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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome in, Doug Golly if you boy here, it's

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Speaker 1: all balld the All Basketball Podcast, all the time, and um,

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Speaker 1: we should point out we appreciate you downloaded, subscribing and rating.

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Speaker 1: Tell a friend about this. The grind Father. Tony Allen

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Speaker 1: is our guest this week's long interview, So I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna bother you, abore you with a bunch of other stuff.

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Speaker 1: I do have one personal or two personal stories i'd

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Speaker 1: share with you before we get to Tony's kind of

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Speaker 1: personal story and how he came to be. It's fascinating

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Speaker 1: how guys become NBA players. And really I do think

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Speaker 1: he's kind of a legendary player. When I say legendary,

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Speaker 1: it's not like Larry Bird. But you'll remember Tony Allen

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Speaker 1: for as long as you watch basketball. It's great, great

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Speaker 1: talent offensively and defensively in college and then more defensively

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Speaker 1: in the pros. Way to hear how he became a

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Speaker 1: great NBA caliber defender. By the way, you can also

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Speaker 1: listen to The Doug Gottlieb Show week days three to

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Speaker 1: six Eastern twelve three Pacific, the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sport, Treio dot Com where you

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Speaker 1: can download the podcast. Wherever you downloaded this podcast, feel

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Speaker 1: free knock yourself out. The numbers obviously help your boy

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Speaker 1: get paid, so that that that's pretty cool. Um. I

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Speaker 1: could go into a bunch of detail about some college

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Speaker 1: teams and what they're missing. Louisville obviously looks like they're

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Speaker 1: missing a point guard, although waiting on a freshman to

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Speaker 1: develop as a point guard is tricky, and I don't

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Speaker 1: think fresh Kimball appears to be the athlete that he

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Speaker 1: was before injury, or maybe even athletic enough to play

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Speaker 1: huge minutes at this level. But I'm not totally sure

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Speaker 1: that you shouldn't go with fresh Kimball because of he's

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Speaker 1: just a vet. He's always had a calming sense about him,

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Speaker 1: and though he didn't play well for them the preseason,

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Speaker 1: that might be your best option in many ways. That's

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Speaker 1: what's limiting Louisville. They were my number one team the country.

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Speaker 1: They got beat by Texas Tech. Hey chocker, Chris Beard

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Speaker 1: can coach and his team that had come so close

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Speaker 1: in some of those games that they had lost, finally

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Speaker 1: pull off the upset in New York City. I still

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Speaker 1: think Texas Texts got a chance to compete for and

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Speaker 1: maybe win the Big twelve, a league that feels like

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Speaker 1: Kansas Steel and everybody else. Although Baylor looks great. Obviously

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Speaker 1: huge win over Butler, and by the way, I'm not

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Speaker 1: really discouraged about Butler being a top ten team losing

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Speaker 1: by a point in wake out, especially after the performance

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Speaker 1: at home UM and against other Big ten teams. Really

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Speaker 1: the previous week, do we have a year of parody?

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Speaker 1: We do, But we're gonna take some time in the

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Speaker 1: next couple of weeks of going through each of these

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Speaker 1: teams and some of these players and what it all means.

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Speaker 1: Let me give you my quick mellow Ball update. There's

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Speaker 1: some discussion he's hurt now it's his foot. He's not

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Speaker 1: gonna play for four to six weeks in Australia. Some

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Speaker 1: people think he won't come back and play at all.

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Speaker 1: Let me give you a little sense of why I

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Speaker 1: think it'd be a mistake for mellow Ball to not

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Speaker 1: play anymore. He played well at times and um, look,

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Speaker 1: he showed to have an incredible amount of skill, got

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Speaker 1: great court awareness like the kids, got talent and size

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Speaker 1: for days. But he still doesn't play hard defensively, and

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Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons his team, Like I've heard this,

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Speaker 1: he shouldn't come back, his team is not winning. Like, look,

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Speaker 1: if you're drafting the NBA, you're gonna be drafting high.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna be drafted for a bad team. Will you

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Speaker 1: are you just gonna shut it down because your team

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Speaker 1: is not good. That's not what I want from my

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Speaker 1: franchise player, from my point guard, not at all. Um,

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Speaker 1: So show me some toughness in that sense, show me

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Speaker 1: some physical toughness in fighting back from a foot injury.

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Speaker 1: And then look, he's got to shoot the ball better.

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Speaker 1: But shooting tear Now one of the reasons he shoots

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Speaker 1: cerebal percentages. He takes bad shots, but he he shoots

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Speaker 1: a thirty seven and at last check from two and

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Speaker 1: from three. That's not And so what are the questions

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Speaker 1: about his older brother, Like Alonzo Ball is always hurt?

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Speaker 1: Now LaMelo is hurt. Alonzo Ball can't shoot, and LaMelo

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Speaker 1: can't shoot. Alonzo Ball has is actually a terrific defender

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Speaker 1: and made himself in a terrific athlete. LaMelo is bigger's taller,

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Speaker 1: but not and very young, not to this point the athlete,

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Speaker 1: and not any sort of defender wants no part of

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Speaker 1: any contact. So if I was advising him, I'd say, too,

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Speaker 1: you want to rehab, rehab as long as you want.

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Speaker 1: You want to come back and play this year, show

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Speaker 1: that you can finish, showed you can help the team

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Speaker 1: win at the end of the season, and change your body,

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Speaker 1: continue to prove your shooting. I don't think that any

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Speaker 1: of this is profound. We give you a little college,

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Speaker 1: give a little mellow. Now, let me give you a

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Speaker 1: little pro um. I know that Anthony Davis put up

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Speaker 1: fifty the other night. I know he's a supreme talent.

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Speaker 1: But Lebron James is the m v P of that

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Speaker 1: team and the m v P of the league. What

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Speaker 1: he's doing to get everyone involved, how he's playing defensively

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Speaker 1: at times conserving energy, but playing center field to where

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Speaker 1: he expands extends mental energy is amazing. Now, look, part

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Speaker 1: of the success of the Lakers is because of his

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Speaker 1: will and his leadership, which means to me, you gotta

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Speaker 1: hold him accountable for last year because he didn't exert

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Speaker 1: this type of leadership. He just didn't. The thing went

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Speaker 1: awry and he was part of it. So I'll give

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Speaker 1: him the credit for this year. I gotta give him

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Speaker 1: a substantial amount of blame for last year. So look,

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Speaker 1: Lebron's the m v P. Okay, he's behind the scenes,

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Speaker 1: you now, in front of the scenes. Nobody ever says

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Speaker 1: in front of the scenes. You know that he's leading,

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Speaker 1: he's helping, he's fostering a relationship with Anthony Davis. He's

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Speaker 1: making him feel important, he's letting him take the big shots.

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Speaker 1: He's allowing Alex Caruso to become a huge part of

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Speaker 1: what they do, championing caru show's development, which allows Lebron

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Speaker 1: to take a little bit of a break defensively. All

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Speaker 1: these things are good. I'm just gonna point out last

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Speaker 1: year when things went bad and he came back, they

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Speaker 1: were losing to the Memphisis of the world, the Phoenixes

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Speaker 1: of the world, the bottom of the league. They lost too.

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Speaker 1: So we can blame the guys that are gone and

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Speaker 1: say they're not winning players, and that wouldn't be a

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't be a lie. But you can't tell me

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Speaker 1: that he's the greatest leader ever this year and not

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Speaker 1: point out to where was that leadership last year? All

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Speaker 1: that said at this point at the quarter pole, like

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Speaker 1: there's your League MVP. I don't think it's particularly close.

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Speaker 1: And that's not a knock on Anthony Davis, but Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis will probably tell you the same. It is a

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Speaker 1: knock on some of the other stars around the league,

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Speaker 1: even a Janice, because as talented as Janice is, and

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Speaker 1: at this point his skill is above that or his

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Speaker 1: ability to make plays in most regular season NBA games

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Speaker 1: is above that of Lebron James. Just that's the nature

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Speaker 1: of age. The fact is that Johannest does lead, but

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Speaker 1: not the way. He doesn't have as much on his shoulder,

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Speaker 1: as much on his plate as Lebron and Lebronze team

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Speaker 1: is exceeding anybody's reasonable expectations this point in the year.

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Speaker 1: There's your league m v P. All Right, I want

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Speaker 1: to get to this interview with Tony Allen, and it's

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Speaker 1: fascinating and we all have just very different paths to

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Speaker 1: getting where we got to. Um. In our interview, he's like, look,

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Speaker 1: I didn't play you. Basketball was just about being the

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Speaker 1: best player in the court out in front of my

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Speaker 1: housing projects. I grew up obviously very differently. Um. When

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Speaker 1: I was six years old, we moved to the city

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Speaker 1: of Orange and Orange County, California, and my first game

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Speaker 1: was at Orange Olive Middle School. I played the first

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Speaker 1: NJB game ever at Anaheim High School. It's fourth and

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Speaker 1: fifth grade. I was in third and I scored uh

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Speaker 1: I think nineteen out of our twenty one points. And

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Speaker 1: when I started playing pick up basketball is at Miles

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Speaker 1: Square Park. My dad would take me down there to

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Speaker 1: get me in the seven am game, and he would

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Speaker 1: have to call the game and hold on the game

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Speaker 1: how let me get other for other players in order.

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Speaker 1: And once I got on the court, I was fine.

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Speaker 1: It was like probably like eleven twelve years old when

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Speaker 1: I first started playing down there, and I played travel basketball.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was a fourth grade my brother's eighth

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Speaker 1: grade team, and I would just get in there and survive.

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Speaker 1: So my upbringing very different than Tony's, and I find

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Speaker 1: it fasting and I had I had a year where

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Speaker 1: I was a complete f up in terms of school.

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Speaker 1: Actually many years where I wasn't doing nearly as well

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Speaker 1: as I could have in school. The difference was my

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Speaker 1: dad and mom obviously were married up until the day

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Speaker 1: my dad died, and we we didn't have any excuses

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Speaker 1: about grades or missing class or anything. It just wasn't

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Speaker 1: And I don't remember my dad ever sitting down with

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Speaker 1: me and doing homework. I just like, you're gonna get

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Speaker 1: good grades and you're gonna figure it out. When I

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Speaker 1: got in trouble in school, my dad was there for me.

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Speaker 1: My parents were there for me. It did support me.

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Speaker 1: They helped me get back on the straight and narrow. Wait,

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Speaker 1: do you hear Tony's entire path and just how he

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Speaker 1: managed to figure it all out? And it took him

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Speaker 1: a long time to figure it all out. But when

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Speaker 1: you think now, you think Tony Allen, great defender, NBA Champion,

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Speaker 1: member the Celtics, member the Grizzlies, kind of the face

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Speaker 1: of the the grit and grind generation of the Memphis Grizzlies.

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Speaker 1: Like Connley was a point guard, Mac Marcusol was the

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Speaker 1: big man. But Tony Allen and maybe z Bo that

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Speaker 1: was the heart and soul of grit and grind. So,

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Speaker 1: without further ado for a first team All Defensive team

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Speaker 1: in the NBA, Tony Allen. Be sure to catch the

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Speaker 1: live edition of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three

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Speaker 1: p m. Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and

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Speaker 1: the I Heart radio app All right, let's welcome him in.

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Speaker 1: He's known as the grind Father. Kobe Bryant said he's

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Speaker 1: the toughest defender that ever guard him in the NBA.

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Speaker 1: And of course dude's been All Defensive Team and now

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Speaker 1: and now he's an old head right now. He's former

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Speaker 1: first round pick the Boston Celtics for Big twelve Conference

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Speaker 1: Player of the Year. Uh, he's Tony Allen. He joins

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Speaker 1: us in the All Ball podcast. Okay, So I want

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Speaker 1: to start the very very start, okay, because Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: is like, yo, Chicago has got the best ball players.

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Speaker 1: And then and and when I heard it, obviously he

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Speaker 1: was playing in Chicago, and everybody thinks their home area

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Speaker 1: is the best. Okay, So your first memories of hoop

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Speaker 1: is when and where if the first first first first hooping.

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Speaker 1: Let's see, I gotta go back. I gotta go back

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Speaker 1: and rest in peace of my grandmother. He'll do ger. Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's crazy. It used to tell me the story as

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Speaker 1: I got older, and I understood it. But she said

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Speaker 1: that when I was like two or three years maybe three,

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Speaker 1: I think she said two or three. She was like,

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Speaker 1: I told her I was going to the NBA. My

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Speaker 1: granddaddy recipe, Sonny, he watched basketball all day because I

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Speaker 1: guess he bet on the game, you know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: And Uh. We all grew up in my grandmother's house.

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Speaker 1: She had nine kids. I mean she had eleven kids,

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Speaker 1: nine daughters, two sons. Um. Nobody played basketball in my family.

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Speaker 1: Nobody ever looked at the basketball and said, Yo, this

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Speaker 1: is this is me, this is so. However, my grandmoma said,

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Speaker 1: I used to sit up under my granddaddy and watch

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Speaker 1: basketball with him. And she said one day I said

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna get I brought the basketball tour and I

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Speaker 1: told her I wanted to play basketball. She said. When

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Speaker 1: I got older, about four or five, she said, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna go to the NBA and I'm gonna baut you

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Speaker 1: a catic. And I didn't even know I was talking

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Speaker 1: like this at five years old, but I see it. However, Um.

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Speaker 1: I remember my mother moving out of my grandmother's house

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Speaker 1: and moving UM further south in Chicago on nine Princeton

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Speaker 1: Park to be Princeton to be exact, Um, And all

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Speaker 1: I can remember is me falling in love with the

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Speaker 1: game of basketball. With Juwan Howard, Um signed for a

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. He sat a hunting me and listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about as soon as you walk outside of

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Speaker 1: my development. Um, it's a basketball playground, right, where's this?

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Speaker 1: What it was? It was? It called the Juwan Howard Court.

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Speaker 1: When you your development Printon, that's the address, but it's

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Speaker 1: called Lowing Home development. It's a housing authorities. So we

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Speaker 1: grew up in rough. I know you did so, but

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Speaker 1: so so you're growing up? Is this south side of

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Speaker 1: west side? South side? Okay, south side? But what was it?

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Speaker 1: What was the nickname? Whateverybody called? What? My name of

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Speaker 1: my neighbor was, uh Prinston Park? So uh the park

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Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. But for the most part, Juan

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Speaker 1: Howard he used to live over there. He used to

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Speaker 1: live maybe I want to say, a good ten doors

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Speaker 1: down the street from right. They moved out me a

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Speaker 1: year as I moved over there and moved out. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He used to cut hair over there. Whatever. And for

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Speaker 1: the most part, all I can remember is going to

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Speaker 1: the going to the Fab five, being a part of that,

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Speaker 1: going to the bullets, boom signing a big deal boom.

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Speaker 1: And we're watching this as kids, like we're watching this

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Speaker 1: like Nuki going to the NBA. We call him Nuki

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Speaker 1: in the neighborhood and um, and it was like that

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Speaker 1: was one of the motivations, Like yo, he just came

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Speaker 1: back and built up playground in front of I can't

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Speaker 1: I go to the NBA. So it wasn't Jordan's. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't Jordan's, but I felt the love for Jordan later

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Speaker 1: as I got older, because I started studying the game,

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Speaker 1: I started learning about the game and actually watching it

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Speaker 1: being in town. But for the most part, like hands

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Speaker 1: on motivation, like right there in my face, like knowing

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Speaker 1: I could do it. Joyan Howard pulls up in the

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Speaker 1: bent Ley as Ord drop top brand New. They cut

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Speaker 1: the court. Man. I looked at Joanna Howard shook his

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Speaker 1: hand right before he walked to the back and got

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Speaker 1: into his cock because he did his little self and

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Speaker 1: then get out of that. But I got that too late.

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Speaker 1: And man, someone pull off. Every day on that court

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Speaker 1: I played and I tried to beat like this, this

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Speaker 1: is crazy. We even bringing this up my whole time

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Speaker 1: and thinking I was going to the NBA, and my

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Speaker 1: whole neighborhood avounce with this. They always said I was

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Speaker 1: going to the pros like my neighborhood, they always said

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Speaker 1: I So the only way I thought I could be

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Speaker 1: a pro is be the old head in my neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: His name is Avery Banks. He's gonna hit his interview too.

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Speaker 1: He's gonna be like, you still can't be but oh,

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Speaker 1: but the thing is. The thing is I didn't know

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Speaker 1: what a basketball was at the time. So it's like,

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Speaker 1: if I don't know, if I think I could beat

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Speaker 1: the neighborhood, he wrote, as far as basketball in my neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: nobody's going to know me. That's the reality of it.

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Speaker 1: Get what I'm saying. But what I was missing out on.

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Speaker 1: I felt that I was missing out on was the

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Speaker 1: a Uth circuit. And I got to the point where

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Speaker 1: I had made a lot of bad decisions. You know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like like as far as should I

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Speaker 1: hang with my homeboys or should I go to the

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Speaker 1: park and play? Should I How old is this? This

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Speaker 1: is about like ten nine, ten eleven, So you guys

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Speaker 1: are hanging at ten eleven. So when you say hang yes, okay,

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Speaker 1: now you're thirty seven, what was hanged when you were

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Speaker 1: ten years old in South Sude, Chicago with your boys?

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Speaker 1: Instead of going well, well, one of key thing for

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Speaker 1: my mother was that she went to school at nighttime

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Speaker 1: and she worked during the day, so a lot of

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Speaker 1: times she's making ends meet and trying to, you know,

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Speaker 1: show us that getting your education is more five point

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Speaker 1: far more important than a lot of what's going on

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Speaker 1: if you don't got your knowledge. So I took advantage

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Speaker 1: of that as a kid. You know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: It's a playground in front of my house, so obviously

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Speaker 1: sneak outside and hang with my homeboys because they was

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Speaker 1: decisions like what was the side, shooting dice, doing all

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Speaker 1: types of like just neighborhood stuff. Yeah, I was. I was.

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Speaker 1: I was gambling at the early age, doing this a

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Speaker 1: little bad stuff. Looking at like my homeboys will be

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Speaker 1: doing a little crazy stuff. You'd be running from the police,

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Speaker 1: breaking cards like kids stuff like at that age. So

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Um, basketball itself. You know,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like in my vision, but yeah, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: like it was like, yo, how I'm gonna giving me

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Speaker 1: a piece of puff or get something to eat of

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Speaker 1: the next two hours where my stomach hurt. So you

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Speaker 1: get to high school? High school? Yeah, moving forward, get

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Speaker 1: to high school, Crane High School. Now, were you're crazing

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Speaker 1: to start the whole four years? No? I wasn't see.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing. When I got to Crane, I had

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Speaker 1: just got back from re entering school. I I slick

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Speaker 1: kind of dropped out a little bit. I got kicked

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Speaker 1: out of a school. Okay, wait, okay start freshman years?

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Speaker 1: What school? Julia? Julian High School? Per Julia? Where's that?

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Speaker 1: South side? South side? Okay? Public? Publicly? Because I lived

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Speaker 1: on ninety five. So it was like I couldn't go

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Speaker 1: to the West Side of Chicago school because it was

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Speaker 1: five or like I got you so so okay. So

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Speaker 1: you you show up at high school, have you been playing?

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Speaker 1: Have you been playing a you just hanging out hanging

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Speaker 1: I thought I could be every banks in my neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: I was playing him. We've had tournaments of we played tournaments.

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Speaker 1: We called out pick persons on the court, and I

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Speaker 1: got him him, him, him, I ain't got no shoes,

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Speaker 1: the guy might say, he might not have no shoes on.

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Speaker 1: He I got we need. Okay, So you show up

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Speaker 1: in high school, Are you're hooping? Then you're playing on

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Speaker 1: the team? No? Or no, I'm trying to tell you

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Speaker 1: right now, when my whole thought process was using the

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Speaker 1: Jane Howard court platform to take off, That's what I

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Speaker 1: was thinking. That was on my map. So now when

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Speaker 1: I get to high school, I'm just signing enough for school.

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know that, you know, getting on. I

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Speaker 1: was oblivious to how you get to the NBA. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so first year you didn't, don't play high school basketball.

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Speaker 1: First year I played, but I didn't have the grades.

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Speaker 1: I played the first half of the season and then

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Speaker 1: I flunked out. How do you find out a high

339
00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: school you don't go? Oh yeah, it was kind of it.

340
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Speaker 1: I went to. It's kind of hard if you really

341
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Speaker 1: want to. I went to like a fashion school, so

342
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Speaker 1: like the school I was going to, it was like

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Speaker 1: a lot of times, you know, the girls are looking

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Speaker 1: at your shoes and yeah, you know all the basketball players,

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00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,680
Speaker 1: you know, they had nice clothing, and me coming from

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Speaker 1: Chicago housing authority, I wasn't able to be that president

347
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 1: at the time, you know what I mean, And so

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Speaker 1: sometimes that would discourage me, you know what I'm saying.

349
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Speaker 1: So the best way I know that try to do

350
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,040
Speaker 1: something was too out. They're shooting dice over there in

351
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Speaker 1: the back of the uh, the donut shop. I would

352
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Speaker 1: miss first and second period trying to win a hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars and then I go to the to the Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I get something for the next three four days. Do

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Speaker 1: you remember who? The who was high school coach Lauren Jackson.

356
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Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought him up. What about we could

357
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,439
Speaker 1: speak on him? What did he kicked me off the team?

358
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Speaker 1: He said, you're not going to class. He brought my

359
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Speaker 1: whole trance. He brought my whole like when you say

360
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Speaker 1: it's bad, like all fs or like truancy, Like I

361
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:06,200
Speaker 1: wasn't painting and I was doing a lot of just

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00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 1: crazy stuff as a kid. I say that, I said.

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Speaker 1: The first moment in high school when I know it

364
00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:16,720
Speaker 1: was getting bad, my mother came to school to get

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Speaker 1: me out of schools and she came during the period

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Speaker 1: where it was like it was I supposed to been

367
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Speaker 1: a class. I wasn't there. So one of the security

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00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:30,920
Speaker 1: guys was like, I know exactly where yet, and all

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Speaker 1: I could remember is them like just running downstairs from

370
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Speaker 1: all angles. They everybody else got away except me. So

371
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 1: you're at school, but you're like, yeah, I was trying

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Speaker 1: to shoot dice in the hallways. And then all I

373
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Speaker 1: could remember was my mother being in at the end

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Speaker 1: of the door and it was like she's smacking me

375
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Speaker 1: upside my head, hitting me. I'm talking about smacking me.

