Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio in partnership with Showtime. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to another special edition of All the Smoke. State
Speaker 1: of the Vote. We have special guests today. Coach David Fizdale,
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. JB. Bickerstaffies, good to be here.
Speaker 1: And then we got a man Ray over here who's
Speaker 1: a political strategist who is going to kind of keep
Speaker 1: us on tone and tune and focus when we touch
Speaker 1: in on the political realm, in the voting realm. They're
Speaker 1: great coaches to the world, but there are homies there.
Speaker 1: You go for a long time, A yeah, we go back.
Speaker 1: I've been doing far for long est time. And then
Speaker 1: the fears and all my people, uh, Gilanny and all damn.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we got some some long runs. But anyway,
Speaker 1: how's COVID been eating you guys? I know you got kids,
Speaker 1: I know you got you got one on the way
Speaker 1: that was the house COVID coress on that too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been good. It's been I mean, you shouldn't say good,
Speaker 1: but interesting. You know, a lot of changes in life.
Speaker 1: But we're talking before low key blessing. This is the
Speaker 1: most time I spent with my kids since they've been born,
Speaker 1: so you know, a lot of soccer tournaments, packing up
Speaker 1: the truck, you know what I mean. Right, It's just
Speaker 1: you know, we've been able to find a blessing in
Speaker 1: it through the hard times. Obviously, you know, we've been
Speaker 1: through some difficult times, uh, with friends and family passing,
Speaker 1: you know, through all that, um, but trying to find
Speaker 1: the bright side of all this the best way we
Speaker 1: can to help the kids get through it too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been great for us because obviously with the baby
Speaker 1: on the way, you know, we can fortify the house
Speaker 1: and get everything situated. And uh, you know, it's been
Speaker 1: great just for us in general, spending time together because
Speaker 1: as a coach, you're gone, it's just and even when
Speaker 1: you're home, you're halfway gone. So to lead us present
Speaker 1: at this time with my wife and my son on
Speaker 1: the way, you know, it's been great. But the other
Speaker 1: part about it, and again, like you said, you don't
Speaker 1: want to put you know, listick on the pig, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, with what's going on
Speaker 1: in our country, to be able to focus in on
Speaker 1: it and put the amount of energy that I can
Speaker 1: put into it, Uh, that part's mental blessing for me,
Speaker 1: because you know, when word and the thralls of it,
Speaker 1: it's just hard to really participate. Right now, we got
Speaker 1: the opportunity in the time to to really focus our
Speaker 1: energy on making a real change in this stuff. And
Speaker 1: I would say to it, if it wasn't for the pandemic,
Speaker 1: who knows where if this message would ever been really
Speaker 1: perceived as it finally was now. Obviously Jack has been
Speaker 1: on the front line with it um from the beginning.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think it this pandemic forced us
Speaker 1: to all to sit down and really look in the
Speaker 1: mirror and look to see what was going on. And
Speaker 1: and and I feel like the what we've known for
Speaker 1: over four hund years, it's funny, we're just had for
Speaker 1: enough people to at least have an understanding if there's
Speaker 1: a really there's some real issues going on here. Ray
Speaker 1: with election day around the corner, voting rights, voting issues,
Speaker 1: voter suppression is still something very big that's playing this country.
Speaker 1: What are some things that people can do to I
Speaker 1: guess maneuver those kind of things that are against him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think especially with COVID, one of the
Speaker 1: things that I mean since the civil rights movement, we've
Speaker 1: been we've been able to get out in the streets,
Speaker 1: and I think that's been difficult clearly from Jump Street,
Speaker 1: I mean Staxman out clearly given given amplification to what's
Speaker 1: going on, making sure that he's in the streets, making
Speaker 1: sure that he's working with organizations on the ground. And
Speaker 1: I think that's really the key, right, Like voter suppression
Speaker 1: is a multimillion dollar campaign in order to get you
Speaker 1: to stop your vote, and I actually think it's having
Speaker 1: an adverse effect on black men because even black men
Speaker 1: who are not necessarily thrilled about their choices, the cycle
Speaker 1: was like, you're not gonna stop me from voting. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the motivating factor specifically for black men
Speaker 1: in the cycle. And so if you are, um, maybe
Speaker 1: not I love what your choices are, I think what
Speaker 1: you can't do is just let them take your vote
Speaker 1: from you. And one of the things that we're seeing
Speaker 1: is like and it's it's it's sort of painful to
Speaker 1: watch specific if somebody who's worked in politics and and
Speaker 1: started off in the field working local organizations to see
Speaker 1: black men starting to repair it some talking points and
Speaker 1: kind of giving their giving their voice away. But I
Speaker 1: will say I understand it right, Like the system is
Speaker 1: not working, it has not worked, and now you're asking
Speaker 1: the people who it has not worked for to participating.
Speaker 1: And so that's what's tough about messaging in this moment.
Speaker 1: But to directly answer your question, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I think you know you got another week to go
Speaker 1: in the elections. I think it's about showing up and
Speaker 1: telling people who care. It's not it's not about candidates.
Speaker 1: It's about what we do post November. And I think
Speaker 1: that has to be the message. Um. Candidates is just
Speaker 1: a vehicle to get you where you want to go.
Speaker 1: I think that's what we need to start. Keep talking
Speaker 1: to you, kind of talking to me because, like you know,
Speaker 1: because like it's it's just hard for me, especially you know,
Speaker 1: seeing my brother passed and then you know, being in
Speaker 1: the streets and saying how many people need I've never
Speaker 1: seen a vote immediately affects someone's doorstep, their immediate life.
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm that with it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Because I see my people need and nothing
Speaker 1: has changed all this time with the vote. So I'm
Speaker 1: at the point now where I'm not gonna be the
Speaker 1: same person doing the same thing. That's why I'm spending
Speaker 1: my own money in my own time to get out
Speaker 1: there helping out people ourselves. So I think you are right,
Speaker 1: But at some point we gotta get to point we're
Speaker 1: taking care of ourselves for anybody else to take us serious.
Speaker 1: And that's just why I mean, because it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to see that I'm asking for something when I
Speaker 1: know what's never came before. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I agree with that, which is why we talk about
Speaker 1: elections like they happened every four years. The hard work
Speaker 1: is holding accountable the people that you got into office,
Speaker 1: Like you don't have to love them, their vehicles to
Speaker 1: get you where you want to go. And so if
Speaker 1: you want to pro black agenda, if you want to
Speaker 1: make sure that we're study and then pass out, not
Speaker 1: even pass out, that we give black Americans um reparations
Speaker 1: for the money that was stolen from our ancestors bodies,
Speaker 1: like that's on the table. And so I I hear you.
Speaker 1: I think we need to start talking about elections UM
Speaker 1: as just step one. And I think it's been sold
Speaker 1: to us like finish, It's not gonna happen. They're gonna
Speaker 1: they're gonna go home. Why the starting point can be
Speaker 1: a black man and white. Every race has an imprint
Speaker 1: on how the system is ran, but everybody. That's that's
Speaker 1: when we're gonna have complete change. Freedom is not giving
Speaker 1: you two people to choose from and saying you free.
Speaker 1: No freedom is meet picking who I want to be president.
Speaker 1: So until every race has a fingerprint on how this
Speaker 1: country is ran, we're gonna be in this situation. And
Speaker 1: that's what we need to start. We need to start
Speaker 1: there at the at the immediate answer, changing this system,
Speaker 1: getting the whole new constitution, that's where we need to start.
Speaker 1: Jack on that too. It's like if we don't participate, though,
Speaker 1: we'll never get there. Understand that's the That's the thing
Speaker 1: that you know we keep trying to push forward is
Speaker 1: like everybody shows up every four years and they think
Speaker 1: that's all that matters. But you missed the representativetives, you
Speaker 1: missed the midterms, and those are the people who can help.
Speaker 1: You know, people talk about, you know, what Obama did
Speaker 1: or didn't do, but he was a Senate who basically said,
Speaker 1: our job is to not get you reelected, so we're
Speaker 1: not going to help you pass anything. That's gonna help
Speaker 1: the entire country. Right, we miss out on voting for
Speaker 1: state representatives because we don't pay attention to that. We
Speaker 1: see whatever's happening nationwide, we focus there. But the people
Speaker 1: that focus and help you in your state, like there's
Speaker 1: somebody's running who cares about the exact messages that you're pushing,
Speaker 1: we don't show up and voting us. And I think
Speaker 1: that's where we have to do a better job of
Speaker 1: pushing that message that we gotta you know, we gotta
Speaker 1: battle locally just as much as we do nationally. That's
Speaker 1: are big that that's my big push too, because if
Speaker 1: you got to think about it, a lot never meant
Speaker 1: to even have a voice or footing in this space.
Speaker 1: So if you if we're taking on this process, you know,
Speaker 1: I have aspirations to be in politics one day. But
Speaker 1: it's a lot to swallow. I mean, people do this
Speaker 1: ship seven three six and still don't get the ship right.
