January 23, 2023 • 54 mins
Lynette Woodard is a retired American basketball Hall of Fame player, the First Female Globetrotter, a 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, and a former women's basketball head coach. Woodard walks us through the particulars of what it’s like to be, "the first".
Connect:
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):
After that, the Globetrotters had a tryout in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Twenty six women were invited all over the United States.
We then went to Burbank, California, had another tryout. Because
they couldn't make a decision at that time, we joined
the Globe Trotters. UH. That's where we got acceptance really
because they realized that, hey, women can't play this game.
(00:21):
The game has improved. And so then he came open
to the idea and it was like it was magic.
After that, that was Lynnette Woodard. And when I tell
you she is not just a trailblazer, so many people
use that word. They often use that word with me too.
I'm like, I'm not a trailblazer yet. I ain't accomplished
much yet. So when I listened to somebody like this woman,
(00:43):
a former professional basketball player, former head coach, a former
assistant head coach at one point played in the Olympics, UH,
a former consultant and finance she's done it all and
she joins us today to drop some gems on naked.
(01:06):
It's the greatest sports. And then the taming can make
it carry chappion. They carry champion is to be a champion,
the champion they carry champion, and champion they carry champion,
they carry champion. Then the timing can make it warmer.
I still have time to say Happy New Year. Okay,
so happy New Year, I say it to the end
of January. UM. I think last week when I had
(01:29):
Erica Campbell on the podcast, I didn't really get into
some particulars. I feel like, since this is one of
the first podcasts back since the New Year, there's spent
so much this has happened. Then I try to update
you all in my life, one of which over the holidays,
I went to Ghana and if you follow me on
social media, you saw a lot of hanging out and
having fun. But what I also did was really have
(01:51):
a true education. I visited a few of the slave
castles where our ancestors were sent abroad into the diaspora,
if you will, um, and that's an education. I tried
to do that every time I get an opportunity to
go to Africa. Only been twice and I was like,
not as if I go often. But it was a
beautiful experience. UM. I came home and I had some
(02:13):
tough life lessons. I was on this Africa high and
had some tough life lessons. I had to put my
dog down. You guys know I often talk about my
dog Coco. She was eighteen and she lived a really
good life. Um and I also posted that on social
media too, but it had me big sad. And I
say this because I know there's somebody listening. Pet grief
is the most underrated grief there is. People act like
(02:34):
you can just figure it out because it's a dog
and your cat and bird whatever it is you have.
But it's underrated because, especially in my case, UM, my
animal ear marked so many important milestones in my life.
Places that I've lived, jobs that I've had, relationships that
I've been through. She was the only constant. So I
(02:54):
um miss Coco tremendously and I am now at the
point in my life where I can talk about her.
Is like those first five days, I was big sad.
It was sad, but I am on the mend. But
I am learning so many life lessons. I have not
um lost any close family members. So this was the
first time as an adult I think I can say
I experienced real, true grief and I'm not talking about
(03:16):
a breakup. UM No, probably the second time, but I'm
not talking about a breakup, but I'm talking about just real,
true grief where you you miss something someone so much
that you're like why, you know. So that was what
was happening with me and my animal, Coco. She was eighteen.
She lived a big life. Uh. The other thing that
happened that I didn't address on last week's podcast was
(03:38):
what happened in the NFL with Tamar Hamlet. I think
everybody knows by now. It was a young kid who
collapsed on Monday night football, and it was truly a
matter of life and death, and we were all concerned
as a collective community. We watched in real time what
we thought was someone who may not live, and even
if that person did live, they would not have any
normal life. Fast forward a week or so later, he
(04:01):
was released from the hospital. He was not released in
terms of going home. He went to a different hospital
in Buffalo, and his prognosis is perhaps by the time
you listen to this podcast, he will be back home.
But what I wanted to talk about was the goodness
of humanity, because while I was feeling really bad about
losing my animal, I was watching humanity take center stage
(04:23):
when it came to Damar Hamlet. Uh. He has this
foundation that was only trying to raise twenty for a
toy drive that ultimately raised upboards of seven million dollars
because people were so affected by what they saw and
the story when viral, if not global, same thing, but
people wanted to help, and a bulk of the donations
(04:43):
were about thirty dollars. Thirty dollars. You guys were given out.
You were given thirty dollars. So if a bunch of
people were giving thirty dollars, that says two things to me,
that this hit everyone's heart, and most people don't have
money to give, especially not in this econ to me,
especially not after a pandemic, which we are still in.
We're just not discussing it, especially in in a world
(05:06):
in which, um, we know how unsure I'm sure we
can be when it comes to finances. People have paycheck
to paycheck. So if I'm giving you thirty of my dollars,
you know, approximately that's a significant gift for me to
give and and to and to understand that all over
the world people were giving, you know, these thirty dollar,
(05:26):
forty dollar, fifty dollar donations for a kid who they
did not know but empathize for what perhaps was happening
with him and his family, and they just wanted to
show support. Is truly an example of what's good with
the world, right, because oftentimes we don't find or understand
what is good with the world. Uh. And this was
one of these moments. So while I was dealing with
(05:47):
my dog grief, I was also like, Wow, people aren't
that bad. Conversely, or not even conversely, on the along
the same lines, Um, the people who reached out to
me about my animal, Um, who knew my producer texting
me you're okay, I'm my lambis Ad bigs ad. Today
people who I hadn't talked to in years, who knew
(06:08):
what my dog meant to me were reaching out to
me cinding flowers. I mean humans are good people. Um,
I'm gonna start to say that I'm starting the year
off believing that people are good. I mean people are good.
And so with that being said, I am happy to
introduce you to a good person for the podcast. Lynnette Wodard. Uh.
She has so many titles I'll go by um. College
(06:31):
basketball stand out. One of the first women to be
in the w n b A in that inaugural season,
at thirty eight years old, one of the first women,
the first woman actually to be a Harlem, the very
first woman correction to be a Harlem Globe Trotter. She
went on to be an assistant coach at Kansas, where
she played ball. She later went on to be a
(06:52):
head coach at another university over a woman's basketball team
when and she now is currently a special advisor for
the Harlem Globe Trotters. Um. By the way, I'm sorry,
I forgot. While all this is happening, she was able
to get her her practicing license to be a consult
in finance in finance and money, handle the money, make
(07:13):
the money. I told her there was this meme that said,
you'll have six or seven different reincarnations of yourself professionally.
And when I just list a few things that she's done,
and I'm sure she's still not done, it's a true story.
The job you have now won't be the job you
ultimately have. You'll transition and you'll do different things. Um.
(07:33):
And that's beautiful because it means you're well rounded, and
it means that you are truly a believer of someone
in yourself that's that believes that you can do whatever
it is you want to do. Um. Lynette share some
very very important experiences. But my biggest takeaway for you
all is that when she graduated from college, there was
(07:54):
no W N B A, so she had to go
play overseas. I've interviewed two women like that too far
her and Don's daily at the head coach in South Carolina,
and I couldn't imagine a world in which I went
to school, paid my money to get an education, or
even if I didn't pay my money to get an education,
I couldn't go on and live the dream um in
a professional way. And that was her and her life
(08:16):
lessons are magnificent and paper grabbing. Go Welcome to this
edition of Naked and So Lynette. I do believe that
oftentimes we use the word trailblazer or leader or the
one of the first too frequently in today's society. But
(08:36):
you truly are, in very many ways, UM, a trailblazer,
and that's not um and something that I would just
use to exaggerate. I've often been interested when I do
beat people such as yourself, about the genesis, your your
your origin story. You grew up in Kansas. Tell me
a little bit about how you grew up in your lifestyle,
your family dynamic. Well, I come from two parents home.
(09:01):
Uh have my brother and sister older than I am. Uh,
Donna is the oldest, my brother Darryl. Uh it's next,
and then it's myself and my younger sister, Bonnie. Darryl
and I, Uh, you might say our closest in age.
So we you know, we played together, and with him
(09:22):
being the oldest, he created the games that we played.
So it was always sports, of course, and that's how
I found my way to basketball. I love that. So
because you played all of his games, it ended up
helping you in a better way. When did you know,
as playing basketball with your brother that you were you
were nice, like I'm nice with this. When did you
(09:44):
know that? I didn't know for a long time. Um,
you know, I say basketball. But the games that he invented,
you know, as children, we didn't have a nerf ball
or anything like that, but we he would roll his
socks together and we would shoot behind the bedroom door. Uh.
The closet was adjacent, so we you know, we had
(10:05):
two baskets. He created all of the names of the players,
which uh, ironically I later met in life and and
I guess our parents just kind of figured out what
we were doing, and then later they bought us a
hoop and a basketball and kicked us out of the
house and let us play in the backyard. How important
(10:28):
was it for your your your parents to recognize whatever
you thought was a game as something to occupy your time,
which ultimately changed your lifestyle. I think it's pretty amazing
when I think back, especially for my mom. Uh. She
she bought us a little game, you know, basketball games
(10:50):
in a box. You know, we pulled the lever and
shoot the ping pong ball. But she enjoyed sports we had. Uh.
We we lived pretty close to which Tall State University
growing up, and she would listen to the basketball games
and I was too young to really understand it, but
she would listen with my brother and they would get
(11:11):
so excited. So I think just hearing that and um again,
creating those games that we played, those were all seeds,
uh till later flourish into something that you know, It's
been so amazing in my life. It's so amazing how
you now can look back and people don't have a
lot of people don't have this experience, but you can
(11:32):
look back at different things that actually are different moments
or incidents or happenstances, if you will, I really created you,
so it wasn't so much of a happenstance or a
quinky dink, right, and it feels destined. So you you
go on to really love this game. When did this
game of basketball become something that you knew you had
(11:54):
to have in your life? Um? Well, uh, let me
go back a little bit further. You know, we we
played the sock ball. We later went to the backyard,
which really wasn't that much fun for me because I
didn't have the skills to play the game, and and
and the goal draw my brother's friends not my friends friends.
(12:20):
So that left me being the only girl, and they
really didn't want me out there. And he would say,
mother maker, go in the house. We don't want to play. Um,
I'm staying around, you know, I get kicked off and
I'd watch. But I figured out their little system. You know,
if you could make a free throw, then you were
a part of the team. And so when they would
leave the ball and go away, then I would practice,
(12:42):
uh and hope for the day that someone didn't show up.
They had an odd number on the team when they
would invite me, you know, to come out and play.
