Hot Take: Interview with Bridget Pettis, veteran WNBA player and coach
On July 20, 2020, Shireen interviewed former WNBA player and coach Bridget Pettis, who now dedicates her time to her non-profit, Project Roots AZ. They talk about the WNBA, former players coaching and owning teams, the importance of gardening, how to get started if you want to garden (and/or you have a black thumb like Shireen), and the importance of failing.
Project Roots is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Phoenix, AZ. They focus on ways to educate the community about growing their own food through various educational programs. They support the homeless by feeding them from their local community gardens and mobile kitchen service, supplying hygiene items, clothing and shelter. Project Roots AZ offers seasonal produce bag delivery services in certain parts of the Phoenix area and can be found at the Farmers Market at Spaces of Opportunity. For more information about Project Roots AZ and to donate: www.projectrootsaz.org
Music during the episode: "Sunspots" by Sound of Picture www.soundofpicture.com
Transcript
Bridget: Just being who I am, and I hope to encourage people not to be like me but to be who they are.
Shireen: Hello flamethrowers, Shireen here. I’m so excited to have Bridget Pettis on with us today. Bridget Pettis is a legend, has three decades of experience in the WNBA as a player, coach, and executive. Her career began in 1997 when she was selected by the Phoenix Mercury as 7th overall pick in the first WNBA elite draft. She played in the WNBA for 8 seasons with the Mercury and Indiana Fever before joining the Phoenix coaching staff as an assistant in 2006 and helping them to two championships: 2007, 2009. She’s served as the Mercury’s director of basketball operations from 2010-2013 before joining the LA Sparks as an assistant coach. Then she spent 3 seasons with the Dallas Wings and, most recently, as an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky. She is the founder and executive director of Project Roots which is a non-profit aiming to provide and educate the community with access to a community gardens, food bank, and mobile soup kitchen. They seek to provide and promote a healthier, natural and sustainable way of living in urban areas and, as Bridget said, to educate and feed the south. Welcome, so much, Bridget.
Bridget: Thank you, thank you so much for having me.
Shireen: There’s a lot of hype about the WNBA, which is long overdue. For those that follow, we know it’s been an amazing league. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen, from all perspectives – player, coaching – and what are the biggest improvements you’ve seen in the league?
Bridget: I think honestly everything has always been an improvement. We’ve just been a growing league in itself, player-wise, every player, players…The talent has improved, the coaching level with the technology and information that we’ve been able to upgrade on has improved. In every area that I’ve seen the WNBA is constantly improving. This year is gonna be one of the biggest paid out years, so even financially the WNBA is improving. The support has been growing slowly but it’s not at the level that we’re all wanting it to be on and know that it can be on. The WNBA is only here today 23 years later because it has been improving. I know in certain areas financially it hasn’t always profited in the best ways, but it is growing. It’s image that it’s putting out there as far as community and service and helping to connect with the youth and education, it has improved. It’s been making a huge impact on our community, just the empowerment of young girls and empowerment of sports itself and what it does for us, so I think the WNBA has been on a great path and I’m encouraged that it will continue that way. I see more and more support in it, and the effects that will come from that will benefit our community.
Shireen: You are one of the few Black women coaches and assistant coaches, part of the staff. Are you hopeful that that balance will even out and get stronger as the league continues?
Bridget: Absolutely. I mean, I think the former players need to come back and they’re looking to come back, more opportunities present themselves. But not just coaching, but also ownership of teams. We are educating ourselves on a whole other ball game – becoming owners, things that we have interest in. So I think we’ll see more WNBA owners that were Black women players, as well as in the executive positions.
Shireen: Yeah, that’s really important. I think that’s one thing that gets sometimes lost in the discussion is ownership and executive roles, not just playing for so long, but we’re talking about coaching at different levels, and officials, even. When you transition from a player to a coach, what’s the biggest thing you miss about not playing anymore?
Bridget: I think you go in the beginning of it, it’s just a weird position, like, you’re used to being on the court and making things happen. You have to learn to communicate as a way of making things happen, you have to learn to share the game in a different way. So I think that was the biggest adjustment, besides the shoes. [laughter] You didn’t always get to wear tennis shoes, but now it’s comfortable. But the game is the game. I learned the game at a young age and you just get to be a part of it and give back in a different way, so it was nice.
