Hoops for Troops: The USA National Team Visits Walter Reed

Following today’s practice, the USA Basketball Women’s National Team had an opportunity to visit with some of the wounded soldiers recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. After a briefing from a member of the United Service Organizations, better known as the USO, the team broke up into small groups of 4-5 and visited troops in their hospital rooms.

Overheard among the crowded foyer:

“Hey! I know that girl! She’s from Tennessee, isn’t she?”

“They’re all so beautiful. I never realized that from TV.”

“That one, on the right. She was in the Final Four, right?”

“I don’t watch basketball, except for the Olympics. I’m not a basketball fan. But I do watch whenever the Olympics are on. I remember seeing her during the Olympics.”

“Oh, I forgot my camera. Man!”

Seimone Augustus, Minnesota Lynx

It was an eye-opening experience. Just to know that these guys go out and risk their lives every day and not know if they’re going to come back home alive or not. To hear about their experiences is a motivational factor for me. Going through my rehab and stuff like that, I’ve been feeling down on myself and depressed and I shouldn’t. They’ve been through worse things than me and they’re calm.

You go and visit them and you see them glow and you see how happy that they are to be here to live another day. I realize what I’m going through is really not that bad, compared with what they’re going through. I was really surprised at how positive they all were. I expected it to be a sad situation, but it wasn’t. It was a good situation, even for the families, the relatives that were in there. They were happy. They were excited to see their relative back, knowing that they’ll be here to live a happy life, a normal life. I really appreciated visiting them today.