That was a good day for me. But that's pretty cool.
But when I was five, there was a plane crash
on my block. UM. It was a case C one
thirty five jet fueler that came out of McConnell Air
(13:05):
Force Base. UH. Something went very wrong on the takeoff
and when that plane came over, it landed right in
our neighborhood, probably about four houses for where the plane hit,
I was about four or five houses down. UM. What happened,
Our houses were bricked on our side of our side
of the street. On the opposite side, the houses were
(13:27):
made of wood, so that fuel just took those houses out.
We were able to rebuild and come back, but the
folks across the street there are a lot of lives lost.
Probably one of the biggest catastrophes UH in which Tall
kansaske Um. But instead of rebuilding, UM, the city came
(13:49):
in and made a park in that area. UH. And
in other areas that were blighted. UH in the northeast area,
which was you know, quote unquote UM where you know
the African Americans lived, and they put out a basketball court,
they put out a playground, and that's the point that
(14:09):
I became very serious about playing the game because I
could go every day after school and just you know,
have a great time. Oh that's great, that's really great.
So well. Yeah, and while you say probably one of
the one of the ugliest tragedies the city has ever seen,
you were able. They were able to replace it with
something that restored. Right, it was a little bit of restoration.
(14:31):
It seems like something beautiful remains. And to this day
when I go back and I hear the laughter of
the kids, uh, you know, the balancing of the balls,
the squeaking of the shoes on the court. Uh, you know,
I think about how I got there, and it just
really warms my heart. I love that. I love that.
So then that's when you knew you loved the game
(14:54):
when you would go to play. But there was nowhere
to play, uh, because they didn't have girls basketball and
junior high school. But it wasn't until I got to
high school that I had a chance to learn organize basketball.
Prior to that, I was just play ground, Uh, trying
to get in where I could fit in. Yeah, and uh,
(15:17):
just loving the game. I hear you say that, it
breaks my heart, right, because they're they're obviously that the
generation we know now will never know that. And when
I hear people say that, I think about dreams that
were robbed from so many women. I think about opportunities
that were taken uh from us, um, from since the
beginning of time. But just it's even to this day,
(15:38):
but just in that simple place, something where you find
joy but you absolutely are not allowed to do it
um And it remained that way so late in life.
When you got to high school and you played ball,
what was it like was he coached like, oh you're tah,
this is it. We will make you a star, like
because you know they do to you tall, We're gonna
make you Yeah. Well, actually, you know, I didn't realize
(16:00):
was a big deal. Uh. You know, I enjoyed playing
on the playground. I enjoyed playing at the recreation center
because every weekend we could go to a tournament. I
I love trophies. Okay, so I wanted to get a trophy,
but they didn't get a trophy. You just had games.
I didn't understand that content, but my my good friend
(16:23):
UM heard it over the intercom that you know, they
were going to have trials, So you know, between class
and she said, you know, we gotta go down, we
gotta try out. I'm like, na, not really. Uh but anyway,
by the end of the day she had talked me
into going down, and uh, you know, the rest is history.
I I saw, you know, all the girls that came
(16:45):
down and wanted to play, and I was very excited
because I never saw any girls play basketball. I was
the only one ever out there on the court. Uh.
So to see others that I wanted to play the
game as I did, it was very exciting for me.
So you you play the game as they did, you
wanted your hardware. You didn't understand why you wouldn't get anything,
(17:07):
my damn hardware at where it'd be give it to me.
Now I get I mean my giveing I need to
show you just hold it up like see. So I
respect that because I am of that same thought. But
the process. But then then you you go to college,
what was that experience like for you? Well, um, you know,
(17:30):
my um friends, my guy friends in high school, they
were being recruited all over the nation. Uh, schools like
North Carolina, Maryland at the time, Texas big schools. But
for me, uh, not so much. You know, I would
get letters that came to the school. I would go
(17:52):
by the guidance counselor and they would always hand me
a letter. Someone had hit me a letter wanted me
to uh think about going to their college or university. UM.
I didn't understand it. No one really talked to me
about it. UM. And then finally one day I asked
my guidance counselor, what does all this mean, you know,
(18:14):
going to school getting a scholarship? And he sat down
and he talked to me and explained that, you know,
this is a great opportunity. I could have a chance
to go and have my college paid for. My mom
and dad wouldn't have that expense. All I had to
do was buckle down, hit the books, and and do
what I wanted to do, and that was played basketball.
(18:36):
I wasn't confident at all with that because no one
in my family had ever gone to school. I didn't
know what it meant. I didn't know how it was
going to translate later in life. But I trusted um,
and UM, I just went on. I continued to play. Um.
It was just talk around me that was just really
(18:57):
going over my head. But uh, I just followed through.
We we had a very successful um or. I had
a very successful high school career, so of course by
the time I became a senior, I was offered a scholarship.
I ended up going to play for a coach by
the name of Mary and Washington, who is a Hall
(19:19):
of Fame coach at the University of Kansas UM and
I I would do it again a thousand times. One
of the greatest coaches in the game. UM. She was
an African American. I used to read about her in
the paper. But the things I read, UM, I was like, uh, well,
(19:41):
I'll tell you this one story. She had uh fired
uh someone. She was athletic director and basketball coach and
she had fired someone. And I had never seen, you know,
a black person in a leadership role, not only as
athletic director, but as basketball coach. And so it was
a out of negative press that came out and I thought, Wow,
(20:02):
this is I mean, this is somebody special over here.
And uh. And so later when I met her, she
had been a part of the U S national team,
which I didn't know. You could travel all over the world.
So I mean, of course she became my role model
and I wanted to do those things and and to
be at the University of Kansas, a great, you know institution. Uh,
(20:26):
I said, I want to play for her because she's
she's tough, she held her guns. She took a lot
of flak for her decisions that she made, but she
stood the test of time. And I just have so
much respect for the way she fought before I got there.
But for US athletes, I was the first athlete that
(20:49):
at the University of Kansas that received a scholarship. But
she fought to build that program and by the time
it was done, you know, everybody had a scholarship. But
she gave thirty one years of her life at that university,
which a few people know. She's a hidden figure in
my opinion, But I have so much respect for her.
(21:11):
If it was not for her, I would never have
I don't believe it's gone as far as I have
because I learned to fight. I learned to fight the
right way. I learned to take a stand for things
that are right and just watch the whole process, because
it is a long process. When you stand for something
that is right, and you know, you go against the
(21:33):
popular uh thought of the hour. Uh Yeah, it takes
a lot of courage. It takes a lot of courage
to say that you are going to be you, unapologetically right.
You even doubt yourself the process of doing that. So
you see all the things that she's able to accomplish.
And no matter how old you know or cliche, the
(21:55):
saying is you have to see it to believe it,
to believe it. And now you now you believe it.
Do you think that? Um? As you played right? There
a lot of first for you. But before we get there,
you played for the Olympic team, did you not? In
nineteen a D four and also in four? What was
(22:19):
that experience like? Because you go to college, you see
your peers making money, money, money, money, and by peers
I mean your male coharts like the dudes is they
leave it in a signing deals and they live in
the life and not as much as so now, but
for them, seemingly they had a place to go. So
when you graduated, you had to go overseas, right, um,
(22:41):
and then you came here to play the Olympics. Was
that process? It's all you knew? But was there any
um ill will towards that process? When you saw what
was happening for the men? Um not really, I I think,
I mean it was the way it was, so you know,
(23:02):
what are you gonna do about it? I wanted to
continue to play. Uh So I knew that I was
going to focus on my education. I knew I could
get that and that was gonna be very valuable for
me down the road. UM. I knew there was not
gonna be an NBA. UM there was barely there was
(23:25):
a pro league I think when I was a junior
and at the University of Kansas, but by the time
I graduated, the league had folded, so it was no
more professional league in the United States with the w
bl UM. So my only option, which came late I
didn't even know you could do this, but was to
go overseas and I played for a team there. So
(23:48):
I packed my bags. I went to Europe. I played
in Italy, probably one of the toughest times in my life,
but the greatest at the same time, because that's when
you really break the umbilical cord. I mean, you are
away from home with a rotary phone, no cell phones
yeah yeah, no movies, yeah, no streaming. We're just like
(24:14):
it is this my life? Yeah, I get it. I
really said the same thing to me. She was like,
I was miserable. She said, whatever little money I had,
I was calling back home. Yeah, she said, I yeah,
I get it. It was to excally. You're a five
minute call, your okay checks a five minute call. You're like, okay,
so I gotta go. Yeah, I get it. So yeah,
(24:34):
you had to stay there. I wanted to come home,
but I'm not a quitter. And once I got through it, um,
it was the best thing that ever happened, because then
I was able to go. You know, it was just
that pressing and getting through. And once I got through. Uh, Scott,
Scott's a living Scott was the every champion and care
(24:56):
every champion is to be a champion, a champion, and
care every a being and carry chappion champion and carry
chappion and carry chappion and sports. And then the taming
can naked work, carry chappion and carry champions. To be chapion,
(25:17):
a champion, they carry champion, Champion, they carry champion, they
carry CHAPPI do you um now looking back on that
time and and and you can speak to so many
differences of what it is versus what it what it was,
but you still hold so many first and I'm not
even I haven't even touched y'all. Like she's like she's
(25:39):
a business woman, Like she like she could save you
some money. She is, uh like not, that's just this
basketball thing, which is something you loved. You went on
the head and did it even on another level in
the world of finance, which is uh amazing in itself.
How did you decide, because you've been able to live
in both worlds, how did you first ball? How did
(26:00):
you just like finances where you wanted to live where
you always something someone who said I want investments, I
want to do so. So you have to understand basketball
is the most exciting thing to me in my life.
I love I see it, I see it. Yeah, so
now it goes away. What is gonna excite me the
way this game does? Money? Oh okay, it excites me too, funey.
(26:27):
Let's have some fun. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I
wanted to make money. I mean, what else was there.
I've traveled all over the world, you know then what
I wanted to do. But what can I do next?
You know, I love helping people, don't get me wrong,
But I was young, you know, I wanted to make
some money. I wanted to buy some things, So you
(26:51):
then where did you? I have a resume of places,
but i'd rather you tell me. I don't know if
I'm accurate. So then when you were done with basketball
and whatever couple that you you took it as far
as you could go because there there was no w
NBA at the time, and then you decided to turn
to finance because we're gonna make some money. What how
what was your approach to that? That seems so intimidating,
(27:11):
especially not just you know, because it's an intimidating numbers
are hard, especially women. We always have the same way. Really,
I don't want to deal with that. I know I
do at a lot of times. So what made you
say this is where I want to live. Well for
somebody who says I, I think that if you looked
at it, you would love it. You know. It's it's
just it's a strange thing. It's it's exposure. Really. But
(27:34):
in in the sport, I learned that I could do anything.
