People like me don\u2019t usually get to be in this position. We\u2019re not really celebrated for who we are \u2014 definitely not made the face of anything. And we damn sure don\u2019t get second chances, you know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be real: I\u2019m a black masculine woman from Folkston, Georgia. I\u2019m not corporate at all. No matter what room I\u2019m standing in, I\u2019m walking into that room as myself. And people are going to judge me just off the strength of that alone.\u2026 She\u2019s too hood. She needs some media training. I\u2019ve heard it all. I\u2019ve been judged and written off my whole life. I\u2019ve been thinking about that a lot lately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Look, my story\u2019s not cookie cutter. It\u2019s no Disney Channel Original Movie. I\u2019ll be honest, I was really in those fights. I was at those parties. Outside the club. On the block. That was all me. I\u2019m really from that. I really grew up with spinna\u2019s on the Tahoe. If that makes you feel some type of way, this story might not be for you. So you can just keep whatever impression you have. I\u2019m fine with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you want the real story, I\u2019ll tell it all.<\/p>\n
But first I gotta take you back\u2026.. Back to dorm rooms and hoop dreams. Teen romance and heartbreak. Love & Basketball type joint. You get the idea.<\/p>\n
Siri, play \u201cMy Boo\u201d by Alicia Keys and Usher. Lol.<\/p>\n
OK, story time.<\/p>\n
So boom \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s 2013. I\u2019m playing basketball at the University of South Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I got a secret girlfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, and she\u2019s one of my roommates.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I\u2019m from a small town, so when I was coming up being gay wasn\u2019t even a thing. People weren\u2019t really messing with that. I never even looked at girls in that way until I was 18 years old. Sometimes I would see someone and think, She\u2019s pretty. But that was always it. It was never, Oh, you fine. That didn\u2019t even cross my mind. By the time it did cross my mind, I was in college, and I kind of had the classic situation.<\/p>\n
Me and my best friend got closer and closer, until it became clear that we were maybe more than friends, and we started dating.<\/p>\n
Alright, just this one.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how it always starts, you know what I\u2019m sayin\u2019?<\/p>\n
Just this one girl.<\/p>\n
Jessica Foley for The Players’ Tribune<\/p>\n
Anyway, one day my mom and my sister, Doniece, were in town visiting me. And their trip just happened to coincide with me and my girl getting into a huge argument over another girl. But we can\u2019t really argue, you know what I mean? Because my family\u2019s there, along with another one of my friends, and they don\u2019t know we\u2019re dating. So it\u2019s all happening on the phone. I\u2019m hanging with them, and my phone\u2019s blowing up. Eventually, I just stop responding. Mind you, my girlfriend\u2019s in the next room over. I guess after a while she got fed up, because all of sudden she hit me like, \u201cAlright, when I come knocking on that door, just know I\u2019m telling your mom what\u2019s really going on.\u201d I\u2019m like, Pffffft. AIGHT. I\u2019m not falling for it. I\u2019m like, \u201cMan, I don\u2019t care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next thing I know\u2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
*Knock, knock, knock*<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Michelle, can I talk to you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yooo. I\u2019m like, Bro, WHAT?<\/p>\n
When you hear that knock in a scary movie it\u2019s over with. That\u2019s the LAST thing you want to hear. My mama\u2019s like, \u201cOf course, baby.\u201d So she takes my mom to her room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m sweating f***ing bullets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, I\u2019m starting to panic. I look at Doniece and my friend. I said, \u201cMan, I gotta tell y\u2019all something.\u201d They like, \u201cWhat? What?\u201d Because they see the fear in my eyes. They feel it. I said super fast, \u201cMe-and-shorty-been-dating-and-she-finna-tell-Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re like, \u201cOH MY GOD, WE KNEW IT!! WE KNEW IT!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
My mom comes back to my room. She\u2019s serious now. She said, \u201cCourtney, come here.\u201d I\u2019m just so happy Doniece was there, because she lightened the mood so much. She was laughing like, \u201cI\u2019m coming, too!\u201d My friend stayed behind. So me, my mom, and Doniece walk into my girlfriend\u2019s room. My mama goes, \u201cSo what\u2019s going on?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If this was a movie, right here is where they would cut to my sister looking at me. Cut to me looking at my sister.<\/p>\n
