Speaker 1: Damn. I mean this is gonna go viral too, Yep,
Speaker 1: Jannis k d steph Indeed, I'm gonna take heat for
Speaker 1: this last pick all my life and running all my
Speaker 1: life sacrifice hustle back Prison wanna slice? Got the browner
Speaker 1: dice to swad all my life? I've been grinding all
Speaker 1: my life, all my life? Then running all my life
Speaker 1: and up sacrifice hustle backer Brison, Want a slice? Got
Speaker 1: the brolla dice to swath all my life? I've been
Speaker 1: running in all my life. Hello, welcome to another addition
Speaker 1: of the Club Sha Shay. I am your whole Shannon Sharp.
Speaker 1: I'm also the propriud of Club Sha Shake. And the
Speaker 1: guy that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today
Speaker 1: is a fourteen year NBA vet. He's an NBA champion
Speaker 1: and he might be the last of a dying breed,
Speaker 1: the last of the back had boys of the NBA.
Speaker 1: Matt Barnes and be what's up? Run It's going to
Speaker 1: be here, man, Thanks for coming on. How you being?
Speaker 1: I've been good, busy man, busy summer you know outside
Speaker 1: of work, uh, you know, coaching my kids, you team,
Speaker 1: you know, traveling around the country with the kids. But
Speaker 1: it was a blessing but it was fun. How how
Speaker 1: did the boys do? So? We finished third nationally, so
Speaker 1: I think we could have been one. We hit some
Speaker 1: injuries and had one one of our center quit literally
Speaker 1: two days before we hit Nationals. But I mean when
Speaker 1: everything said, as a team, we did really well. Like
Speaker 1: I said, we finished third, ranked number three in the
Speaker 1: country for thirteen. You are not too bad. Congratulations on that, bru.
Speaker 1: Look I know on your your podcast up all the
Speaker 1: smoke you guys smoke here at club we take a
Speaker 1: drink of the Portier. Congratulations on what you and Stas
Speaker 1: are doing. Appreciate that. Appreciate that said I said, I
Speaker 1: smell this is smell like his money right here. Uh,
Speaker 1: smell like money. Congratulations. Put the success on this as well.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, Brun. Thank The hot button issue was I
Speaker 1: made Dooka being suspended for all the entire season, and
Speaker 1: initially when the news broke, You're like, you were very
Speaker 1: much in support of I may the question would I
Speaker 1: have for you? Were you support of how the Celtics,
Speaker 1: like damn they suspend a man for the whole year,
Speaker 1: or how they handled the situation in suspending it. I
Speaker 1: think it started before that was we got the Robbert
Speaker 1: Sarver information, right, and I've been saying he's a known
Speaker 1: racist since I left there in twenty ten. So we
Speaker 1: had that information for a couple of days, and then
Speaker 1: following the Emay's situation loosely, and then once they dropped
Speaker 1: a suspension, that's Robb just like because of course when
Speaker 1: he reported, they say he's gonna be suspended, you know,
Speaker 1: for the entire season, but he's not gonna be fired.
Speaker 1: You're like, Okay, what is he gonna be suspended for?
Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, the information starts to
Speaker 1: seep out he had a consensual relationship with a staffer, right,
Speaker 1: And so that was basically all the information everybody had.
Speaker 1: But obviously league you received some information yeah that the media,
Speaker 1: the public, the broad media, the public doesn't have. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I mean with that, so again, initially, like you said,
Speaker 1: I went out there in defense from a standpoint of,
Speaker 1: you know, being in the league as long as I've
Speaker 1: been in and being in corporations now, stuff like that
Speaker 1: happens a lot, you know, So for me to hear
Speaker 1: he was suspended the same amount of time as someone
Speaker 1: who has sexually harassed and thrown racial slurs around an organization.
Speaker 1: It didn't make sense to me. You know, the way
Speaker 1: Boston handle it could have could have been handled better.
Speaker 1: The way I came about it. Maybe I could have
Speaker 1: handled it better, you know what I mean. But so
Speaker 1: when I made the post in his defense, as soon
Speaker 1: as I made the post on I tell you, maybe
Speaker 1: two minutes later, I got a phone call and this
Speaker 1: person that's telling me what happened, and I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: well maybe I should take down my post. So I
Speaker 1: did it. But next morning I woke up and it's
Speaker 1: still it hit the blog. So instead of being you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like so often in this space where if
Speaker 1: you're wrong you just let it slide or or the
Speaker 1: apology is really small. But I mean, and so I
Speaker 1: came out and publicly said, hey, you know, I misspoke
Speaker 1: before having all the information. I'm apologized. It's a lot
Speaker 1: deeper than we know, and you know, I wish everybody
Speaker 1: the best. And you know, some people respected the fact
Speaker 1: that I came out and said that, and other people
Speaker 1: are like, oh man, you're hating on this, dude, you're
Speaker 1: doing this, or if you're in the media, tell us
Speaker 1: what you heard. And I'm not someone that takes pride
Speaker 1: and dumping on our people, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I think there's such a doubless sword and such a
Speaker 1: double standard for us to even climb in the ranks.
Speaker 1: We climbed that. You know. When I found out something
Speaker 1: the news, I'm just like, man, you know, if this
Speaker 1: comes out, it's going to be ugly, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be the one to have it come out, right,
Speaker 1: you know. So people started running with both sides of that.
Speaker 1: So it has been a whirldwin man, and you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully everyone can, you know, find some solace and some
Speaker 1: peace in it and work itself out. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it had to do, especially coming from us,
Speaker 1: is that who he's dating, and you're like, man, how
Speaker 1: he gonna do her like that? And it's it's deeper
Speaker 1: than that, man, because you know, look, being a professional athlete,
Speaker 1: we I think we're invincible, and then we've all done
Speaker 1: some things that we threw caution to the wind. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a fact that we making millions. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: fact that it just came out. It's gonna be really
Speaker 1: bad for us, and that moment at that time, that
Speaker 1: was the most important thing. Damn the millions, Damn who
Speaker 1: finds out about it? No, I completely agree. And the
Speaker 1: one thing I definitely didn't touch on was the family
Speaker 1: dynamic because I've done too many, too many things to
Speaker 1: really even have a voice in that space. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm the last one that's gonna tell anyone on
Speaker 1: relationship advice or this isn't that because you know how
Speaker 1: public and messy, you know, my divorce was so again,
Speaker 1: you know the fact that she is a you know,
Speaker 1: an icon in the space as far as acting, and
Speaker 1: you know, has such an amazing reputation. That was something
Speaker 1: that everyone else was harping on. But that's what I
Speaker 1: didn't touch because I had already messed up in that space, right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be the one to criticize or you shouldn't have did this,
Speaker 1: or you shouldn't have did that. That wasn't me. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I came to his defense initially because I thought,
Speaker 1: from what the information we had, that's a common thing
Speaker 1: that happens not only in the NBA but across the board. Right.
Speaker 1: I think the thing is is that maybe if they
Speaker 1: had said that, maybe they could have dressed it like
Speaker 1: I may it's gonna take a year off to deal
Speaker 1: with some personal issues, and then that would have gave
Speaker 1: him some gave him some an opportunity to cover. But
Speaker 1: when they leave it so broad and everybody started to speculate,
Speaker 1: and then a couple of like a day later, it
Speaker 1: comes out, well, there's no covering for that. There ain't
Speaker 1: no heat taking time off. We're suspending him because the policy.
Speaker 1: And I understand both sides and understand your point what
Speaker 1: you're saying that this happens more time, more often than not.
Speaker 1: But I understand the corporation side of this because when
Speaker 1: this thing hit the fan, the corporation is the one
Speaker 1: that's that potentially could be out of millions and millions,
Speaker 1: so they try to cover it like bruh, let's just
Speaker 1: the twenty million people that five million people in Boston,
Speaker 1: Go find you one of them. Leave what's here? But
Speaker 1: it's a lot. Yeah, this person all the time, they
Speaker 1: see these people all the time. You hey, how you doing?
Speaker 1: You know what's going on? You because you know, you
Speaker 1: develop a relationship with these people. But my whole thing
Speaker 1: is is uncan you know, and you've been in professional
Speaker 1: sports and you're in the corporate business world now, Like
Speaker 1: this is not the first signed and I don't recall
Speaker 1: anyone else ever having to have it put on front
Speaker 1: street to begin with, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like normally like internal businesses, internal business where they want
Speaker 1: to suspend them for a personal leave or personal reasons,
Speaker 1: that's fine. But I think again, the way it came
Speaker 1: out that information, I'm just like, damn, Like I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't been in leave for a long time and
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen some stuff. And although people came it
Speaker 1: may have been found out, it was never brought to
Speaker 1: the public, right, you know what I mean? So I
Speaker 1: definitely think it was a smear campaign, and that's why
Speaker 1: initially I had jumped to his defense. You mentioned your
Speaker 1: public situation, your situation where you know you was going
Speaker 1: through a divorce in situation, What did you learn from that?
Speaker 1: What when you look back on it, what do you
Speaker 1: wish you could have handled differently? I just think that
Speaker 1: that you know, I had to come to terms with
Speaker 1: a long time ago. As obviously, you know, being a
Speaker 1: public figure, there's not much privacy to our lives to
Speaker 1: begin with. A long time ago. But then the fact
Speaker 1: that we jumped on a reality show as well, we
Speaker 1: completely gave all of our privacy and private moments away,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that's what I really learned,
Speaker 1: was obviously being an athlete. And I'm not even I
Speaker 1: was a role player. I have no qualms about who
Speaker 1: I was. I know exactly who I was, but I
Speaker 1: was always on big teams and play with big guys.
Speaker 1: But then, like I said, when I opened the door
Speaker 1: to my family situation via reality TV, I knew there
Speaker 1: was no such thing as as as privacy anymore. And
Speaker 1: that carried on through my relationship with my ex wife,
Speaker 1: who we've been separated now damn youel seven years or
Speaker 1: excuse me, divorced from a seven years too. You know
Speaker 1: my current situation. So it's just, you know, the ability
Speaker 1: to think back and wish that, you know, we could
Speaker 1: have kept some things private. But you know, you learn
Speaker 1: you wish you hadn't done that show. Oh absolutely not.
Speaker 1: And and and I you know, like I said, I'm
Speaker 1: not speaking from my ex, but I'm pretty sure she
Speaker 1: wished she didn't. You know, she didn't jump in the
Speaker 1: in the show either. But again, you live and you learn,
Speaker 1: you're young, you have an opportunity. You want to, you know,
Speaker 1: give her an opportunity to kind of you know, build
Speaker 1: out her her herself, what she was doing outside of
Speaker 1: you know, our family stuff. And because when you look
Speaker 1: at it, what you say, well, there's some good, but
Speaker 1: it seems to me more bad good. Now we get
Speaker 1: the Kardashians and we see how they made it, we
Speaker 1: get parents, Hilton and how she took off, but more
Speaker 1: time than not, break up, divorce. It's really too I mean,
Speaker 1: you know the two people you mentioned, you know they're
Speaker 1: not black, you know, I mean and and And I
Speaker 1: say that with all respect because you know, when it
Speaker 1: comes to black reality TV, it's it's such a an
Speaker 1: untrue tale of who we are and we're about. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean when you say basketball wives and
Speaker 1: and and you know wives or girlfriends or whatever situation
Speaker 1: may be. People don't act like that in the day
Speaker 1: day They and we realized early on that they don't
Speaker 1: want to see a happy family with kids and they
Speaker 1: want out and forth. That sales, the drama sales. So
Speaker 1: you know, just understanding again, no, what we got into
Speaker 1: before we got into it, and we didn't and we
Speaker 1: learned from it, but now we kind of sit back
Speaker 1: and watch again. That was two thousand eleven. Well, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and and and the reality world
Speaker 1: is is you know, they say stuff comes and waves
Speaker 1: and it's gonna fade. The reality TV has been here
Speaker 1: to stay. But every time I you know, I jump.
Speaker 1: And this is not all, but I say, a majority
Speaker 1: of the time you see black reality television, it's just
Speaker 1: such a negative portrayal of who we are. It's just
Speaker 1: it's it's disheartening the situation where you and a former
Speaker 1: teammate of yours get into it. Do you wish you
Speaker 1: to have that situation differently? No, No, I wish I
Speaker 1: just wish that you I mean, I would hope it
Speaker 1: for a little pausitan the real I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: to keep it real. I mean, people die for shit
Speaker 1: like that, you know. And the fact that I was
Speaker 1: an athlete that they didn't even come to my mind.
Speaker 1: I wasn't worried about. You know, I just felt like
Speaker 1: it was the ultimate disrespect And it wasn't so much that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I divorced my girl, and and and and
Speaker 1: you know, we both decided to actually, you know, even
Speaker 1: though I'm the one the divorce. We were both done.
Speaker 1: It was a mutual thing. I just decided to file first,
Speaker 1: so we both go our separate ways. So you just
Speaker 1: think if and to even give him a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't help for you fall in love with.
Speaker 1: I just wish from a standpoint knowing that there was
Speaker 1: kids involved, right, Okay, I don't really like the way
Speaker 1: you move on X wife. I'm not really tripping off that,
Speaker 1: but the fact that you're gonna be around my kids
Speaker 1: and don't tell me is where I had So I say,
Speaker 1: look at Matt, you know, hey, you and not we divorced.
Speaker 1: You know, we got the kids. But I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: digging on someone else and you know who it is.
Speaker 1: So she comes to you and she tells, you know,
Speaker 1: he was an ex teammate of yours. I think they're
Speaker 1: on the back of your neck gonna stand up. You go, like,
Speaker 1: who who did both? Are? I mean? And I would
Speaker 1: say that, but at the standpoint, you know, again, after
Speaker 1: we were both you know, we were out of love,
Speaker 1: you know, so I would have respected that. I may
Speaker 1: not have liked it, but I can't do if you're
Speaker 1: gonna be a woman or be a man and come
Speaker 1: tell me the situation. Like, I can't do nothing but
Speaker 1: respect it. Again, you may not agree, you may not
Speaker 1: like it, but again I'm no longer in charge of
Speaker 1: I never was really in charge. But you know her,
Speaker 1: she's are grown out woman. So what she decides to
Speaker 1: move and do, it's fine. But again, I think the
Speaker 1: fact that there were kids involved is where it really
Speaker 1: bothered me that uh you know that that it wasn't
Speaker 1: brought to me first right back to the IM it
Speaker 1: says okay, consensual. Really they were involved in a consensual relationship,
Speaker 1: but at a later dating time it was unwanted advances.