Shireen: I love that, about the shoes, I mean. These are things people don’t think of, but it’s so important. You being an identifiable Muslim Black woman are one of the very few in major league sports, it’s such an important role. Do you consider yourself a role model for the young girls out there, or it’s just part of who you are and what you do and you don’t give it that much…?
Bridget: Yeah, I don’t give it that much. It’s just who I am, it's the path that I live, and I’m growing in all my ways. I know that when I was young there was a player that I looked up to, LaTaunya Pollard. I didn’t need to be around her much, but just the fact that I knew that she had interest in the same things that I did, it encouraged me to keep going. It encouraged me in my own walk. Absolutely, I know that being a part of the WNBA for so long I’ve seen the young girls look up to us and be inspired to go on their own paths, and the other areas that it’s just as inspiring – in our faith, in our choices of our health, it just depends, you know, what people connect to. I’m just being who I am and I hope I can encourage people not to be like me but to be who they are.
Shireen: Speaking of growing…This is a beautiful transition. Let’s talk about Project Roots!
Reporter 1: WNBA star turned coach has really made a mark on the community here.
Reporter 2: She uses her voice to get the most out of professional athletes; now, WNBA coach Bridget Pettis is using that voice to better her community as well. She’s starting a community garden in South Phoenix.
Reporter 3: Great story – I had the pleasure of speaking with Bridget Pettis about her passion for growing food.
Reporter 4: Tending to athletes, the former Phoenix Mercury assistant coach is now tending to the many vegetables she’s now growing as part of Project Roots, a non-profit shooting to educate and feed those most vulnerable.
Shireen: [laughs] That was a great segway. How did you get interested in community gardening and this type of community organization where gardening and sustainable food is really a huge conversation that we want to see grow and want to see get larger. How did you get into that?
Bridget: I started growing at a community garden myself. I was a part of a community that was teaching me the lay of the land and how to grow food from it. It gave me knowledge, knowledge to my family, knowledge to the community on a better, healthier way of living. So I just got into it because I had interest in it. The reason I started it because of all the benefits of it as far as the amount of food that comes when you grow your own food, and then what we could do with it and how we could put this back into the community, how we can teach other people how to do it. We can bring organic food back to our tables without it costing so much money.
Shireen: Right.
Bridget: For me it just seemed like a smart direction to go in my life, that could benefit my own lifestyle first and then I wanted to present it in a way where I could offer it to other people as well. A community garden is like my new basketball team, you know? [laughs] We’re doing something different. In everything, it takes everybody. So I’ve been used to working with people; this is how we created Project Roots. It’s not just me, it takes the community to do it. We have volunteers going out there today offering their time and their energy to be a part of something that could benefit all of us.
Shireen: And you’re nurturing, like, I love that metaphor with the basketball team, because you’re coaching them, you’re nurturing them, you’re trying to get them to grow. I mean, my zucchini plant needs a lot of coaching and nurturing, so maybe you can give me some tips about that. [laughter] But I think that’s really fascinating. The conversation so much these days is about health as well, it’s about sustainable growth and growing your own food. It’s not just an economic conversation, it’s a health conversation. I know especially in this time…I know you left your coaching job at Chicago Sky and it was because of your concern for issues around health. Did you not think that that was being addressed within the way that it needed to be, from the league as a whole?
Bridget: I mean, I think that it’s both ways. I only have my perspective, I thought that we should pay attention to it a little bit more, and they felt like they were getting all the information that they could, so what do you know?
Shireen: Right.
Bridget: My biggest concern was, well, where can I make the biggest impact? I love the game, it’s blessed me in so many ways, but I actually was a part of what I was doing starting Project Roots hands-on, and I could see the bigger impact that it was making. I trust the players, you know? I had a good conversation with the Chicago team before I left and they’re all focused on making the impact that we can make, and that’s the way that they believe that they can make the biggest impact, even on social justice, which I’m a supporter of, so I encouraged them to go ahead and walk their path if they feel comfortable to do that; I’m just gonna go off and walk the one that I know I’m being called to do.
Shireen: That’s wonderful. Do you feel at all like you have impacted other basketball players with your involvement in community gardening? Because that as a whole can lead to greater conversations about community involvement and, like you said, social justice issues. Have you managed to get other people in the league to start considering community gardening as well?
