Yolanda Laney had a motherly instinct that her daughter, Betnijah, was going to be special in the basketball world. She knew it during a workout session at the Mallery Recreation Center in East Germantown, when young Betnijah paused to tell her mother, “I love basketball!”
“I got her now,” Yolanda said. “I didn’t tell her that, but I knew once she told me that, I could take her out to train, have her run, ballhandling, and passing. It wouldn’t be an issue, because now I knew since she told me she loved the game, she was going to elevate to the highest level possible.”
Betnijah, who now plays for the New York Liberty, has spent seven seasons in the WNBA, where she has earned a number of accolades throughout her career. Most recently, though, she was awarded the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award for the work she’s been doing off of the court.
