Issue 40: Basketball

Noun. A game played between two teams of five players in which goals are scored by throwing a ball through a netted hoop fixed above each end of the court.

The writer living out her basketball dreams. She is kneeling on her left knee with the basketball in her right knee. She is wearing green basketball shorts and a white basketball jersey with the number 53.

Check-In:

I learned how to shoot a basketball before I learned how to ride a bike; possibly before I knew how to read..elbow in, follow through. My brothers played basketball ALL. THE. TIME. So I went to ALL. THE. GAMES. At first, I used the games to play under the bleachers with my friend Mary C. I was Mary R. After my oldest brother taught me how to shoot I don’t remember many other lessons before I started playing basketball myself in high school but I knew all the rules. It was a mandatory expectation as a Rice.

Basketball has been central or a backdrop for so many of my life events including watching plenty of basketball-themed movies but my all-time favorite movie is Love & Basketball. What I loved most about the movie was that it centered on the lead female (Monica) character’s love of the game and how the road to do what you love as a female is a very different experience than as a man. Spoiler alert: Monica gets her basketball dreams but as we know, playing the NBA is not the same as the WNBA with salary discrepancies being one of the leading indicators.

This year’s NCAA March madness being all about the women's teams was what this basketball fanatic was waiting for—the scoring records and the highest viewing ratings were thrilling but my eyes were on Angel Reese and Dawn Staley.

Angel’s post-game press conference interview showed me that the fictional road of Monica’s is even harder in real life. Dawn Staley’s journey from college to WNBA to college coach and the only the second Black female coach to win an NCAA title showed me that basketball dreams come true and when we saw all of her emotions at the end of that tournament-winning game, I could only imagine that as a Black female leader, what those tears meant.

Many people think basketball is just a game but for so many of us, the stories, the lessons learned, the heartbreak, the family, and the connection the sport creates are things we will carry with us for our full lifetime.

How are you creating that one shining moment for the young students who are part of your community?

#mondaymotivation: “I’m unapologetically me. I’m going to always leave that mark and be who I am and stand on that.” -Angel Reese, LSU Basketball Player

Interview with a Leader of the Global Majority:

Dr. Kendra Washington-Bass is a National Facilitator at The Leadership Academy. She formally worked at Gwinnett Public Schools for 14 years. These comments are the personal reflections of Kendra and her experiences, they do not reflect the opinions of her employer.

Mary: When did you recognize that you were more powerful than you thought?

Kendra: I had to ask myself, what is happening here? Why is there such a wall? It's not because of my fear, it's their fear. I'm scared of what they might think of me. That's not what it is, they're scared of me. And I was like, oh, that is when the light bulb went off. And I said, well, I'm going to use that. I'm going to take that power back and use that to chart my own path instead of waiting for someone to give me something.

Kendra: So boundaries are what I started to create. Being able to say, I'm not working on the weekends. I'm not staying up all hours of the night to do the work. Come back to the office and you've contributed nothing. That's when I was like, oh yeah, no, that's not fair. And I started to see more clearly. That was the change when I felt like people were scared of who I was. I shouldn't be so scared.

Mary: And how does that feel now, knowing where you were and taking up space?

Kendra: Well, right now, it feels great to know that I recognize it. I also wish I had known that earlier, but I needed to go through the journey to be the metamorphosis, to go through that change.

Kendra: The other part too is it helps me be a better leader, a better coach, because I can recognize some things. It helps me to ask some questions in a way that has, especially to women of color, it helps me try to understand where they're coming from.

** **HELP! HELP! Please let me know if you would like to be interviewed and/or recommend someone to be profiled in this section. I need new interviews! ****

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To:

• READING: Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America is a collection of stories about teenagers navigating what it means to be Black for them. I enjoyed how each story tackled the topic uniquely. Recommend the audiobook! You can find a full list of my book recommendations here. Please note that I am an affiliate with Bookshop.org and receive a small compensation for your purchase when you use the book links provided.

• ALSO READING: A piece from the New York Times analyzing JPMorgan’s $30 billion pledge two years in and what it means for a private sector company to try to fix societal ills.

• WATCHING: Love & Basketball AGAIN :)

Exciting News:

• Leading Within is now an online course!!! You can access it on the ASCD Witsby platform. If you want to keep learning, head over there to engage in deeper learning focused on the ten competencies.

How to Continue to Support Leading-Within:

• Go to Amazon and rate or review the book there! Reviews are a great way for others to see that this book is worth the time to read.

• Post about the book on social media using the hashtag #leadingwithin. Even better if it includes a picture of you WITH the book!

• Host a book club with your affinity/ERG group. Two study guides are also available on the ASCD website - one for leaders of color and one for white co-conspirators that are perfect for starting a group conversation. For book clubs with participants who have purchased and committed to reading the book, please reach out to me so I can support your journey!

• Connect with me to speak to your organization or group about topics covered in the book, like ‘practicing love and rage’, ‘building a coalition’, and ‘taking a stand’.

If this is your first time reading, please go back and read my Introductions post.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. If you like it, please share it with your network!