Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Sport: Basketball

Etan Thomas

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  Global

Etan Thomas has been the personification of “The Activist Athlete.” his entire 11 NBA career. Thomas defies the stereotype of the apolitical athlete, planting his roots in his formidable literary career, passion for mentoring and civic engagement.

Born in Harlem, New York and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thomas’ childhood was surrounded by books on the civil rights movement, politics and the 1960′s. He was greatly influenced by his mother, Deborah Thomas, a schoolteacher, who instilled in her two sons to think critically and use their platform to make a difference. Etan Thomas has made his mark far beyond the boundaries of his 11 years in the NBA.

His latest work, We Matter “Athletes And Activism” was released March 6th 2018, Thomas has amassed an amazing collection of interviews intertwined with the heartfelt commentary of his own to create a masterpiece. You’ll read the voices of athletes, activists, media personalities, scholars, and the family of victims of police brutality. We Matter was listed as one of the top ten best activism books of all time by Book Authority. And tied for best non-fiction for 2018 by the African-American Literary Awards (AALAS)

In 2005, Thomas released his first book, a collection of poems called More Than An Athlete (Haymarket Books) that set Thomas apart as “this generation’s athlete with a moral conscious and a voice.” In 2012, Thomas released his 2nd book, Fatherhood: Rising To The Ultimate Challenge (Penguin), as a national conversation about fatherhood ensued and The Fatherhood Movement was borne. Thomas continues this conversation holding Town Hall panels through-out the country at prisons, churches, Universities, schools, and various conventions where he continues to inspire, motivate and support generations. In January 2013, he released Voices Of The Future (Penguin), a collection of poems and essays from young writers from around the country on topics such as Racism, Trayvon Martin, President Obama, Gun Violence, and Aids. Thomas utilizes poetry as an expressive form and encourages young people to read, write and develop the skills to express themselves.

Etan Thomas approaches his work fearlessly. Never afraid to voice his opinions, Etan was honored for social justice advocacy as the recipient of the 2010 National Basketball Players Association Community Contribution Award, as well as the 2009 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation, Inc. Legacy Award. Etan jumps at the opportunity to support civic engagement especially for under- resourced populations.

He is a senior writer for basketballnews.com and is the host of The Rematch. He writes for The Guardian and has previously written for The Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN, ESPN, Hoopshype.com and slamonline. He frequently can be seen on MSNBC as a special correspondent for “hot topics.” He continues to be invited on syndicated radio and co-hosts a weekly local radio show on WPFW 89.3FM, The Collision, where sports and politics collide.

Dr. Becky Clark

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  China

Becky Clark, Ph.D. is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker/Psychotherapist (LCSW-R) and Certified Consultant (CC- Association for Applied Sport Psychology) with a private practice in New York City. With more than 20 years of experience, she specializes in working with adolescents and adults with hearing loss, childhood trauma, exercise and psychotherapy, deaf and disability sport, individuals and teams from recreational to elite athletes.

Dr. Clark has a rich and long history as a multi-sport standout athlete including: four sport high school letter winner, former basketball player for the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, three-time Deaflympian with one gold and two silver medals in volleyball, 1991 Olympic Festival (volleyball), all star catcher/1st baseman in fast pitch softball and has run 7 marathons. She was a Torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Olympics Torch Relay Team.

Dr. Clark is an internationally published author, researcher, freelance writer and public speaker. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). She serves on the Diversity Committee and Women in Sports & Disability SIGs of AASP (www.appliedsportpsych.org).

Dr. Clark also serves as a member of the ING New York City Marathon Psyching Team, the Advisory Council for Healing with Basketball (www.healingwithbasketball.org) and the Strategic Planning Committee of the USADSF (www.usdeafsports.org).

YeRuchia “Rushia” Brown

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2017  –  Ethiopia

Rushia Brown was born in the Bronx, NY and raised in South Carolina. As a sophomore, she first picked up a ball and joined the Summerville High School Junior Varsity basketball team. Athletic, yet untrained, Rushia began a journey that would forever change her life. Through hard work and dedication, she was one of the top student-athlete recruits in the state of South Carolina as a senior; being courted by esteemed universities such as Harvard, Duke University and her then dream school, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. With the recent loss of her father, Rushia chose to stay close to home and attend Furman University.

As a Lady Paladin, Rushia pursued her education and competed on the court, attaining every accolade available including Southern Conference Freshman of the Year, multiple MVPs, Southern Conference Player of the Year, Edna Hartness Athlete of the Year and eventually having her jersey hang from the rafters as #34 was retired, never to be worn again. Rushia’s collegiate years lead to a 10 year professional career overseas, which spanned 5 countries; Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Korea and 7 years in the WNBA; 6 years in Cleveland and 1 year in Charlotte.

