Nancy Lieberman is a Hall of Fame basketball legend, pioneer, coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth. A two-time national champion at Old Dominion University and one of the most respected voices in basketball, she has dedicated her life to creating opportunity, hope, and safe spaces for children through sports, education, and mentorship.
Nancy Lieberman discusses her highly-acclaimed professional basketball career, the influence Muhammad Ali had on her life, the impact of Title XI, her extensive charitable endeavors, and shares advice on staying healthy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to q Ward that he's
having a travel day today and so we have a
special guest on for you today. And before we get
into today's conversation with our very special guest, longtime listeners
(00:26):
will know that, you know, we are very fortunate and
that we get to travel the country quite a bit
and we get to meet a lot of really cool,
interesting people. You know, Q and I we work in
in the allyship space and in the broadcast space, and
in the social justice and activism space, and we have
done so for quite a long time, and that puts
(00:47):
you kind of at a lot of neat little intersections.
And a few weeks ago we were in Dallas, Texas,
and we again had a chance to meet some amazing
folks that do amazing work, really really influential change makers,
and you know, we ended up at a I don't
(01:08):
want to call it a party, but maybe it was
a gathering, and you know, there were a lot of
doctors and you know, people that are doing good work,
you know, cancer research and you know, trying to you know,
eradicate diseases and other ailments. And there was a woman
there that had a ton of personality and she was
(01:29):
just lighting up the room. And I forgive how it sounds,
but she was I think immediately attracted to us, like
drawn to us in that way, because when you and
I are moving around, we you know, we tend to
we're you know, we're orators, and so you know, it's
very easy for us, I think, to find ourselves in
some really cool conversations. And so we ended up talking
(01:51):
with this woman and it turned out that she was
a in a very famous athlete, someone who had been
extremely active in you know, in her field, in her lane,
but also in several other lanes. And she's one of
those folks that's trying to bring attention to disparate health
care health care outcomes and uh, you know, and she
(02:14):
had spent some time, you know, playing on the local
professional basketball team. Uh and and on and on and on,
and so we got to talking to her and when
she made her self known, then it was like, ah,
that's where we know you're from, Okay, And we just
got to talk and it was such a really special
conversation and there was a few conversations that we're still
(02:35):
hoping to be able to share with you. But you know,
us working in the ally Ship space, us wanting to
connect real change makers and people that are really doing
what we believe to be really special work that is
aligned I think with the general h ideas and philosophies
(02:58):
that we share across the spectrum of humanity. People that
are successful in that way, people that can dedicate a
significant amount of their lives to that. I think that
serves as a beacon and as an inspiration to all
of us who feel like we can be better brothers
and sisters to each other. And so I will introduce
(03:20):
our guest. Nancy Lieberman is a Hall of Fame basketball legend, pioneer, coach, broadcaster,
and lifelong advocate for underserved youth, A two time national
champion at Old Dominion University, and one of the most
respected voices in basketball. She has dedicated her life to
creating opportunity, hope, and safe spaces for children through sports,
(03:43):
education and mentorship. Her core values or service integrity, inclusion, discipline,
and compassion, and she believes Every child, regardless of zip code, race,
or economic circumstance, deserves access to quality courts, positive role models,
and the chance to dream bigger through projects like Dream Courts.
(04:03):
Alongside Gary Payton, Nancy continues to invest in underserved and
black communities because she knows sports can change lives, build confidence,
and unite neighborhoods. And now, Nancy Lieberman, all right, Nancy,
welcome to the show. We've been wanting to get you on,
and now we got you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
We're out rams that we're here finally. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Indeed, I guess it was.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I love you, and you do, by the way, that
that's why I'm doing this because you hit my heart
when we met you, and I love your enthusiasm, I
love your focus, and I just have gratitude coming on
here and sharing my story and what we do for
the world.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Sure, sure, I appreciate you saying that, and that feeling
is mutual, and we're going to get into all those
stories because obviously you are a fantastic change maker and
a person that really I think can give a lot
of our listeners insight into what allyship looks like. You know,
(05:07):
the show is built on the idea that we can
bolster and foster allyship across racial lines, and you know,
people in a position to do that that do it
really serve as great role models. And someone like you,
obviously who doesn't really need to do that. Your life
has been filled with so much purpose and so much
(05:29):
in the way of accomplishment for you to be such
a giver and so moved by the stories you know
throughout your life that you were able to share with
me and hopefully today you'll be able to share with
our listeners. I think that highlighting your journey and the
work that you're doing is it's an honor to be
able to even do it. So thank you for being
on the show.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Thank you for saying that. You know, I mean, we
all get a chance to do God's work and to
do something bigger than ourselves. Had you caught me twenty
five years ago when it was all about Lady Magic
and being the goat and do you know there's different
phases of your life right there's For me, it was learning, earning, returning.
What am I giving back? What's my legacy is my
(06:11):
legacy that I really needed to be the greatest basketball
player of all time, maybe in my twenties and thirties,
when I probably didn't have the confidence and self esteem
that and understand my placement today. But when you have again,
by the grace of God, a mentor, a friend, and
somebody who changed my life, Muhammad Ali. And you can
(06:35):
hold the pictures side to side and you can see
we don't look alike. But twenty one years old, here
we were being a headliner in New York together after
all Dominion won our first championship and a player of
the Year in college basketball. And I'm going back to
New York where I grew up and I'm doing an
(06:56):
appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, a fundraiser for
the Olympic. And we're going up with the escalator. And
I was so New York like I used to talk
like this, how you doing? Why are you looking at
me like that? And then ESPN sent me to elocution school.
Go figure. So I looked at the guy and I
was with my mom and my friend and I said, yo, like,
who's the other athlete with me? And he goes what,
(07:18):
I go, who's the other athlete with me? And he goes, yeah,
I know We're going in the green room. It's you
and Muhammad Ali, and I fell in love with Ali
when I was ten, When I was a hot mess.
There was no Title nine, there was no gender equity,
there was no WNBA in Arab purview. I was getting
fistfights every day because people were making fun of me
because I had no food, I had no father, we
(07:39):
had no heat, we had no electricity. We were a
grandparent today, you would say from being on snap back.
