A WNBA MVP sought direction in retirement. One word helps her find it
· Yahoo Sports
This article is part of our Life on the Other Side of the Game series, which explores the lessons former athletes have learned in retirement about success, fulfillment, and perspective.
Every December, Tamika Catchings asks herself two questions: What matters to me? And what impact do I want to have?
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Based on her answers, she chooses a single word that can embody it all. It becomes her “word” for the year, a way for her to streamline her everyday life.
Catchings, 47, developed this process only after her decorated basketball career: WNBA MVP and champion, Olympic gold medalist and a 2020 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
After basketball, she said she needed to learn how to operate differently. Choosing one word to guide her each year became a starting point. And it was also the starting point of our conversation about the changes she’s made in her second act.
(Note: Responses have been edited for clarity and length.)
You started to frame all your goals around one word. What made you do this at that point in your life?
As a pro athlete, your schedule is everything. For the most part, it was like: I get up at 6:30, I’m out at 6:45, and I’m at the gym by 7. It’s very regimented.
To me, thinking about your goals goes along with knowing what your schedule is. I’m 10 years removed now, and I still have this struggle. I don’t have a consistent schedule every day. Every day is so different. So it’s a little bit harder to be like, “OK, I’m going to achieve this.”
For me, being locked into one word gives you flexibility throughout life.
My word for this year is intentional. Maximizing time, being intentional with family and friendships and the things that I’m engaged in. Not just floating along.
You can get into that mindset after basketball. Like, I don’t have to go work out. I don’t want to go through this.
Having that one-word focus helps me stay a little more focused.
How did that change things for you, or maybe change the way you think?
The goal every season was always to win the championship. Get better as an individual player, get better as a team, but win a championship. Now you’re not on a team.
When I finished, my first role was the director of player programs and franchise development for Pacers Sports & Entertainment. I remember they sent me up to Fort Wayne for our junior league at the time. I remember going up there, and when I got back, they were like, “OK, did you send in your expense report?” I’m like, “What the heck is that?”
The whole time I had no idea. How do I do this? There weren’t any instructions.
For so long, my whole life had been around the things I knew. I knew the steps that I needed to do to succeed on the court. Now you’re flipped to the other side, and you get thrust into a role and nobody really explains what you’re supposed to do.
You’re learning, but it’s like you’re drinking water out of a fire hose. My perspective did change.
The first time we had a game at home for the Fever, after shooting around, I was like, “OK, I’ll see you guys at the game.” And they were like, “Where are you going?” I said, “Well, I’ll be back for the game.” Like, no, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done from shootaround time to game time. You don’t get to just show up.
As players, that’s what we do. We show up, we do our shootaround, we go home, we get our nap, we get food, we get ready for the game, come back to the gym and you don’t realize all the people that have put things together for us to show back up and not have to worry about anything else.
I lived with blinders on. Rightfully so; that was my job, that was my profession. But I had to take those blinders off and really look at, “OK, now what?”
I’m sure you learned a lot about yourself, too.
The first word I ever framed things around was grace. I had to give myself grace, honestly, because I am such a perfectionist. I want things to be done the right way. I want things to be done at a high level.
On the court, you’re shooting 60 percent? You should be in the gym — no off days. My mindset was always that you need to operate at your best.
And I think on the other side, because there are so many things I didn’t know, I would get frustrated with myself.
I had to learn to give myself grace and say, Hey, you know what? You’re learning this. Just like anybody else coming into this situation, they have to learn how to do the job. Some people have had way more experience, so they can do things quicker and get things done. You’ll get there.
Do you feel like your view on success changed?
It’s funny you ask, because I need to do a better job of celebrating the small successes. It’s always like, “OK, we accomplished this. Check. Now on to the next.”
The last time we talked, you said you were realizing now that if you don’t reach all of your goals, it’s not necessarily a sign of failure. You just might be growing in other areas first before getting there.
I am in such a different season now, too. I don’t know if I told you this, but now we have a son. My husband and I have a son.
Wow, congratulations!
Thank you! So that has been going on, and we didn’t announce it right away. We waited because in the beginning I was like, “I just want something for us. I don’t want to have to share with the world.” Because I know the next question would be, “Well, how are you going to do all of that?”
Now we’re introducing him, and he goes to different places with us. My life has changed; my perspective has changed. My time has changed. What I want to do has changed.
What I am finding myself doing more is: wait, take a beat. It was always go, go, go, go, go and my family would always be like, “You’re just so busy. You always got something. You don’t have any spare time.”
I feel like that’s something I’ve been more intentional about, and part of it is with our son. I want to be in his life, and I want to be there. It’s important for me to be present, so I take a beat and am OK with it.
Before, I would try to accommodate other people and other people’s schedules, and now I’m OK saying, “Yeah, I don’t have time.”
On the other side of things, is there anything from your basketball career that is still the same? Or something that’s never left you?
Discipline and time management. Actually, I think with basketball, you get to a point where it’s: Make the main thing, the main thing.
I do think that is the same thing for me as I get into motherhood, and I’m still doing speaking and commentating and all these different things.
So my main thing right now is my son and my family. Everything else comes after that. But that’s where the intentionality and the discipline come from. I’m not perfect, but I have found that, from that basketball standpoint, it’s definitely an area that has carried over.
I always leave it open at the end. Is there anything else when you reflect on your different careers and versions of yourself that comes to mind?
There was a year right after I finished basketball when I focused on not saying no and being open to trying new things. When you’re a professional athlete, there are things you can’t do. You can’t ride scooters; there were many limitations in your contract.
So early on, right when I retired, my first focus was to be open to new things. I think that’s really important not only as a professional athlete transitioning, but for anybody transitioning.
Sometimes we get so locked into, I have to do this. This is what I’m good at. I’m only going to do this. And then you don’t open your horizons. I feel like that’s important for all of us.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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