Tara VanDerveer: On Being a Coach, Teammate, and Trailblazer

Full Transcript

Note: Transcripts are generated by machine and lightly edited by humans. They may contain errors.

Tara VanDerveer: If we all make a really concerted effort to be a great teammate someone you can depend on, that always has your back and you respect and they trust and respect you, someone that’s mature, determined, and if we’re a good teammate towards whoever we meet, being a good teammate is also forgiving. I want to set that example, and I want to challenge myself. Are you all in on that?

Shannon Beckham: That was Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in college basketball history and former coach of Stanford Women’s Basketball. Tara joined Stanford Graduate School of Business as part of “View from the Top”, a speaker series where students, like me, sit down to interview leaders from around the world. In our conversation, Tara shares her experience winning the record-breaking game before diving into her 40-year-long career. She reveals her coaching philosophy on recruiting, motivating players and building culture on teams, all lessons that can be applied to business. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Shannon Beckham: Hello. It is so great to have you here.

Tara VanDerveer: Thank you, Shannon. It’s great to be here.

Shannon Beckham: We are closing out this year’s “View from the Top” series as you close out a historic career. It’s pretty incredible to have you. We are at the business school, so I wanted to start with one of those numbers we just saw, 1216. That’s the total number of games you’ve won, making you the coach with the most victories in college basketball history.

Tara VanDerveer: I need to add some tallies to the jacket. There are only 1203 on there right now. But thank you, Shannon. I started when I was about 10 years old, so it’s been a nice run. I’ve enjoyed it.

Shannon Beckham: Well, we’re going to get to that entire journey. But take us back to the moment in January when you won the record-breaking game. How did that feel?

Tara VanDerveer: I didn’t make a shot, so I did not win anything. But we were playing Oregon State, and I kind of knew it was a game because people had asked about it and talked about it. And I went to the gym and thought, okay, this is just another game, but, in fact, it wasn’t another game.

I didn’t know everyone had planned a party afterwards, because I thought, well, if we don’t win this one, we’ll get the next one. But we had a really great celebration afterwards. Jennifer Azzi was there, Chiney Ogwumike, just all former players, and it was a party. I was expecting to play Bridge with my mother; I play online with my mom, and I was expecting to play Bridge like at 4:00.

And my sister calls and says, “Where’s Tara? She’s not online to play?” And my mom said, “She’s still at the gym.” I was just enjoying it. It was overwhelming. It was wonderful. And then you just get back at it, and the next day, you’ve got another game.

Shannon Beckham: And you’ve got this jacket I see that you’re rocking.

Tara VanDerveer: I did.

Shannon Beckham: Tell us about this. What is the jacket?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, Nike made this jacket. It’s a one-of-a-kind. I don’t think anyone else has one. They brought it out to me. I really didn’t expect anything. And then I wore the jacket to dinner the next night. We went to Nobu. One of the servers is a friend of mine. One of my friend’s children works there. And he said, “Tara, Christian McCaffree’s outside, eating outside.” I said, “Oh great, leave him alone. Don’t bug him.”

I went out the side door, and all of a sudden, I turn, and I see this person running at me. It’s Christian. He runs fast. He goes, “Coach VanDerveer, I’m Christian McCaffrey,” like I didn’t know who he was. And I’m like, “Okay.” He goes, “Let’s take a picture.” And it went viral on I guess Twitter, TikTok, whatever it was.

Shannon Beckham: All those platforms, yeah, yeah.

Tara VanDerveer: But what Nike told me was they had the jacket specially made, and one person flew it out, dropped it off and flew back the day of the game, so I feel really special.

Shannon Beckham: Well, you are so special to Stanford as an institution and to this community, so special that also last week, they renamed the court in Maples Pavilion after you, which is such a well-deserved honor.

Tara VanDerveer: Thank you.

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: So, you’ve been a coach for 40 years. You’ve led the Olympic team to gold, and you’ve been a trailblazer for women in sports. We’re going to get to all of this, but I want to rewind and start at the beginning. Do you remember the first time you held a basketball?

Tara Vanderveer: Shannon, can I go back one second? I want to congratulate – are any guys here from the GSB Intermural Team? They won the championship!

Shannon Beckham: Give it up!

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: I just want to congratulate you guys. I went to the game, and they beat our practice guys. And I think some of our practice guys are here too. But I am such a hoop head, and I started as a hoop head in the third grade. We did what’s called three-player weave. And I just went home, and I was in love. I was just like, “This is awesome.” I loved it. And it was really exciting to play, but it was hard because only the boys got to play.