Speaker 1: So that I think that's what through a lot of
Speaker 1: people out there is that hold on how if we're
Speaker 1: involved in a consensual relationship, I'm saying something that's inappropriate. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean you think like okay, so somebody want to
Speaker 1: end it and it kept going and then it wanted
Speaker 1: to go. I mean it's like a or if someone
Speaker 1: trying to say face after a fact, right right, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? So again this is this may
Speaker 1: be one of those things, like I said, if details
Speaker 1: come out and you know it's a crazy situation, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, but until we really get or
Speaker 1: or someone breaks that news, I mean, it's gonna really
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of speculation. You know. That's what
Speaker 1: foods involved, What's going on? What happened? Who happened? Like,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of different things, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: so the person I talked to was very close to
Speaker 1: the situation, and I got the information I got. But again,
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm not one that wants to break
Speaker 1: negative news like that. Like I said, my whole purpose
Speaker 1: from the beginning was to come in his defense, Right, dude,
Speaker 1: I think you and I both agree on this. I
Speaker 1: think they're getting this thing up. I don't see how
Speaker 1: he gets that job back. It gona be to man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be really tough. And I know what they
Speaker 1: were hoping. They were hoping that normally, in a situation
Speaker 1: like this, the guy says, you know, I'm resigning, I'm
Speaker 1: stepping down, and then they can just wipe their hands
Speaker 1: of it. But he didn't do that, but to say that, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be away for a year and they're going
Speaker 1: to reevaluate the situation. What is there to re evaluate
Speaker 1: the situation? Happened? He's away It's not like he can
Speaker 1: do something that can convince you this is not going
Speaker 1: to happen again. All he can do is give you
Speaker 1: his word. Yeah, all you could do. But but when
Speaker 1: I look at it now, I kind of look at
Speaker 1: it from a different standpoint of what a job he
Speaker 1: did as a coach. Believable, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, you know, when when we mess up,
Speaker 1: it's not an individual mess up, it's a blanket mess up, right,
Speaker 1: you know what what I mean, because black head coaches all
Speaker 1: over there and that's how it happens, you know what
Speaker 1: I means. So to me, it's an unfortunate situation one
Speaker 1: because he was groomed under, you know, arguably one of
Speaker 1: the greatest coach of all time, great Pakovich. You know,
Speaker 1: he paid his dues. And that team started off bad
Speaker 1: last year where they turned the corner in January and
Speaker 1: then they went on a run that was amazing and
Speaker 1: made the finals. So I'm thinking, like, damn, they got
Speaker 1: a young black coach, young talent. Boston is here for that.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're going to be a team, you know,
Speaker 1: to wrecking with for a while. So now you look
Speaker 1: at it, you know, five months later where you know
Speaker 1: the coach is no longer in place, Who's you know,
Speaker 1: who's going to be the leader of this team? This
Speaker 1: is a young, talented team. Like what happens to the
Speaker 1: team because, like I said, there's so much you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's there's families that you know at Limbo now,
Speaker 1: but the Celtics themselves are at Limbo because again, this
Speaker 1: is one of the best teams in the league with
Speaker 1: one of the best young leaders in the gaming right
Speaker 1: in Coach Udoka. And now you sit back and think,
Speaker 1: like the domino effect of the action that's going to
Speaker 1: leave a lot of people kind of scrambling, like what's happening?
Speaker 1: You know, when we're in our spaces as farmer athletes,
Speaker 1: you do a lot of stuff on ESPN. You have
Speaker 1: your own podcasts. I do stuff here and if it's
Speaker 1: one with Skip, I have my own podcast. We get
Speaker 1: people are always asking us to comment on certain situations,
Speaker 1: and Shack was asking. Shack says, well, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to comment for the simple fact I've been a serial cheater.
Speaker 1: But I think those things are two different things. I
Speaker 1: can see and Shack is that he has corporations. I mean,
Speaker 1: Shack is a tremendous businessman. But I think it's different
Speaker 1: than you being a serial cheater and you being in
Speaker 1: a position of authority and doing something outside of the
Speaker 1: scope of what the organization says. Like you own a
Speaker 1: corporation and you said, well, there's no fratnizing, there's no
Speaker 1: relationship going on with someone subordinate or someone within that corporation.
Speaker 1: That's one thing. I mean, obviously we've all done things.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not sit here and say we were perfect.
Speaker 1: But I don't look at it like Shan and you've
Speaker 1: probably cheated on somebody as that. I can't comment on
Speaker 1: that because I think cheating when I'm just a twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty five year old man and I'm not in a
Speaker 1: position of authority, it's different than kind of what I
Speaker 1: think is going through. Well. I mean, like you said,
Speaker 1: I think you hit it on the head. We're always
Speaker 1: asked to comment yes on everything, whether it's sports related
Speaker 1: or not, and this happened to be sports related. So again,
Speaker 1: you know, again, I jumped out on a limb in
Speaker 1: defense because although cheating is not right, I'm not judging
Speaker 1: that far from perfect, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: like I said, I didn't think the consequence off the
Speaker 1: information we had before matched that, because again, if you
Speaker 1: look at the Phoenix situation, this man is a serial
Speaker 1: racist and has done all kinds of things, and they
Speaker 1: got the same type of suspension. So that's it wasn't
Speaker 1: I think if the Robert Sarvice ship hadn't broke a
Speaker 1: few days before, I would have never commented on it.
Speaker 1: My whole thing was, how are these two things related.
Speaker 1: There's no way these are the same type of issues.
Speaker 1: Was an isolated incident and the other you had eighteen
Speaker 1: year body of work and two hundred people coming in,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, coming to talk about that man. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was, my whole situation was, you know,
Speaker 1: to to try to you know, let you know we're
Speaker 1: supporting you, because I know it's a bigger picture here,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I said, it's an unfortunate situation, but
Speaker 1: you know, a great young black coach in the NBA
Speaker 1: is is is you know, we got to take care
Speaker 1: of those type of situations. And when something like that happens,
Speaker 1: it's not just him, it's us, you know. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way I was looking at it. You
Speaker 1: spoke that that you played in Phoenix, so you have
Speaker 1: very first hand knowledge of the type of person that
Speaker 1: Robert Sarver is not was is, and so you felt
Speaker 1: very strongly that when you spoke out against him, you
Speaker 1: had firsthand, you had intimate knowledge of the type of
Speaker 1: person that you were dealing with. That they that the
Speaker 1: report had come out and what it had laid out.
Speaker 1: You're like, yep, yep, yep, yep, Yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: was it was. I never ran into a racial situation
Speaker 1: with him, per se, like face to face, because it
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't ended well for him. But you know, former
Speaker 1: teammate Earl Watson, who was the head coach there, you know,
Speaker 1: told me what happened with him, and it was eye opening.
Speaker 1: I had seen him interact with people, and as soon
Speaker 1: as people players walk away, i'd hear him say a
Speaker 1: snide remark, but just his arrogance and the way he
Speaker 1: carried himself, that he was the smartest and the richest
Speaker 1: and the best person in the room kind of always
Speaker 1: rubbed me the wrong way. And then a few years
Speaker 1: after that, I went back to Phoenix and there was
Speaker 1: a situation where we were playing them, and I was
Speaker 1: I was someone in my career who didn't mind talking
Speaker 1: to fans, whether we're talking shit or we're just talking
Speaker 1: having a good time. So I think that makes the
Speaker 1: experience better for our fans. So I'm talking to this
Speaker 1: thirteen year old kid and his dad and we're back
Speaker 1: and forth, laughing, and there's a free through being shot,
Speaker 1: and I hear someone say, don't talk to my fucking fans,
Speaker 1: like just like that, and I'm just like, huh, no way,
Speaker 1: he's talking to me. And I turned around and it's
Speaker 1: him in the corner and sitting with his wife, and
Speaker 1: I said, I'll come whether snicked the shit at you
Speaker 1: right in front of your wife, and then ran back
Speaker 1: down the court because the free throw was shot. He
Speaker 1: told on me. I end up getting fined for twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars for inappropriate language to I don't know
Speaker 1: if they said the crowd or to him, but I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 1: this guy is an owner, and he was the one
Speaker 1: that said don't talk to my fucking fan. I'm not
Speaker 1: just gonna say something to him. I don't even like
Speaker 1: the guy, so I wasn't gonna say nothing to him.
Speaker 1: But the fact that he came at me first and
Speaker 1: I responded, how do I get find twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: for it, you know, so that was kind of my
Speaker 1: last straw. I really didn't like him, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: something I was going to talk about at the time
Speaker 1: because I really didn't care. But the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: he costs me money, I'm this man like, fuck this guy.
Speaker 1: I think it was Earl Watson that said the story
Speaker 1: that about how he was asking, how can Draymond say
Speaker 1: the N word and he can't say it? And he
Speaker 1: kept asking, well, what Draymond says it? Why can't I
Speaker 1: see it? And MY question always is why is it
Speaker 1: the way people in a certain group talked to each
Speaker 1: other that people outside of that group. I want to
Speaker 1: know why I hear women call each other b work.
Speaker 1: I never asked why can't I say that? I hear
Speaker 1: people in the LBGT community say things to each other,
Speaker 1: and I've never asked, why can I say that? Because
Speaker 1: I know why. I'm not a member of that community.
Speaker 1: We talk to each other a certain way. We call
Speaker 1: in the black community. We'll call each other A But
Speaker 1: I can let somebody else say that, No, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things, like you said, you've
Speaker 1: got to be along. It's it's almost the secret society
Speaker 1: if you know, you know, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And I think you made a perfect example with the
Speaker 1: other community is just like we know why we can't
Speaker 1: say that, but it's not right publicly. But again, if
Speaker 1: you're amongst your people, your fans, your family, you know,
Speaker 1: people you mess with and the world goes back and forth.
Speaker 1: To me, there's a different energy behind it when we
Speaker 1: say it to each other than when someone else is
Speaker 1: trying to implement it or say it. Damn you, you
Speaker 1: seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong
Speaker 1: time or the right place at the right right wrong
Speaker 1: time because the Donald Sterling situation. You're on that team
Speaker 1: and what trade. So when you hear that, now, did
Speaker 1: you know that he was the way he was? So
Speaker 1: y'all heard about it obviously, you know what I mean? Again,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know because you play, we don't
Speaker 1: play for the owners, right, you know, rarely do you
Speaker 1: even interact unless you're a superstar. So I wasn't really
Speaker 1: interacting with any of the owners. I played for it,
Speaker 1: you know what it means. So when that hit rewind
Speaker 1: a little bit. When I was in high school, I
Speaker 1: senior in high school, you know, three months away from
Speaker 1: going to UCLA. One white kid kept messing with my sister,
Speaker 1: who was a sophomore at the time, calling her nigga, this,
Speaker 1: nigger that, and I told her, you don't go tell
Speaker 1: the principle, and she did and nothing happened. So one
Speaker 1: particular day, this kid's calls her nigger again and spits
Speaker 1: on her, and she just lost her mind, starts crying,
Speaker 1: and her and her friends come find me. Kid happens
Speaker 1: to walk by, and I do what a big brother's
Speaker 1: supposed to do, you know, I mean I had, so
Speaker 1: I get them get suspend. We go in there and
Speaker 1: tell him. You know, my sister's complaining a handful of times,
Speaker 1: you guys didn't do nothing. He spit in her hair,
Speaker 1: called her a nigger again, and you did do nothing.
Speaker 1: So I took it into my own hands where you
Speaker 1: can't do that. And there's no proof he did that.
Speaker 1: This is and now I'm just like, so you think
Speaker 1: my sister's crying, that's gonna lie about it. So fast forward,
Speaker 1: I guess to spend it for a week. The KKK
Speaker 1: comes and vandalized my school, burns down a classroom, swastika's
Speaker 1: Die Nigger hung a mannequin from the football or from
Speaker 1: a tree with my jersey on it. Die Nigger put
Speaker 1: a green light on me, said that they were trying
Speaker 1: to kill me. Had to move to a different part
Speaker 1: of town in Sacramento. So I say all that to say,
Speaker 1: when I heard the Donald Sterling stuff, I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's probably racist, but this is not a big deal
Speaker 1: because he's not the only person that thinks like this.
Speaker 1: He's just the only one dumb enough to get caught, right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So, like, I've seen so
Speaker 1: much real racism and been in the midst of you know,
Speaker 1: literally burning down buildings and people trying to kill me
Speaker 1: to think that what he said was wrong. But I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lose no sleepover again because he's not the
Speaker 1: only one that think. There's a lot of people, not
Speaker 1: just in sports, but are across the board that are
Speaker 1: in positions of power who look at black and brown
Speaker 1: people is less, you know. So when we heard that,
Speaker 1: obviously it was it was a huge situation, and and
Speaker 1: all of our team, you know, all my teammates took
Speaker 1: it a different way. But I think in the midst
Speaker 1: of what was going on. We felt like we had
Speaker 1: a good team. You know, we had won the Pacific Division.
Speaker 1: You know, there was that year or the year before,
Speaker 1: we felt like we had a championship contender and we
Speaker 1: wanted to play basketball. But this is the on the
Speaker 1: urge of social media where athletes are starting to kind
Speaker 1: of speak about more than sports, and all this other
Speaker 1: stuff starts going on. So we're Uncle Tom's and you're
Speaker 1: playing for a racist dude. You're doing this because the
Speaker 1: world was trying to tell us what to do and
Speaker 1: what not to do. So it was just it was
Speaker 1: a tough situation. I think that cloud hanging over us
Speaker 1: ultimately didn't make us lose, but kind of helped just
Speaker 1: the energy, you know, of our team to end up
Speaker 1: losing in the next round. How did you guys come
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that you were all gonna throw your
Speaker 1: one up top in the center? It was my idea
Speaker 1: because again we were talking about not playing and looking back, guys,
Speaker 1: I hear guys left and right saying, you know, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't have played, but we didn't know what the you know,
Speaker 1: how long do we not play? Right? Is it one game?
Speaker 1: What happens that automatic laws head. It was so new.
Speaker 1: You know, how do we do we not play until
Speaker 1: he's fired? Is he gonna get fired? So there was
Speaker 1: so much unknown again, and we felt like we had
Speaker 1: a good enough team to win it that we decided
Speaker 1: to play. So we wanted to do something in solidarity
Speaker 1: that let people know, like we're not okay with it,
Speaker 1: but again, we're not playing for this guy, Like we
Speaker 1: don't care about Donald Sterling. We care about who's in
Speaker 1: this locker room in our family. So you know, we
Speaker 1: tried to come up with a bunch of different ideas
Speaker 1: on just like, look, the most important thing right now
Speaker 1: if we're gonna play, is we gotta beat this young
Speaker 1: hungry Warriors team because if people remember we beat them
Speaker 1: in Game seven, but the next year is they went
Speaker 1: on their dynasty runs. So we knew we had a young,
Speaker 1: hungry team that we had to take care of it
Speaker 1: and it needed all of our attention. So if we're
Speaker 1: gonna do something, let's do something that's get it done
Speaker 1: early on and then try to focus on the game.
