The flyest AAU team: Antonio Davis as coach, Ken Griffey Jr.’s daughter, two WNBA Finals players and a whole lot of winning
10/15/2021
Article originally found at The Athletic.
Article originally found at The Athletic by By Bre'ana Singleton
Clap-clap…clap. Yup! Clap-clap…clap. Yup!
Ahh. The familiar sound in AAU gyms all over the country as Soulja Boy’s “Donk” rang out while the clock wound down in warmups.
It was 2007. I was 12 years old and preparing to play my first AAU game as a member of the Georgia Ice. Clap-clap…clap. NOPE! Clap-clap … clap. NOPE! My AAU team had remixed the smash hit to let our opponents know, as regulation ended and we were locking up yet another victory, that we were not some random team to be taken lightly.
I walked out to the parking lot with my parents after the game to see our opponents angrily shoving their keys into ignitions and driving off. “Whoa,” I thought. “They’re old enough to drive?” We had beaten a U17 team in our first action together, and that’s when I knew: This team was very different.
It was the start of my youth basketball career with several future WNBA players who just happened to be the daughters of superstar professional athletes. Baseball greats Ken Griffey Jr. and Delino DeShields, and NBA stars like Dee Brown, Antonio Davis and Kevin Whitted along with a slew of other former Division I athletes, had children on my AAU teams destined to follow in their athletic footsteps.
My dad? He was a paralegal.
We were regular tweens who had silly sleepovers. The difference? Those were sometimes hosted at the Griffey’s massive mansion. We flew first class to an AAU championship. We came from different backgrounds, but we fit well together. And we made up the flyest AAU girls basketball team around.
Years later, it’s Lexie Brown and Diamond DeShields who have most closely followed in their dads’ athletic footsteps. They’re teammates again with the Chicago Sky, playing in the WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury.
“Time just kind of separates you,” Diamond said when we caught up recently. “We went to college and then life happens. And so being here now, I think it reminds us both how much we need each other.”
“I don’t know why all of a sudden the universe brought us back together, but without us building our relationship back then, I probably wouldn’t be on this team right now,” Lexie said.
In the winter of 2007, I was warming up to play for St. Pius X Catholic High School in Metro Atlanta when a tall, lanky 6-foot-something girl walked into the gym with her much-taller, much-lankier father. I didn’t pay it too much mind. Just barely 5-foot, everyone was taller than me. What I didn’t expect, though, was having to guard her.
I did my best and held my own, which was apparently enough for a post-game handshake from the lanky point guard and her proud papa. I’d learn that the girl was Kaela Davis and that her father was former NBA player Antonio Davis. They had moved from Chicago to Atlanta and were looking to start an AAU team.
My family and I drove back home freaking out.
I had always been a scrappy little something, but I never imagined catching the eye of an NBA player. Even though my team had been defeated, no one in the gym could deny that the smallest person on the court was at least the second best player that day.
“I actually didn’t want to coach at all, just because I’m not good at cutting kids,” Davis told me when we caught up this week. “But it was right around the time I was retiring so everything kind of fell into place.”
At the tryout, I noticed everybody was so tall. And I wasn’t. Which was normal. But these girls were all really tall.
“Coach Antonio” put us through one of the most intense workouts I’d ever been through. My dad was there with me. He had coached my former AAU team before that team split up.
I made it through the workout, holding my own against undoubtedly the best girls my age in the state of Georgia. Davis called my parents a couple days later asking if I would like to be a member of the Georgia Ice, his new girls’ basketball team.
I remember jumping on Google, maybe on my iPod touch, and typing “Antonio Davis.” Whoa. He played for the Bulls. He played with — no way! — Michael Jordan. “Welcome to the Space Jam” must have been playing in my mind. That movie was the reason I started playing basketball. Now I’m a degree of separation from Jordan?
Davis invited the team to his house to get to know each other. I use the term “house” loosely. A movie theater, a game room, a pool, a basketball court. The elevator was the thing that blew my mind. I had never seen anything like it.
