Courtney Watson: A Pioneer In The NBA And Sports Medicine

Here's how Courtney Watson is paving the way for women in sports.

Courtney Watson is a powerhouse within the world of basketball. A WNBA champion and four-time U.S. Gold medalist, she was also the first woman of color to become the athletic trainer for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Watson is now with the Portland Trail Blazers, a fitting title as she’s been at the forefront of change for other young women in the industry.

The practitioner discussed her journey with BLACK ENTERPRISE and offered advice to those hoping to follow in her footsteps.

“It’s been a dream come true,” says Watson, who just completed her doctorate. “I mean I’ve worked so hard. I’ve put [in] a lot of time and passion. I just learned at an early age what my passion was, and it was sports medicine, athletic training…It just helped me realize that, again, my passion and my perseverance through just making sure that I had my education lined up with all of the various entities, just being the best that I can be within what I do.”

This early realization prompted her to jumpstart her passion.

“I started school at the University of California, Berkeley, with an interest in sports medicine there, working with the football team and basketball team, track and field as well,” she says. “And it was there that I developed the love and interest to want to grow towards professional sports. And so that’s pretty much how my journey started.

“Just a lot of volunteer hours, a lot of committed time to just improving my injury care management flow as well as just being around like-minded individuals helped me along my pathway of course. I was just inspired by those that came before me and just wanted to set myself in a place where I knew that I would be happiest.”

Watson’s growing presence in sports medicine and her hardworking attitude don’t allow her to leave any space to second-guess her position as a Black woman working in such a visible position, especially when her record speaks for itself.

“A lot of times my grandmother instilled in me the importance of education and a lot of times that is something that we tend to maybe not look at as something that helps us to grow as people, but just as professionals in our business,” she shares. “So I just really focused on not what I looked like, but just how much I can improve being a great team member, communicating well [and] just doing all the things that I felt like would make me be a well-rounded person as opposed to looking at my skin color, but understanding that this is Black excellence as well and you have to kind of be focused in on excelling, but also being happy with yourself.”

It is this same belief that has led her to help young Black girls with similar ambitions.

“It’s always my goal to reach back and to pull those forward. And I didn’t really focus, like I said, on the color, but I did notice that there weren’t as many of us. So I just started creating an internship program that allowed me to focus particularly on women and women of color to be able to understand what sports medicine is, gain the confidence and the time that’s necessary to commit to being an expert.”

The former athlete of has some counsel for those same girls.

“Good advice is love what you do,” she says. “Find something that you love, and I feel like you never work a day in your life when you find something that you love. It takes passion, it takes being uncomfortable to become comfortable later in situations that you’re not unsure of.”