LOCKED IN Ft. Zia Cooke ｜ The Comment Section Ep. 133
Summary
In this episode of the Comment Section Show, we have the WNBA's newest member of the Los Angeles Sparks, Arike Okechi, join us to talk about her life growing up in South Carolina, how she got her start in basketball, and how she became one of the most in-demand players in the league.
Transcript
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I think it's really fun when you see celebrities that you never would have thought are like
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really into the WNBA. Yeah, and Michael B. Jordan, too. He was supposed to come to a game,
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but he has not come yet, so if you see this, hurry. He's trying to get wiped up.
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He's trying to get wiped up by one of the sparks. He hasn't like came yet. I don't know what's
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taking him so long. What are you so afraid of, Michael B. Jordan? Come on.
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Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comment Section Show starring
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me, your fave. Everybody knows me. Who cares about me? On to the guest. Today, we have the
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iconic, the legendary, the athletic, Ziya Cooke. Woo! Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming
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to the show. My second female athlete, second athlete overall on the show, but only women,
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only female athletes. That's who I have. That's super dope. Period. Very exciting. Thank you for
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coming. I'm honored to have you, and I have a very, very, very, I would say, passionate drive
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to platform female athletes and make them more famous than male athletes. Yes. I'm glad you could
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join me on this journey. Of course. But I'd like to know a little bit more about your journey
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before, obviously, now you're on the Sparks, correct? But you went to South Carolina. Game
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cock. Yes. I've only done one college, like, anything, like, talk or whatever, and it was at
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USC. Really? Yeah. Okay. I went to South Carolina. You got a tiny little school. Yeah,
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that's, yep. And someone brought me a shirt that says, Go Gamecocks. Yep. Yeah, I wore
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it. Of course I did. Of course. You have to. Yeah. So I'd love to know how you started playing
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basketball, how you got into it, and, like, journey up to college. Yes. So I've been playing
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basketball since I was six years old, and I really got into it from my brother, Stratman.
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He played every sport you can think of, and my dad had him waking up early mornings, going
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to run the park, doing push-ups, all type of stuff, and I would just watch him, and I'm
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like, I want to try it. Yeah. I just always wanted to try it, because I could tell, like,
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how happy it made my dad to see my brother doing what he was doing. Oh, that's cute.
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And I remember, it's a funny story. I used to go to church every Sunday. My mom would
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go to church every Sunday. I'll have my Sunday dress on, and my brother was outside playing
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with his friends. When I got back home, I'm like, I went out there, and I just shot the
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ball. And my brother was like, Hold on. Like, do that again. And then I end up doing it
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again, and it was like, ever since then, I fell in love with the game of basketball just
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from being able to see my brother do it, and then just finally trying to pick up a ball
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and see what I can do with it. So yeah, at six years old, that's when I started. That's
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when you made the shot, when you were six? I was probably like six or seven. Damn, that's
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crazy. Still, either way. Yeah, I was super young. I'd be afraid of you. I'd be like, okay,
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baby genius. No, it's crazy, because a lot of the boys, like, they would look at me like,
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yeah, she can't play basketball, and then I'd get out there, and I'd just do them bad.
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Oh, man. It just used to be so funny. You're just hustling people. Always.
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Oh, I'm such a girl. You want to play against me? Right. Oh, I love that. That makes me,
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that really activates my prey drive, thinking about men getting shown up like that.
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Ooh, love it. All the time, and not only that, but I played football, too.
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Okay, period. What'd you play football? Tackle football. I was quarterback, wide receiver,
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running back. I literally played it all. My jersey got retired, and everything.
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Hugging the rafters. Yeah, it was just something. Slight work. Yeah. No big deal.
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But, yeah, so I got my first college offer in the seventh grade by Eastern Michigan, and
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I was playing football still at the time. EMU, that's the green and white team. Yeah, I know.
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For some reason, I thought football was going to be like my, what I was going to do until
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I got older, and I started developing as a woman a little bit, and my dad's like, you're
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getting offers in basketball. You're not in football. So which one do you want to do?
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Let's lock in, all right? Yeah. Let's focus up. Yeah, so I locked in, and from the seventh
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grade on, I took basketball 100% serious. I gave my all to it, and I received about 55
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college offers around there. Wow. Had to get it down to a top five, and South Carolina was
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in my top five, and got it to a top three, and then made my decision. Did you do, like,
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the commitment day where you, like, put on the hat? Yeah, I did. Oh, period. I love those videos.
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Yeah. I never did one of those, but I love those videos when they're like, uh, it's a
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big surprise to everyone. Yeah. Was your, are you from, where are you from? I'm from
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Toledo, Ohio, originally. Oh, okay. So was your family sad that you were leaving, going
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away, or they were excited to come watch you play? Well, they tricked me, first of all,
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because I'm a, I'm a daddy's girl and a mommy's girl, so I wanted my family. I was going to sound
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really close to your family. I am very close. My decision didn't matter to me because I thought
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that they were going to come wherever I decided to go. Oh, really? And they tricked me. They just
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did that so that I would actually go where I wanted to go. Where you wanted to go. Instead
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of, like, actually. Locally. Yeah, so. Oh, that's really sweet. They didn't move with me, so I was
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probably more sad than they were, because they planted all along. They were telling you, yeah,
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we'll move, yeah. Yeah, we'll go wherever you go. Whole time, never came. That's honestly really smart
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to, like, just lie to you and tell you, I'll meet you there. Yep. I'm looking at houses now. Never did. He didn't go with you. Crazy.