Before I knew it, I was over there pretty often. It was the coolest thing ever to me. And our team was talented in equal measure. One of our first tournaments was at Georgia Tech. We all arrived at the gym early to change into our bright orange and light blue uniforms. Georgia Ice. We were the first AAU team that I remember to wear Nike Elite socks. We had our names on the back of our jerseys, our numbers on the sides of our shoes.
We qualified for the national championships pretty early in the AAU season. My family and I had never flown before. Davis bought the entire team first-class tickets. We were a bunch of 12-year-old girls in first class having the time of our lives on an NBA superstar’s dime. We won the 12U National Championship in 2008.
“I was really just looking for girls with raw talent, to teach them to play the right way,” Davis said. “I always wanted to practice more than I wanted to play but we just ended up getting really good.”
Things got really interesting the next year.
Every girl playing basketball in the area at the time wanted to play for the Georgia Ice. I was about 1,000 times more nervous at this tryout. And boy, were there some superstars in the gym: Kaela Davis (Anthony’s daughter), Lexie Brown (Dee’s daughter), Taryn Griffey (Ken’s daughter), Diamond DeShields (Delino’s daughter).
The fact that so many famous fathers had come together to form this girl-dad super team was unheard of at the time. This was pre-“girl dad” era. But they learned from an early age about teamwork and work ethic.
“I think the vibe that we put out really just attracted more dads and daughters who really wanted to learn how to play the game the right way,” Davis said. “The craziest thing for me was that Ken Griffey Jrs., Dee Browns and others of the world trusted me with their daughters and this process.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Lexie Brown)
Lexie and Kaela grew up together when Davis and Dee Brown played together for the Toronto Raptors. Lexie and Taryn Griffey later played on the same AAU team in Orlando while we were forming the Georgia Ice in Atlanta. Their moms became friends and the girls played on the same team, meaning Lexie and Taryn attended school in Orlando during the week and then drove or flew to Atlanta on the weekends to compete with the Georgia Ice.
Diamond, on the other hand, was like me. Her AAU team had disbanded and she was looking for an AAU home. We had played against each other several times growing up. Our teams had a bit of an U11 rivalry, if there was such a thing at that age. “At that point, I knew who I wanted to play with. I said, I’m going to play with them,” Diamond said.
Brown called the Georgia Ice a “super team.”
“None of that was actually planned,” Davis said. “When we had the opportunity to add someone like Diamond DeShields, I didn’t know if she was going to be a good fit. I knew she was extremely athletic and had all the tools, I just didn’t know if she was going to mesh with our team. But each and every girl that came our way just ended up being the perfect piece.”
We’d grow together as a team and as young women over the course of that season under the guidance of the GOAT dads.
Having Davis lead us reminded me a lot of when my dad coached me, but I often wondered how it was to have a superstar dad. And to have to perform in front of him. It formed a bond among players.
“For me, just the fact that Kaela, Lexie, Peyton (Whitted) and Taryn all had parents who were pros,” Diamond said, “I got to interact with kids that kind of grew up the same way as I did in that aspect. It was cool.”
Lexie said: “I think that’s why me and Diamond have been able to bond and stay close over the years because we have very similar upbringings, and we can appreciate that about each other.”
Those sleepovers, though, were something. In our second year together, the AAU national championships were conveniently held in Orlando, where Taryn and Lexie lived. While our parents went back to their hotel rooms after games, the whole team spent the weekend at the Griffeys’ house. I remember one couch so big all 15 of us slept on it comfortably. Sometimes we’d be in hotel lobbies after games and the dad’s traded stories from Griffey’s greatest hits to Davis’ time playing with Jordan. My family would sit in awe. In time, we all grew pretty close.
“It just became like a family,” Lexie said.
We’d spend our time watching the YouTube videos that were going “viral” at the time. We liked to create our own content back then — before it was trendy. ‘We were doing viral shit before viral was a thing,” said DeShields.
In the summer of 2009, we traveled to Virginia for the Boo Williams Invitational. As the starting point guard, I suffered an ACL injury that Lexie says changed the course of her career, giving her more time at the position. (I don’t know if I can agree with that given her talent!)
