November 26, 2025 • 52 mins
On today’s episode of Full Circle, Lexie is joined by Phoenix Mercury center Kalani Brown. Along the way, they discuss growing up in a basketball household, her time coached under Kim Mulkey at Baylor, and the ups and downs of her career. Kalani also speaks on her first WNBA Finals run and what’s next for her. Tune in to hear her journey — as unfiltered and real as the game she plays.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Full Circle is an iheartwoman's sports production in partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Full
Circle Podcast. I'm Lexi Brown doing a solo kind of today.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Mariah could not join us, but I'm here with a
very very special guest. She doesn't really do.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Interviews like that, so I'm honored that she decided to
join us today. Canon, my dog is here too. You
already know he wants to be in the mix. My
can Okay, so you heard her voice, But if you're
just listening on audio, we have a former McDonald's All American,
(00:50):
the twenty eighteen Big Twelve Player of the Year, a
College All American, a twenty nineteen NCAA champ, a WNBA
first round pick, and she just completed completed the WNBA
Finals with the Phoenix Mercury. We have Koalanie Brown. Everybody, Yay, clap.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, miss girl. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that
you're here. It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
We just had Drea on and she asked me the
same question as you like what are we going to
talk about? Like, girl, you were talking about you, and
I feel like people don't really know much about you,
Like you're just the mysterious You're the mysterious battie in
the w and I feel like the people need to
know a little bit more about you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So we're gonna start off from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
If you guys didn't know, Klannie comes from an elite pedigree.
Both of her parents played basketball. Her mom played in college,
her dad in the NBA for the Celtics, like mine
won a championship in Boston.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So like, what was that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Like growing up with two parents that and did one
of them in particular steer you to basketball or like
what was that like?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Actually, no, not at all. My dad actually let me
fall in love with the game on my own. That's
like one of the questions that a lot of people
like to ask, did your dad push you into it?
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Or were y'all training?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
The answer is no, Okay, your girl was in dancing,
your girl was in piano lessons.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
I marched in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Parades, I did taekwondo, I did tumbling. You know, he
let me try whatever I wanted to and then when
I was serious, I think when I really I think
when I got my first questionnaire in college, and I
think that was like I mean in high school, and
I think that was that was Baylor, of course, and
(02:43):
it was like my junior year of high school. I
was like, okay, like I could be serious about this.
But I've always played just for fun and because daddy
did it or and my mom coached me. So basketball
was never really on the forefront. It was just something
that I was around and that I did just off
the strength of like I want to be like my dad.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But like, yeah, how old were you when you like
remember picking up a basketball for the first time.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
He was really little, about six, yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I played with him. So my dad, we had
three girls at the time. My little brother was not born,
so he was a little bit. He was under the
impression that he wasn't going to get the boy. So
I was kind of like his boy standing. Yeah, so
he was he was more rough with me. We watched Batman, Pokemon,
you know, all the boys stuff.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
I was a real tomboy coming.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Up because you know, he didn't think he was going
to get one, and so yeah, like that's and so
I would go outside and I would run on the
track with him, I was not keeping up, but you
know I was, Yeah, I was doing everything with my dad.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I'm a true daddy's girl.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Same, I feel like, yeah, like me and Klaney have
like our lives, our lives, how we grew up, our
relationship with our dad. Like it's so like parallel, and
it's so funny that have the same last name.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Because people think we're really white. People think we're related
or because.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Or some of our sisters or something like that, like
a near We have like the same exact life up
to this point, even in the league, which we'll get
to later. When did you like start growing? Because you're
six seven six day.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
My nephew be doing that girl like I'm six seven.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
He takes everyth's so because what does that even mean?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
God, I don't know, but the kids is doing it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I'm here, So when did you start growing? For real?
For real?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So I've always been taller than your average girl, But
like I want to say, when I it's like talling
and it's like.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
You leave everybody. When I left everybody, I feel like it.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Was eighth grade to the summer of me going into
ninth grade, and I went from five to eleven to
six four in one lease.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
That I don't wish that knee pain on.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I bet I can't imagine. What about Like, what was
it like when you came back to school? Like everybody
was like, like what happened?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Because they know I played aau in the summertime, so
I wasn't really around like that. So like when I
came back to school, it was like I was I
was always taller, but not.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Like that's funny because you really typically see that with boys.
You rarely see that with girls, Like they go away
for the summer and then they've sprout it up. So
all right, six four in high school, Okay. I was like,
that's like my dream. So you mentioned that you went
to Baylor. What one what made you go there into?
Like what was your recruiting process?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Like my recruiting process was kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I had literally every almost every school in the country,
if not every school in the country, but still I
was just kind of flowing through it. Like I wasn't
really like serious about it, but like I just like,
oh yeah, like I got colleges. But it wasn't like
an ego thing. It was just like Daddy, I got
Texas today, or I got you tied today, you know,
and he's like, my mom is like freaking out because
(05:52):
she's like a w basketball guru.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Right. She worked for the shortest thing. She was very close.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
She played under Kim as an assistant and Louis end
of tech, so she was like super.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Like hype about the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Me and my dad we kind of laid back, like
all right, cool is happening, Like okay, but it was.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It was. It got pretty over overwhelming because they were the.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Call started, and when that started, I was not like
a tech savvy kind of kid.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I never had my phone on me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You still don't. You still don't have your phone on you.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Now, Like yeah, So that it got a little overwhelming,
but it was a fun process.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Well maybe go to Baylor though was.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
First of all, I Kim Mimake has known me probably
since seventh grade.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I used to go to the camps.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
BG don't like for me to show the picture, but
we do have a camp picture together.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
I showed Scott.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I showed Scott picture when I was in high school
and she was like, yeah, delete this, don't because I
looked a mess.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
She's still looked cute.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
I don't know that you make me feel old.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Yeah, and I think it's still weird that I'm like, wow,
I'm like standing next to you with a little tall,
skinny girl with two left feet, don't know how to
do nothing, and just like you know, now we're guarding.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It's still crazy to me, still crazy to me. But yeah,
just that, just that.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Close connection between Kim my mom, the Louisiana Tech connection.
And then Kim likes to tell this story my mom
left early, she left.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Tech early to marry my dad, and she went off
to the league.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
We love that period Basketball love that.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So yeah, so she's like, you owe her, she left her,
she left her senior year. So Kim was like you
always basically like, so she gave me away kind of thing.
So we always love that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I mean, that's a perfect segment to my next question,
which is, like Kim like a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Only the only people who really know Kim are her players,
And I feel like she's one of the most polarizing
coaches and women's basketball, whether y'all love her or don't
like her, Like, she gets shit done, she gets players
to the league, and she wins.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You can't deny what it is getting to Baylor.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, you knownor since you've been young, Like, what
what was it like playing for Kim? Like what was
what was your experience flavor Kim walk Because the experiences
are there's a spectrum of them, so I'm really interested
to see what it was was Like.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Mine was actually pretty positive. My mom, like I said,
I was playing basketball for fun. I was kind of
relying on my talent for a long time. So taking
me to that next level, my mom wanted to make
sure that somebody would push me, and that somebody is
Kim right. She already got the okay from my parents
to dig digging me, like you know, there was no helicopter.
(08:35):
You know, some parents nowadays, they liked the helicopter. I
didn't have that same most games, like nine times out
of ten, like most kids can call home, and then
I didn't really have that because nine times out of
ten my parents was in cahoots. They were like, you
probably wasn't running or you you know, I saw you
like I saw it, you know, Like so sometimes I
wouldn't even call home because if there was no like
(08:55):
yeah I was, I was. She meant business And I
always tell my recruits too, when I had them, I
was like, okay, now what you see on that TV
is real, like you really get here, and it's like that,
it's not like fun and games.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
She's gonna push you. She doesn't care. All that McDonald's
all American, all that Jordan brand, that don't matter. And
she'd tell you that.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
She actually did tell me that, Okay, like you ain't
entitled to nothing here, You're gonna earn your spot. And
I had five post players in front of me. Now,
she gave each and every one of us a chance.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
But and if you you were doing great, you were
doing great. She left you.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
That was the good thing about it. But everybody was
gonna get they shot, you.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Know, with her, and she just didn't play like I
don't know, like she's just great.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And she respond she seemed like, I don't know if
I would be able to play for her. But I've
always like, I've always like been able to appreciate what
she brings out of players and her winning and the
culture that she creates. And now she's an LSU and
what they're doing is amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And I know if she.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Was an LSU instead of Baylor, you probably would have
been an l s U.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Girls. It was so close up the street LSU was
up the street. So I took so many unofficials to ls.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So did you take did you take all five of
your official visits?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I did? Theres you go? I did? No? I took three.
I took three?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Sorry, not all fine? I think I took three. I
took A and M Tennessee and Baylor?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Which one was the most fun? Don't get over there now,
don't get nobody in trouble.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I don't know. You know what dreadam was my host?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You said you mentioned Drea, But Drea was my host
in Tennessee, Tennessee. I had fun, but I'm going to
give it to A and M. Okay, they know how
to have a time in college station.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I don't know about them official visits.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I'm not going just close who was my Like? Yeah?
I thought the close who was my host?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
But when they're in high school, you get to you
get to be a college student for for forty eight
hours and you're at seventeen station?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, so I freaking bet.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Okay, So y'all won, you went to Baylor, you're playing
you won a championship in twenty nineteen, Like, what was
that season like?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And who's on? Who's on?
Speaker 6 (11:11):
That team with you, like I don't remember me, d
D D D D D me, Chloe Jackson, Juicy Landrum,
Lauren cox Orn, Melssa Alyssa, Queen egg Boone.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
She's another one.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh yeah, squad we had, Yeah, we had a little
squar girl.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
And that was during the time where Sabrina and the
tweeter in the fast and the slow paced basketball and
Kim she still has the same playbook to this day.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And that's one thing.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
About, Yeah, you still can't beat the playbook that she's
had for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, she does. She likes what she likes and she
and she like laces around. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So twenty nineteen, so that was the last championship y'all have,
like the last championship before like women's basketball changed forever.
