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Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Straymond Green Show.
Speaker 1: This next guest, I am excited to have number one. UM,
Speaker 1: he's a guy who has some voice, was not afraid
Speaker 1: to use their voice. But as you know, come on
Speaker 1: the Draymond Green Show. You gotta have a resume. That's
Speaker 1: just how it goes. That's just what it is. You
Speaker 1: gotta have a resume. It's exclusive. You gotta have been
Speaker 1: to accomplish something. And this guy right here not only
Speaker 1: did he accomplish something, actually, UM beat me in the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. Uh provided the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history,
Speaker 1: coming back from down three one. As you know the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers that came back. Uh. This guy was to
Speaker 1: start the center, leading rebounder, setting the best screens, defensive
Speaker 1: anchor voice. If you if you're actually out there on
Speaker 1: the floor, like you hear how much communicating he does
Speaker 1: so important to the championship team. I'm honored to have
Speaker 1: this next guest, my brother Double T Tri san Thompson
Speaker 1: went up. My brother, what I'm bro. Appreciate Let's a
Speaker 1: little rundown right there. A lot there I like appreciate, No,
Speaker 1: no doubt, I appreciate you coming on. I've been I've
Speaker 1: been looking forward to this. Um. You know, like I said,
Speaker 1: you're You're You're someone who I have a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of respect for the way that you came into the
Speaker 1: NBA Number one, coming from Canada. Basketball started to become
Speaker 1: big in Canada just as you were growing up. And
Speaker 1: to take hold of that, come to America on your path,
Speaker 1: go to Texas, get to the NBA fourth fit absolutely
Speaker 1: amazing And I just really want to start off by
Speaker 1: talking to you about that, Like growing up in Canada.
Speaker 1: I saw I saw them The Carter Effect, the documentary
Speaker 1: The Carter Effecting, how much impact Vince Carter had on basketball.
Speaker 1: But growing up young in Canada, before all of that
Speaker 1: started happening, did you even have the thought of, like,
Speaker 1: I want to play basketball, I want to play at
Speaker 1: a high level, when I want to go to the NBA. No,
Speaker 1: to be honest, you know, being the Jamaican background, my
Speaker 1: first level soccer. So grow up as a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: six seven, eight, eight year old, you know, it was
Speaker 1: all ball, soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer, and and to be honest,
Speaker 1: I didn't even think about basketball or even the NBA.
Speaker 1: And to be honest, it wasn't really until Vince Carter
Speaker 1: when I was like, you know, I started hitting a
Speaker 1: grosper and I said, you know what, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: these handballs on the on the soccer field, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, let's let's try basketball. It looks fun. Guys
Speaker 1: are jumping high and Duncan's I said, why not? Why
Speaker 1: not try this sport out? And then you know how
Speaker 1: popular his Carter was, and the Nike commercial with the
Speaker 1: Nike shocks, and see how electrifying, you know, always win
Speaker 1: Milling or dunking out Tim Duncan. I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to play basketball, and I want to make it.
Speaker 1: I want to make the NBA. So that's how it
Speaker 1: was for me. And at what age did you actually
Speaker 1: start playing them? Sixth grade? So that was that. That's
Speaker 1: like twelve years old, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so kind
Speaker 1: of compared to all the kids in America. You know,
Speaker 1: you know right now you have au at eight and
Speaker 1: under nine and unders. So for me, it was kind
Speaker 1: of a later start, but I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the game and then every since the sixth grade, I've
Speaker 1: been been in love with the game and been playing.
Speaker 1: You know what's crazy is I see guys who start later,
Speaker 1: Like I started playing basketball when I was four years old.
Speaker 1: I played on my first structured team at six and like,
Speaker 1: and I was playing with like third and fourth graders.
Speaker 1: So first grader playing with third and fourth graders. It's
Speaker 1: a totally different field. And I didn't play much, but
Speaker 1: to get that experience for me was huge. And you
Speaker 1: know too, So you start playing at twelve and one
Speaker 1: thing and you tell me if you agree with this
Speaker 1: one thing. I feel like I've noticed this guys who
Speaker 1: start playing at a later age like yourself, don't really
Speaker 1: build bad happens. You know, you start young, you start
Speaker 1: at six years old, you can't really shoot the ball.
Speaker 1: You fling it like this, you know, like you're pushing
Speaker 1: the ball. But guys who started at like later ages yourself,
Speaker 1: Joellen b don't really have bad happens. Do you agree
Speaker 1: with that? Can you speak to that a little bit? No?
Speaker 1: I agree. I think it's because, as you know, when
Speaker 1: we start playing basketball, like you said myself, to all
Speaker 1: the other guys, you feel like you're you're behind a ball.
Speaker 1: You feel like you have to catch up to the
Speaker 1: other kids that've been playing, you know, since like there's
Speaker 1: like a guy like yourself, like you know, since you're
Speaker 1: six years old. So for us, it's almost like we
Speaker 1: treat every practice or every drill like we have to
Speaker 1: get better every day and we have to build the
Speaker 1: right fundamentals because you know, we feel like we're we're
Speaker 1: ten steps behind. And then like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: you watch kids now, the first thing to do is
Speaker 1: go to three point. They're just fitish chucking the ball,
Speaker 1: and they're not they're developing so many bad habits and
Speaker 1: just even my son Prince you know well, like you know,
Speaker 1: i'd be teaching him, like you know, left hand dribble,
Speaker 1: don't use two hands, no double dribble aggs because like
Speaker 1: you said, like the kids that start super early, you
Speaker 1: developed bad habits. But you know, for a guy like
Speaker 1: myself or people from international, we know that we're not Americans,
Speaker 1: so we're already behind a ball. We're already looked at
Speaker 1: us not as good. Um, why why kid from Canada?
Speaker 1: I can go grab the kid from somewhere in the States,
Speaker 1: So so us we knew that every every day to
Speaker 1: Jim had to count. Man, speaking of Prince, Um, like
Speaker 1: you just mentioned your son, who I have the honor
Speaker 1: of knowing and having a relationship with. Such an incredible kid,
Speaker 1: bro Like and I know I've said this to you before,
Speaker 1: Like such an incredible kid speaks so highly of his father.
Speaker 1: He sit there like my daddy playing on my daddy
Speaker 1: playing the NBA too, my daddy on TV too. He
Speaker 1: tells me all that he'd be so happy. Man, I
Speaker 1: think it's so dope. And you know, for you to
Speaker 1: mention mention him here, this wasn't where the interview was going,
Speaker 1: but I actually was telling fair fair was like providing
Speaker 1: me with some questions, and I sent there some of
Speaker 1: the questions that I have, but I said, fair, I
Speaker 1: just want to let you know this isn't going to
Speaker 1: be the typical interview. I like to go where the
Speaker 1: interview he takes me and you speaking of your son, like, like,
Speaker 1: speak to me about fatherhood. We've had discussions, and speak
Speaker 1: to me about fatherhood, bro, and like what that's done
Speaker 1: for you as a man in your life and how
Speaker 1: it sports you to grow. Yeah. Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: important for everyone who knows that you know, Prince and
Speaker 1: DJ they love each other, they're best friends, and they
Speaker 1: you know, gone on vacation, and you're an amazing father
Speaker 1: and an amazing role model to your kids. And what
Speaker 1: you've done for when I'm not around, for the Prince
Speaker 1: being there for him, especially you know, being on the
Speaker 1: West Coast and being able to come back and forth
Speaker 1: to La. So I appreciate that. I think it's important
Speaker 1: as as meant to to show their appreciation for other
Speaker 1: fathers because you know, it's it's tough, it's not easy,
Speaker 1: especially with our schedules. It's not really in favor for families.
Speaker 1: So the fact that you know you know, you're able
Speaker 1: to be there for DJ and and even there for Prince.
Speaker 1: You know, it means a lot. So um, now, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for that, and I think Father, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's it's part of the journey. I think, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, me growing up not having a father figure,
Speaker 1: having my dad around, you know, uh, you know, being
Speaker 1: him being in and out of jail, incarcerated. So for
Speaker 1: me having kids, it's always important for me to especially
Speaker 1: with boys, you know, we gotta we gotta make sure
Speaker 1: we you know, teaching the right things and kind of
Speaker 1: better be a leader. And I think that's how you shape,
Speaker 1: you know, try to create these young men and kind
Speaker 1: of break the cycle, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I think that's no, absolutely and one hundred percent. Bro.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you and also the openness to that, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like Princess my nephew, as you know,
Speaker 1: and and like you know, do beach days. We do.
Speaker 1: We've done all type of stuff. And I ain't have
Speaker 1: an appreciation for that too, because I understand the grind.
Speaker 1: Like you're in Cleveland, you're in Boston, whereas on the
Speaker 1: West coach. You can't get back and forth. And I
Speaker 1: think that's important, you know, for us, Um, like you said,
Speaker 1: your father was in and out, in and out of prison.
Speaker 1: My mom and my dad divorced at twelve, you know.
Speaker 1: And and I always talk about, um, the things that
Speaker 1: I did not learn, like, so I would never say
Speaker 1: I didn't like grow up with a man in my life,
Speaker 1: like I grew up with some great men in my life.
Speaker 1: But I had this conversation with my mom before UM.
Speaker 1: I said, Mom, you were incredible, Like the things that
Speaker 1: you taught me were great, but there are just some
Speaker 1: things that I didn't learn just because I did not
Speaker 1: grow up in the house with another with a man
Speaker 1: in the household. You know. It's like certain traits that
Speaker 1: you pick up that are those that a woman would
Speaker 1: teach that a man wouldn't necessarily teach, or some things
Speaker 1: that you would pick up from a man in the
Speaker 1: house that you didn't necessarily pick up. And I've now
Speaker 1: growing up in my life, I've realized, like, man, there
Speaker 1: are some things that I just didn't get due to that.
Speaker 1: And so in a situation like yours, where you're halfway across,
Speaker 1: you're all away on the other side of the country,
Speaker 1: like not that, for instance, growing up with a man
Speaker 1: in the household, but just to have a man around
Speaker 1: sometimes when your father can't be there. I think that's important,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And I try to do
Speaker 1: that when I can, because it's a tribe man, Like
Speaker 1: we all were raised by tribes. We weren't. We weren't
Speaker 1: just raised by mom, raised by tribes what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: So I can appreciate that. And then speaking of mother,
Speaker 1: you recently lost your mom. Number one, I want to say,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about your loss. Um, I couldn't imagine, Like
Speaker 1: you know, my mom is everything you know, and so
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine. So I want to say, number one, UM,
Speaker 1: sorry about your loss. But just like how how are
Speaker 1: you coping with that? Like like what do you lean
Speaker 1: into because you have to lean into something to kill
Speaker 1: the time? Like what do you find comforting and lean into? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, it's definitely tough, like like you said,
Speaker 1: like you know, our mom's especially, but I know it's
Speaker 1: like a lot of us hoopers, like our moms are rocked,
Speaker 1: you know, because they're the ones that they come to
Speaker 1: THEIRU games, they come to the high school games, come
Speaker 1: to the college games, they're they're rooting for us. They
Speaker 1: understands they might cuss a fan out, they might, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll go they'll go to war for us. So you know,
Speaker 1: my mom was like that for me, and you know,
Speaker 1: losing her is it's been tough. You know, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, there's always just good days and
Speaker 1: this bad days. You know, some days or either than others.