Bridget: Um, I don’t know if I’ve gotten too many involved in community gardening, but I definitely know I’ve gotten a lot of them to start gardening. [laughter] You know, I think the good thing about athletes – we’ve been connected to our body. We use our bodies to the best abilities that we could, and even if we choose not to be a performing athlete anymore we’re still connected in this way and we use our body to the best benefit that we can. A lot of former players are interested in how they can stay healthy, how they can provide for their families in a healthier way. I’m glad that I’ve been a part of encouraging them and inspiring them to do that in their ways, and there’s players out there that have encouraged me to do many things as well. Sue Wicks, she’s an oyster farmer now! She was a former New York Liberty player, so she encouraged me to go back to fishing, you know? Connecting with the land in an even different way.
Shireen: Sorry, did you say oysters?!
Bridget: Yeah, she’s an oyster farmer. [laughs]
Shireen: That’s amazing. I mean, these are things that I think we don’t hear enough of, these really cool projects that are definitely grassroots and getting back from the land and doing it in a holistic way. Let’s start at the basics, Bridget. What is the easiest vegetable to grow?
Bridget: Easiest vegetable to grow…
Shireen: If people have limited, like, I don’t have a yard. Can we start with, like, a pot, kind of thing?
Bridget: Yeah, tomatoes.
Shireen: Okay.
Bridget: Definitely. [laughs] I say grow tomatoes, because then you’ll learn watering when you spend time with them, you’ll learn how to water. You can tell if they’re thirsty, you can tell if they’re getting too much water, and the food is very evident on a tomato.
Shireen: Yeah.
Bridget: And the tomato makes people feel better because it gives multiple fruit.
Shireen: So, out of all the things that you’ve done, the many incredible things you’ve done – do you feel like gardening is as difficult as coaching or playing at a professional league, or is it all different kinds of challenges?
Bridget: Nah, it’s all different kinds of challenges. I was just coaching my nephew the other day, and getting him to understand the concept of messing up. I said, “Mess up all day, keep on. Do the drill, mess up and mess up and mess up. That’s how you’re gonna get better. Don’t make a big deal out of messing up.” That’s my approach. I’ve killed many plants…[laughing]
Shireen: Okay, I feel better right now, to be very honest! It took me years to figure out how to grow basil.
Bridget: Yeah, I’ve drowned many basil plants. [laughs]
Shireen: Amen.
Bridget: That’s how you learn, you spend time with it. You’re in your garden, you see how the plant grows. The best way to grow, I will say, is from seed, because you get to get the beginning stages of that, seeing the sprout and the sunlight and the amount that it might need. Now, seedlings are the starter plants, they’re what people who typically haven't grown any food, they prefer that, because you wanna see something, right? Visually.
Shireen: That’s me. [laughter] Yep.
Bridget: So that’s a good way to start. My sister does a lot…She started with seedlings, and I’m amazing at her garden.
Shireen: You’re an athlete who works with your hands, so did gardening come naturally to you? Because again, you’re working with your hands, you know what I mean? You’re putting yourself into it, your body into gardening. Some people might not consider it a natural transition. Was it an easy transition for you?
Bridget: It was easy for me because I was always an outside…I am still an outside person, so I think that’s the big adjustment for people. You know, we’re a television generation where we commit so many hours inside, and I’m just not. [laughs] So that was the easier transition. But my mother, she grows a lot of plants, started her garden. She was a big part of just keeping me connected to plants, nature all around me.
Shireen: That’s amazing. If somebody wants to support your work at Project Roots, how do they do that?
Bridget: The best way – go to our website, projectrootsaz.org. We have a donation page, you can donate in many ways. We also still are in need of different supplies for our community garden. We’re also looking to extend our community garden back at my hometown where I grew up, Gary, Indiana. We’re looking for land out here to start a community garden, which is a majority African American community. Just to spark interest here and get the knowledge in the area where I’m rooted from.
Shireen: That’s beautiful and powerful. Thank you so much for that. I will keep trying with he plants.
Bridget: Yes. [laughs]
Shireen: I’m very motivated by this conversation, you have no idea. I’m very very grateful for this wisdom. I’ve struggled with gardening; my kids have said that I have a black thumb. But I like what you said about messing up. Keep at it. I want to thank you so much. Good luck with Project Roots, and I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy. Thank you for being on Burn It All Down.
Bridget: Thank you, thank you for having me.