Latest / The Breakfast Club / Best of Full Interview: Dawn Staley Talks 'Uncommon Favor,' WNBA; MiLaysia Fulwiley, Caitlin Clark Vs. Angel Reese +More

Transcript

Best of Full Interview: Dawn Staley Talks 'Uncommon Favor,' WNBA; MiLaysia Fulwiley, Caitlin Clark Vs. Angel Reese +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club, Morning everybody, It's the j n V.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Just hilarious, Charlamagne the gud We are the Breakfast Club.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: We got a special guest in the building, the Icon
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: living Dawn Stanley.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: How you feel? Thank you, thank you. Thank y'all usually
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: come back and I'm invited when we win the championship.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: We lost this year. So thank y'all for you talking
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: about you.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Don't you start that You're always invited. Uncommon favorite is
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: out right now. Basketball in North Philly, My Mother and
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: the life lessons I learned from all three is out
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: How are you feeling.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I'm feeling great, Like I mean, my my friends have
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: received their books and they have nothing but like great
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: things like I am my cup running over. Yeah he did.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta give you a shout out. And
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: you you sparked the conversation. So many people have asked
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: me to write a book, and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: like yeah right, but it came from so many different people.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: And then when I came on the show in twenty
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: twenty two, we talked about it, and you just you
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: kept the conversation going. You're real persistent with it, and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you know that's That's what I'm attracted to most, is
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: like somebody.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: That actually is it persistent yet.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Persistent and know the process, Like you knew the process.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you knew my story, so to speak,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: but you knew enough to know that you know this,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: this book will be received well. And I appreciate that well.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: People like you don't come around too often. Don Like
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: you're a once in a generational just person, you know,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and you really learned that when you read the book,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: not even just as a coach but as a basketball player,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: but more so as a child of Philadelphia.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Man, I mean, it's it's I mean I had fun,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Like the process was fun. It's liberating. It is you know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: you don't really know how you're going to be received,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: but every person like I'm actually waiting for a critic,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: like somebody say what didn't go right in the book,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and then we have yet to get to that point.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: And I just my one of my friends was, you know, listening,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: had a long road trip, listened to the entire book
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: yesterday and she was like, I'm in tears. I'm laughing.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I get it. Like the leadership part of it, Like
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, the emotions that are in the book, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's me. So some of it is emotional me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Some of it is just I'm able to just get
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: it out because I remembered most of it and I
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: had to call on my my siblings and kind of
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: fill in the gaps. But it's it's me, like it's
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it's so me, it's so relatable, it's so just. It
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: was an easy process, so it was there was the
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: therapeutic at all to do it. No, it was just natural.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like it was natural. And I think sharing
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: my story is just relatable to people. It's not like,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it's a you know, like
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in we don't overdo it with the accolades. It's like
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the accolades are intertwined and everybody's accolades won't be like
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Olympian and actual champions, but on on a certain level,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: like if you if you graduate high school, it's relatable,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: if you graduate college is relatable. If you if you
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: can pull yourself out of the projects of any city,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's relatable. And and there's no there's no wrong path,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: like there's no like you can get off tilted, but
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: then you got to come back by like habits come
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: back by. You know. The the lessons in the book
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: are just just it relates to every single thing that
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you would want to accomplish in life. And I'm not
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: just saying that the pumped the book, but it really
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: is like I'm only giving what other people are giving me,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the feedback they're giving me, and it's cool to hear
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: people just relate to the book.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: The beautiful thing about Uncommon Favor is you get to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: tell your own story. So when you're when you're writing
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the book, what part of your story that you want
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to tell because you think people misunderstood it are overlook it.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Well. One is when I when I when I speak
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: on things that are controversial, you know, racial things, like
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's my perspective. Like a lot of times
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: people can't see what you see because it's not their experience.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Their experience is only hearing you and commenting on how
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: you feel about certain things. When anybody can feel strongly
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: about certain things. I feel strongly about everything in this
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: book because it happened to me. Like it's personal and
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: it's my perspective, but it's it's not harmful, like allow
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: people to tell their stories without hurting your feelings. It's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's personal to me. Now, you could be a
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: critic of the book, or you can enjoy the book,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and you can do all those things. But everything in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: this book is is my story is a part of
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: who I him. It's allowed me to grow and learn
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and and succeed and fail and and all those things
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: that happened to everybody you know sitting around this table,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and everybody that will we'll read it or not read it.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: It's going to happen to you no matter what. So
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I think you know some of the stuff. You know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: like you know the you know when when when I
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: sue the a d in Missouri, you got to get
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the whole backstory, because if you only hear one side
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of it, you only hear snippets of it, you'll think, oh, well,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: why does she do that? Like or equal pay? You know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: why why would you you already make it a lot
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of money, why would you want equal pay? Well, Well,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: because I know my worth, like like, it's not it's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: not hard to see. I think this book is very simple,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: like very simple lessons that I'm hoping that people can
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can take and utilize in their their daily lives.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: I love it because you know, people know you from
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: different things, right, Some people know you as a player,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: some people know you as a coach. But with this book,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: it starts from where you came from, which is North Philly, right.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: And you talk around housing projects, and you talk about
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: you know, you said growing up in the projects was
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: the best decision your parents made. Explain that a little
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: bit and how that formed to the woman that you
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: are today.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It just imagine the people that that don't grow up
