Swin Cash enjoyed a very successful 15 year run in the WNBA from 2002-2016. She finished her playing career as a 3-time Champion, 4-time All-Star, and 2-time Olympic Gold Medal winner. Now, she's the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the New Orleans Pelicans.
As Cash and the Pelicans prepare for the 2021 NBA Draft and the free agency period that comes with it, she also took time to give back to the community she grew up in.
Swin Cash recently teamed up with The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation to support its Sports Matter Giving Truck #LetHerPlayTour and on July 15, virtually surprised a group of young female basketball players in Pittsburgh at the Boys & Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania through.
She also took the time to speak with ClutchPoints after the event to discuss why she's giving back to her community, inspiring young female athletes, the evolving WNBA game, and the Pelicans future.
Tomer Azarly: What is it you did for some of the girls out there in McKeesport, Pennsylvania today?
Swin Cash: Yeah, I think we basically did a really really cool event where we’re able to use technology and I was able to communicate and talk with the girls as part of this Sports Matter Giving Truck and we were able to give the girls supplies and apparel, just to continue to inspire them to participate in sports and it was cool for me also because it was in conjunction with a site that one of the sites, a boys and girls club, and I’m a boys and girls club alum, so that kind of was special for him as well.
Azarly: Why was it important for you to give back to these young female athletes?
Cash: From the standpoint you’re talking about, giving away 15,000 pieces of equipment, giving away 15,000 sports bras. Like, as a young female athlete, I understand how important it is to have the things that you need and at a time when parents necessarily don’t have the ability all over the country to pay for those extra things. Dicks is stepping up to the challenge and providing that for some of these young female athletes. I’ve had a long partnership with Dicks and even my non profit and having them support us throughout the year, so when I heard about this program, it just was a no brainer because it makes sense because of the values and what they stand for personally aligned with who I am as a person, who I was as an athlete, and what I represent now as an executive.
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Azarly: Was this kind of a case of you seeing yourself in some of these young girls and trying to inspire female athletes to become pros or inspire them to do other things?
Cash: I think if you just look at how I’ve been throughout my career, I live the mantra and the scripture, ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’ And I feel it’s pivotal that other female athletes, also male athletes as well, you’re given this platform and you wanna make sure that you can maximize it to its potential so when you have great parters that believe in that, that understand that, it just makes for a great relationship and that for me is the biggest thing. I not only see myself in some of these young female athletes, I now as parent of two young boys, I see myself from a parents’ standpoint of kids needing resources, of kids needing apparel and equipment because they’re gonna be involved in sports and how this game and some of these free things these young girls are getting today is going to directly affect the pockets of their parents. So I see it from different views now being older and being a mom, but I also was able to see it just being a young athlete who grew up in humble beginnings in McKeesport who didn’t always have the means to buy a lot of the things that was needed and people stepped up to the plate to also help me and inspire me along the way.
Azarly: Is this — giving back to the community and young athletes — something you told yourself you wanted to do while your were playing and going through your career?
Cash: Yeah, I was just raised that way. My mom is one of 12, I have like 75 first cousins. We’re a big family, we’re a big sports family, you know. It’s impossible to grow up in the Pittsburgh area and not be connected through sports somehow and that so that was part of our DNA and that’s why I said people helped and inspired me along the way. One of my mentors, Bob Gallagher, was a huge influence in my life in how he was able to give back to me, not only — people think of just the financial gifts you get — but it’s also of your time. I think that matters just as much. Some of these young girls who may not even know about my playing career, they’re gonna now be able to go back and say, ‘hey, I talked to Swin Cash,’ and because of the resources we have on the internet, they can go and look at the things I’ve done and understand what it meant today to have that time to talk and ask questions to help them along the way.
Azarly: How has the WNBA game evolved since you came and left the league?