“It was Diamond’s coming out party for us for sure,” said Lexie. Every D1 women’s basketball coach you could think of lined the sidelines to watch us work.
The “greatest show on ice,” as we were called, was as popular as it had ever been, coming off of two AAU national championships and garnering elite-level college looks.
Olympic gold medalist Allisha Gray eventually joined the team as well.
The good times would eventually end as they always have to. We’d all go on to focus on playing for our high school teams. I went to Collins Hill High School and had the pleasure of getting my brains beat in over the next four years by Diamond at Norcross High and Lexie at North Gwinnett.
We began to compete against each other more than we played together. Priorities became different for some. I, for example, was now quite certain that I was not going to play professionally, and was just hoping to secure a scholarship. I eventually signed to play Division II basketball at the University of Montevallo in Alabama.
Lexie committed to Maryland, Diamond to North Carolina, Kaela and Allisha to South Carolina, Peyton Whitted to Penn State, Kristina Nelson to Notre Dame and Kylee Smith to Belmont.
From there, life did its thing. Lexie transferred to Duke to finish. Diamond to Tennessee. Kaela and Allisha won a national championship with Dawn Staley. I transferred to the University of West Georgia. Allison was drafted fourth in 2017 by the Dallas Wings. Kaela went to Dallas as well, a few picks later at No. 10. Diamond was drafted No. 3 overall by the Chicago Sky in 2018. Lexie would be a few picks behind at No. 9 to the Connecticut Sun.
After playing in Hungary for a season, Lexie was traded to the Minnesota Lynx where she played a significant role coming off of the bench for two seasons before injuries slowed her momentum heading into the bubble.
Lexie was waived by Chicago after training camp earlier this season before she was brought back and signed permanently. She said her rekindled friendship with Diamond helped her feel comfortable joining the Sky.
“Yeah, getting to Chicago, for me, was like a hot ass mess,” she said. “You know, me and Diamond’s relationship actually wasn’t the greatest in college.
“I was out of the league this year for three weeks, so it’s really hard to get in. It’s even harder to stay in. Having the relationships with the right people and you have to carry yourself professionally; you can find a way back, and Diamond was a huge part of that.”
They played for different teams in the “Wubble” last season and didn’t talk. When Diamond suffered an injury, Lexie’s mom encouraged her to reach out.
“My mom was just like, I think she needs you back in her life,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘Nah, she’s fine.’ But, I invited her over for Thanksgiving. I was still with Minnesota at the time, but I was already feeling weird about that situation. She was like, yeah you should just come play with us in Chicago. James loves your game and I would love for you to be there.”
Lexie felt comfortable in Minnesota at the time but had Diamond put in a good word with Chicago. Lexie and the Lynx eventually parted ways at the end of 2020. “Chicago was the first team that called my agent,” she said.
“They were trying to trade for me during free agency and they just couldn’t. I think that everything was a blessing in disguise.”
Even as kids winning titles together, Lexie and Diamond didn’t dream about playing for a professional championship.
“Being this close now, to possibly getting to the WNBA Finals together … which is a conversation neither one of us have ever had together,” Lexie said. Chicago, the No. 6 seed, is in the finals for the first time since 2014.
The Sky play Game 3 Friday in Chicago with the series against Phoenix tied 1-1. The possibility of winning a championship together — as adults now — becomes more real every day for both Lexie and Diamond.
“Even when Diamond was a little younger, she had doubts,” Lexie says. “She had self-doubt about her even getting to the WNBA. That was a shocking revelation to me. I remember when we all walked into the gym at 13 years old and thinking, ‘Wow. These guys are going to the league and I am not.’”
We had played against each other for so long but I don’t ever remember Diamond being a no-name. So when she came in, I already knew she was like that. Seeing them achieve all these years later makes our childhood memories all the sweeter. Looking back, we were good teen players. Now we see it as the start of successful basketball careers for some.
“I know when I walked in I was like, oh, this is a different level of tough,” Diamond said. “Like, oh man, I’m going to take what I can here,” DeShields said. “I thought everybody was just equally tough. I just saw everybody as an equal. At that point, I felt like we were all the best 13-year-olds on the planet.”