That's what the coach always told me. Hey, you can
play that position, you can play that position, you can
do this. I went to college. How did I do that?
I wasn't encouraged. You know, I've figured it out along
the way and once our story winning on some levels
that I didn't know that I could, especially being a
(27:56):
student athlete, which is tough. Um I was on my way.
So um I was playing uh in Japan. I left
Europe and now I'm in Japan. But I played for
a company called die Wash Securities, which is a m
A brokerage firm. My team, my friends played for the
(28:19):
Bank of Tokyo, so they worked for the Bank of
Tokyo and they played basketball. What I wanted to work
for my company, but I couldn't understand the kneek exchange.
So I thought, okay, no problem. When I go home,
I'm gonna start looking at the Dale Jones and I'm
gonna figure this out. Well, you know, I have not
a lot of money, but it's not really a lot
(28:42):
of money. At that time, it was time and money.
So you put your money up early, it'll growth for you.
And I knew that. And so when I got back,
um I I was. I came back and worked a
job and as an athletic director. Uh I met a
lady who was on Wall Street. She came to a
(29:04):
golf tournament that we had and you know, we're usually
in the position or I've seen it this way where
you know you're asking for a check, you know you're
you're on the receiving end. But here comes his sister
in there, and she's got this big check in her hand,
you know, the big cardboard, and she's donating to our program.
She had a program called from Wall Street to Your Street.
(29:27):
And I said, I want to be her. I don't
want to be the one be seeing that. I want
to be the one giving it away. So I went
and started to have a conversation with her. Um, we
kind of hit it off, and she started telling me
about the business, and UM, she said, you know what,
you would be great for this business? Like really, I said,
you don't know what I've been thinking. Just prior to that,
(29:49):
you know, I had put my little money with my
little stock broker. I called my broker, and I was
trying to figure out if I could retire. Didn't have
near enough money. Embarrassed to say so, But what I
what I learned was you if you don't ask the
right questions, you're not gonna get the answers, you know.
(30:09):
And so I don't feel like she was answering the
questions that I wanted. So I kind of got mad
and went and bought all these books from the you know,
um from the bookstore, trying to learn about Wall Street
and investing because I wanted to be able to help
somebody and answer the questions that weren't answered for me.
(30:30):
And that's how I got into it. And when I
met her name is Pat Winnings, who had came to
our golf tournament and gave us that check. I talked
to her and she saw my passion. She said, you
know what, if you're interested and being you know, learning more,
here's my card. You called me Monday, and uh, you know,
I was excited the whole weekend, but I called her.
(30:52):
Uh she told me that there was a place around
the corner that I could uh go and get some books,
take a class, get my series sevens license, and she
would teach me the rest. And she was from New York.
I'm in Kansas City. But there was a guy that
came on every lunch hour that uh, you know, talked
(31:12):
about investing. I made an appointment with him. I went
to his office. I said, look, I got this book.
I've got to learn it. Can you help me, and
he just broke it down for me. Just here, you
study this this week, this next week and followed through.
I've given you the map. You don't deviate, you will pass.
(31:34):
And that's what happened. And so I passed my test.
And I wanted to go to Texas because I was
intimidated by New York and MS Winnings. She was expanding
to Texas, but she said, hey, on that you know what,
you all learn this stuff, you gotta come to New York.
You may as well get in the mix. And I
(31:55):
went to New York. Um a city that I feared,
a city that I came to love. It wasn't that
big monster once I got used to not speaking to people. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it was great. Uh it was when the market was
at its all time high. Uh. I mean I saw things,
(32:17):
I experienced the best of the best, and uh, you know,
it's it's been a great experience. Can deserve you deserve
all of that. Now, do you still practice? Do you
still work in finance? You give off advice or you
are you fully retired? No, I'm not fully retired, but
you know I do watch the market. I am invested
(32:39):
in the market. Uh. I I reserve. I guess giving advice.
You really know me and trust me, you know, yeah,
I get it. Yeah, A little, a little change you
gotta have. It's just yeah, no, it's it's scare money.
(32:59):
Don't make money. This is a business for folks who
are ready to do it. But that's great. It don't
make you no money. So you gotta go out there
and be like I believe, I trust me. I. But
you can do it systematically, yeah, you know, and just
just do it over time. And I tell you, you know,
it'll come back and help you one day. So let's
(33:22):
talk about and I and I and I and I'm
making our right turn back to basketball folks, because you know,
I love the sports. Um at thirty eight, at thirty
eight years old, which I think is young, thirty eight
years young, you decided to join the w n b A.
And that was because that was the opportunity given to you,
as it was for so many of the grades who
never had the opportunity to play in the level right
out of college. You guys have to go overseas, so
(33:43):
they're forming the w n b A. And who I
want to know how to call kan? Was it? Hey?
I hear this is happening, or was someone like, hey, link,
look we need you. We're about to do it. I
heard about it. And you have to understand, growing up,
you always wish that you at a professional league like
the guys, the times we're overseas, we're lonely, we're sitting talking.
(34:06):
Why can't we be doing this at home? You know?
And then finally it opens up. Well it's at the
end of my career, but that's okay. I decided, Okay,
if I can get in shape, yea, if I can
get in shape, I'm gonna at least try it for
a year. And uh I was able to just work
(34:27):
hard enough. I mean I did everything you do. I
did boxing, I did running, I did swearing. I mean,
I did so many things to try to get my
body back in shape so that I could go up
and down the floor the way you have to in
a professional league. Um. But somehow God gave me the
grace to do it, and uh I was part of
(34:49):
that inaugural season. UH played great, didn't get an injury,
played for two years, and was able to walk away
from the game. And more importantly, you you had a dream,
real lies do you? You had? You were able to
take part in something that was denied for so long,
for so many of these great I mean, like, I
(35:10):
don't think people understand, Like now you can go to
school and say I want to be a doctor, I
want to be a politician, I want to be a
practitioner or whatever field I want to create my own.
But you can no one saying no to you. The
opportunities are endless, and you were told no. You and
so many other grades were told Noah, me as fans
of the sport and people of the sport were denied
the opportunity to watch you do what you do best
(35:33):
and I and for me, you being able to have
that two years, one year, six months, Like, that's a
beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, the beautiful thing
is that. Uh for me, it was never there. But
once I got to that point, a door would open.
So I just had to continue to do what I did,
(35:53):
just train, be discipline and keep the faith, and when
I get to that junction, the door would Man, I'm
also not doing That is the most amazing thing that
has happened in the whole you know, So you know
you're like I was prepared. I was prepared because you know,
(36:14):
for preparation meets opportunity, and this is what you're gonna do.
You like, I gotta get ready. I'm gonna get ready.
You already have the skill set to get ready. Okay,
I gotta box, I gotta do all the things. You
better to me though, because I'm lazy, but I don't
do physically. No, I hustle. I hustle, but physically i'm
my Do we have to run? Are we running? My
chest is burning the heart, you know, it's working hard.
(36:40):
Every champion and carey Chappion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry Chappion and carry Chappian a Chappion
and carry Chappion and carry Chappion sports and then the
tam making make it work. Every Chappion and carry CHAPPI
is to be a Chappian, a champion and champion. Then
(37:07):
the very first right here we go with our first
because we love it. The very first woman to be
a part of the globe trotters. I need to to
that experience being the first. It's um sometimes I'm not
using the right word. Sometimes it's overrated in terms of
the glory that you think that comes with it, because
it's so really it's really difficult to be the first,
(37:31):
um because of things that happened. Uh that we we
the ordinary pedestrian person watching them from the outside doesn't understand.
All we can see is the first. We're doing this
with the Harlem Globetrotters. That's amazing. It's a big deal.
Can you walk me through that, because I want to
make sure I understand the particulars of being the first. Yes,
(37:51):
first of all. Um. However the courtin is line up.
However God does things. I had a cousin who played
with the Harlem Globetrotters for over twenty four years. His
name is Hubert Geese Osby. He was a showman, one
of the greatest trotters to ever be a trotter. If
you will, uh, if you google him you will see um.
(38:15):
But he would come to our family picnics and as children,
Uh he do his ball hammling for us, and we
were amazed. I was amazed at the wizardry, the way
he could spend the ball and do all these tricks.
It was just I just loved it. And I found
(38:37):
myself in the spare time when I wasn't shooting the
basketball on the court, I would try to do the
ball hamdling tricks, the wizardry that I saw him do,
I would try to imitate it. And so I said
to myself one day that even when I stopped playing
(38:58):
basketball and no one else know that I can play,
I will be able to pick up the basketball and
still be able to do the risidry and show you
some glimpses of of the past. And so I always
worked on that. If I saw someone do something that
I thought was fancy and I liked, I would go
(39:20):
to them and ask them to teach me, and they
did so. Over time, I had strunk together a nice
little routine with the ball, and I practiced it every day,
got very good at it. Um, it was my dream
to play for the Harlem glow Trotters. As a player,
(39:40):
you always pretend to be somebody or to be a
part of a team. And my team was the glow
Trotters because of my cousin, and so that's why my
style went that way. And um, so this dream, this
was when I was, you know what, six seven years old.
I help this dream until I was twenty six, and
(40:02):
it came to fruition. But when I was in college,
I told my college coach of this dream. She helped
me write a letter to the Globe Trotters. I really
thought it was gonna go to the front office and
they gonna understand. But I realized what I became a
Globe chrod. There's a bag of male like Santa Claus,
let's going to let But it felt good writing yet,
(40:27):
you know, Uh, at the point after the Olympics um in,
which was in Los Angeles, California, the Globe Trotters were
in the stands and as they're known for innovators, they
were looking for somebody to help revived them because they
had kind of, you know, gone down a little bit,
(40:47):
and so they had that great idea, Hey, we're gonna
have a female. They came to the games, they saw
that we could play, and they wanted to make it happen.
