November 25, 2020 • 29 mins
Athletes this year have had a tremendous impact on the election and on national conversations around equal pay, social and racial justice, and more. From the U.S. women's soccer team fighting for equal pay to LeBron James' More Than a Vote organization registering and turning people out to vote, there are so many inspiring athletes who are standing up and using their platforms for good. Among them is Atlanta Dream player Renee Montgomery, a WNBA champion who opted out of the 2020 season in the wake of the George Floyd murder to focus on social justice initiatives. Renee joins Pete to talk about the intersection between politics and sports, the expectation for athletes to stay quiet on social issues, and what happened when her team's co-owner publicly opposed the Black Lives Matter movement.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I'm pete vote Edge and this is the deciding decade.
I've thought a lot about shared purpose in the Trump era.
Now we've seen so many people come together in electoral
and political coalitions, of course, but also people across industries
(00:23):
and sectors across this country, in the world. In one
group that has had an enormous impact on the election
and on national conversations around equal pay, social and racial justice.
More is athletes from the U S women's soccer team
fighting for equal pay to Lebron James. More than a
vote organization registering and turning people out to vote. There
are so many inspiring athletes out there who are standing up,
(00:46):
stepping out, and using their platforms for good. Today, we're
going to hear from one of them. Renee Montgomery is
a member of the Atlanta Dream basketball team, winner of
multiple w NBA championship and an n C Double A championship,
and founder of the Reneed Montgomery Foundation. You may have
heard about her as the leader of the Yukon Huskies
(01:08):
perfect thirty nine and no National Championship winning season in
two thousand nine. Or is one of the key players
on the Minnesota Links, the Connecticut Son and the Atlanta
Dream w NBA teams, or he may have heard about
her as a player who opted out of the w
NBA season, which would have been her twelfth in the
league in the wake of the murder of George Floyd
and the ensuing protests to focus on social justice initiatives.
(01:31):
She has inspired so many for the stand that she
has taken in the service of racial and social equity,
and she's educating all of us on the importance of
activism across industries and communities, as well as the power
that boldness, courage, and sacrifice can have. Renee, Welcome to
the podcast. Thank you for having I'm so excited to
be able to have this conversation. You know, South Bend,
(01:54):
Indiana is very proud of the tradition of women's athletics here,
including one of our natives, ords hero Skylar Diggin Smith
faced off with many times. It's also been always very
important in this community that athletes be outspoken. But I
also know that that that's not always what folks are expecting.
So one of the first things I want to ask
(02:14):
you is how it's felt since you've decided to take
this stand, decided to use this time and make this sacrifice.
What are you finding in terms of people's readiness for
your voice talking about these issues of racial justice and
equity that are so important. You know, I think when
the pandemic hit, I don't think people were ready to
(02:35):
hear athletes voices. I think that people were ready for
athletes to be athletes. I think people wanted athletes to
almost save us from our current situation in a sense
of we want to take athletics and we want to
watch you guys play, and we don't want to hear
about anything else. And so I think that it was
twofold when I when I opted out, the fans were
(02:55):
confused about, well, why can't you do both? And and
then there were other people that were like, good, if
you're gonna opt out, I don't want to hear about it.
So I'm glad you're opting out anyway. Having done it
now and being in this space, I feel very comfortable
in it, you know. I feel very comfortable because I
feel like I'm doing the right thing. I feel like
I'm taking a stand for the right thing on on
the right side of history. So for me, it's been
(03:16):
very fulfilling. I'm very excited to talk to you about
Georgia in a moment, but first I want to rewind
and go to West Virginia where you grew up. You've
mentioned in interviews that you grew up surrounded by people
who didn't like you, even being the only black student
in all white school, and I'm curious how you navigated
that environment and how you think that might have shaped
(03:36):
your activism and your understanding where you fit in the
world today. Yeah, you know, I navigated that space by humor.
I started making jokes about Black History Month before it came,
and not about things that happened out. I started being like, Okay, guys,
I know Black History Months coming up, but you guys
are still allowed to talk to me during it, you know,
Like I had to try to just kind of, you know,
(03:57):
take the edge off of it. Because all of my classmates,
they were my friends, and they all would be like,
on Black History Month, like we used to joke all
the time in class, and then they would be like,
you know, really serious. Because of the topics of Black history,
mom slavery and different things of that nature. They wanted
to make sure that they didn't offend me, and they
wanted to make sure that they weren't rude and but
in turn, as a kid, it was awkward because I
(04:18):
was the only one that they were that way with.
So I think that's where I started to realize, you know,
using humor as a as a way to lighten the mood,
and also just navigating a space where I'm the only
one that's different and understanding a different perspective than my own.
So I would say West Virginia, you know, they that
that really taught me how to look at things from
(04:39):
a different light. And even having been submerged in the
HBCU culture because my parents and my sisters, I still
in the class setting was different. So Connecticut is a
very different place from West Virginia, but another place where
I'm sure very often you you felt this sense of difference.
But how did things change you got to Yukon. You know, Yukon,
(05:03):
I had more of an inner circle of you know,
the athletes were typically minority, just that's just kind of
how it went. The football players, the basketball players, my teammates.
We had white people on our team as well as
black people, but there was a board more of a mixture,
and that's who I hung out with. It was more
comfortable for me, but it was different too, because here
I come from the country and I'm going to Connecticut, which,
(05:25):
if anybody doesn't know, Yukon women's basketball is like rock Stars,
their epitome of women's college sports. They are the mecca.
And I went from country roads to that. So I
think it was I got really used to being uncomfortable.
I would just say that, like just throughout my whole upbringing,
I got used to being uncomfortable because at Yukon, I
didn't know if I was gonna be good enough because
(05:47):
I'm coming from West Virginia, so that was a whole
different thing. Um, But yeah, I just got very comfortable
and uncomfortable spaces. Not only were you good enough, you
wound up leading the team to a thirty nine and
no season. What was that season like? And and how
did you know when you really did not only determine
that you can measure up, but but really could be
a leader for your teammates. Well, that season was terrifying.
(06:10):
So let me just tell you why when when you
go to Yukon. The first thing I tell when when
I told people, all, yeah, I played at Ukon, They're like, oh,
how many championships did you win? Like that's the first
question they asked, it's not did you win, it's how many.
So the fact that I only won one at Yukon,
that's like, that's about the bare minimum you could do. Yeah.