So yeah, obviously we didn't know COVID was about to happen,
but like Niol was kind of like getting paid in
college was like kind of happening. Like was that something
that y'all even talked about in college because I was
(12:14):
I was in my second year in the league at
that point, So Nio was not even like discussing in
twenty nineteen, like not even that's so crazy. Like, did
y'all were there any conversations about like maybe it's coming
or like y'all had no idea, I had no idea.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Well, yeah, no, we had no idea. As far as
we knew.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
It was against the rule to have like your own
merch and all that.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That crazy, And then twenty twenty happened, and I know
y'all probably like, damn, it was one year.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I was mad. I was mad. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
One year off Like, so if you were okay, I
asked all my friends that I bring on the show
like that were really good in college if you had
like dream collabs and partnerships to do in So we're
not talking about like Kilanie now thinking backwards about Killanie,
twenty one year old.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Killanie in college?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What brands would you like to work with when you're
at Baylor if we had, I would have.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
To say, for sure, man, And that's been and now,
but for sure Mac Cosmetics because in that twenty sixteen
are I don't know you had a lipstick face, but
I had.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I wore dark asthlet stick on my damn lips with
no lip winer, just straight lipstick, straight lips.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, so I would have been with Mac for sure.
So far it wasn't really I wasn't into the like
I am now, but for sure Mac and then all
kinds of hair brands like I wore I wore girl
you was ahead of her because I had last I
love seeing my girls.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
It's so cool.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Yeah, I love seeing my girls.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Now we're going to get into WNBA stuff and I
was gonna save us for the end, but I think
this is a good time to talk about it, like
the off court, the feminine energy that is now like
taking over the w n b A and women's sports
(14:15):
in general. Like I know when I came into the league,
it was still like, uh no, like don't don't have
the hair the next.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Time with the beautiful ballers, you know, beautiful ballers, you
beautiful ballers.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
That girl, that girl you I was.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I used to be trying hard to get on it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
But I'm just because it's like in college it was
such it was so celebrated, like being feminine and beautiful
and liking hair and makeup and nails, and then you
get to the w n b A and they're like,
we hate all of that, like stop all of that.
Did you feel that way when you got drafted, because
I feel like it was shifting a little bit the
(15:00):
year because you got drafted the year after I did.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But when you got into the league, did you feel
like and you, well, you got drafted to l A,
so maybe it was a little different, but no, I
feel like.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
No, it still wasn't the thing I was.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I was drafted to a VET team, right, I had
like the beard Neca, Candice Uh, those main the main
three t rp TR for pet Uh those kind of girls.
So no, not really, Like Chelsea Gray was on that
team too. Yeah, so no, not really, but I was
just like kind of I remember like they kind of
like teased.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Me about my little Louis bag that my mom bought because.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She was like, you're not gonna wear a Nike bag
everywhere you go, like you should wear a Louis bag.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
So they kind of teased me a little bit about
my Louis bag.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So I'm like, I love to think of how they
what they think of it now because these girls are.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Coming in hot.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Louis should now look up all of it. Like Burkins
plural have multiple burkins is that they used their day
to day bag, And I love it.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I think it's fire. I think it's so cool.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I feel like I say all the time and
sometimes people are like, shut up, Lexie, Like all you
do is complain about how you were treated when you came.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Into the league.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And I'm like, it wasn't It's not just me, but
I'm not going to speak for other people. But yeah,
like Kilanie was like a little cute patuity, like she
was just tall, but she's still like just a girl.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
So you get drafted to LA, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What was your rookie season like in LA? Because I
can't imagine being a rookie in LA. It was probably
a lot, right, Like it was a lot, It was
a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I again, I was in a on a vet squad.
I came into a team that did not have a
traditional five right. Neca's like Tweeter can so trying to
like normally, Like you can't treat it like how you
treat USA Trials, right, somebody's in front of you. At
least somebody in your position is in front of you.
I didn't have that, so, like it was really hard
(17:01):
for me to kind of transition into it just because
I didn't have anybody in front of me that played
my position, and I was kind of lost a lot.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We had a new coach in Derrick Fisher, so that
was another thing.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Watching the bets and Derek kind of like pashed it out,
you know, and practice and stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I was trying.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
I came in with an open.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Mind because I already knew, like I'm like, I'm going
to a dynasty, like they know what they like.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
I know, I ain't gonna play. I knew that, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Was seventh overall?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Seventh, Yeah, seventh, Like this this Isoka. These are girls
that I've watched. I'm like, yeo, I'm just gonna be
a sponge and you know, trying to like soak up
as much information as I can. I can't remember who
told me that, but to be a sponge and soak
up as much information. I think Teresa Wespoon told me that.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
She's a long time My mom has known her for
a long time too.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
So I've been around the w as a kid, my
mom working as Charlotte sing front office. She took me
to the games when the Liberty were in Madison Square,
like I've been around the leaf of men.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
So just like watching what was something like one of
the biggest things that you learned from playing with Candice,
because I learned a ton in the one season I
was with her in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So that was, you know a little towards the end,
like I.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Don't want to say like her decline, but like her
Chicago was like the start of her, like Okay, I'm
about to be done.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
When you were in LA with her, she was still
very much that girl.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Like yeah, So if there's anything like that stuck out
to you watching her, being around her, anything like that,
Like what was it like being her teammate in LA?
Speaker 5 (18:43):
She taught me the importance of recovery.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I was not somebody that was a nice bad person
out you know, with Kim not blaming Kim saying that
she called us soft for being in the training room,
but like you know, kind of being in the training
room was kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Yeah, and now I'm like I'm going.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
There and do what you need to do because I've
had two miniskit surgeries back to back, and that they're
not like the huge a cls or things like that,
but like nobody talks about the little nagging injuries like
cartilage and stuff like that, and they're so annoying, Like
it's so annoying. Yeah, she talked me to the points
(19:23):
of recovery. She made me get into ice up with her,
literally like shoulders deep. After every practice, she was like,
where's my buddy? Like that was I think that was
like my rookie bullying kind of because she knew I
didn't like it, but she was like, come find me.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
And then.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yeah, like just being in a training room and stuff
like that. Yeah, taking care of your body, dieting, she talked.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
To me about that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I will say, like, yeah, when people look at players
that play for a long time, they like just look
at what they do on the court, but so much
of that has to do with them off the court,
like the recovery, the dieting, the working out.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Like even watching Mekka and.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Skyler, I'm like, y'all are robot Alicia Clark, like they're
just they're so regimented and like such the best, the
best way, And I learned something new from them.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Like every year you were with the Sparks in the bubble.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
No, I was with Atlanta in the bubble.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I was traded after a year because see a lot happened, guys.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Okay, So when I tell y'all me and Kilani have
like the same like type of ship that's happened to
us in our career. Like Kilani, you've been on four
teams now, right, six forty teams and six seasons. That's
not an easy thing to navigate. You weren't in the
(20:41):
league for a year. Yeah, So I want to know
what your what your takeaways from the Bubble war, because
I said, we're all trauma bonded for life because of
the bubble, But I want to know what you what
your experience and there was Like.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
So I don't I don't think. I mean, y'all probably
heard the rumors about and the like, but Atlanta was
a very okay, what's the word, honey, like girl, we
had some.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Personal y'allay, Atlanta team is vastly different from the Atlanta
team right now. Like I don't even think there's not
a single person on that Atlanta team now that was
on the team in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Just making that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Very clear to everybody staff. Everything is different, like they
done clear. Oh yeah, okay, So you that was the
year guys that we rallied Atlanta or the whole state
of Georgia to vote to flip the Senate seat.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Oh my god, I didn't forget about that.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But like, there's so many things that happened in twenty
twenty and in the bubble season lot, yeah, like the
dream like spearheaded that entire movement.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
What like what was that? Like, like y'all were y'all
front center of all that.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
It was such a it was such a blur, Like
I don't even remember that part.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I just remember we were like, yeah, we're one hundred percent.
I remember celebrating it. I just didn't really I didn't
really pay attention to it back then. I didn't really realize.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Like the gravity of it, like the gravity.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Yeah, Like I'm still young, right, this is only my
second year. I'm still young. I don't really know. I'm
just like, Okay, we're gonna play or not, like what
we're gonna do.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
But that was that year. Definitely was.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
It definitely challenged me mentally, both mentally and physically because
I want to say, like I've never had a lockdown
or whatever or something like that, Like I've never had that.
So I feel like I showed out of like and
I caught COVID in I was going for like a month.
I don't know if you like you were in little
(22:44):
hotel blocked off sick me and Glory. Me and Glory Johnson,
we were going to be roommates because I was like, Okay,
she got kids. Like again, we got personalities, right, we
got Corney, we got Kennedy, we got Tip pay Oh
Tip didn't play that year, sorry Tip was not there.
But we got Courtney, we got Kennedy. So Tianna Hawkins different,
(23:06):
different personalities, different strong, some had more strong than not.
So I was like, Okay, Lauryd Johns is the mother.
She got twins. She's she always talks about the health
of her babies. I know I'm not gonna get sick
with her. She's gonna she's gonna take the thing. She's
gonna take it like and be super careful what she
was and she was, but she ended up being asymptomatic.
But her being symptomatic didn't mean I was gonna be asymptomatic,
(23:29):
and I was, in fact not.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
I was sick so sick it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh my god, the brain. Yeah, to get snow swabs
every day day.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh I forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Now imagine that trying to get too negative. Oh you're
trying to get too negatives with that.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
That was so bad.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I'm traumatized, a trauma bonded because that was such a
crazy thing that we did, but it ended up being
so amazing. I do think it like saved the W.
Like if we didn't have that season, like the W
NBA probably wouldn't exist anymore. But I always love asking
people like what their experience in the bubble is because.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It was hard fun when.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I came back.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
When I came back, it was like, Okay, I know
I'm not playing the month the season is like a
month in like they've already got things said. I knew
I wasn't like playing, but like we was finding things
to do, Like Atlanta had house.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Atlanta was like Atlanta home. We had house.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Far Yeah, and you know who was with us? Connecticut
was always with.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Us Connecticut Connecticut again Connecticut of the past Belta as
in the league. But them girls knew how to have
a time, They knew to have they knew how to
have some fun. Okay, we're gonna move on from the
bubble because now I'm getting flashed up backs and PTSD
(24:53):
playing in the W Like, what what do you think
has been a set back? Because you've had a few
so have I which setback or setbacks do you think
have like shaped you to be like this person that
you are, this resilient person that you are. If there's
like any particular situation or any particular moment that you
(25:16):
had that kind of like made you be like all right,
like this this is what this shit gonna be, Like
I need to figure it out or I'm not gonna
be able to play in this league anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Not to go back to the bubble, but like coming
out of the coming out of the bubble, like Atlanta period,
just my experience in Atlanta period, Like I thought I
wanted to quit after that.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I was out of shape.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I had not been playing. You know, I didn't show
up in shape. That's my accountability. I didn't show up
and say because I didn't think we were going to
play like so, and.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Then gyms were closed.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It was just hard because I wasn't disciplined at the
time as disciplined as I am now with my body,
my diet, that sort of stuff, like again like recovery,
that thing I just thought I could get up and
go that sort of thing wasn't really disciplined, and it
did come.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Back to bite me in the butt and so.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I think after getting cut from Atlanta the second year
twenty twenty one, I was kind of out for a
little bit.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
And then I had my.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
First miniscus surgery too, so I was getting hit like
a double way. I'm cut for the first time. It's things,
it's it feels like the world is over. Then I
get hurt. So now I'm like out of the loop
a little bit. It looks like they're moving on without me.
