You Let Some Girl Beat You? (27 page)

After half-scaring the President to death, Corey got the photo he knew would make his mother proud and explained that his mother was also from Hawaii. Hopefully, it was a bit of levity for a man dealing with a country in turmoil.

The crash in the housing industry and resultant bank failures were being felt far and wide and as near as Vero Beach. The Dodgers spring training camp for sixty-one years was suddenly no more. Florida's 220 acres of practice fields with their intersection of Vin Scully Way and Don Drysdale Drive became an antique over night. The new owners, the McCourts, thought it would be more cost-efficient to build a new facility in Arizona rather than try to coordinate the team's long trek cross country from L.A. to Florida.

Vin Scully called Dodgertown his “memory factory,” and I'd been taking the kids back every year as a way of staying in touch with their father's memory. The final game was set for March 17, the traditional St. Patrick Day game where the players wore green caps and ran around green bases. After that, the camp was moving to Glendale, a suburb outside of Phoenix, where the Dodgers would share a training site with the Chicago White Sox. While it was certainly closer for me and I would be able to reconnect with all the friends Don and I had on the White Sox team, it just wasn't the same. They didn't even serve Dodger Dogs! But still, it would be convenient, and that was a good thing.

When I looked at my calendar these days, it was like a completed crossword puzzle—no empty spaces. Of course, I loved being busy and had gone at life that way from the beginning. I didn't want to play just one sport, I wanted to play them all. While it was a great way to avoid burn out, I think there was also this sense that time was always running out.
Do as much as you can Annie, for as long as you can, especially when you're relatively young
. Not working hard while you still had your health seemed to me like an athlete not competing in her prime—it was squandering leverage. After all, life was short. And even when it wasn't, it was still too short.

On June 4, 2010, John Robert Wooden died. He was ninety-nine years old. We all knew it was coming. He was looking forward to it. He had been waiting a long time to see his Nellie again. The man who started out his career known as Rubberneck for his dives on the hardwood at Purdue had ended it as The Greatest Coach Ever. The man who had instilled the necessary discipline and knowledge to what would become some of the most talented, celebrated athletes in the world, had now left it. He'd been adored by athletes, and yet his heroes were not sport stars, but icons of integrity. His famous Pyramid of Success was based on acting with integrity and kindness. Even though I know he would have never described himself that way, honorable is exactly how I and so many others shall always remember him.

My brother, Dave, along with my freshman coach, Kenny Washington, and too many others to list, attended his funeral. After the services, they spoke for a while and I overheard Kenny tell Dave that Papa used to quietly come into our practices once in a while and sit high up in the rafters where no one could see him so he could watch me. “I never told her.” Kenny said, then added, “Wooden may have gotten Kareem, but I got Annie.”

The truth was, we all got Papa.

The same year that John Wooden passed, I was made President of the Mercury. It was a strange feeling when I got the news. I picked up the phone to call Papa and share it with him, and then I remembered he was gone.

In addition to my promotion, I continued to act as GM and retained my responsibilities as Vice President of the Suns. I also continued to broadcast for Fox and do motivational speaking engagements when my schedule permitted. In 2012, I broadcast the Olympics women's games for NBC. But, now, as priorities change I've decided to relinquish the positions of President and GM to remain V.P. for both the Mercury and the Suns, thereby allowing me more time to focus on other things, including broadcasting.

Sometimes it's hard to keep all the balls in the air, but in terms of gaining insights for our players—having had the various perspectives of GM, VP, and President, and the ability to go between the NBA and the WNBA—it has been invaluable. In terms of broadcasting, my day-to-day interaction with the players keeps me in the loop with everything from new tricks, to new terms, to new trades. But I'll still always believe that knowing the fundamentals trumps everything.

Of course, the hardest job is still being mom. The kids are all off to college, doing what they love, and trying to find themselves. I know they've enjoyed a certain amount of independence over the years, but I also know they've felt abandoned at times, and that is a guilt I will carry with me forever. Still, I try to remind myself that because of baseball and basketball, they've had the opportunities to travel, to meet people in sports, entertainment, and politics. They realize, firsthand, the importance of treating others with respect, and of always trying to give back. Most importantly, they've learned to be grateful for what the Good Lord has provided for all of us. In 2011, the two boys threw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium in honor of what would have been their father's 75
^th
birthday, and the following month Drew sang the national anthem there for her dad. Donnie would have been proud.

All in all, I have been very blessed. I know that God only gives us as much as He thinks we can handle. It's been a full life, full of blessings and heartache. But if I know one thing for certain, it's that 90% of life isn't about what happens to you, it's about how you respond to those things. Character trumps circumstances every time. One you can control, the other you can't.