Looking back, I think we were.
Clap-clap…clap. Yup! Clap-clap…clap. Yup!
Ahh. The familiar sound in AAU gyms all over the country as Soulja Boy’s “Donk” rang out while the clock wound down in warmups.
It was 2007. I was 12 years old and preparing to play my first AAU game as a member of the Georgia Ice. Clap-clap…clap. NOPE! Clap-clap … clap. NOPE! My AAU team had remixed the smash hit to let our opponents know, as regulation ended and we were locking up yet another victory, that we were not some random team to be taken lightly.
I walked out to the parking lot with my parents after the game to see our opponents angrily shoving their keys into ignitions and driving off. “Whoa,” I thought. “They’re old enough to drive?” We had beaten a U17 team in our first action together, and that’s when I knew: This team was very different.
It was the start of my youth basketball career with several future WNBA players who just happened to be the daughters of superstar professional athletes. Baseball greats Ken Griffey Jr. and Delino DeShields, and NBA stars like Dee Brown, Antonio Davis and Kevin Whitted along with a slew of other former Division I athletes, had children on my AAU teams destined to follow in their athletic footsteps.
My dad? He was a paralegal.
We were regular tweens who had silly sleepovers. The difference? Those were sometimes hosted at the Griffey’s massive mansion. We flew first class to an AAU championship. We came from different backgrounds, but we fit well together. And we made up the flyest AAU girls basketball team around.
Years later, it’s Lexie Brown and Diamond DeShields who have most closely followed in their dads’ athletic footsteps. They’re teammates again with the Chicago Sky, playing in the WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury.
“Time just kind of separates you,” Diamond said when we caught up recently. “We went to college and then life happens. And so being here now, I think it reminds us both how much we need each other.”
“I don’t know why all of a sudden the universe brought us back together, but without us building our relationship back then, I probably wouldn’t be on this team right now,” Lexie said.
In the winter of 2007, I was warming up to play for St. Pius X Catholic High School in Metro Atlanta when a tall, lanky 6-foot-something girl walked into the gym with her much-taller, much-lankier father. I didn’t pay it too much mind. Just barely 5-foot, everyone was taller than me. What I didn’t expect, though, was having to guard her.
I did my best and held my own, which was apparently enough for a post-game handshake from the lanky point guard and her proud papa. I’d learn that the girl was Kaela Davis and that her father was former NBA player Antonio Davis. They had moved from Chicago to Atlanta and were looking to start an AAU team.
My family and I drove back home freaking out.
I had always been a scrappy little something, but I never imagined catching the eye of an NBA player. Even though my team had been defeated, no one in the gym could deny that the smallest person on the court was at least the second best player that day.
“I actually didn’t want to coach at all, just because I’m not good at cutting kids,” Davis told me when we caught up this week. “But it was right around the time I was retiring so everything kind of fell into place.”
At the tryout, I noticed everybody was so tall. And I wasn’t. Which was normal. But these girls were all really tall.
“Coach Antonio” put us through one of the most intense workouts I’d ever been through. My dad was there with me. He had coached my former AAU team before that team split up.
I made it through the workout, holding my own against undoubtedly the best girls my age in the state of Georgia. Davis called my parents a couple days later asking if I would like to be a member of the Georgia Ice, his new girls’ basketball team.
I remember jumping on Google, maybe on my iPod touch, and typing “Antonio Davis.” Whoa. He played for the Bulls. He played with — no way! — Michael Jordan. “Welcome to the Space Jam” must have been playing in my mind. That movie was the reason I started playing basketball. Now I’m a degree of separation from Jordan?
Davis invited the team to his house to get to know each other. I use the term “house” loosely. A movie theater, a game room, a pool, a basketball court. The elevator was the thing that blew my mind. I had never seen anything like it.
Before I knew it, I was over there pretty often. It was the coolest thing ever to me. And our team was talented in equal measure. One of our first tournaments was at Georgia Tech. We all arrived at the gym early to change into our bright orange and light blue uniforms. Georgia Ice. We were the first AAU team that I remember to wear Nike Elite socks. We had our names on the back of our jerseys, our numbers on the sides of our shoes.
