Adena Andrews.com

My newest article on AOL’s THEBVX.com

After winning five Olympic medals in 2000, athlete Marion Jones was convicted of lying about her steroid use, sentenced to two-years probation and served six months in prison. Now, as a player for the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock, Jones sat down with theBVX.com to discuss her disgrace and redemption. The star debuted on the Oklahoma court on May 15, playing 3 minutes and 19 seconds and though her team lost 80-74 to the Minnesota Lynx, Jones sported a smile.

• How does it feel to finally get back on the court?

• After so many months of just answering questions and talking about the home opener it’s a huge relief.

• You have been gone from the game for 16 years now. What was the most difficult part of your game to reclaim?

• The basketball instinct of being able to make quick decisions. That just takes being able to be in those game situations. I can do lots of drills and skills work, but until you are actually on the court and have to make those quick calls, it’s tough.

• Since you had such a fall from grace, did you ever think about distancing yourself from sports or just not coming back totally?

• No, I never had a thought to distance myself from sport but I did think about not wanting to be in the public spotlight anymore. But when the opportunity [of playing basketball] arose and I realized that this would give me a really big platform to send my message and fulfill a lifelong dream.

  You went from being one of track’s first female millionaires to the financial turmoil of having to sell your assets. Now you are a rookie playing for the league minimum of $35,000, what’s that like?

  It’s weird because I didn’t decide to do this for the financial gain. If that were the only reason then this wouldn’t be the way to go. It’s much more to me. It’s about positively influencing the lives of people and helping people make better decisions. So it’s bigger than financial gain to me.

• Do you feel like a mom because you are in your 30s and much older than most of your team mates?

• Some of the girls, you look at their birth dates and some of them were born 15 years after I was! It’s tough. But because I’m a rookie and I’m not necessarily exempt to certain things, I don’t necessarily feel like the mom yet.

• So is there a bit of rookie hazing going on?

• I don’t know if I would call it “hazing,” but there are certainly things that the rookies are expected to do. Because we haven’t paid our dues at all, we understand there are certain obligations we have so it isn’t too severe. We had to wash the veteran’s cars and a couple of the rookies have had to bring sandwiches to the veterans and you know we are the last ones to shower after games. So little things like that make life a little more difficult.

• Drawing from your experience, what’s your advice to athletes like Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger, who’ve recently gotten into legal trouble while in the public eye?

• My only advice would be to totally embrace it. It’s not often you get to have an opportunity or a second chance. So when practices are hard, we’re gasping for air and you kind of wish it would end, I remind myself that this is a blessing that so many people don’t have. When I think of that, I am able to get to that next moment.