In my bid for the Pacers, when it felt like the eyes of the world were on me and things didn't go my way, and the press was ridiculing me, I was still grateful for the opportunity. And given the chance, I'd do it the same way, all over again.

So many athletes fear failure. I don't like it, but it doesn't scare me. I know that failing is not just part of life, it's fundamental to success. To achieve greatness, you can't be afraid to fail. When I think back on my life, I wouldn't change a thing, except to have Don back. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him. But I also believe that life doesn't end because Don is gone, or my children are grown, or jobs change. Life does get better. Like Papa used to say, “Live each day as your masterpiece.”

“To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes.”
~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

When I was at UCLA with my brother, Dave, we became instant human interest stories, so the media seemed to like me until I went out for the Pacers. But someone has to be the first to open the door for others. A lot of rookies got cut that season and while most of the NBA players, GMs, and coaches believed there was no woman on earth who could have made any of the twenty-two NBA teams that year, or any year, I also know there were some who were rooting for me in spite of their bias.

The Pacer's assistant coach at the time, Jack McCloskey, who would go onto become the GM of the NBA Champion Detroit Pistons said this about my playing, “Fundamentally, Annie is better than half the guys out there.”

Atlanta Hawks coach, Hubie Brown, said of a woman's bid to make the NBA, “If there is to be an exception, I wish her a good deal of luck because it couldn't happen to a nicer person.”

I'm still the only woman to sign a free-agent contract with an NBA team, and I'll always be proud of the way I played during those three days and grateful that Sam Nassi had the courage to let a woman tryout for the team. It was never about publicity for me, it was about seizing the opportunity. Do I believe that a woman will be signed to an NBA team by 2020 as NBA Commissioner, David Stern, suggested? With the WNBA providing a viable professional outlet, I don't know that it's that important anymore. The question shouldn't be will women play in the NBA, but rather will women be commensurately compensated? And will young women continue to be given the same opportunities in school to pursue their athletic dreams as young men?

Before Title IX was passed forty years ago, less than 300,000 girls nationwide played competitive sports in high school, and athletic scholarships for women were non-existent. Today close to 3,000,000 girls are competing athletically at the high school level and many are going on to college, largely as a result of this legislation. Yet every year Title IX comes under attack. Given that so much is learned in competitive sports, it's very sad that there are still schools which remain non-compliant. Where else can girls learn about hard work, self-esteem, perseverance, teamwork, leadership skills, the world won't end because you lose a game, and you can compete with someone and still be friends off the court? It's a given that all of these traits in excellence are beneficial in the business world, but also in life.

Where would we be without Title IX? Would we have a Mia Hamm or a Lindsey Vonn, or a Lisa Leslie, Michelle Wie, or Misty May? I'm not sure where I would be without it. And I was one of the lucky ones.

I'd been born into a wonderful family where we'd all been encouraged to spend the better part of the day playing sports outside whether in the snow of Chicago or the 75 degree weather of Southern California with parents who stoked the flames of our competitive natures rather than squelch them for harmony's sake. My father, in addition to being very athletic, instilled in us a singlemindedness of purpose and an intensity that demanded we learn from our mistakes—the girls no less than the boys. My mother bred in us a ferocious work ethic and unyielding loyalty both to others and to whatever pursuits we embarked on—the girls no less than the boys. But it was Title IX which gave me a full ride to a Division I school. If not for Title IX, I wouldn't have been part of the Bruin women and their first National Basketball Championship, which sparked the imagination of the press, who loved to write about UCLA's brother and sister basketball greats, thus creating nationwide momentum for women's basketball.

In his later years, Papa told a reporter that I was the one who “really got women's basketball going.” What a compliment!

I feel blessed to have been in the right place at the right time, to have been part of the first Women's Olympic Basketball team, which resulted in the formation of the very first women's professional basketball league in 1978-79 (The WBL), which led to the ABL in '94-97, and ultimately the WNBA in 1997.

Equality for women is a universe away from where it was in the 70s. Our last three Secretaries of State have been women, and the post-recession Washington gang in charge of finance re-regulation is headed up by women. The commander at Paris Island, responsible for molding men into Marines is the first woman ever so appointed. But we still have a ways to go.

I am currently the only female Vice President on the operation side of the NBA, and there are only two female GMs in the MLB, where there is only one female VP. Less than three percent of all Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, and women still earn 77cents for every dollar that a man takes home (with working moms seeing the largest wage gap).

