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Speaker 1: fan duel sports book makes it easy. What's up, everybody?
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. We have here today,
Speaker 1: brother of my UM, someone who I want to go
Speaker 1: medal with and that you may have seen me speak
Speaker 1: with before UM, and I hope you enjoyed that, and
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this, and I think this would
Speaker 1: be a little bit different. Honestly, I have all of
Speaker 1: these notes here to talk about and go off. But
Speaker 1: the reality is is I think what you're gonna enjoy
Speaker 1: most about this is this is gonna be a dope
Speaker 1: conversation with me and my brother. Five time All Star,
Speaker 1: three time All NBA Chicago Bulls star DeMar de Rosan.
Speaker 1: What's something I appreciate you? Man? You know, have you
Speaker 1: on me on the show I'm coming. I don't care
Speaker 1: what it's about. You can start a cooking show tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I'll be on it. So I appreciate that, brother, UM
Speaker 1: Number one, I want to say thank you because I
Speaker 1: don't never take this for granted. Although we will chop
Speaker 1: it up any day, talk on the phone any day.
Speaker 1: I think the thing that most people don't realize is
Speaker 1: like how much fun I have doing this, But when
Speaker 1: you're with someone like I talked to this dude probably
Speaker 1: three or four times a week all year, and you know,
Speaker 1: when you're when you're allowed to do something that you
Speaker 1: love with the people you love, enshare that with you.
Speaker 1: I don't take that for granted. So getting into this,
Speaker 1: um number one, like, let's let's go right into this. What.
Speaker 1: I had a chance last weekend to watch you and
Speaker 1: Braun play in the Drew League, and for me, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the hell out of it. And the reason I
Speaker 1: enjoyed it was because you missed that atmosphere like I
Speaker 1: missed the atmosphere of going into a high school gym
Speaker 1: and playing basketball or watching a back sketball game. Now
Speaker 1: you take that to to another level and I'm going
Speaker 1: into a high school gym watching you and Lebron James
Speaker 1: play a basketball game. What what was that like? And
Speaker 1: I know you playing the Drew often, but I can't
Speaker 1: imagine the energy that I felt that day. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine that it's always like that, nah. I mean I
Speaker 1: made it a conscious effort to come back this all season,
Speaker 1: said I was gonna try to play in the Drew
Speaker 1: every weekend, you know. The last couple of years, you know,
Speaker 1: especially with the pandemic, it was a summer it wasn't
Speaker 1: no Drew. Um. The following summer was kind of sporadic
Speaker 1: all over the place. Um. You know, so that basketball element,
Speaker 1: you know, for the community hasn't been there, you know.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I was just trying to get
Speaker 1: back on top of working on my game. But just
Speaker 1: give those the kids that hasn't had the opportunity to see,
Speaker 1: you know, basketball up close and personal, you know. And
Speaker 1: for me, it was just a conscious effort of being there.
Speaker 1: And it was one day, uh one the previous weekend,
Speaker 1: Brian had hit me after I played in it, and
Speaker 1: it was like I'm trying to come down there and
Speaker 1: play with you. So I'm like, you know, in the moment,
Speaker 1: I'm like, hell, yeah, that's dope, you know, not just
Speaker 1: for me, just for the community, you know. And he
Speaker 1: was with it, you know. I told him, Man, come on,
Speaker 1: let's do it. You know. Um he gave me the
Speaker 1: night before I put out a little tweak, you know,
Speaker 1: and woke up the next day and it was it
Speaker 1: was one of those moments that you can't duplicate. Like
Speaker 1: I remember when Cold came and played in the drew.
Speaker 1: That was kind of one of the most epic moments
Speaker 1: of how he did that. But it wasn't even supposed
Speaker 1: to have been a game played that day. So this
Speaker 1: time around where brin coming, it was a game supposed
Speaker 1: to be played. I've been playing in it. Um in
Speaker 1: the wake up that that morning and see the line
Speaker 1: around the drew Lee stretched around the corner. It just
Speaker 1: took it back to that old school early two thousands,
Speaker 1: feel like you said, being in the high school gym
Speaker 1: and just to see the kids out there, being able
Speaker 1: to see Lebron James come in Compton, like you cannot
Speaker 1: beat that, you know. In the atmosphere was was one
Speaker 1: of the kind of was special. Um. I'm I was
Speaker 1: honored to be a part of it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I gotta give credit to bron for even you know,
Speaker 1: you're talking about a guy that's the goat in our
Speaker 1: league going into his twentieth season, you know, going out
Speaker 1: there playing like what we grew up watching, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, it was, it was. It was amazing feeling.
Speaker 1: You know, I had a great time just being out there,
Speaker 1: you know, um playing with him obviously, and you know,
Speaker 1: you just look around. It was a couple of moments
Speaker 1: when I just look around you see kids, you know,
Speaker 1: just the smile and excitement on their face, like that's
Speaker 1: something that's going that they're gonna remember forever, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's what it's all about. I spoke about this
Speaker 1: on UM maybe two episodes ago UM on the podcast,
Speaker 1: and and I was speaking about number one, some some
Speaker 1: of the talking heads come out and and want to
Speaker 1: dissect the game. Number one, We're not dissecting the summer
Speaker 1: a Drew League game. Now, We're not even gonna go
Speaker 1: Summer league. That's NBA summer. We're not dissecting a Drew
Speaker 1: League game. But what I said on that episode was
Speaker 1: what what it was for me. And again, I'm not
Speaker 1: from Compton. I'm not from l A. I don't play
Speaker 1: in l A. I live here, but and so this
Speaker 1: isn't my community. Now in saying that you from here,
Speaker 1: I got other folks from here. I embraced the community
Speaker 1: because this community has been great to me. Although I
Speaker 1: haven't played here, I'm not from here, so I embraced
Speaker 1: this community. But as someone who's not a local here,
Speaker 1: what I saw was, like you just said, kids that
Speaker 1: will never in their life have the opportunity to watch
Speaker 1: you play, have the opportunity of the to watch Lebron
Speaker 1: James play, and and like I could feel that, like
Speaker 1: you could see that, you could see the reactions on
Speaker 1: their faces and to allow the city to touch him
Speaker 1: growing up for me, and I'm sure it's the same
Speaker 1: way for you. Maybe possibly a little different for you
Speaker 1: because it's bigger around you as opposed to me growing
Speaker 1: up and sagging off. NBA players were like surreal to me, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no question, they weren't real people, like somebody you watched
Speaker 1: play basketball on TV and like, wow, that's incredible, Like
Speaker 1: I want to do that one day, But no clue
Speaker 1: how to get there. What I saw from those kids
Speaker 1: was like they got to touch you, They got to
Speaker 1: touch Lebron James. How big is that for the community
Speaker 1: and continuing to move Compton forward and continuing to make
Speaker 1: Compton a better place than it was when you arrived.
Speaker 1: And Gus, that's what it's all about. And that was
Speaker 1: even a conversation I had with Brian was saying, you know,
Speaker 1: this was for the city. You know, the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, no passing of Kobe, you know, we lost
Speaker 1: Nipsey Hustle, Um, it's been you know, the city has
Speaker 1: kind of been extremely heavy with losing a lot of
Speaker 1: legends that the community look up to, and guys just
Speaker 1: outside of sports that moved this whole community and give
Speaker 1: you imagination and give you that inspiration. I want to
Speaker 1: keep pushing forward, you know, So that moment there was
Speaker 1: an opportunity for us to capitalized on and like you said,
Speaker 1: you've seen it in these kids face that that's gonna
Speaker 1: do something for them. That's the way beyond just basketball.
