St. John’s DaShena Stevens inducted into Connecticut Women’s Basketball HoF
On April 23, DaShena Stevens, a member of the St. John’s University Athletics Hall of Fame, received another honor, this one tied to her home state: She was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (CWBHOF) in recognition of her outstanding play at Trinity Catholic High School and with a nod to her incredible accomplishments with the Red Storm, scoring 1,515 points during her collegiate career.
“It was amazing,” said Stevens. “A lot of my family was there and some of my friends. It was a reunion in a sense. Then, being able to meet some of the individuals from the selection committee and others from the CWBHOF was exciting.
“Both of my parents played high school basketball; they went to Stamford High School,” she added. “To have both of them there was excellent.”
As a standout high school player, Stevens received a lot of attention, but always remained focused on team success. “From a playing standpoint, I had to play every single position—the one through five,” she recalled. “In college, I had my position, maybe a hybrid position, but in high school, I played them all. That was cool…also, keeping everyone involved and making sure it was still fun. These were all your best friends.”
Coming into college, Stevens had insight into each position, which she said made her a better teammate. She was instrumental in making St. John’s a national presence, including being part of the Red Storm team that broke the University of Connecticut’s 99-game home court winning streak. She was excited to see St. John’s do it again this year.
After graduating in 2012, Stevens played professionally, and eventually returned to St. John’s as assistant coach for three seasons before turning her attention to athletics administration. Today, she is the deputy director of athletics at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.
In addition to the contingent of parents, sibling, uncles, cousins, and long-time friends, Stevens’s daughter Aria was in attendance. “As she’s getting older, I think she’s realizing that when everybody talks about me and basketball, they’re talking about me playing,” she said. “She said, ‘I think you were kind of good. Can you still play?’
“She’s starting to know that side of me,” Stevens added. “She Googled me the other day when we were at home. She saw all of my basketball pictures. That was a proud moment.”
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Brittney Griner holds first press conference since return from Russia
In the months after Brittney Griner’s December release from a Russian penal colony, she kept a relatively low profile. While she and wife Cherelle have made a few public appearances, attending the Super Bowl and the NAACP Image Awards, Griner has not sat for a televised interview or held a press conference. On April 27, with WNBA training camps about to kick off, she faced the media for the first time.
The press conference was hosted by the Phoenix Mercury, the team for which Griner has played since 2013. She wore a shirt indicating the Mercury’s support of Bring Our Families Home, an organization focused on bringing attention to individuals wrongly detained overseas. This mission will be part of the team’s platform this season.
Griner noted that there was more media in attendance than what she normally sees at a Mercury press conference, and she encouraged the media to cover the WNBA throughout the 2023 season. “I expect to see this same coverage because we have a great product,” she said.
“I’m no stranger to hard times,” said Griner about her resilience in the face of an overwhelmingly negative situation. “Just [keep] digging deep, honestly. You’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one, but I just kind of relied on my hard work [for] getting through it.”
Being prepared to play professional basketball again after nearly 10 months with no play or serious training has been challenging. “It’s still a process,” Griner said. “As an athlete, you always want to be where you left off, and I left off playoffs, finals in Chicago. I wanted to be that player when I started back, and everybody was telling me to give myself grace and it’s going to take time, but that’s the hardest thing to a pro athlete because we always want to be right back at our tip-top shape. It’s liberating as well, just getting back to my craft.”
As was discussed repeatedly during Griner’s detention in Russia, she was there to earn money in the WNBA’s off-season. Asked if she’d play overseas again, Griner’s answer was decisive. “I’m never going overseas to play again unless I’m representing my country at the Olympics,” she said. “I’m hoping that our league continues to grow, and…I hope you continue to cover our league and bring exposure to us.”
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South Africa’s Freedom Day proclaimed in NYC
New York City Mayor Eric Adams raised the brightly colored South African flag high above Bowling Green Park as he proclaimed April 27, 2023, South Africa’s Freedom Day in the city of New York.
In his comments during the ceremony, Adams said, “This is the second time we’ve been able to come here to Bowling Green to raise the flag for South Africa, and my love and aspiration for the country. I still remember the days of driving from Soweto to Port Elizabeth to Jo’burg to Cape Town and just seeing a beautiful country and what it represents, and the spirit and energy that looking out from Robben Island, a place where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years…in prison, and the 29th year of acknowledging Freedom Day and what it means and what it represents. As the country continues to evolve from so many years of being under the grip of apartheid, that shows the resiliency of the country and what it represents.
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“I am so proud to say that I am the second African American mayor [to make such a declaration]. Sometimes when I say I am the second African American mayor, we only focus on the ‘American’ part. But let’s be clear: I am African. I am African, and we should not allow ourselves to be ripped apart from the success.
“When you look up and you watch me speak and stand on and fight for what is right, something special should come between what you are feeling and our ancestors [who] lie on the bottom of the ocean floor. This is a proud moment for them because although you can take away the physical presence, the anatomy of our spirits and our heritage and our lineage—it goes throughout time. It doesn’t end and it doesn’t conclude. It is always here, so you can hear the cries from Fort Elmina in Ghana, you can hear it from Goree Island outside of Senegal when we visit there in the Door of No Return.”
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