Speaker 1: What I try to do is keep myself busy, but
Speaker 1: try to give a lot of my my love and
Speaker 1: my time to my kids, just because you know, they
Speaker 1: give me peace of mind and they give me a purpose.
Speaker 1: You know, of course we all have a purpose in life.
Speaker 1: But I think you know, when when times are tough
Speaker 1: and then and things are dark, when you look at
Speaker 1: your kids and see them, that's that's where you can say,
Speaker 1: get that light, like all right, I could do this,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I got to do it
Speaker 1: for them, and I got to be strong for them,
Speaker 1: you know, like my mom was. It was a type
Speaker 1: of woman says you know, you know, there's no time
Speaker 1: for sitting around. You gotta get up and be active.
Speaker 1: You know, men have to have ambition. Then have to
Speaker 1: get up every day and keep it pushing. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't be lazy, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: that's what I That's what I That's what I took
Speaker 1: from her, her work ethic, and I just try to
Speaker 1: do that with being in this distake. It's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's tough, you know. You know, I get so used
Speaker 1: to wake up in the morning with her, They're being
Speaker 1: in Toronto, the three hour difference, you know, wake up
Speaker 1: to text message from her, and you know, not getting
Speaker 1: that no more. There's times where I have pictures like
Speaker 1: even when Prince had school recital, like school recital, you know,
Speaker 1: I text my mom and I'm like, you know, like
Speaker 1: so it's still still tough, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, obviously she's very big in the
Speaker 1: church and very big in faith, and she was she
Speaker 1: she she preached, So you know, I just pray a lot,
Speaker 1: and you know, just get just the closer. I feel
Speaker 1: like I get in with the spiritual cider and with God.
Speaker 1: And everyone has their own beliefs and whatnot, but you know,
Speaker 1: I just try to get tapped into that. So I can,
Speaker 1: you know, help me do these times? Absolutely, bro man,
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine. Um, and your mom took care of
Speaker 1: your brother. I grew up having seizures epilepsis. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: had seizures. I was actually born having the seizures. So
Speaker 1: I was told this story. I was born and my
Speaker 1: grandfather said, why is that baby shaken like that? Like
Speaker 1: baby shouldn't be shaking like that. They never figured it out. Um.
Speaker 1: I think when I was like six or seven years old,
Speaker 1: I had like a real seizure and I and I
Speaker 1: went on medicine, and I was on medicine. I was
Speaker 1: twenty eight years old. I had my last season when
Speaker 1: I was fourteen fifteen, and I was on medicine for
Speaker 1: it until I was twenty eight years old. I started
Speaker 1: talking with neurologists and he was speaking about like he
Speaker 1: was talking about, hey, ma, I think you can stop
Speaker 1: taking the medicine now, like we should start weaning you off.
Speaker 1: I'm like, actually, I already weaned myself off, and like
Speaker 1: I happened to like, I'm blessed, And I don't take
Speaker 1: that for granted at all. You have a younger brother
Speaker 1: who has a much more serious case epilepsy, and now
Speaker 1: you're taking on that responsibility. I want to shed light
Speaker 1: on that, not not to share your business, but more
Speaker 1: so to show what type of person you are, because
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times in the media, people
Speaker 1: people get so caught up in someone's personal life that
Speaker 1: they and what they do with their life that they
Speaker 1: forget to see the good and people. And just speaking
Speaker 1: of the type of guy, you're like, you've you've taken
Speaker 1: that on, Like, speak to me about that, because that's elegy. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's um. You know, I'm the oldest of four,
Speaker 1: oldest of four. Uh, you know my brother that's twenty seven,
Speaker 1: so he's on his own in Toronto. And then I
Speaker 1: have a the middle child, he's eighteen, so he's, uh,
Speaker 1: who's my brother right now? And then I have a
Speaker 1: mart who's uh, who's sixteen, who was epilepsy and and
Speaker 1: and he's with me full time and under my care
Speaker 1: full time. The epilepsy has is called LSG. It's basically,
Speaker 1: if you want to put a nutshell, basically what one
Speaker 1: and one hundred people have epilepsy. But he's one out
Speaker 1: of two million that have this type of epilepsy. And
Speaker 1: I guess they give to rank it. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's one of the worst case epilepsies out there.
Speaker 1: So uh for him, you know, he's um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's he's disabled. We have to have twenty four hour
Speaker 1: care for him. So I have to have caregivers, you know,
Speaker 1: and nurses that have actually dealt with cases like this,
Speaker 1: just because you know, his seizures are very severe and
Speaker 1: if they're not treated right, it could be it could
Speaker 1: it could be very bad. So um for me, you know,
Speaker 1: I take that responsibility at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like you know, that's family. And my mom always told
Speaker 1: me when you're blessed, she blessed others, and you always
Speaker 1: take care of your family, regardless of the situation, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And and and then to me, you know the reason why
Speaker 1: you know I'm so close to market. To me, it's
Speaker 1: like that one piece of my mom that I had left,
Speaker 1: you know. And because she she basically once I got
Speaker 1: to the NBA, she retired. I told her, you know,
Speaker 1: no more working. She was a school bus driver. I said,
Speaker 1: just take care of a Mara, focus on a Mari,
Speaker 1: and I'll take care of everything else. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: I've taken on that with myself right now. And and
Speaker 1: he's he's he's done much better being out here, and
Speaker 1: it's always better when you have sun. But it was
Speaker 1: the snow, the snow and great, it's too depressing. So
Speaker 1: Mari's out here. He loves California. He's he's starting to
Speaker 1: gain weight and he's smiling more and more happy, and
Speaker 1: it's just you could just see his energy and spear,
Speaker 1: you know. Of course it's uh. Even though he doesn't talk.
Speaker 1: You know, of course people always kill. He might not
Speaker 1: be able to talk or be able to picular how
Speaker 1: he's feeling, but you could tell when when when his
Speaker 1: first half with my mom, and you could tell you
Speaker 1: it was one more depressed, didn't really want to eat,
Speaker 1: was was more bundled up in a ball in the bed.
Speaker 1: But now that he's you know, as time as passed,
Speaker 1: he's you know, and that's a big shout out to
Speaker 1: the caregivers that I have, the nurses that are taking
Speaker 1: care of him, that are giving the love in addition
Speaker 1: to the to the love I'm giving him to my
Speaker 1: family is giving them because you know, they're even though
Speaker 1: they're getting paid to do a job, they're they're they're
Speaker 1: going above and beyond, and we have him going to
Speaker 1: you know, birthday parties with the nurses to like it's
Speaker 1: so it's great. So it's it's challenging, but it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's part of my journey. And you know
Speaker 1: it's show make my mom pressed. That's special, man, that's special.
Speaker 1: That's that's special with you know, like you, I think
Speaker 1: your mom said the best. We get put in these
Speaker 1: positions and the reality is you're placing these positions to
Speaker 1: bless and help others. And for you to do that,
Speaker 1: like you don't have to do that. You could easily
Speaker 1: have someone else do that. You know, you can have
Speaker 1: someone else take care of it. You can pay for
Speaker 1: someone like you. That's honorable, man. And I feel like
Speaker 1: those are the stories Like that was when I started
Speaker 1: this podcast. It was for stuff like that. It was
Speaker 1: for to like, let's talk about Trisian Thompson playing basketball
Speaker 1: and not like, oh, well he had thirteen rebounds today,
Speaker 1: but he only had seven, Like, yeah, my son can
Speaker 1: see he had thirteen rebounds on the stat sheet today.
Speaker 1: That's another reason I started. But also like the good
Speaker 1: in us, you know, no one ever really want to
Speaker 1: talk about the good because they say it doesn't sell No,
Speaker 1: that's controversy sales. They say, yeah, no, that's lazy that
Speaker 1: they don't do the homework. They don't want to do
Speaker 1: the work, exactly. No, No, talking about Triscian Thompson and
Speaker 1: the mart sales as well, you know, and and it's
Speaker 1: refreshing and people need to hear it. And so I
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing that story with us because you
Speaker 1: didn't have to. But I can take something away from that,
Speaker 1: and I think everyone else can take something away from that.
Speaker 1: So I think that's absolutely incredible. I agree. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's the one thing that I think what your
Speaker 1: platform and what you're doing is like changing the narrative.
Speaker 1: And you know, you're One thing I love about you
Speaker 1: is that you'll get on that mic and you'll and
Speaker 1: the good thing is that there's between you and other
Speaker 1: people that we won't mention their name. Is that listen,
Speaker 1: you can you can stir it apart and you can
Speaker 1: light a fire under someone's ass, which you actually have
Speaker 1: the knowledge you have both, which makes it which makes
Speaker 1: you a fucking problem, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: that's what and that's why the media is afraid of you,
Speaker 1: because it's like, you know, even with myself doing is
Speaker 1: feel like like they just think we're just like you know,
Speaker 1: black basketball players that just just go play basketball don't
Speaker 1: know nothing about the game. But they don't real that
Speaker 1: like we study the game. We have knowledge, and we
Speaker 1: study what goes on the world and we see the trends,
Speaker 1: like we see that, Um, if if a GM from
Speaker 1: let's just make name, if a GM from from Cleveland,
Speaker 1: if if a rumor comes out and people are like,
Speaker 1: oh well if a certain certain reporters are cool certain GM.
Speaker 1: So you know, if if a report comes from this
Speaker 1: guy you know who's talking and I think you called
Speaker 1: that up, you called that out, and it's it's just like,
Speaker 1: you know, the fact that we know that stuff and
Speaker 1: we're changing the narrative all people perceive us. They can't
Speaker 1: stand up because the guys that have these positions that
Speaker 1: we're in are usually the guy that never played basketball.
Speaker 1: Yeah maybe maybe the g the ball boy. But the
Speaker 1: fact that we actually hoop and we have the knowledge
Speaker 1: and we have to feel like it just it just
Speaker 1: it scares them. That's why they That's what they're curious.
Speaker 1: So also, keep keep keep doing your thing, bro, Like
Speaker 1: we got we got to change that narrative. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, we have to and we are the
Speaker 1: new media. Baby. You know, I'm gonna tell you one.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you one that I hate basketball players
Speaker 1: that start acting like they didn't play basketball. Let's start
Speaker 1: acting like like they're not one of us. Like like, bro,
Speaker 1: like I get it, like being a part of the media.
Speaker 1: I am a part of the media now. You're a
Speaker 1: part of the media now. But one thing I'll never
Speaker 1: forget is I played basketball and how that feels, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like what that's like, and like
Speaker 1: it irks me when I see guys get up there
Speaker 1: and forget like yo, you said in that same locker room,
Speaker 1: like you're dealt with these same issues. You're dealt with
Speaker 1: these same thing that that irks me more than the
Speaker 1: guys that didn't play and talk stupid. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: because it's like that brand new you're like, Bro, I
Speaker 1: literally played against you two three years ago and you
Speaker 1: were never like this, And like, don't act like you've
Speaker 1: never been in this positions before, or don't act like
Speaker 1: you've never had a bad month, a bad shooting month,
Speaker 1: you know, or not being able to show up because
Speaker 1: who knows what was going on. But I agree with you.
