Dec 21, 2021

The former WNBA player and current Lakers coaching associate is using her “Mamba mentality” to rebuild spaces in basketball for Black women.

Shay Murphy is no stranger to fated happenings. Whether it was using basketball as a coping mechanism in the aftermath of her father’s early death, dealing with the untimely loss of her basketball idol Kobe Bryant or eventually stepping into her role as the first Black woman coaching associate for the Lakers’ franchise—the former WNBA star always finds a way to “turn breadcrumbs into bread,” something she attributes to her own Mamba mentality.

Murphy has a natural generosity with which she prioritizes the well-being of the athletes around her, from focusing on the mental health of the players she manages to ensuring more equity behind the scenes. Now, the 36-year-old is concerned about the next generation of Black women stepping into, dominating and rebuilding spaces that weren’t built for them.

It was natural for the Los Angeles native to be a lifelong Lakers fan, but she never would have imagined the role basketball would take in her life until the death of her father in 1996. “In order for me to go back to school, I had to go to child therapy and an afterschool program,” Murphy says. “Basketball was something to distract me as a 12-year-old mourning the loss of my father—literally just so I would stop crying.” 

This new way of handling her grief would set the trajectory for the rest of her life, including a run-in with the man who would become her idol, Kobe Bryant. “We signed up for the YMCA, and that same year Kobe entered the NBA with the Lakers. He and Derek Fisher came to speak to my team,” Murphy recalls. “It’s all so crazy. My dad never saw me play. We couldn’t even afford basketball shoes. My whole family chipped in and bought me my first pair of Nikes that same year. Now, I’m working for the Lakers and Nike at the same time.” 

Murphy went to college at USC and, following a successful collegiate run, was drafted by the Lynx. Ten years after losing her father and beginning her basketball journey, Murphy started her 10-year career in the WNBA, playing for the Lynx, Shock, Mystics, Fever, Sky, Mercury and finally the Stars in 2017. Her WNBA career was supplemented by a 10 years as a professional player in the EuroLeague, playing in Greece, Spain, Russia, Turkey, France and Montenegro in the offseason.

The death of Bryant, who inspired her career and whose path she had followed closely, was another moment of fated realignment for Murphy. She was just a few months into a new dream job at Nike, as an assistant product line manager, when she received the news about her idol’s death. “ I was at church when it actually happened, in Oregon,” she says. “I broke down. Everyone thought I lost a close family member.” And in many ways, Bryant’s death brought up old feelings of losing her father.

“I just flew back to L.A. to take a week off and mourn the loss,” Murphy says. “It was so crazy, because Kobe died at 41. My father died at 41. Everyone knew my connection to Kobe. He means so much to me. He is my whole mentality. I applied the Mamba mentality throughout my whole life, whether it was in academics or physically in the game.”

Her 2021 appointment to coaching associate of the Lakers and her career at Nike were more opportunities for Murphy to defy the adversity set in her path, and to leave that door open for Black women coming behind her. “I just got inserted, like an alien, into this new world of corporate America. Without any tools, without any guidelines, without any onboarding. Because when you're the first, everything’s not ready for you,” she says. 

When it comes to the actual game, Murphy is confident the Lakers can be a top-five team in the West—if they follow her four-step plan. “With any new team, it takes time,” she says. “We had a great preseason and strong bonding. LeBron’s a great leader on and off the court. But there’s four C’s. Conditioning—you have to be conditioned to play, conditioned to receive, conditioning your mind and body.

“Then there’s chemistry—that’s going to take time to build. To create a legacy, a dynasty, there’s no grey area in that, you either have it, or you don’t. Then there’s consistency. You have to do all of this consistently, and you have to do it with your teammates. Day and night for 84 games. Finally, confidence. Once you have that, the sky's the limit.”

However, based on her own experiences, Murphy knows nothing can move without mental health at the forefront of the game. She wants her players to know and feel that their emotional intelligence and well-being is as valued as their physical strength. “We say this game is 90% mental and 10% physical. So why aren’t we tapping into emotional intelligence?” she asks. “Forget sympathy—where is the mental empathy?” Rather than being stifled or overwhelmed by the ostensible adversity of being the “first Black woman,” Murphy uses it as velocity to keep moving forward. 

“When I'm walking into Staples Center every day as the only Black female, I'm not toning myself down, not for Nike, not for the Lakers. I'm always going to be me,” she says. Murphy is looking to effect long-term changes that will encourage not only her team, but Black women coming after her to bring their full, nuanced selves to all spaces, and to transform those spaces and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

“We've come a long way. I'll celebrate small wins, but we still have a long way to go,” Murphy says. “I think for Black women it’s really about empowerment. Some people play the game. Some people change the game. I won the game by being my true, authentic self. I am the game. There’s not one seat at the table. We are the table, and you can come to meet us.”

Her solution to the misconceptions Black women working in basketball face daily? Increased representation and more Black women at all levels of the game. “We offer a different perspective,” she says. “These corporate spaces, Nike, the Lakers. They’ve been doing it for 100 years, their way, the white way, the male way. Now, there's a new way to do it.” 

Original post: https://www.si.com/nba/2021/12/13/shay-murphy-lakers-coaching-associate-100-influential-black-women

Dec 21, 2021

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As women across the world reflect on personal stories, survival testimonies and memories of loved ones, survivorship organization Sisters Network is focused on the importance of sisterhood during the battle of facing and conquering breast cancer.