Speaker 1: So they're looking at former athletes and coaches and other
Speaker 1: people to like magically change some It's gonna take all
Speaker 1: of us first and foremost. But I think it's you
Speaker 1: take stuff and bite sized pieces, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: The local and state. Obviously, that's where you can see
Speaker 1: some immediate return. You know what I mean, you you
Speaker 1: it's small as potholes are more funding for my school
Speaker 1: or stuff for housing or Prop sixteen in California with
Speaker 1: you know, equal footing for women and people of color.
Speaker 1: There's things that you can directly vote on your local
Speaker 1: and state level that you can see a media return.
Speaker 1: But I think when we say vote, people are thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: just the president. And then when we tell people to vote,
Speaker 1: when you get there, there's so many motherfucking choices. It's
Speaker 1: like it's almost like you really have to do your
Speaker 1: homework when you go. Because telling people to vote is great,
Speaker 1: they get there and they're overwhelmed, and I think too.
Speaker 1: But what you said, was it really important? Is that
Speaker 1: it's not just the vote. Can we get representation that
Speaker 1: reflects us in the seats that make them desist because
Speaker 1: I'm you know, Jack, I'm one, and that we need
Speaker 1: a system overhaul the eyes of us pulling that off.
Speaker 1: But it can we take this basically the framework of
Speaker 1: the system they've put in front of us to not succeed,
Speaker 1: and turn it back on by getting people were involved
Speaker 1: and in the seats that make the decisions about our community,
Speaker 1: about our lives, and the more we can do that
Speaker 1: by doing that, I think what we get is we
Speaker 1: get a lot of other people going with us. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes when we talk about system and you saw
Speaker 1: what defunded police scared the hell out of people. It
Speaker 1: didn't mean that, it didn't mean anything. But if we
Speaker 1: didn't put a clear cut you have doing it with
Speaker 1: the system, They're said, they're trying to turn that into
Speaker 1: a talking point that we're trying to take over this.
Speaker 1: We don't want cops. We want to do with this.
Speaker 1: We want equity. So yeah, and we won't take what
Speaker 1: you put in front of us and turn it into something.
Speaker 1: But the same way, like we were talking outside, is
Speaker 1: that here we are as five black men, and you
Speaker 1: think about the roadblocks that's been put in front of
Speaker 1: our people through slavery, Jim craw the world, drugs, and
Speaker 1: look at us right now where we are. Could you
Speaker 1: imagine look at what we've done with it. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking about George Floyd's name is being said all
Speaker 1: over the world right now. What would we do if
Speaker 1: we actually have somewhat close to a level playing field
Speaker 1: with our community and what we're what we were shown,
Speaker 1: what we're capable of. If we get equity, forget about it.
Speaker 1: And that's the fear, that's the fear. We're giving that
Speaker 1: power away, you know what I mean? Who want who
Speaker 1: really at the end of the day, keep real, who
Speaker 1: wants to give that, especially that kind of power away.
Speaker 1: They've they've been they've they've flipped it. See, they we've
Speaker 1: turned into the monster. Somehow we didn't slave ourselves. We
Speaker 1: weren't lynching ourselves. We weren't whipping ourselves, meeting people in
Speaker 1: the street, watching cameras as people die. We're not doing that, triselves.
Speaker 1: But somehow they've turned us into the monster. So if
Speaker 1: we give them this, if you give up system in
Speaker 1: our power, what will they do in retaliation? Right? We
Speaker 1: just want to have the same playing ground. It ain't
Speaker 1: about payback this if you go back to Nelson Mandela.
Speaker 1: Nelson Mandela's whole deal was everybody the one the young
Speaker 1: ladies said when she went on her ranch. She said,
Speaker 1: if we was asking for revenge instead of equity or equality,
Speaker 1: hold a different ball game. And so you know that's
Speaker 1: where we're at right now. And I think that to
Speaker 1: agree with everybody you gotta cash your ballot. You can't
Speaker 1: be on the sideline this time, because if you can't
Speaker 1: see what's happening right now, there's resurgence, just blatant, out
Speaker 1: in the open, white supremacy, like they didn't even hide
Speaker 1: it out, like this is our country, this is how
Speaker 1: it's gonna go. We're gonna break every rule to make
Speaker 1: sure it's still longer. You can't see that, then I
Speaker 1: feel sorry for you, and we can't tell you nothing
Speaker 1: that's gonna help you. And ask your question, though, so
Speaker 1: what do you say to the people that say, well,
Speaker 1: if we have proof that buying in comalage the more racist,
Speaker 1: more racist ship than black too, black men, than Trump,
Speaker 1: what do you say they do? People? They have done
Speaker 1: things that have devastated our community. But I want the
Speaker 1: kind of person that's willing to own it and at
Speaker 1: least say, hey, we know we're screwed up back then,
Speaker 1: and we're willing to fix it. You know, what people's
Speaker 1: intentions can be in a certain scumstances and what the
Speaker 1: result can be often can be two different things. At
Speaker 1: that time, you had nonpartisan agreement on this crime bill
Speaker 1: that we needed to do something in our streets now
Speaker 1: as black people being hit by black people because of
Speaker 1: the crack epidemic. You know, we're in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about it? Do we want less violence?
Speaker 1: Do we want our brother really to go to drill
Speaker 1: jail when he's selling crime just to make ends meet?
Speaker 1: Like we're caught in that conundrum of the crime bill.
Speaker 1: But all I want from leadership and people that have
Speaker 1: made these decisions on our lives before is can you
Speaker 1: just take a step back and on it, yeah, and
Speaker 1: say we screwed up. That's the beginning of trust. That's
Speaker 1: the beginning of moving forward. To understand why before you
Speaker 1: just incriminate us and put us on this side, understand
Speaker 1: why it's like it. Yes, you put us in a
Speaker 1: situation where we're fighting over what's left right, right, and
Speaker 1: so this is what happened for crumbs. And now you
Speaker 1: throw a Latin that's meeting in there, and tennis women
Speaker 1: and now it's just everybody's fighting for these crimes. And
Speaker 1: you say, well, look at them, they're animals, they're killing
Speaker 1: each other. Well, this is what you've given us to
Speaker 1: work with. That's right there in itself. We have to
Speaker 1: really attack that whole narrative. We got to put that
Speaker 1: on his head and spend it and show people that
Speaker 1: if we can get to that place where we get
Speaker 1: a seat at the table, good things is gonna happen
Speaker 1: for us moving forward. It's not gonna be consistent because
Speaker 1: we already had a black president, right, don't mean it's
Speaker 1: guaranteed and it's not gonna happen over. People have gonna staying.
Speaker 1: This ship was built over four hundred plus years of bullshit,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? So the change, the change
Speaker 1: we fight for now, everything we're doing in our kids
Speaker 1: are going to reap these benefits. Their kids are going
Speaker 1: to reap these busfits. So right now we're sacrificing just
Speaker 1: like the people that came before us, but we actually
Speaker 1: have some real footing and more technology to be able
Speaker 1: to have our voices heard and seen around the world now.
Speaker 1: So that so the energy is definitely different. Educating me
Speaker 1: on some stuff today though, that's what we're here. Brother,
Speaker 1: you know I'm looking for you, I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. We need to look up my people, look
Speaker 1: up the word delegates because they have a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Who who presidents? Well and go yeah and go there
Speaker 1: you go this is. And that's why I like this
Speaker 1: is because this isn't about me knowing everything of him
Speaker 1: knowing little. We're figuring it out with the people. We're
Speaker 1: trying to get to it, and we end the fight
Speaker 1: with them. You know, we ain't above them just because
Speaker 1: we've gotten some good things. We in the fight trying
Speaker 1: to figure we're learning like everyone else. And when we say,
Speaker 1: you know, with the situation in the bubble or first
Speaker 1: we were told to shut up and dribble, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden we're looking, we're looked to too,
Speaker 1: what's basketball doing? What's basketball gonna do? What you just
Speaker 1: told us to shut the funk up and dribbles? But
Speaker 1: now you want us to to to make some kind
Speaker 1: of movement or do something that's gonna abolish racism or
Speaker 1: make cops stop killing us because the color of our
Speaker 1: skin like it's gonna take. We're more than willing to
Speaker 1: take on that with you guys, But it's gonna take
Speaker 1: all of us. It's not just going to be basketball, football,
Speaker 1: and professional sports. It's gonna take everybody to change it
Speaker 1: because to begin with, none of us created this ship.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take white men and white women the people
Speaker 1: that build it, who actually got a con sense and
Speaker 1: know that that's screwed up to jump on board and
Speaker 1: help and that Howard grab that is that we're watching
Speaker 1: take place, and just how they're hold known to it
Speaker 1: and they'll do anything. Look at the suppression acts, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't ever seen anything like that. I
Speaker 1: mean closing stations hours and hours to vote they're doing.
Speaker 1: Their purging is to use it or lose its state. Right,
Speaker 1: they can decide it's a Republican run state now, and
Speaker 1: they can decide you know how they purge votes. If
Speaker 1: you don't vote too and back to back elections, they
Speaker 1: can purge your vote. Right. They're taking polling stations of
Speaker 1: the black community is impacted by the amount of polling
Speaker 1: stations that they have being limited. There's one box per
Speaker 1: county now, so there's counties with eight hundred thousand people, right,
Speaker 1: but there's only one drop box. And you can think
Speaker 1: about being in Texas there's four million people. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy. You had the governor there were fourteen
Speaker 1: drop boxes in Houston and two weeks before election, he
Speaker 1: said they can only be one drop box in Houston.