Speaker 1: Give you a sense of motivation, confidence, um, inspiration and
Speaker 1: want to be something bigger and better than what you
Speaker 1: see in that moment. I remember when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: You know, no, no disrespect, But to me, my first
Speaker 1: NBA player that I've seen that I thought was everything
Speaker 1: that I could touch with Derrick Martin. Most people don't
Speaker 1: even know who Derrick Martin is, but I remember seeing
Speaker 1: him at my grandfather's house when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and just knowing he was in the NBA was the
Speaker 1: only motivation I needed to keep pushing forward. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, You're telling me, Lebron James just came
Speaker 1: down here to play in right across the street is
Speaker 1: the projects right down the street, Like is the neighborhood
Speaker 1: I grew up in. Like I could go on and
Speaker 1: own what's around that community. So to see this this
Speaker 1: man come up there and play, damn, it's about, you know,
Speaker 1: critiquing it. Like you said, It's bigger than that. It's
Speaker 1: bigger than basketball. It's being an inspiration and motivation to
Speaker 1: that community to have light and to keep pushing forward.
Speaker 1: And that was a positive day. That's that's gonna be
Speaker 1: remembered forever. I'll be one percent honest. After I watched that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, I think I need to play in
Speaker 1: the drew, but I haven't. I haven't played at a
Speaker 1: pro am game and probably six or seven years. And
Speaker 1: I think for me when I did used to play,
Speaker 1: I used to play back in Michigan. And the reason
Speaker 1: I played in the Shy League before, and the reason
Speaker 1: I don't play in some really he or like pro
Speaker 1: am games or whatever it is in the summer, it's
Speaker 1: because I get too serious, like I don't. It's either
Speaker 1: it's either I'm gonna be like dialed in and serious
Speaker 1: as hell, or I can't take the game serious. And
Speaker 1: if I can't take the game serious, then I don't
Speaker 1: like being out there. But I then watched you get
Speaker 1: into it with do with with the taxi Kobe is on.
Speaker 1: That's the only that's the only way I remember him
Speaker 1: that he had on the taxi Kobe's and by the way,
Speaker 1: kind of pissed me off a little bit. You was
Speaker 1: over there on the sideline talking and he just sitting
Speaker 1: there mug and when he didn't get back in the game.
Speaker 1: I don't know, bro, but I ain't appreciated that ship.
Speaker 1: Kind of pissed me off a little bit. But in
Speaker 1: saying that, it feels like to me and once I
Speaker 1: saw that get serious out there, yeah, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's the game we grew up on. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like that's how I looked at the game.
Speaker 1: Where when you go to the park or you're going
Speaker 1: to the gym, like it's not playtime, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And no matter if I'm playing in NBA
Speaker 1: or if I'm playing Drew League, or if there's nobody watching,
Speaker 1: that's that's you know, the passion I have towards the game.
Speaker 1: And that's how if you that way, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: what it's called for. I don't care who you playing again,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But that's the beauty of
Speaker 1: the game in itself. To be able to bring that
Speaker 1: side out of you, to be a complete competitor. I
Speaker 1: don't know nobody who isn't a competitor that don't show
Speaker 1: that fire of that passion, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That's just the beauty of the game. Absolutely. Um, do
Speaker 1: you think there's something that I can do other players
Speaker 1: can do? But do you think that there is something
Speaker 1: to where these leagues can be used? Um, shy Ley
Speaker 1: Drew League. I think Baltimore has a league, Seattle Jamal's League.
Speaker 1: They just restarted the Moneyball League back in Michigan. What
Speaker 1: can be done with the NBA and partnering with these leagues.
Speaker 1: Because you get Seattle, you get Jamal, you get de
Speaker 1: jont Jordan Pool went up there and play once, Tony
Speaker 1: Roden who was an NBA player, You get Zach Lavine,
Speaker 1: Paolo and now you get you get all of these
Speaker 1: pros to Miami rug you get all these pros. What
Speaker 1: can the NBA do with these leagues that can help
Speaker 1: these communities that they're man because all of these communities like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Seattle is nice, but Seattle got uh the slums too.
Speaker 1: It's nice city. We all know, l A got slums,
Speaker 1: Miami's nice, they got slums, Baltimore cool city slums. What
Speaker 1: can the NBA do with these leagues and helping reach
Speaker 1: these communities, Because I think there's something could be done,
Speaker 1: but I don't know exactly what that thing. I think
Speaker 1: even before you even include the NBA, I think it's
Speaker 1: on us. Just like last week, it was just a
Speaker 1: text message from I got from bron about playing in
Speaker 1: the Drulie, and look what we did in a matter
Speaker 1: of a couple of days. You know, it's it's it's nothing.
Speaker 1: But even I think even that night, I think I've
Speaker 1: seen Trey Young put something up on the story saying,
Speaker 1: you know, to to Hooper's just going out there playing
Speaker 1: for the love of the game and bringing out, you know,
Speaker 1: the fans. That's all it takes, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's just one call, one text message of the way
Speaker 1: to be able to start this, you know code following
Speaker 1: that we had thinking about when the NBA didn't setting
Speaker 1: it up during the lockout, that was all on us,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That was just players coming
Speaker 1: together saying, hey, let's do this this weekend. Hey let's
Speaker 1: do this. And I think the more we do that
Speaker 1: and the more attention we put towards that, again, there's
Speaker 1: so much that could be done in those communities, bro.
Speaker 1: Because I'm I get home that day after playing in
Speaker 1: Julie and I'm like, this is on ESPN, NBA TV,
Speaker 1: popping up on my app on ESPN, on the phone,
Speaker 1: it was even on the NBA app. It's crazy, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Just I had people texting me
Speaker 1: at the game about the game, and I'm sitting there like,
Speaker 1: but how are you in this gym somewhere like, how
Speaker 1: are you talking about I didn't realize it was on
Speaker 1: the NBA app until I left I started seeing like
Speaker 1: screenshots and stuff and then Stelli who you know, It's like, bro,
Speaker 1: this is on the NBA app. This is crazy the
Speaker 1: NBA app. Bro, Like it's amazing. So think about the
Speaker 1: power we have to be able to help these communities.
Speaker 1: So it's on us. It's it's just helping out one another.
Speaker 1: Even even if we set up here and saying, all right,
Speaker 1: let's get five guys from l A to play against
Speaker 1: five guys from Seattle, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: just making an annual thing. You know, once a year.
Speaker 1: Ain't gonna be something every week. You just do something
Speaker 1: once once the summer, you know what I mean. We
Speaker 1: go to Seattle, play against Jamal and x amount of
Speaker 1: people and bring out somebody a special, a special other
Speaker 1: player that's from somewhere else, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and and compete like it's all on us, you know.
Speaker 1: And then you know how things work. When you start
Speaker 1: to do like that, other opportunities and bigger opportunities come
Speaker 1: that want to be a part of that to be
Speaker 1: able to help. So I think you just start with us.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful thing. By the way, Adam, I hope
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, I think the NBA has found
Speaker 1: a way. And I gotta give Adam a lot of
Speaker 1: credit and what he's done since he's taken over as
Speaker 1: commissioner to dominate every month of the year except August.
Speaker 1: There's your there's your August, Adam. Get some guys. Guys
Speaker 1: can play these games in these cities. It's charity, it's
Speaker 1: for these communities. It's giving back. It's what the NBA
Speaker 1: stands for. That's what the NBA is all about. There's
Speaker 1: your August, Adam. That's how we take over all. That's
Speaker 1: an amazing pitch right there, for sure. But I think,
Speaker 1: I think, I think that will be great. But I'm
Speaker 1: watching this game and people are hitting me, like, yo,
Speaker 1: are they gonna lose. I'm like, it's no chance they're
Speaker 1: losing this game. At any point of during that game,
Speaker 1: did you feel like that at all? At all? Not
Speaker 1: at all. I didn't think so. And you know what,
Speaker 1: when they hit me, I said, it's no chance because
Speaker 1: my team, please has this saying. He always say a
Speaker 1: pro is a pro and a joe is a joe
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, no disrespecting nobody, but
Speaker 1: the pro is a pro. For a reason. So I'm
Speaker 1: watching the game and they're like, Yo, they're gonna win
Speaker 1: and gonna win. I said, now, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: how this is gonna go. They're gonna shut their water off,
Speaker 1: They're not gonna be able to get a stop down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and them boys gonna fold down the stretch
Speaker 1: because that pressure gonna grow. And sure enough, y'all a
Speaker 1: stretched where y'alls put like ten eleven stops in the
Speaker 1: road together. You saw the intensity to pick up. What
Speaker 1: it reminded me of was like an All Star game,
Speaker 1: where like the first half guys going through it and
Speaker 1: then the third quarter it picks up in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter of intensity through the route. And that's what it
Speaker 1: reminded me of. But so y'all pick up the intensity.