Cancer survivor Karen E. Jackson was in search of support, empowerment and hope when she was living in Los Angeles in 1994. She’d recently learned she had stage 2 breast cancer in her right breast.

“I went through my six months of chemotherapy, and the six weeks of radiation and the surgery [lumpectomy],” she said.

During that fight for her life, all she wanted to do was pick up her phone between her visits to UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center for treatment. She longed to speak with other women who were battling the same disease, women who could relate to the stress surrounding the battle — black women. There were none. So she founded Sisters Network.

“When I found out that there was no number to call to talk to women that looked like me, and who were going through the same experience in an organization that I could want to be a part of, I felt the need to do this,” she said.

With no money and very little resources, Jackson went on a mission to create a network for black women across the United States fighting the same battle. According to the Sisters Network’s website, “Jackson’s primary motivation was to break through the silence and shame of breast cancer that immobilizes African-American women, restricts their ability to receive support services, interferes with early detection and ultimately affects their survival rates.”

She accomplished her mission and now the organization is the only national African-American breast cancer survivorship organization in the United States, with a membership of more than 3,000 and 40 affiliate survivor-run chapters.

“When you find someone who has the background similar to yours and experiences, you don’t have any racial problems between the two of you,” Jackson said. “We deal with racial problems every day in our lives, that give us stress, and the disparities just keep piling up. When you come together in a cultural situation where everybody is just starting off in the same playing field, not economically, not on the educational basis, but because we come from the same cloth, it helps to keep your focus on getting better, rather than issues that challenge us every day, other issues.”

Jackson had a desire to break barriers in the breast cancer industry that often alienated women of color in the conversation due to the lack of diversity and resources within traditional organizations. She opened up shop in her home, using her landline as the business phone number.

“I never answered my home phone, ‘Hello, this is Karen.’ It would be, ‘You’ve reached the national office of Sisters Network.’ It was my home phone. I didn’t have to have any money extra to use a phone. The phone numbers that Sisters has now is the phone number that was my personal phone. I never changed Sisters; when I moved, I changed my phone to a personal phone.”

Sisters Network provides resources that are critically important to black women. In 2011, the organization’s efforts impacted the lives of about 3.9 million families through its outreach programs.

“Women were finding us after being diagnosed and much later in their stages. I really feel very blessed that now women are calling us earlier,” Jackson said. “We can help them reach their full potential of survivorship because we have resources and connections across the country.

“Women need to know that once diagnosed that it’s time to find that new normal where we are embracing who we are at that time. At Sisters Network, we help women to become more comfortable, as you would say, in their skin.”

Jackson said she had to learn about launching Sisters Network and navigating the breast cancer landscape while she was just dealing with her own situation.

“There was no blueprint for a Sisters Network, so I pretty much had to figure out what it was that I was looking for, and I started with that premise.” Jackson said. “What I needed and couldn’t find is what I wanted to be able to assist other women with. I envisioned a national organization.”

A recent study conducted by the Avon Foundation for Women found that the breast cancer mortality rate for black women is much higher than for white women. From 2010 to 2015, black women were 43 percent more likely to die from breast cancer and accounted for 30.7 deaths per 100,000 women.

While these numbers are alarming, Sisters Network is continually serving black women with the education and resources they need. Under Jackson’s leadership and vision, the organization hosts the only National African American Breast Cancer Conference. It has launched other outreach programs, including Stop the Silence National African American Breast Cancer 5K Walk/Run, Teens4Pink, Gift for Life Block Walk, Pink Ribbon Awareness and the First Ladies Brunch.

In the 22 years of Jackson’s efforts, she said she thought by now that the level of resources and awareness education would be more accessible to black women.

“I thought things would have been completely turned around and all women would have the knowledge that they need to save their lives and all women would be able to access the information, access the treatments and the facilities.” Jackson said. “To my dismay, I guess I was too optimistic. As much as we’ve impacted our community, there’s still so much more to do. We know that the treatments, access and knowledge still need to be imparted through the women across the country.”

Through Sisters Network, Jackson is reminded that sisterhood is important.

“I would meet women who really and truly needed to hear from someone who looked like them. That’s what I wanted, and that’s what I looked for,” she said. “It matters, the sisterhood is real.”

Jackson was diagnosed with cancer again in 2014, this time in her left breast.

“I was diagnosed with stage 0 the second time around,” she said. “I knew what I was looking for. I knew it was there even before the ultrasound and mammogram. I could feel it. Not with my hands; the sensation was there. I can accredit that because of my knowledge and intuition and sensitivity of knowing my body. I had the surgery and radiation because it was stage 0. I didn’t need to have chemotherapy.”

Jackson feels that women must put their health as their top priority and they need to be able to gain the knowledge they need to recognize the warning signs.

“Your health is all you have, and everything else comes after that,” she said.

Sisters Network continues to evolve. Jackson was so inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement that she is launching a new initiative called Breast Health Matters.

“We are in tune with the movement within our community because things that happen to us in health do happen to us in other areas and vice versa. We’re not a separate segment within the community,” she said. “Health is those disparities and challenges that need to be removed and not accepted. Breast Health Matters initiative will help to point these disparities out in a different way, so that we can start working on eliminating them.”

Original post: https://theundefeated.com/features/sisters-network-is-the-only-national-black-breast-cancer-survivors-organization/