Q&A with Sheryl Swoopes: Looking back while looking at what's ahead for women

Before she took the court Thursday, Sheryl Swoopes had time to talk to the Reporter-News.

The former Texas Tech Lady Raider who was a star on Tech's National Championship winning team in 1993 was in Abilene on Thursday to speak at the 10th Women's Luncheon at McMurry University. The event was in Kimbrell Arena, not to provide what really was the ideal setting, but because the student center is undergoing renovation.

It's also where her older brother played his college ball.

Swoopes, dressed in black and white and Red Raider all over, is long retired but her accomplishments that began 30 years when she helped lead Tech to the NCAA women's basketball championship remain legend. From Brownfield, which is 40 miles southwest of Lubbock, her life after first playing at South Plains College went on the adventure that she sought as a child.

She wanted to be a flight attendant so she could see the world and meet people.

Basketball did that for her, though there was no women's pro basketball league when she finished playing at Tech. What she was going to do with herself was a big unknown.

What a life

Looking back, she reminds herself at times, she said, that the past 30 years has been her life, not someone else's adventure.

"This is really my life," she said. "Who would've thunk it?"

She's not one to constantly reminisce, she said, but she does when March Madness ensues in March.

"Everybody is talking about hoops and that's when the memories come back for me," Swoopes said. "Our entire journey and how we got to the Final Four and the games.

"And I go, 'Wow ... that has been 30 years.'"

She paused.

"That was a long time ago but you what's exciting about it? People still talk about it," she said. "I say that if people aren't talking about it, you're dead or it's not news anymore. But to get an opportunity to go back to Lubbock and hang out with my teammates and we reminisce, talk about the whole journey.

"We never talk about what people said we couldn't do. We just talk about us and what we believed and we knew we could do."

Here's what happened in 1993

Tech was the No. 2 seed in the West in a 48-team field that included Tennessee, which had won three of the past six tournaments. Stanford was the top seed in the West but was upset by Colorado, which Tech took down in the regional final.

The Red Raiders joined Ohio State, Iowa and Vanderbilt in the Final Four. None had been to the Final Four before - the first time that had happened since the first NCAA tourney in 1982.

Tech vanquished Vandy 60-46 while Ohio State edged Iowa 73-72.

In the final, Swoopes set all kinds of record with 47 points as the Red Raisers won 84-82. Tech led by seven points after her three-point play but Ohio state hit a couple of late 3-pointers.

Swoopes made 16 baskets and hit all 11 free shots. She was the tourney MVP.

She was named Women's Athlete of the Year by The Associated Press.

Her life in the limelight was just starting.

Pause

But there was a gap.

What did Swoopes do from 1993 until joining the Houston Comets of the new Women's National Basketball League in 1997?

She went to Italy to play for six months but did not like it.

"It wasn't for me at the time, so I came back home," she said. She had a semester to go at Tech, so she finished.

The best known women's basketball player then took a job for a year at a bank. She still worked out, making bank shots, no doubt, as she wondered what was ahead for her.

In 1995, USA Basketball put a national team together and she was with the team for a year. They played college teams and internationally.

"We were 60- 0," she said. "We trained hard because other countries were starting to catch up."

Then, in 1996, came the first of three Olympic Games, all three resulting in gold medals.

"And then the WNBA in '97," she said.

Here's what we talked about last week:

∎ What do think about the athleticism of today's women players?

"I think overall, the game has absolutely changed. From a talent perspective, I find myself at times watching games because I absolutely love basketball - it doesn't matter who's playing. I find myself saying, 'Wow, they can fricking jump out of the gym, they're crazy athletic, can shoot the basketball. I think what I see more of today than when I played is more one on one vs. five on five. I know for us at Tech, we won a national championship playing a 2-3 zone. I am not sure many people realize that because a lot of people were like, 'You're never win a championship playing a 2-3 zone.' But we did. Overall, the talent level is phenomenal.