Speaker 1: You and Brian take over on the offensive end. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you one sign when I knew, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they ain't ready for the moment. The big white kid
Speaker 1: not show what his name was, Um he had he
Speaker 1: played great game, busting y'all did not miss the free
Speaker 1: throw the whole game. He missed six straight free throws
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. I'm like, ah, this pressure getting
Speaker 1: to these boys. Now, and I don't think people understand, like,
Speaker 1: there's pressure on you going into that game, there's pressure
Speaker 1: on bron going into that game. I don't think people
Speaker 1: understand that, not at all. They don't. They don't understand
Speaker 1: the magnitude of that, you know what I mean. Think
Speaker 1: about it. If we lost, we gotta live with that
Speaker 1: in here, that whole narrative, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And you know the amount of games I've been in
Speaker 1: obviously stuff with him, it's like, you know, the moment
Speaker 1: we understand the time on the clock, you know how
Speaker 1: it going a game where you know, a four minutes
Speaker 1: come on? Yeah, we know. It's kind of like the
Speaker 1: two minute ruling football. Tom Brady know exactly what he's
Speaker 1: gonna you know what I mean. So it came down
Speaker 1: to that moment, and at the same time, I'm glad
Speaker 1: it went that way because it made it more exciting
Speaker 1: for the people, you know what I mean, Like that's
Speaker 1: what what was dope? Yeah, we could have went out
Speaker 1: there and one by forty, but it's just gonna turn
Speaker 1: into you know, people just trying to dunk throw lives.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was. I loved that it turned out that way.
Speaker 1: It was it was. It was very theatrical, and you know,
Speaker 1: an action movie ain't good if it ain't got no
Speaker 1: Olans in it. So hey, that's just what it is
Speaker 1: that far. Yeah, I like that now and moving forward,
Speaker 1: I wanted to speak about that at length. It's like
Speaker 1: I said, I thought, I thought that was such a
Speaker 1: huge moment for basketball. I thought that was a huge
Speaker 1: moment for the city. I thought that was a huge
Speaker 1: moment for the culture. And I appreciated that. And I
Speaker 1: want people to understand that wasn't there, what that was,
Speaker 1: what it looked like, and hear it from you, because
Speaker 1: I can say all I want, I didn't play you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, So to hear that from you,
Speaker 1: I want people to understand. And and I also want
Speaker 1: to say thank you, um because what it what it
Speaker 1: to both of you, all you and Bronze. What it
Speaker 1: did for me was it woke up something in me
Speaker 1: and like that thing has not been awakening me in years.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that because that is a part of
Speaker 1: the game that I think we all start to get
Speaker 1: older and we're like, I'm not playing it no more
Speaker 1: Summer League, I'm not playing it no more pick up.
Speaker 1: I'm not like I'm gonna just work out and get
Speaker 1: my body ready and rest. And it woke up something
Speaker 1: in me that I needed. And think about you saying that,
Speaker 1: and how many other our colleagues where he felt the
Speaker 1: same way, you know what I mean, Like it was
Speaker 1: no way in hell I would have missed that game,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, just for the motivation to
Speaker 1: get Like, come on, man, we none of us too
Speaker 1: good to not be able to go who you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like, this is what we do
Speaker 1: think about it. Man. I remember going playing outside when
Speaker 1: it was it was pouring down raining with nobody out there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, just to play basketball. And
Speaker 1: it's like, as long as we got this opportunity to
Speaker 1: be able to play, we should just have fun and
Speaker 1: get back to that element of enjoying the game, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I think he got so caught
Speaker 1: up in it being such a business aspect of something,
Speaker 1: and it's like, Yo, it was a time where we
Speaker 1: played this thing every single day with no complaint and
Speaker 1: didn't get a dollar from it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We didn't have a highlight to go back and watch
Speaker 1: from it, you know what I mean. But we did
Speaker 1: it every single day. So that was what was the
Speaker 1: cool part of just you know, showing that Brian and
Speaker 1: his twenty of year still coming out here playing like
Speaker 1: he's sixteen, you know, not worried about a misshot or
Speaker 1: somebody picking him up or getting cross over the same
Speaker 1: with me, you know what I mean. It's like, that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of it. Even the guys we played against,
Speaker 1: you don't think they went home total a girlfriend or
Speaker 1: did whatever, and and it felt great about themselves being
Speaker 1: able to compete against two great players. That's what it's
Speaker 1: all about. Man, no doubt. So you headed into your
Speaker 1: four team, which is absolutely the same. Congratulations, that's an
Speaker 1: incredible compliment. Bank after your after your twelve, A lot
Speaker 1: of doubt, a lot of oh man, he don't shoot
Speaker 1: the three, the mid range is is a losing shot,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Now and saying that everybody said the
Speaker 1: mid range was are losing shot. And then that's the
Speaker 1: only shot you shot you see taking in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but they say all regular season and is losing shot.
Speaker 1: But a lot of doubt, um, which I don't understand
Speaker 1: for someone that's accomplished so much, that's proven so much
Speaker 1: over and over and over again, but you faced a
Speaker 1: ton of doubt. Um, free agency to me didn't go
Speaker 1: for you how I think it should have went. Um,
Speaker 1: the interests around the league for a superstar on the market,
Speaker 1: it wasn't what it should have been. I feel like
Speaker 1: you you channel that and you and you go into
Speaker 1: Chicago your first year, second team All NBA All Star Again,
Speaker 1: what what was what was last year like for you?
Speaker 1: Re establishing the mar de rosen See this is this
Speaker 1: is a dope thing that you know, people out there
Speaker 1: don't know. We We've had these conversations. We know it's
Speaker 1: been plenty of times you you called me throughout this season,
Speaker 1: was like hell, yeah, fuck you. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was never surprising to you. Um. So it's this
Speaker 1: obviously my first time speaking up on the topic, which
Speaker 1: is I think it's would be very insightful. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, for me, my three years in San Antonio
Speaker 1: was such a you know, it was it was such
Speaker 1: a question mark for me of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: the next phase of myself, you know, being in the
Speaker 1: place for so long, obviously Toronto and feeling like, you know,
Speaker 1: the franchise all of a sudden you get knocked down
Speaker 1: back to humble beginnings and have to figure yourself out
Speaker 1: as a player. You know, doubt, doubt come in, Questions
Speaker 1: come in, especially when all you see is a certain
Speaker 1: type of narrative that followed you can't do this, this, this, this, this,
Speaker 1: this on down the line, you know, and it and
Speaker 1: it it takes a toll on you. You know, because
Speaker 1: you know me, I'm not the most out spoken person
Speaker 1: to go back and forth on debating myself with somebody else.
Speaker 1: So it put me in the mindset of, you know,
Speaker 1: how can I figure this thing out within me and
Speaker 1: change the narrative in time? You know, it used to
Speaker 1: be moments where overnight I wish I could do something
Speaker 1: right now to change this whole night narrative. But I
Speaker 1: told myself my whole time in San Antonio, whenever I
Speaker 1: get my next opportunity, I'm gonna make it makes sense.
Speaker 1: While I was in this position for three years being
Speaker 1: in San Antonio, and that summer come up going into
Speaker 1: free agency, like you said, it didn't go as playing.
