#glory johnson

BG and Glory went on Say Yes To The Dress 😂

Here's the full episode

And here's a clip from youtube if you just want the highlights.

Between TMZ and TLC, GloJo's agent had an... interesting approach to athletic promotion lol

BG's agent is of course the legend herself Lindsay Kagawa Colas. She represents basically the entire Sue Bird-Diana Taurasi clique. Maya, Seimone, Nneka, Sue, Stewie, Jewell, DT and BG. 6 easy clients and 2 challenging ones.

Both DT and BG are natural stars and performers. They light up an arena. They come alive on camera. And they love to entertain. But they are each PR nightmares in their own unique ways.

DT's crude unfiltered humor was enough to give any agent a headache. But there was also her tendency to get political, badmouth her main sponsor Nike, and call out the WNBA's shortcomings. In games, she was always spitting on the court and touching every ass she could, refs and opponent coaches included. She was equal parts basketball superstar and rodeo clown. Also, the technicals, ejections, suspensions, jail, and an international competition ban.

DT is engaging and entertaining, but putting her on camera was a wild card. Her interview charm could get crude, critical, or political. But BG wasn't so confrontational. Her charm was always folksy and cute.

But while DT was painstakingly discreet about her personal life, BG's personal life was her entire brand. At first that seemed to work okay. Kagawa landed BG that book deal and opportunities to speak out as an anti-bullying activist.

But BG also wanted her personal life brand to be about her dating life. And her dating life was very, very, very, extremely, messy and annoying. And she shared every second of it on social media.

Now, you gotta understand, BG went viral in high school. Social media was good to her. And maybe she thought it would keep being good to her if she kept going viral. I think DT might have a gift for prophecy because here's what she wrote about it on her blog in 2008:

I got dozens of text messages about lil' Griner as soon as her video made it to Yahoo Sports... I'm guessing Griner doesn't already have a master PR plan grindin', but I gotta give it to her! Griner may just be on her way to benefiting Tila Tequila style if she (or Baylor!) responds right....

Yes, Dee. That's exactly right. Tila Tequila. BG became the Tila Tequila of sports. When she went pro, she realized it was a lot harder to dunk on Sylvia Fowles than on college kids. Her pro game couldn't be as flashy as her college game. So her personal life got very flashy and very viral.

So while the 2014 Mercury were "chasing glory" (yes... this was literally their season motto...) BG proposed to Glory.

"Maturity?" Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi asks, laughing as Griner is goofing off and telling jokes in the locker room following the Mercury's series-clinching victory vs. the Sparks. "I think last year was a big learning experience for her going from college to the WNBA. It's a mindset. …The best part about Brittney that will never change is she's so real. She's not faking. That'd be corny. Since she's come into the league, there's been no hiding. It isn't something everyone wants to talk about, but in our sport it's in your face. It's almost silly not to talk about it. Her openness has helped change that perception."

It is silly not to talk about it. But I guess Dee has always been silly lol.

After winning the championship, the drama and social media and viral shit just kept escalating. It was like BG and Glory were trying to one-up themselves every week.

And where was DT through all this? I think most of her energy went into teaching BG what to do on the pro court. Off the court, she was helping Penny through her parents' deaths. So she was very hands off with BG. She let BG do her thing, live her extremely public life, and make her extremely public mistakes. And then she dragged her to central Russia and gave her an opportunity to reflect on it all.

