Gordon Giving Back to the Game of Basketball
Feb 18, 2022 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Bridgette Gordon is in DeLand, Florida. It is a bye week for the Kansas State women's basketball team, so she takes the opportunity to fly home to see her 87-year-old mother, Marjorie, who raised eight children inside her home — six girls and two boys. Bridgette is the third-youngest child. She tries to see her mother once a month. Inside the house is a retired DeLand High School basketball jersey, a retired Tennessee Lady Volunteers jersey, and an Olympic jersey, from when Brigette helped the United States women's basketball team to the 1988 gold medal in Seoul, South Korea.
"The people in Kansas really have no idea," Bridgette says. "I carry myself just like I am. I'm as humble as they come and I'm proud of that."
Bridgette was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, she was named to the NCAA 25th Anniversary Team, and she helped the late, great Pat Summitt to capture her first two NCAA Championship titles in 1987 and 1989 and reach four straight Final Fours. It seems like everywhere Bridgette stepped, she became the "first this" and "first that," a trailblazer, and let's be serious, a living hardwood legend. She's the first person in her family to graduate from a four-year academic institution. She's in the University of Tennessee Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, and the DeLand High School Hall of Fame. She remains the only person from the city of DeLand to win an Olympic medal.
Bridgette keeps her Olympic medal with her in Manhattan. She is in her first year as Coordinator of Recruiting Operations under head coach Jeff Mittie. Bridgette likes to show recruits and young women her Olympic medal. They like to touch it. She tells them to dream big, to work hard, and that anything is possible. She has an energy, a magnetic energy, that draws people to her. She has served as mentor to dozens of young women through the years. K-State in November signed arguably its best recruiting class since Kendra Wecker, Laurie Koehn and Megan Mahoney. Aside from being one of the all-time greats on the court, Bridgette also possesses a gift off the court. And she shares it daily at K-State.
She is a gem in the Flint Hills that most people don't know about.
"I want to give something back to the game that gave me so much," she says. "It gave me so much. I was able to go to Tennessee on a full-ride scholarship. I traveled the world. I let young women know I'm not here at Kansas State because I'm collecting a paycheck. I'm here because I'm passionate about what I do, who I am, and what I stand for. I let them know they can reach out and touch me. When I was growing up, I didn't have a role model I could reach out and touch. I didn't see women playing sports on TV and I couldn't say, 'I want to be like her.' I was watching Dr. J, Michael Jordan and James Worthy, and watching Coach John Thompson at Georgetown.
"Women's basketball wasn't there yet. I tell them about my history and my walk and that's why I'm here. It's about giving back to the game that gave me so much."
• • •
What you've heard about Pat Summitt is correct. She was a perfectionist. As head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012, she won 1,098 games, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She was named Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2000.
What Bridgette remembers is running at 6:45 in the morning. Summitt didn't give players their practice jersey. They had to earn it. She drove her players into the Tennessee hills before dawn. Freshmen had to run 3 miles, and sophomores, juniors and seniors had to run 5 miles — without stopping — to earn the right to participate in the season's first practice with the Lady Vols.
"If she caught you walking, you had to start all over," Bridgette says. "It didn't count. To get that practice jersey, you had to make that run."
Bridgette remembers that Summitt gave each of the players fancy windbreakers. The players liked to sport them on campus. One day, a horrible rainstorm hit Knoxville. The men's and women's track teams did not run on the track. The Lady Vols celebrated that they wouldn't have to run. Summitt approached them in the locker room.
"Those windbreakers I bought you, put them on, we're going outside," Summitt said.
"But we're going to catch a cold," the players replied.
"No, you're not going to catch a cold," Summitt said. "Now get on the track."
Bridgette remembers February 4, 1987. Tennessee lost to rival No. 14 Vanderbilt 77-76 in Nashville. What she also remembers is the 3-hour bus ride back to Knoxville.
"Coach Summitt took us to Wendy's and the ride home felt like it took 15 hours," she says. "We got back to campus at midnight. We put on our dirty uniforms, everything that we wore for that game, and we went to practice. You talk about tough."
But perhaps what Bridgette most remembers, aside from winning national titles in 1987 and 1989, was how Summitt taught morals and values and discipline and sacrifice and how to be mentally tough in the real world and how to push through anything and how to succeed in a team setting. Summitt continued that until her retirement in 2012. She passed away in 2016 at age 64.