376
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Speaker 1: Oh man. She beat me up, like really beat me

377
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Speaker 1: up in front of the security. Gods. Security didn't say nothing,

378
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:57,960
Speaker 1: and she was like, why are you down in school?

379
00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:59,720
Speaker 1: Are you't know not in school? Then my coach came out.

380
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,200
Speaker 1: It was like, YO were ready to kick him out

381
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Speaker 1: of school. It was bad. Well look, I I mean,

382
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Speaker 1: you don't know this, but I got similar experiences even

383
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,399
Speaker 1: before I got in trouble in college, Like when I

384
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:16,840
Speaker 1: was so eighth grade, I was little. I was like

385
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:19,480
Speaker 1: five feet tall. So my dad was, hey, we're gonna

386
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 1: hold you back. You're not gonna eighth grade, different school

387
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 1: next year. So I knew like I was gonna do

388
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,000
Speaker 1: it again, like I'm not going get all that. So

389
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:31,399
Speaker 1: my probably my worst moment that year was I was

390
00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 1: funking a bunch of my classes. I wasn't showing up

391
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 1: and they sent their report card in the mail and

392
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 1: their port card was Remember it had that um there's

393
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Speaker 1: like a film that that that they don't know how

394
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:46,919
Speaker 1: they would do it, but it would make the grades

395
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:48,520
Speaker 1: on the other paper and you peel it open and

396
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,400
Speaker 1: then you have your grades right there. So the trick

397
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,359
Speaker 1: was if you get it before your parents got it,

398
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:55,520
Speaker 1: you can go in there real quick with an racer

399
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: and then you put in an old typewriter and you

400
00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,439
Speaker 1: could type in the grade. So I typed in like

401
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: A and B are. I was like straight. So so

402
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,879
Speaker 1: I was by This was before like now they just

403
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,399
Speaker 1: email your parents when you missed a class. I know,

404
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,880
Speaker 1: I know all my kids grades and everything right. It's crazy,

405
00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: so I'll never forget. I got in trouble in school

406
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,240
Speaker 1: and I gets suspended because you know I was I

407
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 1: played some prank on the teacher's lounge or whatever. And

408
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 1: my mom gets called in to see the assistant principle

409
00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:31,159
Speaker 1: and he sends the principle hating me because I was

410
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 1: always in there, and she's she's like, he's he tells her,

411
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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what we're gonna do. He's

412
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Speaker 1: failing all his classes. She's like, what are you are

413
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:44,680
Speaker 1: you talking about classes? Now? Mrs Gottlieb here, come look

414
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: right here. So I get home and she's got like

415
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: a print out of my real grades and my report

416
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:52,679
Speaker 1: card and I come home like walking like, yeah, I

417
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: hate done. And my dad that was that was the

418
00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 1: That was the worst I ever got beat by my dad.

419
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: So so did they you drop out of school? They

420
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,199
Speaker 1: kick you out of school? What happened? Man? It was

421
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,680
Speaker 1: like this. My mother was My mother was at the

422
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,960
Speaker 1: point at that time, she was like she was, she was,

423
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 1: she said, I'm done. She washed her hands with she's

424
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 1: like you fifteen now, Uh, she sent me with my dad.

425
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 1: So my dad, he was like at the time, he

426
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: wasn't really able to do nothing for me. So it

427
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:28,080
Speaker 1: was more so like I'm on my own. Well when

428
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:29,680
Speaker 1: you say it wasn't able to So where did he live?

429
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,160
Speaker 1: He lived on the on the east side. He's lived

430
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:38,639
Speaker 1: on right off seventy first and uh seventy one St. Lawrence.

431
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:43,919
Speaker 1: So you show up. Have you ever lived your post before? No?

432
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:48,920
Speaker 1: But this this specific school year, my second year, myself

433
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: made it through your first year, but you didn't play.

434
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,120
Speaker 1: But you didn't only play a little bit because you're

435
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: ineligible because okay, so your sophomore year you go were

436
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,200
Speaker 1: back to junior but you're on the east side. I

437
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 1: want to eat if I'm living with my daddy this time,

438
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,120
Speaker 1: so I gotta get to I gotta catch the bus

439
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 1: now to uh get to school from a longer distance.

440
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,480
Speaker 1: It was just kind of rough for me. But for

441
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: the most part I got there. I was just doing

442
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 1: the same stuff, like because it was like I wasn't

443
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: going to go to school and I ain't had no

444
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:20,640
Speaker 1: new shoes on, or if I ain't have a new

445
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 1: T shirt and pit like. I was feeling that type

446
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: of way because it trusts me, it happens to a

447
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 1: lot of kids. But for for that at that time,

448
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: I just stopped going all the way, like stop going

449
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,199
Speaker 1: and hanging out a little harder than what I was

450
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 1: hanging out as a kid kid and just getting into

451
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 1: bad stuff as far as like just I can remember

452
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: going to other schools, getting caught fighting at other schools,

453
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,359
Speaker 1: going to jail for that. Um, just a lot of

454
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 1: running up, running from the police, beating up people at

455
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: the l station because that's just what was the activity

456
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,439
Speaker 1: of what me and my young conrads were doing at

457
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: the time. And I would get called or whatnot. But yeah,

458
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 1: I'll hold it when I When it came to a

459
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 1: point where my mother I came home and my mother

460
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: wasn't there, Like the whole house was empty. And I

461
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 1: went and I was like, yo, nobody's at home. So

462
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: I end up catching the bus going to my grandmother's house.

463
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 1: And I get to my grandmother's house thinking she was

464
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 1: over there, but back at that time, she wasn't even

465
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 1: over there. She had moved to the West side of Chicago.

466
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: So I had been calling her, calling the call she

467
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: didn't tell so she calling the calling calls you tell me,

468
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, Um, I called my

469
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: grandmoma one time and she called, well, yeah, I called

470
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 1: my grandmother. She said, you need to get back in

471
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: this house. You you live over here now. Your mama

472
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 1: don't want you on the west side of her new house.

473
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: I said, huh. So I was like wow. I was

474
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 1: kind of hurt, but I was trying to be tough

475
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: and be a man and like I'm out here on

476
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 1: my own. And one thing led to another. Uh. It

477
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:01,199
Speaker 1: was a time where it was some shooting going on

478
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: and I was young at the time and kind of

479
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: scared me. So did you ever have a gun? No? No,

480
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: I wasn't even that type. Never. But when I end

481
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: up going to the this high end up linking back

482
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: up with will Burnham. After that happened, I was so scared,

483
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:19,119
Speaker 1: I went and play. I went to the i T

484
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: It's a pro and basketball league in Chicago at the time.

485
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: Uh it was big back in the day. All the

486
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: greats played in Finley my uh, Mike Finley, Tim Hallaway,

487
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: um Antwoina Walker, Quinn Richardson, Theorious Maw like everybody who

488
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: from that area then participated. So I went up there

489
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 1: thinking I'm going up there to just just play a

490
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: watch a game. End up seeing one of my good friends,

491
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: Jason Strait, and um, you know, he told me like, man, yo,

492
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,840
Speaker 1: you're hooping. I'm like, yeah, I'm hoping. I had just

493
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: bought a new pair of Jordans or whatever, so I

494
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 1: knew that I could hoop if you want me to do.

495
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:03,439
Speaker 1: I just need some Yeah. J straight played and uh

496
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 1: true story and uh I played on his team and

497
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 1: as I was playing, Will Bind Them had the next

498
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: game after that, and Will Bind Them head came in

499
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: like second half of our game. He saw me played,

500
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: we won or whatever. Um he sawthing play was like, yo,

501
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: T were you were you whooping that? He couldn't believe it,

502
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: I like I still had it or whatever from from

503
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: bitty basketball. He was like seven or eight years old,

504
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: six seven, So he was like, uh, what do you

505
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 1: tell me? He told me he moved to the Heat

506
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: playing for a school on the West side of Chicago,

507
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,360
Speaker 1: which was Crane at the time. And if you familiar

508
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: with the Chicago basketball system, they got a Blue division

509
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: in the Red Division. Any team that wins in the

510
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,920
Speaker 1: Blue Division automatically bumps the last team in the Red

511
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: Division out of their spot farcet conference and they move

512
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 1: up to the act in their conference or whatever. That

513
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 1: Will did that back himself with help of two others

514
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: players on the on the team jabbar battle or whatever.

515
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: He had a platform. The whole city knew when he

516
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:12,760
Speaker 1: came to When I tell you the second game that

517
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: he came in, my game didn't have nobody that It

518
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: was just if you knew basketball, you could see talent

519
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,400
Speaker 1: and you know who good, you know who playing the later.

520
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: But Will saw something different. We'll like, yo, I like

521
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: what you what you're doing right now? And he's like,

522
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: he's your age and he's telling you this. He younger

523
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,880
Speaker 1: than me. That's pretty interesting though, right. Did he had

524
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: that much how did he have that much kind of

525
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: respect from people? Because I just tried to tell you

526
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 1: he was in the blue division right of This city

527
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: of Chicago is a basketball city, whether y'all know it

528
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: or not, and will buying him was had the handles

529
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: and the moves to make you look and be like

530
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: oh and I So the whole city knew that. So

531
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: when he played, when he when it is promoted that

532
00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: he about to play, the city is coming out, and

533
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: he came and he saw me. But he told me, like, man,

534
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: you could actually play with me in high school. Right now,

535
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: he was. I told him my situation that Julian. I

536
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,240
Speaker 1: told him what my mother moved to. And once I

537
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: told him wh my mother had moved, he was like,

538
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: you can live on the West Side now. I was

539
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: like yeah. He was like, and I hadn't even got

540
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: officially in my mama's house, but that's what I told him.

541
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: So so he talked to you and he wants you

542
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: to come to Crane. How did you get back to

543
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: your mom's house. Well, it was one of those situations

544
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 1: where you know, I had to kiss a little butt

545
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: and tell Mama, hey, I'm sorry, and I won't do

546
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:40,800
Speaker 1: it again. I want to do it no more. And

547
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: then Will obviously, you know, put the icing on the

548
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 1: cake when he came over and showed up you know,

549
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: his you know, success of what he was doing, and

550
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 1: it was like a no brainer. We go up to

551
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: the school to school see my transcripts, and they're looking

552
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: at me like you sure you want to go to school,

553
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: And it was like it was like a a point

554
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: where the principal was looking like man, I don't know,

555
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 1: but Will Buying him once again came back in the

556
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 1: meeting in the conference room and I don't know how

557
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 1: you got out of class. He came in and he

558
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: told the teacher, I mean, uh, the principal, Hey, we

559
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: need this guy. He told him, get back in class.

560
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: I was going to school the next day. How did

561
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: you how did you go from not going to class,

562
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 1: shooting nice hanging out to like now you gotta go

563
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: and you actually gotta do the work, like first you

564
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: gotta show up. I saw Will buying him with a

565
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: fast Eastern Invitational shirt right like the little set, and

566
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 1: he started schooling me on how what's going on in

567
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: the basketball room. You know, he was playing, hey, you

568
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: got not the ras, such such such, such and he

569
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,440
Speaker 1: broke down the whole formula. But I was a junior

570
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 1: in high school back there, and you never like you

571
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: hadn't played the whole season. Yeah right, like you didn't

572
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: even play yourself one year. So your crane coaches, who

573
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 1: do we gotta talk about him? His name long Street,

574
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: Anthony long Street. Why don't you want to talk about it?

575
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: Because man, I would just you know, I never told

576
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: him about this, So I'm gidling you exclusive that it

577
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: ain't no mystery of my history needed. So whoever bag

578
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: the difference, they can do it. But man, mag you,

579
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: I just told you how I had to go to

580
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: route to get them. I got them oy but they

581
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: didn't tell you. I didn't tell you the part where

582
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: I had to I was a demoted junior like I was.

583
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: I had freshman a matter of fact, when I was

584
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: a junior, I had like I went didn't go to class.

585
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 1: I had point five credits. I think I went to GYMP.

586
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: They gave me a credit. But when I started off that,

587
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: I had to swallow my pride, Like do you know

588
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: how embarrassed it was? Can't imagine like freshman class, I'm

589
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,959
Speaker 1: looking I'm looking grown as hell in this class. I

590
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 1: did it, but look, they made me go through a

591
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: zero period that's like six am to seven am. And

592
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: you see what's there. The first period started seven am

593
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: eight a m. But we only got eight periods. They

594
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: made they put another period on at the end ninth

595
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: period for all the freshmans. This is how you. This

596
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 1: is how you. So if you were in school laying

597
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: about you a junior or senior or whatever, you're really

598
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 1: a freshman. This is the time I'm gonna determine whether

599
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: you was one of those souphomores of juniors Saints because

600
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: at the two thirty it's a two thirty three thirty

601
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 1: class that all the freshman's mandatory gotta take. Here it is,

602
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: I'm sixteen going to that class. But I had to

603
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: do it because I got to get eligible for the

604
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: second half of this season of my junior So I

605
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,959
Speaker 1: did it. And they had a few uh I think

606
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 1: it was like a three day night course. We we

607
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: we we built back up the credits to to speak

608
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 1: for me to get eligible. They even made me play football.

609
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 1: Um position yeah, position al right, received I was all right,

610
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: but my man one in it and we was in

611
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: the Blue Division, so it was like sometimes you know,

612
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: you might not know who out on the court, I

613
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 1: mean on the field play and they might have the

614
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: teachers out them playing with them. You know. It was

615
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: so kind of messed up. But um, I end up

616
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: playing that under alias. Wait, you played football under an aliens.

617
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 1: I think it was something Jenkins something it was. So

618
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: you gotta find out the name. That's amazing that should

619
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: have been when you traveled in the NBA. You know

620
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: they get fake names hotels. You know, you could be

621
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: like Leroy Jenkins, could be like why that? Why is

622
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: that your nickname? But you actually played high school football

623
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: under a fake name? Scoring touchdowns? Yeah? I was cold,

624
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 1: but I never saw and that's what made me think, like, damn,

625
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: why my name never in the paper? Right? You know

626
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,319
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So that happened. That happened. I'm just

627
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:11,479
Speaker 1: giving you the wrong let's fresh off the press too.

628
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 1: But uh, Anthony long Street back to this guy, this guy,

629
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 1: he didn't have no school for me. When I was

630
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 1: done and I did a lot for the school, I

631
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 1: was like, yo, I played the Alias. I was like yo.

632
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: I'm like yo, I got what do you mean? You

633
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 1: like trying to get you to college? Yeah, he didn't

634
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:34,760
Speaker 1: have not one colleges. So let's I know, I'm going fast,

635
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: but whatever you want. No, No, but I'm saying, so

636
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: you don't play first semester, sex semester, you do play.

637
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:43,319
Speaker 1: I don't play at all. Your junior in high school

638
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 1: and played all sphomore, you said my first year. Wait, no,

639
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: you're semester as freshman. No you're that's your first year, okay,

640
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: and I played half of that. No, suphomore, I don't

641
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 1: play at all. So your junior, now, I'm like, yo,

642
00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,400
Speaker 1: I want to go to school, all right, But you

643
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 1: said you had get your grade. You had to like

644
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: grind and do zero period and then the two thirty

645
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: freshman class. Did you get to play the whole season?

646
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 1: After my junior, I played half of the season. That's

647
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So you play half the season, do

648
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: you remember your first game? Like you like, literally, I

649
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 1: don't remember none of that. I don't remember none of

650
00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 1: that because you gotta figure. I was like, I was

651
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 1: trying to get used to back, used to playing organized

652
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 1: back basketball. That's why I asked, like, what is it

653
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 1: like to go from playing a pro am playing the

654
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: park you always ever play? But now you're playing real

655
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:38,880
Speaker 1: basketball at the highest level of high school high school

656
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 1: basketball in Chicago. Will will bind him? Like? What is that? Like?

657
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 1: It was? It was? It was kind of easy. We

658
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,319
Speaker 1: all made it easy because he have a play. We

659
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: set a play. A lot of teams stuck zon back picks. Love.

660
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: I knew I could jump and dunk, so anytime we

661
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 1: set a back pick on the back of his own

662
00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: I'm getting that love. Uh what else? Running the lanes

663
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 1: was easy. I could give me five or six six

664
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 1: points doing that. Uh, getting to the free throw line,

665
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: give me five points doing that for you know what,

666
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 1: I'm averaging fourteen the game. Meanwhile, he shoots all the balls,

667
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: So all I gotta do is give me a few

668
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 1: putbacks and run that run that those you know, those

669
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,600
Speaker 1: lanes and whatever. But for the most part, I still

670
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:26,359
Speaker 1: didn't have a concept to know what to know how

671
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 1: to get to the league. It didn't. It didn't done

672
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: on me until later. But I stopped from junior year,

673
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 1: like you was so then so that year you're losing

674
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: like the Elite eight, right is that? Does that? Did

675
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,839
Speaker 1: you guys go downstage? Do you remember? No? My junior year, Um,

676
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,320
Speaker 1: my junior we lost in the We lost the first game,

677
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: lost our first game in the playoffs to who. I

678
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't even remember a lot of these.

679
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 1: I think Whinnie you Whinnie young when young they had

680
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,920
Speaker 1: to due name Ryan Henry or something. Not now I

681
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:02,839
Speaker 1: was Ryan somethhow Ryan something. But the rare West was tough. Man.

682
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 1: It was a lot of the other guys that they

683
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,879
Speaker 1: was pumping up doing the real West. I thought was like, man,

684
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 1: I was feeling like a loaner man. That was you

685
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 1: don't know. That was a tough time in Crane. So

686
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 1: I'm Finnling Finns talking about this guy Lootle Street. But

687
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 1: keep going. So then you're senior. How old you guys do?

688
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 1: We lost in the El eight. Will didn't win it

689
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 1: until you were gone, right, He went until I was gone.

690
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: Maybe you're holding the team back. I don't know. If

691
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 1: that's the case, He's gonna blame it on long Street

692
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 1: because you know what he was doing. He had the

693
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: Rens in Thompson, he had Florentino Vasselinia. Them boys were

694
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: shooting all the balls, and had he had any type

695
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 1: of discipline on our team, maybe we could have had

696
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 1: a few plays. Maybe we could have, but we went

697
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,160
Speaker 1: the whole year with we'll buying them averaging thirty and

698
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 1: just shooting all the balls and getting us out of

699
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: real tough situations with his talent. It hurt us. And

700
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 1: you know something. Times you know they throw different freaks

701
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 1: like messy little Zones or messy little President. It could

702
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 1: affect your young ball club. So you're finishing two right,

703
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 1: that was two thousand, class of There's Miles Dwyane Wade,

704
00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 1: Cedric Banks, who else, Amari Sawyer. I'm just talking calling

705
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 1: all the lake names. Uh, who else? Who else? Who else?

706
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 1: Who else? That's all? So you had no scholarship offers,

707
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,239
Speaker 1: no whatsoever. When I when I came out, like I

708
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: donna remember and I remember the day walking into Long

709
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: Street office and asking him after the thing, everybody, I'm

710
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 1: here and we will bind him. They committed to Arizona

711
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 1: as a junior in high school. I'm like wow, So

712
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 1: I wanted everybody through the school asking me where I'm going.

713
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 1: So I'm like home. I'm like man, So it started

714
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:56,960
Speaker 1: doing on me right then and there, like y'all need

715
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: a school to go to? Him? What? What? What I do?

716
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:03,800
Speaker 1: What I do? I went right back to wherever I'm down,

717
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 1: and whenever I want to see some basketball, I go

718
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,919
Speaker 1: to the program. I went back to the program, had

719
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,800
Speaker 1: me a bag with me this time because I'm a hooper.

720
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: Now I'm not hanging out no more. I'm playing basketball. Baby,

721
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I get up in there.

722
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: See my boy, James Peters. Here's a guy who was

723
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,800
Speaker 1: supposed to go out of high school like Leon Smith

724
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 1: right to Posty. Willian Smith went to the pro nineteen

725
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: nine nine, fresh at high school King High School the

726
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 1: next year was supposed to be James Peters. Right. Come

727
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: found out Jane Peters was twenty two years old. He

728
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,440
Speaker 1: was too old. So look I catch him at the

729
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,839
Speaker 1: program right and I'm telling him. I'm like, man, what's

730
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:48,919
Speaker 1: up with you've been big fella? I thought you should

731
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,320
Speaker 1: be getting ready for the draft? What's good, big feller?

732
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,840
Speaker 1: Big fella hadn't been playing the last seven months because

733
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 1: he'd been in the right. I didn't know that, so

734
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: I asked what school you go to? He said, Man,

735
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: I go to school and kids Man called Butler Community

736
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,239
Speaker 1: Kids Color. He said, Man, I got the juice out there.

737
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 1: He said, Man, you're in school. I get you in school.

738
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 1: I said, look at God, and I'm saying I had

739
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 1: not won school to go to. I was down and out.

740
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: I tend that I was so upset that I couldn't

741
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 1: look there's Miles went straight to the league out of

742
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 1: high school. That's the hard hard part is not just

743
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 1: that you don't have a school and you're looking at

744
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,879
Speaker 1: the way with the markette, like all these guys going

745
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 1: the places? Man, what Tony Allen going? Man? So what

746
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:39,200
Speaker 1: I do? I go back to the program? Ce J

747
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: P j P. You was trying to trick them people.

748
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: I'm looking at him like how you laugh? Like, but

749
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:46,319
Speaker 1: not for real, man, Man, I don't want to be

750
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 1: in Kansas by myself. Come on, damn with me. Man.

751
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 1: He's like all right, I'm like you whoping. He's like, yeah,

752
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:53,080
Speaker 1: we play right now? Man, you want you whoping? I'm like, yeah,

753
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play. I play with him? Who with him?

754
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: After the game, he got on the phone in the

755
00:40:56,960 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: locker room. He said, hey, man, coach Hamps, I got

756
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,919
Speaker 1: a guard down here. You're gonna need him now. Magic.

757
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,399
Speaker 1: I've never been on the plane. I never even took

758
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 1: a plane. I didn't get on a plane till this time.

