and UM, and you know,
Speaker 1: now that I'm in the coaching I know that letter
Speaker 1: was just a camp invitation, but to me it was interest.
Speaker 1: To me, it was like, you know what, it's a
Speaker 1: ray of hope of possibly going to play in college.
Speaker 1: And that's when I knew that I probably need to
Speaker 1: leave these other sports a loan and let let me
Speaker 1: concentrate really on basketball. And basketball was a you know,
Speaker 1: it was a sport I could play year round, outdoors, indoors,
Speaker 1: and from from that letter on, my concentration was fully
Speaker 1: on just playing basketball. What was it like for you
Speaker 1: and your family when Nike did the mural ahead of
Speaker 1: the ninety Olympics. UM, for those who don't know, a
Speaker 1: hundred role born in Philly, grew up on the corner
Speaker 1: of diamond, How what did that mean to you specifically?
Speaker 1: And then also how did your family feel about it? Well?
Speaker 1: I mean, Nike, Nike is you know, forward thinking. Um,
Speaker 1: I you know I played, I played with household names
Speaker 1: Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Swoops, you know twa, which I mean
Speaker 1: they are well known. I was just the point guard
Speaker 1: and probably just took a more um service role, just service.
Speaker 1: I just want to win and that matter how it looks.
Speaker 1: I just want to win. Um. But after having several
Speaker 1: conversations with Nike and the and the powers that be
Speaker 1: about sneakers because I knew sneakers, Um, I think they
Speaker 1: took a liking to me. I mean, I was just real,
Speaker 1: just I was just talking to them, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't I didn't know if that was hurting their feelings
Speaker 1: or whatever, because sometimes when people want real conversations, they
Speaker 1: really don't want you to say what's on your mind. Mind,
Speaker 1: but you're asking, so I gave it to him. And
Speaker 1: then they, you know, they told me about the eight
Speaker 1: story mural that we're gonna do in my hometown when
Speaker 1: when the USA national team was gonna play an exhibition
Speaker 1: game there, and then I, you know, I told my
Speaker 1: you know, I told my family that it was gonna
Speaker 1: take place. And you know, when you grow up in
Speaker 1: the projects, you know, you're you're not really fully understanding
Speaker 1: what that is. Like I really did it. So when
Speaker 1: we when we got into Philly, the national team and
Speaker 1: and they the ceremony was gonna be the next day,
Speaker 1: I did. I actually had somebody to drive me by
Speaker 1: there just so just so I can check it out
Speaker 1: and see and then I was I was floored because
Speaker 1: I mean, it is in downtown Philly, um eight stories,
Speaker 1: like it's it's larger than life. I had to tell
Speaker 1: my mom to meet me down there the next day.
Speaker 1: My mom is still and my mom was a Southern woman,
Speaker 1: you know, she did not drive, didn't have a driver's license,
Speaker 1: so she took public transportation everywhere. But if you ever,
Speaker 1: if you ever was in a car with her, you
Speaker 1: were driving, she could tell you exactly what small everything,
Speaker 1: everything everything. So so when she got down there, we
Speaker 1: were already there. So I saw her walk up, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a proud moment like it. It brought
Speaker 1: her to tears um to see her, a baby girl
Speaker 1: up on the eighth story building building that she she's
Speaker 1: on the bus and she rides by, you know, you
Speaker 1: know every week. So it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: just it was just incredible because again I wasn't the
Speaker 1: one of the ones that I didn't have a shoe
Speaker 1: at first. Sure I was the first one. I gotta shoe,
Speaker 1: Lisa gotta shoe, so you know, you're and I there
Speaker 1: was no jealousy or anything like that. I actually don't
Speaker 1: like the spotlight, But I did like the spotlight went
Speaker 1: in my hometown because it just gives so much more
Speaker 1: to all those people in in the projects aspiration. With
Speaker 1: that said, it was said that your mom didn't really
Speaker 1: know how nice you were on the court. When did
Speaker 1: your mom and your family really start kind of understanding
Speaker 1: your special talent? You know, you know how family members
Speaker 1: aren't They don't really really want to give you guys
Speaker 1: just to do because they want to keep you humble.
Speaker 1: You can't do it until you do it to do right, right.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I don't you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: my mom really knew, um, how good I was until
Speaker 1: probably probably when I when when I started getting like
Speaker 1: like hundreds of letters from colleges, um, and they were
Speaker 1: coming to the projects right in the mailbox. And I
Speaker 1: think that's when she knew, um, she had a pretty
Speaker 1: talented daughter. Um. And you know, my brothers, like my
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, you know, we we didn't we didn't
Speaker 1: have like college aspirations because we knew we couldn't afford it.
Speaker 1: So nobody was really thinking about that. So you know,
Speaker 1: in the in the neighborhood, yeah, they knew I was
Speaker 1: pretty good because I was playing, you know, I was
Speaker 1: I was being one of the first that the playing
Speaker 1: the pick up games. So they knew I was pretty
Speaker 1: good according to the you know, the the neighborhood. But
Speaker 1: as far as nationally, you know, my you know, my
Speaker 1: skill set wasn't tested. Um, and and they couldn't see
Speaker 1: just how good I was until I started to play
Speaker 1: in you know, in college and got on the AUTH circuit.
Speaker 1: And even then they didn't even come see me playing
Speaker 1: AU circuit because it was it was out of town. So, um,
Speaker 1: college is probably went, you know, I was. I was
Speaker 1: actually deemed pretty good then. So once college becomes a
Speaker 1: goal and and op and when did you know, obviously
Speaker 1: there's no w n B A when you're in college, Um,
Speaker 1: making that jump overseas as a possibility, but you know
Speaker 1: that was something that's always you know, questionable for certain people.
