fronting him out.

I am.

And so I flexed on him.

And I go, he goes, do you want to talk about this? I said, I do.

I'm in the studio with them.

And he goes, let's talk now.

We have an hour thread.

um,

Mm-hmm.

And so he coached me up and gave me information.

I got a cadence.

Next five came on the court, and I was like, "Look, if you don't know how to do that, I do, and I'll be able to help you." So I, I was, you know, a little bit forward in, you know, my, in my c- my confidence, but by the end of a couple weeks, um, you know, I w- I was his starting point guard and I could run his actions, and my job was to make people around me better.

And I didn't know this for almost 30 or 40 years, but Pat used to tell people that I changed his life, and I was like How, how is that? And then when I saw him and his wife, um, you know, Chris, at the Hall of Fame a few years ago, he goes, "There were days that I was unsure of myself.

I was a young coach.

Maybe I didn't have the confidence," you know, that he had later on.

[laughs]

I'm curious to know what your perspective is on what the WNBA is experiencing right now, and certainly with all of the controversy around the Indiana Fever.

Well, I, I, first of all, the Fever are in fourth place, and they have a chance to win a championship, so on the court.

A- as a coach, you want it to be on the court, but let's face it, uh, I've been a part of the W for 30 years, uh, from the inaugural season playing to coaching the second year.

We have been a very political-minded group.

I mean, we have women, we have opinions, and, uh, not afraid to, to share our opinions.

And, and I'm of the ilk, i- that if you have something to say, say it.

I don't have a problem.

[laughs]

And

this is new to us.

It's new to us.

I mean, I was an unpaid pioneer.

I had to make my money the good old fashioned hard way.

And it's OK.

And once everybody starts getting, you know, kind of seen and heard and paid.

Bronx,

What did he teach you that you feel like helped you throughout your career?

The first time I met him, we were both doing an appearance in New York, and I didn't know he was the other athlete at the Stock Exchange.

It was a fundraiser in December of 1979 for the Olympic Committee.

And, you know, I'm player of the year in college basketball.

We won our first championship, and I have swagger going up the escalator.

And I go, maybe this is a little New York.

I go, yo, who's the other athlete with me? And the guy goes, but I said, who's the other athlete? He goes, we're going in the green room.

Last thing, a cause very close to your heart, the Check the Box campaign that you could probably tell us a little bit more about.

What moved you to go that direction and to try to impact that group of people?

I was that kid.

I was she.

I was he.

I...

We were poor.

There were days we had no heat, no electricity.

Do we need a David Stern-type figure to kind of help Kathy Engelbert here to rein this in, the situation with just officiating Caitlin Clark? Like, what's the solution there?

Speak on the growth of the Big Three and your part of the Big Three.

Big Three's a lot of stuff happening.

You probably saw the press release the other day where the Big Three League has now signed with some equity company and the evaluation of the league is now $290 million.

What Ice Cube and Jeff Quantinense have done with growing this nine years later is phenomenal.

And you have a lot, you know, new NBA guys are coming in.

You know, last year we had Dwight Howard and Lance Stevenson.

This year, Derek Favors.

Well, I will say this, you

And I'm like, okay, what do I not know?

How can I help? And she starts talking about research and all this other stuff, which is so vital in raising money for that.

And I'm like, Gina, that doesn't really metabolize with us.

We need to know, we the people, need to know what we're dealing with.

And sometimes, like me, I don't understand.

I know research is important, but how is it affecting me now or Jay now? And she gave me a couple numbers.

She said one in every eight men will get prostate cancer.

So the only way to, even if you have a low PSA, there may be cancer there, but you have to get the PSA check to even have a baseline to know.

Yeah.

At, um, at, you know, at ESPN.

He's amazing.

And what brought us together for real, for real, about 10 months ago, I get a phone call, it's at night.

He's on the phone with his wife, Stephanie, and he goes, "Nancy." And I'm like, "Jay?" And he goes, "I have prostate cancer." I'm like, "What? What are you talking about? You're, you're big, you're strong, you're amazing." He got diagnosed with prostate cancer, so I...

It was like a kick in the stomach to me.

I, and here I am, what do I do? How do I help? I, I...

Yeah.

Mm

... to this USA pre-camp."And she goes, "Nancy, I don't have money to put food on the table.

How am I going to get you to Albuquerque, New Mexico?" I said, "I don't know, but y- you gotta figure it out.

I've gotta go to this thing.

It's gonna change my life." And, uh, my high school principal, Barbara Sackeritz, somehow she took a can of corn, opened it, cleaned it, put a envelope around it.

Went door-to-door and raised $300 to send Nancy to the Olympic trials.

It went door-to-door.

Before I let you go, I wanna give you one more opportunity to plug, you know, The Long Game, I wanna give you another opportunity to plug the charities, and of course, how people can support, and, and all your social media and how people can lock in with you.

... your most fluent and comfortable space.

It is 100% comfortability for me because I get a chance, uh, to be a, a good leader of men.

Even though I coached in the W and I loved it, would do it again, uh, coached in the NBA, but I thrive in, in that environment.

Um, I'm Big Mike on The Blind Side.

I have protective instincts, and I don't like to see underserved or minorities being treated poorly.

And I'm strong enough, and clearly, you know, have done this for so many years, I'm that person.

And I won't let...

Like, even your wildest imagination couldn't have looked like what we're presently blossoming into.

... of, of being allowed to say the things that you think.

Yes.

And I, I fell in love with this man instantaneously.

And, you know, back in the day it was, you go to the library, or you watch him on wi- Wide World of Sports with Howard Cosell.

I was mesmerized by him.

So he didn't know that he was changing the life of this little red-headed Jewish kid from Queens who was a little girl.

So I, I started getting serious about sports.

... fluent and comfortable space.