Courtney Paris continues carrying her confidence

By Baxter Holmes

April 10, 2009 12 AM PT

NORMAN, OKLA. — First, the good news for Courtney Paris, Oklahoma’s four-time All-American center: She got a job.

Her new title is center for the Sacramento Monarchs, who made her the seventh overall pick in Thursday’s WNBA draft.

Now, the bad news: being a female professional athlete pays about as well as the average American restaurant manager.

Her first year’s pay will be about $42,000, according to next season’s WNBA rookie pay scale, with the amount inching toward $50,000 by her fourth season.

But Paris, a Piedmont, Calif., native, needs the money. She said she had to make good on a guarantee, one in which she swore her Sooners would win the national title or she’d pay back her scholarship if they didn’t.

Oklahoma lost to Louisville on Sunday in the Final Four. “I do make good on the guarantee,” she said after the game.

Paris could have been responsible for up to $100,000, considering that she is an out-of-state student.

But this week, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione let her off the hook, in a sense, when he said the university wouldn’t hold her to her promise -- not that Paris was about to accept that offer either.

Instead Paris says she plans to set up a fund that will go to the needy in Oklahoma.

“We’re working on something, trying to [collaborate] and make some kind of fund that kicks back into the community,” Paris said Thursday. “We have a great, great university, and our athletic director wouldn’t accept the money back. But I feel like there is something I can do to help the state of Oklahoma because they’ve supported me so much and I’ve had the best four years playing with them.”

For Paris, the confidence to have originally made such a promise runs in the family.

Bubba Paris, Courtney’s dad and three-time Super Bowl champion with the 49ers, is a motivational speaker, and has been for about two decades. “I’m the best motivational speaker in the world,” says the former Pro Bowl offensive tackle.

And if you disagree, you don’t have to pay his speaking fee. That’s Bubba’s guarantee. Only once has he not been paid, about 10 years ago when he was graded second-best out of a group of eight speakers.

Second-best doesn’t work for Courtney either. She came to Oklahoma to win a national title, turning down powers such as Texas and Connecticut. But in her freshman year, Stanford made the Sooners’ Sweet 16 appearance bitter; in her sophomore year, Mississippi did the same; in her junior season, Notre Dame dumped them in the second round.

But this year had to be different, partly because, Bubba says, she grew up around championships -- his Super Bowls, her state titles at Piedmont and Big 12 titles at Oklahoma.

She has many individual accolades, including 20 NCAA records, but a national championship eluded her. So, she thought of something, something that was a gesture to her school, a motivator to her teammates and a promise to herself.

Senior Night had ended, with another Oklahoma win, and Paris stood, microphone in hand, thanking her teammates, coaches and fans. In her tear-filled speech she said: “We’re going to win a national championship!”

Then she made her proclamation historic by saying if they didn’t, she’d pay back her scholarship. The crowd sat stunned. Bubba, standing behind her, thought: “Man, that is a dedication to a call that I don’t know if I would have been willing to make.”

Castiglione thought she was caught up in the moment. Then he heard that school President David Boren was notified in advance that Paris was thinking of making such a guarantee.

Contrary to what many thought, Courtney Paris wasn’t merely caught up in the moment. Bubba says they talked about it beforehand and that she was trying to find a way to show her teammates, coaches and fans how much confidence she had that the team could win it all.

She just didn’t mention paying back her scholarship. That night, Bubba, still seeming incredulous, asked, “The whole amount?” to which Paris said, yes.

But it’s not as if Paris would have been returning something she took for granted -- a free education. “She was not the top student . . . but she made it clear that doing well in class was very important to her,” says Dr. Peter Gade, professor at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Her priorities also included a championship, especially this year when, Bubba says, Courtney believed this team was the best in her four seasons.

Then Oklahoma advanced to the Final Four with a win against Purdue. It vindicated Paris’ career, somewhat, proving that she could put Oklahoma in position to win a title.

But five days later, that career, at least at Oklahoma, would end.

“You get so close,” she told a cluster of reporters in St. Louis, moments after the Louisville loss, her words coming slowly. “I wanted to help this team and this program win a national championship, which is sad because, beyond losing this game, we don’t get to come back tomorrow.”

Her tomorrow begins with a new job. It pays too, which will help her make good on a promise few could make, and fewer could keep.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

baxter3[email protected]