Major funding for this program was made possible by UPMC.

Thank you.

You know, hold the ball for a second.

Set the ball down on the counter and then pick up a coffee and then move on.

Yeah.

As much as I spend time on a football field, I probably spent as many hours on a basketball court and then in a gym and many gyms to be quite honest with you.

I had three daughters.

They all played basketball.

My late wife, Kaye, was a professional basketball player and today's guest really resonates with me.

She really was so graceful off the court.

But on the court, she was a fierce competitor, someone that we talked about the core values of a Pittsburgh Pittsburghers.

She resembles that.

She embodies everything about that, about sacrifice, about commitment, her upbringing, taking nothing for granted and using every opportunity to prove that she's someone that people may not think she could be.

She will never let you be defined by someone else.

She's going to define her own career, and she did that many, many times.

She did at the highest of levels.

You're talking about an Olympic gold medalist.

You're talking about a national championship and a college.

You're talking about a professional national championship and WNBA, and you're talking to somebody who went to the next level and being an executive with the New Orleans Pelicans.

And even to this day, she's a leader.

She's an amazing entrepreneur.

She's a special lady.

And again, where to start in Pittsburgh, the gems of Pittsburgh.

And today's guests.

Swin Cash, special lady.

Very special to me.

I knew her when she was in high school and played AAU basketball for the Western PA Bruins.

My daughter played there as well.

So let's talk to her and find out what made her special and talk about her journey.

I've stayed away from the football and stayed away from sports, but I had to get you in here because for special reasons alone.

But before we even get started with that, I got to give you.

I got to find out if you're a real Yinzer or not.

So I'm going to ask you this.

Your favorite Pittsburgh food.

Oh my goodness.

See, you're going to want me to say Primanti Brothers, or something like that.

But, I got a big family.

I gotta say, my mom was cooking my mom and my auntie's home cooking.

Okay.

What was.

What was your best dish?

What was her best?

What was their best dish?

Oh my goodness.

For my mom, I would say the mac and cheese and linguine salad, are two of my faves.

Oh, wow.

Favorite Pittsburgh venue outside of my high school gym?

It has to be, now it used.

It used to be Three Rivers, but we fast.

I know, right.

It's still Three Rivers to me.

How about Civic Arena?

You know what?

Civic arena was okay but coach.

You know why?

Because I only played there a couple times.

From the basketball standpoint, yeah.

Only our big games were there, but everything else was like, in the, in, our home jam or at Pitt Fieldhouse.

Pitt Fieldhouse.

How about Kennywood?

Oh, come on.

Anybody this from home?

I still have to bring the boys back home for Kennywood.

You do?

Put them on a jackrabbit for the first roller coaster.

Listen, the jackrabbit, all the things and guess what?

It's still the same course that I rode when I was there.

But it has.

That's why Pittsburgh had never changed.

It's ageless.

I gotta share with you it's true story that my late wife, Kaye, she was one of the first players in the WNBA.

She played in a women's professional basketball league, played for the New York Stars, played with Carol Blazejowski, Annie Meyers.

So she was in that.

And she was her and her identical twin.

They were they first didn't.

So it's my daughters were all played basketball.

Of course Megan was with the Bruins.

They came to see you at a McKeesport game and and we watched you Swin come out in the court.

And as you walked off the court, the grace that you had handling yourself.

But on the court man you were fierce man.

You were fearless.

You were scrappy.

You were gritty.

And I remember going up afterwards and all of a sudden you were sitting there and you were talking.

We were waiting in line, and you were just pointing to someone and and my, my wife Kaye says, Megan, Megan, look at Swin's arms.

There's a bunch of scratches underneath.

There I go.

Look, how am I supposed to look?

And she's so nice.

She's talking to everyone, I said, but that's the way you got to be.

And so you went up and.

And Megan's like, all right, mom, she goes, and this Sierra introduced herself to you and they introduced Megan to you And we walked away and she goes, Megan, that's the way you've got to be like Swin Cash when she's off the court.

You see how nice she was and so elegant and graceful.

But on the court, she is a beast.

I mean, she's one after you.

She's going to bite your head off.

Whatever it takes to get a rebound.

I said you you really were someone that my girls really looked up to.

And I. And I could even say that to this day, the way that you you've lead, you way you mentor what you've done for the sport and what you've done for women.

I mean, I again, I, you know, I had three daughters and a wife who played professional basketball.

So thank you for you know, I want to say that too.

And I and I just think of what I've had to do, probably the gyms you grew up in, in, in western Pennsylvania, right.

