Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris Johnson, and Chris is
Speaker 1: having conversations with influencers in the sports world and entertainment industry.
Speaker 1: Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now too dead to kJ Live.
Speaker 1: Today's guest on the show is a long time sports
Speaker 1: medical professional that has worked with the likes of the
Speaker 1: w n B A, s l A Sparks, Floyd Mayweather's
Speaker 1: t m T organization, and the U s A basketball
Speaker 1: national team. Let's welcome in Courtney. Excuse me, Dr Courtney
Speaker 1: Watson to the show. What's up, court I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: you court right. What's up? He's do you think about
Speaker 1: my l A Sparks. I'm not so sure you did.
Speaker 1: I did. Once we play this back, you'll hear me
Speaker 1: say in the beginning the w e n B A,
Speaker 1: s l A Sparks where you were, where you won
Speaker 1: a championship in two thousand and sixteen. Before we start
Speaker 1: talking about that, I just need to know how are
Speaker 1: you're doing. I know you've been on the road. Life
Speaker 1: has been kind of hectic. Catch yourself on what's been
Speaker 1: going on. We haven't. You haven't been on the show
Speaker 1: in about a year, so you know, get us all
Speaker 1: up to speed on what's been happening with Dr Cort.
Speaker 1: I'm doing good. I'm happy to be home back in
Speaker 1: l A. I felt like maybe the last time I
Speaker 1: was here could have been when I was talking to you. Uh,
Speaker 1: come and go out of home. But it's not to
Speaker 1: like l A, especially when you travel and work and
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm just blessed, truly and thankful for
Speaker 1: all the opportunities. But this year, I'm just like dedicating
Speaker 1: more to myself and just leving myself and being proud
Speaker 1: of myself and sharing for myself right now. Not to
Speaker 1: be selfish by any matter, but sometimes you have to be,
Speaker 1: because I think being living and working and training and
Speaker 1: just being so all involved and just beings all passionate
Speaker 1: about what I do, sometimes you can lose sight of
Speaker 1: all your accomplishments and the blessings that are put you know,
Speaker 1: bestowed on you. So I'm constantly reminded that by a
Speaker 1: lot of mentors and my a lot of family members.
Speaker 1: But I feel it now that I really should just
Speaker 1: be more proud of myself and more you know, just
Speaker 1: loving on myself a little bit more this year. So
Speaker 1: that's what since I've seen you last. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: the work life balance. I mean it's you can't get
Speaker 1: to consume with one or the other, especially in the
Speaker 1: field that you were in in being one of the
Speaker 1: very best in the world and what you do. No. Last,
Speaker 1: you were at the Olympics with Team Nigeria right during
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Talk a little bit about the experience down
Speaker 1: in Japan. I believe with Team Nigeria. Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to Tokyo for uh my first Olympics. Um, my parents.
Speaker 1: It was fun, it was exciting, It was like a dream.
Speaker 1: It was all the things I thought of that it
Speaker 1: would be. And you know, yeah, it was during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But I was the head athletics trainer with the Nigerian
Speaker 1: national team and they were a great bunch of girls.
Speaker 1: The coaching staff was wonderful and um this was the
Speaker 1: first time really getting out there and showing off and
Speaker 1: doing what they could do. Um. I just did as
Speaker 1: much as I could to help them feel good. Uh.
Speaker 1: We were just brand new with each other. I did
Speaker 1: a training camp with them. UM. Shout out to my players,
Speaker 1: Nica gu McKay and Schenea gu McKay and their little sister,
Speaker 1: uh Erica. But they were really just wanting to go
Speaker 1: and support and and be a part of something that
Speaker 1: was bigger than themselves and bigger than basketball. So I
Speaker 1: joined them, and um, you know, they didn't come and
Speaker 1: play Neck and Shane, but their sister did. And it
Speaker 1: was just a great opportunity for us to get out
Speaker 1: there and just show what we could do from all
Speaker 1: stages of sports and all, you know, every level, the
Speaker 1: highest level you can get to, was happening all around me.
Speaker 1: So it was an enjoyable moment for sure. Would you
Speaker 1: describe Tokyo during the pandemic. I know, Japan and a
Speaker 1: lot of the countries on the Asian continent had been
Speaker 1: wearing masks and had adopted already kind of had a
Speaker 1: structure built in that sort of curb, you know, the
Speaker 1: transmission of germs and things like that. Did you experience
Speaker 1: that in Tokyo when you were there? It wasn't worse
Speaker 1: than not worse, But was it more of a heightened
Speaker 1: sense of care at the time you were there, Yes,
Speaker 1: it was. It was very Uh, it was. You know,
Speaker 1: they're very disciplined in Tokyo. I think Japan as a country,
Speaker 1: they're very much all discipline and very clean it might
Speaker 1: have been one of the cleanest places I've been to
Speaker 1: in the world, so thinking about it now. Clean. They're
Speaker 1: very organized, they're very strict, and because of the pandemic
Speaker 1: and what we were facing at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: you were very you had to be very accountable for
Speaker 1: every space you're coming in and out of. UM. We
Speaker 1: weren't allowed to see other events, which was kind of
Speaker 1: for me. You know, I was looking forward to watching sports. Um.
Speaker 1: You can only go to games that we're playing within
Speaker 1: your sport. UM. So that was something that because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, they weren't allowing teams to have fans, and
Speaker 1: they weren't allowing us to go to the other other events. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, the experience within itself was still amazing.
Speaker 1: We lived inside of the village and UM, you know
Speaker 1: there was some things going around about, you know, our
Speaker 1: living headquarters because we did have to sleep on these
Speaker 1: cardboard beds, which I couldn't appliese until I saw it. UM,
Speaker 1: But you know we made it with it. That bad
Speaker 1: court with it, what is it? With it? As bad
Speaker 1: as it was being described in the media reports. UM,
Speaker 1: Japan is very uh you know, they to me, they
Speaker 1: really think outside the box when it comes to trying
Speaker 1: to be able to preserve and be a little bit
Speaker 1: more eco friendly, And I think that's what their focus was.
Speaker 1: So once you got there, you can respect that, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what That's what I was able to do. But
Speaker 1: I was more concerned about the comfortableness of my athletes.
Speaker 1: The comfort you know, I'm wondering, I know, I'm not
Speaker 1: that tall of a player, but I'm looking at some
Speaker 1: of my taller players, you know, not sure if they
Speaker 1: were able to really feel as comfortable as they could
Speaker 1: and wake up and feel good enough to compete in
Speaker 1: the game as such. So that was a little bit
Speaker 1: of my concern. Not all the teams had to stay
Speaker 1: in the in the bubble because it was still a
Speaker 1: bubble considered a bubble, but um, not all of them
Speaker 1: stayed in the village. But I mean the experience alone
Speaker 1: was wonderful, you know, and it was something that we
Speaker 1: all had to just take on and know that this
Speaker 1: is where we're at and what we're doing, and just
Speaker 1: be really proud of the moment. So little things like that,
Speaker 1: you know, you just kind of feel it out, just
Speaker 1: it to it, um and and we made it through.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't that bad, now, did you? That was
Speaker 1: your first experience internationally at an Olympics. Correct, Yes, that
Speaker 1: was my first experience internationally for the Olympics. Yes, and
Speaker 1: then worked different capacities, but that one was the first time.
Speaker 1: Did that experience under the sort of the you know,
Speaker 1: with the cloud of the pandemic? Did that experience teach
Speaker 1: you anything about yourself that you didn't know before? You
Speaker 1: know what? That moment being there helped me realize what
Speaker 1: hard work really is. Mhm. I knew, or I say
Speaker 1: it in different capacities, but you know, um, I really
Speaker 1: like strive to be the best in my profession and
Speaker 1: the best person being that I could be. And I
Speaker 1: felt like I was living it during that moment. So
Speaker 1: I felt like, you can't take yourself regranted and you
Speaker 1: always have to believe in yourself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so for me, um, it did teach me a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, the pandemic was a very tough time for
Speaker 1: us all, so coming out of that and understanding you know,
Speaker 1: all that we had worked hard to be able to
Speaker 1: take care of ourselves to put inside you know, I
Speaker 1: always is preaching how to make sure you're drinking and
Speaker 1: eating the right thing and get enough rest and really
Speaker 1: kind of focusing on what you put in your body.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure that all the things
Speaker 1: that I was preaching, I was also practicing myself. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you did a good job of that of always uh
Speaker 1: just educating us on Instagram, your your Instagram, your story.