We qualified for the national championships pretty early in the AAU season. My family and I had never flown before. Davis bought the entire team first-class tickets. We were a bunch of 12-year-old girls in first class having the time of our lives on an NBA superstar’s dime. We won the 12U National Championship in 2008.
“I was really just looking for girls with raw talent, to teach them to play the right way,” Davis said. “I always wanted to practice more than I wanted to play but we just ended up getting really good.”
Things got really interesting the next year.
Every girl playing basketball in the area at the time wanted to play for the Georgia Ice. I was about 1,000 times more nervous at this tryout. And boy, were there some superstars in the gym: Kaela Davis (Anthony’s daughter), Lexie Brown (Dee’s daughter), Taryn Griffey (Ken’s daughter), Diamond DeShields (Delino’s daughter).
The fact that so many famous fathers had come together to form this girl-dad super team was unheard of at the time. This was pre-“girl dad” era. But they learned from an early age about teamwork and work ethic.
“I think the vibe that we put out really just attracted more dads and daughters who really wanted to learn how to play the game the right way,” Davis said. “The craziest thing for me was that Ken Griffey Jrs., Dee Browns and others of the world trusted me with their daughters and this process.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Lexie Brown)Lexie and Kaela grew up together when Davis and Dee Brown played together for the Toronto Raptors. Lexie and Taryn Griffey later played on the same AAU team in Orlando while we were forming the Georgia Ice in Atlanta. Their moms became friends and the girls played on the same team, meaning Lexie and Taryn attended school in Orlando during the week and then drove or flew to Atlanta on the weekends to compete with the Georgia Ice.
Diamond, on the other hand, was like me. Her AAU team had disbanded and she was looking for an AAU home. We had played against each other several times growing up. Our teams had a bit of an U11 rivalry, if there was such a thing at that age. “At that point, I knew who I wanted to play with. I said, I’m going to play with them,” Diamond said.
Brown called the Georgia Ice a “super team.”
“None of that was actually planned,” Davis said. “When we had the opportunity to add someone like Diamond DeShields, I didn’t know if she was going to be a good fit. I knew she was extremely athletic and had all the tools, I just didn’t know if she was going to mesh with our team. But each and every girl that came our way just ended up being the perfect piece.”
We’d grow together as a team and as young women over the course of that season under the guidance of the GOAT dads.
Having Davis lead us reminded me a lot of when my dad coached me, but I often wondered how it was to have a superstar dad. And to have to perform in front of him. It formed a bond among players.
“For me, just the fact that Kaela, Lexie, Peyton (Whitted) and Taryn all had parents who were pros,” Diamond said, “I got to interact with kids that kind of grew up the same way as I did in that aspect. It was cool.”
Lexie said: “I think that’s why me and Diamond have been able to bond and stay close over the years because we have very similar upbringings, and we can appreciate that about each other.”
Those sleepovers, though, were something. In our second year together, the AAU national championships were conveniently held in Orlando, where Taryn and Lexie lived. While our parents went back to their hotel rooms after games, the whole team spent the weekend at the Griffeys’ house. I remember one couch so big all 15 of us slept on it comfortably. Sometimes we’d be in hotel lobbies after games and the dad’s traded stories from Griffey’s greatest hits to Davis’ time playing with Jordan. My family would sit in awe. In time, we all grew pretty close.
“It just became like a family,” Lexie said.
We’d spend our time watching the YouTube videos that were going “viral” at the time. We liked to create our own content back then — before it was trendy. ‘We were doing viral shit before viral was a thing,” said DeShields.
In the summer of 2009, we traveled to Virginia for the Boo Williams Invitational. As the starting point guard, I suffered an ACL injury that Lexie says changed the course of her career, giving her more time at the position. (I don’t know if I can agree with that given her talent!)
“It was Diamond’s coming out party for us for sure,” said Lexie. Every D1 women’s basketball coach you could think of lined the sidelines to watch us work.