Then it was food stamps. And I was just so
angry in my childhood and sports. By seeing Muhammad Ali
on TV, I just got this sense that I love
my mom, but there was not a day I wanted
(08:01):
to be my mom because he sat there in the
kitchen crying, waiting for my father to send an alimony
check that never came. And I could look at her
at eight nine years old and say, this is not
going to be my life. That's your life. You want
to live like that, you do that, but I'm not
living like that. And so sports gave me fulfillment. Ali
(08:23):
gave me direction, even though we didn't know each other
at that point. So I decide I'm going to stop
beating people up or getting in fist fights. I didn't
know if I was going to kill you. Quite honestly,
I didn't know if I was going to kill me,
and I was just so broken and damaged. And then
the Ali factor. I start playing hard and practicing. I
(08:46):
make the Olympic team in high school. I'm still the
youngest Olympic basketball player ever male or female. And we
won the silver in seventy six in Montreal, seventy five.
Nineteen seventy five, I'm on the pan Am team at
sixteen junior. In high school, we went to the gold
medal and things are happening so fast. And then I
get a scholarship which I couldn't afford to go to college.
(09:09):
Then we went in championship. Now let me get you
up to the escalator part. So now I'm a somebody, right,
but I'm still broken, but I'm hiding behind being Nancy Lieberman.
The door opens and it's like Oprah's hum, you know,
and that like light over Ali, and I couldn't believe
Muhammad Ali was in front of me, the man that's
(09:32):
changed my life. And I walk away because my heart
is pounding, and my mom, oh my gosh, so embarrassing parents.
And she goes over and she goes mister Muhammad I'm
REENI REENI leave him in from Queen's and she's all
hanging on his neck. My daughta is the greatest of
all times. He goes, look, lady, there's only one greatest
(09:53):
of all times, and it's me. And she goes, no,
I know you're good, but my daughta, she was screwing
this thing. And he calls me over and I couldn't
even look at him, and I looked down and he goes,
your mom says you're good, and I go, no, mister Muhammad,
I'm the greatest of all times. And mister Ali, I
beat people up every day. And he goes, why do
(10:16):
you hit people? I said, they annoying me. He just sturbed,
laughing at me. He goes, Nancy, you can't beat everybody up.
I said, you do, and he says, I get paid
to hit people. He was the first person who ever
had the guts to look me in the eye and
say you're broken, you're damaged. He taught me to love
(10:37):
me right. I decided long ago never to walk in
anyone's shadow. If I fail, if I succeed, at least
I live as I believe. No matter what they take
from me, they can't take away my dignity because the
greatest level of all is inside of me. I did
not love me, so I hit people when they hurt me.
He never let me go for thirty seven years, and
(11:00):
then the last fifteen I was the one getting the
phone call from Laniya Ali Nancy Mohammed would love to
see you, and I get on a plane and come
to Phoenix and go to the house, you know, and
feed him his food and wipe his mouth and change
the little bib and hug him and tell him how
(11:21):
much I love you and thank you for changing my life.
And he would go, you famous. I go, I'm not famous.
I'm just so happy that you allowed me in your life.
So can I tell you what happened that night in
New York City after our life changer, we go back
to the hotel in New York and we're sitting there.
(11:44):
I had a four hour tutorial. He taught me about racism.
He taught me about what hurt black America. He taught
me like the color, the darkness of somebody's skin. Taught
me things about when you know white people are driving
down this, do you know what's on you? Hear? Click click?
You know the door locks, and I was, And so
(12:05):
you know, I grew up playing in the projects and
playing it at.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Roker Park and ladies fire Right, what was your nickname?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Because of my.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Red hair, they called me fire and my personality and
those guys, I'm not doing your show today without all
my brothers from Worker Park? Who protected, who celebrated me?
Who rowed the train home? Two trains? Right, there's two
chains and I'm two trains and they wrote took me
back to far rockaway. I was teaching my mom not
(12:35):
to be racist or profile, just to be love, and like,
who are these guys? I'm like, that's Ronald, that's Donald,
that's Gary. And they were my friends, Nancy, how are
they your to friends? Mom? We won three games in
a row and they came home with me to make
sure I got here. I thought you were playing at
the park across the street. No, I stole two dollars
from your wallet to take the train. I'm sorry, but
(12:58):
I went to Rucker Park and she goes, Nancy, do
you know how dangerous it is? And I said, yeah,
no one's gonna hurt anybody. So she knew she had
lost me. Fast forward to Ali. He taught me about
being an everyday champion. He taught me about the giver,
not the taker. He taught me about philanthropy, and he
taught me the really the connector this like is so goofy.
(13:20):
Your followers are going to go, She's nuts, he goes, Nancy,
God made you special, right, The most famous Muslim in
the world was telling the white, little Jewish girl from
Queens that God. I didn't even know anything about God
or anything like that. God is great. God made you special.
And I looked him dead in the eye and I went,
(13:41):
you know God too? You know everybody? Mister Ali like,
what's he like? Is he a nice person? And do
I need to know him? And he goes yes, even
as a little Jewish girl, You're gonna have to learn
who God is. And I'm like, okay. It was the
most incredible thing. I didn't know what he meant in
(14:01):
December of nineteen seventy nine, but let me tell you
what I as sure as hell know what he meant
in twenty twenty six, on this day, on this he said,
I was going to change Black America. I understand my role.
What are you going to do? Cancel me? Like I
give a shit. You go ahead cancel me. It doesn't matter.
(14:23):
I was championed by the black community. Why does my
charity give seventeen million dollars called hard cash to sending
one hundred and forty high school seniors to college. Why
do we build dreamports all over the country where there's
five and a half million kids a year learning stam,
financial literacy, kids and cops, you know, civic engagement, career readiness.
(14:45):
I have been instructed by Ali. I know exactly I
am the right person at the right time for the
right assignment because I understand the mission and I'm not
obviously I'm not. And I don't like white people. I
like good people, right. We know black people who are
like they got to stop it. We know white people.
(15:07):
It's like, I'm done with this. I'm for people. I
don't care what your religion is. I don't care what
your belief is. It might be different from my belief,
and it doesn't mean I can't love you respect you
because Muhamma Ali told me the greatest religion of all
is love and kindness. And I'm not moving off of
those words.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well said, well said. To be fair, I got a
chance to hear a little bit of your story when
we first met on the ground in Dallas, but it
was nothing like that. That is it's so special, so
(15:51):
much more special than I even knew. And so I'm
again grateful that you get to share this sort of
message with our audience, for a lot of folks that
are just coming to this conversation, for folks that don't know.
We are on a lot of hip hop stations around
the country. We are on a lot of you know,
(16:11):
spaces where there's going to be different groups of folks listening.
A lot of people, I think, presume that you know
we're doing a black show because we're black men for
black audiences, and that's never been kind of the push here.