Speaker 1: Uh sometimes you have you know, things on that thing.
Speaker 1: But I'll go through everyone because because no, because you
Speaker 1: you're dropping knowledge and you're showing us how to do
Speaker 1: certain things, and you know you you're you're you know,
Speaker 1: you got you're just doing a lot like I see,
Speaker 1: just everyone go, what's your what's your igh? Why are
Speaker 1: we thinking about it? I'm sorry. Courts Corner l A.
Speaker 1: Go to courts Corner l A, give her a follow
Speaker 1: and getting ready for some for some goodness that's gonna
Speaker 1: help you in your life. Let me ask you this
Speaker 1: court before the Olympics. You're in the bubble with the
Speaker 1: w n B A right, right, yes, man, So you're
Speaker 1: with the Sparks. So you went to through two different
Speaker 1: bubbles and basketball settings on two different continents and and
Speaker 1: literally three or six months. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I
Speaker 1: guess the main thing I wanted to always kind of
Speaker 1: wonder and just maybe you can get into it, maybe can't.
Speaker 1: But how is the dynamics of with everyone being in
Speaker 1: such close proximity and you have to compete against each other,
Speaker 1: and how is how were the dynamics between the players now?
Speaker 1: Back in my era, I won't say our era, I'll
Speaker 1: say my era, that type of situation would have been
Speaker 1: a little weird because we took the game kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, a little differently back then, so probably have
Speaker 1: been some some issues going on. But I feel like
Speaker 1: we we're in a different time. Describe it for me.
Speaker 1: The w n B a bubble off the floor. Well,
Speaker 1: right now on ESPN there is the uh this series
Speaker 1: one forty four and one of my players, Chineague McKay,
Speaker 1: she's the executive producer of that. So these last couple
Speaker 1: of days, I've been hearing that. I guess it is
Speaker 1: showing a lot more and um, I know the season
Speaker 1: is getting ready to kick off. But the bubble wasn't experience.
Speaker 1: You know, that was at a very tough time and
Speaker 1: everyone's life, you know, to really be able to go
Speaker 1: through a normal day what you're used to and having
Speaker 1: to kind of rearrange some things, and you know, we
Speaker 1: were affected by a lot so much. UM I was
Speaker 1: a part of that group who had been with the
Speaker 1: athletic training system in the w n b A for
Speaker 1: over Yes, sorry, okay, you said you're you're a part
Speaker 1: of that group since since when It since to be
Speaker 1: not the beginning, but close to it. Yeah, well, this
Speaker 1: is my fifteen season right now in the league, so
Speaker 1: at that time, but thirteen seasons and the w n
Speaker 1: b A at the time, there was three other athletic
Speaker 1: trainers shout out to them who had put in just
Speaker 1: amount of years. So we're part of the executive team
Speaker 1: UM at the trainers, so we really kind of shape
Speaker 1: and organize, um the sports medicine aspect of it all.
Speaker 1: And you know, it was it was a challenge because
Speaker 1: Florida was on fire at the time, UM with the
Speaker 1: cases of COVID and so you know, there was anyone traveling.
Speaker 1: There was so many different you know, rules and protocols
Speaker 1: that were being put into play, and so we had
Speaker 1: to really be the first professional league that started having
Speaker 1: the league to be reinstated in the games showing up.
Speaker 1: So you know, we took our we we worked on
Speaker 1: it we prepared for it, um, but it's not a
Speaker 1: lot of preparation that you can do once you get
Speaker 1: in there, because it's just within itself. You know, you
Speaker 1: gotta be you gotta be ready for adversity and again
Speaker 1: sure that you know your team is. I called myself
Speaker 1: the COVID police, you know everything. I have pictures of
Speaker 1: myself from the bubble. I think I showed one a
Speaker 1: few days ago, and I just had such a serious look,
Speaker 1: you know, on my face because I wanted and none
Speaker 1: of my players ended up. You know, the league really
Speaker 1: didn't have any positive cases throughout that time during the bubble,
Speaker 1: and that was a really, you know, great thing for
Speaker 1: us to really focus in on, to make sure that
Speaker 1: we were all really taking account that our health mattered
Speaker 1: and that we needed to protect ourselves and each other.
Speaker 1: So I was constantly making sure that my players were
Speaker 1: doing what they're supposed to do, being where they're supposed to.
Speaker 1: We had to take COVID tests every single day, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's not today. To this day, I think I've
Speaker 1: taken about five hundred you know test or But it's
Speaker 1: a credit to you guys, you ladies uh in your
Speaker 1: league for taking it so serious and and really just
Speaker 1: being vigilant about preventing it. And you know, sho shout
Speaker 1: out to w n b A. It's funny because I
Speaker 1: would Here's the question I have, so Kyrie Irvin, he
Speaker 1: didn't get the vaccination, but he's a guy that you
Speaker 1: know does amazing things off the floor. Do you feel
Speaker 1: like he was doing a disservice to people around him
Speaker 1: when he didn't take that vaccination? Is or is it
Speaker 1: a personal choice? Is there not enough information known about
Speaker 1: it just to say, okay, give me the jab because
Speaker 1: you know, everyone says you need to be doing this,
Speaker 1: and the the year of information and research we have
Speaker 1: on this thing, this this is the best option. What
Speaker 1: do you think? That's a great question. I feel like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving did the right thing because you ultimately have
Speaker 1: to do what's best for you, and yeah, you want
Speaker 1: to protect others, But there were so many people who
Speaker 1: did not understand it enough leaving it or who were
Speaker 1: you know who really had to experience something in their
Speaker 1: lives during this pandemic that guided them one way or another.
Speaker 1: And so who are we to tell this is a
Speaker 1: medical a pandemic? Is a is a medical global situation? Right,
Speaker 1: and um. Medical professionals were always used to being able
Speaker 1: to fix everything, give you the best diagnosis, magnosis, everything
Speaker 1: that kind of manages you to get through an illness
Speaker 1: or an injury. And at some point, this particular virus
Speaker 1: was something that we started lost control of as far
Speaker 1: as being able to manage it at certain times because
Speaker 1: there was so much new information, so many different political
Speaker 1: things that we were hearing, um so many aspects of
Speaker 1: it that created like an uneasiness feeling of you really
Speaker 1: have to be certain about how you feel about putting
Speaker 1: this vaccine into your system, you know, And so I
Speaker 1: commend Hyree honestly, And I know there's others who may
Speaker 1: feel different, and it's still each his own. But I
Speaker 1: never wanted to persuade or convince any of my family members,
Speaker 1: any of my athletes to to get the vaccine, because
Speaker 1: you have to understand what you're doing. I just tried
Speaker 1: to educate everyone, and through that education, I was able
Speaker 1: to learn a lot from my own self and then
Speaker 1: just pass it on to others and from there you
Speaker 1: make your decisions. So I feel like Kyrie listened to
Speaker 1: himself and he didn't have enough information that wanted him
Speaker 1: to feel like he could, you know, and so he's
Speaker 1: stuck with that. And I feel like there was a
Speaker 1: percentage of people who had to represent, you know, and
Speaker 1: I feel like he represented us well in that way
Speaker 1: for those who chose to be anti the vaccine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my thing with it, the parts of it that I
Speaker 1: didn't really care for, were just this you know, idea
Speaker 1: that he somehow wasn't intelligent, or it's like he's selfish,
Speaker 1: or you know, it's sort of turned into a lot
Speaker 1: of morphed into a bunch of different stuff. When you
Speaker 1: don't go along with the status quo, when you go
Speaker 1: against the grain and anything you do, pretty much, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get some pushback. People are gonna look at you
Speaker 1: like you're crazy. Like you know, you walk around. Remember
Speaker 1: those people that used to talk about UFOs back in
Speaker 1: the day. We used to think them people were crazy,
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, the government came out,
Speaker 1: Oh UFO was a real dog, And now it's like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I thought that was crazy. But I
Speaker 1: thought I thought, you know that we used to write
Speaker 1: those people off, like, oh man, you complete man, he
Speaker 1: was talking about some UFOs. Man. I mean, now it's like, oh, facts.