Speaker 1: So you know, I came up with to throw the
Speaker 1: ship in the middle of DS, try to go focus,
Speaker 1: and I think we got beat by like thirty of
Speaker 1: that game. So it was a mess. But we're actually
Speaker 1: making so I just brought was brought on as a
Speaker 1: consultant for Strilling Affairs. So FX is actually making a
Speaker 1: six part series about that show that supposed to drop
Speaker 1: you the later this year or early next year about Wow,
Speaker 1: Well congress on bare. John wall the guy, unbelievable talent,
Speaker 1: an All Star tears as Achi lead. Then I think
Speaker 1: he retears it. He dealt with the death of his
Speaker 1: mom and he's talking about you know, at one point
Speaker 1: in time, basketball was an afterthought because of what he
Speaker 1: was going through, and he contemplated suicide. And we heard
Speaker 1: Paul George speaking about this a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: about in the bubbling what he was going through and Matt,
Speaker 1: you old Scott, I'm a lot older than you, with
Speaker 1: you old school, and we like got athletes are supposed
Speaker 1: to be invincible. We don't. We can't show weakness now
Speaker 1: because if you weak, get your weak you know what
Speaker 1: up out of here. But to hear guys that have
Speaker 1: reached the top and to hear says man, I was
Speaker 1: at my breaking point, John Waller specific. I don't know
Speaker 1: what Paul George, but he just said he was dealing
Speaker 1: with some things. But to hear John Walls so, man,
Speaker 1: I was at I was at my breaking point many
Speaker 1: I just had to reach out and say, man, hey,
Speaker 1: I need some help over here to deal with this well.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean take away the athlete first, our
Speaker 1: community in general. It's a sign of weakness. We don't
Speaker 1: talk about it as as a man. It's get your
Speaker 1: weak ass up, or you're gonna be all right, or
Speaker 1: if it's crazy, or get your crazy ass out of
Speaker 1: here exactly. Mental was never a reason for anything for us,
Speaker 1: you know. So to me, I think it's refreshing that
Speaker 1: people can speak on this and they're taking serious. But
Speaker 1: at the same time you still see a lot of
Speaker 1: people with that kind of that old mentide like, man,
Speaker 1: you make all this money with the fuck you talking about,
Speaker 1: you've got no real issues. But again, that mental thing
Speaker 1: is heavy, right. I mean, I never went to the
Speaker 1: bubble and never had a significant injury, you know, the
Speaker 1: John wall have. But you know, when people think, you know,
Speaker 1: money fixes everything. Money fixes a lot of things, but
Speaker 1: not everything, you know what I mean. And sometimes you
Speaker 1: could be alone in a room full of people that's
Speaker 1: the ownault. So you know, again, I commend these guys
Speaker 1: to have the bravery to say it, because it's not
Speaker 1: as many people who are going to receive it warmly
Speaker 1: and understand to be Yeah, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: gonna be like, man, look at these weak as you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, which is crazy. So I mean
Speaker 1: I commend them. And also, Kevin loved Marda Rose and
Speaker 1: a lot of guys have come out and spoke on
Speaker 1: him because I think it's important. Man. Ben Simmons, right,
Speaker 1: another perfect example of just just mentally is a lot,
Speaker 1: you know. And again I've been through so much growing
Speaker 1: up that you know, I think I was, you know,
Speaker 1: made for the critiques and the disrespect and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but at sometime sometimes it really gets to you. So
Speaker 1: again I commend those guys, and I commend any with
Speaker 1: anybody who's brave enough to come out and talk about
Speaker 1: something like that. You mentioned Ben Simmons and what he
Speaker 1: was going through. Here's a guy that's immensely talented, sixteen,
Speaker 1: six eleven, can handle the ball. He was Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year, he's been an All Defensive NBA player twice,
Speaker 1: He's been a three time All Star. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: he does. He's I'm not saying he can't shoot Matt,
Speaker 1: but he's a guy that's afraid to shoot. You see,
Speaker 1: black people, we don't. You know, it's not that we
Speaker 1: can't swim. We're afraid of the water. Well, if you're
Speaker 1: afraid of the water, I can't teach how to swim
Speaker 1: because I can't teach out to swim. If you don't
Speaker 1: want to get in the water, gonna take a chance, right,
Speaker 1: Ben is afraid to shoot because you watch him at
Speaker 1: warm ups. He got a nice stroke for him. I've
Speaker 1: seen him play open gyms where he's coming off picking
Speaker 1: rolls and pulling up, coming down to transition, hitting full
Speaker 1: up threes, and I'm just like, so to me, it
Speaker 1: makes me like it's one mental with him. Yes, And
Speaker 1: I think he has to understand that it's okay to miss.
Speaker 1: Everybody step missus, MJ missus, Kobe, missus. You know, so
Speaker 1: it's okay to miss. So I think once he gets
Speaker 1: over that mental hurdle, he's gonna be fine. But like
Speaker 1: you said, all the other attribute he has to the
Speaker 1: game makes him one of the best players in the world.
Speaker 1: So I think if he can get out of his
Speaker 1: own head and We just talked about this earlier on
Speaker 1: the ESPN today, where Steven Nash came out and said,
Speaker 1: I don't need Ben to shoot. To me, that's the
Speaker 1: wronger person. I just don't think Steve, Steve, Steve Nash
Speaker 1: wants any smoke right now, considering all the other ship
Speaker 1: you don't want no smoke. So Steve, he's gonna take
Speaker 1: the lat the path of resistance. But to me, it's
Speaker 1: been keeping a tight circle and his teammates continuing to
Speaker 1: hype him up. Like I said, if I was on
Speaker 1: Ben's team, I would be in his ear constantly, just about, bro,
Speaker 1: we got you. You know, whatever you need, we got,
Speaker 1: we believe in you, we love you. One of the
Speaker 1: best Black Sometimes people just need that positive reinforcement by
Speaker 1: by the people around him. And he felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: and in Philly he didn't get that, you know, And
Speaker 1: b came out and said something, and but I said,
Speaker 1: at that time, man, I think you might have came
Speaker 1: with it. Y'all said it's over. I said, you can't
Speaker 1: have the best players say what you said. And they
Speaker 1: asked Doc after the game, and Doc might have been
Speaker 1: men mean anything, but you cannot say I don't know
Speaker 1: if I could win a championship with him my starting
Speaker 1: point guard. If it's over, and it was over, I
Speaker 1: think I did come over when that happened. And like
Speaker 1: I said, when you get your your road dog, the
Speaker 1: best player on the team with you and your head
Speaker 1: coach saying that, I knew that situation was over. Oh
Speaker 1: he's weak, he's this, he's at But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I get it, man, this generation is different, first
Speaker 1: and foremost. But if you know, if you got your
Speaker 1: coach and and and the guy's supposed to be your
Speaker 1: right hand man, you know, saying things, and I don't
Speaker 1: think they meant it in a disrespectful way. I just
Speaker 1: think that they were hurt and frustrating, caught up in
Speaker 1: the moment, you know. But but what came out came out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and because the way it beats, like, well, when did
Speaker 1: you think you lost from the midium of the game, Well,
Speaker 1: we had an opportunity for dump and we passed it
Speaker 1: up and we make one free throw, right, Bro, you
Speaker 1: went to that specific and say that was the reason,
Speaker 1: not that that you had a three one that was
Speaker 1: at the end of the game. So yeah, it's and again,
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, Shannon. It's tough because I
Speaker 1: commend anyone who's always cool, calm and elegant under pressure
Speaker 1: because winning losing all that that, we were full of
Speaker 1: so much emotion, you know what I mean, and to
Speaker 1: have to take a deep breath and calm down and
Speaker 1: articularly get across your point, you know, even though there
Speaker 1: may be some still have some emotions the way, it's
Speaker 1: hard to do. And like I said, I don't think
Speaker 1: Joel or those guys meant to disrespect him at the time,
Speaker 1: but they were caught in the moment and they took
Speaker 1: that one play when you know, it's not one play
Speaker 1: that ever loses you a game, serious, it's a whole
Speaker 1: combination of things. And it came out publicly and then
Speaker 1: everyone started jumping and taking sides, and I knew right then,
Speaker 1: just like you do, that ship was over. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I mean, there have been time like this. Dude,
Speaker 1: he called to us a game, he played terrible, that's
Speaker 1: what happened, but you just like, you know, we win
Speaker 1: on the team. Hey, you wouldn't playing a tea ball today. Bro.
Speaker 1: You look at John Wall going to the Clippers and
Speaker 1: he says he's in a better headspace, headspace. Now he
Speaker 1: hadn't played. It's been so long since John we've seen
Speaker 1: John Waller on the court, so I don't really know.
Speaker 1: I know what he was before he got injured. I
Speaker 1: don't know what he will be. Kawhi's been away for
Speaker 1: a year, Paul George came back. They have the makings
Speaker 1: of something good because I love Tyler. Tyler get them
Speaker 1: great coach man, Tyler getting them to play hard all
Speaker 1: the time. But they're gonna be in different roles now.
Speaker 1: All those guys that were getting no free shots and
Speaker 1: Reggie Jack just coming out and getting fifteen twenty shots
Speaker 1: at night, and Marks and all these guys. Now Kawhi
Speaker 1: gotta get his eighteen shots PG, gotta get his sixteen shot.
Speaker 1: John Walla's gonna be coming up the picket roll getting
Speaker 1: this eleven twelve shots. So now you're in a different role.
Speaker 1: One plus one plus one doesn't always equal three, and
Speaker 1: then you throw plus two, you might not necessarily get five.
Speaker 1: If Tyler wasn't a coach, I would be worried about that.
Speaker 1: But Tyler having him as a coach and Noman as
Speaker 1: a person, he doesn't hold his tongue for nobody so
Speaker 1: he's gonna let everyone know who has an issue with
Speaker 1: Kawahi getting his eighteen shots, PG getting his eighteen shots
Speaker 1: and John getting other shots. I don't give a fuck
Speaker 1: what you think. This is how it's going to go.
Speaker 1: And I want to commend him because if you think
Speaker 1: about it, the way he's been able to keep that
Speaker 1: team afloat without their stars, you know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think they said something today since they've been together, that
Speaker 1: they've only played one hundred and fifty games together PG
Speaker 1: and Kawhi out of you know, almost three hundred games.
Speaker 1: He's kept that. He's kept that team respectable and kept
Speaker 1: them afloat and made role players up their games and
Speaker 1: guys from the bottom of the bench get quality minutes.
Speaker 1: So now to me, when you reinsert two of the
Speaker 1: best two way players in the game, and then to
Speaker 1: me John Wall, who was one of the most explosive
Speaker 1: point guards I've seen in the game. And although he's
Speaker 1: been removed the one season he did play in Houston,
Speaker 1: although he was coming off I think two and a
Speaker 1: half years of not playing three years and not playing,
Speaker 1: he was nineteen and nine. I mean, so I don't
Speaker 1: even think they need him to be that now. And
Speaker 1: I think why this is a great situation for John
Speaker 1: because he always been called to be the savior. Right
Speaker 1: now you can just come in and be one of
Speaker 1: the guys and and and contribute the way you can
Speaker 1: contribute Now. Obviously you're not the same player you were
Speaker 1: when you were an All Star, but you still have
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball to give. And I think he
Speaker 1: has a lot to prove, not only to itself but
Speaker 1: the rest of the world. But how how do you
Speaker 1: when you've always been that, how do you tell yourself
Speaker 1: I'm no longer needed. That's no longer needed for me.
Speaker 1: And we don't talk about Russ, but Russ has been
Speaker 1: the guy and he came in again. He still wanted
Speaker 1: to be showed that I feel Russ, So how do
Speaker 1: you how do you How does a guy that's been
Speaker 1: the guy at the stops that he was at all
Speaker 1: of a sudden say nah, I'm good, I can be
Speaker 1: third fiddle. You gotta ask guys like that, because I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I think again with
Speaker 1: with with him, you know what, if you're a student
Speaker 1: of the game, like I know, John is a very
Speaker 1: intelligent person. He watches the game. He saw the game,
Speaker 1: he knows the game. He knows he's older. Although he
Speaker 1: hasn't played a lot in the last three or four season,
Speaker 1: he knows he's a little bit older now. And then
Speaker 1: you also know that this is not every team he's
Speaker 1: been on pretty much has been his team, right, This
Speaker 1: is Kawhia's team and Paul's team, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And then Abe even t lose team, right, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I think he's smart enough to
Speaker 1: understand that where he comes in and is picking, choosing
Speaker 1: his spots and being effective on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 1: is what's going to be a small piece of something
Speaker 1: big instead of a big piece of nothing. When you
Speaker 1: look at PG and Kawai, they've been together almost four
Speaker 1: years now, they don't really have anything to show for it. No,
Speaker 1: and and what is it? Uh? PG is so what
Speaker 1: Kawhi is two? So two on three Area Cold was
Speaker 1: supposed to supposed to deliver some jewelry. But I think
Speaker 1: that and this is not to make an excuse, but
Speaker 1: to me, the only reason why they haven't had anything
Speaker 1: to show for it is because of injuries. And you
Speaker 1: know that's something that you know, the Lakers could possibly
Speaker 1: say with a d with Milwaukee could say last year
Speaker 1: when they lost middle ten as injuries are such a
Speaker 1: big part of the game. But what they do have
Speaker 1: is they went to the you know, the Western Finals
Speaker 1: for this first time in the history of the franchise.
Speaker 1: And although that's not gonna do anything, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's it shows them that they do have the pieces,
Speaker 1: and I think now arguably they have the deepest team
Speaker 1: in the game. So on paper, this team looks good,
Speaker 1: but like you said, we have to see it in
Speaker 1: real life both of the course of the season, at
Speaker 1: least sixty to sixty five games for PG and Kawhi
Speaker 1: each to really understand play no. Sixty five games man,
Speaker 1: that man, they played that many games since he left
Speaker 1: San Antonio. Maybe fifty five to sixty man, but lower it.
Speaker 1: But just like I said, understanding that it's it's a marathon,
Speaker 1: not a sprint, and we need both these guys, We
Speaker 1: need everybody healthy going into the playoffs. You look at
Speaker 1: you like you like the Clippers in the West. Who
Speaker 1: you like in the West going to stay in the Clippers? Man? Hey,
Speaker 1: Lakers brought on Pat Bayff love it, love it side,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder. I don't know what he was thinking. I
Speaker 1: don't know his age. I hope he fired his agent
Speaker 1: because if you turned down eighty four million and now
Speaker 1: you come back for he got eighty two million less
Speaker 1: than he should have got. Yeah, that's tough. How do
Speaker 1: you how do you? How do first of all, how
Speaker 1: do you come back for that? Okay, man, I got
Speaker 1: this contract for you. Here, here's eighty four million dollars.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, I want one hundred million. No I
Speaker 1: got eighty four No I want a hundred You're like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna test to I'm gonna go out here free agency.
Speaker 1: And you don't get that? Do you fire your agent
Speaker 1: or you kicking yourself? Like? What the hell was I thinking?
Speaker 1: You gotta slap yourself first, and for must because I
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck on my agents that if I
Speaker 1: wanted that eighty four I'm gona get it. So now
Speaker 1: there's no agents gonna say let me hold out for
Speaker 1: sixteen more millions. So I think that was probably more
Speaker 1: him than anything. And I'm not mad for people betting
Speaker 1: on themselves, but this, I think is a perfect example
Speaker 1: of when betting on yourself goes wrong. Because you think
Speaker 1: he goes to Boston next year, some shit happens, he
Speaker 1: doesn't really play there, and then he's out of the
Speaker 1: NBA right and then clearly in this summer, you know,
Speaker 1: basketball overseas, he showed he still has what it takes.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was a great pick up for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Just unfortunate that he didn't get his money.
Speaker 1: And if you think about the historical significance of the
Speaker 1: Lakers franchise and the fact that so many great players
Speaker 1: that have played at that uniform and hung championships, never
Speaker 1: got that offer right and he turned it down. So
Speaker 1: I think it's something he's aware of, and he's probably
Speaker 1: gonna hear jokes about it for a long time, but
Speaker 1: jokes aside. I think Pat Bevan and Shoulder were great
Speaker 1: pickups for them. What is your expectation for the Lakers?
Speaker 1: It seems to me Russ doesn't want to be there.
Speaker 1: They don't want Russ there, but they can't find a taker.
Speaker 1: And if the takers, I believe any taker that takes
Speaker 1: on Rust is looking to buy Am out and they
Speaker 1: don't necessarily want Rust. They want to extract those two
Speaker 1: first round pick that's unprotected in twenty seven and twenty nine.
Speaker 1: That's what they want. They don't want Rust. They want
Speaker 1: those picks. They want the Lakers. You ain't got no
Speaker 1: first round picks until twenty thirteen. It's twenty twenty two now,
Speaker 1: so Lebron is gonna be gone. Then there's a possibility
Speaker 1: AD's going to be gone. Then we got no picks.
Speaker 1: They gotta win somehow, period. But they got the You know,
Speaker 1: to me, there's so much unknown. Like I said, we're
Speaker 1: all guessing as far as does Rust want to be
Speaker 1: or do they want him there? Do the players do
Speaker 1: they collide do this? All I know is he's on
Speaker 1: the team right now, yes, and they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure it out. But I think they can figure it out.
Speaker 1: I think the key to this team, obviously, outside Lebron's greatness,
Speaker 1: is Anthony Davis's availability, but I think second is and
Speaker 1: normally when you go to a team with the superstars
Speaker 1: such as Lebron, everyone else has to kind of change
Speaker 1: their game to make it fit him. I think this
Speaker 1: may be the one rare occasion where Lebron might have
Speaker 1: to sacrifice a little bit to get the most out
Speaker 1: of Rust, because I think we Lebron did the past
Speaker 1: two years is Lebron showed us that he can get
Speaker 1: it from anywhere. Now. We never seen Lebron post up
Speaker 1: as much as he's post up, and he's a monster
Speaker 1: on the block, whether it's whether it's pinch, post or post.
