Already a powerful force in the girl’s basketball community, the Rose Classic got just a little bit stronger this week as a partnership between the famed Brooklyn based girl’s tournament and the WNBPA was announced.
It's every girls dream to one day be able to play in the WNBA, and WNBPA Director of Operations Terri Jackson and all of her unions members wanted to broaden her memberships base to give back more to where they all came from.
Each of the players in Jackson's union had at one time grown up hoping to be a WNBA player, and that she said was a key for them in deciding to partner up with the future of girl’s basketball.
"For us I think it's two directions," Jackson stated to NYCHoops.net on Thursday afternoon. "It's the desire for our membership to get involved and reach back to the earlier levels of youth basketball, and I do think that comes naturally to professional athletes like the ones I get to represent in our union because they remain so engaged in the community. The other part of it is because so many of our members have come through the Rose Classic."
Jackson admitted though that she wasn't all that familiar with the Rose Classic until recently but did meet CEO Anton Marchand out in Los Angeles last summer during a USA Basketball event and that she did have a bit of a knowledge with what he was doing in New York City with girl’s youth basketball.
It wasn't until last month though that things became a lot clearer for her that the Rose Classic was the perfect partner for the WNBPA to get involved with. She was sitting on a panel talking about grassroots basketball and giving back when she admitted that a young woman's talk with her sealed the deal that the Rose was where they wanted to start their efforts.
"I had this young woman come up to me and she said you have to do the Rose," Jackson explained. "She explained that she played in the Rose and that you have to go to the games and see what they do and just how incredible an experience it was. I had my membership at the time wanting to find a good starting point for us and it seemed all the planets were aligned with this woman talking to me and it was like boom, this is where we have to start."
After discussions between Jackson and Marchand over the past few weeks, the partnership recently became official as the WNBPA will be working hand and hand with the Rose Classic, making the tournament if it wasn't already, the absolute must play in tournament in the area.
The partnership means a lot to Marchand who has built the Rose Classic into the premier basketball event in the area, and he believes with the WNBPA's support now behind them, it will continue to drive them to even bigger heights.
"For us it justifies what we have always tried to do to make this the ultimate well respected platform, and we wanted to be looked at as a platform not just athletically, but a place to grow socially as well," Marchand admitted. "I think now the young women who play at the Rose have a real place to see that their dreams are tangible now, and with the WNBPA involved it's a place I need to be to get on the right path whether that is to play in the WNBA one day, or to work in basketball, or just have long lasting friendships."
As excited as Marchand is about the partnership, Jackson is even more excited about being able to do as much as possible to help continue to build and promote girl’s youth basketball, admitting that this isn't just about having their name on something, it's about building deep and meaningful bonds with the young basketball players of the future.
The WNBA players Jackson said are just finding out about the partnership as they didn't want to have it get around before all the T's were crossed and I's were dotted, but she expects that with many of her unions members already making appearances at the Rose Classic in support of where they came from, that the relationship will continue in an even stronger role now with the WNBPA throwing their weight towards supporting the league.
"We aren't just looking to slap our label, or slap our logo on a banner and keep it moving, we are looking for the opportunity to grow relationships, and that's what we have with the Rose Classic," Jackson said.
It is as great a partnership as one could hope for as the Rose Classic continually brings New York City some of the best and most exciting girls basketball action, and with them now in association with the WNBPA, it means only bigger and better things ahead for both organizations.