"I feel like if you have to make a concerted effort to mentor, you really don't give a shit about that person," Taurasi says. "It's about you and how mentoring makes you feel. BG is my good friend and I have casual conversations of things I've been through, or someone else has, and you take what you take from it." "And that's what I love," Griner says. "We're just talking, it's not formal. Just two hoopers talking." "Everyone is like, 'What have you taught her?'" Taurasi says. "Nothing. She's learned everything herself. The only way you learn things is by going through things yourself. I'm pretty sure, up until the moment I got behind the wheel drunk, I'd heard 'Don't drink and drive' a million times. At some point, you have to make up your own mind about who you want to be, about why you're making the decisions you make. When you make decisions and you know why you're making them, you take the power back. You're making decisions that you want to make. The influencers, the people around you, the enablers or whoever, they don't have the power anymore. And maybe at the time, you didn't think they did, but they did. Oh, they did."

by C. Imani Williams

Last week, WNBA stars Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson were married. The celebrity couple had been in the news two weeks prior when they were both arrested on assault charges following a physical altercation between the two at their Arizona home. As various professional sports associations crack down on domestic violence, it was confirmed on Friday, May 15, 2015 that both women will be suspended for record number of seven games during the upcoming WNBA season.

I don’t know Griner or Johnson personally, but I’m not sure marrying so closely after a domestic violence incident was a good idea. Statistics show that they are likely to have another incident again. And not only that, but many of us are applauding the marriage of two young black celebrity athletes without fully addressing the rarely talked about issue of same-sex intimate partner violence.

Domestic violence in Black, same-gender loving relationships is more common than one may think, though there have not been nearly enough studies done to investigate the causes and effects behind abuse in same-sex relationships. What we do know is that domestic violence affects people of all backgrounds, genders, and sexualities—including Black lesbian, bisexual, and trans women. According to the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence, the top reason women in same-sex relationships stay in abusive situations is they fear being “outed”.

Domestic violence is never an easy conversation to talk about within our families and communities. In the case of same-sex domestic violence, the shame is two-fold: (1) a woman may want not to admit the abuse she’s experiencing; and (2) she may be afraid of the homophobic views others carry.

Whether or not you know or love a woman who identifies as LGBTQ, the fact is: We are your sisters. Sadly, many of us feel those in our lives wouldn’t give two f*cks if they knew we were being abused by another woman. This homophobia and lack of empathy excuses perpetrators’ actions and places blame on us for “choosing” to bring abuse on ourselves by being homosexual in the first place.

Intimate partner violence affects women in same-sex relationships slightly more than heterosexual women. However, this may not be widely known, as the topic is rarely discussed within the overall Black community, outside of organizations that serve LGBTQ individuals. This lack of information means women do not receive the support they need most.

Take, for example, the Black Church. Traditionally, the Black Church has provided sanctuary to women and children in need. It has not, however, been at the forefront of protecting women and children from abuse. While the Black Church is slowly coming around to discussing other important issues that affect our community—like the HIV/AIDS pandemic—in most cases, addressing domestic violence remains taboo. When I was in my abusive and short-lived second marriage, my mother practically begged me to not ask for prayer over my “specific” situation during testimony. At the time, I was married to a man, so I can only imagine what she would have said had I been with a woman.

Another reason same-sex intimate partner abuse is severely under-reported, is because many bi-attracted and lesbian women do not disclose their sexual orientation. Health care providers should be, but are not always, aware of the fact that they are treating a patient who identifies as LGBTQ. The lack of practitioners who are trained in cultural responsiveness and inclusivity, and the fact that women may be unwilling to disclose certain information to receive proper services puts Black women at an even higher risk for being victimized by violent partners.

Then there are our own internalized beliefs and biases about relationship violence and gender.

“Shit, ain't no way I'd let a chick slap me!” My friend Janine was becoming visibly upset as she told me about a friend of hers, who was experiencing abuse within her relationship. It was 1993, and I had not yet come out as bi-curious or lesbian.

Our conversation was my first about same-gender domestic violence. Janine's candid language around “two chicks scrapping” was not wasted on me. “We are equals as women, it doesn't make any sense to let another woman beat you down!”

After my coming out in 1999, a friend shared that her partner of nine years put a gun in her mouth while threatening to kill her if she ever left. I had hopes that she would seek counseling and leave her partner. She elected to stay and we fell out of touch. I can only pray she found the strength to leave.