Speaker 1: It's insane. It's millions that don't make sense sense and
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's some things outside of that that
Speaker 1: people can do that are that they're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to see this show to combat that right there. So
Speaker 1: i've him on the show with athletes. I think from
Speaker 1: from athletes, I think it's recognizing your power, especially in
Speaker 1: the state that you're from, and one of the things
Speaker 1: I want to encourage. It's been such a pleasure to
Speaker 1: work with Coach Bickerstaff and Coach Fitzdale because they're owning
Speaker 1: their piece of the pot, right, and so one of
Speaker 1: the things we get obsessed with sometimes is the sort
Speaker 1: of national approach to politics. But what coach is doing
Speaker 1: in Ohio only he can do bit by bit by
Speaker 1: bit stack when he was traveling, Like that's how you
Speaker 1: have to do it, and you have to partner with
Speaker 1: a local organization or political operatives and make that point too,
Speaker 1: because like I said, I hate when I hear there's
Speaker 1: three million going from the owners and in Jordan has
Speaker 1: donut but to me, like I hate because first of all,
Speaker 1: there's never transparency where the money is going, and they
Speaker 1: just want to throw the big names and the big
Speaker 1: names that they aren't doing what needs to be done.
Speaker 1: I think they need to be able to align with
Speaker 1: the local liaison or someone that has the heart beat
Speaker 1: of that city, because what he needs in Texas is
Speaker 1: different from what I need is Sacramento, from what different
Speaker 1: from what he needs in Ohio. But you can't blanketly
Speaker 1: say Okay, we're giving it to this big organization because
Speaker 1: their nationwide. That doesn't mean and they've never been in
Speaker 1: that community. They don't know nobody in that community, or
Speaker 1: anohing and and and this is gonna I don't want
Speaker 1: this to sound or come off wrong, But the easiest
Speaker 1: thing to do is throw money at something. When you
Speaker 1: have a whole lot of money, the easiest thing to
Speaker 1: do is throw money, don't care what happens. But the
Speaker 1: hardest thing to do is actually get on the rood
Speaker 1: time and walk the walk right and fight the fight
Speaker 1: like that's difficult, that's time consuming. That shows you care. Well.
Speaker 1: One thing Jack did, I mean the one thing that
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting when Jack talked about making his
Speaker 1: move around, it was every color of the rainbow out
Speaker 1: there too. So this is everyone together, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's what it's gonna take. And the cool part of
Speaker 1: what we're doing with the Coaches Association. I know you
Speaker 1: so I saw the stuff we came out with when
Speaker 1: we spoke up. Our whole thing right now is getting
Speaker 1: involved with grassroots programs and the start of it goes
Speaker 1: back to what we talked about. First. We were on
Speaker 1: a truth and reconciliation tour. Can you reconcile with what
Speaker 1: has happened in your city and state when it comes
Speaker 1: to civil rights? African American, Hispanics, whoever? Can we just
Speaker 1: get out on the table that this you did, this,
Speaker 1: this happened. You know, we're bringing families to the games
Speaker 1: that had people killed by the police to recognize and
Speaker 1: put their name out there that we have to say
Speaker 1: this isn't right. And once we can get to that
Speaker 1: place where we make that reconciliation now all the coaches,
Speaker 1: what we did is we started pushing it to vote
Speaker 1: and we're just diving into the truth centerm tell people
Speaker 1: the truth what's going on. Don't let the missipim because
Speaker 1: they're telling the people to go vote in the wrong place.
Speaker 1: They're telling people balot certainly, but you saw the California
Speaker 1: here they put out those ballot boxes. I mean it's like,
Speaker 1: so that's all we're focused on right now is truth
Speaker 1: and reconciliation, and we feel like that's the way we
Speaker 1: can utilize our platform one best to impact was and
Speaker 1: they count on the fact that you know, these tricks
Speaker 1: and this suppression is just gonna discourage up enough people
Speaker 1: just to say fuck it. That's and that's what they
Speaker 1: he said it earlier. I think, like, to me, it's motivated.
Speaker 1: The one thing did encourage me more than anything I
Speaker 1: can ever recall was the first time my brother was
Speaker 1: Obama uh first election. But even when that happened, although
Speaker 1: we had a lot of energy, I've never seen so
Speaker 1: many public figures with platforms talk about the way it's
Speaker 1: been talked about. You know, since Kobe passed, it's been
Speaker 1: a downward spiral of just negative events happened after negative events,
Speaker 1: and that you know, the culmination of you know, it
Speaker 1: was when Jack's brother got killed. So I've never, like
Speaker 1: I said that, the one thing that gives me encouragement,
Speaker 1: the one thing that gives me chills when I think
Speaker 1: about it's just like there's so many people out here
Speaker 1: using the bigger, small platforms, using their voice because the
Speaker 1: size of what's what's the point having a big gas
Speaker 1: platform if you don't use it the right way. So
Speaker 1: to me, it doesn't matter the size of your platform
Speaker 1: as long as you're you know, you're you're educated on
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. Talk because you know you can
Speaker 1: change it. If you changed one person's mind, that could
Speaker 1: be what needed. Look at who we've lost, you know,
Speaker 1: like when you lose somebody that's been taking care of
Speaker 1: the family and your family a long time and it's
Speaker 1: your turn, you gotta step up. That's what we had.
Speaker 1: We lost this, we lost Mr Lewis, CT Vivian, we
Speaker 1: lost Ruth, We've lost I mean, titans of civil rights.
Speaker 1: And I just felt like a natural, like we up
Speaker 1: to bat type of deal is being called to us,
Speaker 1: and you're seeing that globally, really and really naturally from us,
Speaker 1: is that it's time for us to step up? Man?
Speaker 1: Is that what this man did and what he went through.
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine somebody treating Jack how they treated John
Speaker 1: Lout would have been long time, you know, that repot
Speaker 1: something on in your head at that lunch counter, and
Speaker 1: that was it. That would have been it. And then
Speaker 1: so for what he took and what he bared and
Speaker 1: what he went through to get us to this place
Speaker 1: where we have to exercise our rights. But he died
Speaker 1: this year, and I think that was a siren telling
Speaker 1: us that you can't be on the side. It's a
Speaker 1: relay race, right, They're they're passing on, but you're exactly
Speaker 1: right there there there, it's yours now. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why, like the civil rights movement from the sixties
Speaker 1: and seventies, if you think about the role that athletes
Speaker 1: and entertainers played back then, it's not a coincidence that's
Speaker 1: the sixties was also the greatest systematic, systemic change for
Speaker 1: black Americans. And I think what what what sort of
Speaker 1: coined the civil rights movement? I think was a right
Speaker 1: to just like don't lynch me, right. I think what
Speaker 1: we're at now is like all right, cool, like these
Speaker 1: laws have been passed. Now I want to see what
Speaker 1: a real seat at the table is and what America
Speaker 1: is going through right now. Doesn't not want to acknowledge
Speaker 1: what it's done. And a lot of white folks are
Speaker 1: having a tough time acknowledging because in your lives, when
Speaker 1: you acknowledge something, then you were asked to do something
Speaker 1: about it. And I think this moment, specifically for black athletes,
Speaker 1: um men and women, is about equal rights right. And
Speaker 1: you know, stack you talked about systemic change. I think
Speaker 1: it is voting as an national holiday. I think it
Speaker 1: is making sure that these voter suppression laws get turned down.
Speaker 1: I think it is passing the civil rights legislation that
Speaker 1: John Lewis was behind, fixing automatic voter registration in States,
Speaker 1: early day early voting registration in states. When you fix
Speaker 1: the machine, the amount of power that black people have,
Speaker 1: I mean, black women choose the President United States every time,
Speaker 1: every time, whether they decided to vote. That's the power
Speaker 1: of the black community. And I do like though. What
Speaker 1: I will say is I do like that black people
Speaker 1: are making elected officials work this year and the way
Speaker 1: that we haven't no doubt, I think all this kind
Speaker 1: of ties hand in hand because, as I spoke to earlier,
Speaker 1: the NBA credit in an amazing situation where you know,
Speaker 1: he was able to bring players in there safely, with
Speaker 1: no positive tests. We saw some great basketball, we crowned
Speaker 1: a champion. But at the same time, the message continued
Speaker 1: to grow. And at the beginning, this is where Jack
Speaker 1: and I kind of saw different like Jack was on
Speaker 1: the front lines in these cities. I'm up in Sacramento
Speaker 1: help past, you know, getting props together and and and
Speaker 1: bills together to be passed. And I thought that, Okay,
Speaker 1: like I said, he's on the front line. This is
Speaker 1: what the people need, this is what they want, this
Speaker 1: is what they see. But then I'm thinking, like I've
Speaker 1: been to a couple of things, but that's more his thing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing my thing. But I'm thinking globally, the message
Speaker 1: is gonna get relayed much faster, much stronger when that
Speaker 1: NBA logo is behind it. You know, we're always gonna
Speaker 1: hear Lebron, We're gonna hear CP. But do we hear
Speaker 1: Doc rivers Plea? Do we hear Fred van Pleet? Do
Speaker 1: we hear George Hill? You know? Do we hear some
Speaker 1: of these voices that aren't as big but just as powerful?
