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By ROBIN FAMBROUGH, Written for the LSWA
One car ride home from Greenville Elementary in Baton Rouge changed Seimone Augustus.
Augustus recalls “having a moment,” because her team lost an afterschool basketball game, and she did not know how to handle it.
“We were walking to the car and my dad said, ‘They beat you and that’s the end of it. You have to learn to be a good loser before you can be a great winner.’
Then Seymore Augustus asked, “‘What do you want to do? Do you just want to be good? Or do you want to be great?’”
They sat in the car for a few minutes before a short drive home.
“When I got out of the car I said, ‘I want to be great.’ Then I stormed in the house,” Augustus noted. “And my dad said, ‘We’ve got work to do.’ And that was it.”
Two high school state titles at Capitol, three Final Four Appearances at LSU, three Olympic gold medals and four WNBA titles were years away.
Hoop dreams and the work required to reach them came into focus at age seven or eight for Augustus, a two-time National Player of the Year at LSU.
With induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, all in a span of six months, Augustus ponders major successes and her path to them.
The June 22 induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame is also a full circle moment for Augustus, who recently joined the LSU women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 season.
“It’s a celebration of me, but this is also a celebration that gives me a chance to express gratitude to the people who were significant in helping me get to where I am today,” Augustus said. “The opportunities I had and people who helped made it possible.”
She is part of the 12-member Class of 2024 to be honored June 20-22 in Natchitoches. For participation opportunities, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
By the time Augustus reached Capitol High School, she had dunked in a middle school game and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Women with the headline, “Is she the next Michael Jordan?”
Augustus averaged 24.8 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.0 assists in high school, leading her team to a 138-7 record —which included a 52-game winning streak.
First, there were lawn chairs, bowling gloves and a gravel driveway that made dribbling difficult.
“These days everybody wants a trainer. … Parents spend two or three hundred dollars for a session,” Augustus said. “I’m thinking, ‘Well hell, I made it to the Hall of Fame and all I had was some lawn chairs.’ Isn’t that something?
“We laugh about it … the bowling gloves and the glasses that prevent you from looking down. Tying one arm up behind my back to force me to use my other hand. And setting out lawn chairs in the yard.”
As Augustus watched NBA games, she worked to emulate what she saw, putting her flair into each move. She studied basketball skills videos on VHS tapes.
Augustus played games, but not always in a traditional manner. Father and daughter rode bikes or walked to gyms and/or street ball courts in Baton Rouge’s inner city.
“I attribute a lot of who I am and what I am to who I played against growing up in Baton Rouge,” Augustus said. “I always say there was not a place I did not go to play a game. I wasn’t on a travel ball team. We didn’t have the funds.
“My reputation then was, ‘I played against that girl.’ It did not matter … old, young, middle-aged, male or female … I would play you. That’s how you become a street legend. People would say, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that girl putting in some work. And her dad was right there with her.’”
Augustus played a limited amount of AAU basketball. First, she played for the Baton Rouge Lady Tigers, facing future LSU teammates Temeka Johnson and Roneeka and Doneeka Hodges.
The next year her father put together a team that played in a national tournament in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
“I never really got out of Baton Rouge until I was 10 or 12,” Augustus said. “We didn’t make it out of pool play (in Florida), but those few games changed my life forever.”
Augustus netted an invite to the Blue Star Elite camp in Terre Haute, Indiana, with her play.
Future WNBA stars such as Diana Taurasi, Nicole Powell, Swin Cash, Kara Braxton and Shyra Ely were there.
“I did not know about a (player) ranking system or who any of these players were. That was great for me; I had no fear, no anxiety,” Augustus said. “I used to wear little pigtails and they gave me a nickname … they called me puppy.
“They would say, ‘You got game, but you’re still a puppy. You can’t get on the porch with the big dogs just yet.’”
Soon, plenty of people knew Augustus’ name and her story. Fans stood in line for hours to get into Capitol games at home and on the road.he late Pat Summitt of Tennessee and UConn’s Geno Auriemma were among the long line of college coaches who came to Baton Rouge while unsuccessfully pursuing Augustus. When she signed with Sue Gunter’s Tigers, athletic director Skip Bertman called it one of the greatest moments in LSU athletic history.
Three of women’s basketball’s top five all-time home attendance games happened during Augustus’ career – including all the packed PMACs in these last two years under Kim Mulkey.
LSU assistant coach Bob Starkey sees the Augustus Era as a foreshadowing of the popularity enjoyed by today’s stars such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
“I think we should all be grateful for what is going on today in women’s basketball, and it’s because of players like Seimone,” Starkey said. “We set attendance records when at home and led the SEC in road attendance because people wanted to see her play.”
Millions more did in her professional career, in the WNBA and overseas, and as she helped Team USA win three Olympic gold medals – with those medals her most fond fruit of her playing days, because she was representing her country on the world stage/ For all the greatness there is about her … she’s about to be in every hall of fame invented. Nothing has changed Seimone,” Starkey said. “We live in a society now where you don’t find a lot of humility.
“Seimone is humble. She loves Baton Rouge, LSU and Louisiana.”
Next weekend, Louisiana officially says ‘thank you’ with her Hall of Fame induction.
Contact Robin at rfambrough@theadvocate.com