Speaker 1: When did life professionally as basketball, When did that kind
Speaker 1: of start coming into your mind? And what were your
Speaker 1: playing Seeing that you had a lot of success in
Speaker 1: college as well, I mean I wanted to play basketball
Speaker 1: for as long as possible, Like I in nineteen nine,
Speaker 1: I graduated in ninety two. I tried out for the Olympics,
Speaker 1: the ninety two Olympic Games, and went to the trials
Speaker 1: and got cut. Now you gotta you gotta understand. Like
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, I was college college Basketball's player
Speaker 1: of the year, like two times player of the year,
Speaker 1: and I went to the Olympic trials and um, and
Speaker 1: that was the year if you remember, that's when the
Speaker 1: pros were allowed to come into the Olympics. So in
Speaker 1: the original Dream team in ninety two. So I think
Speaker 1: that the women's program wanted the mirror the Dream Team
Speaker 1: and and getting all professional players. So that that left
Speaker 1: me off because I didn't have any international experience. Um,
Speaker 1: so I got cut. And the reason why I got
Speaker 1: cut because were you on the When you're trying off
Speaker 1: on a limit team, they do actually tell you. They
Speaker 1: give you some feedback as to why you didn't make
Speaker 1: the team. So the two things that I remember them
Speaker 1: telling me was one I was too short, and two
Speaker 1: I didn't have enough international experience. The mind you you know,
Speaker 1: one other play on that that made the team was
Speaker 1: shorter than me. I don't know how they came up
Speaker 1: with I was too short, But I say this, if
Speaker 1: I didn't have that, you know that disappointment at that time,
Speaker 1: I really wouldn't be able to appreciate being a three
Speaker 1: time Olympia, three time gold medalists. So sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: like those a curveball, you just have to deal with
Speaker 1: it in and not let it get you down. It
Speaker 1: should just actually feel you to want to get better.
Speaker 1: I mean, I only I only wanted to do two
Speaker 1: things when I was growing up in the projects because
Speaker 1: because these are the two things that I saw women play,
Speaker 1: and that was in the National Championship game in college
Speaker 1: and the Olympics. Those two things I just wanted. I
Speaker 1: had a goal and then probably the the overarching goal
Speaker 1: when I realized that this was achievable, was I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a Hall of Famer. M those are like
Speaker 1: the three selfish things that I wanted. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I didn't really set goals and I and I still
Speaker 1: to this day, I really don't set goals. I just
Speaker 1: kind of let let let my path be as divinely
Speaker 1: ordered as it is. I like that. Since you were
Speaker 1: speaking on the Olympic team three time gold medalists, tell
Speaker 1: us what it was like on those teams kind of
Speaker 1: gaining getting the respect. Do you feel like you guys
Speaker 1: feel like you got the respect you deserved because of again,
Speaker 1: women's basketball has been fighting for footing, you know, since
Speaker 1: it's the it's inauguration. But you guys had an exceptional team,
Speaker 1: a bunch of Hall of famers, three time gold medalists,
Speaker 1: You guys feel like you guys got the respect that
Speaker 1: you was. It always a constant like we gotta go
Speaker 1: get it every time we go out there. So I
Speaker 1: mean back in, back in, Like my first Olympic Games
Speaker 1: is ninety six, and because we were hosting it in Atlanta, Um,
Speaker 1: we we trained for for fifteen months prior to the
Speaker 1: Olympic Games. You know when when whenever a country hosts
Speaker 1: the Olympic Games, they invest they invest money in the
Speaker 1: teams and sports because they want to do well. So
Speaker 1: they invested in our team. They they gave us fifty
Speaker 1: dollars for that year and that was that was pretty
Speaker 1: That was pretty good for me. For some of the
Speaker 1: other players like Teresa Edwards and Continea McClain who was
Speaker 1: who was making six figures over there every year, it
Speaker 1: was a huge pay cut. But that they're from Georgia,
Speaker 1: so they wanted to play in the Olympic Games and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: playing with playing with that particular team, I think that
Speaker 1: team was the team that kind of spearheaded women's basketball
Speaker 1: and put put put us at a place both collegiately
Speaker 1: and professionally, just giving us or we were the guinea
Speaker 1: pigs of of professional professional league because after that, after
Speaker 1: we were done with that that Olympic games, two professional
Speaker 1: leagues were birth the w n B A and the
Speaker 1: A b L, And I believe nine out of the
Speaker 1: twelve players on the Olympic team played in the A
Speaker 1: b L and three of the other players played. Actually
Speaker 1: the three players were Lisa Leslie Strow Swoops and Rebecca Lobo.
Speaker 1: They opted to go play in the w n B A.
Speaker 1: So it was cool, like the more the merrier I give,
Speaker 1: the more professional women's leagues that start up, the more
Speaker 1: job opportunities that would be for women. And I was
Speaker 1: all for it. Uv A University of Virginia. Um, you
Speaker 1: left there. You was three time All American finished this
Speaker 1: Virginia's all times leading score and all time leading assists,
Speaker 1: but both of those have been broken since since then. Um,
Speaker 1: how did it feel going to uv A And was
Speaker 1: it any other options beside v A? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: I was recruited. I was, I was actually the number
Speaker 1: one UM high school player in the country. I mean
Speaker 1: I don't even I don't know how you do that,
Speaker 1: but they chose me. I never actually I went on
Speaker 1: maybe one a you UM circuit like one. I actually
Speaker 1: put participate in the very first one UM. So I was,
Speaker 1: I was the high school player of the year. So
Speaker 1: I mean every every school came after me, like like
Speaker 1: hundreds of them. UM. I chose those two. I chose
Speaker 1: to go to Virginia for for two reasons. And one
Speaker 1: of them, obviously, I didn't want to go to a
Speaker 1: school that had already won a national championship because I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a part of that legacy. And then
Speaker 1: the other thing was I mean, it's the strangest thing
Speaker 1: that that attracts us, But I didn't want to go
Speaker 1: to a school that had like traditional dorms, like you know,
Speaker 1: like you go, you got a roommate and then you
Speaker 1: gotta take your bucket down the hall and go shower
Speaker 1: and that like like that was I mean, I lived
Speaker 1: in the project, so I wanted I wanted college to
Speaker 1: be a step up. I mean I had to share
Speaker 1: a room with my sister and that's as far as
Speaker 1: I wanted to go share room with someone. And then
Speaker 1: Virginia had these dorms where there were four rooms. You
Speaker 1: share the room with the roommate, and then you had
Speaker 1: you had two showers and he had two two stalls,
Speaker 1: and then you had like a common area, so it
Speaker 1: was almost like an apartment. And then the other schools
Speaker 1: that I the other school that I was very serious
Speaker 1: about was Penn State and they had the old the
Speaker 1: old old school dorms and not I really couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: So the non negotiable was the dorms. So I went
Speaker 1: to I went to rig That's a crazy I've heard
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why people chick schools. I've never
Speaker 1: heard something like that. But that was good. I feel
Speaker 1: you because I was. I was at U c l A. Wed.