Speaker 1: You know, broad you know that. I mean, the list
Speaker 1: goes on. I mean I get so excited when I said,
Speaker 1: when I see this many people actually using their platform.
Speaker 1: What were your guys thoughts on first the safety, I
Speaker 1: mean it's kind of a three tier safety, the quality
Speaker 1: of basketball, and then how they will continue to push
Speaker 1: their narrative and their message in the middle of the
Speaker 1: interviews before games, during games, and after games. I mean,
Speaker 1: I gotta give credit to the league. And I do
Speaker 1: believe that the NBA is the best best professional sports
Speaker 1: league in the United States. And it's not even close, right, perfect, no,
Speaker 1: but there's not even a closer, right, So I gotta
Speaker 1: give credit to the league for doing what they did.
Speaker 1: And they did prioritize making sure people were safe, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like some of those steps may
Speaker 1: have seemed drastic in the beginning, but their priority was
Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody was safe and that they
Speaker 1: were able to get a full season and to be
Speaker 1: able to go through and get not get one positive.
Speaker 1: They accomplished and that's a hell of an accomplishment. And
Speaker 1: you think about, you know, all the people, and again
Speaker 1: give credit to the people who went right, the players,
Speaker 1: the staff, the ref because they weren't doing crazy stuff,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, we know those urges
Speaker 1: are there, you know, to step off the campus and
Speaker 1: go do what whatever. Credit to them for staying on course, right,
Speaker 1: because that's a that's a big deal. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: they carried the burden for all of us, you know,
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like the teams that didn't get invited
Speaker 1: down there, you know what I mean, the teams that
Speaker 1: had to go home. Really they carried the burden for
Speaker 1: the entire NBA to get it done financially and again
Speaker 1: to keep that message going, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like if somebody would have made a mistake, they would
Speaker 1: have used that as ammunition to go at that seat.
Speaker 1: They can't do that, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: they can't focus on this. And they did a great
Speaker 1: job of making sure their messages were on point and
Speaker 1: they carried themselves in a way where people had to
Speaker 1: respect them. And there's a group of people who are
Speaker 1: just ignorant. They don't care no matter what players say
Speaker 1: or what they do, Like they don't care because they
Speaker 1: can't get past the fact that, you know, they don't
Speaker 1: want these athletes to have a voice. They don't want
Speaker 1: them to have an opinion, they don't want them to
Speaker 1: carry weight. They don't want exactly so put them there.
Speaker 1: But I think what it did was it opened a
Speaker 1: lot of eyes about the power that the NBA players
Speaker 1: that they have. That they carried that one thing. I'll say,
Speaker 1: whether you agreed with how it went down, or not
Speaker 1: when Minnesota or Milwaukee decided not to play, and it
Speaker 1: was a domino effect how some people said, you should
Speaker 1: have kept that power, You should have did this, you
Speaker 1: should that That one thing has shown me is they
Speaker 1: have power. Because it was the NBA, it was the NFL,
Speaker 1: it was the MLS, it was the w n b A,
Speaker 1: it was the NFL. Stop you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you saw the effect and the like. That was
Speaker 1: the one thing I took away that we can debate
Speaker 1: back and forth and I don't want to get into
Speaker 1: it should they have stopped in really gone after something?
Speaker 1: But to me, all this just show was our power. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and can just and this is the thing that that
Speaker 1: kind of that excites me about. It is to me,
Speaker 1: there's been a void of leadership in our communities for
Speaker 1: a long time. Right, we threw so much weight into politicians,
Speaker 1: and politicians have led us down time and time again.
Speaker 1: That void was filled by powerful voices, right, and everybody
Speaker 1: jumped on, like you saw tennis, soccer, NFL people jumped on.
Speaker 1: I think we gotta make sure we keep it pushing
Speaker 1: and keep pushing until we vote. It's it's it's an
Speaker 1: ongoing process. So like when we're gonna utes after you vote,
Speaker 1: you still black man, turn the Sammy. You ain't going
Speaker 1: turn in the Samy once you vote my people and
Speaker 1: they still go back. They're not gonna let up on
Speaker 1: trying to take away your right to vote. It's just
Speaker 1: not gonna stop. Even if we win this. They're gonna
Speaker 1: keep fighting because the numbers are gonna continue to be
Speaker 1: in our favorite right, the demographics of our country. Our
Speaker 1: country is getting brown and I don't care how you
Speaker 1: look at it. And so that's gonna keep happening. But
Speaker 1: that small contingency that he's talking about, it's gonna keep
Speaker 1: fighting to keep trying to even up the numbers no
Speaker 1: matter what. So we can't and they count on you
Speaker 1: after the election ex sale, But you know, to go
Speaker 1: along with what he said about the bubble, I thought
Speaker 1: what I really would marveled at was the discipline of
Speaker 1: everyone to stay on message. Watch the interviews, watch the
Speaker 1: half time, and watch watch the post game interviews. It
Speaker 1: was a guy that really went up there, that didn't
Speaker 1: say something, He's okay, the game, did this the game.
Speaker 1: We're here to Brianna Taylor, And it was like, that's
Speaker 1: what I was so out about was just the consistency
Speaker 1: of being able to stay on message and knowing a
Speaker 1: lot of those guys that was in the bubble still
Speaker 1: doing stuff in their hometown of their communities to impact
Speaker 1: as well. To me, that's what was so amazing. And
Speaker 1: then the final part of it was just the quality
Speaker 1: of the game. The competition was fantastic. You can tell
Speaker 1: that this wasn't no asterisk trophy. You you could tell
Speaker 1: that them dudes wanted that trophy, right, It was no,
Speaker 1: this is all what we're in the bubble type thing.
Speaker 1: Not everybody that was in that bubble was going after
Speaker 1: that trophy and self motivated. Right, People push you like
Speaker 1: you got the home crowd, they're cheering you around. Now.
Speaker 1: You had to find my question to you because we
Speaker 1: we think about it as players. You guys played in
Speaker 1: your career, but we're in the league's coaches. Was there
Speaker 1: a benefit to either side to not having crowds because
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about these young Miami Heat players, like not
Speaker 1: having to come to l A and go to war.
Speaker 1: Everybody can be shot in the first in the fourth, Yeah, Abs,
Speaker 1: you saw you saw a lot of guys that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally see performed it's more just pick up because
Speaker 1: they don't have that pressure the crowd on them player,
Speaker 1: because that that crowd puts that that extra weight of
Speaker 1: what this game stands, what it means. It means that
Speaker 1: crowd is putting that extra being that with thirty thou
Speaker 1: and man and shutting them. So it's both sides of it.
Speaker 1: And some guys rise in those moments, some guys don't.
Speaker 1: But you didn't have any of that. It was cool.
Speaker 1: But you also guys that got tight because of the
Speaker 1: moment as well, Like it was guys as it started
Speaker 1: to squeeze Denver, how do you come back three one twice?
Speaker 1: They stepped up all of a sudden that momentum times
Speaker 1: and you saw teams getting every shot was like they
Speaker 1: had to make it, and all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: young team Miamie clear mind, they kept winning and just
Speaker 1: put pressure on those things like Milwaukee puts so much
Speaker 1: pressure on them as they start to look up, like
Speaker 1: why are they in the series with us? Before they
Speaker 1: knew it, they're gone. And so I think that you know,
Speaker 1: it opened up the window for teams that you know,
Speaker 1: we're more like a Miami or Denver who had guys
Speaker 1: that necessarily haven't been in the dungeons and the arenas
Speaker 1: where you're getting called every name in the book. Those guys,
Speaker 1: I felt played a little more free, and your chemistry
Speaker 1: with your team showed more too, because if you want
Speaker 1: to fight for the guy next to you, like that's
Speaker 1: all you got, you know what I mean. The teams
Speaker 1: that we're doing this, those are the teams that went home.
Speaker 1: That was the one thing to talking to some of
Speaker 1: the guys in above said, they said the best some
Speaker 1: of the best times where the evenings when everyone like
Speaker 1: sometimes you're kicking it and talking to dudes you would
Speaker 1: never really run across. They've just always been an opponent,
Speaker 1: but now you're getting I wasn't in the league. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have felt that games. But you know what else too,
Speaker 1: I think I think you saw what the importance that
Speaker 1: toughness is a real skill that young but that team
Speaker 1: was like at the time, you know, the whole dealing.
Speaker 1: So I think you saw what that element can bring
Speaker 1: to us. That because I kept saying, it's like the Thunderdome, right,
Speaker 1: you're just throwing people in this bubble and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: who's gonna survive. Miami's team their whole culture was built
Speaker 1: for that kind of seals throw them over in the jungle.