"That's what she stood for, and she was a role model by example," Bridgette says. "Every day, she walked the talk."
Bridgette remembers this, too, how she was originally set on going to the University of Florida. She verbally committed to the Gators. She also absolutely loved football. If women could've played football in the 1980s, she would've tried out for the team. Bridgette went to nearly every home football game in Gainesville. But then Bridgette played in a Blue Star All-America Camp. She returned home to nearly 100 letters from colleges. Then Summitt phoned her, and it changed the game.
"That was the end of the story, really," Bridgette says.
Summitt flew down to DeLand and sat in the living room and told Marjorie she would take care of her daughter. She told Bridgette she wanted her to come to Tennessee and help her win her first national championship. On her official visit, Bridgette saw Tennessee upset Bo Jackson and No. 1 Auburn 38-20. She saw students carry goalposts down the street. Between the Lady Vols and Tennessee football, she felt like she was already home.
"I was sold to be a Lady Vol," she says. "Coach Summitt pushed me, but she pushed me because she cared. She showed my mom that from day one when she walked into our home that she had my best interests at heart. I wanted to win, I wanted to do anything for her, and I was willing to do anything for her. I miss that woman so much. She impacted my life. Oh man. She was my mom away from home. Even though I'd verbally committed to Florida, my mom said, 'You're going to Tennessee. That's exactly what you need.' When someone cares, you'll run through a wall.
"I'd run through a brick wall for Pat Summitt."
Bridgette, a two-time Kodak and Naismith All-American, finished her college career as the Lady Vols' all-time leader in points (2,462) and steals (336).
• • •
Arguably the most arresting period in Bridgette's life came when her mother had triple-bypass heart surgery. By now, Bridgette had enjoyed an 11-year career playing in the Italian and Turkish Professional Leagues (1989-00), where she was a perennial all-star and won seven Italian Championships and two European Cups. She also played for the Sacramento Monarchs (1997-98). After serving as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Stetson College in DeLand (2001-06), she opted to step away to care for her mother. That's when the WNBA contacted Bridgette to become a regional scout, which minimized her time away from home.
After serving as a WNBA regional scout (2006-07), Bridgette left DeLand and served as assistant coach and/or recruiting coordinator at Georgia State (2007-10), Wichita State (2010-17), Tennessee (2017-19) and SMU (2019-21).
"Working Pat Summitt basketball camps back in the day, I always enjoyed working with young people," Bridgette says. "I looked at myself as a role model a long time ago. I guess I was a magnet, because no matter where I go, kids are attracted to me, so I knew at a young age that I wanted to do something that allowed me to work with young people and empower and develop young people.
"I knew I wanted to become a coach."
She helped Wichita State to three conference championships, three NCAA Tournaments, and five postseason appearances. The 2014-15 team finished with a 29-5 record. At Tennessee, she helped her alma mater to 44 wins and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition, Bridgette signed the nation's 52nd-ranked recruiting class as recruiting coordinator at Georgia State. She helped Wichita State to land its highest-ranked recruiting class in program history when Blue Star Basketball rated the 2012-13 signing class at No. 47 in the nation.
As for Bridgette's connection to K-State?
"Coach Mittie offered me a job when I was at Wichita State," Bridgette says. "But Wichita State, we were coming off back-to-back championships and we had it rolling at Wichita State at the mid-major level. Then I met and mentored (current K-State assistant coach) Ebony Haliburton earlier in her career, and once again, being that mentor or role model for different young ladies coming up in the game, we stayed in contact, and we reached out to each other, and prayed for each other. When this K-State job came open, she reached out and asked if I'd be interested.
"I could come home once a month and check up on my mom. That was very appealing. Manhattan is somewhat close to Kansas City and Wichita. It was an easy decision to make. Coach Mittie is a great guy. I love what he is doing and how he's doing things. It was an easy choice. Once I knew my mom was in a good place, and I knew I could work again, it was an easy decision to work for Coach Mittie."