I didn't know this at that time. A month later,
and we've got the gold medal. I'm home resting and
who gives me a call on the phone. It's my cousin,
Geese Osby. So he's calling me to congratulate me about
(41:11):
the gold medal. Well, this is the first time that
I can ask him, Hey, what do you think about
a female being on the team. This is something I
dreamed about all my life. Um, but he didn't answer
me the way I thought he would. I thought he
was gonna say, oh, yeah, you know what, that's a
great idea. Let me go to management. You know, maybe
we could work something out for you. Uh. It didn't
(41:32):
go like that. His response to me, I was, you know,
and that. You know, I don't know if my teammates
would go for that. I don't know what it would
be like for a woman to be on the road.
I mean, he didn't meet any hard, but he was
just trying to yeah. Yeah. And so I remember hanging
up the phone a little downhearted because I had believed
(41:54):
this dream. I had spoken this dream. I told everybody
from who would listen to me, if this is going
to happen. So I'm really beginning to feel like maybe
they thought I was, you know, kind of crazy because
I loved it too much and I maybe should step
off the train. But I wouldn't do it. Uh, it
was so much a part of my spirit. Uh. I
had read something just recent lee from that time that
(42:18):
I spoke to him that if ever you pray, you
say exactly what you want, don't beat around the bush.
Pray retail versus wholesale. That's how I read. So that
meant to me, say what you want in your prayer.
So I went to bed that night and I prayed.
I said, Lord, I want to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
(42:38):
I said, no one knows what I'm thinking. You know,
you could either take this out of my heart and
I can go on and buy anyone's standards. I have enough.
I got a college degree, I gotta gold medal, I've
been overseas, I traveled around the world. I've got all
these things. But it's something in my heart that I
want to continue to play. Can you it happen for me? Yeah?
(43:03):
So I saw I left it. Uh, he didn't answer me.
He didn't call me back the next day. But what
did happen? I could not stop training, and so I
continued to train. Uh. It was about six weeks. I
go down to the basketball office. I'm just dragging. I'm training.
I just go in the office. I picked up the paper.
(43:24):
It was the U. S A Today. At the top
of the paper it said that the glow Chatters were
going to go co ed for eight six season. My bird,
I'm like, what this is it? Oh my god, he
heard me. It was like it was answering. He didn't
say I was gonna make the team, but he heard
(43:44):
my prayer, which meant to me, you know, if this
is not it, I do have something for you. I
heard you. I heard you. And so after that, the
Glove Chrotter has had a tryout in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Women were invited all over the United States. We then
went to Burbank, California, had another trial. Because they couldn't
(44:07):
make a decision at that time, we joined the Globe Trotters. Uh.
That's where we got acceptance really because they realized that, hey,
women can't play this game. The game has improved, and
so theyby came open to their idea and it was
like it was magic after that. So after a week
of training, Uh, they wind us up like it was
(44:29):
a pageant. Uh and and my name was called and uh,
it's just a blessing, a dream come true. I'm from Kansas.
My mother's name is Dorothy. She has all the yellow
brick road all the way there. I love it all.
We went to the oys, we asked for what we
(44:50):
wanted and they gave it to us. Okay, So I
want to tell you because we have all of this
and I'm looking at all my research. I think that
if you're listening, there is so much um, there's so
much to talk about there. I think I read this
meme once that said, you have several careers, you have
several reincarnations of who you are. We've we've only touched
(45:11):
on a few, but we haven't gotten into the coaching
career aspect of it. And I don't want to go
too deep, but I know that it says here returned
to Kansas City and you were the assistant coach of
the women's basketball team, and then you were you went
on to coach on your own um at the university
would uk oh well already had the financial which you
were at Winthrop Eagles women's basketball team. That was the
(45:34):
one and that was in seventeen. So you have had
and I don't even think we've gotten to what the
what the the finish line is because there's the story
is still being written. But you didn't have and it's
not unusual for people to go from playing ball in
that level and being a coach, because you're one of
the first, you know the fundamentals of it all and
you've you've seen it all. Um, what is the most
(45:56):
rewarding thing for you about coaching? Uh? To share the
knowledge of the game. UH, to lift players up, to
help them with their confidence. Uh. There's so much you
can learn in the game that you can take with
you in life. But you gotta learn teamwork. UM, you
gotta you can learn leadership skills. UH, you learn discipline,
(46:18):
you gain your confidence. UH, you get a voice, You
learn to fight, and then you learn to win, and
then you learn to lose. What happens when we lose, Well,
there's a system that you go through. When you lose,
you go back, you get the stats, You look at
where your short falls were, You work on them. Uh,
(46:41):
you study your opponent. Uh, you find ways to win.
But it's a systemic way that you can do it.
So that you know, if life, you know, gives you
a flat tire, you just don't freak out. You Hey,
you can relax. How you figure out what the problem is.
You can go back and and stand up and and
and that's yourself off and know you're coming back again.
(47:04):
I think people who are UM in in organized sports,
in high school level, collegiate level, UM You guys are
obviously better leaders in a lot of ways. So it
does make sense to me to see someone such as
yourself coaching because you you do know how to lose.
You talk about losing as a process and you go
back and figure out what went wrong so you can
correct it. That that is invaluable in life, like in
(47:28):
every aspect of life. Right, we sometimes don't I won't
even do that. I'm like, I'm pouting I didn't win,
and the joke and I and I and I and
I'm mad and I'm blaming everybody else and I'm not
looking at how I could have immediately corrected the situation
so I can win in the next the next time
of minute. We gotta learn that through a lot of
falling down. Um, I wonder for you when you think
(47:51):
about it, is such a by your such a wealth
of knowledge, by the way, but I wonder for you, Uh,
what else is next? Because you've been taught that everything
is possible? So is there more for you? Or you
enjoying where you are in life? Have you been able
to be content? Because the lesson of contentment is so
hard to understand and more importantly to practice when you're
(48:12):
very ambitious. I am very ambitious. UM. I like the fight.
I like the challenge. Um, you know, I want to
go to battle every day. You know. I want to
read something, I want to learn something. I want to
help someone. UM let's go what we're gonna conquer today,
(48:36):
and UM it just gives me life. I you know,
it's uh, you know, I want to help people have
that type of energy. You I mean, especially the way
the world is now. You never know what's gonna go
from one minute to the next, you know. But you've
got to be Um, you gotta have your routine down.
(48:57):
You've got to be ready, uh for the challenges that
you face every day. You gotta be focused. You have
to be crystal clear about what you want, what you
want to do, and you've got to be able to
uh not let the little obstacles it's gonna flare up
get in your way. You know, just think of it
as an obstacle course. You know, Hey, we gotta jump
(49:18):
over it is, we gotta crawl under that, we gotta
bomb and we've But you just gotta think. When you
gotta think victory, you gotta think. I'm not gonna let
anything or anybody tell me what's impossible for me. You
already did it to me. I don't want to hear it.
I've overcome that, so you can't tell me now. So
it's it's really getting out there helping people. I have
(49:40):
opportunity now to work with the Harlem glow Trotters to
help the young ladies. Uh. They're they're more young ladies
on the team now than ever before. Uh, there's five.
I want to see that number grow. If that number grows,
that means that maybe one day there'll be a team,
you know. And yeah, and and and even for the
(50:02):
male players. I mean, I've played with the guys you know. Um,
I'm set on the bus. We've had conversations. We I
know what it's like to be out on the road. Um,
you know, just conversations and and and people knowing where
you are, an understanding where you are and being uh
(50:22):
and giving you, you know, loan advice on how to
make it easier for yourself. Uh, it's invaluable. That's what
I want to give. That's what I want to share. Oh.
I love that one atte and I think that you
are the person to do that. Um. Is there anything
that you are working on? I think that I I
didn't get to see that in my research. Is there
anything that you'd like to promote tell everybody to pay
(50:44):
attention to, because I'll do that as well. Um when
I tell everyone, I wrap up about how great this
podcast is and how amazing. Okay, um, yeah, I'm working
on a lot of things. Uh, one being a special
advisor of course to the Globe Trotters. Um. But also um,
(51:05):
I I'm working with a company called I own dot me.
And what it is is a sort of like LifeLock. Um.
I don't know how you you can protect your uh
physical identity with your credit cards or so security cards,
(51:27):
but this is digital identity. I own me and it's
a company that helps you protect your digital identity. And um,
it's uh, it's how does that work? Like? Does that
mean someone can't change when you say digital identity. They
can't take your social media handles, they can't data. Yeah. Yeah,
(51:48):
so you know they might take you know, you may
take to try to take your brand and market it
somewhere else about your permission. Uh, And they're sort of
like the police for okay. Um, you'll you'll be hearing
about it in the future. But it's a it's a
of course, it's of course you are ahead. I'm on
(52:11):
the front of Yeah, we're also late. You're like, I've
been doing this, Thank you very much. I've been doing
what I'm doing. I got it all right, Cool, I'm
not jealous. Just make sure you let a sister know
I'd be there, um Lenette would. It has been I
mean really truly a pleasure and an honor and and
I like I said that word is thrown around too much,
(52:32):
but you are a true trailblazer. So thank you for
just sharing whatever knowledge you have to give to the
folks because we appreciate it. Thank you for having me
on your show. I have great respect for you. I
follow you. Thank You're my chiro. I like your stands fire. Yeah,
(52:53):
I'm ready for I'm ready to go to battle every day,
as are you. I'm ready for it. So Lynnette has
done it all. Do we talk about the fact that
she want to gold medal. I didn't say that she
want to gold medal when she was in the Olympics
in the nineteen eighty and Olympics. She's got the hardware
because she said she liked her trophies. Is there anything
(53:14):
that she can do I think not. I think not,
but I also when I hear Lynette's story, I also
realize how important it is to have a podcast like this,
to honor our heroes, to honor our our our trailblazers,
to honor the many first that we know nothing about.
(53:34):
I'm sure many of you hadn't heard of Lynette ordered,
but she deserves I praise. And she did it so
effortlessly effort lesslie. Let's get the word out, effort lesslie.
And it probably comes with a lot of effort, but
she makes it looks easy or she made it look easy,
is what I'm trying to say. Um, I hope you
guys learned something today. I'm just trying to figure out
(53:55):
what my next career move will be ten years from now,
because if I look at and that, I can do
whatever I want. Um, I want to be a singer,
so I don't I don't know if that's possible because
you need to actually know how to sing. There are
some dreams that you just can't realize singing would be
one of them. For me. Anyway, thank you guys for
(54:17):
listening to me. Jabra On Welcome back to the podcast.
It feels it feels good to be in rhythm, right.