Speaker 1: When guys, it's funny because it's like, you know, doing
Speaker 1: media and everyone thinks that you have to figure out
Speaker 1: like which villain or character you're gonna be, and it's like, no,
Speaker 1: just be yourself. And if you just have knowledge and
Speaker 1: you just know what, if you stand on what you
Speaker 1: believe in and you just know what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: people are gonna fall in love with you because people
Speaker 1: want organic people. People don't want to deal with the faith. Listen,
Speaker 1: you want to if a certain guy on TV, they
Speaker 1: want to just third apart and that might last for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. But to have longevity, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to have more than just you know absolutely you're
Speaker 1: actually going You're actually gonna have to analyze something like
Speaker 1: not telling us what the statue? Oh man, this guy
Speaker 1: shot awful? He was five for twenty one? Well, oh
Speaker 1: I can see that all right. What else you got
Speaker 1: for me? Why was he five for twenty one? What
Speaker 1: did that defense do to make him five for twenty one?
Speaker 1: Did he just missed shots that he normally makes and
Speaker 1: he was five? What actually happened to get him to
Speaker 1: five for twenty one. Yeah, break the film down, break
Speaker 1: the film down. Show what's what's going on? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. A lot of guys come to statue
Speaker 1: just top no shows what's going on? Maybe some matchup
Speaker 1: that this guy has struggled the last five games against.
Speaker 1: When he plays against this guy, he struggles, Like give
Speaker 1: us more, man, give us more. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely. And in speaking of these things and family,
Speaker 1: and I want to move into your career because I think,
Speaker 1: like I started this thing off with your career was amazing.
Speaker 1: But before we actually get into the meet of the career,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you something that I will watch.
Speaker 1: And I know all of the pressure that we're under,
Speaker 1: m like we are under the mids amount of pressure
Speaker 1: all the time. Schedule is absolutely insane. Two things that
Speaker 1: you did that I thought was absolutely amazing. One you
Speaker 1: dating your child's your second child's mother. Second, through Chloe
Speaker 1: and her fame and attention that she draws. I don't
Speaker 1: think people understand the draw that that didn't has on
Speaker 1: you right like for you could because you have to
Speaker 1: take on that schedule, you have to take on like
Speaker 1: that fame you have to take on if it's this event.
Speaker 1: I may be in the middle of I may be
Speaker 1: in the midst of a stretch of five games and
Speaker 1: seven nights, and on one of those two nights we
Speaker 1: have all there's an event that she has to go
Speaker 1: to an I have to attend that event, right, So
Speaker 1: now I'm six and seven nights, like taking on that?
Speaker 1: How did you adjust to that? Like, you know, everyone
Speaker 1: wants to talk about your relationship, Like I don't give
Speaker 1: a fuck about that, like that, ain't got nothing to do.
Speaker 1: But how would you adjust to like having to take
Speaker 1: on another person's schedule that's so busy and so much
Speaker 1: and so out there, because that's a huge thing, and
Speaker 1: to stay locked in and focused like you did, Like
Speaker 1: how did you take on it and like channel that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think, um, it's definitely yeah. You know, like you said,
Speaker 1: you know, dating someone that's a high profile and dating
Speaker 1: someone that's in the public eye and whose career is
Speaker 1: her republic, you know, you take on that. It's no
Speaker 1: different than you know with your wife. You know, like
Speaker 1: now she had to take on to your NBA schedule
Speaker 1: and you know, like in the Choe should take out
Speaker 1: to my MBA schedule. I think the the great thing
Speaker 1: about you know, about your wife, and then about you know,
Speaker 1: when I was with Chloe, is that day they understood
Speaker 1: how much we love the game of basketball and how
Speaker 1: much we are invested in it, and they you know,
Speaker 1: during the season, she put a lot of her stuff
Speaker 1: on hold because she wanted to be there for me
Speaker 1: and support me. And that's and that shows a lot
Speaker 1: about her character and it shows how much she's invested
Speaker 1: in the relationship. So during the season it wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't tough at all because it was more so like
Speaker 1: the way we viewed it was during NBA season, it's
Speaker 1: about the NBA and then the summertime it's more focused
Speaker 1: on her because you know, for us, our summer it's
Speaker 1: it's more kind of freeland. You know, we freelance, We
Speaker 1: work out. You know, I can get up at sticks
Speaker 1: and be done with all my stuff, you know, get
Speaker 1: two workouts there and treatment. I could be done by noons.
Speaker 1: So during the season, it wasn't so tough, just because
Speaker 1: she sacrificed a lot to be in Cleveland with me.
Speaker 1: She was in Cleveland with me majority of the season,
Speaker 1: and she would go back and forth, and that was
Speaker 1: a sacrifice that she made that I give a lot
Speaker 1: of respect to. But during the summertime, like you said,
Speaker 1: you know, there's definitely a vent you you want to
Speaker 1: go do because you want to be supportive. You know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, when you're dating some one,
Speaker 1: you want to the way they support you, you want
Speaker 1: to support them. And that's what and that's what a
Speaker 1: relationship is supposed to be. It's supposed to be, a
Speaker 1: union is supposed to be. It's a team, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's no different than having your having
Speaker 1: your brother's back. So um, during the season with a
Speaker 1: tough journey off season, it was it was much easier
Speaker 1: just because we didn't have a crazy schedule. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: would it be times if we were playing the Lakers
Speaker 1: and we were on a four day trip like we
Speaker 1: played the Lakers and Clippers when I was with Cleveland
Speaker 1: the West coast trip. There be times we have an event.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's tough, but you make those sacrifices
Speaker 1: because you know you love someone and they do we
Speaker 1: do the same thing for you. But in terms of
Speaker 1: just being a public eye, it's just you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a bigger, uh microscope but you've got
Speaker 1: to be prepared for that, and you gotta you know, listen,
Speaker 1: I've made my I've made more mistakes than for enough
Speaker 1: men's lifetime, and so I've I've learned. I've learned the power.
Speaker 1: But I think Calbildy, it was on my It was
Speaker 1: on me. You know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: as a man, you gotta look in the mirror and say,
Speaker 1: I made these I made these wrong decisions, and I
Speaker 1: I heard someone I love and I heard loved ones around,
Speaker 1: you know, because you know, if if you make a
Speaker 1: mistake and you and you hurt the initial first ye,
Speaker 1: you're not just hurting them, You're hurting yourself. You're hurting
Speaker 1: my mom, my brother, is her family. You're hurting everyone
Speaker 1: that has any bit of love for you, because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, everyone just wants to see
Speaker 1: you happy. And when something you know negative happens and
Speaker 1: you put yourself in everyone feels bad when they wish
Speaker 1: it never happened because they know you have a good heart.
Speaker 1: As part of the growing page, you know, I think
Speaker 1: growing up as a kid, you know you always have
Speaker 1: your ogs and you're older, guys will tell you, hey,
Speaker 1: like I remember originally telling me like, hey, like you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta grow up. If you're gonna date someone,
Speaker 1: you gotta be fully locked in and two feet in.
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, okay, yeah, yeah, you listen. But
Speaker 1: as as kids, you know, you put yourself positions and
Speaker 1: you make mistakes, and sometimes we got to find out
Speaker 1: the hard way and it's just part of the journey.
Speaker 1: And you know, I of course I wish that it
Speaker 1: never happened, of course not, but you gotta be accountable
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. And you know, it
Speaker 1: was a lot of times where you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of the mistakes I was making, it was because you know,
Speaker 1: I never had I never I was searching for something
Speaker 1: that it was just always in here, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like I realized that I realized And that's
Speaker 1: almost the part of our game. That's the part of
Speaker 1: sports with athletes is the software. Even though like I'm
Speaker 1: going off topic of talking one more like just yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the side part about being an athlete, or
Speaker 1: the tough part is that we're always talked to like
Speaker 1: you know, killer be killed mode, my ware of the highway,
Speaker 1: you know, my ship don't stink. I could do whatever
Speaker 1: I want. I don't care who were because we're taught that,
Speaker 1: because we're always in competition to get to that next
Speaker 1: you know, it's like the pre drive. You want to
Speaker 1: move up the spot, so you gotta take this guy down.
Speaker 1: He might be the nicest guy. It might be for
Speaker 1: Debt who's who's a heavy Christian, but you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta go and destroy this guy because you want his spot,
Speaker 1: you know, and absolutely and developing that mindset as an athlete,
Speaker 1: it sometimes hurts your relationships because you don't you don't
Speaker 1: understand how to view someone else's side or or or
Speaker 1: or feel what someone's feeling. You almost say, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna do this and I'll live the results. But
Speaker 1: then shit happens where you know, you fuck up and
Speaker 1: and my bad for cursy moment you fuck up and yeah,
Speaker 1: so you start, you know, you fuck up, and you're like, fuck, like,
Speaker 1: why do I keep making these mistakes? And I know
Speaker 1: right from wrong. I'm not a dumbass. I know right
Speaker 1: from wrong. But then you gotta like, you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I did a lot of therapy and like self health
Speaker 1: and self growth, and I realized that a lot of
Speaker 1: shit that I was doing was from what I've seen
Speaker 1: but my dad was doing, or you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: breaking up, breaking the cycle because I don't want the
Speaker 1: mistakes I made, The mistakes my dad made to my mom,
Speaker 1: is the mistakes that I made, the women that I've
Speaker 1: been within my past. I don't want Prince. I don't
Speaker 1: want Prince to do that. I don't want I want
Speaker 1: to break the will. And the only way to break
Speaker 1: that cycle was I had to stop that. I had
Speaker 1: to fix that being in controlled because I don't want
Speaker 1: him to do what I done. And when I'm sixty,
Speaker 1: I see him twenty five or being with someone or married,
Speaker 1: seeing him make same mistakes I make, that means I
Speaker 1: didn't do my job as a father. So until I
Speaker 1: understood that and and put myself in a vulnerable position
Speaker 1: to to to to to kind of let myself open
Speaker 1: up and and figure out what what was triggering me
Speaker 1: to make these kind of stupid actions, you know, doing
Speaker 1: stupid immature shit. Once I figured that out, then I
Speaker 1: was able to grow and kind of like blossom and
Speaker 1: and and and and mature and and and that's what's
Speaker 1: helped me so much. And I think with this time,
Speaker 1: not playing on the NBA schedule, I've done more time
Speaker 1: to help myself be and just a better human being
Speaker 1: because the majority of my life is going to be
Speaker 1: non NBA than NBA, you know what I'm saying, being
Speaker 1: a professional athlete. So I got to start at some
Speaker 1: point starting to grow, you know, and up having more
Speaker 1: time in my hand. I had to. I wanted to
Speaker 1: do that, and that's that's special. I think that's great. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it takes so many people, most people so
Speaker 1: long to find that, you know, like to find that
Speaker 1: from within, to find like I want to go get
Speaker 1: some help. If I want to go talk to somebody,
Speaker 1: I'm cool. I'm gonna go talk to somebody. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go get some help, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I applaud you on that. But you know, and and
Speaker 1: switching gears and moving forward to your career because that's
Speaker 1: the whole book in itself and everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: I want to start pre draft. There's this common misconception
Speaker 1: that Lebron James is one of the first clum as,
Speaker 1: the first clutch client. Um It's actually not true. You
Speaker 1: are actually a Clutch client before Lebron James. When when
Speaker 1: you decided to go with Clutch. Um, I mean pretty
Speaker 1: much at the inception of Clutch. Uh yeah, at the
Speaker 1: inception of Clutch. What what made you trusting and rich
Speaker 1: and trust and fair? You know they're at the beginning
Speaker 1: of their journey and you are top you were project
Speaker 1: the top five pick right away. What made you trust
Speaker 1: in them so early on before anybody could see before,
Speaker 1: at the time when it was just that's Lebron's boy,
Speaker 1: and he started an agency because of Lebron? What made
Speaker 1: you have the comfort to trust and rich and fair
Speaker 1: plush spooks. When I met Rich, he was under CIA
Speaker 1: with Leon Rose, and that was Lebron's agent during the time.