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But they were always there, though, so it was, like, it felt like they lived there, honestly. Yeah,
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I'm sure. And then being a college athlete, that's, like, your whole life is just playing
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your sport. So how was it playing in college? Like, did you notice a difference in, like,
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you know, intensity or anything like that? I think for sure. The pace was something that was a lot
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different, and the pace from college to the W is different. I think that's the number one thing
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that changes when you're elevating and when you're playing basketball. But also, like,
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the mental part of the game, it didn't really click for me until I got to college. Like,
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understanding you got to be mentally strong. Like, I didn't even get that until I got to college,
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and I was feeling myself have different emotions. Things weren't going my way, and it was the first
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time that it's ever happened to me. So it was something that I just had to deal with.
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Interesting. Yeah, and I think, too, like, even the mental part probably plays a huge role when you
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go from college to the W, too. For sure. Because then you're adding in all of this, like,
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visibility, too, now. Especially if you do really well in college, which I know you did. But it's,
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like, when you garner all this attention, that was going to be my next question, is, like,
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how has social media played a factor in, you know, especially now that the WNBA is having such a,
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like, renaissance right now. Like, everyone loves women's basketball now, which is great.
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Took them a while, but it's great. We're here. Took the scenic route, but everybody arrived at the
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same destination. Love that. Yeah. So how has that been? Like, now that you're at the Sparks now,
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you kind of went to the next level. Like, as the exposure changed the experience,
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is it completely different now that you kind of have to be two different people? Like,
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you have to be, like, a social person, a social media person, but then also an athlete?
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Yeah, I think, well, I'll say that college kind of gave me a head start for that because of NIL.
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Yeah, that's true. My first year, I think the first year NIL started was my junior year.
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So I got two years at understanding the business of things and being able to make money and
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understanding that my brand is super important. Yeah. So I got a, I got a good, good, a very good
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head start with NIL. And that's what kind of helped me when I got to the W was just like,
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just the same for me, really. Yeah. Just understanding that I have to be a businesswoman,
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understanding my finances and how to take care of my money, understanding what to say yes to,
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what to say no to. Yeah. So I was happy that I was able to experience NIL before I got to the W.
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Yeah. That's how, oh, that's such a good point. And it's, and it gave you a lot of, first of all,
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it gives you what you're due, which is like money for your compensation, compensation for your time
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and being an athlete. Um, but then also, yeah, that's so true. It gives you a lot more perspective
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on when you like transition into a full-time athlete and not just like a student athlete.
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Um, how has the attention on women's basketball been like, obviously you've been playing basketball
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your whole life, so you've known how fucking awesome women's basketball is, but now this,
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it's really brought in this new wave of fans this past year. So what's that been like now that you've
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been playing it for so long. So you're probably, it's probably, I'm sure strange to see other people
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kind of just discover. It's super dope to see, I think. Yeah. And I'll say like, I was, it's,
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it's kind of weird because I feel like I kind of grew up in the era where social media was just
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becoming a thing. Like we started having overtime, ball is life, she hoops, like it was just all these
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different types of platforms that players were starting to get recognized on. And that was like,
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highlighting them. That didn't really happen to like the end of my junior year till my senior year.
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And that's how I kind of became who I am because of the things that were captured. Um, then when you
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get to the, to college, we, it was kind of slow until NIL came and then NIL brought it up. And then
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these new waves of girls that just got in the W, um, injuries, uh, Caitlin Clark, they are definitely
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leading the way I think. And, and just showing what women's basketball is, is capable of.
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Yeah. And I bet it's like, I've talked about this with my other friends who are female athletes too.
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It's like, it's very cool. And it's also really annoying because then you have people being like,
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Oh my God, did you guys know that there's a professional women's league in basketball?
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Yeah. Yeah. A lot of us have known for a while. And I think what I think is wonderful about it is
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now women's basketball players are getting just as much attention, like media attention as men's
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basketball players, which has been a thing forever. They they're popular forever. And now we just
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gotta, we gotta keep moving forward, keep pushing up. And I think we're on the rise. Honestly, I've
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been in restaurants, literally anywhere I go, I see women's basketball on the TV or I might see it on
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the screen somewhere. And it's just like, well, sometimes I look at them like, wow, like we're on TV.
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Like every time I go somewhere, I hear about women's basketball and it's just showing that
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we're on the rise. Absolutely. And I'm, I'm curious, like, what has it been like as far as like
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dealing with hate? Cause obviously you deal with like, Oh my gosh, actually, this is the first
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question I want to ask you. How many men have, have challenged you to like one-on-ones? They're
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like, Oh, well, if you just like, if I give me a couple hours, we'll just warm up a little bit.
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And I just like, I'm sure that's happened to you like your whole life. Uh, that's like challenges,
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the challenges. And then that's just kind of how men try to like get on with you. I think
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they're trying to relate, but then they take it a little too serious. Yeah. They take it a little
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too serious and they try to do the whole loving basketball thing. And it's like, yo, like, come
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on, be serious. Like, no, I'm playing for real. Play for real. Don't flirt. Play for real. Like,
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I really want to show you that you can't guard me. Put the flirting aside. Oh my gosh. The ick
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that crawls through my veins just now thinking about men like play flirting. Yeah. Like, Oh my
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shirts versus skins. You and me. I'm curious. I was curious on, on social media. Cause now
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because women's basketball is so forefront in a lot of ways, um, obviously that gives a lot of
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men license to be like, well, it's still not as interesting as like, I've fought men on TikTok
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many times who talk about female athletes. And recently I made one about WNBA players because
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they say the most head ass shit, like the shit they say, which is like, well, I mean, if I was in high
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school, I could have beat, I could beat a WNBA team. And I'm like, okay, but you're 30.