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: in the projects. What you think happens in the projects.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: You you think probably only one thing, crime like bad
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: things like And for me, it was the foundation of
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: of giving me the scars I needed, the chinks and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the armor I needed to succeed. Like there was unity
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: in the projects. There was discipline in the projects. There
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: there was there was manicure lawns. There was my block
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I grew up, never had trash in it, like it was.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It was captain in a way that would would compete
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: with any suburban lawn like on neighborhood. So it was
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it was all those things things that help build you up.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Like I'm unbothered and unafraid to tackle on the most
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: challenging things in life because that's nothing compared to what
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that's nothing like. So I think it gave me the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: foundation I needed to just be able to, you know,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: coach every day, like coach young people, like generations are
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: changing coaching, coaching talent and individuals and young people nowadays,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: it's very, very challenging.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: And I can imagine because you know, being a player,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you gotta scream that crazy. But if you
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: dare talk to your girls like that, you can't.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: You gotta office exactly. So if you're not able to pivot,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: if you're not able to handle different challenges that you're
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: faced with, like I feel bad for coaches who are
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: who aren't like like I'm I'm a traditional coach, will
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I like order? I like? You know, people call them rules.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: People think I'm very strict and discipline. I am, I am,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: But all of our rules are are just good character
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: things like good it's a good character. It's not like
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: be on time. That's that's not a rule. That's that's
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a character trait. That's not that's not hard to do.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: If there's something that you want to do, one of
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the lessons. You have to do what you don't want
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: to do to get what you want. Like yeah, like
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: like you know, I mean you're you're a renowned comedian,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: right like you know how many stand up shows you
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: have to do that? Maybe you you were you weren't
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: very good at at the beginning, like but you you
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: want to be where you are today. You just kept
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: at it and kept at it and kept at it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: It's no, it's no different than you know, a child
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: that that wants to grow up and be in the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: w n b A or the NBA. I mean, how
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: much competitions out there. So you gotta work when nobody's working.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: You gotta do. You gotta get up and work out
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and sacrifice. I mean I sacrifice proms, I sacrifice all
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: these things, family reunions because I wanted to be the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: best in my in my profession. And that's all. It's okay.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: You're gonna have to choose. You definitely gonna have to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: choose certain things over over other things in order for
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: you to really be the best at it.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I love how you embrace your in a child, That's
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: what I love. This picture on the ask what's the
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: moment from your childhood that still shapes how you like
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: handle pressure today.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a there's a story that I that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I share in the book about my father, who I mean,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm over fifty now, right, but when he I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: don't know if I was twelve fourteen, maybe I got
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a chance to I got invited to play on this
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: team and this competition outside of Philly, like it was
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a road trip, and my father was like, no, you
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: can't go. Oh Like that hurt me, Like it really
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: hurt me. And I remembered it so vividly that that
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: for him to deny me that because it was one
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of the first times. But I'm thirteen, fourteen years old,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: whose parents gonna let them somebody else take their child
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: out of state? Like I wasn't thinking about that. I
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: was solely thinking about basketball. But it was one of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the one of the experiences that drove me, like didn't
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't like my father for that, Like I didn't
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: like him for the decision parental decision that he made.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But as I'm older now and reflecting on and writing
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a book, it is I need conflict. I know that
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: about myself that I need conflict, Like everything can't be comfortable,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Like if I have you know, ten people supporting me,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you know here, I need about ten to twelve people
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: that hated like I need it. I mean, it helps me.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: It drives me, Like it drives me that I don't
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: have a critic yet. I'm waiting for the book right now, right,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: So it's that is the ability. Like, you know, we
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: lost the Yukon this year, Like you know, the critics
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: are saying I can't coach like that, that's what they say.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: But I'm like, okay, well but but but again, everything
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that I've needed in my life, you know, failure success
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: happens to me. It's uncommon. Like, but I know I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: know our loss this year will somehow help us. It will.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: It's just you know, I'm not just I'm not just
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: relying on it helping us. I'm gonna put put action
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to it. So so it means something.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I love them. You said that in a post game conference.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: You was like, I hope that they're crying. I hope
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: that my players are crying. I hope that it hurts.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: That'll make them be better.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the most growth takes place when you're
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable the moment. If you're comfortable all the time. And
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I've said this as well, like parents really don't want
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: their kids to feel what they felt like pain, and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I want them to feel a little pain.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I want them to hurt. I want them to be uncomfortable,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and I love them enough to allow them to sit
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: in that space because not for long, but they need
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to fight their way out of it, because nothing's going
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to be given to me. I don't like that place.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I don't like to feel that, So I fight like
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: hell to try to not feel that, by reppering, by
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: doing everything I need to do to not feel that.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: It's almost like when you grow up in the projects
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: and you grow up in poverty, you don't want that anymore.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Like you don't want that once you've lived and you've
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you know you've earned a certain keep. You want to
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: keep that because you want to change generations in your
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: in your family, and I hope I'm able to do that.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Like, You've always been a natural born leader, like throughout
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: your whole life, even when you were the child. So
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it made me wonder if coaching never entered your life,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: where do you think your leadership would have shown up?