We got another episode coming at you all next. We
continue to subscribe and download. I appreciate you all for
listening to Naked
After that, the Globetrotters had a tryout in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Twenty six women were invited all over the United States.
We then went to Burbank, California, had another tryout. Because
they couldn't make a decision at that time, we joined
the Globe Trotters. UH. That's where we got acceptance really
because they realized that, hey, women can't play this game.
(00:21):
The game has improved. And so then he came open
to the idea and it was like it was magic.
After that, that was Lynnette Woodard. And when I tell
you she is not just a trailblazer, so many people
use that word. They often use that word with me too.
I'm like, I'm not a trailblazer yet. I ain't accomplished
much yet. So when I listened to somebody like this woman,
(00:43):
a former professional basketball player, former head coach, a former
assistant head coach at one point played in the Olympics, UH,
a former consultant and finance she's done it all and
she joins us today to drop some gems on naked.
(01:06):
It's the greatest sports. And then the taming can make
it carry chappion. They carry champion is to be a champion,
the champion they carry champion, and champion they carry champion,
they carry champion. Then the timing can make it warmer.
I still have time to say Happy New Year. Okay,
so happy New Year, I say it to the end
of January. UM. I think last week when I had
(01:29):
Erica Campbell on the podcast, I didn't really get into
some particulars. I feel like, since this is one of
the first podcasts back since the New Year, there's spent
so much this has happened. Then I try to update
you all in my life, one of which over the holidays,
I went to Ghana and if you follow me on
social media, you saw a lot of hanging out and
having fun. But what I also did was really have
(01:51):
a true education. I visited a few of the slave
castles where our ancestors were sent abroad into the diaspora,
if you will, um, and that's an education. I tried
to do that every time I get an opportunity to
go to Africa. Only been twice and I was like,
not as if I go often. But it was a
beautiful experience. UM. I came home and I had some
(02:13):
tough life lessons. I was on this Africa high and
had some tough life lessons. I had to put my
dog down. You guys know I often talk about my
dog Coco. She was eighteen and she lived a really
good life. Um and I also posted that on social
media too, but it had me big sad. And I
say this because I know there's somebody listening. Pet grief
is the most underrated grief there is. People act like
(02:34):
you can just figure it out because it's a dog
and your cat and bird whatever it is you have.
But it's underrated because, especially in my case, UM, my
animal ear marked so many important milestones in my life.
Places that I've lived, jobs that I've had, relationships that
I've been through. She was the only constant. So I
(02:54):
um miss Coco tremendously and I am now at the
point in my life where I can talk about her.
Is like those first five days, I was big sad.
It was sad, but I am on the mend. But
I am learning so many life lessons. I have not
um lost any close family members. So this was the
first time as an adult I think I can say
I experienced real, true grief and I'm not talking about
(03:16):
a breakup. UM No, probably the second time, but I'm
not talking about a breakup, but I'm talking about just real,
true grief where you you miss something someone so much
that you're like why, you know. So that was what
was happening with me and my animal, Coco. She was eighteen.
She lived a big life. Uh. The other thing that
happened that I didn't address on last week's podcast was
(03:38):
what happened in the NFL with Tamar Hamlet. I think
everybody knows by now. It was a young kid who
collapsed on Monday night football, and it was truly a
matter of life and death, and we were all concerned
as a collective community. We watched in real time what
we thought was someone who may not live, and even
if that person did live, they would not have any
normal life. Fast forward a week or so later, he
(04:01):
was released from the hospital. He was not released in
terms of going home. He went to a different hospital
in Buffalo, and his prognosis is perhaps by the time
you listen to this podcast, he will be back home.
But what I wanted to talk about was the goodness
of humanity, because while I was feeling really bad about
losing my animal, I was watching humanity take center stage
(04:23):
when it came to Damar Hamlet. Uh. He has this
foundation that was only trying to raise twenty for a
toy drive that ultimately raised upboards of seven million dollars
because people were so affected by what they saw and
the story when viral, if not global, same thing, but
people wanted to help, and a bulk of the donations
(04:43):
were about thirty dollars. Thirty dollars. You guys were given out.
You were given thirty dollars. So if a bunch of
people were giving thirty dollars, that says two things to me,
that this hit everyone's heart, and most people don't have
money to give, especially not in this econ to me,
especially not after a pandemic, which we are still in.
We're just not discussing it, especially in in a world
(05:06):
in which, um, we know how unsure I'm sure we
can be when it comes to finances. People have paycheck
to paycheck. So if I'm giving you thirty of my dollars,
you know, approximately that's a significant gift for me to
give and and to and to understand that all over
the world people were giving, you know, these thirty dollar,
(05:26):
forty dollar, fifty dollar donations for a kid who they
did not know but empathize for what perhaps was happening
with him and his family, and they just wanted to
show support. Is truly an example of what's good with
the world, right, because oftentimes we don't find or understand
what is good with the world. Uh. And this was
one of these moments. So while I was dealing with
(05:47):
my dog grief, I was also like, Wow, people aren't
that bad. Conversely, or not even conversely, on the along
the same lines, Um, the people who reached out to
me about my animal, Um, who knew my producer texting
me you're okay, I'm my lambis Ad bigs ad. Today
people who I hadn't talked to in years, who knew
(06:08):
what my dog meant to me were reaching out to
me cinding flowers. I mean humans are good people. Um,
I'm gonna start to say that I'm starting the year
off believing that people are good. I mean people are good.
And so with that being said, I am happy to
introduce you to a good person for the podcast. Lynnette Wodard. Uh.
She has so many titles I'll go by um. College
(06:31):
basketball stand out. One of the first women to be
in the w n b A in that inaugural season,
at thirty eight years old, one of the first women,
the first woman actually to be a Harlem, the very
first woman correction to be a Harlem Globe Trotter. She
went on to be an assistant coach at Kansas, where
she played ball. She later went on to be a
(06:52):
head coach at another university over a woman's basketball team
when and she now is currently a special advisor for
the Harlem Globe Trotters. Um. By the way, I'm sorry,
I forgot. While all this is happening, she was able
to get her her practicing license to be a consult
in finance in finance and money, handle the money, make
(07:13):
the money. I told her there was this meme that said,
you'll have six or seven different reincarnations of yourself professionally.
And when I just list a few things that she's done,
and I'm sure she's still not done, it's a true story.
The job you have now won't be the job you
ultimately have. You'll transition and you'll do different things. Um.
(07:33):
And that's beautiful because it means you're well rounded, and
it means that you are truly a believer of someone
in yourself that's that believes that you can do whatever
it is you want to do. Um. Lynette share some
very very important experiences. But my biggest takeaway for you
all is that when she graduated from college, there was
(07:54):
no W N B A, so she had to go
play overseas. I've interviewed two women like that too far
her and Don's daily at the head coach in South Carolina,
and I couldn't imagine a world in which I went
to school, paid my money to get an education, or
even if I didn't pay my money to get an education,
I couldn't go on and live the dream um in
a professional way. And that was her and her life
(08:16):
lessons are magnificent and paper grabbing. Go Welcome to this
edition of Naked and So Lynette. I do believe that
oftentimes we use the word trailblazer or leader or the
one of the first too frequently in today's society. But
(08:36):
you truly are, in very many ways, UM, a trailblazer,
and that's not um and something that I would just
use to exaggerate. I've often been interested when I do
beat people such as yourself, about the genesis, your your
your origin story. You grew up in Kansas. Tell me
a little bit about how you grew up in your lifestyle,
your family dynamic. Well, I come from two parents home.
(09:01):
Uh have my brother and sister older than I am. Uh,
Donna is the oldest, my brother Darryl. Uh it's next,
and then it's myself and my younger sister, Bonnie. Darryl
and I, Uh, you might say our closest in age.
So we you know, we played together, and with him
(09:22):
being the oldest, he created the games that we played.
So it was always sports, of course, and that's how
I found my way to basketball. I love that. So
because you played all of his games, it ended up
helping you in a better way. When did you know,
as playing basketball with your brother that you were you
were nice, like I'm nice with this. When did you
(09:44):
know that? I didn't know for a long time. Um,
you know, I say basketball. But the games that he invented,
you know, as children, we didn't have a nerf ball
or anything like that, but we he would roll his
socks together and we would shoot behind the bedroom door. Uh.
The closet was adjacent, so we you know, we had
(10:05):
two baskets. He created all of the names of the players,
which uh, ironically I later met in life and and
I guess our parents just kind of figured out what
we were doing, and then later they bought us a
hoop and a basketball and kicked us out of the
house and let us play in the backyard. How important
(10:28):
was it for your your your parents to recognize whatever
you thought was a game as something to occupy your time,
which ultimately changed your lifestyle. I think it's pretty amazing
when I think back, especially for my mom. Uh. She
she bought us a little game, you know, basketball games
(10:50):
in a box. You know, we pulled the lever and
shoot the ping pong ball. But she enjoyed sports we had. Uh.
We we lived pretty close to which Tall State University
growing up, and she would listen to the basketball games
and I was too young to really understand it, but
she would listen with my brother and they would get
(11:11):
so excited. So I think just hearing that and um again,
creating those games that we played, those were all seeds,
uh till later flourish into something that you know, It's
been so amazing in my life. It's so amazing how
you now can look back and people don't have a
lot of people don't have this experience, but you can
(11:32):
look back at different things that actually are different moments
or incidents or happenstances, if you will, I really created you,
so it wasn't so much of a happenstance or a
quinky dink, right, and it feels destined. So you you
go on to really love this game. When did this
game of basketball become something that you knew you had
(11:54):
to have in your life? Um? Well, uh, let me
go back a little bit further. You know, we we
played the sock ball. We later went to the backyard,
which really wasn't that much fun for me because I
didn't have the skills to play the game, and and
and the goal draw my brother's friends not my friends friends.
(12:20):
So that left me being the only girl, and they
really didn't want me out there. And he would say,
mother maker, go in the house. We don't want to play. Um,
I'm staying around, you know, I get kicked off and
I'd watch. But I figured out their little system. You know,
if you could make a free throw, then you were
a part of the team. And so when they would
leave the ball and go away, then I would practice,
(12:42):
uh and hope for the day that someone didn't show up.
They had an odd number on the team when they
would invite me, you know, to come out and play.
That was a good day for me. But that's pretty cool.
