They treated her with kid gloves, and yet there she was drawing a charge on John Kuester during a one-on-one drill. Just last year, she and Charlotte Hornets color commentator Stephanie Ready made history as analysts working the same game. Prospective teammates weren’t much kinder. You’re here to play.

She is known as a standout player in the Olympic Games, high school, college, international tournaments, and the professional levels. Forty years later, Ann Meyers Drysdale is still opening doors. She served for various events including both men’s and women’s NCAA basketball games as an ESPN analyst since 1983. Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. LaMelo Ball Does Whatever He Wants. She was previously married to Don Drysdale. In the end, it was the doubt that led her to the NBA.

Thankfully, I took back control of my health. She played pickup at Pauley Pavilion and in Las Vegas with the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and Magic Johnson. I'm Amy Myers, MD. She was home in Southern California for two weeks in the summer of 1979, between leading the U.S. to a medal at the Spartacade Games in Russia and rejoining the team in Squaw Valley in preparation for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when Pacers owner Sam Nassi telephoned. “It certainly changed my life,” Meyers says of what was a harrowing choice at the time. “Billie Jean King was still doing stuff, too, so to have that comparison was very, very flattering, but I thought to myself, No way am I Jackie Robinson.

Meyers was honored as a Wooden All-Time All-American in 2001 by the Wooden Award. Her experience with the Pacers earned her an invite to “Superstars,” a sports competition broadcast on ABC.

Her time with the Pacers included a brief stint as a broadcaster at the start of the 1979-80 season, another first in the industry. A few months later, the Pacers released Meyers from her deal. A year after she was drafted No. That was never my intent.”. It’s a fascinating question, one long debated on sports radio. She received 2003 NCAA Silver Anniversary Awards. I was hurt. 1 overall, Meyers joined the WBL, the same league that shunned her for joining the Pacers, publicly declaring it “a mockery of competitive athletics.” Her rights had been traded from Houston to New Jersey. Meyers has surely been asked it too many times to mention. Previously, Meyers worked for NBC Sports as its lead WNBA analyst for full-time from 1997 to 2002 and she worked as an analyst on ESPN’s coverage of the WNBA. When people give you a chance, why not take it? She is known as a standout player in the Olympic Games, high school, college, international tournaments, and the professional levels. |  Pacers coach Bobby “Slick” Leonard flew to Los Angeles in hopes of persuading Meyers not to play. “If I don’t make that decision, I’m just one of the 1980 U.S. Olympians who don’t go to the Olympics.”, Meyers wanted to focus on making the roster. She set picks. When she was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, she received her first Hall of Fame membership in 1985. It may not work for them, they may think it’s wrong, but somebody believes in you, and that’s why I say don’t look back on your life and say, ‘What if?’”. And who would’ve thought I would’ve married someone who played with Jackie Robinson.”. Our conversation turns to the patriarchal power structure and Showtime’s “The Loudest Voice,” starring Russell Crowe. I did the best I could. In 1980 became the first female player to try out with an NBA team - the Indiana Pacers. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban suggested in 2013 that he might draft Brittney Griner, but that would not have worked. You can imagine the coverage a woman trying out for the Pacers would receive now, and Meyers is happy not to have had to face the added social-media firestorm.

“I think when you're trying to build a winner, this is no way to convince our fans that we are serious about our cause.”. Nassi had just bought the team, three years after the former ABA franchise’s entry into the NBA. “To me, that said they didn’t really take it seriously or think it was that important to save a lot of that information.”. If Meyers was going to commit to the Pacers, she had to be convinced she could make the team. Meyers was the first high school student to play for the U.S. national team in 1974. She turned the ball over and stole it right back, picking the center clean when he brought a rebound too low.

