July 15, 2024 • 55 mins
Dawn Staley grew up in a competitive household that prepared her for whatever the outside world would throw at her - but nothing could have readied her for being a female basketball player in the early ’90s. The WNBA was non-existent, and players had few career opportunities to compete professionally, but Staley was determined. She played overseas, worked odd jobs, and kept her head in the game, but not even she could have predicted the road that would lead her to South Carolina. After years of playing and coaching, Staley had witnessed various degrees of inequity, but this year '2021" she changed the sport and the trajectory for women to follow her. Off-the-court Dawn Staley has already won! During this episode, Staley speaks openly about her journey, what it took to get her here, and the risk involved. One thing is for certain; she earned this moment. Now back to the game.
Learn More: University of South Carolina Women's Basketball
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wanted eco pay like I wanted I wanted equal pay,
and I never backed down from it. Because here I am,
I'm writing letters. I'm reading letters to say to speak
on all the inequities that happened at in San Antonio
(00:20):
at the NC Double A Tournament.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Like you know, I got it out.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I had to get it off my chest and then
I had to, you know, just move on and focus
on our team.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And then it's stayed with.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Me when we got back and I'm not going to
be out here politicking and fighting for equality nationally.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And then we don't.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I don't even have it here and it's not been
you know, discussion about it. So then I'm like, hell,
I'm going for it. Like I'm like, I'm going for it,
like this is.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
What I want.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I want cashing in. Y'all were talking about don Staley
and her historic deal making her the highest paid coach
and women's college basketball. I'm happy for it. She's joining
us next on Naked.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Every Champion and Kerry Champions to be a Champion, out
a Champion and Kerry Champion and Kerry CHAMPI outa Champion
and Kerry Champion and Kerry Champion. Greatest the sports and
entertainment king naked, weird in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Withere vulnerable considered.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
We come and remove the veil from entertainment's elite. It's
the difference between what it's reeling with the public seeds.
So here's your favorite celebrities behind the scenes. Just refresh
you up there in the whole story with specific life
alter renovents to shake the person that you hear. We
gotta champion and carry champion the girl you did it.
It's the greatest and sports and entertainment conneaked with every
champion and Kerry Champions to be a champion, a champion
(01:53):
and carry champion.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
The girl who didn't he got a champion.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And Kerry Champion and Kerry Champion.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Great is the sportson entertainment getting. Hey ya, I'm so
excited to have Don Staley on. I told you she
was cashing in well deserved. By way of background, don
Staley from Philly, and she was very clear. Some people
try to say they from Philly and name from Philly.
You got to check the area, coach. You'll get into
that because she's from Philly and she is unapologetic about
(02:20):
whom she is or how she moves and I love
that about her. Just recently, you may have read that
she signed a huge deal with the University of South
Carolina as the head women's basketball coach. She is now
looking at a historic contract seven years twenty two point
four million dollars, making about a little under three million
(02:41):
a year. That's two point nine. It was a huge
payday for her, putting her up there with the big boys,
and it's well deserved. She's already won a chip there.
But she's a four time Olympian. She's a hard worker
and she really does defind to me what it means
to be a coach. Don Staley says, I meet my
players where they are, and from that moment on, I
take them to where they want to go. She said
(03:02):
she was taught that way when she was playing college
basketball at the University of Virginia, and she wanted to
be similar to who raised her. If you will, and
I respect that because you see, there are people in
your life oftentimes who really make a huge impact, and
for her it was her basketball coach and all Don
(03:23):
ever wanted to do. And she'll tell you this on
the podcast is just play Ball. At the time in
which she graduated from college there was no WNBA, so
Don went to go work at a retail store. Can
you imagine loving something so much, but there is no
way you can do what you love because there's no
professional league. And I think we take the WNBA for
(03:44):
granted now because you didn't realize that it's only been
around for twenty five years, Like there was a life
in which there was no women's basketball. If you love this,
good for you? How do you stay in a game?
You be a coach, You may be able to play overseas,
you work hard to be an olympian, but that is it. Well,
she's done all of the above. She played overseas, she's
(04:07):
a four time Olympian, and she is now arguably the
highest paid coach in women's college basketball. And I am impressed.
Her story is impressive. I am impressed and her story
is impressive. Sit back, relax and enjoy this edition y'all
of Naked with South Carolina's Don.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Stanley, Champion and Care with Chapion and car.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I have so many, so much to congratulate you on
and just I'm personally just happy that you're here from Afar.
I you know, while working at ESPN and covering sports,
I just always admired everything about who you are. So
I've always had a hardcore crush, Like she's yes, but
you seem like, you know nonsense. So I was like, back,
(04:49):
goofy ass. If I met her, she'd be like, all right,
calm down, you know what I mean. So welcome to Naked,
where we talk about any and everything. And the goal
is is just to find out how these extraordinary people
become so extraordinary. But usually they don't know that they're extraordinary.
They're just real humble. So I'm reading about you and
(05:09):
how you grew up Philly. Take me there. Tell me
about a young Don Staley before she ran the world.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Philly, specifically North Philly. Like, when you're from Philly, be clear.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You got to be clear where you're from because everyone
that says they're from Philly don't have a two one
five or two six seven in front of their phone number.
So if you got something other than that, then you're
from outside of Philly. But I'm from North Philly. I
grew up in the housing projects called the Raymond Rosen
(05:46):
Housing Projects.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And if I can give you a visual, it is
row homes that are in this circular form within within
the row homes is a big field. I mean it's
a huge field that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Had a basketball court, a baseball court, a baseball field,
a softball field, and then we made we made a
track just with like sometimes it was chalk, sometimes it was.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
You know, borrow paint. But if you can imagine, we just.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Had a a project Olympics because we had all this
this space.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We didn't always have all.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The equipment to to actually play all the sports, but
we made it work.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I grew up in the household of it was seven
of us.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
You know, I had had a mom and dad and
for my older siblings, I'm the youngest. And if you've
grown up in the projects, there's this thing called hand
me downs. You know, everything, the clothes, it's hand me down,
and very very often you you don't get your own clothes,
(07:12):
you don't get your something that you call your own.
You're sharing a room with I shared the room with
my sister, My.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Three brothers shared a room. My parents had a room,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And then we fought to get to the bathroom. You
got brothers who and we didn't have a shower back then.
We had to take a bath like it wasn't like
it was a bath. You got to run the water,
you know, in the projects, you run out of hot water,
so you try to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Fight to get the first be the first one to
take a bath.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So it was very very remember the water sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right right, So it was it was super competitive. All
of my siblings except my sister could play a sport,
so it was it was a knockout, drag out. But
all the sports for us started inside our house. Like
we had this in the projects. You had a you
(08:11):
know the vent, you know, the the growing up of
the projects. You had good heat though you had Reyki.
Like Reyki you had to turn the heat off in
the winter.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Because it was that hot.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, we used to ball up aluminufoil and we would
shoot jumpers on it was a little lip. It was
probably i would say, no more than three inches from
wide and probably three inches from the ceiling, and we
would shoot jumpers on it. We would dunk on each other,
(08:44):
you know, you would you would cut your you know,
your fingers trying to dunk on your your sibling. But
I would say it was just an incredible, super competitive
household that once you went outside of our household, it
was easy for you to just compete with anybody that
was within the confines of our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So you grow up being a competitor. Everyone knows you
are a diehard competitor. It starts in the household. That
is the essence of who you are. And everyone, I
think not everyone, but they mentioned height. They always talk
about height, and despite being this tall, she was able
to do that. When people say that, or when they
(09:30):
said that when you were younger, how did that make
you feel?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I mean, obviously I wasn't always short like I mean,
I figure I was average height when I was growing up,
and then everybody else sprung up, you know, as they
got older. I was the only one that pretty much
stayed the same height. So, you know, as I'm growing
(09:55):
up and as I'm staying at the same height, they
did say that. They did say, you know, you can't
play for us. It was the big boycourt, like, it
was the big guys playing, the top neighborhood guys playing
on the court. So they they guy, the big guys
thought of me as just a little girl, like this
(10:17):
is too rough for you. You know, you you won't
be able to play with us. Maybe you could play
stick around and play after So the height thing that
didn't bother me. It was the fact that they said
I couldn't play on the big boy court.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Because they looked at me like the little girl. But
if you looked inside, I was super competitive. I was
you know, I was tough. Like.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
There wasn't anything that you couldn't do to me on
a basketball court that would shake my equilibrium.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Nothing like you could.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Set a hard pick, I'll set a hard pick on you.
You can trip me, you can, as long as it
was in a com finds of the court. I didn't
really feel any pain. It was just it was just
what we do in the projects. It was just how
we played in the projects. So the height wasn't I
(11:13):
didn't look at my height as a disadvantage. I looked
at the fact that maybe my skill set didn't didn't stack.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Up to plan on the big court, big boy court.
It was It was never It was never like I
was too short.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
It was more of, you know, I took it as
and maybe I just blocked it out because I didn't
want it to be because of my height, because I
couldn't do anything about my height, but I surely could
hold my skills to pass, be a better passer, to
be a better shooter, to be a better decision maker.