Then cut to shorty over here bawling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My mom is like, \u201cCourtney, I\u2019m going to ask you one more time.\u201d I put my head down. I said, \u201cMe and her have been dating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I tell you it felt like a bomb exploded in my heart\u2026. Oh. My. God.<\/p>\n
My girlfriend instantly stops crying and looks at me with the biggest eyes like, What did you just do? Now I\u2019m realizing that she ain\u2019t say nothing to my mama the whole time!!!! And my mom is shocked. She leaves the room. My sister busts out laughing and walks out the room with Mama. So they leave me alone with my girl. We broke up. Obviously.<\/p>\n
I went back to my room not knowing what to expect. I\u2019m thinking, Is she gon\u2019 be mad? Is she gonna disown me? The first thing my mama said was, \u201cI knew you and that girl had something going on\u2026. I know my child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she smiled. She said, \u201cIt was a game\u2026.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A game that they had come to see me play. All my family was there. I can still remember walking out of the locker room that day and seeing them in the bleachers. My mom said, \u201cWe were all right here in front of you, and the girl was across the way on these other bleachers.\u201d She was like, \u201cYou saw us. I saw you see us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then she saw me see her.<\/p>\n
She saw how my face lit up, and she knew that that wasn\u2019t the kind of lighting up you do when you see a friend. So deep down, she knew. I feel very lucky that when I came out, both of my parents were very supportive. To this day my mama will laugh and say like, \u201cI still don\u2019t know how y\u2019all girls do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut hey, I love you. I love who you love.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Picture Folkston candy-painted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burnt oranges, lime greens, cherry reds. That\u2019s the backdrop.<\/p>\n
When I tell you Folkston is small\u2026.. Man, listen. The biggest thing we have in Folkston is Harveys. We don\u2019t have Chick-fil-A, or Walmart.\u00a0We don\u2019t got none of that. We got Harvey\u2019s, McDonald\u2019s, and Burger King. But it\u2019s also just a really loving, close-knit community.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t even tell you why, but when Easter comes around it\u2019s going down in Folkston. Always. That\u2019s the biggest holiday we have. It\u2019s like a big-ass block party. We just all going buck on the block getting turnt up. We got this park called The Sticks, and everybody brings out their horses and their big-ass cars. I\u2019m talking about candy-painted donks with the 22s, big-ass trucks. It\u2019s flooded. I\u2019ll never forget when my cousin went to the University of Florida, my dad ended up getting a custom Crown Vic that had the Florida Gators painted on it jacked up on the 22s, too. So that\u2019s Folkston.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of The Williams Family<\/p>\n
The way I grew up, if you needed somewhere to stay, our house was always open, especially when it came to family. My mama\u2019s sister had mad kids. Like five or six. I remember them coming to the crib living with us. Another time, her brother\u2019s kids came to live with us. I was never alone growing up. Our house was always full. That\u2019s just who my mama was. So now, that\u2019s who I am. My people are my people. I\u2019ll always make sure they\u2019re good.<\/p>\n
Maybe it won\u2019t surprise you, but being from a place like that comes with high highs and low lows. You establish your values. You learn how to do without. You absorb all the flyness, the cars, the sauce. That becomes a part of your essence. But you also take on the other stuff, too. The darker stuff. The anger, defensiveness, the uncompromising sense of right and wrong. The street codes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You think when I got to the league, all of that just disappeared? Man, you trippin\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ever since I was little, something I\u2019ve always struggled with is, I hate being mistreated, or seeing someone else being picked on or bullied. I just don\u2019t like being played with. And in the past, when I felt like that was happening, I\u2019m not someone who could turn the other cheek. My parents raised me to stand on business. And that\u2019s sometimes gotten me into trouble. It\u2019s been my downfall. I\u2019m not saying this to sound tough, I\u2019m just being real. A lot of people won\u2019t understand, but people from places like where I\u2019m from, they get it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my sophomore year of high school my life changed because of a fight. Someone got into it with my cousin, and they didn\u2019t know she was pregnant so I jumped in to defend her. The cops came, they arrested us, and took us all to jail. I ended up having to go to court with my mama. And they sent me to an alternative school for the rest of the year. Something I wish more people knew about alternative school is that a lot of them don\u2019t help the kids there. They\u2019re basically just babysitting the bad kids. They\u2019ve already decided what type of person you are, so at that point, they\u2019re just preparing you for a life in the system. For one, the schoolwork is super easy. And two, you\u2019re almost completely isolated. We weren\u2019t allowed to ride the bus with the other kids. I couldn\u2019t go to any games, nothing. I missed prom that year. My school experience was just over.