Speaker 1: And I never for me, I committed that Texas early.
Speaker 1: I committed a tenth grade because I don't care to
Speaker 1: talk to these older men and just have them lie
Speaker 1: to you, like I commited earlier. I don't want to
Speaker 1: first I don't want you call a coaches calling me okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in high school. I want to be on AIM.
Speaker 1: I want to take it with my friends so I can.
Speaker 1: I know right at the sidekick the collar day plan
Speaker 1: the same thing. Yeah, it was the same thing for
Speaker 1: like picking an agent, like it was for me. It
Speaker 1: was like, you know, I trust Rich, I'm comfortable with him.
Speaker 1: He wants the best for me. I don't have time.
Speaker 1: I don't care to talk to the I don't want
Speaker 1: to sit down to eat with you. Got no disrespect,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather just like hang on my friends. And like,
Speaker 1: because I had that relationship in connection with with Rich,
Speaker 1: I said, it's a no brainer. I remember telling my mom,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to sign Rich and and this
Speaker 1: is this is how much my mom trusting me, where
Speaker 1: she let me decide what's going I want to go
Speaker 1: to She was not involved at all. And it was
Speaker 1: the same thing with picking my agent. We sat down
Speaker 1: and and and Leon was there, and you know, Leon
Speaker 1: was talking. We were already like we weren't paying we
Speaker 1: like Rich, what were we doing? Like that's just fine,
Speaker 1: like like we already know, we know we're doing We're
Speaker 1: family already, were already passed. We're at second base already,
Speaker 1: so let's just get it going. And and and and
Speaker 1: everyone has the like when clutch first or everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just Lebron's boy, and and Da da da da,
Speaker 1: and then all these other agents who are who are
Speaker 1: not African American would use would would tell other African
Speaker 1: American potential clients, Hey, you don't want to do you
Speaker 1: don't want to sign a Clutch because it's all about
Speaker 1: Lebron or or or he's not gonna be invested in you.
Speaker 1: He's he's he's up, Lebron's Lebron's ass, he's not gonna
Speaker 1: care about you. And that's and that's totally false. That's
Speaker 1: that's that's fake news. That's one hundred percent a lie.
Speaker 1: People just say that because they were afraid of Rich,
Speaker 1: the same way the meeting is afraid of you. And
Speaker 1: and it's just because they Nobody likes to change or
Speaker 1: a new wave, the new No one likes a new media,
Speaker 1: nobody likes anything like that. It's it's like everything in life,
Speaker 1: like they get Matt at Lebron for leaving Cleveland, Michael
Speaker 1: George Davis Chicago all these years. Everyone there's not a blueprint,
Speaker 1: and no one not nothing in life, money, these categories,
Speaker 1: there's a blueprint. Everyone writes, writes their own script. And
Speaker 1: for Rich what he was able to do, I believe
Speaker 1: them from day one. And as Clutch continue to grow,
Speaker 1: and then you know you came and joined the family.
Speaker 1: Other guys came and join because it's only so long
Speaker 1: that these older six year old ages can just hate.
Speaker 1: And there's only so many times you can use that
Speaker 1: he cares about lebrod or do it. There's only so
Speaker 1: much you can use that. And you're like, you know what, Bro,
Speaker 1: you don't even come to my games. You just wait
Speaker 1: for me to come to LA and you come to
Speaker 1: my game against the Lakers and Clippers. You know you're
Speaker 1: not even coming to the games in Okase. Like all
Speaker 1: these ages, they just they do. They just want their
Speaker 1: four percent, They just want their cut. And Richel's different,
Speaker 1: like he was invested. Text me after games, let's watch
Speaker 1: the film. You gotta get the floaters up earlier. You
Speaker 1: gotta do this like and that's the And when you're
Speaker 1: picking people to have in your team and building all
Speaker 1: your professional tribe, you want people that are going to
Speaker 1: always be real with you, hold you accountable, and love
Speaker 1: you for who you are, and I love you for
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Speaker 1: I've got an opportunity. I've known Rich for much longer
Speaker 1: than I've been signed with Clush, but I've got an
Speaker 1: opportunity to see that as well. Like you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't crazy, and you just mentioned it. One of the
Speaker 1: things that actually like was the stamp on me switching
Speaker 1: to Clush, Like I knew it was something I want
Speaker 1: to do. I'm like, yo, I think this is something
Speaker 1: I want to do. And then I just started like
Speaker 1: floating the idea around a little bit, like floating to
Speaker 1: a few different people, a few different agents. And when
Speaker 1: I saw how agents was speaking about him to me,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about I had agents, Like some agents cursed
Speaker 1: me out, like like, that's fucking ridiculous. How dare you
Speaker 1: signed with him? How could you even mention me and
Speaker 1: him in the same sentence, Like now, mind you, this
Speaker 1: is two thousand and sixteen seventeen, Like the saint you
Speaker 1: take too long ago. It's like right there, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like a six years ago. This ain't
Speaker 1: a long time. I'm mentioning my name in the same sentence.
Speaker 1: But and when I start hearing things like that, I said, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's the guy I'm supposed to be with for sure.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you feel that you need to
Speaker 1: speak about this man like that, and y'all doing the
Speaker 1: same job and you need to speak about him like that,
Speaker 1: that's the guy I need to be with because you're
Speaker 1: afraid of him. And if you're afraid, you you you
Speaker 1: actually know more about this agency business than me. You're
Speaker 1: not afraid of him. That's the guy I need to
Speaker 1: be with. And I figured I figured that out, like
Speaker 1: and and it's continued to grow and now the world knows,
Speaker 1: right like now it's on front Street. You can't deny it.
Speaker 1: But for so long that was denied, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: it was constantly thrown. And that brings me to a
Speaker 1: question that I actually wanted to ask you. In twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: you held out, you didn't go to training camp. Um,
Speaker 1: you were up for a contract extension and you held out.
Speaker 1: You eventually end up getting getting your contract you wanted.
Speaker 1: We actually signed the same exact deal. Good, good thing
Speaker 1: you sign. I was like, yo, I want done too,
Speaker 1: signed the same exact contract. But um, and doing that,
Speaker 1: I know, I know that you had to trust Rich
Speaker 1: like and going through that process, you had to trust him.
Speaker 1: But what I wanted to ask you was in two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, when you're going through them contract extension,
Speaker 1: do you think being a part of Clutch and the
Speaker 1: stigma that it had that did it hurt you or
Speaker 1: did it help you? And the reason I'll explain to
Speaker 1: why I'm asking this questions because everyone would try to say, man,
Speaker 1: you were Cleveland. Um, Lebron's in Cleveland, so Rich can
Speaker 1: get any deal he wants in Cleveland, right. I happen
Speaker 1: to believe that's false. I actually think it works against you.
Speaker 1: But that's just my opinion. But I want to know
Speaker 1: from your from your advantage point you're going through it.
Speaker 1: Do you think being with Clutch at that point helped
Speaker 1: you in your negotiations or were they actually trying to
Speaker 1: use it against you? They were using it against me,
Speaker 1: And I think, listen, if I didn't, if I wasn't
Speaker 1: with Clutch, I would have probably end up signing maybe
Speaker 1: a deal similar like Mark Keith signed. I think it
Speaker 1: was like a It was like a four year, but
Speaker 1: it was like eighty year, maybe the middle level, because
Speaker 1: even I remember at the deadline, because you know what,
Speaker 1: I think, it's like October thirty. I's the deadline. You
Speaker 1: want to get the extension right. And I remember they
Speaker 1: came back to us at four years fifty two, the
Speaker 1: ruby O deal, what ruby O got. And I remember
Speaker 1: we just played the Bulls and I had sixty I
Speaker 1: had sixteen rebounds and fourteen of them were offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: That's crazy, Yeah, that's what That's what the Bulls had.
Speaker 1: Pagasol Joe Kimmingham. So the game's over. We played. It's
Speaker 1: an ESPN game, which calls me and he says, it's
Speaker 1: it's four years fifty two. And really, to be honest,
Speaker 1: most ages would have said Son take the deal. And
Speaker 1: you know how they talked to us like we're kids, son,
Speaker 1: take the deal. It's a big deal. I represented, I
Speaker 1: represented All Harrington and he only had a four years
Speaker 1: thirty two. Or I represented a Jermaine O'Neil his second
Speaker 1: deal and there was only a fifty two. Like they
Speaker 1: don't they try to sun us because they think we
Speaker 1: don't know better than they think we're just idiots. So
Speaker 1: I'm on the phone with rich and he says, man,
Speaker 1: four fifty two, what do you want to do? And
Speaker 1: I said, what do you think? He said, well, do
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna get better this season? I said yeah.
Speaker 1: He said, but then why will we take the deal?
Speaker 1: I said, all right, but then we're not taking the
Speaker 1: deal them so, but most people the fact, when I
Speaker 1: was holding out, people were using that against almost saying
Speaker 1: like Riches on the educat or Riches over his head,
Speaker 1: or Riches don't know what he's talking about. But those
Speaker 1: people that were that were talking talking ships because they
Speaker 1: had their insecurities, because they know they couldn't do better.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, So absolutely yeah, and and listen,
Speaker 1: they got to the point where they called when called uh,
Speaker 1: when Rich calls you with the with the five year
Speaker 1: eighty two um. At first I said no, because prior
Speaker 1: to that, when we have our meeting at the end
Speaker 1: of the last the year when you guys won the
Speaker 1: first championship, when Kyrie broke his kneecap um at the
Speaker 1: end of that really like I almost like an exit meeting,
Speaker 1: and Rich said, you know, we want the max. If
Speaker 1: anybody asks you, say you want the max. So the
Speaker 1: Max back then was five years ninety but what Kawhi
Speaker 1: got with the Spurs. So in my head I was
Speaker 1: so And if you talk to Rich, I was so
Speaker 1: into that mode where whenever I saw somebody, they'd be like,
Speaker 1: what were you holding out for? Chris Milton just got
Speaker 1: five years sending I said, now I'm going for the max.