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Oh? Man, that's a hard question, like I'm I'm competitive.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I probably would have been a losing gambler, but trying,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: like like trying, like I don't know. I mean I do.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I love kids, so my work would have been with kids.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad that coaching found me. Like I'm glad
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: somebody saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't see coaching. I didn't want to coach at all,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and and I don't know why, because I had great coaches.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I had great people in my life that that challenged me,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that were good at it. But when I when I
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: had coaching friends, the only thing they talked about where
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: they're you know, were their teams in basketball. And I'm like, yeah,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: this is what I do every day. I do this
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: every day. Why would I want to talk about it
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: every day? Why would I want my life consume with it?
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: And here I am, twenty five years later, like loving it,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: like it's I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Then when you when you're able to live out your passion,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: it's the most beautiful, liberating and an incredible experience. Like
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I know my players really get something out of our relationship.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: They do, they get they build character, they navigate life.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: But for me, it's I'm overjoyed when they graduate. I'm
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: overjoyed on draft night. I'm overjoyed when they're able to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: see their hard work produce what they want, like like
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: what they want to like even if they don't make
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it to the league. They're equipped, they're equipped with with
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: being successful with anything. Like seriously, that is that that
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: that does something to my heart when when young people
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: are able to get what they're supposed to get.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And how do you block out the noise? Or do
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: you like the noise? Because you said you like the haters,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: you like the people that's doubting you, But do you
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: need to block that out when you're coaching, when you're
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: teaching your girls or teaching your women, Like how do
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: you deal with that?
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I mean that that hate usually comes from like social media,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, I read it, I see it all, you know,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and sometimes I dive into it. No, I mean I
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: look at it again and then I sometimes I'm like, okay,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: ten nine eight seven, I gotta i gotta take a
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: ten count. Some people go like this and delete like
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: they right, and they delete. I'm like, I'll give them that, Like,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: but my life is living proof that you're What you're
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: saying doesn't impact me in the way that it was
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: dealt out. It impacts me in a way of proving
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: you wrong. Like I'm an odds beater, like I beat
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the odds, so the odds say I've already won. Okay,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: this is really just icing on the cake. So it
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: it drives me for sure.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: You know you talked about your players. You got a
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: lot of success stories from your time coaching at the
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: University of South Carolina, But in the book, you make
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: it no secret that Asia Wish is your favorite. Hmm.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I mean, here's why, here's why, And
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I don't I've coached a lot of great players, like
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Asia was the very first player that was the number
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: one play in the country to decide she wanted to
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: come play for us, and I know it's in her backyard,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: but she had and we didn't. We didn't look like
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: a national championship team, Like we never won a national
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: we had never been to the final four. So for
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: her to trust us with that part of her career
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: meant that she believed in us. She trusted us, She
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: knew that we were going to get her to where
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: she needed to go as far as still being the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: number one draft pick like four years later, like when
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: someone and it wasn't just her, it was her entire
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: family believed in it. And it took it took some
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: you know, it took us at times them thinking did
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: we make the right decision? Because she did. She started
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: her first game and then she was terrible, like scrub
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: like right, scrub like scrub like. So I was like,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I gotta, I gotta take you out of start lineup.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: But I ain't even taught her that. I told her
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: parents first, and her mom even was like, you're sure,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: like you're gonna have to trust me on this one,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Like You're just gonna have to trust me, And she
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: was like all right. But at the end of her
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: freshman year, she was National Rookie of the Year, she
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: was first team All SEC, she was Rookie of the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Year in the ESSs, Like she got all the accolades
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: coming off the bench. And when someone believed, like when
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: someone as a coach and leader and mentor young people,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: young people believe in you like they really do, when
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: that's reciprocated. Because I believed that I knew that she
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: was going to be the one that takes us to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: that next level when when you're able to have the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: same synergy.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: And you know, Asia was hell to deal with, right
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: because she's young, Like she with the private school for
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like twelve years. All of her school he was a
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: private school, and so she needed to be roughened up
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a little bit to get her ready for what she faces.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Like she faces the critics right now, but I know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: I know she can handle them because we took her
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: through all of that. Like she had this leg right
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: throughout her college career. And I'm like, okay, you're going
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to read in front of the team every time we
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: have a game because we have a like a you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: you know, we have a scripture reading and an inspirational
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: reading before every pregame meal and there's somebody that has
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to read it. So I was like, you're gonna read.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It took her her senior year. Couldn't do it the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: first second, the third her senior year, she read out loud,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: and she had fun with it. She had y'all, this
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: is alone, y'all gonna have to bear with me. Like
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: it was that kind of liberation some when when she