Speaker 1: It's facts though, but it's not so now what. So
Speaker 1: it's like I really can't and I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and saying I believe all conspiracy theories. But I'm
Speaker 1: just not gonna put you know, my all my belief
Speaker 1: system and is something that somebody's telling me after about
Speaker 1: it less than a year of research. I'm sorry, that's
Speaker 1: just basic. That's just kind of for me, that was
Speaker 1: common sense. But I don't really want to get too
Speaker 1: deep into this political part of the conversation. Um. But
Speaker 1: courts flipping over into another position that you had in
Speaker 1: the basketball split space, pretty impressive. You were the medical
Speaker 1: director at Donda Academy. Now, for those that don't know,
Speaker 1: Donda Academy is uh Kanye West prep school that brings
Speaker 1: in some of the top high school basketball talent from
Speaker 1: around the nation. They you know, get their education, but
Speaker 1: they compete on a very high level and they spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time playing ball. UM. I interviewed Durrell Wright,
Speaker 1: who was involved in the program, so he kind of
Speaker 1: put me on game and you know, all the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes stuff. How was your experience working at Donna
Speaker 1: Academy this year? I enjoyed it. I feel I was
Speaker 1: really proud of Kanye and what he you know, attempted
Speaker 1: to do. I feel like he accomplished something that a
Speaker 1: lot of others can't say they done. He's not an athlete,
Speaker 1: and uh, I wanted to I was Durrell, right, was
Speaker 1: actually who came to me with the project, and thank
Speaker 1: you to him, because he realized that they needed a
Speaker 1: little bit more sports medicine care than what they had,
Speaker 1: and so he's like, hey, wait a minute, where's your
Speaker 1: trainer and he said, no, no, no, Cock Coort Cock
Speaker 1: Court And so I came and I brought Courts Corner,
Speaker 1: my sports medicine program and my whole services in and
Speaker 1: UM shout out to Angelica. She was the athletic trainer
Speaker 1: that was on staff there and through Courts Corner, and
Speaker 1: so I just helped them manage. Yeah. They were from
Speaker 1: all over the country, excellent athletes, UM, scholar athletes. A
Speaker 1: lot of them had excellent grades and really just you know,
Speaker 1: was really about It was a prep school, so of
Speaker 1: course it's not high school, but it's not college, and
Speaker 1: they're really trying to get that look. Um. And they
Speaker 1: traveled all over the country and play games, and so
Speaker 1: I just did my best to help manage all the
Speaker 1: injuries and illnesses that were happening while they were traveling,
Speaker 1: and then come back here and play. Um. I got
Speaker 1: to talk to Kanye and tell him how thankful and
Speaker 1: privilege I was to be at work with him and
Speaker 1: his team, and how proud I was, and the way
Speaker 1: he represented for us. How do he you know, really
Speaker 1: help those young men, uh see different avenues and give
Speaker 1: them more of a career path, um with basketball that
Speaker 1: you know what he was doing from the entertainment side.
Speaker 1: So it was a little bit of both sports and entertainment,
Speaker 1: you know, being covered with Donte sports. But the academy
Speaker 1: is still growing. You know, this is only that was
Speaker 1: the first year. We just finished the season. Um, but
Speaker 1: the opportunity was huge because we played and the girls
Speaker 1: worked all over the country. Um, you know, providing the
Speaker 1: care and the sports medicine health for the for the kids.
Speaker 1: When you that's a that's an awesome, um description of
Speaker 1: that that situation. I was curious what it looked like
Speaker 1: over there from and you as you know, the medical
Speaker 1: person you have probably in any organization, the athletic trainer
Speaker 1: is typically the most knowledgeable person in the organization just
Speaker 1: everything that's going on. Just for some reason, I don't
Speaker 1: know why, the rader always is the one, but court. Um,
Speaker 1: when you when you work with you know, high level
Speaker 1: elite level athletes like at don DA, Nigeria national team,
Speaker 1: the w n b A obviously different levels of elite athletes,
Speaker 1: but all elite. You know, how do you design a
Speaker 1: plan a program or a preventative program or what do
Speaker 1: you emphasize your medical expertise, like what do you what
Speaker 1: what is most important for athletes to keep in mind
Speaker 1: or to stay true to a certain type of you
Speaker 1: know program, What is Talk to me for a second.
Speaker 1: You have such good questions, Um, well it's for me
Speaker 1: that was it's really about building the best team right forwards, basketball,
Speaker 1: every sport, It's really about team, you know, to me,
Speaker 1: and so even the sports medicine team is a big
Speaker 1: part of the success of any level. You know, so
Speaker 1: on the professional level or on an elite level, everyone
Speaker 1: around that athlete is what makes them be successful. It
Speaker 1: was what makes them be able to perform at that
Speaker 1: level that we're expected to perform at, you know. So
Speaker 1: for me, I just kind of started working to find
Speaker 1: the best of every type of therapist that I could
Speaker 1: around me, every doctor you know around me, um that
Speaker 1: I had met and had great resources and had great
Speaker 1: relationships and tried to network and build. That's how I
Speaker 1: determine like how I'm going to face each year or
Speaker 1: each sport or each season that I'm involved in, as
Speaker 1: far as just making sure that we provide the best
Speaker 1: services in the care so that matters for the athlete.
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes a lot of athletes until they
Speaker 1: have an injury or until they've experienced something, do they
Speaker 1: really recognize the value of an athlete trainer, the physical therapists.
Speaker 1: The difference between those the massage therapists and the chiropractors
Speaker 1: and acupunctures. Now even the extra level of like wellness care,
Speaker 1: it's so important because it could just take one or
Speaker 1: two of them to figure out how to put this
Speaker 1: machine oil dwell together to create that. You know. So
Speaker 1: it's a lot of athletics, I mean, what goes into it,
Speaker 1: but on the outside it really does matter, like who
Speaker 1: and what you're listening to and working to get that
Speaker 1: proper training. So I love That's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things about my field is that I just love to
Speaker 1: work with people, individuals, who are like minded and who
Speaker 1: are just great at what they do with staying in
Speaker 1: their lane. Because sports medicine it's so so such a
Speaker 1: huge umbrella, right, and I talked about all the different
Speaker 1: entities of it, but learning how to stay in their lane,
Speaker 1: it's like one of our biggest challenges because you just
Speaker 1: be great at what you do. You don't have to
Speaker 1: necessarily do what I do. You can do what you
Speaker 1: do would be the best at that. And so that
Speaker 1: to me is how I determine, like what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: As in regards to running these different leagues and tournaments
Speaker 1: and teams and putting the best on the floor, as
Speaker 1: we say, you know, putting the best in the corner
Speaker 1: in courts corner. I usually really make sure that that's
Speaker 1: understood that like when you come this is you need
Speaker 1: to be focused on what you're doing. You need to
Speaker 1: really love it, have that passion and desire to uh
Speaker 1: want to be you know that best. Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
Speaker 1: all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
Speaker 1: and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
Speaker 1: R to listen live. You think that with you know,
Speaker 1: advancements in technology and everything else, that it's easier to
Speaker 1: work with elite level athletes today than it was when
Speaker 1: you first got into professional sports. Or if maybe not,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't think that, let me know what you think.
Speaker 1: I think we have so many more resources, and I
Speaker 1: think sometimes we get to cheat a little bit in
Speaker 1: California because everyone knows that, like we're the mecca of
Speaker 1: medicine here. I like to call us the mecca of medicine.
Speaker 1: A lot of my we know that, whether we're U
Speaker 1: c l A, Cedar SINAI, you know, from from that perspective,
Speaker 1: and then we get into the thick of things with
Speaker 1: like all the other colleges and medical programs that we
Speaker 1: have here. California has a huge um you know, range
Speaker 1: of specialists, and so I feel like the development of
Speaker 1: just evolution of life right and how everything is perceived
Speaker 1: for us right now, I think that we are getting
Speaker 1: to the point where the resources UM have are definitely
Speaker 1: suitable to help athletes returning to play sooner than what
Speaker 1: we're that would back when you know, we were playing
Speaker 1: or you were playing. And yeah, because I was a
Speaker 1: guy that I wish I had a quartz corner around
Speaker 1: when I was coming up, although I did have a
Speaker 1: decent athletic trainer and Tony Spino at U c l
Speaker 1: A who really took care of me a lot. But
Speaker 1: the advancements in technology really stand out. How quickly guys
Speaker 1: are coming back from certain injuries. I remember, like, I
Speaker 1: always be shocked and I see a dude coming back
Speaker 1: on on the A c l in like seven months,
Speaker 1: eight months now or or or or an achilles, you know,
Speaker 1: and and just in just a time period that didn't
Speaker 1: seem feasible. You know what I'm saying, court Like these
Speaker 1: guys are and a lot of this too, is is
Speaker 1: on the these guys and girls on the professional level.
