9 mixed Olympic gold medals. Six WNBA championships. Twenty-one All-Star appearances. One WNBA MVP. Sue Hen and Sylvia Fowles, two of essentially the most embellished and prolific basketball gamers in WNBA historical past—and each amongst Adweek’s 2022 Most Highly effective Ladies in Sports activities honorees—every stated goodbye to their skilled careers just a few months in the past, selecting to retire on the prime of their respective video games.
“What makes myself and Syl fascinating proper now could be we’re actually one of many first crop of gamers which have had these prolonged, prolonged careers,” stated Hen, noting the WNBA is just in its twenty sixth season. “We’ve been in folks’s houses, on their TV units, on the Olympics for [more than] 15 years, and that’s not even together with faculty, when each of us had been family names.”
Nonetheless, regardless of their profession similarities—each credit score Nike as an early supporter and are represented by Lindsay Kagawa Colas at powerhouse company Wasserman—their alternatives and expertise off the basketball court docket have been wildly divergent. Solely certainly one of them has been a fixture in model spots for 20 years, earned a plethora of media protection and been given each future alternative to proceed as an business mainstay. In the meantime, the opposite is making ready for a second act in funerary arts.
Hen, 42, the primary general draft choose in 2002, hung up her sneakers after 18 seasons and 20 years with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, main her crew deep into one final playoff run. No. 10 is a four-time WNBA champion, the league’s all-time help chief, a 13-time All-Star and a five-time Olympic gold medalist. She has partnerships with main manufacturers like Nike, American Specific, CarMax and Capital One. The New York native is a part-owner of the NWSL’s Gotham FC, and based media and commerce firm Togethxr with three different elite athletes, which works to amplify the voices of ladies athletes.
Arguably among the finest gamers to ever change the sport, Fowles doesn’t have the top-tier offers that Hen does. At 37, the second general 2008 draft choose retired after an elite profession with the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx. The Miami native is a WNBA MVP, four-time WNBA Defensive Participant of the Yr and four-time Olympic gold medalist. She’s the league’s biggest rebounder of all time and the profession chief in discipline objective proportion. But she’s spending post-retirement far-off from sports activities, the place she’s finding out mortuary science.
“The world we dwell in, the world that the WNBA is attempting to thrive in, doesn’t actually recognize [and value] the kinds of folks which might be taking part in within the league,” stated Hen. “[It] doesn’t recognize folks of colour, doesn’t recognize the LGBT group. If you have a look at Syl, a Black lady on this world who stands at 6’6”, nobody’s taking a look at her and seeing her expertise.”
‘Pushed’ to succeed
Fowles was raised within the Victory Properties Initiatives in Miami-Dade County, which she believes formed her into who she is now. “The neighborhood was unhealthy, and also you’re seeing issues that children shouldn’t see at these ages. Nevertheless it’s a group. We took care of one another,” she stated, emphasizing that whereas residing was tough, she by no means wanted to scrounge for meals or go with out garments and footwear.
“In some unspecified time in the future, I knew I used to be going to achieve success as a result of I used to be pushed at a younger age,” stated Fowles. She partnered with Nike in highschool and was recruited by LSU after her standout Novice Athletic Union (AAU) profession. The college retired jersey No. 34 in 2017.
“I don’t assume I’d be the individual I’m at the moment with out Nike,” stated Fowles. “Nike gave me an outlet to offer so many issues for household. They gave me so many alternatives to offer for my journey crew. Nike has been an enormous a part of who Sylvia Fowles is as an individual.”
Whereas Nike is Fowles’ largest partnership by far, she’s additionally signed a handful of different smaller-scale offers with Affalia, a Black cleaning soap, shampoo and hair firm; and child meals manufacturers Yumi and Contemporary Bellies, which is especially apt since beginning a household is a large precedence for Fowles, post-retirement.
“I’m attempting to assume long run as a result of I need youngsters, so I’m attempting to line every part up of how can I get my youngsters arrange?” she stated. “I actually don’t have sponsorships, and I do know a variety of that comes by social media and followers.”
