March Sadness

As I sit here on March 30, 2020, I realize that next week would have been NCAAs Final Four and Championship Games. By this time, great teams would have been eliminated from the tournament and our weeks would have been filled with shocks, drama, and game time heroes. As a diehard sports fan, specifically basketball, I never would have thought that the NCAA tournament would have been cancelled. But, lets think about the Seniors whose final year seemingly was robbed. March Madness is often the culmination of their four-year college experience and even a culmination of their entire basketball career. A few of these players will be drafted into the NBA, maybe they will play in Europe or Asia, but for the vast majority this was their moment to shine in front of a massive audience. So, while people lament the loss of not having basketball, remember the NCAA players who were ready to lace up their sneakers in hopes of making it to the finals.

Although you may want to cry over the lack of any sports being played currently, let’s talk about some basketball highlights from the year:

1. Dawn Staley and South Carolina are No. 1 in the final Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time in school history.

2. Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu is Associated Press women’s player of the year. Ionescu was a unanimous choice, receiving all 30 votes. Since the award was first given in 1995, the only other player to receive all the votes is former UConn star Breanna Stewart.

3. Although I would've probably picked Gonzaga to win the 2020 NCAA Tournament, Kansas is No. 1 in the Top 25 for this year with a 28-3 record.

Just remember, it's unfortunate for these players to have their season stripped from them, but there's bigger things going on that put it in perspective.

Current players (high school), who are wanting to go to the next level, take this time to get better. No, you cannot physically go to a court, play against another player, or actively be recruited by NCAA schools, but you can still get better.

1. Review film from a previous game or current athletes you want to emulate.

2. Put together a highlight tape.

3. Work on your ball handling.

4. Keep up your endurance.

There are no excuses and not a time to get discouraged. Many local coaches are putting together at home workout drills. Make sure you follow them on social media.

I leave you with Sabrina Ionescu’s recent twitter post…

24

"I can't relate to lazy people. We don't speak the same language. I don't understand you. I don't want to understand you." - Kobe Bryant

24…

24…

24…

It’s something about the number 24. There is no coincidence that Kobe Bryant’s number was 24. Kobe Bryant played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 20 years, but changed his jersey number half way through his career – number 8 to number 24. During the 2006-2007 season Kobe debuted the number 24. I remember when Kobe wore number 24 for the first time. Of course, people were upset because they had to buy another stitched authentic jersey with Kobe’s new number. Back then, you wouldn’t be caught in just a t-shirt or ironed on jersey number. Sorry, let me bring it back to 2020. Kobe stated that the number 24 signified growth and maturity. But when I think of the number 24, I think of 24 hours in a day. You have 24 hours in a day to make yourself that much more better.

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. – William Penn

You have 24 hours in a day. Your success, progress, and overall development as a person depends on how you utilize your 24 hours. I always say, we have the same 24 hours as Beyonce. Now you may say Beyonce has a team to help her throughout the day. But she still used those same 24 hours to gather her team together in order to gain stardom. Clearly Beyonce is my favorite entertainer. I’m surprised I haven’t used more Beyonce references in my blog, but I digress.

Do you ever think about how you utilize your 24 hours? For most of us, we work a 9-5 (or sometimes a 9-7 or 7-6, we know how that goes). But outside of your job, are you tracking towards your goals? It doesn’t matter if you want to become the best singer, dancer, or mom, you have 24 hour a day to track towards that success.

My trainer, Genetino Coplin, always says, “A fresh 24”. What are you going to do what your time? Are you going to spend it in the gym for 1 hr? 4% of your day? We usually find ourselves saying, “I do not have enough time for ____ because ____.” Fill in the first blank with something on your goal or bucket list, such as “work out more,” or “travel.” Fill in the second blank with your favorite excuse, such as “I have kids,” “I work 10-hour days,” “I volunteer every day after work,” or “I don’t know how.” As human beings, we are good at coming up with excuses to not do something. So, I think do we not have time or are our priorities not straight?

I challenge everyone to take a good look at how you're spending your time. Now I get we loved to hang out with friends, find a good happy hour, binge watch a show on Netflix. A balance is definitely needed. But look at your bad habits that is taking up time. An eye opener for me was my high utilization of screen time. Thank you Apple for sending those weekly reminders. But in all seriousness, it made me think about how much time I was spending on the phone between social media, texting, or watching shows/movies. I now am conscious about that and I spend my time reading. I’m trying to tackle a book a month.

