London is my home and it feels so good for the first time in my life to not have to sacrifice anything to play basketball. I can see my friends, my family and they can see me play again, so a lot drew me to come home, including EuroCup, because I knew that I could still play at that level.
One of my favourite things has been seeing the babies turn into adults! I saw a picture of Shanice (Beckford-Norton) when she was at the London 2012 Olympics with me and my cousin when Shanice and Paige (Robinson) were talking to me earlier this season about how they used to come to my games … it is crazy now to be their teammate.
Giving back was another big reason for me to come home. I know I only have one or two years left in me and I would like to finish my legacy not just at home, but with the girls that looked up to me and hand the baton over, in a sense. Their potential is sky high, but to achieve it takes a lot of learning.
Something I really pride myself on is the ability to ignore whatever noise is out there and put it to one side whenever I’m on a basketball court. When players start to learn that and give themselves to the game fully, they really find the next level. It takes time to do that but these girls have the potential.
After three years retired, I’ve now been back playing for a year, and the most important victory has just been trusting my body again.
I wasn’t sure whether I should come out of retirement, but a good friend of mine said to me: ‘people are calling and they aren’t going to call for long’, so that was a big motivator for me. I’m just trying to enjoy the moment of being here, because I know you can’t take it for granted.
It is important that the Lions achieve everything we can in the WBBL. These teams are all gunning for us, so we have to be prepared and ready for that challenge. I think I have another season left in me, but I don’t like to talk about tomorrow because today I have a game and so my focus is totally on that.
Who doesn’t want to win it all? That would also part of my ‘legacy’ to be remembered for the impact I’ve helped deliver by coming here. I really enjoy how Sevenoaks play, they’re such a smart team and it should be a really good final, but we’ve just got to prepare the same way we have done all season. I’m just trying to help the team collect all the hardware that I can.