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: gave her entire self to me, the good, the bad,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the ugly entire And you know that's why I just
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: have a really strong like relationship with her, Like she
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: could tell me anything, like I'm non judgmental, Like young
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: people won't want to tell you everything because they think
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you're gonna judge them, don't. I don't judge. Like there's
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: nothing that any one of my current former future players
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: can tell me that that's gonna rock me that I
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: haven't seen, like everybody's been through. Like there's no new problems,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it's the same old, recycled problems. So just give it
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: here so you're not dealing with it longer than you
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: need to.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: What what's something about your relationship with Asia that the
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: fans and media don't see what it means the most
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: to you.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: She gives me her darkest moments. Wow, like her darkest
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Like you see a an incredibly like gift. I think
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: she's the best player in the world, right, she's the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: best player in the world. I mean she she has
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: doubts at times, like whether she's going to perform at
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: this level, and she she gives me that, and I
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of pressure,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: so you know, I've had experience with it because I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: played with the best player in the world during my day,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Lisa Leslie. Same conversations I had with Lisa, like Okay,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: it's time for you to be the best playing the world,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Like come championship time, come gold medal time, like I'm
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: used to giving them, I'm used to pumping them up.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the conversation, thank you, coach.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, and it's not much, it's just boom, be
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: done with it, biest even in less than four right
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: when you say you have to do what you don't
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: want to do to get what you want, you weren't
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: even good with people at first. You said you could not.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: You had a job that you had got through your
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: mom's cleaning. She would get your jobs through her cleaning company,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and you didn't even it wasn't a company. My mom
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: was a one woman show these jobs. And you did
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: not do good with greeting people because that means you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had to talk to people. That's not even what you
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: wanted to do. And then look at you now, like
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that journey from there to there? How it like? How
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: did you get there doing that you didn't even want
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: to do? Communicate with people. Well, when when you're when
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you're the youngest of five, you don't really get to say,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I grew up in the household. I'm the youngest, Like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: nobody gave me any credit. I couldn't speak, Like I
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: got an older brother who's like eight years older, my
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: my deceased next oldest brother seven years my sister's six
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: years older than me, and I got another brother that's
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: two years older than me. Like, you're not getting to
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: say in our household. So I was quiet, observant, listen,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: really form discernment, you know, doing those during those times,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and then you grow, like you really grow. When I
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: went to college, I was still the same way, Like
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I never talked, I was shy and then and then
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: you know, things start happening to you, and you're like,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: if I don't say anything, they're gonna start taking advantage
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of me. So now you know, I think growing up
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and seeing things and that's you know it, It's so
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: cool that you know how I explain myself in this book.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: It lends itself to another lesson, which is look, sound feel.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: If something looks, sounds or feels off, oh I'm addressing it.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I can't like it's in me to address it. If
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it looks sounds or feels off, I mean off, I'm addressing.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: If it looks sounds it feels good, I'm encouraging it.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Like it is. It is. It is that That's where
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I found my voice when something just didn't seem right,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: or something that really seemed right, that that I wanted
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: more of.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: What accolade meant the most to you.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I would say, I'm so far from my plan days
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that I don't even really count that. Probably when when
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: my players graduate, that's that's that's the best feeling, because
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: because we sit in the living rooms and we say
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: your child will graduate, and sometimes it's the first generational
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: college graduate. Do you know what that means to the family, Like,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it's not it just doesn't impact that my player in
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: impacts everybody that comes after her or everybody in her
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: current family that that desires to get a higher education.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: They'll they'll go out and do it because it's not
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: tangible in some homes, it's not it's not something that
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: someone has ever done in their household, and for that
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to happen, their their generations will change from that. So
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: it's just the impact.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Of that, you know, it's interesting record. I was watching
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: you yesterday. You did Good Morning in America to view
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Kobe all of that stuff like that. So you was working,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: but I still know you're still the coach at the
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: University of South Carolina. But I was like, oh, you
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: know what, she'll be fine because she used to play
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: ball and coach at the same time, which I found
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: out about in the book.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: That was insane six years. That's crazy six years. I
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: mean when I when I got into coaching, I was
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: like in my prime, so you know the ad at
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the time. He kept asking me like he was persistent,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: like I'm like, no, no, I'm not interested. I'm playing
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in the WNBA and this is and then he just
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: kept asking. And then then I ended up having to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: go meet with him because the final four was in Philly.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I'm from Philly. He knew I was going to be there.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So I went and sat down with him and he
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: asked me two questions. He was like, can you lead?
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Did you do your research? Like did you like And
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I was like yeah, I basically was the captain on
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: every team that I played on, right, And then he
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: was like, can you turn Temple women's basketball program around?