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of those things I look back on, and I\u2019m glad I went through it because I learned a big lesson about minding my own business, but also just life honestly. I realized the world didn\u2019t think kids like me were ever gonna amount to anything. We weren\u2019t worth saving. See, this is the stuff that people don\u2019t hear. They just think, Oh, Courtney got in some fight. That\u2019s who she is. But it\u2019s deeper than that. It\u2019s about the world I\u2019m from, how I was raised, what I\u2019ve been conditioned to accept, or not accept.<\/p>\n
It always starts with someone saying something crazy, maybe even as a joke. Everyone\u2019s had that experience, right? That part\u2019s universal. But we all grow up differently, and so our reactions are different. I don\u2019t play like that. I\u2019ll try and reason with you, but if you double down out of pride or something, I get upset. That feeling takes a hold of me so powerfully, to the point where my eyes start watering. All of a sudden you\u2019re thinking, I\u2019m about to lose it on this person. They\u2019re playing with me. I know it sounds crazy if you\u2019ve never felt it, but in a moment like that, you\u2019re ready to risk everything for your values. One time, before a fight, I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, to try and calm down. And I\u2019ll never forget, I\u2019m looking in the mirror. And I had the tiniest moment of self awareness like, Hey, do, you really need to do this? And I said to myself, Yep, I gotta do it. This has to happen.<\/p>\n
Jessica Foley for The Players’ Tribune<\/p>\n
I wish I could tell you that was my last fight. But y\u2019all read the news…..<\/p>\n
It was Atlanta, 2021.<\/p>\n
I was an All-Star that year. And I was living the kind of life people rap about. I\u2019m just being real!! Partying, sections. My girlfriend at the time was popping it in that scene and on YouTube, so I got caught up in that world. That\u2019s a world that I thrive in. Where I\u2019m from, I\u2019m used to being around black women who twerk, who are proud of being hood. These are my aunties, my uncles, my cousins. These are the spaces that I\u2019m used to being in. My grandma still lives in the projects right now. My mama lived in a trailer. When I go home and I turn up, I\u2019m on the block. That\u2019s where I feel \u2026 normal. Being in the league was where I felt different. That was the culture shock.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m playing for Atlanta, but I was also living this underground life in these gay spaces, think like extra extra black. It\u2019s not a corporate world. At the same time, I\u2019m still showing up to practice and doing my job \u2014 I was an All-Star. I just had this other stuff going on, too. One night, I was in a fight outside a club. I told the team about it at the time, and we moved on. A few months later I recounted the situation on YouTube. But I really messed up sharing that, and I have to live with it.<\/p>\n
That video dropped, and it went viral. I go on Twitter, and I\u2019m everywhere. People are like, \u201cLook at this hood-ass bitch from the projects. She\u2019s the problem.\u201d Just a lot of stuff like that. And I\u2019ll be honest, that really hurt me. I hated reading that. I had the owners from Atlanta calling me telling me to take the video down. It was a mess.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll tell you how real it got.<\/p>\n
Before the video, I\u2019m coming off an All-Star year, I\u2019m popping it. My agent is like, \u201cEvery team wants you, Court. You\u2019re going to be a max player next year.\u201d In the off-season, the league called my agent and said, \u201cWe want Court to come do player marketing.\u201d That was amazing. That meant I wouldn\u2019t have to play overseas. Well, fast forward, after the video dropped, the W called my agent, took the player marketing off the table. No team wanted to touch me.<\/p>\n
All of a sudden it was like, Courtney Williams is a problem.<\/p>\n
The only team that reached out was Connecticut, who knew me from the beginning.\u2026 but only for $70,000. That\u2019s not even a vet minimum. I\u2019m an All-Star, leading Atlanta in points, rebounds and assists \u2014 I\u2019m easily a max player, on any team. But because I messed up, 240 turned into 70.<\/p>\n
Jessica Foley for The Players’ Tribune<\/p>\n