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Yeah. Like you sell insurance. So I doubt it. Right. So I don't believe you, I guess. But
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I'm curious if you have to deal with that, especially getting featured on, um, all of
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those different platforms. Like WSLAM follows me and like, they feature a lot of women's basketball
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players or even when Bleacher Report, like post basketball players, if they ever post female
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athletes, there's always men in there. Always. One thing about me is I'm, I'm good at just
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ignoring people. Like I do really well at that. I don't really, I, I'm understanding that trolling
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is a thing now. Like that's what people like get happy about and that's who they are. So it's just
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like to keep myself sane, I just read it, laugh at it and move on. Yeah. Cause that's all you can do.
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Yeah. Well, and I also think too, whenever men say shit like that, like they're like, well, if I,
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you know, I could beat the best basketball, like there was one guy that got really mad at me when
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I made a video defending WNBA players and when he started the video, he was like, well, first off
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I'm five, four, stop right there. Stop right there, sir. I don't take you seriously. You can't. Yeah.
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I don't, I don't take you seriously. I immediately stopped listening as soon as he said that because
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his whole thing was he beats people at, at the gym all the time. So he could easily, he's like a YMCA
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basketball player. Yeah. Yeah. He's a pickup basketball guy. You know, you're like just loiters
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around the court. Like you guys, you guys try to play? You guys try to play? He has no friends of
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his own. He's just glomming onto other groups sometimes. Can't do it. And I also think when it
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comes to athletes like yourself and men running their fucking mouth, I always think like you're at
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home, like to that man, you're at fucking home watching her on TV. If you really, like, I always
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think if, well, if I didn't get hurt, I just always think what's stopping you now, right?
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Go, go try, go try to make the NBA right now, buddy. See how that works out. He's like, it's
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just opportunity. Okay. We'll go. Like, I'm sure they have trials, right? Literally. And
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I feel like for female athletes, they have to like constantly, they can never, I guess this
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is like a different kind of question, but female athletes, especially also have to keep a certain
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level of decorum about them. So even when people are being really misogynistic in interviews
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or post game pressers, they have to be really nice about dealing with it. Yeah. Which I
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don't agree with. Yeah. Honestly. Men aren't. Like NBA players don't give a fuck. Like they're,
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they're very honest. And I think that's something that's kind of changing as well. Like we're able
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to be who we are, say how we feel. Um, I just got to give props to Angel Reese. Like I feel
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like she's one of the ones that just stood on who she was. And it was just like, it's either
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you can accept it or you're not going to accept it, but I'm a ball and do what I need to do
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regardless. Yeah. So I think that's just like the mindset that some of the WNBA players are
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starting to have. And she's helped people just show who they are and believe in themselves.
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Really? Absolutely. And they do not hold male athletes to that same standard. Yeah. They
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never do. They let them act however they want. And they're like, well, they're just a passionate
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player. Yeah. And then when women do it, they're like, oh, look how fucking unreasonable she
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is. They start judging her as a person and not as an athlete. Exactly. You know what I mean?
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Which I fucking hate. Yeah. I hate that shit. But I'm also, I'm grateful for, I'm grateful that
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everybody's paying attention to it now. Yeah. But I hate that that also comes with it. Yeah. So I'm
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sure you feel the same way too. I do. Especially having played as long as you have, like, again,
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it's like, I feel like athletes like yourself are like, I'm just going to keep playing. Yeah. You can
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keep doing this. Yeah. I'm just going to keep playing. That's, that's literally me. I'm going to keep
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playing, playing the game. But speaking of, we're going to talk about our topic for today,
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which is terrible men on the internet who reject the validity of female professional
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athletes and don't believe they should be treated equally in sports, which we've already talked
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about is fucking really makes me angry. It irritates the hell out of me because men have
00:16:07.440
this very strange blind confidence about, especially about sports. And I was like, the amount of men
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who make it professionally is the same as women, which is very small. Right. And like, they're
00:16:18.740
not in that percentage. And all of a sudden, they're like, well, I could probably beat women.
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Right. You're all fuck 50. Fuck me. What I do. This is crazy. Okay. So in this first video,
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in this video, a man plays a WNBA player 1v1. He doesn't say the name of the player, her team or
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tag her anywhere. So can't verify who it is. But he scores a ton of baskets on her and the clip shown
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and brags that he wasn't even trying that hard. And I was like, okay, so he's just playing a woman
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in basketball and basically bragging and saying she's a WNBA, WNBA player, but won't say who it
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is. So I'm like, is her back just to the camera the whole time? Right. And so the comments on this,
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like this one says, please explain to me how gender equality is even possible. Leave it to women to lie
00:17:06.220
to themselves for every single thing in life. I'm assuming he's saying like women could never play
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against men. Yeah, that's crazy. But the fact that I just don't understand why men like get so
00:17:16.300
excited when they, when they beat women, like, honestly, that's what you're supposed to do.
00:17:22.700
Like, but isn't that like kind of your guys's thing? Yeah. Like that's what y'all say. So
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why are you even talking about? Also, I don't believe you that that woman was a WNBA player.
00:17:35.540
Yeah, me either. I think that was, that's trolling. Like you see how it is?
00:17:38.460
It's a lie. Yeah, it's truly, it's like a fake video. But I also think
00:17:42.740
they, in no reality, like the video that I made was stitching this podcast with these two guys.
00:17:49.040
And they said, do you think that the best high school basketball team, like men's basketball
00:17:54.120
team could be the best WNBA team? That was the fucking prompt. That's so disrespectful.