Speaker 1: They figured out a way they getting me. So that's
Speaker 1: what Miami was and I think that's why they in
Speaker 1: that environment when you had, you know, a Toronto team
Speaker 1: that was vulnerable. Now that wasn't the same from the
Speaker 1: year before, Boston team that was reeling from an injury
Speaker 1: with Hayter coming in and out of the lineup, Milwaukee
Speaker 1: who whoever weeks but they didn't address their wars but
Speaker 1: walk He never addressed their wars. In fact, they led
Speaker 1: a guy like brobed and Walked who was a critical
Speaker 1: things like that, and you saw when honest wasn't going.
Speaker 1: When you're asking guys that are still talented, but they're
Speaker 1: not asked to carry the burden like guys play their role.
Speaker 1: So it's tough when your name is number one and
Speaker 1: number two on the scoutter reported, not number eight. When
Speaker 1: Kobe was doing his thing, when you as well him,
Speaker 1: it was made it easy for everybody, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: on that court. Everybody else had to go to the
Speaker 1: next spot. Was like Motherucker's talking about they want to
Speaker 1: but can you really hand them really? If you was
Speaker 1: on the team with you know, I gotta be the jerk.
Speaker 1: Would you put him to the side, broke? Can you
Speaker 1: work on your jump shot? I would just you know,
Speaker 1: I think he does. I think that's like he's gotten
Speaker 1: better some guys that don't. But it's playoff level better
Speaker 1: and you know the difference. Yeah, right, And I think
Speaker 1: that's the thing is like he's working at it, but
Speaker 1: it's a working process. When I watched, that's how I
Speaker 1: know the teams. I know how teams played teams in
Speaker 1: the regular season in the playoffs, and if you can't shoot,
Speaker 1: we're gonna give you that the whole playoffs. But you
Speaker 1: have to still take it and miss it. You have
Speaker 1: to take in Simmons, you still have to shoot it
Speaker 1: and understand what it feels like they're making miss not
Speaker 1: just an emptys gym. You have to have that feeling
Speaker 1: what I meant to see it missing. But we've all
Speaker 1: seen great like you know, great shooters and practice like
Speaker 1: motherfucker's and you give him the ball in the game,
Speaker 1: they do like little kids, and that guy sucks because
Speaker 1: you're like in the game, like, oh, he's wide open
Speaker 1: to the game. Drop some beautiful drop some beautiful ship
Speaker 1: he's wide open. And you know it's like everybody, everybody
Speaker 1: that's a whole. Different guys are different, and so that's
Speaker 1: what I think with Jane. Honestly, even with all of
Speaker 1: those deficiencies of shooting, if they would address that issue
Speaker 1: of having a guy that can come off a pick
Speaker 1: and roll, shoot at three and make a play for him.
Speaker 1: See that's where he's a powerful everything stop for everybody.
Speaker 1: Gota Remember he's a power forward. Carl Malone has stocked
Speaker 1: Timmy had Tony Parker. Come on, man, you can go
Speaker 1: down the line of point guards that's played with great
Speaker 1: power forwards. They need easy baskets. He always got the
Speaker 1: ball in his hands that has to make the play.
Speaker 1: Everybody need a guy to get him some cheap stuff.
Speaker 1: But only a great mind coach I know to think
Speaker 1: like that, though only you know that. Kevin mcke Kevin mckill.
Speaker 1: Never forget Kevin McKell quote. And he wasn't even talking
Speaker 1: about basketball, but he always said, every big man needs
Speaker 1: a point guard everything, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 1: even on the court, off the court, you need a
Speaker 1: point Mike con Manga sall were in a separate perfect match.
Speaker 1: They had to be together like that, the combination, and
Speaker 1: they needed each other that way, and bigs like that
Speaker 1: need good guard play because they gotta get six to
Speaker 1: ten easy ones. And then all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: that gain, now Janice may start making more jumpers because
Speaker 1: it's like, I ain't got some to make this. You
Speaker 1: got to get one or two of those guys or
Speaker 1: they're gonna keep running into the same problems. And if
Speaker 1: they don't, I fear he may decide I gotta touch
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, that's a real possibility. Don't go to
Speaker 1: the Bay, Oh, Miami Bank, Toronto. It's a lot of Toronto.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of times that you want to go Miami.
Speaker 1: The band. Imagine if we weren't in the pandemic and
Speaker 1: when you had to go to South Beach and l
Speaker 1: how great is I want to went to that ship.
Speaker 1: I don't even like pissed off because he was like
Speaker 1: this first time this happened. Crazy. Miami and I like
Speaker 1: the two most populus cities. You got a chance to
Speaker 1: win a couple of rings with Braun in Miami to
Speaker 1: see what he's been able to kind of do. Went
Speaker 1: from you know, I think he learned and you can
Speaker 1: speak to this I think he learned a lot from
Speaker 1: you guys in Miami, particularly the weight on how to
Speaker 1: handle it because the weight had already been there. Your
Speaker 1: staff and your organization is rock solid, and like Jack said,
Speaker 1: it starts at the top. I think he did He
Speaker 1: did great as a player, but I didn't think he
Speaker 1: did a lot of a training and learning when he
Speaker 1: was with you guys. You know, the biggest thing he
Speaker 1: learned in Miami is he learned to stop giving a
Speaker 1: fun man hard to do and it's hard to do
Speaker 1: when when so many people are talking about you from
Speaker 1: the nine fresh sheet Man. We all seen this movie.
Speaker 1: This dude was a nine. He was on Sports Sale Australia.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be the best player that ever
Speaker 1: played the game, and that was on his head from
Speaker 1: Matt and he didn't. He didn't disappline, he hasn't disappointed. Now,
Speaker 1: did he have some bumps in the role. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying squeaky clean athletes, but I'm just people
Speaker 1: people have I'm talking about in the roles, like losing
Speaker 1: this series or not hitting this shot. That stuff has
Speaker 1: come and we watched him roll through that. But if
Speaker 1: you look at the totality of what he's been able
Speaker 1: to do, he ain't done, then win it again next
Speaker 1: year with prime for seventeen years none and he takes
Speaker 1: it so serious, like, he puts in so much. That's
Speaker 1: why I can respect it, because I got to see
Speaker 1: him put in the time. He doesn't take that part
Speaker 1: for granted. He's just not a talented dude showing up
Speaker 1: and being Lebron's done physically for himself mentally like, and
Speaker 1: then when you take all of that, and he's taking
Speaker 1: the burden of leading us in social justice and criminal
Speaker 1: justice and this whole deal can carry out that. I mean,
Speaker 1: he built the school where the families live for free,
Speaker 1: if they're in this program where they got housing, who's
Speaker 1: done that. He's carrying all of that. He's doing all
Speaker 1: of this great stuff on the court that we can't
Speaker 1: even believe. And he's not done and he's doing that.
Speaker 1: So so what we're seeing is something to marvel at.
Speaker 1: And I hope that when it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: that he really gets the kind of credit I think
Speaker 1: when you see that too, though, And this is what
Speaker 1: my point before about that group of people over here,
Speaker 1: that they try to find a way anything when you
Speaker 1: remember last year. We were here last year. Because you
Speaker 1: hear the media he's coming in l A and he
Speaker 1: wants to make movies and be on shows and he's not.
Speaker 1: I'm just like this thing has been doing this stuff.
Speaker 1: You just didn't know because he wasn't in l A
Speaker 1: doing it like he need to be that he knows
Speaker 1: what his job is. Was looking at was Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: having a tough time catching these dudes with six I
Speaker 1: might be able to do it, but I'm having But
Speaker 1: what I can do is win one with three different
Speaker 1: franchises and the finals m VP. That's all I'm done.
Speaker 1: Think about that. And he took a whole different crew
Speaker 1: four times and said, come on, guys, fit the pieces together.
Speaker 1: I'll make the rest of it work. I got it,
Speaker 1: but from an athletes, I masked it this all the time.
Speaker 1: This is one I love Lebron. I put him, I
Speaker 1: set him apart from everybody. As athletes, we all bring
Speaker 1: out entourage, brown, we all come in. I want to
Speaker 1: bring out hood and every around and put them in
Speaker 1: position to be me that I put them in position
Speaker 1: to provide for themselves. He's the only one in NBA
Speaker 1: history to get the only one. That's why I get
Speaker 1: That's why I seated one of them. I'm guilty, I
Speaker 1: got it wrong. He's the only one to get that
Speaker 1: was the most The thing I loved about his cruel was,
Speaker 1: and I'm friends with all of them, is that they
Speaker 1: all became their own entity, right. They didn't just hold
Speaker 1: on to us tail and say, you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stay in this crew and be around him as they
Speaker 1: that's the end. And he gave He empowered me to
Speaker 1: go be themselves. And you know I would if I'm
Speaker 1: an athlete and I got a little crew. That's the blueprint.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there, go ahead. What what did they do
Speaker 1: so that I'm not paying these dudes bills when I'm
Speaker 1: twenty years from now and they're still, you know, asking
Speaker 1: me for money and all that stuff. What he did
Speaker 1: is he empowered their entrepreneurship. Where he started to finished though,
Speaker 1: he started on the court, right, and that's where he
Speaker 1: does his thing. And I think, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: we got people who walk this line, but they're not
Speaker 1: fully committed here. And if you're not fully committed here,
Speaker 1: cares about that other stuff? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Occurred below average as an NBA player, Like nobody's jumping
Speaker 1: on your ship to give you these opportunities do these
Speaker 1: things like he got the job done here and all
Speaker 1: the other doors were opened up because of basketball. I
Speaker 1: just wish people would would would understand and appreciate instead
Speaker 1: of always trying to compare who's this, who's that? What
Speaker 1: he didn't do? What? We've got a chance to watch
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James all in their primes,
Speaker 1: all during our lifetime. Because I was the people with
Speaker 1: exactly right. I mean, That's why I don't get into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't this whole thing people with no talent they
Speaker 1: made and the gum by itself nothing, They couldn't make
Speaker 1: a layup, and they were the ones trying to have
Speaker 1: better than this, and and it almost And what I
Speaker 1: don't like is is sports media has almost made you
Speaker 1: like if if I like COVID, then I can't like Lebron,
Speaker 1: but I still like MG. I can't like it. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't rate that really do that though? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't a race that could pat trying to make
Speaker 1: each other go at each other. I could pay each other.