And we had a situation where we had a little stage actually, and the girls sat on the stage and the boys got to play. And it was so frustrating. I had a really good ball. If I wanted to play with the boys, I had to have the best ball. So, I had the best ball. If they wanted to use it, I got to play. I kept playing and playing, and fewer and fewer girls played. I grew up basically going from my next-door neighbor had a hard court and a hoop, but if they didn’t want me there, they put the car under the hoop. So, then I’d go to another place, and I loved it. I loved basketball from a very young age.

Shannon Beckham: What you’re saying too is this was before Title 9 when women had limited access to funding and resources for sports in school. So, if you didn’t have sports in school, how did you further develop your love for the game?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, I got to watch a lot of basketball. I’d play with the boys, and I’m really proud of the fact that in the ninth grade, my ninth-grade gym teacher, who was a boys’ basketball coach, wrote in my yearbook, “To the best basketball player in the ninth grade, boy or girl.” And I was like, “Yeah, but I don’t get to play on a team.”

It was really frustrating, but I loved watching basketball. In the seventh grade, I tried out to be the mascot, and I got the job for two weeks. It was a bear. I had a big bear head, and I would turn the bear head, take it off and turn around and watch the game. And because I wasn’t leading cheers, I got fired. So that’s the only job I’ve been fired from, so far.

But I loved basketball. I read every book in the library. The librarian called my dad and said, “Mr. VanDerveer, I’m worried about Tara.” And he was like, “Oh god, what trouble did she get in?” And the librarian said, “She’s read every book in the library about basketball.” And that’s something maybe I’d do in my spare time, write children’s stories because all the books I read were about boys.

Shannon Beckham: Wow, that would be incredible. So, you had this passion, but you ended up going off to college and decided you’re going to become a lawyer.

Tara VanDerveer: Right.

Shannon Beckham: You ended up on a slightly different path. How do you end up going from law to basketball coach?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, I majored in Sociology. And at the time, when I was in college, Title 9, as you referenced, did pass. And Title 9 is a law that was passed for, not discrimination against women in colleges, and if they were going to take federal funds. It passed in 1972, but it never really started, and it didn’t get any traction right away.

But when I graduated, I ran out of money. I wanted to go to law school. And at Christmas, I went home, and my parents were excited, “Tara’s home.” And after Christmas, “They’d ask, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I’m just going to hang out here.” And he goes, “Oh no. You’re going to go coach your sister’s team.” I have a younger sister, five years younger, that was just playing basketball because her friends played. She didn’t even practice in the driveway one time that I ever saw. And they said, “Well, you’re going to go help coach your sister’s team.” And I’m like, “Dad, I’m not.” And he said, “Yes, you are. If you’re going to live here in our house and eat our food, you’re going to go.” And I’m like, “Dad, they lost last night, 99 to 11.”

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: He said, “Even more reason to go coach.” So, I said, “Okay.” And I learned two really important lessons coaching my sister’s team. I came home from the game, and the first thing my dad says, “Well, how come you didn’t play Marie more?” I’m like, “Dad, Marie can’t shoot. She doesn’t play defense. She doesn’t rebound.” And then my mother says, “But, Tara, she’s so nice.” And I’m like, “I know, Mom.” But I also knew that everyone on the team was someone’s sister, and I think that’s really, really important, that I learned that and I remembered that. Because sometimes in games, you can get a little heated, and you might want to yell at a player. And then you just have to remind yourself that.

Shannon Beckham: Let’s talk about that, getting heated in games, your role as a coach. At the GSB, one of the core tenets of our curriculum is actually coaching, how to be coached ourselves and receive feedback and how to coach and lead others. And as future business leaders, there’s a lot we can learn from you on and off the court. So, to start, how do you view your role as a coach now?

Tara VanDerveer: I think as a coach, more than anything, number one, I’m a teacher. You kind of asked the question, “How did I get into this basketball and learn about it?” I’ve watched a lot of basketball, and I’ve watched a lot of coaches, and I’ve also been coached in situations on not so much in basketball, although I did have an excellent college coach. Her name was B. Gordon. She’s passed away. But we only had like eight games.

And I was always thinking. When I was playing, I’m thinking about what I should be doing, but sometimes I just maybe couldn’t do it. And my coach would say to me, “Tara, you need to have fewer turnovers,” because I turned the ball over a lot. And I had read in the book by John Wooden that if you are having turnovers, you’re trying to make things happen. So, I told my coach, “Coach, I’m just trying to make things happen.” And she said, “Make a little less happen.”