00:18:00.160
To which, exactly. To which I say, uh, no, I don't think that a high school team could be
00:18:05.060
the WNBA team. I saw something like that. Yeah. I was like, but too, like, what are
00:18:10.780
these fake fucking questions? Like what are we, we're just making up hypotheticals? Like
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that's why I'm like, you, like the men who say that shit, I'm like, you couldn't even
00:18:18.120
make varsity in high school. So what the fuck are we talking about? Like, are you the guy
00:18:21.760
to ask like, who's the best basketball player in the world? I think it's so-and-so. And
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I always say too, that professional men's basketball players don't talk shit on WNBA
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players like that. Yeah. They don't. At least not publicly. If they ever do, you never see
00:18:36.520
it. No, they don't. I think because they understand like the talent that we have. It's like real
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recognized real. Yeah. So like they respect an athlete and she is an athlete. So like,
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that's why I'm like, all of these women that you talk shit on have been endorsed by the
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men that they worship. So I don't understand. Man. Like, where's the disconnect coming in?
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It's like the men that you worship and get on your knees for love these women and think
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they're remarkable athletes. So what the fuck are we arguing about? It's crazy. Hey, what
00:19:03.940
are we talking about? That's why I asked how many men have challenged you. They're like,
00:19:07.080
well, there's been a lot. She's never caught me at the LA fitness. Right. How are we to
00:19:12.660
know? That's definitely going to be one of the comments. Like, all right. I told someone
00:19:19.460
once I, I remember seeing a thread like years ago, um, from a famous women's basketball player
00:19:25.640
and she's retired. She was retired. Then I forget her name, but she was, did this whole
00:19:31.160
thread basically saying like, why she never accepts one-on-one challenges anymore. Or
00:19:35.820
she stopped a while into her career. And she said, because I realized like, I don't have anything
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to prove to these guys. Right. And then when you start beating them, what ends up happening
00:19:43.600
is they start fouling you and like hurting you on purpose. Then I realized I was like
00:19:48.360
jeopardizing my career by trying to like prove myself to these men who could never make it
00:19:54.180
in a million years. Like no matter with all the help in the world, they could never make
00:19:58.520
it because God hates them. So that's why they're not players. Um, so like, that's why they don't
00:20:03.420
have that life because they weren't blessed with that. And so I, every time I see men talk
00:20:08.080
shit, that's what I think about is how women are like, I'm not proving myself to you.
00:20:11.460
And that's something that I had to like learn going back to my hometown and I would go to
00:20:15.660
the YMCA. Cause that's just where I grew up playing. And I started noticing like some
00:20:20.540
of them were playing, like it was scouts in the room and it's just like, hold on, wait
00:20:25.360
a minute. Wait a minute. What's going on here? Like definitely chill. He's not here.
00:20:31.800
Yeah. They get to dunking on you. I'm like, roll, like relax, calm down. I'm just going to
00:20:38.780
like that. And you know, what's crazy is I thought too, when I talked about it with my
00:20:42.260
boyfriend, cause my boyfriend played college football, but then he didn't want to play
00:20:46.440
in the pros. Like he's like, Hey, I'm done. I give up. I don't want to do this anymore.
00:20:49.240
Yeah. And so he had scholarships and everything too. And so he's like, I just always think
00:20:53.460
like men who play like that just never had, like, they just never felt that what it feels
00:20:58.800
No, that's, that's definitely true. I think it probably just gives him a little bit of a boost
00:21:02.500
of like adrenaline confidence. Maybe confidence. Yeah. I don't know. He's like, I actually
00:21:07.120
saw Zai at the Y and I dunked on her. You guys know her? You know her? Yeah. Like it's
00:21:14.020
crazy. You're like, okay. And I'm actually get paid. I actually get paid to play this
00:21:17.700
sport. Right. You work at AutoZone. So literally the same, not the same, but that's what I think
00:21:23.720
is funny. Like what's been my experience, like with, uh, the female athletes I have like befriended
00:21:29.180
in this industry and everything is all of you are so like, whatever, dude. Yeah. Like
00:21:33.660
if that makes you feel good about yourself, sure. Like the way that they're like, I could
00:21:37.500
beat you. Okay. Yeah. Literally. Sure. Like that's why I said, what's stopping you? Go
00:21:43.040
audition. Yeah. Literally. Audition. Try out. Uh, this next comment says most average male
00:21:49.380
rec players would scorch most WNBA players. No. They will what? They would scorch. What does
00:21:56.120
that mean? Beat severely? Scorch. Okay. Scorch. I think a white guy wrote that. It had
00:22:03.680
to be. Scorch. Most WNBA players. No. No. The answer to your question is no, they wouldn't.
00:22:12.600
Most. I feel like they think WNBA players are this big. No. Yeah. And that's what they,
00:22:18.080
they're all five, two and petite. That's what they, I literally think they think that they
00:22:21.580
have to at this point. And that's what they're going to tell you. It's so funny to see you
00:22:27.720
guys are so wrong. You know, what's crazy is if anything, they're more talented because
00:22:31.360
a lot of WNBA players are also serving face. They have like, like they look gorgeous on top
00:22:37.200
of being an athlete. Of course. I don't do that. Yeah. They look ugly while they play. They
00:22:42.520
don't care about that. This next one says no offense, but that's kind of why that's why men
00:22:48.060
get paid more. Not saying they're better, but because of the attraction of flashy dunks
00:22:52.660
and consistency, consistency. That's actually not why men get paid more. Yeah. Like that's
00:22:59.220
actually not true. They play more games and have more visibility. That's why they get paid
00:23:02.380
more. Yeah. Some people don't know that though, but I'm just stupid bitch. So what would I
00:23:06.580
know? I'm a stupid woman. When I had, when I made that video, I got so much hate from so
00:23:10.440
many men who are under five, eight and all, every single one of them was like, well, who the
00:23:14.860
fuck are you to comment on players? And I always say I'm just as qualified as you. Not
00:23:19.120
at all. Literally. You don't see me saying I could be Ziya. Like I'm not saying that shit.