In her remaining season, Fowles lastly started to interrupt out into mainstream media, a story that brought about conflicting emotions for a participant who remained humble her entire profession. She additionally put among the blame on the WNBA itself, noting the league tends to advertise solely a small group of its prime gamers.
“Give me credit score the place credit score is due,” she stated. “I’ve been constant since I acquired on this league. I’ve been on the prime of my sport since I acquired on this league, however to cowl it inside my final yr? The place had been you all these different years? It begins with our league as a result of we now have some dope-ass ladies within the WNBA.”
Constant would be the excellent phrase to explain Fowles. After battling again from a knee damage that sidelined her for 5 video games in 2022, she made her eighth All-Star look this yr (her first again in 2009) and led the league in rebounding as soon as once more.
However even the yr’s elevated media protection didn’t be a magnet for the larger manufacturers which have flocked to different WNBA icons.
“Race performs a component. Social media performs a component,” Fowles stated. “What else do I’ve to do? I’m not disrespectful. I don’t get in hassle. What else are you able to need from an individual, which is to do their job?” (As a comparability, Hen’s Instagram following is at 706,000 whereas Fowles’ is round 73,500, although Fowles doesn’t use hers as a lot.)
“It’s not an equal platform. You’ll be able to work your tail off and you are able to do all these nice issues and nonetheless don’t get as a lot as your counterpart. I needed to be taught to have thick pores and skin. I’m simply one thing that they don’t need, and that’s completely wonderful. Everyone has a picture that they need, and I’m not that. I needed to get to that time to know that it’s greater than me,” she stated.
And for these few manufacturers which have reached out, Fowles’ crew doggedly retains away those that don’t match her values. “They know what I’m going to say no to,” she stated. “It must be one thing I’m very keen about, and that I again 100%. I’ve been bugging [my agents] Lindsay [Kagawa Colas] and Tracy [Hughes] about signing with a Black firm for years. I don’t desire a deal to only say I’ve a deal; I need to have the ability to say I replicate what I’m with.”
Fowles’ altruistic nature comes by when she chooses to signal with a model. “It must be one thing pushed in the direction of youngsters, most likely ladies, starvation, schooling, and people are the issues I search for after I’m signing offers,” she stated.
Advocating for change
Hen has traveled a a lot completely different path, post-retirement. Two months after chants of “Thanks, Sue” reverberated round Local weather Pledge Area in Seattle as Hen exited for the ultimate time in her profession, she has been approached with talking alternatives, supplied extensions to present partnerships and extra model alternatives.
When Adweek instructed Hen what Fowles stated about her lack of name offers, she took a deep breath.
“It’s actually unhappy to listen to her say that,” Hen stated. “It’s not due to who she is and what she’s performed. When folks activate the TV, they see the expertise, however society doesn’t see expertise first. They only see pores and skin colour; they simply see sexual orientation. That’s what within the final couple years, all of us within the WNBA have been attempting to vary. As a result of it’s not proper. It’s not truthful. It’s not correct. And there’s so many individuals like Sylvia Fowles who might have been giving a lot to a model and simply by no means had the chance primarily based on discrimination.”
Hen is aware of she has the platform to advocate for change and doesn’t hesitate to make use of it. She got here out as homosexual in 2017 and is at the moment engaged to soccer star (and fellow Most Highly effective Ladies in Sports activities honoree) Megan Rapinoe.
“I had been homosexual for a really very long time,” Hen stated, including that her crew, her brokers and coaches all knew. “I felt like I had gotten to that time the place I used to be like, do it’s good to say it, like what’s the large deal?”
It wasn’t till conversations with Rapinoe that Hen realized the significance of publicly popping out to advocate for individuals who can’t safely achieve this.
The WNBA’s Darkish Cloud
Whereas the WNBA group celebrates the top of Hen’s and Fowles’ storied careers, additionally it is centered on the harrowing plight of Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, a WNBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the primary overtly homosexual athlete endorsed by Nike, who has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February for possession of hashish oil. In August, she was sentenced to 9 years in jail, and final week was transferred to a Russian penal colony. Her present location is unknown.
