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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome into the newest All Ball. I'm your boy,

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Speaker 1: Doug Gottlieb, and I've been promising some thoughts on NBA,

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Speaker 1: some thoughts on college basketball. Only say this about the

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Speaker 1: back and forth now with Mikasachevski saying we should pause

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Speaker 1: for a second. And he didn't say we should not

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Speaker 1: be playing. Let's be honest with about Mishachewsky. He did

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Speaker 1: not say we should take a month break. We should.

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Speaker 1: He just said, like, let's let's get our bearings here.

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Speaker 1: And of course you've got coaches like Natoates, and I

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Speaker 1: gotta be honest with you. I've said the same to

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Speaker 1: others saying alb As he's Nate's Alabama's head coach. He's

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Speaker 1: been on the All Ball podcast. You should listen to

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Speaker 1: his life story. It's pretty amazing. But he's like, look,

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Speaker 1: what what Mike Chazchewski hadn't lost two nonconference home games

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Speaker 1: be saying we should take a break. Of course not.

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Speaker 1: But this is my stance with football, This is my

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Speaker 1: stance with bask First of all, to the idea, and

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Speaker 1: I've heard j Billis say us and it's a I

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Speaker 1: don't like when things are misrepresented. I understand that JA

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Speaker 1: and many of you believe that college basketball players should

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Speaker 1: be paid. My argument is was has always been the

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Speaker 1: scholar the entrance to college, the scholarship, the support, the

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Speaker 1: not just the gear, the coaching, all of that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Do you have a kid. Do you have a child?

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Speaker 1: If you do, and you play him in a U

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Speaker 1: basketball Okay, Now add on top of strength, coach, trainer, dietician,

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Speaker 1: food room board. How much should you be paying a

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Speaker 1: month for your kid? And that's not even the highest level.

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Speaker 1: You're talking about the best of the best of the best,

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Speaker 1: freaking expensive, right, not pay any of those fees. Plus

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Speaker 1: you're not paying for college, and you're getting the free

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Speaker 1: promotion of Dick Vital and j Billis and myself and

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Speaker 1: Steve Lavin saying how great these guys are. There's a

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Speaker 1: value in all of that, plus get in school you

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Speaker 1: probably couldn't get into on your own. So I believe

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Speaker 1: that it is you are being compensated fairly, so maybe

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Speaker 1: even above your actual level of importance. Most people reading

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Speaker 1: well more common. It's a much better deal than anybody

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Speaker 1: give your credit. But this idea that college athletes, because

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Speaker 1: they're on campus by themselves and in some sort of bubble.

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Speaker 1: Now is something new and different that is in fact bullshit.

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Speaker 1: That is the the epitome of bullshit. Every year Thanksgiving Break,

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Speaker 1: Christmas Break, uh Martin Luther King Jr. Break, Spring break.

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Speaker 1: If you're still playing on campus by yourself, you get

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Speaker 1: per diem when the when stuff stop open, so you

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Speaker 1: get a little extra money. Um, and you're you're practicing,

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Speaker 1: you're playing, you're hanging around. It's actually, in many ways

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Speaker 1: the best time to be on a college campus because

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Speaker 1: you don't have the nuisance of traffic or anything. You

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Speaker 1: just go to work out, you go back to your place,

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Speaker 1: you can hang out with your boys, can get shots

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Speaker 1: up whenever college town is usually empty. So this idea,

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Speaker 1: that's somehow, this is something new and different. Sure, the

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Speaker 1: testing and the need to to quarantine and not go

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Speaker 1: out and ming go and go to parties like okay,

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Speaker 1: But the fact is the idea that we're here by

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Speaker 1: ourselves is somehow new and different. That's bullshit. Anybody who's

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Speaker 1: ever played basketball knows that's bullshit. You're around all Christmas Break,

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Speaker 1: nobody's around, so and you're safer at home. You're safer

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Speaker 1: there than you are at home at home. You don't

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Speaker 1: have a trainer, you don't have COVID tests, you know,

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Speaker 1: and this You're not going home and sitting in your

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Speaker 1: room and not doing anything. You're going home and hanging

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Speaker 1: out with your boys and going to a gym and

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Speaker 1: getting shots up. You're better off. You're safer on campus.