Speaker 1: You can't just say, okay, it's only one mom, but
Speaker 1: one king and one Jordan. You can't just you got
Speaker 1: what Jordan betted in him with Cobe. We only raised
Speaker 1: that compare. We can't just be great. We can't just
Speaker 1: let everybody be great and everybody praise everybody and give
Speaker 1: everybody they flowers. We got to compare them in some
Speaker 1: kind of way. I always look out like us, if
Speaker 1: your name is in the conversation, that's over and don't
Speaker 1: and then and if you're not in that circle, like
Speaker 1: I like what Jordan said. Did you hear what Jordan
Speaker 1: was talking about it not too long ago, about how
Speaker 1: you can't compare Karine to me to lebron to He's like,
Speaker 1: it's not fair generationally to do that. He's like, you
Speaker 1: got to appreciate what these guys are doing. And if
Speaker 1: Jordan's said that, everybody else needs to shut the funk up,
Speaker 1: he's the one that really has got the most votes
Speaker 1: for the crime, right. And if he said here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna set the crown over here for me, just so
Speaker 1: y'all understand it's not about that, then everybody else shut
Speaker 1: the fun up, right exactly, Let's transition to um obviously,
Speaker 1: you guys, current head coach, former head coach. Black coaches
Speaker 1: in the NBA are few and far between. DC Rivers
Speaker 1: was let go, but then immediately picked up. Ty Lewis
Speaker 1: picked up by the clips name. McMillan was fired, Alvin
Speaker 1: Jenni was fired. We're as it stand, maybe four six
Speaker 1: curves now with TLU and then Dot getting back on.
Speaker 1: It's at six six out of thirty still open. New
Speaker 1: Orleans is still open though, and one more place, um
Speaker 1: okay in Indiana? Right, Okay? What is it gonna take
Speaker 1: for people that look like us, that entertain everyone and
Speaker 1: are great on the court to actually get more of
Speaker 1: a realistic look as coaches, as general manager, as front office,
Speaker 1: as exacts willing to work or get a chance to
Speaker 1: work their way up. It's tough man, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, you know what I mean. Like, we got
Speaker 1: a lot of friends that are still in this fight
Speaker 1: and trying to move. We've been through it. I was
Speaker 1: what fourteen years before, you know, I got an opportunity,
Speaker 1: and the only reason I got an opportunity is three
Speaker 1: times is because the person ahead of me, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: got got let you got let go or decided to
Speaker 1: move on. You know what I mean. I went on.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many interviews and you get
Speaker 1: to a point where they say, oh, you know you're gray,
Speaker 1: but our owner decided this, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like that happened to me four or five times where
Speaker 1: you know, the general manager would tell me one thing
Speaker 1: and then they would say, well, our owner decided we
Speaker 1: needed more of this, you know, and this ended up
Speaker 1: being an older white right instead of you know what
Speaker 1: I represent? Uh, So you get piste off, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, to be honest with you, And you
Speaker 1: know what it comes down to if you think about
Speaker 1: it is, you know companies and businesses as a whole
Speaker 1: that are run by older white men, how comfortable are
Speaker 1: they and putting young black men in positions of leadership?
Speaker 1: They hire people who look like them. It's comfortable for him,
Speaker 1: right because that's who they know, that's who they've experienced,
Speaker 1: that's what they understand. You know. I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: extremely fortunate, you know what I'm saying. Like in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: Kobe Altman is a black general manager. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: a black head coach. There's five or six different positions
Speaker 1: in our organization that are led by black men or
Speaker 1: black women, you know what I mean. So like, that's
Speaker 1: an extremely unique situation in all the pro sports. We
Speaker 1: were one of the first to do a vice president
Speaker 1: of diversity and clue who was a black man named
Speaker 1: Kevin Clayton. So like, our organization has been thinking forward
Speaker 1: and has been open, but it's not common in the league.
Speaker 1: And I think it's something you know me Again, we
Speaker 1: talked to talk, right, but when the action came, the
Speaker 1: opportunity to make these hires, in these decisions, we didn't
Speaker 1: make those decisions. We didn't walk that walk. So I
Speaker 1: mean that's something that you know, we got to make
Speaker 1: sure that we keep putting the pressure on too, to
Speaker 1: keep people thinking about that. Like again, it's easy to
Speaker 1: throw money at the problem when you gotta make a
Speaker 1: decision and when it becomes difficult. And the thing too,
Speaker 1: it starts with the whole perception of young black coaches,
Speaker 1: you know, And he knows exactly what I'm about to
Speaker 1: talk about. And this is a really unfortunate part of
Speaker 1: the battle we have to fight to get where we are.
Speaker 1: Is when we came into the league as young assistants,
Speaker 1: player development, whatever our job yeah, it was to get
Speaker 1: players better. That wasn't our biggest job. My job was
Speaker 1: to keep Jack out. The club did that, and I
Speaker 1: would I never played with y'all, y'all. Still, this is
Speaker 1: real ship and the your grands right. I don't mean
Speaker 1: to cut you off, but this is real ship. He's
Speaker 1: not lying at all, y'all, y'all. Every team that I
Speaker 1: played against you all, y'all used to make y'all wait,
Speaker 1: both of y'all, make you all wait down to my end,
Speaker 1: talk to me, check on me. And we never even
Speaker 1: played on the same time. But then they used that
Speaker 1: against you because then they said you're too close to
Speaker 1: the players. But I can't tell you how many nights
Speaker 1: I got the call, Hey, JB, so and so was
Speaker 1: here again. Go get him, Go get him South Beach,
Speaker 1: go get him. So I go get him. Right, you
Speaker 1: know we got this you know, specialist coming in. We
Speaker 1: want him to work with him. You know he won't
Speaker 1: do it if we asked him. But JB, what you
Speaker 1: asked him to do it to do it because of
Speaker 1: your relationship, right, And then when it came time for
Speaker 1: promotions moving up, it was you're too close to the players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, what I'm saying, they're not your friends at
Speaker 1: his wedding, right, this happened at his wedding. My wife
Speaker 1: and I are in the suite, will get you know,
Speaker 1: Gary go to another event for his wedding. We're down
Speaker 1: to Mexico, having a great time. I get a call
Speaker 1: from a good friend of all the Oars, Mike Brown.
Speaker 1: My guy. Mike Brown is our guy. I went to
Speaker 1: my same college, is Mike. He's the reason I'm even
Speaker 1: in the league. Mike Brown called me, said first I
Speaker 1: got to talk to you. I'm like, what's up. He's like,
Speaker 1: it's a certain contingency of people out there that's trying
Speaker 1: to hold up your opportunities from being the head coach.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like I
Speaker 1: ain't even thinking about it. He said, it's people saying
Speaker 1: you're too close to your players. You know you're this
Speaker 1: here and I'm like, so here it is. They've been
Speaker 1: telling me this is what I gotta do to be important.
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I keep there my line, but
Speaker 1: I can coach too, but this is my main job.
Speaker 1: But now they're using it against me to get that.
Speaker 1: You gotta think, like he talked about fourteen years, I
Speaker 1: went to four title runs. I didn't get an interview
Speaker 1: for two more years from Memphis and we had to
Speaker 1: call him. I had made I went to Pat's office.
Speaker 1: I said, Pad, I need a favor so I never
Speaker 1: come to you if I wasn't ready, And he was like,
Speaker 1: what's up. I'm like, I want the Memphis job. He's
Speaker 1: liked and luckily as Pat right got you, boom, he
Speaker 1: put the call in. But they didn't call for me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't a part of the pool, you know, because
Speaker 1: again I think people looked at me as like, well,
Speaker 1: he just keeps the way Brian Chris Bosh from going off,
Speaker 1: and he he does that supposing the coaches and not
Speaker 1: only is it not easy, but we're coaching. That's the
Speaker 1: part that gets lost in this and that's what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about is the perception of what black coaches are.
Speaker 1: I was the players coach when I got hired as
Speaker 1: a head coach, not a tactician, not a guy who
Speaker 1: understand the offense pace, you know, defensive systems, all this stuff, analytics.
Speaker 1: I'm I can give a master's course. We can both
Speaker 1: give a master's course on every technology in this league.
