WBBL Trophy Final MVP Kennedy Leonard from the London Lions

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Skylar Smith and Brian Bosche are joined by Kennedy Leonard from the London Lions. Kennedy won the WBBL Trophy Final MVP award and set the WBBL single game assist record (21!) last week. They chat with Kennedy about growing up playing basketball in Texas, playing college basketball at CU in the Pac-12, and the London Lions season so far in the WBBL.

Follow Kennedy on Twitter and Instagram.

Full Transcript:

Brian Bosche:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to High Tea Hoops. This is Brian Bosche at the Duke of Hoops and as always, I am joined by Skylar Smith, the Duchess. What's up?

Skylar Smith:
Hello. So excited for today's episode.

Brian Bosche:
I know. So today we have a very special guest, Kennedy Leonard of the London Lions, who we invited on because she was the WBBL trophy final MVP, and then she went ahead and set the record for number of assists in a single WBBL game yesterday. So incredible timing. Kennedy, welcome to the podcast.

Kennedy Leonard:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, absolutely. And now we're going to change it up a little bit from our typical interview format. We're going to start with listener questions and there were some good ones, Skylar. So we're going to start with some, Shannon Tori, @ShasTori7. So shout out Shannon. Thank you for this question coach at Tayside Musketeers Basketball Club. Who inspired you to take up basketball, Kennedy?

Kennedy Leonard:
Who inspired me? I would probably say my dad, honestly.

Brian Bosche:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kennedy Leonard:
Growing up and stuff like that, he was always taking me to the gym with him and he's loved basketball for as long as I can remember. So probably my dad I'd say. He obviously still cares about it the most to this day as well. My family loves basketball, but my dad is the one who's most invested in it, I would say. So, definitely my dad.

Skylar Smith:
How old were you when you started?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to ask.

Kennedy Leonard:
I want to say I was about four. Yeah, I was quite young. My dad would just go to the gym to play rec on Saturdays and Sundays and stuff like that. He would take me with him and I would just stay on the sideline and watch. But yeah, I'd say around four. I probably started to pick up a ball, but didn't really start playing like actually playing until probably six or seven or even eight, but I'd always played on teams that were above my age. So that probably helped a bit as well. But yeah, no, I've always been exposed to it. I grew up in Chicago, which is a huge basketball city.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Michael Jordan and stuff like that. So I was exposed to it really early.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. We had Ashley Hamilton on the podcast who plays for the Plymouth Raiders and on team GB.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
And he was like, "I was like 15 or 16," and we're like, "That is insane."

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, more and more.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, a lot of the UK pros started really late in life.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It feels like over here, it's harder to get into. You see more and more people get into it at age 15, 16, and they're still so raw.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kennedy Leonard:
And they're going to college and stuff like that. So you imagine how much more skill development they could have if they started at what we started at in America, four or five years old.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Exactly. Next question, Steven Ferguson, @AstroDropped, who is the acting chair and in-quality champion at Basketball Scotland. He said, "We are very proud of you in Scotland, even though we could have benefited from some of those assists on Sunday going Pride's way. What does Scotland mean to you and your family?"

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes, my mom was born in Scotland. Grew up there for a few years and then moved away, but she loves Scotland. I still have family who lives in Scotland. I've been to Scotland twice. Haven't spent as much time there as I would like, but obviously it is my roots. And you see all those movies like Braveheart and stuff like that all set in Scotland. Yeah. So I've watched all those and the language, how they have that weird accent that's weirder than the English, the London accent.

Brian Bosche:
You said it, not us.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, exactly. It's just different. But my mom, obviously, still has an accent and stuff like that. So it's around me all the time, I would say. My sister's name is Mackenzie, which is a very Scottish name. So yeah, just the culture of it really is I think what's important to me and how people live there because I feel like in America, we have everything given to us. You know what I mean?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
We grew up in a very good culture where everything's kind of handed to us. We don't have to really work for anything. I think in places like Scotland and stuff like that, you see a lot of people who really work for what they have. So I think we can learn from that. I think my mom has tried to teach that and instill that in me and my sisters.

Skylar Smith:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. And I saw an article that you played or you flew the flag for the FIBO Women's Euro Basket for Scotland. What was that experience like?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, so I played under 20s, I was the only Scottish... I played for GB, but I was obviously the only Scottish player.

Brian Bosche:
Yep.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, and it was cool, because I know that Scotland doesn't have a lot of people who have played for GB in the past. So to be a part of it and be the only one, I think it's cool because you can represent. You don't only... Yeah, you're representing GB, but you're also representing an entire country of Scotland as opposed to the other nine or 10 players who are just England.

Brian Bosche:
Yep.

Kennedy Leonard:
So it brings a little bit of something different and something for the Scottish people to have a little pride in.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. I love to see that. And then this one, I think it's from your Instagram, Kennedy, when you shared this story out. Scout Annie Otis, who taught you your corner fade away jumper? Hint: he has a daughter named Charlie. This might be an inside question or joke.

Kennedy Leonard:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
I love when we get questions that just make no sense to us.

Brian Bosche:
Yes.

Kennedy Leonard:
[crosstalk 00:05:06] yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, no, it's Chris MacIntyre, one of my family's really, really good friends. We used to live in Texas. We just actually moved to Colorado, my family.

Brian Bosche:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kennedy Leonard:
So I haven't seen him since I left, but no, he's a great guy. He has a little daughter. We would always go to the gym together and we'd shoot that corner shot. So that's probably what he's referring to. But yeah, he's a great guy. Great family.

Brian Bosche:
Got it. So shout out to that question. I was like, all right, I'm taking a flyer on this. Hopefully, she knows what he's talking about.