(06:31):
So so this was my senior year, so this was
my last chance to win a championship. Will be one
of the only teams in Yukon history to never all
four years not win one. So I was scared the
whole season. Wanted it to go perfect, and then when
even when the buzzer went off, like we were up
by a lot and I had to wait until the
buzzer went off to celebrate. So yeah, I would say
(06:54):
that season it was very rewarding at the end, but
I was a nervous direct the whole time. So then
you're screwed into the w n b A. You are
this incredible career on the professional side. What was that
adjustment like going from from college ball to place like
Yukon uh into the w n b A. As we
just talked about, I want to undefeated. My senior year,
got you know, point Guard of the Year, the Nancy
(07:15):
Liebraman Award, and we're on top of the world. And
then I start to hear that I'm gonna drop really
low in the draft because I'm too small, and and
because you know, yeah, I was playing a Yukon, but
it's Yukon, so everybody playing a Yukon is good. And
that started to be the chatter for my drafting, and
so you know, they were saying I could go anywhere
from first to tenth and maybe drop below that. So
(07:36):
I was again uncomfortable and nervous. I couldn't control any
of that, so I was just kind of waiting to see.
I didn't want to be one of those people on
draft night just sitting in the chair like, yeah, does
anybody want me? Ended up getting drafted number four, and
so I was comfortable with that. You know, I would
have loved to being higher, but I guess I'm number four,
(07:56):
So it was, you know. And then I went to
a Minnesota to where again this is a different type
of area for me, Minnesota. Never been there, don't know
anyone there. So I would just say my whole career,
I just got really used to adjusting on the fly
and just being being comfortable wherever in place. So faster
(08:31):
forward now to spring. The murder of George Floyd is
a shock wave throughout the country and throughout the world,
and it affects you and changes the course of your
life and your story. Did that happen right away? Was
it a process? And who did you talk to as
you were discovering your own ability to respond to this,
not just the murder of George Floyd, but everything that
(08:53):
that that unlocked in our country's conversations about racial injustice. Yeah,
you know, that sparked a lot because I remember for
a while there, I didn't even watch the video like
it was on the news, and every time it was
on the news, I'm looking away because it's just like,
that's just not something I couldn't believe it was playing
on the news and that someone really was murdered that way.
And so I think a lot had to do with it.
(09:15):
The pandemic. You know, I was at home. You normally,
I'm gonna flight twice a week minimum, flying different places.
I'm all over the place, trying to keep up, and
then during the pandemic, we're all just still and we're
all settled, and I'm just looking at it like what
is going on? And not that I didn't know what
was going on before, but this is blatant, This is bad.
We have a murderer looking into the camera, not caring
(09:35):
that he's killing someone. So we always knew it was there,
but that level of boldness was scary to me, and
it was scary to a lot of people because here
in Atlanta, protests broke out all over like protests was
broke broke out all over the city. And I was
nervous just because I had never seen that level of
civil unrest. Like I was like, wow, this is you know,
I'm in one of the areas where the protests were
(09:57):
actually happening. And so I called my parents and there
was there was nervous energy in my voice. I know
they heard it in my My mom my snook was
she was so calm and she was just like, Oh,
don't worry, baby. That's just what people do when they
don't feel her they have to make themselves felt. And
I mean she just said it so casually. And the
way that she was calm and how casual she was
(10:18):
made me interested, Like it was I was like interested
in like wait, do you see I'm like, turnal the
news and I'm trying to tell the like turnal the news.
They're right here, like they're literally in my city. Town
on the news, like it's crazy, what's going on down here?
They're still living in West Virginia, And she just was
just so chill. And then she started to tell me
about being in uh in Detroit during the Detroit Rice.
And then she tried to tell she told me about
(10:39):
how she was in a walk out at her own
high school. And I'm sitting here mind blown because I
just didn't even know that about my own mom. So,
uh yeah, it was it was a wake up call
that everything that I thought was important and all the
things that I was rushing to do all the time,
like it made me just take a second and look
at things. Why do you think you and your mom
hadn't talked as much about her active is and before
(11:00):
this moment? Can that is a good question, you know,
I think my parents try to showed us in a way.
I'm one of those people, especially me. My sisters probably
knew it. But I'm the baby of the family. Just
to put in perspective, so I'm the youngest of two
older I have two older sisters, and I've always been
this bubbly and this optimistic, and I feel like they
just kind of wanted to keep me there I'm not.
(11:21):
I wasn't ignorant to it, so they kind of they
gave me talks and I already knew like racism exists,
that I knew all about it. But now that we
didn't go as in depth as we did on that conversation.
Do you think you can be optimistic and retain that
and be awake to all of the horrors that are
going on at the same time. How do you balance
those two things? That's a struggle. I think that for
(11:43):
me personally, the way I balance is because I've been
in some not great situations before, you know, and I've
just I think the way you get through situations better
as you stay optimistic. I'm optimistic about where we're going.
I think we're not there yet. I think that I'm
super excited that we're talking about it now. I'm excited
that companies are actually acknowledging the word representation, like what
(12:07):
like that used to be a myth. People used to
be like, oh, what are you talking about? The qualified
person needs to get the job. Now you see large
corporations using words like representation and having women are at
the highest points. And I'm not even talking about Madame
and Vice President I'm talking about all over women are
getting their highest positions at their job at a time
like this. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm optimistic. I don't
(12:30):
think that things are fixed, but I think being optimistic
helps you approach things better. And your mother's words about
the difference between being heard and being felt, can you
explain that a little bit? What does that mean to you?
And how do you put that into action? You know,
she was saying that there's lip service and then there's action,
and a lot of people associate action with negativity. And
(12:52):
I was like, you know, I don't think like again
me being you know, optimistic Oprah, I'm just like not
thinking that. I'm thinking, Okay, act and means like, don't
just talk about it, be about it. So that kind
of prompted my mind like, well, what is what is
my making? It felt like that's what I started to
think about, Like, Okay, I have a platform. I know,
being in the w n b A, I have a platform.
I have people that follow me not just because of
(13:15):
who I am, but they like the sport that I
play and they just they like maybe me as a whole.
So I'm like, how can I use that and make
it felt and so opting out wasn't what I was
thinking about at the time, and she didn't even uh side.
Know my parents right when I told him I wanted
opt out, they were like, think about it, prey on
it takes some time. So they weren't the ones necessarily
(13:36):
they weren't encouraging me to opt out, but they told
me they would support me if I did. But for me,
it just felt right. I felt like there was a
moment going on, different moment than my My snick told
me it was different than her civil rights movement. This
is a different time, like knowing before. And I was like,
I want to be feet on the ground, boosts on
the ground, like I want to be here for it.