00:23:23.620
I'm not walking around being like, yeah, let me see Caitlin Clark on the, on the fuck in
00:23:26.660
the paint. I'll get her in the fucking paint. I would never do that because I am not shit
00:23:31.300
compared to her in basketball. Hello. It's not the whole fucking point. I'm just as qualified
00:23:35.120
as you, buddy. Not at all. Okay. This next video in this video, WNBA player Kelsey Plumb is
00:23:44.400
being interviewed. She explains that there is a common misconception with the WNBA versus
00:23:49.160
NBA athletes and pay. She says that they're not asking to make as much money as someone
00:23:53.700
like LeBron does. They're asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue. For example,
00:23:58.260
they sell her Jersey at Mandalay Bay and she doesn't get any money from that. That's crazy.
00:24:03.000
Crazy. That's fucking nuts. I did not know that. Crazy. Just say, and then those comments
00:24:07.140
are fucking awful. This one says just saying she's still making more than the middle class
00:24:10.900
for a dream job. Like stop complaining. It's just, you never win. Do you? Like
00:24:15.860
they're like, Oh, well guess what? Men get paid more. Yeah. I would like us to get paid
00:24:19.340
in equal revenue shares. Now you're complaining, complaining about getting paid for your job.
00:24:24.940
Nice. It's crazy. Women are just, but what I do love is that we all speak up for what we
00:24:31.280
believe in. And even it's crazy. Cause when I got in the W, I didn't even realize like how
00:24:36.600
much time and effort, the W actually puts into getting us what we deserve. Like I'm like, man,
00:24:42.900
the W what's going on? Like, do they not care? And then when I got to the league and I saw how
00:24:47.380
many people were pushing for it, all the players that was pushing for it, I kind of felt bad that
00:24:51.540
I was even feeling the way I felt about the W. And now that I'm seeing the way that it's,
00:24:55.420
it's getting better and better and it's increasing. It's just like, it's just timing. Like this is the
00:25:00.900
timing for it to all happen. I mean, as a woman, I just told someone like we, we're going to always
00:25:05.540
get it hard, but we can handle it. I don't, I personally don't think men can handle what we
00:25:11.180
go through. Like, honestly, I don't think they would be able to handle the things that women
00:25:14.900
have to go through. No, absolutely not. This is the cards we were dealt, but we're on the rise for
00:25:18.920
sure. Yeah. And still, and still doing it, like still fucking showing up, still coming and giving
00:25:24.700
your hardest, like giving a hundred percent every single fucking time. Yeah. Still talking about how
00:25:29.280
much it matters. Still talking about women. That's another thing too, that I love, um, that you don't
00:25:33.800
see in any male professional leagues, which is like the camaraderie, like how everyone's kind
00:25:39.940
of sticking together and uplifting each other. Even when they try really hard to pit women against
00:25:44.920
each other, like female athletes, they're like, I'm not going to sit here and talk shit on her
00:25:49.380
with you. Like they're trying to make girls gossip about each other and shit. It's not a thing.
00:25:52.760
It's like, I'm a player. She's a player. She's a great player. So am I like the fact that
00:25:56.140
they give each other kudos, even if you're not on the same teams, always different schools,
00:26:00.540
because if we have no one else, we only have each other. And I think that's what the whole
00:26:05.380
WNBA is. Like we're all a family, like totally a total family. And even when we have altercations
00:26:11.100
one team just going back and forth or a player on player. And that's just competitive. Yeah.
00:26:14.860
When we get in the, uh, for media, when we get to the media room, they ask questions and
00:26:19.440
we keep it a hundred percent respectful. Yeah. We just have a few words. She's a great player.
00:26:25.320
Yeah. It's like, it's never, I hate her and she's never personal because we know that
00:26:30.280
we're all just competitors and you're all athletes. Like that's the, that's what makes
00:26:33.720
sports fun is that they're competitive and they have a competitive edge to them. But
00:26:37.800
that's what I mean when they say they like, whenever, if, if people like, they kind of
00:26:41.940
like, it gets a little heated, like on the court, they're like, Oh, do you guys hate each
00:26:45.940
other now? Like, do you guys ask LeBron that? Of course you fucking don't. You know what
00:26:49.740
I mean? You never ask him that shit. Cause you know, it's just them playing against,
00:26:52.980
it's just the natural nature of the game. Exactly. Everyone's feeling some type of way
00:26:57.020
cause everyone wants to win. That's a good thing. Yeah. But I, I love when I see interviews
00:27:02.020
with so many different WNBA players that are like, it's just uplifting to everyone. Like
00:27:07.360
we all have each other. I have her back. She has mine because we're all athletes. And
00:27:12.340
if they, and honestly, that's what they want. Yeah. They want to turn everyone against each
00:27:16.540
other. They want to turn women against each other. Not here. Yeah. Sure. Not here. This
00:27:21.200
one says, how many WNBA jerseys do you have? What channel do they play on? Cause I don't,
00:27:25.940
I didn't even know they were on TV. I thought they were just on 2B. 2B is crazy. That's kind
00:27:33.760
of a funny joke, but 2B is crazy. They took their time with that joke. They took their time.