Kennedy Leonard:
No, I did. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
All right, let's go into Texas and Colorado a little bit more because in the UK, obviously... even like BBL games are very small compared to like a Texas high school basketball game or a lot of high school basketball across the country.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
You're a 2015 graduate of Carroll Senior High School in South Lake, Texas. You led Carroll to 26 and seven your senior season. There's so many awards here, Kennedy, all just across the board.

Kennedy Leonard:
Skip them. Skip them. Okay.

Brian Bosche:
All district MVP for second straight season, average 17 and seven and six and three. I mean, there's packing the stack sheet. So give UK fans a little bit of a picture of what was high school basketball like in Texas. What was that experience? Because you were varsity all four years. What was it like playing in that environment? Just paint a picture for us a little bit.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, I would say it's hard to explain to people who haven't been exposed to it in America. Basketball in America is a completely different animal than it is in the UK, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. I think it's just people are more in tuned to it there and have had more time to get in tune with it. But yeah, like you said, I played varsity all four years at the biggest division in Texas.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So I graduated-

Brian Bosche:
Which is 7A?

Kennedy Leonard:
I think it was... When I was there, it was six, six-

Brian Bosche:
6A?

Kennedy Leonard:
6A? Yeah, something like that. It has always has two numbers, like 6-5-A, or something like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
But it had, I think a thousand... I had around a thousand people in my graduating class. That's just my grade.

Brian Bosche:
Yes.

Kennedy Leonard:
So that's huge in itself. You don't even see that in entire schools and in other states, let alone here in the UK.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, Montana High School basketball where I played, our top division was 2A.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
And so that was the difference here. Many, many more A's above us in Texas.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. No, it's crazy. I got a friend who went to school in a 2A in Texas, or 1A, and his graduating class was 36 people. And I'm like, "That's insane. I had 940 more people or whatever." But it was a great experience. I had a really good coach. Her name is Coach Morrison and she was a part of the Nike family. So we got a lot of things from Nike for that. Then I played Club Basketball with a Nike team, as well. So it was good to mix with girls from other parts of Texas who were at really good schools as well. I played with Erica [Gumakay 00:07:50], the Gumakay sisters.

Skylar Smith:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Brooke McCarty, Ariel Atkins, people like that. And so a lot of people who are in college, in the NCA tournament right now, actually.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So yeah, I still have a few friends who play now, but it was a good experience. Obviously, like you said, it was huge. So we would play tournaments in Duncanville and stuff like that. Their arena is bigger than any arena I've been to here and it's a high school arena. You know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Those little differences. We were like, "Okay." And I'm not sure if that's every state, but Texas is huge.

Brian Bosche:
Texas is huge

Kennedy Leonard:
So they put a lot of money into-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
They put a lot of money into their sports, especially football. In fact, they actually have football stadium seats for 14,000 people and that's a high school football stadium.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
More than some actual colleges have. So no, it was a good experience. I got to play all four years. I started all four years. Had good teammates, made good friends like relationships I still have today. And I had a good enough high school career to go to a good college and make an impact in college as well. So I think that was also important that I went somewhere where I could show off that I had the ability to play in college in a place that allowed me to show off that ability at the same time.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. So I lived in Denver for about six years, so I'm a Nuggets fan.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
It's so great to see,

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
In Boulder going up-

Kennedy Leonard:
Nuggets, baby. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Going up to University of Colorado. So what was it like playing at CU? Like picking the college for that reason, making that impact, and you're the all-time assist leader there as well. There's just a lot of accolades, titles, but what was it like playing D-1 hoops, because you were there all four years and you had an incredible career?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. Colorado is an awesome place. Not only just to play basketball, but to live as you know.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Boulder is amazing.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. Boulder is... My dad was born in Colorado. Both my sisters... and then my parents both went to school at Colorado State. I had been around Colorado a lot. Growing up, hearing stories about my dad and going back and visiting there. So I knew a lot about it. Then when I had the opportunity to go there, I had a lot of schools I could have gone to but I kind of want to go to a place where I could make an impact right away.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Create a legacy. Yeah, it was good experience. Obviously, my freshman year we didn't win many games. Sophomore year, we had a new coaching staff come in. So everybody who recruited me left and we got a whole new coach so it's a bit different.

Brian Bosche:
Oh. That's tough.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It was tough, but it was good also. I think I learned a lot being there. Like a lot more than I would have learned had I gone, maybe to one of my other schools who was always... Like say Baylor, South Carolina, they're always in the Top 10.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So you always know what you're going to get, at least they call a guide. I didn't necessarily know what I was going to get and I got to experience things that I didn't prepare myself for. And that have made me, I guess, into a better person and basketball player today. So yeah, I think just being able to play there, I created relationships with people who didn't play basketball, who did play basketball, and stuff like that.

Kennedy Leonard:
So it exposes you to a lot of things. You have to learn time management and you have to learn that not everything always goes your way, not everything's handed to you, that kind of thing. But I think I played in a really good conference, the Pac-12 conference...

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Which I would say is the best women's basketball conference, at least when I was playing in it.

Brian Bosche:
Yes, seriously.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It was pretty good. So I think just being able to play against those type of caliber players, day in and day out was probably one of the most beneficial things for me. Even if we didn't win every game, at least I was getting to play against those type of people and get that kind of, I guess, resume put together for myself.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Two questions, Skylar, before you jump into WBBL. Sorry. I have to follow up on the Nugget too. So you're a Nuggets fan. Is that your NBA team?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, that's easily my NBA team.

Brian Bosche:
Yes.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Love that.