Speaker 1: You know, it was that kind of brought so much
Speaker 1: doubt in for me and put me in a dark
Speaker 1: place because I started the question like you know, all right,
Speaker 1: where where am I going? Now? What player am I
Speaker 1: going to be? You know what I mean? Like, so
Speaker 1: many of these questions started to creep in, and you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people don't didn't realize, you know,
Speaker 1: I know big names always kind of signed in the
Speaker 1: first day or two. You know, I think I would
Speaker 1: A couple of days into free agency was still such
Speaker 1: a question mark. You know, I was I gonna go
Speaker 1: somewhere for the one year deal? Was this? Was I
Speaker 1: gonna take the minimum? This? This and the narrative of
Speaker 1: it was was such a It put me in a place, honestly,
Speaker 1: like and I remember through that whole time. It was
Speaker 1: three four days in a row. I didn't leave out
Speaker 1: the room. I didn't see the sunset. I didn't see
Speaker 1: the sun come up set in the room. And just
Speaker 1: being like it put I was. I was depressed. It
Speaker 1: put me in a depressed mindset because I didn't know
Speaker 1: what the funk was gonna happen. You know, was I
Speaker 1: gonna come to l a that that fell through, that
Speaker 1: that didn't happen? Was this was this? You see You've
Speaker 1: seeing guys signed other places. Everybody hitting me, like, man,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do what you're gonna do. And it
Speaker 1: was certain moments where I had no clue what I
Speaker 1: was gonna do, you know. And um, when the Chicago
Speaker 1: thing came around and I made that happen, it was
Speaker 1: such a relief at the same time, and it angered
Speaker 1: me and put me in a in a in a
Speaker 1: very frustrating mentor of like fund this, I'm about to
Speaker 1: I'm about to I'm about to demolish anything you gotta
Speaker 1: say about me. I'm not gonna say nothing. I'm just
Speaker 1: work my ass off and I'm approved, not just for myself,
Speaker 1: for anybody who feels like they get counted out, they
Speaker 1: get doubted or get told that they can't do something.
Speaker 1: My whole career is kind of being based off that.
Speaker 1: But I never let it, you know, bring me completely down.
Speaker 1: It knocked me down, but I got back up. And
Speaker 1: for me that moment of going to Chicago, I just
Speaker 1: told myself, this is a new opportunity. I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: the most out of it, and every every type of
Speaker 1: every way, you know, And I remember ship every time
Speaker 1: I did something, You'll call me every time it's like
Speaker 1: keep going, keep going, you know what I mean? It
Speaker 1: was it was those conversations of like, you know, my
Speaker 1: peers see it and they understand in it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean going I remember when I signed with
Speaker 1: Chicago is the worst free agent signing. It was like
Speaker 1: that's what you feel, like, that's what you feel about me.
Speaker 1: So it was like it was it was it was
Speaker 1: a vengeance out not just for myself, but just for
Speaker 1: anybody that get put in that situation because it's so
Speaker 1: easy to fall victim to the bullshit that they put
Speaker 1: on you. Absolutely that that that is so false. You know,
Speaker 1: you can lose confidence, you can you can doubt yourself,
Speaker 1: you can feel like maybe they're right when it's like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't care how much older I'm getting. It's all
Speaker 1: about how much you put in, how much you love,
Speaker 1: and how much you're willing to sacrifice to keep getting better.
Speaker 1: And that was my whole approach my mentality going into
Speaker 1: last season. Such a beautiful thing to watch and you
Speaker 1: you spoken a couple of things, uh depression, your mental
Speaker 1: that I want to get into. But it's very interesting
Speaker 1: to me because, like you said, I feel like I've
Speaker 1: lived this with you all years, from from last year
Speaker 1: free agency and talking to you every day like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you're good. Yo, what about this? What about that? To
Speaker 1: then the conversation turning like yo, come to the Warriors,
Speaker 1: and you're like, fuck, no, I'm not coming there. I'm
Speaker 1: not coming to play with like bro, but you come
Speaker 1: to the Warriors. We can win the championship if you
Speaker 1: come to the Warriors. He didn't come. We still want
Speaker 1: the championship, but he didn't come. However, I had to
Speaker 1: throw that one out there. Um, like you said. The
Speaker 1: thing that really pissed me off most and aside from
Speaker 1: our relationship, that made me call every day every time
Speaker 1: you did something was like and you just hit on it,
Speaker 1: are you gonna take a minimum? People were like are
Speaker 1: you going to take a minimum? I mean even when
Speaker 1: I called talking about you should come to the Warriors,
Speaker 1: and I was talking about no minimum. A minimum that's
Speaker 1: baffling to me for someone who's still athletic, still score
Speaker 1: the basketball, don't get in no trouble, true professional, in
Speaker 1: a bucket a minimum. The disrespect for me just didn't
Speaker 1: sit well. And the disrespect was coming from people who
Speaker 1: never done it, ain't gonna do it, can't do it,
Speaker 1: won't do it, and and most importantly don't know it.
Speaker 1: I'm so sick of people that don't know basketball that
Speaker 1: pick up a stat sheet and look at the stat
Speaker 1: sheet and say, oh, man, right. They don't look at
Speaker 1: the stat sheet for you and say, oh, he had
Speaker 1: twenty seven points, but he didn't shoot no threes. He's
Speaker 1: a bad player. That's what was spirited for me, like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you gotta destroy everybody until then, watch you come out
Speaker 1: and do that. To watch you spend more than half
Speaker 1: of the season top three in m v P race,
Speaker 1: that's a different thing. And and to get the Bulls
Speaker 1: back to the playoffs regardless of the injury. See, the
Speaker 1: thing that made your season so great to me was
Speaker 1: Zach was in and out of the line up due
Speaker 1: to injury. Boots was in or COVID stuff. Everybody dealt
Speaker 1: with that. Boots was in and out of the lineup, injury,
Speaker 1: COVID stuff. Caruso missed a bunch of the season, Alonzo
Speaker 1: missed majority of the season, and the one constant were you,
Speaker 1: And I thought that that was very special. I thought
Speaker 1: you looked like the Mark de Rosen again. And what
Speaker 1: most people don't know that's coming off the hills of
Speaker 1: your father passed away. It's a different thing to deal with.
Speaker 1: How could you channel that right? And especially with the
Speaker 1: l A thing right, like you if you get to
Speaker 1: stay home in l A moms is here everything just
Speaker 1: a little better. That seems like it's gonna happen, and
Speaker 1: it don't another thing? Right? How do How were you
Speaker 1: able to channel all of that into being in the
Speaker 1: Mark de rosen Man, You know I'd be lying to
Speaker 1: you to tell you that and have days where you
Speaker 1: know it just got extremely heavy. You know you kind
Speaker 1: of just shut down and take a moment to yourself
Speaker 1: to kind of regroup. But I always just told myself
Speaker 1: my my favorite saying to myself was always make something
Speaker 1: bad that happened makes sense down the line, whatever that
Speaker 1: may be. That's all all I used to tell myself,
Speaker 1: let me make this this negative makes sense down the line.
Speaker 1: And I always told myself whenever body got down, whenever
Speaker 1: I felt a certain type of way, So everything I
Speaker 1: rather if it was being a trying to be a
Speaker 1: better son, to be a better father, be a better friend,
Speaker 1: be a better basketball player, it was always trying to
Speaker 1: find different elements of just trying to be better to
Speaker 1: make sense of the negative that I'm going through. You know,
Speaker 1: and um, I just stuck to it. Bro I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna lie. I just stuck to it. I had days
Speaker 1: here and there, but I just stuck to it. And
Speaker 1: every time I got that opportunity, and I trust everything
Speaker 1: I put, I put into it, and I and I
Speaker 1: knew nobody suffered like I did. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because when I never screamed out, I never lashed out,
Speaker 1: you know, I never wanted nobody to feel sorry for me.
Speaker 1: I never throw a pity party nothing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Nothing. So it was always me telling myself,
Speaker 1: no one suffered like I suffered, so everything else is
Speaker 1: gonna be easy in That's just how I took the approach,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's and that goes for
Speaker 1: anybody that feels like they're going through something. You're not alone,
Speaker 1: but it's always a way you can channel that that emotion,
Speaker 1: that that that negative feeling that you may carry into
Speaker 1: something positive as long as you make it make sense,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's that was just my
Speaker 1: mentor that was just my approaching. To this day, I
Speaker 1: still take the same approach. It's beautiful and it's inspiring.