Yeah.

No.

And thank you for that, coach.

That that just really means so much.

And I have to give a lot of credit.

I know I talk about my mom a lot, but it's also I want to give a shout out to my community.

So your village.

Right.

That's how we grew up.

And so I think being in McKeesport, it was one of those things for me where I am a product of my environment and a very positive way, because a lot of times people are so afraid for their kids to see real life or have these experiences that they think is going to scar them, but it actually built character for me.

And so growing up in Harrison Village projects, having an opportunity to play with a lot of those football players and basketball players out on that blacktop, my Uncle Dennis, who used to just go out there and torch me, and it wasn't until I got to high school where I was at that age to just almost beat him, that he pulled a hamstring.

And we never played that.

We literally never played a game because we're getting ready to beat him.

I was right there at the pinnacle of like, okay, now it's my time.

You beat up on me since I was little.

But that's the way it was.

Like my mom was my first coach, in the Harrison Village Recreation Center that I'm really proud of.

Now that has my name on it, because I grew up playing against the guys and I'll never forget, I just felt always that I was just, like one of the athletes.

And I'll never forget, a kid whose name was Jeremiah.

We grew up together.

He actually played football at McKeesport and went on to college as well.

But he came down and I came out of nowhere and blocked his shot.

And the game literally stopped from that point because all of the men were running around like it was some nuance.

And I looked at my mom and I was like, I didn't understand.

And so we were having a conversation in the car and she was like, you'll get that reaction, but you just play at the level you play at.

They're doing that because it was almost an embarrassment to him that he got blocked by girl, and that was the first kind of time that it registered to me that, oh wait, girls and boys are different playing wow.

So I literally am a product of the people, the village in McKeesport that not only supported me, but made sure that I was going to be tough, I was going to be hard nosed, and I reflected who we are as a city.

And you took that to every level of what you did, even with Geno and UConn.

Right?

He sat there and I just remember you played with Ashley Battle.

I mean, she was also another Bruin, right?

I mean, the people that I had played against in western Pennsylvania, as you went on all these trips, all these different gyms, and you were competing against the best, but you you go back to your days of sitting there with the guys on the hard court and just saying it's nothing is any different.

It's just the next level up.

Right?

I mean, that’s really it, you know, my high school coach, coach, Coach Grayson said to me, he was a football guy.

So if anybody knows anything about putting Grayson, they used to from McKeesport and and went off to play in college.

He would always say you play with an animal mentality.

And it's survival.

He would give us all of these kind of antidotes about you got to play with toughness, survival of the fittest.

And as young girls, we're sitting there and I'm like, okay, so register in my head.

And he would say, you know, there's always going to be somebody that can shoot better than you.

They can jump higher than you, they can run faster than you, but you control your effort.

And so I took that every level that I've been at and even now in corporate or as an executive, I don't want you to outwork me.

And so I always want to be prepared.

And that mentality was instilled in me at a young age.

It's still with me today.

You know, it's it's so, so interesting because I think along the way you sat there you go, you leave McKeesport, you go to UConn with Geno, you win a national championship twice.

You go there on to the WNBA, you win a national championship or the WNBA twice.

You've won two Olympic gold medals.

Oh wait, coach, I won it three times.

Okay.

Excuse me.

All right, I remembered Yes, you're right.

It was, the Seattle right I gotcha okay my bad.

But but you know, I always just remember, there were times I know of my very first Super Bowl that I went to is in 1995, and I was 38 years old, very young for a coach to be there.

But I remember walking on that field that day, that game beforehand, and I just went back and just thought about as a young kid, the back in Crafton in Pennsylvania, playing for the Crafton, a little Cougars who were playing the McKeesport Little Tigers.

So I said, you go back to those days where you just don't forget where you came from and you know, no matter what level that you were at, did you have any of those moments where you sit back and just kind of think like, wow, I'm about ready to win an Olympic gold medal, and here I am.

This McKeesport, or win a WNBA championship or Yukon and those gyms I was in back in McKeesport for the for the Bruins.

I mean, did you have those moments that you reflected on?

Yeah, there were so many different times.

But I'll give you two, coach that that really stand out because I do I do believe and in 2004, being one of the youngest on the Olympic team to win gold in Greece, and I remember being on that podium and I had, you know, you you never want to have the cry mean face back.

Then it wasn't this thing.

So I'm really happy today.

I would have been looking like MJ because I was like, I'm sure Ryan and Baldwin, what they think they were going through my head as they were raising the national anthem is that, you know, this young girl, me as a young, skinny African American girl growing up, every I, would have been against me.

