Swish Appeal recently spoke with former Yale standout Roxy Barahman, discussing her Iranian heritage, growing up in California, moving to New Haven and being a student athlete at Yale, completing her MA in Ireland, enjoying food in Greece, winning her first championship in Puerto Rico and why 3s are better than lay ups. Along the way, she gave shoutouts to people who helped her become the player that she is today.
Your parents are Iranian and you’re Iranian American. Can you tell us the backstory of how and why your parents came to the United States?
They wanted to give me and my brother—I have a twin brother—opportunities to be able to do anything in this world and go to good universities and there just wasn’t very much freedom and opportunity in Iran during the time after the 1979 revolution, and because of the Islamic regime things got really tough over there. My parents just thought it’d be better if me and my brother were born in America and had opportunities here, in one of the greatest nations. So I’m really fortunate and grateful for my parents to be able to make that jump and come here and give me the opportunities to pursue a career in professional basketball. Which has been awesome.