Kennedy Leonard:
They just got a good trade actually.

Brian Bosche:
I know. Aaron Gordon, it's looking up from here.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes.

Brian Bosche:
Sorry, Scott.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Sorry. You get Michigan all the time.

Kennedy Leonard:
That's true.

Brian Bosche:
I went to Dartmouth. We never make the tournament. We don't do anything about basketball.

Kennedy Leonard:
Oh, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
So I need to take some dubs where I can. Favorite player on the Nuggets right now?

Kennedy Leonard:
Jokic. Easily.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I love him. I love him.

Brian Bosche:
I mean the assists, you guys are King and Queen there.

Kennedy Leonard:
Aww, yeah. I just like the way he acts. Like I saw something the other day on Twitter that was like, they asked James Harden, "Why are you the MVP?" And James Harden was like, "Because I'm James Harden and there's so many things to ask you over why are you the MVP?" And he's like, "Well..." I don't even know what he said, but it was so much different than what like a hard incident, it was-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Like why do this or this or this? And he's like... There's one about him and LeBron. And he's like, "Yeah. I'm athletic." Or something like that. Like "I'm just as athletic as LeBron but nobody gives me prop scores." Stuff like that. I liked his demeanor and the way he acts and the way he carries himself. I really like him. But I like all of them.

Kennedy Leonard:
My sisters went to Mizzou, so they like Michael Porter Jr. They liked him a lot because he was a Mizzou kid. My sister actually lives in Denver as well, so she is also now a huge Nuggets fan and it helps that-

Brian Bosche:
Love it.

Kennedy Leonard:
He's on their team. So yeah, not too bad. I like Jamal Murray too, but he's gone down in my list a bit, because he hasn't been playing as well.

Brian Bosche:
He's just so inconsistent.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It kills us. It absolutely kills us but hoping that he can get a little bit more consistent to help us out of it.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, we'll have a Nugget spot later. Skylar. We can move on.

Kennedy Leonard:
That's fine.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. Did you get it out of your system?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
That was enough?

Brian Bosche:
I think I got a little bit out of my system.

Skylar Smith:
Okay. Just making sure. So you joined the Lions after a professional season in Germany. So what excited you about playing in the WBBL and for the Lions specifically?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, I actually never thought about it. Then I had met Mark, our head coach, through the British team, through Great Britain. He was a member of the staff and it helped me with something until I met him through that, but I hadn't spoken to him for a while. And then I received an email from him and he was like, "We have a new sponsorship. A lot more money coming in. Would you be interested ever in playing in London?" And I was like, "Why not?" I have family here. I have ties here.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
People would die to live in London. So I'm like, "What can you offer? What can we come up with?" Kind of thing. Yeah, he gave me a great offer and I thought it's COVID. Nothing's ever promised, so why not? If I'm ever going to do it, why not do it now? And so I said, "Yeah, sure. I'll come sign the papers." And then here I am.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
What was it like with COVID and with the pandemic? As you'd said, you joined in September. Was that like the uncertainty of the pandemic and just having kind of 777 Partners come in and more stability? Was that an attractive thing coming in?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, for sure. Because I know that a lot of other leagues, like my agent was telling me a lot of other leagues were unsure if they were going to have a season or not. Mark had kept telling me that we were for sure going to have a season and that the money was there, regardless, even if we didn't have a season. If I signed, then the money would be there regardless kind of thing.

Kennedy Leonard:
Obviously, if I wanted money, I wouldn't play women's basketball because it's hard to make a living playing women's basketball, so for me it wasn't even all about the money. But that was also a nice perk that I could have in case something happened. So that was nice. But I also, like I said, I have family here, so I thought, "Okay, if I get over here, then I can see my family" and stuff like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So the only thing that really COVID hindered was, I think for us, it was... I know England was in a lockdown when I got here. So we just had to fill out like a sheet to exempt the 10-day quarantine stage. So if you're an elite athlete, you could exempt it. So that's all it really did for us, initially, and then obviously if you've got COVID or something like that, your team had to isolate and things like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So when I got COVID in November, maybe?

Brian Bosche:
Oh, no.

Skylar Smith:
Ooh.

Kennedy Leonard:
Oh yeah. I got it. So we had to isolate and sit out, I think for like 14 days or something like that in the beginning of November. But other than that, our team has been very lucky to not have run into any other problems with it. Knock on wood.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
But yeah, so COVID. It's just been like I can see my family this year. I haven't even gotten to see them yet because of COVID so that's been kind of stinky and my grandma actually got COVID and passed away from it and she was here.

Brian Bosche:
Aww.

Skylar Smith:
Aww.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
I'm sorry.

Brian Bosche:
I'm sorry to hear that.

Kennedy Leonard:
No, It's okay. Yeah, it happened in December. So it's been a little bit, but no. I would have loved to see her. That was also a huge reason why I came to London because I was... I know that she could have watched some games and she never got to watch them cause she was always here and I was in America playing, as well as my aunt who's here.

Kennedy Leonard:
So I was like, "Oh, it's another great attraction to England, is that my family can come and watch the games." And even though my grandma's not here anymore, my aunt still lives in New York, which is like two and a half hours by train.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
She's watching online right now because we obviously can't have fans.

Brian Bosche:
Yup.

Kennedy Leonard:
But if I come back, I was like, "Oh, you can come next year whenever you want" and stuff like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So hoping that COVID dies down a bit. With the vaccines since vaccines itself, fans can come again.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Hopefully we're coming out of this pandemic. It's looking better and better every day.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. Fingers crossed to the vaccines and stuff and herd immunity. I feel like we should be getting closer to the end now.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. How have you been recovering from COVID? I feel like I hear about a lot of people being like, athletes can get it. They're the healthiest and strongest among us. It doesn't really matter. But then you hear about some of these athletes who get it and then, six months later they're still having breathing problems and they're still being affected by it. Have you had anything like that?