But to know that I work, that people believed in me, that I just stayed the course.

And there's only 12 of those medals that that you receive.

I was one of 12 to win that gold medal.

And it wasn’t it for me.

It was really for everyone else.

And I felt that in that moment.

And so that's why the the face was going and all the memories are playing back, being in that Harrison Village Recreation Center, being on the blacktop, getting hit and just keep standing and having the ability to stand back up.

So that's one.

And then the other one was when, I won at UConn 39 and no coach I know.

And then I go, yeah, our senior year we were 39 and no, we won that championship.

I got drafted to Detroit.

And it was interesting because we started out, we were like oh 112 and I'll never remember, like looking around and being like, I'm a winner like this.

This isn't it.

And I'll never forget Bill Laimbeer took over that team and we flew back from New York and he said, I want you to call me up.

He said, I'm taking over the team.

I want you to meet me at the gym.

So I come into this gym.

First of all, the lights are off.

I'm like, why is it dark in here?

And it's literally a spotlight.

It felt like on the court.

So he comes out of the side, he puts one chair down, puts another chair in front of me, and he sits and he looks at me and he says, I'm taking over the team.

You're a winner.

I'm a winner.

I need you to trust me.

You're going to be the franchise.

This is how we're going to build boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And I looked at him and in that moment I was saying to myself, I'm built for this.

Like, I'm ready.

And I'm a I'm a rookie at the time.

But it didn't matter from leadership from on core because I knew that I would be able to outwork.

And then I cared about what the team goal was.

And so in that moment, I thought back and there were things flashing in my head about my life where I was like, okay, everything that I've been working towards, every failure, everything that I've gone through has prepared me.

So those were two moments early on in my career to really stuck out for me.

Yeah.

I mean, and that you really do epitomize that.

And I think the other thing that I think about too, Swin was your book that you wrote in 2013, your humble journey More Precious than Gold and talking about beating kidney cancer?

I think I mean, I think that's something no one really even knew about at the time.

And you kind of like you, you know, I don't know you you shared that moment because I think it's very, very important because you were an inspiration to so many people.

And, you know, some people think, well, you know, you had this and this and this, but man, you you fought a lot of battles along the way.

And that's probably one of the biggest battles you ever fought, right?

Yeah.

Coach and thank you.

Thank you for that.

Because that book was really, really important to me.

And it was almost a glimpse into a time, you know, how the we go through these different chapters in life.

And it was happening at a time where athletes and I'll use myself.

I was going through some things medically.

I was going through some things emotionally, personally.

And I chose to do it in private.

And so I chose not to fight the narratives or what people were saying is, you know, she's more concerned with like, she has these other things outside of the game happening.

And I wasn't playing as well.

So, you know, that's the first thing that always comes out is people want to say athletes.

Well, they're not focused, right?

Right.

They got too many other things happening.

And it was hurtful because I knew how much I love the game, but I knew that my mind and body weren't connected because I was going through this thing.

And so what I did, that I didn't share a lot publicly, is I went off to grid.

After I had my surgery, I went off the grid and, you know where I went, coach?

I went back to Kansas University.

My AD at the time.

Wow.

That was Lew Perkins.

He was there, Yeah.

Our head strength and conditioning.

Who's now back at UConn.

She was there working with the men's team, and I stayed in Lou’s basement.

And I went to work, and I went to work, and I said, I gotta get back to me.

What's really funny And just talking to Steve earlier, your husband, I said, you got two sons and boy, these kids are there's going to be a little bit of western Pennsylvania brought back to them.

Sure.

Full cycle.

So they may be enjoying themselves right now in the cushion of your pillows in your house, but I know at some point you're gonna be getting put out there on that court.

And as your husband also from the New York City, the combination of you two asked me two tough kids.

Listen, coach, you know, they have no choice.

They time of my oldest, he was born.

I turned around in the hospital bed I've given birth.

I look over my mom has him wrapped in a terrible towel.

So, you know, you through and through.

When it comes to western Pennsylvania, family is the culture is the greatest determination.

My husband, as you said, from New York, he brings a whole other side, so, you know, so so do you go back to you go back to Pittsburgh still today?

Is your mom still back there in McKeesport?

Yes.

Yes.

You know, my mom's still back there.

Her husband, Reggie Smith, they do a lot with my nonprofit cash for kids and a support in the community, which is really, really important.

So we do, we get back as much as we can, even when we're having events, like, we have, basketball tournament and things of that sort for middle school.

And so any way that we can give back, we're really intentional with that.