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: But I think coaching is teaching. It’s really trying to help people go to a place they can’t go by themselves, and I learned that from my piano teacher. I thought I could teach myself how to play piano. That lasted two weeks. Then I got a great teacher, a fabulous teacher. And I was making CDs within a year. And people said, “Oh wow, how did you do this?” I said, “I have a great teacher.” What I realized was she was able to take me to a place that I couldn’t get by myself, and that’s what I try to do with the players on our team.

Shannon Beckham: That’s really powerful. How do you do that? How do you motivate your players?

Tara VanDerveer: The players I recruit for Stanford are very motivated themselves. A lot of them are sitting right in the front row – all American, all American, Olympian. So, first of all, I recruit great players. We recruit great talent.

So then, it’s putting them in a situation where we maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. And I think even as a coach, I was thinking about this today, Shannon, knowing we were going to talk about it. I think I have done better when I’ve had administrators that I know care about me, and that I know they’re invested in me, and I know they’re behind me 100 percent.

So, I think more than anything, I want the players I work with to feel that I have their back, that I want to help them reach their goals and be the best they can be. So, I think that that’s pretty much how I try to work it.

Shannon Beckham: The new head coach, who was your assistant coach for a long time, Kate Paye, who’s also a GSB alum –

Tara VanDerveer: And law school. She took the easy route.

Shannon Beckham: Followed your law school path as well. She said that you’re often referred to as “the Velvet Hammer,” that you can deliver a harsh message in a kind way. Do you relate to that?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, Kate’s not here today because she’s at the ACC meeting back in Georgia somewhere. I don’t know. I try to be honest and direct as much as possible. A lot of what you’re able to say to someone is based on the relationship you have with them. So, the deeper relationship you have, the more connected you are, the more you can coach them.

I knew Kate when she was 11 years old, so she got the hammer; she didn’t get the velvet one. But I think that’s a great compliment. But if you’re in the game, you can’t really sugarcoat stuff. You can’t say, “Well, no, Shannon. Let’s hope you sprint back this time and guard someone,” you know? No, you’ve got to sprint back and guard somebody. I think being direct and making people look good; that’s my job.

Shannon Beckham: I’ve read to you that you’ve lost your cool once. You were back in the locker room. You decided, “Okay, I’m going to yell at the team. I’ve got to get them going. We’ve got to win this game.” And you won. And then afterwards, you were like, “Well, that’s not how I want to lead.” How do you motivate people? You’re direct, but tell us more about that.

Tara VanDerveer: I won’t say that I’ve only lost my cool once.

Shannon Beckham: Okay, good, because I was going to be amazed by that.

Tara VanDerveer: But that time was a little bit over the top. I realized that wasn’t who I wanted to be. I think more than anything, I want to be a coach that my sister would want to play for or that I want to play for. I think it’s very applicable, especially a lot of the business and future business leaders that are sitting here.

This is a little off road, if I’m allowed. I was reading in the New York Times yesterday about 10 people that had retired. Did anyone else read that article? Is anyone else retired in this audience? No? We’re all young. All right then. Well, the article is really great. It talked about retired, excited, excited. And then I read the 234 comments. One person started with, “I wish I could have skipped from childhood to retirement. The in between was awful.” A lot of people are very unhappy in their jobs. A lot of people hate going to work. It made me really sad because my experience for the most part was magical. But when I did have maybe an administrator or someone I had to report to and they were divisive or they weren’t supportive, life was miserable, and we didn’t win as much.

So, the high performance was low when I didn’t feel supported, and that was something that I really felt. Instead of people feeling not seen, irrelevant, a cog in the wheel; these are the comments that were made, I would just like to say that going forward, for me, and also I want to encourage you, and this is kind of coming up to one of your other questions is that we can do better. I want to challenge myself every day to do better. That was a long answer, wasn’t it?

Shannon Beckham: Even this past year, you thought, “I can really help out our team. We can do better.” And you brought in an executive coach for the first time, someone we all know and love, our former GSB Dean of Admissions, Kirstin Moss. What was it like being coached by Kirstin and being on the other side of that coaching equation?

Tara VanDerveer: All right, so, the way this happened was I spoke at the Leadership Academy over at the business school for former Dean, Robert Jost. And I’d done this for four or five years. And I reached out to Bob Jost and said, “I need help.”

We had underachieved in 2023, and it wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t a happy team. And I just thought, especially with our leadership, this was something that I wanted to really improve and really work on. So, if you are a musician, you would go to Mozart. If you were an artist, you’d go to Michelangelo. Well, if you want leadership, you go to Kirstin Moss, and that’s who I got. So, I skipped right to the top and recruited Kirstin. She told me flat out she didn’t know anything about basketball, and I think she was right.