00:27:41.260
That's kind of a funny joke, but fuck you still. How many WNBA jerseys do you have? Well,
00:27:46.740
shit. I don't know. I would say, you know, what's funny is like clearly someone's buying
00:27:52.280
them because they're in Mandalay Bay. Yeah. How many jerseys have you sold buddy? Oh, you
00:27:57.140
don't have one. Probably none. Bummer. Yeah. See? Was your family really excited to get a
00:28:03.220
jersey with your name on it? Yes. My whole entire, my whole entire family. My, the city
00:28:07.380
of Toledo too. Like they all went and brought my jersey. Really? Yeah. So. Oh my gosh.
00:28:11.480
How exciting. Super exciting. I was going to say, what was the, what's the coolest part
00:28:14.860
since like going to the W and everything? Like what's been the coolest part for you?
00:28:20.020
That's a good one. Um, I think the coolest part is just probably playing against some
00:28:26.260
of the greats and having the opportunity to learn from some of the greats. Yeah. Uh,
00:28:30.960
that's something that I love. Like I grew up watching Kelsey Mitchell when she went to Ohio
00:28:34.720
state and to be able to play against her was crazy to me. Like surreal. Yeah. Playing against
00:28:41.360
Tariqa, uh, DT, Brittany Griner, like getting the opportunity to step in front of her and
00:28:48.460
her telling me that I had a good game. It was like all those type of moments is the ones
00:28:52.960
that I cherish the most just because I grew up watching these women and to be able to share
00:28:57.500
the floor with them is something that I'll forever be grateful for. That's so fucking cool.
00:29:01.640
Yeah. And, and also too, on top of that, even WNBA players, like they talk about their favorite
00:29:07.080
like NBA players too. Like they're like, Oh, I loved watching, you know, KD. I loved
00:29:11.560
watching Steph Curry. I loved watching, like they all say that. And then the NBA players
00:29:15.920
say the same thing about WNBA players. And none of those men are being assholes about that
00:29:20.740
shit. Like none of them are like, Oh, I could beat them. They show so much love. Like a lot
00:29:25.940
of the NBA players, they even invest in, in the W like, uh, my magic Johnson owns, uh, the LA
00:29:33.740
Sparks. Like that's someone that's retired from the, from the NBA, but he's poured into
00:29:37.220
our, poured into us. So I think that the love has always been there from the NBA and it's
00:29:44.180
Yeah, absolutely. And I, I've said this too, on one of my episodes, like I talked about
00:29:48.100
how like, I know Sabrina Ionescu was being like personally mentored by Kobe and he like
00:29:53.280
asked to mentor her because he saw what a star she was. Like that's the type of shit where
00:29:58.440
I'm like, the greats are literally backing them. What the fuck are y'all talking about?
00:30:01.820
Yeah. I'm like all these five, six men piss me off. Yeah. This one says this equal rights
00:30:07.500
movement has gotten out of control. LOL. All right. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It's literally
00:30:14.960
just unsurprising. It's like never surprising. It's like, that's the most consistent thing
00:30:19.800
is men being a fucking hater. It's crazy. Yeah. Well, I was going to say, what is the craziest
00:30:25.480
thing that's happened to you since like becoming a person outside of your sport? Cause obviously
00:30:30.320
now like people are separating you as like, they're just seeing you as a celebrity now
00:30:34.200
and on top of being an athlete. The craziest thing that's happened to me? Like it could
00:30:37.520
be with an encounter with like a famous person, maybe a favorite athlete. Oh, I feel like I'm
00:30:43.080
not going to say the craziest one. I'm going to think about it when I leave. Like, dang,
00:30:46.880
I should have said that. Oh, you're fine. Ah. I always like to ask when people start, cause
00:30:52.280
this industry is kooky puts you in the room. I mean, it's tough. The first one that came
00:30:58.760
to my mind and it's probably way more that I could say, but, uh, when we played against
00:31:05.460
Vegas, um, Floyd Mayweather was like sitting courtside and I went up to him like Floyd,
00:31:12.320
like, what's up? Like I'm your biggest fan. Like in Floyd Mayweather is a boxer that I've
00:31:18.140
always looked up to and watched and just, just saw the way he was as a businessman. And
00:31:22.800
it's just was like, he was somebody that, you know, they'll say like, if you had to go
00:31:26.340
eat dinner with someone, who would it be? I would be like Floyd Mayweather. So to have
00:31:30.360
the opportunity to meet him was pretty cool, but I know it's so many more, but that's just
00:31:33.900
the first. Also to sit courtside too. Yeah. He was just sitting courtside. Like I'm like,
00:31:38.920
y'all look up. I'm like, Floyd, let's take a picture after the game. I think it's really
00:31:42.780
fun when you see celebrities that you never would have thought are like really into the
00:31:47.240
WNBA. Yeah. Like Dace, who's the one, the white guy, the actor who loves the WNBA.
00:31:54.080
Is it Jason Sudeikis? Jason Sudeikis. What's a movie he was in? Yeah. I'm probably not going
00:32:01.080
to know. Ted Lasso. We're the Millers. We're the Millers. Yeah. He's the main guy. Okay.
