December 27, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: The lasting impact of Brenda Pitts
By The Next
Pitts: 'I was born with a basketball in my hands'
On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Natalie Heavren sits down with Brenda Pitts to discuss her basketball origins and her career with the University of Alabama. Heavren and Pitts also talk about the Women’s Professional Basketball League’s (WBL) first game, her career in sports marketing and administration, and more.
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Heavren opens the show by asking Pitts a simple, yet profound question: “When did you start playing basketball, and why did you keep playing it?”
Pitts explains it succinctly. “I was born with a basketball in my hands,” she says. “I was raised on a small farm outside Huntsville, Alabama, and we were always playing sports. … As I got into sixth grade, that’s when I joined the basketball team. So from then on out it was basketball 24/7.”
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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Later on, Heavren and Pitts discuss Pitts’s journey to the WBL. “My last two years in college, I had heard rumors about somebody out there who wanted to start a professional league,” Pitts explains. “And I was like, yeah, finally. I always told the kids growing up that I’m going to be the first woman to play professional sports, even if I had to go play for the Globetrotters. I’m going to be the first one to do it.”
To close out the podcast, Heavren and Pitts talk about Pitts’s experience being a coach and a professor. “I had decided, you know, one of my reasons for wanting to coach is to help young girls and young women realize their dreams,” Pitts says. “And then it dawned on me, well, you know, if I’m a professor at a college, I can still do that.”
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