759
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you eighteen years old. Got on

760
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:16,360
Speaker 1: the plane. I went down there. He had some guys

761
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:18,400
Speaker 1: down there hooping. I had to be the guy with

762
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 1: gold teeth in his mouth. He had braidsen his from

763
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 1: the he from the walls and at the U be

764
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,120
Speaker 1: the guy from Jamaica. He actually end up sign to

765
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 1: me and the Jamaican guy. But I went out there, man,

766
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,920
Speaker 1: I flew out their scrimmage with them guys. Man, and

767
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 1: I'm telling Dennis Hams if you know who Dennis Hams

768
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: just coach from. But hey, listen, I gave him all

769
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,359
Speaker 1: my Chicago moves. I gave him a crossover to him

770
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 1: how to wait crossover. I gave him the behind the back,

771
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,439
Speaker 1: behind my back. I gave him the asps. I gave

772
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: him the jab jab shot. I gave him the everything

773
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:55,480
Speaker 1: I can give him, the Tracy McGrady pull up, and

774
00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: I'm actually hitting these shots while I'm telling you that

775
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,360
Speaker 1: we win in all the games. He stopped the scrimmage,

776
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,279
Speaker 1: pulling me upstairs in his office and had to had

777
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: to um let of intent to sign. I say, so,

778
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:09,799
Speaker 1: what's that is? He said, Man, this is for you

779
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 1: signed here to college. Your mother's gonna love this. I'm

780
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:18,919
Speaker 1: giving you free room aboard, full scholarship. You will be attendant. Brother,

781
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 1: going back home, get what your belongings. We're gonna flat

782
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: you back. I went back home and told my mom

783
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:29,640
Speaker 1: going to college. She thought I was laying no count.

784
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: So all right, So now moving forward back to went

785
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,399
Speaker 1: back back to Long Street. Every since then, I never

786
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 1: ever spoke his name ever again. El Dorado, Kansas, El

787
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,560
Speaker 1: Dorado camp Man. I just did from the south side

788
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,800
Speaker 1: of Chicago, care of the East and then the West side.

789
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,359
Speaker 1: What so you like, look to who when you're hooping?

790
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 1: You're in the gym. You're in the gym, right, you

791
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 1: show up like the first day you get off the

792
00:42:56,480 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 1: plane and now you're a junior college student in El Dorado, Kansas.

793
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 1: What was that like? I was like, I'm lit. I'm

794
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:10,760
Speaker 1: lit only because only because I had I had already

795
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 1: like as I went to that program and play. When

796
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 1: I played the gaming with James, I I had like

797
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,520
Speaker 1: gay and we won. We end up losing in the

798
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: championship to lup Ahead will bid them and Antoine Walker. Yeah,

799
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,760
Speaker 1: that was stacked. We end up losing. Oh no, no, no no,

800
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, something somethingthorthing that was the year befoted that's what.

801
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,840
Speaker 1: That's what. Actually, yeah, uh, you don't get me the

802
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 1: missing my years up because I went to both championship

803
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 1: games and lost both of them in the ad team.

804
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 1: But however, well wont bone with both of them moving forward. Uh,

805
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,040
Speaker 1: Elderdo Kansas was just one of those. By the way,

806
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:54,720
Speaker 1: there's a trend there. I just want to We'll always

807
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: beating you. I just want to point that out all

808
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: you must eat it. And I hate that, man, I

809
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 1: hate that. But it's cool, like it's my guy, it's

810
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,880
Speaker 1: my brother, better him than anybody else. But listen, man,

811
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,799
Speaker 1: when I was at Eldrito Kansas, I knew for a fact. Man,

812
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: when I got there, I was like, yo, I'm going pro.

813
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going pro yo. Because practice was

814
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,319
Speaker 1: too easy. I was like, is this practice like I'm

815
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: telling you? I was. I was nice, okay, So why

816
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 1: did you leave and go to Wabash. I got in trouble, man, man,

817
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:29,879
Speaker 1: I did something that was detrimental to the team. What

818
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,520
Speaker 1: is that like, it's this, It's twenty years ago. It

819
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 1: was I was um I had got Yeah, yeah, I

820
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,879
Speaker 1: was all the above. But It was one of them

821
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: situations where it came like, um, the year was over with.

822
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:49,439
Speaker 1: I was calling myself, you know, celebrating or whatever. But

823
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 1: they had I wanted to bring me a award. I

824
00:44:55,040 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 1: want Freshman of the Year a comfort. So they were

825
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: child conference confidence. They was trying to um and there

826
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 1: was some tough guys in there too. I remember eb Eerie.

827
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 1: I don't know if that day, Uh Oklahoma, Oklahoma. It

828
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,479
Speaker 1: was a lot of there's a lot of good guys

829
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:17,360
Speaker 1: in that league. However he ended up on Oklahoma. But

830
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 1: I got the war. They came to the to the

831
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: dorm a tory to try to you know, found me

832
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:28,480
Speaker 1: to give me the award, and uh they when they

833
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:32,720
Speaker 1: walked in, you know, uh they was like all long, womnute,

834
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,799
Speaker 1: what's going on? And uh that was it. That was

835
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:37,840
Speaker 1: the end of they were trying to give you an

836
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:42,279
Speaker 1: award because they walked in there just smoke everywhere and whatever. Yep,

837
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: and that happened. Yeah I was young man, I was,

838
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: but yeah that happened. And once they found that it

839
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 1: was a note it was a no smoking policy in

840
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 1: the in the facility, and uh, they told me like

841
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:58,799
Speaker 1: all you gotta pack your bad. We don't give okay,

842
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: we don't get to screwed this reward and they sent

843
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:05,320
Speaker 1: me up on gone. But Dennis Haim shout out to

844
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,799
Speaker 1: Dennis Hams. He helped my back in that situation because

845
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,360
Speaker 1: he told me, said, man, you're too talented. He said,

846
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:13,719
Speaker 1: before I let you, you know, be out here and

847
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 1: be bad. He was like, I'm gonna set you up

848
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,000
Speaker 1: with another school who need a guard. One of the

849
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:24,839
Speaker 1: guards there, some dude named Tara Antonio Tara maybe it's something.

850
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 1: I think that's his name, and he uh, he basically

851
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 1: was gone. He went over to another school and they

852
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 1: need a guard like myself. And at the time I

853
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,399
Speaker 1: was I was salty, but because I had just got

854
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 1: the war and I realized how much I had made

855
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 1: an ass of myself. Um, So I just that whole

856
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 1: summer I just worked on my game, worked on my game,

857
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: worked on my game. Coach Hams called me and told me,

858
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: he's like, you know, get ready because they won the

859
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 1: championship the previous year, the nj C double a championship.

860
00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 1: So I got ready and when I got there, I

861
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,239
Speaker 1: had I was hearing reports they had a guard in

862
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,279
Speaker 1: the Antoine Barber who was supposed to leave out of

863
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: the junior cause and go to the pros. He didn't go.

864
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 1: He's he's like stayed back or whatever and committed to Kentucky.

865
00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 1: So a lot of the w who rider was on him.

866
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 1: A lot of scouts come in, you know, before he

867
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,840
Speaker 1: had signed or whatever. They would see him, and you know,

868
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 1: and I was testing my game up to him to

869
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:24,399
Speaker 1: manage you. I think I'm going pro, Like I'm going

870
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: pro now, Like I know, I know I'm good, I

871
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 1: know I'm nice. I gotta I just gotta get out

872
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:30,239
Speaker 1: of this trouble. All I gotta do is get out

873
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,239
Speaker 1: of this trouble. I got over there and saw him

874
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: and knew that they were having him in the my draft.

875
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,439
Speaker 1: And you know, all pro athletes look at my draft.

876
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:40,440
Speaker 1: I don't care who you is. You're looking at that

877
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 1: my draft. And I saw his name on the my

878
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:45,880
Speaker 1: draft like twent one and twenty. He stayed in school.

879
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:49,560
Speaker 1: I was like, this is my test. If I can

880
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:52,800
Speaker 1: bone him. When I say bone, that mean beat him,

881
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:57,280
Speaker 1: beat him to the bone. If I can bone him,

882
00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,960
Speaker 1: I'm going pro. And every day I made it a competition,

883
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 1: like when we play pick ups. We ain't it's not

884
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:04,439
Speaker 1: about to be no me and you're on the same team.

885
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: It's me and you. It's me against you every day

886
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 1: in practice. And that's that was my litmus tested to

887
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,399
Speaker 1: see if I was ready. And boy did I give

888
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 1: him here. I remember this like yesterday. I used to

889
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 1: bust us at every day, but he was good. We

890
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 1: go at it. I remember one time playing him one

891
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:24,399
Speaker 1: on one, not one on one, five and five we're

892
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: playing the game. Games go to twelve ones or two.

893
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:31,000
Speaker 1: I remember the one of the girls on the sidelines saying,

894
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:33,480
Speaker 1: you guys might as well play full court one on

895
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,799
Speaker 1: one because y'all ain't passing the ball to nobody. But

896
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:40,200
Speaker 1: that's how competitive we was. And I think on the

897
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 1: route in the journey and me going to the NBA,

898
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,719
Speaker 1: I needed that kind of fire, you know what I'm saying.

899
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 1: I needed those mishaps. I needed those you know what

900
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:53,160
Speaker 1: I'm saying, those those wrong whose my my feelings and

901
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,880
Speaker 1: getting into a situation and realizing the consequences of it.

902
00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:58,880
Speaker 1: I needed that to happen. So it goes you know

903
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. If Barbara ends up going to Kentucky, Yeah,

904
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 1: he's signed with Kentucky late so how did it end

905
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 1: up you? And that's the good point. So now with

906
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:13,399
Speaker 1: that being said, my boy end up saying that you

907
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 1: end up seeing all the schools just stopped coming. Like

908
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 1: I'm talking about literally it was like a big like

909
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 1: a dirty school drop because he's saying with Kentucky saything

910
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:29,400
Speaker 1: going to Kentucky everybody. So now you're seeing your up UIX,

911
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:36,840
Speaker 1: you see your uh, your Crazon's, you see your Illinois States,

912
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 1: or you're just seeing all these off brand schools. But

913
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:46,080
Speaker 1: then you've got Oklahoma State still out. They get them

914
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,279
Speaker 1: about six games a year, about four five games. You

915
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: seem lebody still some hope. But we had a few

916
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: more good players on. I didn't know who he was

917
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 1: looking at it then Yeah, let's see here Johnny Hollingsworth. Yeah,

918
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 1: but then he will Anthony Wilson, Anthony wish was nice.

919
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:05,560
Speaker 1: Was was Mark mark Lewis on that team or was

920
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 1: either next year? Une Quinnel Brown was Yeah, he was

921
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:12,880
Speaker 1: there freshman. He was a freshman. Uh. Tony Wheaton, Tony

922
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:16,480
Speaker 1: Wheaton was nice. I liked little Tony. That your SA

923
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,399
Speaker 1: And I didn't know who those because some of those

924
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:21,319
Speaker 1: guys came in with with good grades and only need

925
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 1: to do one year and I need So however, them

926
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 1: guys stopped coming. And I could remember seeing a good

927
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:32,840
Speaker 1: friend of man to day clean and sippy and you

928
00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: know him, Uh, just him trying to use his tools

929
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 1: to what he could do at the time. And you

930
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 1: know in the in the n C double A rules,

931
00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:44,040
Speaker 1: he couldn't talk to us. But one note, you know

932
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:46,439
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. One light he couldn't make his ads

933
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,440
Speaker 1: move or was like he know what I'm saying, a

934
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: yard of anything. So he was doing all those little

935
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,359
Speaker 1: antics let me know that he was still here for me.

936
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:57,319
Speaker 1: And and uh he was coming to a lot of

937
00:50:57,320 --> 00:50:59,200
Speaker 1: games where I didn't think he would show up at

938
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:01,440
Speaker 1: Man and he showed up. I see him, and he

939
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: was part of my motivation and me believing I could

940
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: be pro to. So you go to you go to

941
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:12,279
Speaker 1: Stillwater and uh again. So now you've been in two

942
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 1: small towns in junior college, right, any trouble Wallabash, No

943
00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:19,960
Speaker 1: trouble in wall Back. I was I knew then. I

944
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:22,279
Speaker 1: knew then I was started smart enough. Like yo, this

945
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:25,960
Speaker 1: type of stuff affect your draft status. O. People started

946
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:27,959
Speaker 1: talking to me. Then once they started seeing my game

947
00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 1: like tee, you gotta slow down, see how you gotta

948
00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 1: be cool? T A. Don't you like it? Started donning on? Okay,

949
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: since your third day at school, you're getting fight at

950
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:44,359
Speaker 1: water Burger? Yeah I did. Okay, say you show up?

951
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 1: Who who are you hanging with? Like again, this is

952
00:51:46,920 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: like you're going new crew to new crew to new

953
00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:50,319
Speaker 1: high school right right? You know, so this is your

954
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 1: third team, actually your fourth team and four years you

955
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 1: think about it, right high school, junior college, junior college, college.

956
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,600
Speaker 1: So you show up at Oklahoma State. Who you're hanging with?

957
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 1: Shame guess Shane Gassin's cool dude, Shane Gas from New

958
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 1: York and I love I love his swag man. I

959
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:06,719
Speaker 1: hope he hit this man, I love his swag man.

960
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:10,400
Speaker 1: He the first one told me how to wear Timberland boots.

961
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: You know, he had this thing where you know, he

962
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:17,640
Speaker 1: was from from New York and Tim's was like the

963
00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:22,680
Speaker 1: the style or whatnot, and uh, I gravitated to the

964
00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:25,319
Speaker 1: New York way of life. Man. Okay, So so you

965
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:30,120
Speaker 1: show up and Shane Shane Gason is there, so you guys.

966
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:32,800
Speaker 1: Victor Williams was my roommate too. Both of those guys.

967
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: Those are my roommate, Victor Williams and Shane Gays. Okay,

968
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:40,800
Speaker 1: so Vic, Shane Gatson us bec backrush. A lot of

969
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:42,800
Speaker 1: a lot of ball handling in that background. Yeah, no

970
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:47,359
Speaker 1: pass right, no, no passing, Shane, Shane all the ball handling.

971
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:49,959
Speaker 1: Just couldn't play for coach, could not play for coach.

972
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:54,520
Speaker 1: Man York, couldn't play for coach. Typical New York guard. Yeah. Um,

973
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 1: so you're getting this fight. And I remember because at

974
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: that time, just starting this industry, and I remember them

975
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 1: calling me like, we're gonna have to get into this

976
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:05,840
Speaker 1: Tony All and he's our best player. We're gonna have

977
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:09,759
Speaker 1: to get rid of them. Yes, they had trouble. So

978
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: here's what I was, Here's what I remember. I remember

979
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:14,000
Speaker 1: that you got to fight in the middle of the

980
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 1: night with the Langston football players, big brawl, and so

981
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 1: as punishment they brought you in what the next night

982
00:53:22,680 --> 00:53:25,680
Speaker 1: at that time, and said, hey, if you want to

983
00:53:25,719 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 1: hang out at one in the morning and get a fight,

984
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:28,560
Speaker 1: we're gonna run you at one of them. Now listen,

985
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,040
Speaker 1: hold on, no, coach, ain't do it like that. Coach.

986
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:34,239
Speaker 1: After they was trying to teach me a lesson. They

987
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:39,759
Speaker 1: was like, yo, let him stay in there, so they

988
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,319
Speaker 1: ain't buying me out. You stay in the jail. I

989
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:46,839
Speaker 1: stayed at Paine County Jail. I get out Saturday night.

990
00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:51,160
Speaker 1: So I went in Thursday, get out Saturday night. For people,

991
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 1: and for people don't know, like, look, I don't know

992
00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: about every college campus. I do know about Oklahoma State.

993
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:59,320
Speaker 1: The first Thursday night of school is the night, is

994
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:01,760
Speaker 1: the night. It's the nights the night I just cancel

995
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:04,000
Speaker 1: all you're playing. You're just give me out all night.

996
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 1: So literally the first day, first Thursday, you hadn't even

997
00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 1: done laundry yet first and you're in jail man. So

998
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: I'm look, let me tell you this story, man. Let

999
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:18,080
Speaker 1: me going to break it to you. So my boy,

1000
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:21,080
Speaker 1: Melvin Sanders, he's the ladies man. Okay, so let me

1001
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,040
Speaker 1: before you, before you, I want you to keep that story.

1002
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: So let me tell you some standards. So for people

1003
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:27,200
Speaker 1: don't know, Melon Saiders playing in the NBA with the Spurs,

1004
00:54:27,239 --> 00:54:30,360
Speaker 1: which is like the greatest upset ever. And here's why.

1005
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:35,440
Speaker 1: All right, Melvin my junior year in the spring, he

1006
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:38,520
Speaker 1: is graduating high school and they brought him down from

1007
00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 1: Liberal Kansas, like he's like the only black dude. Like

1008
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,359
Speaker 1: he's a triple jumper. He was like potentially Olympic level

1009
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 1: trimple jumper. And they're like, hey, we want this cat

1010
00:54:47,239 --> 00:54:49,640
Speaker 1: to work out with you guys and let us know

1011
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,360
Speaker 1: if he can play. So he comes and he lives

1012
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 1: with us and he trains and then we go play.

1013
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:57,160
Speaker 1: We go play pick up and we're like, as long

1014
00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 1: as he doesn't have to dribble, pass or shoot, he's nice.

1015
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:02,600
Speaker 1: They're like, what are you talking about. Like he can

1016
00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 1: run and he can jump, and you can teach him

1017
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:08,000
Speaker 1: how to guard somebody, but he has no basketball skill

1018
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:14,319
Speaker 1: at all, right now, huh. I called him Bruce Boyne Jr. Yes,

1019
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 1: because he taught himself how to shoot sort of and

1020
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 1: then he can just guard the ship at you. Right.

1021
00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:22,319
Speaker 1: But that's why he went to junior college for a

1022
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:24,440
Speaker 1: year is because we said, like, he can't play Division

1023
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:27,120
Speaker 1: one basketball, Like he's like, he has no idea how

1024
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,399
Speaker 1: to play basis he can't dribble and anyway. So then

1025
00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:32,240
Speaker 1: he came to campus, he becomes I mean, you guys

1026
00:55:32,239 --> 00:55:35,000
Speaker 1: had so all right, So he's the ladies man. He

1027
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:37,720
Speaker 1: ladies man. All the ladies loved, like on the campus,

1028
00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:41,520
Speaker 1: like we got muscles and he's had ones. Is that shaved?

1029
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:45,239
Speaker 1: He he's got like muscles in his head? Yea, he definitely.

1030
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:50,120
Speaker 1: He definitely think he one of the smoothest brothers in

1031
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:54,200
Speaker 1: the room. And you know it's sometimes man, you know

1032
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 1: that could be that could bite you. Because what ended

1033
00:55:56,719 --> 00:55:59,919
Speaker 1: up happening was he liked some girls in Lank Stick

1034
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:04,759
Speaker 1: and well the dude play for Lanks and the girl

1035
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 1: goes to Oklahoma State. He was talking to a such

1036
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:11,800
Speaker 1: and such such and such having the dude got his number,

1037
00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:14,560
Speaker 1: and he was threatening them and telling him for I'll

1038
00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:19,400
Speaker 1: be down. The first Thursday had that same energy, whatnot, whatnot.

1039
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 1: So our whole thing was we're gonna all well, all

1040
00:56:23,600 --> 00:56:26,440
Speaker 1: black today. We're gonna go all black today just in

1041
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:29,160
Speaker 1: case we got a rat for mills and cents. So

1042
00:56:29,239 --> 00:56:31,400
Speaker 1: that was my thing. I had all black and everybody

1043
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:34,320
Speaker 1: else's and all black. That that separated us from everybody.

1044
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 1: So we just how we was moving as the hoop squad.

1045
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:41,200
Speaker 1: So I all I remember was walking away talking to somebody.

1046
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:43,600
Speaker 1: And at the time I didn't have my great lazy

1047
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:47,319
Speaker 1: ass surgery that I got now and I'm squinting I'm like, yo,

1048
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:49,880
Speaker 1: was that the guys over there pushing up on melt?

1049
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 1: So I ended up running over there and come to

1050
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:58,960
Speaker 1: fan outs. They were scuffling and moving and punching and whatever.

1051
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:01,960
Speaker 1: I thought the guy was getting the best of Mail,

1052
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:06,920
Speaker 1: So I end up hitting the guy. Come to find

1053
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: out that was the police grabbing the guy. End up

1054
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:12,919
Speaker 1: hitting the dude out of the police hands and really

1055
00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:15,000
Speaker 1: out of the police. The police stopped grabbing him and

1056
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:17,680
Speaker 1: start chasing me, and I got up out of that.

1057
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:22,640
Speaker 1: But my whole thing was to rade for meilf check

1058
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:24,480
Speaker 1: my teammate, and I end up I'm the only one

1059
00:57:24,520 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 1: with the jail for it a firm lesson. But if

1060
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:33,720
Speaker 1: Mail hearing this, brother, I did that for you, brother,

1061
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: for real. So so so you get out. So you're like, wait,

1062
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,040
Speaker 1: they're not even gonna bail me out of jail. I

1063
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:44,440
Speaker 1: could have built myself out of jail. You just assumed

1064
00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 1: they would come get you. They didn't come getting So

1065
00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 1: you get out of jail, and I'm sure, like, what the

1066
00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:54,880
Speaker 1: the first thing you do is to go to Coach's office, Nona.

1067
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:58,760
Speaker 1: It was just a long ride with the equipment manager.

1068
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:03,360
Speaker 1: I knew I was in trouble, and I was like yo.

1069
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:07,240
Speaker 1: So then you know, we all ran as a team.

1070
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:10,080
Speaker 1: You know. The guys was like, Yo, we're gonna come

1071
00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:12,960
Speaker 1: in here. We're gonna run with t A, you know,

1072
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:17,320
Speaker 1: and whatever t A punishment is, it's our punishment too, right,

1073
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:23,160
Speaker 1: So we do the ten that's going down and back.

1074
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 1: It's one down and back it's two. We did ten eight,

1075
00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:33,880
Speaker 1: six four two on the football field, right on the

1076
00:58:33,880 --> 00:58:37,360
Speaker 1: basketball court in the back gym. It's running. It's some time.

1077
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:40,440
Speaker 1: You gotta get down and back in twenty two seconds.

1078
00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:44,080
Speaker 1: I mean it was that. It was down the back

1079
00:58:44,080 --> 00:58:53,120
Speaker 1: in ten second. So cool. They did ten through uh

1080
00:58:53,440 --> 00:58:57,480
Speaker 1: two with me. But I had to do nine seven,

1081
00:58:57,680 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 1: five three or one by myself twice. I do that twice.

1082
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:06,320
Speaker 1: I do that. They gave me the odd numbers twice.