"When you throw in NIL (name, image and likeness - a policy OK'd by the NCAA in 2021 that allows student-athletes to be compensated for those) deals these players are getting now ... and I will say that I always have been a proponent for paying players but figuring how to do that where it makes sense. Now you get into situation, more on the women's side, there are women in college who are making more money with NIL deals than they would make if they left to go to the WNBA. When I look at it like that, I'm like, Does that make sense? As an athlete in college, you should look forward to the next level - of being a professional athlete and what that means.

"So when you talk about how the game has changed, for sure from an athletic standpoint and the game itself, but there are so many other things outside of the game that have made it very different."

∎ Do women as former student-athletes get the same bounce in business as men with name recognition?

"I would say there is more opportunity today than there was when I played but it's still nowhere near where it is for the guys. What I have found is that it's more about social media. 'Oh, let's go see ... she has over a million social media followers, let's try to do a deal with her.' That's the first part. Then it's basketball. She has all these followers on social media AND she's pretty good at basketball. Back in the day, it was more about the talent. I'll just say for me, like when I signed my Nike deal, it wasn't about social media or the followers I had, it was about what I brought to the court, what I brought to the game. Then what I was able to do off the court. Having the overall package.

"I have mixed feelings when I think about that. Do you look at the men and say how many social media followers he has? That's not the first thing you think about. The first thing you think about is 'He's a helluva player. I want to work with him.' All the other stuff doesn't matter. For the women, it has to be more than her talent. Her talent along is not good enough."

∎ What do think of the intensified push for equal pay for women athletes?

"I think what Megan Rapinoe and a lot of her teammates did for women's soccer doesn't get talked about enough. They just said, 'Listen, we deserve more or at least equal pay, so let's figure out a way to make it happen. I think at some point you have to be willing to be uncomfortable as an athlete, I think for women's soccer team they were at that point. Where, 'We're just not going to play until we get things we deserve. Not things that we want, but we deserve it.' The men's soccer team really hasn't done anything. But it doesn't matter because they are men and competing, so here's what we're going to give you. Versus the women, who have won everything. What they did was great. It doesn't get talked about enough.

"And it doesn't have to be sports. You can talk about it in corporate. But in basketball, it's going to take some of the same things. Players who have a name to step up and say, Listen, we have to have something different. We need to make some changes. But lots of time, we're not willing to put ourselves out there. To make ourselves uncomfortable. You need to take a stand at some point and fight for what you deserve."

Swoopes said the WNBA has not unresolved use of charter flight issue - the league prohibits unauthorized flights by teams, believing that could give one franchise an advantage over another that cannot afford those.

While a player may not have control over that, Swoopes said a player has control over the product - herself and her performance.

The upside of social media, she said, is bringing awareness of the game and the quality of athletes.

"That's what they are doing," she said. "I would like to sit here today and say it's only a matter of time before women begin getting what they deserve but until then, it's up to all of us, not just current players or former players but all of us. Women continuing to fight for each other."

∎ Your thoughts on what happened to Brittney Griner?

"Look it's unfortunate that we even have to put ourselves in that position. If we were being compensated for what we deserve, Brittney Griner is not playing ball in Russia. Like every other player. On the other side, you understand where you are and where you're going. It was a mistake ... she even said it was a mistake, I forgot (Griner was arrested for having a marijuana concentrate in her luggage). It broke my heart. I just broke my heart to watch her go through everything she went through.

"But I will always say that the WNBA has been a sisterhood. There were so many people behind the scenes doing work to figure out what we could do to bring her home. At the end of the day, regardless of how you feel, she is an American citizen and we found a way to get her home. I am beyond grateful and beyond thankful. My prayers are that no other WNBA players has to go overseas to be compensated so they can make a living. When the season's over - it's a three-month season - pretty much everyone else has to get another job because we're not getting paid enough.

"Watching that whole situation play out, it wasn't about basketball anymore. It was about our sister, an American citizen. We've got to find a way to get her home.

"In addition to that, every American citizen that is locked up abroad, we need to find a way to bring them home."

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Swoopes Q&A: Looking back while looking at what's ahead for women