Kennedy Leonard:
No. I was actually quite lucky. I only lost my sense of taste and smell or whatever, like my sense of smell and my taste. They say if you lose only those two things, you have a really mild case of it. So I was lucky. I know two of my teammates got it around the same time I did and they both lost their taste and smell as well, but nothing else really.

Kennedy Leonard:
Then coming back from Christmas, two other of my teammates got it but they both had different symptoms. They both didn't lose their taste and smell, but one of the teammates still has, like you said, problems like breathing and stuff like that; whereas the three of us who had it before, we don't have any. I mean, my smell isn't all the way back and some things don't taste the same for me. Like my toothpaste, I can't taste anymore. Or I had peanut-

Brian Bosche:
How weird.

Kennedy Leonard:
I used to love peanut butter and not peanut butter just tastes like bleh to me. It just tastes like nothing, which is depressing because I love peanut butter.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So that's been tough, but no, I was really lucky. I lost it for about two weeks. Yeah. That was really the only symptoms I had except for being just tired. I know my other teammates, she had it and she's now, I think, like two months out of it, three months out of it, and she still can't breathe and stuff like that. So yeah, it's crazy how it can affect different people and it really doesn't matter if you're in shape, if you're not in shape, or you know what I mean?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
You can be as safe as you want to be as well, like I literally just went to practice and came home, did everything my teammates did, and I just happened to be the one who got it. So it just, yeah, you realize it can happen to anybody no matter what you're doing.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So as long as you... You just have to try your best to be safe with it, but also at the same time, you have to be so precautious because you can get it anywhere, anytime, anyhow.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, definitely. Shifting gears a little bit, what is your favorite thing about living in the UK? I know you had spent a little bit of time there before you lived there. Then what is the thing you miss most about the US when you live there? I mean, you mentioned peanut butter. Peanut butter is a little bit harder to find in the UK. It's a bit more expensive. It's not as common.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Are there things that you're finding are like harder to find and you're missing them?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, I would say my favorite thing about being here is the public transport.

Brian Bosche:
Yes.

Kennedy Leonard:
The option to just hop on at any time you want.

Skylar Smith:
Yup.

Kennedy Leonard:
It makes life so much easier because in America, I have a car. So I can go wherever whenever I want. But if you want to, like Denver, for example, my family just moved there. I lived there, so I know that the traffic gets horrendous at certain times-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
And stuff like that. So having public transport available, like you can literally just tap and hop on a train, hop on a bus, hop on whatever, and you're there within 10 minutes. You don't have to sit in traffic and I think the most it costs is like a pound-fifty.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So it beats Uber or anything like that. Obviously, in America, we don't have that option, which I feel like it needs to. I mean, in New York and stuff, you have the subway or whatever.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
But you don't have the availability that you do have here, which makes a huge difference.

Brian Bosche:
Big miss from America-

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
To put in any sort of public transportation. I mean, Southern California, Denver, Texas is just like

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes. Those are big cities.

Skylar Smith:
Right?

Brian Bosche:
You're driving an hour, no matter what you're doing. Skylar, Michigan, I mean, it's Skylar's fault. It's Detroit's fault that this is the case we're in.

Skylar Smith:
For real. For real though.

Brian Bosche:
The auto lobbyist.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. They definitely missed out on it. Now you can't really do anything about it because these routes that they have in here, these been here for 300, 400 years and you can't really do much about that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah

Kennedy Leonard:
So, but no, definitely, I would say the public transport and then what I miss about America, I miss my family. I miss them a ton and I have two puppies that are... My puppies, I got when I was in school. My parents, thank God. My parents are lifesavers. They take care of them and do everything for them when I'm not home, but I miss them because I honestly spend more time away from them than I do with them. So I'm like, they probably don't even remember me anymore.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, they do.

Kennedy Leonard:
I get pictures of him and stuff like that. Yeah. But I talked to them through FaceTime and everything, but it's not the same as actually being there with them.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
What kind of dogs?

Kennedy Leonard:
So I get really excited to see them. They're German shepherds.

Brian Bosche:
Oh.

Kennedy Leonard:
Let me see if I have a photo of them. They're my background on my phone, so it should be quick.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Let's see.

Brian Bosche:
Aww.

Skylar Smith:
They're so cute.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. This one's Gus and this is Emma. They're both rescue puppies and I got them when I was in school, but my parents take care of everything but I miss them a ton. And I miss Mexican food.

Skylar Smith:
Yes.

Kennedy Leonard:
That's a big thing.

Skylar Smith:
Oh, my God.

Kennedy Leonard:
They don't have a lot of TexMex too. It's like a special kind of food and they don't have that as much here. Yeah. So they have Mexican places, but it's not like American-Mexican. They don't know what queso is. They don't have any of that. That's another thing that I've missed significantly. I'm going to pack next time I come. Velveeta and Ro*Tel and make my own queso, because they don't have it here anywhere. You can't buy it. You can't make it. So I'm like, "All right, I'm just going to have to pack some and make it myself."

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Wasn't there a Taco Bell coming to London. Is there a Taco Bell in London?

Kennedy Leonard:
There is. There's one in London, but that's the thing. They have Taco Bell and then they have McDonald's. they have places that America has. KFC but they're completely different. Like the McDonald's, I would actually rather eat here than I would in America. I'd trust it more here for some reason. I don't know why.