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: But what I loved about working with Kirstin was she was all in. So, she would meet with me, and we would talk about how we could really make this year a great year. And I knew going into this year around August that this was going to be the last year in the Pac 12. And we had pretty much dominated Pac 12, and we wanted to finish strong.

So, I just thought, not only do we want this to be a great year, because coaching and winning, this is not enough. It’s how you feel. If you watch the videos, it’s the hugging, the excitement, just the joy that you have. There is nothing more rewarding, and Andrew’s sitting right here, Andrew Locke, he knows a little about winning and football. But there’s nothing more rewarding than a great team, am I right, Andrew?

When you have a great team, and you do this, the synergy, the excitement, that’s what I wanted for our team. I didn’t want just to win, and I didn’t want to just be in shape and play defense and shoot, but just to experience the excitement. That was something that Kirstin really helped us with, helped us with connectivity, helped us with our values, our team values.

And we signed a pact, our whole team, all of our staff, and we had three copies of it – one in the office, one in the locker room and one we brought to practice. And it talked about communication and making sure that we’re building trust and respect, and everything that we’re doing, at the bottom it said, “#bestyearever.” Kirstin was awesome. She was a great recruit.

Shannon Beckham: Well, she recruited all of us to be here, so we’re very grateful to Kirstin.

Tara VanDerveer: I know you’re grateful to Kirstin too.

Shannon Beckham: So that pact that you just mentioned, that’s very tactical. What are some other tactics that you used to build this strong culture you’re talking about that we could think about as we’re leading teams in the future as well?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, again, I’ll come back to I think that coaching and if you’ve ever been on a team or if you’ve really watched a successful team, there’s this great connection and the relationships. But things don’t always go the way that you want them to. You have to be direct, and you have to make changes, you have to be able to make adjustments.

And I think that more than anything is people really wanting and giving themselves up, being unselfish, being mature. I used kind of the phrase, “being a great teammate.” A great teammate is someone really special. Very few teams have players that are really excited for someone else doing well.

I use the analogy with our team of an orchestra, that we’re all playing instruments, and sometimes you’re just keeping the beat, but sometimes it’s going to be your solo, but you’re happy for someone else when they have a solo. And if they flub up, then you’re there to help them, and you’re encouraging them.

We worked with a former freshman dean at Stanford, Julie Lythcott-Haims, who was awesome, how we worked with a happiness professor at Stanford, Fred Luskin, so kind of bringing in some other resources just to give our team the best chance of #havingthebestyearever and really having fun. That’s one thing. Our staff is sitting here; they’re awesome. They’re just awesome. We have fun. We laugh a lot. They laugh at me a lot, not with me, at me. We do. We just have a great time.

Shannon Beckham: I’ve heard your team put together a book also of these iconic phrases that you use to motivate them called “Tara-isms.” Can you tell us a little bit about those “Tara-isms” and where they come from?

Tara VanDerveer: Shannon, these Tara-isms, I don’t think of them; they just happen.

Shannon Beckham: Okay. Let’s hear them.

Tara VanDerveer: They just spurt out. So, one time, we were in practice, and someone did something really stupid. It was Rog, [unintelligible], who I love Rog, but I’m like, “Rog, they made the movie, ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and you were in it.” So, just something like that or someone will be trying to pull the wool over my eyes, “We’ve got to go to class.” I’m like, “Oh, I was born at night, but not last night,” you know? And one of my favorite ones actually is, “Some days you’re the dog, and some days you’re the hydrant.”

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: So, you know, that’s how it works.

Shannon Beckham: Good. I hope that we all go on to use them with our teams in the future. You maintain this sense of fun, but you also perform under immense pressure. One of those pivotal moments in your career was when you were selected to lead the U.S. Women’s Team in the 1996 Olympics. And you had the President of the United States in your ear telling you to go for gold.

Tara VanDerveer: Mm-hmm. [Affirmative]

Shannon Beckham: No pressure. How do you stay so grounded and perform in such high stakes?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, I’ll tell you a little Olympic story that was kind of fun. I’m not superstitious, but it was April 13th, a Friday, as the Olympic coach over in Kissick Auditorium across the way, and I was introduced this way by the President of USA Basketball. What happened was in 1992, the Olympic Women’s Team had won a bronze, which is basically losing. And the Men’s Dream Team had won the Olympic Gold Medal.

So, the Olympics were in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. And this was a new program. They wanted to win the gold medal in Atlanta. Also, it was a time that they were trying out the idea of a professional women’s basketball league, which would be the WNBA and the ABL.