Speaker 1: There's more of a mindfulness about minutes. There's more of
Speaker 1: a mindfulness about the longevity of the athlete than there
Speaker 1: was back in the day, where it was more you
Speaker 1: were a piece of meat. Nowadays, the athlete actually has,
Speaker 1: you know, as a person with a brand. And you
Speaker 1: know what, the athlete had started developing brands, they had
Speaker 1: to stop treating them like ship. And that was just it, Like,
Speaker 1: once we got a brand, bro, you gotta stop treating
Speaker 1: me like oh no. And when I say ship, I
Speaker 1: don't mean like athletes back in the day were treated
Speaker 1: oh so bad. But we know the difference between the
Speaker 1: eighties and nineties in today, you know. Um, I guess
Speaker 1: one of the other things I wanted to really kind
Speaker 1: of dive into with you as the first athletic training,
Speaker 1: female athletic trainer in the sport of boxing. My first
Speaker 1: question about that was is how long did it take
Speaker 1: you before you felt like you had fully earned the
Speaker 1: trust of Floyd Mayweather as a trainer, as an as
Speaker 1: a medical trainer. I've been involved in boxing for a
Speaker 1: long time because of my family, know, my uncle, my dad,
Speaker 1: my cousin's We've been around boxing since I was young,
Speaker 1: So I, um, I loved it at a young age.
Speaker 1: You know, sounds very passionate about the sport. I never
Speaker 1: really saw myself working in boxing, um because I never
Speaker 1: saw anyone that looks like me doing any of these
Speaker 1: things that I was, you know, my profession. So when
Speaker 1: I started realizing that where's the trainer, you know, where's
Speaker 1: an athletic trainer, Where's the therapist? Where who's helping these guys?
Speaker 1: And there was no one, you know, there was a
Speaker 1: few that you would see here and there, but besides
Speaker 1: the cut man, right really, but see the cut man,
Speaker 1: And that's that's what I would always focus in on,
Speaker 1: you know. It was like the cut man and how
Speaker 1: they managed and how they taped and wrapped and how
Speaker 1: they you know, managed all that medical blood and stopped
Speaker 1: it real fast. I was fascinated by that, and so
Speaker 1: that to me was like, Okay, I want to do that.
Speaker 1: I thought I wanted to be like a cut girl,
Speaker 1: cut lady. You know. I never knew that I would
Speaker 1: right now, I was. I was so excited about it.
Speaker 1: Every single time there was a fight. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: it was for us just to tune in and see
Speaker 1: my uncle Sam, you know, like there he is. We
Speaker 1: see him behind every boxer, you know, back in the
Speaker 1: Sugarade watch. He was always there, and so we would
Speaker 1: come to those same fights. We would be there, we
Speaker 1: would watch. But I noticed for myself, I was always
Speaker 1: watching the corner, you know, And so when I started
Speaker 1: saying to myself, like, okay, who helps these guys afterwards?
Speaker 1: You know, And over time it became something that I
Speaker 1: never really saw. And so I was introduced to Floyd.
Speaker 1: He wanted to ice his body a little bit better.
Speaker 1: He wanted to take care of himself. A little bit better.
Speaker 1: He was already about forty two forty three and oh,
Speaker 1: and he said, I don't get hurt. He always was
Speaker 1: very confident about saying that I don't get hurt. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I can take a little bit care. I don't like
Speaker 1: it as much as I could I should. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: too cold, you know, find another way. And so my
Speaker 1: experience with him at the beginning of it was, uh,
Speaker 1: something that I felt like really impacted him and he
Speaker 1: it really showed up when I took him to introduced
Speaker 1: him in the cryo therapy chamber. And that was something
Speaker 1: that I heard about from Kobe, from Caddus Parker at
Speaker 1: the time. They were talking and I'm like, cryotherapy, what
Speaker 1: is that? What is what is cryotherapy chamber? To praise
Speaker 1: below zero? Uh? Two thousand, I don't know about eight
Speaker 1: or nine or something. And so you introduced the champ
Speaker 1: to crywd therapy. He does he initially does he like
Speaker 1: is he because it's cold? That is cold? You gotta
Speaker 1: get in there, no shirt? So I mean, how did
Speaker 1: he you know, was he receptive at first or what? Well?
Speaker 1: He is like the most focus determined person I've ever
Speaker 1: met in my life, Like he is not playing when
Speaker 1: it comes up kids like you look up that word.
Speaker 1: He's there. So when he you know, I had to
Speaker 1: explain to him, like, you don't get wet, because he
Speaker 1: didn't like the ice baths thought of it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's too cold. It's like, I want to get that cold.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, well this prior therapy chamber, you don't
Speaker 1: get wet. And he's like, how is that possible for
Speaker 1: you to be that cold? So we met in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 1: There was a cry on healthcare that I took him
Speaker 1: to UM and UM. At the time, there's only about
Speaker 1: three in the whole country, and Kobe had one. And
Speaker 1: so that helped me understand like, if Kobe's level of
Speaker 1: you know, being able to understand that he can get
Speaker 1: in this two or three times a day, UM, maybe
Speaker 1: I can convince Floyd to do the same. That was
Speaker 1: my thought process for introducing him to that. And it worked.
Speaker 1: It worked, It worked. He uh got in the chamber
Speaker 1: and uh he understood it. It was called. A couple
Speaker 1: of the other members of the team got in as well,
Speaker 1: and it's up to three minutes. I think they we're
Speaker 1: gonna do two minutes. And they said Kobe Dust three.
Speaker 1: Floyd does not play around when it comes to a
Speaker 1: challenge free and they're like, um, you know, after to
Speaker 1: studies show that it doesn't really work. For the third one,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do three. He did three times, did three
Speaker 1: times in the chamber. So that was funny but cool,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wow, this guy is amazing. And so
Speaker 1: after that experience, he looked at me and he was like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? Like who are you? You know?
Speaker 1: And uh? I told him I'm an athletic trainer, you know.
Speaker 1: And He's like, Okay, what's that mean? Because the trainer
Speaker 1: is the person who's in there trying to teach you
Speaker 1: how And I was like, no, I'm not that. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm not teaching you how to box it.
Speaker 1: You got that all covered, I said. I'm just the
Speaker 1: person who helps you make sure that you manage your health,
Speaker 1: safety of your body, making sure that you take care
Speaker 1: of your injuries if they happen, dealing with prevention and rehabilitation,
Speaker 1: but most impartanly understanding recovery. And I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of these athletes missed that part. And so Floyd
Speaker 1: was all about that recovery aspect. Uh, he trains hard,
Speaker 1: so he had to recover hard. So we just started
Speaker 1: working together. From then on. I would fly back and
Speaker 1: forth from Vegas during my season, sometimes in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night. He's a night owl. Now that's true,
Speaker 1: right and so so so Court, I got you, I
Speaker 1: got you here so you can confirm like this these
Speaker 1: stories of of of the champs just crazy hours and
Speaker 1: training kind of off kilter methods. That's all facts. Oh yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys see him. We would go out to a
Speaker 1: little club some of the night and then I think
Speaker 1: he was on TV show that he um popped his
Speaker 1: trunk and pulled his workout shoes, put his shoes on,
Speaker 1: and ran normal. Yeah we did that often. Wow. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we would hang out. Would be twenty four hours, you know,
Speaker 1: really worked twenty hours. One time I stayed up for
Speaker 1: fifty two hours. Great, yeah, him, how did you stay up?
Speaker 1: You don't drink coffee? I don't. I went into the
Speaker 1: bat while I do now I do. Now. I went
Speaker 1: into the bathroom a couple of times and look at
Speaker 1: myself in the mirror and I'm like, you are here,
Speaker 1: you know, you better stay up? And this was it was.
Speaker 1: It was It was like a little dream, you know.
Speaker 1: It felt so good. But he was so focused and determined.
Speaker 1: He had it all mapped out how he wanted to run,
Speaker 1: work out, put his time in the gym. You know,
Speaker 1: he's his own coach. He has a team, but he
Speaker 1: is very self motivated, self driven. So those type of
Speaker 1: things I'll start wearing on me. You know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: if this guy can do it. I thought I was
Speaker 1: so much older than Floyd. He has a little we
Speaker 1: have an inside joke that, um, I thought that I
Speaker 1: was older than him because he looks so young, right.