Speaker 1: Because I came through the video rown just like you did.
Speaker 1: I can tell you every position on assistant coaching staff.
Speaker 1: I've ran a defense of offense, player development. We've done
Speaker 1: every one of those jobs all the way through the deal.
Speaker 1: But now I get to the seat and it's my
Speaker 1: turn and on the players coach, which is the most
Speaker 1: different and conversed intelligence. Yeah, what do they say about
Speaker 1: the young white coaches that coming to this league? And
Speaker 1: he's my friends, right, like these are basketball mind right,
Speaker 1: if you could go back and and yeah, but that's
Speaker 1: the That's what I'm saying is so we have to
Speaker 1: really change that perception. And I put a lot of
Speaker 1: that burden on the head coaches in this league. They
Speaker 1: have to start showing their assistance in a different light.
Speaker 1: And they gotta started talking about their black assistance in
Speaker 1: the light of a guy that really knows how to
Speaker 1: teach the game, execute the game. You know, the whole
Speaker 1: of being ahead players, that's the most important. You need
Speaker 1: to coach, need to demand their respect and be leaders.
Speaker 1: And what happens to us though again perceptions so as
Speaker 1: we do that, we're being combative. We don't we're creating
Speaker 1: McMillan named McMillan has got an extension and then they
Speaker 1: still fired. But what they say is he's too hard.
Speaker 1: He running through this practice is too long. He's But
Speaker 1: if that was coach k or somebody else that you'll
Speaker 1: be saying, what a coach. He really holds the accountable.
Speaker 1: He's really putting that stamp down, you know. And so
Speaker 1: that's how it kind of goes where we gotta watch
Speaker 1: that wall. There's too many people that's never played the
Speaker 1: game have an input and have a say so how
Speaker 1: the game is ran. That's a big problem too. And
Speaker 1: and one reason why players are not involved in who coaches,
Speaker 1: who coaches coach their team is because they would pick coaches,
Speaker 1: like y'all, coaches that they can talk to outside of basketball,
Speaker 1: coaches that they feel they feel comfortable talking to about everything.
Speaker 1: Even with Steve Nash, he's not black, but they picked
Speaker 1: him because he's a two time m VP, he's been
Speaker 1: in Wars, he's been in the NBA. They know that
Speaker 1: they can trust him when it comes down to the game.
Speaker 1: And here's but here's where I would ask, and I
Speaker 1: would challenge all the players. You do have power, you
Speaker 1: do have voice. Right, So the Steve Nash is a
Speaker 1: clear picture to all of us of the power that players,
Speaker 1: no question, don't use it as a way out, like
Speaker 1: use your boys, you know what I mean. If it matters,
Speaker 1: if it matters to you and all these things like
Speaker 1: we keep talking about the impact and equality and equity,
Speaker 1: if it matters, use your boys because they have to listen.
Speaker 1: Because the important thing. See, you guys are retired and
Speaker 1: now you're in a world where you look at people's occupations.
Speaker 1: Deffinitely it has to happen when players are in the current.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I wasn't like that. Yeah, y'all have been
Speaker 1: playing by damn self. I wouldn't damn show what's showing up. Well,
Speaker 1: my thing too is I mean, I could be wrong,
Speaker 1: but I think it's obviously you're I don't even want
Speaker 1: to use your leash or your rope is shorter because
Speaker 1: it's just not the time. But I feel like it's
Speaker 1: dangerous because, like I said, I've known you for a
Speaker 1: long time and I talked about your situation. You got
Speaker 1: an opportunity to coach first and formance, which is a blessing,
Speaker 1: but it's two fucked up teams, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So you can only do so much, and then we'll ship.
Speaker 1: We'll look who we had and look what they did. Well, motherfucker,
Speaker 1: look what you gave him exactly. You look at the
Speaker 1: job you gave him and the roster you gave them,
Speaker 1: and then well he couldn't do this here, he couldn't
Speaker 1: do this there, so he must not. So it's dangerous.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I don't like to Steven Steve.
Speaker 1: It's for friends of ours play with Steve. He got
Speaker 1: a job with two superstars, Steve Kerr got a job
Speaker 1: with three All Stars to superstars, Like you don't see
Speaker 1: black coaches getting an opportunity to lead a team that
Speaker 1: is just is ready to do. You get black coaches
Speaker 1: the jobs that they got a build not too many people,
Speaker 1: But then you don't really give a chance to build,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It takes it takes two
Speaker 1: or three drafts, three or four seasons to really have
Speaker 1: an identity as the coach's identity. You can't get motherfucker's
Speaker 1: in and out like you can't build it for me.
Speaker 1: It's it's personal. But it's like my dad been through
Speaker 1: the ship for a long you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like my dad's first job was in nineteen seventy two
Speaker 1: and the NBA. Right he's still working with us in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: But you look at his head coaching jobs and it
Speaker 1: was the same ship, you know what I mean. He
Speaker 1: got a young team with the Wizards or they were
Speaker 1: the Bullets at the time, with c Webb and Juan
Speaker 1: and George mirision Is Strict and those guys. But all
Speaker 1: the other jobs, like all of those jobs like he
Speaker 1: had to get and he had to build it. So
Speaker 1: if you think about from his first job was with
Speaker 1: Seattle and head coaching job right from five to two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty, we're having the same conversation, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So what's changing, what can change, what
Speaker 1: is being done to change is their talks amongst the organizations,
Speaker 1: amongst the Coaches Union, Like what kind of stuff is
Speaker 1: being talked about they I mean, we do have a
Speaker 1: very strong coaches Union. I'll give them a ton of
Speaker 1: credit for that. David Fogel is the head of as
Speaker 1: the executive director. Rick Carlisle is the head of it UM,
Speaker 1: and you know they are making pushes to try to
Speaker 1: help you know, minority coaches, black coaches get interviews, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. That's what you get
Speaker 1: as an interview, right, Like you can't tell and you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be able to You shouldn't be able to tell
Speaker 1: an owner you have to hire this guy, right, you
Speaker 1: have to take a look at it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: like you can do that. But you know, that's the
Speaker 1: difficult part about it is what Fortune five company? Can
Speaker 1: you say you have to hire a black CEO or
Speaker 1: a black executive director? Like, you can't do it, don't
Speaker 1: that right? So they're giving exposure and they're doing a
Speaker 1: bunch of different things, you know, um as far as
Speaker 1: technology on the internet. They're putting together stories on these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, videos like all types of stuff to try
Speaker 1: to give them exposures to be done. Because when you
Speaker 1: when you overqualify, you gotta you, you gotta remember again,
Speaker 1: it spills back into society and just the basics of
Speaker 1: how our society has moved. We have to be much
Speaker 1: better at everything just to get a look. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so that's where you know, but again it's all like
Speaker 1: he said, it falls back on obviously the owners are
Speaker 1: going to make the final decision. But I do feel
Speaker 1: like Adam Silver in the league and I know the
Speaker 1: Coaches Association. We're really making strong pushes so that more
Speaker 1: guys get their foot just in the room to talk
Speaker 1: to these people. And when they can do that and
Speaker 1: just had that opportunity, you never know then what happens.
Speaker 1: You can while a guy, you know, maybe you click
Speaker 1: with a guy and you get your opportunity. But that
Speaker 1: has to be the thing that we got to get
Speaker 1: people in front of these guys so that they know
Speaker 1: there's quality candidates and not something you just heard from
Speaker 1: about somebody from the resource. But you get them in
Speaker 1: front of you and you talked to him. Don't don't
Speaker 1: don't let it be somebody have to tell you that
Speaker 1: I'm called qualified. It's it's right here that I'm I'm here.
Speaker 1: It says right here, I'm quantified. Somebody should have to
Speaker 1: tell you I'm quantified. Transitioning to your time in Memphis, Um,
Speaker 1: it was eye opening for me in a good way,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I when I got to Memphis,
Speaker 1: I was just like man, the people, the food, the history. UM.
Speaker 1: You were very vocal out there about having some Confederate
Speaker 1: statues removed. UM out there, and UH talked to us
Speaker 1: a little bit about what that was about. And what
Speaker 1: ended up happening. Um, you know, it's really it's interesting
Speaker 1: because when we first got there, Um, I was approached
Speaker 1: by this group take them down nine oh one, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know they're talking about these statues and me, being
Speaker 1: a West Coast guy, I didn't even get it. And
Speaker 1: I never even really to be honest, what you knew
Speaker 1: that these statues was all over the place. The only
Speaker 1: thing I remember seeing over the course of my life
Speaker 1: that really just took me back was when I worked
Speaker 1: for the Hawks and I went to Stone Mountain and
Speaker 1: I saw this, like didn't they lose? They have this?
Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean. But then when I
Speaker 1: was so when I got there, here this you're talking
Speaker 1: about being a young black coaches Like, okay, this group
Speaker 1: is asking me to be active. How active can I be?
Speaker 1: It's my first job, I'm in the South, and how
Speaker 1: far am I willing to push this? But at some point,
Speaker 1: certain things happen that you don't get to choose no more.