And that's what I concentrated on until you know that
(11:50):
that blessed up day to where I'm wanted the first
people that they picked to play on the Big Boycourt.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I love it. So I was gonna
ask had so many questions from that. What are the
ingredients to be so fearless that you have? Is that
a mixture of growing up? Is that is what your
parents taught you, what you saw your neighborhood. What makes
you so fearless? Also where you have no awareness of pain,
(12:23):
nothing bothered you.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, I'm the youngest of five, so I used
to fight my older brothers. My oldest brother, who we
share birthday, I can't have anything to myself.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
He's eight years older than me.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
My recently deceased brother was seven years older than me,
my sister six years older than me. And then I
got another brother that's two years older than me. So
I had the most difficult time with my oldest brother,
who we all considered a bully.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He was a bully before bullying was popular. He was
a bully like forty five years ago, right right, So there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Wasn't even a name for that back then, besides being
an older sibling that tried that tried to. I mean,
he just tried to dish out chores. I mean things
that my mom told him to do.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He tried to I assure you, I know that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No I'm not doing this. So he would try to
make me do it, and I'm just like, no, I'm
not doing it.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I don't you candy. We called it muggy like.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He would take my take his hand and kind of
push my face back and mug me. He would do
all these things to me, But I still I wasn't
going to clean the bathroom because that's your job. So
I think I got my toughness from being in a
house hold full of testosterone and and a and a
(13:56):
bully mentality in my and my older brother. And I
just think that that's helped me be fearless. It helped
me when I got outside of my home that I've
already seen the worst of the worst in my household.
So you know, anybody else is not going to do
anything that's gonna hurt me. You hurt my feelings, You're
not gonna physically hurt me, because I can I can
(14:19):
take you know, I can take paying you, you know,
one thing, and grown up in in Philly, we we
see crying, complaining as a weakness and people will take
advantage of that very thing if they feel like they
can get under your skin and they can one up
(14:42):
you in some type of way. And I just felt like,
you know, it prepared me for whatever life threw at me.
And I think it helped me just mentally be stronger
because physically you can't hurt. But if if your mind
is stronger than that pain, then it's just pain and
(15:04):
nothing else besides pain, then pain is temporary.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Every every athlete, every every coach, every person I talk to,
it's always the same thing. You got to have amnesia,
You got to be mentally tough. That that that that
accounts for so much of whatever sport you're in the game.
Will you take this mentality to college? You go in
and you have this reputation of being who you are
and and and good at what you do. What adjustments
(15:30):
do you think you have to make? And I'm not
even talking about on the court, I'm just talking about
it in life. Dealing with other people, more attention than
you've ever had, perhaps a different environment in terms of
interacting with folks because they know you special.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I would say that mentality doesn't always work in every
you know, in every arena, so to speak. You know,
I went, I went to probably one of the you know,
the whitest, most privileged universe.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yes, so that's something like, so, how you going there?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You a uvau up.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
I'm from North Phillyn.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yes, so so. And I didn't know. I didn't know
I was. I was me.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Like you know, if you're from Philly, you're gonna be
you more times than not. People are gonna have to
pivot and adjust to you versus you to them, and
especially when you know, for me, when it came to sports,
I was known for that. But I didn't know there
(16:34):
was a world outside of sports.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Really. I didn't like.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I didn't know, like I don't want back then, I
didn't even like talking to people like. I didn't I
was shy. I expressed myself through playing sports. But I'm
gonna I'm gonna be honest with you. I found myself
an academic trouble my first year at Virginia. And when
(17:00):
you aren't good at something, you invite other people into
your life that you don't necessarily want in your life.
It's extra conversations. For me, it's extra and I'm gonna
just say it's you know, this is what the dean
told me. Because I had to sit down and talk
to the dean, I had to you know, I didn't
(17:21):
know anything. I didn't give her eye contact, I didn't
you know, I didn't you know, pronounce my words. I
was very, very uncomfortable. You're having a conversation with the
dean of a school that's going to determine whether or
not I get to stay or leave. So I wasn't
(17:41):
savvy enough and I wasn't sophisticated enough to know. So
I did what I would normally do, is I shut down,
and you know, and I'm like, dude, you gotta do
what you gotta do. And I look back on that
and I'm just like, that was the wrong thing to do.
But she's said she said, you know, she said, sometimes
(18:05):
you're gonna have to conform to your environment. And maybe,
you know, I didn't know what that word meant at
the time because I was just like, you.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Know, I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Kissing anybody's ass. You know, this this is who I am.
I mean, I'm just dumb. I mean, really just ain't
aware of nothing. But I'm Philly. I'm North Philly. What
you mean I gotta conform. I'm not gonna bow down
to anybody. I'm gonna be me. I'm gonna be This
was in my bubble because I really wasn't saying this.
It was you could tell by the look of my
(18:40):
face that I'm just like But when when you're talking
about separating like me from the very thing that I love,
which is basketball, you learn, you learn to grow up
a little bit quicker. I was grateful to have a
coach to explain that part to me and help me
(19:03):
understand how to deal in those type of situations.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So Wie Ryan had to go back to the dean and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Just basically give some background on who I am as
a person and how I operate, because if if you
don't have that person, it's a you know, it's a
Debbie was like a sponsor to me. She was a
sponsor one that is was well respected on camp on
(19:34):
grounds we call them grounds.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
We don't stay a campus on grounds.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
She's well respected, and if she wasn't, then.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I would have been, you know, one of those.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Statistics that had to leave UVA and go on somewhere
else and start over. And who knows if that would
have been the thing that derailed me from being successful
in my life. But you do have to conform, you
do have to learn, you have to learn how to
p of it. You have to you know, you got
(20:03):
to do things for your own good. You got to
get out of your way so you can so you
can be successful and thoth. Interactions at UVA really helped me,
probably more so in my This is my twenty second
year coaching, but those first twenty eight those are the
(20:24):
kinds of pivoting that I've had to do with my
players to have a really good understanding of what their
needs are. And I have to be a good resource
for them because somebody was just that for me.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Did you realize, see there's a difference between and there's
so many buzzwords now everyone uses awareness and self care
and all the other words that you hear. Did you
realize while you were at UVA that coach was doing
that for you, that she was helping you learn to
conform and pivot? Did you did you understand that that
(21:01):
was going to be necessary for you to succeed? Then?
Not now?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Then no, no, let me because a lot of that
happened out of earshot. But but for me, I'm smart
enough to just know that my performance in front of
that dean was not what did not put me in
(21:27):
a position of giving me a second chance. So something
had to happen in order for me to be where
I am, and all of my communications were were with
my coach. So I just put two and two together
that Hey, this is this is DeBie working. This isn't
(21:49):
this isn't me, This isn't you know, being a star
basketball player. This is an adult who really understands the
big picture and and someone that knows that if you
take basketball away from this this young lady, she's going
back to the projects and we we really don't want her.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We don't want that outcome.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's beautiful. I'm writing it down. That's beautiful. How do
you feel about coach? Now?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I love? I love Debbie Ryan. I love like Debbie
Ryan was a coach.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Who I mean, I I was pretty special coming out
of high school. Like I was, I was a good player.
But when you when you coach a good player, you
can you can coach that player with handcuffs on.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You can? You know you can?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
You can give a short leash and just let in
my case, just let her go just a little bit
and pull her back, or you take all of her.
You let her be creative, and then you teach her
as she's making mistakes along the way, and then you
allow her to figure it out. And I call that
(23:12):
meeting me where I was, to take me where I
need to go. And that's who I am as a coach.
That's that's if I had to put that in a nutshell,
is I'm really good at meeting people where they are.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I don't try to change them. I don't try to No,
I meet you where you are and I help you
with where.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You're trying to go. And that that takes communication. I
got to know where you want to go your words,
not my words. Your words. So if you want to
go to the league, if you want to if you
want to be a doctor, if you want to be
a coach, I'm gonna meet you where you are.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I'm going to guide you through.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
What the pitfalls of life and I'm gonna embrace you
through the you know, the good times. I mean it
is you know, pushing and pulling. It is getting young
people to realize the big picture. Because sometimes they lose
sight of that, and then sometimes they're only focused on
the big picture that they lose sight of the details
(24:21):
that's needed in front of them.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The way you describe that visually, for me, meeting people
where they are, pitfalls, ups and downs, but meeting them
where they are and taking them where they want to
be very much illustrates what I think your career was,
right because there was no w NBA when you when
you graduated and you played overseas and then you joined
the league. The w NBA was year one, right, Am
(24:45):
I wrong? Do I have the DOCU three? Your three?
How would you describe that time? Because basketball was all
you knew? You said you loved it so much, so
you were playing any any and everywhere. How would you
describe that time for you when there wasn't quote unquote
a professional no option here in the States?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Hard? That was?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That was probably the hardest. And you have to you
have to think in nineteen ninety two when I graduated
from Virginia, I was college play of the Year. When
during that same year Larry Johnson Grandma mind was was
the college play of the year. He signed an eighty
(25:25):
million dollar contract. I signed and it wasn't right. It
wasn't right after college, Like basketball season has started, probably
in September, so I'm home. I'm home with a with
a retail job, and I wasn't very good at it,
(25:47):
Like I wasn't like some.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Things are meant for people and some things aren't. Me.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Working in retail was not for me because I didn't
like to interact with people.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I didn't like to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So when we had customers, I would go, I would
go far away from them, and I love folding clothes.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I would I would fold cloth. I would just make
myself busy.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And then probably six weeks after that season started, I
had to replace a guard in Sogovia, Spain. So I
signed a thirty five thousand dollars contract to go play
in Sogovia, Spain. And when I got there, I mean,
I was happy obviously to do the thing that I love.