It was there she met her husband, Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, a host on the show along with Bob Uecker. Spouse (1) Don Drysdale (1 November 1986 - 3 July 1993) ( his death) ( 3 children) Trivia (9) Vice president of the NBA's Phoenix Suns. Last year, the Pacers named Kelly Krauskopf, who played for would-be 1980 U.S. women’s national team coach Sue Gunter in college, the first female assistant general manager in NBA history. Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. There is no doubt her career carved a path for the dozens of women working in the NBA today as trainers, coaches and front-office executives. It was not easy to accept.”. She was previously married to Don Drysdale. Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Participants competed in a series of sports of all kinds. But it’s not necessarily the ability that is the biggest obstacle. Meyers received the Mel Greenberg Media Award in 1999 presented by the WBCA. By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy, “Well, in case Ann doesn't make it,” Washington Post columnist Dave Kindred wrote in 1979 of Ann Meyers, the first woman to sign an NBA contract, “the Pacers say she'll stay with the team ‘in some capacity,’ which could mean, I guess, she'll cook pregame meals for the real players.”. That’s always how I’ve felt about it.”, Yet, Meyers says current players know little of her accomplishments — a now decades-long résumé in basketball that spans the NCAA, NBA, WNBA, USA Basketball and several of their predecessors. He was supportive. The Pacers had other ideas. It happens almost constantly, Phoenix Mercury star Devereaux Peters wrote in a 2018 op-ed piece for The Washington Post. It’s always like, Well, they don’t draw, they don’t do this, but it’s a support system. Have a tip? She has covered a wide variety of sports for major networks in the U.S, including Goodwill Games, men’s and women’s college basketball, and NCAA softball and volleyball held in 1986, 1990 and 1994 respectively. Besides, as she wrote in her book, “What matters is not that I was the first, but that I not be the last.”. So, she seized it. Meyers also telecasted “Hoop-It-Up” in 1994 and 1995. She was cut. In essence, if they block my shot, big deal, it’s only a girl. Meyers was the first prep player on the national team, eventually winning silver at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the first woman to receive a four-year athletic scholarship from UCLA, the first four-time All-American women’s basketball player and the first player in Division I history — male or female — to register a quadruple-double. She is a major figure in the history of women's basketball and sports journalism. “This whole thing was done in L.A. by our owner, and I can’t possibly see how this can help us,” Pacers forward Mike Bantom told The New York Times 40 years ago on Sept. 5.

She has a blonde hair and brown eyes. Meyers was accustomed to playing with men. A seven-sport athlete in high school, Meyers won three straight seasons from 1981-83. The Pacers kept two rookies, Dudley Bradley and Tony Zeno. As much as we’ve moved forward, we still haven’t.

“I go down, and he’s like, ‘Annie, Annie, are you OK?

More mistreatment claims hit Washington, including Dan Snyder's alleged threat toward cheerleading director, Compre agora a sua Van ou Furgão Vidrado Sprinter, The Premier League has a VAR crisis.

“That’s when I knew it was harder for the guys, because their reaction was like they didn’t want to hurt me. My pieces are the physical evidence left by an on-going inquiry into who I am and my relationship to the world. Conventional medicine failed me and it is my mission to not have it fail you too℠. “It comes from the top and how they speak and how they treat people,” says Meyers. “Even she said, ‘What is our organization coming to?’ Even in the organization, people were not happy about this girl coming to embarrass our organization. View the profiles of people named Anne Meyer on Facebook. They held a press conference in L.A., where an unprepared Meyers stood beside Nassi and Leonard as the media asked, “Isn’t this just a gimmick to sell tickets?” She doesn’t remember a female among them. (Getty Images) Ann Meyers is an eminent American sportscaster and basketball player who has made a huge impact in her professional career. “He just lit a tirade of verbiage, looking everybody up and down and basically saying, ‘She’s here to play. Before I became a physician, functional medicine expert, and 2x New York Times bestselling author, I desperately struggled with gut issues, autoimmunity, and chronic symptoms that nearly destroyed my life.

Ann has 1 job listed on their profile. Forty years since her tryout in Indiana, nobody has a better perspective on the matter than Meyers, and that perspective comes with the knowledge that as far as women have come, there is still so much trail to blaze. There are no such rumors and controversy related to her personal life available at the current moment.