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Speaker 1: Continue on, somebody, go through the protocols and we'll be fine.

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Speaker 1: I don't. I agree with Mikes Chefski. We should take

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Speaker 1: a breath and make sure we're doing the right thing.

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Speaker 1: But when we do take a breath, we'll realize we're safer.

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Speaker 1: It's very normal for this time a year to be

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Speaker 1: on campus by yourself and within reason, you play as

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Speaker 1: many games as you can. That's where the fun is.

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Speaker 1: The practice is where it's not fun. All right, let

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Speaker 1: me get you to Uh. To Taylor Rochesti, he was

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Speaker 1: a very talented guard at Washington State. His path getting

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Speaker 1: to Washington State via to Lane UH growing up in

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Speaker 1: Santa Barbara is interesting in and of itself. We'll get

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Speaker 1: to that. We'll get to Tony Bennett and Dick Bennett.

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Speaker 1: What was like to be part of the first team

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Speaker 1: that Tony Bennett coached at Wazoo and whether or not

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Speaker 1: he's surprised at the level of success that Virginia has had.

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Speaker 1: But I also want to ask about playing overseas and

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Speaker 1: this unbelievable experience he's had in the big clubs that

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Speaker 1: he's played for as a guy who was very lightly recruited,

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Speaker 1: becoming kind of a superstar in euro hoops his entire career.

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Speaker 1: And then he has a book that's said to come

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Speaker 1: out wait to hear his tale here he is Star Guard,

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Speaker 1: formerly of Washington State, originally from Santa Barbara, California, Taylor, Rochester.

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Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug

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Speaker 1: Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Easter noon Pacific on

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Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio a app

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Speaker 1: for general perspective. You're in Belgrade playing for Red Star

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Speaker 1: fans in the arenas. There's a couple hundred fans that

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Speaker 1: they're allowing right now, mostly scouts and um people involved

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Speaker 1: in the organization stuff. But when you're used to having

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Speaker 1: they have an arena here that's twenty two thousand, and

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Speaker 1: they pack it out and it's crazy European soccer like

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Speaker 1: fans with flares in the gym and now to play

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Speaker 1: in an empty arena where you can hear the defensive

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Speaker 1: you know, called out play plays and plans from the coaches.

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Speaker 1: It's it's a whole different atmosphere. But you have to

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Speaker 1: remember that, you know, hundreds of thousands of fans are

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Speaker 1: watching on their phones and watching on their TVs, and

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Speaker 1: so they're still just as intense. They're just not in

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Speaker 1: the gym. Okay, we're gonna get back to your elite,

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Speaker 1: get to your travels. Let's start where it all began.

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Speaker 1: Santa Barbara, California, right, really tough, hard streets of Santa Barbara, California.

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Speaker 1: You think gang shootings, graffiti everywhere. Ah, your first memories

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Speaker 1: of hoop is where. Well, the the interesting thing about

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Speaker 1: that is that when you think about tough upbringings when

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Speaker 1: it comes to basketball, that's not an easy place to

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Speaker 1: to grow up and play. Because to get to get noticed,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you have to go into l A. You've

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Speaker 1: gotta go to Las Vegas, you've gotta go to the tournaments.

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Speaker 1: You've gotta go East Coast. There's not a lot of

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Speaker 1: scouts and a lot of not a lot of players

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Speaker 1: coming out of Santa Barbara all there, although there's some

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Speaker 1: good talent but um, I grew up in a little

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Speaker 1: bit in Houston, Texas, and I was born in Houston.