Speaker 1: Your father passed away and you continue on, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we've all seen death around us. I've seen
Speaker 1: death around me as long as I can remember. And
Speaker 1: to me, I always say, people hit you up for
Speaker 1: a week, you know, people around for a week or
Speaker 1: two like how are you doing? Then they just go away,
Speaker 1: as if the problem don't go away. How are you
Speaker 1: like that that don't go away? You don't get another father,
Speaker 1: how are you like how are you dealing with that?
Speaker 1: Because you're still dealing with that, that don't change. I
Speaker 1: think I think when I lost my dad, it opened
Speaker 1: me up the except being, you know, in a sense, vulnerable, vulnerable, accepting,
Speaker 1: accepting life in a different, you know light, because you know,
Speaker 1: you start to realize, you know, not the same everybody
Speaker 1: saying nothing is promise, but you get a different sense
Speaker 1: of it, you know, when something of that magnitude hit you,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, my dad told me everything.
Speaker 1: My dad was, you know everything. He was the only
Speaker 1: man I feared, you know what I mean. That's that's deep.
Speaker 1: He was the only man I feared. And when I
Speaker 1: say fear, it was never nothing in a negative light,
Speaker 1: but it was always I don't want to let you down,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, damn, I don't want
Speaker 1: to let my dad down. Are damn I I don't
Speaker 1: want him to you know, no, I did this. I
Speaker 1: don't want I don't I don't want him to be
Speaker 1: mad at me. I want this. I want this. So
Speaker 1: it pushed me to a level of, you know, always
Speaker 1: consistently being focused as much as I can so I
Speaker 1: can make my dad proud, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: just because you know, he looked at me in a
Speaker 1: certain light as being his you know, his youngest son,
Speaker 1: you know, and I always wanted to honor that as
Speaker 1: much as I could. So losing him it kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, gave me a different sense of empathy um
Speaker 1: towards life and start the value and look at things
Speaker 1: with more of a acceptance of understanding that you know,
Speaker 1: this thing is short, you know. And and you don't
Speaker 1: give your all or put your all into being a
Speaker 1: good friend, a good person, whatever it may be, what
Speaker 1: you're doing it for, you know. And and that's one
Speaker 1: thing that he helped me with now. And and let
Speaker 1: me know, when you go through something, it's okay. It's
Speaker 1: okay to go through something or have a bad stretch
Speaker 1: of something, or or be be in a stuck place,
Speaker 1: because that's not gonna last forever. What's gonna last forever, Well,
Speaker 1: for the lifetime, it's me not being able to see
Speaker 1: my father, you know what I mean. So a bad
Speaker 1: week ain't gonna last, a bad month ain't gonna last.
Speaker 1: It's just as long as you're working on yourself and
Speaker 1: you're trying to better yourself. In those moments, it's okay
Speaker 1: to not be okay, to be okay. But you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Now, that's one thing that opened me
Speaker 1: up and helped me kinda thrive to be a better
Speaker 1: you know, individual for real, no doubt. You just said
Speaker 1: something that I and I responded. I said, that's deep,
Speaker 1: and I want to touch on that that's the only
Speaker 1: man that I feared and that his that his home
Speaker 1: with me for a very specific reason. Number one, my
Speaker 1: grandfather when he passed away, Like that's who I that.
Speaker 1: That was the man that I feared, and it's I
Speaker 1: never found that again in my life, right, And so
Speaker 1: I felt like, because I never found that again in
Speaker 1: my life, there's some issues that arose in my life
Speaker 1: that could have been prevented and would have been prevented
Speaker 1: had I had that man still in my life that
Speaker 1: I feared my mom to this day, I still feel
Speaker 1: my mom like I sometimes get nervous when she called,
Speaker 1: like when she would call when I was younger, and
Speaker 1: I'll be like, oh man, I'm in trouble. I still
Speaker 1: sometimes get that feeling like, oh man, she's about to
Speaker 1: get at me. There are things that I may would
Speaker 1: have done in this life right now currently today, like
Speaker 1: my daily life, that I don't do because I know
Speaker 1: how upset she would be. She would never let me
Speaker 1: live it down. She disowned me as a son. And
Speaker 1: it's not that I would do something that then that
Speaker 1: I won't do now because I'm afraid of her, but
Speaker 1: also from the standpoint of letting her down. And and
Speaker 1: it keeps that sense of what's acceptable and what's not
Speaker 1: because we in this world we live in, some things
Speaker 1: that are accepted accepted aren't really acceptable. And my mom
Speaker 1: don't play that and and it it holds me in
Speaker 1: a certain area. How like, how can you find that again?
Speaker 1: Because I think for me, it took me a long
Speaker 1: time to find it and I never found it again, like,
Speaker 1: oh I'm afraid of this man. You just find I
Speaker 1: found different people that I could trust that will hold
Speaker 1: me accountable in certain areas, my wife being one of
Speaker 1: them that has helped elevate me. How have you found
Speaker 1: yourself adjusting that? Like, bro, exactly what you said. When
Speaker 1: I lost my dad, I lost myself for a while.
Speaker 1: That's crazy you said that because I haven't had a
Speaker 1: conversation with somebody who put it in the same terms
Speaker 1: that you just put it in. You hit it on
Speaker 1: the head because when I lost my dad, I lost
Speaker 1: myself for a long time. Like you know, I put
Speaker 1: myself in a in a in a lot of ship
Speaker 1: where if he was here, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I
Speaker 1: never want to put myself in you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And you know, we we've had conversations to where you
Speaker 1: had to tell me something from a brother, from a
Speaker 1: brother's standpoint that I sat there and listen. I've never
Speaker 1: been in that situation, you know what I mean. I've
Speaker 1: never had to deal with another person or me being
Speaker 1: acceptance of another man telling me about myself. And we
Speaker 1: we had conversations where we had brother brother conversation. I
Speaker 1: heard you out, you know what I mean, losing my dad.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what going back to what I was
Speaker 1: saying before, it. That's what kind of open you up
Speaker 1: to be able to be accepting of a real friend.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, be accepting of of someone
Speaker 1: who close to you, allowing them to help you. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean, because I always felt like I
Speaker 1: didn't need help because this, this is the only person
Speaker 1: I I need to hear something from. My dad came
Speaker 1: the other man tell me nothing. It's my dad many
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, from from top to bottom,
Speaker 1: so nobody else could tell me nothing. So when I
Speaker 1: lost them, you know you you you, you began to
Speaker 1: be in search of those elements that can help replace
Speaker 1: which you feel like you lost. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That started and I think that's why our bond is
Speaker 1: so close how it is, because we was able to
Speaker 1: do that. That's something I probably never even told you,
Speaker 1: but now you know. You know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: just be dope ship like that. So where's it really
Speaker 1: becomes a blessing? When you lose somebody something else replace
Speaker 1: it in whatever way you may need it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But you hit it on the head, bro.
Speaker 1: When you lose something that stop that stops so much
Speaker 1: other stuff from happening because you care about that one
Speaker 1: person thought or what they may say to you. You know,
Speaker 1: I lost that and I lost myself for a long
Speaker 1: time after that, for a long time. So um, at
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, that's the beauty of life.
Speaker 1: You know, you you constantly growing. You know, nobody was
Speaker 1: never nobody ever hit The selling is a forever thing
Speaker 1: that you have to figure out, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Nobody got the complete answer. So yeah, that's crazy you
Speaker 1: said that. Bro, that's that's a beautiful thing. And I
Speaker 1: think it's a good segue. You've been very outspoken about
Speaker 1: mental health for years. Um, before, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, before it was cool to speak on mental
Speaker 1: health like it's cool now, not that it's a cool thing,
Speaker 1: it's cool, it's accepted. Um. You spoke out about it
Speaker 1: when it wasn't accepted, when it was like, oh man, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're just using that, uh you know to get by
Speaker 1: or you know that's an excuse or this that another. Um.
Speaker 1: How has your journey been with your mental health and
Speaker 1: going through the things you spoke about, and specifically you
Speaker 1: spoke about being depressed and already having mental health struggles.