Speaker 1: And Charlotte'sville happening, right, Charlottesville happened but on your front doorstep, yeah,
Speaker 1: right there, And it was all about that statue. And
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here, is that you know in the city,
Speaker 1: Dr King was assassinated, and here it is a majority
Speaker 1: black staff. Right. We put a lot of time into
Speaker 1: the black community and the Civil Rights Museum and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and here I am and charlotte Ville happens,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, we got these crazy. We got
Speaker 1: a statue for people that don't know. Nathan Bedford Forest,
Speaker 1: the first the grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,
Speaker 1: had a statue aside, two story statue in the biggest
Speaker 1: park in the city. And Jefferson Davis across town had
Speaker 1: a statue to say inside sitting in one of our
Speaker 1: best parts right on the Mississippi River. Now here, I
Speaker 1: am a black coach and this has happened in my city.
Speaker 1: And I got a group of black women asking me
Speaker 1: to get involved in this and put my voice to it.
Speaker 1: And Charlottesville is going on, and I'm like, I can't
Speaker 1: stay on the sideline for this one. So I didn't
Speaker 1: ask permission. I dove in. I did a huge YouTube interview.
Speaker 1: My wife posted some stuff on her on her Instagram
Speaker 1: because I'm not on Instagram, but we did. We went
Speaker 1: to pictures of the statues with me in front of them,
Speaker 1: you know, Black Lives Matter T shirts all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, just to bring again platform attention to it,
Speaker 1: because that's what they didn't have. A lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't understand, didn't even know about what these women have
Speaker 1: been trying to do all this time. So I got
Speaker 1: involved in that, and and sure enough, when I did it,
Speaker 1: I got called to the principal's office and it was
Speaker 1: sponsors of the team that were threatening to pull out
Speaker 1: if I didn't shut up. We had a couple of
Speaker 1: minority owners that spoke up, you know, mad that I
Speaker 1: was doing this and now, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: that me to tone it down, and I just said,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't do that in the position that
Speaker 1: I'm in right now, with what's going on in our
Speaker 1: country and these two statues sitting in our city, I
Speaker 1: can't back off of this. And so I just stayed
Speaker 1: with it. You know, we got a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, threats and things like that obviously sent our way.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the middle of the South, right. Although
Speaker 1: Memphis is an awesome city and people live in that city,
Speaker 1: about that city, what is surrounded by is the history
Speaker 1: of our South. And I got a backlash from that
Speaker 1: that was pretty you know, pretty uh threatening, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, I wasn't gonna back off and we
Speaker 1: laugh about it. But I got fired and a week
Speaker 1: later I got a call from one of the ladies
Speaker 1: and the group saying, you know, Coach, we just want
Speaker 1: you to know your time in Memphis wasn't in vain.
Speaker 1: Statues are coming down and they sent me the video
Speaker 1: and you you know, winning titles and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's awesome, guys, but that's real, and that's something that
Speaker 1: I will be able to show my son. You know
Speaker 1: that my wife and I was a part of this,
Speaker 1: and we we were actively engaged in trying to do
Speaker 1: something to help people. And so you know that probably
Speaker 1: means more to me to damn than anything I tell people.
Speaker 1: I tell people that all the time. With what I'm
Speaker 1: doing now, I feel like I'm more known for what
Speaker 1: I'm doing now in basketball that mean more than me
Speaker 1: and everything because I'm helping my people. Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: don't want to be known for basketball. I want to
Speaker 1: be known for It's a natural I always talked about,
Speaker 1: you know that I'm all corny and stuff. I'll get
Speaker 1: into the science of things, but when you give a
Speaker 1: chemical comes off of you. Something happens inside of you
Speaker 1: when you that nothing else can create. And it's scientifically proven.
Speaker 1: And so the more you get, why do you think
Speaker 1: you always just feel so good different? It's not just
Speaker 1: because of the action. It is because it was actually
Speaker 1: happening inside of you. And so that's why you just
Speaker 1: now you're fueled like they didn't messed up and let
Speaker 1: lit your engine and you can't stop. And I think
Speaker 1: that's the way it is for all of us. Really,
Speaker 1: you've messed around and woke us all up. And this
Speaker 1: ain't the sixties. Muhammadadli didn't have social media. Bill Russell
Speaker 1: didn't have Instagram. You know he was at tweeting. They
Speaker 1: didn't have access, They didn't have wealth and resources and
Speaker 1: things that they can connect to that we have. And
Speaker 1: now that we are all WoT, we have to maximize
Speaker 1: that to push this thing forward so that our kids
Speaker 1: shouldn't be having this platform, can go back to sleep,
Speaker 1: show time. Um in closing ray elections around the corner
Speaker 1: for sure, talk talk to our people, what do we
Speaker 1: need to do and give me a quick cush note
Speaker 1: to what needs to have to me. First, I want
Speaker 1: to thank coach for what he did, and and hold
Speaker 1: that up as an example with stack as an example. What, um,
Speaker 1: what coaches doing in the highest example, work with the
Speaker 1: local organizations. You don't have to love the candid, but
Speaker 1: you don't understand the power that your platform can give
Speaker 1: a low organization who's been grinding on the page every
Speaker 1: single day, door knocking, and then you lend your voice
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes, for five minutes of them and changes
Speaker 1: the entire That was one thing Jack said to just
Speaker 1: being out there with that. He said, the looks on
Speaker 1: their face and this black is that will never see
Speaker 1: that statute because of what coach did. They don't got
Speaker 1: to walk by an enslaver every single time that they
Speaker 1: will and that's that's so powerful. And so anyway, the
Speaker 1: point being, I think is using your platform to educate
Speaker 1: voters right now. Um. One of the things that you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about when we talk about with especially our
Speaker 1: athletes and artists is yes, the two and a half
Speaker 1: minute overperformed video that's nice in music and straight to camera.
Speaker 1: This is what you need to know and figure out
Speaker 1: how to get it out there. The local organizations right
Speaker 1: now that if you give them thirty seconds of your
Speaker 1: time and say hey, this is where you go to vote,
Speaker 1: this is who you know, this is this is what
Speaker 1: the ballot looks like. And create that content, share it
Speaker 1: on your social media platform. Organizations will grab it off
Speaker 1: the off the platform and send it out everywhere. What
Speaker 1: are the seven states? You feel? Um, we can utilize
Speaker 1: athletes and entertainers voices the most. Yeah, so seven states?
Speaker 1: Pay attention? Alright, seven states? What number one is? I'm
Speaker 1: from Florida, so I let's say something about Florida. Florida,
Speaker 1: Texas might flip. Texas actually might flip. Then it's not
Speaker 1: called the swing state. Yea, but Texas might flip. But Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Speaker 1: Wisconsin are the most important things in this selection in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. If you're in any of those states, athletes, musicians, entertainers,
Speaker 1: tap in. We can get you some information on how
Speaker 1: you can be most effective. Um, we're in the fourth
Speaker 1: courter now, baby, and again I think that for all
Speaker 1: of us is use your platform to get out the
Speaker 1: right information. We're fighting. You may not see it all
Speaker 1: the time, but what's happening out there. They are doing
Speaker 1: anything to give people false information so that they go
Speaker 1: to the wrong place or they don't vote at all.
Speaker 1: And people trust us and people know that if we're
Speaker 1: putting it on our sites, then it's real. And so
Speaker 1: all of you guys in these differences where you're a
Speaker 1: college athlete, pro athlete, it does not matter. Use your platform.
Speaker 1: You get problem information to your community, so we can
Speaker 1: get that number of people out to vote, and to
Speaker 1: all the athletes too. There's so many people in our neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: They screaming to the top of our lines, but they
Speaker 1: don't nobody hear them. We have to be their voice.
Speaker 1: There's so many people that need our voice to speak
Speaker 1: up for him. Being in these neighborhoods, I inherited, so
Speaker 1: many people paying, so many mothers have lost their kids
Speaker 1: to police violence, so many people that are struggling that
Speaker 1: need to be heard. We have to be their voice,
Speaker 1: and they're looking for someone to follow right. So, and
Speaker 1: it may not be for everybody, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because it is scary when you put yourself out there.
Speaker 1: It is scary. It's not for everybody, But if you
Speaker 1: take that step, you'd be amazed at how many people
Speaker 1: will step with you. I think that's what we need
Speaker 1: to do. If you had a billboard to show the
Speaker 1: world with the message that what would it be, vote
Speaker 1: right like Pops in those T shirts that said vote
Speaker 1: like your life depends on it because it does right
Speaker 1: and that's real. Well, that's a wrap. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our guest. Today. Election day is right around the corner.
Speaker 1: Early vote, Early vote, Take your ballots to the polls,
Speaker 1: dropping yourself if you need to stay in the line,
Speaker 1: stand in line because it's bigger than us. It's for
Speaker 1: our futures, for our children's, for the children. Every vote counts,
Speaker 1: every voice counts. Make sure you vote this year, the
Speaker 1: biggest election of our lives. Catch us on Showtime Basketball,
Speaker 1: YouTube and the I Heart Black Effects Family. We'll see
Speaker 1: you guys next time. Production of The Black Effect and
Speaker 1: Our Heart Radio in partnership with Showtime