The push is to invite everyone into conversations so that
(16:32):
they gain perspective and we can introduce concepts that they
may not know about. It just might not make it
its way to them in their travels. And I think
that one of the things that we cannot convey because
it's just not a part of our story is and
(16:52):
you can correct me if I'm wrong, but one of
the things I'm hearing from you is how fulfilling it
can be to you know, offer yourself in service to
someone else who maybe they cannot return the favor. This
is certainly something that Q and I have done over
the years, you know, with our work with the homeless,
(17:14):
with our work with you know, the lgbt QIA plus communities,
et cetera. You know, because we obviously have a platform
and the capacity to share messaging so to hear your
your story. I think that really does matter to our
listeners who might be maybe I don't know that many
of them are as far along in their journey of
(17:36):
you know, impacting folks. You mentioned that your charity was
donating I remember the number seventeen seventeen million something like that,
or had given away seventeen I'm not sure exactly how
you articulated it, but that scale is not something that
everyone can know.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
What everybody can give. America is most philanthropic country in
the world. Waiter at a restaurant, give twenty dollars. Somebody
can give ten dollars. Somebody can give five dollars. We
can all give. There's different levels of giving. It depends
(18:12):
obviously on your social economic status. You know, I was
the poor kid, but I'm not any longer, so I
can give more and I can do more, but I
can have recognition, and you know, I want to say
something that really and I research you guys, you and
Q also, and I know you know there's been a
(18:33):
lot of horrible things that have happened in the world.
But to me, the murder of George Floyd, let me
be seeing your learn with him right now, it opened
the world's eyes. I mean, you could no longer deny
the brutality. And I'm not saying every police officer is
a bad person because I don't believe that. Do I
(18:56):
think there needs to be a change in culture and training. Yeah,
we have to get better. But I do want to
say this which disappointed me. If I were in Minnesota
that day at that street, on that corner and that
man had his knee on the back of George Floyd,
(19:17):
you know, MUDA ended up getting their ass kicked and
we're going to jail, Nancy Liberman. What disappointed me is
everybody was this. All you were doing is looking for
clicks clicks, and that's bullshit because it was already out there.
This man didn't have to die, and somebody should have
just step back. You can tell me to step back
(19:40):
all you want, but I am going to stop. Please
do not do them. You have him down, if five
of you don't have to be standing on him or
holding him down, handcuff and put him in the car.
Whatever it is. But it bothered me every time I
see that darn footage of people holding their phones and
trying to get clicks doing this on live streams. You're
(20:03):
not helping. That to me is selfish. And if you
think I'm wrong, we can talk about it. That that
still bothers me. That he did not have to die.
Somebody should have interjected themselves and not been afraid to
do that. I know me because I'm like Big Mike
on the blind side. I have protective instincts and obviously
(20:27):
I'm a tough street girl from New York. And you
know even my son TJ, who's a big kid sixty nine,
thirty one years old, he's my mother, your tone, TJ.
I am a street kid by heart. The concentric circle
of who I am. I'm a baller, I'm your mother.
I'm a coach, I'm a philanthropist. I'm you know, an entrepreneur. TV.
(20:52):
I work in the Big three. Que I excuse my boss.
The last eight years I left the NBA to work
for ice Cube. One of my baby boys is Nae Choppa.
When I say baby boy like my boy TJ, my
little boy, he's young. In Choppa, I'm in his rap
video Champions. I thought he wanted to be like a
(21:14):
stupor or pole dancer. Any No, miss Nancy, I'm like,
you were No, you're not giving me credit for my
athletic and he goes, no, I'm doing this with Odell
Beckham and you know, Floyd Mayweather and Lebron James and
all these people. It's about being a champion in everyday laugh.
I go, so, I'm not dancing on a stage with
(21:37):
a pole. He no, like, okay, I just needed to
understand her role in this. So I think I'm funny.
I'm highly sarcastic, but there's a lot of truth and
I like to be happy. And the people go, you know,
n Choppa. Yeah, so he's twenty one and I'm sixty seven.
But you know what, you can't tell us we can't
(21:58):
be friends. Can tell me and you or me you
and Q we can't be friends. Yeah, and change me.
You're not going to tell me who I can be around,
around people who I love care about in respect that's
pretty much my role of life. I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I love it. Well, let's talk about you know, the
work that you're doing. One of the things I want
to make sure that we get it in. You just
launched The Long Game with Jay Harris and the premises
conversations about what it takes to build something that lasts.
So talk to our listeners about this and when we'll
get to the Big Three and the charitable endeavors and
(22:35):
so forth.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So thank you for doing that, by the way, So
the Big the Long Game, it was spawned out of
Jay Harris. We're both monarchs, old demanding monarchs. I'm maybe
six years older than him. We've been inseparable for years.
And the day we met, Jay says it was in
the makeup room, or I say it was in the
(22:57):
makeup room, he says it was on the set. It was,
you know, husband and wife. We go back and forth
with each other. We talk on the phone like little girls.
When you bring him on the show, don't use that
word that Nancy said. We talk like little girls. We
talk about life, we talk about love, we talk about politics,
we talk about sex, we talk about tattoos, we talk
about systemic racism, We talk about anti semitary We I
(23:23):
mean nothing. We don't agree on everything, but we hear
each other. And then, sadly for me, I make a
statement and Jay says, yes, okay, and then he researches it,
which pisses me off. And then he sends me research
and I go, dude, I didn't go to class at
(23:43):
old Dominion. My job was to hang championship banners. You
actually had to go to classs. And so he gives
me research and now he's forced me to be open minded.
He's forced me to see things differently. And I'm always
open It doesn't have to be my way, although I'm
going to fight to the to the death of letting
(24:04):
you see it my way. But then I'm like, day,
I never thought about it like that. Wow, that I
didn't realize that. So we talk. The overcast is a
different word. It's you know, culture. It's when business and
culture and sports all collide in this thing called our
(24:24):
world and everything's on the table that we talk about.
And you know, we've already filmed with Gary Payton, the Glove,
one of the seventy five greatest players in the history
of the NBA. We've already filmed which is going to
air shortly with Mark Cuban. And Mark and I played
against each other basketball in the in the mid eighties.
(24:46):
I don't think he was a billionaire. Then we were
bawling three or four days a week against each other.