Speaker 1: Did that help you with the current thing that sent
Speaker 1: you into that depression for sure, because before you accept
Speaker 1: and understand what depression really is, you you hide from
Speaker 1: it and you're kind of worse than yourself unnoyingly, you know,
Speaker 1: and you you you find certain ways you know you
Speaker 1: can't understand, like why I'm so mad, why I'm so frustrated,
Speaker 1: why I'm taking this while I'm lashing out on this,
Speaker 1: while I'm taking something that happened out happened yesterday out
Speaker 1: on this person that have nothing to do with yes
Speaker 1: to day's issue. You know what I mean? Before I
Speaker 1: was that person to where I used to push everybody away,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to talk. But once you identify it,
Speaker 1: you start to understand why you're feeling that way. You
Speaker 1: will catch onto it and you kind of write down
Speaker 1: your thoughts and your feelings. Or while you're feeling like
Speaker 1: that or we're triggered it, um get a better understanding
Speaker 1: on that so you don't worsen the feeling, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Or you may just call up somebody
Speaker 1: you're close to and have a conversation about it and
Speaker 1: get it off your chest. Now you would go on
Speaker 1: about your day and not feel so down as you
Speaker 1: usually be, you know, So for me, It just helped
Speaker 1: me identify and find inspiration to other people's story as well.
Speaker 1: When you look at somebody that could be going through
Speaker 1: something that way worse then what I just thought my
Speaker 1: problem was, you know what I mean. And it's like
Speaker 1: I'm tripping on having a flat tire when this person,
Speaker 1: you know, just lost somebody close to UM to a
Speaker 1: sickness or something, you know what I mean. So you
Speaker 1: kind of balancing out, and it's all about understanding, under
Speaker 1: understanding the feeling, understanding yourself, and understanding what triggers what
Speaker 1: triggers you, you know, And I didn't have nothing that
Speaker 1: understanding before, where you just hide and run from your
Speaker 1: problems and you just stacking, You just stacked, calling them
Speaker 1: annoyingly until you just lash out and explode. How did
Speaker 1: you get to the point to where you were able
Speaker 1: to identify depression, to where you were able to UM
Speaker 1: identify mental health struggles? Did you see someone? Was it
Speaker 1: something you study? How did you get to that point? Um?
Speaker 1: I think I just I end up crashing. I just
Speaker 1: end up crashing, like I just hit a wall. And
Speaker 1: when I hit that wall, I think I was just
Speaker 1: so down and out and I just wanted to understand
Speaker 1: where this feeling coming from. You know, you start the
Speaker 1: backtrack and understand you know why I find, you know,
Speaker 1: comfort and darkness sometimes. And this, this is one thing
Speaker 1: I learned learned the therapy. We was talking about my
Speaker 1: dad one one moment and um, I gotta I got
Speaker 1: a tattoo. I got a tattoo on me from from Batman.
Speaker 1: What Ban said basically, you know I was born in darkness.
Speaker 1: You know that quote, right, And it was something I
Speaker 1: found out about me being having such a comfort what
Speaker 1: darkness was. When I was young, my dad always used
Speaker 1: to lock me in the closet and I used to
Speaker 1: kick the door like screaming, panicking everything to one day
Speaker 1: he threw me in the closet was dark and I
Speaker 1: didn't kick, I didn't knock on the door, I didn't
Speaker 1: tell him let me out anything, to where in that
Speaker 1: moment he never put me in the closet again, because
Speaker 1: in that moment, I realized darkness ain't nothing to me.
Speaker 1: So it became such a comfort to where it becomes
Speaker 1: such a systematic I forgot what they called it, uh
Speaker 1: systematic disssitation of a feeling, and it's systematic, the system
Speaker 1: what was it I gotta, I gotta find a word.
Speaker 1: It's systematic dissisitation. Basically, when you put yourself through something
Speaker 1: so much to where it don't even affect you anymore.
Speaker 1: And him putting me in a dark closet so many
Speaker 1: times it was nothing to me, So I became so
Speaker 1: comfortable comfortable with darkness that I I I put that
Speaker 1: with chaos to where I'm carrying chaos like it's nothing.
Speaker 1: But that's not good for your mind as a kid
Speaker 1: growing up, you know what I mean, thinking about where
Speaker 1: we come from. You see so much violence, so much,
Speaker 1: it becomes such a norm. When this ship ain't normal,
Speaker 1: This ship shouldn't be normal, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't we wouldn't let our kids watch a certain
Speaker 1: movie because it's have a certain amount of you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. When you live through that, it becomes
Speaker 1: such a norm that that isn't right. So when I
Speaker 1: finally crashed and hit the wall, you know, you backtrack
Speaker 1: on all these things that you thought was nothing, that
Speaker 1: you carried into your adulthood. Think about it. We come
Speaker 1: from nothing. All of a sudden, you're giving this money.
Speaker 1: Now we have a lot of money. Now we don't
Speaker 1: know what to do with the money. Now we gotta
Speaker 1: now we think now it's everybody got a hand out. Now,
Speaker 1: everybody get mad when you want to give him something. Everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody you inherit everyone problems before you even deal or
Speaker 1: understand what your own problems is or that you've been carrying.
Speaker 1: So for me, it was one of those things that
Speaker 1: I crashed and burned and I kind of just took
Speaker 1: a a layout on everything that I've been through. Then
Speaker 1: I just got to a point where like why should
Speaker 1: I feel away expressing myself knowing I went through all
Speaker 1: this ship before I even got here, I would never
Speaker 1: feel less of a man. I made it out of Compton, California.
Speaker 1: Like why nobody could make me feel soft or anything?
Speaker 1: And I was just that moment where where it hit
Speaker 1: me to where I gotta say something because I'm carrying
Speaker 1: so much on my emotions on my shoulders that I
Speaker 1: know so many other people carry thinking about how many
Speaker 1: people we know high behind the money, the glamour, the
Speaker 1: false persona of this whole ship and don't even know
Speaker 1: themselves until it's too late. And for me, I never
Speaker 1: wanted to be that person. I always told myself when
Speaker 1: I retired. I don't want to be that old, grumpy
Speaker 1: ex basketball player with a lot of money. I always
Speaker 1: told myself that I don't want to be that old
Speaker 1: motherfucker that just sits up mad at everybody but got
Speaker 1: a bunch of money because I didn't figure out or
Speaker 1: indulge in and be vulnerable and understand myself to help
Speaker 1: other people. I always told myself that once I came
Speaker 1: up with being being oppressed, was I just want to
Speaker 1: when I retire, I want to be happy, like I
Speaker 1: just want to sit back and be happy and enjoy
Speaker 1: everything that I went through and start a new chapter
Speaker 1: of my life and and and and joy that next journey,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's just my perception of of you know,
Speaker 1: me coming out of being depressed. You're currently working on
Speaker 1: a project around mental health. Can you share what that
Speaker 1: project is, why you wanted to do it, and what
Speaker 1: you hope to get out of it. Yeah, came up
Speaker 1: with a project and basically having one on one conversations
Speaker 1: such as this, but more with an intimate said um
Speaker 1: more so, you know, imagine if the cameras wasn't here,
Speaker 1: nobody was here, just a blunt, in depth conversation that
Speaker 1: we may have think about thinking about the conversations we
Speaker 1: had on the phone, if those are recorded, how how
Speaker 1: that could inspire or help someone else that's going through
Speaker 1: something similar, you know what I mean. And it's basically
Speaker 1: one of those you know, blunt conversation that you would
Speaker 1: have when nobody else around, but you know, and and
Speaker 1: and being open and obviously you know our relationship and
Speaker 1: the conversations that the phone conversation we had putting that
Speaker 1: you know, on Front Street to be able to show
Speaker 1: our vulnerability and the things that we go through and
Speaker 1: show how imperfect we are. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're striving to be better every single day. And that's
Speaker 1: what it's about because people look at us in such
Speaker 1: a light of superheroes, and sometimes we gotta break ourselves
Speaker 1: down and show that we're the saying as you you know,
Speaker 1: and and that goes a long way. When you could
Speaker 1: see us in that light and have conversation with you know,
Speaker 1: you got a hell of a story and fun basketball
Speaker 1: before he even got there, the story of the trials,
Speaker 1: of ups and downs, of the things you've been through
Speaker 1: that made you who you are, give a better understanding
Speaker 1: of you know, when when I you know It tripped
Speaker 1: me out when I watch you play and people look
Speaker 1: at why dream acting like that it's something in him
Speaker 1: with If he didn't have that, he wouldn't be where
Speaker 1: he asked today. You see what I'm saying, And you
Speaker 1: should be more intrigued and want to understand what's that
Speaker 1: that brains that fire out of out of out of
Speaker 1: him because maybe you have it too, but you just
Speaker 1: don't know how to unlock it. Are you so ashamed
Speaker 1: because you care what somebody else think? You don't want
Speaker 1: to unlock that passion that you have towards something, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? You limiting yourself like that's how
Speaker 1: I look at people. And being able to have and
Speaker 1: sit down over at dinner table and in in you know,
Speaker 1: dissect one another. You know, goes a long way, you know,
Speaker 1: because I know when I look think about when we
Speaker 1: grew up, you you couldn't see interviews of your favorite players,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, the only time you've seen
Speaker 1: them as on TV or if they speak after the
Speaker 1: game or some but imagine we we've seen our favorite
Speaker 1: players say yo, I went through this, not this this
Speaker 1: how I got through it? You know, really break themselves
Speaker 1: down to be vulnerable, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: I remember I used to I used to see like
Speaker 1: certain players. I mean when I first heard Nick van
Speaker 1: ex To talk, right, I just he sounds like that
Speaker 1: because you're watched it for years, but you don't know
Speaker 1: how you talk. I'm like, damn, he talked like that. Man,
Speaker 1: He's not from l A, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I look at it from the standpoint of when
Speaker 1: we break ourselves down and have real life conversation, bro,
Speaker 1: that goes so far because they just see us hoop
Speaker 1: every single day throughout the season, talk about basketball throughout
Speaker 1: the season, where it's like, you know, we were human beings.