Griner, 32, like many different American gamers, competes in a Russian league in the course of the WNBA low season. In contrast to the NBA, the place stars like Steph Curry rake in $48 million yearly, there are solely 14 WNBA gamers making north of $200,000 per yr. Abroad contracts are sometimes way more profitable than home salaries, together with for Griner, who made greater than $1 million taking part in for UMMC Ekaterinburg.
The group has been fiercely advocating to convey Griner house since she was first detained. Each WNBA court docket final season featured a BG42 decal, and through July’s All-Star sport, every participant wore No. 42 in the course of the second half in her honor. On Nov. 9, President Joe Biden instructed reporters he was “decided” to convey Griner house, and stated he has been involved along with her spouse, Cherelle.
“We need to ensure that she will be able to nonetheless really feel all of the love that individuals have for her,” stated Hen. “That is completely devastating. You’ll be able to’t consider a worse situation. We’re attempting to make use of our voices, so hopefully BG can hear and really feel it.”
“Each time I stroll in a room now, everyone knew precisely who I used to be, who I cherished, what I stood for, and there was one thing actually highly effective in that for me,” Hen stated. “Regardless that the motivators had been different folks, I used to be most likely impacted essentially the most. There’s simply a lot energy in that. And that’s the place it’s good to understand if you’re residing your genuine life, and also you’re exhibiting up that method on this planet, not solely does it encourage others to do the identical, it lets you be your full self. And that’s the place the inspiration lies.”
That authenticity interprets into the sorts of name partnerships Hen seems for.
“You need to have partnerships the place your values are aligned,” she stated. “After I consider a model like CarMax, the business I did final yr with Corona, even among the Capital One spots, what’s been actually superb about working with these manufacturers is that this capability to focus on the feminine athlete through the use of somewhat little bit of humor.”
American Specific was certainly one of Hen’s first model companions, and one she factors to as most supportive of the WNBA early in her profession, outdoors of Nike.
“Nike has been there since day one, and so they’ve been with me my complete profession. By no means wavered within the help, supported us within the WNBA lives, in our Nationwide Workforce lives, even in our abroad lives,” Hen stated, including that when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this yr, Nike was one of many first entities to attempt to get WNBA athletes taking part in in Russia house safely.
“We’re in a spot in ladies’s athletics the place we’d like manufacturers,” Hen stated. “We want these company sponsorships for leagues to outlive, we’d like them for people to have the ability to construct their very own manufacturers, however you must be strategic in the way you do it. Issues are 100% altering. We nonetheless have an extended solution to go, and it’s going to take all of us and all of the completely different views. I’m positively nonetheless going to have my foot on the pedal.”
However Hen is aware of she will be able to’t simply depend on manufacturers to result in these obligatory adjustments in sports activities. She just lately invested in Gotham FC, New York and New Jersey’s Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League crew, and launched media and commerce firm Togethxr alongside athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim and Simone Manuel.
“It’s a must to take motion as properly. There are moments when you may step into the second and have affect as an investor or beginning an organization,” she stated. “This was a method for us to place our cash the place our mouth is, and to attempt to construct this firm that may be capable of inform the tales that don’t get the sunshine that they deserve.”
As Hen launches her new companies, assessments out a broadcasting profession and experiments with entrance workplace alternatives like working with the Denver Nuggets lately, Fowles quietly—and, she stated, fortunately—works on her mortuary science diploma.
“It offers me time to give attention to myself,” Fowles stated. “I believe that’s what attracts me to mortuary science as a result of it’s humbling. What am I complaining about? Life is a lot less complicated than we make it.”
However, as Hen famous, Fowles’ affect has certainly helped change the sport for the higher, paving the best way for the following era of superstars. That features 26-year-old A’ja Wilson, the 2022 WNBA MVP and Defensive Participant of the Yr, who’s signing the model offers that Fowles couldn’t, a feat Hen believes is because of Fowles’ indelible legacy.
“There actually hasn’t been a participant like her, the methods during which she was capable of dominate and the best way she was capable of do it constantly,” stated Hen. “I hope Syl feels actually pleased with the truth that she helped change that narrative.”