So, C.M. Newton introduced me this way. “This is not about bronze, this is not about silver, this is about gold, Tara VanDerveer.” I was like, “Okay. All right. Thank you.” I live over in Menlo Park, and the gold medal game was August 4th, 1996. So on August 4, 1995, I was running up Valparaiso Hill, if anyone knows where that is. I call it Olympic Hill. I was sweating. I had gone for a nice run. I got in the shower, and I said, “Oh my God. A year from today is the gold medal game. What if we don’t win it? What if we’re not in it?” And I started actually shaking.

So, I got out, and I sat down, and I said to myself, “Hmm, all right. You know what you’re doing. You have a great team. What would stop you from winning a gold medal? The only thing that’s going to stop you is negativity. Get back in the shower, wash off all that negativity, watch it go down the drain.” And I did a double rinse. From then on, I never had a negative thought about winning the gold medal.

And during the whole year, we would go everywhere we went. In the airports, we went over 150,000 miles, and everywhere we went, people said, “Bring home the gold. Bring back the gold.” And our team did feel a lot of pressure. And [Kate Steading] sitting right in the front row was on the team. We all felt the pressure.

But, we went to the White House, and we were going to go for a run with the President of the United States, which is a tremendous honor. The president at the time was Bill Clinton, and he had just gotten back from Ireland, and this was before his vegan diet. And he was on a different time zone. The [AH] said to me, “Now, Coach VanDerveer, what if one of your girls on the team can’t keep up with the president?” I was like, “I will cut them on the spot.”

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: We were out running, and we were on some island. We first had to wait in the White House, and he came down, he met everyone, he was great. Then we got in our vans, he got in his limo. We went out to this island. We were jogging and he stopped. He was tired. And he was pointing out some little things. Then he starts running, and we turn this corner, and there are bleachers, 500 cameras, recorders. He starts sprinting. I said, “Ya’ll, let’s go.” He didn’t beat anybody on our team. We were right there with him. It was just incredible.

We had the 12 of us, the coaches and the President of the United States in a circle talking, and it was like, you have to pinch yourself. You’re like, “Whoa, this is really fun.” That afternoon, we went to meet with our two female Supreme Court Justices, and one of them is from Stanford, Sandra Day O’Connor. She was sitting right next to me. This was a smaller room, but there were cameras. And then she looks back, and she goes, “You’re gone,” like that. And the cameras all pack up and leave. She turns, and she goes, “Now we can talk.”

She turns to me, and she goes, “Tara, I have a surprise.” I’m thinking, “What the heck could this be? A surprise from the Supreme Court Justice.” And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was there too. So, we go up to the third floor, and she goes, “Tara, this is the highest court in the land.” They had a basketball court on the top of the Justice Building. So we’re going to play basketball, our team with Lisa Leslie, 6’6 and Justice Ginsburg, 5’5, and I’m just thinking, “Please, Lisa, do not block her shot.” But she didn’t. We had fun. And everywhere we went, it was,” Bring back the gold.”

So, we went 60 and 0 and won the gold medal, and it was very, very exciting and really fun. But, I’m thinking, “Gold medal, that’s pretty darned good, 60 and 0.” I get home, I look in the refrigerator, of course, nothing is there. I go down to the Safeway, and I’m putting oranges in a bag. And this woman is kind of looking at me. You know how when someone knows you they’re looking at you? She goes, “Weren’t you the coach at the Olympics yesterday?” I go, “Yeah.” She goes, “You’re shorter than I thought.”

[Laughter]

Shannon Beckham: That’s amazing. Well, as someone who’s 5’2, I’ve also heard that before, unfortunately, but what an incredible story. And you did; you brought home the gold.

Tara VanDerveer: I did.

Shannon Beckham: Another pressure I imagine you’re facing right now that a lot of coaches and athletes are facing is NIL, which for context, in 2021, the NCAA adopted a new policy that allowed players to profit from their name, image and likeness. What do you think we should do about NIL? Should this exist?

Tara VanDerveer: I definitely think NIL should exist – name, image and likeness, I should own mine, and you should own yours. But along with that, there’s a lot of other things that are happening.

I’m very excited for any one of our players, any coaches, that they get an NIL deal. I’m excited for that too. I think it’s great. But along with that has become other things, which are collectives, and collectives are through the university. And now it is very challenging. Players are not just recruited because they want to come to Stanford and get a great education and play on a great team, but there’s payments involved. And the payments are fairly good.

I mean, for one year, some of the male players will go for 2 million. Some of the football players are 2 or 3 million. We’ve worked so hard to get Title 9, and the collective money, according to Charlie Baker, who was the President of the NCAA, 99 percent of that goes to men right now. And not NIL money, but collective money, which is different. So, Shannon, we could talk the whole rest of the time on that, but we’ve got better things to talk about.