(26:31):
But when I got there, it was a lot different
than college. Because college, you know, your day is pretty much,
you know, scheduled for you, but overseas you practiced maybe
once or twice a day, and then you know you're
on your own. And I've never been like on my
own like that, having a fit for myself, having to
(26:53):
go to the grocery store and buy food to cook.
And then the basketball wasn't what I was anticipating. I
was thought I was going to the pros. So there
were certain things that will already be in place, and
I was going to be in a place.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Of continuing to learn.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
But it was a lot different back then because if
you were the American or the foreigner, you were expected
to score, you know, forty to fifty points.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
And if you didn't win and you didn't score those points,
they really put the blame on you. They don't mind
saying this is your fault. This is what we're paying
you to come here to help us win. So it
was and it was like imitating. It was like imitating
the NBA.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And I was just used to playing basketball as like
you know, in college, you play as a team moving
the ball. You you know, everybody gets to touch the
ball when it was direct opposite like you put the
ball into the Superstars hands and you gotta you gotta
perform magic. But I was super happy that I had
(28:06):
an outlet to continue to play. So, I mean, I
lived out of a suitcase, but I surely just enjoyed playing.
I didn't enjoy because back then you didn't have you know,
you didn't have Wi Fi, you had a landline. So yeah,
(28:30):
so my telephone bills were like two thousand two grand
a month.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Crack your check, your check, Yeah, yes, all my money
goes to my phone bill. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yep yep.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
On the other side of the break, we hear more
from Don Staley and how she was able to do
all these wonderful things that she just says so dismissively,
like it's not a big deal, but she's a superstar.
But more importantly, back in.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
The month, every champion and carry champion is to be
a champion, out a champion and carry champion and carry champ.
Be out a champion and carry champion and carry champion
entertainment getting naked, weird. Every champion and carry champion is
to be a champion, out a champion and carry champion
nigger shout a champion and carry champion and carried champion
(29:24):
entertainment getting naked word.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
All right, you guys, we talked about it, Don Staley
giving us that truth with an f on naked. Here's more.
But first of all, you go from because I think
people who are listening can't understand. You go from being
the number one college player and that same you or
your male counterpart Towns signs an eighty million dollars deal
(29:49):
and you vote and close, and then you go overseas
because that's the only way where you can at least
do what you love and you're homesick and they're all
these other options. It's to love hate relationship to do
what you have to do. Imagine if I had to
pick up and leave and move to another country so
I could just do what I gotta do, which to
me is mind blowing now, like the thought of that,
(30:11):
but it also talks about your commitment. Walk me through
how you decided to be in the WNBA or ended
up playing in the WNBA and leaving overseas and what
that experience was like.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, the main reason why I went overseas was because
I wanted to be an Olympian. And when I tried
out for the nineteen ninety two Olympic team, I got cut.
And the two things that they said, well, the reasons
why I got cut was one I was too short
and there's that short thing again, and then too I
(30:49):
didn't have enough international experience. So that's why I went
overseas to play to get myself ready for the next
Olympic Games, which was ninety six overseason in ninety two,
ninety three, in ninety four, and then that following year,
(31:09):
like I went ninety four to ninety five, but I
came home a little bit early because I was a
little banged up over there and I wanted to just
kind of heal up so I can participate in the
Olympic trials. So it is, I mean, you have to
be committed if you have goals, and you have to understand.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
When I was.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Growing up in the projects, I only saw women play
in two events. One was a national championship, so I
wanted to be a national champion, and two was in
the Olympics, so I wanted to be an Olympian and
a gold medalist. So those were and I didn't even
think about a WNBA, I mean, and I knew the
(31:54):
NBA was out, So yeah, those two things just held
my tension and they made me super committed to that.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And little did.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I know, just from being involved in the ninety six
Olympic team, two women's basketball pro leagues were going to
be birthed out of our experience. I chose to stay
with the ABL because all of us didn't know that
(32:25):
there was going to be a w NBA league, so
we committed to playing in the ABL.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So I did that for two years.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And then I just felt like my body wouldn't be
able to take me playing year round, like doing the
traditional basketball season. So I decided after two years to
take my talents to the w NBA.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And there so I can play.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
We're talking history. We did a I think about the
year of the Olympic, Year of the Woman I thought
was ninety six, and we did this whole talk about
all the different things that came from the ninety six Olympics.
And you're speaking of that now, And how would you know?
You wouldn't know, but you still had the opportunity to
do both. I feel like the WNBA then versus now
(33:22):
has changed dramatically. I feel like this year, you give
me your take on it. This year there was more
buzz around the finals, I believe than ever before. More
people are paying attention. You know, the marketing feels better.
It feels like there is some value there. How would
you view the league when you played to now?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Well, when I played the league was just you know,
three years old. Three to I think I played five
or six years so three to nine it was under
ten years old.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
But and I thought I thought it was talent field
back then. I thought it was super talented. And especially yeah,
especially yes, when the ABL folded and all those players
had to come into WNBA, it was the top to bottom.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Low, hot packed packed.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And then if you fast forward, you know, fifteen sixteen
years from there. As far as talent, I think the
talent's up and the talent's up because we've had twenty
five years of all of those those players that are
playing in a WNBA now, they only knew of a WNBA,
(34:49):
Like their their lifespan was really only off having a
women's professional league here in the States. So they had
something to really work hard for. They had goals. So
they're gonna do everything they need that they need to
do to give themselves a chance to play in the league.
And to do that, you got to be really good.
(35:11):
And whilst you're gonna be, you're gonna be left behind.
And that makes it, you know, I mean, if you
pour into anything like you know people have poured into
the w NBA right, and the novelty has worn off.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And I thought for a while.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
It plant toad, But I think now we're coming back,
Like I think this is this is time for women,
like women in sports, this is this is our time,
like we have to strike when the iron's hot so
we can get to another twenty another fiftieth year, twenty
five more years.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And I do think, I do think you'll have a
million dollar player, a multimillion dollar player in the near future.
I do. You always try to compare.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Leagues, you know, you go back to the NBA their
first twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I don't know if there were a millionaires then.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
I say that now I say that now all the time.
I'm like, I'm not I don't know, but what I
what I do know, and I hope I'm not like
how people romanticize what it used to be like. But
I do know if I feel like, if you sit
it up in swoops, even Lisa like y'all could take
these girls like if this was it was the talent
(36:39):
then versus the talent now, right, there's a lot of talent,
But I felt like it was more gritty. I felt
like it was more you know what I'm saying like
y'all had a different type of edge when y'all played.
And I don't know if that's the advent of college
giving me, giving these stars more attention, giving them more access,
(37:00):
I don't know, but just it just feels different. The
the love for it feels different.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Yeah, well, well.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I gotta go back to you know, when the Teresia Edwards,
the you know, Medina Dixon's, you know, the the Debbie Litos,
the you know, the Yolanda Laneys.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I mean, these are those shoulders we stood on.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
We stood on their shoulders, and now you know, now
this error of athletes in a w n B A
is standing on our shoulders. I do feel like there
was a different grittiness, meaning we we trim the fat,
like there's no there was no fact to us playing.
(37:50):
I think now there's a lot of fat to the
w n B A in that you're trying to outdo somebody,
you're trying to I mean, they've worked on things that
you know, coaches back back in the day wouldn't allow
us to do. That was circuits basketball, you know what
I'm saying. So, but they they work on those things,
and I do think some of them have to utilize
(38:14):
some less traditional moves to outfox people, because I do
think they're they're bigger and stronger.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Now, yeah, they're bigger, stronger. You don't think so, No, No,
I agree, you're right.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
I'm like, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
That's how I'm saying this though, And I know I'm
looking at it from fifty one year old eyes. But
when I was around the Olympic team, and anytime I
go to a w NBA game, I do often think,
he this is physical.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I don't know if I could. I don't don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
After it, they know it's like you sitting courtside, you like,
you know, like you Okay, this is real. The girls
get after it. I'm with you, I agree, and they
are big girl like they are. I was at game too,
I was like, these these leagues ain't fulling, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
But I'm fragile now, So I mean it's I have
a hard time believing that if we could, we could
freeze time, we could take this young lady at nineteen
ninety two and put her in today's league.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I still think you just back to basics, just fundamentals.
I think you, I think you would be right there.
I think I wouldn't even I don't even.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Think my heart will be in it for sure, for sure,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
And maybe that's what I'm referring to Cauz And I'm
watching it differently, so I mean, I don't and it's hard.
I listen, I ain't play ball, so let me shut up.
But you like, I like this, I like I want
all of this. I want you to have all of this.
I want get back on defense. I don't want to
hear nothing else, want all of this right here. But
I mean, I don't know. In my case, I'm just
(39:51):
saying that for you. Coach, Okay, I have to ask
you this because I know you got to go in
a minute. You're one coach now coach highest paid or
you and Geno maybe tied. I don't know. I'm not
for sure, but I have the reports that you're the
highest paid basketball coach and women's basketball. You're black woman.
(40:13):
The celebration is loud, and I know you hear, but
you live on the humble, like NA big deal. Yeah, yeah,
I'm good. How does that make you feel? Do you
understand this, what is happening? Do you understand what you've done,
what you've been able to accomplish because you was folding
closed in nineteen. I just you right here. You don't
want to talk to the people at the retail store.
Was phone closed in ninety two. Now you're the highest paid.
