Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Denise Swoopes is a retired American professional basketball player. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA, is a three-time WNBA MVP, and was named one of the league's Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game. Swoopes has won three Olympic gold medals. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth25 March 1971
CityBrownfield, TX
CountryUnited States of America
I was at a point in my life where I am just tired of having to pretend to be somebody I am not. I was basically living a lie. For the last seven, eight years, I was basically waiting to exhale.
I think there's always been great talent in the WNBA, ... I think there are so many players this year that had incredible seasons and fortunately, or unfortunately, there's only one MVP.
We really wanted this game. We knew we had to come here and win two.
We have a lot of experience and veterans on this team. As a team we are playing incredible basketball.
Jordan told me, 'Mom, I love watching you play. You're going to be MVP.' This is for him.
My purpose for doing it has nothing to do with throwing it in anybody's face,
That was a point in my career when I was just very frustrated and said, 'Well maybe I don't need to do this anymore,' ... And I asked him (Jordan), I said, 'Son, do you want mom to retire?' And he said, 'No, mom, no, mom. You're still very good. I want to go watch. I love the WNBA.'
We used that as a motivating factor. Every player came in here hungry and still frustrated from not making the playoffs last year. Not having Tina when we started the season, that also made other people take their games to another level.
The only thing that would make this better would be if we were in Houston today getting ready to play Game 3, ... Unfortunately that's not the case, but I'm excited just to be here today.
We could just never really get into any kind of a flow, ... We kept saying in the timeouts (that) we were playing like we had another game on Saturday, instead of like we didn't have another game Saturday.
For whatever reason, we can't put two halves together, ... We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and came back in the second half a completely different team.
If we play completely different in the first half, it doesn't come down to that shot and it's a different outcome,
Hopefully, this will not have a negative effect on the W.N.B.A., ... Me coming out does not change what the W.N.B.A. stands for as a basketball league. I don't think there's any secret that the huge support we get comes from the gay and lesbian community. It's unfortunate that people, and those not only in W.N.B.A., are not able to feel like they can be who they are. They lose endorsements; they lose friends and family.
We've got to try to take advantage of what their weaknesses are, and one of those is not having the experience we have.