Speaker 1: They had to set up nice there and I couldn't
Speaker 1: imagine like some schools they had like but in the
Speaker 1: summer school one time I had the situation where you
Speaker 1: had a roommate and you had to walk down the
Speaker 1: hall of the shop like, hey, I left summer school.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. You end up winning a national
Speaker 1: championship in two thousands, seventeen with South Carolina. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like that made up for you're not winning one
Speaker 1: while you was playing, for being so good and I
Speaker 1: bringing one back to the UV A. Yeah, it actually
Speaker 1: did because it took it took almost twenty seven years
Speaker 1: and win one, and I had to get into coaching
Speaker 1: to do that. But it was it was so special.
Speaker 1: It was so special that UM, when we won, I
Speaker 1: made sure that that every like former player of mine
Speaker 1: because I coached that Temple and I'm coaching that South Carolina.
Speaker 1: When we won, every every player prior to seventeen, I
Speaker 1: got them a miniature, a miniature national championship trophy. UM.
Speaker 1: I got all of my Virginia teammates miniature national championship trophies,
Speaker 1: all of all of the people that coach with me
Speaker 1: at Temple in South Carolina. I got the miniature national
Speaker 1: championship trophies. Because this this was a dream far beyond
Speaker 1: seen UM and I had. I had teammates and I
Speaker 1: had former players that believed in that dream that we
Speaker 1: we didn't get it done, so I wanted I didn't
Speaker 1: want them to miss out on the opportunity of feeling
Speaker 1: that and then on the back of it, I put
Speaker 1: their name, and I just said, because of you simply.
Speaker 1: That's really you don't hear stuff like that too often.
Speaker 1: That's what's up. I knew she was a real one.
Speaker 1: I told you that. I knew that. So tell me this.
Speaker 1: What was the feeling when you went back for your
Speaker 1: Jersey retirement? Mm hmmm, Um, I don't even remember that.
Speaker 1: I really don't remember that, like, like I mean, really honestly,
Speaker 1: I know that that stuff. I mean there it's nice,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's nice, but I mean I wanted
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Asked me about Hall of Fame, Like,
Speaker 1: asked me about Hall of like that is. And I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to take any I mean, I'm grateful, grateful,
Speaker 1: but there are just things that are like near and dear,
Speaker 1: like you're I'm in a Hall of Fame with the
Speaker 1: greatest of the great. Yeah, that's one of the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it. What's it like? What's it like
Speaker 1: being in the Hall of Fame's I mean, it's it's cool.
Speaker 1: Like I I don't always go back to the ceremonies,
Speaker 1: but when I do go, like I feel proud, like
Speaker 1: I feel like I belong And and I started I
Speaker 1: started an autograph collection, so I can I can get
Speaker 1: all the great autographs when I go there. So it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool, like like I mean, I got it.
Speaker 1: I got a pretty extensive collection of of Hall of Favors.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard for some people to even think
Speaker 1: about that because, like when people ask us about Kobe,
Speaker 1: like when high school, his mind was different. Like me,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get to the NBA and figured
Speaker 1: out and make some money, take out of my family
Speaker 1: and buy me a whip and some change. You know,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking at the time, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But Kobe, as a teenager, we knew what
Speaker 1: he was thinking, I'm going to be one of the
Speaker 1: best ever. So it's very few people can understand your
Speaker 1: understand your train of thought, you know what. So as
Speaker 1: you was growing up playing basketball and your mind frame,
Speaker 1: you wasn't thinking just making to the w n b A.
Speaker 1: You just think I'm going to be one of the
Speaker 1: best ever. That's it. You know. I got a Kobe story.
Speaker 1: I mean, I Kobe was was that Lord Maryan When
Speaker 1: I was in Philly training for for the Olympic team,
Speaker 1: and he used to come to the he used to
Speaker 1: come practice with the Sixers like John Lucas was to coach.
Speaker 1: John Lucas used to work me out like I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta cool John Lucas story. I I've had knee
Speaker 1: trouble my whole career. Um, during that fifteen months that
Speaker 1: we were training for the nineti Olympic Games, I used
Speaker 1: to go off to St. Joe's where the Sixers used
Speaker 1: to practice. And the Sixers weren't really that good at
Speaker 1: the time. So John Lucas, it's his job was on
Speaker 1: the line, like every day you were reading the paper.
Speaker 1: You know it could be any day now and that
Speaker 1: he gets fired. But he saw me. He used to
Speaker 1: ask me, why am I up here? And I told him, I,
Speaker 1: you know, I had to have I gotta get surgery
Speaker 1: because my knee. He was like, look, let me, let
Speaker 1: me let me send you to uh Dr Andrews in Birmingham.
Speaker 1: Like he paid for me to go to see the
Speaker 1: He wanted me to see it. Seem by the best
Speaker 1: of the best. Now I didn't like what Dr Andrews
Speaker 1: told me, but um, like seriously, like it was. It
Speaker 1: was ninety five ninety early ninety six. I went to
Speaker 1: Dr Andrews and Dr Andrews. You know, he did the
Speaker 1: X rays. He looked at me and I'm I'm six
Speaker 1: years old at the time. And he looked at him.
Speaker 1: He was like, how old are you? I said, I said.
Speaker 1: He was like, he said, you you what are you
Speaker 1: trying to do? I said him, I'm I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get on the Olympic team, like I'm trying to play.
Speaker 1: He was like, okay, well you you play this Olympic
Speaker 1: Games and then you need you need to hang it up.
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to run around with your
Speaker 1: kids later in life, then you need to you need
Speaker 1: to hang it up. I had to get out of
Speaker 1: his office. I want to try to hear that. So
Speaker 1: if I listened to adopt the and and Drews, I
Speaker 1: probably would only be a one time Olympian. Now I
Speaker 1: walked with a limp every day. But but what was
Speaker 1: your what was your Kobe story up there too? Kobe
Speaker 1: used to come. I used to work out at St. Joe's.
