Medina Lynn
Despite the progress made, there is still work to be done when it comes to women’s equality in sport. Former WNBA pros Jamila Wideman and Ashley Battle break stereotypes on this hot topic and reveal how YOU can make a difference!
A raw and frank conversation long overdue in the world of sports took place right here HollywoodLife during International Women’s Month in March. Former WNBA players Ashley Battle And Jamila Wideman joined us for an emotional panel discussion for an in-depth discussion on women and equality in sport. The former professionals addressed the fraught topic of the stigma that women are less tough or less competent than men in sports, and how we can help change the narrative. Wideman and Battle were also on hand to explain how the National Basketball Association creates careers for players after they retire through its Player Development Department and Basketball Operations Associate Program – a branch of the NBA Career Program Crossover, designed to help former players with a productive transition after their playing career, with a specific focus on gaining the training and experience necessary to work in a team’s front office.
Jamila Wideman, the current NBA vice president of player development, was drafted 3rd overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in the summer of 1997. She became a lawyer after retiring, before returning to the league after his retirement to help his comrades with their own transitions off the field. “The program is meant to launch players into what’s next,” she said during the HollywoodLife roundtable. “The players are incredibly talented on the field and have had incredible careers. Now we’re focused on helping them figure out what’s next and Ashley has been an amazing example of being top of her class on the field and we think her potential on the field is just as necessary.
Ashley Battle, who joined the league as a basketball operations associate for the NBA in December 2018, also took a different path after retirement. She was drafted 25th overall by the Seattle Storm and played six years in the WNBA for the Storm, New York Liberty, San Antonio Silver Stars, as well as international teams in Spain and Turkey. When she hung up her jersey, Battle worked in finance until an unexpected opportunity reunited her with her first love: basketball.
Wideman and Battle went back and forth on the HollywoodLife panel, where they spoke candidly about women’s equality in sports and explained their unique stories on and off the field. Their discussion has been condensed with excerpts below.
Why, in 2019, are there still stigmas around women playing sports and being “inferior” to men, according to some critics? Can you talk to us about that and the equality or lack of equality when it comes to female athletes?
A B: I literally see this conversation every day on Facebook. I think people can be ignorant. Every day someone comes up to me and says something like, “Because I’m a guy, because I’m tall, I can beat you (in basketball). » I’m like, “But you’ve never played, so how are you going to say, just because I’m a woman, you can beat me?” I understand that because I’m a woman, I don’t have the same physique as men, you may be stronger than me. I’m glad you’re confident, but that’s probably not the truth. I just don’t think people understand that we’re professionals, that we’re talented, that we train as much as the guys do, and that we put in as much effort to master our craft. We understand what it takes to be the 1 percent of the 1 percent that is going to play professional.
J.W.: I think part of the challenge is also that the conversation around the WNBA is much broader – it’s about powerful, confident, assertive women, period. What’s true is that it’s always a difficult conversation, whether you’re talking about the WNBA or any other industry where women are succeeding. I would say that in sports, the WNBA is a representation of women in sports. As a culture, we’re always working on how to broaden the frame and figure out how to show the fantastic and fabulous versions of what a woman can be. To the extent that the WNBA pushes that box outward and upward, we’re doing our job. We are part of a larger movement.
But the truth is, whether it’s a movement or not, at the end of the day we are people, we are individuals blazing a trail in a place that hasn’t been completely torched before. So Ashley followed me and there’s a little girl over there following Ashley. And Ashley’s story is different from mine. The fact that we have succeeded or that we have achieved, there is no equation for that success. So when we think about diversity, it’s not just about us women in this space, but also the diversity of stories experienced by the other women in the WNBA who participate. I think the more we can tell these stories and the more we can highlight how different they are, the more we can show how many paths to success there are. That’s when we really get to the important issues, which aren’t just like, “I’m a woman and I play sports, but let me tell you about everything that I am.”
How else can we try to “broaden the box” as individuals, especially in an age where social media creates questionable narratives?
J.W.: We must be ready to be in conversation anytime and anywhere. But it also means that there must be an audience, to some extent, willing to listen. We have to find a commonality, in that our stories are about imagining ourselves as something when there is no example of anyone who doesn’t look like that, or who has never done that …Recognize me for who I am, not who you need me to be.
How was the transition for you (Ashley) from the WNBA to the Basketball Operations Associate program?
A B: Before joining the league, I did a little stint in financial services, actually. I had an injury that really ended my career and I had a love/hate relationship with the sport at that point, because I thought I had the ability to come back and play again and that just didn’t work for me. To be honest, I wasn’t healthy enough to do it and it was very hard mentally. I am very lucky to have a great support system. (Battle credited a special moment she had with her mother for helping her change her mindset after her injury. Her mother pushed her forward during a fun, competitive game of Guitar Hero at home.)
From there I went to work at a bank and ended up leaving there and coming to CT where I worked in a few other financial branches that worked with athletes. Then I got back into the groove: I was running with agents and athletes and I realized something was missing. It was ironic, I saw something posted online about whether any former athletes were interested in player development positions within the league. The application said that if you managed to make it to Summer League in Vegas, you might meet more people who might be considered for the program, so I went! I called them and here we are!
How does this program help former players who have experienced situations like yours and whose career ended due to injury? If you didn’t anticipate the end of your time in the league or your life afterward, describe the importance of this program in helping people in this situation.
A B: At the time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I was lucky enough to have a strong family, but I was really able to say, “You should have planned ahead and taken advantage of the opportunity you had. » If there is anything I would say to current athletes, it would be to take advantage of your platform! A lot of people want to talk to you and you have the resources in the league to hire athletes. So you have to know that these programs exist and not be afraid to contact them, because people want to help.
J.W.: I think there are some points that you mentioned, Ashley, that are crucial. That’s why the programs we run start with conversations with young men and women who are elite players, even in high school. We discuss how they can improve, not only on the field, but also how important it is for them to develop off the field. And these are the conversations we continue in our Beginner Transition program as players prepare to go from being one of the best players in high school or college to becoming a night-time professional. So we believe that part of being professional is accepting yourself fully. The program is designed to help players explore this, get stronger and recognize where they need development and it’s our job to listen very well.
You mentioned mental health, Jenna. — Our players were incredibly courageous and led the way. And, what Ashley described, it’s kind of a loss of your identity in transition because you’re missing the structure that you had as a team. And you realize that you are a lovely young retired person and you have the best years of your career ahead of you. You can’t listen to someone like Ashley for more than 10 seconds and not recognize that she has immense talent and I think, like most of our players, her sense of curiosity, her creativity and her interest in many things are wonderful. So we think it’s worth investing resources in this area!
A B: When you really think about it, most of us (players) have been playing basketball since we were little – it’s all we know, it’s our first love. Then whether it’s like, “You don’t have that anymore,” and you’re in your 30s or some players are lucky enough to play into their 40s. It’s a difficult transition to go through. I was lucky and our players need to know that the resources are there to help them. Sometimes you’re at a loss for words, like, “What’s next?” What is there to do there?
J.W.: What this program brings back to the league is incredible: the way our office operates. I can’t tell you how often people from all departments seek out conversations with Ashley or other operations and associates because the ideas of former players are essential, not only to how we preserve the game on the field, but also for criticism for the company. There is certainly a lot to be gained as a former player and this represents an invaluable enrichment to the league, which the league recognizes.