(13:56):
And so that's kind of what prompted me to opt out,
like I was my making. It felt that was I
could say that I'm interested in this and I want
things to change. But when I opt out and say
I'm that interested in this and I'm that serious about it,
people feel it. You know, a lot of the biggest,
most important decisions in my life, I feel like by
the time I arrived at the decision, by the time
(14:17):
I was ready to tell anybody about it or knew
that it was there. It almost felt like I had
made that decision a while ago, like I'd already settled
into it without even fully knowing yet. Is that how
this felt? Or was there a moment when you thought
I gotta do this? Oh? Absolutely? People think I just
woke up tight the tweet and sent it, like I
(14:38):
think people think that's how it happened. Um, it's not
how it happened. I knew for probably a week and
a half, two weeks before I actually told everyone, I
knew that I was going to opt out. Um. I
think at that time, I still had a month before
I had to opt out, Like you had to make
a decision at a certain point. The w NBA said
a deadline. I still had a month, And so my
parents were like, all right, well you still do have
(15:00):
a mom take some time, Like I said, They told
me to pray on and think on it, and if
you still feel that same way, opt out. And so
I took about a week and a half and just
was thinking about it. I called my head coach, Um,
talk to my family, just talk to the people close
to me, just to bend their ear, like am I crazy?
Like what, like, what do y'all feel like, am I crazy?
What do y'all think about this? And everyone told me
(15:22):
I wasn't crazy, even my head coach, and so that
kind of solidified it for me. She was the last
call um that I made, and I called my agent.
I called everyone and just letting them know because I
knew that would affect them. And my coach was like,
you know, it's just it's not the best situation for
me being your coach, and you're gonna opt out. But
she's like, I get it, you know, just as a
citizen living here in America, I get it. And so like,
(15:44):
even just hearing her say that, that made me so
much more comfortable. When a coach gives you a contract
and takes it, I call it betting on you. I
don't want to let anyone down. So just hearing her
being okay with it, that made me feel very comfortable.
So then I sent the tweet out and I had
already been thinking about for a week and a half,
so I was already sound in my decision. It wasn't
any going back after that. All of these issues are
(16:21):
close to home in another way, which is professional because
as we see this Georgia Senate race. One of them
is between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Lessler, who
just happens to co own the Atlanta Dream w NBA
team that you play on. And after the w n
b A announced that the upcoming season would be dedicated
to social justice and that the opening weekend's games would
(16:43):
be centered on the Black Lives Matter movement, she actually
wrote a letter to the commissioner saying that she opposes
the Black Lives Matter movement and says that, in her words,
was totally misaligned. This is a quote with the values
and goals of the w n b A and the
Atlanta Dream. So with all of the pain in the
struggle involved in what had happened over the course of
the summer, knowing that you've got this wonderfully supportive coach
(17:08):
and and UH teammates, and at the same time the
co owner of the team that you're playing for is
saying this, how do you even think about that? And
how do you respond? I did respond, you know, I responded.
I wrote a letter to and I thought, since we're
writing letters, I can write to UM, and so I
wrote a letter and I just was confused. Obviously, knew
(17:29):
the owner before she started running for Senate, So I
just didn't I didn't understand what was the point in
the letter anyway, And I just didn't understand why create
that division and a sense of you're a woman, and
so women, we are women. We know what it's like
to be discriminated against most women, whether color or not.
Like it doesn't matter the color. You probably felt a
(17:51):
little bit discriminated against at your workplace or somewhere. So
in my thought process, I'm like, all right, so if
we're women and this is a women's lead and we
should be empowering women, we need a lot of women
empowering women, Like write the letter to the NBA commissioner.
You know what I mean, They're they're doing the same thing.
I don't know. Like to me, if I see a
woman doing well, I'm like, yes, you write a Like
(18:12):
I'm excited when I saw bad I'm vice president walk
on the stage. It wasn't just because she was a
woman of caller, even though I love to see black estalence,
this was a woman on the biggest stage. Like that,
to me, we should all as women and no matter what,
like partisan nonpartisan, we should all as women. Be excited
for the growth of women, and so to me, I
(18:32):
was just like I tried to make parallels to that
I talked about women's suffrage, we would have been arm
in arm trying to be able to vote. I had
to try. I just tried to just understand, because that's
again I'm used to being saying things differently, but I
like to try to understand what people are saying. How
do you think your teammates are thinking through the different
ways to be involved. You know, some have probably been
(18:54):
politically active their whole lives. Others are just arriving at this.
What kind of conversations are you having about how each
person can find their best way to be active and
to make a difference. Every athlete is different, and I
think people have to understand that there's some athletes that
what whether this is going on right now or not,
They're like, look, I'm not really into the politics, like
(19:14):
and and there's some athletes that they don't even want
to do interviews like so to put it in perspective,
it's not just politics. Some athletes don't even like to
do interviews. They just want to play basketball. So when
they when you ask them to do an interview, they
might not want to do that, and when you ask
them to talk about politics or take a stand, they
definitely don't want to do that. And it's not because
they don't care. It's because some athletes just like to
(19:36):
just stay in their own lane and they don't want
to have to be outspoken about their beliefs. Then you
have some athletes that are very passionate about it. They're
very outspoken about it, and they want you to know
what they think. I think that people have to let
athletes be whatever they want to be, you know, because
it's like if if somebody went to your job and
was like, hey, do you see what's going on in America?
Talk about it, here's a camera. Tell everybody how you feel.
(19:57):
I think a lot of people would feel very uncomfortable
with doing that. They would be like, WHOA, I'm at work,
chill like they would try. They would probably tell them
like wait a minute. But for athletes, we don't really
have that choice. People think that we're obligated to talk,
and people think that we're obligated to tell our beliefs.
People think that we're obligated to just outright take a stand,
And there's athletes that say they didn't sign up for that.
(20:18):
So I always just try to meet people where they are.
So it's it fair to say you don't think the
players who didn't opt out are making a mistake. No,
I don't. I don't think. I don't think anybody is
obligated to do anything. And I say that in a
sense of there's NBA players that opted out for family reasons,
there's w NBA players that opted out for health reasons.
(20:40):
Whatever reason you opted out, that's your reason, Like you know,
that's that's literally the person saying I'll take a pay
cut because I don't feel comfortable with that situation. Well,
what what could you be mad about? They're not that's
their own choice. So I always yeah, and I said,
and I made that known because there was that infamous
Kyrie call that everybody heard of out where all the
(21:00):
NBA players were on the call. They wanted to figure
out do they want to play? There was there was
a lot of discussion, debates. The media leaked in and
said there was a lot of arguing. But I was
on the call and I was I was excited leaving
the call. I was like, Wow, these NBA players are serious,
Like and I took it in a good way that Wow,
there's this many men on the call, all from all
(21:22):
walks of life, trying to figure out what they want
to do about the climate that we're in. The civil
unrest um. Obviously, as we know, Kyrie thought that sitting
out was the best way to kind of make it felt.