Cash: What I’m seeing — and I was actually talking about this yesterday as I was in Vegas at the WNBA All-Star-USA Basketball Game, the women are understanding of like, there’s a career after college. A true career that financially, you’ll be able to provide for yourself and your family. They understand and now have the means to provide the resources. Like I work on the men’s side and I see how our guys spend so much money and time, whether it’s with a nutritionist, whether its working on our game, player development, having a coach that can help them and women back in my day — I don't feel like I’m old, but I definitely am seasoned — we didn’t have those resources. We’re out there working on our game and stuff, but now, they have the coaches that are talking about how you can manipulate the game, how need to work on your handles and get up tight. Before it was, ‘let’s just shoot right hand layups the same way.’ It’s like no, multiple ways of getting the ball off when there’s the floater game so that’s where I see the women have really started honing in on their skills and that’s why I think these games are so dynamic and fun to watch as these young women grow.
Azarly: I think the NBA has done a better job over the last decade becoming more diverse with women in higher positions. Do you almost look at people like yourself, Becky Hammon, Teresa Witherspoon, Natalie Nakase, and all the other women rising up to the top in the league as sort of trail blazers to show, ‘hey, we can do this at a high level too?'
Cash: When I came into this position, I came in with the understanding that, yes, I’m gonna be an executive, I’m gonna be in the front office and what my role was gonna be, but I really had no idea til it was announced and the outpouring from men, from women, from young guys wanting to ask questions, seeing themselves in me. It was something that was surreal to be honest with you. You see it through sports and in my playing career, people say I wanna play in the Olympics, I wanna play in the WNBA. Well then it just changed to, ‘wow, I can be an executive. I can be at that level in the NBA.’
It wasn’t until someone told me that — I think it was Vince Goodwill — we were having a conversation and he was like, ‘Do you understand you’re one of the highest ranking women and one of the highest ranking African American women in the basketball ops side in the NBA?’ And I was like ‘Wow.’ Understanding that responsibility that comes with that, it’s not about me, it’s really about doing the best that I can do, the best in my ability, in making sure that door is a revolving door for other women coming behind me and it’s not just a door that opens and closes. That’s how I think about my career, that’s how I think about legacy, that’s how I think about us having generational gains in these positions, whether its in sports, whether its in corporate, whether its in society in general.
Azarly: This season was kind like no other. Just curious as to your thoughts on the Pelicans season and where you feel the team needs to improve?
Cash: Yeah, you’re always evaluating, you’re always trying to get better. I think that we ran into the same issues that every other team did and that was having to deal with a pandemic year and testing and having injuries kind of hit us at a certain time in the season, so you have to look at all those different things.
Of course, during the year, you’re trying to figure out how you can get better. Right now, we’re in the middle of a coaching search, we have the draft that’s coming up, so our front office, is digging in. We believe in our core, we believe in the direction of the franchise, and we’re just gonna continue to grind it out. I think every day having an opportunity to wake up and get better, see our guys getting better, and how hard they’re working is what we’re focused.
Azarly: Lonzo Ball is set to become an unrestricted free agent in a few weeks. How do you view him and his future with the franchise?
Cash: Well that’s one thing I probably don’t wanna comment on right now. We’ve talked extensively about what we’re going to do this offseason. I think Griff talked about it, so right now, our focus is on the draft, then on free agency after that. Like I said, we’re really excited about our whole young core and I think it’d be unfair just to talk about one guy here and one guy there. I think as a collective, I’m excited about our team and that’s where the focus is right now.
Azarly: Is there anything that Zion Williamson has done that’s surprised you?
Cash: No, I don't think there’s anything that he’s done that’s surprised me? I would say — Okay, you know what. He has surprised me when I started going with some old school music that I was definitely surprised that he knew more hits from Jay Z than I did. That was the surprising thing.
Our young guys, I thought they were all into it because right now, from a hip hop standpoint, everybody’s named Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, Lil this, Lil that, so when I started playing the old school rappers, I’m talking about Jay Z and Nas and stuff like that with our guys, I definitely was surprised by that about them.
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