Seimone Augustus On Not Knowing She Was On The Cover Of Sports Illustrated

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Today, Los Angeles Sparks guard, Seimone Augustus sat down for the latest episode of Knuckleheads Podcast with Darius Miles & Quentin Richardson to discuss how she found out she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and how it helped her grow as a player.

The WNBA’s ‘20 greatest and most influential player’ honoree also dishes on growing up with Glen “Big Baby” Davis and how he got his nickname. She also openly talks about her feelings after her LSU jersey was retired, when Maya Moore left the league, which player she looked up to, and her top five to watch.

  • On not knowing she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated (5:28): “To be honest, I– Man, they put some pressure on me, didn’t they? I didn’t even know– I honestly didn’t even know. They told me I was going to Tennessee to do a shoot to meet Chamique Holdsclaw and so I was just like ‘yo I get to meet Holdsclaw.’ You know that was during the time Tennessee was doing their thing, they had the ‘Three Meeks’ [Chamique Holdsclaw, Semeka Randall, and Tamika Catchings]… so I’m just excited about that and I’m thinking I’m going to get a little piece inside of the magazine. Just so happened [my high school team] made it to the state championship that year and one of my teammates had to go to Walgreens or somewhere for something and they saw the cover and brought it back to the hotel and was like ‘Yo, you knew you were on the cover of the magazine?’ I had no idea I was on the cover of this magazine so, of course, from that point on it blew up while we were at the state tournament. We made it to the championship game and we lost. And the team that beat us, the coach said something slick like ‘I guess we should be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.’”
  • On growing up with former NBA star Glen “Big Baby” Davis (9:01): “When you use the saying, like, ‘it takes a village to raise a kid,’ Big Baby was that child. You know, he had a very challenging upbringing, so everyone in the community saw what he could be and we kinda just protected him. But we would be in and out of gyms in our little neighborhood or whatever and he got that nickname from the gym. We would go there, he was the biggest kid in the gym, of course you wanted him on your team but he was the softest kid in the gym. He didn’t want nobody to touch him. He would always whine and he was the kid who would like, take his ball and go home. Everyone was like ‘Ah man, you big baby’ and it was just like you said it enough that it just started to catch on and every time someone saw him it would just be like ‘Hey, what up big baby.’”
  • On when “Big Baby” peed the bed (11:55): “Mom laid a bed out and everything, folded the sofa sleeper out, dressed it up for him and everything. Normally, on any other weekend, Big Baby would wake up at 1 o’clock, close to the time he would need to get up and go to practice or whatever. This morning, he was up at 8:30 or 9 o’clock so we [were] like ‘Oh you up bright and early’ and he was like ‘Oh yeah you know, [give him] bed and breakfast’ [and then we] took him on out the door. Come back and my mom undressed the bed so we could wash the sheets. I fold the bed back, and there was a stain this big on the bed. I’m like ‘Ma, he peed on the bed!’ She was like ‘You lie’ so the whole family gathered in the living room, we just looking at the bed like what is– We couldn’t believe this…He was like 10-13 years old like old, like you’re old enough to know. Like bro what happened?”
  • On LSU retiring her jersey (31:56): “You know I had to reflect on when I made my decision to come down– with a lot of elders. They would tell me about times when they couldn’t even come on LSU’s campus. So they [were] like ‘Yo, you know, you broke down some barriers. We came down there for you.’ And to see a sister get her jersey hung in an arena that we, at one point in time, you know, couldn’t even sit in or be a fan of or nothing like that. It was like that racial divide down here. They [were] like ‘Thank you’ and you know I was like I didn’t even think about it but your elders always have that knowledge and wisdom… So from that point I really felt proud.”
  • On how she felt when Maya Moore retired (47:16): “Yeah, the selfishness in me is like ‘Man, I wish that she would come back but, you know, the humanist in me is like, my soul within is like, she has found her passion and purpose. And now we know, you know, her and Mr. Irons are actually together. So, that makes sense now, but it was hard to digest at the time because it was like ‘Yo, we can possibly get one more.’ But, you know, when that calling calls and it’s that time to fulfill your purpose, then I understood it. Obviously she had conversations with all of us, and the starting five, to explain the journey she was about to go on. And at that point, all we can do is respect it and then support her on our way.”

Fans can look forward to new episodes on Tuesdays on all major podcast services and online at The Players’ Tribune website and video of the episodes will be available on Thursdays on The Players’ Tribune YouTube.