I'm seeing my class they you know, they're getting comfortable
in their teams and stuff.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
As time goes on. It's easy to look at somebody
else's journey and look to your right and look to
your left and see them buying houses in their city.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
And you know, it really did like take a toll
on me, and like I really did get depressed, and
I thought almost I called him.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I was like, do you like, can I come to
what she said?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
She said?
Speaker 4 (27:00):
She was liked, now you hat big girl. You got more,
you got more basketball to play, you got a little bit.
And I'm like, not for real, because I think it's
over with, Like I'm I think it's done because I'm
not sure.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
She was like, well, when you're ready, you come to me.
You call me and I got you. Like basically, she
would make the position basically if she needed to.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But she knew I had more basketball agains. She knew
I had more to give. She just knew I was discouraging.
Kim is not a fanablytic. She never has been. She's like,
I just hate what it does to kids. Some kids
and certain ones like you and me. That's the ones
she are she's referring to. But yeah, I had to
like pull myself out of that hole. I didn't have
nobody to pull me out of that hole. Not my mom,
(27:43):
not my dad, they didn't know how. It was just me,
like and I literally made that decision. And then battle
my way back, rehabing, losing the weight, going to Vegas, well,
going to au first, gaining back my confidence.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
On top of this, hey athletes on limited shout out
to ASTHMA. They gave it back to me. They gave
me my spark bank. And I'm like, okay, yeah, like
that first year was everything, and then I got the
training camp to Vegas. Boom, get hit with the second
meniscus because you know, injuries working tandem, so get here
(28:20):
with the second one. It's like, oh, I'm going to stop.
But I'm like, I worked too hard to come back,
Like you know, so I kept working at it, going,
going overseas, staying overseas, grinding, grinding, and then Dallas gave
me that that chance when nobody else would. And I'm
forever grateful to Dallas. Hence why I signed a three
year deal because I was loyal.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
I didn't know how.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Was texting me, but like girl, I was like, you
know what, this team gave me a chance when nobody did.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
We made it to the semi finals.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We we lit like there, y'all go go, let's go
back there. Straight from the horse's mouth. Why she signed
a three year deal? Okay, that's why iverybody was wondering
why we signed the long term deals because ship hasn't
always gone our way in this league, and for us,
a protected contract was more valuability than anything less anxiety.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Anxiety you don't have that.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
You don't got that scissor on your back. You just know,
and that doesn't give.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
You the don't get me wrong, that doesn't give you
the right to relax.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
But it's like WHOA, Okay, I can work. I know
these people.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
It was more so of a I'm with these people
that believed in meet when nobody else did. You know,
everybody thought I was doing out of shape, big whatever,
you know, and I come, I play well and they
reward me for that, and I'm like okay, Like I
think I finally found my niche It wasn't Dallas.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I'm familiar with the city. I'm like cool because.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Because we both have the same thought process and look
what happened now, were like, damn, it's very frustrating to
feel like you're doing everything the right way.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You're doing right by people.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You. I mean, I'm never gonna feel dumb or stupid
for believing what people tell me. Like when people are like,
you're naive, you're naive, Like, no, I'm not naive. And
if believing what people tell me is naive, then okay,
then I'll be naive.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
If thinking the.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Best of people, giving people the benefit of the doubt
is naive, Yeah, maybe it is a little bit naive,
but that's more of a fault on the people that
are not telling the truth or being honest. That's more
about them than us. So like, like I said, y'all
like me and Kalani's careers are like so Mirrod so
(30:47):
crazy Okay, so you mentioned like Dalla's taking a chance
on you, and you know you're thinking feeling like teams
didn't think that you could play anymore, couldn't keep up.
So you you know, you're seeing the style of play
evolving and changing. Two questions, what are you personally working
on in the off season, because I know you you
(31:08):
probably weren't happy with your minutes this season, Like that's
and you shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
No one should ever be happy with not playing, so
like that's valid.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
But then also like what skills do you currently have
that you're going to continue to improve on that you
think are like invaluable to the w.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, so what I'm working from on now is more
so of a face up game versatility that I am
so uncomfortable in the gym.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Y'all good, I have, That's how you should be.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
I'm super super uncomorable, I know, but I know it's
for the better and I know this is what this
is what my team needs, is what I need. So
you know, I was kind of blindsided with the style
of play this year, just off Phoenix normally using a
traditional post. So I'm thinking I'm going to get like
a real big shot. But you know, hey, it is
(31:56):
what it is.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I was prepared, I was in shape, I was ready,
you know, but like I think just the style of play,
it wasn't like enough time. And you know, training camp
is like a weekend and you off the rest, like
it's not there's no time for really to sit there
and walk me through some new stuff. It's just kind
of learn on the fly. So I was really taking
this year to like learn learn the game in a
(32:20):
different way and a different role.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Working on stretching the floor. I've always I've always been
able to shoot.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I just feel like I just never do it because
I've never I've never needed to do it. I'm always
around guards who can spread the floor. I just kind
of mess up that interior and then we playing inside
out and then it's just easy.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
But the game is.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Changing, like you said, so extending the floor, a face
up game, a girl ball handling.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, period, I'm.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
Not saying it next year.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Center, bringing above the floor.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Lord, it's like three dribbles right now?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Man, come here, what was I mean?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
You're playing with you know, at who's considered like one
of the most like versatile players in our league.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Like, is there anything that.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
She was telling you that you could probably work on
and I mean even she probably could pick your brain about,
you know, banging in the paint and stuff like that.
You know, you have Natasha Mac who's coming to play
in Au very excited about that. You guys have like
like three completely different like bigs.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So you have at who's like the Swiss army knife.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
You have Tash, who's like more of a defensive big
and a shot blocker. And then you have you, like
you're very You're very skilled offensively, and then you're obviously
very talented defensively as well. But like I think your
scoring is underrated because you have such good touch and hands. So, like,
how did the three of y'all create like your little
post synergy? You know you have like the guard group.
(33:56):
First of all, how big was y'all's post group. Who's
a y'all's post group.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
It was me Mac, and it was me Macken.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And then with Sa come hang out with y'all sometimes,
and then Dip or she was always with the guards.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
I don't want to do I was down the shoe that,
you know, I was down there shoes.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
She got okay, So y'all had guys so Phoenix had
three bigs, three Cat was.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Cat would find herself down there with herself.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
She was aw in the like yeah she's a Twitter
So yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
What what little what like conversations y'all have, Like, did
y'all have any like pregame rituals together, Like I know,
like posting guards be having their little you know, we
the guards over here, y'all, we the bigs over here.
So like what like what kind of like synergy did
y'all build?
Speaker 5 (34:50):
I would say At was more.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
At is like black and white, like she know, you know,
it's hard getting her to crack. Sometimes she's very serious
about he crab like post players was serious study like
she would she would laugh sometimes, you know, just about
anything or just she's that she didn't want to come
whisper to you or I'll look at her.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
She'd be like, don't look at me, like you know,
something happens. I would like, look at her. We will
always make We made eye.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Contact a couple of times, you know, just that teammate
and like don't look at you, like don't start start
but like yeah, that was me in Aten's kind of relationship.
But like she would, she's so smart and seeing the
floor and things. She was telling us where we needed
to be when she's driving, like just because again we
are all learning this new system.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
We're all new, we all trying to learn each other.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
So we worked a lot with her on passing and
just where to be and where she wanted us to be,
like you know how if we was in our way
to be out of her that.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
Sort of thing. She's super smart on that.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
And then the guards was just the guards, you know,
Kai and Saw We're just they literally just cracking. It's like, honestly,
like I can't even but yeah, that was more so
I think she was like a teacher.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
And then dB came. DV is like a mother. I
love DV. Like DV is like that sweet Lonnie. She
she got that soft.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Voice like like Poll her opposite as far as like.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
AT is getting in at DV is like well you
know what or if she's doing something wrong, She's like,
what you see, Lonnie? She would always ask me. She
always made me feel includid, like even when I wasn't
playing or something like that. When I'm watching the game,
She'll come down there and be like what you see, Lanna,
I'll be like, well, paint club were running the same place.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
We might need another chain, we need to do something different.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Or you know, and I would just tell her what
I was seeing and she would really take my input
and like really like implement it because she actually I
told that's important.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
But I love that. I feel like y'all's team was
like I don't want.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To say, like y'all were ignored most of the season,
but like y'all were like very much like under the radar.
Did y'all have like conversations about that? Did y'all peep that?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Like what?
Speaker 5 (37:16):
We wanted it that way?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Because that was the energy I was playoff y'all was
like stay on that side, Like that was like y'all's vibe.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, Like don't yeah, but it was like we just
had a certain focus that we didn't have any pressure,
like we didn't have nothing to lose, and that's how
we played. And everybody played like that, you know, like
we they don't expect us to be here.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
They don't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
They still don't expect us even when we got the playoffs,
they still don't expect us to be here. So don't
expect don't play into the media, don't play into the
social media, stay focused.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And I will say he was riding for all summer long.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
It was like, y'all sleep on Phoenix, Like, I don't
know why you'll keep sleeping on that damn team.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
And they thought because we we hadn't really played with
a full team.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
The whole Yeah, and then y'all throw in dB and
y'all had a little rough patch, but it was the
same rough patch most of the teams went through earlier
in the year, which and I think that was just
personnelity again, sure, yeah, for sure. Okay, So last thing
I'm gonna ask you w n b A is you're
off court stuff. So got like Lannie is like one
(38:22):
of the most followed players in the league. Like, she
has hell of followers on Instagram, hello, followers on TikTok.