Brown is currently working to make a difference in the lives of girls and women through the sport of basketball. Rushia is the Founder/President of the Women’s Professional Basketball Alumnae (WPBA), the only organization structured to assist women who have played professionally in the WNBA or in Europe as they transition into mainstream society.

Rushia is also the Director of Public Relations for Young Black Entrepreneur Magazine,(YBE) an educational platform for those with entrepreneurial aspirations.

Teresa Edwards

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2009  –  Mozambique

When she was 20 years old, at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, Teresa Edwards became the youngest athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball. Sixteen years later, at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Edwards became the oldest player to win an Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball.

All told, the sensational 5-foot-11 point guard from Cairo, Georgia, played in five Olympic Games, bringing home four gold medals and one bronze.

It was one heck of a journey for Edwards, whose basketball career began when she and her younger brothers would shoot baskets in their grandmother’s front yard – the basket there was a bicycle rim nailed to a pine tree. A four-year starter for the Cairo High Syrupmakers, Edwards went to the University of Georgia, where she again was a four-year starter, leading the Bulldogs to Final Four appearances in 1983 and 1985, averaging 15.5 points and 5.1 assists for her career.

Edwards made her Olympic debut in 1984 as the Americans breezed to a relatively easy gold medal victory. Led by the standout Cheryl Miller, the United States won all of its games by at least 30 points.

In the 1988 Seoul Games, Edwards averaged team-highs of 16.6 points and 3.4 assists per game as the Americans claimed gold, beating Yugoslavia, 77-70, in the championship game. Four years later in Barcelona, Edwards averaged 12.6 points and 5.4 assists but the United States was upset in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze medal.

At the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, Edwards was selected to read the Athlete’s Oath at the Opening Ceremony and two weeks later she and her teammates returned to the top of the podium. Edwards averaged 6.9 points and 7.2 assists and the United States won each of its games by at least 15 points. At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the 36-year-old Edwards averaged 6.1 points and 3.4 assists as the Americans again won all of their games by double figures to win gold. Edwards also was involved in the London 2012 Olympic Games, serving as the United States’ Chef de Mission.

Tamika Raymond

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Malawi
  • 2011  –  Tanzania
  • 2012  –  China
  • 2013  –  Ukraine
  • 2013  –  Nigeria
  • 2014  –  Sri Lanka

Tamika Maria Raymond is an Assistant Coach for the women’s basketball team at the University of Kansas. Prior to serving in that role, Raymond played professional basketball in the WNBA for six seasons. During the 2002 WNBA Draft, the Minnesota Lynx selected Raymond with the sixth overall pick. She played her last season in the WNBA with the Connecticut Sun.

Prior to playing in the WNBA, Raymond attended the University of Connecticut, where she majored in interpersonal communications. She played for the school’s women’s basketball teams, which won Division I National Championship teams in 2000 and 2002. She completed her four-year collegiate career with averages of 10.6 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. She finished as UConn’s all-time leader in field goal percentage at 70.3 percent.

Raymond had a stellar high school basketball career in Dayton, OH. She was named the 1997 and 1998 Ohio Player of the Year and was selected to the 1997-98 Associated Press girls Division I All-Ohio high school basketball team. She was named “Ohio’s Miss Basketball” by the Associated Press.

Kelley Cain

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  South Africa
  • 2014  –  Rwanda

Kelley Cain is an American basketball center who last played for the Connecticut Sun. Currently she plays for Gure Belediye Woman Basketball Club in Izmir, Turkey.

Cain was a member of the USA Women’s U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in 2006. Cain helped the team earn the gold medal by scoring 6.5 points per game. Her field goal percentage of 57.9% was second among all contestants and 1.75 blocks per game which tied her for first place. She was selected as the 7th overall pick by New York Liberty during the 2012 WNBA Draft.

Ronald Cass III

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Mozambique
  • 2015  –  Botswana
  • 2015  –  South Africa

Holly Warlick

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Taiwan

In seven seasons at the helm of Tennessee women’s basketball, Holly Warlick built a very impressive résumé in her young head coaching career. Her worksheet contains accomplishments few coaches achieve in their entire careers, much less as first-time head coaches.

Those successes confirmed that Warlick was the right choice to take the reins at Tennessee and that she and her staff had the acumen to run a championship program. A disciple of the legendary Pat Summitt, Warlick maintained the core values of her former coach, co-worker and friend while at the same time employing her own personality, style and competitive energy to coach today’s players.

Whether as an All-America player from 1976-80, an assistant and associate head coach for 27 seasons from 1985 to 2012, or head coach from 2012 to 2019, Warlick thrived during her more than three decades in the spotlight at Rocky Top. She posted one of the top won-lost records in the nation during her tenure.