(40:36):
I'm kicking it over almost three mili a year to
create an environment that nurtures women's sports. It's not just
for basketball, it's for women's sports in general. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean, uh, it's a thing that my path
truly was divinely ordered. Like I am a believer that
I found my calling.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
I listened to.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Where God wanted me to go, because surely I didn't
see myself in Columbia, South Carolina like and then maybe
Philly like the Temple thing was a you know, was
it was a good match because I'm from Philly. But
then you know, once I left Philly and came to
South Carolina, I'm just like, I'm you know this this
(41:30):
is sp Yeah it well I didn't think it fit,
but as the years went by, it fit. And then
now I'm just gonna tell you what spared me, the
fight for what took place on Friday, which was you know,
a raise. It was I wanted Eco pay, like I wanted.
(41:53):
I wanted Eco pay and I never backed down from
it because here I am, I'm writing letters. I'm writing
letters to say to speak on all the inequities that
happened at in San Antonio at the n C Double
A Tournament.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Like you know, I got it out.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I had to get it off my chest, and then
I had to, you know, just move on and focus
on our team. And then it's stayed with me when
we got back, Like, am I going to be out
here politicking and fighting for equality nationally? And then we
(42:37):
we don't. I don't even have a here. There's now
there's not been you know, discussion about it. So then
I'm like, hell, I'm going for it. Like for I'm like,
I'm going for it, like this is what I want
like h And it took it took a while for
it to take place, but.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
You got to.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Stay the course when you want to do something big. Now,
now now they offered me, you know, a significant race.
But then I'm like, hell, if you can get this,
you can. We're here, We're we almost here.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Give me my money.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
But but but.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
It's not about the money. It's about the principality.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yes, but but through throughout the negotiations, it was all
about the money. Like basically, you know, some of the
stuff came out, like why you know, why you think
you should make more than a football coach.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I like, I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
I didn't pay the football coach, Like really, I didn't.
We're football school. SEC is a football conference.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
I wasn't. That wasn't my My point. My point is
I do.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I do what the men's basketball coach does. We've had
sustained success here. We've been in the final fours, we
won a national championship. We've done basically all these things,
and and I had to look at like if you
look at and I don't want to talk about Frank
Martin in this way. I'm just going to talk about
(44:07):
the numbers. And the numbers say, I've been here from
two thousand and eight until now. He was here from
I don't know, twenty and twelve until now. If you
add up his his increases, his salary increases, and you
(44:27):
add up mine, he's got more. So that number is
staggering to me. And I just felt like now's the time.
But it's also you know, was I fighting for me?
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (44:41):
But I was also fighting for a bigger, like, this
is much bigger than me.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This is for black women, for white women, for.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Corporate women, CEOs, this is for teachers, this is for administrators,
This is for every woman that doesn't get a dollar
on the dollar she earned. And and I just felt like,
you know, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
I was doubtful. I was really doubtful whether or not
it was gonna get done. But when it got done,
it was well worth the negotiations. It was well worth
you know, the high pitched voices that were you know,
viewed out because it was.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Not about me. It was more about everybody else.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
And I just hope this creates a norm because this
is unpopular. It's unpopular for for South Carolina to do it,
and it's you know, it's a microcosm of what's happening
out there in the world. So I hope it moves
from being an unpopular right thing to a popular right
(45:55):
thing and the norm. So I think it's I think
it's a pretty big deal. I think it's pretty cool deal.
And all these things were happening too when I just
told somebody, this is Robert Roberts, that the LFG documentary
that they had on CNN.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I watched it. I sat down and watched it.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I'm just like, damn, this is a damn shame that
this is happening to them when you know they've been
super successful. So I sat down, I watched it, I
took notes, and I'm just like, I'm I'm I'm here
for this reason, Like sometimes you need something tangible to say,
this is why you're here. Keep pushing, keep fighting, keep
(46:40):
this is what we need. We need groundbreaking went, we
need momentum heading into you know what I think is
a woman's movement. It's time for us to rise up
and to risk it all.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Because I did. I risked. I risked it all.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Like they could have said, now I'll get on out
of here. You know we're not doing this out there,
you So you got to be able to risk it
all and know that if it doesn't turn out the
way you wanted to, it wasn't because you didn't bite.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Let's normalize equal pay. How about that. Let's normalize equal
pay for hard working black women and women all over.
But let's just normalize equal pay. It just it's just
so simple.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Like like.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Like equal pay like racism, Like it's such it's such
a simple thing to solve.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
I okay, I gotta let you go. Last question. Number one, preseason, Congratulations,
What we're looking like? I mean, just so many wins,
so many wins, and I know, I know what it
feels like to be the first and do so many
things that people haven't done before. And all it is
is check check, check, check check, and we keep moving
you back. You're back in practice. You don't like I
(48:00):
I need you to take a moment to dis enjoy
this season. Let it be two weeks, so it'd be
a day. But it is a beautiful thing to watch.
It makes me so happy, Like I'm so happy listening
to you right now. Do you understand like I am
celebrating every one of your wins because it's a win
for us. It is a win for the culture, it's
(48:20):
a win for women. It is a win, huge wins,
and I'd like to see us have some parody and
normalize something different, especially in women's basketball at the collegiate level.
Number one, preseason, What we looking like?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I mean, I probably like everybody else, good, bad, ugly
dead times Like, I mean, we got a good team,
no doubt about it, very very talented, and we just
started doing this this week and it's not fun. But
we just started simulating what a game would be like
(48:58):
in terms of institutions. So some people aren't getting as
many reps as they've gotten, you know, for the two
months that we've been together.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
So you'll hear a little bit of chirping, you.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
See a little bit of facial expressions, You'll see a
little bit of body language, and that's normal.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm not going to take that away from competitors, but
I told our players this year that we're all going
to have to sacrifice and you got to keep you
got to keep sending that message because again they lose
sight because they look within and say, hey, I'm not starting,
(49:37):
I'm not playing. So we gotta consistently, you know, give
them that message. And I asked them again, I'm very beginning.
I was like a little bit different. Y'all know you
understand what we're They all say yes, I said, but
we only need what you do best just this year,
(49:59):
just this year. We don't need your whole bag. We
know you we can do a lot of things with
that basketball, but we only need the thing that you
do best. And if you do that, things are gonna
start clearing up. If you try to muck it up
by looking at what this person does, which is her
best thing, but you want to add that to what
you already do, it's gonna mess things up. So we
(50:22):
have to constantly battle with our players to see the
big picture.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
And it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Overnight, but it's going to happen if we're if we
just like we have to drill how we're playing ball screens,
wall screen defense, we gotta drill it. We gotta drill
these things too, because you know it's coming. We playing,
you know two weeks, the parents are gonna come to
the games. They're gonna see their little girls expecting them
(50:49):
to play. And we're gonna get on a zoom call
with the parents and we're gonna say, hey, we're about
to start.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Your daughter may play some minutes, no minutes, a lot
of minutes. We don't know. Any given day could change.
So we need you, We need you to be parents
and support them.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Don't ask what you don't know, because you know, we've
been in the gym for two months and if you
want to count back to June, five to six months.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
So it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
So I think we do a really good job of communicating,
and we got a good team. And whether we're the
number one or number three, number six, number eight, whatever
it is, we're gonna fight. We're gonna not literally fight,
We're gonna.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
But maybe we need Sometimes sometimes it happens. Coach, I
know you have to go. We only need you. I'm
writing down with Church. We need you to do the
thing you do best. That's it, that's all we want
them to do. I am room for you, and I
am so very very very very very excited for you.
(51:59):
No matter what the season looks like, we hope it's
always a win. I went to UCLA, so I gotta
be careful what I say because you know they be
watching everything. Coach Coach close texting me like, oh, Terry,
can I talk to you? I'd be like, I can't.
I get like, Coach, I didn't play. I just they're
working sports. I'm sorry, but I coach, I'm just I
(52:19):
am so proud of you and so excited for what's
next in your journey. You have really, truly, truly been
a trailblazer and it's not gonna notice. We need it.
So thank you for it. Thank you so as this
is being released. It's week one of college basketball. Don
did not know this, but I intentionally moved this podcast
(52:41):
up so that I could praise her during this week.
Her class currently is number one preseason number one. All
that means nothing to her, as she has talked about.
I will be very clear here though, if just in
case you know, my coach, coach close at UCLA is listening,
I am ruined, but I'm very impressed by Don, so
(53:02):
please don't be mad at me. Side note, I'm looking
forward to see what she does, and I don't want
to hear anyone critiquing her if she doesn't have the
season that's some expect because she got paid that money
she got paid that was already invested years ago. Yeah,
I had her at a bargain, right, you got her
on the cheat. You finally pay her her worth. This
(53:25):
is back, if you will, I don't want to hear
no no crap talking. I do want to say though,
when I listened to the podcast, I thought it has
to be difficult to always feel like you have to
do and say the right thing when you're in such
a public position. College sports is very political. Although people
(53:47):
will say it's not, college sports is very political sports
and generalists, but on the collegiate level there is an
extra layer of red tape that you have to deal
with boosters, you know, alumni parents. She meant all of that.
There's so much going on, but she has been able
to do something that I think we all should learn
to do. Keep the main thing the main thing. I'm
(54:11):
here to coach these girls to play basketball so that
they can compete and move on and do whatever they
want to do that in light, whether that be go
to the league, whether that be find another career, maybe
that be a coach, whatever it may be. I'm here
to do the main thing, and I keep the main
thing the main thing. Oftentimes we get so caught up
(54:33):
and shit that just don't matter. Instead of just being right,
instead of just doing what we came to do, we
get caught up and distracted. And that's where we see
all the pitfalls, all the problems. So I thank Don
for reminding me to keep the main thing the main thing.