But when I was five, there was a plane crash
on my block. UM. It was a case C one
thirty five jet fueler that came out of McConnell Air
(13:05):
Force Base. UH. Something went very wrong on the takeoff
and when that plane came over, it landed right in
our neighborhood, probably about four houses for where the plane hit,
I was about four or five houses down. UM. What happened,
Our houses were bricked on our side of our side
of the street. On the opposite side, the houses were
(13:27):
made of wood, so that fuel just took those houses out.
We were able to rebuild and come back, but the
folks across the street there are a lot of lives lost.
Probably one of the biggest catastrophes UH in which Tall
kansaske Um. But instead of rebuilding, UM, the city came
(13:49):
in and made a park in that area. UH. And
in other areas that were blighted. UH in the northeast area,
which was you know, quote unquote UM where you know
the African Americans lived, and they put out a basketball court,
they put out a playground, and that's the point that
(14:09):
I became very serious about playing the game because I
could go every day after school and just you know,
have a great time. Oh that's great, that's really great.
So well. Yeah, and while you say probably one of
the one of the ugliest tragedies the city has ever seen,
you were able. They were able to replace it with
something that restored. Right, it was a little bit of restoration.
(14:31):
It seems like something beautiful remains. And to this day
when I go back and I hear the laughter of
the kids, uh, you know, the balancing of the balls,
the squeaking of the shoes on the court. Uh, you know,
I think about how I got there, and it just
really warms my heart. I love that. I love that.
So then that's when you knew you loved the game
(14:54):
when you would go to play. But there was nowhere
to play, uh, because they didn't have girls basketball and
junior high school. But it wasn't until I got to
high school that I had a chance to learn organize basketball.
Prior to that, I was just play ground, Uh, trying
to get in where I could fit in. Yeah, and uh,
(15:17):
just loving the game. I hear you say that, it
breaks my heart, right, because they're they're obviously that the
generation we know now will never know that. And when
I hear people say that, I think about dreams that
were robbed from so many women. I think about opportunities
that were taken uh from us, um, from since the
beginning of time. But just it's even to this day,
(15:38):
but just in that simple place, something where you find
joy but you absolutely are not allowed to do it
um And it remained that way so late in life.
When you got to high school and you played ball,
what was it like was he coached like, oh you're tah,
this is it. We will make you a star, like
because you know they do to you tall, We're gonna
make you Yeah. Well, actually, you know, I didn't realize
(16:00):
was a big deal. Uh. You know, I enjoyed playing
on the playground. I enjoyed playing at the recreation center
because every weekend we could go to a tournament. I
I love trophies. Okay, so I wanted to get a trophy,
but they didn't get a trophy. You just had games.
I didn't understand that content, but my my good friend
(16:23):
UM heard it over the intercom that you know, they
were going to have trials, So you know, between class
and she said, you know, we gotta go down, we
gotta try out. I'm like, na, not really. Uh but anyway,
by the end of the day she had talked me
into going down, and uh, you know, the rest is history.
I I saw, you know, all the girls that came
(16:45):
down and wanted to play, and I was very excited
because I never saw any girls play basketball. I was
the only one ever out there on the court. Uh.
So to see others that I wanted to play the
game as I did, it was very exciting for me.
So you you play the game as they did, you
wanted your hardware. You didn't understand why you wouldn't get anything,
(17:07):
my damn hardware at where it'd be give it to me.
Now I get I mean my giveing I need to
show you just hold it up like see. So I
respect that because I am of that same thought. But
the process. But then then you you go to college,
what was that experience like for you? Well, um, you know,
(17:30):
my um friends, my guy friends in high school, they
were being recruited all over the nation. Uh, schools like
North Carolina, Maryland at the time, Texas big schools. But
for me, uh, not so much. You know, I would
get letters that came to the school. I would go
(17:52):
by the guidance counselor and they would always hand me
a letter. Someone had hit me a letter wanted me
to uh think about going to their college or university. UM.
I didn't understand it. No one really talked to me
about it. UM. And then finally one day I asked
my guidance counselor, what does all this mean, you know,
(18:14):
going to school getting a scholarship? And he sat down
and he talked to me and explained that, you know,
this is a great opportunity. I could have a chance
to go and have my college paid for. My mom
and dad wouldn't have that expense. All I had to
do was buckle down, hit the books, and and do
what I wanted to do, and that was played basketball.
(18:36):
I wasn't confident at all with that because no one
in my family had ever gone to school. I didn't
know what it meant. I didn't know how it was
going to translate later in life. But I trusted um,
and UM, I just went on. I continued to play. Um.
It was just talk around me that was just really
(18:57):
going over my head. But uh, I just followed through.
We we had a very successful um or. I had
a very successful high school career, so of course by
the time I became a senior, I was offered a scholarship.
I ended up going to play for a coach by
the name of Mary and Washington, who is a Hall
(19:19):
of Fame coach at the University of Kansas UM and
I I would do it again a thousand times. One
of the greatest coaches in the game. UM. She was
an African American. I used to read about her in
the paper. But the things I read, UM, I was like, uh, well,
(19:41):
I'll tell you this one story. She had uh fired
uh someone. She was athletic director and basketball coach and
she had fired someone. And I had never seen, you know,
a black person in a leadership role, not only as
athletic director, but as basketball coach. And so it was
a out of negative press that came out and I thought, Wow,
(20:02):
this is I mean, this is somebody special over here.
And uh. And so later when I met her, she
had been a part of the U S national team,
which I didn't know. You could travel all over the world.
So I mean, of course she became my role model
and I wanted to do those things and and to
be at the University of Kansas, a great, you know institution. Uh,
(20:26):
I said, I want to play for her because she's
she's tough, she held her guns. She took a lot
of flak for her decisions that she made, but she
stood the test of time. And I just have so
much respect for the way she fought before I got there.
But for US athletes, I was the first athlete that
(20:49):
at the University of Kansas that received a scholarship. But
she fought to build that program and by the time
it was done, you know, everybody had a scholarship. But
she gave thirty one years of her life at that university,
which a few people know. She's a hidden figure in
my opinion, But I have so much respect for her.
(21:11):
If it was not for her, I would never have
I don't believe it's gone as far as I have
because I learned to fight. I learned to fight the
right way. I learned to take a stand for things
that are right and just watch the whole process, because
it is a long process. When you stand for something
that is right, and you know, you go against the
(21:33):
popular uh thought of the hour. Uh Yeah, it takes
a lot of courage. It takes a lot of courage
to say that you are going to be you, unapologetically right.
You even doubt yourself the process of doing that. So
you see all the things that she's able to accomplish.
And no matter how old you know or cliche, the
(21:55):
saying is you have to see it to believe it,
to believe it. And now you now you believe it.
Do you think that? Um? As you played right? There
a lot of first for you. But before we get there,
you played for the Olympic team, did you not? In
nineteen a D four and also in four? What was
(22:19):
that experience like? Because you go to college, you see
your peers making money, money, money, money, and by peers
I mean your male coharts like the dudes is they
leave it in a signing deals and they live in
the life and not as much as so now, but
for them, seemingly they had a place to go. So
when you graduated, you had to go overseas, right, um,
(22:41):
and then you came here to play the Olympics. Was
that process? It's all you knew? But was there any
um ill will towards that process? When you saw what
was happening for the men? Um not really, I I think,
I mean it was the way it was, so you know,
(23:02):
what are you gonna do about it? I wanted to
continue to play. Uh So I knew that I was
going to focus on my education. I knew I could
get that and that was gonna be very valuable for
me down the road. UM. I knew there was not
gonna be an NBA. UM there was barely there was
(23:25):
a pro league I think when I was a junior
and at the University of Kansas, but by the time
I graduated, the league had folded, so it was no
more professional league in the United States with the w
bl UM. So my only option, which came late I
didn't even know you could do this, but was to
go overseas and I played for a team there. So
(23:48):
I packed my bags. I went to Europe. I played
in Italy, probably one of the toughest times in my life,
but the greatest at the same time, because that's when
you really break the umbilical cord. I mean, you are
away from home with a rotary phone, no cell phones
yeah yeah, no movies, yeah, no streaming. We're just like
(24:14):
it is this my life? Yeah, I get it. I
really said the same thing to me. She was like,
I was miserable. She said, whatever little money I had,
I was calling back home. Yeah, she said, I yeah,
I get it. It was to excally. You're a five
minute call, your okay checks a five minute call. You're like, okay,
so I gotta go. Yeah, I get it. So yeah,
(24:34):
you had to stay there. I wanted to come home,
but I'm not a quitter. And once I got through it, um,
it was the best thing that ever happened, because then
I was able to go. You know, it was just
that pressing and getting through. And once I got through. Uh, Scott,
Scott's a living Scott was the every champion and care
(24:56):
every champion is to be a champion, a champion, and
care every a being and carry chappion champion and carry
chappion and carry chappion and sports. And then the taming
can naked work, carry chappion and carry champions. To be chapion,
(25:17):
a champion, they carry champion, Champion, they carry champion, they
carry CHAPPI do you um now looking back on that
time and and and you can speak to so many
differences of what it is versus what it what it was,
but you still hold so many first and I'm not
even I haven't even touched y'all. Like she's like she's
(25:39):
a business woman, Like she like she could save you
some money. She is, uh like not, that's just this
basketball thing, which is something you loved. You went on
the head and did it even on another level in
the world of finance, which is uh amazing in itself.
How did you decide, because you've been able to live
in both worlds, how did you first ball? How did
(26:00):
you just like finances where you wanted to live where
you always something someone who said I want investments, I
want to do so. So you have to understand basketball
is the most exciting thing to me in my life.
I love I see it, I see it. Yeah, so
now it goes away. What is gonna excite me the
way this game does? Money? Oh okay, it excites me too, funey.
(26:27):
Let's have some fun. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I
wanted to make money. I mean, what else was there.
I've traveled all over the world, you know then what
I wanted to do. But what can I do next?
You know, I love helping people, don't get me wrong,
But I was young, you know, I wanted to make
some money. I wanted to buy some things, So you
(26:51):
then where did you? I have a resume of places,
but i'd rather you tell me. I don't know if
I'm accurate. So then when you were done with basketball
and whatever couple that you you took it as far
as you could go because there there was no w
NBA at the time, and then you decided to turn
to finance because we're gonna make some money. What how
what was your approach to that? That seems so intimidating,
(27:11):
especially not just you know, because it's an intimidating numbers
are hard, especially women. We always have the same way. Really,
I don't want to deal with that. I know I
do at a lot of times. So what made you
say this is where I want to live. Well for
somebody who says I, I think that if you looked
at it, you would love it. You know. It's it's
just it's a strange thing. It's it's exposure. Really. But
(27:34):
in in the sport, I learned that I could do anything.