• • •
To maintain balanced signing classes, K-State typically signs four players each year. The process starts with mountains of video and an expansive database, and it eventually funnels into a depth chart of eight potential recruits for each area of need on the recruiting board. The key is to watch the recruits early in their development, as early as seventh or eighth grade, and watch them develop through AAU basketball and high school basketball seasons, and to utilize contacts to acquire information on each recruit.
The recruiting game has changed over the years.
"AAU has taken over," Bridgette says. "Watching the young ladies play in the summer is a big ordeal. Social media — you used to get out and find that diamond in the rough and it's hard now because the game has been exposed with YouTube and Facebook and Instagram. Social media has taken over, so you must do your job extra diligently and have contacts and keep contacts.
"With my resume, my contacts are still the same ones I had at Stetson and everywhere else. It's important to build relationships with the contacts and then stay in touch in maintaining that friendship. That helps you tremendously because they know exactly what you want. Character has always been huge in the game, but today you better recruit character and not just an athlete. They need to be well rounded. Character is huge."
When Mittie, associate head coach Brian Ostermann, assistant coach Ebony Gilliam and Haliburton go on the road, Bridgette handles airline tickets, car rentals and lodging. Bridgette organizes agendas and itineraries for official and unofficial recruiting visits. She arranges lodging, restaurants — everything down to finding out a recruit's favorite foods and drinks. Bridgette basically plans out the details of the next 48 hours for a recruit and her parents. When a recruit comes on an official visit, Bridgette arranges the itinerary around practice times so the recruit can meet the coaches and support staff. She ensures that the recruit and her parents tour the basketball and academic facilities, visit with the academic liaison, and visit with the strength and conditioning coach and the trainers.
"We make sure everything runs smoothly," she says.
A little more than four months ago, it appeared things could turn turbulent — literally. The women's basketball program scheduled a huge recruiting weekend centered around the K-State vs. Oklahoma football game on October 2.
"Of course, the forecast was rain, rain, rain," Bridgette says. "Coach Mittie said, 'You're a good recruiter if you can control the rain.' There was a 60% chance of rain on Friday and a 75% chance of rain on Saturday. But there was no rain. It turned out to be a big weekend."
On November 10, K-State unveiled its four signees for the fall national signing period — guards Michayla Gatewood (Glenn Heights, Texas), Ja'Mia Harris (Lancaster, Texas) and Mikayla Parks (Norman, Oklahoma) along with forward Eliza Maupin (Webster Groves, Missouri). The class was ranked 23rd in the nation and second in the Big 12 Conference by All-Star Girls Report.
Gatewood was ranked as the 38th-best point guard in the nation, Harris was the 2020 Texas 6A Offensive MVP, Maupin was ranked No. 21 overall in the Class of 2022 by Prep Girls Hoops Missouri, and Parks was a Class 6A First Team All-State Tournament selection.
"We have girls that are going to fit into that scheme around Ayoka Lee," Bridgette says. "We have that blueprint. They're just going to bring some extra stuff that we don't necessarily have right now. We emphasize team. With these signees, we're bringing in some more pieces to play around Yokie."
• • •
K-State, 17-8 overall and 7-6 in the Big 12, heads down the stretch of its 2021-22 season with five league games left to play before the Big 12 Championship. ESPN bracket expert Charlie Creme currently lists the Wildcats as a No. 7 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. K-State is poised to reach its third 20-win season in six years and its fourth NCAA Tournament since 2016. The Wildcats face Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. Sunday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Bridgette is spending a few days working remotely from DeLand before heading back to the Little Apple.
"When I moved from SMU to K-State, I ran across a letter that Coach Summitt had written my mom," she says. "Little did I know that Pat wrote my mom very often and let her know how I was progressing in the classroom and on and off the court as a young lady. When Coach Summitt passed, my mom showed me all these letters. When I scored my 1,000th and 2,000th point, Coach Summitt sent my mom all these articles. That lady was something special.
"She lived up to everything that she promised my mom."
She pauses.
"I look back at my resume and all the history from when I played high school basketball, amateur basketball, Olympic basketball, pro basketball, and being a part of all of these 'firsts,' and I sit back and I'm like, 'Wow.' It's a blessing.
"Now is my opportunity to give back. I just want to give back to the game that's given me so much."