If you claim that health and exercise is important to you, but you don’t spend much time being active, your priorities are not aligned with your health goals. If you have dreams of starting your own business, but you don’t spend much time learning about your craft or creating a product, your priorities are not aligned with your career goals. Remember our true priorities dictate our time. I challenge my readers to jot down your top 3 priorities. Are they aligned with your goals and actions? Figure out what motivates you. Come up with some ways to align your lifestyle with your priorities. Then, most importantly, do what you say you are going to do!

It is just that simple. Like Nike says, ‘Just Do it’.

Although Kobe and Gigi died in a terrible accident, Kobe made basketball and his family a priority. He wanted to maximize his time with his family by being time efficient and taking Mamba, his personal helicopter, wherever he needed in order to avoid LA traffic. He put everything into the game of basketball. He spent countless hours in the gym when no one was looking.

What are you doing with your 24 hrs? The same 24 hours that Kobe had.

Equity

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.”

Nneka Ogwumike, President of the Women's National Players Association (WNBPA) and Los Angeles Sparks Forward

It is no secret that there is a gender pay gap within the United States. The gender pay gap is the result of many factors, including occupational segregation, bias against working mothers, and direct pay discrimination. Additionally, such things as racial bias, disability, access to education, and age come into play. Consequently, different groups of women experience very different gaps in pay. Nonetheless, overall, women make only $0.79 for every dollar men make in 2019. But let’s take a look at the gender pay gap within sports, particularly basketball.

According to Forbes, in the 2018 WNBA season, the top salary was $117,500 compared to $37.4 million in the NBA. Now, you can say this is due to multiple reasons including billions of dollars spent on television deals. The WNBA recently entered into a multi-year partnership with CBS Sports Network to air 40 games during the 2019 season, and the new pact is in addition to the league’s existing deal with ESPN. More TV exposure for the players will lead to more visibility, and more visibility could lead to major deals with endorsers in the future. Perhaps the WNBA can get a signature shoe with Nike? Nike hasn’t made a signature shoe for a WNBA player in 20 years, the Air Swoopes. Maybe it’s time? There are thousands of little girls who look up to these players and would purchase the merchandise.

When the WNBA players' union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement in November of 2018, Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the union, wrote for the The Players' Tribune:

“This is not purely about salaries. This is about small changes the league can make that will impact the players. This is about a six-foot-nine superstar taking a red-eye cross-country and having to sit in an economy seat instead of an exit row.”

The pay disparities in basketball come down almost entirely to the revenue their leagues generate. In order to make a living playing basketball, most WNBA players compete overseas during the offseason to supplement their WNBA income. WNBA players like A’ja Wilson, Brittney Griner, Liz Cambage, and Skylar Diggins-Smith are not necessarily asking for multimillion dollar contracts, but they are asking for equity. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, NBA players are payed between 49%-51% percent of the league’s revenue and WNBA players take home a maximum of 22.8%.

“As athletes, we have to fight. As women, we have to fight,” Diggins-Smith told Bleacher Report. “And we need more people at our table to fight with us. There needs to be more women and more people of color hired so we can curate our own sports stories. And we need men speaking out about these things.”

On August 3, 2018, the Las Vegas Aces had to forfeit a game after a series of canceled flights left them stranded on the road for more than 25 hours and got them to Washington, D.C., just a few hours before their scheduled tipoff against the Mystics. (Like all WNBA teams, the Aces fly commercial.) Despite the fact that this contest had an impact on the Aces’ playoff chances—the forfeit dropped them two and a half games out of the last playoff spot—all the league did was offer to move the game back an hour and briefly give the team permission to search for a charter flight (though none were available on such short notice).

In my last post I wrote about several women breaking into the NBA and becoming assistant coaches. In the Fall of 2018, Kristi Toliver, 10-year WNBA player, was hired as an assistant coach by the Washington Wizards. When she was hired she was still playing in the WNBA. While she was coaching, she was paid $10,000 a year due to a stipulation in the collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and its players' union. From the league’s point of view, it is a matter of ensuring competitive balance under the salary cap, which is slightly less than $1 million per team for the season. Because Toliver would be coaching for a team that falls under the same corporate umbrella as the Mystics — Ted Leonsis owns both franchises — her coaching salary must come out of a $50,000 pool allotted to each WNBA team to pay players for offseason work. Because $40,000 had already been promised to three other Mystics players, Toliver accepted what was left.

It is time for women to get what is deserved. And it is time for the NBA to join forces with our women and the WNBA to speak up and speak loud!