But I wasn't mad at the people that took a
knee because it was on MSNBC. I was talking on
MSNBC about Lebron taking a knee, and I was talking
on CNN about George Uh about the Milwaukee Bucks, you
(21:46):
know one that so that made an impact, And so
I think that there's different ways to go about it.
There's no one right way. Are there any other athletes
in particular that you think are a model for how
to navigate these things and how to balance what you
do on the corridor on the field with what needs
to happen in the world. Yeah, I would say, you know,
a good example. And obviously we all can't be this,
(22:09):
but Lebron James, I mean and and before, and we
all know the more than a vote now. But he's
had I promise you know, he has a whole school
already built, already has kids that are already doing stuff
like he already had that before this happened to let
so that lets you know that he already his mindset
was already there. So when this, when this situation occurred
(22:30):
in the pandemic hit and now everyone all eyes on
the election, he already had more than an athletes, So
here comes more than a vote. And for me, it
makes sense and I think it's the right way because
we know that he's he's already that guy. You know,
like you don't want people to have to do something
that they're not and so I always say, like for me,
I'm gonna do every what I'm comfortable with. So if
(22:51):
I'm comfortable with doing it, I'm gonna do it. But
if I'm not, i'm not. And you can just tell
that Lebron does things that are he's passionate about. And
I think that that's what people should do. You don't
have to follow a certain template like everyone thinks that
you have to be a certain way to be a leader,
you have to be a certain way to make an impact. No,
do your thing your way, and do it in a
(23:12):
positive way. I would say, why do you think athletes
get the kind of influence or attention that that comes
with making that decision to step out and and be
active about social or political issues. Because there's something about
the relationship that athletes have with fans. Is it the
kind of power of just divisibility alone? What do you
think makes it such a statement when an athlete like
(23:34):
you comes out and says here's where I stand. You know,
that's interesting because a lot of people were asking that
as opposed to like entertainers that we're speaking out. And
I really think people understand what it takes to be
a professional athlete. I think they understand the sacrifice, the discipline,
the leadership, the teamwork, you know, the attributes that it takes.
(23:55):
People hold your word at at a certain heavy weight
because they know, well, this is a discipline person that
has made sacrifices in their life and we can trust this.
You know, these are disciplined people. These are people that
you know, we carry ourselves and not to say that
we like we care ourselves in a professional manner in
a sense of people don't party and stuff. I mean
that for our for your body to be a certain
(24:16):
percent body fat, for you to wake up at five
am every day, for you to be that discipline for
that long of a period. I think people trusted and
I think that people, especially basketball, they get they fall
in love with the person as well as the players.
So that's why if you see a player that was
first planning for Miami and then they go to l A, well,
(24:39):
that fan is traveling to l A with them because
they're not just the fan of Miami, They're a fan
of that person. So I think that all that plays
into it. What gives you hope, as you mentioned your
your optimism even in the face of the challenges that
we face. What what do you look to as a
source of encouragement and hope that it helps you believe
that the future is going to be better. Yeah, I
look for wins, and again it's probably the athlete in me.
(25:00):
But in sports, I never was like, let's like I
would obviously think let's win the game, but I don't
think that in the first quarter. In the first quarter,
I'm like, let's win the first four minutes. And then
after the first four minutes in the first quarter, I'm like,
let's win the next four minutes, and then you know,
So that's how I always broke things down. I broke
it down into like sections, and so I get excited
about every single when Georgia, I get excited about it,
(25:22):
Like I get excited that we had a record number
of tourn voters when I'm doing things that I want
people to vote. So to me, no, I'm not the
reason that Georgia turn blue or no I'm not. But
I'm really excited that we had unreal numbers here and
I'm really excited that people were fighting for democracy. And
I'm really excited that it went into a runoff because
some people said it was gonna be a blowout. So
(25:44):
I'm excited. That's kind of what keeps me optimistic. It's
not that we're working and nothing's happening. I mean, we
were working and things are happening, and as we put
points on the board, I think it's a it's a
great point that we've got to take that at both
this propulsion to do more and as a reassured that
that we can find victory. Part of the theme of
this podcast is the decade ahead and trying to envision
(26:07):
what the twenties are going to be like. So I
wonder if you were looking back on today from what
would you want to believe would have happened in those
ten years. Oh man, I'm just gonna go with the
intersectionality of it. So when it comes to racial and
gender inequalities, I want us to look back and just
(26:28):
I think that it's going to be dramatically different. We
have a woman in office, so I think that that's
going to be dramatically different. We have a woman caller
in office. Um. But not only that, we have the
n b A, the w n b A, UM, we
have leagues that are trying to say they want to
buy black businesses, they want to support local businesses, they
want to support black like we have people having the
(26:49):
right conversation. So if I look back in I would
hope to be excited that this wasn't our lip service,
that the people right now that are talking about representation,
that we look back and we're like, wow, they really
meant it. And for the NBA talking about using black
vendors and we look back and be like wow. And
for the NFL, they're trying to get UH management, they're
(27:10):
trying to get their management and their upper management together
and having minorities and they have the Rooney roll and
different things of that nature. I hope we look back
and are like, Wow, remember when they had to do that?
And I hope we look back and there's all these
women's CEO s and we're like, remember a time where
that was just not a thing across the board. So yeah,
I hope to look back at all the lift service
(27:30):
that we're doing right now and and know that it
was they made it felt. If there's a young woman
starting at Yukon or maybe Notre Dame uh Net going
into the fall next year, she's the top of her
game in high school, but she's wondering how she's going
to measure up. What's the one thing you want her
to know? Work it out? Like work it out like
(27:52):
you'll you'll never know, you'll never know I was there,
and you'll never know. But one thing that people know
is that if you put in the work, you'll get results.
So I always say, when you're nervous, hit the gam
work it out, when you don't know what's going on,
study the film, work it out. But at the end
of the day, like athletes, we are in a position
where we can control our destiny in a sense of
(28:13):
how well you do, how will you play, how well
you're prepared, so you better control all your controllables and
just work it out. I really admire how Renee spoke
about the different types of leadership and how to respond
when people have opinions on how to be this way
(28:34):
or that way in order to lead. As she's shown,
really leadership comes down to taking a stand about what
you believe in and moving the needle on issues you
care about most. Sometimes that requires sacrifice, in Renee's case,
sacrificing the very opportunity to play professionally that she had
done so much to earn. But we saw in this
(28:54):
conversation that she has no regrets because she made these
decisions based on her values, and there is no question
in my mind that she will continue to be a
leader of great consequence on and off the court. For
more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(29:16):
favorite shows.