And then all of a sudden he becomes Mark Cuban,
and then you know, I live in Dallas, so you know,
he buy he buys the Mavericks. So we're going to
have really cool people and we're going to talk to
them about life. We're gonna have great fun graphics. The
(25:09):
visuals are going to be different than a regular podcast,
and we hope that people will enjoy. You know, I
guess Jay's the on the storyteller and he's the Quinn's
essential anchor. The man's got four Emmys at ESPN, at
(25:31):
you know, at ESPN. He's amazing and what brought us
together for real, for real. About ten months ago, I
get a phone calls at night. He's on the phone
with his wife, Stephanie, and he goes Nancy and I'm
like Jay, and he goes, I have prostate cancer. I'm like,
what are you talking about. You're big, you're strong, you're amazing.
(25:52):
He got diagnosed with prostate cancer. So I it was
like a kick in the stomach to me, and here
I am, what do I do? How do I help?
So I didn't know anything about it. I've heard it.
So I called a friend of mine here in Dallas
who's been a great mentor, and I said, Nilan, and
he's African American. I go, I don't know what to do.
I know you work with Prostate Cancer Foundation. So he
(26:15):
connected me with the CEO, Gina Carriers. I talked to her.
Then after my Big three season, I went to see
her a year ago. This is what she told me,
like the first twenty minutes in the office with her
team of thirty people. I said, Gina, what can I do?
How can I help? And she goes, Nancy, we raised
(26:35):
you know, sixty seventy whatever million dollars to research, and
she's talking. I go, I got to be honest with you.
We don't we don't really know what research means. We
the people, We're not the scientist, we're not the doctors.
So what does that money from research? Where does it go?
How do I help my friends? And she said, well,
let me give you this. One in eight men in
(26:57):
the world are going to get prosta answer one in
six or black men at two and a half times
to one to men who are white. And I'm like,
how is that that black men are getting prostate cancer
two and a half times to white men. What's the origin?
I mean, what is research? Where are we getting all this?
(27:19):
What's the study? She goes, Nancy, I can raise millions
and millions of dollars for research. I can't get open
the door to Black America. And I said, I can
open any door you want in Black America, any door, sure,
from any league, to any hall of fame, to the NAACP.
Tell me what I can do, and I will do that.
(27:41):
And it just took a life of its own. If
you're forty and please look me in the eye. If
you're a male forty to forty five years old, if
you have prostate cancer in your family, go to the doctor.
It's a blood test. It's not the old fashioned. Do
not be afraid that somebody's going to touch you or
emasculate you. You know, bend over, you know it's different.
(28:05):
Times have changed. Black, My brothers, you need to know
who your doctors are. I know you don't like to
go buying large to the doctors, and we the people
you love you are nudging you, and we become a
pain in the I don't want to say behind, but
we become a pain. Please. It's because we care so much.
Your kids care, your auntie's care, your grandma cares. We
(28:27):
got to push you to go to the doctor. It's
a blood test. It's called a PSA Prostate specific antigen test,
and sometimes doctors, if it's not on your insurance, they
won't check the box. Okay, you have to advocate for
yourself and say I need the PSA box checked because
(28:47):
if they don't get paid for insurance, sometimes they won't
do it. If this metastasizes and it gets into your
organs or your bones, into your blood system, it's not
going to be a good situation for you. But if
you do it early, the way Alonzo mourning the Hall
of Famer, the way Jay Harris did and so many others,
(29:10):
you will have a ninety nine point nine percent chance
of living an incredible life. So you have to check
the box. So I went to Gina at Prostate Cancer
and I'm like, okay, I just voted, and they gave
me a little thing they slapped on my shirt that said,
I voted, and I'm like, holy crap, I'm sorry. I
have a bad mouth. I said, we got it. Check
(29:34):
the box. It's a campaign. We're going to save lives together.
We'll get a big box. We'll check it like the
swish on. Everybody knows the Swish. So we I call
the Basketball Hall of Fame. Thank you, John Deliver the
president instantaneously. On Martin Luther King Day. This year, we
had a big Pross Day cancer event on Jerry Colangelo
(29:56):
Center Court and he's a prostate cancer survivor. Okay. Then
they did media at the Whopaul Classic. Then I went
to Antonio Davis, the CEO of the Retired Players Association
for Basketball and who I'm on the board with, and
I said, we got to do we have health screenings
(30:19):
in California at the All Star Game. All these guys
went through and they were getting their blood test and
checked and you're seeing what their levels were. Jay came
out there and started speaking to people. It was electric.
Then I went to Ice Cube. I went to his concert.
Here by the way, it's a crick concert. If you
haven't been there, go fifty years of hip hop. And
(30:41):
I went into the dressing room about two hours before
the show, and I said, Cube, I have to ask
you a question. And I told him what I'm telling you.
I said, have you been tested? He goes, yes, and
my dad's been tested. I said, this is what I'm
doing and he said done So. Now in every Big
three city this year ten weeks or so, we'll have
free prostate testing and you could have a ticket to
(31:06):
the game, or not have a ticket to the game,
but you could have testing if we're doing it in
your city, and then you'll get a cool swag gift
for getting tested. But we're trying to go into communities
and tell we're here. We want to partner with you,
we want to help you. We don't want you to
have to pay for a lot of these tests if
we can help do free testing. And I know I've
(31:29):
gone longer than you wanted me to go on this subject.
I'm tired of talking and speaking at funerals for black men.
I had to do that for my dear friend Michael
Ray Richardson four time NBA all start with the Nixon
Neetts who died six months ago. He didn't want to
tell anybody. He didn't want to tell anybody that he
had prostate cancer. Please let us help you. We don't
(31:52):
want to lose you. And that member the returning part
of my life. This is part of the returning part
of my life. Black America, you helped build me, make
me celebrate me. The least I can do is give
back being with Ali those last fifteen years and holding him,
(32:12):
hugging him, thanking him, speaking. You know, they call me
and say, hey, Muhammad has to do this event in
New York. Will umc it? Uh huh, And they said,
we didn't tell you the date. It doesn't matter. I'll
cancel what I have. When I got my first coaching
job with the Sacramento Kings as the second femal you know,
coach in the NBA in NBA history, Ali showed up
(32:35):
to the game in Phoenix like DeMarcus Cousins in Rondo
are like, what's the champ doing there? And somebody goes, oh,
that's coach's friend, that's street cred. Yeah, and you know,
so there's so many ties and I know I probably
have derailed you, and I'm sorry. That's why my seven
ex husbands. No, I don't have seven, it felt like
(32:56):
there was one. It felt like seven.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well, how about this. I wanted you to say everything
that you said, so you don't worry about me. We'll
take a break right now. But obviously your passion is
inspirational and the work that you're doing is exceptionally meaningful.
