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From star athlete to fallen star and (she hopes) back again, Marion Jones shares how Tulsa has provided the welcome home she's been looking for.
At 34, Marion Jones is young by most standards, but she is starting her WNBA basketball career more than a decade later than her Tulsa Shock teammates.
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Although she is the oldest rookie in WNBA history, 34-year-old Marion Jones has undergone the same light-hearted hazing as all new Tulsa Shock players.
During the early weeks of practice, Jones and her fellow rookies returned basketballs to the racks and fetched them when more experienced players threw them into the stands.
They also washed the other players’ vehicles and waited at the end of the shower line, even if they were the first ones in the locker room. They even had to carry their teammates’ bags during stints on the road.
“I don’t mind. I keep telling myself that I’ve been blessed with an incredible opportunity,” says Jones, a former Olympic track star, whose stupendous athleticism was tainted by illegal drug use.
Now she has an opportunity to revive her career.
“So many people are in worse places than me, working a job they hate or being in prison,” says Jones, who served six months in prison for her crime, and was forced to surrender her five Olympic medals. “I am here doing something I love, learning from a legend like Nolan Richardson, getting a second chance.”
Seemingly, if there is one lesson the new Tulsa resident has learned from the extreme ups and downs she has experienced, it is the importance of a healthy dose of humility.
In many ways she is trying to make the ultimate rebound, of both her life and her reputation. Jones knows that there are worse things than a little good-natured hazing, and she is ready to share her unique story with basketball fans in Tulsa.
Born in Los Angeles, Jones endured a turbulent childhood. Her parents divorced soon after she was born and the stepfather who raised her died when she was 12. Amid this emotional turmoil, Jones threw herself into sports. She dominated on basketball courts and on the track in high school.
Jones became well known to sports fans nationwide for her unstoppable dominance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she won three gold and two bronze medals.
Her spectacular achievement was later dampened by the revelation that she used performance-enhancing drugs during those games. Her husband at the time, shot putter C.J. Hunter, also faced questions about his illegal use of the illicit substances.
Jones and Hunter were key figures in the infamous BALCO investigation that ensnared other alleged drug cheats, such as baseball slugger Barry Bonds.
For years, Jones repeatedly denied steroid use in various interviews and in two subsequent appearances in front of grand juries, but in 2007, she admitted to her dishonesty in front of a judge, pleading guilty to lying to a federal agent. Jones served six months in prison, was forced to surrender her Olympic medals and received a barrage of bad press in the process.
Despite these struggles, Jones seemed optimistic and positive during a recent phone interview from the Shock’s practice facility in Tulsa. Before reporters talk to her, her business manager and attorney, Rich Nichols, advises them to focus on the present and not to dwell on her past. However, in conversation, Jones is more upfront about the mistakes she has made than many of her athletic peers who have made similar such decisions.
Jones answers the inevitable query about how she got through this difficult period of her life by saying, “I’m a big believer in having faith. I don’t believe that God gives you more than you can handle. I stay positive because I know that what I’ve gone through can help people. I have tough days like everyone else, but life can be so much worse than it is right now. I appreciate the second chance I’ve been given.”
Perhaps it is this faith that explains why a woman who has received such a harsh burn from the spotlight doesn’t just step away from the world of high-profile athletics and quietly retreat to a life hidden from the public eye. Jones indicated that, for the sake of her children — Monty, 6; Amir, 3; and Eva-Marie, 11 months — she refuses to do that.
“I try to teach my children that if you make mistakes, you have to own up to them, face the consequences and try to make it right,” Jones explains. “I don’t want to teach my kids that ... I can’t do that myself. I face what I did head on and try to make a difference.”
Click here to see a behind-the-scenes video of Marion Jones' photo shoot for TulsaPeople Magazine.