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Speaker 1: Um and so I just love basketball and I love

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Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets kind of growing up and um my

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Speaker 1: dad actually worked in in the building of the old

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Speaker 1: Summit and we would go over and watch watch some

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Speaker 1: games after after school. Um My mom and dad would

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Speaker 1: be there, and so coming to Santa Barbara. I just

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Speaker 1: always had a feel for basketball, and um just knew

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Speaker 1: that that's what I wanted to do. When I graduated

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Speaker 1: a sixth grade, they did they made a little video

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Speaker 1: and what we wanted to do when we were, you know, older,

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Speaker 1: and I said, I'm gonna play Division one basketball and

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Speaker 1: then I'm gonna go play basketball overseas or in Australia.

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Speaker 1: And that was That was sixth grade. And I didn't

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Speaker 1: even know about the League's never seen a game, never anything.

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Speaker 1: But I just knew that I wanted to play basketball

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Speaker 1: and I want to travel the world. And so I

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Speaker 1: had this vision when I was younger, and then it

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Speaker 1: just kind of came to fruition. That's crazy, that's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Um what was high school like? High school was amazing.

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Speaker 1: I mean I had a blessed, blessed upbringing. I had

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Speaker 1: an older brother that's Alex, who's basically my best friend. Um,

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Speaker 1: he was a senior when I was a freshman, so

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Speaker 1: I had a really amazing transition into school, um where

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Speaker 1: he kind of took me under his wing and his

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Speaker 1: friends were there and so um, I was kind of

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Speaker 1: a jock, had friends that some played sports, some didn't

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Speaker 1: play sports. And Santa Barbara was an amazing place to

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Speaker 1: to grow up and call home. And uh, right by

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Speaker 1: the beach. I mean, there's not not much else. You

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Speaker 1: can say everything you need there and basketball was great,

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Speaker 1: had great coaches, and was fortunate enough to play with

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Speaker 1: some of my friends and have a great team. What

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Speaker 1: I remember is I remember my dad talking to Bob.

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Speaker 1: You played for my dad how many summers? Uh, two

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Speaker 1: or three summers? Yeah, Branch West. So I remember you

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Speaker 1: playing for my dad, and my dad was like the

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Speaker 1: craziest thing. I talked to Bob Williams kids from Santa

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Speaker 1: Barbara and he did not from a scholarship, and he

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Speaker 1: just he couldn't. It was part of him was mad

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Speaker 1: because he Bob was a good guy. He liked Bob

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Speaker 1: like there's no like bad feelings or whatever, we just couldn't.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think it was they didn't offer you well?

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Speaker 1: I think I think recruiting is one of the toughest

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Speaker 1: things you could do. You know, there's players that are

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Speaker 1: good at one level, are good at one situation, and

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Speaker 1: then who knows what they're going to be like at

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Speaker 1: the next level or in a different environment. Um. I

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Speaker 1: think there's a lot of pressure to bring in local kids.

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Speaker 1: I think that when you look at just raw potential talent,

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Speaker 1: there's so many great players out of Southern California and

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Speaker 1: California area that it's difficult. Most of the time, you're

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Speaker 1: bringing in one guard out of everybody you know so

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Speaker 1: for two years, and you might have two point guards

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Speaker 1: at your school that are on scholarship. So there's no

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Speaker 1: hard feelings there. Bob and I are friends everybody at UCSB.

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Speaker 1: They've always been welcoming to me. I go out there

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Speaker 1: and practice with the team. When I was in high school,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to go there. I was in a room

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Speaker 1: with him one time and there was an award ceremony

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Speaker 1: where he was giving a speech and I was I

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Speaker 1: was thinking, to my head, man, I know he's gonna

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Speaker 1: offer me a scholarship. But I think one of the

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Speaker 1: best things was me having to leave my hometown and

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Speaker 1: go out and try to prove myself in a different environment.