00:32:07.340
Yeah. He loves the WNBA. Yeah. There's so many people. He goes to every, he has like
00:32:12.920
season passes. He goes to every game and Michael B. Jordan too. He was supposed to come to
00:32:17.200
a game, but he has not come yet. So he's trying to get wiped up. He's trying to get wiped
00:32:21.800
up. He's trying to get wiped up by one of the sparks. He hasn't like came yet. I don't
00:32:26.700
know what's taking him so long. What are you so afraid of Michael B. Jordan? Come on. Okay.
00:32:32.660
Just to wrap things up, I'll ask you a final question, but what would you say is your best
00:32:37.560
piece of advice for any young female athletes that maybe are like looking to play or they're,
00:32:43.400
maybe they're playing now or they want to play and they are like seeing this like renaissance,
00:32:48.520
the love for WNBA. Like, what would you say is your best piece of advice for them if they're
00:32:51.540
coming up? I think my best piece of advice, it wouldn't be so much that I would say, but
00:32:57.320
just to keep it short, I would start by just saying like really, really pay attention to the
00:33:02.600
people that you allow to be in your life, especially if you're really good at this sport
00:33:07.780
or you're seeing that you're becoming really good. It's going to be so many people that are
00:33:11.940
going to come and say, I can help her with this. I can do this for her. I can be here and do this
00:33:15.600
for her. And then, you know what I'm saying? Like it can just be, they can get in the way of the
00:33:19.920
success that you really deserve. Totally. Um, so the one thing with me is my dad was my go-to
00:33:25.140
with everything. So falling on to the people that you know, love you and care about you and
00:33:29.920
want to see you be successful, stick with them the longest and, and let them help you figure out
00:33:35.240
who else deserves to be in your circle. Totally. And then I would just say like, make sure you're
00:33:39.420
working extremely hard, like extremely hard. And with NIL being what it is now, it can sometimes
00:33:44.780
make you lose focus on the school part of things. So it's like, make sure you take that serious
00:33:50.080
too, because the ball will stop bouncing at some point and you want to be able to go back to
00:33:54.860
whatever you got that degree in. Yeah. Things like that. Um, and then just enjoying a moment,
00:34:00.980
have fun with, with the game. Like you want to make it seem less like a job for as long
00:34:06.120
as you can, because once it becomes a job for you, it's a job and there's nothing that
00:34:10.660
you can do to change that. Yeah. And then lastly, I would just say, stay mentally strong.
00:34:15.640
Make sure that you stay mentally strong and understand that you will have highs and lows
00:34:19.960
and things like that. But I can really keep going because there's so much that I've been
00:34:23.960
through that I've, that I would love to just help people with, but that's some of the things
00:34:29.000
I would say. Yeah. I would love to add to that. Like when I was in college, I majored in journalism.
00:34:34.080
So I worked with athletes a lot. So I did a lot of sports stuff. And I, uh, I will say female
00:34:39.300
athletes in college statistically always do very, very, very well in school. They statistically
00:34:46.900
do very well. They never have problems. They never fail. They never know. Like they're always,
00:34:51.260
and a lot of times female athletes are double majors too, or they take way too many classes
00:34:56.300
on top of playing their sport. I have to say as a student athlete, I don't know how you
00:35:00.860
could fail. You have so many resources. Okay. You know what? You know, it's like, I've said
00:35:05.920
that forever. You have so many resources and they do everything. There's no way to fail.
00:35:10.540
Yeah. For the most part, they give you all your classes, all your books. They give you tutors.
00:35:15.180
It's like, how do you fail? They literally build your schedule for you. You should literally be
00:35:20.040
honor student. I swear. Like there's no reason. And honestly, most times, most times female
00:35:25.740
athletes are honor students on top of being athletes. And male athletes don't have that.
00:35:31.320
They struggle with that. Yeah, they do. And you know how I know because I was a tutor in college
00:35:35.340
for male athletes. Really? Yeah. I know that was hard. I had to train athletes. I tutored athletes
00:35:40.120
in general, but I never tutored women ever. Did you give them the answers? No, I didn't. Oh good.
00:35:44.980
I'm a really mean tutor. Oh, that's, I don't know. It's like when my dad, your dad's being
00:35:49.860
mean to you when you're trying to do math homework. Yeah. You don't get the answers. I was like,
00:35:53.360
what do you mean? You don't get it. Try again. Erase it. Erase it. Start over. I'd have to help
00:35:58.860
them like write stuff more than anything. Yeah. This is shocking. But when I was in college, I worked in
00:36:04.900
the athletics department office and I was like the first job I ever had, I was like a stat girl. So I was
00:36:10.900
just like making fucking copies all the time. And there was, you know, like in college, when you do
00:36:16.100
your bios, they'll give you like little papers to like fill out. So they're like, what's your favorite
00:36:20.520
food? Like if there's fun facts, but more than anything, it's just your stats and like where
00:36:24.580
you're from. Yeah. So there was a part, a section on the male athlete one that said like, tell us a
00:36:29.940
little bit about yourself. And it said like, write a fun fact or something so they could put it in your
00:36:34.020
little bio. The, the shit that men wrote. Unbelievable. I was looking through my photos
00:36:40.280
and I literally like, I took pictures of some of them because I was just shocked. Like the ones
00:36:45.200
that women wrote were so thoughtful, they thought it out, funny, sweet, eloquent. Like they're just
00:36:51.400
like, Oh, I really love knitting. And I love listening to Frank Ocean. Like it was like shit like that.
00:36:56.560
It's like something silly. It literally could be half a sentence. Some men would write, like one guy
00:37:01.440
wrote a whole paragraph basically saying he doesn't like to talk about himself cause he's
00:37:04.600
humble. And he was like, I'm actually really not like that. No disrespect. He literally wrote that
00:37:08.500
out. No disrespect. I'm actually a very humble athlete. Unlike other athletes, no disrespect.