Speaker 1: We we did some medical work before and the doctors
Speaker 1: like him blood of an eighteen year old. And so
Speaker 1: now he was walking around like I'm gonna make tea
Speaker 1: your own body. But we have an inside joke that
Speaker 1: I started knowing. Like as I was working on him,
Speaker 1: we would listen to the same kind of music and
Speaker 1: it would be like old school R and B. You know,
Speaker 1: Joe to See and that, you know, Bobby Brown, that
Speaker 1: was like our favorite. And I was He's singing and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hold do you He's like, oh do you
Speaker 1: think I and I never really checked and he was
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm way older than you, and he
Speaker 1: was like, no, you're not. So he used to call
Speaker 1: me Auntie sometimes so that I was older than so.
Speaker 1: Um A good times, you know. And he just is
Speaker 1: a hard worker. And that's what still that hard. I mean.
Speaker 1: I was already coming in as a hard work. I
Speaker 1: think he recognized that, but I feel like it really
Speaker 1: took that focus to be able to do what we're
Speaker 1: doing on this level. Then again, I went back and
Speaker 1: I told you that before about bringing my team. I
Speaker 1: had Dr Michel He uh, he worked with me with
Speaker 1: the Sparks. I knew needed a little bit more around
Speaker 1: rounded team, you know, and so I started bringing in
Speaker 1: a few others. He had a massage therapist already. UM,
Speaker 1: so we all just started finding our lanes and working
Speaker 1: well together, and it just became it was all women
Speaker 1: that was working with Floyd as well. Um, but it
Speaker 1: was a massage therapist and myself and I kind of
Speaker 1: just directed and organized everything and just helped him feel
Speaker 1: the best he could. Um. But the moment that you said,
Speaker 1: what was the moment that made him feel like he
Speaker 1: can trust me? It was after the Hello fight Canello,
Speaker 1: and I was still coming back and forth trying to
Speaker 1: show my skills every now and then, and just you know,
Speaker 1: I could for him and then leave out and go
Speaker 1: work like I was not there, you know, and I
Speaker 1: he fought Canelo, and Canelo kind of hit him with
Speaker 1: a low shot in his upper quad areas quad was that,
Speaker 1: you know, he had a little contusion there, and so
Speaker 1: he called us over in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: after the fight. He thought he could kind of walk
Speaker 1: it off, but it bothered him a little bit, and
Speaker 1: he came and you know, that morning, we stayed up
Speaker 1: and we worked on him by morning and then he
Speaker 1: went to sleep. And then when he woke up that
Speaker 1: next day, he walked down the stairs and he he's
Speaker 1: I can hear him because I'm laying on the couch.
Speaker 1: He walked down the stairs and he's like, hey, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, I can move my leg. I'm not lipping,
Speaker 1: you know. And he was realizing it himself, without anyone
Speaker 1: around him or in front of us. But I feel
Speaker 1: like that moment, he couldn't believe how much better he
Speaker 1: got from the time that he was in the fight
Speaker 1: till till after. And yeah, we became like his team
Speaker 1: after that, you know. That's to me, that was that day,
Speaker 1: that He was like, Okay, she knows what she's doing.
Speaker 1: Let me continue to work and be around. A matter
Speaker 1: of fact, let me invite her to the Maddie Pacquiao
Speaker 1: Floit Mayweather fight, a century type of fighting. I was there.
Speaker 1: He had his little corner in section close. Yeah, that's fun, Like,
Speaker 1: come on, that's ridiculous. Wow, Court, But you've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. You've seen some You've been around some
Speaker 1: high level athletes. And we didn't even mention the two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen w NBA championship with Sparks Candis Parker, that experience.
Speaker 1: Candice wanted championship with the with the Sky Huh she did? Yes?
Speaker 1: How about that? How just just talk about that? Just
Speaker 1: Candice leaving l A, going to Chicago and then winning
Speaker 1: a championship? What did that mean for her legacy as
Speaker 1: an all type great? Yeah, it's huge legacy. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's a legend. You know. I love Candice. She she
Speaker 1: I worked with her. It was her first year that
Speaker 1: I came back to the l A Sparks, well, her
Speaker 1: second year. My first year with the Sparks was Canvas
Speaker 1: and second year, my first year with the Sparks was
Speaker 1: also Lisa Leslie's final season. Yes, that's right, I forgot
Speaker 1: about that. I'm at the same time with Delicia Melt
Speaker 1: and Tina Thompson. That's crazy, that's crazy. He should find
Speaker 1: a chair on Noel Quinn. We really, I mean Ebone Hoffman.
Speaker 1: All those girls were like huge at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: and yeah, we were all. I didn't know you. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that. I did not know it was all
Speaker 1: of them on one squat because look, I used to
Speaker 1: hoop against Lisa and Tina when they were at s C.
Speaker 1: They'd come up to U C. L A. And they,
Speaker 1: you know, try to get in the runs. I don't
Speaker 1: sometimes they played. Other times they play with us only
Speaker 1: sometimes they get in with the pros. But when they
Speaker 1: play against us, it was a thing where you had
Speaker 1: to play real defense and you had the body, you
Speaker 1: had to do things like. It wasn't like, you know,
Speaker 1: because there was gonna bust you. Tina was gonna get
Speaker 1: you buckets. If you're going, she go up and under you.
Speaker 1: Her and Lisa was up and under in dudes to
Speaker 1: death like that puffect move. So I know what time
Speaker 1: it was with them, and I can't I can't imagine
Speaker 1: how that that squad. When you have so many big
Speaker 1: personalities on a squad like that, does it get a
Speaker 1: little weird or its professionals, do you get weird? But
Speaker 1: we figured out. I think it was like in me,
Speaker 1: I was built for that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I don't want to like brag on myself, but I
Speaker 1: was ready for Oh. And at the end of that year,
Speaker 1: my first year, which is Lisa's last, and I got
Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time with her, and she
Speaker 1: looked at me on the very last day we had
Speaker 1: a team meeting and she was like, you are good.
Speaker 1: You are really good at what you do. And She's like,
Speaker 1: you don't ever need to forget that. She said, you
Speaker 1: need to keep doing what you're doing. Keep loving it.
Speaker 1: She said, I see your passion in your drive. And
Speaker 1: she was like, I'm not surprised that you're gonna be
Speaker 1: great in your field, you know. She was like, so
Speaker 1: just stay focused and do that. But you're good, Corey.
Speaker 1: So for me, I never forgot that. That to me
Speaker 1: is why I was able to be as successful in
Speaker 1: the w n b A as I was because of
Speaker 1: Lisa's words and Tina's words, Tina Thompson, her and I
Speaker 1: worked together with the Houston Comments first, and then we
Speaker 1: both came to l A. And she's like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want court I want I want to have courts my
Speaker 1: athletic trainer. Yeah, I put my name on your resume too,
Speaker 1: Like you you're good, You're gonna be really good. You
Speaker 1: just gotta just you know. They were perfectionists to a degree,
Speaker 1: and it thought in me. And I was younger than them,
Speaker 1: so I just did the best I could. But I
Speaker 1: feel like you gotta be built from it. I think
Speaker 1: being from l A and going through all the times
Speaker 1: that we did growing up and seeing and experiencing you
Speaker 1: guys play like we watched all that. I played ball
Speaker 1: in high school, so I knew a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: west Chester, west Chester, That's Chester. I don't know how
Speaker 1: you didn't end up getting to go there. I refused
Speaker 1: to go to west Chester UM because I just I
Speaker 1: wasn't that type of dude. I know. I was light
Speaker 1: skinned with the curly top, but I was built different.
Speaker 1: I grew up off sixty and tenth half, so I
Speaker 1: wasn't really a true light skin. Was one of those
Speaker 1: light skins from over there. I was a little different
Speaker 1: than the west Chester skin through them doing the Saint
Speaker 1: Bernards and Lindara. I wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't with that,
Speaker 1: you know of me. I lived there, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: with it. Why are you gonna be talking about all
Speaker 1: that right now? I don't know. Just you know when
Speaker 1: you said west Chester, so that a shotow I have?
Speaker 1: You know, I left west Chester as an athlete, scholar athlete.
Speaker 1: I went to Berkeley, but I came back to west Chester.