That's what the coach always told me. Hey, you can
play that position, you can play that position, you can
do this. I went to college. How did I do that?
I wasn't encouraged. You know, I've figured it out along
the way and once our story winning on some levels
that I didn't know that I could, especially being a
(27:56):
student athlete, which is tough. Um I was on my way.
So um I was playing uh in Japan. I left
Europe and now I'm in Japan. But I played for
a company called die Wash Securities, which is a m
A brokerage firm. My team, my friends played for the
(28:19):
Bank of Tokyo, so they worked for the Bank of
Tokyo and they played basketball. What I wanted to work
for my company, but I couldn't understand the kneek exchange.
So I thought, okay, no problem. When I go home,
I'm gonna start looking at the Dale Jones and I'm
gonna figure this out. Well, you know, I have not
a lot of money, but it's not really a lot
(28:42):
of money. At that time, it was time and money.
So you put your money up early, it'll growth for you.
And I knew that. And so when I got back,
um I I was. I came back and worked a
job and as an athletic director. Uh I met a
lady who was on Wall Street. She came to a
(29:04):
golf tournament that we had and you know, we're usually
in the position or I've seen it this way where
you know you're asking for a check, you know you're
you're on the receiving end. But here comes his sister
in there, and she's got this big check in her hand,
you know, the big cardboard, and she's donating to our program.
She had a program called from Wall Street to Your Street.
(29:27):
And I said, I want to be her. I don't
want to be the one be seeing that. I want
to be the one giving it away. So I went
and started to have a conversation with her. Um, we
kind of hit it off, and she started telling me
about the business, and UM, she said, you know what,
you would be great for this business? Like really, I said,
you don't know what I've been thinking. Just prior to that,
(29:49):
you know, I had put my little money with my
little stock broker. I called my broker, and I was
trying to figure out if I could retire. Didn't have
near enough money. Embarrassed to say so, But what I
what I learned was you if you don't ask the
right questions, you're not gonna get the answers, you know.
(30:09):
And so I don't feel like she was answering the
questions that I wanted. So I kind of got mad
and went and bought all these books from the you know,
um from the bookstore, trying to learn about Wall Street
and investing because I wanted to be able to help
somebody and answer the questions that weren't answered for me.
(30:30):
And that's how I got into it. And when I
met her name is Pat Winnings, who had came to
our golf tournament and gave us that check. I talked
to her and she saw my passion. She said, you
know what, if you're interested and being you know, learning more,
here's my card. You called me Monday, and uh, you know,
I was excited the whole weekend, but I called her.
(30:52):
Uh she told me that there was a place around
the corner that I could uh go and get some books,
take a class, get my series sevens license, and she
would teach me the rest. And she was from New York.
I'm in Kansas City. But there was a guy that
came on every lunch hour that uh, you know, talked
(31:12):
about investing. I made an appointment with him. I went
to his office. I said, look, I got this book.
I've got to learn it. Can you help me, and
he just broke it down for me. Just here, you
study this this week, this next week and followed through.
I've given you the map. You don't deviate, you will pass.
(31:34):
And that's what happened. And so I passed my test.
And I wanted to go to Texas because I was
intimidated by New York and MS Winnings. She was expanding
to Texas, but she said, hey, on that you know what,
you all learn this stuff, you gotta come to New York.
You may as well get in the mix. And I
(31:55):
went to New York. Um a city that I feared,
a city that I came to love. It wasn't that
big monster once I got used to not speaking to people. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it was great. Uh it was when the market was
at its all time high. Uh. I mean I saw things,
(32:17):
I experienced the best of the best, and uh, you know,
it's it's been a great experience. Can deserve you deserve
all of that. Now, do you still practice? Do you
still work in finance? You give off advice or you
are you fully retired? No, I'm not fully retired, but
you know I do watch the market. I am invested
(32:39):
in the market. Uh. I I reserve. I guess giving advice.
You really know me and trust me, you know, yeah,
I get it. Yeah, A little, a little change you
gotta have. It's just yeah, no, it's it's scare money.
(32:59):
Don't make money. This is a business for folks who
are ready to do it. But that's great. It don't
make you no money. So you gotta go out there
and be like I believe, I trust me. I. But
you can do it systematically, yeah, you know, and just
just do it over time. And I tell you, you know,
it'll come back and help you one day. So let's
(33:22):
talk about and I and I and I and I'm
making our right turn back to basketball folks, because you know,
I love the sports. Um at thirty eight, at thirty
eight years old, which I think is young, thirty eight
years young, you decided to join the w n b A.
And that was because that was the opportunity given to you,
as it was for so many of the grades who
never had the opportunity to play in the level right
out of college. You guys have to go overseas, so
(33:43):
they're forming the w n b A. And who I
want to know how to call kan? Was it? Hey?
I hear this is happening, or was someone like, hey, link,
look we need you. We're about to do it. I
heard about it. And you have to understand, growing up,
you always wish that you at a professional league like
the guys, the times we're overseas, we're lonely, we're sitting talking.
(34:06):
Why can't we be doing this at home? You know?
And then finally it opens up. Well it's at the
end of my career, but that's okay. I decided, Okay,
if I can get in shape, yea, if I can
get in shape, I'm gonna at least try it for
a year. And uh I was able to just work
(34:27):
hard enough. I mean I did everything you do. I
did boxing, I did running, I did swearing. I mean,
I did so many things to try to get my
body back in shape so that I could go up
and down the floor the way you have to in
a professional league. Um. But somehow God gave me the
grace to do it, and uh I was part of
(34:49):
that inaugural season. UH played great, didn't get an injury,
played for two years, and was able to walk away
from the game. And more importantly, you you had a dream,
real lies do you? You had? You were able to
take part in something that was denied for so long,
for so many of these great I mean, like, I
(35:10):
don't think people understand, Like now you can go to
school and say I want to be a doctor, I
want to be a politician, I want to be a
practitioner or whatever field I want to create my own.
But you can no one saying no to you. The
opportunities are endless, and you were told no. You and
so many other grades were told Noah, me as fans
of the sport and people of the sport were denied
the opportunity to watch you do what you do best
(35:33):
and I and for me, you being able to have
that two years, one year, six months, Like, that's a
beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, the beautiful thing
is that. Uh for me, it was never there. But
once I got to that point, a door would open.
So I just had to continue to do what I did,
(35:53):
just train, be discipline and keep the faith, and when
I get to that junction, the door would Man, I'm
also not doing That is the most amazing thing that
has happened in the whole you know, So you know
you're like I was prepared. I was prepared because you know,
(36:14):
for preparation meets opportunity, and this is what you're gonna do.
You like, I gotta get ready. I'm gonna get ready.
You already have the skill set to get ready. Okay,
I gotta box, I gotta do all the things. You
better to me though, because I'm lazy, but I don't
do physically. No, I hustle. I hustle, but physically i'm
my Do we have to run? Are we running? My
chest is burning the heart, you know, it's working hard.
(36:40):
Every champion and carey Chappion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry Chappion and carry Chappian a Chappion
and carry Chappion and carry Chappion sports and then the
tam making make it work. Every Chappion and carry CHAPPI
is to be a Chappian, a champion and champion. Then
(37:07):
the very first right here we go with our first
because we love it. The very first woman to be
a part of the globe trotters. I need to to
that experience being the first. It's um sometimes I'm not
using the right word. Sometimes it's overrated in terms of
the glory that you think that comes with it, because
it's so really it's really difficult to be the first,
(37:31):
um because of things that happened. Uh that we we
the ordinary pedestrian person watching them from the outside doesn't understand.
All we can see is the first. We're doing this
with the Harlem Globetrotters. That's amazing. It's a big deal.
Can you walk me through that, because I want to
make sure I understand the particulars of being the first. Yes,
(37:51):
first of all. Um. However the courtin is line up.
However God does things. I had a cousin who played
with the Harlem Globetrotters for over twenty four years. His
name is Hubert Geese Osby. He was a showman, one
of the greatest trotters to ever be a trotter. If
you will, uh, if you google him you will see um.
(38:15):
But he would come to our family picnics and as children,
Uh he do his ball hammling for us, and we
were amazed. I was amazed at the wizardry, the way
he could spend the ball and do all these tricks.
It was just I just loved it. And I found
(38:37):
myself in the spare time when I wasn't shooting the
basketball on the court, I would try to do the
ball hamdling tricks, the wizardry that I saw him do,
I would try to imitate it. And so I said
to myself one day that even when I stopped playing
(38:58):
basketball and no one else know that I can play,
I will be able to pick up the basketball and
still be able to do the risidry and show you
some glimpses of of the past. And so I always
worked on that. If I saw someone do something that
I thought was fancy and I liked, I would go
(39:20):
to them and ask them to teach me, and they
did so. Over time, I had strunk together a nice
little routine with the ball, and I practiced it every day,
got very good at it. Um, it was my dream
to play for the Harlem glow Trotters. As a player,
(39:40):
you always pretend to be somebody or to be a
part of a team. And my team was the glow
Trotters because of my cousin, and so that's why my
style went that way. And um, so this dream, this
was when I was, you know what, six seven years old.
I help this dream until I was twenty six, and
(40:02):
it came to fruition. But when I was in college,
I told my college coach of this dream. She helped
me write a letter to the Globe Trotters. I really
thought it was gonna go to the front office and
they gonna understand. But I realized what I became a
Globe chrod. There's a bag of male like Santa Claus,
let's going to let But it felt good writing yet,
(40:27):
you know, Uh, at the point after the Olympics um in,
which was in Los Angeles, California, the Globe Trotters were
in the stands and as they're known for innovators, they
were looking for somebody to help revived them because they
had kind of, you know, gone down a little bit,
(40:47):
and so they had that great idea, Hey, we're gonna
have a female. They came to the games, they saw
that we could play, and they wanted to make it happen.
