You know, everywhere in the world,
the question inevitably comes up:
"Do you play basketball?"
(Laughter)
From the neighbor across the street --
"Hey, do you hoop?" --
to the five-foot-seven guy
at TSA PreCheck --
(Laughter)
that swore that he could
beat me one on one.
(Laughter)
I despise fitting
into the lane or the mold
that this question insinuates.
But I reluctantly say, “Yes.”
I am a two-time NCAA champion.
(Cheers)
(Applause)
Thank you.
A two-time gold medalist
and a two-time --
(Applause)
A two-time WNBA champion.
(Cheers)
But inside I scream, "I am so much more."
(Applause)
You see, barrier breaking
is about not staying in your lane
and not being something
that the world expects you to be.
It's about not accepting limitations.
It starts with inspiration,
and it's a foundation
built upon picking apart
what everybody thinks
is the right way to do things.
There are so many barrier breakers in here
that are fighting so hard to unlock doors
that they may never walk through,
but they do it anyway
because we're standing on the shoulders
of those that did it for us.
It's an uphill battle,
and it doesn't guarantee
big wins or lots of success.
And throughout that uphill battle,
I think all of us look for hope, right?
We all look for optimism.
And mine is my daughter
and this next generation.
You see, I get to be the mom
to an amazing 12-year-old daughter.
Yes, I know. I am partial.
(Laughter)
But she's pretty dope.
I've been fortunate enough
to travel the world with her
while she allows her mom
to fight for her dreams.
We've played in Russia,
and I say we because she really
does think she's part of the team.
(Laughter)
We played in Russia, Turkey, China.
And throughout that journey,
I thought I would be the one teaching her,
challenging her,
being the example for her.
But I’ve realized it’s a two-way street.
You see, at three years old,
I decided to enroll her
in school in Russia.
I was like, I wanted her
to have a normal life, right?
I want her to be able
to meet kids her age.
So at three, she befriended
this little girl. Her name was Masha.
Masha didn't speak any English.
Lailaa barely spoke Russian,
but her parents invited us over
to their house.
And so we went. We went for this playdate.
So we knock on the door,
and Masha's parents
open the door so graciously
and welcome us into their home.
And we step forward,
and I realize there’s no floor.
It's a modest home.
It's one room with a couch on the side
that pulls out into the bed
that they sleep on.
There's a wood fire oven in the middle
that heats the room
and that they cook with.
And at three years old, I was concerned.
So I go to grab Lailaa,
but I was too late.
She looked in the corner
and she said, “A dollhouse!”
And Masha and Lailaa ran to the corner
to play with the dollhouse.
I'm so proud that that's my kid,
and I can't say that I had
much to do with that.
She has a way of like uniting people,
finding commonality,
of rolling with the punches,
of making the best of situations.
I’ve always wanted to uplift her,
because the messaging
that I received from home
was never shrink yourself
to fit into this world,
that you're enough,
that everyone is enough,
but you need to be
individually you all the time.
I was fortunate to grow up
in an environment with my parents
and my two brothers
who empowered me every single day.
They told me I can do anything
I set my mind to,
so much so that my nickname was “Can Do.”
(Laughter)
And it was later extended by my brothers
to “Can Do Anything And Get Away With It.”
(Laughter)
I was the baby of the family.
Yes, I was the baby,
and I didn't lack confidence.
If I wasn't kicking the ball
out of the recess school parking lot
in a dress, to my moms despise,
or high, high in the trees.
I loved to compete.
At everything, not just in sports, either.
This one time my teacher
in elementary school, he said,
"I want to know who can learn
the helping verb song the fastest.
(Sings)
(Laughter)
I love to compete.
I was that kid. I was that kid.
(Applause)
But what I loved so much
was that I was allowed to be me.
I was allowed to compete.
I was allowed to speak my mind.
My parents encouraged that.
Just because you're a girl,
you don't have to stay in a certain lane.
And then something happened in 1997.
The women’s professional
basketball league started.
The WNBA had its inaugural season
when I was 11 years old,
and I saw people that looked like me
playing the game that I loved so much.