Speaker 1: Like I remember even I remember even coaches would call me,
Speaker 1: like coaches that that that we know and he'd be like, man,
Speaker 1: he really called you trying to get a field for
Speaker 1: I remember coach called me and he's like, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna chake this deal that cleveand off for you at
Speaker 1: seventy or seventy five. I said, no, I want the max,
Speaker 1: max only or leave it alone or don't call me.
Speaker 1: And I was so locked into that. Max mo Or
Speaker 1: Rich called me. He's like five years said nah, Max,
Speaker 1: He's like no, nod. That was just kind of get
Speaker 1: the number of to get the number up. We out,
Speaker 1: we had the penalce, now, we had the Pearly games.
Speaker 1: Now just got to the field. So so to have
Speaker 1: the guy like Rich, you know, the meeting, would almost
Speaker 1: say he's over his head, but really it's because he knew,
Speaker 1: he knew the market, he knew the game. And at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's good Cleveland find a
Speaker 1: replacement for Tristan Thompson. And the answer was no. So
Speaker 1: what Rich always said to Dan gilb But it's what's
Speaker 1: the cost of winning a championship. It's winning a championship
Speaker 1: worth eighty two million. And Dan Dan sat there and
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, we gotta pay. We gotta pay if
Speaker 1: we gotta raise tickets. Rich said, figure it out, race
Speaker 1: ticket prices raised, parking, figure it out. But you'll make
Speaker 1: it up somehow. It's no different than which you will
Speaker 1: Golden State. And I always I always tell people this
Speaker 1: and people will say, well, Draymond, listen, there is no
Speaker 1: Draymond Green walking through that Golden State door. That's why
Speaker 1: they had to pay a two and guess what they
Speaker 1: paid eighty two. And then when they gave you the
Speaker 1: extension to four years, one hundred, they had to do
Speaker 1: that because guess what, there, you guys are in the
Speaker 1: You guys are in a position at that moment. You
Speaker 1: guys are in a position where you guys are just
Speaker 1: in the finals. Everyone is still in their prime, step
Speaker 1: is still playing at a high level. You have to
Speaker 1: keep competing. You can't go from being in the finals
Speaker 1: to now just being in a lottery and you just
Speaker 1: built a new arena and you spend billions of dollars.
Speaker 1: You have to stay competitive, so you have to bring
Speaker 1: your glue guy back. It's no different Marcuts. Smart people say,
Speaker 1: why did marcut smarket extage? You have to when the
Speaker 1: guys are at their peak and playing at a high
Speaker 1: level and competing for a championship, and when the city
Speaker 1: has that expectation and the meetors created at you have
Speaker 1: to keep paying the players. You gotta pay the play baby,
Speaker 1: You gotta pay to play. And that's why you got
Speaker 1: your deals. And listen, if you're not on the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors, there's no there's no none of those four chips,
Speaker 1: there's none of those rings. Those four rings don't exist
Speaker 1: if you're not on that team. And I tell everyone
Speaker 1: that every single day because that's the guy on his truth.
Speaker 1: And listen, even game seven, you have thirty two points,
Speaker 1: you know the game is I think, I think you
Speaker 1: let the team of scoring that game. I did said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you let the game of scoring. So I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: people gotta understand that it's building a team and these contracts,
Speaker 1: it's all about fit. Just because we got Just because
Speaker 1: I got two doesn't mean I'm gonna be doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that if I was on the Raptors, I would have
Speaker 1: got that or a different team because at that right moment,
Speaker 1: I fit that puzzle piece. And that's what it costs. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And I think another thing, and another thing that people
Speaker 1: don't understand is this, the Cleveland Cavaliers, because they had
Speaker 1: your bird rights, could actually pay you that eighty two,
Speaker 1: whereas opposed to if you wanted to go to another team,
Speaker 1: they would have to use salary cap space to pay
Speaker 1: you that eighty two. Cleveland can pay you whatever they
Speaker 1: want to pay you. Because they have your bird rights.
Speaker 1: They can go into the luxury tax and pay you. However,
Speaker 1: what people don't understand about this situation is because they
Speaker 1: are in a luxury tax, if they let you walk,
Speaker 1: they just go sign someone else with that money because
Speaker 1: they then don't have that person burd rise. So what
Speaker 1: they could then sign because they're in the tax is
Speaker 1: a taxpayer mid level, which is like six and a
Speaker 1: half seven million a year. Well, who are you getting
Speaker 1: for six and a half million dollars a year that's
Speaker 1: giving you the production? Tristan Thompson's giving you the answer.
Speaker 1: There's no work, and NASA negotiate and NASA and hey, man,
Speaker 1: you did exactly what you're supposed to do. You got
Speaker 1: what you were supposed to get. And quite frankly, let's
Speaker 1: face it, y'all won the championship the next year, and
Speaker 1: it's worth it. It's worth it. But then it's worth
Speaker 1: it when you look at it and you realize that
Speaker 1: we broke the fifty two year curse. You look at
Speaker 1: all these deals, all the contracts, you're like, man, it's
Speaker 1: worth it because business business, and we got to take
Speaker 1: care of our business the same way they take care
Speaker 1: of their business. They don't mind it. Seven game series
Speaker 1: because they gonna make more money and we don't. We're
Speaker 1: gonna fight for all our cheese and all our coins
Speaker 1: because guess but when it's all said and done, when
Speaker 1: it's it's over, when basketball's over, you I wish you
Speaker 1: had had the extra coins. Absolutely a one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And that takes us from two thousan fifteen to the
Speaker 1: worst year of my life other than DJ being born
Speaker 1: at the very end, as you know, Prince was born
Speaker 1: a week and a half before, at the very end
Speaker 1: of two thousand and sixteen. And I also kind of
Speaker 1: that's a story for another day. At the very end,
Speaker 1: at the very end of two we can't give them
Speaker 1: everything all at once. Sixteen, I have a son. But
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen was treacherous for me. And so
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. Two thousand and sixteen, we're in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. We're three to one. I gets suspended
Speaker 1: from Game five. But like, talk to me about your mindset.
Speaker 1: Like you go down three to one, you're coming back
Speaker 1: to Golden State. What's the conversation like to even get
Speaker 1: y'all back to a mental space. So, like, we're down
Speaker 1: three one, we're going here for Game five. We need
Speaker 1: to win. Talk to me about the conversations in that
Speaker 1: locker room. I think what was key was like leading
Speaker 1: up to that that that that that game four loss
Speaker 1: because Game three was in Cleveland. We won that game,
Speaker 1: and Game four we lost to you guys in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: making us down three one. But the way we lost
Speaker 1: that game was something very simple where you guys are
Speaker 1: running a one two pick and roll with Clay and
Speaker 1: Step and Clay would keep slipping and it was Kyrie
Speaker 1: and Jr. Kyrie and Jarrd was the matchup on on
Speaker 1: Clay and Step and they kept slipping and Kyrie and Jared,
Speaker 1: I guess something the miscommunication was off, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: where so like we felt like we beat ourselves that
Speaker 1: game just because we weren't the lack of communication with
Speaker 1: those slipouts, and you guys basically started a whole trend
Speaker 1: with these slipout screens, right, so so we so I
Speaker 1: remember after that game, Brons to the textilling like you know,
Speaker 1: like we're right there, like listen, don't come on the
Speaker 1: plane if you don't think we can come back and
Speaker 1: win this win this uh win this series. Because we
Speaker 1: felt like even though we lost Game four, we felt
Speaker 1: like we could have. It was a winnable game. There's
Speaker 1: something that we self inflicted wounds where we felt like, okay,
Speaker 1: we can we could do this. So going into game five, now,
Speaker 1: our mentality was like, listen, we know how long that
Speaker 1: flight is. We know these boys do not want to
Speaker 1: come back to Cleveland. They do not want to come
Speaker 1: back to Cleveland. Nobody wants to take it a six
Speaker 1: hour flight from from sam France all back to Cleveland,
Speaker 1: Ohio to play a basketball game. So we said, listen,
Speaker 1: if we win game five, this is going seven games.
Speaker 1: And the reason why we believed in that was because
Speaker 1: during that time, I believe Eggy's back was hurt. His
Speaker 1: back was hurt. I remember we actually had practice because
Speaker 1: we did a little snoopy too. We had we had
Speaker 1: practice at your guys court. We walked in and whoever
Speaker 1: your trainer was at the time had all your guys
Speaker 1: names down with all your guys injuries, and I remember
Speaker 1: you you were on like you were on a bunch
Speaker 1: of medicine, like like every profeed, you're on a bunch
Speaker 1: of shit. I was like, God, I'm like, man, you're
Speaker 1: like a form medication. Then you see Iggy's back you
Speaker 1: see Clay's Remember Clay had to sleep on his calf,
Speaker 1: so his cat was acting up. So we said, oh,
Speaker 1: if you guys are breaking down, these guys are breaking down.
Speaker 1: So if we could, if we can get game five.
Speaker 1: We don't we know mentally, because you know basketball, it
Speaker 1: comes in the playoffs. It's all a mental thing. We're like, mentally,
Speaker 1: these boys do not want to come back to Cleveland
Speaker 1: for a game six, absolutely not. So we can get
Speaker 1: game five. We could push this to seven because we
Speaker 1: know we can win at home. Well we know we
Speaker 1: went in at home. So that was our mindset. And Brown,
Speaker 1: who's the leader he is, he said, don't come on
Speaker 1: this plane unless you could believe we could come back
Speaker 1: and showing up. Everyone showed up. We believed that. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously team we talks about start about putting
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars bill up in the in the in
Speaker 1: the events, and we'll come back and get it. And
Speaker 1: so once we win game five, you know, Kyrie Brown
Speaker 1: both have forty, right, So that's crazy. And the finishes
Speaker 1: that Kyrie had and I think he had the a
Speaker 1: one with the lefty layup and one of like I
Speaker 1: think it's there was like a the rule vert of
Speaker 1: Kali or something. Yeah, I was like, but still that
Speaker 1: Kyrie could do with this, with this risk game, it
Speaker 1: was like crazy. So um so now we're at game
Speaker 1: seven and and we just believed in each other. We
Speaker 1: just believed in each other. And obviously we knew that
Speaker 1: you guys had injuries and you know, obviously without you
Speaker 1: in the game, which helped us a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: you're getting suspended, that was huge. And obviously we started
Speaker 1: noticing Steph getting frustrated, you know, with the throwing of
Speaker 1: the mouthpiece. So we noticed those little mental because you know,
Speaker 1: like those are those are mental errors, like you know
Speaker 1: that you can't do that stuff. But we saw, okay
Speaker 1: need a little these a little chess pieces, like mentally,
Speaker 1: they're they're getting frustrated, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I would be frustrated if I'm up three one and
Speaker 1: and it's like the game lawyer Brin's right there. So
Speaker 1: those little chest pieces of your guy's frustration let us
Speaker 1: know we had a chance still, which helped us believe
Speaker 1: them more. So that's kind of like it was like
Speaker 1: a mental game at that point for us, because the
Speaker 1: basketball we we could figure out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But we knew mentally you guys are getting frustrated and
Speaker 1: you guys are actually banged up or hurt, so we say, okay, like,
Speaker 1: let's let's just keep applying the pressure and and and
Speaker 1: and extend the series. You know, absolutely, it's crazy too.