Speaker 1: We've never seen him be a screener and be a
Speaker 1: dynamic roller and dunk on people, and he showed he
Speaker 1: can do that. We also show that he can pick
Speaker 1: and pop now and get the ball to the second
Speaker 1: side and make action. Comes. So with Lebron showing us
Speaker 1: that he has more, which I didn't think there could
Speaker 1: be anymore to his fucking package, but there is more.
Speaker 1: Braun showed us he can get the ball and get
Speaker 1: it whenever he wants. So I think with that said,
Speaker 1: I think Bron may have to take a small step
Speaker 1: back to allow Rust to be Russ because you think,
Speaker 1: you know, you get older, you're gonna your game is
Speaker 1: gonna change a little bit, You're gonna find a way.
Speaker 1: I think Russ is gonna be Russ, and I think
Speaker 1: what makes him great sometimes is his downfall. But one
Speaker 1: thing I do know is you can't put Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: in the corner. He's always had the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: So we all know the Lakers are at their best
Speaker 1: with Broun has a ball in his hands. But I
Speaker 1: think that what could happen is allow Russ to have
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands the first two and a
Speaker 1: half quarters to really get a feel. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: Bron's gonna have it sometimes, they're ade'll have it sometimes there,
Speaker 1: but allowing Russ to get his rhythm. So by the
Speaker 1: time Lebron takes over at the middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, when he has the ball in
Speaker 1: his hand, enjoy the time, Rust is already in rhythm.
Speaker 1: Right most of the time, like I said, they put
Speaker 1: Rust in the corner and make him crash the glass. Like,
Speaker 1: that's not that you're you're not utilizing him to the
Speaker 1: best of his ability. So I'm a firm believer in
Speaker 1: you know, as great as Lebron, if Lebron can take
Speaker 1: a small step back to allow Russ to take a
Speaker 1: step forward, I think that's something they'll figure out. But
Speaker 1: I also think that great players always find a way
Speaker 1: to make it work, and they just haven't had enough
Speaker 1: time together. We broke it down last year, like when
Speaker 1: they both didn't play. I think Rust will average like
Speaker 1: twenty five, nine and nine, you know, and when when
Speaker 1: it was just him and a D he averaged in
Speaker 1: the twenties, and then when Braun was in there, it
Speaker 1: was only down to sixteen. So I say all that
Speaker 1: to say, like, obviously we know how great Lebron is.
Speaker 1: At the end of this year, will be the number
Speaker 1: one score all time, and he's top ten and assists,
Speaker 1: so we know his greatness. But I think Broun is
Speaker 1: also smart enough to know that. You know, for us
Speaker 1: to win, first of all, we need eighties ass on
Speaker 1: the court, but we're gonna need something out of Russ.
Speaker 1: So let me figure out a way I can get
Speaker 1: Russ more involved and get rust feeling comfortab enough to
Speaker 1: be himself because we're gonna need him. What does Pat
Speaker 1: Beverley bring through the Lakers? Energy, dog, a toughness that
Speaker 1: they lacked. I love Pat Bev, you know, same similar
Speaker 1: player to me. You know, I mean someone that you
Speaker 1: know doesn't always get appreciated what they should, but normally
Speaker 1: is a key part to winning. So I think the
Speaker 1: Pat Bev pickup was huge. I think he's gonna challenge
Speaker 1: those guys. He has no filter, so you know, anybody
Speaker 1: can get it. It It was something I love, and I
Speaker 1: just think he's gonna help hold those guys accountable because
Speaker 1: I think I've seen, you know, in the past couple
Speaker 1: of years, and this is no not to anyone. It
Speaker 1: just seemed like, you know, to wear that like your
Speaker 1: uniform and be okay with losing should never be okay.
Speaker 1: It just seemed like those guys were okay. So I
Speaker 1: think when you have someone like Pat Bev, who was
Speaker 1: always on a hundred, he's not gonna let that stuff obviously,
Speaker 1: along with Lebron and Ad and the rest of the
Speaker 1: leaders go, you know, unaddressed anymore. So I love the
Speaker 1: Pat Bev pick up. You have some issues. I mean,
Speaker 1: his first time out on television, he took he would
Speaker 1: just he would just beating anybody over the head like ruh,
Speaker 1: slow down now, yeah, I mean you act didn't like
Speaker 1: Magic John, You talk like magic got like six ships
Speaker 1: for fut of your bed. A couple of vps dain't
Speaker 1: champions the brod back like in word low speaking on
Speaker 1: private conversation to pray it Mofo's Outphoy, It's weird. What
Speaker 1: what what did you take issue with? Because I just
Speaker 1: praise the shit out of him, and I love him
Speaker 1: as a player, don't really necessarily know him as a person,
Speaker 1: will respect him as a man obviously, But everything I
Speaker 1: just said in that locker room is okay if you
Speaker 1: want to go off and yell and and and and
Speaker 1: no one is safe. I'm good with that because that's
Speaker 1: the locker room and people do that. You know, you
Speaker 1: don always have to be the best player to be
Speaker 1: a leader, right, So I know that he's a leader,
Speaker 1: and I'm good with that. But when you bring that
Speaker 1: energy and emotion on TV and attack someone like CP,
Speaker 1: it's just like off some personal shit that happened, I
Speaker 1: guess back from a high school campus where it started out,
Speaker 1: and just like to me, I just think in media
Speaker 1: so often it's just like it's not about you know.
Speaker 1: To me, we have a tough job because we have
Speaker 1: to critique, and as former players, you never would really
Speaker 1: want to shot on nobody because we know how hard
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, I mean, but I think there's a
Speaker 1: way to critique and still be personal, right, to still
Speaker 1: be respectful. And I think of late now, it's just
Speaker 1: so disrespectful that it's just like, come on, bro, like
Speaker 1: you played, you know how tough this game is you
Speaker 1: know how lucky we already even be in these seats,
Speaker 1: Like I just didn't like the energy he brought. But
Speaker 1: it's it's a double edged sword because as much as
Speaker 1: I said something to him, you see, he's on TV
Speaker 1: the next seven days because they like just like reality
Speaker 1: Like reality TV, they like controversy, controversy. It's clicks and
Speaker 1: views and viralness and that's what they want. So again,
Speaker 1: I'll have no problem with Pabev. I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of his game, and I think he's going to be
Speaker 1: a great commentator because he's he's a thinker and he
Speaker 1: speaks his mind and there's always going to be room
Speaker 1: for that when he's done playing. But I just took,
Speaker 1: you know, offense to the way he came in at CP.
Speaker 1: And it was crazy because when I said that, I
Speaker 1: got calls from league officials, old referee. I ran into
Speaker 1: a grocery store. Players like a lot of people are like, man,
Speaker 1: We're glad you said that, because you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people would have just let that slide. And I
Speaker 1: just feel like, you know, if we're going to be
Speaker 1: in this space, especially as players, I think there's a
Speaker 1: way we have to conduct ourselves and hold ourselves and
Speaker 1: give the fans a real unique look because, with all
Speaker 1: due respect, people like it or Steve and Ay, we're
Speaker 1: never in that locker room. Correct, They never shot that
Speaker 1: free throw, never had to score that game winning touchdown.
Speaker 1: So they're great at what they do because they're giving
Speaker 1: their perspective as someone who's done a lot of researching
Speaker 1: as a big fan of the game game for numerous years.
Speaker 1: But we played the games. To me, it's different, it's different,
Speaker 1: and I feel like we have a responsibility to carry
Speaker 1: ourselves in and give that back to the fans. What
Speaker 1: about going like when you say something have players because
Speaker 1: a lot of times with me, you know, I'll say
Speaker 1: things that what I see and players get upset. Players
Speaker 1: get upset with me, like, brou you trying to bring
Speaker 1: a black man down. Bruh, I say you didn't play good.
Speaker 1: How am I trying to bring you down? But I
Speaker 1: said you didn't play good. The people at home see
Speaker 1: you didn't play good. So me, I'm supposed to turn
Speaker 1: a blind out. Now I'm gonna lose credibility because they say, oh,
Speaker 1: you're covering for your boy. You know, man, you saw
Speaker 1: that and wanted them to touchdown and you will talk
Speaker 1: about he played good. Yeah. No, I mean, like I said,
Speaker 1: we have a tough job. But I mean it's what
Speaker 1: we signed up for. So there's a way to tell
Speaker 1: you that you play like ship, but I still love you.
Speaker 1: But I shouldn't have to tell you that I still
Speaker 1: love you even though I tell you play like shit.
Speaker 1: You know, just know that that the best where it's at,
Speaker 1: Know that there's there's a respect level there. But I
Speaker 1: think it hurts players more when it comes from us
Speaker 1: because we play and and this is again this is
Speaker 1: not a Blaker's statement, but this Nordy. They're not like us.
Speaker 1: They're not And I don't even mean it from a
Speaker 1: talent standpoint. I just mean like the thick skin a
Speaker 1: lot more sensitive and because they've had so much given
Speaker 1: to them so early, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: I love it, Like get all the money, get all
Speaker 1: the fame, get all the accolades, but you gotta remember
Speaker 1: you gotta come out here and perform every single night,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I think it's it's
Speaker 1: a double air storre for what we do because we
Speaker 1: do have to critique and sometimes players are going to
Speaker 1: take it the wrong way, and luckily I have I
Speaker 1: haven't had no one have an issue, but always said
Speaker 1: but I'm always willing to talk to someone if if
Speaker 1: I said anything they felt was over the line or disrespectful,
Speaker 1: because I really try to pride myself. And again, I
Speaker 1: have to critique you because that's my job, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to disrespect you as a man. Right. You
Speaker 1: see sha shag of Barkley, they go by, they don't
Speaker 1: give a shit, and I love it. Man, Charles is
Speaker 1: crazy shot. They already know Shack gonna say what you
Speaker 1: all because shacket Shack three hundred feet power. They nobody
Speaker 1: go ever with Shack. But I'm like, I ain't really
Speaker 1: tried to go I ain't tried to go there. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, Brun, you should have caught the ball, or
Speaker 1: you should have got out of bounds, or you should
Speaker 1: have made this play. And guys get get upset, but
Speaker 1: sometimes they get mad not to cut you off because
Speaker 1: they know they should have did it. Like you said,
Speaker 1: what else you can't fool us. I ain't be able
Speaker 1: to fool the fans or that. But we know, bro,
Speaker 1: and you know no better. And that's why I think
Speaker 1: they'd be getting mad something because they know and then
Speaker 1: Damn Shannon said, what I fucking knew when I should
Speaker 1: have did it? And a lot of times I do.
Speaker 1: I do try to hold back because the crime told me.
Speaker 1: He's like, you have to understand coming from you, you
Speaker 1: do understand. You got a gold jacket. You were I'm
Speaker 1: two sixty seven, a big by no. I was the
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty seven member the Pro Football Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. I got super Bowls and when I left
Speaker 1: the game, man, I had all the record. So a
Speaker 1: lot of times when you when they talk about, okay,
Speaker 1: what did you do? You tell us what we should
Speaker 1: do and how would you? But what did you do?
Speaker 1: They can't come at me like that because I want
Speaker 1: I played at a high level. I got a gold jacket,
Speaker 1: and they can't and they can't whoop you. So it's
Speaker 1: like it's like, damn, So I'm like brouh all I
Speaker 1: did would say you should have called the ball or
Speaker 1: you should have done this, and somehow you turn that
Speaker 1: into I'm trying to bring a black man down. It's unfortunate, man.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's it's a tough and it's almost
Speaker 1: like you always have to pick sides yea now, which
Speaker 1: is unfortunately you have to like me, giving respect to
Speaker 1: someone else doesn't discredit anyone else. Run. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: so much like you have to It's just such a
Speaker 1: crazy because everyone has voices now right before when athletes
Speaker 1: didn't have voice, you got social media that you got
Speaker 1: you got how many you got like a billion? You
Speaker 1: got a billion analysts, you gotta billion form the NFL
Speaker 1: players MLB basketball like hello, bru the referee, but they
Speaker 1: can't chew gum and dribble a ball. People who couldn't
Speaker 1: catch a ball to save their life, people who couldn't
Speaker 1: swing a base ball back without hurting themselves. But everyone
Speaker 1: as an expert what I mean. So we live in
Speaker 1: in that kind of world, so we have to take
Speaker 1: it with a grain of salt. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: sometimes people just don't want to hear it. Help. Have
Speaker 1: you ever played with someone that you had a beef
Speaker 1: with and then you guys later became teammates because you
Speaker 1: look at Russ and Pat Bell, I mean they tried
Speaker 1: to downplay it, but look Pat Bell tried to steal
Speaker 1: the ball from Russ when he was called the time
Speaker 1: about and he Clipton and ever since then, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: they've been going at it. Now. I believe you consider
Speaker 1: the side, but you do realize, man, you know my
Speaker 1: knee ain't been the same since you did that bull
Speaker 1: job because he tore something, right, Yeah, yeah, he tore something.
Speaker 1: I mean you can you can, you can forgive, but
Speaker 1: you don't forget, right, you know what I mean. So again,
Speaker 1: I think being grown man and kind of understanding that
Speaker 1: you're on the same page for the same common goal
Speaker 1: might be different. But I personally never had a real beef,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean people thought me and Kobe didn't
Speaker 1: like each other, but we really fucked with each other,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, so much that we almost
Speaker 1: thought and he had me come to his team. There
Speaker 1: was never really no no beef there. So I can't
Speaker 1: really speak to if I had beef of someone I
Speaker 1: had to play with him, but I can speak to
Speaker 1: understanding that. Okay, I remember what you did to me,
Speaker 1: But now we are on the same team, so let's
Speaker 1: go get it together. Right. What do you expect from
Speaker 1: Russ this year? I expect a big year from Russ.
Speaker 1: I think that Russ has been one of the most
Speaker 1: mentally strong players we've ever seen, because if you look
Speaker 1: at his resume, it's first about Hall of Fame, but
Speaker 1: he's taking criticism the entire time. And he's always had
Speaker 1: a way of just, you know, saying, forget the noise,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out here and play. But I always
Speaker 1: tell people, come in to LA is so much more
Speaker 1: than dribbling that ball boy, Like, particularly being a Lakers, it's,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're constantly under magnifying glass. There's no
Speaker 1: safety for you or your family, no, you know what
Speaker 1: it means. So sometimes it's it's unwarranted, but it just
Speaker 1: comes with having that Lakers across your chest. So I
Speaker 1: just think he, you know, he realized that I'm back
Speaker 1: home shit and his sweet as I thought it was.
Speaker 1: But I gotta come out here and play because I
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer. Like I said that the numbers
Speaker 1: don't lie. When he was playing by hisself, and obviously
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be he could still produce so and
Speaker 1: I think his numbers were like eighteen, seven and six
Speaker 1: last year. Overall, that's that's still good, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So I just think again, you know, he
Speaker 1: had to look at hisself in the mirror because there
Speaker 1: are some adjustments he has to make. This is not
Speaker 1: everyone else's fault. There are times where he just didn't
Speaker 1: play good. He didn't shoot the ball good, and he
Speaker 1: knows that. But I think again, he's smart enough to
Speaker 1: know that. And I'm thinking he's coming in hopefully with
Speaker 1: the clear head and understanding of you know, how can
Speaker 1: I be the best me while helping this team? Not
Speaker 1: how it can just be the best me, but how
Speaker 1: can I be the best mean while helping this team
Speaker 1: achieve our goal? I think the biggest thing and this
Speaker 1: is what I tell Man when I talk to him,
Speaker 1: I say, without expectation, there would be no disappointment. You
Speaker 1: get disappointed in your kids because you have the expectation
Speaker 1: for ye. You get disappointed in the Laker nation. They
Speaker 1: got seventeen championships. They've seen great basketball magic. Kareem Will,
Speaker 1: Jared Within shot Kobe this was that one. So you
Speaker 1: can't be as you can't use the guys. I'm la kidd.