Shannon Beckham: Well, I’ll follow up with just one quick question then, because you do have the future president of Stanford sitting here in the front row. And you have a unique position on this. What should Stanford do?

Tara VanDerveer: If Stanford wants to be competitive, just like anything, we’re the number one business school, yes?

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: You know, I have to say, it’s really fun to win. It’s really fun to win a national championship. You saw a little bit of the excitement and enthusiasm. It’s fun to be on top, and I think Stanford should be a leader in everything, including football, basketball, men’s and women’s basketball, every sport that we compete in because I just think we’re leaders in so many things.

And what I came to Stanford for, my dad did not want me to come to Stanford. You kind of saw a little bit where my dad called this a graveyard job. I called my dad, and I’d already taken the Stanford job, but I kind of fibbed. I said, “Dad, I’m thinking about taking the Stanford job.” And he said, “Do not take it. There’s no way you can win. There’s no way you can recruit that caliber of student athlete to come to Stanford. I said, “Dad, I’ve taken the job,” and hung up the phone. He said to my mother, “Tara will be unemployed, coming home, living with us in three months.”

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: But I came here because of the combination of excellence in academics and athletics, and I want that to continue for Stanford and for our great Stanford University. But it’s a very challenging time, and that’s why it’s great that we have someone like our future President Levin, who is brilliant, and will figure it out.

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: No pressure, John.

Shannon Beckham: Another topic that’s been in the news a lot this year is gender equity, which you just touched on. Twenty-four million fans viewed the Women’s Championship Game, which is great.

Tara VanDerveer: Woo! That was awesome.

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: And it was nearly double the amount that watched the men’s game. But Caitlin Clark, the number one WNBA draft pick has a starting salary of $76,000 compared to the NBA’s number-one pick who made 10 million last year. How do we reach gender equity in sports?

Tara VanDerveer: Well, remember Caitlin also signed a $28 million contract with Nike, so that’s not bad, which she [did not earn].

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: I would back up and say that as a young girl, I’m one of five children, and my mother will always remind me, “You’re one of five.” I have one brother. Growing up, my parents didn’t serve hot dogs to the girls and steak to the one boy. But I think that’s where we want to start is to make sure that we are being equitable at high school level, at the junior high level, at the college level.

When we have our basketball camp, we have fifty 8-year-olds sitting in a room similar to this. And I will talk to them about how I did play junior high basketball. I never went to basketball camp. There were no scholarships. There was no television. There was no pro league. And one little girl raises her hand and says, “Why not?” And I’m like, “Okay. Can anyone else answer that question?” So another little girl raises her hand and goes, “Sexism!” Like that.

[Laughter]

Tara VanDerveer: So, we have to be fair. Now, women’s professional basketball is way behind in terms of the number of years we’ve been at it. But as it’s marketed better, as it’s promoted, as people write about it and do things like this, and I’m here promoting women’s basketball.

How many people have ever been to one of the women’s basketball games at Stanford? Awesome. How many people are coming next year? Everyone raise your hand, everyone. Except I know the second year, you’re leaving. But let’s support girls’ and women’s sports. Let’s support daughters in their sports, and it will grow. And I think it will change, but we are starting behind. It wasn’t too long ago – I mean, things have really just taken off for men’s basketball too.

Shannon Beckham: Well, thank you for paving the path for so many women, not just in sports, but in organizations around the country.

Tara VanDerveer: Thank you, Shannon.

Shannon Beckham: Your players are sitting here in the front row, and you really see them more than athletes; you see them as family. What are some of the lessons they’ve taught you over the years?

Tara VanDerveer: Shannon, first of all, you are doing a great job.

Shannon Beckham: As are you!

Tara VanDerveer: You are, you are.

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: I’m just talking about myself. I don’t have any notes. But you’re talking and asking questions, you don’t have any notes, and you’re knocking it out.

Shannon Beckham: You’re easy to talk to.

Tara VanDerveer: Even though you’re 5’2, you’re doing a slam-dunk job.

[Laughter]

Shannon Beckham: Thank you.

[Applause]

Tara VanDerveer: I’m going to tell you three stories, actually four, about players that I’ve coached. I have learned so much and so much more from the players I’ve coached than I think they’ve ever learned from me.

There is a young lady that was on our team; she walked on our team, and she was sitting down by the water cooler. She was that far down the bench. She really never got in the game. She just wasn’t good enough. We had two All-American Guards on our team at the time, Jennifer Azzi and Sonja Henning, but she was on our 1989-1990 team.