Speaker 1: Remember Bogan was out with the rib, broke out, broken rib,
Speaker 1: and he missed the game. We were we were beat up,
Speaker 1: and yeah, and then obviously the suspension was what it was.
Speaker 1: But you know, you guys come back and you and
Speaker 1: you come back, you win the two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: championship UM which was huge and for y'all, for yourself
Speaker 1: but also in NBA history, like was huge. I'm actually
Speaker 1: not mad about that at all because then we come
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and seventeen and we got Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: What's the thinking then, Like, what's the thinking we come
Speaker 1: back next year with Kevin Durant. Man for when you
Speaker 1: guys came back and Kevin I said it, I was
Speaker 1: just I said, these guys out of control. I said,
Speaker 1: I was joking. I like, man, these guys sold uself
Speaker 1: to the devil. How do you guys pulled us off.
Speaker 1: How do these guys pulled us off? You are just
Speaker 1: seventy three and nine, You lose in the finals and
Speaker 1: you get Kevin Durant. That's to get if you get,
Speaker 1: that's not a bad trade to champion. You give up
Speaker 1: one championship to get too, that's kind of we call
Speaker 1: that a deal. We call that a steal, we call it.
Speaker 1: So that was actually a good trade off that you
Speaker 1: guys did. So I appreciate that kind of one of
Speaker 1: my one ring. At least I got one. Right. So no, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And by the way, most people don't have that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and no one and no one was talking about Oh man,
Speaker 1: you're one time champion before a time when you get
Speaker 1: in the meet up and you talk about that you're
Speaker 1: a champion. We talked, we talk about resumes coming on
Speaker 1: the Draymond you're a champion. Yeah exactly. We ain't buying
Speaker 1: none of that. But and speaking up, you just spoke
Speaker 1: about Lebron and his leadership. Um Mario Chalmers recently said
Speaker 1: nobody feared Lebron. That ship pisses me off, bro, that
Speaker 1: ship pissing. That ship pissing me off. Man, Like you
Speaker 1: know what, I don't like. It's like people will will
Speaker 1: will will, like if I if I played like the
Speaker 1: fact that Mariol trumps like Mario charmers. At one point,
Speaker 1: you're probably texting Lebronford to get on the team, to
Speaker 1: get a job, so so because he couldn't get you
Speaker 1: a job or get you on a team. And I'm listen,
Speaker 1: I'm just assuming. I'm I'm not saying that's what it is.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, listen, when you play with certain players
Speaker 1: and you get a prayer in your career where things
Speaker 1: are tough, you're gonna make a call look out from
Speaker 1: me or see what you could do just because you
Speaker 1: might have not got your way. Like, how can you
Speaker 1: say that about a guy that you went to war with,
Speaker 1: who believed in you. There was times where d Wade
Speaker 1: was on your ass, chewing you up, Chris Bob's between
Speaker 1: your ass, but Braun would always push, push Mario to
Speaker 1: be better, pushing, you know, talk great about them to
Speaker 1: the media, said all these great things about you. And
Speaker 1: then you're gonna come and say, no one fears Lebron
Speaker 1: like this, this is the best player you've ever been
Speaker 1: on the court with. How are you gonna say that?
Speaker 1: No one? First of all, Miaa Lebron is the most
Speaker 1: scarious brown we've ever seen in our life. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like that that Broun was that was
Speaker 1: that was he was like two ninety running the four
Speaker 1: four and jumping John Lucas and stuff like that was
Speaker 1: that was athleticism at a whole other level. And how
Speaker 1: you how can you say that? And that just shows
Speaker 1: you that, like man like guys be on some sucker
Speaker 1: shit and I don't. I don't like that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff because it's just like, bro, like, why do you
Speaker 1: start switching up Like you said about earlier guys getting
Speaker 1: media and they act like they never sat in the
Speaker 1: locker room. Okay, now guys are retired and not playing basketball.
Speaker 1: Now you want to talk shit about a guy that
Speaker 1: you you want a championship. But I would never talk
Speaker 1: about about any of my teammates that I won a
Speaker 1: championship with. I would never even fix my mouth because
Speaker 1: me and you went to war and we accomplished something
Speaker 1: that's after family and and and kids and God, winning
Speaker 1: a championship probably the next best thing in life. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like winning NBA championship. So the
Speaker 1: fact that you do that and you come out and
Speaker 1: talk about that man after he just you know, got
Speaker 1: the scoring record and he's in your you know twenty
Speaker 1: and like like come on, bro, like really and it's
Speaker 1: just like if your own people talk shit about you,
Speaker 1: then now you know why people talk bad about you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like we we are to people
Speaker 1: like myself, any of Bron's teammates, we can't be the
Speaker 1: ones to talk bad about Bron because then then then
Speaker 1: it further feels the fire for all these other people
Speaker 1: that don't have hate for our brother and have hate
Speaker 1: for our family member that that will talk shit about him.
Speaker 1: So we can't from what they can't talk shit because
Speaker 1: we talk shit, then all them gonna you know, they're
Speaker 1: gonna know theres a weakness in the tribe. So like
Speaker 1: the fact that he did that, Like it's like, bro,
Speaker 1: like that's not cool. Like I don't, I don't, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't respect guys that do that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: That's not the way I operate. I've never talked about
Speaker 1: about none of my teammates, especially when I win a
Speaker 1: championship with you know what I'm saying. And it's not
Speaker 1: like you guys had it's not you guys had to
Speaker 1: be for issue. So no, I respect it. And one
Speaker 1: thing I respect is how you ride for Braun because
Speaker 1: I catch a lot of flat but the way I
Speaker 1: ride for Braun and you know, people or say like,
Speaker 1: oh man, you said this about Lebron, um um, that's
Speaker 1: disrespectful the Steff and it's like, actually, I love that
Speaker 1: I got for Steph and how I ride for step
Speaker 1: Steph knows how I ride for Steff and Steph. No,
Speaker 1: I got to look like me me giving credit to
Speaker 1: Lebron or supporting Lebron or fucking being happy for Lebron.
Speaker 1: That doesn't dim Steph. Like like you know, I always
Speaker 1: tell like think about it and tell people like, that's
Speaker 1: your losing ass mentality that you think if I go
Speaker 1: say something about this, if I go say something about
Speaker 1: Lebron James, that's positive that it's dim and steps like
Speaker 1: I know dem steps like at all. Just like if
Speaker 1: if I go say something about Steph, that's not dem
Speaker 1: a Lebron's life. No, but but that's it. But and
Speaker 1: I agree with you and what you're saying is but
Speaker 1: that's the mindset they want us to have. I always like,
Speaker 1: compared to slavery where they try to turn us against
Speaker 1: each other, you know, where it's like, no, it has
Speaker 1: to be one or the other. It can't be step
Speaker 1: Step can't be great and Lebron can't be great or
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Like I hate that, and so I
Speaker 1: agree with you one hundred percent, Like we have to
Speaker 1: ride for each other because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's all we got. Like you know, everybody always talk
Speaker 1: about like, oh, it's this, it's this basketball fraternity, the
Speaker 1: NBA fraternity. Like, man, that ship is fake. Like guys
Speaker 1: do not support how they say they're gonna support. They
Speaker 1: do not look out how they say they're going to
Speaker 1: look out. None of that. But the ones that you
Speaker 1: do have in your corner. And that's one thing that
Speaker 1: I can really appreciate about Clutch as a whole, the
Speaker 1: guys that you do have in your corner. Man, you
Speaker 1: gotta ride for, you gotta ride with. And I disagree
Speaker 1: with Mario statement from the standpoint of obviously like you
Speaker 1: just said shit, teammate. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: this guy you went to World with, that's a guy
Speaker 1: you want championships with um And like, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: you had to carry your own Like, Mario is a
Speaker 1: damn good players, so I ain't taking nothing from him.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side, like bro, I personally know
Speaker 1: people that were scared of Lebron James. So I just
Speaker 1: I all out just disagree with I know a bunch
Speaker 1: of people that were still are in fact terrified or
Speaker 1: Lebron James. Like I've seen it at times. I've had
Speaker 1: teammates that was terrified Lebron James like and so I
Speaker 1: just didn't really understand. I just really didn't understand the statement.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of love for Mario. Um, you
Speaker 1: know he's super tight with b Rush. B Rush was
Speaker 1: one of my odgs. Yeah. Yeah, I just didn't I
Speaker 1: didn't understand. I was I was very shocked. I was
Speaker 1: taken back and listen, you know, people might be having
Speaker 1: bad days, so you never know what someone's going through.
Speaker 1: But I was very I was disappointed because you know,
Speaker 1: like like you said, it's a former teammate of yours.
Speaker 1: There's no personal issues between you guys, there's no hate.
Speaker 1: It's not like you guys had a back and forth
Speaker 1: on Twitter. It's just like it came out of left field,
Speaker 1: and it's disappointed disappointed. No, for sure, I agree. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also in speaking of that, you recently were on ESPN,
Speaker 1: which I want to get into, but you were recently
Speaker 1: ESPN and you spoke about Lebron and Kyrie getting back together. Um,
Speaker 1: do you see that happening? Do you think, like, do
Speaker 1: you think that that there's a chance or not a chance?
Speaker 1: We know there's a chance, but do you think that
Speaker 1: happens that they get back together? Man? But I'm on
Speaker 1: top of that, what do you think ultimately made it
Speaker 1: go south? Yeah? But I've been I've been I've been
Speaker 1: pushing that reuniting, you know, coming together for so long. Um,
Speaker 1: because I saw, well, Kyrie and Lebron's it was almost
Speaker 1: like a matchman heaving, like they brought the best out
Speaker 1: of each other. It was like it was like the
Speaker 1: things that Kyrie does great, it's different what Lebron degree.
Speaker 1: Like it was just such a beautiful, like it was
Speaker 1: beautiful to watch the two man game side picking roll
Speaker 1: because they're so dynamic and great at so many different things,
Speaker 1: but together it's like they're like it's almost like almost unstoppable,
Speaker 1: Like it was like an amazing two on two you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So I think I think in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, could have happened. Yes, well, I
Speaker 1: continue pushing it when I'm when I'm on TV most
Speaker 1: definitely because I think, you know, Kyrie brings the best
Speaker 1: out of Lebron, and Lebron does the same thing, but
Speaker 1: bring the best out of Kyrie. And I feel like
Speaker 1: it's almost like, um, a story that's it's it almost
Speaker 1: feel like it wasn't finished, you know, like it wasn't
Speaker 1: finished the way it was supposed to, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And and you know, a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of duels have had that maybe you know Shack
Speaker 1: and Penny or or Kobe and Shack. Like you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many like stories that I just feel like
Speaker 1: it's it's not over yet, you know, like there's still
Speaker 1: there's still a couple more chapters between them two that
Speaker 1: they can make some magic happen. So you know, I
Speaker 1: hope it can happen. Um. To answer your second question, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know what went out? I think like in sports,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone goes two different things, and I think, um,
Speaker 1: during that time and period, I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe something with the Frount office in Kyrie maybe didn't
Speaker 1: see I I you know, maybe we could have did
Speaker 1: a better job of of of of of addressing whatever
Speaker 1: he may have wanted, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: he deserves a right to have of saying the organization
Speaker 1: like like you know, like you there's nothing wrong asking
Speaker 1: for something, you know, he deserved. He earned the respect
Speaker 1: in the right, and he put that banner up there.
