This article highlights the impact basketball has had on Erica McCall

and her father Greg McCall: life lessons, skill development, father and

daughter bonding, and travel and exposure to countries around the globe.

Because I am a firm believer the world of sports can have

such a powerful impact on society, I was curious to hear from Erica, what life

lessons she learned from the game of basketball.

and the Stanford Cardinal, Erica’s hoop game has taken her all

over the world; she’s played in Merida, Mexico in the International Basketball

Federation (FIBA), Americas U16 Championship for Women, she also played in FIBA

Under-17 World Championship for Women in Amsterdam.

I was eager to hear Erica’s thoughts on

the difference in the response; she mentioned: “Yes, this is a lot

different from what I’ve seen in the past, from the Trevon Martin protest to

now… You see a lot of evolution in who is doing the protest… I went to a

Bakersfield protest and the majority of the people protesting were Hispanic and

White.

Erica remained gracious with her time while answering my

questions on this sensitive subject, she then reflected on a conversation she

had recently, “I was having a conversation with my Stanford friends,

talking about implicit bias… Things my white friends did not know, they just

experience it… They are never going to know if they go out to research for it,

so it’s up to black people to tell them this isn’t good; we don’t like when

people touch our hair; we don’t like when people tell us, ‘oh my gosh, you talk

so well, you are so articulate.’