00:37:13.660
Like wrote that like four or five times. Oh wow. One guy wrote, I like Kung Fu. Okay. Like to watch
00:37:20.700
or to like engage, like they would have to ask them like, do you like to like do Kung Fu? Right.
00:37:25.580
Do you like just, he just goes, I just like it. Okay. Well then the women's ones were like,
00:37:31.080
I really love my family and I love doing charity. Like these like really thoughtful, sweet,
00:37:36.720
well-written answers and everything men wrote was like, I like chicken. It's like some guy,
00:37:43.240
some guy wrote, I just liked the color yellow. Oh man. Okay. But he also spelled yellow wrong.
00:37:49.020
Oh, and that's not a joke. I wish I was kidding. I'm not. And all these men are in their twenties.
00:37:53.520
Hello. I'm 17 in the office making copies. Me being judgmental at 17.
00:37:57.780
What would you say? Oh wait, I want to ask you more questions. Sorry. I'm like rambling.
00:38:03.020
What would you say is your like most memorable moment as an athlete? Like whether it was like
00:38:07.840
a game you won, championship or anything like that. That's easy. I think my most memorable moment
00:38:13.940
was, this is how like I became Ziya Cook, I think. Yeah. When I was my senior year, I had like one of the
00:38:22.420
best games of my career and I kind of like crossed this girl. I pointed at her and then I did like
00:38:26.760
this crazy lay. Yeah. And that moment was crazy. Cause it's like when people say like my life changed
00:38:34.140
overnight, that was like one of those life changing. Cause it was clipped everywhere. It was put
00:38:38.820
everywhere. My following went crazy and I can just only imagine if like NIO was then. Oh my God.
00:38:45.620
It would have been crazy. It would have been crazy for me then. I swear. But I think that was one of
00:38:50.940
one of the great, very, very good memory for me. But I got a lot like winning my first national
00:38:55.980
championship was amazing. Yeah. Getting drafted. That was just like, oh my gosh, how was that?
00:39:00.900
A whole, whole dream come true. Like I, even when I still think about that moment, like I still tear up
00:39:05.600
sometimes. Really? Cause it's just like. It's just all these years you've been building. Man,
00:39:09.560
worked extremely hard to do it. Especially if you were there with you? Yes. I had my whole family there. It was
00:39:14.640
probably like a hundred of us. Everybody, they were waiting on me at, uh, we got a hall and
00:39:19.880
everybody was there waiting on me. It was just a crazy experience, but it went perfect. Like
00:39:24.240
my draft night, I have no complaints. It literally went exactly how I wanted it to go. But you got
00:39:28.220
to do it in your own. Like, were you at home when you did, when you did your, when you got
00:39:32.340
drafted, were you like in your hometown or were you? No, I was in New York. So yeah, that's
00:39:36.940
where we got drafted. That was, that's where the draft is at. So I was only allowed to have
00:39:40.840
four people, I think at the draft sitting with me at the table. Gotcha. And then my,
00:39:44.820
the rest of my family, they were just at a hall and was waiting for me to get there.
00:39:48.700
Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah. It was crazy. But yeah. That's really fucking cool. Do you think
00:39:53.220
your dad's proud? Oh my God. Your dad, my dad is, if you know my dad, you know, he is beyond
00:40:01.040
proud of me. Like I'm his baby. He just like, uh, are you the youngest? Yes, I am. I have
00:40:06.820
one older sibling. Just your brother. Yeah. Just my brother. So, but yeah, no, my mom
00:40:11.840
and dad both are very, very proud. You can see it literally when they look at me, you
00:40:15.860
can tell. And wearing your jerseys. Yes, of course. That makes me want to tear up. That's
00:40:21.220
so sweet. Okay. What we'll just, we'll wrap really quick, but what would you say? Just
00:40:26.300
like, what are some parting wisdom you want to give any young athlete? I know you already
00:40:30.000
gave your advice, but like maybe just one last piece. I would just say, be who you are.
00:40:35.300
I would just say that, um, take time to find out who you are first, because you're going
00:40:40.520
to go through so many different stages of your life and you're going to think you know
00:40:44.160
yourself. You're not going to know yourself. Yeah. And the older you get, you'll start to
00:40:47.780
find exactly who you are. So I would just say, be who you are, but then understand that
00:40:52.980
you will change at times throughout your life. You're going to change and be okay with accepting
00:40:57.680
that and, and, um, just being able to hold yourself accountable to where you, where you should
00:41:02.200
get better at as a person, um, things like that. So that's something I would say. Period.
00:41:06.580
Love. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Yes. You're incredible. An icon, a legend.
00:41:11.360
Thank you all for watching and tuning in. Where can everybody find you? You guys can find me
00:41:16.840
at Z dot loading. I'm pretty sure Z dot loading underscore on every social media platform.
00:41:22.180
Perfect. So yes. And we'll, we'll write it underneath you. So it's nice and people can see it easy
00:41:27.060
and make sure y'all go watch Zaya play. Yes. LA Sparks number one. Period. Love that. Thank
00:41:33.260
you so much for joining us on this episode. Thank you so much to my amazing guests, Zaya.
00:41:36.740
Don't forget new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream the audio
00:41:40.800
on all streaming platforms, or you can watch the video for free and exclusively on Spotify.
00:41:44.880
So make sure y'all go follow Zaya. Make sure y'all watch the WNBA period. Go watch female
00:41:49.420
athletes. Love. And thank you so much for joining us and I'll see you next week. Bye.