Talk to me about just winning that championship in the process.

Especially going through the bubble on everything is excitement of it all.

Yeah, well, the bubble definitely made it a little different on it wasn't necessarily okay, So obviously the whole season was different.

But the championship itself, it still felt like, you know, a team on this journey and the process and the ups and the downs that all felt the same with, Of course, you know, we were dealing with co vid, obviously social unrest and what we were doing in the W NBA was was happening.

But once we got to that final moment of winning, the biggest difference was the no fans.

That's really what made it.

Yeah, you really start to realize just how much they play a role, like in the emotions of it, all the highs and lows of a game.

But then, when you want, it was no like explosion.

Um, we still celebrated as much as we could, and I always say the best part about winning two things one that night you could never duplicate that night.

It's always the best night, and then the offseason, like I'm a champion for the next, Like, six months.

This is amazing.

Exactly.

So you just start to soak that in?

Was that weird parting with masks on and 6 ft from each other and trying to hit him with the champagne from that far away?

It was that very difficult, you know, we were in a bubble, So the beauty waas I got to hit people with champagne without their masks on clothes.

Oh, yeah, Just right to the face.

Conservative.

We'll also was exciting to is you and Meghan getting engaged to write.

So walk me through this whole excitement of this.

Obviously, I'm a lover by nature.

And Jeff are, you know, one day, maybe you.

But someday we're hoping it's like the peloton.

It's all in the future for May Jeff, who's weak.

But anyway, special someone?

Yeah, exactly.

But to talk to me about you and Meghan, obviously, uh, your relationship Just that feeling of getting engaged.

Yeah.

I mean, to be honest, I didn't think being engaged was going to make me feel different.

I felt like for a long time, with Meghan in a good way, like it felt like forever.

We were kind of We talk about things like for in a forever kind of way.

But then I have to admit, when when the moment actually happened and like, I mean, so this is the ring.

So she basically had slipped a ring off her finger and was just like it was only one I have here.

Just wear this.

So we don't really have official rings.

Yeah, I don't know.

That was allowed.

I might get engaged after all.

I didn't know it was a prompt poles.

Yeah, it was an impromptu proposal.

So we'll give her the past.

We'll give her the last, but it does.

It feels it feels different.

It feels like a little more.

I don't know.

Just official.

I remember when even seeing that got engaged.

Like there's nothing better than saying that the word fiance You guys like, use the word fiance like a lot.

It's like one of you makes you feel special, doesn't it?

A little bit.

I feel grown.

Yeah, actually.

What?

It is mature.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a cool feeling for sure.

Well, eso Listen, Jeff, you got another question before I kick you off of this thing is before I get cooking with Ross here, and I'm excited to listen to you to cook.

That's what I'm excited to dio eso.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go one on one.

Me and you're talking about greatness.

Legendary success.

Just everything you've done over your career really highlighting you and just everything you've done and just obviously been a great friend.

You've been an inspiration.

So I really wanna pick your brain a lot of things and let our fans, you know, danger talking your fans.

Really?

You know who you fully are.

So we have some fun here, so Jeff will hop back on here and soon, but eso so obviously.

Obviously you you're born in New York State, right?

Where were you born exactly?

I'm from Syosset, New York, which is on Long Island.

So a suburb of New York City.

So did you Were you always a fan of Yukon growing up, or did you always see them play basketball or how?

How that how that come about like yes and no more.

No than Yes, but there was a little Yes, there's actually the story that my intramural team so we'll call it like fifth grade.

Uh, my coach.

He had, like, some connection with the ST John's women's team, and so he took us to a game and we were kind of going to be not kind of.

We were the halftime show, so you know, you might go to a local teams, but and then, like, they let kids run on the court at halftime and mess around, and they happen to be playing UConn that game.

And it's one of those things.

Where had I never gone to Connecticut?

I don't know that I would have even connected it.

But that was one of the first times I saw, like high level basketball, college level basketball being played, and it happened to be UConn, and it definitely stuck in my head.

So then you fast forward, you know, 10 or so years, and it's kind of ironic that that's where I ended up going.

It's kind of crazy when you were when you were young, like I had this distinct image of my sister.

For example, when I looked out my window, I had this window and I look out.

We had little wasting a little colder cycle corner of the end of the road, and there's a basketball hoop.

My my sister was four or five years old and doing reverse layups of my dad and as a fine memory that I have in my in my brain about my dad and my sister's relationship and just how my sister love started loving.

You know, basketball so much.

And you know, when can you take me back to when you were young and when you really started falling in love with basketball?

Do you have, like, that image that that moment in time when you were really young, you really to go back and say That was the moment that I started learning the game?

I mean, there's actually I feel like I just had five different moments kind of rushed to my head.

Um, it was it was a sport.