Speaker 1: He can come into the office and ask for something.
Speaker 1: Whether it happens or not, that's that's to be determined.
Speaker 1: Because I don't own the team. I don't make those calls.
Speaker 1: But I think we could have as a franchise, might
Speaker 1: have figured out a way to make it work or
Speaker 1: dedicated more time to try to make it work. I
Speaker 1: feel like we might have. We might have rushed the
Speaker 1: trade a little bit, especially with the fact with with
Speaker 1: with itilists. I love it. He's a great human being.
Speaker 1: I love it. That's my dog, you know, with him
Speaker 1: coming going being injured, I was I was told that,
Speaker 1: you know, if a player is injured, you can kind
Speaker 1: of avoid the trade. Yeah. Yeah, So so for me,
Speaker 1: it was more so of a sense where like if
Speaker 1: he's technically not cleared or that hip is not all
Speaker 1: the way right, why are you in such a rust
Speaker 1: to make this trade because we still have Kyrie under
Speaker 1: contract and Kyrie loves the game of basketball. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at what the NETS. There's times where he probably
Speaker 1: hated being there, but he still went on the court
Speaker 1: and he proved himself. And to be honest, he probably
Speaker 1: he's probably been flustrated with that NETS organization for the
Speaker 1: last two years. But guess what those last twenty games
Speaker 1: with NETS, he looked like an MVP caliber player. They
Speaker 1: were going I think they were like twelve and four
Speaker 1: or something, and they had great road wins against top teams. Like,
Speaker 1: so one thing, mut Kyrie, he's a hooper. He's in
Speaker 1: a buy in and play. If he's happy or not,
Speaker 1: we don't know the answer. But he's like hooper, he's
Speaker 1: gonna go and play. And and with the business basketball,
Speaker 1: if you're a signature line player, you get royalties. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna get the royalty check if you sit on
Speaker 1: the sideline. So he's gonna play. He has to be
Speaker 1: an auster like like, I just feel like the franchise
Speaker 1: mother not handled it, maybe rushed it a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we could have took a better time. Um, but you
Speaker 1: know that that that happens, you know, I hope you know.
Speaker 1: I love Kyrie, I love Lebron. I would love to
Speaker 1: see them together in purple and gold. Um, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you wouldn't mind seeing that. Would be some good games,
Speaker 1: ESPA games you guys have, Oh, State versus Versus versus
Speaker 1: lad be a good one. No, I'm definitely not against that.
Speaker 1: We had as you know, you being a part of it.
Speaker 1: We had some of the best battles in NBA history,
Speaker 1: not just in our of our time, we have some
Speaker 1: of the best battles in NBA history, obviously, that Game
Speaker 1: seven being probably one of the most classic games the
Speaker 1: NBA has ever seen, right, Yeah, And so to have
Speaker 1: those battles, as you know, to play in those games
Speaker 1: like that's that those are the games that bring the
Speaker 1: best out of you. It's to the Tuesdays against the
Speaker 1: terrible teams that I'm like, man, that y'all can have this.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I tell people, a soft Tuesday is where
Speaker 1: you catch up slipping a soft Tuesday and Detroit them
Speaker 1: like man, h I know from Michigan. I know it's
Speaker 1: from Michigan. When you come home like to have a
Speaker 1: big game. I know every time, every time you play
Speaker 1: gets the Pistons, they always talk a bunch of other
Speaker 1: pistess airway and they try to get you in the train.
Speaker 1: They try to train for you to bring you home.
Speaker 1: ID to get it. But like Cleveland Council Lars versus
Speaker 1: Detroit Pistons on a soft Tuesday, Man, Detroit, y'all can
Speaker 1: have that shit like pretty get home. So I get it.
Speaker 1: But yes, those games sentents that we get up like.
Speaker 1: And then you would agree there's certain players in our
Speaker 1: league that are regular season players and there certain players
Speaker 1: that are playoff players. And I believe myself and you
Speaker 1: were playoff players. We we we are. We hur in
Speaker 1: the game when it counts and when it matters, because
Speaker 1: you've seen a lot of guys that have great regular
Speaker 1: seasons and then when it gets to the playoffs, man,
Speaker 1: they tuck their tail and they go from they go
Speaker 1: from sugar to shit. Yo. So speaking of the purple
Speaker 1: and goal, I gotta come more questions. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: you out of here. Um, you recently just had to
Speaker 1: work out with the Lakers. Everything that I've heard from
Speaker 1: reports to talking to people, have a bunch of relationships
Speaker 1: around this league, Like everyone came back, like talking about
Speaker 1: the shape that you're Like, how great of shape at
Speaker 1: your age, at having not playing basketball, having not played
Speaker 1: all this year, but how great a shape you is?
Speaker 1: Like speak to us about the workout and like, um,
Speaker 1: just what you went in there and show that and
Speaker 1: are you expecting that to come to fruition? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm praying every day that you know that it comes
Speaker 1: to fruition. You know, I've been doing two days all season.
Speaker 1: You know, It's it's very easy for guys that are
Speaker 1: that are not playing to sit back and relax, But
Speaker 1: for me, it's I'm so used to I'm a routine
Speaker 1: type of person. I'm a routine guy. So for me,
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, I'm always in a state
Speaker 1: ready and state right because when that phone call ran,
Speaker 1: I need to be ready because I want to prove
Speaker 1: to the world and prove to these teams that listen
Speaker 1: I can still play at a high level. Like I'm
Speaker 1: watching these biggs and these backup bigs and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I will kick his ass. I will I'll play this
Speaker 1: this this guy. But you know, for whatever reasons that
Speaker 1: you know, my phone never rang. It is what it is,
Speaker 1: and I can't control that right, I'm not in a
Speaker 1: position of that. All I could do is stay ready,
Speaker 1: be a pro. And when I came to the Lakers workout,
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to make sure I was in
Speaker 1: better shape than I've ever been, and I made sure
Speaker 1: I had my shirt off on purpose. I had my
Speaker 1: shirt up the whole work album. I got there an
Speaker 1: hour early, like I was going to practice, because in
Speaker 1: practice with Jerseys, I get there an hour early. I
Speaker 1: did my warm up so I got a little little
Speaker 1: activation in. I was on the court, got my touch
Speaker 1: beforehand because I wanted to make sure with this work up,
Speaker 1: I left it all on the floor because listen, there's
Speaker 1: only opportunity so much in life. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: let an opportunity like that slip because of something because
Speaker 1: of lack of preparation for me, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And that's part of being a pro. I'm going to
Speaker 1: prepare myself like this is this is all or enough,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So so when it came
Speaker 1: to that Lakers workout, I made shar I was in
Speaker 1: great shape, dunking the ball, windmilling, but I was doing
Speaker 1: stuff where I was like Brown to sell I was like, Man,
Speaker 1: don't I see this is Cleveland. I'm like, yeah, because
Speaker 1: I'm because I'm ready, like fucking ready, bro, Like I'm ready,
Speaker 1: Like I'm ready to make this happen. I'm ready to
Speaker 1: help you guys make this push. And I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm what I can bring to the table to help
Speaker 1: that team is as an area that I think they
Speaker 1: don't have right now. And I think with a team that,
Speaker 1: like like the Lakers, that are trying to make it right,
Speaker 1: I think he always, especially at the center position, you
Speaker 1: need a guy that's gonna be great at what he does,
Speaker 1: be a star in his role. And for me, one
Speaker 1: thing you know you're gonna get is some good ass screens.
Speaker 1: A motherfucker's an offensive rebound, play hard switched one through
Speaker 1: five and compete and then in the playoffs, those little
Speaker 1: things like a good screen can get a guy open,
Speaker 1: get a guy Atdangelo open, get him go and get
Speaker 1: him hot. Offensive rebound haven't scored in four minutes. You
Speaker 1: can offense, rebound, keep the possession alive, deflating to the defense.
Speaker 1: Word on the defense, you know what I'm saying, or
Speaker 1: loose ball offense, loose ball foul. But a guy in
Speaker 1: foul trouble. A big, they can switch one to five
Speaker 1: where and the team's going small like you guys, I
Speaker 1: can switch on the step, I can switch on to Wiggins,
Speaker 1: I can switch on to to to to to Clay.
Speaker 1: You need a big that could do those him because
Speaker 1: all those little things matter in a playoff setting because
Speaker 1: every possession counts. And I know what I could. I
Speaker 1: know what I'm what. I'm great. I'm not saying I'm
Speaker 1: coming to Lakers to come shoot corner three. You No,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you guys know what you're gonna get and
Speaker 1: into the locker room. I'm gonna be a guy that's
Speaker 1: gonna hold everyone accountable. And because you have new guys
Speaker 1: that are that are younger and you kind of have
Speaker 1: the vetters with A D and Brown, I could be
Speaker 1: like that middle guy that could kind of unite everyone
Speaker 1: together because I know D Low, I know those young
Speaker 1: guys on A I know Vaguerable, I know I'm a
Speaker 1: personalel spend time in them. But I also you know
Speaker 1: A D and Bron my brother. So I could be
Speaker 1: that guy to continue to gel and bring unity. And
Speaker 1: that's why I can bring to the table to that team.
Speaker 1: I know what you bring to a team. I personally
Speaker 1: think this Lakers team is very good. I've actually for
Speaker 1: two years everybody would talk about the Lakers, and I say, well,
Speaker 1: they got Lebron James and Anthony Davis. They already's got
Speaker 1: a chance, and now they've traded for these other guys,
Speaker 1: like they're a real team now. So no disrespect, my brother,
Speaker 1: but I personally hope they leave you at home because
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know what you bring to
Speaker 1: the table. I know how you help a team, like
Speaker 1: all of those teams you just mentioned, is what win
Speaker 1: you championships and so the impact that that will have
Speaker 1: on that team, Like people can say what they want
Speaker 1: talking heads and talk, they are serious threatened to West
Speaker 1: right now. Talk about the record all you want. They
Speaker 1: just got to get in. They get in. They are
Speaker 1: serious threatened to West. And so I'm gonna just tell
Speaker 1: you straight right here on Draymond Green show you there's
Speaker 1: a hope that you do not sign with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: my friend. But I would tell you this though, the
Speaker 1: other day we played we played Houston, and you're talking
Speaker 1: about a team that doesn't have a single vet on
Speaker 1: the team. And so like I look at a guy
Speaker 1: like yourself, where you like, my phone didn't ring, and
Speaker 1: then I asked the question Houston didn't even like, Houston
Speaker 1: didn't called, because what you can bring to even that
Speaker 1: locker room. See, we always look at it and we
Speaker 1: like And that's the competitiveness in us. But that's also
Speaker 1: this business, which is like if I'm gonna bring a
Speaker 1: vet and it has to be a championship team. Now
Speaker 1: at this point her career, probably only want to go
Speaker 1: to a championship team. But in saying that, like a
Speaker 1: team like Houston, they got young talent man Jalen Green,
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith, Julir like the list goes on Tar Easton.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Tari Easton. Yeah, I like
Speaker 1: him a lot. kJ They don't have any vets And
Speaker 1: you look at a guy like yourself who's been through
Speaker 1: the ranger, true professional and true professional champion, understands it all,
Speaker 1: and it's like, what are they doing? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like you ask yourself to question and not
Speaker 1: what are they doing? Drafting means I think they're drafting well,
Speaker 1: but who's teaching these guys? Happens, yes, and that brings
Speaker 1: back to what you said the beginning. If you started
Speaker 1: playing basketball at a young age, you draft these young
Speaker 1: kids and listen, I think they're drafting well when they're
Speaker 1: drafting good players, but it's like anything, how are these
Speaker 1: kids in an learn how to be pros and how
Speaker 1: to win meaningful basketball games if you just throw them
Speaker 1: out there. They need bets where they can best at
Speaker 1: first of they respect, they actually have a resume, and
Speaker 1: that can actually go out there and lead by example.