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Speaker 1: I think that's what pushed me to be better. And

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Speaker 1: I've always had a chip on my shoulder and that's

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Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I'm still playing basketball. So

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Speaker 1: you you went to two Lane and as a tape

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Speaker 1: dick or a someone as your your coach. Right, it

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Speaker 1: was Sean Finney my freshman year, and then Dickerson took

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Speaker 1: over sophomore year. Okay, show you and I think you

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Speaker 1: were late signing right, like you were available of late

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Speaker 1: and you go and you sign it too late. Now

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Speaker 1: Too Lane is an amazing and an amazing city, but

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Speaker 1: could not be any different than from Santa Barbara if

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Speaker 1: you tried right, Like, Garden District in New Orleans is incredible,

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Speaker 1: but very very different. What do you remember about touching down?

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Speaker 1: You're like, I'm in I'm in New Orleans Land. It's August.

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Speaker 1: It's hot as hell, Like what what what was that?

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Speaker 1: What are your members of that? Like? Well, you gotta

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Speaker 1: keep in mind, like you said, it was a late recruiting. Uh,

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Speaker 1: your dad, your dad called me and said, let's go

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Speaker 1: to one last tournament. It was the it was a

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Speaker 1: Houston Classic or something around Houston, Kingwood Classic or something

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Speaker 1: like that. And uh, I went and played well and

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Speaker 1: got offered a couple of scholarships. And before that that

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Speaker 1: was like springing my senior year of high school. So

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Speaker 1: before that, I was going on recruiting trips to D two,

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Speaker 1: D three, and so the idea of playing Division one

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Speaker 1: basketball that was my goal. So I was so excited

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Speaker 1: when I showed up on campus and I had different expectations.

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Speaker 1: They were telling me that there was a senior point

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Speaker 1: guard that was their main guy, and that I'd be

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Speaker 1: learning my freshman year and coming maybe off the bench

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Speaker 1: a little bit playing my sophomore year. And within the

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Speaker 1: second third game freshman year, I was I was starting

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Speaker 1: and had a role for myself and and so it

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Speaker 1: was just kind of a whirlwind that months before I

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Speaker 1: didn't know I was going to get a Division one

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Speaker 1: scholarship and even thought about walking on in some places. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so so so when you get there, Uh, but what

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Speaker 1: what was what was it actually like? Like what was

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Speaker 1: what were the memories of like you get because they

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Speaker 1: had a tiny little gym right and there, and you're like,

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Speaker 1: you introduce yourself to people, You're not like a highly

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Speaker 1: rated guy, You're from Santa Barbara. What was what was

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Speaker 1: school like? What was the experience of that with the teammates? Like,

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Speaker 1: what do you remember about those first couple of years. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the funny thing is I remember school being tough. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is one of those places you you you hear

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Speaker 1: this idea that like athletes get an easy, easy route

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Speaker 1: and they really help you out. I was in a

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Speaker 1: I think it was an acting class, and I must

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Speaker 1: have been a bad actor. But my teacher told me

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Speaker 1: that if you leave even for school function, you're never

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Speaker 1: going to get that knowledge back. So I can't give

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Speaker 1: you credit for the class. And I said, well, I'm

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Speaker 1: going away for a basketball game, and they said it

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Speaker 1: didn't matter. You know, you have to be in class.

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Speaker 1: You gotta read the book, you gotta you gotta participate.

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Speaker 1: So the school was definitely definitely difficult. Um, basketball wise,

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Speaker 1: it was great because, Uh, like I said, I just

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Speaker 1: wanted to play Division one basketball and I've never passed

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Speaker 1: the looks test and that's part of the hunger that

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Speaker 1: I have and I love that, so I love showing

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Speaker 1: up every day and competing. So as far as basketball wise,

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Speaker 1: I was just hungry to prove that I belong and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to earn my scholarship. Okay, So

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Speaker 1: I believe the guy's name was Marcus Kinser, right, who

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Speaker 1: is the senior point is there? Right? Yeah? What was

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Speaker 1: he like to you? Because like, you show up and

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Speaker 1: he's the guy and you end up got taking his spot.