So I appreciate everything you've said so far, so stay tuned.
(33:19):
We'll be back with more right after this
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to q Ward that he's
having a travel day today and so we have a
special guest on for you today. And before we get
into today's conversation with our very special guest, longtime listeners
(00:26):
will know that, you know, we are very fortunate and
that we get to travel the country quite a bit
and we get to meet a lot of really cool,
interesting people. You know, Q and I we work in
in the allyship space and in the broadcast space, and
in the social justice and activism space, and we have
done so for quite a long time, and that puts
(00:47):
you kind of at a lot of neat little intersections.
And a few weeks ago we were in Dallas, Texas,
and we again had a chance to meet some amazing
folks that do amazing work, really really influential change makers,
and you know, we ended up at a I don't
(01:08):
want to call it a party, but maybe it was
a gathering, and you know, there were a lot of
doctors and you know, people that are doing good work,
you know, cancer research and you know, trying to you know,
eradicate diseases and other ailments. And there was a woman
there that had a ton of personality and she was
(01:29):
just lighting up the room. And I forgive how it sounds,
but she was I think immediately attracted to us, like
drawn to us in that way, because when you and
I are moving around, we you know, we tend to
we're you know, we're orators, and so you know, it's
very easy for us, I think, to find ourselves in
some really cool conversations. And so we ended up talking
(01:51):
with this woman and it turned out that she was
a in a very famous athlete, someone who had been
extremely active in you know, in her field, in her lane,
but also in several other lanes. And she's one of
those folks that's trying to bring attention to disparate health
care health care outcomes and uh, you know, and she
(02:14):
had spent some time, you know, playing on the local
professional basketball team. Uh and and on and on and on,
and so we got to talking to her and when
she made her self known, then it was like, ah,
that's where we know you're from, Okay, And we just
got to talk and it was such a really special
conversation and there was a few conversations that we're still
(02:35):
hoping to be able to share with you. But you know,
us working in the ally Ship space, us wanting to
connect real change makers and people that are really doing
what we believe to be really special work that is
aligned I think with the general h ideas and philosophies
(02:58):
that we share across the spectrum of humanity. People that
are successful in that way, people that can dedicate a
significant amount of their lives to that. I think that
serves as a beacon and as an inspiration to all
of us who feel like we can be better brothers
and sisters to each other. And so I will introduce
(03:20):
our guest. Nancy Lieberman is a Hall of Fame basketball legend, pioneer, coach, broadcaster,
and lifelong advocate for underserved youth, A two time national
champion at Old Dominion University, and one of the most
respected voices in basketball. She has dedicated her life to
creating opportunity, hope, and safe spaces for children through sports,
(03:43):
education and mentorship. Her core values or service integrity, inclusion, discipline,
and compassion, and she believes Every child, regardless of zip code, race,
or economic circumstance, deserves access to quality courts, positive role models,
and the chance to dream bigger through projects like Dream Courts.
(04:03):
Alongside Gary Payton, Nancy continues to invest in underserved and
black communities because she knows sports can change lives, build confidence,
and unite neighborhoods. And now, Nancy Lieberman, all right, Nancy,
welcome to the show. We've been wanting to get you on,
and now we got you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
We're out rams that we're here finally. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Indeed, I guess it was.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I love you, and you do, by the way, that
that's why I'm doing this because you hit my heart
when we met you, and I love your enthusiasm, I
love your focus, and I just have gratitude coming on
here and sharing my story and what we do for
the world.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Sure, sure, I appreciate you saying that, and that feeling
is mutual, and we're going to get into all those
stories because obviously you are a fantastic change maker and
a person that really I think can give a lot
of our listeners insight into what allyship looks like. You know,
(05:07):
the show is built on the idea that we can
bolster and foster allyship across racial lines, and you know,
people in a position to do that that do it
really serve as great role models. And someone like you,
obviously who doesn't really need to do that. Your life
has been filled with so much purpose and so much
(05:29):
in the way of accomplishment for you to be such
a giver and so moved by the stories you know
throughout your life that you were able to share with
me and hopefully today you'll be able to share with
our listeners. I think that highlighting your journey and the
work that you're doing is it's an honor to be
able to even do it. So thank you for being
on the show.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Thank you for saying that. You know, I mean, we
all get a chance to do God's work and to
do something bigger than ourselves. Had you caught me twenty
five years ago when it was all about Lady Magic
and being the goat and do you know there's different
phases of your life right there's For me, it was learning, earning, returning.
What am I giving back? What's my legacy is my
(06:11):
legacy that I really needed to be the greatest basketball
player of all time, maybe in my twenties and thirties,
when I probably didn't have the confidence and self esteem
that and understand my placement today. But when you have again,
by the grace of God, a mentor, a friend, and
somebody who changed my life, Muhammad Ali. And you can
(06:35):
hold the pictures side to side and you can see
we don't look alike. But twenty one years old, here
we were being a headliner in New York together after
all Dominion won our first championship and a player of
the Year in college basketball. And I'm going back to
New York where I grew up and I'm doing an
(06:56):
appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, a fundraiser for
the Olympic. And we're going up with the escalator. And
I was so New York like I used to talk
like this, how you doing? Why are you looking at
me like that? And then ESPN sent me to elocution school.
Go figure. So I looked at the guy and I
was with my mom and my friend and I said, yo, like,
who's the other athlete with me? And he goes what,
(07:18):
I go, who's the other athlete with me? And he goes, yeah,
I know We're going in the green room. It's you
and Muhammad Ali, and I fell in love with Ali
when I was ten, When I was a hot mess.
There was no Title nine, there was no gender equity,
there was no WNBA in Arab purview. I was getting
fistfights every day because people were making fun of me
because I had no food, I had no father, we
(07:39):
had no heat, we had no electricity. We were a
grandparent today, you would say from being on snap back.
Then it was food stamps. And I was just so
angry in my childhood and sports. By seeing Muhammad Ali
on TV, I just got this sense that I love
my mom, but there was not a day I wanted
(08:01):
to be my mom because he sat there in the
kitchen crying, waiting for my father to send an alimony
check that never came. And I could look at her
at eight nine years old and say, this is not
going to be my life. That's your life. You want
to live like that, you do that, but I'm not
living like that. And so sports gave me fulfillment. Ali
(08:23):
gave me direction, even though we didn't know each other
at that point. So I decide I'm going to stop
beating people up or getting in fist fights. I didn't
know if I was going to kill you. Quite honestly,
I didn't know if I was going to kill me,
and I was just so broken and damaged. And then
the Ali factor. I start playing hard and practicing. I
(08:46):
make the Olympic team in high school. I'm still the
youngest Olympic basketball player ever male or female. And we
won the silver in seventy six in Montreal, seventy five.