Hi, I'm pete vote Edge and this is the deciding decade.
I've thought a lot about shared purpose in the Trump era.
Now we've seen so many people come together in electoral
and political coalitions, of course, but also people across industries
(00:23):
and sectors across this country, in the world. In one
group that has had an enormous impact on the election
and on national conversations around equal pay, social and racial justice.
More is athletes from the U S women's soccer team
fighting for equal pay to Lebron James. More than a
vote organization registering and turning people out to vote. There
are so many inspiring athletes out there who are standing up,
(00:46):
stepping out, and using their platforms for good. Today, we're
going to hear from one of them. Renee Montgomery is
a member of the Atlanta Dream basketball team, winner of
multiple w NBA championship and an n C Double A championship,
and founder of the Reneed Montgomery Foundation. You may have
heard about her as the leader of the Yukon Huskies
(01:08):
perfect thirty nine and no National Championship winning season in
two thousand nine. Or is one of the key players
on the Minnesota Links, the Connecticut Son and the Atlanta
Dream w NBA teams, or he may have heard about
her as a player who opted out of the w
NBA season, which would have been her twelfth in the
league in the wake of the murder of George Floyd
and the ensuing protests to focus on social justice initiatives.
(01:31):
She has inspired so many for the stand that she
has taken in the service of racial and social equity,
and she's educating all of us on the importance of
activism across industries and communities, as well as the power
that boldness, courage, and sacrifice can have. Renee, Welcome to
the podcast. Thank you for having I'm so excited to
be able to have this conversation. You know, South Bend,
(01:54):
Indiana is very proud of the tradition of women's athletics here,
including one of our natives, ords hero Skylar Diggin Smith
faced off with many times. It's also been always very
important in this community that athletes be outspoken. But I
also know that that that's not always what folks are expecting.
So one of the first things I want to ask
(02:14):
you is how it's felt since you've decided to take
this stand, decided to use this time and make this sacrifice.
What are you finding in terms of people's readiness for
your voice talking about these issues of racial justice and
equity that are so important. You know, I think when
the pandemic hit, I don't think people were ready to
(02:35):
hear athletes voices. I think that people were ready for
athletes to be athletes. I think people wanted athletes to
almost save us from our current situation in a sense
of we want to take athletics and we want to
watch you guys play, and we don't want to hear
about anything else. And so I think that it was
twofold when I when I opted out, the fans were
(02:55):
confused about, well, why can't you do both? And and
then there were other people that were like, good, if
you're gonna opt out, I don't want to hear about it.
So I'm glad you're opting out anyway. Having done it
now and being in this space, I feel very comfortable
in it, you know. I feel very comfortable because I
feel like I'm doing the right thing. I feel like
I'm taking a stand for the right thing on on
the right side of history. So for me, it's been
(03:16):
very fulfilling. I'm very excited to talk to you about
Georgia in a moment, but first I want to rewind
and go to West Virginia where you grew up. You've
mentioned in interviews that you grew up surrounded by people
who didn't like you, even being the only black student
in all white school, and I'm curious how you navigated
that environment and how you think that might have shaped
(03:36):
your activism and your understanding where you fit in the
world today. Yeah, you know, I navigated that space by humor.
I started making jokes about Black History Month before it came,
and not about things that happened out. I started being like, Okay, guys,
I know Black History Months coming up, but you guys
are still allowed to talk to me during it, you know,
Like I had to try to just kind of, you know,
(03:57):
take the edge off of it. Because all of my classmates,
they were my friends, and they all would be like,
on Black History Month, like we used to joke all
the time in class, and then they would be like,
you know, really serious. Because of the topics of Black history,
mom slavery and different things of that nature. They wanted
to make sure that they didn't offend me, and they
wanted to make sure that they weren't rude and but
in turn, as a kid, it was awkward because I
(04:18):
was the only one that they were that way with.
So I think that's where I started to realize, you know,
using humor as a as a way to lighten the mood,
and also just navigating a space where I'm the only
one that's different and understanding a different perspective than my own.
So I would say West Virginia, you know, they that
that really taught me how to look at things from
(04:39):
a different light. And even having been submerged in the
HBCU culture because my parents and my sisters, I still
in the class setting was different. So Connecticut is a
very different place from West Virginia, but another place where
I'm sure very often you you felt this sense of difference.
But how did things change you got to Yukon. You know, Yukon,
(05:03):
I had more of an inner circle of you know,
the athletes were typically minority, just that's just kind of
how it went. The football players, the basketball players, my teammates.
We had white people on our team as well as
black people, but there was a board more of a mixture,
and that's who I hung out with. It was more
comfortable for me, but it was different too, because here
I come from the country and I'm going to Connecticut, which,
(05:25):
if anybody doesn't know, Yukon women's basketball is like rock Stars,
their epitome of women's college sports. They are the mecca.
And I went from country roads to that. So I
think it was I got really used to being uncomfortable.
I would just say that, like just throughout my whole upbringing,
I got used to being uncomfortable because at Yukon, I
didn't know if I was gonna be good enough because
(05:47):
I'm coming from West Virginia, so that was a whole
different thing. Um, But yeah, I just got very comfortable
and uncomfortable spaces. Not only were you good enough, you
wound up leading the team to a thirty nine and
no season. What was that season like? And and how
did you know when you really did not only determine
that you can measure up, but but really could be
a leader for your teammates. Well, that season was terrifying.
(06:10):
So let me just tell you why when when you
go to Yukon. The first thing I tell when when
I told people, all, yeah, I played at Ukon, They're like, oh,
how many championships did you win? Like that's the first
question they asked, it's not did you win, it's how many.
So the fact that I only won one at Yukon,
that's like, that's about the bare minimum you could do. Yeah.