Bridgette Gordon is in DeLand, Florida. It is a bye week for the Kansas State women's basketball team, so she takes the opportunity to fly home to see her 87-year-old mother, Marjorie, who raised eight children inside her home — six girls and two boys. Bridgette is the third-youngest child. She tries to see her mother once a month. Inside the house is a retired DeLand High School basketball jersey, a retired Tennessee Lady Volunteers jersey, and an Olympic jersey, from when Brigette helped the United States women's basketball team to the 1988 gold medal in Seoul, South Korea.
"The people in Kansas really have no idea," Bridgette says. "I carry myself just like I am. I'm as humble as they come and I'm proud of that."
Bridgette was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, she was named to the NCAA 25th Anniversary Team, and she helped the late, great Pat Summitt to capture her first two NCAA Championship titles in 1987 and 1989 and reach four straight Final Fours. It seems like everywhere Bridgette stepped, she became the "first this" and "first that," a trailblazer, and let's be serious, a living hardwood legend. She's the first person in her family to graduate from a four-year academic institution. She's in the University of Tennessee Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, and the DeLand High School Hall of Fame. She remains the only person from the city of DeLand to win an Olympic medal.
Bridgette keeps her Olympic medal with her in Manhattan. She is in her first year as Coordinator of Recruiting Operations under head coach Jeff Mittie. Bridgette likes to show recruits and young women her Olympic medal. They like to touch it. She tells them to dream big, to work hard, and that anything is possible. She has an energy, a magnetic energy, that draws people to her. She has served as mentor to dozens of young women through the years. K-State in November signed arguably its best recruiting class since Kendra Wecker, Laurie Koehn and Megan Mahoney. Aside from being one of the all-time greats on the court, Bridgette also possesses a gift off the court. And she shares it daily at K-State.
She is a gem in the Flint Hills that most people don't know about.
"I want to give something back to the game that gave me so much," she says. "It gave me so much. I was able to go to Tennessee on a full-ride scholarship. I traveled the world. I let young women know I'm not here at Kansas State because I'm collecting a paycheck. I'm here because I'm passionate about what I do, who I am, and what I stand for. I let them know they can reach out and touch me. When I was growing up, I didn't have a role model I could reach out and touch. I didn't see women playing sports on TV and I couldn't say, 'I want to be like her.' I was watching Dr. J, Michael Jordan and James Worthy, and watching Coach John Thompson at Georgetown.
"Women's basketball wasn't there yet. I tell them about my history and my walk and that's why I'm here. It's about giving back to the game that gave me so much."
• • •
What you've heard about Pat Summitt is correct. She was a perfectionist. As head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012, she won 1,098 games, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She was named Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2000.
What Bridgette remembers is running at 6:45 in the morning. Summitt didn't give players their practice jersey. They had to earn it. She drove her players into the Tennessee hills before dawn. Freshmen had to run 3 miles, and sophomores, juniors and seniors had to run 5 miles — without stopping — to earn the right to participate in the season's first practice with the Lady Vols.
"If she caught you walking, you had to start all over," Bridgette says. "It didn't count. To get that practice jersey, you had to make that run."
Bridgette remembers that Summitt gave each of the players fancy windbreakers. The players liked to sport them on campus. One day, a horrible rainstorm hit Knoxville. The men's and women's track teams did not run on the track. The Lady Vols celebrated that they wouldn't have to run. Summitt approached them in the locker room.
"Those windbreakers I bought you, put them on, we're going outside," Summitt said.
"But we're going to catch a cold," the players replied.
"No, you're not going to catch a cold," Summitt said. "Now get on the track."
Bridgette remembers February 4, 1987. Tennessee lost to rival No. 14 Vanderbilt 77-76 in Nashville. What she also remembers is the 3-hour bus ride back to Knoxville.
"Coach Summitt took us to Wendy's and the ride home felt like it took 15 hours," she says. "We got back to campus at midnight. We put on our dirty uniforms, everything that we wore for that game, and we went to practice. You talk about tough."
But perhaps what Bridgette most remembers, aside from winning national titles in 1987 and 1989, was how Summitt taught morals and values and discipline and sacrifice and how to be mentally tough in the real world and how to push through anything and how to succeed in a team setting. Summitt continued that until her retirement in 2012. She passed away in 2016 at age 64.