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, is that a challenge? Like
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: is that really a challenge? Because I'm drawing the challenges
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and I and I never looked at it that way,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and I never answered the question. I don't even think
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I answered the question. He was like, Hey, can you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: just come down the hall and meet some people? So
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I'm here, and he took me
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in this conference room, sat me at the head of
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the table and they were like ten or twelve people
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: sitting around this table and they're asking me questions like
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: what do you see yourself in five years? I'm like
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: playing in the WNBA. And they were like, do you
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: haven't seen yourself coaching? And I'm like no, Like y'all
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: they were interviewing me. I was on a job interview
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know it because all my job interviews
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: were tryouts like basketball like physical tryouts. And needless to say,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I took the job two weeks later and they just
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: agreed to allow me to continue to play and coach.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: So I was in like basketball utopia because I was
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: coaching and I'm actually still able to express myself on
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the court because I wasn't ready to hang up my shoes.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I was still very much a player, and I think
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: that allowed me to play a little bit longer than
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I wanted to, and that allowed me to keep staying
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: fresh with what was up with teaching young people because
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: they were more enthralled with me playing because that's what
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: they wanted, Like I was living their dream right before
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: their very eyes. And I think it just helped me
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: be a better coach, be a more understanding coach, because
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I was a player receiving information from a coach, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: then I just helped the dynamics of what I was doing.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: And I guess we learned how to get you to
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: do things, be persistent, get a challenge, right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Like as I think about it all and this is
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: not in the book, but everybody that I have in
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: my you know, you know, in my circle, Like I
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: got a financial guide. He pressed me for one for
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a whole year when I was at South Carolina. He
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: would come and just visit, just checking, and then you know,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: finally I gave all my money to him, like seventeen
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: years later, where he's still with me, and it's it's
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the coolest thing to have someone just because you know,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: like it pour in like I mean, you pour it
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: into me. With this book, like you you understood it,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Like I didn't want to write a book, like I don't.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I didn't want to write
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: a book. But then when when we won last year
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: in an undefeated way, like I'm like, this is this
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is my my cut running through. This is uncommon favor,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and we we tried to we tried to come up
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: with different titles with the book, and it always came
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: back to this because this really explains my entire life,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Like if I had to describe my my, my life,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: my career, my it's uncommon favor.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Like to the m degree, have you ever a question
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: whether you were too hard or not hard enough on
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: a play?
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, yeah there was there was. I mean, it's
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: all teaching moments where I I wanted a freshman to
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: beat out a senior. When I kind of first my
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: first couple of years at South Carolina, we you know,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: we recruited this young lady because I thought she would
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: be the best. I was like, this is the one
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I want, so all of our coaching staff we zeroed
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: in on her. She committed, she came, and then I
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: was I was really hard on her, like like you
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: gotta do I tried to pour everything in because I
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: wanted her to beat the senior out. I couldn't just
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: give her. I couldn't just give her. I just I'm
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: not in it. You gotta earn it because you gotta
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: you gotta protect your locker room, because if you're just
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: giving out something and you lose trust. So I wanted
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: so I poured into her. I was hard on her,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and she cried at different times of the season, and
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: then I would talk to her like I thought everything
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: was good. You know, we were working towards it. Sometimes
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: they cried. Sometimes you know, they can they can take it.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: And then at the end of the sea, like I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: always do, I meet, I have our postseason meeting and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: she says something I just didn't It didn't dawn on
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: me during the year, Like she was like, I wasn't ready.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And I never thought she wasn't ready. If she would
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: have said that to me like during the during the season,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I would have I would have backed off. But she
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: was just like I wasn't ready, and I'm like, I'm sorry.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: So I do think that it strained our relationship. I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: think she understands it now because she's a coach now,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: so she kind of understands it. But I had to
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: change how I operated in that space because and I
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: ask our players to talk to me more like I
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: could be. I could be a better coach when you
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: talk to me. If not, I'm assuming that everything I'm
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: saying you're good with. So now it's like, how you
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: feel about this, how you want to play this, how
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you want to do this, what do y'all think? I'm
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: more of a listener and I involved and more inclusive
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: with game planning, inclusive with how we handle problems that
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: come up on the team, between teammates, all of that.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, we talk it out. Like we talk
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: it out, I expect like it's not a rhetorical question,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: it is an inclusive question. Hey, let's let's talk about this,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: because I find that if you don't address it, it grows,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and then you're halfway through the season, and like y'all
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: still on that when a two minute conversation could resolve
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: it all.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: I wanted to ask about your father, right. You mentioned
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: your father earlier in an interview and you said your
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: relationship wasn't that great, but you said it got better
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: over the years. Do you understand some of the things
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: that your father was trying to implementing you as a
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: young girl, because they said that your father looked at
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: women's basketball and felt there wasn't too many opportunities and
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: didn't know if you could sustain at that time. And
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: do you wish that you kind of put yourself in
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: his mentality back then as a child, because even with
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: the name of the book, it says basketball in North Philly,
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: my mother.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: But you know, I think I think even the one
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: like family members that are that are closest to you, yes,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I thought, I, yes, I should have had a much
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: more mature outlook on that relationship now that you can
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: reflect on it now that you can see because I
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: held that and I you know, if you can hear that,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I still hold that instance. But when you when you're
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: coaching right and you come up, you know, with you
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: come into a situation where you hurt a player like
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: you heard that player that was like probably twelve years ago.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I heard that player, like, it drives me to not
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: hurt other players, right, And I wasn't mature enough or
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: savvy enough to handle that at twelve or thirteen. So
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I do think it's helped me be a better coach.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: It helps me be a better person to really like again,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't talk about things I held that for my
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: father probably didn't, probably doesn't. He's been he's been dead
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and gone since two thousand and one. Like I don't
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: even think he really knew how much that hurt me.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: But also use that to navigate the nose, Like I
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: handle nose a lot better because of that. Because of that,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: it wasn't like my mom. I was the baby girl,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the baby girl, so the baby girl holds a special place,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and you know with your mother. My father was a
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: tremendously like not high education like he didn't he but
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: he was worldly like he knew he was a carpenter,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: he was a mechanic, he knew everything worldly from when
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I was younger until adulthood. And he really had a
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: stronger relationship with my other siblings because they were older
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: too that they could have a conversation with him about anything.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: And I still used to sit back, even as an adult,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: sit back and kind of listen to them have these
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: conversations about prime ministers and presidency and politics. Like I
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: wish he was alive today to hear his perspective on
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: what what's happening in our world today, because he was
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: super up with everything.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I love to respect the power of habit chapter. And
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: in that chapter, you speak extremely highly of South Carolina's
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: own Malaysia for a while, and you even refer to
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: her as a younger, savvier version of you. You say,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: and this is a quote I heard from so many
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: adults who gave their own parents hell, only to see
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: their teenagers return to favor. Now it's my turn in
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: the battle. So when I see you had when I
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: read that, and I was like, she had so much
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: from Malaysia. What was your initial reaction when she decided
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: to enter the portal? And was surprising you?