Speaker 1: So I got double love for them, and we won
Speaker 1: thirteen years in the rows. I got thirteen rings with
Speaker 1: question dominance. Every year. We were number one in the country. Uh,
Speaker 1: the boys, the men's team was number one in the
Speaker 1: country when I was. When you played Lebron, you guys
Speaker 1: played Lebron. We did. We played Lebron his senior year,
Speaker 1: and uh, it was a great experience to to to experience,
Speaker 1: you know, to see that and to feel that in
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Cord, I tell you what if you were
Speaker 1: deeply rooted into the fabric of this l a basketball
Speaker 1: sports culture thing over the last probably five years or so,
Speaker 1: like you are the person that's considered an influencer, a leader,
Speaker 1: someone that we all look up to. Some of someone
Speaker 1: that really inspires us all with her, with your ability,
Speaker 1: You're you're just amazing, just the fact that you gave
Speaker 1: so much to this our basketball community, your time, your
Speaker 1: efforts for the sake of our health. Like people do
Speaker 1: not understand the careers you've saved, the lot of the
Speaker 1: careers you've you know, made longer short or whatever. When
Speaker 1: when when Court Corner shows up at a summer league,
Speaker 1: a drew league, a real run, wherever this pro league,
Speaker 1: wherever it is that you are, that means that on
Speaker 1: that day we have that place has medical attention. So
Speaker 1: that's not something that's always happening. People aren't always paying
Speaker 1: for that. So let's get it clear. So when when
Speaker 1: Court with your hey day, I mean you were literally
Speaker 1: donating your time, your efforts, money and all that for us,
Speaker 1: for athletes, for the greater good of the athlete. And
Speaker 1: that's what makes you truly a special, special individual. That's
Speaker 1: a rare one of a time. We're so proud of
Speaker 1: you that you have earned your doctorate degree. And I
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to ask about that process and you know,
Speaker 1: just you're a doctor, now, how does it feel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I worked for. It took me twenty years,
Speaker 1: I said, I want to be a doctor. I want
Speaker 1: to be a doctor of athletic training. They came out
Speaker 1: with a new doctorate program and it was meant for
Speaker 1: me because sixteen, right when we were planning and winning
Speaker 1: the championship with the Sparks, right when I had just
Speaker 1: finished the Mayweather Pakia fight, I still hadn't declared that
Speaker 1: I was gonna start my program. And I did and
Speaker 1: I got accept it and I four years. It typically
Speaker 1: takes about three or four years. I took one year
Speaker 1: off to travel around the world with Floyd Mayweather, so
Speaker 1: it was worth the time that I did take off.
Speaker 1: And everybody is different, and I tried to playing that
Speaker 1: to my interns and my mentees and students who are
Speaker 1: wanting to, you know, watch my path and you know,
Speaker 1: come before me that way. Everybody's path is different. So
Speaker 1: for me, I took I got my master's degree. I
Speaker 1: waited about five years after that, and then I entered
Speaker 1: into the doctorate program and it was a great experience.
Speaker 1: I got to do most of it online and then
Speaker 1: the other part you would kind of come in and
Speaker 1: you know, meet with everyone and to see and feel
Speaker 1: that level of athletic trainers who had enough respect for
Speaker 1: our field to want to continue to the highest level
Speaker 1: of education. You know, my grandmother wasn't playing around. She
Speaker 1: was a part of me excelling in that. UM. Just
Speaker 1: as a young age, I was almost like addicted to school,
Speaker 1: you know, I was always around it. Even during the summertime.
Speaker 1: I would go and just teach with my grandma and
Speaker 1: help her UM and so it just was a part
Speaker 1: of me. You know. So when I decided to roll
Speaker 1: back in school, I knew I had to finish. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of challenges. You know, you just can't quit.
Speaker 1: You just gotta know that there's light at the end.
Speaker 1: And then while everyone was having a hard time managing
Speaker 1: the pandemic and being on lockdown quarantined, I was quarantined
Speaker 1: and finishing up all of my work and in September
Speaker 1: I finished of that year. UM, I didn't get to graduate,
Speaker 1: didn't have a typical year. You know, I felt bad
Speaker 1: for all the other students who were going through distant
Speaker 1: for that first time graduating, but you know, to finish
Speaker 1: it and get my papers how I wanted. So I
Speaker 1: wanted and it was it was fun. I enjoyed, uh
Speaker 1: that experience in my life because I had to really
Speaker 1: grind and I had to really focus and be disciplined.
Speaker 1: You know, when I look back at some of my
Speaker 1: memories and I remember, like even when I was working
Speaker 1: with Mayweather for training camp, sometimes at it's two or
Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning, and one time he walked
Speaker 1: over to me in the club, like, why are you
Speaker 1: on your phone all the time? Like that parter doing
Speaker 1: my homework and reading articles in the club, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's just that's my life. Like you told me earlier,
Speaker 1: we had to live our life. I've never that I
Speaker 1: would be in the club like trying to finish up
Speaker 1: some work and then try to have fun too. It's
Speaker 1: like you really have to manage yourself and believe in
Speaker 1: yourself and know that you can finish, you know. So
Speaker 1: I had an excellent experience because at my lowest point
Speaker 1: where I wanted to just let go and just say
Speaker 1: this is not what I wanted to do, I had
Speaker 1: such great people around me encouraging me. Great friends and
Speaker 1: family members and other colleagues of mine that you know
Speaker 1: played a role in that. So I feel like my
Speaker 1: doctor is mine is also for the city of l
Speaker 1: A and all the basketball, the high school levels and
Speaker 1: the egg using the Drew leagues and everybody the rail runs.
Speaker 1: All that was a part of what my doctorate was
Speaker 1: really like about. You know, it was it was a
Speaker 1: gift for us in the city because, um, I know
Speaker 1: I put a lot of work in and do it,
Speaker 1: but I also feel like I wouldn't have made it
Speaker 1: without all you guys being a part of my life
Speaker 1: and my family and um experience. I've worked on all
Speaker 1: your at some point. I've helped an injury that our
Speaker 1: an illness or something in and out of the hospital.
Speaker 1: I've said a few people's lives and so those lives
Speaker 1: that I've saved, they have still just impact me every
Speaker 1: day to just keep striving to be the best that
Speaker 1: I can and to give that and share that with
Speaker 1: everyone with you guys as well. Fox Sports Radio has
Speaker 1: the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
Speaker 1: of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
Speaker 1: within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
Speaker 1: to listen live. Well, I'll tell you what we appreciate
Speaker 1: eat you. I personally thank you, uh just for the
Speaker 1: person you are and and just for representing just such
Speaker 1: a positive, just role model for kids, people of all
Speaker 1: racist colors, ages to look up to. Like that's the
Speaker 1: thing about it, um Man you just talked about And
Speaker 1: I gotta let you go after this, and I want
Speaker 1: to end on this beautiful note talking about your book
Speaker 1: that you are currently under us under construction you're writing it,
Speaker 1: but it's talking about your journey as a young girl
Speaker 1: from South Central like to be all the way up
Speaker 1: to being considered a pioneer in sports medicine. Talk to
Speaker 1: me about your book and what you the message you
Speaker 1: want to convey and how you you know just what
Speaker 1: you want to put in there. Well, Um, my grandmother
Speaker 1: that she rest and cheez, she was very serious, like
Speaker 1: I said about it. Education and and we used to
Speaker 1: read and work and learn and study hard every day
Speaker 1: and um, and then it became something that just was
Speaker 1: a part of me and so UM as I grew
Speaker 1: up throughout the riots in South Central, you know, that
Speaker 1: was an experience for me. Um. And then leaving out
Speaker 1: of the inner city or out the hood and going
Speaker 1: to schools that provided that type of education that my
Speaker 1: mother wanted me to have. Uh, that's how I ended
Speaker 1: up at Westchester because I couldn't quite go to Manuel
Speaker 1: arts every now and the inner city schools for me
Speaker 1: were not kind of my my everybody in my hood
Speaker 1: that said I was a little booge, like I was
Speaker 1: too good to go to some of those schools, but okay,
Speaker 1: I'll take it. I'll go to Westchester. But the experience
Speaker 1: that I had from that, you know, living an inner
Speaker 1: city and working and trying to manage my life with
Speaker 1: my brothers and sisters and my family, and then just
Speaker 1: understanding the sports realm and then always having just the
Speaker 1: energy and the focus of wanting to be something in
Speaker 1: a professional setting as a doctor um being able to
Speaker 1: accomplish that, I think it was huge. Gary Vady, who
Speaker 1: is longtime Laker athletic trainer extraordinair legend. I remember my
Speaker 1: first day on the job with the Sparks and I
Speaker 1: walked into the Lakers training facility and I saw Jill
Speaker 1: Jackson first, and then I saw Gary Vety and he's like,
Speaker 1: who are you? What are you doing in here? And
Speaker 1: I'm an athlete trainer. I work for the Sparks. He's like,
Speaker 1: you're too young to be a head trainer at the
Speaker 1: Sparks and I was like, whoa, it's it's me. You know,
Speaker 1: and so I got to just watch him every now
Speaker 1: and then his energy, where he carried himself, and what
Speaker 1: he stood for and his excellence that he put, you know,
Speaker 1: out there, and I was just happy to be a
Speaker 1: part of something and I wanted to share that. So
Speaker 1: I created my internship program. I got as much experience
Speaker 1: as I could. I did so many things that I
Speaker 1: could to just keep transitioning of moving up. And then
Speaker 1: the boxing world happened. So I said, you know, the
Speaker 1: lives that I've saved was what really touched me. Jason McKinney,
Speaker 1: you know, he was injured and was tony could never
Speaker 1: walk again, and now he's running around running camps and
Speaker 1: leagues and tournaments and of shorts and so um, I've
Speaker 1: had a lot of experience that really touched me, a
Speaker 1: lot of lives that I've really been able to manage.