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Speaker 1: Take me take me through that. That relationship. Well, that

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Speaker 1: relationship is actually crazier than you think. It's funny that

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Speaker 1: you asked, because when I showed up, he was a

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Speaker 1: little standoffish, not because that was his character, just because

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Speaker 1: we just kind of two different circles where like basketball eyes,

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Speaker 1: we were there, but he had been there for three years.

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Speaker 1: He had his own friends, he had his own stuff

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Speaker 1: going on, and so we didn't really communicate as much.

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Speaker 1: He was a great leader, great UM teammate to have

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Speaker 1: and always led by example. Uh. And then it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until later on that um, he's got his whole skill

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Speaker 1: wing academy going on right now and he's doing a

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Speaker 1: bunch of workouts. And I messaged him a bunch of

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Speaker 1: years ago and actually Um, he flew out to California

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Speaker 1: to work me out and to help me train for

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Speaker 1: for going back out and playing in EuroLeague. And so

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Speaker 1: we kept in touch and we became real close and

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Speaker 1: he's an amazing trainer and just we become great friends

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Speaker 1: over the years. So it started off as maybe more

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Speaker 1: of an intimid anything. He's the big guy on campus,

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Speaker 1: and then it just turned into a good friendship even

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Speaker 1: when you're starting ahead of him. So we ended up

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Speaker 1: starting together. So they kind of had like a to

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Speaker 1: two guards start. What they realized is that it could

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Speaker 1: be a good attack and that was a time where uh,

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Speaker 1: well Tony Bennett always talks about T and T. You know,

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Speaker 1: he played with another guard. I was playing with Derek

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Speaker 1: Low at Watching and State, so it was kind of

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Speaker 1: a two point guard system. And then so they just

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Speaker 1: decided that the two small guards of work and we

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Speaker 1: played well together. So you're playing you're I think all

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Speaker 1: freshman team and conference right and like kind of like

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Speaker 1: you made it. Um, you go home for the summer

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Speaker 1: and did you come back? And there was Katrina where

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Speaker 1: you at home in Katrina remind me of the time

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Speaker 1: I was Katrina. So I got into I got back

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Speaker 1: to New Orleans the day before UH Katrina, or the

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Speaker 1: day before we had to evacuate, and so I put

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Speaker 1: some stuff in my apartment and then they said, well,

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Speaker 1: you can't move into your apartment until tomorrow, so I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't stay to the friend's house. And I woke up

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Speaker 1: and everybody was talking about being sad because we had

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Speaker 1: to evacuate it and I had to evacuate the year

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Speaker 1: before as a freshman. We left for about a week

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Speaker 1: and then we came back to school, so everybody was

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Speaker 1: sad to leave. We just got there and people wanted

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Speaker 1: to party. They're back at school, and they're like, they

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Speaker 1: didn't they didn't think it was that big of a deal.

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Speaker 1: So some people were debating whether they're going to leave

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Speaker 1: or not, even if it was a mandatory evacuation. And

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Speaker 1: so luckily my mom is living in Houston at the time,

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Speaker 1: and so I went to my mom's apartment in Houston,

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Speaker 1: UM to ride out the hurricane. And little do we know, UM,

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Speaker 1: we weren't going to come back. And so I got

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Speaker 1: a call um after about a week that Texas A

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Speaker 1: and M was gonna host our team, and so they

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Speaker 1: moved our team and a couple other teams from Tulane

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Speaker 1: to Texas A and M. So I was still playing

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Speaker 1: for TU Lane but attending school at texasan um University,

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Speaker 1: which was crazy. Well yeah, I know, so Phil, and

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Speaker 1: I'm having been to I've been to both campuses, right,

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Speaker 1: Like Tulane is it's almost like a museum, right like

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Speaker 1: you like, that's what A like A classic schools supposed

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Speaker 1: to kind of look like A and M and M

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Speaker 1: is classic kind of Texas Like everything is gigantic, beautiful,

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Speaker 1: mostly brand new, but but just gigantic, right like the

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Speaker 1: unscale just so much bigger than anything else. But then

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Speaker 1: you're you're living in this weird existence, right You go

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Speaker 1: to Tulane, you play for TU Lane, you go to school,

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Speaker 1: it at A and M. Where do you guys live?