I no longer had to go out in the driveway
and try to dunk like Michael Jordan.
I could go out and get buckets
like Cynthia Cooper.
(Applause)
You see, my parents encouraged sports
because sports in their eyes
was a microcosm of life.
You learn to win.
You learn to lose.
You learn to work through obstacles.
You learn to get up
when you don't want to.
You learn to value differences,
because those are important.
But as I ventured out
into the world, I realized, like,
the world wasn't so uplifting
towards differences, right?
The world had a way of ...
putting differences in a box.
For instance,
I received my girls basketball
uniform in middle school.
It was old and smelly and tight.
The boys got brand new ones.
My brother worked his butt off
to get into one of the most prestigious
medical schools in the country.
My family was so proud.
We heard the whispers:
they said, “Quotas.”
The world had a way
of just putting differences in a box
and then getting mad
when we had the audacity to not fit.
Just as an individual,
you get mad at me for not fitting
in the box that you made.
There was a time that went by where ...
I didn't want to say yes
to the basketball question.
Because if I checked that box,
then I checked all
of their other assumptions, right?
So competitive juices kicked in.
I'll show you, I'll show you.
I'm going to be the best.
Girls can't dunk in a game?
I'll dunk twice.
(Applause)
You can't hold up an MVP trophy pregnant?
OK, I'll show you.
You can't have a family,
a career and nurse your daughter.
I came back nine weeks post-delivery
and I played in a game,
and I nursed my daughter for 13 months.
(Applause)
You can't be on the cover of a video game.
You can’t do a TED Talk as an athlete.
(Cheers)
(Applause)
But this entire time,
my idea of breaking barriers
was being something so that
the world could see that it was possible.
But breaking down barriers
isn't always records.
In [2021], like most of you,
I sat around the television
because I knew this was a moment.
I sat my daughter front and center.
I said, "Lailaa, watch this."
The first African-American Asian
Vice President was being sworn in.
This is a moment
that you might not appreciate now.
(Applause)
But in time you will.
And as Kamala Harris was being sworn in,
I said, “Lailaa, now look at her.
Now you can do that too.”
And Lailaa looked at me.
She looked through my eyes, and she said,
“Why couldn’t I before?”
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Suddenly, I felt this big
because I had become
what I despised the most in this world.
I had put her in a box
because you see,
the story that the world told me
was women aren’t Vice Presidents.
And I had assumed that that's
what they had told my daughter.
I'm telling you, Generation Z,
my daughter's generation,
they're changing the world,
they're changing the world
through conversation,
through unity and through living
as though boxes and barriers don't exist.
It's no longer enough
to just put your head down.
Get the job.
Accomplish the feat.
We have to unite, to come together,
to figure out why barriers
are there in the first place.
And Generation Z is doing that.
They're listening.
They're seeing both sides.
And they're uniting for causes
that don't directly impact them.
We have entire sports leagues
that are standing up
for what they believe in.
It's no longer just one athlete.
We have men that are fighting
for women to receive equal pay.
We have white allies
that are protesting racial inequalities.
We are talking about mental health.
And you know what's so special?
My daughter the other week
came up and handed me
a list of stores that we're
not allowed to shop at anymore.
(Laughter)
I’m like, “Lailaa, like,
another lesson, like, already?”
She's like, "Mom, we're not allowed
to shop at these stores
because they're not
body positive and body conscious
towards all shapes and sizes.”
(Applause)
And you know what, I'm listening,
I'll be honest, and I'm learning,
and you should, too,
because my optimism lies in the next.
That they will take
our obstacles, our struggles,
our insecurities, our challenges
and not see them as obstacles,
but as opportunities.
Or they may not
even acknowledge them at all.
I'm proud because Generation Z
are proud, bold, and they're themselves.
Because those ...
that were told that
they can't their entire life
are having kids that are
making us believe that we can.
So go ahead, ask me if I play basketball,
and I’ll proudly say, “Yes.”
Because I realize I was the one
putting basketball in a box all along.
Thank you so much for this opportunity.
(Cheers)
(Applause)