(54:56):
Thanks for listening. That's the main thing today. Kid back
next week, y'all.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
HM
I wanted eco pay like I wanted I wanted equal pay,
and I never backed down from it. Because here I am,
I'm writing letters. I'm reading letters to say to speak
on all the inequities that happened at in San Antonio
(00:20):
at the NC Double A Tournament.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Like you know, I got it out.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I had to get it off my chest and then
I had to, you know, just move on and focus
on our team.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And then it's stayed with.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Me when we got back and I'm not going to
be out here politicking and fighting for equality nationally.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And then we don't.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I don't even have it here and it's not been
you know, discussion about it. So then I'm like, hell,
I'm going for it. Like I'm like, I'm going for it,
like this is.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
What I want.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I want cashing in. Y'all were talking about don Staley
and her historic deal making her the highest paid coach
and women's college basketball. I'm happy for it. She's joining
us next on Naked.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Every Champion and Kerry Champions to be a Champion, out
a Champion and Kerry Champion and Kerry CHAMPI outa Champion
and Kerry Champion and Kerry Champion. Greatest the sports and
entertainment king naked, weird in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Withere vulnerable considered.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
We come and remove the veil from entertainment's elite. It's
the difference between what it's reeling with the public seeds.
So here's your favorite celebrities behind the scenes. Just refresh
you up there in the whole story with specific life
alter renovents to shake the person that you hear. We
gotta champion and carry champion the girl you did it.
It's the greatest and sports and entertainment conneaked with every
champion and Kerry Champions to be a champion, a champion
(01:53):
and carry champion.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
The girl who didn't he got a champion.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And Kerry Champion and Kerry Champion.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Great is the sportson entertainment getting. Hey ya, I'm so
excited to have Don Staley on. I told you she
was cashing in well deserved. By way of background, don
Staley from Philly, and she was very clear. Some people
try to say they from Philly and name from Philly.
You got to check the area, coach. You'll get into
that because she's from Philly and she is unapologetic about
(02:20):
whom she is or how she moves and I love
that about her. Just recently, you may have read that
she signed a huge deal with the University of South
Carolina as the head women's basketball coach. She is now
looking at a historic contract seven years twenty two point
four million dollars, making about a little under three million
(02:41):
a year. That's two point nine. It was a huge
payday for her, putting her up there with the big boys,
and it's well deserved. She's already won a chip there.
But she's a four time Olympian. She's a hard worker
and she really does defind to me what it means
to be a coach. Don Staley says, I meet my
players where they are, and from that moment on, I
take them to where they want to go. She said
(03:02):
she was taught that way when she was playing college
basketball at the University of Virginia, and she wanted to
be similar to who raised her. If you will, and
I respect that because you see, there are people in
your life oftentimes who really make a huge impact, and
for her it was her basketball coach and all Don
(03:23):
ever wanted to do. And she'll tell you this on
the podcast is just play Ball. At the time in
which she graduated from college there was no WNBA, so
Don went to go work at a retail store. Can
you imagine loving something so much, but there is no
way you can do what you love because there's no
professional league. And I think we take the WNBA for
(03:44):
granted now because you didn't realize that it's only been
around for twenty five years, Like there was a life
in which there was no women's basketball. If you love this,
good for you? How do you stay in a game?
You be a coach, You may be able to play overseas,
you work hard to be an olympian, but that is it. Well,
she's done all of the above. She played overseas, she's
(04:07):
a four time Olympian, and she is now arguably the
highest paid coach in women's college basketball. And I am impressed.
Her story is impressive. I am impressed and her story
is impressive. Sit back, relax and enjoy this edition y'all
of Naked with South Carolina's Don.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Stanley, Champion and Care with Chapion and car.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I have so many, so much to congratulate you on
and just I'm personally just happy that you're here from Afar.
I you know, while working at ESPN and covering sports,
I just always admired everything about who you are. So
I've always had a hardcore crush, Like she's yes, but
you seem like, you know nonsense. So I was like, back,
(04:49):
goofy ass. If I met her, she'd be like, all right,
calm down, you know what I mean. So welcome to Naked,
where we talk about any and everything. And the goal
is is just to find out how these extraordinary people
become so extraordinary. But usually they don't know that they're extraordinary.
They're just real humble. So I'm reading about you and
(05:09):
how you grew up Philly. Take me there. Tell me
about a young Don Staley before she ran the world.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Philly, specifically North Philly. Like, when you're from Philly, be clear.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You got to be clear where you're from because everyone
that says they're from Philly don't have a two one
five or two six seven in front of their phone number.
So if you got something other than that, then you're
from outside of Philly. But I'm from North Philly. I
grew up in the housing projects called the Raymond Rosen
(05:46):
Housing Projects.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And if I can give you a visual, it is
row homes that are in this circular form within within
the row homes is a big field. I mean it's
a huge field that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Had a basketball court, a baseball court, a baseball field,
a softball field, and then we made we made a
track just with like sometimes it was chalk, sometimes it was.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
You know, borrow paint. But if you can imagine, we just.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Had a a project Olympics because we had all this
this space.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We didn't always have all.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The equipment to to actually play all the sports, but
we made it work.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I grew up in the household of it was seven
of us.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
You know, I had had a mom and dad and
for my older siblings, I'm the youngest. And if you've
grown up in the projects, there's this thing called hand
me downs. You know, everything, the clothes, it's hand me down,
and very very often you you don't get your own clothes,
(07:12):
you don't get your something that you call your own.
You're sharing a room with I shared the room with
my sister, My.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Three brothers shared a room. My parents had a room,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And then we fought to get to the bathroom. You
got brothers who and we didn't have a shower back then.
We had to take a bath like it wasn't like
it was a bath. You got to run the water,
you know, in the projects, you run out of hot water,
so you try to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Fight to get the first be the first one to
take a bath.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So it was very very remember the water sometimes.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right right, So it was it was super competitive. All
of my siblings except my sister could play a sport,
so it was it was a knockout, drag out. But
all the sports for us started inside our house. Like
we had this in the projects. You had a you
(08:11):
know the vent, you know, the the growing up of
the projects. You had good heat though you had Reyki.
Like Reyki you had to turn the heat off in
the winter.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Because it was that hot.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, we used to ball up aluminufoil and we would
shoot jumpers on it was a little lip. It was
probably i would say, no more than three inches from
wide and probably three inches from the ceiling, and we
would shoot jumpers on it. We would dunk on each other,
(08:44):
you know, you would you would cut your you know,
your fingers trying to dunk on your your sibling. But
I would say it was just an incredible, super competitive
household that once you went outside of our household, it
was easy for you to just compete with anybody that
was within the confines of our neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
So you grow up being a competitor. Everyone knows you
are a diehard competitor. It starts in the household. That
is the essence of who you are. And everyone, I
think not everyone, but they mentioned height. They always talk
about height, and despite being this tall, she was able
to do that. When people say that, or when they
(09:30):
said that when you were younger, how did that make
you feel?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I mean, obviously I wasn't always short like I mean,
I figure I was average height when I was growing up,
and then everybody else sprung up, you know, as they
got older. I was the only one that pretty much
stayed the same height. So, you know, as I'm growing
(09:55):
up and as I'm staying at the same height, they
did say that. They did say, you know, you can't
play for us. It was the big boycourt, like, it
was the big guys playing, the top neighborhood guys playing
on the court. So they they guy, the big guys
thought of me as just a little girl, like this
(10:17):
is too rough for you. You know, you you won't
be able to play with us. Maybe you could play
stick around and play after So the height thing that
didn't bother me. It was the fact that they said
I couldn't play on the big boy court.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Because they looked at me like the little girl. But
if you looked inside, I was super competitive. I was
you know, I was tough. Like.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
There wasn't anything that you couldn't do to me on
a basketball court that would shake my equilibrium.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Nothing like you could.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Set a hard pick, I'll set a hard pick on you.
You can trip me, you can, as long as it
was in a com finds of the court. I didn't
really feel any pain. It was just it was just
what we do in the projects. It was just how
we played in the projects. So the height wasn't I
(11:13):
didn't look at my height as a disadvantage. I looked
at the fact that maybe my skill set didn't didn't stack.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Up to plan on the big court, big boy court.
It was It was never It was never like I
was too short.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
It was more of, you know, I took it as
and maybe I just blocked it out because I didn't
want it to be because of my height, because I
couldn't do anything about my height, but I surely could
hold my skills to pass, be a better passer, to
be a better shooter, to be a better decision maker.