(06:31):
So so this was my senior year, so this was
my last chance to win a championship. Will be one
of the only teams in Yukon history to never all
four years not win one. So I was scared the
whole season. Wanted it to go perfect, and then when
even when the buzzer went off, like we were up
by a lot and I had to wait until the
buzzer went off to celebrate. So yeah, I would say
(06:54):
that season it was very rewarding at the end, but
I was a nervous direct the whole time. So then
you're screwed into the w n b A. You are
this incredible career on the professional side. What was that
adjustment like going from from college ball to place like
Yukon uh into the w n b A. As we
just talked about, I want to undefeated. My senior year,
got you know, point Guard of the Year, the Nancy
(07:15):
Liebraman Award, and we're on top of the world. And
then I start to hear that I'm gonna drop really
low in the draft because I'm too small, and and
because you know, yeah, I was playing a Yukon, but
it's Yukon, so everybody playing a Yukon is good. And
that started to be the chatter for my drafting, and
so you know, they were saying I could go anywhere
from first to tenth and maybe drop below that. So
(07:36):
I was again uncomfortable and nervous. I couldn't control any
of that, so I was just kind of waiting to see.
I didn't want to be one of those people on
draft night just sitting in the chair like, yeah, does
anybody want me? Ended up getting drafted number four, and
so I was comfortable with that. You know, I would
have loved to being higher, but I guess I'm number four,
(07:56):
So it was, you know. And then I went to
a Minnesota to where again this is a different type
of area for me, Minnesota. Never been there, don't know
anyone there. So I would just say my whole career,
I just got really used to adjusting on the fly
and just being being comfortable wherever in place. So faster
(08:31):
forward now to spring. The murder of George Floyd is
a shock wave throughout the country and throughout the world,
and it affects you and changes the course of your
life and your story. Did that happen right away? Was
it a process? And who did you talk to as
you were discovering your own ability to respond to this,
not just the murder of George Floyd, but everything that
(08:53):
that that unlocked in our country's conversations about racial injustice. Yeah,
you know, that sparked a lot because I remember for
a while there, I didn't even watch the video like
it was on the news, and every time it was
on the news, I'm looking away because it's just like,
that's just not something I couldn't believe it was playing
on the news and that someone really was murdered that way.
And so I think a lot had to do with it.
(09:15):
The pandemic. You know, I was at home. You normally,
I'm gonna flight twice a week minimum, flying different places.
I'm all over the place, trying to keep up, and
then during the pandemic, we're all just still and we're
all settled, and I'm just looking at it like what
is going on? And not that I didn't know what
was going on before, but this is blatant, This is bad.
We have a murderer looking into the camera, not caring
(09:35):
that he's killing someone. So we always knew it was there,
but that level of boldness was scary to me, and
it was scary to a lot of people because here
in Atlanta, protests broke out all over like protests was
broke broke out all over the city. And I was
nervous just because I had never seen that level of
civil unrest. Like I was like, wow, this is you know,
I'm in one of the areas where the protests were
(09:57):
actually happening. And so I called my parents and there
was there was nervous energy in my voice. I know
they heard it in my My mom my snook was
she was so calm and she was just like, Oh,
don't worry, baby. That's just what people do when they
don't feel her they have to make themselves felt. And
I mean she just said it so casually. And the
way that she was calm and how casual she was
(10:18):
made me interested, Like it was I was like interested
in like wait, do you see I'm like, turnal the
news and I'm trying to tell the like turnal the news.
They're right here, like they're literally in my city. Town
on the news, like it's crazy, what's going on down here?
They're still living in West Virginia, And she just was
just so chill. And then she started to tell me
about being in uh in Detroit during the Detroit Rice.
And then she tried to tell she told me about
(10:39):
how she was in a walk out at her own
high school. And I'm sitting here mind blown because I
just didn't even know that about my own mom. So,
uh yeah, it was it was a wake up call
that everything that I thought was important and all the
things that I was rushing to do all the time,
like it made me just take a second and look
at things. Why do you think you and your mom
hadn't talked as much about her active is and before
(11:00):
this moment? Can that is a good question, you know,
I think my parents try to showed us in a way.
I'm one of those people, especially me. My sisters probably
knew it. But I'm the baby of the family. Just
to put in perspective, so I'm the youngest of two
older I have two older sisters, and I've always been
this bubbly and this optimistic, and I feel like they
just kind of wanted to keep me there I'm not.
(11:21):
I wasn't ignorant to it, so they kind of they
gave me talks and I already knew like racism exists,
that I knew all about it. But now that we
didn't go as in depth as we did on that conversation.
Do you think you can be optimistic and retain that
and be awake to all of the horrors that are
going on at the same time. How do you balance
those two things? That's a struggle. I think that for
(11:43):
me personally, the way I balance is because I've been
in some not great situations before, you know, and I've
just I think the way you get through situations better
as you stay optimistic. I'm optimistic about where we're going.
I think we're not there yet. I think that I'm
super excited that we're talking about it now. I'm excited
that companies are actually acknowledging the word representation, like what
(12:07):
like that used to be a myth. People used to
be like, oh, what are you talking about? The qualified
person needs to get the job. Now you see large
corporations using words like representation and having women are at
the highest points. And I'm not even talking about Madame
and Vice President I'm talking about all over women are
getting their highest positions at their job at a time
like this. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm optimistic. I don't
(12:30):
think that things are fixed, but I think being optimistic
helps you approach things better. And your mother's words about
the difference between being heard and being felt, can you
explain that a little bit? What does that mean to you?
And how do you put that into action? You know,
she was saying that there's lip service and then there's action,
and a lot of people associate action with negativity. And
(12:52):
I was like, you know, I don't think like again
me being you know, optimistic Oprah, I'm just like not
thinking that. I'm thinking, Okay, act and means like, don't
just talk about it, be about it. So that kind
of prompted my mind like, well, what is what is
my making? It felt like that's what I started to
think about, Like, Okay, I have a platform. I know,
being in the w n b A, I have a platform.
I have people that follow me not just because of
(13:15):
who I am, but they like the sport that I
play and they just they like maybe me as a whole.
So I'm like, how can I use that and make
it felt and so opting out wasn't what I was
thinking about at the time, and she didn't even uh side.
Know my parents right when I told him I wanted
opt out, they were like, think about it, prey on
it takes some time. So they weren't the ones necessarily
(13:36):
they weren't encouraging me to opt out, but they told
me they would support me if I did. But for me,
it just felt right. I felt like there was a
moment going on, different moment than my My snick told
me it was different than her civil rights movement. This
is a different time, like knowing before. And I was like,
I want to be feet on the ground, boosts on
the ground, like I want to be here for it.