Like I think the w n b A fumbles a
lot of players marketing wise, I think you are a
huge one.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
And my girl, don't even get me started, don't even
get me started on that started on that.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
How do you feel? Wait, did they even did you
post for them at all? No, that's what I'm saying,
Sports Illustrated skims ah Like body, Yeah, I've always said
(39:10):
the business like this, the marketing mind that I have
in some aspects, like, yes, I always think about myself,
but I always am thinking about so many players in
our league that are just perfect to market the W
And it's like, again a spectrum of players I think,
like even now with Courtney and the T shirt with
the stub buds like that, that was amazing, Like, but
(39:35):
five do you know five years yes, I heard, yep,
I heard.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I heard.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Five years ago that would have not been a thing,
Like I have hated that, Like the whole league, the coaches,
everybody would have been like y'all doing what y'all call yourselves?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
What y'all got picked there?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
What like stop all at so now like I feel
like it's slowly like finding its way. I've already said
that WNBA has gate kept us from the world for
many many years. What like what where do you see
yourself like off court? Like what are your like off
court goals? Like what are brand like let's put it
out in the universe manifest like what are brands you
(40:13):
want to work with? Because like this is very I
mean it's biased because we're friends, like you're one of
the most like beautiful humans inside and out.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And the fact that the W.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Doesn't promote I thought Phoenix did a good job this
summer promoting you.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You didn't see like that's I kind of wish that
Seattle did that like for me a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But like it got to a point where like I
wasn't even being shown on the page like at all
unless I made a half court shot.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So I was just kind of like, whatever, this summer
is what it is.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
But every time I would see like your posts, like
your reposts, like Phoenix was like just doing the most
to promote you in the ways that they could at
the time, because you weren't playing a lot, but you were, and.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
That was the fan Like let me let me just
the fans, the Phoenix fans. They wanted to see me
on the court, like even in like going in, every
time I went in, I got like a standing innovation.
Like those are real basketball fans who actually watched the game.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
They've been a part of the game for a long time.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
They're not just the new ones that just kind of
look at the stand money.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
One of my favorite arenas Phoenix. I love their fan base.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Yeah, hands down, best fan base I've ever been a
part of. Like they would they knew like they knew.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
The real, and they were on the outside looking at it,
and I couldn't really say you know, you know, but
they knew and I'd be like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
You know, but I'm gonna show up at the game
and step and look good.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
But they were real basketball fans for one.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And they were always like even when like I wasn't
posted on if I was left off something, where's money
or where you know, where's the Philla Bedley, I was
like love Island for second, that's kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Was like crazy. But yeah, like the fans was just rudel. Yeah,
every time.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
You do, you find it.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I mean, you played a lot of Dallas because I
felt this way about being in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Not playing it was not easy, but it was easier.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Because of all the stuff that we have, like at
the facility, the food, the like, the just all the
access we have to stuff made made it like like
you were still doing your job, Like you're still getting
work done. And I feel like even within the middle
of our CB negotiations, like we're talking about salary, but
(42:37):
like speak to like how important it's been to have
a facility because you you came from every Oh yeah
this is your first facility.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Right we Yeah, Dallas didn't have a facility. We shared Uta.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah yeah, so like which wasn't bad because we had.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
A good staff, Like, we had a really good staff.
They made it work. But like having your own facility
is like a whole nother tier. Like I'm talking, I
had Phoenix checked your moles, like we had a whole skin,
Like a whole skin. Have you ever had your whole
body checked? Like from head to toe. Phoenix checked us
(43:18):
from head to toe, teeth, eyes, ears, are your moles?
You have moles? Are they cancerous? I'm like, what the hell? Basketball?
Speaker 4 (43:28):
But you know what, like they cared, like they really
cared past the basketball aspect of you, like just your
health in general.
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Like I've never seen nothing like that. I mean, we tested.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
I was so sick of test balance. Yeah different, Like
they had me in so many.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Today and it's like this big machine like it's for
your wingspan, Like what but okay, I'll do it, I'll
do it.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
But again, like in Vegas are in the final and
it's for a reason, Like you guys have all this
investment into y'all as people and players, and now we're
at the point where players in college are not coming
in with an expectation of how to be treated, the
things that need they need to have access to, and
(44:19):
we all had it, so it was.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
A step down when I got to LA and I
had to share. I had to give up my x
ro C for that, because.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Now they got money on top of it.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
I think that's been like the biggest difference too, because
if whatever they're lacking in college, a lot of them
now can go outsource it.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
They can go get it themselves.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Like there was still limitations in some things that wasn't
access to in college because we had no money. But
now these girls are coming in with all this money,
with all this access, and like they're coming to the
w and it can't they can't be like what is
this is the ghetto.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Because it was kind of like that, I'm not gonna
lie to my first call home my mama.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Why do I have a roommate?
Speaker 5 (45:03):
Did y'all?
Speaker 3 (45:03):
Was y'all still doing roommates?
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Marina was.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
But still we are grown ass people.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
And it was funny because if you had a boyfriend.
I had a boyfriend at the time, so like whenever.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
She would be sitting in.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
And sometimes we had one big sleepover, like he was
sleeping in my She wasn't worried about it.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Cool that like, you can never make me hate Marina.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
That's my that's my boot for real, Because like she
would sit for hours in the in the either in
the hallway or in the like lounge, and she'd be like,
just do what you want to do, girl, go ahead,
like because I knew in the next city she had
her boot, so it might be me.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
But like we really like guys.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Trying to buy it, like what the like who knowing
that sometimes I would accidentally get my own room my
rookie year, and I just wanted saying thing, I was
just like you would.
Speaker 5 (46:02):
I was scared.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
They already thought, you know, I already was boosy for
the Louis Bag. So I had.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Gradu range rookie. I remember that, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:14):
And the Louis Bag, so they thought I was. They
thought that was who these girls are.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Now ya no idea what was about to come about?
To ask? Did you guys have to dress up in
the airports?
Speaker 4 (46:30):
I heard about that, but no can y'all y'all had
to do the business casual. We had to do the
business casual to a home game. And I found that
into my green fly. Uh, And I showed it to
a t because at thought maybe because I was kind
of I think I was like the last year of
us doing it.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
And then it kind of changed because like I'm like, girl,
I want a business casule. It just wasn't in the airports,
but we did it.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
We had to wear it to the stables center to
the game one time and it looked trash.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Hang on business.
Speaker 4 (46:58):
We're not going to disclose that pic for here, Like.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Hey, we had to wear Yeah, we had to wear
business casual to the airport.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
Like even a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Talk about used to wear warm warm up guy, Like
what we didn't know our worst, There was no tunnel.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
We didn't know our worst. Like yeah, I always say
like we got to.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
I always want to give flowers and share love and
show love to the players that came before us, that
literally were just showing up to Hoop and we're here
because of and now we get to see our true
value and express it and show it and be our
authentic seales because of all the ship that they went
through whatever years ago, many many years ago, when they
(47:48):
was just showing up to empty arenas and bussing places
and oh I can't imagine shit going overseas before the
Internet and Facebook and FaceTime and stuff, all of the things. Okay,
before we go, we have a segment that we've kind
of gotten away from lately, and I want to bring
(48:09):
it back and definitely going to.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Do a better job.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Season two is giving people their flowers. So I'm going
to give you the space. Does not have to be
basketball related. It can literally be anybody you want. Doesn't
have to be someone you know, just giving you opportunity
to give someone their flowers.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
And yeah and so us why anybody, literally anybody, anybody
on earth.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Honestly I would like to give I have two people
probably I would like to give Asian Wilson her flowers.
Do what she's doing for our league. I know a
lot of sometimes she gets overlooked by the cloud and
all of that, But I just want you to know, Boo,
you was.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
Doing your thing like there are. I don't even know.
She's a player in her own tier, and I know
I just seen her in finals. I didn't I hate
to see her coming.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
But like everything that she's done her accolades up until
this point, like you know, that's unheard of, and she's
really a pioneer for this.
Speaker 5 (49:15):
League as well. You can add her.
Speaker 4 (49:16):
I feel like you can add her to that, honestly,
And I know she feels somewhat overlooked, and I think
she she does get overlooked because she's, oh, she's eight
and she's just gonna get it.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
But like, no, that's just hard to do, night in,
night out. What she did this season was hard to do.
Nobody was. They kind of didunt them out. They started
the completely out.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
All Star break.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Yeah, like everybody was like.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
Oh, begas is like and then the you know, as
not to you know.
Speaker 5 (49:45):
But like to come with a sweet to finish like
that is unheard of. The girl is.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
The girl is generation.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
I think we use the term generation a little too
loose across the board and she I don't know if
they've even used generational to describe Asia before, not in college,
and if they haven't, now they absolutely should. She is
definitely a first Battle Hall of Famer Rushmore w n
(50:20):
b A already, and I feel like she just.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
Got to her prime. Yeers, like maybe last year it's
like her.
Speaker 5 (50:27):
First She's not even she's not even coming down yet.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
She's still she's not even a Plateau part yet. Like
she's still saying she's still a said like.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
When Alyssa said, I got a guard agent Wilson give
me a brain? Hell? Yeah, like did you?
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (50:45):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (50:47):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
I'm so glad that is a matchup.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I don't see often flowers to give her as she should.
She deserves all of the flowers. And you said another person.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah, I definitely want to give my flowers to.
Speaker 5 (51:06):
Literally my mom. She's seen every phase of me and
she's literally molded me into this, this player. Like she's
seen me at my lowest, when I wanted to quit,
when I thought I wasn't good enough, and she was
still breathing at life into me. I've snapped at her.
I've literally snapped at her.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
You know, hell what you're talking about?
Speaker 5 (51:25):
You know, just just off the straight the frustration. But
like she's always been there.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
She's been my rock every every game I was not playing,
whether I was playing or not, she showed up. She
flew four hours from five hours from Atlanta two no,
it was it four no, it was four hours.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
From Atlanta to Phoenix to see me play.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
She was at every finals game, every playoff game, sitting courtside.
Speaker 5 (51:47):
She bought her own seat period. So let's give mama flowers.
When I was playing or not, it matters to her.
Speaker 4 (51:54):
So I'm gonna give my mom.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Okay, I love that. Okay, flowers for Asia, Flowers for Mama.