And I asked everyone on the team to write on a little index card, “What is your contribution to the team?” And here’s someone that never plays, way down on the bench, hugging the watercooler, and she wrote down, “Spread sunshine.” We won a National Championship that year. And what’s fun about this story is her name is Angela Taylor. And what is fun is that she went on her next year. She unfortunately got hurt, but she came back, and she was again playing behind some really, really good players, Molly Goodenbour, who was a great player for us. And I said to Angela, “Do you want to go in the game anytime?” Like, sometimes, kids don’t want to go in the game when there’s a minute left or 30 seconds left. She said, “Tara, put me in anytime.”

We’re playing against Dawn Staley. Anyone know the name, Dawn Staley? All right, we’re playing against Dawn Staley in Virginia. We’re playing for the semi-final game in the NC-double-A tournament. And Dawn somehow convinced the referees to put time back on the clock. The horn went off, and I just thought, “This does not feel right.” Everyone’s kind of going off the court. But Dawn runs over to the refs and gets them to put 0.7 seconds on the clock. I put Angela in to guard Dawn, who I knew the ball was going to, and she did a great job, and we ended up winning the game and winning the National Championship. So, again, spread sunshine. That was Angela’s message.

We had a young lady on our team, Jamila Wideman, and Jamila is a fabulous young lady, an incredible speaker. She is a lawyer in New York. She works with the NBA. And Jamila was a fabulous leader. I think she was captain of our team as a freshman, which is very unusual. We lost just a heartbreaking game, probably the hardest game ever. I get choked up thinking about it. We were up 17 or 18, and then the coach fell asleep or something, and we lost this game. And we go in the locker room, and our players are devastated. They’re laying on the floor crying and sobbing.

And the press comes in after 10 minutes of the game. So, I’m like, “Hey, ya’ll, come on now.” Nobody does anything. Jamila gets in front of the team and goes, “Pick your heads up.” And all of a sudden, everyone is looking at Jamila, and she goes, “I would rather lose with you then win with anyone else.” And it was just a great lesson in leadership. It was just awesome.

And one time, Katie was on this trip. We were in Ukraine. We were in Kiev, and we had to load the bus at 3:30 in the morning. It’s freezing; we’re in January. And we’re going out to the bus, and players in the morning are kind of grumpy, not Katie, of course. But everyone is getting on the bus, and then there were probably 10 to 15 women with very thin jackets, not really good-looking teeth, begging outside the hotel, and they had somehow knew we were leaving at 3:30.

Everyone gets on the bus; we all do this. We all walk by people. Jennifer comes out, and she reaches in her pocket, and she starts giving people the money out of her pocket. Then she opens her suitcase, takes out stuff, and everyone gets off the bus and does the same thing. And I’m so proud of Jennifer, and honestly, so ashamed of myself that I didn’t think of that. But that to me, again, is great compassion and great leadership.

And then the last young lady that I just want to tell you about is someone that is just a superstar. She is from South Carolina. Her name is Chris MacMurdo. And she was everything in high school. Like so many of you, she was a National Merit Scholarship winner. She was president of her class, President of the Honor Society, everything, undefeated basketball team, captain of her team, and from South Carolina, she wants to come out to Stanford. I’m like, “Wow, this is great. We’re really excited about this.”

On her visit, her dad was a nuclear physicist. He worked at a project down in South Carolina. He wanted to go to SLAC. So I asked my assistant coaches, “Would you rather go to SLAC with Mr. MacMurdo or to the mall with her mom?” All three assistants, “I want to go to the mall.” So, I went to SLAC for seven hours. Woo, that was incredible, but you do anything for a great recruit. So we come out of SLAC; he said, “Tara, wasn’t that exciting?” I’m like, “Oh wow, that was great.”

So Chris comes to Stanford. I pick her up at the airport. She was coming in for her freshman year. I’m driving in. Beautiful palm drive, the church, the blue sky, palm trees, and I just thought I’d chit-chat a little bit. And I said, “Chris, what are you thinking about right now, a freshman coming to Stanford?” “What’s my room going to be like? What’s my roommate going to be like? What are you going to be like?” She paused, then she looked at me, and she goes, “Tara, I want to make a difference in this world.” I was passing a palm tree. I was like, “Whoa.” I’m like, “That was so inspiring.”

Her junior year, she was in pre-med; she’s a doctor now in palliative care. I’m sure she’s a fabulous doctor. But her junior year, I was in my office, and she came running up. It was during summer. She was doing an internship at a hospital. And she goes, “Tara, I was in the emergency room today. I saved somebody’s life.” I said, “You have made a difference.”

Shannon Beckham: Wow. It’s incredible to hear these stories and how you followed your players through the years.

Tara VanDerveer: I’ve got about 1200 more.