1083
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:14,160
Speaker 1: Everybody tap ten, ten, whatever, Thank you guys. Appreciate you

1084
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:17,520
Speaker 1: guys from showing the love for Tony Allen. We appreciate.

1085
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:19,840
Speaker 1: But what we got for him set up is more

1086
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:22,480
Speaker 1: on his own. And they did the odd number. I

1087
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:24,800
Speaker 1: had to the odd numbers twice. I ain't throw up

1088
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:29,040
Speaker 1: though that was just one day one day. Well, actually

1089
00:59:29,080 --> 00:59:32,000
Speaker 1: I think I did throw up. I did I did.

1090
00:59:32,480 --> 00:59:35,040
Speaker 1: I actually think I think it was a while ago

1091
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:39,520
Speaker 1: because my memory of it was that they took you

1092
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,680
Speaker 1: outside first, you did the football field at like four

1093
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:45,400
Speaker 1: in the afternoon it's so hot in Oklahoma. And then

1094
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:47,080
Speaker 1: but now I thought that was part of that was

1095
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:50,120
Speaker 1: part of our regiment. Anyway, I seized the condition. See,

1096
00:59:50,120 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 1: that's what preseason, that's what made it. That's what made

1097
00:59:52,600 --> 00:59:55,160
Speaker 1: it tough that the tens eight because I had already

1098
00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:58,040
Speaker 1: did that run. So that's what made it tough. The

1099
00:59:58,160 --> 01:00:01,240
Speaker 1: night running show. All right, But so now you gotta

1100
01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 1: now you gotta play. So you survived that and you

1101
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:08,120
Speaker 1: get to play, and you guys had a talented, talented squad.

1102
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:10,560
Speaker 1: What do you member about first when you first started

1103
01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 1: playing at Oklahoma State? First thing I remember about Oklahoma

1104
01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:19,080
Speaker 1: State me first getting there half from the cup, my braids,

1105
01:00:19,160 --> 01:00:24,040
Speaker 1: my corn rolls, let's not forget that. But getting to no, so,

1106
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:26,959
Speaker 1: who who told you? Who told you? Had to cut it? Still?

1107
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:29,560
Speaker 1: So he calls you up, or he comes over, he

1108
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 1: comes over, calls you in. What do you do? I

1109
01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:33,960
Speaker 1: had well actually getting to the game. I was playing

1110
01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:36,600
Speaker 1: to the my first day that I was just one

1111
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:40,320
Speaker 1: of tournament on the west of Chicago against some of

1112
01:00:40,320 --> 01:00:44,480
Speaker 1: the top high school talents and uh some of me

1113
01:00:44,600 --> 01:00:47,040
Speaker 1: something time to some of the top cottage towns in Chicago,

1114
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:50,680
Speaker 1: said Banks, Martella Bailey. All those guys, we beat them

1115
01:00:50,680 --> 01:00:53,320
Speaker 1: in the championship. So I had to play that I

1116
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:55,040
Speaker 1: got there. Half of my head is braid at the

1117
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:58,440
Speaker 1: other half is in the afro. So I'm looking crazy.

1118
01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 1: Day three come around. I got it all out and

1119
01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 1: the first thing SIPs. He just looked at me right

1120
01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 1: before I walk on the court. He said, just make

1121
01:01:09,960 --> 01:01:11,480
Speaker 1: sure for the day over what you got all this

1122
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:15,560
Speaker 1: ship cut off your head? I said, huh, he said, yeah,

1123
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:18,320
Speaker 1: it make sure all this is I see tomorrow practice

1124
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:22,320
Speaker 1: smack me on mind. Man. At the time, I had

1125
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:24,960
Speaker 1: to flip phone call me later on that night. I

1126
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:28,000
Speaker 1: see the number down and through the things sip. I

1127
01:01:28,120 --> 01:01:31,480
Speaker 1: even asked. I just went on, get me a head cut. So, uh,

1128
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:34,200
Speaker 1: all right, so you guys are you guys are good

1129
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:38,680
Speaker 1: that year. But if if I remember correctly, um, wasn't

1130
01:01:38,680 --> 01:01:40,480
Speaker 1: that the year you guys lost? You lose the mellow

1131
01:01:40,480 --> 01:01:44,800
Speaker 1: in the tournament? Yeah, we was up at Remember this

1132
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:46,760
Speaker 1: is the year for people. Remember this is two thousand

1133
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,880
Speaker 1: three Carmello wins the national championship. But you guys were

1134
01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 1: up I think it was seventeen whatever, up seventeen in

1135
01:01:53,480 --> 01:01:56,080
Speaker 1: the first half against Syracuse. You know, you beat Pen

1136
01:01:56,600 --> 01:01:58,400
Speaker 1: and it wasn't even mellow while we won because I

1137
01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:01,439
Speaker 1: know he went forth with thirteen Again. What's crazy about

1138
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:05,800
Speaker 1: that team was you guys were terrible down the stretch. Yeah, yeah,

1139
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:11,640
Speaker 1: I'm looking at right here. You lost to UH Texas, Cincinnati, Baylor,

1140
01:02:11,720 --> 01:02:15,840
Speaker 1: Oklahoma Tech, Kansas, Colorado, and then lost to Missouri in

1141
01:02:15,840 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 1: the first by by two in the first Big twelve tournament.

1142
01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:22,080
Speaker 1: So you lost Big Toel tournament game. So you lost one, two, three,

1143
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 1: four or five, six, seven eight of your last eleven

1144
01:02:26,200 --> 01:02:29,280
Speaker 1: games e eight of the last eleven going into the tournament. Yeah,

1145
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:34,440
Speaker 1: they beat Pen, You beat Pen and you play. What

1146
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:37,760
Speaker 1: do you member about the Syracuse game? See, all I

1147
01:02:37,800 --> 01:02:42,760
Speaker 1: can remember was about Syracuse guys to due McNamara buzzing

1148
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:46,440
Speaker 1: Victor william Matt that's tough on hit for threes on

1149
01:02:46,520 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 1: him in his now now for people don't remember that team, Okay,

1150
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:57,400
Speaker 1: you have Andre Williams, who super talented shoblocker on on

1151
01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:03,560
Speaker 1: your team. Crazy el at Melvin Melvin Sanders ladies man,

1152
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:08,680
Speaker 1: ladies man, Ivan beg Arland chunk yard dog. If I

1153
01:03:08,720 --> 01:03:11,120
Speaker 1: had Ivan Farland, I would have won a national championship.

1154
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:14,200
Speaker 1: And then you got Victor Williams. Victor Williams master the midrange,

1155
01:03:14,280 --> 01:03:18,400
Speaker 1: great defender human. Okay, he is shooting the ball. Yes,

1156
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:22,640
Speaker 1: and and you okay, your boy Shane Gatson off the bench.

1157
01:03:23,120 --> 01:03:26,720
Speaker 1: J C. Miller another ladies man, definitely a ladies man,

1158
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:31,400
Speaker 1: going now on two one oh right now? Yes, uh,

1159
01:03:31,720 --> 01:03:36,680
Speaker 1: Genavo Witherspoon who could fly fly but didn't get too

1160
01:03:36,720 --> 01:03:42,400
Speaker 1: many dunks. And Franz Stein, who great dude, gigantic. Yes, okay,

1161
01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:46,200
Speaker 1: so that's your squad. You lost the key work. Carmelo, Anthony,

1162
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:50,920
Speaker 1: Jerry McNamara, Keith Duaney, They started Craig fourth, but they played.

1163
01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:53,640
Speaker 1: Billy Edelson came in here and the highlight. Billy Edland

1164
01:03:53,680 --> 01:03:55,800
Speaker 1: came in and gave with you guys the highlight. Who

1165
01:03:55,880 --> 01:03:59,560
Speaker 1: Adam Adam he's the point guard point guard. Yeah, he

1166
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:02,760
Speaker 1: didn't hit pull up like the pull up like flow

1167
01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:06,479
Speaker 1: up flow the stud Well, if those full threes don't

1168
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:10,480
Speaker 1: go in back to back to back to back, we

1169
01:04:10,560 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 1: win again because the zone one really we was kind

1170
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:16,760
Speaker 1: of fighting his zone to what it was. But that

1171
01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:20,960
Speaker 1: zone all yeah, Jim Bayham is his name. He was

1172
01:04:21,080 --> 01:04:23,800
Speaker 1: killing everybody with that zone. Like the zone was just

1173
01:04:24,360 --> 01:04:28,280
Speaker 1: nobody stuck defense. They stuck his zone. They one championship,

1174
01:04:28,560 --> 01:04:31,360
Speaker 1: mellow didn't kill ustate game and McNamara was the highlight.

1175
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:34,880
Speaker 1: So all right, there's a legit thought, do you come

1176
01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:37,400
Speaker 1: back right? Because all you thought about was going pro?

1177
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:41,480
Speaker 1: They that's that was the biggest myth. I wasn't ready yet.

1178
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:44,760
Speaker 1: I knew I wasn't ready. I know, but most most

1179
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:47,480
Speaker 1: maybe it's different now you walk into the locker room

1180
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:49,040
Speaker 1: now and a coach will tell you like, I got

1181
01:04:49,080 --> 01:04:51,000
Speaker 1: thirteen NBA players, Like, no, you don't like they all

1182
01:04:51,000 --> 01:04:54,040
Speaker 1: think they're NBA players, right, And you as you said

1183
01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:56,680
Speaker 1: two thousand you finished up Darius smiles and guys, you're

1184
01:04:56,760 --> 01:04:59,480
Speaker 1: you're contemporaries. They're going pro. You see all these other

1185
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:02,040
Speaker 1: dudes going pro? How in your mind? And I know

1186
01:05:02,160 --> 01:05:04,000
Speaker 1: you said that was how did you know you weren't ready?

1187
01:05:04,080 --> 01:05:08,000
Speaker 1: Because they had me in the second round. I was

1188
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:09,800
Speaker 1: not ledgeable enough to know, like, damn, if I'm in

1189
01:05:09,800 --> 01:05:12,720
Speaker 1: the second round, ain't no used to me jumping off

1190
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:16,520
Speaker 1: like I ain't no use like, So what I did

1191
01:05:16,640 --> 01:05:21,720
Speaker 1: was I said, every game I'm gonna kill I'm I'm

1192
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:25,080
Speaker 1: gonna seeking destroyed. If you're the best opponent, I ain't

1193
01:05:25,160 --> 01:05:27,720
Speaker 1: letting you get your points, but I'm getting my points.

1194
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:30,600
Speaker 1: And that was just how that was my remedy to it,

1195
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:33,880
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna shut you down and I'm gonna kill you.

1196
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:38,600
Speaker 1: Like that's that's how training my thoughts on the basketball

1197
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:41,520
Speaker 1: side of thing. All right, So then Will leaves Arizona.

1198
01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:46,320
Speaker 1: He was Polica trying to set my story. Tony, I

1199
01:05:46,520 --> 01:05:50,600
Speaker 1: know the story, alright. So remember we'll buying him who

1200
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:53,200
Speaker 1: was a superstar. They won the state championship in Illinois.

1201
01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:57,160
Speaker 1: He goes to Arizona and media year he's gonna transfer.

1202
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:03,560
Speaker 1: Everybody knows at the time, you guys victors graduating. Okay,

1203
01:06:03,880 --> 01:06:06,680
Speaker 1: Shane Gaston couldn't play for coach. That wasn't happening, right.

1204
01:06:06,760 --> 01:06:10,400
Speaker 1: You guys needed a point guard, Jenava Weatherspoon not a

1205
01:06:10,400 --> 01:06:13,600
Speaker 1: point guard. He needed a point guard. Why did he

1206
01:06:13,640 --> 01:06:16,320
Speaker 1: go to Georgia Tech and not come play with this boy?

1207
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:20,120
Speaker 1: Didn't somebody call and say with something like that. You

1208
01:06:20,120 --> 01:06:22,360
Speaker 1: guys were trying to get into temporary and transfer or

1209
01:06:22,360 --> 01:06:25,160
Speaker 1: something like what really happened? Because you got a flip phone,

1210
01:06:25,160 --> 01:06:27,000
Speaker 1: so I know he's calling you. Yeah, he was called

1211
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:30,760
Speaker 1: the hell out of me. But uh, I don't know. Uh,

1212
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:34,040
Speaker 1: I guess the navigation yet broke. I don't know. But

1213
01:06:34,160 --> 01:06:37,920
Speaker 1: for the most part, uh, we all went to Arizona. Man,

1214
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:42,760
Speaker 1: he told us he was coming to uh Oklahoma. Uh

1215
01:06:42,800 --> 01:06:45,400
Speaker 1: we found out. Look at God that I think, I

1216
01:06:45,440 --> 01:06:47,160
Speaker 1: don't know if it was before. Don't give me the

1217
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:50,720
Speaker 1: lad but we end up getting I don't want to

1218
01:06:50,760 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 1: get to that in a second. So that's why I said,

1219
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:54,040
Speaker 1: so okay, So when we found out that he went

1220
01:06:54,080 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 1: to Arizona, he never called us again. He never picked

1221
01:06:57,320 --> 01:07:00,920
Speaker 1: up his phone. He never picked up his phone. And

1222
01:07:01,040 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 1: uh all I can remember with Sip saying, I guess

1223
01:07:03,880 --> 01:07:06,240
Speaker 1: we all made the left turn. He didn't keep straight.

1224
01:07:06,640 --> 01:07:08,720
Speaker 1: I don't know what he was saying, but he was

1225
01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:11,160
Speaker 1: telling me like in a sense like will ain't coming.

1226
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,840
Speaker 1: So I called him and I'm like what he was like, Yeah,

1227
01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:18,440
Speaker 1: we've been calling the kid asking He asked, well, you

1228
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:20,680
Speaker 1: know what I saw? It was official. He goes, he

1229
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:23,120
Speaker 1: goes to Georgia Tech. We'll get to that in a second. Okay,

1230
01:07:23,200 --> 01:07:26,760
Speaker 1: So then the bailor stuff goes down, which is crazy,

1231
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:30,800
Speaker 1: Like of all the stories that that we kind of

1232
01:07:30,840 --> 01:07:35,720
Speaker 1: sort of forget about, is uh, Carlson Dotson kills his

1233
01:07:35,760 --> 01:07:40,080
Speaker 1: teammate right first, first his teammate's missing, people like where

1234
01:07:40,160 --> 01:07:42,360
Speaker 1: is it? And then if they find him and his

1235
01:07:42,360 --> 01:07:45,960
Speaker 1: his teammate killed him. Uh, were you at school? Were

1236
01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:48,800
Speaker 1: you at home? What do you remember about that? Because

1237
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:52,840
Speaker 1: that was like that's close to everybody. Man. It was

1238
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:58,920
Speaker 1: kind of tough because me, I'm a city kid, so

1239
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:02,440
Speaker 1: you know all that fishing and stuff and all that

1240
01:08:03,680 --> 01:08:08,040
Speaker 1: one in the woods and all that, Like, na, we don't.

1241
01:08:08,080 --> 01:08:09,720
Speaker 1: I'm not part of that. So it kind of it

1242
01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:13,080
Speaker 1: didn't hit me as hard as as they hit other players,

1243
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:16,479
Speaker 1: but the motive and what he did that kind of

1244
01:08:16,479 --> 01:08:20,599
Speaker 1: woke me up, like for some playing time, like it's

1245
01:08:21,120 --> 01:08:24,040
Speaker 1: that kind of shocked me. But um, I was. I

1246
01:08:24,120 --> 01:08:26,880
Speaker 1: was thankful that, you know, John Lucas got out of

1247
01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:30,599
Speaker 1: there in time that he did. What's crazy is so

1248
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:34,719
Speaker 1: there's another Chicago guard help me out who was supposed

1249
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:39,040
Speaker 1: to come to O s U and play and he

1250
01:08:39,360 --> 01:08:44,240
Speaker 1: didn't get eligible. Okay, so and I'll and you'll remember

1251
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:46,599
Speaker 1: his name when I tell you in a second. So

1252
01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:50,280
Speaker 1: here here's the real way it went down. Uh, you

1253
01:08:50,320 --> 01:08:52,439
Speaker 1: didn't get behind the mid year, so you still gotta

1254
01:08:52,439 --> 01:08:56,360
Speaker 1: have to have a point guard, right so you I

1255
01:08:56,479 --> 01:09:00,000
Speaker 1: believe he had signed and you didn't end up getting

1256
01:09:00,040 --> 01:09:03,280
Speaker 1: him is uh damn what's his name? Anyway? And then

1257
01:09:03,320 --> 01:09:04,760
Speaker 1: there was a dude who was going who end up

1258
01:09:04,760 --> 01:09:10,519
Speaker 1: going to Kentucky transferred from Western Kentucky. Yeah, um who

1259
01:09:10,600 --> 01:09:12,599
Speaker 1: he end up? He ends up playing Kentucky. And then

1260
01:09:13,160 --> 01:09:18,160
Speaker 1: you guys have no point guard, and the Baylor ship

1261
01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:21,160
Speaker 1: goes down, and John Lucas not only everybody transferred, but

1262
01:09:21,240 --> 01:09:24,400
Speaker 1: he got to play right away. And then you get

1263
01:09:24,439 --> 01:09:29,000
Speaker 1: the Graham twins. So you show up the next year

1264
01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:33,080
Speaker 1: and you got Joey and Stevie Graham who six seven,

1265
01:09:33,120 --> 01:09:37,960
Speaker 1: both NBA players, You got John Lucas, You got yourself,

1266
01:09:38,400 --> 01:09:41,960
Speaker 1: Like now you gotta squad around you. What do you

1267
01:09:41,960 --> 01:09:46,080
Speaker 1: remember about about that year? Well, before John Lucas got that,

1268
01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:50,240
Speaker 1: they was experiment with Stevie Graham at the point guard. Uh,

1269
01:09:50,280 --> 01:09:54,280
Speaker 1: that was definitely not gonna work. But they put my

1270
01:09:54,400 --> 01:09:57,240
Speaker 1: boy John Lucas in there right in. He just oh,

1271
01:09:57,360 --> 01:09:59,439
Speaker 1: he you could sell. He was a coach's son. You

1272
01:09:59,439 --> 01:10:02,120
Speaker 1: could sell like like you could you could run one

1273
01:10:02,160 --> 01:10:05,200
Speaker 1: play with him. One time he know to play just

1274
01:10:05,280 --> 01:10:08,439
Speaker 1: like that and he was going through play. I was like, man,

1275
01:10:08,439 --> 01:10:10,799
Speaker 1: it took me there and the five games to remember

1276
01:10:10,840 --> 01:10:12,960
Speaker 1: all these plays. He learned all the plays and like

1277
01:10:13,040 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 1: one day and he was getting the game, he would

1278
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:19,840
Speaker 1: remember some of the play and if the players would

1279
01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:21,960
Speaker 1: break down, he would go to that pick and roll,

1280
01:10:22,080 --> 01:10:25,520
Speaker 1: go to that right hand and he was just automatic.

1281
01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:28,639
Speaker 1: And when we were scouting him, every time we played

1282
01:10:28,640 --> 01:10:30,920
Speaker 1: against him in Baylor, it was it was like, yeah,

1283
01:10:31,000 --> 01:10:33,479
Speaker 1: this kid going he kind of nice, but we're gonna

1284
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:35,479
Speaker 1: beat him back thirty. He gonna get his points because

1285
01:10:35,479 --> 01:10:38,000
Speaker 1: he shoot a lot of shots. But I was impressed

1286
01:10:38,040 --> 01:10:41,479
Speaker 1: about like how he got into a structure set and

1287
01:10:41,600 --> 01:10:43,920
Speaker 1: was able to just show how well his dad taught

1288
01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:45,800
Speaker 1: him a lot of stuff. And his point guard at

1289
01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:48,559
Speaker 1: Q is off the chart and him became the best

1290
01:10:48,600 --> 01:10:51,280
Speaker 1: of friends, like ever since he came to the school. Like,

1291
01:10:52,680 --> 01:10:54,960
Speaker 1: so you he hits the game winner against St. Joe's,

1292
01:10:55,280 --> 01:10:57,000
Speaker 1: you go to the final four. Now I loved him

1293
01:10:57,000 --> 01:10:59,400
Speaker 1: for that. I really I really loved him for that

1294
01:10:59,439 --> 01:11:02,639
Speaker 1: because it was like if he don't get that ball.

1295
01:11:03,000 --> 01:11:07,479
Speaker 1: We is cooked and man, he's just another one of

1296
01:11:07,520 --> 01:11:11,559
Speaker 1: those his repetitions, like he always tell me, man, like

1297
01:11:12,479 --> 01:11:16,320
Speaker 1: he's gonna make that dog sneeze and tammy shoot. He

1298
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:19,760
Speaker 1: was gonna be wet. So he picked the ball up

1299
01:11:19,760 --> 01:11:22,160
Speaker 1: and made a big playing man. That's it's like one

1300
01:11:22,200 --> 01:11:25,720
Speaker 1: of the big shots of the school history for use

1301
01:11:26,320 --> 01:11:27,720
Speaker 1: and maybe in the n c A history if you

1302
01:11:27,760 --> 01:11:30,559
Speaker 1: think about it. Okay, show you before you get to

1303
01:11:30,560 --> 01:11:34,639
Speaker 1: the game against your checking for a guy from Chicago

1304
01:11:35,040 --> 01:11:37,960
Speaker 1: who didn't even even think about, hey you basketball Letto

1305
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:39,880
Speaker 1: in college basketball, right, it was just about I want

1306
01:11:39,880 --> 01:11:42,360
Speaker 1: to get to the league. It had to be pretty cool.

1307
01:11:42,400 --> 01:11:45,200
Speaker 1: You walk on the floor at the Alamo Dome and

1308
01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:48,760
Speaker 1: you see like fifty people and it was ceased that

1309
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:51,280
Speaker 1: still they could have probably used it was so big

1310
01:11:51,280 --> 01:11:54,360
Speaker 1: in it. But I just overwhelmed, like you just the

1311
01:11:54,479 --> 01:11:57,479
Speaker 1: NBA arena, just how they's how they're walking into the

1312
01:11:57,520 --> 01:12:03,200
Speaker 1: gym every day. That was mesmeriz bad um. But I knew,

1313
01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:07,200
Speaker 1: like if I got to just beat Georgia Tech, I

1314
01:12:07,280 --> 01:12:10,240
Speaker 1: was thinking about Connecticut. That's why I went wrong, Like

1315
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:12,400
Speaker 1: I like I wanted to face up with being going

1316
01:12:13,439 --> 01:12:16,040
Speaker 1: to show the world like it's me and were the

1317
01:12:16,160 --> 01:12:19,280
Speaker 1: best two guys in this thing. And what happened was

1318
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:25,920
Speaker 1: you got foul trouble. I got in foul trouble man.