Speaker 1: I used to go to the raid and watch you.
Speaker 1: They don't care. They don't care. Did you see when
Speaker 1: it look at Lebron? Lebron came here as accomplished a
Speaker 1: four time MVP, three time champion, all these NBA, all
Speaker 1: NBA teams, all these All star you ain't doing none
Speaker 1: of that for us, So why we care? Don't you
Speaker 1: put don't you put another Marl up barn because if
Speaker 1: you do, we gonna take it gard that people. You know,
Speaker 1: he was out here, people really did. After everything he's
Speaker 1: accomplished and the thing, he wants to come here and
Speaker 1: help you guys win more. But he still had to
Speaker 1: win people over, you know what I mean, they don't care. Really,
Speaker 1: we live in a society so much or we don't.
Speaker 1: You know, what have you've done for me lately? It's
Speaker 1: not your your your credentials, don't travel with you no
Speaker 1: more like you gotta shut don't do it for me, right,
Speaker 1: So I mean that's the only thing they're on. So
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously Bron was able to win. But still,
Speaker 1: if I mean, if we're talking about Lebron, he's been
Speaker 1: probably the most criticized athlete in the history of the
Speaker 1: game sport and we could arguably the greatest athlete we've
Speaker 1: ever seen, you know what I mean. So again, it
Speaker 1: comes with the territory. He's done a great job handling itself.
Speaker 1: But it just kind of seems like, you know, they
Speaker 1: found a hole to get to Rust, and you would
Speaker 1: see it last year where he would let the outside
Speaker 1: know his bothering, which is unfortunate. But we're human. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you said early on, like they pay us a bunch
Speaker 1: of money. We're not supposed to feel anything. You still
Speaker 1: can hear you don't hear it? Guess what you got, homeboy?
Speaker 1: And you I work out with his little brother Ray
Speaker 1: every morning. Ray is my dog. We work out every
Speaker 1: morning over at Boston's place, and that I could see
Speaker 1: when like stuff is heavy on Rust, Ray comes in
Speaker 1: with it like you know, they all you know, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk like bros, you know you're gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: So I try to encourage his brother just because I
Speaker 1: know how much as Rust is going through. So just
Speaker 1: to me as a fan of a fan of the game,
Speaker 1: a fan of the Lakers, a brewing brother, I want
Speaker 1: to see Rust have a great season because again, if
Speaker 1: Ad is healthy, we know where Braun has given us.
Speaker 1: If Russ can be Rust arrested helps his team, there's
Speaker 1: no telling what that team could do. Darton Ham was
Speaker 1: brought on his first year coach and first year coach
Speaker 1: you're coaching the Lakers. We got Lebron and you got
Speaker 1: a d and you know what the expectation. There's no
Speaker 1: a Pacific Division championship, there is no winning fifty games,
Speaker 1: if championship or nothing, that's all that matters for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: And this is what's been bestowed upon him, this is
Speaker 1: what is asked of him. How do you think the
Speaker 1: Ham is gonna do? I hope he does well. DHM
Speaker 1: is my guy. We talk a lot. Just talked to
Speaker 1: him the other night and night before training camp. But
Speaker 1: he knows when we've talked. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: remember my ex wife's mom told me, when you pick
Speaker 1: a mate, you're just picking someone to argue with it
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. So when you take
Speaker 1: this Laker front seat, you're taking it to get yelled
Speaker 1: at period, good or bad. You win, it's not enough,
Speaker 1: you know, you make to the playoffs, it's not enough.
Speaker 1: You get to the Western Finds, it's not enough. So
Speaker 1: d Ham, I think understands what he's going into. But
Speaker 1: he's bade his dudes. You know, he's he's learned from
Speaker 1: some of the best minds in the game. And I
Speaker 1: wish him the best you know, I think one thing
Speaker 1: that again I wasn't in that locker room, but it
Speaker 1: looked like Frank Bogel lost that locker room. They didn't
Speaker 1: give a shit what he said. And that's the worst
Speaker 1: thing amongst man. If you don't have to control the
Speaker 1: locker room, you might as well not even coach. And
Speaker 1: I felt like, without being in a locker room from
Speaker 1: the outside looking in, that Frank boga lost that locker room.
Speaker 1: I think Dham is coming with a different energy, in
Speaker 1: a different presence, and I feel like he's gonna have
Speaker 1: that locker room. But he's still gonna have to prove itself, right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You're still gonna have to
Speaker 1: make calls. You're still gonna have to make great in
Speaker 1: game adjustments. You're still gonna have to sub Are you
Speaker 1: bringing Russ off the bench or you not? Like there's
Speaker 1: decisions decisions. He's gonna have to make these tough decisions. So,
Speaker 1: although you know there's a lot of respect for him now,
Speaker 1: he has to show improve just like the players do.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I wish him the best, but that's
Speaker 1: a tough head job. You think the head coach to
Speaker 1: the Lakers, But this is a this is the Laker
Speaker 1: team that's kind of in turmoil right now. So do
Speaker 1: you believe that he would be willing to sit Rust,
Speaker 1: bring Russ off the bench, or sit Russ in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter? You think he'll be willing to do that,
Speaker 1: because I don't. I Frank Boga did it and then
Speaker 1: he saw Russ get upset and he put it in
Speaker 1: serting him back into the starting lineup. And if a
Speaker 1: head coach, you gotta make tough decisions, and everybody's not
Speaker 1: gonna like the decisions you make, but you got to
Speaker 1: be willing just say, hey, I believe this is the
Speaker 1: best for the team. Damn what you think feelings right? Well, again,
Speaker 1: I'm from the understanding that I hope it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to get to that, because again, it starts off with
Speaker 1: you know, a d being healthy and and and and
Speaker 1: Russ buying into what's best for the team. But if
Speaker 1: it comes down the point guards, man, it comes down
Speaker 1: if it comes down to that, he has to you know,
Speaker 1: whether he's gonna be able to or not. I think
Speaker 1: he knows that, and that that's not just Russ, that's
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going with people always trip who starts
Speaker 1: It's not about who starts, is about who finished this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So to me, obviously you know bron is gonna be
Speaker 1: a fixture, But to me, everyone else, you gotta show me.
Speaker 1: You gotta play the entire game well to show me
Speaker 1: who's gonna get them crunch time minutes, you know. To me,
Speaker 1: I feel like d Ham has to go there and
Speaker 1: do it his way because he's gonna take get and
Speaker 1: get ship no matter what. Going there, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: it my way, and this is gonna be my way.
Speaker 1: So I'm going there and handle my business. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what he's gonna do. What do they bring
Speaker 1: you on? Like Jared Dudley, you know, may keep the
Speaker 1: locker room tight. I'll be cool with that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just well, it's funny. So we were caught on camera
Speaker 1: at Summer League talking about that. Somehow I think you
Speaker 1: got a race, but someone posted that shit about you know,
Speaker 1: I need you to come to lock you know, I
Speaker 1: mean we are having that kind of conversation, but again,
Speaker 1: like you do need it. It's people don't understand how
Speaker 1: important chemistry is. And I think the Lakers, you know,
Speaker 1: to be able to build a team and win a
Speaker 1: championship with which they did in the bubble is the
Speaker 1: hardest thing in sports to do. Chemistry matters a lot
Speaker 1: because so many teams look good on paper until you
Speaker 1: get to those hard moments where you lose two or
Speaker 1: three games in a row or someone gets hurt and
Speaker 1: how do you handle adversity. Chemistry solves a lot of
Speaker 1: that shit. So when you don't have chemistry, you really
Speaker 1: don't have much again, so they found lightning in the
Speaker 1: bottom of that bubble season to be able to not
Speaker 1: have chemistry, have a completely new team and win. But
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the norm. So I'm hoping that these
Speaker 1: guys again have have have had some time under the belt,
Speaker 1: can get more time together as a trio and to
Speaker 1: really see what we have. If if everyone plays, if
Speaker 1: Braun plays sixty games and eighty plays fifty five to
Speaker 1: sixty games, and Rust play sixty five seventy games and
Speaker 1: they don't do anything, then you know that this is
Speaker 1: not gonna work. But till I see that, or till
Speaker 1: the world sees that, you really don't know what this
Speaker 1: trio can do. Well, Russell ond have got one year,
Speaker 1: russ ain't coming back. They're gonna look to move Russ
Speaker 1: at the deadline. Say but but I'm i'm I'm a
Speaker 1: huge Laker fan, but you're a huge Lebron fan, which
Speaker 1: means you're a Laker fan now. But if Russ comes
Speaker 1: out and comes out the gates averaging twenty four nine
Speaker 1: and seven and is playing great basketball, and what if
Speaker 1: he's doing that through the All Star Break, Well, if
Speaker 1: he does that, they're gonna move him. So regardless he's
Speaker 1: gone in here, they're gonna be able to get more
Speaker 1: because I think the thing is because how does he
Speaker 1: get those numbers with a D and Lebron? Because that
Speaker 1: means if he's getting twenty four, Lebron's gonna be twenty eight,
Speaker 1: D's gonna be twenty twenty four, twenty five. It's hard
Speaker 1: to have believe that you're gonna have three twenty five
Speaker 1: point Weill sly Russ down to twenty a game. What
Speaker 1: if Russe's that twenty nine and nine, how efficient is
Speaker 1: he going to be at getting that twenty nine forty
Speaker 1: seven percent from the field and thirty eight from the three.
Speaker 1: Now you know, damn well, Russe, they about to shooting no.
Speaker 1: Thirty percent from the three. That's some good hennessy though,
Speaker 1: that's that's better. That's the that's top nine right there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but let me ask you about Lebron. Are you surprised
Speaker 1: that Lebron we this is unprecedented what he's doing at
Speaker 1: this stage of his career. How surprised are you because
Speaker 1: we've never seen another historically great player played this well
Speaker 1: this late until their career as great as Jordan was.
Speaker 1: Jordan only made it fifteen years now. Yeah, he took
Speaker 1: a year and a half off and then he took
Speaker 1: three years off. And Kobe body, he had to run
Speaker 1: his body into the ground from training and giving it
Speaker 1: everything he had on the court, and his body just
Speaker 1: just it just it just left it incredible, incredible, And
Speaker 1: I wish people took more time to understand what we're
Speaker 1: witnessing instead of critiquing all the time, Oh, he didn't
Speaker 1: do this, he didn't do that. The fact that this
Speaker 1: man is gonna be thirty eighth this year in year twenty,
Speaker 1: but last year nine eight and six thirty seven years
Speaker 1: old year nineteen, and he's averaging probably could have won
Speaker 1: the Suporting Out if he had a few more games
Speaker 1: on himself. Like to see what he's doing is just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And with me being a student of the game and
Speaker 1: a fan of the game and a fan of him,
Speaker 1: I just wish people would appreciate what he's doing more
Speaker 1: because it's it's not gonna happen now much longer. And
Speaker 1: I think too often were so caught up in disrespecting
Speaker 1: or or or or or or being negative towards people
Speaker 1: instead of appreciate greatest. And that goes across the board
Speaker 1: for staff and a lot of these people that are
Speaker 1: out here displaying greatness on a daily basis, and people
Speaker 1: still find a way to say negative things about him
Speaker 1: because if you look at it, Lebron will score fifty
Speaker 1: and the first thing they said, well, Correy would have
Speaker 1: gave you sixty five, George would have gave you seventy.
Speaker 1: It's never gooda the guy had fifty six against Golden
Speaker 1: State and somebody still five. Well, he's still missed five threes.
Speaker 1: He still did this. It's always it's like it's never
Speaker 1: good enough. Do you realize the man for eighteen straight
Speaker 1: seasons because average at least twenty five, he's been in
Speaker 1: his prime since he got here. We've never seen we've
Speaker 1: never seen someone step in the game, you know, at
Speaker 1: at eighteen years old, and here we are, he'll be
Speaker 1: thirty eight and in December, and you've seen nothing but
Speaker 1: him getting better and him being great the entire time,
Speaker 1: which is which is unbelievable. I mean, you look at Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron is six hundred and seventy eight days out of
Speaker 1: the NBA, six hundred and seventy nine days in the
Speaker 1: NBA half his life has been entertaining us, and we
Speaker 1: take it for granted. I feel like you, but you
Speaker 1: did question Lebron's leadership because you said you think he
Speaker 1: should be tougher on his teammates because Kobe A. Jordan
Speaker 1: would have not allowed the team to slip like he
Speaker 1: allowed it. Do you think he's too? What is it?
Speaker 1: Because you were around Kobe and we've heard the stories
Speaker 1: about Mike with final teammates. That's not who Lebron is. No,
Speaker 1: it was me too, And after I said it, I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: why did I say that? Not from a standpoint that
Speaker 1: I might be wrong, but I don't really know you
Speaker 1: know what I means? So to me, it seems like
Speaker 1: he's just such a cool everyone everyone leads different right,
Speaker 1: and there's no rule book on how to lead, Like
Speaker 1: I remember Phil and said, you know, you can't talk
Speaker 1: or magic. Johnson said, you can't as a lady. You
Speaker 1: can't talk to everyone the same. You have to know
Speaker 1: how to push a different buttons. Yeah. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: misspoke on that from a standpoint if I don't really know. Again,
Speaker 1: I was guessing, like everyone seems to always do. But
Speaker 1: it just seems like from the outside looking in that
Speaker 1: they were okay with the ship they were putting out there, right,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and and and that wasn't okay
Speaker 1: from a standpoint of just being a Laker fan, being
Speaker 1: a Lebron fan, like you would think, like I wish
Speaker 1: Lebron would get on these guys ask But who's to
Speaker 1: say he didn't get on their ass in the locker
Speaker 1: room or in practice. So that was a situation where
Speaker 1: I misspoke. But again, I think what makes Lebron great
Speaker 1: is he does things his way. There's no rhyme or
Speaker 1: reason on on on leadership or ways to do it
Speaker 1: and way not to do it. He's found a way
Speaker 1: to do it his entire career, and uh, that's just
Speaker 1: what it is. He said his goal now is to
Speaker 1: play with a son. I'm assuming Bronnie you got to
Speaker 1: coming down there. Yeah, you got you coming down the pipeline.
Speaker 1: And they're about to change the rule where you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to go in effect
Speaker 1: this year, so it's probably not going to be applicable
Speaker 1: to Bronnie. But he wants to play with with one
Speaker 1: of his sons, or who knows, maybe even both of
Speaker 1: his sons. Do you wish you could have played with
Speaker 1: your sons if they were older? Yeah, you know, but
Speaker 1: I mean who wouldn't want to, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And if anyone should be allotted, you know, allowed to
Speaker 1: do that, why not him? You know, why not change
Speaker 1: the rules and and and allow that to try to happen.