Shannon Beckham: Well, we don’t have time for those. But we would love to hear them, which brings me to what’s next for you? You just retired after 40 years of coaching. Why did you decide to retire now, and what are you going to do next?

Tara VanDerveer: I just felt it was time. Kate was sitting in my office all the time, so I thought, well, she’s ready to be the head coach. She is fabulous. And with going from the Pac-12 to ACC, it felt like a natural break. This is a great opportunity for her, and I think she will do a fabulous job. For me, I don’t say retire. Shannon, I say rewire. I’m doing new things, different things.

Shannon Beckham: I like that.

Tara VanDerveer: And I’m excited about the opportunity to maybe do some books, maybe a podcast, speaking engagements. I got a call about a possible movie about the Olympic Team. So, we signed a shopping deal. And anyone in here that talks with Hollywood Film House, about the Olympic Team, that would be fun to do. So, my first suggestion was, “Let’s get Caitlin Clark to play Jennifer Azzi in the movie and have fun.” I said we could have – who was it? Anne Hathaway to play me.

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: Okay. We’ll send her this video so she knows that you’ve asked.

Tara VanDerveer: All right.

Shannon Beckham: Before we turn it to audience Q&A, I have one more question for you. Our theme for this year’s “View from the Top” is redefining tomorrow. If you could wake up tomorrow and redefine one thing about the future, what would it be?

Tara VanDerveer: I’m glad you gave me a head start on that question, Shannon. The one thing I would really like, and I’ll challenge you all, is that everyone be a great teammate. One of the things that when I worked with Kirstin, we had gone through a very painful year. We had underachieved, and things just didn’t feel the way that they wanted to feel. She asked me the question; she said, “Tara, what are you afraid of?” I’m thinking to myself, “I’m not afraid of anything.”

But, I really thought about that. And I think that if we all make a really concerted effort to be a great teammate – so what is a great teammate? It’s someone you can depend on. It’s someone that really cares about you, that encourages you, that always has your back, that you trust and you respect, and they trust and respect you, someone that’s mature, all the things. They’re resilient. They’re determined. Think of all the things how we can all be better people. And if we just do it, and it’s contagious, if we’re a good teammate towards whoever we meet, and one of the things I think that was really important, being a good teammate is also forgiving. It’s not always hanging onto maybe what you feel that you’ve been wronged or hurt, but to forgive and to say, “All right, I’m going to give you another chance. And I’m going to do whatever I can to make this a great experience, a great year. And I’m going to be able to look in the mirror and say to myself, ‘I’m a great teammate.’” That’s what I would say.

And I would ask you the question, “What are you afraid of?” You all have great potential to be great teammates. And when you think of so many of the students and so many of the people that are in this room are so accomplished, you can influence other people to be great teammates. So, I want to set that example, and I want to challenge myself. Are you all in on that?

Shannon Beckham: I’m all in.

Tara VanDerveer: All right then. All right.

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: Well, we have one final “View from the Top” tradition, which is rapid fire.

Tara VanDerveer: Okay.

Shannon Beckham: So, I’m going to say a phrase, and you say the first thing that comes to your mind.

Tara VanDerveer: I’ll try.

Shannon Beckham: Okay. I have no doubt you will. The newest hobby that you’re learning.

Tara VanDerveer: I’m really perfecting my Bridge game. I have a heck of a long way to go. Any Bridge experts here, I need help.

Shannon Beckham: You got a few hits. Your favorite Tara-ism.

Tara VanDerveer: I’d probably say the S is not for Stupid.

[Laughter]

Shannon Beckham: If you had a walkout song, it would be …

Tara VanDerveer: “All Right Now” or my favorite song, what’s my favorite song? “Happy.” I love that song.

Shannon Beckham: The best advice you’ve ever received.

Tara VanDerveer: Be yourself, by my parents. Just say, be you.

Shannon Beckham: And earlier, you gave Dean Levin some guidance, but if you could give him one more thing, what would it be?

Tara VanDerveer: All right. Can you come on up? We’re very excited about meeting our new President. And we have a jersey for you.

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: Dean Levin, thank you for everything as our dean and as this is your last “View from the Top.” And, Tara, thank you for this fantastic interview. This was wonderful.

Tara VanDerveer: Awesome!

[Applause]

Shannon Beckham: You’ve been listening to View From The Top, The Podcast, a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business. This interview was conducted by me, Shannon Beckham, of the MBA Class of 2024. Lily Sloan composed our theme music. Michael Reilly and Jenny Luna produced this episode. You can find more episodes of this podcast at our Web site, gsb.stanford.edu. Follow us on social media at Stanford GSB.