Skylar Smith:
It's so much better in the UK for some reason.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It just tastes like it's better. You don't feel like it's processed as much, stuff like that.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
KFC as well. Like I would never... You won't catch me ever going to KFC in America and here I'm like, "Oh, I'll go to KFC every other day."

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:22:21] KFC is so good there.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, it is. It's just different. I don't know how to explain it. Something inside me is like, "Okay, I trust it more here than I do in America." Maybe it's like their food laws here or something like that.

Brian Bosche:
It's definitely that.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Didn't Scotland-

Skylar Smith:
It's definitely food laws.

Brian Bosche:
Scotland says Subway sandwiches aren't real food because they have too much processed ingredients or something that, so they had to change it?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. That's the other thing. Yeah. They have Subways here. Completely different than America as well. They now have meat-free options and stuff like that. I would never go to Subway in America. I've heard horror stories about Subway in America.

Skylar Smith:
I've gotten food poisoning from Subway in America.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. My sister found staples in her Subway sandwich. Like staples. Yeah. So I'm like, "I stay away from it in America." But here I'm like, "I'll go to Subway every other week." You know what I mean? Like I crave Subway here, which is weird. So yeah, the food... I would say the food here is good, like Nando's. They have lots of options, but they don't have... The one thing that they're missing is like a Mexican place.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So that's what I said.

Skylar Smith:
When I lived in the UK, I missed Mexican food so much.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
I couldn't believe the difference in the Mexican food there. Then I came back to the US and my parents were living in Houston and still are. So I flew back to Houston and I just say TexMex for like two weeks straight.

Kennedy Leonard:
So good. Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
TexMex and barbecue. There-

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes.

Skylar Smith:
There has never been a harder shock to my system than just shoveling TexMex and barbecue into my body for two weeks.

Kennedy Leonard:
So worth it. So worth it, though.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. It was very worth it.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. I went home for Christmas for, I think, four or five days and every day, I'm pretty sure we had some type of Mexican food. My family loves Mexican, so they eat it regardless of if I'm home or not. But I was like, "I'm home. We're getting all the things I like." It was hard because I didn't go home to Texas. I went home to Colorado for the first time. So it wasn't my normal places, but they were better than the UK Mexican, if that made sense.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I was like, "I'll take it. Whatever it takes, I'll take it."

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Kennedy, did you ever go to Casa Bonita in Denver?

Kennedy Leonard:
Casa Bonita. I think I've heard of it. I'm not sure if I've stayed there. Is it good?

Brian Bosche:
It's like a huge Mexican place where they have a playground throughout the entire restaurant-

Kennedy Leonard:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
It's like a huge cavern for I had so many birthdays there, where you just run around from the parents. Oh, Casa Bonita.

Kennedy Leonard:
You hide from the parents so they can't find you? Yeah, those are the best birthdays.

Skylar Smith:
Okay. Let's get back into the basketball of it all a little bit.

Brian Bosche:
We could do fast food though, Skylar. Just do fast food rankings in London. That'll be another podcast.

Skylar Smith:
I feel like so many people have tuned out by this point.

Brian Bosche:
No.

Skylar Smith:
Just listening to us talk about Mexican food. Okay, so the Lions recently took home their first piece of hardware in the team's history after you beat the Nottingham Wildcats, 96 to 64, in the WBBL Trophy. What did that win mean to your team and how did it feel to be the team that kind of brings the Lions their first trophy?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. That was a really exciting game, obviously, on Sky Sports and stuff like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
The equivalent of what ESPN to America is, I guess, to British people. So the environment was really, really cool. It was also cool because earlier in the season, there was another cup. I think it was The Trophy and we didn't get to play in it because we had COVID. That's when we had gotten COVID.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So it was almost like, okay, now we finally don't have COVID and now we can play and we made it, kind of thing. So we were making up for that a bit, so it was quite cool, but... It was really exciting for all of us. As you said, it was our first one for the club and I know last year, London Lions went like 0 in 18 or something. They didn't win a single game last year.

Kennedy Leonard:
Then this year we were sitting pretty good, then we went to win a trophy for the organization. It was pretty cool. Then our boys won it as well. So to both bring it home, it was really good and I think for our sponsorship and stuff like that as well, with 777, it shows them that we're in it just as much as they're in it with us. So no. It was really, really cool. It was a fun game, a fun environment, a fun atmosphere. Obviously, no fans, which was a bit different, but I think at this point we're all used to it. As used to it as you can be.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
They did a good job with noise and they had an MC and a DJ, so it still sounded like people were there. With the lights and stuff like that.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So yeah, it was a good environment. Unfortunately, a girl on the other team, the best player I would say, she got hurt within the first two minutes of the game.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
That's tough.

Kennedy Leonard:
So I think we all kind of felt... Yeah, we all felt that a bit. We had played them twice before and we had beaten them both times. After the game, people were like saying how they didn't have their best player and that's probably why you guys won and blah blah blah. I think we're pretty happy in the fact that we'd beaten them twice with her and without some of our players and it didn't really matter at that point. Like we had won, so a win's a win and we were going to take it regardless of what others were saying. We are proud of ourselves.

Brian Bosche:
Definitely.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah and a dominant win at that. So...

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, exactly. We got to seven. All of our younger players, all the Academy kids.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. That was amazing.

Kennedy Leonard:
I think for them, it is pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty cool to have them be able to play on live TV and in that kind of environment in a pro league. It's pretty cool.

Skylar Smith:
Then you were named WBBL Trophy MVP-

Brian Bosche:
Yup.