Speaker 1: Kobe used to come and work out at St. Joe's
Speaker 1: and he used to get in You know, it's probably
Speaker 1: a little tempering because he was supposed to be working
Speaker 1: out with any pro team. But he was he was
Speaker 1: out there, you know, like like Kobe had his I
Speaker 1: mean his nose was up, chest up, like he felt
Speaker 1: like he long. He would he would talk, smack, he
Speaker 1: would dunk on people. He was a killer, like at
Speaker 1: seventeen years old. And the see, you know, the see
Speaker 1: his career and and how much he impacted the game,
Speaker 1: and to see when he went into retirement, how much
Speaker 1: he impacted you know, the girls basketball and women's basketball
Speaker 1: just by just by being a girl dag. I mean,
Speaker 1: his day, his legacy lives on and women's and women's
Speaker 1: back and women's basketball world. I know, I know what
Speaker 1: he's done for the NBA and around the world. But
Speaker 1: there's a special place in our hearts for Kobe Bryant
Speaker 1: and gets no. He definitely took that first step because obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, as as NBA players were fans of you guys,
Speaker 1: but I think getting the outside respect from maybe particularly
Speaker 1: NBA fans, I think when Kobe stepped out on that
Speaker 1: on that limb and and really stood for you guys,
Speaker 1: I think that's it kind of seemed like the tide
Speaker 1: of change and you gotta started getting talked about more.
Speaker 1: And now it's really everywhere, And I just heard the
Speaker 1: other day they're starting to all women's version of something
Speaker 1: like ESPN. It's just gonna be strictly on women. So
Speaker 1: I think it's come so far. And you know, you're you,
Speaker 1: and you know some of your your former teammates had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the foundation and that, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So it's amazing to kind of
Speaker 1: see where it started to where it's gotten and had
Speaker 1: he definitely head in the right direction now. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's long overdue. I mean, you you're gonna be good
Speaker 1: at whatever you invest in. You are. I mean, we
Speaker 1: we can look at like like I mean, I I
Speaker 1: don't have any children, but I got a dog. I
Speaker 1: mean he's pretty cool, pretty cool cat. Right Like, if
Speaker 1: if I didn't train him, like if I didn't like
Speaker 1: train him to be livable with me, you know, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't be worth anything. But but now that I've trained
Speaker 1: him up, and you know, he he tells me when
Speaker 1: he's gotta go out and party. He tells me when
Speaker 1: he's hungry, I mean, looks into my eyes like he loves,
Speaker 1: like he gives me signs like but it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: It's the it's the same thing. If you pour into
Speaker 1: women's sports, there's something good it's gonna come out of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at I mean you you mentioned my
Speaker 1: salary and I don't really you know again I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really do it for the money. But it's nice,
Speaker 1: it's big. But I mean that's the very thing that's
Speaker 1: gotten the headlines was the was the money. And for
Speaker 1: for me, it's more of it's for other people, like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna enjoy it, but they're they're you know,
Speaker 1: they're investing in the universe of South Carolina is investing
Speaker 1: in their women's basketball coach. And I'm just hoping that
Speaker 1: other you know, other sports of the professions of the
Speaker 1: just invest Now. I mean I think I've earned it.
Speaker 1: I think I've earned it. Like I'm not. I want
Speaker 1: to ask for this. I want to ask for this
Speaker 1: twenty two years ago because I learned it, but twenty
Speaker 1: two years later and it's the same success. Um, And
Speaker 1: you gotta strike when irons hot too, so time isn't
Speaker 1: important as well. But also just being in aspiration to
Speaker 1: two girls looking to take that route, Like you said,
Speaker 1: you took the sports route, now you're taking the coaching route.
Speaker 1: And so many people want to be involved in sports,
Speaker 1: but they may not have enough to be an athlete,
Speaker 1: but there's so many other ways to stay around the sport.
Speaker 1: And again you coaching now is another way. So I
Speaker 1: think that's dope. So coming out of college, there was
Speaker 1: no w n B A yet, so you had to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, go overseas for a handful of years. You
Speaker 1: get back and the tucks. So what was it about
Speaker 1: the A b L and then eventually the w n
Speaker 1: B A for you which you made home. So so
Speaker 1: during the doing that Olympic training year, UM, like UM,
Speaker 1: the A b L, the A b L founders came
Speaker 1: to our team and they pretty much asked us to
Speaker 1: be a part of it. They said they were gonna
Speaker 1: pay us a hundred and fifty thousand dollars UM a
Speaker 1: year to be founding members. And all of us, all
Speaker 1: twelve of us, agreed to do it because we didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about the w n B A. Didn't tell
Speaker 1: us about the w n B A to a few
Speaker 1: months later. Um. And then once the w n B
Speaker 1: A decided that they were gonna start a league, three
Speaker 1: of you know, the more you know, Profoule names in
Speaker 1: our game, Lisa, Sheryl, and Rebecca. They chose to go
Speaker 1: to the to the w n B A, and then
Speaker 1: nine of us chose to stay in the A b
Speaker 1: L because we you know, we made a commitment to it,
Speaker 1: and and I did it because I made a commitment
Speaker 1: to it. And then after spending two years um in
Speaker 1: the A b L, I decided just for for personal reasons,
Speaker 1: like I had bad knees, and the A b L
Speaker 1: was like the traditional basketball season, so it was eight months,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to play for much longer, and the
Speaker 1: w n B A is like four or five months.
Speaker 1: So I said, I need to hang my shoes up
Speaker 1: with the A b L and go to the w
Speaker 1: n B A so I can play a lot longer.
Speaker 1: And then I actually, I actually made the right decision
Speaker 1: at the right time, because you know that that following season,
Speaker 1: the A b L went under, So I mean so,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was pretty cool that I
Speaker 1: got a chance to experience both. But you know, the
Speaker 1: the w n B A was that and it is
Speaker 1: that that carrot that's dangling in front of little girls
Speaker 1: who aspired to, you know, to be professional women's basketball
Speaker 1: players here in our country. Like I look at Asian Wilson,
Speaker 1: like she doesn't know life without the w n B A,
Speaker 1: Like she grew up on the w n B A.
Speaker 1: And because of that, she might a little bit harder.
