Mamba Super 70 & Candice Wiggins Are Anderson .Paak’s “Come Down”
I was in-between pick up games at 24 Hour Fitness next to Mamba Academy last week. Me, E-Woods trying to tell teenage boys I ball with about the ultimate girls hoop camp, dropping knowledge about Mamba Super 70 run by Cal Storm.
Getting in their craniums, teenage neurons forming, relaying about fire dope girl players at the camp. I told lil bro, need check out YouTube on former Stanford SUPER STAR. retired WNBA legend Candice Wiggins.
All 10 boys caught my vibe, huddled around, as I explained how she is just as dope as local Grammy Award winning Anderson .Paak, who attended the school I taught at in Oxnard.
Then comes teenage Larry who is 1/2 disaffected teenage mutant ninja, 1/2 caveman as he he yells to me, “What you doing E-Woods covering those stupid girls at that camp? I’ll only read your stuff when you give me and the people what we want. We want more Zion and Mikey Williams, we just want to follow guys about to make it to the NBA. You must be turning into a bit** on us Woody (Woody is my nickname).”
I’m thinking, “It’s like that?” clinching my fist tight, rage balling up in my blood vessels, as my neck muscles tighten. All dudes around us were stepping back saying, “Yo, Woody is fixing to whoop Larry’s a^^ really bad.”
I lowered my head, raised a fist, and pulled up a google image to enlighten Larry via photo of some solid 1968 Olympians.
I was mad, but decided to take the high road, trying to show Larry the power of solidarity that Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos showed after winning the 200 meter run in 68.They put their head down, fist up on the medal platform as a grand political gesture pre Colin Kaepernick.
I told Larry, “Dude, chill and try to be like these pioneers of human rights. They care about women, the rights of African Americans. These dudes got kicked off Team USA for protesting human rights. You should try watching female hoops bro, it’s dope.”
Larry just shook his head. Minutes later? Larry went up for a lay up on me and shouted bit** again. I blocked his shot, threw him so hard, ball soaring like 10 bleachers high, using my 6-5 250 lb feminist body. I screamed a la Russ Westbrook intensity at him, “Who's the bit** now Larry? Larry, that block is for you disrespecting women bro.”
He just whimpered away. Someday, Larry might get it.
Let me dust myself off, back to Candice, dopest girl you can ever meet, 100. She was drafted 3rd overall in the WNBA and won a chip in the L, was sixth woman, not man of the year in her rook season.
Why do I respect her so? She retired from the L with gas in the tank a couple years ago and pours herself into developing kids nowadays at her Ice Academy, at her old prep alum of La Jolla Country Day, and at her AAU Wiggins Waves squad.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.candicewiggins.com/ice-academy/welcome-to-ice-academy%3fformat=amp
What did helping at the Super 70 mean to Candice? She said this about it, “This camp has great people to propel kids, great scrimmages, combine activities like the vertical jump, and meaningful drills toward development. These kids, us working with them, this is where the WNBA starts.”
Candice has the most progressive view of competition I’ve ever seen. I pulled her definition of competition from her website: “Opponents are viewed as co-creators of an experience, and competition as a process of striving with, not against, others. This is the greatest illustration of the beautiful, peaceful nature of competition when it isn’t being exploited for financial gain or selfish glory.”
#that’s genius
Candice’s pure spirit to play and teach basketball? It’s smoooth, like Anderson .Paak’s words leaving his lips, like his hands playing the drums. Candice got it like that, like A-Paak. Really E-Woods? Real talk? Yup, Anderson’s music flowed in my head the whole time I was at the camp.
Me? I know so many of the girls at the camp very well and I shouted out to a couple of them playfully, asking as I was bobbing my head, snapping my fingers, “Ayyy, my girls, y’all know lyrics to my guy A-Paak, his song Come Down?” They’re like, yeah E-Woods and we sang a bar together,
“And you talkin' all that ish, now come on
You gonna have to back it up
If I get too high now, sugar, come on
I might never come down
You know I might never come down.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OqrcUvrbRY
Super 70? They got down. Candice has major swag, wearing these fly custom white print socks over her black athletic tights, she throttles crazy energy, intense passion.