I, too, have been in a same-sex partnership that was both verbally and emotionally abusive. Finally one of us was smart enough to end it, and stay away. At the time, individual counseling should have been my main priority, but it wasn’t. Since then, I have found therapists and clinicians whose skill and empathy were a good match for my growth and healing. With their help, I was able to do the work needed to help me learn and move past the experience.

Later, I would put my master’s degree in counseling to use by helping Black LGBTQ youth and women in various capacities. I organized events for Black same-gender loving people—including Black queer film nights focused on domestic violence within lesbian relationships and community-wide discussions.

In 2003, I served as co-founder of African-Americans and Allies Against Domestic Violence (AAADV), a now defunct Detroit based community initiative to end domestic violence. I worked alongside women warriors from all backgrounds—straight, same-gender loving, Black, white, Latina—to change the number of women being abused. We used marketing strategies to ensure queer Black women received the information they needed about intimate partner violence within same-sex relationships. This required us to step outside of hetero-normative ideas about domestic violence, to ensure queer women understood:

Women can be abusive

Size or appearance does not matter

Smaller/feminine women can also be violent

Abuse can and often does involve, emotional, sexual, and financial exploitation

Children can be used as pawns

Some abusers threaten to “out” partners to family, friends, and co-workers as means of control

With these uncomfortable and difficult conversations, we can begin to transform misunderstandings and misconceptions about same-sex partner violence. Our united front as Black women, regardless of sexual orientation, is required to dismantle abuse. We must demand that same-gender intimate partner violence be included in sexual education curriculum, as LGBTQ youth are here and not going away.

1. Angel McCoughtry

McCoughtry is an unrestricted free agent, which means she is free to sign with whatever team she wants. These are what I believe to be the most plausible landing spots.

1.Los Angeles Sparks

With Alana Beard retiring, this frees up a max contract slot. Adding McCoughtry will automatically make LA title contenders, and a title is one thing she hasn’t been able to capture. By testing free agency, and her age, I don’t find it very plausible that she would join a team that wouldn’t be a contender. 

2. Phoenix Mercury

With Camille Little and Sancho Lyttle retiring, the Mercury have plenty of cap space. Dewanna Bonner is also an unrestricted free agent, so if she signs elsewhere (which I think she will), then McCoughtry can fill that void very easily.

3. New York Liberty

With New York having the #1 pick, they seem to be the free agency hot spot, especially with their abundance of young talent. They are also in dire need of reliable scoring outside of Tina Charles. Given their struggles these past 2 seasons, this might be a riskier choice for McCoughtry, but it’s one that could pay off in a season or two.   

2. DeWanna Bonner

1. Indiana Fever

If it weren’t for an article written in 2018, I would have no reason to think she would sign elsewhere. In this article Bonner says she wants to play with her wife Candice Dupree. Now that she’s an unrestricted free agent, this would be the time. The Fever desperately need veteran talent to supplement their young talent. Bonner can make an impact immediately.

 If she doesn’t sign with Indiana, then she will most likely re-sign with the Mercury. 

3. Shekinna Stricklen

1. Atlanta Dream

The Connecticut Sun have a lot of free agents this off season, and a lot of players who will be looking for a big pay day. With that being the case, I think they will let Stricklen walk. With 3 other players on max contract, and Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Williams due for massive increases, I can’t see them resigning Stricklen to her current deal. Jones and Williams are younger and are of more value to the Sun.

The Dream had an atrocious offensive season in 2019. Stricklen can provide much needed perimeter shooting, and she can fill the void McCoughtry will be leaving.

2. New York Liberty

If McCoughtry doesn’t decide to sign with New York, Stricklen would be a good second choice. She can provide reliable scoring, which they need address this off season. 

4. Glory Johnson

She could resign, or she could decide to jump ship. With Cambage and Diggins -Smith demanding trades, it seems like Dallas isn’t the place to be. Johnson may want to get out while she can.

1. Phoenix Mercury

With Camille Little and Sancho Lyttle retiring, the Mercury have voids to fill at the forward position.