Speaker 1: I think again, for his body of working, what he's
Speaker 1: been able to give us as fans, the way he's
Speaker 1: carried himself on and off the court his entire career, Like,
Speaker 1: why not allow that to happen? You do you wish
Speaker 1: you to have? I mean, because I mean to have
Speaker 1: that happened, Like Griffy Junior got this opportunity to play
Speaker 1: with his dad, So clearly you're gonna have to have
Speaker 1: kids at a fairly young age. Do you wish how
Speaker 1: much how much of your career did your kids witness
Speaker 1: they were young, but they they got Ah. So my
Speaker 1: kids were born in two thousand and eight, and they
Speaker 1: could obviously, so they started kind of getting it when
Speaker 1: I came to the Lakers, so when they were three,
Speaker 1: from three years old till I retired when they were nine,
Speaker 1: So about five or six years of being in locker
Speaker 1: room with Kobe and Powell being in locker room of
Speaker 1: christ and Blake being in the locker room with Katie
Speaker 1: Steph play, they got to soap the game up. So
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine what it would be like if they
Speaker 1: actually got to get on they were teenagers, right get
Speaker 1: on the court and have a chance to play with
Speaker 1: them or play with me. You know, as a father,
Speaker 1: you know, your your whole mindset changes as a dad,
Speaker 1: and you always just want the best and you want
Speaker 1: to give your kids the best experience. So I get
Speaker 1: my kids the best experience I could, because obviously they
Speaker 1: were too young. But you know, wouldn't it be a
Speaker 1: great thing. You don't see that in basketball, you know,
Speaker 1: you've seen it in baseball, but to be able to see,
Speaker 1: you know, arguably the greatest player of all time get
Speaker 1: a chance to play with one of his sons. I
Speaker 1: think it would be dope. Dude. What do you expect
Speaker 1: from Lebron this year? What do you expect me? Obviously
Speaker 1: with thirty eight and six, but it did and have
Speaker 1: a whole lot to show for it. They won with
Speaker 1: thirty three thirty four games. Last year, they didn't win
Speaker 1: a whole lot of games, and if any, the simulations
Speaker 1: done having him winning a whole lot of games this
Speaker 1: year either. What is your expectation for Lebron and this
Speaker 1: Lakers team? I think for him to pick and choose
Speaker 1: his spots because we know that you know, obviously the
Speaker 1: goal is for them is to get to the playoffs
Speaker 1: and possibly compete for a title. But more of the same,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope it's a it's a it's an
Speaker 1: injury free season for him. I hope that you know,
Speaker 1: Ad is able to bounce back and have a special
Speaker 1: season that we know he's capable of stay away from
Speaker 1: the nagging injuries. You know, I hope that Rust comes
Speaker 1: out and is able to contribute because I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know what what, Cob Cobe rolled the rode the
Speaker 1: ship until it sank and you know, he could have
Speaker 1: jumped ship and went somewhere else and possibly won a
Speaker 1: six title, because that's all it was on his mind,
Speaker 1: is being able to sit at the table. Jordan Kobe
Speaker 1: ran the ship until it sank. You know, I hope
Speaker 1: that Lebron doesn't have to go out that way. I
Speaker 1: hope that, you know, they're still competitive and there's a
Speaker 1: chance for them to win. And on paper, they have
Speaker 1: the personality, they have the best roster. No, you know,
Speaker 1: does it need some tinkering, yes, but what they have
Speaker 1: now is Anthony Davis, Lebron, James and Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: then not you know, some nice pieces. So how do
Speaker 1: you get that to perform at the maximum level while
Speaker 1: allowing Lebron to kind of pick and choose his spots
Speaker 1: because again, he'll be thirty eighth this year. Man, and
Speaker 1: it's it's it's what he's doing is incredible, but he
Speaker 1: is obviously older, so you just have to be careful
Speaker 1: with that. LeVar Ball he said, all my boys gonna
Speaker 1: play in the NBA. Leangelo just signed with a non
Speaker 1: guaranton contract with the with the Charlotte Harnets. How how
Speaker 1: is your your style? Your coaching style because he coached
Speaker 1: all of his kids. How's your coach, how's your style
Speaker 1: as a parent as a coach? Similar or different than that?
Speaker 1: With LeVar And well, I think before I think there's
Speaker 1: a misconsception. People don't think I like him or appreciate
Speaker 1: what he did. And I come on, man, a black
Speaker 1: father to get his kids where he even got him
Speaker 1: to even have a chance. I commend them for When
Speaker 1: I started critiquing him, it was because I felt like
Speaker 1: he let these lights get to him, right, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. He became the star instead of his
Speaker 1: sons that were the actual up and coming star. So
Speaker 1: that was I never critiqued his fathering or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, what he did was a hell
Speaker 1: of a job. Where are we different? Probably not much.
Speaker 1: I mean, I really don't know a ton about him
Speaker 1: from what I you know, I see he yells, I
Speaker 1: yell uh. He had three very talented boys, and you know,
Speaker 1: and now all three of them had a chance to
Speaker 1: play in the NBA, which is great. But to me,
Speaker 1: the most important thing was he was there right, And
Speaker 1: to me, that is the most important thing. Like my
Speaker 1: whole thing is I'm always like I had my fun
Speaker 1: in the sun. You know, I had my run, and
Speaker 1: my whole thing is is is to play the background
Speaker 1: on this journey for my kids. You know, obviously I
Speaker 1: have two thirteen year old boys now, and then I
Speaker 1: have a three year old who's a monster coming down
Speaker 1: the pipeline. So you know, my oh he's a monster,
Speaker 1: and I'm good. The a DM, I'm not sure and
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. But my whole thing is, like
Speaker 1: I said, I got my chance to see what these
Speaker 1: lights are like and and and made the most of
Speaker 1: my situations. So my whole thing is, you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: I can be just liking from a standpoint and I'm
Speaker 1: able to help my kids get there, but I would
Speaker 1: just be doing it more from a you know, push
Speaker 1: them in front and put me in the back. Are
Speaker 1: you gonna allow to do they want to play football?
Speaker 1: Do they want to do anything other than play basketball?
Speaker 1: So me and their mom used to go at it
Speaker 1: because I'm a football player. First, I was a better
Speaker 1: football player than I was a basketball player, so I
Speaker 1: always wanted the boys to play. And then we started
Speaker 1: watching all these you know, because and all that kind
Speaker 1: so you know, obviously it scared her and she was
Speaker 1: from the understanding and they're not playing tackle, so with
Speaker 1: her and I pick and choose my battles that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna argue for, and that wasn't one of them. So
Speaker 1: but I was also someone that didn't play tackle until
Speaker 1: high school, right. I played flag up through eighth grade.
Speaker 1: So you know, the boys were playing before the pandemic
Speaker 1: hit and then they never got back into it. But
Speaker 1: this is more for a kind of my three year old.
Speaker 1: We'll just have to kind of see when it crosses,
Speaker 1: you know, when when when across that bridge, when it
Speaker 1: gets here. Because I love foot football is my favorite sport.
Speaker 1: I'm a Sunday ticket fanatic, red Zone. I'm on my
Speaker 1: little love cycle, my joint and my drink and no
Speaker 1: one bothered me. So I love football. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of it. So this will probably be more for
Speaker 1: my three year old when the time comes and we're
Speaker 1: just gonna have to see. What do you think? I mean?
Speaker 1: Trade Young? I as you, he said. Trade Young's dad said,
Speaker 1: stop comparing my son to the other guards in the NBA.
Speaker 1: At this point, he's an All NBA player, two time
Speaker 1: All start starter, two games from playing in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: They're more barely more than a handful of guards that
Speaker 1: it has his resume, it's levels to this. Uh, what
Speaker 1: do you think of trade? He's a small I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, normally small guards, there's only been two
Speaker 1: Steph and Isaiah that can say we lad teams. Yeah
Speaker 1: to NBA Championship. Now I don't count magic. Magic is
Speaker 1: a guard of magic six nine. Magic was the side
Speaker 1: of centers and power forwards. So magic and I think
Speaker 1: Magic is kind of a stand alone. But when you
Speaker 1: talk about small guards six two six three below Iverson
Speaker 1: Obviously with Spectacle, he led him, but he wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get past Shack and Kobe. What do you think
Speaker 1: of trade? What do you think of trades game? I
Speaker 1: love trades game. I think he's a almost a two
Speaker 1: K version of what step is doing. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: not the accolades or not even can really compare them
Speaker 1: as players, but just similar styles from the ability to
Speaker 1: shoot once you pass half court, ball handling, genius, make
Speaker 1: other people better on your team, and he normally has
Speaker 1: a high eight or nine assists the game. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: to me, it's just been you know who Atlanta is
Speaker 1: able to put around him. You know, if you think
Speaker 1: about it. He was traded for Luca, and I think
Speaker 1: both teams really feel like you know, there wasn't you
Speaker 1: can pick or choose, but I mean it's been a
Speaker 1: solid trade. You look at their numbers, very solid and
Speaker 1: keep it real like they both made it to the
Speaker 1: Eastern and Western Finals respectively, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I love what Trey Young does. I'm really interested
Speaker 1: to see if him and Jan Tay can work together
Speaker 1: because on paper, again the names look great, but getting
Speaker 1: to see them play will be something different. You know,
Speaker 1: John Collins and they're able to add pieces, but I
Speaker 1: think you know, they're just gonna need to add more
Speaker 1: pieces to make that team competitive. I think I really
Speaker 1: feel like they they possibly need another star, whether that's
Speaker 1: trading someone and and helping bring that person in. But
Speaker 1: I just don't think they have enough, as heavy as
Speaker 1: the East is to really make that that next jump.
Speaker 1: But as far as just being a player, UH, big
Speaker 1: fan of Tray his heart, he's built for the moment
Speaker 1: that you know, he drives New York people crazy. I
Speaker 1: always love that. So I'm a big fan of him
Speaker 1: in his movement. Give me your top players under the
Speaker 1: age of twenty five. You got Luca, jt Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: John Morant, Trey Mellow, b I, Zion Lucas one okay,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum is two okay, Jaws three Okay. I don't
Speaker 1: know where to put Zion because he could be one
Speaker 1: if he was healthy, but he hasn't been healthy. So Luca,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, Jah Trey Lamello, and I would have to
Speaker 1: put Zion six because we just haven't seen enough for
Speaker 1: him right. But Zion could very easy to be going
Speaker 1: if if he comes out. I mean, people forget how
Speaker 1: quickly and what kind of numbers he was putting up
Speaker 1: as a young player, breaking field goal percentage records left
Speaker 1: and right. In to me, he doesn't really even know
Speaker 1: how to play NBA basketball. He's doing all that off
Speaker 1: playing athleticism and strength. So once he figures out this game,
Speaker 1: if he can stay healthy, Zion is gonna be a
Speaker 1: problem build a franchise. I'm gonna give you Luca, Jannis
Speaker 1: or Jason. I'm gonna say Yannis because he can do
Speaker 1: it on both sides of the ball. Are you surprised
Speaker 1: how good Luke is because I look, I mean when
Speaker 1: you look at it, he ain't got no business whatsoever
Speaker 1: that body doing what he does reads ever, he's a gamer.
Speaker 1: He's especially he's a unicorn, you know. I mean he's
Speaker 1: gonna go down with all due respect to Dirk and
Speaker 1: Drowsing and some of these other guys. Uh if not.
Speaker 1: You know, a keen form greatest foreign born player in
Speaker 1: the history of the game. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: he was playing against grown man at a young age.
Speaker 1: You know, I think today it's crazy because I coach
Speaker 1: a you these parents are holding their kids back. We
Speaker 1: played a fifteen year old seventh grader this summer, like
Speaker 1: I'm as a sophomore at fifteen, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So people always are trying to protect their kids, and
Speaker 1: do they. But I say all that to say that
Speaker 1: that Lucas parents threw him in the fire early. You know,
Speaker 1: he's playing against men that are smoking cigarettes at halftime
Speaker 1: and like twelve or thirteen years old. So he's been
Speaker 1: in the wars, in the battles. He knows how to
Speaker 1: play against people. So when he got to the NBA,
Speaker 1: there was nothing new to him. You know, to me,
Speaker 1: I think he was the most NBA ready offensive player
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. When Steph I said if Steph win
Speaker 1: the title. He's a top ten player. He has four
Speaker 1: he has four rings, a finals, MVP, two MVPs, one
Speaker 1: of them unanimous. How would that resume? How do you
Speaker 1: keep him out? I'm I don't have no rebuttal he's
Speaker 1: a top ten player. He's definitely a top ten player,
Speaker 1: and I think he has room to climb, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, whether he wins more or not. I
Speaker 1: don't think we'll ever see another Steph Curry. The ability
Speaker 1: and and and if you think about it, you know,
Speaker 1: there's very few people that have changed the game during
Speaker 1: the course of their career. But who has changed it
Speaker 1: more than Steff I understand what kareem. There was no
Speaker 1: Duncan because this isn't that. But again, me coaching AU
Speaker 1: kids now and seeing that kids put kids put their
Speaker 1: shoes on and start shooting from the sideline or half
Speaker 1: court like they don't even go in the paint and
Speaker 1: get warm. Now, and that's the Steph Curry effect. And
Speaker 1: I've never seen anyone change the game from the grass
Speaker 1: roots to the to the top. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's you know the old added you know, when I
Speaker 1: first came in the league, it was inside out basketball.
Speaker 1: You live by the three, You're gonna die by the three,
Speaker 1: and Stephen and Clay and the Warriors completely changed that.
Speaker 1: So I have so much love and admiration for Steph
Speaker 1: and always you know, competing against him, and to getting
Speaker 1: a chance to play with them and see his work
Speaker 1: ethic and really see he's just a really good like.
Speaker 1: I don't see how you can't like him. He's a
Speaker 1: really You might like him because he keeps busting your ass,
Speaker 1: but outside they've been a great person, hard worker, and
Speaker 1: one of the greatest players we've ever seen. You went
Speaker 1: to Draymond wedding, all the guys showed up. What what
Speaker 1: is Draymond? Because I think Draymond is the heartbeat of
Speaker 1: that team. Obviously he's not their best player. We know
Speaker 1: Steph is their best player. Clay might be the second
Speaker 1: best player. Hopefully he rounds back and become that two
Speaker 1: way player that he once was prior to that knee injury.
Speaker 1: I think a year removed from those serious injuries that
Speaker 1: he had in mckenley's tear ACL tear, he'll be even better.
Speaker 1: What does Draymond do for the Warrior? He's the hard
Speaker 1: and soul of that organization of that city. And I
Speaker 1: knew it from the outside looking in, but once I
Speaker 1: got there, it's it's you can clearly see it. I mean,
Speaker 1: this team, again, he's not the best player on the team,
Speaker 1: but this team wins no championships without Draymond Green. And
Speaker 1: that's not a far fetched that's not a hot take.
Speaker 1: That's just facts. And I think if you ask Stephan
Speaker 1: Clay that they would tell you the same thing. He
Speaker 1: does so many things, whether it be offensively getting guys
Speaker 1: the ball in their right spots and getting guys organized
Speaker 1: like a quarterback out there, or being a six six
Speaker 1: if you're lucky on a good day, defensive player of
Speaker 1: the year that can cover for everyone else's mistakes. I mean,
Speaker 1: and then just his energy and and and you know,
Speaker 1: he walks that fine line and sometimes he crosses it,
Speaker 1: but that what makes him dray Bond. So I think
Speaker 1: he takes a lot of heat because you look at
Speaker 1: the stat sheet and it's not going to tell the
Speaker 1: whole story, you know. So when he goes in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, people are gonna be talking twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five years from now, that motherfucker average eight points and
Speaker 1: eight and eight assists like, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you know it's four he's
Speaker 1: a winner. Yes, it's it's four championships. It's God's All Stars,
Speaker 1: it's an Olympic goal. That's a defensive of money, it's
Speaker 1: a defensive play of the Year, and it's a chance
Speaker 1: to Really he gave a lot of people, like how
Speaker 1: Steph gave smaller guards an opportunity. He gave a you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of Swiss army knife an opportunity to even
Speaker 1: get a look in the NBA now because you don't
Speaker 1: have to be able to you know, shoot like Staff
Speaker 1: or jump like Lebron to to to play. I mean,
Speaker 1: this guy is a really intelligent one of the smartest
Speaker 1: people in general, but probably one of the highest basketball
Speaker 1: queues I've ever got a chance to be around. So
Speaker 1: this guy thinks the game, sleeps the game, and is
Speaker 1: one the heartbeat of that team. It's also from Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: We know he is an immensely talented players seven foot talk,
Speaker 1: can shoot mid range, shoot the three, great free throw percentage.
