“You’re Not a Cyborg”: Skylar Diggins Opens Up on Balancing Motherhood and Basketball During WNBA All-Star Weekend

Being a parent is no easy task, especially if you’re an athlete always on the road. Skylar Diggins is the type of person who would try and juggle everything on her own. But eventually, the Seattle Storm star acknowledged that she needed to reach out for help.

The 34-year-old star addressed this very topic during an interview with SiriusXM’s NBA Radio for All-Star weekend. Diggins was asked how she’s able to juggle motherhood and constantly being on the grind toward basketball greatness.

“There’s not really too many manuals on it,” she responded. “You’re winging it. You kind of navigating it. You can see a flickering light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes it feels like a wall, and you have to run through the wall.”

Diggins and her husband, Daniel Smith, share two kids together. A son, named Seven, who was born in 2019, and a daughter, whose name has not been disclosed to the public, who was born in 2023. One child is already a mission. Two is a journey filled with double the love and double the exhaustion.

The next point that the Storm guard made was about how as a mother, she thought she could do it all without help. “I think with postpartum, as a woman that feels like, ‘I got it. I got it. I don’t need help. I’m good.’ Just having to succumb to asking for help, and being okay with that.”

“And also understanding like, ‘Okay you’re not a cyborg. Maybe you need some help and some rest and a break and recovery. Prioritizing yourself,” she added. It’s such a sincere sentence to utter. Every mom would go to the ends of the earth to protect and care for their child. They would claw through hell without even thinking about themselves. But the adventure could be so much easier with a little assistance.

Diggins acknowledges this later in her train of thought. “As moms, as women, we don’t do that as much. We put ourselves last. I think just understanding how important it is for my cup to be full so I can pour into my children’s cup or any other cup that I have to,” she stated.

It’s really nice to hear someone, especially as public a figure as Diggins is, to openly admit that the journey is hard. Far too often, we are preached at to be grateful for what we have. The reality is that each person earns every second of what they have. Could they be grateful for it? Sure, but the amount of work put in comes from the individual.

And there is no harder job than being a parent. It’s a thankless and often selfish position. That said, it’s also a fulfilling saga that shows you the corners of heaven and the edges of the underworld. Each day, your heart is filled, sometimes with happiness, other times with frustration. Either way, you’ll never look at your own life the same way again.