Speaker 1: We all have a fucking incredible story that we could share,
Speaker 1: and I just want to put that on the front street.
Speaker 1: To be able to do that with some of my
Speaker 1: favorite players that not even players, people that I find
Speaker 1: inspiration from, you know, in in all angles. So that's
Speaker 1: what the show is gonna be all about. And I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be dope, you know, especially with the
Speaker 1: Obviously You're gonna be one, but you know the other
Speaker 1: people that I have in mind sitting down talking with,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be special. I'm excited to do it um.
Speaker 1: Like I said number one, I just never take these
Speaker 1: opportunities for granted, just to shit and chop it up, um,
Speaker 1: but also to like you said, to indulge in those conversations,
Speaker 1: and more important league for people to see you, like
Speaker 1: to see you in a light that they haven't seen
Speaker 1: because like to them, you're super quiet what you are,
Speaker 1: but when you have a relationship with somebody, you're not um.
Speaker 1: And so it's almost like coming out of your shell.
Speaker 1: And I think it's so on point, like you're going
Speaker 1: into your fourteenth year but you're only thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: and he's saying, ay, just me, I'm going into your eleven.
Speaker 1: I did my bid. It's cool, but I felt like this,
Speaker 1: you know, and and it's all I'm literally sitting here
Speaker 1: talking to you right now, and it's all tying together
Speaker 1: for me because I feel like this year has been
Speaker 1: such a year of growth for you, and so I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here looking at it now and it's time tying
Speaker 1: together from me. It's like Pops free agency go crazy.
Speaker 1: And I I felt like and watching you this year
Speaker 1: on the court, you were coming out of a shell,
Speaker 1: like you stepped into I'm really one of them guys.
Speaker 1: Now I'm really good in this league. That's a different thing.
Speaker 1: Like you've been really good for a long time. You
Speaker 1: stepped into this year like no, I'm one of them.
Speaker 1: And I don't think people have been trying to put
Speaker 1: you there. People have been trying to put you in
Speaker 1: like this this subcategory of like good players. And we know,
Speaker 1: like there's that category in the league of like guys
Speaker 1: that's really good but not quite And I feel like
Speaker 1: you you finally, like I know I'm gonna show y'all
Speaker 1: that I am here and now you're coming with the project,
Speaker 1: and like I feel like it's all time together for
Speaker 1: you in the and and like you're coming out of
Speaker 1: your shell. And I think it's a beautiful thing to see. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's dope. I mean, I'm just a firm believer in
Speaker 1: just time into you know what I mean. Like I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people say I don't do this,
Speaker 1: I don't do this, but I'm just I just always
Speaker 1: believe in just like the universe putting what's necessary in
Speaker 1: front of you to accomplish something, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never been the one to force anything,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? The same way. If you
Speaker 1: look at how I play, I treat my life the
Speaker 1: same way. You ain't gonna force me do anything I
Speaker 1: don't want to do. You know what I mean. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take my time. I'm gonna get to my spot.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it happen when they need to happen,
Speaker 1: how I need to happen. Uh facts Before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, Um, I want to end us on
Speaker 1: a couple of basketball questions. I know that conversation got
Speaker 1: a little heavy, hope everyone enjoyed it, but spoke on
Speaker 1: you Zach. Congratulations. Is that incredible contract? Caruso voots Alonzo,
Speaker 1: that's who I view as the core file and y'all
Speaker 1: to be healthy and hold this year? What is that next? What?
Speaker 1: What needs to happen outside of health for y'all to
Speaker 1: take that next step now getting in the playoff, like
Speaker 1: I think everybody thought y'all was really serious contender in
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference and then all the injuries and stuff
Speaker 1: started happening. What needs to happen for y'all to take
Speaker 1: that next step to get the Chicago Bulls franchise back
Speaker 1: to where we know that franchise once was. I think
Speaker 1: for us you know, um as a group, as a core,
Speaker 1: you know, um, many of us wasn't together much. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, the experience and you know, the
Speaker 1: second half of the season, we gotta know what that
Speaker 1: feel like going in and training camp. You know, we
Speaker 1: we we kind of fell apart. We lost ourselves obviously
Speaker 1: through health but regardless, you know it. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I told when the young guys have to All
Speaker 1: Star break, I said, this is the moment when you
Speaker 1: you see what teams are serious. Um And he didn't
Speaker 1: know what I meant by that. And for us to
Speaker 1: you know, hit the wall that we hit, you know,
Speaker 1: show that, No, we wasn't ready for adversity. You know,
Speaker 1: we had so much success so early to where you
Speaker 1: can lose sight of how hard the ship really is
Speaker 1: to really compete, you know, in a couple of guys,
Speaker 1: you know, even Zack, you know, he messed the game
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, but that was his first playoff run
Speaker 1: and him not being healthy. I know that frustrated him.
Speaker 1: UM So him having that extra fire in him understanding
Speaker 1: how hard it was just to get to the playoffs. UM.
Speaker 1: Thank for us, it's just the understanding and knowing that
Speaker 1: this ship is completely hard. Like that is hard, like
Speaker 1: nothing is gonna come easy. This ship is a grind
Speaker 1: every single day, and that that that mindset you gotta carry.
Speaker 1: You can't be satisfied with a two game win, street,
Speaker 1: five game, whatever it may be. Ship is a long
Speaker 1: journey and it's hard, and we gotta treat it like
Speaker 1: that every single day. Think about y'all. I look at
Speaker 1: you all, and I that your team this year maybe
Speaker 1: one of my favorite teams of in history simply because
Speaker 1: which I was faced up against. Nobody. Everybody doubted y'all.
Speaker 1: Clay came back for being out the amount of time
Speaker 1: he was out, but every time y'all were out there
Speaker 1: and play that ship was extremely hard. And for me
Speaker 1: as a basketball like junkie, that's how I look at it.