This is a great episode, Klanie. Thank you so much
for gracing us with your presence.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
I'm really excited for the world to enjoy and love
and know you as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
So thank y'all for tuning in to another episode of
Full Circle podcast. Make sure like subscribe, share all of
the things, and we will see y'all next week.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Thanks for listening to Full Circle.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
We'll be back next week with more basketball for the Girls,
by the girls.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want us to talk about. Full Circle is
hosted by Lexi Brown and Maria Rose. Our executive producer
is Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fused. Our
producer is Zoe dan Klaub. Listen to Full Circle on
America's number one podcast network iHeart, open your free iHeart
app and search Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Maria
(52:54):
Ros and start listening
Full Circle is an iheartwoman's sports production in partnership with
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Full
Circle Podcast. I'm Lexi Brown doing a solo kind of today.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Mariah could not join us, but I'm here with a
very very special guest. She doesn't really do.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Interviews like that, so I'm honored that she decided to
join us today. Canon, my dog is here too. You
already know he wants to be in the mix. My
can Okay, so you heard her voice, But if you're
just listening on audio, we have a former McDonald's All American,
(00:50):
the twenty eighteen Big Twelve Player of the Year, a
College All American, a twenty nineteen NCAA champ, a WNBA
first round pick, and she just completed completed the WNBA
Finals with the Phoenix Mercury. We have Koalanie Brown. Everybody, Yay, clap.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, miss girl. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that
you're here. It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
We just had Drea on and she asked me the
same question as you like what are we going to
talk about? Like, girl, you were talking about you, and
I feel like people don't really know much about you,
Like you're just the mysterious You're the mysterious battie in
the w and I feel like the people need to
know a little bit more about you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So we're gonna start off from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
If you guys didn't know, Klannie comes from an elite pedigree.
Both of her parents played basketball. Her mom played in college,
her dad in the NBA for the Celtics, like mine
won a championship in Boston.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So like, what was that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Like growing up with two parents that and did one
of them in particular steer you to basketball or like
what was that like?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Actually, no, not at all. My dad actually let me
fall in love with the game on my own. That's
like one of the questions that a lot of people
like to ask, did your dad push you into it?
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Or were y'all training?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
The answer is no, Okay, your girl was in dancing,
your girl was in piano lessons.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
I marched in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Parades, I did taekwondo, I did tumbling. You know, he
let me try whatever I wanted to and then when
I was serious, I think when I really I think
when I got my first questionnaire in college, and I
think that was like I mean in high school, and
I think that was that was Baylor, of course, and
(02:43):
it was like my junior year of high school. I
was like, okay, like I could be serious about this.
But I've always played just for fun and because daddy
did it or and my mom coached me. So basketball
was never really on the forefront. It was just something
that I was around and that I did just off
the strength of like I want to be like my dad.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But like, yeah, how old were you when you like
remember picking up a basketball for the first time.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
He was really little, about six, yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
And I played with him. So my dad, we had
three girls at the time. My little brother was not born,
so he was a little bit. He was under the
impression that he wasn't going to get the boy. So
I was kind of like his boy standing. Yeah, so
he was he was more rough with me. We watched Batman, Pokemon,
you know, all the boys stuff.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
I was a real tomboy coming.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Up because you know, he didn't think he was going
to get one, and so yeah, like that's and so
I would go outside and I would run on the
track with him, I was not keeping up, but you
know I was, Yeah, I was doing everything with my dad.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I'm a true daddy's girl.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Same, I feel like, yeah, like me and Klaney have
like our lives, our lives, how we grew up, our
relationship with our dad. Like it's so like parallel, and
it's so funny that have the same last name.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Because people think we're really white. People think we're related
or because.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Or some of our sisters or something like that, like
a near We have like the same exact life up
to this point, even in the league, which we'll get
to later. When did you like start growing? Because you're
six seven six day.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
My nephew be doing that girl like I'm six seven.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
He takes everyth's so because what does that even mean?
Speaker 5 (04:20):
God, I don't know, but the kids is doing it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I'm here, So when did you start growing? For real?
For real?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
So I've always been taller than your average girl, But
like I want to say, when I it's like talling
and it's like.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
You leave everybody. When I left everybody, I feel like it.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Was eighth grade to the summer of me going into
ninth grade, and I went from five to eleven to
six four in one lease.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
That I don't wish that knee pain on.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I bet I can't imagine. What about Like, what was
it like when you came back to school? Like everybody
was like, like what happened?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Because they know I played aau in the summertime, so
I wasn't really around like that. So like when I
came back to school, it was like I was I
was always taller, but not.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Like that's funny because you really typically see that with boys.
You rarely see that with girls, Like they go away
for the summer and then they've sprout it up. So
all right, six four in high school, Okay. I was like,
that's like my dream. So you mentioned that you went
to Baylor. What one what made you go there into?
Like what was your recruiting process?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Like my recruiting process was kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I had literally every almost every school in the country,
if not every school in the country, but still I
was just kind of flowing through it. Like I wasn't
really like serious about it, but like I just like,
oh yeah, like I got colleges. But it wasn't like
an ego thing. It was just like Daddy, I got
Texas today, or I got you tied today, you know,
and he's like, my mom is like freaking out because
(05:52):
she's like a w basketball guru.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Right. She worked for the shortest thing. She was very close.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
She played under Kim as an assistant and Louis end
of tech, so she was like super.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Like hype about the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Me and my dad we kind of laid back, like
all right, cool is happening, Like okay, but it was.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It was. It got pretty over overwhelming because they were the.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Call started, and when that started, I was not like
a tech savvy kind of kid.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I never had my phone on me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You still don't. You still don't have your phone on you.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Now, Like yeah, So that it got a little overwhelming,
but it was a fun process.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Well maybe go to Baylor though was.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
First of all, I Kim Mimake has known me probably
since seventh grade.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I used to go to the camps.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
BG don't like for me to show the picture, but
we do have a camp picture together.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
I showed Scott.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I showed Scott picture when I was in high school
and she was like, yeah, delete this, don't because I
looked a mess.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
She's still looked cute.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
I don't know that you make me feel old.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Yeah, and I think it's still weird that I'm like, wow,
I'm like standing next to you with a little tall,
skinny girl with two left feet, don't know how to
do nothing, and just like you know, now we're guarding.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It's still crazy to me, still crazy to me. But yeah,
just that, just that.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Close connection between Kim my mom, the Louisiana Tech connection.
And then Kim likes to tell this story my mom
left early, she left.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Tech early to marry my dad, and she went off
to the league.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
We love that period Basketball love that.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So yeah, so she's like, you owe her, she left her,
she left her senior year. So Kim was like you
always basically like, so she gave me away kind of thing.
So we always love that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I mean, that's a perfect segment to my next question,
which is, like Kim like a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Only the only people who really know Kim are her players,
And I feel like she's one of the most polarizing
coaches and women's basketball, whether y'all love her or don't
like her, Like, she gets shit done, she gets players
to the league, and she wins.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
You can't deny what it is getting to Baylor.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, you knownor since you've been young, Like, what
what was it like playing for Kim? Like what was
what was your experience flavor Kim walk Because the experiences
are there's a spectrum of them, so I'm really interested
to see what it was was Like.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Mine was actually pretty positive. My mom, like I said,
I was playing basketball for fun. I was kind of
relying on my talent for a long time. So taking
me to that next level, my mom wanted to make
sure that somebody would push me, and that somebody is
Kim right. She already got the okay from my parents
to dig digging me, like you know, there was no helicopter.
(08:35):
You know, some parents nowadays, they liked the helicopter. I
didn't have that same most games, like nine times out
of ten, like most kids can call home, and then
I didn't really have that because nine times out of
ten my parents was in cahoots. They were like, you
probably wasn't running or you you know, I saw you
like I saw it, you know, Like so sometimes I
wouldn't even call home because if there was no like
(08:55):
yeah I was, I was. She meant business And I
always tell my recruits too, when I had them, I
was like, okay, now what you see on that TV
is real, like you really get here, and it's like that,
it's not like fun and games.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
She's gonna push you. She doesn't care. All that McDonald's
all American, all that Jordan brand, that don't matter. And
she'd tell you that.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
She actually did tell me that, Okay, like you ain't
entitled to nothing here, You're gonna earn your spot. And
I had five post players in front of me. Now,
she gave each and every one of us a chance.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
But and if you you were doing great, you were
doing great. She left you.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
That was the good thing about it. But everybody was
gonna get they shot, you.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Know, with her, and she just didn't play like I
don't know, like she's just great.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And she respond she seemed like, I don't know if
I would be able to play for her. But I've
always like, I've always like been able to appreciate what
she brings out of players and her winning and the
culture that she creates. And now she's an LSU and
what they're doing is amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And I know if she.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Was an LSU instead of Baylor, you probably would have
been an l s U.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Girls. It was so close up the street LSU was
up the street. So I took so many unofficials to ls.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So did you take did you take all five of
your official visits?
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I did? Theres you go? I did? No? I took three.
I took three?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Sorry, not all fine? I think I took three. I
took A and M Tennessee and Baylor?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Which one was the most fun? Don't get over there now,
don't get nobody in trouble.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I don't know. You know what dreadam was my host?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You said you mentioned Drea, But Drea was my host
in Tennessee, Tennessee. I had fun, but I'm going to
give it to A and M. Okay, they know how
to have a time in college station.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I don't know about them official visits.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I'm not going just close who was my Like? Yeah?
I thought the close who was my host?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
But when they're in high school, you get to you
get to be a college student for for forty eight
hours and you're at seventeen station?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, so I freaking bet.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Okay, So y'all won, you went to Baylor, you're playing
you won a championship in twenty nineteen, Like, what was
that season like?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And who's on? Who's on?
Speaker 6 (11:11):
That team with you, like I don't remember me, d
D D D D D me, Chloe Jackson, Juicy Landrum,
Lauren cox Orn, Melssa Alyssa, Queen egg Boone.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
She's another one.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Oh yeah, squad we had, Yeah, we had a little
squar girl.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
And that was during the time where Sabrina and the
tweeter in the fast and the slow paced basketball and
Kim she still has the same playbook to this day.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And that's one thing.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
About, Yeah, you still can't beat the playbook that she's
had for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, she does. She likes what she likes and she
and she like laces around. Well.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So twenty nineteen, so that was the last championship y'all have,
like the last championship before like women's basketball changed forever.
So yeah, obviously we didn't know COVID was about to happen,
but like Niol was kind of like getting paid in
college was like kind of happening. Like was that something
that y'all even talked about in college because I was
(12:14):
I was in my second year in the league at
that point, So Nio was not even like discussing in
twenty nineteen, like not even that's so crazy. Like, did
y'all were there any conversations about like maybe it's coming
or like y'all had no idea, I had no idea.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Well, yeah, no, we had no idea. As far as
we knew.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
It was against the rule to have like your own
merch and all that.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That crazy, And then twenty twenty happened, and I know
y'all probably like, damn, it was one year.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I was mad. I was mad. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
One year off Like, so if you were okay, I
asked all my friends that I bring on the show
like that were really good in college if you had
like dream collabs and partnerships to do in So we're
not talking about like Kilanie now thinking backwards about Killanie,
twenty one year old.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Killanie in college?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What brands would you like to work with when you're
at Baylor if we had, I would have.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
To say, for sure, man, And that's been and now,
but for sure Mac Cosmetics because in that twenty sixteen
are I don't know you had a lipstick face, but
I had.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I wore dark asthlet stick on my damn lips with
no lip winer, just straight lipstick, straight lips.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yeah, yeah, so I would have been with Mac for sure.