The “greatest show on ice,” as we were called, was as popular as it had ever been, coming off of two AAU national championships and garnering elite-level college looks.
Olympic gold medalist Allisha Gray eventually joined the team as well.
The good times would eventually end as they always have to. We’d all go on to focus on playing for our high school teams. I went to Collins Hill High School and had the pleasure of getting my brains beat in over the next four years by Diamond at Norcross High and Lexie at North Gwinnett.
We began to compete against each other more than we played together. Priorities became different for some. I, for example, was now quite certain that I was not going to play professionally, and was just hoping to secure a scholarship. I eventually signed to play Division II basketball at the University of Montevallo in Alabama.
Lexie committed to Maryland, Diamond to North Carolina, Kaela and Allisha to South Carolina, Peyton Whitted to Penn State, Kristina Nelson to Notre Dame and Kylee Smith to Belmont.
From there, life did its thing. Lexie transferred to Duke to finish. Diamond to Tennessee. Kaela and Allisha won a national championship with Dawn Staley. I transferred to the University of West Georgia. Allison was drafted fourth in 2017 by the Dallas Wings. Kaela went to Dallas as well, a few picks later at No. 10. Diamond was drafted No. 3 overall by the Chicago Sky in 2018. Lexie would be a few picks behind at No. 9 to the Connecticut Sun.
After playing in Hungary for a season, Lexie was traded to the Minnesota Lynx where she played a significant role coming off of the bench for two seasons before injuries slowed her momentum heading into the bubble.
Lexie was waived by Chicago after training camp earlier this season before she was brought back and signed permanently. She said her rekindled friendship with Diamond helped her feel comfortable joining the Sky.
“Yeah, getting to Chicago, for me, was like a hot ass mess,” she said. “You know, me and Diamond’s relationship actually wasn’t the greatest in college.
“I was out of the league this year for three weeks, so it’s really hard to get in. It’s even harder to stay in. Having the relationships with the right people and you have to carry yourself professionally; you can find a way back, and Diamond was a huge part of that.”
They played for different teams in the “Wubble” last season and didn’t talk. When Diamond suffered an injury, Lexie’s mom encouraged her to reach out.
“My mom was just like, I think she needs you back in her life,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘Nah, she’s fine.’ But, I invited her over for Thanksgiving. I was still with Minnesota at the time, but I was already feeling weird about that situation. She was like, yeah you should just come play with us in Chicago. James loves your game and I would love for you to be there.”
Lexie felt comfortable in Minnesota at the time but had Diamond put in a good word with Chicago. Lexie and the Lynx eventually parted ways at the end of 2020. “Chicago was the first team that called my agent,” she said.
“They were trying to trade for me during free agency and they just couldn’t. I think that everything was a blessing in disguise.”
Even as kids winning titles together, Lexie and Diamond didn’t dream about playing for a professional championship.
“Being this close now, to possibly getting to the WNBA Finals together … which is a conversation neither one of us have ever had together,” Lexie said. Chicago, the No. 6 seed, is in the finals for the first time since 2014.
The Sky play Game 3 Friday in Chicago with the series against Phoenix tied 1-1. The possibility of winning a championship together — as adults now — becomes more real every day for both Lexie and Diamond.
“Even when Diamond was a little younger, she had doubts,” Lexie says. “She had self-doubt about her even getting to the WNBA. That was a shocking revelation to me. I remember when we all walked into the gym at 13 years old and thinking, ‘Wow. These guys are going to the league and I am not.’”
We had played against each other for so long but I don’t ever remember Diamond being a no-name. So when she came in, I already knew she was like that. Seeing them achieve all these years later makes our childhood memories all the sweeter. Looking back, we were good teen players. Now we see it as the start of successful basketball careers for some.
“I know when I walked in I was like, oh, this is a different level of tough,” Diamond said. “Like, oh man, I’m going to take what I can here,” DeShields said. “I thought everybody was just equally tough. I just saw everybody as an equal. At that point, I felt like we were all the best 13-year-olds on the planet.”
Looking back, I think we were.
Email
Print