You know, Swin I just tell you this, this really means a lot having you on here, because I think I learned so much more at times.

I go into these gyms.

I went on all these trips with AAU, and you go and I take draft books in there because my wife is saying, well, I don't care if you got the draft, but you're taking Megan to the Bruins game.

It's a tournament that's up in, Erie, PA.

I'm going.

Okay, great.

I'm going, I got it.

But I remember sitting there and going to some of these gyms and just seeing some of the quotes on the building, and one I will always remember, it says, easiest thing isn't always the right thing to do, and sometimes the right thing to do isn't always the easiest thing to do.

What's your advice today for Have more young ladies become like Swin Cash, become leaders of our communities.

Coach, you know, one of the things that I tell young women, even peers, colleagues of mine, is that, I walk in authenticity.

And I think it's it's easier to be exactly who you are.

It's easier to make the right decision, when you're doing it with the a pure heart.

And your quote was perfect because, I've had situations where people have wanted me to do something that may not be right.

People have wanted me to say something that may not be right, but as long as I can go to bed at night and I can look myself in the mirror, then I'm doing the right thing.

And that's what's so and so important to me.

And that's how I've tried to live my life, and that's how I've tried to be an example to other young women and young men that I've worked with is just to say, this is how I carry myself.

And doing the right thing means that I can look myself in the mirror and I could sleep at night.

And that's important to who I am, I think.

And to me, Swin you can speak to this, I just know I think you talk about that like you take those lessons, the learned on the court to life off the court.

I just know for me, it's just like recognizing, recognizing for the athletes you're coaching that you've been there.

Okay.

I'm not going to ask you to do something that I wouldn't do myself.

And I know it's not always easy, and I know that you better have balance in life and that you don't take things personally and you push yourself to be.

And I used to say to them all the time, just get comfortable being uncomfortable.

I'm going to make you uncomfortable.

I want to push you.

I'm not making a personal, but to make you uncomfortable because I know that for me, tell me I can't do something.

That's all I needed to hear.

You tell me a six seed can't win a championship.

Okay, I I'll tell you why we can.

So just tell me.

I can't do something.

That's all I needed to hear.

Because I've been told that my entire life I was too small, I was too little, I wasn't fast enough to play in the NFL.

And so I just took every one of those things and said, okay, you know, what you can't measure is my heart and my desire, and that's how I talk about it.

And I think you embody that more than anything else.

You talk about.

You okay.

I'm not the athlete I once was, but it was how you thought and how you approached your mind is stronger than anybody else on that court.

Yeah.

And, coach, I totally agree with you.

And I think it's also the business of sports.

Right?

I think you're forever learning.

And as athletes, people just think all we do is just train and play, train and play.

And even today's athletes, you're learning the business, those sports.

And so you're learning what it means to be the CEO of you.

And I always took that approach.

So when it was time where my body was no longer playing the game, that doesn't mean in my mind wasn't still was sharp.

So that's why whether you're coaching, being an executive, I'm able to take those transferable skills and deliver that.

I'm able to sit down with a franchised NBA player the same way I could sit down with a franchise WNBA player or the 12th man on the bench and be able to talk to them.

Because I've lived it, I've walked it, I understand it, and they respect it.

Coming from a position because you've done it, coach.

Yeah, just like you said, you've done it.

And I think the other thing to add to that, even when I pivoted into television.

Right, coach, you're in TV, you understand this.

We sit there and we're talking about it and I say, I, this is what's happening in the locker room.

People are listening because they're like, oh, you know exactly what's happened in the locker room, right?

Transferable skills, how you communicate.

And so that's been really helpful as an athlete.

And I think the statistics today we talk about this in the Women's Sports Foundation, the the highest ranking CEOs and C-suite women have played sports.

Right.

And that's why it's such a catalyst for success in business.

One of the most inspirational messages I've heard was your Hall of Fame induction speech.

I watched that, and I'm going to tell you something.

I could have used that before the Super Bowl.

And because our guys went through a wall, you you personified honestly what a Western Pennsylvania person was.

The more you talked about it, the more grit came out of you is.

I'm not gonna let anyone because I'm in my own body.

I own my own skin, and no one's going to tell me what I'm going to do about me.

And so in Geno, you know, you want to perfection.

It was just habits.

And so everyone kind of Isaiah Geno they're all sitting back I said okay I go I gotta bring Swin in for one of those pre-game talks because that was I would encourage anyone to watch your speech.

It was 14 minutes.

It was riveting.

It was inspiring.