Skylar Smith:
With an incredible performance of 21 points, nine assists, seven steals, six rebounds, while [crosstalk 00:27:32]

Brian Bosche:
Seven steals?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
I was writing it and I was like, "Am I... Did I write it wrong?" Then I looked again-

Kennedy Leonard:
Typo.

Skylar Smith:
And I was like, "No, that's right."

Kennedy Leonard:
I did.

Brian Bosche:
I mean, you could have gotten a quadruple double. I mean, you really missed out.

Skylar Smith:
Yes.

Brian Bosche:
You were pretty close.

Kennedy Leonard:
I know.

Brian Bosche:
That's all right. Next time.

Kennedy Leonard:
I did. I missed out on one yesterday too.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I think I had eight steals yesterday and seven rebounds or something, along with like whatever it was yesterday. So I'm like, "Miss out again." I always miss out.

Brian Bosche:
You got to do the Westbrook and just start stealing the rebounds from your digs.

Kennedy Leonard:
For real. I need to, yeah. I need to do something.

Brian Bosche:
To steal some of those.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes.

Skylar Smith:
Ripping rebounds away from people in your own team.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Terrible.

Skylar Smith:
What did it mean for you to be named MVP? What was kind of going through your head when your name was called?

Kennedy Leonard:
Honestly, I didn't even think that it would be me. I was not even focused. I thought I was gonna be one of my, obviously, one of my other teammates who had... I was like, "Oh, it's just another game." I didn't think anything special of it. I thought I played well, like we had played well. We had won, so I knew that something had gone right.

Kennedy Leonard:
But no, when they said the stats, I was like, "No way I did all this." Because it didn't feel like it in the moment, you know what I mean? So then when they said my name, I talked to my teammates like the way that they were celebrating and excited for me, I think that meant more to me than the actual MVP.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Because you care about those people, you go to war for your teammates-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
And you spend more time with them than I had my family this year. They take a lot of you and you take a lot of them, so to see them as excited as they were for me and as excited as we all were just to win, I think that was more important than even winning the MVP.

Kennedy Leonard:
But it was a cool feeling because you get the golden ball and...

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, people pay attention so I think it was cool and it was not only a statement for London Lions, but also for the whole league in general that we're our team specifically. We came here to try to up the level of basketball in the WBBL and the people who have joined our team this year. I think that we're doing that, so I think it was cool to kind of reaffirm that for everybody, in ourselves, that what we're trying to do, we are doing.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah. That's a good segue into my next question. So we had mentioned you recently broke the WBBL record for assists in a single game at 21. You also hold a ton of records, like we mentioned, at CU all-time assist leader at 664. You're number one in assists per game. You're on the board for top 10 in so many categories. I can't even read them all.

Skylar Smith:
What does breaking records mean to you? To me, it's very cool and it's of course an accomplishment. When there's so many though, where it's like you have broken 25 records, it's like I wonder if it just ends up becoming another box that you've ticked almost. How do you think about records and how do you think about records in relation to your basketball career and your goals?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. I'm actually thinking about that. I thought about that yesterday because, obviously, the 21 assists... I received a lot of messages from people that were like, "Have you ever heard of anybody getting 21 assists? It's incredible." That kind of thing.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I don't think it... It still hasn't hit me. I'm like, "Oh, it's just 21 assists." You know what I mean? For me, it wasn't anything that I thought was crazy, but everybody's telling me it is so I'm like, "Maybe I should think it's crazier. Maybe I should be more proud of myself." But I think at the same time, I didn't really care what it was. I wasn't even focused on that. It was more so about the game and I say that with my other records as well.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Like I set lot of records at Colorado, but I never won a national championship. I never went to the NCAA tournament. I never went to a post-season at WNIT, but it was never the NCAA. Stuff like that where I wished I would trade those records for trips like that to, you know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
For different accolades with the team. And of course, the records are incredible. I've been super blessed to even have one, let alone what I've been given or work for. But like I said, at the same time, I would trade every single one of them for wins or for trips to the tournament or for championships and stuff like that. So I think that's why... Yesterday, it was cool to get the record, but at the same, we got the win-

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
And obviously Caledonia is a young team who's struggling in the league right now. But still for me, it was more important that we got the win. So I think, I don't know, like you said, the records are incredible. It's really cool and it speaks a lot, I think, to my work ethic and stuff like that.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Which I love to spend time playing basketball. I love to get in the gym. I love to work hard, but at the same time I would rather, the stuff that happens to me is cool, but I'd rather have it happen to my team if that makes sense.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Well, those assists records are a very team-

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
They're very team records like-

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. It's a good thing to hold records. Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Even just 21 field goals in a game that you like that's... It's not like a hockey assist where it's like you pass and they pass and score.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. The double one, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
You still get the credit, the double. So the 21, that's a lot of field goals that people have to hit no matter what the competition is. So it's a nice team goal to be like, "We did this together." You can share it with team and get that win.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah, no. Yeah, I would take those assists too because like you said, it definitely has an impact on others. So if I'm going to set a record or set something then I want it to be helping others in some sort of voice, that's... I'll take it. It's a good one to have. That's for sure.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
I mean you're leading the WBBL in assists and like... The highlights, you have the highlight assists, which... There are the assists which are like, all right, you pass it out to the wing. They hit the corner three, you get a little layup. Those are the standard assists. You get the highlight assist, like the-

Skylar Smith:
No-peek assist.

Brian Bosche:
Behind-the-back and the... Yeah. The no-peek assist.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
So what kind of inspired you growing up to prioritize getting these assist pass first? Like that is a kind of a unique thing for point guards where a you-culture is very like, "I'm going to get my points." So what kind of developed that get-other-people-buckets type of mentality?