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: So surprising? No, I think, you know, being in this space,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: you you you, you become you know, to expect the unexpected, right.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: I still have much love for Mylisia, like much love,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Like I want her happy. She came in, said she
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and a mom came in. She said, I think I'm
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: going to get into the transfer portals. I'm like, okay,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: well you think or you know, And she said I know,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: And I said, well, I said, I only want you happy,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: like I really do. Only want our players happy, whether
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: that's that's with us or somewhere else. Just be happy.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I told her, don't look back. I know it's probably
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: gonna be hard to not look back to see you know,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: you leaving your hometown and all that. I said, don't
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: look back, like you know you made this decision. Just
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: go forward with it and don't look back. Uh, You're
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: always gonna be a game cock. You're always gonna be
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: welcomed here. I wish her the best. And when I
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: say that, people probably think, oh, but I do, like
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I really do, like, cause I am. What's for us
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: is for us. What's not it was not Let's keep moving.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I don't stay in I don't stay in despair. I
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: don't stay in those spaces for very long. I'm like, Okay,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: we got we gotta get we gotta get recruiting. We
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: gotta get back into this portal to see who we
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: can get, you know, to to help us. I think
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: she's gonna have a promising career. I do think she's
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: a generational talent that will never leave.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: She does things on the basketball court that I've never
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: seen a woman do, and she's she'll continue to do
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: that and will continue to be happy for her. Except
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the one or two times that we have to play
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: them like it's on, like it's this, She's gonna be
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: super competitive against us. We're gonna we're gonna want to win,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a pride thing that comes with
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: just being, you know, a competitor. And we got much
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: love for her in the family.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: What do you feel like the transfer portal era forces
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: coaches to evolve faster when it comes to like player relationship.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well for me, I need that, like I need
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: to have a relationship with you. I need I need that,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: like I'm not good and you know, one off, so
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not good at at you know, transactional relationships, like
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not good. You know, I don't want to turn
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: my heart off, you know, like my heart is the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: is the thing that leads me and I need that
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: type of connection and I'm never gonna I'm never gonna
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: go there with the transfer portal transactional mindset, it's it's
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: helped and it's hurt. Like I do think that I
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: do think that something needs to happen regarding how many
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: times you can transfer, like how many? Like how many
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: is how many? Like one I think is great, Like
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: you pick the wrong school, you find the right school transfer. Now,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I think when you're able to transfer two three, you
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: can be at four different schools in four years. And
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: does it create more opportunity for them to be wealthier? Yes,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: it does. And I think us women are trying to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: get all of that back because I think our game
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: has been held down for so long that now that
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: this space is open to us and we're thriving in it.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: We're thriving in the name, image and likeness space. We're thriving.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: But I don't want people to lose sight of what
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: team is. Like. My whole life is built around team.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: My personal life. I got a team of people, team
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: of friends that come, hell of how water, We're gonna
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: stick together. Whether we agree or disagree, we're gonna do
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: it agreeably. And I just I want that for our game.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want I don't want our game to lose
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: that part of it because it's the very thing that's
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: been attracting and magnetic to the fans.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Now this this has nothing to do with the boat,
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: but I wanted to ask this. Were talking about players.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: You know, the w NBA has has taken a huge
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: jump in the last couple of years, and I love it.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: My daughters love it, my sons love it. What do
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: you think what's going on in the WNBA with it?
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: It seems like they're pitting, you know, Caitlin Clark against
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: Angel Reese, right, kind of what they did in the
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: NBA back in the day. But it was more teams, right,
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: I guess not maybe not teams. It was Magic Bird.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: This one is that one, But this one, it just
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: seems like it seems very personable. So what are your thoughts,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: like even the other day with that foul and they
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: called it a flagrant foul. I don't necessarily agree, but
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: what are your thoughts on it?