It was special because to see your mom there and just like just everything about you, did you you you were very gracious.

You were very humble.

You were very much a leader.

And that moment.

And you were very inspirational, what you said.

So it goes back to the same things Swin, like, you grew up in McKeesport.

But the story of your mom, I mean, one of 12 kids, I think it was.

And having you and and then going, okay, I can still play my senior year.

Okay.

I mean, I mean, just and even to this day, the sacrifices she made, I think even Geno made a statement that she might have been a better player than you were at some point.

And during that senior year, I mean, and yet you forego that and stayed there to raise her family, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, my mom and I are very, very close.

I think with my my mom, a lot of times people are defined, by sometimes they say, oh, you made a mistake, or, you know, this happened or that, like, my mom and my dad were high school sweethearts, you know, my dad, as my mom had me, he went off to to the Marine Corps.

Right.

And my mom being one of 12, her commitment was to.

I'm going to raise this child, but I'm also going to go back and whoop my last year because she had a lot of siblings that also played football, basketball, my uncles, everyone.

And so after that, you know, she went on to get her associates degree and just raising me in a way where she said, I'm not always going to have all the answers, but I'm going to try to put you in the best position that I possibly can.

So that was either the school I went to, putting me in sports, keeping me active.

Society is always going to have things, whether there's crime in the inner city, in the suburbs, it doesn't matter.

She just really did her best.

And so with her and my stepfather, my family just it's always been about like us, like, how do we get you to the next level?

I want you to have better than I had.

And I want you to always remember who you are and where you came from.

So every time I won a championship, I was always back in McKeesport.

Every time we did anything that was successful, the kids were able to be there.

Coach.

Earlier you talked about my Hall of Fame speech.

People don't understand is we brought the whole women's team to the Hall of Fame.

For them to be able to experience that in partnership with the city, to be in the building and to say, I'm here for this moment.

So even if it wasn't my speech, it was going to connect with them.

We wanted one of those young people to be able to connect to somebody in that room.

And so opportunities like that, it all was established and instilled in me by my mom because of who she is now.

The fact that you continue to go back to McKeesport, the fact that you continue to give back to that community, you never lost sight where you came from.

You embody it, you express it, and you have a tremendous impact on people with just meeting you.

Swin Cash you are, listen, I thank you for the impact you've made on my family.

My late wife, Kaye, looked up to you and just thought the man.

The game's in a good place and and asked our daughters Megan, Lauren and Lindsey look at her because on the court you would battle.

They said you win, you compete, you fight, you get back up if you're knocked down.

But off the court, you have humility, you have grace, you have thankfulness.

And be grateful for having the opportunity that other people maybe didn't have.

And so you embody that to Pittsburgher.

And thank you.

And thank you for being on this.

And you know what?

Yeah, I think basketball was my second love.

I had to love it.

I had four women in my house and played it every time.

You have no choice.

I had no choice, you know.

So it was, you know, it was it was a pleasure to have you on.

And thank you.

Thank you for being a part of this.

Thank you so much.

Coach, can I just briefly say to you, thank you.

Because for me growing up, I know this.

You're having me on, but, my mom, I would be remiss if I did not say this.

Is that watching you coach and watching how the team was that also was an extension for me, being able to be coached in a way and know that that type of tough coaching and that care about, the players, that's what I embrace.

And I've had multiple coaches, I've had Coach Auriemma, Bill Laimbeer, very tough coaches.

But I embraced it because I knew we were part of the journey.

So thank you so much, coach.

Thank you for continuing to go back to McKeesport and doing what you're doing.

You're the best.

The best.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Thank you man.

I think the lessons that you learned in listening to Swin Cash is that don't let people define what you can do and what you want to do.

And that through hard work, determination, grit, all the things that she grew up with.

And I know raising three daughters is that there's nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.

And I think that's the thing to me, I take away that there is grit, determination.

There's also, you know, Eddie and Grace, I think that your mind is powerful.

And as we talked about just doing the right thing, you'll find yourself.

You can sleep easy at night and you can feel good about where you are in life.

Hopefully, hopefully these young girls see pathways I didn't see pulled from the game what I couldn’t and then pour back into the game more than I have yet proud of the dues that had been paid by female athletes patiently waiting for America to pay some damn attention.

But in the meantime, this I know I'm far from perfect.

I've made my fair share of mistakes and I'm sure I'll make some more.

But whatever the future holds, I'll embrace the same way I did the game unapologetically, the way God called me to be.

And the whole time I'll know.

Giving my all was required gift to the game.

And the game forever was a gift to me.

God bless.