Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
Indiana Fever’s Erica Wheeler had a rough childhood and lost her mother her junior year of college. She joins The Fan Morning Show to discuss her journey through life and basketball and how losing her mother affected her. She is one of two all-stars on the team. Erica talks about how basketball and sports were her way of staying out of trouble and gives her insight on the impact that sports have on people’s lives.
On how losing her mother affected her:
“I sat out for one year and I didn’t play basketball at all. It was rough. I had to find my way back to my true love and I did. One of my friends helped me with that by giving me the opportunity to play. At the time, I was working because I am a competitor. I was not just going to sit around and wait around. I was working two jobs trying to make ends meet. I got that call to play again and I changed my dreams again I knew once I switched my energy and got back to my true love, I knew great things would happen I just didn’t know how…” “…My mom passed away my junior year and I wasn’t going back to school because at that point I was like ‘i’m only graduating for my mom, so I didn’t really see a point.’ But, Vivian at the time was my coach and she came and got me from Miami and was like, look ‘I made a promise to your mom that you would graduate and we have to fulfill that promise because now more than ever she is watching both of us and we don’t want to disappoint her.’ I ended up getting on a plane the next day and going to summer school before my senior year and I finished out my senior year and ended up graduating. I didn’t have a good basketball career at the time. It was up and down and I knew I wouldn’t get drafted but at that time I didn’t know what I was going to be doing but I graduated and I fulfilled that dream.”
On what recent success in women’s sports (World Cup Champions) means to her:
“Ah man, it is amazing. To me personally, it is inspiring. We both are in a profession that everyone in the world is looking at. We have the younger youth looking at us to potentially be one of us one day. For them to do the things that they did and the style that they did it was super phenomenal. It was very inspiring. They did it unapologetically, with a smile. It definitely gave me some chills. I don’t even watch soccer as much so I don’t know all the rules but I know when the ball goes in, you are cheering. When we watched the game, that is all I remember doing. I didn’t know the meaning of the flags of anything but I knew when USA scored, I was cheering and I knew there was something big about it when they won. They are amazing women, every last one of them. They did an amazing job at representing women in a way that many people can’t so I think they took the opportunity and did very well with it.”
On what it is like to be able to inspire young kids today:
“I do a lot of things in my community in Miami and I started from there but it is definitely a passion of mine to be able to tell young adults that never to give up no matter what the circumstances are. I am living proof of that. It is one thing to make the WNBA but to be named among the greats, the all-stars, there are players who have been in the league for more than give years and haven’t been named an all-star. I didn’t get drafted, I been in the league for five years and I became an all-star. That is nothing but hard work and dedication and being relentless. For me, I think that is a great example for young kids, a guy or a girl, going into their career or really trying to pursue something that they want. You don’t always have to have your name called to be one of the greats. My name never got called. I was always the last one in line picked, I was always the last one on the floor. It is not about how you start, it is about how you finish. You do it in a way that you have people respect you. You respect the game and you respect the people and that goes a long way.”
Join The Fan Morning Show for more sports news and updates! The Fan Morning Show