Speaker 1: She might work a little bit harder. She might just
Speaker 1: you know, just give more, like dedicate herself a little
Speaker 1: bit more, because you know, she knows there's there's a
Speaker 1: place for her to continue her career. Yeah, definitely. So
Speaker 1: n you were the ninth overall pick to the Charlotte Sting.
Speaker 1: Shortly after that, you gott are headed to the NBA
Speaker 1: or excuse me, the w NBA finals. What was it like,
Speaker 1: uh to be a part of that, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: being drafted but then finding success right away. I didn't
Speaker 1: they don't even invite me to the draft, Uh, but
Speaker 1: it was it was cool, like, you know, to be
Speaker 1: a part of a w NBA finals, like and in
Speaker 1: that particular finals. We started the season like one in ten,
Speaker 1: like one in ten, and it's a thirty four game season,
Speaker 1: so you know, we we made a move, uh to
Speaker 1: actually even get to the finals, but uh, to be
Speaker 1: able to play the finals against you know, one of
Speaker 1: who I think one of one of my most my
Speaker 1: favorite teammates, a good friend of mine, Lisa Leslie Um
Speaker 1: was pretty cool to share it in that spotlight with her.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I ended up being on the losing
Speaker 1: end of the stick, but it was it was cool
Speaker 1: to sharing that moment with her. August first, two thousand five,
Speaker 1: you was traded to the Houston Comments and you announced
Speaker 1: before the season that it will be your last one.
Speaker 1: Was it was the knees talking to you. You know,
Speaker 1: it actually wasn't my knees, it was actually my heart,
Speaker 1: Like really, yeah, you know, you're you know you. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all go through some type of pain as as players,
Speaker 1: and you know, you you you you develop a strong
Speaker 1: like threshold for pain that you know that secondary Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's your it's your mentality. You know that could get
Speaker 1: you over the edge. But I I actually played in
Speaker 1: the w n B A one more year than I
Speaker 1: probably should have, And I only did that because I
Speaker 1: wanted to get it out of my system. And I
Speaker 1: was actually coaching and playing at the same time, so
Speaker 1: so I had to get it out of my system
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't look back. And I didn't look back
Speaker 1: at all once I was done. I was tired of
Speaker 1: working out like I was. You know, I was mean,
Speaker 1: I was meaning to my trainer like me onno read
Speaker 1: and I didn't, you know, I didn't feel like getting
Speaker 1: my body ready to play. I didn't. So I was like,
Speaker 1: this is it and and thankfully I got through, and
Speaker 1: and you know, I never looked back. I was fortunate
Speaker 1: that I was already in a profession of coaching and
Speaker 1: and being a dream merchant for young people that you know,
Speaker 1: I transition nicely into its y. Yeah, And that's crazy
Speaker 1: because with me, I I thought I'd never stopped playing basketball.
Speaker 1: But my body start talking to him, and I, like
Speaker 1: you said, just for just preparing with knowing how you
Speaker 1: prepare to to to play. You know, I played in
Speaker 1: the Big Three a couple of years ago, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't do them. Like I love the game so much,
Speaker 1: let me try coaching, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: was able to win the championship, so I we love
Speaker 1: the game so much. We might not playing the more,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna stay around the game as long as
Speaker 1: long as we can. That's just what we do. You
Speaker 1: You you impacted the w the w n b A
Speaker 1: so much that you have the Community Leadership Award named
Speaker 1: after you talk about that, I mean that's cool, Like
Speaker 1: really that that's cool because you know, as as athletes, um,
Speaker 1: we we want certain things. We want to be the
Speaker 1: best at what we do, and it sometimes because of that,
Speaker 1: people see I mean they see your heart, they see
Speaker 1: what you put into it, they see that, um, you're
Speaker 1: a good teammate. They see that you are a great
Speaker 1: service woman to the game, and and they thought so
Speaker 1: much of that to bestow an award, Like there aren't
Speaker 1: very many of them. I think it's me and Kim
Speaker 1: parot Um and I don't know if it's another one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's another one, but um, that
Speaker 1: is something that's etched in in the history of the game.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm I'm thankful because every year every summer,
Speaker 1: I'll get to go and and hand out like my
Speaker 1: award to someone who's giving back to the community and
Speaker 1: who are who are leaders and giving back to the community.
Speaker 1: So man, that's that's that's that's super cool. That's that's
Speaker 1: really really cool, because that's, yeah, that's something that you
Speaker 1: don't you know, like I wanted to be an Olympian,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a national champion. I didn't know
Speaker 1: that you know these awards, could you know it could
Speaker 1: be something a part of my legacy. Who was your
Speaker 1: toughest matchups when he was in the w n B
Speaker 1: A toughest Um, I mean t spoon tea spoon was
Speaker 1: you know, used to get after it. She used to
Speaker 1: get after it. She used to get on the nerves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's getting my nerves. Like but but I look forward
Speaker 1: to it though, like you know, we we we had
Speaker 1: battles like you know you're gonna get her best, and
Speaker 1: she knew she was gonna get my best. And that's
Speaker 1: when you know you you have last tea memories of
Speaker 1: that because when you when you can look back on
Speaker 1: it and say, she's the one that that gave you
Speaker 1: the most trouble. Those are memories because I don't remember
Speaker 1: half of the people that I played against because they
Speaker 1: didn't they ever repressed me that much. Who you like
Speaker 1: watching the day w n B A. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: see my my my favorite all time w n B players,
Speaker 1: she's retired down to meet the catchings. Um, but I
Speaker 1: like to I like to watch our you know, the
Speaker 1: kids that I coached, they they're growing women down. But
Speaker 1: Asia Ty Harris Um Elena coach, Kaylin Davis, Um, Tiffany Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Like I I like to see are the ones that
Speaker 1: you know that suited up with with us every day.
Speaker 1: I like to see their growth and how they how
Speaker 1: they mature over the years. You got some cold guards
Speaker 1: over there now too. We got some future w we do.
Speaker 1: So you say you don't set many goals, Um, getting
Speaker 1: an Olympic gold was one of them. What was that moment? Actually?
