Kia Nurse hopes Raptors’ all-women broadcast might mirror WNBA, encourage subsequent era | CBC Sports activities

Nurse hopes the affect of the first-of-its type broadcast is just like what she’s skilled not too long ago as a participant for the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation, a league that is had a big impact with its social activism.

Some examples embrace their efforts to assist the Democrats win a Senate seat in Georgia and the league’s #SayHerName marketing campaign that created consciousness in regards to the police taking pictures of Breonna Taylor. Maya Moore, one the WNBA’s most well-known gamers, took a sabbatical from her basketball profession to assist free a wrongfully convicted man who’s now her husband.

“I believe individuals are beginning to see how a lot of an affect we’re having. I imply, we helped flip the Senate,” Nurse informed CBC Sports activities, referring to the work gamers did to encourage Georgians to vote particularly for Democrat Raphael Warnock and in opposition to Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the previous proprietor of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream who spoke out in opposition to Black Lives Matter.

The all-women’s broadcast might have the identical form of affect, mentioned Nurse, the 25-year-old from Hamilton, Ont., who performed final season with the WNBA’s New York Liberty and was not too long ago traded to the Phoenix Mercury. 

“You’ve girls who’re doing an unimaginable job throughout totally different industries and totally different nations … coming collectively to point out you guys what we have been engaged on, regardless that it hasn’t been within the highlight.”

Nurse will work as a color analyst for the sport alongside play-by-play girl Meghan McPeak, who works for CBC Sports activities in addition to within the sales space for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the G League’s Capital Metropolis Go-Go.

TSN’s Kayla Gray will deal with sideline reporting duties, whereas SportsCentre host Kate Beirness and Amy Audibert, an analyst for Raptors 905, will pair up for the in-game studio present.

Paving the way in which for the following era

Nurse, who works as a TSN analyst in the course of the WNBA low season, says the published will present a template for younger girls to see what’s doable in a male-dominated sport and media trade.

“It wasn’t till I went to the U.S. sooner or later and noticed Maya Moore on tv, I believed, ‘Oh, this may be cool to play in like a nationwide championship and to play at UConn and whatnot,’ ” Nurse mentioned.

McPeak echoed the sentiment on a current episode of North Courts, a CBC Sports activities basketball present.

“That is one thing that I by no means had rising up, so the truth that myself, Kia and Kayla can provide that to little Black ladies that seem like us, that is a incredible feeling,” McPeak mentioned. 

“Illustration issues and little ladies will be capable to see us doing what we do and may suppose that they’ll do it as effectively.”

As the ladies name an necessary Raptors recreation in opposition to a top-tier crew the night time earlier than the NBA commerce deadline, Nurse hopes it’ll present a platform to proceed talking out within the title of change — simply as she did final summer season within the WNBA.

WATCH | McPeak discusses historic broadcast on North Courts:

It is March Insanity time and with a report variety of Canadians within the NCAA event, we’re dedicating this episode to the celebs from north of the border, together with Jevohn catching up with Gonzaga’s personal sixth man of the yr Andrew Nembhard. 17:17

“We took to the courtroom with the understanding that it doesn’t matter what anyone was going to say about us … some individuals had been going to love what we needed to say and a few individuals weren’t,” Nurse mentioned. 

“There is a high-quality line between proper and mistaken. And we knew what was proper.”

Offering inspiration for NCAA girls’s athletes

To that finish, after gamers within the NCAA girls’s March Insanity event used social media to show how inferior their weight room setup was in comparison with the boys’s groups, NCAA workers revamped the underwhelming setup with extra gear and machines.  

Different inequities, reminiscent of unequal COVID-19 testing and a scarcity of digital camera publicity, are additionally coming to mild.

Nurse was a part of 4 Closing 4 groups with the College of Connecticut, and although she says she by no means had a difficulty with weight rooms particularly, she additionally by no means performed the event in a bubble as a result of a pandemic. She mentioned she’s confused as to how the unequal set-up occurred, however is not stunned that it did.

“I am happy with the younger girls who’re on the event who took to social media and stood up for themselves,” Nurse mentioned.

“I am happy with everyone who rallied round them and continued to make it loud sufficient that the NCAA listened straight away. Nevertheless it should not have occurred within the first place.”

Nurse hopes that she and her fellow WNBA gamers can present inspiration for in the present day’s school athletes to proceed to search out their very own voices and really feel empowered to talk out. 

“As a result of they know that in the event that they’re working towards a league just like the WNBA, then they will nonetheless have a voice once they get there.”

In the meantime, Canadian nationwide crew head coach Lisa Thomaidis mentioned tv broadcasts like Wednesday’s ought to develop into the norm.

“All these steps alongside the way in which, they’re huge, proper? They should not be, however they’re,” she mentioned. “The truth that we’ll have an all-female broadcast crew simply speaks to how far we have come.” 

A task mannequin on the courtroom and within the sales space

Nurse spoke to CBC Sports activities as a part of her partnership with Tangerine Financial institution, which dedicated $15,000 to assist Kia Nurse Elite, her Nike-backed youth basketball program.

When she was youthful, Nurse mentioned scheduling did not enable her to play provincially, nationally, and with the Newbie Athletic Union (AAU) within the U.S. suddenly. With the Elite program, she’s aiming to vary that whereas offering younger Canadian feminine basketball gamers the assist they want.

“Each door that I’ve had opened up in my life has been a direct results of having the ability to play basketball and to enjoying at a excessive stage locally that I used to be part of rising up.” 

As a participant, Nurse is used to serving as a task mannequin for younger Canadian basketball followers. On Wednesday, she’ll proceed to affect the following era — however this time, from the sales space.

“Hopefully, if there are younger girls who’re watching the sport with their households, which I am certain they’re, seeing extra those who seem like them, possibly considered one of us resonates with them. And that is all that issues on this case.”