1319
01:12:26,160 --> 01:12:28,920
Speaker 1: And that didn't that didn't fit well with Coach need.

1320
01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:31,519
Speaker 1: He was so upset with me. He was really upset.

1321
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:36,360
Speaker 1: And then did will score the game winner? Or did

1322
01:12:36,400 --> 01:12:39,080
Speaker 1: he remember the pick and roll? That that and that

1323
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:40,639
Speaker 1: was the thing, like we was coming off the pink

1324
01:12:40,680 --> 01:12:44,720
Speaker 1: and roll low clock, we switched and this is what man,

1325
01:12:44,760 --> 01:12:49,000
Speaker 1: are you garden? Willton and my garden? No, John Lucas is,

1326
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:51,679
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you this. I don't think Coach

1327
01:12:51,760 --> 01:12:57,559
Speaker 1: ever attest to this or Shine sunning. Maybe he probably

1328
01:12:57,560 --> 01:13:02,720
Speaker 1: remember they was trying to put the novel Weatherspoon in

1329
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:08,559
Speaker 1: for defensive purposes. Instead John Lucas and I spoke up

1330
01:13:08,600 --> 01:13:13,080
Speaker 1: in the like, hey, no, let my man rock, like

1331
01:13:13,160 --> 01:13:15,280
Speaker 1: I spoke up for John Luke and John Lucas. If

1332
01:13:15,280 --> 01:13:17,320
Speaker 1: you hit this, you no idea this this day too.

1333
01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:21,760
Speaker 1: I spoke up for my men. He said, no, keep

1334
01:13:21,800 --> 01:13:26,759
Speaker 1: him on. Luke at him. But I'm thinking, Joey Graham

1335
01:13:26,800 --> 01:13:28,680
Speaker 1: know the switch on the pick and roll. If not,

1336
01:13:28,960 --> 01:13:31,320
Speaker 1: if you're gonna doing a pick a row if we've

1337
01:13:31,320 --> 01:13:34,640
Speaker 1: been doing at least show up to make him go

1338
01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:39,880
Speaker 1: that way instead of down hill. He went for the hazel,

1339
01:13:42,120 --> 01:13:44,320
Speaker 1: I mean, and so so listen. So if you're just

1340
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:46,679
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a second, what do you guys talk about?

1341
01:13:46,920 --> 01:13:50,360
Speaker 1: So we'll buying him the guy who is singularly responsible

1342
01:13:50,479 --> 01:13:54,480
Speaker 1: you going to Crane High School and getting back into basketball,

1343
01:13:54,720 --> 01:13:59,719
Speaker 1: really getting back into basketball, right, ends up transferring. Everybody

1344
01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:01,280
Speaker 1: thought he is going to Oaklham State. Instead he goes

1345
01:14:01,320 --> 01:14:03,559
Speaker 1: to Georgia Tech. What are the chances you played Georgia

1346
01:14:03,600 --> 01:14:06,960
Speaker 1: Tech in the semi finals to play for a national championship.

1347
01:14:07,000 --> 01:14:09,160
Speaker 1: You guys have won the Big Twelve, the Big Twelve tournament.

1348
01:14:09,479 --> 01:14:12,280
Speaker 1: You guys, you know you have five pros and your

1349
01:14:12,280 --> 01:14:15,120
Speaker 1: starting lineup, and Stevie Graham became a pro. Actually Danny

1350
01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:17,280
Speaker 1: Bobbic wasn't a pro, but you had pros coming off

1351
01:14:17,280 --> 01:14:20,559
Speaker 1: the bench squad, right, and will buy him has the

1352
01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:26,200
Speaker 1: ball game tied, and that same dude will buy him

1353
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:29,720
Speaker 1: hits the game winner. And that was crazy because he

1354
01:14:29,760 --> 01:14:33,479
Speaker 1: could have easily been on our team and that as

1355
01:14:33,520 --> 01:14:35,519
Speaker 1: you said, like that, but he went there and then

1356
01:14:35,560 --> 01:14:38,360
Speaker 1: it came all the way back full circle to him

1357
01:14:38,439 --> 01:14:42,600
Speaker 1: beating us. His plan worked, I guess we could say,

1358
01:14:42,640 --> 01:14:46,960
Speaker 1: but uh, man tell us that he always pull it

1359
01:14:46,960 --> 01:14:48,679
Speaker 1: out the hat man, Hey man, you owe me lunch

1360
01:14:48,800 --> 01:14:51,680
Speaker 1: or lunch on you? Man, how because I beat you?

1361
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:55,800
Speaker 1: I can't get over that. And he always won those

1362
01:14:55,840 --> 01:14:59,360
Speaker 1: championships in the I T as well, he got the

1363
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:02,920
Speaker 1: those were kind of rigged. Uh, those are kind of rigged.

1364
01:15:02,920 --> 01:15:05,240
Speaker 1: They stacked their team too heavy. Man, every year they

1365
01:15:05,320 --> 01:15:08,599
Speaker 1: got like six pro Sometimes they get tricky and flash

1366
01:15:08,600 --> 01:15:13,320
Speaker 1: the guys in, so it's crazy. Yeah, I will point

1367
01:15:13,360 --> 01:15:15,240
Speaker 1: out though if that was rigged though. You know he

1368
01:15:15,280 --> 01:15:19,559
Speaker 1: had Jared jack big on Luke Schenscher, Right, who's that

1369
01:15:19,680 --> 01:15:22,280
Speaker 1: Who's that super athletic dude that they had is Ma'il

1370
01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:26,720
Speaker 1: Mohammed A bump couldn't play, but he could jump. Man,

1371
01:15:26,760 --> 01:15:31,960
Speaker 1: he wasn't nothing. It wasn't so all right now you

1372
01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:36,479
Speaker 1: get drafted. Hold on me. It ain't just because I

1373
01:15:36,600 --> 01:15:38,240
Speaker 1: see that. See you see how you just ready to

1374
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:43,439
Speaker 1: skip the part that that again drafted ain't no right,

1375
01:15:43,520 --> 01:15:47,120
Speaker 1: it's a privilege, you see what I'm saying. Yes, so

1376
01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:50,519
Speaker 1: the hard work you gotta put in and get into

1377
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:55,240
Speaker 1: the league. That it's a combat, it's a prep tests,

1378
01:15:55,560 --> 01:15:58,760
Speaker 1: mal work. At the time, it was I worked out

1379
01:15:58,760 --> 01:16:03,000
Speaker 1: for all of them. You see, I'm laying so when

1380
01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:06,920
Speaker 1: the moment you look at that, it's like, I don't

1381
01:16:06,920 --> 01:16:09,320
Speaker 1: know which one of these teams are gonna gonna draft.

1382
01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:13,120
Speaker 1: So it's like that time is the most stressful time

1383
01:16:13,120 --> 01:16:15,439
Speaker 1: because you're trying to sit back and see how it's

1384
01:16:15,479 --> 01:16:18,519
Speaker 1: gonna go. What's going on the damn I came back

1385
01:16:18,600 --> 01:16:22,719
Speaker 1: and work back for teams twice, which team won't me? Uh,

1386
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:24,479
Speaker 1: And it kind of discourage you to go to the

1387
01:16:24,520 --> 01:16:27,200
Speaker 1: green room. So you're not really for sure. If you

1388
01:16:27,240 --> 01:16:28,920
Speaker 1: don't know. When you're in the know, you're in the note.

1389
01:16:29,240 --> 01:16:32,240
Speaker 1: I was not in the note. So but this was

1390
01:16:32,280 --> 01:16:34,120
Speaker 1: the year my best shape in the world. Had I

1391
01:16:34,240 --> 01:16:36,040
Speaker 1: not went to the NBA, I want to say that

1392
01:16:36,400 --> 01:16:39,640
Speaker 1: I would have been probably a EuroLeague superstarker. I was

1393
01:16:39,680 --> 01:16:42,120
Speaker 1: in that much shape, you see what I'm saying. But

1394
01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:45,040
Speaker 1: speaking the draft day before draft day, I had my

1395
01:16:45,120 --> 01:16:47,479
Speaker 1: whole family come over to my mother's house on the

1396
01:16:47,520 --> 01:16:50,320
Speaker 1: West Side. When I was telling you that she she

1397
01:16:50,360 --> 01:16:51,600
Speaker 1: was still in the same house. That still in the

1398
01:16:51,640 --> 01:16:53,880
Speaker 1: same house, and I just had the hold I just

1399
01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:58,200
Speaker 1: remember the whole neighborhood here my name get drafted. Everybody

1400
01:16:58,280 --> 01:17:00,720
Speaker 1: ran out the house at the same time. It's like

1401
01:17:00,800 --> 01:17:03,120
Speaker 1: the whole neighborhood, like every door to door to door

1402
01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:05,759
Speaker 1: to door. The door just ran outside. I ran outside,

1403
01:17:06,560 --> 01:17:09,360
Speaker 1: jumped on my grandmama car, said Grandmama, you ain't driving

1404
01:17:09,360 --> 01:17:12,000
Speaker 1: this no more. We get you a new car. You know,

1405
01:17:12,080 --> 01:17:17,040
Speaker 1: recipes Hill to Jerreman, Grandmoma. But um, it was just

1406
01:17:17,280 --> 01:17:20,200
Speaker 1: did you get her call? Then she passed? She did

1407
01:17:20,320 --> 01:17:25,760
Speaker 1: before you get her ca Yeah she passed. They they

1408
01:17:25,840 --> 01:17:29,559
Speaker 1: she actually no, she didn't pass collect she actually got

1409
01:17:29,920 --> 01:17:31,920
Speaker 1: They told her she couldn't drive no more, she was

1410
01:17:31,960 --> 01:17:35,840
Speaker 1: too old to drap. So you told her she got

1411
01:17:35,920 --> 01:17:41,040
Speaker 1: a Catillac and she went down. It wasn't no, I couldn't. Boys. Okay,

1412
01:17:41,320 --> 01:17:44,519
Speaker 1: so you get drafted by the Boston Celtics. Yeah, but

1413
01:17:44,560 --> 01:17:47,200
Speaker 1: they also drafted Delante too, same you know, the same

1414
01:17:47,600 --> 01:17:49,880
Speaker 1: same draft right before you. All right, so you guys

1415
01:17:49,920 --> 01:17:52,639
Speaker 1: show up with the Boston Celtics. What do you remember

1416
01:17:52,680 --> 01:17:56,120
Speaker 1: about your you first get there? First day? I remember

1417
01:17:56,640 --> 01:18:00,320
Speaker 1: I didn't dress appropriately at all, No normally to have

1418
01:18:00,360 --> 01:18:03,720
Speaker 1: a suit on, and I had the Mitchell and ness

1419
01:18:04,200 --> 01:18:11,599
Speaker 1: Larry bird Jersey On. Yeah, but you know at that

1420
01:18:11,640 --> 01:18:14,360
Speaker 1: time was cracking. But you know, you want to come

1421
01:18:14,360 --> 01:18:16,880
Speaker 1: with a better image. You want to know if it's

1422
01:18:16,880 --> 01:18:19,280
Speaker 1: a larrys as long as the Larry bird wouldn't. I

1423
01:18:19,360 --> 01:18:23,679
Speaker 1: was thinking I was. I was thinking I was gonna

1424
01:18:23,680 --> 01:18:25,559
Speaker 1: get some love from Larry. You know, I ain't never

1425
01:18:25,640 --> 01:18:30,880
Speaker 1: had more conversation with every bird, but no man Al

1426
01:18:30,960 --> 01:18:34,280
Speaker 1: Jefferson Delante where they had suits. I just remember us

1427
01:18:34,360 --> 01:18:38,639
Speaker 1: coming in there, man taking the picture. Um, and just

1428
01:18:38,920 --> 01:18:41,599
Speaker 1: remember leaving, going back home, just training and getting ready

1429
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:46,040
Speaker 1: for the You remember your first NBA game? Do I

1430
01:18:46,120 --> 01:18:48,599
Speaker 1: remember my first? I don't remember my first what's your

1431
01:18:48,640 --> 01:18:53,000
Speaker 1: first memory of like I'm in the league? Um, now

1432
01:18:53,040 --> 01:18:57,719
Speaker 1: that I looked back, mm hmmm. Probably meet me Tip Duncan,

1433
01:18:57,760 --> 01:19:01,200
Speaker 1: Reggie Miller in the playoffs and pushing the ball in

1434
01:19:01,280 --> 01:19:05,439
Speaker 1: the stomach. What was that? Like? I thought, I rapt.

1435
01:19:06,120 --> 01:19:08,000
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, I just tipped off Reggie Miller

1436
01:19:09,040 --> 01:19:11,840
Speaker 1: and I was lit. I was like excited, and then

1437
01:19:11,880 --> 01:19:14,479
Speaker 1: it was a rute awakening. In the next game, he

1438
01:19:14,560 --> 01:19:18,720
Speaker 1: had like thirty something something he like destroyed me and

1439
01:19:18,760 --> 01:19:21,240
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, that was my that was my

1440
01:19:21,479 --> 01:19:24,000
Speaker 1: understanding to know you never talk stuff and tell the

1441
01:19:24,040 --> 01:19:27,439
Speaker 1: fat Lady scene and he is a Hall of Fame

1442
01:19:27,479 --> 01:19:29,880
Speaker 1: and he made me believe it. So you have you

1443
01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:33,600
Speaker 1: show up and Anton Walkers on your team? Right, So

1444
01:19:33,720 --> 01:19:36,599
Speaker 1: did he take you under his win? You got Antoine Walker,

1445
01:19:37,600 --> 01:19:42,439
Speaker 1: have Gary Payton, Gary pay Antoine walcome Mark Blunt, I

1446
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:45,719
Speaker 1: mean not wait for the flance man blood, Gary Payton,

1447
01:19:45,720 --> 01:19:48,400
Speaker 1: Antoine Walker. Yeah, that's a good little hangout team too. Yeah.

1448
01:19:48,800 --> 01:19:50,840
Speaker 1: It was one of those. Um, it was one of

1449
01:19:50,880 --> 01:19:54,679
Speaker 1: those things like I was just learning picking up everything,

1450
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:58,439
Speaker 1: just trying to Da Davis. I was just trying to

1451
01:19:58,439 --> 01:20:00,680
Speaker 1: pick up you know, the dudes and don't you know.

1452
01:20:01,400 --> 01:20:04,759
Speaker 1: Um but far as picking up under the wing, Paul

1453
01:20:04,960 --> 01:20:08,439
Speaker 1: was the one who pretty much gravitate. I gravitated to well,

1454
01:20:08,479 --> 01:20:11,320
Speaker 1: he pretty much put me on his wing because a

1455
01:20:11,360 --> 01:20:13,479
Speaker 1: lot of times he just had me doing a lot

1456
01:20:13,479 --> 01:20:16,880
Speaker 1: of stuff like going to get the donuts or you know,

1457
01:20:17,080 --> 01:20:23,240
Speaker 1: just the NBA hazing type stuff like, um, how did

1458
01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:26,519
Speaker 1: how did Paul Pierce get shots off? And he like

1459
01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:30,000
Speaker 1: he shouldn't be quick enough to go buy anybody, right,

1460
01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:33,160
Speaker 1: He like he shouldn't. That's you know what I'm just

1461
01:20:33,200 --> 01:20:35,040
Speaker 1: telling this. The other day, man, I was like, yo,

1462
01:20:35,520 --> 01:20:40,040
Speaker 1: part of that step back move. I was like, Yo,

1463
01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:42,800
Speaker 1: you kind of perfected it. You made it, you made

1464
01:20:42,800 --> 01:20:46,400
Speaker 1: it to what it is um for the game today.

1465
01:20:46,439 --> 01:20:48,640
Speaker 1: I believe because the way he was doing it at

1466
01:20:48,680 --> 01:20:51,920
Speaker 1: the time, he wasn't the fastest. He wasn't you know,

1467
01:20:54,560 --> 01:20:57,960
Speaker 1: jumping over or you couldn't jump over people exactly. And um,

1468
01:20:58,040 --> 01:21:01,479
Speaker 1: just the way he uses footwork, I believe it was

1469
01:21:01,560 --> 01:21:07,320
Speaker 1: more key than the speed. Um. It was tough. I

1470
01:21:07,360 --> 01:21:11,599
Speaker 1: mean we played keen to the court almostly before every

1471
01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:16,920
Speaker 1: practice and he would always demonstrate that move and it

1472
01:21:17,040 --> 01:21:19,519
Speaker 1: was like man clockwork when he got into games. Great carry,

1473
01:21:19,880 --> 01:21:21,960
Speaker 1: you know, the thing that's always impressive about you. So

1474
01:21:22,400 --> 01:21:25,320
Speaker 1: what's interesting is now when people think of you, they

1475
01:21:25,320 --> 01:21:29,320
Speaker 1: think of grandfather, They think of the defense right first, okay,

1476
01:21:29,320 --> 01:21:31,400
Speaker 1: but when I think of you, I think of, yeah,

1477
01:21:31,400 --> 01:21:35,040
Speaker 1: you had all that stuff. But also, no one could

1478
01:21:35,120 --> 01:21:38,040
Speaker 1: keep you from getting to the rim when you're when

1479
01:21:38,040 --> 01:21:40,120
Speaker 1: you're in college, nobody keep you from getting to the rim.

1480
01:21:40,240 --> 01:21:42,360
Speaker 1: I couldn't keep it from the rim. Great ball handler,

1481
01:21:42,479 --> 01:21:46,840
Speaker 1: unbelievable finish around the basket. But because you know you,

1482
01:21:47,040 --> 01:21:50,120
Speaker 1: it felt like you. At some point in the NBA

1483
01:21:50,200 --> 01:21:52,800
Speaker 1: decided like hey, I want to make my money by

1484
01:21:52,880 --> 01:21:56,320
Speaker 1: garden people, not by shooting jump shots and becoming some

1485
01:21:56,360 --> 01:22:00,360
Speaker 1: three point shooter average. How did that? How that mentality? Had?

1486
01:22:00,400 --> 01:22:03,760
Speaker 1: That mentality flipped? I think it flipped after I told

1487
01:22:03,800 --> 01:22:08,799
Speaker 1: about knee up your second here. I don't even remember.

1488
01:22:08,920 --> 01:22:13,040
Speaker 1: I think it was probably my third year. You remember

1489
01:22:13,040 --> 01:22:17,439
Speaker 1: tearing your knee? Remember? Remember remember just not eating probably

1490
01:22:17,479 --> 01:22:21,760
Speaker 1: that day. Uh, I think I had some I think

1491
01:22:21,800 --> 01:22:24,479
Speaker 1: I might have ate some hot wings or some some

1492
01:22:24,479 --> 01:22:31,479
Speaker 1: some some some bull. I remember not getting enough, uh

1493
01:22:32,040 --> 01:22:34,080
Speaker 1: sleep in my pre game. You know, normally I try

1494
01:22:34,120 --> 01:22:35,960
Speaker 1: to get four hours of sleep before I played in

1495
01:22:35,960 --> 01:22:38,640
Speaker 1: the game. Wait four hours for the game. You can.

1496
01:22:38,840 --> 01:22:41,160
Speaker 1: You can nap four hours. Then you're going out all night.

1497
01:22:41,960 --> 01:22:45,240
Speaker 1: Not pretty much. You can do a four hour nap.

1498
01:22:45,840 --> 01:22:49,559
Speaker 1: You haven't, Like like Gary Payton, that was his life, right,

1499
01:22:49,600 --> 01:22:52,599
Speaker 1: Like Gary would go out and then he put down

1500
01:22:52,600 --> 01:22:54,360
Speaker 1: his beer, go to shoot around and then sleep all

1501
01:22:54,439 --> 01:22:55,960
Speaker 1: day and then you go and hoop and they do

1502
01:22:56,000 --> 01:22:58,519
Speaker 1: it again. Right, that was right. But I wasn't like that.

1503
01:22:58,600 --> 01:23:05,120
Speaker 1: I was. I was was so like when I was young. Okay,

1504
01:23:05,120 --> 01:23:07,680
Speaker 1: this is my second third year, But that wasn't for

1505
01:23:07,760 --> 01:23:10,280
Speaker 1: the regiment. That wasn't for the regiment, my regiment. When

1506
01:23:10,280 --> 01:23:12,400
Speaker 1: I actually when I was playing, I don't know for real,

1507
01:23:12,439 --> 01:23:15,280
Speaker 1: Actually when I was playing, I didn't. I didn't go

1508
01:23:15,320 --> 01:23:17,000
Speaker 1: out as much as I was when I was playing

1509
01:23:17,040 --> 01:23:19,200
Speaker 1: because I was always trying to get ready for the

1510
01:23:19,240 --> 01:23:21,519
Speaker 1: game before and I wanted to perform. So if I

1511
01:23:21,560 --> 01:23:24,920
Speaker 1: had a like a big time game, for sure, I'm

1512
01:23:24,920 --> 01:23:28,719
Speaker 1: not getting I'm I'm going to sleep. And the only

1513
01:23:28,720 --> 01:23:31,280
Speaker 1: time I would probably be out is when we got

1514
01:23:31,320 --> 01:23:33,719
Speaker 1: the day off like something like that during the season.

1515
01:23:33,760 --> 01:23:37,479
Speaker 1: You gotta be real conservative with that, so you but

1516
01:23:37,520 --> 01:23:39,880
Speaker 1: that specific day, like I know, I didn't, I didn't

1517
01:23:39,960 --> 01:23:42,240
Speaker 1: prep well, like I didn't prepare well, like I didn't

1518
01:23:42,280 --> 01:23:44,599
Speaker 1: really know like if I was doing the right things

1519
01:23:44,640 --> 01:23:46,600
Speaker 1: to be a pro to feed my body right, you

1520
01:23:46,640 --> 01:23:50,880
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Uh, sleep well, eating getting vitamins

1521
01:23:50,880 --> 01:23:52,920
Speaker 1: and you know, just eating the right stuff. And I

1522
01:23:52,960 --> 01:23:54,639
Speaker 1: just felt they had a lot to do with me

1523
01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:59,240
Speaker 1: getting that injury. And my grandma was at that game, man,

1524
01:23:59,840 --> 01:24:03,760
Speaker 1: and did what she said, Do you remember what anybody said?