Jonquel Jones is my dawg. JJ, I love her down. She was in Connecticut at the time, and she said, \u201cI want you back on this team.\u201d She took less than the max salary she could have gotten and that freed up cap space for them to offer me more money. That was huge. Man, what?? Listen, y\u2019all know \u200b\u200bI talk mess all day about New York because I can\u2019t stand them!!! Hahah. But in real life, JJ is my sister. That\u2019s my dawg. Nobody can play with JJ around me.<\/p>\n
So I ended up going back to Connecticut for a year. And then I went to a training camp for Team USA. And I think that just gave people the chance to see me in a different light.<\/p>\n
For so much of my career, I felt this tension between who I really am, and who I thought I had to be as a representative of the W \u2014 where I\u2019ve been and where I am now, pulling me in two different directions. It took me a long time to reconcile that. But when I look back on everything, the chance I got from Connecticut, the help from JJ\u2026.. That\u2019s when I realized, these really are my people.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll always be Folkston, all the way down. But after almost 10 years in the W, man this is my family. I belong here, too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I signed with Minnesota, I feel like I walked through the doors of our practice facility with something to prove. I had a big chip on my shoulder. This organization took a chance on me before it was cool. And I\u2019m honestly so grateful for that.<\/p>\n
I just really wanted to prove them right.<\/p>\n
Everybody knows Cheryl Reeve is a winner. Everyone knows the dynasty \u2014 Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Rebekkah Brunson.<\/p>\n
Cheryl is somebody who\u2019s so respected in this league, if she wants you on her team, you need to go be on that team. Even my mama was like, \u201cIf Cheryl wants you, you need to go.\u201d And I see why because Cheryl is a f***ing basketball genius.<\/p>\n
Yo real talk, when I got here, I won\u2019t lie, I thought it was gonna be a little boring, cookie cutter. Lol. You have to think, I\u2019m from Folkston!! So I\u2019m like, Who am I gon\u2019 vibe with? But then T ended up signing, and that was a relief because we played in Connecticut together and had a relationship. But I really didn\u2019t know what to think about everybody else. I just had, I don\u2019t know, maybe like an insecurity I guess. Like none of them are going to be able to relate to me\u2026. Man, when I tell you I was 100% wrong!! When I tell you these are some of the coolest people I\u2019ve EVER been around. And they\u2019re so different from me. A lot of these girls grew up in the suburbs, and I\u2019m like the opposite of that. So coming together as a team was really like worlds colliding. But I don\u2019t know man, it just works.<\/p>\n
Cheryl told me when they go into free agency, what they\u2019re really looking for is good people. There are so many women out here that are talented as hell, but how are you as a person? What is your temperament going to bring to this team? How are you going to mesh with the people that we already have? And I feel like that\u2019s really what it was \u2026 we all just meshed.<\/p>\n
I can literally pinpoint the moment it all came together. The ice-breaking moment was this one night we all went out to dinner, the whole team, and we were just sitting around this table chopping it up. And you could probably see over the course of the night, us warming up to each other and our impressions changing of one another in real time. And you know what else? That\u2019s probably the first time I realized how humble Phee is. She is the most relatable person in the world, bro, and doesn\u2019t judge anybody. Also, just seeing how she handles her business\u2026. When I think I\u2019m tired, I look over at Phee and think, Oh she really doing it big. She\u2019s a MOM, and she\u2019s really doing it like this. And you never see her complain. She always does it with a smile. That\u2019s dope as hell.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s actually funny, still to this day, I\u2019ll look to Phee as my gut check. True story. I posted a picture on Instagram where I had on a sports bra. Now back in the day I\u2019m just like, whatever, man. But now, I swear to God, I\u2019m like, \u201cPhee, is this too much?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cCourtney, that\u2019s fine.\u201d Hahaha. It\u2019s like, Alright, I feel good. If Phee say it\u2019s cool, we good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So yeah, we all went to that dinner the first night, and it was just like, Damn, we click.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I look back on my first year in Minnesota, I feel like that whole season was just us in a nutshell. It\u2019s a little unheard of, making a run like we did, with a team that\u2019s never played together. They brought in me, T, Lan. We had all these new pieces, and in that kinda situation, you\u2019re just trying to see what works. You want to win, but that takes time. When you look around this league at teams like that, they\u2019re usually not that successful that fast. Maybe they\u2019ll land somewhere in the middle of the pack, but they\u2019re not like a Finals contender, Game 5 team, you feel me?<\/p>\n
