LOS ANGELES — Never change, JuJu.
Oh, that’s not fair. Like anyone, JuJu Watkins is going evolve, she’s going to get stronger and smarter and better. Her tastes will change, her mind will change. She’s 20, she’ll change.
Her essence, though? The qualities on display at her third annual “Good JuJu Holiday Give Back” event that treated about 60 kids of different ages to dinner and gifts at the Watkins family’s Watts Labor Community Action Committee headquarters on Monday?
I just hope – Santa, you listening? – the pressures and demands and critiques and comparisons that’ll come with life as JuJu Watkins won’t fundamentally alter the young woman who couldn’t have wiped the grin off her face Monday night if she tried.
I can’t imagine she’ll always be so unassuming, but I also can’t believe she’s still this unassuming.
But there was a moment before a game of trivia Monday when Watkins, in jeans and a “Good JuJu” hoodie to match the T-shirts so many others were wearing, seemed legitimately taken aback: “Why are all these questions about me?”
As if she wasn’t the reason everyone was gathered, as if her incredible basketball skills and dynamic brand of personal cool hadn’t facilitated the Nike sneakers and backpacks and Google Pixel Buds and Funko Pop! dolls in her image that were being given away.
I mean, the USC women’s basketball star was last season’s consensus National Player of the Year. She had long lines of autograph-seekers already when she played for Sierra Canyon High School, before she put the Trojans’ program back on the proverbial map. She’s been on billboards throughout L.A., and starred in commercials during just about every break during last season’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Last March, I met a 75-year-old man at the NCAA Regional in Spokane. Wash., who was so heartbroken after watching Watkins, who remains sidelined, suffer a torn ACL in a second-round NCAA Tournament game that he “damn near cried.”
On Monday, I met Ilana Watson and Emma Valenzuela, softball players from Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita. They told me it’s inspiring to see a woman their age be as big a deal as male athletes. “It’s nice to see there are women being able to make names for themselves like that,” Watson said.
I have to imagine almost everyone in Southern California knows JuJu’s name, and, definitely, anyone who follows basketball anywhere in the universe, probably.
So never mind the myopic trivia quiz topic, Watkins picked up the microphone, grinned her great big grin and asked a girl the first question: “What’s my favorite sneaker to play in?”
“Kobes.”
“Yesss!”
This was the third such “Give Back” that Watkins has hosted, a festive event emceed each time by the omnipresent DJ Mal-Ski: “She is the epitome of what L.A. represents,” he tells me, listing off the dualities that make the city and the player: grit and glamour, aggression and elegance.
“It’s very hard to have the balance, and she has it perfectly,” he said. “I am inspired by her, and any time she calls, I’m there, it doesn’t matter. That’s my sister.”
“What city did I grow up in? “
“Watts, Los Angeles.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
This wasn’t just an opportunity for kids from a mix of schools like Lawndale, Da Vinci, Windward and Saint Monica to show off their JuJu knowledge – “What number do I wear?” Too easy: “12!” – but to mingle and participate in games and activities like bracelet-making (JuJu’s idea) to vision-boarding, ornament-making to mini-goal charts.
Or “activations,” as they were described by India Otto, Watkins’ former Trojans teammate and, for a time, fellow Windward student. Otto was happy to help Watkins organize Monday’s event, knowing how much it meant to her friend.
“They just had a game yesterday and got back and she wants to do this,” Otto said. “Any chance to give back to her community and interact with people and provide inspiration, she’ll do it in a heartbeat. She’s just such a kind individual and generous individual, just genuine soul.”
And … “My favorite WNBA player?”
Pause.
Watkins keeps mouthing a name until it clicks with girl who’s doing the answering: “Candace Parker!”
“Yep.”
“My parents instilled in me to try my best to pay everything forward,” explained Watkins, whose grandfather, Ted Watkins, in 1965 founded the WLCAC, a nonprofit that remains dedicated to improving the quality of life for South Central Los Angeles residents.
“I think it’s just a natural part of my life, I’ve been around it for so long. And to be able to be in a position to fulfill that is really a blessing … it means so much to me to be able to spread that holiday joy with everyone here in my hometown, to be able to give them gifts and stuff, it’s just really cool. I don’t know, it’s just a good feeling.”
One more bit of JuJu trivia before the New Year:
“OK, my favorite holiday?
“Christmas?”
“Good job.”
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