So far it wasn't really I wasn't into the like
I am now, but for sure Mac and then all
kinds of hair brands like I wore I wore girl
you was ahead of her because I had last I
love seeing my girls.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
It's so cool.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Yeah, I love seeing my girls.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Now we're going to get into WNBA stuff and I
was gonna save us for the end, but I think
this is a good time to talk about it, like
the off court, the feminine energy that is now like
taking over the w n b A and women's sports
(14:15):
in general. Like I know when I came into the league,
it was still like, uh no, like don't don't have
the hair the next.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Time with the beautiful ballers, you know, beautiful ballers, you
beautiful ballers.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
That girl, that girl you I was.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I used to be trying hard to get on it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
But I'm just because it's like in college it was
such it was so celebrated, like being feminine and beautiful
and liking hair and makeup and nails, and then you
get to the w n b A and they're like,
we hate all of that, like stop all of that.
Did you feel that way when you got drafted, because
I feel like it was shifting a little bit the
(15:00):
year because you got drafted the year after I did.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But when you got into the league, did you feel
like and you, well, you got drafted to l A,
so maybe it was a little different, but no, I
feel like.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
No, it still wasn't the thing I was.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I was drafted to a VET team, right, I had
like the beard Neca, Candice Uh, those main the main
three t rp TR for pet Uh those kind of girls.
So no, not really, Like Chelsea Gray was on that
team too. Yeah, so no, not really, but I was
just like kind of I remember like they kind of
like teased.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Me about my little Louis bag that my mom bought because.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She was like, you're not gonna wear a Nike bag
everywhere you go, like you should wear a Louis bag.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
So they kind of teased me a little bit about
my Louis bag.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
So I'm like, I love to think of how they
what they think of it now because these girls are.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Coming in hot.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Louis should now look up all of it. Like Burkins
plural have multiple burkins is that they used their day
to day bag, And I love it.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I think it's fire. I think it's so cool.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But I feel like I say all the time and
sometimes people are like, shut up, Lexie, Like all you
do is complain about how you were treated when you came.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Into the league.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And I'm like, it wasn't It's not just me, but
I'm not going to speak for other people. But yeah,
like Kilanie was like a little cute patuity, like she
was just tall, but she's still like just a girl.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
So you get drafted to LA, Like.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What was your rookie season like in LA? Because I
can't imagine being a rookie in LA. It was probably
a lot, right, Like it was a lot, It was
a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I again, I was in a on a vet squad.
I came into a team that did not have a
traditional five right. Neca's like Tweeter can so trying to
like normally, Like you can't treat it like how you
treat USA Trials, right, somebody's in front of you. At
least somebody in your position is in front of you.
I didn't have that, so, like it was really hard
(17:01):
for me to kind of transition into it just because
I didn't have anybody in front of me that played
my position, and I was kind of lost a lot.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We had a new coach in Derrick Fisher, so that
was another thing.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Watching the bets and Derek kind of like pashed it out,
you know, and practice and stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I was trying.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
I came in with an open.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Mind because I already knew, like I'm like, I'm going
to a dynasty, like they know what they like.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
I know, I ain't gonna play. I knew that, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Was seventh overall?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Seventh, Yeah, seventh, Like this this Isoka. These are girls
that I've watched. I'm like, yeo, I'm just gonna be
a sponge and you know, trying to like soak up
as much information as I can. I can't remember who
told me that, but to be a sponge and soak
up as much information. I think Teresa Wespoon told me that.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
She's a long time My mom has known her for
a long time too.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
So I've been around the w as a kid, my
mom working as Charlotte sing front office. She took me
to the games when the Liberty were in Madison Square,
like I've been around the leaf of men.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
So just like watching what was something like one of
the biggest things that you learned from playing with Candice,
because I learned a ton in the one season I
was with her in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So that was, you know a little towards the end,
like I.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Don't want to say like her decline, but like her
Chicago was like the start of her, like Okay, I'm
about to be done.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
When you were in LA with her, she was still
very much that girl.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Like yeah, So if there's anything like that stuck out
to you watching her, being around her, anything like that,
Like what was it like being her teammate in LA?
Speaker 5 (18:43):
She taught me the importance of recovery.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I was not somebody that was a nice bad person
out you know, with Kim not blaming Kim saying that
she called us soft for being in the training room,
but like you know, kind of being in the training
room was kind of.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Yeah, and now I'm like I'm going.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
There and do what you need to do because I've
had two miniskit surgeries back to back, and that they're
not like the huge a cls or things like that,
but like nobody talks about the little nagging injuries like
cartilage and stuff like that, and they're so annoying, Like
it's so annoying. Yeah, she talked me to the points
(19:23):
of recovery. She made me get into ice up with her,
literally like shoulders deep. After every practice, she was like,
where's my buddy? Like that was I think that was
like my rookie bullying kind of because she knew I
didn't like it, but she was like, come find me.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
And then.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yeah, like just being in a training room and stuff
like that. Yeah, taking care of your body, dieting, she talked.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
To me about that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I will say, like, yeah, when people look at players
that play for a long time, they like just look
at what they do on the court, but so much
of that has to do with them off the court,
like the recovery, the dieting, the working out.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Like even watching Mekka and.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Skyler, I'm like, y'all are robot Alicia Clark, like they're
just they're so regimented and like such the best, the
best way, And I learned something new from them.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Like every year you were with the Sparks in the bubble.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
No, I was with Atlanta in the bubble.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
I was traded after a year because see a lot happened, guys.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Okay, So when I tell y'all me and Kilani have
like the same like type of ship that's happened to
us in our career. Like Kilani, you've been on four
teams now, right, six forty teams and six seasons. That's
not an easy thing to navigate. You weren't in the
(20:41):
league for a year. Yeah, So I want to know
what your what your takeaways from the Bubble war, because
I said, we're all trauma bonded for life because of
the bubble, But I want to know what you what
your experience and there was Like.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
So I don't I don't think. I mean, y'all probably
heard the rumors about and the like, but Atlanta was
a very okay, what's the word, honey, like girl, we
had some.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Personal y'allay, Atlanta team is vastly different from the Atlanta
team right now. Like I don't even think there's not
a single person on that Atlanta team now that was
on the team in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Just making that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Very clear to everybody staff. Everything is different, like they
done clear. Oh yeah, okay, So you that was the
year guys that we rallied Atlanta or the whole state
of Georgia to vote to flip the Senate seat.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Oh my god, I didn't forget about that.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But like, there's so many things that happened in twenty
twenty and in the bubble season lot, yeah, like the
dream like spearheaded that entire movement.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
What like what was that? Like, like y'all were y'all
front center of all that.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
It was such a it was such a blur, Like
I don't even remember that part.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
I just remember we were like, yeah, we're one hundred percent.
I remember celebrating it. I just didn't really I didn't
really pay attention to it back then. I didn't really realize.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Like the gravity of it, like the gravity.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Yeah, Like I'm still young, right, this is only my
second year. I'm still young. I don't really know. I'm
just like, Okay, we're gonna play or not, like what
we're gonna do.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
But that was that year. Definitely was.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
It definitely challenged me mentally, both mentally and physically because
I want to say, like I've never had a lockdown
or whatever or something like that, Like I've never had that.
So I feel like I showed out of like and
I caught COVID in I was going for like a month.
I don't know if you like you were in little
(22:44):
hotel blocked off sick me and Glory. Me and Glory Johnson,
we were going to be roommates because I was like, Okay,
she got kids. Like again, we got personalities, right, we
got Corney, we got Kennedy, we got Tip pay Oh
Tip didn't play that year, sorry Tip was not there.
But we got Courtney, we got Kennedy. So Tianna Hawkins different,
(23:06):
different personalities, different strong, some had more strong than not.
So I was like, Okay, Lauryd Johns is the mother.
She got twins. She's she always talks about the health
of her babies. I know I'm not gonna get sick
with her. She's gonna she's gonna take the thing. She's
gonna take it like and be super careful what she
was and she was, but she ended up being asymptomatic.
But her being symptomatic didn't mean I was gonna be asymptomatic,
(23:29):
and I was, in fact not.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
I was sick so sick it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh my god, the brain. Yeah, to get snow swabs
every day day.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh I forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Now imagine that trying to get too negative. Oh you're
trying to get too negatives with that.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
That was so bad.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I'm traumatized, a trauma bonded because that was such a
crazy thing that we did, but it ended up being
so amazing. I do think it like saved the W.
Like if we didn't have that season, like the W
NBA probably wouldn't exist anymore. But I always love asking
people like what their experience in the bubble is because.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
It was hard fun when.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I came back.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
When I came back, it was like, Okay, I know
I'm not playing the month the season is like a
month in like they've already got things said. I knew
I wasn't like playing, but like we was finding things
to do, Like Atlanta had house.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Atlanta was like Atlanta home. We had house.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Far Yeah, and you know who was with us? Connecticut
was always with.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Us Connecticut Connecticut again Connecticut of the past Belta as
in the league. But them girls knew how to have
a time, They knew to have they knew how to
have some fun. Okay, we're gonna move on from the
bubble because now I'm getting flashed up backs and PTSD
(24:53):
playing in the W Like, what what do you think
has been a set back? Because you've had a few
so have I which setback or setbacks do you think
have like shaped you to be like this person that
you are, this resilient person that you are. If there's
like any particular situation or any particular moment that you
(25:16):
had that kind of like made you be like all right,
like this this is what this shit gonna be, Like
I need to figure it out or I'm not gonna
be able to play in this league anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Not to go back to the bubble, but like coming
out of the coming out of the bubble, like Atlanta period,
just my experience in Atlanta period, Like I thought I
wanted to quit after that.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I was out of shape.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
I had not been playing. You know, I didn't show
up in shape. That's my accountability. I didn't show up
and say because I didn't think we were going to
play like so, and.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Then gyms were closed.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It was just hard because I wasn't disciplined at the
time as disciplined as I am now with my body,
my diet, that sort of stuff, like again like recovery,
that thing I just thought I could get up and
go that sort of thing wasn't really disciplined, and it
did come.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Back to bite me in the butt and so.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I think after getting cut from Atlanta the second year
twenty twenty one, I was kind of out for a
little bit.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
And then I had my.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
First miniscus surgery too, so I was getting hit like
a double way. I'm cut for the first time. It's things,
it's it feels like the world is over. Then I
get hurt. So now I'm like out of the loop
a little bit. It looks like they're moving on without me.
