SITE TOOLS
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On Crossovers and Crossroads
By Lisa R. Foeman
Dawn Staley lives her life by a simple, yet insightful motto: “You have to
do what you don’t want to do to get what you want.”
In a recent interview with Staley, I found that her motto serves as the impetus for almost
everything she does. Every move is carefully calculated because Staley knows that each
decision lays the foundation for the next one, which puts her closer to her goals.
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Courtesy Dawn Staley
The
WNBA's Dawn Staley
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Staley’s decision to leave the now-defunct American Basketball League
(ABL) and sign
with the WNBA last summer is an example of how her goals drive her decision-making
process.
Although fiercely competitive, Staley didn’t
necessarily want to play fewer games, but she knew that the WNBA’s shorter season was
more beneficial both mentally and physically. Staley’s goal these days is not only to
play professional basketball and play it well, but also to return to the Olympic Games in
2000.
After two years in the ABL, Staley realized that there wasn’t a lot of team unity.
Instead, she observed “a lot of individualness and jealousy and little things that
take away from the game.” She attributes those negative traits to players’
failure to treat the game as a team sport. She admitted that she “found it troubling
dealing with that [attitude] from time to time” while in the ABL. Like many
professional athletes, Staley saw that the innocence of sport often dissipates when it
becomes your job.
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"You have to do what you don’t want to do to get what you
want." |
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But in the quest for and eventual achievement of Olympic
Gold in Atlanta, Staley recalled that with the U.S. Women’s Basketball Team there
wasn’t a “whole lot of room for that [individuality and jealousy]. We play as a
team, there’s one common goal and that’s it; basketball in its purest
sense.” Revealing that she’ll only play professional basketball for another
three years, Staley wants to recapture and relive the Olympic experience next year. Staley
knows that professional basketball is a business and that it’s her job, but being
part of the Olympic team restores basketball as a “safe haven.” It allows her to
be free - a feeling she confesses she didn’t always experience as a player in the
ABL. |
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That calculated move to the WNBA not only allows her
body ample time to rest in preparation for the 2000 Olympics, but it also gives her more
time to spend with the young girls involved in programs established by the Dawn Staley
Foundation. Staley formed the Foundation in 1996, and she described it as a “goodwill
community-oriented program geared to enrich the lives of inner-city youth.” The
Foundation’s programs include an After School Project, a scholarship program, an
Annual Day in the Park, and basketball clinics.
When Staley talked about the After School Project, excitement filled her voice. Drawing
upon her humble beginnings in the housing projects of North Philadelphia, Staley explained
that she didn’t have the chance to participate in a multi-faceted youth program.
Thus, the Foundation is her opportunity to give back to 40 middle-school aged girls in her
old neighborhood.
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| The After School Project incorporates
mentoring, tutoring and athletic components. The girls - all economically underprivileged
and academically challenged - receive extra assistance in schoolwork and participate in
workshops on such diverse subjects as health issues and financial planning. As part of the
Project, there’s also an athletic hour which Staley intentionally does not instruct.
She prefers to tutor the girls in math, her self-described specialty. For now, the After
School Project is operated out of two locations in North Philly: the Hank Gathers
Recreation Center and Zion Baptist Church. Ten years down the road, Staley wants to build
her own state-of-the-art recreation center in North Philly. In such an environment, the
girls can participate in the Foundation’s program in a place they can call home. |
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I asked Staley what she wanted people to say about her
when she retired from women’s basketball. She said the usual things about being a
team player who gave it her all. Then, she dramatically paused and offered to sum it up
for me: “Dawn Staley beat the odds.” What were some of those odds? Growing up in
the projects of North Philly; becoming the first in her family to graduate from college
although she “didn’t always want to go to class”; becoming an Olympian in
1996 after not making the squad in 1992; going overseas to hone her craft for three years
after college despite missing her family and a social life; and starting a foundation that
costs over $100,000 a year to run in order to give back to the neighborhood that gave her
so much. Staley acknowledged that she didn’t always want to do the things necessary
to overcome the odds. But like the rubber band that she wears on her right wrist to snap
herself every time she commits a turnover, Staley remembered: “You have to do what
you don’t want to do to get what you want.” M
June 1999 |
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