Nineteen seventy five, I'm on the pan Am team at
sixteen junior. In high school, we went to the gold
medal and things are happening so fast. And then I
get a scholarship which I couldn't afford to go to college.
(09:09):
Then we went in championship. Now let me get you
up to the escalator part. So now I'm a somebody, right,
but I'm still broken, but I'm hiding behind being Nancy Lieberman.
The door opens and it's like Oprah's hum, you know,
and that like light over Ali, and I couldn't believe
Muhammad Ali was in front of me, the man that's
(09:32):
changed my life. And I walk away because my heart
is pounding, and my mom, oh my gosh, so embarrassing parents.
And she goes over and she goes mister Muhammad I'm
REENI REENI leave him in from Queen's and she's all
hanging on his neck. My daughta is the greatest of
all times. He goes, look, lady, there's only one greatest
(09:53):
of all times, and it's me. And she goes, no,
I know you're good, but my daughta, she was screwing
this thing. And he calls me over and I couldn't
even look at him, and I looked down and he goes,
your mom says you're good, and I go, no, mister Muhammad,
I'm the greatest of all times. And mister Ali, I
beat people up every day. And he goes, why do
(10:16):
you hit people? I said, they annoying me. He just sturbed,
laughing at me. He goes, Nancy, you can't beat everybody up.
I said, you do, and he says, I get paid
to hit people. He was the first person who ever
had the guts to look me in the eye and
say you're broken, you're damaged. He taught me to love
(10:37):
me right. I decided long ago never to walk in
anyone's shadow. If I fail, if I succeed, at least
I live as I believe. No matter what they take
from me, they can't take away my dignity because the
greatest level of all is inside of me. I did
not love me, so I hit people when they hurt me.
He never let me go for thirty seven years, and
(11:00):
then the last fifteen I was the one getting the
phone call from Laniya Ali Nancy Mohammed would love to
see you, and I get on a plane and come
to Phoenix and go to the house, you know, and
feed him his food and wipe his mouth and change
the little bib and hug him and tell him how
(11:21):
much I love you and thank you for changing my life.
And he would go, you famous. I go, I'm not famous.
I'm just so happy that you allowed me in your life.
So can I tell you what happened that night in
New York City after our life changer, we go back
to the hotel in New York and we're sitting there.
(11:44):
I had a four hour tutorial. He taught me about racism.
He taught me about what hurt black America. He taught
me like the color, the darkness of somebody's skin. Taught
me things about when you know white people are driving
down this, do you know what's on you? Hear? Click click?
You know the door locks, and I was, And so
(12:05):
you know, I grew up playing in the projects and
playing it at.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Roker Park and ladies fire Right, what was your nickname?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Because of my.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Red hair, they called me fire and my personality and
those guys, I'm not doing your show today without all
my brothers from Worker Park? Who protected, who celebrated me?
Who rowed the train home? Two trains? Right, there's two
chains and I'm two trains and they wrote took me
back to far rockaway. I was teaching my mom not
(12:35):
to be racist or profile, just to be love, and like,
who are these guys? I'm like, that's Ronald, that's Donald,
that's Gary. And they were my friends, Nancy, how are
they your to friends? Mom? We won three games in
a row and they came home with me to make
sure I got here. I thought you were playing at
the park across the street. No, I stole two dollars
from your wallet to take the train. I'm sorry, but
(12:58):
I went to Rucker Park and she goes, Nancy, do
you know how dangerous it is? And I said, yeah,
no one's gonna hurt anybody. So she knew she had
lost me. Fast forward to Ali. He taught me about
being an everyday champion. He taught me about the giver,
not the taker. He taught me about philanthropy, and he
taught me the really the connector this like is so goofy.
(13:20):
Your followers are going to go, She's nuts, he goes, Nancy,
God made you special, right, The most famous Muslim in
the world was telling the white, little Jewish girl from
Queens that God. I didn't even know anything about God
or anything like that. God is great. God made you special.
And I looked him dead in the eye and I went,
(13:41):
you know God too? You know everybody? Mister Ali like,
what's he like? Is he a nice person? And do
I need to know him? And he goes yes, even
as a little Jewish girl, You're gonna have to learn
who God is. And I'm like, okay. It was the
most incredible thing. I didn't know what he meant in
(14:01):
December of nineteen seventy nine, but let me tell you
what I as sure as hell know what he meant
in twenty twenty six, on this day, on this he said,
I was going to change Black America. I understand my role.
What are you going to do? Cancel me? Like I
give a shit. You go ahead cancel me. It doesn't matter.
(14:23):
I was championed by the black community. Why does my
charity give seventeen million dollars called hard cash to sending
one hundred and forty high school seniors to college. Why
do we build dreamports all over the country where there's
five and a half million kids a year learning stam,
financial literacy, kids and cops, you know, civic engagement, career readiness.
(14:45):
I have been instructed by Ali. I know exactly I
am the right person at the right time for the
right assignment because I understand the mission and I'm not
obviously I'm not. And I don't like white people. I
like good people, right. We know black people who are
like they got to stop it. We know white people.
(15:07):
It's like, I'm done with this. I'm for people. I
don't care what your religion is. I don't care what
your belief is. It might be different from my belief,
and it doesn't mean I can't love you respect you
because Muhamma Ali told me the greatest religion of all
is love and kindness. And I'm not moving off of
those words.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well said, well said. To be fair, I got a
chance to hear a little bit of your story when
we first met on the ground in Dallas, but it
was nothing like that. That is it's so special, so
(15:51):
much more special than I even knew. And so I'm
again grateful that you get to share this sort of
message with our audience, for a lot of folks that
are just coming to this conversation, for folks that don't know.
We are on a lot of hip hop stations around
the country. We are on a lot of you know,
(16:11):
spaces where there's going to be different groups of folks listening.
A lot of people, I think, presume that you know
we're doing a black show because we're black men for
black audiences, and that's never been kind of the push here.