Speaker 1: Like these motherfucker's knew this ship was gonna be hard,
Speaker 1: and they embraced it and accepted every single day. And
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of this game, because everybody gets to
Speaker 1: a point where, damn the ship hard. A game or
Speaker 1: two they fold. Every single one of your game was
Speaker 1: extremely hard and to that ship was over and a
Speaker 1: lot of teams lose sight of that. You know, you
Speaker 1: play fifty six games like this Ship hard and fucking
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you Series Tide three three,
Speaker 1: This Ship hard man, fucking they got it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like, that's the beauty of this
Speaker 1: game is those who accept it being hard and wanted
Speaker 1: to be be tough because I want to I want
Speaker 1: to prove to myself I could get over this ship.
Speaker 1: And that's what it was. And I think y'all was
Speaker 1: very indicative of that. And I think when you get
Speaker 1: a group of guys to buy in that way, get
Speaker 1: outcomes like that, no matter what what somebody say, y'all,
Speaker 1: the favorites are not, you know what I mean, It's
Speaker 1: just those teams that win it for sure, I think. Um,
Speaker 1: I think honestly, that's why I have so much gratitude,
Speaker 1: or half so much gratitude. Um, it's because it was
Speaker 1: hard and like the things you just said, it wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to happen. And as hard as it was, you
Speaker 1: could see teams get to that point and break. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like and although it was still very hard for us,
Speaker 1: and like I feel like I feel like this playoff run,
Speaker 1: I went through everything I could possibly go through. I
Speaker 1: went through great times. I went through awful times I
Speaker 1: went through in the middle, but it was something different
Speaker 1: about this one and the challenge that it was. Like,
Speaker 1: so if you put it in context, like the first
Speaker 1: championship we won, after that regular season, I knew like, yeo,
Speaker 1: we got the best team, but you didn't know how
Speaker 1: to win a championship then, you know. So that's that one.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and seventeen and two thousand and eighteen, it
Speaker 1: was literally just a matter of getting to the day
Speaker 1: that we can win. Once we got to that date,
Speaker 1: I knew we went. This year was different with all
Speaker 1: the doubt, like you said, with Clay coming back, he
Speaker 1: comes back, to day he come back, I go down,
Speaker 1: the day I come back, Stepp go down. It's like,
Speaker 1: this ain't supposed I started to think this ain't supposed
Speaker 1: to happen for us, you know, like, this ain't it's
Speaker 1: not the year. I even told one of my homeboys,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna probably see you right after the first
Speaker 1: round because I just don't see it happening. And so
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was a very special year,
Speaker 1: and hard as it was, it made it the most
Speaker 1: special because it was the hardest one we had to
Speaker 1: go through. Chicago. Every time I played there, I hear
Speaker 1: that music and that starting line up, and it does
Speaker 1: something to me. I feel like Michael Jordan about to
Speaker 1: run out of the tunnel. Do y'all get that sense?
Speaker 1: And playing there and getting that every single day? Or
Speaker 1: is it not? Like yeah, no question that it trips
Speaker 1: me out even just driving there, Bro, Like parking outside,
Speaker 1: I remember just seeing all of highlights Jordan's back in
Speaker 1: the day parking outside, you know. Like so for me,
Speaker 1: every time I go there, Bro, I feel it like
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna lie like you just you just
Speaker 1: feel like you gotta you gotta bring it every single night,
Speaker 1: especially for those fans. Man, And it's it's crazy. I
Speaker 1: was telling somebody. I think I was telling my Um.
Speaker 1: I forgot who was telling my partners this The other day,
Speaker 1: I said, UM, the moment where I really realized, like,
Speaker 1: you gotta bring it every single night in that arena.
Speaker 1: I've never spoken this like on nothing media. And then
Speaker 1: I think it was four or five games into the season. Um,
Speaker 1: We're playing the Knicks and I took the game winner
Speaker 1: air balled and I just felt like I just felt
Speaker 1: the whole vibe of everything, like what the fuck, Like
Speaker 1: what what was that? Like? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like I felt like I felt like I disrespected the
Speaker 1: area of what what these fans is used to seeing
Speaker 1: from obviously m j Hen game winners, and you know,
Speaker 1: you live for those moments and being that moment for
Speaker 1: the first time my fourth fifth season in the game
Speaker 1: and I take that shot, it was like I told
Speaker 1: myself I would never be in that situation again to
Speaker 1: let that same feeling happened for these fans. I swear
Speaker 1: to god, bro, I never told that. It was that
Speaker 1: game to where it was like every shot I've taken
Speaker 1: a clutch, I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it
Speaker 1: count every single time. So you look back at all
Speaker 1: the moments that I had and that arena, it was
Speaker 1: more so like, Yo, this is the ghost of like
Speaker 1: I'm trying to inherit, the ghost of Michael shooting his
Speaker 1: fate away with the clock running down like that. I
Speaker 1: carried that to heart after that moment because you felt
Speaker 1: it from the fans. You felt it on social media
Speaker 1: when it was like yeah, you're taking that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? You just it was like nah, like nah.
Speaker 1: So That's how I carried it every time I'm walking there.
Speaker 1: You see you know, you see Scotti, Michael, you see
Speaker 1: Bob Love, you see you see these jerseys up there,
Speaker 1: and it's like and you hear his music when you
Speaker 1: come out. It's the same. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. You got to live up to it.
Speaker 1: You got to, you got to. So there you have it.
Speaker 1: You were wondering where those game winners still from my man?
Speaker 1: By the way, don't get so cocky and give us
Speaker 1: the one lad game winner again. Man, put that back
Speaker 1: in your bag. Man. But in speaking of game winners,
Speaker 1: and I think this is a great way for us
Speaker 1: to end. I'm in this with a trivia question actually
Speaker 1: on clutch shot making. I'm gonna give you the first one.
Speaker 1: You have the most clutch shots made since two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve with sixty four. Who are the next four since
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve? So that's my rookie year, Yeah, Steph,
Speaker 1: actually number two with sixty two. By the way, how
Speaker 1: many I got sixty four, Steph? For those of you
Speaker 1: that don't know, By the way, clutch shots is in
Speaker 1: the last five minutes of a game. I've I've seen it, Steph,
Speaker 1: Steph Dame Dame has sixty one. How many of you
Speaker 1: said it is? There's there's four more after you just
Speaker 1: the next four. There's two more. Give you a hint.
Speaker 1: They play on the same team, Katie carry and wait,
Speaker 1: hold on, Hulda hunt on. Oh it gotta be Brian
Speaker 1: and Rust. Russ got sixty one as well. Brian got
Speaker 1: fifty five. Yeah, I think this is a very interesting
Speaker 1: thing because two of these guys on this list, one
Speaker 1: sitting right here and Rust. The disrespect is unbelievable. And
Speaker 1: all you gotta do you can check stats like this,
Speaker 1: like this is a real stat, like guys hitting in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Guys don't do that. Then you can
Speaker 1: check the tape to which most of area. That's another
Speaker 1: topic everybody can't check to take We know that, but
Speaker 1: this is a very interesting stat for y'all learn, like,
Speaker 1: stop chasing these disrespectful hits. Man. You got real people,
Speaker 1: real hoopers, real legends, real Hall of famers doing this.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it because it don't last. Don't last, and it's
Speaker 1: not an accident. It's not it's not a coincidence, and
Speaker 1: it's not an accident. This man wake up every day
Speaker 1: four o'clock and the more working out. I ain't doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna workout that now. But I honestly and I
Speaker 1: want to say thank you for coming on, Bro. It
Speaker 1: is an honor and a pleasure to sit here and
Speaker 1: talk with you because I, like I said, I know
Speaker 1: not many people can say they get a conversation like
Speaker 1: this from you, and I don't take that for granted.
Speaker 1: To everybody out there listening, I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: We thank you, brother, from the bottom of my heart.
Speaker 1: Jackson producer. We've been at this thing for almost a
Speaker 1: year and it's been great, and it's been great because
Speaker 1: of guys like yourself coming on and and opening up
Speaker 1: and and and sharing your story beca ultimately that's what
Speaker 1: the fans want to hear. So thank you, Bro Man,
Speaker 1: Thank you Bro. Absolutely that's a rot. Peace would have
Speaker 1: a privy. Levi B.