Speaker 1: Like once you want it, I mean I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: y'all story like once once, I like, once I got it,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, when I when I go back and
Speaker 1: look at I don't look at but you sometimes they
Speaker 1: show like little small snippets of us receiving our gold
Speaker 1: medal on different like the you know, Olympic channel and
Speaker 1: all of that, UM and ninet X. When they got
Speaker 1: to me and they were gonna put the gold medal
Speaker 1: around Monday, I told them to give me mine, like
Speaker 1: I said, give me mine, because that was you know,
Speaker 1: that was a lifelong dream. But I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: after that, after that moment, I think I got a
Speaker 1: little depressed because when you when you achieved like a
Speaker 1: lifelong dream, it's like, well, what's next, Like, really, what's next?
Speaker 1: I know that the A b L was next, but
Speaker 1: something came over me like I wasn't motivated to do anything. Um,
Speaker 1: and that was like the weirdest feeling that I've that
Speaker 1: I like it and it has never happened to me again.
Speaker 1: That was the only time. But um, my coach UM
Speaker 1: in the A b L. Her name is Lisa Borts.
Speaker 1: She actually is is our assistant, our associate head coach
Speaker 1: here South Carolina and she's been with me for the
Speaker 1: past twenty years. Um, she was my my coach and
Speaker 1: the A b L. She just gave me some time
Speaker 1: off before training camp and that was the time off
Speaker 1: that I needed to kind of re rejuvenate and get
Speaker 1: myself ready to go back at it and play. You
Speaker 1: gave your first gold medal to your mom? What was
Speaker 1: that experience? Like, I mean, you know, you know how
Speaker 1: special mothers are, Like you know, mothers are you know,
Speaker 1: ones that are there for you on the good, bad,
Speaker 1: ugly days, and they're the most consistent people. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're the ones that believe in you, they're the ones
Speaker 1: that humble you, they're the ones that um pay for
Speaker 1: the sneakers like she gotta wear their favorite codes like
Speaker 1: and to be able to give my mother that tangible
Speaker 1: gold medal, uh, it's priceless. It's it's priceless. And I
Speaker 1: know that. Um, I don't know. I mean she didn't
Speaker 1: really want it. I mean she she she wanted me
Speaker 1: to have it, you know. But to be able to
Speaker 1: do that is you know, I mean board tearster eyes.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing more than than gratifying and making your
Speaker 1: mother proud. M m. Not like it. Nothing in the
Speaker 1: world like it. Two thousand four, your unaniously chosen to
Speaker 1: carry the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies. Care from Philly.
Speaker 1: What's that like? The go I mean, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you all the process of of how a flag bird
Speaker 1: is voted in. And I was a part of the process.
Speaker 1: And the process is all the captives of all the
Speaker 1: teams at the Olympics. We come together in one room.
Speaker 1: And not to cut you off, like how many people
Speaker 1: is that? Yeah, it's about people, right, So we come together,
Speaker 1: my my teammates and the men's team. They said, we
Speaker 1: want you to nominate yourself, right, Yeah. So so I'm
Speaker 1: in the room with people and everyone breathes in candidates
Speaker 1: for flagburn. And then we had some other people on
Speaker 1: the phone, and there's nobody in the room that's that's
Speaker 1: that's a candidate besides me and you. You actually have
Speaker 1: to discuss each and every person. So and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about people who have suffered, like they've come back from
Speaker 1: career ending um injuries and to come back to compete
Speaker 1: in the Olympic Games. I'm talking people have UM, they've
Speaker 1: had cancer and they've beat cancer. And then and then
Speaker 1: I had to get up in the room and speak
Speaker 1: in front of everybody. I basically just said and this
Speaker 1: is what I said. I said this this is my
Speaker 1: third Olympic Games. I'm currently UM the coach at Temple University,
Speaker 1: and I also playing the w n B A and
Speaker 1: UM and I have a foundation to doing Staley Foundation
Speaker 1: and I serviced UH middle age girls in North Philly
Speaker 1: and I'm undefeated and right, and then you hear the
Speaker 1: other candidates and you hear what they're about, and then
Speaker 1: we say okay and signed the vote. So they take
Speaker 1: a vote for the top five and they come back
Speaker 1: and they say they give us a list of the
Speaker 1: top five and I was on it and I'm just
Speaker 1: like really like I didn't really compare to what was happening.
Speaker 1: And then we said we take another vote for the
Speaker 1: top three, and it's it's happening this quick. And then
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm a part of the the list
Speaker 1: of three, and I really like looking around the room
Speaker 1: like really like it's am I being pranked? And then
Speaker 1: they we go back and we do another for the
Speaker 1: for the fabbrary and they come back and they said
Speaker 1: it's me. And honestly, I didn't really know the magnitude
Speaker 1: of it. And I had been a part of three
Speaker 1: Olympic Games, and I you know, we as the basketball
Speaker 1: like it was the dream team, so we always going last,
Speaker 1: like when you when you're going into an Olympic ceremony,
Speaker 1: like the opening ceremony, like all the other athletes go,
Speaker 1: and then for the protection of really the dream team,
Speaker 1: we all and we're going last. So I never knew
Speaker 1: what the flag bearer was because we always went in last.
Speaker 1: Um And then our administrator she met me outside of
Speaker 1: the room and I said, yeah, Carol, Carol Kalin, I
Speaker 1: said they voted me and as the flag bear. She
Speaker 1: was like and I was like, yeah, like so I'm like,
Speaker 1: what now, Like she I said, they told me not
Speaker 1: to tell anybody. She was like, let's let's get your
Speaker 1: mom on the phone. Let's call your mom, right. So
Speaker 1: I actually told my mom, like if I didn't know
Speaker 1: what it was, I know my mother didn't know what
Speaker 1: it was, but she would soon find out that being
Speaker 1: the flag bearer means when they stayed the United States
Speaker 1: of the Olympics, you know the United States, you're the
Speaker 1: first one that walks in the stadium. But before that,
Speaker 1: they said, listen, as flag bearer, you can't dip the flag.
Speaker 1: You walk in the stadium with the smile, no matter
Speaker 1: no matter how you're received, because you know, as as Americans,
Speaker 1: you you can get booed, you can get hissed. You
Speaker 1: don't even know how you're gonna be received. So I said,
Speaker 1: I can hold it up. I can hold the flag up,
Speaker 1: and I can smile. I can do that part. I can.
Speaker 1: I understand that assignment. I can. I can do that.