And that's what I concentrated on until you know that
(11:50):
that blessed up day to where I'm wanted the first
people that they picked to play on the Big Boycourt.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I love it. So I was gonna
ask had so many questions from that. What are the
ingredients to be so fearless that you have? Is that
a mixture of growing up? Is that is what your
parents taught you, what you saw your neighborhood. What makes
you so fearless? Also where you have no awareness of pain,
(12:23):
nothing bothered you.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, I'm the youngest of five, so I used
to fight my older brothers. My oldest brother, who we
share birthday, I can't have anything to myself.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
He's eight years older than me.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
My recently deceased brother was seven years older than me,
my sister six years older than me. And then I
got another brother that's two years older than me. So
I had the most difficult time with my oldest brother,
who we all considered a bully.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He was a bully before bullying was popular. He was
a bully like forty five years ago, right right, So there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Wasn't even a name for that back then, besides being
an older sibling that tried that tried to. I mean,
he just tried to dish out chores. I mean things
that my mom told him to do.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He tried to I assure you, I know that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No I'm not doing this. So he would try to
make me do it, and I'm just like, no, I'm
not doing it.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I don't you candy. We called it muggy like.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He would take my take his hand and kind of
push my face back and mug me. He would do
all these things to me, But I still I wasn't
going to clean the bathroom because that's your job. So
I think I got my toughness from being in a
house hold full of testosterone and and a and a
(13:56):
bully mentality in my and my older brother. And I
just think that that's helped me be fearless. It helped
me when I got outside of my home that I've
already seen the worst of the worst in my household.
So you know, anybody else is not going to do
anything that's gonna hurt me. You hurt my feelings, You're
not gonna physically hurt me, because I can I can
(14:19):
take you know, I can take paying you, you know,
one thing, and grown up in in Philly, we we
see crying, complaining as a weakness and people will take
advantage of that very thing if they feel like they
can get under your skin and they can one up
(14:42):
you in some type of way. And I just felt like,
you know, it prepared me for whatever life threw at me.
And I think it helped me just mentally be stronger
because physically you can't hurt. But if if your mind
is stronger than that pain, then it's just pain and
(15:04):
nothing else besides pain, then pain is temporary.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Every every athlete, every every coach, every person I talk to,
it's always the same thing. You got to have amnesia,
You got to be mentally tough. That that that that
accounts for so much of whatever sport you're in the game.
Will you take this mentality to college? You go in
and you have this reputation of being who you are
and and and good at what you do. What adjustments
(15:30):
do you think you have to make? And I'm not
even talking about on the court, I'm just talking about
it in life. Dealing with other people, more attention than
you've ever had, perhaps a different environment in terms of
interacting with folks because they know you special.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I would say that mentality doesn't always work in every
you know, in every arena, so to speak. You know,
I went, I went to probably one of the you know,
the whitest, most privileged universe.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yes, so that's something like, so, how you going there?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You a uvau up.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
I'm from North Phillyn.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yes, so so. And I didn't know. I didn't know
I was. I was me.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Like you know, if you're from Philly, you're gonna be
you more times than not. People are gonna have to
pivot and adjust to you versus you to them, and
especially when you know, for me, when it came to sports,
I was known for that. But I didn't know there
(16:34):
was a world outside of sports.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Really. I didn't like.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I didn't know, like I don't want back then, I
didn't even like talking to people like. I didn't I
was shy. I expressed myself through playing sports. But I'm
gonna I'm gonna be honest with you. I found myself
an academic trouble my first year at Virginia. And when
(17:00):
you aren't good at something, you invite other people into
your life that you don't necessarily want in your life.
It's extra conversations. For me, it's extra and I'm gonna
just say it's you know, this is what the dean
told me. Because I had to sit down and talk
to the dean, I had to you know, I didn't
(17:21):
know anything. I didn't give her eye contact, I didn't
you know, I didn't you know, pronounce my words. I
was very, very uncomfortable. You're having a conversation with the
dean of a school that's going to determine whether or
not I get to stay or leave. So I wasn't
(17:41):
savvy enough and I wasn't sophisticated enough to know. So
I did what I would normally do, is I shut down,
and you know, and I'm like, dude, you gotta do
what you gotta do. And I look back on that
and I'm just like, that was the wrong thing to do.
But she's said she said, you know, she said, sometimes
(18:05):
you're gonna have to conform to your environment. And maybe,
you know, I didn't know what that word meant at
the time because I was just like, you.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Know, I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Kissing anybody's ass. You know, this this is who I am.
I mean, I'm just dumb. I mean, really just ain't
aware of nothing. But I'm Philly. I'm North Philly. What
you mean I gotta conform. I'm not gonna bow down
to anybody. I'm gonna be me. I'm gonna be This
was in my bubble because I really wasn't saying this.
It was you could tell by the look of my
(18:40):
face that I'm just like But when when you're talking
about separating like me from the very thing that I love,
which is basketball, you learn, you learn to grow up
a little bit quicker. I was grateful to have a
coach to explain that part to me and help me
(19:03):
understand how to deal in those type of situations.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So Wie Ryan had to go back to the dean and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Just basically give some background on who I am as
a person and how I operate, because if if you
don't have that person, it's a you know, it's a
Debbie was like a sponsor to me. She was a
sponsor one that is was well respected on camp on
(19:34):
grounds we call them grounds.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
We don't stay a campus on grounds.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
She's well respected, and if she wasn't, then.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I would have been, you know, one of those.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Statistics that had to leave UVA and go on somewhere
else and start over. And who knows if that would
have been the thing that derailed me from being successful
in my life. But you do have to conform, you
do have to learn, you have to learn how to
p of it. You have to you know, you got
(20:03):
to do things for your own good. You got to
get out of your way so you can so you
can be successful and thoth. Interactions at UVA really helped me,
probably more so in my This is my twenty second
year coaching, but those first twenty eight those are the
(20:24):
kinds of pivoting that I've had to do with my
players to have a really good understanding of what their
needs are. And I have to be a good resource
for them because somebody was just that for me.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Did you realize, see there's a difference between and there's
so many buzzwords now everyone uses awareness and self care
and all the other words that you hear. Did you
realize while you were at UVA that coach was doing
that for you, that she was helping you learn to
conform and pivot? Did you did you understand that that
(21:01):
was going to be necessary for you to succeed? Then?
Not now?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Then no, no, let me because a lot of that
happened out of earshot. But but for me, I'm smart
enough to just know that my performance in front of
that dean was not what did not put me in
(21:27):
a position of giving me a second chance. So something
had to happen in order for me to be where
I am, and all of my communications were were with
my coach. So I just put two and two together
that Hey, this is this is DeBie working. This isn't
(21:49):
this isn't me, This isn't you know, being a star
basketball player. This is an adult who really understands the
big picture and and someone that knows that if you
take basketball away from this this young lady, she's going
back to the projects and we we really don't want her.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We don't want that outcome.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's beautiful. I'm writing it down. That's beautiful. How do
you feel about coach? Now?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I love? I love Debbie Ryan. I love like Debbie
Ryan was a coach.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Who I mean, I I was pretty special coming out
of high school. Like I was, I was a good player.
But when you when you coach a good player, you
can you can coach that player with handcuffs on.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
You can? You know you can?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
You can give a short leash and just let in
my case, just let her go just a little bit
and pull her back, or you take all of her.
You let her be creative, and then you teach her
as she's making mistakes along the way, and then you
allow her to figure it out. And I call that
(23:12):
meeting me where I was, to take me where I
need to go. And that's who I am as a coach.
That's that's if I had to put that in a nutshell,
is I'm really good at meeting people where they are.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I don't try to change them. I don't try to No,
I meet you where you are and I help you
with where.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You're trying to go. And that that takes communication. I
got to know where you want to go your words,
not my words. Your words. So if you want to
go to the league, if you want to if you
want to be a doctor, if you want to be
a coach, I'm gonna meet you where you are.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I'm going to guide you through.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
What the pitfalls of life and I'm gonna embrace you
through the you know, the good times. I mean it
is you know, pushing and pulling. It is getting young
people to realize the big picture. Because sometimes they lose
sight of that, and then sometimes they're only focused on
the big picture that they lose sight of the details
(24:21):
that's needed in front of them.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The way you describe that visually, for me, meeting people
where they are, pitfalls, ups and downs, but meeting them
where they are and taking them where they want to
be very much illustrates what I think your career was,
right because there was no w NBA when you when
you graduated and you played overseas and then you joined
the league. The w NBA was year one, right, Am
(24:45):
I wrong? Do I have the DOCU three? Your three?
How would you describe that time? Because basketball was all
you knew? You said you loved it so much, so
you were playing any any and everywhere. How would you
describe that time for you when there wasn't quote unquote
a professional no option here in the States?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Hard? That was?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
That was probably the hardest. And you have to you
have to think in nineteen ninety two when I graduated
from Virginia, I was college play of the Year. When
during that same year Larry Johnson Grandma mind was was
the college play of the year. He signed an eighty
(25:25):
million dollar contract. I signed and it wasn't right. It
wasn't right after college, Like basketball season has started, probably
in September, so I'm home. I'm home with a with
a retail job, and I wasn't very good at it,
(25:47):
Like I wasn't like some.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Things are meant for people and some things aren't. Me.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Working in retail was not for me because I didn't
like to interact with people.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I didn't like to talk to people.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So when we had customers, I would go, I would
go far away from them, and I love folding clothes.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I would I would fold cloth. I would just make
myself busy.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And then probably six weeks after that season started, I
had to replace a guard in Sogovia, Spain. So I
signed a thirty five thousand dollars contract to go play
in Sogovia, Spain. And when I got there, I mean,
I was happy obviously to do the thing that I love.
(26:31):
But when I got there, it was a lot different
than college. Because college, you know, your day is pretty much,
you know, scheduled for you, but overseas you practiced maybe
once or twice a day, and then you know you're
on your own. And I've never been like on my
own like that, having a fit for myself, having to
(26:53):
go to the grocery store and buy food to cook.