The push is to invite everyone into conversations so that
(16:32):
they gain perspective and we can introduce concepts that they
may not know about. It just might not make it
its way to them in their travels. And I think
that one of the things that we cannot convey because
it's just not a part of our story is and
(16:52):
you can correct me if I'm wrong, but one of
the things I'm hearing from you is how fulfilling it
can be to you know, offer yourself in service to
someone else who maybe they cannot return the favor. This
is certainly something that Q and I have done over
the years, you know, with our work with the homeless,
(17:14):
with our work with you know, the lgbt QIA plus communities,
et cetera. You know, because we obviously have a platform
and the capacity to share messaging so to hear your
your story. I think that really does matter to our
listeners who might be maybe I don't know that many
of them are as far along in their journey of
(17:36):
you know, impacting folks. You mentioned that your charity was
donating I remember the number seventeen seventeen million something like that,
or had given away seventeen I'm not sure exactly how
you articulated it, but that scale is not something that
everyone can know.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
What everybody can give. America is most philanthropic country in
the world. Waiter at a restaurant, give twenty dollars. Somebody
can give ten dollars. Somebody can give five dollars. We
can all give. There's different levels of giving. It depends
(18:12):
obviously on your social economic status. You know, I was
the poor kid, but I'm not any longer, so I
can give more and I can do more, but I
can have recognition, and you know, I want to say
something that really and I research you guys, you and
Q also, and I know you know there's been a
(18:33):
lot of horrible things that have happened in the world.
But to me, the murder of George Floyd, let me
be seeing your learn with him right now, it opened
the world's eyes. I mean, you could no longer deny
the brutality. And I'm not saying every police officer is
a bad person because I don't believe that. Do I
(18:56):
think there needs to be a change in culture and training. Yeah,
we have to get better. But I do want to
say this which disappointed me. If I were in Minnesota
that day at that street, on that corner and that
man had his knee on the back of George Floyd,
(19:17):
you know, MUDA ended up getting their ass kicked and
we're going to jail, Nancy Liberman. What disappointed me is
everybody was this. All you were doing is looking for
clicks clicks, and that's bullshit because it was already out there.
This man didn't have to die, and somebody should have
just step back. You can tell me to step back
(19:40):
all you want, but I am going to stop. Please
do not do them. You have him down, if five
of you don't have to be standing on him or
holding him down, handcuff and put him in the car.
Whatever it is. But it bothered me every time I
see that darn footage of people holding their phones and
trying to get clicks doing this on live streams. You're
(20:03):
not helping. That to me is selfish. And if you
think I'm wrong, we can talk about it. That that
still bothers me. That he did not have to die.
Somebody should have interjected themselves and not been afraid to
do that. I know me because I'm like Big Mike
on the blind side. I have protective instincts and obviously
(20:27):
I'm a tough street girl from New York. And you
know even my son TJ, who's a big kid sixty nine,
thirty one years old, he's my mother, your tone, TJ.
I am a street kid by heart. The concentric circle
of who I am. I'm a baller, I'm your mother.
I'm a coach, I'm a philanthropist. I'm you know, an entrepreneur. TV.
(20:52):
I work in the Big three. Que I excuse my boss.
The last eight years I left the NBA to work
for ice Cube. One of my baby boys is Nae Choppa.
When I say baby boy like my boy TJ, my
little boy, he's young. In Choppa, I'm in his rap
video Champions. I thought he wanted to be like a
(21:14):
stupor or pole dancer. Any No, miss Nancy, I'm like,
you were No, you're not giving me credit for my
athletic and he goes, no, I'm doing this with Odell
Beckham and you know, Floyd Mayweather and Lebron James and
all these people. It's about being a champion in everyday laugh.
I go, so, I'm not dancing on a stage with
(21:37):
a pole. He no, like, okay, I just needed to
understand her role in this. So I think I'm funny.
I'm highly sarcastic, but there's a lot of truth and
I like to be happy. And the people go, you know,
n Choppa. Yeah, so he's twenty one and I'm sixty seven.
But you know what, you can't tell us we can't
(21:58):
be friends. Can tell me and you or me you
and Q we can't be friends. Yeah, and change me.
You're not going to tell me who I can be around,
around people who I love care about in respect that's
pretty much my role of life. I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I love it. Well, let's talk about you know, the
work that you're doing. One of the things I want
to make sure that we get it in. You just
launched The Long Game with Jay Harris and the premises
conversations about what it takes to build something that lasts.
So talk to our listeners about this and when we'll
get to the Big Three and the charitable endeavors and
(22:35):
so forth.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So thank you for doing that, by the way, So
the Big the Long Game, it was spawned out of
Jay Harris. We're both monarchs, old demanding monarchs. I'm maybe
six years older than him. We've been inseparable for years.
And the day we met, Jay says it was in
the makeup room, or I say it was in the
(22:57):
makeup room, he says it was on the set. It was,
you know, husband and wife. We go back and forth
with each other. We talk on the phone like little girls.
When you bring him on the show, don't use that
word that Nancy said. We talk like little girls. We
talk about life, we talk about love, we talk about politics,
we talk about sex, we talk about tattoos, we talk
about systemic racism, We talk about anti semitary We I
(23:23):
mean nothing. We don't agree on everything, but we hear
each other. And then, sadly for me, I make a
statement and Jay says, yes, okay, and then he researches it,
which pisses me off. And then he sends me research
and I go, dude, I didn't go to class at
(23:43):
old Dominion. My job was to hang championship banners. You
actually had to go to classs. And so he gives
me research and now he's forced me to be open minded.
He's forced me to see things differently. And I'm always
open It doesn't have to be my way, although I'm
going to fight to the to the death of letting
(24:04):
you see it my way. But then I'm like, day,
I never thought about it like that. Wow, that I
didn't realize that. So we talk. The overcast is a
different word. It's you know, culture. It's when business and
culture and sports all collide in this thing called our
(24:24):
world and everything's on the table that we talk about.
And you know, we've already filmed with Gary Payton, the Glove,
one of the seventy five greatest players in the history
of the NBA. We've already filmed which is going to
air shortly with Mark Cuban. And Mark and I played
against each other basketball in the in the mid eighties.
(24:46):
I don't think he was a billionaire. Then we were
bawling three or four days a week against each other.
And then all of a sudden he becomes Mark Cuban,
and then you know, I live in Dallas, so you know,
he buy he buys the Mavericks. So we're going to
have really cool people and we're going to talk to
them about life. We're gonna have great fun graphics. The
(25:09):
visuals are going to be different than a regular podcast,
and we hope that people will enjoy. You know, I
guess Jay's the on the storyteller and he's the Quinn's
essential anchor. The man's got four Emmys at ESPN, at
(25:31):
you know, at ESPN. He's amazing and what brought us
together for real, for real. About ten months ago, I
get a phone calls at night. He's on the phone
with his wife, Stephanie, and he goes Nancy and I'm
like Jay, and he goes, I have prostate cancer. I'm like,
what are you talking about. You're big, you're strong, you're amazing.