And listen, I gotta address the elephant in the room. We got unfinished business in New York.<\/p>\n
That Finals\u2026. I\u2019m still pissed, bro forreal.<\/p>\n
I think a lot of people, especially our fans, look back at the way we lost in Game 5, and have some things to say, about the officiating or whatever. I know people get caught up on the foul calling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not me.<\/p>\n
You know what I think?\u00a0<\/p>\n
FOUR POINTS.<\/p>\n
In Game 5, I dropped four f***ing points.<\/p>\n
It should\u2019ve never come down to a foul call.<\/p>\n
I had been hooping the whole series. And then the last game, I just s*** the bed. And Cheryl\u2019s so real. She told me that. Even after all that heartbreak, she straight up was like, \u201cIf you would\u2019ve played the way you had been playing, it wouldn\u2019t have even been close.\u201d So yeah, that game\u2019s going to stick with me forever. Forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think my legs were just kind of shot. And the thing is, having played New York mad times, at that point, it\u2019s about who can just go out hoop the other team. We already know what they doing. They know all our sets. We know all theirs. And at the end of the day, I feel like my mind and my body just weren\u2019t where they needed to be. I wasn\u2019t ready for the moment. And that\u2019s been my motivation all this year. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been locked the f*** in.<\/p>\n
I started eating better. I started….<\/p>\n
You know what? Why am I even talking? Y\u2019all see the results. Y\u2019all see the box scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019re coming for the title this year, man. We on a revenge tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been in this league 10 years now, and I need my f***ing ring, bro. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You know what I love being called?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cVet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s my favorite label.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just \u201cvet in this league.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so blessed to be a veteran in this league, man. I made a career out of playing basketball \u2014\u00a0not many people can say that. I don\u2019t think people really understand how hard that is.<\/p>\n
You want to know something? I didn\u2019t watch the WNBA when I was growing up because I just didn\u2019t think that was even attainable. In my mind, it was like, I need to focus on whatever I can do to get up out my mama house. I just had different priorities at the time. But even in college, I didn\u2019t believe I would make it to the W. Not until my junior year. At the end of the season, my coach said, \u201cI think you might be on the draft board.\u201d That really opened my eyes. That\u2019s when I started thinking, Oh, dang. This is real.<\/p>\n
Jessica Foley for The Players’ Tribune<\/p>\n
I\u2019m just grateful to the people that never gave up on me, who didn\u2019t write me off when they could have. I\u2019m also so grateful to Minnesota, to our FANS. To the organization. To the amazing women that make up our team.<\/p>\n
I was wrong about one thing \u2014 Minnesota is dope as hell!!!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m trying to get that f***ing ring. Believe that.<\/p>\n
But the real message I wanted to get across is bigger than hoop, to be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One last little thing about me. When I was finally drafted, my biggest inspiration at the time was Cappie Pondexter. I saw her, and I thought I could be just like her. She short like me. She tatted like me. I looked at her, and I really thought, That could be me. That\u2019s why I wanted to write this. I\u2019ve always felt that if you see it, you could be it. To some people that\u2019s clich\u00e9, but for me that\u2019s as real as it gets. Because that\u2019s how I was when I was growing up. I needed to see proof.<\/p>\n
Now, I want to be that proof.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I want to show kids that this is possible. But more than that, I want people to realize that you\u2019re not your mistakes. People will always judge you off your worst moments, but you don\u2019t have to pay attention to that. You\u2019re allowed to grow. I know plenty of people who had to get it out the mud, fell back and had to try again. That\u2019s just the way the story is written sometimes.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t make you bad. It doesn\u2019t make you a problem.<\/p>\n
It just makes you human.<\/p>\n
\u2014Court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People like me don\u2019t usually get to be in this position. We\u2019re not really celebrated for who we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-220642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}