Speaker 1: But but the book, it's Happy Birthday today too, Happy
Speaker 1: Birthday broke every birthday, Katie h. But no rings without
Speaker 1: staff and there's no way you can get around it.
Speaker 1: You can't. You can't get around it. You can't. And
Speaker 1: step one this ring right here, with step one, this
Speaker 1: ring means more than the two that he won with
Speaker 1: k D. Yeah, no question, because you're byself or not
Speaker 1: by excuse me, not by myself. But he did it
Speaker 1: on his own gut final MVP. My question you before
Speaker 1: I answer, what Katie is to Steph have two rings
Speaker 1: or four rings? If Katie never goes to Golden State.
Speaker 1: I believe there has two. I do not believe they're
Speaker 1: gonna be And they knew that. The way Carrie and
Speaker 1: Lebron had just tracked them down from three one, they
Speaker 1: had gotten confidence. They're not beating them, right, They're never
Speaker 1: gonna beat them again. And they knew that. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: you go, okay, u k D one of the most
Speaker 1: efficient players we've ever seen in the game. Another unicorn,
Speaker 1: you know, a six to eleven guy that can handle
Speaker 1: the ball like a guard, shoot like a guard. But
Speaker 1: like you said, I think he will get his respect
Speaker 1: when he if he's able to get that ring, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And people criticize, you know, oh
Speaker 1: you lost to them and went and join them. I'm
Speaker 1: all for player empowerment. Like if you want to go
Speaker 1: somewhere and then you're gonna be happy there, go play there.
Speaker 1: I don't knock anyone on that, But again, I think
Speaker 1: the criticism is like you won with Steph, you know,
Speaker 1: can you win by yourself? And he's not even by itself.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't speak to if it bothers him.
Speaker 1: But if enough people are saying anything and you feel
Speaker 1: like it's not true, it's gonna bother you. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So I can't speak with people
Speaker 1: on social media. Something bothered him. Yeah, But but see,
Speaker 1: I like I like that too because again, like Kevin,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant just cussed me out, like how many people
Speaker 1: are you gonna if you're a regular person, how many
Speaker 1: people you're telling that to? You're telling everybody? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? So people, why is he could? Why
Speaker 1: does he interact? Or why? Because he wants to? He
Speaker 1: has a lot of free time on his hands. He's
Speaker 1: a good basket, you know, he's got time to do it.
Speaker 1: So I don't knock that, but I think he has
Speaker 1: to win, I think to get the respect he deserves,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean he's got two rings v dominating
Speaker 1: finals MVPs. You know so, I yeah, Like I said,
Speaker 1: I think the only people think, the only thing people
Speaker 1: question or want to see is, you know, can't he
Speaker 1: do it without staff? You talked about some of lebron
Speaker 1: leadership skills, and I think that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that come into KD is its leadership skills. He's made
Speaker 1: it abundantly clear he just wants to I don't want
Speaker 1: the leadership. I don't want the responsibility of being a leader.
Speaker 1: But I think he has to bear that because when
Speaker 1: you go when you go to Brooklyn, you're trying to
Speaker 1: establish a culture, and so you need to be the
Speaker 1: boys that says, Okay, guys, we need to do this,
Speaker 1: We need to do that. It's just not good enough
Speaker 1: to let your play speak for itself. That's a tough
Speaker 1: one because we both know the best player is not
Speaker 1: always the leader. No, and that's that's not just basketball,
Speaker 1: that's across the board. But again, when you're trying to
Speaker 1: establish something in the new place, your your voice outside
Speaker 1: of your play does have to speak, and I think
Speaker 1: that's what that team has been lacking. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't all of a sudden just become
Speaker 1: a leader, right, you know what I mean, Like that's
Speaker 1: either in you or it isn't in you. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's no knock on him, you know, Like I said,
Speaker 1: he wants to come out here. Who've ben play basketball?
Speaker 1: So it like him being the raw ra yelling type,
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily him. He's going to speak his mind
Speaker 1: when when it needs to be spoken. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think when if people are looking for him to lead,
Speaker 1: and that's not necessarily a quality that he wants or has.
Speaker 1: You know, I think he does enough other things to
Speaker 1: obviously get the stamp of approval. So to me, who
Speaker 1: steps up in as that leader. Is it Steve Nash?
Speaker 1: Is it Kyrie? Committed Kyrie? Is it someone else lead?
Speaker 1: If you can, you can't leave when people don't know
Speaker 1: if you're gonna show up to play or not. Again,
Speaker 1: I think like like hard, and I think Kyrie is
Speaker 1: going to have a monster season two because you know,
Speaker 1: I've been critical of him, you know, because I really
Speaker 1: felt like, obviously you're supposed to put yourself first, but
Speaker 1: we're also in the team sport. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And to think that, you know, keV left
Speaker 1: Golden State to come fuck with you because he felt
Speaker 1: like you too, and we all do you remember the excitement?
Speaker 1: There weren't too many people saying, oh, this team is
Speaker 1: not gonna be good, like we all thought that man Katie, Kyrie,
Speaker 1: oh man, they just got James too. This is arguably
Speaker 1: the greatest trio, Like what is this going to happen?
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: never going to knock a man on you know that
Speaker 1: that that COVID situation was a monster. And then whether
Speaker 1: a lot of people, yeah, I mean to each their
Speaker 1: own as far as whether you want to get get
Speaker 1: backs or not. But I just think that you know,
Speaker 1: along his road, in his path, he forgot that he
Speaker 1: was an integral part of a team, that that that
Speaker 1: he was the driving force behind Kevin coming to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: And I say this just from a stance and I
Speaker 1: just want to see because I know how good he is.
Speaker 1: The world knows how talented Kyrie Irving is, we know
Speaker 1: how talented Kevin Durant is, and I just want to
Speaker 1: see them hitting on all cylinders. I think from a
Speaker 1: fan's perspective, are you surprised that Katie Askport trade in
Speaker 1: the manner in which he asked because it became public
Speaker 1: go that was that was bold. I think if he
Speaker 1: would have just asked for one, it might have worked.
Speaker 1: He can't ask for both KD. He can't ask for
Speaker 1: the coach energy and he would It's just I get
Speaker 1: that motherfucker at it. They might have did it. But
Speaker 1: am I surprised, Yeah, because nowhere, Yeah, No, you know,
Speaker 1: I just think there's there's just a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of There's just a lot of stuff that goes
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes and organizations that we just have
Speaker 1: no idea whether it's you know, some sneakiness or some
Speaker 1: backdoor and some other stuff. Like there's just so much
Speaker 1: stuff we don't know that could have prompted that or
Speaker 1: just him just tired of the BS. But I think
Speaker 1: no matter where Kevin Durant plays, there's always going to
Speaker 1: be a circus around him because of what's happened in
Speaker 1: the past and just how good he is. So, you know,
Speaker 1: he asked for a trade. You know, New Jersey stood
Speaker 1: on their own and said like, we're not just gonna
Speaker 1: give you away. And I think he I think he
Speaker 1: said the other day, it's like I know they're not
Speaker 1: just Kevin Durant, so you know they tried to do it.
Speaker 1: I think what happened with that is if the Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert trade messed up the whole pop I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know who did that trade. If you can
Speaker 1: get swaps in four first round picks for Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: I mean that makes me think as an organization, I
Speaker 1: want eight to ten first round picks that went because
Speaker 1: they're not even in the same But yeah, but Brooklyn
Speaker 1: said the team like just because just because they made
Speaker 1: that hardway, we're not doing that. Yeah we're not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not doing that dumbness. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, with all due respect, because
Speaker 1: I'm I like Rudy Gobert, you know, defensive Player of Year.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna help Minnesota. But I think that
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert trade messed up a lot of movement in
Speaker 1: the NBA this ship because I think there would have
Speaker 1: been a lot more movement if that kings Ransom wasn't
Speaker 1: paid for him. But what about the possibility they say,
Speaker 1: hold on, wait a minute, now, Kevin Durant was in
Speaker 1: Golden State. Ideal culture. You're not gonna win anymore than
Speaker 1: what he won there, and he didn't. He wasn't. He
Speaker 1: went somewhere else. Okay, he's in Brooklyn with his homeboyd
Speaker 1: best friend, and he wasn't happy there. So what's to say.
Speaker 1: We give up a Jason Tatum, we give up a
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, we give up two first round pigs. And
Speaker 1: a year later he come does say hey, I need
Speaker 1: to move now. We don't gave up a twenty five
Speaker 1: or two he sex year old, two first round pick
Speaker 1: and Kevin and Red wots to move again. Ain't no
Speaker 1: tell him you just you really just don't know, Shannon,
Speaker 1: You don't know. You know what I mean. You gotta
Speaker 1: hope to build a surrounding around that he's comfortable in
Speaker 1: and then that that he can go out and drive it.
Speaker 1: That they gave him everythings Brooklyn bread that Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not saying they didn't. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And it's still he still wanted to leave you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like to me, there's no
Speaker 1: rhyme or reason. The one thing I just know about
Speaker 1: KD is despite what he says, that what he wants
Speaker 1: to do every time he steps on the court, you
Speaker 1: know what he's gonna give you. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And that's the one thing that I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna respect about him. You could say, oh, he fights
Speaker 1: on Twitter, or he wants to be traitor, or he
Speaker 1: can't do this or he can't do that. Every time
Speaker 1: he steps on the floor, he's given it his all
Speaker 1: and I gotta respect that. James Harden. Are you surprised
Speaker 1: that he went back at the price that he went
Speaker 1: back at because he obviously he could have got more money.
Speaker 1: But James Harden was not the James Harden that last year.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. He said he lost a
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. I think he was just joking, but he
Speaker 1: looked like he lost the weight. He lost it. He's thirty. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he might have lost some weight. But another player. Again,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that he's on a It's funny
Speaker 1: too because it's it's to me, it's Kyrie, Russ and James.
Speaker 1: I think all are going to have big seasons. And
Speaker 1: I think that James, you know, there was always so
Speaker 1: much to make you know, during his career while he
Speaker 1: was killing that you know what he was doing off
Speaker 1: the court what he was doing. We're always talking about
Speaker 1: what he's doing off the court, but to me, it
Speaker 1: never mattered because on the court he was killing. You know,
Speaker 1: but one two time a little baby off, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm doing the run. Yeah exactly so. But but again,
Speaker 1: once the play is not up here and it drops
Speaker 1: a little bit, then they're gonna start questioning what he's
Speaker 1: always been doing, you know what I mean. So to me,
Speaker 1: I think he heard the noise. He recommitted hisself and
Speaker 1: he's still a great I mean, you say what he wanted,
Speaker 1: but it was he twenty and ten last year. He
Speaker 1: was still a twenty and ten guy. So I think
Speaker 1: a recommitted James is going to be scary body in shape,
Speaker 1: mind and shape, and even if he's not giving you
Speaker 1: thirty to thirty five. And by the way, they change
Speaker 1: the rule because of James Harden realize that, you know,
Speaker 1: they that all that shit that he invented, and how
Speaker 1: to you know what I mean, he he they change
Speaker 1: the rules because of he had mastered That's how good
Speaker 1: he had got. So I think James is going to
Speaker 1: have a really big year and I respect him for
Speaker 1: for for you know, taking that contract cut to to
Speaker 1: try to build a championship situation because he knew, you know,
Speaker 1: as you get older, you just start putting different things
Speaker 1: in priority. And he knew that they needed to add
Speaker 1: some shooting and then add some toughness. So him taking
Speaker 1: that less money allow them to fill out the roster.
Speaker 1: And now they have one of the deepest rosters in
Speaker 1: the league. And I don't think they're getting enough consideration for,
Speaker 1: you know, a real championship contender because I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, if he's sitting on all cylinders and Bead
Speaker 1: has been incredible the last handful of years, they've been
Speaker 1: able to fill out that roster. They stay healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the key. Health is the key. So again I
Speaker 1: think that if this team can stay healthy with the
Speaker 1: recommitted James Harden, tell me a team this better than that.
Speaker 1: Give me your top five players an NBA right now.
Speaker 1: Top five damn? I mean this is gonna go viral too. Yep,
Speaker 1: an order just five of them? Go order? Fuck? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm happy. I'm my first one. Number one is Jannie.
Speaker 1: I'm taking Yannie, Janis KD Steph Ebid. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: heat for this. Last pick, Am I missing. Oh, shoot
Speaker 1: me back up, I forgot. Yeah, hold on Jannis k
Speaker 1: D Steph, Lebron and Ebide and Lebron has only slid
Speaker 1: down that age just because he's older, not his body
Speaker 1: of work. Still the best player in the world, pol yo,
Speaker 1: excuse me, one of the greatest players to ever played
Speaker 1: the game. But yeah, that's hard. I leave. I leave
Speaker 1: Luca off. I'm leaving the twue time, I'm leaving the
Speaker 1: two time MVP off, the last back. I'm leaving the
Speaker 1: mbat the odds on favor, Luca is odds on favor
Speaker 1: this year. But I mean, Yannis is incredible, honest is
Speaker 1: the one superstar you see Shannon that every single year
Speaker 1: he comes back better on a different aspect. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing that I said about being Simmons. That's upsetting
Speaker 1: because I saw how Yanny shot the ball when he
Speaker 1: got in the NBA, how he shoots it now right.
Speaker 1: You see John Morant, you see the improvement that he's made.
Speaker 1: You see the improvement loads of ball. I don't care
Speaker 1: what you do. I don't care. I can take I
Speaker 1: can start something to date and if you give me
Speaker 1: sick heres, I might not master it. But I'll be
Speaker 1: better than what I'm started. And I don't even think
Speaker 1: I'm keep her. I don't even think he's a bad shooter.
Speaker 1: I think it's mentally. He's afraid to miss, He's afraid
Speaker 1: to shoot an airball in the big moment, He's afraid
Speaker 1: to hit the backboard on the jumper. Like. I think
Speaker 1: it's more that because, like I said, I've seen him
Speaker 1: work out, and I've seen him play pick up games
Speaker 1: and you'd be like, oh shit, this is in your bag,
Speaker 1: you know so. But yeah, Yannis k d Steph Lebron
Speaker 1: and indeed what was Katie was upset? Is the two
Speaker 1: k ratings six. Who do you think right now the
Speaker 1: best player in the world right now? I mean, to me,
Speaker 1: it's between Katie and Jannis. And the only reason why
Speaker 1: I give Jannis the edge is because of the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the game. I mean, if you look at
Speaker 1: Katie's efficiency and how amazing is on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: Janna is still still putting up He may not be
Speaker 1: as efficient, but he's still putting up monster numbers on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. But then also he's a defensive monstitute.
Speaker 1: So Katie is someone that I think his defense gets
Speaker 1: overlooked because he is out there blocking shots and garden people.
Speaker 1: I just think Jannis is a better defender, so I
Speaker 1: have to give I have to give Jannis that nod.
Speaker 1: And Yannis is younger too. Right. You mentioned earlier about
Speaker 1: the situation that happened with your sister. You got into
Speaker 1: an alternation. The KKK showed up to your school. Showed up.
Speaker 1: I don't know, did he show up to your house
Speaker 1: or just to school. We moved, We moved, Yeah that
Speaker 1: there was a green light, so we had to bounce. Okay,
Speaker 1: what did that situation? What did it teach you? What
Speaker 1: did it do to you? It showed me, although I'm
Speaker 1: very proud to be African, American and Italian, that the
Speaker 1: world looked at me as a black man. Like at seventeen,
Speaker 1: I realized, because what are you going, I'm Italian and
Speaker 1: black at that moment, like nah, they forgot that Italian part.