Speaker 1: But what I didn't know is when your sport is
Speaker 1: the flag bearer, you get to come in first. So
Speaker 1: the Dream Team he had changed the order up, and um,
Speaker 1: it was the coolest thing. Though it was by far,
Speaker 1: like I equated to like a royal wedding. When I
Speaker 1: walked into that that that's that's eight. It was, it was,
Speaker 1: it was incredible. Wow. I mean I've only we've never
Speaker 1: had a conversation. I've only known you as a fan,
Speaker 1: as a player, and as a coach. And then how
Speaker 1: highly Stack speaks of you. But to to to hear
Speaker 1: that you're voted the flag bear, to hear that there's
Speaker 1: an award Dave after you, I mean, that speaks a
Speaker 1: lot about who you are as a person. And there's
Speaker 1: not too many solid people out here, so we always
Speaker 1: want to just smoute the real ones here. So we
Speaker 1: just wanted to shout you out real quick man for
Speaker 1: just being a solid individual and continuing to motivate not
Speaker 1: just women but everyone in general through your actions, also
Speaker 1: your word. The most important to me is actions and
Speaker 1: and and and your actions speak very loudly. So we
Speaker 1: want to commend you for that. Um any fun stories
Speaker 1: while you were there, your team with the guys, team,
Speaker 1: just Olympics overall, Any crazy Olympic stories, funny stories, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually got I got one like it and it
Speaker 1: happened during like one of the one of the openest
Speaker 1: ceremonies like when I wasn't a flag beard. But um,
Speaker 1: again we're the last to come in. And you have
Speaker 1: to understand when you're with the dream Team. It was
Speaker 1: a dream team in what Scottie Scottie Pippen was on.
Speaker 1: So when we come into the stadium and we're the
Speaker 1: last ones, and and when the when the opening ceremony
Speaker 1: is over, like when it's over, and all chaos occurs
Speaker 1: because all the other countries want to get pictures with
Speaker 1: the dream Team. Right, I got smashed, like I got small.
Speaker 1: I'm sure Scotti Pittman picks me up and it takes
Speaker 1: me the safety so we get swallowed up. So that
Speaker 1: was that was That was a cool story to share
Speaker 1: with you all. It was cool, Like, uh, let me
Speaker 1: see what other stories that I that I got to share.
Speaker 1: I actually got to see in two thousand, I got
Speaker 1: to see one of um and the it's got a
Speaker 1: little dark cloud because um, what's her name, Marion Jones? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta yes to see her actually running the quarterfinals.
Speaker 1: I mean, we know what happened after that, but I
Speaker 1: witnessed that. I'm I'm a big boxing boxing fans, so
Speaker 1: I actually a ninety six. I got a chance to
Speaker 1: see I don't know if y'all know, like David Reid
Speaker 1: Easter from Philadelphia. You know, I got a chance to
Speaker 1: see him him fight. He I don't think he had
Speaker 1: a strong pro career, but I got a chance to
Speaker 1: see him fight. So is it cool? I always wondered
Speaker 1: that you guys can conduct whatever as long it doesn't
Speaker 1: conflict with your actual practice, schedule, games. But you guys
Speaker 1: can bounce around and see whatever you want to see.
Speaker 1: We you can get tickets to anything like well, I
Speaker 1: mean most we we all supported the men's team, but
Speaker 1: I got track and field tickets are hard to get.
Speaker 1: Um boxing tickets are a little bit easier to get.
Speaker 1: Swimming is hard to get, but sometimes you get you know,
Speaker 1: you can get lucky and get some but more times
Speaker 1: and now you you you get to see what you
Speaker 1: can you know, whatever you want, what what event you
Speaker 1: want to see? Podcasts? You're in the podcast game. Now
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about that and why you
Speaker 1: want to start with. Oh, y'all the first ones to
Speaker 1: know that, I mean y'all, the first one I haven't
Speaker 1: it's un announced, Okay, we know everything about you announced
Speaker 1: it all here then what you got. I'm not even
Speaker 1: a talker, so I don't even know how I got
Speaker 1: talked into doing a podcast, but um, the name of
Speaker 1: the podcast is, uh, netlife with Don stealing. The netlife
Speaker 1: is obviously you know some of the net symbolizes my basketball,
Speaker 1: my life and and and I'm talking to people that,
Speaker 1: uh that's not just basketball, it's pop culture. It is
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's you sneaker head. I am. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't really consider myself a sneaker head. You are, though,
Speaker 1: I am? Yeah, I mean, you know how follow you?
Speaker 1: You always posting some fly kicks? Are you sneak ahead?
Speaker 1: I just like the ones that people can't get? Yeah, those,
Speaker 1: I mean it's like it's like a competition. But then
Speaker 1: when I posted you got you got the real steak
Speaker 1: your head standing there take, they're jealous. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just talking to like I like, I like to figure
Speaker 1: out what makes the like successful people great, Like why
Speaker 1: are they so great in their profession and their fields?
Speaker 1: And and I just think I have a voice out
Speaker 1: there for for women, and I want to put that
Speaker 1: on full display because now it's times like like talking
Speaker 1: makes me uncomfortable. But when you're uncomfortable. Growth is taking place,
Speaker 1: So I always want to grow as a as an individual,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna use this platform on them the
Speaker 1: spread some good news. So if someone has you know,
Speaker 1: if they're in the field or not, we know what
Speaker 1: what what connects great people who are successful and I
Speaker 1: want people to I want people to eat. I want
Speaker 1: people to be great at what they do. And if
Speaker 1: if words from other people help, not mean giving the
Speaker 1: platform to you know, to receive the information you You
Speaker 1: also have something that money can buy, and that's experience.
Speaker 1: Experience is the best teacher and a lot of times
Speaker 1: that's all people want to hear. People access all the time.
Speaker 1: Give us a story by when using the locker room
Speaker 1: because people will never see those things, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So experience is always the best teaching people.
Speaker 1: People love that when it's all said and done. Six
Speaker 1: time w NBA All Star, w NBA ten Anniversary Team
Speaker 1: in two thousand six, w BA fifteen Anniversary Team in
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, Hall of Famer, and more accolades. What
Speaker 1: are you most proud of? I'm most proud of being
Speaker 1: the odds either because that's the some of that's the
Speaker 1: some of it all, Like I mean, growing up in
Speaker 1: the projects. You you know, people looking from the outside looking,
Speaker 1: then you're you're not supposed to mount to anything. You
Speaker 1: know this the yeah, the odds are stacked against you.