(25:52):
He got diagnosed with prostate cancer. So I it was
like a kick in the stomach to me, and here
I am, what do I do? How do I help?
So I didn't know anything about it. I've heard it.
So I called a friend of mine here in Dallas
who's been a great mentor, and I said, Nilan, and
he's African American. I go, I don't know what to do.
I know you work with Prostate Cancer Foundation. So he
(26:15):
connected me with the CEO, Gina Carriers. I talked to her.
Then after my Big three season, I went to see
her a year ago. This is what she told me,
like the first twenty minutes in the office with her
team of thirty people. I said, Gina, what can I do?
How can I help? And she goes, Nancy, we raised
(26:35):
you know, sixty seventy whatever million dollars to research, and
she's talking. I go, I got to be honest with you.
We don't we don't really know what research means. We
the people, We're not the scientist, we're not the doctors.
So what does that money from research? Where does it go?
How do I help my friends? And she said, well,
let me give you this. One in eight men in
(26:57):
the world are going to get prosta answer one in
six or black men at two and a half times
to one to men who are white. And I'm like,
how is that that black men are getting prostate cancer
two and a half times to white men. What's the origin?
I mean, what is research? Where are we getting all this?
(27:19):
What's the study? She goes, Nancy, I can raise millions
and millions of dollars for research. I can't get open
the door to Black America. And I said, I can
open any door you want in Black America, any door, sure,
from any league, to any hall of fame, to the NAACP.
Tell me what I can do, and I will do that.
(27:41):
And it just took a life of its own. If
you're forty and please look me in the eye. If
you're a male forty to forty five years old, if
you have prostate cancer in your family, go to the doctor.
It's a blood test. It's not the old fashioned. Do
not be afraid that somebody's going to touch you or
emasculate you. You know, bend over, you know it's different.
(28:05):
Times have changed. Black, My brothers, you need to know
who your doctors are. I know you don't like to
go buying large to the doctors, and we the people
you love you are nudging you, and we become a
pain in the I don't want to say behind, but
we become a pain. Please. It's because we care so much.
Your kids care, your auntie's care, your grandma cares. We
(28:27):
got to push you to go to the doctor. It's
a blood test. It's called a PSA Prostate specific antigen test,
and sometimes doctors, if it's not on your insurance, they
won't check the box. Okay, you have to advocate for
yourself and say I need the PSA box checked because
(28:47):
if they don't get paid for insurance, sometimes they won't
do it. If this metastasizes and it gets into your
organs or your bones, into your blood system, it's not
going to be a good situation for you. But if
you do it early, the way Alonzo mourning the Hall
of Famer, the way Jay Harris did and so many others,
(29:10):
you will have a ninety nine point nine percent chance
of living an incredible life. So you have to check
the box. So I went to Gina at Prostate Cancer
and I'm like, okay, I just voted, and they gave
me a little thing they slapped on my shirt that said,
I voted, and I'm like, holy crap, I'm sorry. I
have a bad mouth. I said, we got it. Check
(29:34):
the box. It's a campaign. We're going to save lives together.
We'll get a big box. We'll check it like the
swish on. Everybody knows the Swish. So we I call
the Basketball Hall of Fame. Thank you, John Deliver the
president instantaneously. On Martin Luther King Day. This year, we
had a big Pross Day cancer event on Jerry Colangelo
(29:56):
Center Court and he's a prostate cancer survivor. Okay. Then
they did media at the Whopaul Classic. Then I went
to Antonio Davis, the CEO of the Retired Players Association
for Basketball and who I'm on the board with, and
I said, we got to do we have health screenings
(30:19):
in California at the All Star Game. All these guys
went through and they were getting their blood test and
checked and you're seeing what their levels were. Jay came
out there and started speaking to people. It was electric.
Then I went to Ice Cube. I went to his concert.
Here by the way, it's a crick concert. If you
haven't been there, go fifty years of hip hop. And
(30:41):
I went into the dressing room about two hours before
the show, and I said, Cube, I have to ask
you a question. And I told him what I'm telling you.
I said, have you been tested? He goes, yes, and
my dad's been tested. I said, this is what I'm
doing and he said done So. Now in every Big
three city this year ten weeks or so, we'll have
free prostate testing and you could have a ticket to
(31:06):
the game, or not have a ticket to the game,
but you could have testing if we're doing it in
your city, and then you'll get a cool swag gift
for getting tested. But we're trying to go into communities
and tell we're here. We want to partner with you,
we want to help you. We don't want you to
have to pay for a lot of these tests if
we can help do free testing. And I know I've
(31:29):
gone longer than you wanted me to go on this subject.
I'm tired of talking and speaking at funerals for black men.
I had to do that for my dear friend Michael
Ray Richardson four time NBA all start with the Nixon
Neetts who died six months ago. He didn't want to
tell anybody. He didn't want to tell anybody that he
had prostate cancer. Please let us help you. We don't
(31:52):
want to lose you. And that member the returning part
of my life. This is part of the returning part
of my life. Black America, you helped build me, make
me celebrate me. The least I can do is give
back being with Ali those last fifteen years and holding him,
(32:12):
hugging him, thanking him, speaking. You know, they call me
and say, hey, Muhammad has to do this event in
New York. Will umc it? Uh huh, And they said,
we didn't tell you the date. It doesn't matter. I'll
cancel what I have. When I got my first coaching
job with the Sacramento Kings as the second femal you know,
coach in the NBA in NBA history, Ali showed up
(32:35):
to the game in Phoenix like DeMarcus Cousins in Rondo
are like, what's the champ doing there? And somebody goes, oh,
that's coach's friend, that's street cred. Yeah, and you know,
so there's so many ties and I know I probably
have derailed you, and I'm sorry. That's why my seven
ex husbands. No, I don't have seven, it felt like
(32:56):
there was one. It felt like seven.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well, how about this. I wanted you to say everything
that you said, so you don't worry about me. We'll
take a break right now. But obviously your passion is
inspirational and the work that you're doing is exceptionally meaningful.
So I appreciate everything you've said so far, so stay tuned.
(33:19):
We'll be back with more right after this
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