And then the basketball wasn't what I was anticipating. I
was thought I was going to the pros. So there
were certain things that will already be in place, and
I was going to be in a place.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Of continuing to learn.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
But it was a lot different back then because if
you were the American or the foreigner, you were expected
to score, you know, forty to fifty points.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
And if you didn't win and you didn't score those points,
they really put the blame on you. They don't mind
saying this is your fault. This is what we're paying
you to come here to help us win. So it
was and it was like imitating. It was like imitating
the NBA.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And I was just used to playing basketball as like
you know, in college, you play as a team moving
the ball. You you know, everybody gets to touch the
ball when it was direct opposite like you put the
ball into the Superstars hands and you gotta you gotta
perform magic. But I was super happy that I had
(28:06):
an outlet to continue to play. So, I mean, I
lived out of a suitcase, but I surely just enjoyed playing.
I didn't enjoy because back then you didn't have you know,
you didn't have Wi Fi, you had a landline. So yeah,
(28:30):
so my telephone bills were like two thousand two grand
a month.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Crack your check, your check, Yeah, yes, all my money
goes to my phone bill. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yep yep.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
On the other side of the break, we hear more
from Don Staley and how she was able to do
all these wonderful things that she just says so dismissively,
like it's not a big deal, but she's a superstar.
But more importantly, back in.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
The month, every champion and carry champion is to be
a champion, out a champion and carry champion and carry champ.
Be out a champion and carry champion and carry champion
entertainment getting naked, weird. Every champion and carry champion is
to be a champion, out a champion and carry champion
nigger shout a champion and carry champion and carried champion
(29:24):
entertainment getting naked word.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
All right, you guys, we talked about it, Don Staley
giving us that truth with an f on naked. Here's more.
But first of all, you go from because I think
people who are listening can't understand. You go from being
the number one college player and that same you or
your male counterpart Towns signs an eighty million dollars deal
(29:49):
and you vote and close, and then you go overseas
because that's the only way where you can at least
do what you love and you're homesick and they're all
these other options. It's to love hate relationship to do
what you have to do. Imagine if I had to
pick up and leave and move to another country so
I could just do what I gotta do, which to
me is mind blowing now, like the thought of that,
(30:11):
but it also talks about your commitment. Walk me through
how you decided to be in the WNBA or ended
up playing in the WNBA and leaving overseas and what
that experience was like.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, the main reason why I went overseas was because
I wanted to be an Olympian. And when I tried
out for the nineteen ninety two Olympic team, I got cut.
And the two things that they said, well, the reasons
why I got cut was one I was too short
and there's that short thing again, and then too I
(30:49):
didn't have enough international experience. So that's why I went
overseas to play to get myself ready for the next
Olympic Games, which was ninety six overseason in ninety two,
ninety three, in ninety four, and then that following year,
(31:09):
like I went ninety four to ninety five, but I
came home a little bit early because I was a
little banged up over there and I wanted to just
kind of heal up so I can participate in the
Olympic trials. So it is, I mean, you have to
be committed if you have goals, and you have to understand.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
When I was.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Growing up in the projects, I only saw women play
in two events. One was a national championship, so I
wanted to be a national champion, and two was in
the Olympics, so I wanted to be an Olympian and
a gold medalist. So those were and I didn't even
think about a WNBA, I mean, and I knew the
(31:54):
NBA was out, So yeah, those two things just held
my tension and they made me super committed to that.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And little did.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I know, just from being involved in the ninety six
Olympic team, two women's basketball pro leagues were going to
be birthed out of our experience. I chose to stay
with the ABL because all of us didn't know that
(32:25):
there was going to be a w NBA league, so
we committed to playing in the ABL.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So I did that for two years.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
And then I just felt like my body wouldn't be
able to take me playing year round, like doing the
traditional basketball season. So I decided after two years to
take my talents to the w NBA.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And there so I can play.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
We're talking history. We did a I think about the
year of the Olympic, Year of the Woman I thought
was ninety six, and we did this whole talk about
all the different things that came from the ninety six Olympics.
And you're speaking of that now, And how would you know?
You wouldn't know, but you still had the opportunity to
do both. I feel like the WNBA then versus now
(33:22):
has changed dramatically. I feel like this year, you give
me your take on it. This year there was more
buzz around the finals, I believe than ever before. More
people are paying attention. You know, the marketing feels better.
It feels like there is some value there. How would
you view the league when you played to now?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Well, when I played the league was just you know,
three years old. Three to I think I played five
or six years so three to nine it was under
ten years old.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
But and I thought I thought it was talent field
back then. I thought it was super talented. And especially yeah,
especially yes, when the ABL folded and all those players
had to come into WNBA, it was the top to bottom.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Low, hot packed packed.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And then if you fast forward, you know, fifteen sixteen
years from there. As far as talent, I think the
talent's up and the talent's up because we've had twenty
five years of all of those those players that are
playing in a WNBA now, they only knew of a WNBA,
(34:49):
Like their their lifespan was really only off having a
women's professional league here in the States. So they had
something to really work hard for. They had goals. So
they're gonna do everything they need that they need to
do to give themselves a chance to play in the league.
And to do that, you got to be really good.
(35:11):
And whilst you're gonna be, you're gonna be left behind.
And that makes it, you know, I mean, if you
pour into anything like you know people have poured into
the w NBA right, and the novelty has worn off.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And I thought for a while.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
It plant toad, But I think now we're coming back,
Like I think this is this is time for women,
like women in sports, this is this is our time,
like we have to strike when the iron's hot so
we can get to another twenty another fiftieth year, twenty
five more years.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And I do think, I do think you'll have a
million dollar player, a multimillion dollar player in the near future.
I do. You always try to compare.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Leagues, you know, you go back to the NBA their
first twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I don't know if there were a millionaires then.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
I say that now I say that now all the time.
I'm like, I'm not I don't know, but what I
what I do know, and I hope I'm not like
how people romanticize what it used to be like. But
I do know if I feel like, if you sit
it up in swoops, even Lisa like y'all could take
these girls like if this was it was the talent
(36:39):
then versus the talent now, right, there's a lot of talent,
But I felt like it was more gritty. I felt
like it was more you know what I'm saying like
y'all had a different type of edge when y'all played.
And I don't know if that's the advent of college
giving me, giving these stars more attention, giving them more access,
(37:00):
I don't know, but just it just feels different. The
the love for it feels different.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Yeah, well, well.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
I gotta go back to you know, when the Teresia Edwards,
the you know, Medina Dixon's, you know, the the Debbie Litos,
the you know, the Yolanda Laneys.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I mean, these are those shoulders we stood on.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
We stood on their shoulders, and now you know, now
this error of athletes in a w n B A
is standing on our shoulders. I do feel like there
was a different grittiness, meaning we we trim the fat,
like there's no there was no fact to us playing.
(37:50):
I think now there's a lot of fat to the
w n B A in that you're trying to outdo somebody,
you're trying to I mean, they've worked on things that
you know, coaches back back in the day wouldn't allow
us to do. That was circuits basketball, you know what
I'm saying. So, but they they work on those things,
and I do think some of them have to utilize
(38:14):
some less traditional moves to outfox people, because I do
think they're they're bigger and stronger.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Now, yeah, they're bigger, stronger. You don't think so, No, No,
I agree, you're right.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
I'm like, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
That's how I'm saying this though, And I know I'm
looking at it from fifty one year old eyes. But
when I was around the Olympic team, and anytime I
go to a w NBA game, I do often think,
he this is physical.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I don't know if I could. I don't don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
After it, they know it's like you sitting courtside, you like,
you know, like you Okay, this is real. The girls
get after it. I'm with you, I agree, and they
are big girl like they are. I was at game too,
I was like, these these leagues ain't fulling, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
But I'm fragile now, So I mean it's I have
a hard time believing that if we could, we could
freeze time, we could take this young lady at nineteen
ninety two and put her in today's league.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I still think you just back to basics, just fundamentals.
I think you, I think you would be right there.
I think I wouldn't even I don't even.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Think my heart will be in it for sure, for sure,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
And maybe that's what I'm referring to Cauz And I'm
watching it differently, so I mean, I don't and it's hard.
I listen, I ain't play ball, so let me shut up.
But you like, I like this, I like I want
all of this. I want you to have all of this.
I want get back on defense. I don't want to
hear nothing else, want all of this right here. But
I mean, I don't know. In my case, I'm just
(39:51):
saying that for you. Coach, Okay, I have to ask
you this because I know you got to go in
a minute. You're one coach now coach highest paid or
you and Geno maybe tied. I don't know. I'm not
for sure, but I have the reports that you're the
highest paid basketball coach and women's basketball. You're black woman.
(40:13):
The celebration is loud, and I know you hear, but
you live on the humble, like NA big deal. Yeah, yeah,
I'm good. How does that make you feel? Do you
understand this, what is happening? Do you understand what you've done,
what you've been able to accomplish because you was folding
closed in nineteen. I just you right here. You don't
want to talk to the people at the retail store.
Was phone closed in ninety two. Now you're the highest paid.
(40:36):
I'm kicking it over almost three mili a year to
create an environment that nurtures women's sports. It's not just
for basketball, it's for women's sports in general. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean, uh, it's a thing that my path
truly was divinely ordered. Like I am a believer that
I found my calling.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
I listened to.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Where God wanted me to go, because surely I didn't
see myself in Columbia, South Carolina like and then maybe
Philly like the Temple thing was a you know, was
it was a good match because I'm from Philly. But
then you know, once I left Philly and came to
South Carolina, I'm just like, I'm you know this this
(41:30):
is sp Yeah it well I didn't think it fit,
but as the years went by, it fit. And then
now I'm just gonna tell you what spared me, the
fight for what took place on Friday, which was you know,
a raise. It was I wanted Eco pay, like I wanted.