I didn't know this at that time. A month later,
and we've got the gold medal. I'm home resting and
who gives me a call on the phone. It's my cousin,
Geese Osby. So he's calling me to congratulate me about
(41:11):
the gold medal. Well, this is the first time that
I can ask him, Hey, what do you think about
a female being on the team. This is something I
dreamed about all my life. Um, but he didn't answer
me the way I thought he would. I thought he
was gonna say, oh, yeah, you know what, that's a
great idea. Let me go to management. You know, maybe
we could work something out for you. Uh. It didn't
(41:32):
go like that. His response to me, I was, you know,
and that. You know, I don't know if my teammates
would go for that. I don't know what it would
be like for a woman to be on the road.
I mean, he didn't meet any hard, but he was
just trying to yeah. Yeah. And so I remember hanging
up the phone a little downhearted because I had believed
(41:54):
this dream. I had spoken this dream. I told everybody
from who would listen to me, if this is going
to happen. So I'm really beginning to feel like maybe
they thought I was, you know, kind of crazy because
I loved it too much and I maybe should step
off the train. But I wouldn't do it. Uh, it
was so much a part of my spirit. Uh. I
had read something just recent lee from that time that
(42:18):
I spoke to him that if ever you pray, you
say exactly what you want, don't beat around the bush.
Pray retail versus wholesale. That's how I read. So that
meant to me, say what you want in your prayer.
So I went to bed that night and I prayed.
I said, Lord, I want to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
(42:38):
I said, no one knows what I'm thinking. You know,
you could either take this out of my heart and
I can go on and buy anyone's standards. I have enough.
I got a college degree, I gotta gold medal, I've
been overseas, I traveled around the world. I've got all
these things. But it's something in my heart that I
want to continue to play. Can you it happen for me? Yeah?
(43:03):
So I saw I left it. Uh, he didn't answer me.
He didn't call me back the next day. But what
did happen? I could not stop training, and so I
continued to train. Uh. It was about six weeks. I
go down to the basketball office. I'm just dragging. I'm training.
I just go in the office. I picked up the paper.
(43:24):
It was the U. S A Today. At the top
of the paper it said that the glow Chatters were
going to go co ed for eight six season. My bird,
I'm like, what this is it? Oh my god, he
heard me. It was like it was answering. He didn't
say I was gonna make the team, but he heard
(43:44):
my prayer, which meant to me, you know, if this
is not it, I do have something for you. I
heard you. I heard you. And so after that, the
Glove Chrotter has had a tryout in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Women were invited all over the United States. We then
went to Burbank, California, had another trial. Because they couldn't
(44:07):
make a decision at that time, we joined the Globe Trotters. Uh.
That's where we got acceptance really because they realized that, hey,
women can't play this game. The game has improved, and
so theyby came open to their idea and it was
like it was magic after that. So after a week
of training, Uh, they wind us up like it was
(44:29):
a pageant. Uh and and my name was called and uh,
it's just a blessing, a dream come true. I'm from Kansas.
My mother's name is Dorothy. She has all the yellow
brick road all the way there. I love it all.
We went to the oys, we asked for what we
(44:50):
wanted and they gave it to us. Okay, So I
want to tell you because we have all of this
and I'm looking at all my research. I think that
if you're listening, there is so much um, there's so
much to talk about there. I think I read this
meme once that said, you have several careers, you have
several reincarnations of who you are. We've we've only touched
(45:11):
on a few, but we haven't gotten into the coaching
career aspect of it. And I don't want to go
too deep, but I know that it says here returned
to Kansas City and you were the assistant coach of
the women's basketball team, and then you were you went
on to coach on your own um at the university
would uk oh well already had the financial which you
were at Winthrop Eagles women's basketball team. That was the
(45:34):
one and that was in seventeen. So you have had
and I don't even think we've gotten to what the
what the the finish line is because there's the story
is still being written. But you didn't have and it's
not unusual for people to go from playing ball in
that level and being a coach, because you're one of
the first, you know the fundamentals of it all and
you've you've seen it all. Um, what is the most
(45:56):
rewarding thing for you about coaching? Uh? To share the
knowledge of the game. UH, to lift players up, to
help them with their confidence. Uh. There's so much you
can learn in the game that you can take with
you in life. But you gotta learn teamwork. UM, you
gotta you can learn leadership skills. UH, you learn discipline,
(46:18):
you gain your confidence. UH, you get a voice, You
learn to fight, and then you learn to win, and
then you learn to lose. What happens when we lose, Well,
there's a system that you go through. When you lose,
you go back, you get the stats, You look at
where your short falls were, You work on them. Uh,
(46:41):
you study your opponent. Uh, you find ways to win.
But it's a systemic way that you can do it.
So that you know, if life, you know, gives you
a flat tire, you just don't freak out. You Hey,
you can relax. How you figure out what the problem is.
You can go back and and stand up and and
and that's yourself off and know you're coming back again.
(47:04):
I think people who are UM in in organized sports,
in high school level, collegiate level, UM You guys are
obviously better leaders in a lot of ways. So it
does make sense to me to see someone such as
yourself coaching because you you do know how to lose.
You talk about losing as a process and you go
back and figure out what went wrong so you can
correct it. That that is invaluable in life, like in
(47:28):
every aspect of life. Right, we sometimes don't I won't
even do that. I'm like, I'm pouting I didn't win,
and the joke and I and I and I and
I'm mad and I'm blaming everybody else and I'm not
looking at how I could have immediately corrected the situation
so I can win in the next the next time
of minute. We gotta learn that through a lot of
falling down. Um, I wonder for you when you think
(47:51):
about it, is such a by your such a wealth
of knowledge, by the way, but I wonder for you, Uh,
what else is next? Because you've been taught that everything
is possible? So is there more for you? Or you
enjoying where you are in life? Have you been able
to be content? Because the lesson of contentment is so
hard to understand and more importantly to practice when you're
(48:12):
very ambitious. I am very ambitious. UM. I like the fight.
I like the challenge. Um, you know, I want to
go to battle every day. You know. I want to
read something, I want to learn something. I want to
help someone. UM let's go what we're gonna conquer today,
(48:36):
and UM it just gives me life. I you know,
it's uh, you know, I want to help people have
that type of energy. You I mean, especially the way
the world is now. You never know what's gonna go
from one minute to the next, you know. But you've
got to be Um, you gotta have your routine down.
(48:57):
You've got to be ready, uh for the challenges that
you face every day. You gotta be focused. You have
to be crystal clear about what you want, what you
want to do, and you've got to be able to
uh not let the little obstacles it's gonna flare up
get in your way. You know, just think of it
as an obstacle course. You know, Hey, we gotta jump
(49:18):
over it is, we gotta crawl under that, we gotta
bomb and we've But you just gotta think. When you
gotta think victory, you gotta think. I'm not gonna let
anything or anybody tell me what's impossible for me. You
already did it to me. I don't want to hear it.
I've overcome that, so you can't tell me now. So
it's it's really getting out there helping people. I have
(49:40):
opportunity now to work with the Harlem glow Trotters to
help the young ladies. Uh. They're they're more young ladies
on the team now than ever before. Uh, there's five.
I want to see that number grow. If that number grows,
that means that maybe one day there'll be a team,
you know. And yeah, and and and even for the
(50:02):
male players. I mean, I've played with the guys you know. Um,
I'm set on the bus. We've had conversations. We I
know what it's like to be out on the road. Um,
you know, just conversations and and and people knowing where
you are, an understanding where you are and being uh
(50:22):
and giving you, you know, loan advice on how to
make it easier for yourself. Uh, it's invaluable. That's what
I want to give. That's what I want to share. Oh.
I love that one atte and I think that you
are the person to do that. Um. Is there anything
that you are working on? I think that I I
didn't get to see that in my research. Is there
anything that you'd like to promote tell everybody to pay
(50:44):
attention to, because I'll do that as well. Um when
I tell everyone, I wrap up about how great this
podcast is and how amazing. Okay, um, yeah, I'm working
on a lot of things. Uh, one being a special
advisor of course to the Globe Trotters. Um. But also um,
(51:05):
I I'm working with a company called I own dot me.
And what it is is a sort of like LifeLock. Um.
I don't know how you you can protect your uh
physical identity with your credit cards or so security cards,
(51:27):
but this is digital identity. I own me and it's
a company that helps you protect your digital identity. And um,
it's uh, it's how does that work? Like? Does that
mean someone can't change when you say digital identity. They
can't take your social media handles, they can't data. Yeah. Yeah,
(51:48):
so you know they might take you know, you may
take to try to take your brand and market it
somewhere else about your permission. Uh, And they're sort of
like the police for okay. Um, you'll you'll be hearing
about it in the future. But it's a it's a
of course, it's of course you are ahead. I'm on
(52:11):
the front of Yeah, we're also late. You're like, I've
been doing this, Thank you very much. I've been doing
what I'm doing. I got it all right, Cool, I'm
not jealous. Just make sure you let a sister know
I'd be there, um Lenette would. It has been I
mean really truly a pleasure and an honor and and
I like I said that word is thrown around too much,
(52:32):
but you are a true trailblazer. So thank you for
just sharing whatever knowledge you have to give to the
folks because we appreciate it. Thank you for having me
on your show. I have great respect for you. I
follow you. Thank You're my chiro. I like your stands fire. Yeah,
(52:53):
I'm ready for I'm ready to go to battle every day,
as are you. I'm ready for it. So Lynnette has
done it all. Do we talk about the fact that
she want to gold medal. I didn't say that she
want to gold medal when she was in the Olympics
in the nineteen eighty and Olympics. She's got the hardware
because she said she liked her trophies. Is there anything
(53:14):
that she can do I think not. I think not,
but I also when I hear Lynette's story, I also
realize how important it is to have a podcast like this,
to honor our heroes, to honor our our our trailblazers,
to honor the many first that we know nothing about.
(53:34):
I'm sure many of you hadn't heard of Lynette ordered,
but she deserves I praise. And she did it so
effortlessly effort lesslie. Let's get the word out, effort lesslie.
And it probably comes with a lot of effort, but
she makes it looks easy or she made it look easy,
is what I'm trying to say. Um, I hope you
guys learned something today. I'm just trying to figure out
(53:55):
what my next career move will be ten years from now,
because if I look at and that, I can do
whatever I want. Um, I want to be a singer,
so I don't I don't know if that's possible because
you need to actually know how to sing. There are
some dreams that you just can't realize singing would be
one of them. For me. Anyway, thank you guys for
(54:17):
listening to me. Jabra On Welcome back to the podcast.
It feels it feels good to be in rhythm, right.
We got another episode coming at you all next. We
continue to subscribe and download. I appreciate you all for
listening to Naked
Popular Podcasts
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.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
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.