Our dismantling of prejudice follows a predictable course. We've finally had a black president. History dictates that we'll soon have a female president. When that happens, more little girls will dream of being in leadership positions and that will be a good thing.

Experiences gained in the locker room are invaluable, later, in the boardroom. Young women who compete in organized sports benefit from the same lessons that young men benefit from. It's not surprising therefore that 80% of women in executive positions today have competed in sports growing up. The more girls there are who compete in school sports today, the less mothers there will be in the future dolling their young daughters up to compete in beauty pageants. The more girls compete in sports today, the fewer women there will be in the future whose greatest goal will be losing twenty pounds, or landing some reality TV show that capitalizes on bad behavior instead of changing the world.

While things have come a long way in terms of viewing women as equal to men, there's still a long way to go in terms of actually empowering women. Studies from the Women's Sports Foundation have shown that women become empowered by competing in sports.

A few years ago Bill Russell held a Hall of Fame Basketball Camp in Vegas. He only invited ten Hall of Famers as coaches, but his wife, Marilyn said “Well, you have to invite Annie.”

So there I was with John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Jerry West, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Charles Barkley, some were my longtime idols. At one of the breaks between games and stations, Clyde, Julius, and I played a friendly game of H-O-R-S-E and I won. The guys didn't mind that a woman beat them because they never saw me as being at a disadvantage to begin with.

That is my dream for the future: that the phrase “You Let Some GIRL Beat You?” becomes obsolete. The notion that women are less able than men is a no-win situation for everybody. I was fortunate to have been raised that way. The opportunities sports, and basketball in particular, have given me, along with hard work and guidance by others, have made me who I am today.

In 2010,
Time Magazine
named me, along with Billie Jean King, and eight others, including my childhood hero, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, “Top Ten Female Sports Pioneers of All Time.” Yet most people still don't recognize the name Ann Meyers Drysdale. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that I know what I have achieved. And when people ask me if I think it was important that I was the first woman to have done this or that, I always tell them there were others before me who opened the door.

What matters is not that I was the first, but that I not be the last.

Acknowledgements

I would like to first thank my parents for being such supportive and good role models. My Mom has been my rock and friend throughout my life, as she has for all her children.

My brothers and sisters-their love, support and guidance has never wavered for me in good times and bad. To Julius Erving, thank you for your kind words and always being another big brother to me. You're the BEST!

Nick Lampros, who has been my business manager, confidant, friend and is always there for me.

To all the coaches and teachers who impacted me in believing in myself and challenging me to be a better athlete and person, especially Ginny Dottl (Clark), Kenny Washington, Billie Moore, Gary Cunningham, Jim Bush, Patty Meyers, Ducky Drake, Andy Banchowski, Sue Gunter, Howie Landa, and Pat Summitt.

To all my teammates and opponents that challenged me in my career and helped make all things possible for my successes and failures. My dear friends and teammates, Juliene Simpson (my roommate who pushed me daily and even today and whom I shall always consider a dear friend), Sue Enquist, Beth Moore, Kim Bueltel, Carol Blazejowski, Lusia Harris, Nancy Dunkle, Pat Head (Summitt), Yvette Duran, Judy LeWinter, Karen Nash, Denise Corlett, Terry Condon, Monica Havelka, Debbie Ricketts, Anita Ortega, Donna Geils (Orender), Lori Allen, and SO many others! You've all left footprints in my heart.

All the teachers from my elementary schools, to Jr. High, Sonora High School, to UCLA, that helped me form my dreams and believed in me. Especially Art Friedman, Paul Tanner, Mr. Felshaw and Miss Wilson.

To all the guys that I played in pick-up games throughout my life from high school with Dale Yahnke and so many other of my brother Jeff's friends to college with guys like Wilt, Julius, Marques, Calvin and so many others. You made it fun, challenging, taught me to be tough and never back down or quit. Thank you for not taking it easy on me and preparing me for the next level.

I'd especially like to thank Sam Nassi for his vision and unwavering conviction in having the guts to offer me a contract with the Indiana Pacer's. He went out on a limb and I hope I didn't disappoint him, his family, the Indiana Pacers, or the NBA.

The Indiana Pacers, thanks for sticking with me, even when there was so much doubt in what Sam Nassi was trying to present. A special thanks to Sandy and Bill Knapp for taking me under their wings and Davey Craig (trainer), for keeping me together during the try-outs, and to Coach Bob Leonard and his staff and players for their honesty.