Speaker 1: And so I said, I wanted to share that because
Speaker 1: I want these young especially women professionals and athletic training.
Speaker 1: You know now that we're breaking the glass ceilings that
Speaker 1: term is, you know, but we're really doing big things
Speaker 1: and pro sports and um, and we have a long
Speaker 1: way to come. Title nine. We've been talking about that
Speaker 1: I've done a few interviews for that UM, but just
Speaker 1: being called a pioneer in sports medicine is like wow
Speaker 1: to me, you know, thankful, I feel honored, UM. But
Speaker 1: I want to share that experience and give back to
Speaker 1: my community and give back to the young women in
Speaker 1: in sports are just young women period, who don't know
Speaker 1: what they want to do. I had no idea where
Speaker 1: sports medicine even existed until I got to experience some
Speaker 1: of these things in life in the inner city. That
Speaker 1: helped me understand that you can be an athlete and
Speaker 1: you can also be a doctor. You can do those
Speaker 1: things and combine in so many different fields in arenas.
Speaker 1: And so I feel like all of our generation and
Speaker 1: the ones above us, and then now the ones that
Speaker 1: are you know, below us, that need that guidance and
Speaker 1: that that professional development, I feel like it's important to
Speaker 1: share and to care and to help giving tips. I
Speaker 1: was on a plane the other day and a young
Speaker 1: lady walked up to me and she was like, I like,
Speaker 1: when you talk about elevation, you elevate your feet, Like
Speaker 1: that's cool. I talked my mom to do that and
Speaker 1: her blood pressure went down, and I'm like, those are
Speaker 1: the things that really keep me inspired to want to
Speaker 1: keep sharing, and so I felt like, let me let
Speaker 1: me box that all together. So Gary V came to
Speaker 1: me not too long ago when I was in the
Speaker 1: bubble season and he invited did me to be a
Speaker 1: part of send me a message and he says, I'm
Speaker 1: working on um you know, he's a girl dad and
Speaker 1: at the time, you know him and Kobe, Kobe had
Speaker 1: passed and he said, I'm really going to work my
Speaker 1: next project on dedicating it to women in sports medicine,
Speaker 1: and I want to reach out to the top twenty
Speaker 1: five women in the world to have impacted us into
Speaker 1: our country and have been a part of something bigger
Speaker 1: than just themselves and want to share their story. And
Speaker 1: I'm looking like is he talking to me? And he
Speaker 1: was talking to me. He said that I was top
Speaker 1: women in sports medicine and he wanted me to share
Speaker 1: my story and as an athletic trainer. So that is
Speaker 1: what inspired me the most because I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think back and I have to write different experiences. Whether
Speaker 1: it was the USA team, we didn't get a chance
Speaker 1: to talk about that too much, but I had my
Speaker 1: experience with the USA national team, not just with the
Speaker 1: USA three on three team, and and so I loved
Speaker 1: it all, and I thought it was a great idea,
Speaker 1: and I started really loving and enjoying writing different stories
Speaker 1: and talking about my past and experience. It kind of
Speaker 1: taught me who I really am and I can share
Speaker 1: with others. And I feel like that is what really
Speaker 1: guided me to create this book that I'm putting together.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it's about to be good. You better
Speaker 1: get the rights to the movie because once the book dropped,
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to make the movie. So you I know,
Speaker 1: I know the Watson is gonna have it all locked up.
Speaker 1: So I'm not even really tripping on that. But when
Speaker 1: you do drop it, Court, I need you to come
Speaker 1: back to the show. Come back, and we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about it. I'm gonna have read it. I want to
Speaker 1: sign autograph copy, and I'm gonna break it down. Court.
Speaker 1: It's been a great it's been a real conversation today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy
Speaker 1: schedule to come by kJ Live. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about drinking water. You know, I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna forget that. I guess I know. So so let
Speaker 1: me and we won't leave them with this note because
Speaker 1: I think that it's very important. As we head into
Speaker 1: the spring and summer, a lot of us are trying
Speaker 1: to work out a little more, trying to eat right,
Speaker 1: trying to eat salad now for the first time in
Speaker 1: like a year. Um, I want to get some tips,
Speaker 1: some nutritional tips, some health tips, some living tips, some
Speaker 1: you know, some tips on how I can maximize my
Speaker 1: existence on this planet on a daily basis. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: tell you, I'm always drinking water. I was looking around
Speaker 1: and see if you had some water somewhere around you.
Speaker 1: What is that? Okay? All right? Good for you? Learn anything?
Speaker 1: You know. I'm always gonna talk about water in any
Speaker 1: two or a conversation that I have half of your
Speaker 1: body and I'm representing censure right now because it's a good,
Speaker 1: clean water. But at the same time, half of your
Speaker 1: body weight and ounces is what everybody should drink daily.
Speaker 1: So if you weigh two hundred pounds, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that right to the towns, but if you did, you
Speaker 1: take half of that, which is one crazy that's a
Speaker 1: lot of water. Court that's I'm to seventy five six
Speaker 1: five in it. Yeah, I'm like, that's a lot of
Speaker 1: that's that's a lot of water to drink. It is
Speaker 1: a lot of water. But if you manage it well,
Speaker 1: you should drink half of what you need by the
Speaker 1: first half of the day. Just get just get it in.
Speaker 1: So but all I gotta say about drinking water because
Speaker 1: a lot of people say that, Okay, you can over
Speaker 1: drink water too, and that's not healthy for you. But
Speaker 1: you can under drinking and now you're dehydrated. So number
Speaker 1: one sign of dehydration. It's like itchy ness. If you're itching,
Speaker 1: that's not a good thing. I mean, your skin, which
Speaker 1: is the largest burgan in our body, needs more hydration
Speaker 1: our brain. If you drink more water, you can think straight,
Speaker 1: you can think more clear, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like those are perks. Your skin starts to act cool
Speaker 1: if you drink water. A lot of compliments on my skin.
Speaker 1: I take pride in that. I'm very thankful for the
Speaker 1: compliments I get. I'm not saying I don't eat chips
Speaker 1: and all kind of extra little stuff to chips. I
Speaker 1: threw some chips a way today because Cort, what kind
Speaker 1: of chips you need? Real chips? I had a nice
Speaker 1: sandwich and I love Dorito's cheese. I'm not needing, not
Speaker 1: an extra, just give me the basics. And so that's
Speaker 1: who I am. You told me no chili birdie. But
Speaker 1: I just got home recently. I've been traveling for months.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful to be back in l A. And so
Speaker 1: I got to drink more water and I started a
Speaker 1: little juice cleans to help me prepare for the spark
Speaker 1: season because I just want to have my energy together.
Speaker 1: I know, I overjoyed and enjoyed a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: fun times and good food while I was out of
Speaker 1: the country and just lemon and working. So I started
Speaker 1: a three day juice cleans and so that's where I'm
Speaker 1: at right now. That's why I threw the chips away,
Speaker 1: because I just want to get and feel get rid
Speaker 1: of some toxins. The toxins is what weighs you down,
Speaker 1: you know, and it allows that brain talk to go away.