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. I was always the kid who was getting yelled at to shoot more. Like I'll be open and I would rather pass it to a teammate, who's under the basket, open. I remember always getting told by my coaches like, "Shoot it. You have to shoot it more." And so growing up, I tried to incorporate the shooting and the scoring aspect. And I have, but at the same time I can draw a lot of attention by the way that I play. So I know that other people are going to be open and I trust those people to make it.

Kennedy Leonard:
Even if they don't, everybody on my team knows if they miss a layup, it's going to come back towards them in the next play. I've heard a lot of stories where people, like my post players or whatever, I've played with people who have passed it to them and if they don't catch it, they don't make it, then that teammate will never pass it to them again. And I'm like that's just... It's stupid. You know what I mean?

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
If you love basketball, I'm not thinking when I'm coming down the court, "Oh, Paige didn't just catch it. I'm not going to pass it to her. Steph didn't just make that layup, so I'm not going to pass it to her." I'm thinking, "Oh, they're open." I don't care if they miss it or make it.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I can like throw it to them kind of thing. So I think, just for me growing up, I was always told, "Yeah, you need to pass it or you need to shoot it more." But I was always the kid who was like, "I don't care what these people say, I'm just going to, I want to pass." So like, I like the feeling of letting other people have the spotlight, I guess, if that makes sense.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Like I'm okay with being in the background and letting them shine. I think, like you said, nowadays, that's really hard for kids because all you hear and all you see is these kids in the gym doing 50 moves with their trainers and working on their shots.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
And it's hard to find kids who want to pass in. I think for a point guard, it's really important that you lead the team through, like passing. Yeah, of course you can score and stuff like that, but a true point guard finds... Gets their teams and sets, passes the ball, stuff like that. So I think, of course, you had the point guards who are changing the game a bit and they are scoring more and stuff like that. But I think, I don't know, I grew up thinking that a point guard was a player who passes. It gets stuff like that.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So of course, it's good to incorporate the scoring aspect of it, but I think it's also good to be a player who wants to help other people out, especially at the point guard position.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
That's your job is to help other people out. So if I can do that, then I've done my job.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Well, I mean, you're an incredible threat to score, which is why people collapse on you and you can get those assists.

Kennedy Leonard:
Exactly.

Brian Bosche:
So you need both.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
You need both and you have both.

Kennedy Leonard:
It helps like a ton.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah, definitely.

Kennedy Leonard:
Thank you. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
I have a question about mentality and Skylar, I don't think we've told the story on the pod before, but we thought it would be a fun content series to be like Brian Trains to Try Out for a BBL Team. So we had Coach Paul Nicholson on from the Raider. It sounds like, "What do you think it would take?" And it's like a funny thing. Then I watched the London Lions versus the Klamath Raiders, and I was like, "Oh God, no."

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Like Deandre Liggins picking me up full court.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yikes.

Brian Bosche:
Like Ashley Hamilton. Yikes. That's not happening. It'll be a fun content thing. And then we're like, all right, Skylar, let's like... This is when we were new BBL, WBBL fans. So we were like-

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Let's turn on WBBL. Let's check out the London Lions game. We were watching and you were playing and you like... I was like, "Fuck, Skylar. There's no way." Like we are not at this level. She is a killer. Like she is hitting threes in people's faces. You're passing out when they collapsed. So it seems like from a fan's perspective, your mentality is like, you go hard. It seems like you're ruthless out there. Where did you develop that mentality? How do you get psyched up for the games? Like you looked scary to play against from a fan's perspective.

Skylar Smith:
Can I just add? I watched a post-game interview with you. I watched it and Brian was showing me and I just looked at Brian after and I was like, "She is a killer." You just come off of as this like insane performance dominant win and they interviewed you and you were just stone cold. You're just like, "Yeah, I'm just happy to get the win. Good game."

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. It's like, "Holy smokes."

Skylar Smith:
It was just...

Kennedy Leonard:
Business.

Skylar Smith:
Just strictly business.

Kennedy Leonard:
No, yeah.

Brian Bosche:
So just thoughts. That's my question. How do you get into that mode?

Skylar Smith:
Are you a killer?

Brian Bosche:
Are you a killer and how do you get into... Why do you and how do you get into that mode?

Kennedy Leonard:
Am I a killer? People love to say that I am. I hear that a lot as well. But I also hear like I'm just really mellow. You'll never see me get too high. You'll never see me get too low. My mom was very nonchalant about it. Like...

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
Just go in there and do what I need to do and I get out. It's kind of, I guess, how I go about it. But I would say, yeah, I'm a silent killer. I don't say much. I don't whatever, but I'm more so like, how I play do all the talking. But yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. So you're not like a DT, like just trash talking on the court, dropping F-bombs all over the place?

Kennedy Leonard:
No, I do talk to the rest a lot though. I've gotten more of those the last year than I ever have. These refs, they'd kill me.

Brian Bosche:
I've heard that. A lot of players.

Kennedy Leonard:
Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's so frustrating sometimes. I almost want, like, I want a technical so I can get myself in the mood where I'm like, "All right, cool. Now I can go" kind of thing. But no, yeah. I would say I am a killer, but I don't try to be, if that makes sense. I just am like, "Oh, I'm going to go about my business, whatever and if that makes me in that moment, a killer, then than I am."

Kennedy Leonard:
But I have heard that like everybody keeps telling me like, "Oh, you're a killer. You're this you're that." But then I hear all the time too like, "You're so nonchalant about it." Like I just walk around, like it's whatever, at the same time.

Brian Bosche:
That's really scary.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, it's at least that's why.

Kennedy Leonard:
Whatever, you know what I mean?