Speaker 1: So I beat the odds. And I'm trying to share
Speaker 1: and and and and help out other people who just
Speaker 1: need a little ray of hope. And you know, I
Speaker 1: reached back like also just want to share it to
Speaker 1: Like I went back. I went back to my neighbor
Speaker 1: when we won a national championship, I went back to
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. There's a rec center that I grew up playing.
Speaker 1: I grew up playing and it was called the Moralin
Speaker 1: Recreation Center that was renamed the Hank Gatherers Recreation Center.
Speaker 1: So I went back there and gave them a national
Speaker 1: championship replica trophy and a and a case and its
Speaker 1: it lives there because that is you know, as as
Speaker 1: any young person that walks through those doors, that's the hope,
Speaker 1: that's the dream. That's just say hey, it's a tangible
Speaker 1: thing to say, hey, you know that that hard work
Speaker 1: and that hardware was was was was honed in these
Speaker 1: in this gym on these rims in this place. So
Speaker 1: so I just like to just just make sure that
Speaker 1: people that people can come up, Like I am all
Speaker 1: for people coming up and realizing their dreams and reaching
Speaker 1: their full potential. That's what's up question real quick, Um,
Speaker 1: do you have any you mentioned Het Gathers twice. Do
Speaker 1: you have any hate gathering stories or just if not,
Speaker 1: stories how Philadelphia looked at him as a person. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, Hank Gathers was was the epitome of like
Speaker 1: hard work. Like you look at him play, he's working
Speaker 1: harder than any other player. Um, you know his tragic death,
Speaker 1: he he couldn't work as hard as he normally worked,
Speaker 1: so he took less medicine. Yeah, so you know, he
Speaker 1: is the epitome of of of who we are as
Speaker 1: Philadelphia's and as we blue cloud of workers. We only
Speaker 1: he only wanted to make it to the league. You know,
Speaker 1: he was one of them that wanted to make it
Speaker 1: to the league for his family and that was cut short.
Speaker 1: And we don't know why things happen, but certainly his
Speaker 1: his legacy lives on and a lot of us, um,
Speaker 1: well we'll never will never forget him. Absolutely, Rest in peace,
Speaker 1: quick hitters. First thing to come to mind. Let it out.
Speaker 1: Top five greatest female athletes of all time? You're talking
Speaker 1: about good question. Yeah, Jackie joined the Kersey nice Um, Serena,
Speaker 1: Teresa Edwards, Flow, Joe, Hello, Joe. You know before Serena,
Speaker 1: Stephie Graff was one of my favorite I'm tennis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta know about Stephi grad What album can you
Speaker 1: listen to or repeat with no skips anything? Baby face? Okay?
Speaker 1: Is that how you were? Were you someone? Because I
Speaker 1: was I was mixed? But were you? Were you someone
Speaker 1: listened to like rap rap or you or or R
Speaker 1: and B. What did you listen to get I'm old
Speaker 1: school R and be in gospel like rap rap. I
Speaker 1: gotta listen to something I can I can actually understands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so rap rap. Let me see. You know somebody told me,
Speaker 1: and I didn't notice, somebody told me, you know the
Speaker 1: Roots is from Philadelphia that they actually said my name
Speaker 1: in one of their songs. Actually, what's your calls father?
Speaker 1: What's his name? Porter? For the Nuggets? Michael Porter, Yes,
Speaker 1: junior senior, who was a coach at Missouri on the
Speaker 1: women's side at first before he went to the men's side.
Speaker 1: When his son you know went to Missouri. He told
Speaker 1: me that, okay, small world, what's up? I gotta go.
Speaker 1: I gotta go find that song. See what she's talking about?
Speaker 1: Court side to relieve, relieve any game in history? Which
Speaker 1: one would it be? NBA? No, it could be any
Speaker 1: any game, a game in history, any game? Oh six
Speaker 1: is eight? Three championships court side, court side? Dr cheeks Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: silent five dinner guests dead or alive. Okay, it's a
Speaker 1: good one. Um um oprah Oprah would take up the
Speaker 1: whole conversation though, um Princess Diana, Oh yep, um uh
Speaker 1: barack mm hmm mm hmmm. Yeah, you guys stunning at
Speaker 1: me with this one. Uh dead or live? My mom?
Speaker 1: M hmm, nice mom. And you know I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna go a little younger. I've met her before, though,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna say I was gonna say Serena.
Speaker 1: But I met Serena before she was young then, and
Speaker 1: I met at the Olympic Games. I'm gonna say, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring Kobe back. If you can see any guests
Speaker 1: I have any guests on all the smoke, who would
Speaker 1: it be? But before you answer the question, you have
Speaker 1: to help us get your answer on our show. Then
Speaker 1: I set a set up. It's a whole set up.
Speaker 1: I just get you said. Any guests, Yeah, whatever you want.
Speaker 1: Who do you want to see on the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: go get Serena, Tiger Woods, both of them, both of them. Well. Oh,
Speaker 1: our our our research team find us called Dundee is
Speaker 1: the name the song you're on by the Roots? Okay
Speaker 1: Dundee Dundee? Alright, yeah, so check that out. And I
Speaker 1: never heard it. I confided, he didn't, he didn't know
Speaker 1: the song. We just said it again. Shout out your
Speaker 1: podcast net Life featuring yourself on Just Women's Sports. When
Speaker 1: will that? When you guys dropping, we're dropping, We're dropping.
Speaker 1: I believe next week you need us let us know
Speaker 1: down always down. Well, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 1: Congratulations at the accolades, coaching man a role model again
Speaker 1: to not just women, with people in general. We'll be
Speaker 1: checking for you, guys, and thank you for your time. Dog.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and thank you for all for
Speaker 1: giving women a platform and the and and what many
Speaker 1: may seem is all male space, but so I appreciate
Speaker 1: you all, fellers. Thank you Check this out on Showtime Basketball, YouTube,
Speaker 1: and the I Heart platform Black Effects. We'll see y'all
Speaker 1: next week. This is all a Smoke, a production of
Speaker 1: The Black Effect and Our Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Showtime