Ionescu, the budding WNBA superstar, and Sabathia, the recently-retired MLB All-star are at opposing junctures of decorated careers. Ionescu is just starting her WNBA career after putting together one of the most-decorated resumes in college basketball history. The child of Romanian immigrants, she shattered multiple college basketball records playing for the University of Oregon, where she ended up a Pac-12 all-time assists leader (breaking Gary Payton’s record), and the only NCAA D1 player ever to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. Named the best collegiate female basketball player in the nation, she was #1 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft, selected by the NY Liberty. Though injuries early in the pandemic-plagued season prevented her from realizing her first-year potential, she's ready to fulfill her promise as the league prepares for its '21 season. On the other side of the career spectrum is CC Sabathia, who helped the NY Yankees win a World Series in 2009, led MLB in wins in both ’09 and ’10, was a 6x All-Star, and struck out over 3,000 in a brilliant career. Now the host of the popular podcast, R2C2, with co-host, Ryan Ruocco, he's also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Rich talks to Sabathia and Ionescu about the pressures and joys of playing under the New York spotlight, the special relationship Ionescu had with Kobe Bryant, and how the WNBA Bubble revved up Ionescu's competitive juices. They also get into her career goals and Sabathia's post-career moves.
This episode was recorded on April 22 as part of a live Boardroom University event.
Boardroom Talks