Speaker 1: You're a nigga, Like yeah, like yeah, yeah, they look
Speaker 1: at you as a nigger. That's how they look at you.
Speaker 1: And that's what it taught me. It's just like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm very proud of my heritage, of
Speaker 1: my upbringing, but it showed me that the outside world
Speaker 1: looked at me as a black person. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: your story. You stayed all four years that the UCLA,
Speaker 1: you got drafted the second round, you go to the
Speaker 1: d League, played in the ABA with Denis Robin, the
Speaker 1: Long Beach jam Well did this Robin like you gotta
Speaker 1: crazy this Robbin story. I didn't get too much time
Speaker 1: with him. I wish I had more time because literally,
Speaker 1: like he came in two weeks later I got called
Speaker 1: up to the Clippers. I wish we got with it,
Speaker 1: got time. But I tell you, he used to come
Speaker 1: with the whole entourage, barefooted, with his bulldog, and and
Speaker 1: and just it was just a dope experience because you
Speaker 1: gotta think, this is, you know, early two thousand, so
Speaker 1: he's just coming off of, you know, a great run
Speaker 1: and he's trying to get back. So just to be
Speaker 1: around him for a little bit and chop it up
Speaker 1: with him. It was like literally a week and a half,
Speaker 1: two weeks before I got a chance to leave. But
Speaker 1: I don't really have no crazy robbing the stories. We
Speaker 1: talked about going out, but we never got to. You
Speaker 1: mentioned football is your favorite. What's your favorite sports still
Speaker 1: is it's your favorite sport that you love to watch.
Speaker 1: What position did you play? And do you think if
Speaker 1: you say, you know what, the way I devoted my time,
Speaker 1: my energy, my effort to basketball, if you'd have devoted
Speaker 1: that to football, you believe you could have made it
Speaker 1: to the NFL. So I never liked to disrespect because
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's it's it's one in a million
Speaker 1: to make these professional ranks. And I have so much
Speaker 1: respect for football. But I honestly feel, like you know,
Speaker 1: at six seven, I ran a four three nine. I
Speaker 1: had a thirty nine inch vert and I can really
Speaker 1: catch the football like I was a football player first,
Speaker 1: like no one could stop me. Like my senior year,
Speaker 1: I had it started off as a turf toe, but
Speaker 1: it turned into a broken toe. But I had like
Speaker 1: fifty two catches and twenty eight time. Like every other
Speaker 1: time I caught the ball, I scored. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: just deep routes. I was going across the middle stops.
Speaker 1: I was running whatever route was needed to ran. I
Speaker 1: was ran. So I was just I think a little
Speaker 1: bit before my time, outside of like you know, obviously
Speaker 1: Harold Carmichael with the Eagles and him being six seven,
Speaker 1: but there was no six seven, six to eight guys
Speaker 1: at the time playing that, and I just felt that
Speaker 1: I would have more longevity if I played basketball. I
Speaker 1: was able to make basketball, but to me, basketball was
Speaker 1: the harder route for me because I was a better
Speaker 1: football player, right, Yeah, And you know there's more football,
Speaker 1: they're more football players. They're fifty forty six fifty three
Speaker 1: players on the team as opposed to twelve to fifty.
Speaker 1: But then also, you know, Shannon, there was a big
Speaker 1: like there was a big kind of I don't know
Speaker 1: what the word is, but there was a bunch at
Speaker 1: a time where there was a bunch of guys that
Speaker 1: were playing college basketball, couldn't go to the league, that
Speaker 1: were jumping into the NFL. Yeah, you mean Gates, Jimmy Graham.
Speaker 1: There's a handful of guys of these big athletic basketball
Speaker 1: players both. But he knew like he was a football player.
Speaker 1: Some of these guys, some of these guys were literally
Speaker 1: jumping off the basketball court and finding space on the
Speaker 1: football field. But I was really a football player first.
Speaker 1: So that's why I said, So you could have been
Speaker 1: a tight end, you could have put on like twenty thirty,
Speaker 1: been a tight end because jim Jimmy is like six
Speaker 1: seven and nine, could have could have again, just it
Speaker 1: was just a little early, and you know, basketball just
Speaker 1: seemed like the way to go. I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1: You You you a partner a lot of stuff hop
Speaker 1: riotsha app, using using drivers based off interest, making documentaries,
Speaker 1: all the Cannabish Swish founding athletes versus cancer. What are
Speaker 1: some of your most What is Matt Barnes most proud
Speaker 1: of now? Being a father? Hands down, I think being
Speaker 1: a father is the greatest what do you want to
Speaker 1: call a job opportunity? Greatest thing that I've ever done
Speaker 1: is being a father. It's what I take the most
Speaker 1: pride in. But I just think, you know, really Shannon
Speaker 1: my way to just Dug my way and hart my
Speaker 1: way through the NBA, and I mean second round pick
Speaker 1: that bounced around, played on a handful of teams. But
Speaker 1: if you look at every stop I made, I was
Speaker 1: either a starter at the first and second guy coming
Speaker 1: off the bench. So I was always a contributor in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So I think just to be able to
Speaker 1: have the career I had in the NBA, the longevity
Speaker 1: I had, but then to be able to flip it
Speaker 1: post career, you know what I mean. Normally I would,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, I was a role player. Normally
Speaker 1: role players fade off into ot security. You know. For
Speaker 1: me to to to be sitting here with you right now,
Speaker 1: five years removed, with my name being bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: than it's ever been TV makes you crazy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But just to even have the opportunity again,
Speaker 1: like there's so many stars or former stars that want
Speaker 1: to have these seats that you and I have that
Speaker 1: they're doing. Everybody can't do it, but they're not. They're
Speaker 1: not cut out the likelihood. But what you can do
Speaker 1: is that you can talk on camera. Just because you
Speaker 1: play great doesn't mean you'll be great on camera, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what I tell people. Everybody like, oh man,
Speaker 1: but when that red dot go on different? Can you
Speaker 1: hold them out front? You can you carry on a conversation?
Speaker 1: Can you explain it to the late person at home
Speaker 1: what they're trying to do, what they're what's going on?
Speaker 1: And everybody can't do that, can't And and like I said,
Speaker 1: so I just think my run through the league and
Speaker 1: and to be able to have success after basketball. So
Speaker 1: I would say being a father, and then just kind
Speaker 1: of the path I've built for myself because I'm more
Speaker 1: common than a Steph Curry, you know that, or Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Like you know, I was a blue collar, hard working
Speaker 1: role player. So if I can show these guys, whether
Speaker 1: you make it the league or not, like if Matt
Speaker 1: could do like, why cannot Like, That's what I want
Speaker 1: people to think, right, So I'm hoping I'm showing people
Speaker 1: that too. You played on nine teams in fourteen years.
Speaker 1: If you construct construct the starting lineup with your former teammates,
Speaker 1: woo whoo woo, point guard, I'm gonna have to go with.
Speaker 1: So you gotta think I gotta let's go go viral
Speaker 1: you elsa? People are I think I played with? I
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to really play in Philly with
Speaker 1: Alan Iverson was my point guard. Ye, Steve Nash was
Speaker 1: my point guard. Ye. Steph Curry was my point Yeah,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul is my point A healthy Baron Davis was
Speaker 1: my point guard. So that's five right there. But so
Speaker 1: we're gonna start at the point position. It's gonna start
Speaker 1: at the point position. The only reason why I'm taking
Speaker 1: CP over step is because I only played a half
Speaker 1: of season with Steff, So I'm taking CP as my point.
Speaker 1: I'm taking Kobe as my two. Okay, I'm taking taking
Speaker 1: Grant Hill as my three. Okay, I'm taking Chris Webber
Speaker 1: as my four and Shock as my five. Okay, man,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Steph, Dwight, oh I fort Yeah, see, I
Speaker 1: don't care. Dwight and I played with Kate k KD.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying I don't count them because I only
Speaker 1: I didn't get to play with him that like, and
Speaker 1: I didn't get to play with Katie at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. So the situation was I came in
Speaker 1: when Katie got hurt, and the first game Katie came back,
Speaker 1: I nearly broke my ankle. So I didn't really get
Speaker 1: a chance to play with k D because I was
Speaker 1: out pretty much the rest of the year. Like, by
Speaker 1: the time I felt healthy was the Western Finals and
Speaker 1: we were eight no already. So so I didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to play with Dre and and and and
Speaker 1: and Steph and Clay and Katie long enough to have
Speaker 1: them qualify for this list. You played Kobe was eight
Speaker 1: played against Kobe. That was eight you played with him
Speaker 1: when it's two. If you had to choose which one
Speaker 1: was the best, I think the numbers are identical. I
Speaker 1: would pick twenty four just because I just think off
Speaker 1: the court, he was more open as a person and
Speaker 1: had been through so much and and we just got
Speaker 1: such a unique chance to bond. You gotta think we
Speaker 1: went from nearly fighting to him calling me from a
Speaker 1: number I didn't even have saved to telling me, asked
Speaker 1: me if I want to be a Laker, Like I
Speaker 1: was literally about to go to Miami. So I'm talking hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: you rejected the goal? Yeah, yeah, I'm been like, I'm
Speaker 1: a Laker fan. Bro. So I was in So I
Speaker 1: was supposed to re up in Orlando, and stan Vangunni
Speaker 1: was acting funny. So I was literally talking to pat
Speaker 1: Riley d Wade and they're talking about like that, well
Speaker 1: we're about to build something over here. You know, there's
Speaker 1: words of him coming, and there's words of Bosh coming,
Speaker 1: and it's right up the freeway for me. And I'm
Speaker 1: literally having conversation with pat I feel pat Riley. And
Speaker 1: one day I get a phone call. I'm still out
Speaker 1: in Orlando, chilling, and I get a call from a
Speaker 1: number I don't know, and I never picked up my
Speaker 1: phone and I just happened to pick up the phone
Speaker 1: and it was him. It's like it's cold. I'm like, bullshit,
Speaker 1: who is this. He's like like, nah, it's me. And
Speaker 1: we kind of start going back and forth, and he
Speaker 1: asked me what I'm doing, and I literally tell him
Speaker 1: like I'm kind of up in there. Man, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to Miami right now, and I fuck, Miami, you want
Speaker 1: to be a Laker? I'm like, hell yeah. Like four
Speaker 1: days later, I was a Laker. You see the new
Speaker 1: craze Now Matt is these celebrity boxing batches. Baby, you
Speaker 1: see Nate man. Nate told me he's gonna represent for
Speaker 1: the coach Matt and dude got floorboarded. We saw who
Speaker 1: else swagging? He got knocked at the ring man. They
Speaker 1: got us looking bad out here. Well, my whole thing
Speaker 1: is like even when and I even talked to Nate,
Speaker 1: like I box to stay in shape, but I know
Speaker 1: how serious boxing is, and I think a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys people don't want the toughest workout. Go just
Speaker 1: go outside and just try to throw punches for a minute.
Speaker 1: Because if you think, I mean, we've all been in
Speaker 1: our little skirmish fights, fights asked like twenty to forty
Speaker 1: five seconds. These are three minute rounds with people that
Speaker 1: and to me, I think where athletes underestimated. You saw
Speaker 1: Adrian Peterson just get knocked out, but athletes underestimated would
Speaker 1: got knocked out. He fall liberty different talify the UFC.
Speaker 1: But how how do you react when your cage gets rattled?
Speaker 1: You know, you hit me with a straight ride or
Speaker 1: uppercut or something. How am I going to react? And
Speaker 1: how am I going to protect myself after I've just
Speaker 1: been rocked? And I don't think enough athletes have been
Speaker 1: rocked to understand that that's a serious part of the game.
Speaker 1: I think. I mean, anyone can look good hitting pads
Speaker 1: are doing all these one two three one two make
Speaker 1: it look so easy. They make it look so easy,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But that that that's sparring
Speaker 1: and getting hit it is so important. It's so it's
Speaker 1: the biggest bar man. Like I said, you can look
Speaker 1: like you could look like Ali on them gloves, but
Speaker 1: you ain't never been good. How do you react when
Speaker 1: you get hit? You guys, yeah they got us like
Speaker 1: a bad out there though you you do somebody care
Speaker 1: for you. They say, Matt, we got two million for you,
Speaker 1: we make it five. Yeah, but hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: who you who you gonna be in the celebrity match
Speaker 1: with that? That's that's the point that, Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: really say I don't really have no beefs out there
Speaker 1: of anyone I want to like me put in the ring,
Speaker 1: Like I don't you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 1: don't really have no smoke with nobody. So I mean,
Speaker 1: for five million, outside of Mike Tyson or any like
Speaker 1: real fires anyway, if you really box, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: box you, But for five million, I'll box someone who's
Speaker 1: not a boxer or a MMA five or somebody that's
Speaker 1: on your level. Okay, you know you do this for fun.
Speaker 1: I do this for fun. Yeah, we're getting that. We
Speaker 1: go with five five round five two minute rounds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to stop smoking for a little while.
Speaker 1: You're gonna stop a lot of things for a little
Speaker 1: I need my lungs to be right. But now that's
Speaker 1: the one. Yeah that that boxing is no joke. Man,
Speaker 1: I like my hats offer always to these m these
Speaker 1: boxing because it's a different world. Man, it's that's they
Speaker 1: practice their entire life to be there. And sometimes athletes
Speaker 1: think because we succeeded on one thing, we can jump
Speaker 1: in at the one That ring of the cage is
Speaker 1: one thing. And the booth, the ring the cage and
Speaker 1: the rat booth, that's something we just can't jump in
Speaker 1: because we had success in a certain space. Go out
Speaker 1: there and jaw, go out there and run for like
Speaker 1: ten minutes and then try to throw some punches for
Speaker 1: three raps. Man, Come on, man, who is your favorite
Speaker 1: football team? Niners? Favorite player in football? Yep, h right now?
Speaker 1: My favorite player is who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Man?
Speaker 1: I just go my all time favorite players Jared Ris
Speaker 1: and Deon Sanders. Okay, who you got winning Super Bowl
Speaker 1: this year? Man? Tom ain't looking the same? Is not
Speaker 1: looking the same. I want to believe that. I think
Speaker 1: my Homes thought to me, I think my Homes is
Speaker 1: the best quarterback in the NFL, and I think they'll
Speaker 1: find a way to to be there. So I either
Speaker 1: Buffalo or Kansas City, Okay. And I want to talk
Speaker 1: about these four hundred fourteen man, how do you get
Speaker 1: away four and twenty four and twenty thousand dollars? Oh? Man?
Speaker 1: Because I can't shut up fines. Fine, if you had
Speaker 1: that money right now, huh yeah. And another thing, I
Speaker 1: took less money to to to win too. I wish
Speaker 1: I had that money right now too. See, you could
Speaker 1: win to Miami. They got no state tax. It's still
Speaker 1: to come out here when you have one. They want
Speaker 1: two rings. See, but I wouldn't. I wouldn't give that
Speaker 1: up for the opportunity that got opportunity to play with
Speaker 1: cold labor cob and and even further play for you,
Speaker 1: play for the Lakers, become brothers and and and and
Speaker 1: and share and and go to his daughter's games, him
Speaker 1: come to my boys games, boys calling him uncle Coble.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't change that for money or rings. So bruh,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Yes, cheers, thanks for having me. And
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to call this here earlier. This is
Speaker 1: the congratulates. Yeah, this is dope. We got your bottle.
Speaker 1: We still drink that brown over here, Oh yeah we do. Man.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, bro, thanks for having me all my life
Speaker 1: and running all my life sacrifice. I hustle Bay the
Speaker 1: price I wanna slice, got the broller dice to swap
Speaker 1: all my life. I've been running all my life, all
Speaker 1: my life, and running all my life. Sacrifice, hustle Bay,
Speaker 1: the price, Wanna slice, got the broller, dice to sware
Speaker 1: all my life. I've been running all my life.