"That's what she stood for, and she was a role model by example," Bridgette says. "Every day, she walked the talk."
Bridgette remembers this, too, how she was originally set on going to the University of Florida. She verbally committed to the Gators. She also absolutely loved football. If women could've played football in the 1980s, she would've tried out for the team. Bridgette went to nearly every home football game in Gainesville. But then Bridgette played in a Blue Star All-America Camp. She returned home to nearly 100 letters from colleges. Then Summitt phoned her, and it changed the game.
"That was the end of the story, really," Bridgette says.
Summitt flew down to DeLand and sat in the living room and told Marjorie she would take care of her daughter. She told Bridgette she wanted her to come to Tennessee and help her win her first national championship. On her official visit, Bridgette saw Tennessee upset Bo Jackson and No. 1 Auburn 38-20. She saw students carry goalposts down the street. Between the Lady Vols and Tennessee football, she felt like she was already home.
"I was sold to be a Lady Vol," she says. "Coach Summitt pushed me, but she pushed me because she cared. She showed my mom that from day one when she walked into our home that she had my best interests at heart. I wanted to win, I wanted to do anything for her, and I was willing to do anything for her. I miss that woman so much. She impacted my life. Oh man. She was my mom away from home. Even though I'd verbally committed to Florida, my mom said, 'You're going to Tennessee. That's exactly what you need.' When someone cares, you'll run through a wall.
"I'd run through a brick wall for Pat Summitt."
Bridgette, a two-time Kodak and Naismith All-American, finished her college career as the Lady Vols' all-time leader in points (2,462) and steals (336).
• • •
Arguably the most arresting period in Bridgette's life came when her mother had triple-bypass heart surgery. By now, Bridgette had enjoyed an 11-year career playing in the Italian and Turkish Professional Leagues (1989-00), where she was a perennial all-star and won seven Italian Championships and two European Cups. She also played for the Sacramento Monarchs (1997-98). After serving as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Stetson College in DeLand (2001-06), she opted to step away to care for her mother. That's when the WNBA contacted Bridgette to become a regional scout, which minimized her time away from home.
After serving as a WNBA regional scout (2006-07), Bridgette left DeLand and served as assistant coach and/or recruiting coordinator at Georgia State (2007-10), Wichita State (2010-17), Tennessee (2017-19) and SMU (2019-21).
"Working Pat Summitt basketball camps back in the day, I always enjoyed working with young people," Bridgette says. "I looked at myself as a role model a long time ago. I guess I was a magnet, because no matter where I go, kids are attracted to me, so I knew at a young age that I wanted to do something that allowed me to work with young people and empower and develop young people.
"I knew I wanted to become a coach."
She helped Wichita State to three conference championships, three NCAA Tournaments, and five postseason appearances. The 2014-15 team finished with a 29-5 record. At Tennessee, she helped her alma mater to 44 wins and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition, Bridgette signed the nation's 52nd-ranked recruiting class as recruiting coordinator at Georgia State. She helped Wichita State to land its highest-ranked recruiting class in program history when Blue Star Basketball rated the 2012-13 signing class at No. 47 in the nation.
As for Bridgette's connection to K-State?
"Coach Mittie offered me a job when I was at Wichita State," Bridgette says. "But Wichita State, we were coming off back-to-back championships and we had it rolling at Wichita State at the mid-major level. Then I met and mentored (current K-State assistant coach) Ebony Haliburton earlier in her career, and once again, being that mentor or role model for different young ladies coming up in the game, we stayed in contact, and we reached out to each other, and prayed for each other. When this K-State job came open, she reached out and asked if I'd be interested.
"I could come home once a month and check up on my mom. That was very appealing. Manhattan is somewhat close to Kansas City and Wichita. It was an easy decision to make. Coach Mittie is a great guy. I love what he is doing and how he's doing things. It was an easy choice. Once I knew my mom was in a good place, and I knew I could work again, it was an easy decision to work for Coach Mittie."
• • •
To maintain balanced signing classes, K-State typically signs four players each year. The process starts with mountains of video and an expansive database, and it eventually funnels into a depth chart of eight potential recruits for each area of need on the recruiting board. The key is to watch the recruits early in their development, as early as seventh or eighth grade, and watch them develop through AAU basketball and high school basketball seasons, and to utilize contacts to acquire information on each recruit.