Skylar Smith:
It's because.

Kennedy Leonard:
Then they go, "Oh wow. She can actually play." You know what I mean?

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
So, yeah.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
That is certainly why it is. When someone does that to you then doesn't say anything, you're like, "I'm not even, I can't even get in there." It's just over for me right now. But yeah, that's very funny that you hear that a lot because we were prepping for the pod and scared of that.

Brian Bosche:
But let's switch gears a little bit. Let's Skylar, let's alternate on this. We're going to do a little fast round here. Getting to know the London Lions. So getting to know your team. So we're going to ask some questions about your teammates, rapid fire, just first name that pops into your head. Sound good?

Kennedy Leonard:
Okay. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
And feel free to throw people under the bus or whatever you want to do. It's all right.

Kennedy Leonard:
Okay.

Skylar Smith:
Expose them.

Brian Bosche:
All right. We'll go back and forth. Funniest player on the team.

Kennedy Leonard:
Steph.

Skylar Smith:
Who's the best dressed?

Kennedy Leonard:
Chantel.

Brian Bosche:
Best hops.

Kennedy Leonard:
Shanice. She's a bunny. Yeah, she can hop.

Skylar Smith:
Who's the team mom? I feel like there's always one.

Kennedy Leonard:
Chantel. I would say she's also the oldest. So she probably fits that mold the best. Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
Most likely to make everyone run sprints.

Kennedy Leonard:
Paige. Definitely Paige.

Brian Bosche:
It's so instant.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
I have some more random ones, Skylar.

Skylar Smith:
Yeah, keep going.

Brian Bosche:
Most active on social media.

Kennedy Leonard:
Paige. Paige is like a model. So she's not only basketball, but she poses to 50,000 modeling-like subscriptions and stuff like that. So definitely Paige.

Brian Bosche:
Do you have any more Skylar?

Skylar Smith:
Who's the most likely to get into it with a ref? Is it you?

Kennedy Leonard:
I'm up on the list, but I would say Paige is up on the list as well, and Steph and Chantel. We've all had our fair share of technicals. So one of us four, we're always talking to the ref, so easily one of us four.

Skylar Smith:
And who is the most intense like pregame routines? Who needs to like, if they don't get their routine and they're gonna freak out?

Kennedy Leonard:
I would say probably Cassie. She's like our knockdown shooter and she has so many different things she does with, like her eyes and her rotation, just stuff like that. She'll just sit there and she'll do stuff with like a pen and like, look at the wave.

Brian Bosche:
Oh, nice.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. So I would have to film it one time for you guys, but it's yeah. I would say it's definitely Cassie, but it works so I'm not going to knock it because she hit shot. So I'm going to take it.

Skylar Smith:
I feel like it's always...

Brian Bosche:
You got to get those eye exercises down.

Skylar Smith:
It's always the shooter.

Kennedy Leonard:
Always.

Skylar Smith:
There's just something like superstitious about shooting that you have to-

Kennedy Leonard:
Always. Definitely.

Skylar Smith:
You got to get the routines in. All right. That's all I got, Brian.

Brian Bosche:
All right. That's a great rapid fire session. Last question for you, Kennedy, how can we help grow the game of basketball in the UK? What have you seen since coming over? You've been in basketball a long time. What do you think that the UK can do to continue to grow the game of basketball?

Kennedy Leonard:
I would say, first of all, just funding. I know in America, for instance, there's so much more money that goes into not only men's basketball, but also women's basketball. There's still a disparity there, but I think it's growing and more people are recognizing it, especially after this year and the things that happened at the NCAA tournament.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
I saw those Tweets and stuff, so I think that that helps a lot. But I would say also just getting it out there. The fact that we were on Sky Sports this year is a huge thing for the game.

Brian Bosche:
Yup.

Kennedy Leonard:
And I think it allowed a lot more people to have access to it, because a lot of people don't know that it... People can't watch if they don't know it's happening, if that makes sense.

Skylar Smith:
Yup.

Kennedy Leonard:
So I think just the ability and the availability to watch it. Then I think just more support from people who do play, like on the men's side or that kind of thing, because there is people... People follow men's basketball when they think... There's always that mantra about women's basketball. They can't do this, they can't do that. But it's different. It's a different game. I can understand if people watched it and didn't like it, but if they haven't watched it, then they don't know what they're... If they watch it and they don't like it, cool. That's fine. Give it a chance, I guess, is more so what I would think.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
And I think in America, a lot of people are allowed to play multiple sports growing up. I think in other countries it's not as popular. So I think to be able to kind of spread that as well, like you can play... They call it football here. You can play football. You can play basketball. You can play tennis. That's okay. It doesn't need to be one sport that you focus on for your entire upbringing.

Kennedy Leonard:
I just honestly think more support of it, because I think if people knew about it and had the option to hear about it and see it and watch it and stuff like that, then obviously that helps; because when people see it, they talk about it and they talk about it to other people who talk about it to other people. So I think being able to spread it through word of mouth and experience, it means a lot and it can shape a lot of people's lives who maybe haven't had the availability to or had the option to be affected by it.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. And I think this season been doing a really good job of showcasing that. Seeing that, like the Sky Sports games-

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah.

Brian Bosche:
The WBBL and BBL Trophy Finals were really good games and that was really fun to watch.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yeah. Exactly. Like we were close games, so people-

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
They were not super close, but they were good games or it was competition.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah.

Kennedy Leonard:
You can see that there's girls who have talent, if they just give them a chance.

Brian Bosche:
Yeah. Definitely. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it on the off day and good luck with the rest of the season.

Kennedy Leonard:
Yes, of course. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it.