1525
01:24:03,760 --> 01:24:05,120
Speaker 1: Do you after? What did you knew? Did you know?

1526
01:24:05,160 --> 01:24:06,880
Speaker 1: You to it? Right away? I know how to, I

1527
01:24:07,040 --> 01:24:08,720
Speaker 1: know to as soon as I as soon as I

1528
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:11,479
Speaker 1: walked off the court, and I just remember my grandma,

1529
01:24:12,439 --> 01:24:15,000
Speaker 1: you know, telling me I'm be all right. It was

1530
01:24:15,080 --> 01:24:18,120
Speaker 1: right after that when I got the process and getting

1531
01:24:18,120 --> 01:24:22,679
Speaker 1: healthy and strengthening my body. I knew that process was tough,

1532
01:24:22,720 --> 01:24:24,840
Speaker 1: and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to, you know,

1533
01:24:25,880 --> 01:24:28,640
Speaker 1: catch it on the break and win mill it with

1534
01:24:28,760 --> 01:24:31,000
Speaker 1: ease like no more. I knew it was I had

1535
01:24:31,040 --> 01:24:34,960
Speaker 1: to compensate, and I knew I had to make the

1536
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:38,360
Speaker 1: best of my athletic ability at the moment. And for

1537
01:24:38,439 --> 01:24:41,839
Speaker 1: the most part, I put all that energy and hustle,

1538
01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:43,880
Speaker 1: I mean, put all that energy and effort into my

1539
01:24:44,000 --> 01:24:48,920
Speaker 1: hustle and just trying to outcompete. So then you go

1540
01:24:49,000 --> 01:24:53,240
Speaker 1: to Memphis. Tell me about going from Boston to Memphis, right,

1541
01:24:53,280 --> 01:24:55,400
Speaker 1: because it was like that's kind of all you had

1542
01:24:55,439 --> 01:24:58,040
Speaker 1: known in the NBA was your first six years in Boston, Right.

1543
01:24:58,400 --> 01:25:00,360
Speaker 1: But I picked up a lot though, Like that's the

1544
01:25:00,400 --> 01:25:02,080
Speaker 1: thing I picked up a lot of in Boston. I

1545
01:25:02,120 --> 01:25:04,400
Speaker 1: picked up how to be a pro because at first

1546
01:25:04,600 --> 01:25:06,840
Speaker 1: I was blind, didn't know I was around a lot

1547
01:25:06,880 --> 01:25:10,559
Speaker 1: of loose vets, you see what I'm saying, Like, But

1548
01:25:10,640 --> 01:25:19,519
Speaker 1: then once Kevin ray p STARp maturing, and it was like, okay, my, my,

1549
01:25:19,520 --> 01:25:23,800
Speaker 1: my proper preparation gonna poor performance. You see what I'm saying.

1550
01:25:24,200 --> 01:25:26,160
Speaker 1: So I gotta prepare better. I gotta eat bet, I

1551
01:25:26,160 --> 01:25:29,640
Speaker 1: gotta rest early, I gotta I gotta study film. I

1552
01:25:29,640 --> 01:25:34,120
Speaker 1: gotta like I picked up those habits in Boston, you know,

1553
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:37,800
Speaker 1: watching James Posey watch film before every game, you know,

1554
01:25:37,920 --> 01:25:40,240
Speaker 1: watching him take the film home, watch it come back.

1555
01:25:40,720 --> 01:25:45,760
Speaker 1: I got that from James Posey, like watching ticket like

1556
01:25:45,840 --> 01:25:48,280
Speaker 1: he just I'm talking about getting the full meditating mode.

1557
01:25:48,360 --> 01:25:51,280
Speaker 1: Just comment is that self down so he won't be

1558
01:25:51,280 --> 01:25:54,360
Speaker 1: too hyped. I saw Ray Allen read books before the game,

1559
01:25:54,960 --> 01:25:56,479
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, just to calm him down

1560
01:25:56,479 --> 01:25:59,479
Speaker 1: and get ready for a game. Sitting contract contrast his

1561
01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:03,400
Speaker 1: body hold to up to faithfully. I watched Paul get

1562
01:26:03,439 --> 01:26:06,519
Speaker 1: him back Masside before every game coming there. He was

1563
01:26:06,640 --> 01:26:08,360
Speaker 1: more of a loose kind of guy, you know. He

1564
01:26:08,360 --> 01:26:10,639
Speaker 1: he could he could clack a function in that he

1565
01:26:10,760 --> 01:26:13,599
Speaker 1: and the hahun before the games. You know, he kind

1566
01:26:13,600 --> 01:26:17,680
Speaker 1: of got that kind of focus and he the way

1567
01:26:17,720 --> 01:26:20,200
Speaker 1: he pulled a locker room together. I took all that man,

1568
01:26:21,560 --> 01:26:24,360
Speaker 1: took it to Memphis and just told to show them

1569
01:26:24,400 --> 01:26:26,439
Speaker 1: how a way of winning is, a way of getting

1570
01:26:26,439 --> 01:26:30,280
Speaker 1: ready is and helped with other guys. You know what

1571
01:26:30,320 --> 01:26:31,920
Speaker 1: I'm saying. All Right, so let's let's get to the

1572
01:26:31,920 --> 01:26:36,920
Speaker 1: Boston team. Uh So, first everybody said KG didn't want

1573
01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:39,080
Speaker 1: to go to Boston. Why they say that? They said,

1574
01:26:39,120 --> 01:26:41,280
Speaker 1: Boston's racist town. They don't want to go to That

1575
01:26:41,640 --> 01:26:45,400
Speaker 1: was the rumor. That was the story that. So did

1576
01:26:45,400 --> 01:26:49,080
Speaker 1: he call you before? He before he because he had Okay,

1577
01:26:49,120 --> 01:26:52,240
Speaker 1: the trade? Right? Did KG? You knew I had no ticket?

1578
01:26:52,720 --> 01:26:54,120
Speaker 1: I mean I know he only played it one year

1579
01:26:54,160 --> 01:26:57,800
Speaker 1: in Chicago before he came to Boston. Like did you

1580
01:26:57,840 --> 01:26:59,960
Speaker 1: know all this stuff was going down where you fall

1581
01:27:00,000 --> 01:27:02,000
Speaker 1: on it? Like everybody else? Like, hold on, we just

1582
01:27:02,040 --> 01:27:06,559
Speaker 1: got who and what? Now? See what happened was let's

1583
01:27:06,640 --> 01:27:10,880
Speaker 1: let's put it all the way out there. Paul piz

1584
01:27:11,840 --> 01:27:15,720
Speaker 1: had demanded the trade that year. I told my leg,

1585
01:27:17,479 --> 01:27:20,439
Speaker 1: and we tanked that year. I think this is the

1586
01:27:20,479 --> 01:27:24,639
Speaker 1: first year tanking, I believe. Actually Boston tank once before

1587
01:27:25,200 --> 01:27:28,120
Speaker 1: Boston tank when Rick Pettino was the coach trying to

1588
01:27:28,120 --> 01:27:32,599
Speaker 1: get Tim Duncan instead. They got a history of that. Okay,

1589
01:27:32,600 --> 01:27:34,880
Speaker 1: Well I thought it was I thought because I never

1590
01:27:34,920 --> 01:27:36,920
Speaker 1: heard of it as I was in it. I like, yeah,

1591
01:27:36,960 --> 01:27:39,640
Speaker 1: we're trying to lose, and it would be evident and

1592
01:27:39,640 --> 01:27:41,439
Speaker 1: you would be like, yo, Paul pis gotta sit out

1593
01:27:41,439 --> 01:27:44,680
Speaker 1: the last eight minutes and then it was obvious. So

1594
01:27:44,760 --> 01:27:50,800
Speaker 1: but um, getting those guys, I thought I was out

1595
01:27:50,800 --> 01:27:52,720
Speaker 1: of that. The first thing he's smoking. I saw three

1596
01:27:52,760 --> 01:27:56,320
Speaker 1: of the guys who I got drafted with leave within

1597
01:27:56,360 --> 01:28:00,200
Speaker 1: a month to get Ray Allen, So I already knew, like, yo,

1598
01:28:00,280 --> 01:28:05,120
Speaker 1: I'm up next to get this kg trade boom end

1599
01:28:05,240 --> 01:28:07,479
Speaker 1: up having they took uh. I think they ended up

1600
01:28:07,479 --> 01:28:09,840
Speaker 1: taking somebody for the trade. I forgot what they gave up,

1601
01:28:11,160 --> 01:28:15,240
Speaker 1: but I was thankful for being and not being in

1602
01:28:15,280 --> 01:28:19,240
Speaker 1: those trades. Whatso than being in what was? What was

1603
01:28:19,360 --> 01:28:23,520
Speaker 1: Rondo like with those dudes. Rondo he had his own personality.

1604
01:28:23,760 --> 01:28:28,120
Speaker 1: He had that like uh uh Ego he was he

1605
01:28:28,200 --> 01:28:30,560
Speaker 1: was he was, he was Ego tripping. You know, he

1606
01:28:30,880 --> 01:28:34,040
Speaker 1: felt he was better than the respect that they was

1607
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:36,519
Speaker 1: giving him. And he knew he was better than that

1608
01:28:37,479 --> 01:28:39,320
Speaker 1: from the times where he wasn't playing because at one

1609
01:28:39,320 --> 01:28:42,080
Speaker 1: point Roundo wasn't even playing for the Celtics and we

1610
01:28:42,080 --> 01:28:45,080
Speaker 1: were bad. But you know, he got his opportunity. He

1611
01:28:45,240 --> 01:28:50,320
Speaker 1: shined the next year. Actually we started the year he

1612
01:28:50,360 --> 01:28:54,840
Speaker 1: didn't play. He got the opportunity. We tanked, he gave

1613
01:28:54,880 --> 01:28:57,120
Speaker 1: They gave him the keys the next year, and I

1614
01:28:57,200 --> 01:29:01,599
Speaker 1: don't think they was really respecting his presidents at the time,

1615
01:29:02,000 --> 01:29:04,880
Speaker 1: and I think that kind of bothered him and he

1616
01:29:04,920 --> 01:29:07,200
Speaker 1: showed him like, man, I'm forced to be reckon with

1617
01:29:07,360 --> 01:29:10,720
Speaker 1: one a championship in his third year. You know, if

1618
01:29:11,000 --> 01:29:13,880
Speaker 1: you were to describe what made Kevin Garnett, because at

1619
01:29:13,920 --> 01:29:17,000
Speaker 1: that at that point, Kevin Garnett probably the best player

1620
01:29:17,000 --> 01:29:22,200
Speaker 1: in the league, right that, No, well, Kobe was mombled

1621
01:29:22,240 --> 01:29:26,200
Speaker 1: in and I understand, so who's better because I I know, like, look,

1622
01:29:26,200 --> 01:29:28,880
Speaker 1: we're in l A. I know Kobe. Kobe is unbelievable.

1623
01:29:28,880 --> 01:29:31,680
Speaker 1: I'm saying in that particular like it felt to me.

1624
01:29:31,840 --> 01:29:35,519
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Kg, I'm not sure he gets the

1625
01:29:35,640 --> 01:29:39,360
Speaker 1: respect that he deserves and if that's fair because he

1626
01:29:39,400 --> 01:29:42,200
Speaker 1: played so many bad teams in Minnesota, right did that

1627
01:29:42,280 --> 01:29:44,640
Speaker 1: one team to went to the the Eastern Conference finals and

1628
01:29:44,640 --> 01:29:48,160
Speaker 1: then they blew it up? I mean, dude was seven

1629
01:29:48,160 --> 01:29:52,400
Speaker 1: footer or who could do everything at both ends. Kobe

1630
01:29:52,400 --> 01:29:55,000
Speaker 1: for his career better you lived it so I don't

1631
01:29:55,040 --> 01:29:56,760
Speaker 1: know what you tell me. I don't know if when

1632
01:29:56,760 --> 01:29:58,800
Speaker 1: you played in the NBA finals that year, who was

1633
01:29:58,800 --> 01:30:07,080
Speaker 1: the best player in the court, be K Paul Finals?

1634
01:30:09,880 --> 01:30:12,439
Speaker 1: But also Paul wasn't that the year? Was that the

1635
01:30:12,520 --> 01:30:15,040
Speaker 1: year that Paul got got carried off with the wheelchair?

1636
01:30:15,120 --> 01:30:17,719
Speaker 1: I think so. But all I'm saying is to say

1637
01:30:17,920 --> 01:30:24,640
Speaker 1: that's two different comparisons. But say what what KG specifically?

1638
01:30:24,720 --> 01:30:31,640
Speaker 1: Specifically KG his intensity and his level of disrespect to

1639
01:30:31,720 --> 01:30:34,200
Speaker 1: his opponent when he planned. He don't want to shake

1640
01:30:34,240 --> 01:30:37,200
Speaker 1: your hand, He don't want to talk to you, he

1641
01:30:37,320 --> 01:30:40,320
Speaker 1: might not even tap you up. Everything he's saying to

1642
01:30:40,360 --> 01:30:44,200
Speaker 1: you is it's like ferocious. Is his spit coming out

1643
01:30:44,200 --> 01:30:48,519
Speaker 1: of his mouth. It's like he's like a he liked that,

1644
01:30:49,240 --> 01:30:52,439
Speaker 1: he liked that. That wrestler you don't like, You might

1645
01:30:52,479 --> 01:30:56,160
Speaker 1: not want to wrestle with because the intro is too vicious,

1646
01:30:56,840 --> 01:30:59,760
Speaker 1: and I think he attimidates you before you even get

1647
01:30:59,800 --> 01:31:03,400
Speaker 1: on the court. And actually when he's actually dominating and

1648
01:31:03,560 --> 01:31:06,479
Speaker 1: putting all that and work, it's like he's unstoppable. Here's

1649
01:31:06,479 --> 01:31:08,360
Speaker 1: a guy you picking, you pick and roll when he

1650
01:31:08,360 --> 01:31:10,720
Speaker 1: could pick a pop bam. Here's a guy you pick

1651
01:31:10,760 --> 01:31:12,960
Speaker 1: a roll, he can go get the lob boom. He's

1652
01:31:12,960 --> 01:31:14,439
Speaker 1: a guy you come up to pick a row, he

1653
01:31:14,479 --> 01:31:16,960
Speaker 1: can might rip. He might a ripped the guard and

1654
01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:19,519
Speaker 1: be on the fast breakback. Sell. I told you could

1655
01:31:19,560 --> 01:31:22,080
Speaker 1: dribble a little bit, got a little cross over, might

1656
01:31:22,200 --> 01:31:25,160
Speaker 1: take You know he's gonna listen. Well, my senior year,

1657
01:31:25,920 --> 01:31:28,960
Speaker 1: Chauncey got hurt at the McDonald's game. So I got

1658
01:31:29,000 --> 01:31:31,599
Speaker 1: the feeling for Chauncey at the Magic's roundball game where

1659
01:31:31,680 --> 01:31:36,320
Speaker 1: I don't know that. So I show up and Paul's

1660
01:31:36,360 --> 01:31:41,360
Speaker 1: on my team, and you know, it's like Sharif abdur Rahim,

1661
01:31:42,200 --> 01:31:48,680
Speaker 1: Stephan Marbury, I mean tractor trailer and yeah, and we

1662
01:31:48,720 --> 01:31:50,320
Speaker 1: had there was all these I mean, all of these

1663
01:31:50,320 --> 01:31:53,560
Speaker 1: guys are pros. And KG wasn't there because he was

1664
01:31:53,600 --> 01:31:55,680
Speaker 1: studying for the s A T. He took the s

1665
01:31:55,720 --> 01:31:57,759
Speaker 1: A T on Saturday, showed up at the banquet Saturday

1666
01:31:57,800 --> 01:32:00,640
Speaker 1: night in the game was Sunday in Detroit, and like,

1667
01:32:00,720 --> 01:32:02,439
Speaker 1: you know, you practice all week and there's some really

1668
01:32:02,520 --> 01:32:05,599
Speaker 1: like these are some the best players in the country.

1669
01:32:05,600 --> 01:32:08,000
Speaker 1: You're like, man, these guys are really good. KG shows

1670
01:32:08,040 --> 01:32:09,920
Speaker 1: up the next day and Vince Carter was in that

1671
01:32:09,960 --> 01:32:13,000
Speaker 1: game too, Vince. Like they didn't even have a dunk contest.

1672
01:32:13,000 --> 01:32:14,880
Speaker 1: He's like two dunks, and ever was like, you're good, Vince,

1673
01:32:14,920 --> 01:32:20,479
Speaker 1: you got it, Ron Mercer. So KG plays in that game,

1674
01:32:20,600 --> 01:32:24,160
Speaker 1: and he was this much better than everybody else. Now, look,

1675
01:32:24,200 --> 01:32:27,000
Speaker 1: Paul Pierce became equally good as a pro. And I'm

1676
01:32:27,040 --> 01:32:29,400
Speaker 1: just telling you, like in high school, like Kevin Garnett

1677
01:32:29,439 --> 01:32:31,479
Speaker 1: was so much better than anybody'd ever seen play high

1678
01:32:31,520 --> 01:32:34,439
Speaker 1: school basketball. It was it was silly. So I don't

1679
01:32:34,439 --> 01:32:37,720
Speaker 1: know if historically people are gonna understand, because I do

1680
01:32:37,760 --> 01:32:40,479
Speaker 1: think when we look back at your generation of NBA,

1681
01:32:40,760 --> 01:32:45,559
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna say Kobe, everybody's gonna say Tim Duncan, right, Um,

1682
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:48,880
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit younger Dwayne Wade, and we'll get

1683
01:32:48,920 --> 01:32:52,479
Speaker 1: to obviously Lebron Um. I don't know how Vince car

1684
01:32:52,479 --> 01:32:55,040
Speaker 1: is still playing, but like that dude still still hooping.

1685
01:32:55,439 --> 01:32:58,479
Speaker 1: But I don't know if KG, we'll get the and Paul,

1686
01:32:58,560 --> 01:33:00,600
Speaker 1: probably because he's on TV, does get the and he

1687
01:33:00,600 --> 01:33:03,880
Speaker 1: was the finals MVP. KG was unbelievable. I mean, he

1688
01:33:03,960 --> 01:33:07,160
Speaker 1: was unbelievable. All right, what about tell me about he

1689
01:33:07,200 --> 01:33:09,600
Speaker 1: says he shipped his pants, right, that was that's his

1690
01:33:09,680 --> 01:33:11,720
Speaker 1: thing now, right that the real reason that I was

1691
01:33:11,720 --> 01:33:15,439
Speaker 1: getting carried off was because what really happened when he

1692
01:33:15,479 --> 01:33:17,000
Speaker 1: got carried off the court in the NBA Final, And

1693
01:33:17,040 --> 01:33:20,760
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know the uh. I mean, you're from

1694
01:33:20,760 --> 01:33:22,880
Speaker 1: the South side of Chicago. You're watching the dude get

1695
01:33:22,920 --> 01:33:26,599
Speaker 1: wheelchaired off, carried off like he's dying. You got all

1696
01:33:26,640 --> 01:33:30,000
Speaker 1: these tough dudes, and he's getting weird. You had to

1697
01:33:30,000 --> 01:33:32,680
Speaker 1: clown him on some level. No, No, I ain't gonna.

1698
01:33:32,760 --> 01:33:36,200
Speaker 1: I had so many paths of uh in my butt

1699
01:33:36,240 --> 01:33:38,840
Speaker 1: man from sitting on that bench. Man, I thought it

1700
01:33:38,960 --> 01:33:41,640
Speaker 1: was actually my opportunity to go out there, and so

1701
01:33:41,880 --> 01:33:45,080
Speaker 1: to the world it ton reality, it's one of that

1702
01:33:45,240 --> 01:33:49,200
Speaker 1: back the most slept on brothers in the league. That

1703
01:33:49,280 --> 01:33:54,479
Speaker 1: did happen. He came back and uh, all I remember

1704
01:33:54,520 --> 01:33:56,680
Speaker 1: is him hitting me on my shoulder so hard, like

1705
01:33:56,800 --> 01:34:01,559
Speaker 1: let's go, and I'm like, yo, well that idea was dead.

1706
01:34:02,439 --> 01:34:05,400
Speaker 1: And then and then I'll remember just chating for my

1707
01:34:05,439 --> 01:34:08,240
Speaker 1: teammates and uh. They say he went over there and

1708
01:34:08,360 --> 01:34:12,480
Speaker 1: um did what he did. But like the great songs say,

1709
01:34:13,120 --> 01:34:17,080
Speaker 1: um ice q, he win came out feeling about ten

1710
01:34:17,160 --> 01:34:20,360
Speaker 1: pound light up and uh, he hit fat threes? Man?

1711
01:34:20,600 --> 01:34:24,000
Speaker 1: What can I say? Man? What? What what is that like? Though?

1712
01:34:24,040 --> 01:34:26,840
Speaker 1: To be and you did play last three games you played?

1713
01:34:27,560 --> 01:34:29,479
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I got a little, I got a little,

1714
01:34:29,720 --> 01:34:31,479
Speaker 1: he got little burnt, a little burn. I think Game

1715
01:34:31,520 --> 01:34:34,519
Speaker 1: five he got the most burn um. But to win

1716
01:34:34,560 --> 01:34:38,360
Speaker 1: a championship but not get to play that much? Is

1717
01:34:38,400 --> 01:34:40,560
Speaker 1: there like now when you look at back emotionally, do

1718
01:34:40,600 --> 01:34:42,920
Speaker 1: you feel as tied to that team or do you

1719
01:34:42,920 --> 01:34:44,880
Speaker 1: feel less tied to it? Because like, I got a buddy.

1720
01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:46,760
Speaker 1: His name is Joe Smith. All right, Joe pitches for

1721
01:34:46,760 --> 01:34:50,080
Speaker 1: the Houston Astros. He was on the Cubs when they

1722
01:34:50,120 --> 01:34:52,519
Speaker 1: won the championship, all right, first one in over a

1723
01:34:52,600 --> 01:34:55,759
Speaker 1: hundred years. But he didn't pitch in the World Series.