Speaker 1: We're not saying, We're not saying bringing vets in and
Speaker 1: start them, but you gotta put some bets in where
Speaker 1: they could play ten to fifteen minutes where the youngers
Speaker 1: can see. Like if the youngers are bullshitting, you pull
Speaker 1: them out, put some bets in. They see it, and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh wow, this is how you do it.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem with our league. And I started
Speaker 1: to notice that about like maybe about four years ago,
Speaker 1: is when they stopped they stopped bringing vets, Like these
Speaker 1: teams that are like at the bottom, they stopped bringing
Speaker 1: bets in and they just rather. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of teams are hoping to find that hidden gem, which
Speaker 1: I get because there's a lot of guys that like
Speaker 1: the Mono Jenobis of the world or Isaiah Thoma was
Speaker 1: the last pick of the draft. A lot of teams
Speaker 1: want to take chances with these young guys to hopefully
Speaker 1: find the next gym. But in order for these young
Speaker 1: hits to blossom to be the pro that you envision
Speaker 1: them to be when you draft them, they got to
Speaker 1: have some guidance. That's why a team like Sacramento for
Speaker 1: a long time struggle because they didn't have the right bets.
Speaker 1: But it was you know what they brought Mike Brown,
Speaker 1: who who's who? You know how my drift? I played
Speaker 1: with him for one year and cleaning was my coach.
Speaker 1: He was with you for for some time. And go
Speaker 1: and stay where. You know, he's a film guy. He's
Speaker 1: gonna drill it. He's gonna drill it. He's gonna drill
Speaker 1: it until you understand. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: that's what that franchise needed. And now you see them
Speaker 1: playing at a higher level. They didn't do nothing like
Speaker 1: they brought to balls and like, okay, but look at
Speaker 1: the record. They made a trade for some bonus last year.
Speaker 1: The record wasn't good. They were probably the worse, you know,
Speaker 1: But what they brought a leader in and Mike Brown
Speaker 1: who instilled his his his his his fundamentals and his philosophy.
Speaker 1: And even though his film session might be two hours,
Speaker 1: you're gonna understand this. You know you're gonna understand this.
Speaker 1: You are gonna do all these pick and rolls and
Speaker 1: you're gonna head, You're gonna be a deep drop. You're
Speaker 1: gonna do these drills for so long and be pissed off.
Speaker 1: I guess what it can lead to wins? And that's
Speaker 1: why our team is playing at a high level. So
Speaker 1: these young these young teams, you think they gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta bring bets. You gotta have a little mixture of boats.
Speaker 1: It's the only way that you're gonna accelerate the process
Speaker 1: of hopefully having that team go from a lottery to
Speaker 1: being competitive. Absolutely, and man, last question, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: This has been incredible. Uh, you're insightful, you're smartest shit,
Speaker 1: and you're not afraid to hear your own voice. They're
Speaker 1: not afraid to say anything. I love it. I know
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna love this interview. Us say you you've been
Speaker 1: on ESPN lately, Um, is that what you're planning to do?
Speaker 1: Like when you're done, is it coaching? Is it or
Speaker 1: is this something you're just testing out? Or is it
Speaker 1: coaching is a gym because I know you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to stay around the game. You love basketball too much? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I love basketball. Uh you know talking to rich Um,
Speaker 1: it's a good problem to having in terms of you
Speaker 1: can almost because of you know, you know, the resume
Speaker 1: and me being articulated and knowing to give basketball relationships.
Speaker 1: I can almost pick out of the three where I
Speaker 1: could be like going to coaching or you wanna do
Speaker 1: front office or you wanna do TV, and for me,
Speaker 1: you know, doing espn uh stuff. I love it. I
Speaker 1: love I love media. I love talking about sports because
Speaker 1: it makes me feel so attached to the game where
Speaker 1: it's authentic, you know, like when it comes when it
Speaker 1: comes to front office stuff, it's a tough it's a
Speaker 1: slippery slope because you gotta I mean, we mean, you're
Speaker 1: like we're in terms of like if I'm in the
Speaker 1: front office, I'm assistant GM or I'm a scout and
Speaker 1: the guy that's ahead of me is a dumbass, and
Speaker 1: I have to sit there and just look look at
Speaker 1: him and just like I can't fake it. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna fake this. Front office is a tough thing where
Speaker 1: it's like for me, if I was gonna go in
Speaker 1: front office, I have to get a situation where I
Speaker 1: even know the GM or the president and we like
Speaker 1: c I I you know what I'm saying, like we understand,
Speaker 1: like like I respect you and I and you know
Speaker 1: what's going on. But I can't fake the funk to
Speaker 1: be under a guy that was was was was was
Speaker 1: a media guy or doesn't have no basketball experience. So
Speaker 1: so for me, like that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know, not too sure about
Speaker 1: front office coaching. You know, coaching is great, but it
Speaker 1: takes a lot of time away from family. You know,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot. And it's thinking about this. When
Speaker 1: we have shoot on a ten, we'll show up at nine,
Speaker 1: but the coaches be there eight for coaches meeting. This
Speaker 1: is a little tough. This is a little tough Mondy.
Speaker 1: It's tough. Don't get me wrong. It's not about the money.
Speaker 1: But I said, you know, like just because I've had
Speaker 1: too much time with my kids right now, and my
Speaker 1: kids are of age where they're growing up, Like I
Speaker 1: kind of want to be around that. So like media
Speaker 1: is almost like that perfect balanced because it's the hours
Speaker 1: are not as hectic as the NBA, and I can
Speaker 1: still staying evolved with the game, and and media is growing,
Speaker 1: the new media is growing. It's growing at a high level.
Speaker 1: And it's like, you know, they're gonna need more guys
Speaker 1: like us. You know, obviously you're still playing at a
Speaker 1: high level. You're still playing, so and you're doing your podcast,
Speaker 1: which is basically you keep you, you keep being a
Speaker 1: toe in your toe in there. I love so. I
Speaker 1: love that you're doing that. But for me right now,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, I love the ESPN. I love I
Speaker 1: love doing it. It's fun, it's good to get after it,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I really want to continue to
Speaker 1: explore if I'm not playing the more. You know, of course,
Speaker 1: playing is number one. That's why I stay in shape.
Speaker 1: But I don't care about playing. How about a look
Speaker 1: like some other retired guys that are looking like big
Speaker 1: like this, I'm like, ho, shit, you haven't played for
Speaker 1: two years. It's a bigger guys like geez. So of course,
Speaker 1: you know, if I'm not on the court, I would
Speaker 1: love to continue doing media, whether you know ESPN. I
Speaker 1: have to give a shout out to them for thanking
Speaker 1: them for giving them me the opportunity. I loved it
Speaker 1: at a great time and m you know, hopefully I
Speaker 1: can continue continue doing the media stuff while i'm you know,
Speaker 1: while I'm not playing. No, it's great, bro've I've watched you, um,
Speaker 1: like I said, you're very insightful, You're very smart, like
Speaker 1: and and your candidate. And I love it. Not that
Speaker 1: I'm some guru. I just see what I see on TV.
Speaker 1: And you like what you like, you like what you don't,
Speaker 1: you know what you don't like, and I think you
Speaker 1: have a very bright future in it because, like I said,
Speaker 1: and most important, you care, like you can tell when
Speaker 1: you're speaking, you care about what's going on. So I
Speaker 1: thank you Brouh coming on the podcast, this has been
Speaker 1: one of the best shows we've had. And lies but
Speaker 1: not least. Before we get out of here, let's talk
Speaker 1: to these people about you punching me. I thought we
Speaker 1: was gonna go listen, but listen all that to the though,
Speaker 1: listen that was in the past. Listen you know what
Speaker 1: you know, it's just so funny because like you know,
Speaker 1: like we're in the finals. Bro it gotta after because listen,
Speaker 1: I'm me and you are both. We're both the glue guys,
Speaker 1: we're the muscle par our team. So you know, obviously
Speaker 1: you know it should happened in the past, but it's stupid,
Speaker 1: Like you know, I'm like, man, we're so passed that.
Speaker 1: It was just it was, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: crazy night, Delila de Lila, Tequila, Delilah, and Tequila. I
Speaker 1: go up to doble T. I tell rich this is
Speaker 1: how this happened. I tell rich I'm like, rich I
Speaker 1: should just go over there and fucking punch them right now.
Speaker 1: Richard mav like, no chance you're doing that. We've worked
Speaker 1: way too hard to get here. That story is gonna
Speaker 1: tear us all down. No chance you're doing that. What
Speaker 1: you're gonna do is you're gonna go over there. You're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to him, y'all gonna talk it out, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna move forward. I'm like, that's bullshit. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go over here and I'm going to plush them. They're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you do that shit if you want to, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a problem. So after about thirty minutes, I'm like
Speaker 1: all right, Rich, And he just keeps telling me like
Speaker 1: you're ready yet, You're gonna go talk yet? Like I'm
Speaker 1: like no. So finally I'm like, all right, Rich, I'll
Speaker 1: go talk. I go up to Double T, like, hey, bro,
Speaker 1: what I'm just coming to hot dog charge me stars,
Speaker 1: light at me, don't mind you. It's Delilah tequila drinks floor,
Speaker 1: slipperyese hell charge I'm slide. But yeah, the tables are
Speaker 1: getting people and people are grabbing me. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: with that we just sold. I was like, man, but
Speaker 1: guess the good things that we made. We made up
Speaker 1: that night and we had some more shots. We had
Speaker 1: a great night. And even though I lost my mind,
Speaker 1: my two care diamondarings good thing had him. I had
Speaker 1: him insured. Insurance dropped me after. But it's all good.
Speaker 1: So there y'all have it. There you going pin for
Speaker 1: my brother, DOUBLET. I appreciate you, brother, my brother, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. I'm super proud of you. That's
Speaker 1: the luck. The rest of the scenes it keep doing
Speaker 1: your thing, nobody ever changing. You know that. I know
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen because you are stubborn as a
Speaker 1: fucking as a fucking nail, so I know that's not
Speaker 1: gonna change, so can do your thing. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having on your show. Hopefully everyone's gonna enjoy it, love it,
Speaker 1: and keep the good times going. I appreciate you, my brother.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the show.