I'm seeing my class they you know, they're getting comfortable
in their teams and stuff.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
As time goes on. It's easy to look at somebody
else's journey and look to your right and look to
your left and see them buying houses in their city.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
And you know, it really did like take a toll
on me, and like I really did get depressed, and
I thought almost I called him.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I was like, do you like, can I come to
what she said?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
She said?
Speaker 4 (27:00):
She was liked, now you hat big girl. You got more,
you got more basketball to play, you got a little bit.
And I'm like, not for real, because I think it's
over with, Like I'm I think it's done because I'm
not sure.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
She was like, well, when you're ready, you come to me.
You call me and I got you. Like basically, she
would make the position basically if she needed to.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But she knew I had more basketball agains. She knew
I had more to give. She just knew I was discouraging.
Kim is not a fanablytic. She never has been. She's like,
I just hate what it does to kids. Some kids
and certain ones like you and me. That's the ones
she are she's referring to. But yeah, I had to
like pull myself out of that hole. I didn't have
nobody to pull me out of that hole. Not my mom,
(27:43):
not my dad, they didn't know how. It was just me,
like and I literally made that decision. And then battle
my way back, rehabing, losing the weight, going to Vegas, well,
going to au first, gaining back my confidence.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
On top of this, hey athletes on limited shout out
to ASTHMA. They gave it back to me. They gave
me my spark bank. And I'm like, okay, yeah, like
that first year was everything, and then I got the
training camp to Vegas. Boom, get hit with the second
meniscus because you know, injuries working tandem, so get here
(28:20):
with the second one. It's like, oh, I'm going to stop.
But I'm like, I worked too hard to come back,
Like you know, so I kept working at it, going,
going overseas, staying overseas, grinding, grinding, and then Dallas gave
me that that chance when nobody else would. And I'm
forever grateful to Dallas. Hence why I signed a three
year deal because I was loyal.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
I didn't know how.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Was texting me, but like girl, I was like, you
know what, this team gave me a chance when nobody did.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
We made it to the semi finals.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We we lit like there, y'all go go, let's go
back there. Straight from the horse's mouth. Why she signed
a three year deal? Okay, that's why iverybody was wondering
why we signed the long term deals because ship hasn't
always gone our way in this league, and for us,
a protected contract was more valuability than anything less anxiety.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Anxiety you don't have that.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
You don't got that scissor on your back. You just know,
and that doesn't give.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
You the don't get me wrong, that doesn't give you
the right to relax.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
But it's like WHOA, Okay, I can work. I know
these people.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
It was more so of a I'm with these people
that believed in meet when nobody else did. You know,
everybody thought I was doing out of shape, big whatever,
you know, and I come, I play well and they
reward me for that, and I'm like okay, Like I
think I finally found my niche It wasn't Dallas.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
I'm familiar with the city. I'm like cool because.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Because we both have the same thought process and look
what happened now, were like, damn, it's very frustrating to
feel like you're doing everything the right way.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You're doing right by people.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You. I mean, I'm never gonna feel dumb or stupid
for believing what people tell me. Like when people are like,
you're naive, you're naive, Like, no, I'm not naive. And
if believing what people tell me is naive, then okay,
then I'll be naive.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
If thinking the.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Best of people, giving people the benefit of the doubt
is naive, Yeah, maybe it is a little bit naive,
but that's more of a fault on the people that
are not telling the truth or being honest. That's more
about them than us. So like, like I said, y'all
like me and Kalani's careers are like so Mirrod so
(30:47):
crazy Okay, so you mentioned like Dalla's taking a chance
on you, and you know you're thinking feeling like teams
didn't think that you could play anymore, couldn't keep up.
So you you know, you're seeing the style of play
evolving and changing. Two questions, what are you personally working
on in the off season, because I know you you
(31:08):
probably weren't happy with your minutes this season, Like that's
and you shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
No one should ever be happy with not playing, so
like that's valid.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
But then also like what skills do you currently have
that you're going to continue to improve on that you
think are like invaluable to the w.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, so what I'm working from on now is more
so of a face up game versatility that I am
so uncomfortable in the gym.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Y'all good, I have, That's how you should be.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
I'm super super uncomorable, I know, but I know it's
for the better and I know this is what this
is what my team needs, is what I need. So
you know, I was kind of blindsided with the style
of play this year, just off Phoenix normally using a
traditional post. So I'm thinking I'm going to get like
a real big shot. But you know, hey, it is
(31:56):
what it is.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I was prepared, I was in shape, I was ready,
you know, but like I think just the style of play,
it wasn't like enough time. And you know, training camp
is like a weekend and you off the rest, like
it's not there's no time for really to sit there
and walk me through some new stuff. It's just kind
of learn on the fly. So I was really taking
this year to like learn learn the game in a
(32:20):
different way and a different role.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Working on stretching the floor. I've always I've always been
able to shoot.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I just feel like I just never do it because
I've never I've never needed to do it. I'm always
around guards who can spread the floor. I just kind
of mess up that interior and then we playing inside
out and then it's just easy.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
But the game is.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
Changing, like you said, so extending the floor, a face
up game, a girl ball handling.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Okay, period, I'm.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
Not saying it next year.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Center, bringing above the floor.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Lord, it's like three dribbles right now?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Man, come here, what was I mean?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
You're playing with you know, at who's considered like one
of the most like versatile players in our league.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Like, is there anything that.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
She was telling you that you could probably work on
and I mean even she probably could pick your brain about,
you know, banging in the paint and stuff like that.
You know, you have Natasha Mac who's coming to play
in Au very excited about that. You guys have like
like three completely different like bigs.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So you have at who's like the Swiss army knife.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
You have Tash, who's like more of a defensive big
and a shot blocker. And then you have you, like
you're very You're very skilled offensively, and then you're obviously
very talented defensively as well. But like I think your
scoring is underrated because you have such good touch and hands. So, like,
how did the three of y'all create like your little
post synergy? You know you have like the guard group.
(33:56):
First of all, how big was y'all's post group. Who's
a y'all's post group.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
It was me Mac, and it was me Macken.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
And then with Sa come hang out with y'all sometimes,
and then Dip or she was always with the guards.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
I don't want to do I was down the shoe that,
you know, I was down there shoes.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
She got okay, So y'all had guys so Phoenix had
three bigs, three Cat was.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Cat would find herself down there with herself.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
She was aw in the like yeah she's a Twitter
So yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
What what little what like conversations y'all have, Like, did
y'all have any like pregame rituals together, Like I know,
like posting guards be having their little you know, we
the guards over here, y'all, we the bigs over here.
So like what like what kind of like synergy did
y'all build?
Speaker 5 (34:50):
I would say At was more.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
At is like black and white, like she know, you know,
it's hard getting her to crack. Sometimes she's very serious
about he crab like post players was serious study like
she would she would laugh sometimes, you know, just about
anything or just she's that she didn't want to come
whisper to you or I'll look at her.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
She'd be like, don't look at me, like you know,
something happens. I would like, look at her. We will
always make We made eye.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Contact a couple of times, you know, just that teammate
and like don't look at you, like don't start start
but like yeah, that was me in Aten's kind of relationship.
But like she would, she's so smart and seeing the
floor and things. She was telling us where we needed
to be when she's driving, like just because again we
are all learning this new system.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
We're all new, we all trying to learn each other.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
So we worked a lot with her on passing and
just where to be and where she wanted us to be,
like you know how if we was in our way
to be out of her that.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
Sort of thing. She's super smart on that.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
And then the guards was just the guards, you know,
Kai and Saw We're just they literally just cracking. It's like, honestly,
like I can't even but yeah, that was more so
I think she was like a teacher.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
And then dB came. DV is like a mother. I
love DV. Like DV is like that sweet Lonnie. She
she got that soft.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Voice like like Poll her opposite as far as like.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
AT is getting in at DV is like well you
know what or if she's doing something wrong, She's like,
what you see, Lonnie? She would always ask me. She
always made me feel includid, like even when I wasn't
playing or something like that. When I'm watching the game,
She'll come down there and be like what you see, Lanna,
I'll be like, well, paint club were running the same place.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
We might need another chain, we need to do something different.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Or you know, and I would just tell her what
I was seeing and she would really take my input
and like really like implement it because she actually I
told that's important.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
But I love that. I feel like y'all's team was
like I don't want.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To say, like y'all were ignored most of the season,
but like y'all were like very much like under the radar.
Did y'all have like conversations about that? Did y'all peep that?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Like what?
Speaker 5 (37:16):
We wanted it that way?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Because that was the energy I was playoff y'all was
like stay on that side, Like that was like y'all's vibe.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, Like don't yeah, but it was like we just
had a certain focus that we didn't have any pressure,
like we didn't have nothing to lose, and that's how
we played. And everybody played like that, you know, like
we they don't expect us to be here.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
They don't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
They still don't expect us even when we got the playoffs,
they still don't expect us to be here. So don't
expect don't play into the media, don't play into the
social media, stay focused.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
And I will say he was riding for all summer long.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
It was like, y'all sleep on Phoenix, Like, I don't
know why you'll keep sleeping on that damn team.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
And they thought because we we hadn't really played with
a full team.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
The whole Yeah, and then y'all throw in dB and
y'all had a little rough patch, but it was the
same rough patch most of the teams went through earlier
in the year, which and I think that was just
personnelity again, sure, yeah, for sure. Okay, So last thing
I'm gonna ask you w n b A is you're
off court stuff. So got like Lannie is like one
(38:22):
of the most followed players in the league. Like, she
has hell of followers on Instagram, hello, followers on TikTok.
