America’s in yet another campaign cycle. That means primaries, an ungodly amount of polls, speeches, and commercials that would make the 1995 Source Awards resemble Bible study. At any given time, everyone’s looking for a talking point, and candidates are looking for a vote.
Well, except for Judea Skies Watkins, the USC freshman guard better known as JuJu. The votes have been cast, and Watkins has been tapped as the next great American basketball star.
Watkins’ impressive on-court exploits are the main reason the Los Angeles native has exploded on the sports scene. This season, the All-America recipient was the ESPN National Freshman of the Year and runner-up for National Player of the Year. She was also named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year by The Athletic. She has a bevy of lucrative NIL deals. USC’s No. 3 ranking is the program’s highest in 38 years, and Watkins led the Trojans in scoring 27 of 31 games this season, including a 51-point masterpiece on the road against Stanford (the highest scoring performance this season for men or women). The USC scoring records once held by Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie belong to Watkins. In short, she’s a walking bucket and exciting to watch.
“JuJu has the opportunity to do something we’ve needed in women’s basketball for a long time. And that’s to transcend the sport and really be at the intersection of women’s basketball and culture,” LaChina Robinson, WNBA analyst and host for ESPN, said.
“At Lakers games, the first thing you think about is who are all the stars that are courtside wanting to watch LeBron, or Kobe when he played, or even back to Magic [Johnson], that’s been a staple in LA because of everything that city means to music, art, entertainment, etc.,” Robinson continued. “[JuJu] could create this unique space for women’s basketball to be appreciated beyond just a sports fan. She could bleed the game into popular culture and just a greater space than it has in the past.”
If it seems like a lot of pressure for an 18-year-old from the LA neighborhood of Watts to carry, it is.
These words may only place additional unrealistic expectations on her. Yet, like her classmate and friend Bronny James, Watkins’ expectations of herself are the only ones that hold weight. Still, there’s nothing wrong with finding the excitement in her game and the excitement of what someone with her talent could mean for much larger societal conversations. She’s not a savior, because women’s basketball doesn’t need saving.
However, where Watkins can take the game has yet to be adequately charted. She’s a basketball savant with a purpose far beyond box scores. Watkins is young, gifted, and Black like R&B singer Donny Hathaway once preached and Tupac Shakur rapped about.
Her time isn’t coming. It’s already here
There’s a moment that symbolized Watkins’ freshman campaign and its historical ramifications. In a game Feb. 23 against conference foe Colorado, USC, boosted by Watkins’ 42 points, won 87-81. But halfway through the second quarter, she cut a fast break short by pulling up from several feet behind the 3-point line and draining it. The crowd erupted, and none were prouder than Miller, who leaned forward in her seat, clapping. Miller has been a fixture at USC games this season, and returning was an emotional reunion decades in the making.
“For everything you’ve done for the former players, it’s been a very long time since we’ve been embraced and been a part of the younger generations coming up, so thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Miller said in a powerful post-game locker room speech following USC’s win over crosstown rival UCLA. “You guys changed the culture … What you guys have shown in this country is y’all some bad MFs.”
In a sport like basketball, where eras are often pitted against each other, multiple generations of Trojans respecting and loving one another is paramount. Even with that, the rebirth of USC’s place in basketball lore can’t be quantified. It’s one thing to revive a dormant program. It’s another thing to resurrect a program as proud as USC’s, with its history of national championships, Final Four appearances, and some of the greatest talent the game has known. But it’s a different responsibility to be a daughter of the turf, like Watkins, and help elevate the program to heights not seen in generations.
“Seeing [all the USC legends come out] and be celebrated gives us the opportunity to relish the rich history of what USC accomplished and what the dominance meant to women’s basketball, not just college,” Robinson said. “We get to still celebrate those players with the resurgence of USC. To me, that’s really important to the history and growth of the sport.”
While Watkins stands on the shoulders of the women before her, she’s also a gateway to the future. She’s a product of Watts, which is roughly 10 miles from USC’s campus. Her family is entrenched in LA’s basketball scene and the community at large.
“My great-grandfather started a foundation that has brought a lot of resources and attention to the community for those in need. I really look up to my great-grandfather and grandfather, Ted Watkins,” Watkins said in a 2022 interview. “When I’m on the court, I always play for something bigger. I put on for my city.”
One thing Los Angeles always has is star power. Celebrity, for better and worse, is the ecosystem. But in a city of megastars, Watkins is far more than a candle in the sun. Her star power is as bright as anyone else’s, with celebs such as rappers 2 Chainz, YG and Saweetie, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, comedian Kevin Hart, and former NBA All-Star Marques Johnson sitting courtside at her games. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a longtime Watkins superfan wore a T-shirt with her Slam magazine cover on it to a Lakers game earlier this month.
“It’s the hottest ticket in Los Angeles right now, I’d say, even with the Shohei Ohtanis and LeBron James of the world,” LA sports reporter Lauren Jones said of USC’s women’s basketball games. “She’s on that caliber in terms of the energy. People want to be at those games.”
Beyond the USC women’s games at the Galen Center becoming the new hot spot lives another salient truth. What makes Watkins a cultural magnet is that she’s an offensive machine. Last month, Lisa Leslie joined Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green’s podcast in February and discussed Watkins’ game.
“A lot of people go to LA, but a lot of people are not from LA,” the three-time WNBA MVP said. “But those of us from LA, it’s a certain kinda dog in us. She really from LA.”
Basically, Watkins’ game is good in any ‘hood — much like another basketball legend.
“I would compare JuJu to the way people talk about Diana Taurasi,” said Robinson. “Diana had respect on any playground, no matter what. Now, she’s a lot more demonstrative on the court than JuJu, but the way JuJu plays to her skill set — the three-level scoring, the crossover, pull-up — it’s certified on any basketball court in the world. That’s why we’re seeing her draw so much attention and support from people who may not normally come to the women’s basketball space but love basketball. It’s the way she plays.”
Watching Watkins, still less than a year removed from high school, feels like seeing a potential generational talent put on a show. Watkins seems shy, almost embarrassed by the spotlight, but not in a way that doesn’t appear charming. She doesn’t “play the game the right way,” whatever that means. She plays to win. And in sports, there’s no more respected love language.
Watkins’ laid-back demeanor and signature bun are all part of who she is and what could make her one of the biggest basketball stars of her generation — male or female. She excels at being herself in a world where success and failure are often reduced to 60-second clips. She’s an 18-year-old young Black woman attempting to figure out her place in the world. The only difference is Watkins is doing so in the public eye. There are surely mistakes on the horizon. No human, even one as wickedly talented as Watkins, is immune to them. But with those mistakes, hopefully, come lessons. Lessons that can be applied on the court and in life because the best ones often do.
What this means for women’s basketball and beyond is anyone’s guess. But it is Watkins’ choice of the path she decides to take.
After Watkins dropped 51 points on the road against Stanford last month, one had to figure there was no way they’d allow that again in the Pac-12 title game March 10. They adopted the “anybody but JuJu” approach and ended up on the wrong side of messing around and finding out. Watkins scored a season-low nine points as Stanford threw an endless amount of double and triple teams her way, but her teammates had her back in the 67-58 victory at Maples Pavilion in Las Vegas.
“When you have a player like JuJu who has been in these practices every day, you suddenly, as a player around her, feel empowered,” said Robinson. “You go out and perform, particularly out of respect for everything JuJu has done to get the team to that moment. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Leave a Reply