(41:53):
I wanted Eco pay and I never backed down from
it because here I am, I'm writing letters. I'm writing
letters to say to speak on all the inequities that
happened at in San Antonio at the n C Double
A Tournament.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Like you know, I got it out.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I had to get it off my chest, and then
I had to, you know, just move on and focus
on our team. And then it's stayed with me when
we got back, Like, am I going to be out
here politicking and fighting for equality nationally? And then we
(42:37):
we don't. I don't even have a here. There's now
there's not been you know, discussion about it. So then
I'm like, hell, I'm going for it. Like for I'm like,
I'm going for it, like this is what I want
like h And it took it took a while for
it to take place, but.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
You got to.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Stay the course when you want to do something big. Now,
now now they offered me, you know, a significant race.
But then I'm like, hell, if you can get this,
you can. We're here, We're we almost here.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Give me my money.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
But but but.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
It's not about the money. It's about the principality.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yes, but but through throughout the negotiations, it was all
about the money. Like basically, you know, some of the
stuff came out, like why you know, why you think
you should make more than a football coach.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I like, I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
I didn't pay the football coach, Like really, I didn't.
We're football school. SEC is a football conference.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
I wasn't. That wasn't my My point. My point is
I do.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I do what the men's basketball coach does. We've had
sustained success here. We've been in the final fours, we
won a national championship. We've done basically all these things,
and and I had to look at like if you
look at and I don't want to talk about Frank
Martin in this way. I'm just going to talk about
(44:07):
the numbers. And the numbers say, I've been here from
two thousand and eight until now. He was here from
I don't know, twenty and twelve until now. If you
add up his his increases, his salary increases, and you
(44:27):
add up mine, he's got more. So that number is
staggering to me. And I just felt like now's the time.
But it's also you know, was I fighting for me?
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (44:41):
But I was also fighting for a bigger, like, this
is much bigger than me.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This is for black women, for white women, for.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Corporate women, CEOs, this is for teachers, this is for administrators,
This is for every woman that doesn't get a dollar
on the dollar she earned. And and I just felt like,
you know, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
I was doubtful. I was really doubtful whether or not
it was gonna get done. But when it got done,
it was well worth the negotiations. It was well worth
you know, the high pitched voices that were you know,
viewed out because it was.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Not about me. It was more about everybody else.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
And I just hope this creates a norm because this
is unpopular. It's unpopular for for South Carolina to do it,
and it's you know, it's a microcosm of what's happening
out there in the world. So I hope it moves
from being an unpopular right thing to a popular right
(45:55):
thing and the norm. So I think it's I think
it's a pretty big deal. I think it's pretty cool deal.
And all these things were happening too when I just
told somebody, this is Robert Roberts, that the LFG documentary
that they had on CNN.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
I watched it. I sat down and watched it.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I'm just like, damn, this is a damn shame that
this is happening to them when you know they've been
super successful. So I sat down, I watched it, I
took notes, and I'm just like, I'm I'm I'm here
for this reason, Like sometimes you need something tangible to say,
this is why you're here. Keep pushing, keep fighting, keep
(46:40):
this is what we need. We need groundbreaking went, we
need momentum heading into you know what I think is
a woman's movement. It's time for us to rise up
and to risk it all.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Because I did. I risked. I risked it all.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Like they could have said, now I'll get on out
of here. You know we're not doing this out there,
you So you got to be able to risk it
all and know that if it doesn't turn out the
way you wanted to, it wasn't because you didn't bite.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Let's normalize equal pay. How about that. Let's normalize equal
pay for hard working black women and women all over.
But let's just normalize equal pay. It just it's just
so simple.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Like like.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Like equal pay like racism, Like it's such it's such
a simple thing to solve.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
I okay, I gotta let you go. Last question. Number one, preseason, Congratulations,
What we're looking like? I mean, just so many wins,
so many wins, and I know, I know what it
feels like to be the first and do so many
things that people haven't done before. And all it is
is check check, check, check check, and we keep moving
you back. You're back in practice. You don't like I
(48:00):
I need you to take a moment to dis enjoy
this season. Let it be two weeks, so it'd be
a day. But it is a beautiful thing to watch.
It makes me so happy, Like I'm so happy listening
to you right now. Do you understand like I am
celebrating every one of your wins because it's a win
for us. It is a win for the culture, it's
(48:20):
a win for women. It is a win, huge wins,
and I'd like to see us have some parody and
normalize something different, especially in women's basketball at the collegiate level.
Number one, preseason, What we looking like?
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I mean, I probably like everybody else, good, bad, ugly
dead times Like, I mean, we got a good team,
no doubt about it, very very talented, and we just
started doing this this week and it's not fun. But
we just started simulating what a game would be like
(48:58):
in terms of institutions. So some people aren't getting as
many reps as they've gotten, you know, for the two
months that we've been together.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
So you'll hear a little bit of chirping, you.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
See a little bit of facial expressions, You'll see a
little bit of body language, and that's normal.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm not going to take that away from competitors, but
I told our players this year that we're all going
to have to sacrifice and you got to keep you
got to keep sending that message because again they lose
sight because they look within and say, hey, I'm not starting,
(49:37):
I'm not playing. So we gotta consistently, you know, give
them that message. And I asked them again, I'm very beginning.
I was like a little bit different. Y'all know you
understand what we're They all say yes, I said, but
we only need what you do best just this year,
(49:59):
just this year. We don't need your whole bag. We
know you we can do a lot of things with
that basketball, but we only need the thing that you
do best. And if you do that, things are gonna
start clearing up. If you try to muck it up
by looking at what this person does, which is her
best thing, but you want to add that to what
you already do, it's gonna mess things up. So we
(50:22):
have to constantly battle with our players to see the
big picture.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
And it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
Overnight, but it's going to happen if we're if we
just like we have to drill how we're playing ball screens,
wall screen defense, we gotta drill it. We gotta drill
these things too, because you know it's coming. We playing,
you know two weeks, the parents are gonna come to
the games. They're gonna see their little girls expecting them
(50:49):
to play. And we're gonna get on a zoom call
with the parents and we're gonna say, hey, we're about
to start.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Your daughter may play some minutes, no minutes, a lot
of minutes. We don't know. Any given day could change.
So we need you, We need you to be parents
and support them.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Don't ask what you don't know, because you know, we've
been in the gym for two months and if you
want to count back to June, five to six months.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
So it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
So I think we do a really good job of communicating,
and we got a good team. And whether we're the
number one or number three, number six, number eight, whatever
it is, we're gonna fight. We're gonna not literally fight,
We're gonna.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
But maybe we need Sometimes sometimes it happens. Coach, I
know you have to go. We only need you. I'm
writing down with Church. We need you to do the
thing you do best. That's it, that's all we want
them to do. I am room for you, and I
am so very very very very very excited for you.
(51:59):
No matter what the season looks like, we hope it's
always a win. I went to UCLA, so I gotta
be careful what I say because you know they be
watching everything. Coach Coach close texting me like, oh, Terry,
can I talk to you? I'd be like, I can't.
I get like, Coach, I didn't play. I just they're
working sports. I'm sorry, but I coach, I'm just I
(52:19):
am so proud of you and so excited for what's
next in your journey. You have really, truly, truly been
a trailblazer and it's not gonna notice. We need it.
So thank you for it. Thank you so as this
is being released. It's week one of college basketball. Don
did not know this, but I intentionally moved this podcast
(52:41):
up so that I could praise her during this week.
Her class currently is number one preseason number one. All
that means nothing to her, as she has talked about.
I will be very clear here though, if just in
case you know, my coach, coach close at UCLA is listening,
I am ruined, but I'm very impressed by Don, so
(53:02):
please don't be mad at me. Side note, I'm looking
forward to see what she does, and I don't want
to hear anyone critiquing her if she doesn't have the
season that's some expect because she got paid that money
she got paid that was already invested years ago. Yeah,
I had her at a bargain, right, you got her
on the cheat. You finally pay her her worth. This
(53:25):
is back, if you will, I don't want to hear
no no crap talking. I do want to say though,
when I listened to the podcast, I thought it has
to be difficult to always feel like you have to
do and say the right thing when you're in such
a public position. College sports is very political. Although people
(53:47):
will say it's not, college sports is very political sports
and generalists, but on the collegiate level there is an
extra layer of red tape that you have to deal
with boosters, you know, alumni parents. She meant all of that.
There's so much going on, but she has been able
to do something that I think we all should learn
to do. Keep the main thing the main thing. I'm
(54:11):
here to coach these girls to play basketball so that
they can compete and move on and do whatever they
want to do that in light, whether that be go
to the league, whether that be find another career, maybe
that be a coach, whatever it may be. I'm here
to do the main thing, and I keep the main
thing the main thing. Oftentimes we get so caught up
(54:33):
and shit that just don't matter. Instead of just being right,
instead of just doing what we came to do, we
get caught up and distracted. And that's where we see
all the pitfalls, all the problems. So I thank Don
for reminding me to keep the main thing the main thing.
(54:56):
Thanks for listening. That's the main thing today. Kid back
next week, y'all.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
HM
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