My hat goes off to David Stern and Adam Silver for their tireless efforts to make the WNBA a success. Jerry Colangelo for being the first NBA owner to show his support for the league, and for the efforts and job that our first President Val Ackerman performed. To all involved with USA Basketball, thank you.

I'd like to thank with all my heart, all the Networks and stations that had the confidence in my ability and work ethic to broadcast for them. From CBS, ESPN, ABC, Prime Ticket, Sports Channel, TNT, FOX, KGMB, and mostly NBC. They have embraced me throughout the years within their family, especially with the Olympics and WNBA. Dick Ebersol has been the patriarch for so many, and I feel blessed that I have been able to work for him.

Dick Heckmann and the K2 Board, Stanley Gold and the L.A. Gear Board, Rafer Johnson and everyone associated with Special Olympics, John Hamilton and the Lott Board. And to every other board or charity that I have been associated with, you continue to amaze me with your support and the monies you raise to help so many others.

Special thanks go to all the announcers and production people I have worked with over the 30+ years in broadcasting. Your knowledge of the games and athletes has been an inspiration for me to be better behind the mike every time. I would especially like to thank Mike Breen, James Brown, Dick Enberg, Terry Gannon, Keith Jackson, Mark Jones, Chris Marlowe, Beth Mowins, Brad Nessler, Dave Obrien, Mike Patrick, Robin Roberts, Hannah Storm, Barry Tompkins, Pam Ward, and so many others who helped make me a better broadcaster. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the sport.

To the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), Billie Jean King and ALL the women who were instrumental in opening the doors for me and others my age to benefit from all their courage and sacrifices. They were instrumental in the birth of Title IX. And to know that the women of this generation will understand how fortunate they are to feel empowered by what others have done for them.

Coach John Wooden (Papa) and his family, for their sacrifices of sharing their father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great, great, grandfather with so many in the world. Thank you for your friendship and kindness. And to Dr. Judith Holland, you were key to the success of so many UCLA Athletes.

Pete Newell and the Tall Women's Camp for sharing your basketball knowledge with the women and having fun doing it.

To all the Baseball Teams and Networks that my late husband Don Drysdale worked for. He found great joy and friendship in everywhere he went. Special thanks to the Angels, Chicago White Sox, and L.A. Dodgers.

To Bob Uecker—live, love, laugh is what you do. And without you, there would not have been Donnie and I. Thank you for bringing us together.

Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn for seeing what 2 good baseball men in the booth together could accomplish. Your undying friendship and loyalty to Don's family has been so appreciated. Thank you. And to Peter O'Malley and Terry Seidler and the Dodgers, you have ALWAYS been the “CLASS” of any organization I have been around, because you treated “everyone” like family. Thank you for embracing us in the Dodger Family with so much love and respect. You always have done things “the right way!” I will always be indebted to you.

Thank you to all the baseball players and personnel that have opened their arms to Don's children, especially Tommy (IZZY) Lasorda. All the hours in the dugout and on the field with the boys after their dad passed away. And still you and your family treat us like one of your own.

Robert Sarver and the Phoenix Mercury and Suns, thank you for your persistence in hiring me to be a part of a wonderful organization. And to have worked with Jay Parry, Amber Cox, Rick Weltz, Steve Kerr, Mike D'Antoni, Alvin Gentry, Paul Westhead, Jim Pitman, Corey Gaines, Lesley Factor and the hundreds of employees that make our jobs so much easier. Thank you to the thousands of WNBA fans and Mercury Season Ticket holders that have supported us and helped our players bring 2 WNBA titles to Phoenix.

I can't thank Don's folks, (who have since passed away) Scotty and Verna, and sister Nancy, enough for embracing me into their family. Kelly (Don's Daughter), you continue to be a guiding light for your sister and two brothers. Thank you! You are loved and appreciated.

And to Joni Ravenna, who, without her continued digging, persistence, and challenges, I don't think I could have told some of the stories that she got out of me. Thank you for your friendship Joni and never getting mad at me for saying “no” about a story. You quietly and gently persuaded me to be the best I could for you. Thank you for your everlasting patience and hours and hours of staying up to hear stories and doing rewrites. You are amazing!

To our agent, David Fugate, we thank you for your guidance and belief in the project.

To Lynn and Fred Price at Behler Publications, for having the enthusiasm to immediately say “yes” to publishing my story. I knew right away that with your forthright positive attitude that my story could be told.

Heather Riccio, how you keep me grounded with the new wave of social media. Thank you for making me look good.

And lastly, to the young girls and boys, women and men- believe in your passion, and don't let anyone tell you “you can't do something.” Prove them wrong!