(13:56):
And so that's kind of what prompted me to opt out,
like I was my making. It felt that was I
could say that I'm interested in this and I want
things to change. But when I opt out and say
I'm that interested in this and I'm that serious about it,
people feel it. You know, a lot of the biggest,
most important decisions in my life, I feel like by
the time I arrived at the decision, by the time
(14:17):
I was ready to tell anybody about it or knew
that it was there. It almost felt like I had
made that decision a while ago, like I'd already settled
into it without even fully knowing yet. Is that how
this felt? Or was there a moment when you thought
I gotta do this? Oh? Absolutely? People think I just
woke up tight the tweet and sent it, like I
(14:38):
think people think that's how it happened. Um, it's not
how it happened. I knew for probably a week and
a half, two weeks before I actually told everyone, I
knew that I was going to opt out. Um. I
think at that time, I still had a month before
I had to opt out, Like you had to make
a decision at a certain point. The w NBA said
a deadline. I still had a month, And so my
parents were like, all right, well you still do have
(15:00):
a mom take some time, Like I said, They told
me to pray on and think on it, and if
you still feel that same way, opt out. And so
I took about a week and a half and just
was thinking about it. I called my head coach, Um,
talk to my family, just talk to the people close
to me, just to bend their ear, like am I crazy?
Like what, like, what do y'all feel like, am I crazy?
What do y'all think about this? And everyone told me
(15:22):
I wasn't crazy, even my head coach, and so that
kind of solidified it for me. She was the last
call um that I made, and I called my agent.
I called everyone and just letting them know because I
knew that would affect them. And my coach was like,
you know, it's just it's not the best situation for
me being your coach, and you're gonna opt out. But
she's like, I get it, you know, just as a
citizen living here in America, I get it. And so like,
(15:44):
even just hearing her say that, that made me so
much more comfortable. When a coach gives you a contract
and takes it, I call it betting on you. I
don't want to let anyone down. So just hearing her
being okay with it, that made me feel very comfortable.
So then I sent the tweet out and I had
already been thinking about for a week and a half,
so I was already sound in my decision. It wasn't
any going back after that. All of these issues are
(16:21):
close to home in another way, which is professional because
as we see this Georgia Senate race. One of them
is between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Lessler, who
just happens to co own the Atlanta Dream w NBA
team that you play on. And after the w n
b A announced that the upcoming season would be dedicated
to social justice and that the opening weekend's games would
(16:43):
be centered on the Black Lives Matter movement, she actually
wrote a letter to the commissioner saying that she opposes
the Black Lives Matter movement and says that, in her words,
was totally misaligned. This is a quote with the values
and goals of the w n b A and the
Atlanta Dream. So with all of the pain in the
struggle involved in what had happened over the course of
the summer, knowing that you've got this wonderfully supportive coach
(17:08):
and and UH teammates, and at the same time the
co owner of the team that you're playing for is
saying this, how do you even think about that? And
how do you respond? I did respond, you know, I responded.
I wrote a letter to and I thought, since we're
writing letters, I can write to UM, and so I
wrote a letter and I just was confused. Obviously, knew
(17:29):
the owner before she started running for Senate, So I
just didn't I didn't understand what was the point in
the letter anyway, And I just didn't understand why create
that division and a sense of you're a woman, and
so women, we are women. We know what it's like
to be discriminated against most women, whether color or not.
Like it doesn't matter the color. You probably felt a
(17:51):
little bit discriminated against at your workplace or somewhere. So
in my thought process, I'm like, all right, so if
we're women and this is a women's lead and we
should be empowering women, we need a lot of women
empowering women, Like write the letter to the NBA commissioner.
You know what I mean, They're they're doing the same thing.
I don't know. Like to me, if I see a
woman doing well, I'm like, yes, you write a Like
(18:12):
I'm excited when I saw bad I'm vice president walk
on the stage. It wasn't just because she was a
woman of caller, even though I love to see black estalence,
this was a woman on the biggest stage. Like that,
to me, we should all as women and no matter what,
like partisan nonpartisan, we should all as women. Be excited
for the growth of women, and so to me, I
(18:32):
was just like I tried to make parallels to that
I talked about women's suffrage, we would have been arm
in arm trying to be able to vote. I had
to try. I just tried to just understand, because that's
again I'm used to being saying things differently, but I
like to try to understand what people are saying. How
do you think your teammates are thinking through the different
ways to be involved. You know, some have probably been
(18:54):
politically active their whole lives. Others are just arriving at this.
What kind of conversations are you having about how each
person can find their best way to be active and
to make a difference. Every athlete is different, and I
think people have to understand that there's some athletes that
what whether this is going on right now or not,
They're like, look, I'm not really into the politics, like
(19:14):
and and there's some athletes that they don't even want
to do interviews like so to put it in perspective,
it's not just politics. Some athletes don't even like to
do interviews. They just want to play basketball. So when
they when you ask them to do an interview, they
might not want to do that, and when you ask
them to talk about politics or take a stand, they
definitely don't want to do that. And it's not because
they don't care. It's because some athletes just like to
(19:36):
just stay in their own lane and they don't want
to have to be outspoken about their beliefs. Then you
have some athletes that are very passionate about it. They're
very outspoken about it, and they want you to know
what they think. I think that people have to let
athletes be whatever they want to be, you know, because
it's like if if somebody went to your job and
was like, hey, do you see what's going on in America?
Talk about it, here's a camera. Tell everybody how you feel.
(19:57):
I think a lot of people would feel very uncomfortable
with doing that. They would be like, WHOA, I'm at work,
chill like they would try. They would probably tell them
like wait a minute. But for athletes, we don't really
have that choice. People think that we're obligated to talk,
and people think that we're obligated to tell our beliefs.
People think that we're obligated to just outright take a stand,
And there's athletes that say they didn't sign up for that.
(20:18):
So I always just try to meet people where they are.
So it's it fair to say you don't think the
players who didn't opt out are making a mistake. No,
I don't. I don't think. I don't think anybody is
obligated to do anything. And I say that in a
sense of there's NBA players that opted out for family reasons,
there's w NBA players that opted out for health reasons.
(20:40):
Whatever reason you opted out, that's your reason, Like you know,
that's that's literally the person saying I'll take a pay
cut because I don't feel comfortable with that situation. Well,
what what could you be mad about? They're not that's
their own choice. So I always yeah, and I said,
and I made that known because there was that infamous
Kyrie call that everybody heard of out where all the
(21:00):
NBA players were on the call. They wanted to figure
out do they want to play? There was there was
a lot of discussion, debates. The media leaked in and
said there was a lot of arguing. But I was
on the call and I was I was excited leaving
the call. I was like, Wow, these NBA players are serious,
Like and I took it in a good way that Wow,
there's this many men on the call, all from all
(21:22):
walks of life, trying to figure out what they want
to do about the climate that we're in. The civil
unrest um. Obviously, as we know, Kyrie thought that sitting
out was the best way to kind of make it felt.