Speaker 1: I need that. I need my mentor on straight, and
Speaker 1: I need my skin cool, and I need my digestive
Speaker 1: system to act the best that it can, because that
Speaker 1: is like your other brain. It helps to manage so
Speaker 1: much with your organs and your immune system. And as
Speaker 1: we know what we've been facing in these last two
Speaker 1: or three years with this immune system, wearing your mask
Speaker 1: all the time, your body goes to like a little
Speaker 1: shock every now and then it can stay shocked, and
Speaker 1: now you experience allergies and sciences issues, and you know,
Speaker 1: bloating and just bad digestives problems. Things are not moving.
Speaker 1: Your blood has to circulate. So I like to focus
Speaker 1: on blood circulation because that's what it helps manage so
Speaker 1: much of what your body has to feel and give
Speaker 1: out each day with your energy level. So what could
Speaker 1: I take to help that? Like thornberry, elderberry is dead,
Speaker 1: berry is good. I really like oil over Reaguano. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've heard of that. Yeah, oil ever reaguane.
Speaker 1: It's an herb. It's a liquid form. I like whole foods.
Speaker 1: I get it from Hopeful. So that's your droplet. I
Speaker 1: was wondering what the droplet was. I've seen you play droplets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen that. I've seen that on your story. I
Speaker 1: was like, what's she doing over here? Man? It's spicy.
Speaker 1: I love sharing that with my athletes and with people
Speaker 1: who have experiences of like not sure what to do
Speaker 1: about managing things like scinuses and digestive issues. But it
Speaker 1: helps with your digestive track. But if you hold on
Speaker 1: to all the sugar and the salt and those things,
Speaker 1: your body doesn't have a way to get it out.
Speaker 1: So we gotta push it through. And that is a
Speaker 1: great way to push things through. Is oil ever reagune
Speaker 1: and tie inflammatory. If you're an athlete or just a
Speaker 1: person who has it with any type of information issues
Speaker 1: in your body, you should just take in tumoric, whether
Speaker 1: it's the real powder version or the tumeric root. Or
Speaker 1: I had a latte. They're making latte's with tumeric in
Speaker 1: it and it tastes good. I had like three of them.
Speaker 1: I was I was killing the tumor, got up feeling great.
Speaker 1: It makes you feel good and alive. So I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna recommend that. And then another thing, like when we're
Speaker 1: having signs issue. I always say signs issues because I
Speaker 1: have them, but I definitely got to control them. And
Speaker 1: um again, it's about the blood flow. Okay, everything, congestion, infection,
Speaker 1: everything is lacking blood flow, and water always helps. I
Speaker 1: like ginger, you know, Ginger helps to get that blood
Speaker 1: to act right and better in the powder or the root.
Speaker 1: I up, I like the root. The powder is not bad,
Speaker 1: but I like the root. I'm gonna try to be
Speaker 1: as rag as you can with the ginger, so ginger,
Speaker 1: you know, boiling it and just kind of drinking at
Speaker 1: his tea. Um, it's a good thing. Okay, So know
Speaker 1: those Um what what type of supplement over the counter
Speaker 1: can a guy that's in it's you know my age
Speaker 1: mid forties that you know is sort of high strung
Speaker 1: at times that I want to kind of be a
Speaker 1: little calmer in my day to day. What should I
Speaker 1: what should I be uh looking at when I go
Speaker 1: to g n c um, Well, I'm more on the
Speaker 1: well onness side of like Ashwa Ganda. That's something to
Speaker 1: look up. Like when I say things, I really like
Speaker 1: when people go and look at it, but like don't
Speaker 1: don't ask me what it does, but they actually kind
Speaker 1: of go and check out. I've actually ordered it before
Speaker 1: under under your suggestion. I actually I tried it and
Speaker 1: it had me feel it a little weird at first,
Speaker 1: but then I I was pretty pretty good. I never
Speaker 1: re up, but I needed to. I take also panathonic acid.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of that? Yeah? So I take
Speaker 1: that that is. Actually my grandmother showed me that when
Speaker 1: I was about eleven years old, like, but we'll take
Speaker 1: you a couple of these. You calmed down. Here take these.
Speaker 1: So I took that my whole life because I would
Speaker 1: just remember my grandmother, this is gonna calm me down,
Speaker 1: so let me see acid. But but and then I
Speaker 1: take up. I was like, take, I take zinc. I
Speaker 1: love taking zinc. Also system Zinc is what helps you
Speaker 1: to keep your senses together. Remember how during the pandemic
Speaker 1: time you can lose your taste and smell. Zinc is
Speaker 1: what that come back. It helps to strength your immune system.
Speaker 1: But it definitely helps to balance out the taste smell.
Speaker 1: I know it does. Also take obviously, the vitamin C
Speaker 1: is great. Um. And then I take some stuff just
Speaker 1: you know, just for the weight lifting and the protein.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm trying to do it. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be on point. Look, and when you get older, you
Speaker 1: gotta do more extreme things. You gotta do less eating,
Speaker 1: more vitamins and like you say, more water, and that's
Speaker 1: got that's gotta be your thing. You gotta cut out
Speaker 1: some of the drinking, which sucks, but you know, in
Speaker 1: the long run and for the longevity. It will help.
Speaker 1: But it's tough when you live in l A and
Speaker 1: you got bars everywhere. Yeah, you know it's tough. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm like, I'm trying to stay as close to
Speaker 1: home as possible right now. I don't want to go out.
Speaker 1: I don't want to smell food. I don't want to either.
Speaker 1: I especially can have a been home. I'm like really
Speaker 1: thinking about all the great spots that I can't wait
Speaker 1: to get to. But it's about discipline for me right now.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, just get your stuff together and do
Speaker 1: a little Jim's cleans and and really help your body
Speaker 1: start feeling better from the inside out so that we
Speaker 1: can give more. I just want to give more love,
Speaker 1: more care, more about everybody. And I see that I'm
Speaker 1: an asset, you know, I recognize that. Again, Remember at
Speaker 1: the beginning, I told you I'm trying to get more
Speaker 1: to myself. So I want to be able to give
Speaker 1: more out, but I gotta put more in. So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna focus on continuing to be the best person
Speaker 1: that I can be get. The exercise in walking is cool.
Speaker 1: People need to stop thinking that you that walking is
Speaker 1: not a form of exercise it is. You can just
Speaker 1: go walk for thirty minutes today and you'll be okay.
Speaker 1: So I just encourage everyone who don't who you know
Speaker 1: finding a hard time to work out, to start somewhere.
Speaker 1: Walking and jump as well. Yeah, exactly. Baby steps, walking
Speaker 1: and jumping rope are my favorite things to do because
Speaker 1: it's very therapeutic. Jumping rope helps every muscle in the body.
Speaker 1: I am sore today from jumping rope yesterday. Um, but
Speaker 1: I'm trying to take it easy because of the juice
Speaker 1: thing that I'm doing. But you know, just try something
Speaker 1: and try something, to learn something new and experience something
Speaker 1: that is gonna be for yourself out first. That's what
Speaker 1: you gotta do. Absolutely, what's the real today. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate the tips. I appreciate you sharing your journey. It's
Speaker 1: in a little bit about your story. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to the book and I hope that this podcast will
Speaker 1: enlightened people and give them sort of a window into
Speaker 1: who Dr Courtney Watson is. Thank you, Chris, time appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I love l A, I love this city, I love
Speaker 1: my people, and I love to provide opportunities. I hope
Speaker 1: if you guys are looking to get into sports medicine.
Speaker 1: I have my Courts Corner l a sports medicine internship
Speaker 1: that is accepting applications right now. We're covering everything. I
Speaker 1: just got a call from the Drew League again. It's
Speaker 1: about twenty plus years that I've been giving back to
Speaker 1: the Drew League so many different levels of sports. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hopefully continue our time with Kanye and Donta Sports. Um.
Speaker 1: I really just want to start creating a little bit
Speaker 1: more series on how to help manage athletes bodies with
Speaker 1: preventing injuries and learning how to recover better. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna stay tuned to get some more access this summer
Speaker 1: to get in some of these gems that have AU
Speaker 1: tournaments and just hold little sessions on stretching and hydration
Speaker 1: and taping yourself and managing you know, yourself as an athlete.
Speaker 1: It's so important to be able to take care of yourselves.
Speaker 1: I feel like if you learned a lot when you're younger,
Speaker 1: you might be able to come out a little bit better,
Speaker 1: being able to provide more um self love, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Getting why they're young, give them that foundation,
Speaker 1: teach them how to do it. Yes, So thank you
Speaker 1: for your time, looking forward to more absolutely ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Dr Courtney Watson