My daughter, BreAzia, turned 10 this spring. This birthday was a major milestone, not just for her, for me as well. Having a daughter with a double-digit age, made me take stock of the time that’s passed. I realized that I had been a mother and a professional basketball player for a decade. I’ve had the good fortune to play in the WNBA in the Summer for 10 seasons and overseas in 5 different countries for 9. So I’ve played 19 professional seasons of basketball.

I remember back when I was still at Stanford my senior year, and I had just participated in the NCAA tournament and made history. Incidentally, it’s not the type of history you’d want to make.  We were hosting that round of the playoffs so it was a home game to start my last NCAA tournament. In the past three tournament appearances we made it to the Final Four. This year was our season to win it all. We were the #1 seed and Harvard was the #16. We lost to them. Did you hear me? We made history losing to Harvard. The first time in NCAA history that a #1 seed lost to a 16. But maybe I should back-up a second here, I should’ve prefaced my story with an important fact that made this piece of history possible.

The week before the NCAA Tournament, 2 seniors, ballers, X-factors, tore their ACLs. Kristin Folkl and Vanessa Nygaard were a key ingredient in our success my four years at Stanford. Our strength was in our numbers at the post, and our guards were very young so losing these two made our job feel nearly impossible. Whether this impossibility was real or not, didn’t matter. The fact that they were done for the season, at the very moment we were supposed to start our journey to win it all, made it FEEL impossible. There was a dark sad cloud over the team. Even coach was under it’s shadow. We were dejected and although we fought to shake lose of it, before and during the game, the reality was that we were in pain for our fallen teammates and their absence.

That loss however, was an ending, but it was also the beginning. I received a very early lesson in the notion that ‘when one door closes, another one opens’. So the door had hastily slammed shut on my college basketball career, but it was opening to the WNBA. A bright future where female basketball players could finally play professionally in the United States and have somewhat of a platform. It was 1998 so Women’s basketball had 2 professional leagues, the American Basketball League (ABL) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). I chose an agent and I signed with the WNBA. I was drafted 11th to the now defunct, Utah Starzz that spring, and thus began my professional basketball playing career.

I had an average rookie year. I played well but the team wasn’t that good. I went on to play for 6 teams, or 7 if you count my short stint with the LA Sparks. I played for the Detroit Shock, Indiana Fever, Charlotte Sting, Sacramento Monarchs, Indiana Fever again, and the Phoenix Mercury. During that time, a decade, much has happened.

Immediately following my rookie year I got married to my college sweetheart and had my daughter, BreAzia the following spring. Such a beautiful blessing, she lit up my life. The only catch was that I gained 65 pounds during the pregnancy. I had her April 7th and training camp started May 5th. I started training camp May 5th, 55 pounds overweight. If you can imagine putting on a 55 pound back back full of ass and breasts, then you can imagine how I felt running around with young, fit, athletic, competitive players while in my condition.

I had 2 three-hour practices a day and BreAzia had her days and nights mixed up, so  she did anything but sleep while I was trying to. People would see this sweet little bundle of joy quietly sleeping and think, oh she’s such a good baby. And she was, unfortunately, her schedule didn’t agree with mine, but any parent knows, she won that battle. Couple the lack of sleep with the extra weight and running workout I did in between the 2 practices everyday, and I should have been exhausted. I guess I can chalk it up to youthful exuberance that I was able to lose 55 pounds in three months instead of losing my mind. I loved every minute of it though. I thought I was just doing my duty as a new mother and a player. This is the path I chose, so I had to travel it. I was moving along with pride because I was getting the opportunity to pursue my dream career and motherhood at the same time.

Over the years, I’ve continued to experience motherhood traveling to and living in different countries. My daughter has had the wonderful opportunity of attending international schools in these various cities and learning their language and culture along the way. You can read more about our travels in this earlier post Been Around the World. I also won two WNBA Championships. One with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005 and again with the Phoenix Mercury in 2007. I was the first woman in WNBA history to win 2 championships with 2 different teams. 

Now I look over at BreAzia and I see a young adolescent, soon to be pre-teen, then teenager and then an adult. OK, so time isn’t flying that quickly, but it is to me. This first 10 years flew by, but at the same time I can recall every year, city, and milestone in her life. And as she is old enough to show her own athletic prowess, I can’t help but think of what type of impact her traveling and watching me play professionally has done to her own motivation to play. She’s fast and likes to hoop already. I’m glad she seems to be following in my foot steps, but I’m not forcing basketball on her at all. If she wants to pursue it seriously she can, but I intend to foster her academic, creative or artistic sides as well as her athleticism.

Who knows how much longer I’ll play, but I do know that it’s truly been a blessing having BreAzia with me almost every step of the way. I’ve chosen to take a break this season. I felt like I needed to let some of my injuries heal, and also take a little time to truly launch some of my off-court endeavors. I’m really excited of what lies before me in my afterlife-that’s after basketball life. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m retiring, I still have some game left in me, I felt it necessary to prepare myself for the next phase of my life that is bound to come at some point here, because there’s definitely a ceiling on playing professional sports.

I will continue to blog about my career(s), however, and I hope you’re willing to stay along for the ride. We all have a path or a mission, and I enjoy crossing paths with others as we are challenged to fulfill our destinies. Until next time.

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