So soccer and basketball my first love's.

But there was always something different about basketball, and it came pretty early.

I mean, my mom there's an ongoing, you know, story and my family like legend.

My mom had toe lie so like the camp down the street to get me in.

I was in like kindergarten.

You had to be in second grade.

She's like, Yeah, just the second grade.

But right away I wanted to be in the mix, whether it was locally in the park with the kids in my neighborhood, whether it was that camp and then finally when I joined teams.

But I think the one moment that really sticks out Waas I joined my first AU team which, you know times are definitely changing with how important au is.

But for me, that was like au was it that was your rider die team.

I was with the same team pretty much my entire, you know, au existence.

And that was when you, like, went to the big competitions.

That's when college coaches watched you in high school.

So I went to my first A You try out in fifth grade and I made the Long Island team and we went to a tournament and we lost to the queen's team.

But the way it worked waas Yeah, and this was to go to nationals and a U Nationals.

I'm telling you, it was like biggest deal and I was upset and then the coach comes up to my dad and is like Hey, you know, we're allowed to take guest players.

Would your daughter want to come with us?

And and and it's like I knew it in the moment.

But looking back the minute I joined that team, it changed everything.

Because now all of a sudden, basketball like, Well, first of all, being selected as a guest player, it made me be like, Oh, I must be pretty good.

So this is your m J moment of, you know, when you're in high school, middle school.

This is your M J moment right here.

Yeah, it was It literally changed everything.

Had I not played for that.

A team who knows what happens?

Yeah.

So we did you You talk about soccer and basketball.

Were you better in one when you were younger?

Like, were you?

Were you actually better in soccer or his basketball?

Like now?

I was dominant basketball when you were young.

Um, good question.

I think I was pretty good at both.

Like good enough where I end up choosing basketball like solely basketball after, like going into my junior high school.

But up until that point, I was getting college letters for both sports.

So I was like, I was like, pretty even.

I was pretty even.

So what?

So take me back to the decision of you, you know, deciding UConn.

You know, what was that moment?

Uh oh.

You did, huh?

Everybody here that, you know, Stanford.

One different one today, actually.

Uh, game.

But take me to that decision between, you know, even having to decide between UConn and Stanford.

Obviously you're from the East Coast, but, you know, making a decision like that.

You know, toe, pursue, obviously basketball Thio.

Try to go for your dreams and everything else.

That's a big decision.

So take me Thio for every young kid out there who is listening and making that decision.

What made you decide UConn in that moment for you?

I'm sure some other kid wants to hear You know how that can help them.

Yeah.

So the short answer is that's really where my heart was telling me to go.

That's the short answer.

There was just something about I was just I was drawn to it.

Whether it was, you know, the fan support they had, which at that time was unprecedented.

They were sold out every game, whether it was when I finally got to campus, like being around the team.

Off course, the coaches plays a huge role in that.

Just there was just something about it where I felt it just felt right.

And also I started there because if I rewind back to the start of the process, schools like Stanford and then my my other, my third school was Vanderbilt.

Those schools kind of like crept in on UConn, and now the sudden I was seeing this, this other world, you know, And Stanford is a great example in California, pal.

All those beautiful.

I mean, honestly, looking back, it's kind of crazy.

I didn't go like as an adult.

That's where yeah, I visited.

Oh, yeah, it's tough now.

The fact that you went to all we got to Stanford and visited there, and I was jealous of my sister when she when she took her visit.

I got to go out there and see everything I'm like.

This is where you go to school, you know?

I know I was like, there's a lot of palm trees.

What is this place?

It's like magical here, Um, as an adult, that's where I would much rather live there than stores Connecticut like There's nothing going on in the stores, and it got tricky at the end of my process.

And, you know, for people when you get recruited, it's like phone calls.

Its letters.

They try to like, wine and dying you a little bit.

You take your visit and then at some point, you know, at some point you're making this decision.

And at the very end, I remember one of the final conversations I have with Coach Auriemma.

He was just like, Oh, like, you know, tell me what you're what you're thinking, what you're feeling.

And I was like, Wow, I'm like my heart is telling me Connecticut, you know it, really It always waas It really was always, you know, that's what that's what showed up.

But I was like, But, you know, some things have crept in in my head, is kind of telling me, you know, maybe I need to look at these other schools and he literally was just like we were on the phone and he was like, Well, I hope you follow your heart, you know, like let me know and hung up and I was like, Wait, what?

Right.

But in all honesty, that was the best advice in that moment because even my parents, you know, my parents were huge into academics.

And my dad was like, Are you sure you don't want to go to Stanford like this?

Could set you up for life And I was like, Yeah, there's just the pull.

And so I think the moral of story is there definitely times when things can get confusing.

But usually your gut, your heart.

Usually that's telling you what to dio.

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