1724
01:34:56,680 --> 01:34:58,519
Speaker 1: And he's got the ring and everything, and he's like,

1725
01:34:59,000 --> 01:35:02,600
Speaker 1: and he has lost with the Astros this year, and

1726
01:35:02,600 --> 01:35:06,080
Speaker 1: he lost with the Indians before, and he's like, man,

1727
01:35:06,160 --> 01:35:08,080
Speaker 1: I'm just to tell you it was way better to

1728
01:35:08,160 --> 01:35:10,439
Speaker 1: have lost with the Indians, that organization he came up

1729
01:35:10,479 --> 01:35:13,960
Speaker 1: with and actually pitched, than to not pitch and win

1730
01:35:14,000 --> 01:35:19,720
Speaker 1: it with the Cups. He's like, both ways, I think

1731
01:35:19,720 --> 01:35:21,640
Speaker 1: it were both ways, because you gotta look at it

1732
01:35:21,720 --> 01:35:24,559
Speaker 1: like this man with basketball. You know, it's it's good

1733
01:35:24,560 --> 01:35:28,479
Speaker 1: for your resume. John Sally got John Sally got a

1734
01:35:28,520 --> 01:35:32,160
Speaker 1: gang of rings. I understand. But you're also a super

1735
01:35:32,240 --> 01:35:34,360
Speaker 1: like it's a it's a I think it's a great

1736
01:35:34,439 --> 01:35:36,200
Speaker 1: attribute to have, Like I have something. I have A

1737
01:35:36,280 --> 01:35:39,040
Speaker 1: son is ten years old and he's playing on my

1738
01:35:39,080 --> 01:35:41,760
Speaker 1: team and an other team and sometimes didn't play as much,

1739
01:35:41,840 --> 01:35:43,160
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, look, dude, you gotta be a

1740
01:35:43,200 --> 01:35:46,479
Speaker 1: good teammate. And like exactly I was going. But that's

1741
01:35:46,479 --> 01:35:48,719
Speaker 1: a hard thing to do too. When you're a super

1742
01:35:48,720 --> 01:35:51,360
Speaker 1: competitive dude who's sitting over there, Paul gets hurt, He's like,

1743
01:35:51,400 --> 01:35:54,840
Speaker 1: this is my moment. And then you don't play and

1744
01:35:55,200 --> 01:35:57,679
Speaker 1: but to cheer for other people. You are on the team,

1745
01:35:58,080 --> 01:36:00,160
Speaker 1: but you didn't contribute as much as you wanted. And

1746
01:36:00,200 --> 01:36:02,160
Speaker 1: then as you get old, you gotta realize you gotta

1747
01:36:02,560 --> 01:36:05,760
Speaker 1: gotta also everybody's put in position to do what they're

1748
01:36:05,760 --> 01:36:09,040
Speaker 1: gonna do right, and you gotta realize what's best for

1749
01:36:09,080 --> 01:36:11,120
Speaker 1: the team is what's best for the team. So the

1750
01:36:11,200 --> 01:36:14,880
Speaker 1: groundwork that you're putting in behind the scenes, it's just

1751
01:36:15,040 --> 01:36:18,440
Speaker 1: as important as whoever gets to you know, the celebration

1752
01:36:18,520 --> 01:36:20,320
Speaker 1: you get what I'm saying, because and one, at the

1753
01:36:20,400 --> 01:36:22,920
Speaker 1: end of the day, once it ain't no one person

1754
01:36:22,960 --> 01:36:25,280
Speaker 1: winn as we all win. So once you keep that

1755
01:36:25,360 --> 01:36:27,280
Speaker 1: in man and understand that you was part of the

1756
01:36:27,320 --> 01:36:30,840
Speaker 1: stepping stones and moving forward and getting a goal, you know,

1757
01:36:31,280 --> 01:36:32,920
Speaker 1: you take it with the grand sal This is on

1758
01:36:33,000 --> 01:36:35,400
Speaker 1: my resume. I'm a champion, you know what I mean.

1759
01:36:36,439 --> 01:36:38,679
Speaker 1: But hey, I like John Salley. He got like three

1760
01:36:38,720 --> 01:36:40,559
Speaker 1: for rings, you know what I'm saying, But his boat,

1761
01:36:40,640 --> 01:36:44,320
Speaker 1: his best memories are. Man, that that the camaraderiea gathered

1762
01:36:44,400 --> 01:36:47,639
Speaker 1: with these guys, the the common goal that we all

1763
01:36:47,680 --> 01:36:50,559
Speaker 1: stuck forth and stuck to to to go get you know,

1764
01:36:50,720 --> 01:36:54,479
Speaker 1: I think that that part, you know, acknowledge you get

1765
01:36:54,520 --> 01:36:57,719
Speaker 1: to gather up and you know, get to the generation above.

1766
01:36:57,920 --> 01:37:00,040
Speaker 1: I mean under you. Why why couldn't you got to

1767
01:37:00,160 --> 01:37:02,200
Speaker 1: get back there? Why wasn't the same after that? I

1768
01:37:02,240 --> 01:37:04,320
Speaker 1: think we did get back there to the finals. I

1769
01:37:04,320 --> 01:37:07,600
Speaker 1: think just Perk got hurt two thousand teen, uh, but

1770
01:37:07,720 --> 01:37:10,519
Speaker 1: the very next year it was like next year. The

1771
01:37:10,560 --> 01:37:14,280
Speaker 1: next year KG was hurt. KG he had the meniscus,

1772
01:37:14,320 --> 01:37:17,000
Speaker 1: tell and his knee. He was playing with them. He's

1773
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:19,920
Speaker 1: playing injured. So then you get so you get back

1774
01:37:19,960 --> 01:37:24,760
Speaker 1: to the finals and and you play and went to

1775
01:37:24,920 --> 01:37:27,599
Speaker 1: all the way to game seven. Game seven, I said,

1776
01:37:27,760 --> 01:37:29,880
Speaker 1: shout out to Big Kendrick Perkins, man, had you not

1777
01:37:29,960 --> 01:37:33,559
Speaker 1: got hurt? Man? We want two of them. Um. What's

1778
01:37:33,600 --> 01:37:36,960
Speaker 1: interesting about Kendrick Perkins is I think obviously now he's

1779
01:37:37,000 --> 01:37:39,200
Speaker 1: on TV, so I think people maybe have a great

1780
01:37:39,200 --> 01:37:42,680
Speaker 1: appreciation for him. But because in Oklahoma City, like now,

1781
01:37:42,720 --> 01:37:44,600
Speaker 1: the game has changed. Right now, you don't have you

1782
01:37:44,640 --> 01:37:47,120
Speaker 1: never put two big guys out on the floor. You

1783
01:37:47,120 --> 01:37:50,040
Speaker 1: almost never there's almost no post play at all. But

1784
01:37:50,280 --> 01:37:52,639
Speaker 1: in that era, it's like I tell people all the time,

1785
01:37:52,680 --> 01:37:54,920
Speaker 1: like the reason that the Thunder one of two big

1786
01:37:54,920 --> 01:37:57,559
Speaker 1: guys was the Lakers had two big, big, two big.

1787
01:37:57,800 --> 01:38:00,240
Speaker 1: The Spurs had two big dudes. Right. You you want

1788
01:38:00,240 --> 01:38:01,479
Speaker 1: to get to out of the West, you had to

1789
01:38:01,520 --> 01:38:06,000
Speaker 1: have big dudes. And KP was was your enforcer. He

1790
01:38:06,040 --> 01:38:09,400
Speaker 1: was a great screener and he allowed KG to float

1791
01:38:09,400 --> 01:38:12,200
Speaker 1: around the perimeter and never and not have to income

1792
01:38:12,280 --> 01:38:14,840
Speaker 1: weak side and block shots. Right. It allows you guys

1793
01:38:15,400 --> 01:38:18,920
Speaker 1: to function. But I think people remember now, I think

1794
01:38:19,000 --> 01:38:21,120
Speaker 1: now NBA and like Kendrick Perkins couldn't play now in

1795
01:38:21,120 --> 01:38:25,240
Speaker 1: the NBA, but in that era he could. Um, what

1796
01:38:25,280 --> 01:38:28,720
Speaker 1: do you remember at game seven? Game seven, I just

1797
01:38:28,760 --> 01:38:32,479
Speaker 1: remember a lot of attempts one too many field goals

1798
01:38:33,120 --> 01:38:37,160
Speaker 1: from no one individual. Uh, there's a lot of attempts.

1799
01:38:37,200 --> 01:38:40,439
Speaker 1: I remember playing only like six minutes day game DC

1800
01:38:40,520 --> 01:38:43,840
Speaker 1: Rivers went with his started group the whole day. They

1801
01:38:43,880 --> 01:38:49,400
Speaker 1: out of gas and it was out of gas. Uh. Um.

1802
01:38:49,439 --> 01:38:53,240
Speaker 1: I just remember Paul saw having a a huge nine

1803
01:38:53,520 --> 01:38:56,519
Speaker 1: s seventeen seventeen and something that it was nice that

1804
01:38:56,680 --> 01:38:58,519
Speaker 1: night met it was big as I was gonna get

1805
01:38:58,520 --> 01:39:02,920
Speaker 1: too meta, hit too clutch, us two cluss threes, I remember,

1806
01:39:03,320 --> 01:39:07,760
Speaker 1: and just hurt. Just sucks that Kendrick Perkins couldn't play

1807
01:39:07,760 --> 01:39:10,960
Speaker 1: in the game because had he played, and he was

1808
01:39:11,000 --> 01:39:13,720
Speaker 1: giving Paul to solve problems, he was giving by them

1809
01:39:13,760 --> 01:39:16,439
Speaker 1: the problems. Man. He was making, calling a lot of havoc,

1810
01:39:16,560 --> 01:39:18,840
Speaker 1: altering a lot of shots, just a big force and

1811
01:39:18,880 --> 01:39:20,680
Speaker 1: force it like you just said, he was definitely that

1812
01:39:20,760 --> 01:39:24,680
Speaker 1: force and they get back. I was like, man, we

1813
01:39:24,720 --> 01:39:27,559
Speaker 1: could have won two out of that two out of

1814
01:39:27,600 --> 01:39:32,479
Speaker 1: three years. That would have been bad. You mentioned Kobe

1815
01:39:32,520 --> 01:39:35,160
Speaker 1: and he was Mamba. He's called you the best defender

1816
01:39:35,200 --> 01:39:38,400
Speaker 1: to ever guard him. What's it like to guard the

1817
01:39:38,520 --> 01:39:41,439
Speaker 1: guard Kobe Bryant. Uh, It's it's here's a guy you

1818
01:39:41,479 --> 01:39:45,559
Speaker 1: gotta keep your antennas up at all costs. Um. It

1819
01:39:45,600 --> 01:39:50,760
Speaker 1: ain't too many weaknesses. Only only only thing you can

1820
01:39:50,800 --> 01:39:53,439
Speaker 1: just pray for when you playing against him is that

1821
01:39:53,760 --> 01:39:57,040
Speaker 1: he don't catch a rhythm, and you can because the

1822
01:39:57,080 --> 01:40:00,120
Speaker 1: f g as are definitely coming at you. But for

1823
01:40:00,160 --> 01:40:03,240
Speaker 1: the most part, man, he's relentless. He never gives up.

1824
01:40:03,439 --> 01:40:07,200
Speaker 1: Like sometimes he might miss a shot and do a

1825
01:40:07,280 --> 01:40:11,800
Speaker 1: move on the fatal wayside and put just as much

1826
01:40:11,920 --> 01:40:15,280
Speaker 1: emotion into doing the move again, just the head fake

1827
01:40:15,320 --> 01:40:17,240
Speaker 1: you to get you off your balance. You get what

1828
01:40:17,320 --> 01:40:19,880
Speaker 1: I'm saying. He set you up in so many perfect,

1829
01:40:20,120 --> 01:40:22,559
Speaker 1: so many ways. That's perfect for him to just score

1830
01:40:22,720 --> 01:40:25,920
Speaker 1: or get fat. And I think he's a master of that.

1831
01:40:26,240 --> 01:40:29,200
Speaker 1: And he's never discouraged. And when a guy like that,

1832
01:40:29,320 --> 01:40:32,559
Speaker 1: who's put in that many points and you know, one

1833
01:40:32,560 --> 01:40:36,000
Speaker 1: of that many championships call out your name, man, it's

1834
01:40:36,080 --> 01:40:38,960
Speaker 1: definitely flattering. But for the most part, like I tell everybody,

1835
01:40:39,800 --> 01:40:43,320
Speaker 1: he never had two or three words of conversation with me. See,

1836
01:40:43,360 --> 01:40:45,720
Speaker 1: he told me he does see his way. He told

1837
01:40:45,760 --> 01:40:47,479
Speaker 1: me before I don't know if I ever said this

1838
01:40:47,760 --> 01:40:52,040
Speaker 1: cloud to anybody on my friends. So I said, he goes.

1839
01:40:52,320 --> 01:40:56,719
Speaker 1: You know I could take Mike, right. I was like, well, like, look, Kobe,

1840
01:40:56,800 --> 01:40:58,720
Speaker 1: everybody thinks you're the best ever, and you're in the

1841
01:40:58,800 --> 01:41:00,800
Speaker 1: conversation of the best ever. Why would you No, no, no,

1842
01:41:01,360 --> 01:41:03,439
Speaker 1: I could take Mike. I was like, well, how do

1843
01:41:03,520 --> 01:41:05,960
Speaker 1: you know that he goes because I would believe in

1844
01:41:06,080 --> 01:41:10,400
Speaker 1: full scale psychological warfare. So he's like, I've studied Mike.

1845
01:41:10,560 --> 01:41:12,439
Speaker 1: He's like everybody knows I used to talk try and

1846
01:41:12,520 --> 01:41:14,560
Speaker 1: talk like Mike and walk like Mike. Like I know

1847
01:41:14,640 --> 01:41:17,519
Speaker 1: everything about Mike, and I know the button to push

1848
01:41:17,640 --> 01:41:20,080
Speaker 1: to talk trash to him that will make Mike lose

1849
01:41:20,160 --> 01:41:25,600
Speaker 1: his mind. I know what it is. So Jordan's is

1850
01:41:25,720 --> 01:41:28,800
Speaker 1: an outlier in his family. His family were small, His

1851
01:41:28,920 --> 01:41:31,200
Speaker 1: dad was not a tall dude. His brother Larry was

1852
01:41:31,640 --> 01:41:33,880
Speaker 1: I think like five eleven six ft tall, right, and

1853
01:41:34,000 --> 01:41:37,160
Speaker 1: Jordan's six six And so whether it was to balance

1854
01:41:37,200 --> 01:41:40,240
Speaker 1: out that Mike got all the attention or whatever. But

1855
01:41:41,600 --> 01:41:46,080
Speaker 1: I've read before, and Kobe's a believer that Jordan's. The

1856
01:41:46,160 --> 01:41:48,720
Speaker 1: soft spot for Jordan is that he feels like his

1857
01:41:48,880 --> 01:41:53,639
Speaker 1: dad loved Larry Moore. He's like, that's what I would

1858
01:41:53,680 --> 01:41:55,800
Speaker 1: tell him. I was like, come on, man, He's like,

1859
01:41:55,800 --> 01:41:58,240
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, if you want to get into Mike's skin,

1860
01:41:58,760 --> 01:42:01,040
Speaker 1: talk about Larry and how great Larry Larry wasn't now

1861
01:42:01,080 --> 01:42:03,760
Speaker 1: his dad loved Larry better, and he will lose his mind.

1862
01:42:04,720 --> 01:42:07,360
Speaker 1: So I'm asking you because you said he didn't say

1863
01:42:07,479 --> 01:42:09,720
Speaker 1: he never did the full scale psychological war on you.

1864
01:42:11,160 --> 01:42:13,760
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, man. The only thing that the

1865
01:42:13,880 --> 01:42:16,080
Speaker 1: only thing that I felt funny that Kobe was doing.

1866
01:42:16,200 --> 01:42:21,439
Speaker 1: Many him and Poal get on the court right in

1867
01:42:21,560 --> 01:42:24,400
Speaker 1: the moment I started over playing the play, or maybe

1868
01:42:24,439 --> 01:42:26,840
Speaker 1: get a deflection on the ball and some type of

1869
01:42:26,920 --> 01:42:30,320
Speaker 1: set that they're running. He will always get to talk

1870
01:42:30,439 --> 01:42:35,160
Speaker 1: in the pal and Spanish to try to light mess

1871
01:42:35,240 --> 01:42:37,840
Speaker 1: me up in the head. It might Goetta play no I.

1872
01:42:38,000 --> 01:42:40,280
Speaker 1: And it's funny to bring that up because one of

1873
01:42:40,280 --> 01:42:42,600
Speaker 1: the nights I was with him, he actually was in

1874
01:42:42,680 --> 01:42:46,439
Speaker 1: a Mexican restaurant and he will flip to Bilingle in

1875
01:42:46,520 --> 01:42:49,160
Speaker 1: a second. So now when you got a guy who's

1876
01:42:49,160 --> 01:42:52,040
Speaker 1: probably ready, they got to play baby called triangle up

1877
01:42:52,200 --> 01:42:57,000
Speaker 1: or triangle whatever, and then I deflect the ball or

1878
01:42:57,040 --> 01:43:03,639
Speaker 1: whatever and then he'll be like little whatever he's saying over,

1879
01:43:03,720 --> 01:43:05,640
Speaker 1: don't give me a quote to what he's said. But

1880
01:43:06,640 --> 01:43:09,760
Speaker 1: I would know on the next formation that he backed

1881
01:43:09,800 --> 01:43:12,000
Speaker 1: the back door, you know what I mean, Just a

1882
01:43:12,040 --> 01:43:14,880
Speaker 1: little stuff like that. And then was the only time

1883
01:43:15,000 --> 01:43:17,320
Speaker 1: I heard some words come out of his mouth. Everything else, man,

1884
01:43:17,360 --> 01:43:19,439
Speaker 1: he was trying to get the ball in the bucket?

1885
01:43:20,000 --> 01:43:23,920
Speaker 1: What is what's Lebron like? To Kurt, it wasn't. I

1886
01:43:24,040 --> 01:43:28,120
Speaker 1: didn't with the defensive background that I had with me

1887
01:43:28,240 --> 01:43:32,439
Speaker 1: with KG you know, uh Posy and those guys being

1888
01:43:32,479 --> 01:43:36,479
Speaker 1: in the game. Uh, I felt my perk. I just

1889
01:43:36,600 --> 01:43:39,519
Speaker 1: felt like my job and God on him wasn't as

1890
01:43:39,560 --> 01:43:45,720
Speaker 1: difficult as it was with Kobe because because like I'm

1891
01:43:45,760 --> 01:43:48,280
Speaker 1: just saying, like, no, I like so my okay, so

1892
01:43:48,479 --> 01:43:51,040
Speaker 1: my vision. I'm trying to tell somebody the difference to

1893
01:43:51,200 --> 01:43:55,320
Speaker 1: so so Lebron, everything's going downhill. He doesn't have he

1894
01:43:55,400 --> 01:43:58,160
Speaker 1: doesn't have as much And this is gonna sound terrible

1895
01:43:58,240 --> 01:44:01,400
Speaker 1: for people who don't maybe understand Hoop that much. It

1896
01:44:01,439 --> 01:44:05,560
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like he had as much game right like

1897
01:44:05,720 --> 01:44:08,720
Speaker 1: he would like he just come come off a screen

1898
01:44:08,840 --> 01:44:10,880
Speaker 1: roll if you went underneath, he would shoot it. But

1899
01:44:10,960 --> 01:44:13,000
Speaker 1: he liked to just kind of bully ball your pretty

1900
01:44:13,080 --> 01:44:14,920
Speaker 1: much pretty much. And that's what And then you can

1901
01:44:15,000 --> 01:44:17,800
Speaker 1: look back, like, all right, he that you said, I'm

1902
01:44:17,880 --> 01:44:20,880
Speaker 1: piggyback off what you said. Obviously his post game has

1903
01:44:20,960 --> 01:44:25,040
Speaker 1: gotten better, and it's still don't look at that weird

1904
01:44:25,160 --> 01:44:27,600
Speaker 1: kind of what I'm saying. It don't look polished. It

1905
01:44:27,640 --> 01:44:30,000
Speaker 1: don't look like he could get down his body type

1906
01:44:30,040 --> 01:44:31,680
Speaker 1: of his skills said, you would think he would have

1907
01:44:31,920 --> 01:44:34,800
Speaker 1: some type of larger one type little mood. He don't

1908
01:44:34,800 --> 01:44:37,000
Speaker 1: get none of that. It's all like I just learned

1909
01:44:37,000 --> 01:44:39,040
Speaker 1: how to do this, and I'm gonna do it the

1910
01:44:39,120 --> 01:44:41,439
Speaker 1: strongest as I can, and I'm gonna bully you, and

1911
01:44:41,479 --> 01:44:43,560
Speaker 1: I'm putting it right. And he's added that kind of

1912
01:44:43,800 --> 01:44:45,519
Speaker 1: that weird fade away that he makes. But yes, for

1913
01:44:45,600 --> 01:44:48,679
Speaker 1: the most part, it's kind of kind of mechanical. Mechanical

1914
01:44:48,920 --> 01:44:51,840
Speaker 1: I would agree to that. So now you talk about

1915
01:44:52,080 --> 01:44:54,479
Speaker 1: how I would god him. I always knew he was

1916
01:44:54,560 --> 01:44:57,040
Speaker 1: a bull, so it was like I felt I was

1917
01:44:57,160 --> 01:45:01,719
Speaker 1: just as strong God. I was, like I really dedicate

1918
01:45:01,800 --> 01:45:05,439
Speaker 1: myself to so I was always ready for that. He

1919
01:45:05,520 --> 01:45:07,439
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna little boy at me or post me up

1920
01:45:07,479 --> 01:45:10,040
Speaker 1: and do do none of that with those type of

1921
01:45:10,120 --> 01:45:13,960
Speaker 1: post mods. So now I got KG in the pick

1922
01:45:14,000 --> 01:45:16,640
Speaker 1: and roll, so I don't have to go over on

1923
01:45:16,800 --> 01:45:19,680
Speaker 1: you because you ain't shooting the ball that great. I

1924
01:45:19,800 --> 01:45:21,840
Speaker 1: catch you at the other on the other side of

1925
01:45:21,920 --> 01:45:24,000
Speaker 1: the pick and roll, and I'm gonna hold my forearm

1926
01:45:25,600 --> 01:45:28,800
Speaker 1: t get my back, if that makes sense. That's how

1927
01:45:28,800 --> 01:45:31,360
Speaker 1: I would guard him all the time. And ino situation

1928
01:45:31,720 --> 01:45:34,479
Speaker 1: were living with the jump shot. Kobe, on the other hand,

1929
01:45:34,920 --> 01:45:37,680
Speaker 1: it wasn't that easy. You get what I'm saying. If

1930
01:45:37,720 --> 01:45:39,760
Speaker 1: you put him on the aland if you ain't sending

1931
01:45:39,840 --> 01:45:42,960
Speaker 1: the help side defender, once he jabs that me, then

1932
01:45:43,120 --> 01:45:45,120
Speaker 1: he might be dunking it over my head. Didn' Kobe

1933
01:45:45,160 --> 01:45:47,240
Speaker 1: always go right? Though? Like how's he How's he going

1934
01:45:47,400 --> 01:45:49,519
Speaker 1: always go right and still get there? And that's what

1935
01:45:49,560 --> 01:45:53,320
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's relentless. He's not being told no, he's

1936
01:45:53,360 --> 01:45:56,760
Speaker 1: not taking that that side of the defense easy. Like

1937
01:45:56,840 --> 01:45:59,920
Speaker 1: he's breaking through, Yo, if you're shading him to the left,

1938
01:46:00,360 --> 01:46:02,280
Speaker 1: he breaking through your sade that you're trying to take

1939
01:46:02,360 --> 01:46:05,160
Speaker 1: him away from. So you got a guy who's thinking

1940
01:46:05,200 --> 01:46:08,360
Speaker 1: like the forty eight forty eight minutes throughout the game

1941
01:46:08,560 --> 01:46:12,640
Speaker 1: like never not getting discouraged. I saw a little discouragement

1942
01:46:12,880 --> 01:46:16,880
Speaker 1: early Lebron, you know Lebron. With Lebron, the Spurs were

1943
01:46:16,880 --> 01:46:18,599
Speaker 1: the ones who they got, they were getting in his head.