Let me break down why girls hung on every word she preached. Candice did something in college no one ever did, scoring 41 to get her Stanford team to the sweet 16 of the NCAA tourney, then the very next game she scores 44 to get em’ to the great 8.
C-Wiggins was named college player of the year with the Wade Award, was a 4-time all American in college. Only 7 others have done that. What impresses me most is she treated all the kids like they were Delta Sigma Theta (her sorority in college). Candice loves all people straight up.
Point is, that’s why the girls were in awe of her, she’s done been to the mountain top. Craziest part? She might be the most eloquent and humble pro that E-Woods has ever, ever met.
I’ve never seen kids so locked-in to watch drills as they watched Candice conduct them. She gave advice like body position, kneeling at a 45 degree angle. “Get low. Low means body control, learn to control movement without even having the ball in a free flowing offense.”
At the end of the drill, some of the girls would ask for a selfie with Candice. Why? I’m telling you, Kendrick Lamar isn’t just a rapper, dude won a Pulitzer Prize, Kobe not a just baller, he earned an Oscar. If I could, I’d give Candice a Grammy, straight up, because her singing voice is her dope coaching voice. It uplifts as much as A-Paak fosho.
Candice is a grown woman who speaks her mind because she wants kids to know her experience. She speaks into existence her dreams, and how dope is that? She’s as pure a teacher that I’ve ever seen and I’ve been in grade school education more than 20 years.
Give us proof E-Woods, show us the money of what you say. What I say is look at rising senior from La Jolla Country Day High, Te-Hina Paopao, that 5-9 cold-blooded PG with mad skills, you could call her C-Wiggins’s protege.
T-Paopao is top 20 ranked and headed to play for Oregon. Connect the dots, since Candice retired early, she’s been pouring herself completely into kids, doing Stanford camps, mentoring youngsters like Te-hina.
I just had to ask Candice, “Are you channeling Socrates and getting these younggins’ to know thyself?” She told me, “Erik, it’s not ‘know thyself’, it’s know thy goal. Helping a kid to prepare for the Olympics requires a different approach than setting them up for college, than focusing on trying to be pro.”
#Candice got that secret sauce
How can I get the reader to realize how dope this Super 70 Camp was? The girls were listening to instructor Najeeb Abdur-Rahman, him expertly explaining how to explode in flight to reach their apex on the vertical max measuring device.
I asked this cool kid, rising 12 grader at Palisades High Alexis Pettis, who is a supremely well muscled guard, “How did you get down at the camp, was it worth your time?”
A-Pettis told me, “This combine was special. We learned to break down film, improve our health, learn proper eating habits. Other camps don’t go this deep. If I’m going to be a pro, even fulfill my long-time dream of playing college ball, I need to take their advice and use it, let power me. You just don’t get high level pros come out to work you out at other camps.”
The camp had dope counselors that impressed me with their skillful instruction. Sisters Andee and Bianca Velasco just finished up their hoop careers at LMU. It was cool seeing them run drills where girls realized the importance of shot selection. I saw girls panting and trying to catch their breath. Both sisters were cheering those campers on saying, “You got this, push through it, we believe in you.”
What impressed me so much was the attention to detail by camp staff. You could find many of the staff upstairs in the Mamba offices, resembling a war room with Cal Storm staff dissecting each detail. Like who will match up with who, who will coach Duke commit Vanessa De Jesus, evening up the talent for it to be competitive.
Who was in the war-room? Freaking experts, top shelf dudes like trainer Darrell Gillcrese, respected long time coach Doug Kim, and other talented members like Man Chi throwing his heart into every minute detail and Quincy Quintero. They all had lap tops out, fastidiously disaggregating spread sheets.
The camp gave out crazy multi colored Super 70 shirts, all spread out over the war table like bright skittles. It wasn’t just a regular giveaway camp shirt, you had to earn that shirt. It signified you were there, a part of something epic. How many girls wished they had that keepsake?
