JEWELL LOYD HAS AN UNABASHED ADVOCATE IN HER AUTHOR MOM
When Jewell Loyd made the Olympic team, her mother, Gwendolyn Davis-Loyd, “yelled for a little bit,” Jewell recalls, but “then she was like, ‘I knew it. You put in so much time and work and your growth, I just knew that you had to be on the team.’ … So as much as she was excited, she was also like, ‘Wait, I knew this.’
“But I think that’s just the confidence of a mother, right?” Jewell Loyd says. “They always believe their child is the best and beyond anything. It could’ve been a ballet recital. She would’ve been like, ‘I knew you were a great ballerina.’”
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Gwen is a retired educator. Inspired by her daughter, she authored a book — “The Invisible Disability” — that was published last year. It addresses Jewell’s battle with dyslexia, something the Olympian has been open about. The book is a “short story creatively mirroring Davis-Loyd’s unique experience with her daughter’s learning disability,” per Gwen’s website. “It was birthed from Gwendolyn’s desire to empower children to walk in strength, despite their disability, drawing attention to the fact that being different does not equate to an inability to grow and succeed in and out of the classroom.”
Gwen attended nearly every home game of Jewell’s Notre Dame career and has since become a regular at her daughter’s WNBA games with the Seattle Storm.
JEWELL LOYD COMES FROM AN ATHLETIC FAMILY
Loyd’s father, Calvin, is a tennis instructor and her brother, Jarryd, starred in basketball at Valparaiso University. Jarryd, seven years older than Jewell, played pro hoops in five countries and is now a Minnesota businessman.
At Valpo, where he played for Homer Drew, Jarryd was the No. 2 scorer at 12.0 points per game and the leader in assists at 4.0 for a 22-14 team during his 2007-08 senior season. He remains fifth on VU’s career assist list at 405.
Jewell, from the Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood, Ill., initially pursued tennis as a youngster.
“(Venus and Serena Williams) are my role models,” Loyd told the Chicago-area Pioneer Press after winning a tennis tourney at age 10 in 2004. “I watch them on TV and try to do what they do.”
Loyd, though, soon shifted her interest to team sports, particularly basketball. “I saw the joy,” Loyd has said, “that it brought to not just me, but my friends.”
JEWELL LOYD HAS BEEN AMONG THE WNBA’S MOST DURABLE STARS
Loyd appeared in every one of Seattle’s 146 games — regular season and playoffs — across her first four seasons in the WNBA after leaving Notre Dame a year early and being taken No. 1 overall in the 2015 draft.
She missed seven games due to a major ankle injury in 2019, but returned to playing every game in 2020 as the Storm captured their second league title in three years. The 5-foot-10 guard also has played pro ball in Turkey, China, South Korea and Spain during her WNBA offseasons.
JEWELL LOYD HAS EARNED A BEVY OF HONORS
After starring in high school at Niles West in Skokie, Ill., Loyd captured U.S. Basketball Writers Association Freshman of the Year and Big East Freshman of the Year awards in 2013 to cap her first season at Notre Dame.
As a sophom*ore, she was selected the most outstanding player of both the 2014 Atlantic Coast Conference tourney and the Notre Dame Regional in the NCAA Tournament.
In her final Irish season, as a junior, Loyd was tabbed ESPN’s national player of the year, ACC Player of the Year and was runner-up for the Associated Press’ top award to UConn’s Breanna Stewart, now Loyd’s teammate with the Seattle Storm.
Over Loyd’s three seasons, Notre Dame went 108-6, the best three-year mark in program history, with three Final Fours, including national runner-up in each of her final two years.
With Seattle, Loyd earned WNBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2015. She is a 2018, 2019 and 2021 all-star (there was no all-star game in 2020).
JEWELL LOYD WAS TIGHT WITH KOBE BRYANT
Loyd was dubbed the Gold Mamba in 2015 by none other than the Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant.
Over the years, she became close with the NBA superstar who was killed in a January 2020 helicopter crash. After his death, Loyd wrote an open letter to Bryant that she posted on Instagram. “You molded me,” it read in part. “It wasn’t just about basketball, but how I can make a bigger impact on the world. … I’m going to miss the way you challenged my mind. ... You weren’t just my muse, you were my family.”
Loyd first met Bryant in person at the 2015 Wooden Awards. According to a November 2020 story on SI.com, she had already built a relationship with him on Twitter, frequently sending him basketball questions.
Bryant joined Twitter in January 2013. While his followers grew to over 15 million, Loyd is quick to point out that she was his 96th.
In July 2018, Bryant focused on Loyd’s game in an episode of his ESPN+ “Detail” show.
In November 2018, according to SI.com, he sent Loyd a copy of his first “Wizenard” book, telling her to read the 700-page work and give him her feedback. Loyd initially balked, citing her struggles with reading. “You gotta read it,” Bryant replied, according to the SI.com piece. “You gotta face your fears. That’s what this book’s about. That’s why I sent it to you.”
Loyd dived in, not wanting to let Bryant down. “I don’t think he fully understood the confidence that he gave me to continue to read and get out of my comfort zone,” Loyd told SI.com