Like I think the w n b A fumbles a
lot of players marketing wise, I think you are a
huge one.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
And my girl, don't even get me started, don't even
get me started on that started on that.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
How do you feel? Wait, did they even did you
post for them at all? No, that's what I'm saying,
Sports Illustrated skims ah Like body, Yeah, I've always said
(39:10):
the business like this, the marketing mind that I have
in some aspects, like, yes, I always think about myself,
but I always am thinking about so many players in
our league that are just perfect to market the W
And it's like, again a spectrum of players I think,
like even now with Courtney and the T shirt with
the stub buds like that, that was amazing, Like, but
(39:35):
five do you know five years yes, I heard, yep,
I heard.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I heard.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Five years ago that would have not been a thing,
Like I have hated that, Like the whole league, the coaches,
everybody would have been like y'all doing what y'all call yourselves?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
What y'all got picked there?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
What like stop all at so now like I feel
like it's slowly like finding its way. I've already said
that WNBA has gate kept us from the world for
many many years. What like what where do you see
yourself like off court? Like what are your like off
court goals? Like what are brand like let's put it
out in the universe manifest like what are brands you
(40:13):
want to work with? Because like this is very I
mean it's biased because we're friends, like you're one of
the most like beautiful humans inside and out.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And the fact that the W.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Doesn't promote I thought Phoenix did a good job this
summer promoting you.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You didn't see like that's I kind of wish that
Seattle did that like for me a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But like it got to a point where like I
wasn't even being shown on the page like at all
unless I made a half court shot.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So I was just kind of like, whatever, this summer
is what it is.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
But every time I would see like your posts, like
your reposts, like Phoenix was like just doing the most
to promote you in the ways that they could at
the time, because you weren't playing a lot, but you were, and.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
That was the fan Like let me let me just
the fans, the Phoenix fans. They wanted to see me
on the court, like even in like going in, every
time I went in, I got like a standing innovation.
Like those are real basketball fans who actually watched the game.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
They've been a part of the game for a long time.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
They're not just the new ones that just kind of
look at the stand money.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
One of my favorite arenas Phoenix. I love their fan base.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Yeah, hands down, best fan base I've ever been a
part of. Like they would they knew like they knew.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
The real, and they were on the outside looking at it,
and I couldn't really say you know, you know, but
they knew and I'd be like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
You know, but I'm gonna show up at the game
and step and look good.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
But they were real basketball fans for one.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
And they were always like even when like I wasn't
posted on if I was left off something, where's money
or where you know, where's the Philla Bedley, I was
like love Island for second, that's kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Was like crazy. But yeah, like the fans was just rudel. Yeah,
every time.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
You do, you find it.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I mean, you played a lot of Dallas because I
felt this way about being in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Not playing it was not easy, but it was easier.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Because of all the stuff that we have, like at
the facility, the food, the like, the just all the
access we have to stuff made made it like like
you were still doing your job, Like you're still getting
work done. And I feel like even within the middle
of our CB negotiations, like we're talking about salary, but
(42:37):
like speak to like how important it's been to have
a facility because you you came from every Oh yeah
this is your first facility.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Right we Yeah, Dallas didn't have a facility. We shared Uta.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Yeah yeah, so like which wasn't bad because we had.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
A good staff, Like, we had a really good staff.
They made it work. But like having your own facility
is like a whole nother tier. Like I'm talking, I
had Phoenix checked your moles, like we had a whole skin,
Like a whole skin. Have you ever had your whole
body checked? Like from head to toe. Phoenix checked us
(43:18):
from head to toe, teeth, eyes, ears, are your moles?
You have moles? Are they cancerous? I'm like, what the hell? Basketball?
Speaker 4 (43:28):
But you know what, like they cared, like they really
cared past the basketball aspect of you, like just your
health in general.
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Like I've never seen nothing like that. I mean, we tested.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
I was so sick of test balance. Yeah different, Like
they had me in so many.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Today and it's like this big machine like it's for
your wingspan, Like what but okay, I'll do it, I'll
do it.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
But again, like in Vegas are in the final and
it's for a reason, Like you guys have all this
investment into y'all as people and players, and now we're
at the point where players in college are not coming
in with an expectation of how to be treated, the
things that need they need to have access to, and
(44:19):
we all had it, so it was.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
A step down when I got to LA and I
had to share. I had to give up my x
ro C for that, because.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Now they got money on top of it.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
I think that's been like the biggest difference too, because
if whatever they're lacking in college, a lot of them
now can go outsource it.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
They can go get it themselves.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Like there was still limitations in some things that wasn't
access to in college because we had no money. But
now these girls are coming in with all this money,
with all this access, and like they're coming to the
w and it can't they can't be like what is
this is the ghetto.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Because it was kind of like that, I'm not gonna
lie to my first call home my mama.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Why do I have a roommate?
Speaker 5 (45:03):
Did y'all?
Speaker 3 (45:03):
Was y'all still doing roommates?
Speaker 5 (45:05):
Marina was.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
But still we are grown ass people.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
And it was funny because if you had a boyfriend.
I had a boyfriend at the time, so like whenever.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
She would be sitting in.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
And sometimes we had one big sleepover, like he was
sleeping in my She wasn't worried about it.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Cool that like, you can never make me hate Marina.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
That's my that's my boot for real, Because like she
would sit for hours in the in the either in
the hallway or in the like lounge, and she'd be like,
just do what you want to do, girl, go ahead,
like because I knew in the next city she had
her boot, so it might be me.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
But like we really like guys.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Trying to buy it, like what the like who knowing
that sometimes I would accidentally get my own room my
rookie year, and I just wanted saying thing, I was
just like you would.
Speaker 5 (46:02):
I was scared.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
They already thought, you know, I already was boosy for
the Louis Bag. So I had.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Gradu range rookie. I remember that, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:14):
And the Louis Bag, so they thought I was. They
thought that was who these girls are.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Now ya no idea what was about to come about?
To ask? Did you guys have to dress up in
the airports?
Speaker 4 (46:30):
I heard about that, but no can y'all y'all had
to do the business casual. We had to do the
business casual to a home game. And I found that
into my green fly. Uh, And I showed it to
a t because at thought maybe because I was kind
of I think I was like the last year of
us doing it.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
And then it kind of changed because like I'm like, girl,
I want a business casule. It just wasn't in the airports,
but we did it.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
We had to wear it to the stables center to
the game one time and it looked trash.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Hang on business.
Speaker 4 (46:58):
We're not going to disclose that pic for here, Like.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Hey, we had to wear Yeah, we had to wear
business casual to the airport.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
Like even a tunnel.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Talk about used to wear warm warm up guy, Like
what we didn't know our worst, There was no tunnel.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
We didn't know our worst. Like yeah, I always say
like we got to.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
I always want to give flowers and share love and
show love to the players that came before us, that
literally were just showing up to Hoop and we're here
because of and now we get to see our true
value and express it and show it and be our
authentic seales because of all the ship that they went
through whatever years ago, many many years ago, when they
(47:48):
was just showing up to empty arenas and bussing places
and oh I can't imagine shit going overseas before the
Internet and Facebook and FaceTime and stuff, all of the things. Okay,
before we go, we have a segment that we've kind
of gotten away from lately, and I want to bring
(48:09):
it back and definitely going to.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Do a better job.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Season two is giving people their flowers. So I'm going
to give you the space. Does not have to be
basketball related. It can literally be anybody you want. Doesn't
have to be someone you know, just giving you opportunity
to give someone their flowers.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
And yeah and so us why anybody, literally anybody, anybody
on earth.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Honestly I would like to give I have two people
probably I would like to give Asian Wilson her flowers.
Do what she's doing for our league. I know a
lot of sometimes she gets overlooked by the cloud and
all of that, But I just want you to know, Boo,
you was.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
Doing your thing like there are. I don't even know.
She's a player in her own tier, and I know
I just seen her in finals. I didn't I hate
to see her coming.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
But like everything that she's done her accolades up until
this point, like you know, that's unheard of, and she's
really a pioneer for this.
Speaker 5 (49:15):
League as well. You can add her.
Speaker 4 (49:16):
I feel like you can add her to that, honestly,
And I know she feels somewhat overlooked, and I think
she she does get overlooked because she's, oh, she's eight
and she's just gonna get it.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
But like, no, that's just hard to do, night in,
night out. What she did this season was hard to do.
Nobody was. They kind of didunt them out. They started
the completely out.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
All Star break.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Yeah, like everybody was like.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
Oh, begas is like and then the you know, as
not to you know.
Speaker 5 (49:45):
But like to come with a sweet to finish like
that is unheard of. The girl is.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
The girl is generation.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
I think we use the term generation a little too
loose across the board and she I don't know if
they've even used generational to describe Asia before, not in college,
and if they haven't, now they absolutely should. She is
definitely a first Battle Hall of Famer Rushmore w n
(50:20):
b A already, and I feel like she just.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
Got to her prime. Yeers, like maybe last year it's
like her.
Speaker 5 (50:27):
First She's not even she's not even coming down yet.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
She's still she's not even a Plateau part yet. Like
she's still saying she's still a said like.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
When Alyssa said, I got a guard agent Wilson give
me a brain? Hell? Yeah, like did you?
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (50:45):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (50:47):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
I'm so glad that is a matchup.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I don't see often flowers to give her as she should.
She deserves all of the flowers. And you said another person.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah, I definitely want to give my flowers to.
Speaker 5 (51:06):
Literally my mom. She's seen every phase of me and
she's literally molded me into this, this player. Like she's
seen me at my lowest, when I wanted to quit,
when I thought I wasn't good enough, and she was
still breathing at life into me. I've snapped at her.
I've literally snapped at her.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
You know, hell what you're talking about?
Speaker 5 (51:25):
You know, just just off the straight the frustration. But
like she's always been there.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
She's been my rock every every game I was not playing,
whether I was playing or not, she showed up. She
flew four hours from five hours from Atlanta two no,
it was it four no, it was four hours.
Speaker 5 (51:40):
From Atlanta to Phoenix to see me play.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
She was at every finals game, every playoff game, sitting courtside.
Speaker 5 (51:47):
She bought her own seat period. So let's give mama flowers.
When I was playing or not, it matters to her.
Speaker 4 (51:54):
So I'm gonna give my mom.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Okay, I love that. Okay, flowers for Asia, Flowers for Mama.
This is a great episode, Klanie. Thank you so much
for gracing us with your presence.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
I'm really excited for the world to enjoy and love
and know you as much as I do.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
So thank y'all for tuning in to another episode of
Full Circle podcast. Make sure like subscribe, share all of
the things, and we will see y'all next week.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Thanks for listening to Full Circle.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
We'll be back next week with more basketball for the Girls,
by the girls.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want us to talk about. Full Circle is
hosted by Lexi Brown and Maria Rose. Our executive producer
is Jesse Katz. Our supervising producer is Grace Fused. Our
producer is Zoe dan Klaub. Listen to Full Circle on
America's number one podcast network iHeart, open your free iHeart
app and search Full Circle with Lexi Brown and Maria
(52:54):
Ros and start listening
Hosts And Creators
Lexie Brown
Mariah Rose
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.