USC's basketball star JuJu Watkins responds to popular misconceptions and assumptions about basketball and the athletes who play it. Is offense more important than defense on the winning team? Do you have no social life as a college athlete? Do athletes recover from injuries faster than non-athletes? Find out what myths and false and which ones ring true as JuJu sets out to clear the air.
00:00Female athletes have to train with men to be good.
00:04This is not true.
00:05Hi, Self. I'm Juju Watkins,
00:07and I'm going on the record about all things basketball.
00:13Playing for a highly ranked school automatically creates a pipeline into the WNBA.
00:18Um, no.
00:19I think that to get to the W, you of course have to have the talent.
00:22There's only so many roster spots, so talent definitely speaks for itself.
00:26So I don't think there's a pipeline for real.
00:28SC, fight on forever, bro.
00:30Being naturally gifted is just as important as hard work.
00:33Okay, I think there is a balance to natural ability and hard work.
00:37I think if you have more natural ability, like when it comes to hand-eye coordination,
00:41then that helps, but you just have to work on your craft,
00:45or it's not going to really turn out the way you want it.
00:48Maybe you'll be good at a pick-up game,
00:50but I think when you actually get to different levels to it,
00:54if you're not working on it, then yeah.
00:57Yeah.
00:58I think me, like I was naturally like athletic and you know,
01:01I had good genes when it came to like playing sports,
01:03but I was still trash.
01:06Like it wasn't until like I really like started putting hours in
01:09and focusing on getting better that I saw like results.
01:13So I'm going to have to say false to this one.
01:15Go on the record.
01:16Is offense or defense more important for a winning team?
01:19That's a great question.
01:20My coach is just, I don't know.
01:24Both are important.
01:25I guess I'm going to go defense.
01:27I don't know.
01:28This is hard.
01:29I'm going to go defense like for a team,
01:31because if you go on like sprees, like when you're not scoring,
01:35it's important that you have to stop the other team from scoring.
01:38So that's just really important.
01:39If you don't have defense, you're probably not going to win.
01:41Team chemistry is just about players liking each other off the court.
01:45This is not true, guys, like at all.
01:48Of course, it's important to like each other off the court,
01:52but I don't think that necessarily translate directly to on the court chemistry.
01:58You guys got to work it out, get experience with each other, play games.
02:02It takes a lot to build that chemistry, but it doesn't just come from off the court.
02:06There's so many things that go into a winning team.
02:08I think respect, you know, having respect for one another,
02:11having each other's backs and just like this collective mindset that you want to win
02:16and you're kind of going to do whatever it takes to help chip in and give what the team needs.
02:22I've been fortunate like all my years here at SC, like every single team I've been on,
02:26like we've all had like just natural chemistry.
02:30Like we've all like got along, great friends to this day, even former teammates.
02:36So I've been really blessed with that.
02:37But I think honestly playing, like the more you play, the more you get the chemistry.
02:42You start to learn more about your teammates.
02:44So college athletes have it easy because they're treated like celebrities.
02:47There are definitely some perks to being a college athlete and an athlete in general,
02:51but I think there's so much work that goes into it.
02:54So much pressure to perform that it kind of balances everything out.
02:58So a lot of like my peers are like regular students kind of assume that college athletes don't do their work or things like that.
03:09But I think at SC, it's definitely mandatory that you go to class, you be present and do your work.
03:15You can't have a social life as a college athlete.
03:18Okay, I'm not gonna lie. This one might be true.
03:21No, it's partially true.
03:22You really have to make time for it, I will say.
03:24So maybe like a lot with the little time you get to yourself, you might have to share that with, you know, your friends, family.
03:32It definitely is hard to balance that social life aspect.
03:37But I think just make time for it and know what you need as a person, as an athlete.
03:43See, like off season, I'll be hanging out.
03:46Like I'll spend time.
03:47We have the village.
03:48I'll go to the village, grab an acai bowl, you know, just really enjoy life.
03:52But during the season, no.
03:55Honestly, like me and my team are so tight, like I'm hanging with them year round.
03:59So it's like, yeah, they're my besties.
04:02A large social media following automatically equates to NIL deals.
04:07This might be true.
04:10I don't know.
04:11I don't really know what the logistics are, but this might be true, unfortunately.
04:19Yeah, see, I'm like more introverted.
04:22Like I have to set time to post for the most part.
04:26Cause sometimes I forget, like I'm just going through my life without remembering to post.
04:32So I think when it comes to like scheduling stuff, that's kind of how I do social media.
04:38Sometimes it's natural.
04:39Like if I get cute pictures, I'll post them.
04:41But yeah, that's not really a natural thing for me.
04:44Yeah. I mean, I have Clutch.
04:46Clutch helps me a lot.
04:47They do so much.
04:48And then when it gets to me, I'm just like, yes or no.
04:50And they just tell me where to be and I'm there.
04:52So shout out to Clutch.
04:54And then also my parents really helped me like navigate stuff when I'm busy.
04:58Do you have like a close friends or like a Finsta or just people who really know who you are?
05:04No, I do not have a Finsta.
05:08Female athletes can't earn as much as male athletes through NIL.
05:13This is false.
05:14Yeah, I think when it comes to NIL, it's like women have the upper hand.
05:19There's so many different ways to do NIL.
05:22And I think naturally women just are better.
05:26Once you're cleared to play following an injury, you're 100% back to your pre-injury self.
05:32I don't know this. We will see.
05:36Coming back, I think it will be an adjustment with due time.
05:40You know, you should be back 100%, if not 110.
05:44I think honestly, I've noticed that prior to me getting injured, I didn't really pay that much attention to like strengthening specific parts of my body.
05:54So I think after this whole process, it will kind of give me awareness that I need to continue to get stronger in certain areas that I didn't really pay attention to before.
06:05So honestly, I'm kind of expecting to be even better and like stronger mentally, but also physically.
06:12I think even just like fundamentals, not even basketball, but just like how to cut properly, but more like technical things that I wasn't really doing correctly that kind of are on my radar now.
06:25And like I'm learning how to do and like relearn things the right way.
06:30Athletes bounce back faster than non athletes when it comes to injury.
06:34Yes, I think this is true. I might be a little biased.
06:38I think most athletes, we just have this like work ethic that it's like you just got to keep working.
06:45So I think most non athletes, I don't think they have that mindset if I'm being honest.
06:51So I'm going to have to be biased with this one.
06:53Shout out my PT people, Jason, Shane, Mito Detox and Aaron, Andrew, all the USC staff here.
07:01They've really, and my mom, they've all really just been helping me recover and get my mind and physical right.
07:09It takes a village and it definitely takes a team.
07:11And I'm glad to have mine. They've been getting me right since pre-surgery.
07:15So I do like, I'm starting to like do like dry needling massages, ice bath every day or not every day, but like as much as I can.
07:24Just to make sure that my body is like recovering from the PT because it probably can be a lot for my body like doing it every day.
07:31So just make sure that I'm on top of my recovery as well.
07:34These are pretty common misconceptions.
07:36Having that different perspective of what others think is reality is kind of shocking, but some of them were valid.
07:44Some of them were like way far fetched, but it's cool to see the different perspectives.
07:49Thank you, Seth. I hope I was able to clear up some things and see you guys next time.
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