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: You don't think it was a flagrant foul.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: I think it was just a foul from what I've
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: seen me playing basketball and me watching basketball. I think
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: if it would have been anybody else, it might have
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: just been a foul. I don't don't know if it's
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: a flairre So just asking your thought.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the officiating has a has a hard job.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: That's one the decipher whether or not that's a flavored
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: one or not. Hard job, hard job, And I do
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: think they understand the dynamics of Angel and Caitlin. I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: do I think it's great for our game because it's like, yeah,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: like it's a sport. Treat us like a sport. Don't
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: treat us anything other than being a sport. It happens
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: in every sport, Soccer, basketball, football, it happens in every sport.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So let it be. I'm gonna I'm gonna take the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: lead of Angel and Caitlin, and that lead is they
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: said it was a it was a file. The officials
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: got it right. We're moving on. That's what I'm saying. I'
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: gonna take their lead. Okay, I think it's I think
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: it's it. It pulls people in, people in. I do
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: think there are new fans that haven't watched our game
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and they really don't know, so they only they're only
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: singlely focused on Kate one, right, right, So when you're
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: that and that's that's that's that's their idol, that's who
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: attracts them. But I just hope that they'll open their
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: eyes to the rest of the talent that that is there.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Like the product. The product is incredible, like and it's
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: in high demand. We played Caitlyn in the National Championship
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: last year, right twenty twenty million A topped off at
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: whatever it topped off at the most right. I know,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: I know they saw us like I know they saw us.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: I know they saw us have an undefeated season. I
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: know they saw Camilla Cardozo. I know they saw Ashland Waxase.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I know they saw Tessa Johnson have an incredible care
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: career or day. I know they saw my Lasier do
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: some incredible things like so, so open your eyes up
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: to seeing you know, out outside of Caitlin, well not
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: even outside included because she's a part of a part
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: of it all. So you know, I'm looking forward to
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: the next time they play too, I'm gonna be glueden
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: just like everybody else.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, the wrong call in that scenario, Waston getting called
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: for a text.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Exactly she didn't even know until after the game. But
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: do you feel like she tight with her Money's like
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: she she wants somebody to pay her fine.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: You feel like they let the players play because I
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: know it's not just w n b A but NBA too.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: It just seems like they're taking too much control and
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: not letting the players play.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Again. Officiating hard hard because you want them to just play,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: But you also know that they can escalate and and
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: we know when things escalate, whether it's basketball, whether it's policing.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: We know when they escalate. We gotta we got to
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: learn how to de escalate and then allowed the players
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: to do what they do. The game, The game itself
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: is going to lend itself to whatever, whether it's really physical,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: whether it's you know, free flowing, it's gonna it's gonna
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: lend itself to whatever it is. I just think that
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: officiating is a tough, tough job, not even not even that,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Like coaches are like on your on your butt all
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: the time, like I'm include in me, like like it's
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's they get I mean they get paid
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: a whole lot of money too to take that. But
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: they're they're the they're the best in our game. Like
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: they're the best. If there were better people to officiate
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the games, they would already be in the game.
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: Last question about that's the replay feature.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Like it?
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: I hate it?
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I like it. I like it because officials make mistakes, right,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, it allows you, it allows them to be
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: directed because because they're they're wrong. Like I would say this,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: we we have officiating conversations every year when we go
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: to our spring meetings. Then it's it's if they have
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: a like a ninety correct call rate.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: That's excellent, that's amazing.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Well what about the ten percent? Does the games really exactly?
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: What about the ten percent? Like what what's done to
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: them for being for calling something incorrectly ten percent of
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the time? That has implications up for US N Cuba seating, right,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: like for you know, for the NBA. You know, like
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: like every game matters, right, So, I mean, you're they're
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: never going to get that part right. But it's part
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: of the game. Is it's part of the dynamics of
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: the game. That again is conversation, and it's we should
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: have conversation. Like I don't think the officials want us
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to have conversation about this, but you're a part of it.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: You know, you don't get you know, if I'm gonna
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: get criticized for losing, you should get criticized, but not
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: making a correct call.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I got a few more questions. I want to go
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: back to that that that chapter respect the power of
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: habits right, because when you talk about Malaysia, it is
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: with such reference. How do you balance disappointment as a coach,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: which support for somebody like her who just wanted to
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: make a decision for usself.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Like like if if a young person is going to
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: speak on what what what they deem is good for them? Uh,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: that's that's half the battle. Like half the battle is
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: to be able to speak up. And you know how
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: hard it was for her to do that, like really hard,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: really hard. So I understand that dynamics of her decision making.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: And then it's like, okay, well what do you do
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: with it? Like if she was my player and you know,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: there was there was a chance for her to want
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: to come back, or if she decided that this is
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: that that's not what she wanted to do. I was
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: going to talk to her about why why did it?
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Why did it come to that? What makes you think
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: this isn't a place for you?
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: What?