Warlick was announced as head coach of the Lady Vols on April 18, 2012, as women’s hoops legend Pat Summitt stepped into the role of head coach emeritus. In a touching and symbolic gesture the following day at a press conference announcing the changes, Summitt presented her coaching whistle to her long-time aide and former floor general.

On the international scene, Warlick was a gold medal coach, and two of her players joined her in earning that hardware. Warlick served as an assistant, while Mercedes Russell and Diamond DeShields played on the undefeated (6-0) 2015 USA World University Games Team in South Korea.

Warlick was recognized personally for her performance. In 2013, members of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association named her the Spalding Maggie Dixon Division I Rookie Coach of the Year. She was selected by the AP and league coaches as the 2013 SEC Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year, and members of the Tennessee Sports Writers Association also chose her as TSWA Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year that season.

In May 2017, Warlick was recognized for her years of leadership, volunteer activities, philanthropic work and professional accomplishments that have contributed to improving the quality of life in Tennessee. She was named the Tennessee Woman of Distinction at the 32nd annual Chattanooga Women of Distinction Awards luncheon. In 2019, she became a member of the Pat Summitt Foundation Advisory Board.

Craig Esherick

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Azerbaijan

Craig Esherick is an Associate Professor in the Sport Management program at George Mason University, where the 2020 Fall Semester will be his thirteenth year. He is the Associate Director of the Center for Sport Management, the Academic Program Coordinator for the Sport Management program and also the Internship Coordinator.

Professor Esherick was a scholarship basketball player at Georgetown University while earning an undergraduate finance degree from the business school.

He attended the Georgetown University Law Center and was a graduate assistant basketball coach for two of those years. After graduating from law school and passing the DC Bar Exam, Professor Esherick became a full-time assistant coach at Georgetown for the men’s basketball team. His tenure as an assistant lasted 17 and a half years and included a stint as the assistant basketball coach for the USA Olympic Team that won a bronze medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He became the head basketball coach in 1999 at Georgetown University and held that position long enough to win 103 games. He worked briefly for AOL’s new online radio venture from 2004 until 2005, where he commented on-air about college basketball news and wrote articles for the AOL Sports website. Craig took a job with a startup television network in New York in May of 2005; that network, CSTV, has now become CBS College Sports. Esherick came to Mason from NYU, where he taught in their Graduate Sports Management program for two years.

Craig has written or edited several books, articles and book reviews on a variety of topics in the sports industry. These works can be found in the History of Sport Encyclopedia, Sports Management and Marketing Encyclopedia, Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, History and Sport, Leadership in Sport, Cultures of Peace, The Journal of Sport for Development and the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing. Esherick’s book titles include the third, fourth and fifth editions of Media Relations in Sport, Case Studies in Sport Diplomacy and Fundamentals of Sport Management.

Esherick has served on several Arlington and Fairfax County, Virginia boards and committees. He has worked with the US Department of State on many grants and sport diplomacy projects from 2009 to 2019. Craig provides expert commentary for news outlets, television and radio during college basketball season, primarily working for the Mid Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), Learfield and the Stadium/Sinclair network.

Chineze Nwagbo

Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2019  –  Kosovo
  • 2019  –  Azerbaijan
  • 2019  –  Albania
  • 2019  –  Tanzania

Chineze Nwagbo started her basketball career at Duval Senior High School, in Lanham, Maryland where she is recognized as a 4 yr. varsity letter recipient, and two-time team captain. Her honors include2back-to-back State Championship Titles, All-American Honorable Mention, All-County First Team, All-Gazette, USA Today’s Most Improved and Most Important Player to Scout in Maryland, amongst a myriad of other accomplishments. She is a former Syracuse University student-athlete, who earned her Business of Science degree in Biology. Shortly after graduating from Syracuse, Chinny went on to play as a professional basketball player for 11 years all over the world. She has played in various countries such as Spain(for six years), Chile, Brazil, Poland(for 3 years), Portugal, Israel, where she afforded 4 MVP Titles, and also appeared in the World Championship Games in 2006, representing her parent’s native country Nigeria.Currently, Chinny has ventured to new horizons working for the NBA, in China, developing grassroots implementation of NBA based basketball curriculum in various areas of Jr. NBA programs, also for the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders developmental camps, and has been brought on to work for the Atlanta Hawks,NY Knicks, Washington Wizards, and the National Basketball Players Association.She has also participated as a lecturer, coach, and professor of the game for the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Sports Diplomacy program, which was designed in efforts to bring global communities together. She has also dedicated her time as a Motivational Speaker to various youth programs all over the world, and amazing non-profits geared toward providing resources for underprivileged inner-city student-athletes. In her spare time, she frequents New Channel 8’s Sports talk show as a guest sports analyst and hopes to play an instrumental role in the growth of the game, especially serving as a role model to young female athletes.