The recruiting game has changed over the years.
"AAU has taken over," Bridgette says. "Watching the young ladies play in the summer is a big ordeal. Social media — you used to get out and find that diamond in the rough and it's hard now because the game has been exposed with YouTube and Facebook and Instagram. Social media has taken over, so you must do your job extra diligently and have contacts and keep contacts.
"With my resume, my contacts are still the same ones I had at Stetson and everywhere else. It's important to build relationships with the contacts and then stay in touch in maintaining that friendship. That helps you tremendously because they know exactly what you want. Character has always been huge in the game, but today you better recruit character and not just an athlete. They need to be well rounded. Character is huge."
When Mittie, associate head coach Brian Ostermann, assistant coach Ebony Gilliam and Haliburton go on the road, Bridgette handles airline tickets, car rentals and lodging. Bridgette organizes agendas and itineraries for official and unofficial recruiting visits. She arranges lodging, restaurants — everything down to finding out a recruit's favorite foods and drinks. Bridgette basically plans out the details of the next 48 hours for a recruit and her parents. When a recruit comes on an official visit, Bridgette arranges the itinerary around practice times so the recruit can meet the coaches and support staff. She ensures that the recruit and her parents tour the basketball and academic facilities, visit with the academic liaison, and visit with the strength and conditioning coach and the trainers.
"We make sure everything runs smoothly," she says.
A little more than four months ago, it appeared things could turn turbulent — literally. The women's basketball program scheduled a huge recruiting weekend centered around the K-State vs. Oklahoma football game on October 2.
"Of course, the forecast was rain, rain, rain," Bridgette says. "Coach Mittie said, 'You're a good recruiter if you can control the rain.' There was a 60% chance of rain on Friday and a 75% chance of rain on Saturday. But there was no rain. It turned out to be a big weekend."
On November 10, K-State unveiled its four signees for the fall national signing period — guards Michayla Gatewood (Glenn Heights, Texas), Ja'Mia Harris (Lancaster, Texas) and Mikayla Parks (Norman, Oklahoma) along with forward Eliza Maupin (Webster Groves, Missouri). The class was ranked 23rd in the nation and second in the Big 12 Conference by All-Star Girls Report.
"It has size, athleticism and shot-making ability and all four are proven winners in their high school programs."
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) November 10, 2021
✍️ 2021 National Signing Day ✍️
📄 https://t.co/p5N49HXgYh#KStateWBB x #BeKStateGr8 pic.twitter.com/5EYXwgX04U
Gatewood was ranked as the 38th-best point guard in the nation, Harris was the 2020 Texas 6A Offensive MVP, Maupin was ranked No. 21 overall in the Class of 2022 by Prep Girls Hoops Missouri, and Parks was a Class 6A First Team All-State Tournament selection.
"We have girls that are going to fit into that scheme around Ayoka Lee," Bridgette says. "We have that blueprint. They're just going to bring some extra stuff that we don't necessarily have right now. We emphasize team. With these signees, we're bringing in some more pieces to play around Yokie."
• • •
K-State, 17-8 overall and 7-6 in the Big 12, heads down the stretch of its 2021-22 season with five league games left to play before the Big 12 Championship. ESPN bracket expert Charlie Creme currently lists the Wildcats as a No. 7 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. K-State is poised to reach its third 20-win season in six years and its fourth NCAA Tournament since 2016. The Wildcats face Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. Sunday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Bridgette is spending a few days working remotely from DeLand before heading back to the Little Apple.
"When I moved from SMU to K-State, I ran across a letter that Coach Summitt had written my mom," she says. "Little did I know that Pat wrote my mom very often and let her know how I was progressing in the classroom and on and off the court as a young lady. When Coach Summitt passed, my mom showed me all these letters. When I scored my 1,000th and 2,000th point, Coach Summitt sent my mom all these articles. That lady was something special.
"She lived up to everything that she promised my mom."
She pauses.
"I look back at my resume and all the history from when I played high school basketball, amateur basketball, Olympic basketball, pro basketball, and being a part of all of these 'firsts,' and I sit back and I'm like, 'Wow.' It's a blessing.
"Now is my opportunity to give back. I just want to give back to the game that's given me so much."
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