How long does it take to Frankenstein a prospect? That’s trainer lingo for making a player great.
Me, E-Woods? I was lucky to have former Laker great Cedric Ceballos come to me when I was a 14 year old at Ventura High. Ced was balling at Ventura College and was a real one to us. He came to our gym almost daily to teach us how to dunk, get confidence, just be a man in 1986.
Candice, what her and the staff did in just a couple days? Amazing, they accelerated girls’ confidence, abilities, and poise through being real to them, by pinpoint skill instruction. They did at the camp in a few days what it took C-Ceballos to effect in me in a whole year.
Was it magic? Maybe, or vast experience met by the love of the game, met by kids that want it so bad to begin with.
If you were there with me looking into the eyes of the 100 or so girls in attendance you’d have seen determination, like in rising junior Alexis Mead from King High. Her dope, caring, and hoop knowledgeable dad Richard from the IE appreciated the camp. I respect Alexis who balls with skill and heart, carries a 4.6 gpa, and dreams of being a doctor.
Alexis told me, “Basketball is not a hobby for me, we all dream of playing in college. With Candice and all the counselors this week, I can only repay them by passing on the knowledge to another person.”
I asked a rising junior camper, Terri, to tell me what Candice meant to her. Terri said, “Candice has to be one of the prettiest to ever to play in the WNBA. Her and Skylar Diggins, they seem so awesome inside and out. It’s not just that coach Wiggins is a beautiful woman, it’s that she proved to me it’s possible to sweat, play tough, and still be pretty all at the same time. I didn’t think that was possible, she really opened my eyes.”
Recently, I was telling our guy, Big Chuck from Death Row records that I really think Anderson .Paak must be Oxnard’s favorite son. He brought famed rap producer Dr Dre to Lion’s Park, next to our old school in Oxnard. That’s love for your city.100.
A .Paak, man, he’s had a hard life. He watched his dad being taken down by drugs and lose his mind and beat his mom down, go to prison for it. Yet still A-Paak rises, inspiring the lyrics from his heart like “You Might Never Come Down.”
I felt that same echo of pure passion, as Anderson sings, Candice sings too in her own singular teaching voice that draws you in.
Who at the camp reminded me of producer Dr Dre? Mamba Director and Team Taurasi legend George Quintero producing the Super 70 track, just like Dre. Both have incredible attention to detail.
At the camp I ran into my girl Noelle Quinn, that recent WNBA champ, ultra dope personality. Why do I respect her so? Just as Candice shows mad enthusiasm to develop kids, Noelle was playing WNBA ball last year and coaching the Bishop Montgomery girls varsity and was its athletic director all at the same time.
I know, crazy, dedicated. I asked Noelle, what should people know about the Super 70 Camp. She told me, “It’s where you go to develop, get your mind trained by people so passionate about the game. George Quintero lit a love of the game in me. Playing AAU for him, just as for my mom Golden Quinn, taught me in life you have to work hard at it every day at your craft. I’m seeing these kids taking it seriously, that’s a credit to themselves and the game.”
#show love, that’s the LA way
The takeaway from this camp, if you’re a girl or a boy, any kind of baller: try to get with Mamba Super 70 Camp, they are dope people. Link with them like pronto, like yesterday, they’ll mold you into possibly a world class player or person if you open your heart to them, let them sing their basketball song to you.
They’ll teach you it takes more than talent or determination; it takes a shared vision and a lot of hard work. Mamba Super 70 Camp will show you 3 things that Candice stressed: “the journey is greater than the destination, your input equals your output, and your only competition is really just yourself.”
It’s just that simple, really. Being there changed E-Woods forever. To feel a spirit so bold, elegant and fierce as Candice, it’s a once in a 20 year event for me, generational, no doubt.
I left feeling what Anderson .Paak’s lyrics were trying to speak to me, yet magically they were spoken through the ever dope Candice Wiggins, her manner of being.
Speak on it Anderson:
“You didn't know about nothing,
Now you know all about nothing,
I put you on to that. “
E-Woods thanks Candice and A .Paak both. 100.