'I MADE GUYS RESPECT ME AS A BALLER'

Basketball Hall of Famer SHERYL SWOOPES talks about being a Title IX baby and the first woman drafted into the WNBA

- SHERYL SWOOPES

IT'S CRAZY TO THINK THAT we are celebrating 50 years of Title IX, and I am happy to say that I am a product of Title IX. I was born in 1971, a year before Title IX was signed into law but I still consider myself a Title IX baby. There are moments when I look back on my life and career and couldn't imagine life as a female athlete without this law.

As a young girl from Brownfield, Texas, who started playing hoops at the age of 7, basketball was life! I knew at a very early age how much I loved game and that there was something special about me and that orange ball.

I remember every time my brothers would leave to go play basketball, I would cry until my mom finally gave in and would say, "Go ahead and go, but don't come home hurt or crying."

Hurt? Crying? There's no crying in basketball! I could never get enough of being on the court. Not only did basketball teach me about competition and how to deal with different personalities, it taught me self-confidence and how to trust in myself and believe in myself at a very early age.

Oftentimes I would be the only girl playing with my brothers and the fellas, but that never deterred me from wanting to participate. I never looked at it as being wrong or weird. To me, it was normal and an opportunity to work on my game and get better; the guys challenged me every time I stepped on the court, and I gladly accepted it.

Once, I was picked for a team because the guys only had nine players and needed one more to play five-on-five. I guess they thought they were doing me a favor by letting me play because no one would guard me and they “let me shoot.” It wasn’t until the summer of my college freshman year that I finally gained their respect as a “baller.”