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: And for whatever she said, we would we would go
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: from there. I thought Malaysia, Malaysia was was getting better,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Like I really I saw a whole lot of growth
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: on and off the court to where like unless she
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: was gonna get the best of her now, like we
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: went through the you know, we went through the hard
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: part of just kind of smoothing some rough edges and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: getting her to create good habits, Like like I do
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: think habits are the thing that that allows you to elevate, right,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: I do you know? So? I think I think what
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: we've given her and what she's given us will will
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: allow her to to have much better days, much more
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: consistent days than she had with us.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: At her next stop, did she know you felt that
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: way about her? She's gonna read the book and be like, damn,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: And I want to clarify the book was written already
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: before she made a decision. The book was written, you know,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: months ago. I'm sure I share my feelings like I don't.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: I don't have I don't. I don't hide anything. I
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: wear my heart on my shoulder. I do think my
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Lasier really knows how I felt about her. I know
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: her mother knows. I know, you know, regardless of why
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: she came to that conclusion of of wanting to leave,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: I know she she knows she felt our love. Now,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you know, the playing time, the whatever, the you know,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: for us, maybe taking her out of the game when
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: she felt like she wanted to just kind of keep
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: playing through some things. Now she probably questions that part
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: of it, And I'm okay with that. A lot of
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of players leave because here playing time, a
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: lot of people leave. It's not for it's not for
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: all the other stuff, because we treat them like royalty,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: like royalty, like we're probably enablers when it comes to
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: the treatment that we give our players.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: So I'm sure she would have started this year her junior.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Right, I mean who else was gonna hold her down? Like? So, yeah,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't. I don't think it was. I
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: don't think it came down to starting, I really don't.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I think it came down to her wanting to play
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: free and do you know what what she wanted to
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: do in and who's to say she wouldn't have been
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: able to do that, you know, in her her junior year.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: So what's the relationship with coaches? If coach Kim Lsu
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: calls you and ask for some tips on how to
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: coach relaysia for a while, you give.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Any on your own? Wrong? Yeah, like it ain't. I
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: ain't gonna help you help her beat us? Nah. The
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: thing about your book like that, your stories and your experiences, baby,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: this basketball texture? What was that conversation like that? What
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: was it? Because I know this you wanted to do this,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: But did they say did they give you push? Back
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: on it, like no, we're not able to we don't
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: know or just see just you see a woman sees
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: all that that that is that's a strategic part of Yeah.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: They we got the cover back right, and it was
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: just a smooth surface like that, like the front of it.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: I'm like, this would be cool if it could feel
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: like a basketball, like I mean the color, like like
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: this would be really cool.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: This was really late in the process, like really late.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: They were like, oh, I don't we don't think. We
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: don't think we could do that. And when and I
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: didn't know they were working on I didn't I didn't
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: know that they were actually got it done until I
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: got my first copy and I was like whoat, Oh wow, yes, yes,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: like I didn't want that, liket, this is so created.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, congratulations on your statue in Columbia, South Carolina. You
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: and Asia Wilson got statues in Columbia. What would it
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: take for a player to get a statue at the
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: University of South Carolina? Because I know they coming they
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: be like, damn, Asia got one, what can I do
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: to get that?
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I mean Boston Ali Boston had a incredible career, Like
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: she did some things that Asia didn't do like she
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: she really did did some things that Asia didn't do.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: I think when it when it comes in her impact,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: like I think Asia the total person of proximity to
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: South Carolina really helped her calls, you know. But Alia
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: from a basketball perspective, from a community like she is
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: all about community and what she stands for. Like she's
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: a young lady. That's really I mean if she was
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: from South Carolina, there will already be a statue like
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: already and you know the trajectory of her career, her
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: impact that she'll have in the w n B A
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: I do think she's an Olympian. I I I'll start
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: the campaign of getting Aliyah. I mean Asia's and my
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: statue are like two blocks from each other. You know,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: why not go two more blocks and you can hear
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: all the statues for Aaliyah, all the statues in in
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: one pot.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: But'll win more championships.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: So we we we? Yeah? I willing yes.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: Final question, Charlotte Sting, why can't we bring them back
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: to the Carolina.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get I get this question, and I get
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: this question about Philly too, because Philly, Philly wants to
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: wants a w NBA team. I do think the Hornets
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: and the Sixers got to do better. They gotta do better.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: They gotta do better, you know, Like it's I think
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: it's great when when the NBA team is doing great,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: it helps with the whole conroderie. But I do think
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: I will say this, Sorry Philly, Sorry Philly, but I
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: do think Charlotte's more ready for w NBA team just
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: from a fan perspective, like we draw like we are.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: We we draw were the highest attended games in the
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: country at South Carolina like for the for the past
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: ten years. Like no one's outdrawing us over the past
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: ten years. So I do think I do think we're
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: ready from that perspective. But it's it's more than fan support,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a business. It's resources. Who's going to
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: pour in to the team. If the team doesn't do
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: well in the first year or two, which is highly likely,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: will there be enough you know, resources pour poured into
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a team.
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: We can put together the right investment group.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: I think so too. I'm down because people want me
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: to coach in the w I don't. I don't want
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: to coach in I want to own. I want I
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: want ownership there.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: You have it. I would invest. I got a little dollars.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: I got a couple of dollars. Well, thank you, Don.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: New book Uncommon Favor of Basketball in North Philly, my
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: mother in the life Lessons I learned from all three
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: is available everywhere you buy books. Now go get it.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: You are guaranteed to learn something. You are a living Don.
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: We appreciate your presence on this earth. We thank God
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: And listen. I want everybody to remember that today Don
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: Staley will be at the Barnes and Noble Fifth Avenue
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: in New York City. If you're in New York City,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: you can go see Don Staley at Barns and Noble
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: one pm today, five five five Fifth Avenue in New York.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Go get a copy of Uncommon Favor, signed Don. Thank
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: you again. It's the Breakfast Club.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club