1944
01:46:18,600 --> 01:46:20,600
Speaker 1: They would dare them and take that midrange jump shot. No,

1945
01:46:20,680 --> 01:46:23,040
Speaker 1: I thought it was the map. Was it the Spurs? Now,

1946
01:46:23,080 --> 01:46:25,240
Speaker 1: it's obviously the first one, but I'm saying the Spurs,

1947
01:46:25,479 --> 01:46:28,439
Speaker 1: and he's beating the Spurs before. Yeah, okay, but there's

1948
01:46:28,439 --> 01:46:30,639
Speaker 1: been times when they've beating him with inferior your teams

1949
01:46:30,920 --> 01:46:33,360
Speaker 1: because they dared him to take those jump shots exactly.

1950
01:46:33,560 --> 01:46:35,640
Speaker 1: And that's and and I think that was probably the

1951
01:46:36,960 --> 01:46:38,840
Speaker 1: the word around the league because when we got the

1952
01:46:38,880 --> 01:46:42,080
Speaker 1: scouted reports to play him, they would hate. They would

1953
01:46:42,120 --> 01:46:44,080
Speaker 1: hate for me to go over the screen because every

1954
01:46:44,120 --> 01:46:47,040
Speaker 1: time I get caught on his hip, he putting pressure

1955
01:46:47,040 --> 01:46:48,920
Speaker 1: on our big either foul and not big out or

1956
01:46:48,920 --> 01:46:51,240
Speaker 1: getting the end one because of his strength. He's six

1957
01:46:51,360 --> 01:46:54,719
Speaker 1: eight to something, so it's like that's gonna be a problem.

1958
01:46:54,760 --> 01:46:57,400
Speaker 1: So but when you scout around that, and when I

1959
01:46:57,479 --> 01:47:00,000
Speaker 1: scouted around Kobe, it's like when I go under code

1960
01:47:00,200 --> 01:47:03,800
Speaker 1: that he's not shot, he's hitting it. Or let's say

1961
01:47:03,840 --> 01:47:05,800
Speaker 1: if I'm on the island by myself, and he want

1962
01:47:05,840 --> 01:47:08,280
Speaker 1: to fade Await, shoot the jump shot and if he

1963
01:47:08,360 --> 01:47:10,880
Speaker 1: missed before in a row, he's gonna shoot the next

1964
01:47:10,920 --> 01:47:13,160
Speaker 1: four after that, which is what he did, which is

1965
01:47:13,240 --> 01:47:14,720
Speaker 1: what he did in Game seven, Right, he took like

1966
01:47:17,800 --> 01:47:20,639
Speaker 1: But I'm saying that to say, like, if I the question,

1967
01:47:20,920 --> 01:47:22,840
Speaker 1: if I had to, I think Kobe was a more

1968
01:47:22,920 --> 01:47:27,400
Speaker 1: heard of cover. Um, all right, who's the toughest cover?

1969
01:47:28,600 --> 01:47:32,600
Speaker 1: Who doesn't get enough credit? Like? Man, this dude was

1970
01:47:33,280 --> 01:47:38,439
Speaker 1: legit and we don't discussing nearly enough. Man, Man, Man

1971
01:47:38,520 --> 01:47:43,280
Speaker 1: I was let's see um nickname guy. I would say

1972
01:47:43,360 --> 01:47:48,640
Speaker 1: Michael Red obviously was an All star. He don't get

1973
01:47:48,680 --> 01:47:50,600
Speaker 1: talked about as much, but he was good in his

1974
01:47:50,760 --> 01:47:55,120
Speaker 1: date and um, I remember just always having fits for him.

1975
01:47:55,400 --> 01:47:58,080
Speaker 1: What about what about Steph? Like, because it's so much

1976
01:47:58,120 --> 01:48:01,120
Speaker 1: different now you can't touch a dude, right, you can't

1977
01:48:01,439 --> 01:48:04,320
Speaker 1: and this you talk about relentless trying to score every

1978
01:48:04,400 --> 01:48:09,080
Speaker 1: time and from every angle. Uh. Steph Curry obviously changed

1979
01:48:09,120 --> 01:48:12,439
Speaker 1: the game in a lot of ways. Man. Uh. A

1980
01:48:12,560 --> 01:48:14,720
Speaker 1: lot of people thought him coming to the league might

1981
01:48:14,800 --> 01:48:18,080
Speaker 1: be too light. Now he changed that. There a lot

1982
01:48:18,160 --> 01:48:22,960
Speaker 1: of teams thought you know, Um, he's injury prone. Changed

1983
01:48:23,000 --> 01:48:26,960
Speaker 1: that there. Um, it's just he's been proving itself ever

1984
01:48:27,080 --> 01:48:29,920
Speaker 1: since he came to league. But the big thing was

1985
01:48:30,160 --> 01:48:32,600
Speaker 1: like those are everybody thought those are bad shots, Like

1986
01:48:32,720 --> 01:48:35,519
Speaker 1: nobody he makes him. He makes him. And that's what

1987
01:48:35,520 --> 01:48:37,439
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. So his whole not in the

1988
01:48:38,000 --> 01:48:41,639
Speaker 1: from him coming into the league, colleges missing missing out

1989
01:48:41,720 --> 01:48:43,840
Speaker 1: on him and all that. I think it's a chip

1990
01:48:43,920 --> 01:48:46,920
Speaker 1: on his should until today. Man, he's been proving guys

1991
01:48:47,040 --> 01:48:52,160
Speaker 1: wrong with his size, Uh, his craftiness and his confidence

1992
01:48:52,200 --> 01:48:55,600
Speaker 1: has took us a lot. Thats surprised because it's not

1993
01:48:55,720 --> 01:48:57,760
Speaker 1: a shot he'd take that. We don't believe that's going

1994
01:48:57,920 --> 01:49:01,040
Speaker 1: not going in, you know what I mean. And with

1995
01:49:01,200 --> 01:49:03,840
Speaker 1: that being said, I think it's it's it's actually opened

1996
01:49:03,880 --> 01:49:07,479
Speaker 1: up the league and more teams like giving guards freedom

1997
01:49:07,760 --> 01:49:10,160
Speaker 1: to just check the ball up like that. And it

1998
01:49:10,240 --> 01:49:14,720
Speaker 1: started from him, what about what about Katie Katie? Um, well,

1999
01:49:14,760 --> 01:49:18,000
Speaker 1: obviously his name ain't ain't ringing too many bells. Is

2000
01:49:18,080 --> 01:49:20,200
Speaker 1: being hurt right from him being hurt right now, but

2001
01:49:21,280 --> 01:49:24,840
Speaker 1: him going to Brooklyn linking up, I'm talking about you

2002
01:49:26,680 --> 01:49:29,880
Speaker 1: because because most famously right like when you guys got

2003
01:49:29,920 --> 01:49:33,320
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals when you're with Memphis, you

2004
01:49:33,439 --> 01:49:37,120
Speaker 1: got that was when Katie suddenly I would say, I

2005
01:49:37,160 --> 01:49:41,000
Speaker 1: would say, Katie, Katie could school. He always been I'm

2006
01:49:41,040 --> 01:49:44,160
Speaker 1: saying on you in that. Oh necessarily I would Yeah,

2007
01:49:44,439 --> 01:49:46,120
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of different Doug when I get

2008
01:49:46,160 --> 01:49:50,240
Speaker 1: a hole to you. Man. But but in his defense, man,

2009
01:49:50,400 --> 01:49:54,640
Speaker 1: I always feared them, always not pretty much feared him,

2010
01:49:54,680 --> 01:49:57,600
Speaker 1: but I would say I always kept my antenna's up.

2011
01:49:57,800 --> 01:50:00,599
Speaker 1: Let's just say that that's always kept my tenders up

2012
01:50:00,640 --> 01:50:03,640
Speaker 1: on him, simply because how dedly he is in the

2013
01:50:03,720 --> 01:50:06,880
Speaker 1: pick and role. How he can you know, pull up

2014
01:50:07,000 --> 01:50:11,640
Speaker 1: from forty and transition his post moves, you know, his

2015
01:50:11,720 --> 01:50:15,360
Speaker 1: fade away game, uh is off his one leg off

2016
01:50:15,720 --> 01:50:19,800
Speaker 1: like he got just so many attributes to uh that. Yeah,

2017
01:50:19,800 --> 01:50:21,200
Speaker 1: a lot in the bag that you know you have

2018
01:50:21,320 --> 01:50:25,040
Speaker 1: to prepare for, which is hard to scout. However, with him,

2019
01:50:25,160 --> 01:50:27,400
Speaker 1: I had to take the approach of just being physical

2020
01:50:28,160 --> 01:50:30,760
Speaker 1: and uh, I think me doing that as part of

2021
01:50:30,840 --> 01:50:35,280
Speaker 1: the reason why they not giving these calls out today.

2022
01:50:35,520 --> 01:50:37,320
Speaker 1: Yeah he was Yeah, I mean people for game five,

2023
01:50:37,400 --> 01:50:41,360
Speaker 1: he was five one, right, and you guys be all right.

2024
01:50:41,439 --> 01:50:46,600
Speaker 1: Last thing you are now synonymous with Memphis right like

2025
01:50:46,800 --> 01:50:48,960
Speaker 1: you are, And I was. I was blown away because

2026
01:50:49,600 --> 01:50:51,320
Speaker 1: you had a group of guys like, look, Zach had

2027
01:50:51,360 --> 01:50:54,280
Speaker 1: a tough go his first couple of years in the league,

2028
01:50:54,520 --> 01:50:56,200
Speaker 1: you know, right, one year out of school or whatever.

2029
01:50:56,920 --> 01:50:58,800
Speaker 1: But now you can you go around Memphis and you

2030
01:50:58,840 --> 01:51:01,559
Speaker 1: guys are still on billboard. You guys are legends there

2031
01:51:01,880 --> 01:51:05,400
Speaker 1: right the grindhouse and you're the grind father. What's it

2032
01:51:05,560 --> 01:51:09,639
Speaker 1: like for you now to go from a dude who

2033
01:51:09,760 --> 01:51:13,120
Speaker 1: couldn't get right, didn't really play basketball his first two

2034
01:51:13,160 --> 01:51:17,639
Speaker 1: years of high school, doesn't have a scholarship offer, kicked

2035
01:51:17,640 --> 01:51:20,640
Speaker 1: out of one junior college, goes to another now like

2036
01:51:21,320 --> 01:51:27,679
Speaker 1: you are, and you're arguably the most known Memphis Grizzly

2037
01:51:28,040 --> 01:51:31,000
Speaker 1: player ever, Like you're synonymous with the city. The style

2038
01:51:31,160 --> 01:51:35,160
Speaker 1: of play you're Dare I say, like a Memphis basketball

2039
01:51:35,280 --> 01:51:38,599
Speaker 1: legend mckid from the south East and West side of Chicago.

2040
01:51:38,920 --> 01:51:43,240
Speaker 1: What's that like to experience? It was definitely enjoyment. It

2041
01:51:43,360 --> 01:51:48,960
Speaker 1: was definitely a a a moment man that I I

2042
01:51:49,000 --> 01:51:51,920
Speaker 1: would love to relive and do it again. Man, it was.

2043
01:51:52,640 --> 01:51:55,240
Speaker 1: It was so much love from the city of Memphis.

2044
01:51:55,360 --> 01:52:01,120
Speaker 1: Me coming in the southern hospitality, they embraced me with man, um, Yeah,

2045
01:52:01,760 --> 01:52:03,800
Speaker 1: I feel like, man, how did they get it? How

2046
01:52:03,840 --> 01:52:06,360
Speaker 1: does Memphis? How does is it? Because because of the city,

2047
01:52:06,600 --> 01:52:09,120
Speaker 1: Like it's interesting most cities, I don't think we'd get

2048
01:52:10,000 --> 01:52:13,800
Speaker 1: you and your style right, Like everybody else looks at

2049
01:52:13,840 --> 01:52:15,519
Speaker 1: the box score, but you can't look at the box

2050
01:52:15,560 --> 01:52:18,320
Speaker 1: score and understand that's the thing. The city is a

2051
01:52:18,840 --> 01:52:21,280
Speaker 1: it's a blue colar city. It's like one of those

2052
01:52:21,280 --> 01:52:24,960
Speaker 1: cities where that's all you got in downtown. Yeah, you

2053
01:52:25,000 --> 01:52:27,640
Speaker 1: don't have all the big lights, the light lights and

2054
01:52:27,800 --> 01:52:31,519
Speaker 1: you know, the most populous nightclub and uh you know

2055
01:52:31,680 --> 01:52:33,920
Speaker 1: the places that just you got to go. But they

2056
01:52:34,040 --> 01:52:37,040
Speaker 1: got some good hard working people, man, and some people

2057
01:52:37,120 --> 01:52:39,880
Speaker 1: who respect the grit in the ground and just the

2058
01:52:40,800 --> 01:52:42,920
Speaker 1: way of life of green ground, getting up every day,

2059
01:52:43,000 --> 01:52:45,640
Speaker 1: making the way, showing the way, you know, making them

2060
01:52:45,680 --> 01:52:47,800
Speaker 1: way out of no way. You get what I'm saying.

2061
01:52:47,920 --> 01:52:50,720
Speaker 1: And a lot of the times where they saw me

2062
01:52:50,840 --> 01:52:53,960
Speaker 1: on the court. Uh, just my whole intro to Memphis,

2063
01:52:54,040 --> 01:52:55,920
Speaker 1: you know, me coming there, I never I didn't play

2064
01:52:55,960 --> 01:53:00,439
Speaker 1: as much starting out, you know, the first dirty my game,

2065
01:53:00,479 --> 01:53:03,439
Speaker 1: twenties of my game, I wasn't playing big minutes or

2066
01:53:03,479 --> 01:53:07,000
Speaker 1: if I did play. I was down thirty. Uh, we

2067
01:53:07,240 --> 01:53:11,719
Speaker 1: was up thirty, and I would I wouldn't crowd be upset,

2068
01:53:11,960 --> 01:53:15,559
Speaker 1: or I wouldn't be saying nothing bad about the culture.

2069
01:53:15,640 --> 01:53:17,920
Speaker 1: Whenever or not, I would be the guy in the

2070
01:53:18,000 --> 01:53:20,599
Speaker 1: gym later on that night, when everybody walking out the arena,

2071
01:53:20,720 --> 01:53:23,519
Speaker 1: I'll be walking upstairs to the practice court on shooting

2072
01:53:23,520 --> 01:53:25,360
Speaker 1: on the gun or going to give me a weight

2073
01:53:25,439 --> 01:53:28,840
Speaker 1: room workout in You get what I'm saying. And I'm

2074
01:53:29,160 --> 01:53:32,080
Speaker 1: using this as a as a as a as a

2075
01:53:32,160 --> 01:53:34,080
Speaker 1: way to have what they say, stay ready, you don't

2076
01:53:34,080 --> 01:53:35,519
Speaker 1: gotta get ready. That was why I used to say.

2077
01:53:35,600 --> 01:53:40,080
Speaker 1: But I was doing that for my own sake, not

2078
01:53:40,320 --> 01:53:45,920
Speaker 1: just for a logo or or some cute for the

2079
01:53:46,120 --> 01:53:48,599
Speaker 1: for the organization. No, this is just how I lived

2080
01:53:48,640 --> 01:53:50,680
Speaker 1: my life, like all through the flick, like I was

2081
01:53:50,760 --> 01:53:53,120
Speaker 1: just telling you, like, wasn't nothing given to me. I

2082
01:53:53,160 --> 01:53:55,559
Speaker 1: had to go figure it out. That's grit and grind,

2083
01:53:55,720 --> 01:53:58,840
Speaker 1: That's what that is. That's that's that's starting with nothing

2084
01:53:59,040 --> 01:54:02,400
Speaker 1: and just making I'm not a nothing. And the day

2085
01:54:02,439 --> 01:54:07,040
Speaker 1: of that game, specifically, I wasn't even prepared to even play.

2086
01:54:07,120 --> 01:54:11,040
Speaker 1: Kevin get you're talking about Kevin Durank going for twenty one. Uh,

2087
01:54:11,240 --> 01:54:14,280
Speaker 1: my first time playing Kevin Durant. I was not ready

2088
01:54:14,560 --> 01:54:17,960
Speaker 1: to play him. I was studying James hard and he

2089
01:54:18,120 --> 01:54:19,960
Speaker 1: was coming off the bench because I was coming off

2090
01:54:20,040 --> 01:54:22,360
Speaker 1: the bench. You see what I'm saying. I was mentally.

2091
01:54:22,880 --> 01:54:26,479
Speaker 1: I mean I prepare mentally, and I watched film before

2092
01:54:26,560 --> 01:54:28,559
Speaker 1: games and I'd like to do this so when I'm

2093
01:54:28,600 --> 01:54:30,759
Speaker 1: out on the court, I know what these guys tennessees

2094
01:54:30,840 --> 01:54:34,560
Speaker 1: is right this specific day with Katie, you know, I didn't.

2095
01:54:34,800 --> 01:54:37,600
Speaker 1: I didn't study card thought Rudy would be sticking. And

2096
01:54:38,960 --> 01:54:40,960
Speaker 1: when it was my time to speak on the mic, Man,

2097
01:54:41,080 --> 01:54:43,080
Speaker 1: it was just so much built up in me, man,

2098
01:54:43,200 --> 01:54:46,080
Speaker 1: and it was that's that was the words that came

2099
01:54:46,120 --> 01:54:48,840
Speaker 1: out of my mouth. My way of life. Awesome stuff,

2100
01:54:48,920 --> 01:54:51,800
Speaker 1: Tony Allen, hey Man, even more than generous, generous for

2101
01:54:51,880 --> 01:54:54,720
Speaker 1: your time. I do feel I don't feel bad at

2102
01:54:54,720 --> 01:54:57,040
Speaker 1: all for what was that second high school coaching name? Dude,

2103
01:54:57,120 --> 01:54:59,720
Speaker 1: wouldn't didn't have any schools for you? Along Street, I'm

2104
01:54:59,760 --> 01:55:02,600
Speaker 1: my high school code long Street, Anthony long Street. Man.

2105
01:55:02,640 --> 01:55:06,320
Speaker 1: If I see him outside, Man, hey Man, Mike splashing

2106
01:55:06,360 --> 01:55:10,840
Speaker 1: with a great raid. Thanks to be sure to catch

2107
01:55:10,960 --> 01:55:13,720
Speaker 1: the live edition of the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays

2108
01:55:13,800 --> 01:55:16,720
Speaker 1: at three p m. Easter noon Pacific. My thanks to

2109
01:55:16,760 --> 01:55:21,920
Speaker 1: Tony Allen. What an unbelievable personal story, right, and then

2110
01:55:21,960 --> 01:55:23,080
Speaker 1: to be a fly on the wall and those that

2111
01:55:23,160 --> 01:55:25,520
Speaker 1: great Celtics, those a couple of great Celtics teams. And

2112
01:55:25,560 --> 01:55:28,600
Speaker 1: then to kind of refined yourself in Memphis where he

2113
01:55:28,640 --> 01:55:31,200
Speaker 1: wasn't playing originally and then became such a big part

2114
01:55:31,240 --> 01:55:34,080
Speaker 1: of everything they did, including getting to the Western Conference finals.

2115
01:55:34,640 --> 01:55:38,680
Speaker 1: It's remarkable. I thought you'd enjoy his thoughts on Lebron Verus,

2116
01:55:38,760 --> 01:55:43,080
Speaker 1: Kobe Um. Also, if you missed, he broke down a

2117
01:55:43,120 --> 01:55:45,720
Speaker 1: couple other guys on my radio show. You can download

2118
01:55:45,840 --> 01:55:49,880
Speaker 1: that podcast anywhere pods are available. But tell a friend

2119
01:55:50,080 --> 01:55:51,960
Speaker 1: download this stuff. We're gonna have. We had great guests

2120
01:55:52,000 --> 01:55:55,560
Speaker 1: on All Hoops season, so make sure that you tell

2121
01:55:55,600 --> 01:55:58,880
Speaker 1: them about All Ball downloads. Subscribe rate us even if

2122
01:55:58,920 --> 01:56:01,760
Speaker 1: you don't like it. Ray Us, I think is a

2123
01:56:01,840 --> 01:56:05,280
Speaker 1: good thing. I don't know anyway. Enjoy the hoop, enjoy

2124
01:56:05,360 --> 01:56:07,839
Speaker 1: the holidays. We'll get you next week. I'm Doug Gottlieb.

2125
01:56:08,080 --> 01:56:08,920
Speaker 1: This is All Ball