But I wasn't mad at the people that took a
knee because it was on MSNBC. I was talking on
MSNBC about Lebron taking a knee, and I was talking
on CNN about George Uh about the Milwaukee Bucks, you
(21:46):
know one that so that made an impact, And so
I think that there's different ways to go about it.
There's no one right way. Are there any other athletes
in particular that you think are a model for how
to navigate these things and how to balance what you
do on the corridor on the field with what needs
to happen in the world. Yeah, I would say, you know,
a good example. And obviously we all can't be this,
(22:09):
but Lebron James, I mean and and before, and we
all know the more than a vote now. But he's
had I promise you know, he has a whole school
already built, already has kids that are already doing stuff
like he already had that before this happened to let
so that lets you know that he already his mindset
was already there. So when this, when this situation occurred
(22:30):
in the pandemic hit and now everyone all eyes on
the election, he already had more than an athletes, So
here comes more than a vote. And for me, it
makes sense and I think it's the right way because
we know that he's he's already that guy. You know,
like you don't want people to have to do something
that they're not and so I always say, like for me,
I'm gonna do every what I'm comfortable with. So if
(22:51):
I'm comfortable with doing it, I'm gonna do it. But
if I'm not, i'm not. And you can just tell
that Lebron does things that are he's passionate about. And
I think that that's what people should do. You don't
have to follow a certain template like everyone thinks that
you have to be a certain way to be a leader,
you have to be a certain way to make an impact. No,
do your thing your way, and do it in a
(23:12):
positive way. I would say, why do you think athletes
get the kind of influence or attention that that comes
with making that decision to step out and and be
active about social or political issues. Because there's something about
the relationship that athletes have with fans. Is it the
kind of power of just divisibility alone? What do you
think makes it such a statement when an athlete like
(23:34):
you comes out and says here's where I stand. You know,
that's interesting because a lot of people were asking that
as opposed to like entertainers that we're speaking out. And
I really think people understand what it takes to be
a professional athlete. I think they understand the sacrifice, the discipline,
the leadership, the teamwork, you know, the attributes that it takes.
(23:55):
People hold your word at at a certain heavy weight
because they know, well, this is a discipline person that
has made sacrifices in their life and we can trust this.
You know, these are disciplined people. These are people that
you know, we carry ourselves and not to say that
we like we care ourselves in a professional manner in
a sense of people don't party and stuff. I mean
that for our for your body to be a certain
(24:16):
percent body fat, for you to wake up at five
am every day, for you to be that discipline for
that long of a period. I think people trusted and
I think that people, especially basketball, they get they fall
in love with the person as well as the players.
So that's why if you see a player that was
first planning for Miami and then they go to l A, well,
(24:39):
that fan is traveling to l A with them because
they're not just the fan of Miami, They're a fan
of that person. So I think that all that plays
into it. What gives you hope, as you mentioned your
your optimism even in the face of the challenges that
we face. What what do you look to as a
source of encouragement and hope that it helps you believe
that the future is going to be better. Yeah, I
look for wins, and again it's probably the athlete in me.
(25:00):
But in sports, I never was like, let's like I
would obviously think let's win the game, but I don't
think that in the first quarter. In the first quarter,
I'm like, let's win the first four minutes. And then
after the first four minutes in the first quarter, I'm like,
let's win the next four minutes, and then you know,
So that's how I always broke things down. I broke
it down into like sections, and so I get excited
about every single when Georgia, I get excited about it,
(25:22):
Like I get excited that we had a record number
of tourn voters when I'm doing things that I want
people to vote. So to me, no, I'm not the
reason that Georgia turn blue or no I'm not. But
I'm really excited that we had unreal numbers here and
I'm really excited that people were fighting for democracy. And
I'm really excited that it went into a runoff because
some people said it was gonna be a blowout. So
(25:44):
I'm excited. That's kind of what keeps me optimistic. It's
not that we're working and nothing's happening. I mean, we
were working and things are happening, and as we put
points on the board, I think it's a it's a
great point that we've got to take that at both
this propulsion to do more and as a reassured that
that we can find victory. Part of the theme of
this podcast is the decade ahead and trying to envision
(26:07):
what the twenties are going to be like. So I
wonder if you were looking back on today from what
would you want to believe would have happened in those
ten years. Oh man, I'm just gonna go with the
intersectionality of it. So when it comes to racial and
gender inequalities, I want us to look back and just
(26:28):
I think that it's going to be dramatically different. We
have a woman in office, so I think that that's
going to be dramatically different. We have a woman caller
in office. Um. But not only that, we have the
n b A, the w n b A, UM, we
have leagues that are trying to say they want to
buy black businesses, they want to support local businesses, they
want to support black like we have people having the
(26:49):
right conversation. So if I look back in I would
hope to be excited that this wasn't our lip service,
that the people right now that are talking about representation,
that we look back and we're like, wow, they really
meant it. And for the NBA talking about using black
vendors and we look back and be like wow. And
for the NFL, they're trying to get UH management, they're
(27:10):
trying to get their management and their upper management together
and having minorities and they have the Rooney roll and
different things of that nature. I hope we look back
and are like, Wow, remember when they had to do that?
And I hope we look back and there's all these
women's CEO s and we're like, remember a time where
that was just not a thing across the board. So yeah,
I hope to look back at all the lift service
(27:30):
that we're doing right now and and know that it
was they made it felt. If there's a young woman
starting at Yukon or maybe Notre Dame uh Net going
into the fall next year, she's the top of her
game in high school, but she's wondering how she's going
to measure up. What's the one thing you want her
to know? Work it out? Like work it out like
(27:52):
you'll you'll never know, you'll never know I was there,
and you'll never know. But one thing that people know
is that if you put in the work, you'll get results.
So I always say, when you're nervous, hit the gam
work it out, when you don't know what's going on,
study the film, work it out. But at the end
of the day, like athletes, we are in a position
where we can control our destiny in a sense of
(28:13):
how well you do, how will you play, how well
you're prepared, so you better control all your controllables and
just work it out. I really admire how Renee spoke
about the different types of leadership and how to respond
when people have opinions on how to be this way
(28:34):
or that way in order to lead. As she's shown,
really leadership comes down to taking a stand about what
you believe in and moving the needle on issues you
care about most. Sometimes that requires sacrifice, in Renee's case,
sacrificing the very opportunity to play professionally that she had
done so much to earn. But we saw in this
(28:54):
conversation that she has no regrets because she made these
decisions based on her values, and there is no question
in my mind that she will continue to be a
leader of great consequence on and off the court. For
more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(29:16):
favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com