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Speaker 1: So I think they, first of all, they did a

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Speaker 1: great job hosting us, So I will always have love

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Speaker 1: for Texas A and M and the Aggies. But I

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Speaker 1: think they were thinking of breaking down certain buildings and

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Speaker 1: constructing up something else, and they found apartments that are

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Speaker 1: right off campus for us, and I think it was

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Speaker 1: our soccer team, our volleyball team, our basketball team, and

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Speaker 1: so they hosted us all there, and it was crazy

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Speaker 1: for us because now we're walking forty five minutes across

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Speaker 1: campus when we were used to walking in five minutes

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Speaker 1: across campus because everything is so big in Texas and

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Speaker 1: things were looking up, and I was just excited to

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Speaker 1: be back playing and fortunate that we weren't in New Orleans.

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Speaker 1: But um, that's where I tore my knee. Um, and

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Speaker 1: they told me that I'd be out for a bunch

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Speaker 1: of months. So now I'm sitting at a campus of

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Speaker 1: a school that I didn't choose, and I'm forty one

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Speaker 1: hour crushing my way to class and my coaches standing

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Speaker 1: in front of the door making sure I'm on time,

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Speaker 1: and sitting in the front row. And it was just

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Speaker 1: it was just a crazy experience. Okay, so you tore

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Speaker 1: your hiel there. I thought you tore it when you

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Speaker 1: got to So what what what was the conversation like now,

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00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:13,720
Speaker 1: because now Dave Dickerson is your coach, and so what

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Speaker 1: did he get the job? I forget. I forget because

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Speaker 1: I thought you guys played it in New Orleans some

348
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Speaker 1: of your some of your games as well at the

349
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Speaker 1: University of New Orleans. Like so the first from the

350
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Speaker 1: first time the first semester was at Texas A and M.

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Speaker 1: And so that's where the season started. Dave Dickerson had

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Speaker 1: just taken over that year and so, um, he's a

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Speaker 1: great guy, great coach, and he was about to take

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Speaker 1: over Maryland, and I think that he wanted to kind

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Speaker 1: of pave his own path and uh, and got off

356
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Speaker 1: to the job of Two Lane, which is great. So

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Speaker 1: he moved his family down there, and within a month

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Speaker 1: or so of being there, Hurricane and Trina happened. We

359
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,399
Speaker 1: get displaced, We go to Texas A and M. So

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Speaker 1: he's trying to lead us and group US at Texas AM.

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Speaker 1: So when I tore my knee there, Um, there was

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Speaker 1: a big debate about what was going to happen as

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Speaker 1: far as getting back to New Orleans, because my heart

364
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Speaker 1: was in New Orleans. My heart was with Two Lane University.

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Speaker 1: But I think all the sports were gonna be using

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Speaker 1: one small training room facility, and there was a bunch

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Speaker 1: of question marks about what was gonna be open not open.

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Speaker 1: I'd heard mold was in certain buildings, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you just hear these different stories and I just figured

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Speaker 1: at that time that I needed to transfer or find

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Speaker 1: a different place that I could recover, rehab and just

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Speaker 1: get back to playing basketball. Okay, So, as I recall it,

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Speaker 1: and again, this is my dad's no longer with us,

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Speaker 1: and he hadn't calling him for the story. Now he

375
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Speaker 1: can't pop in. I remember him saying he called Tony

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Speaker 1: and said, Tony, I got a point guard you have

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Speaker 1: to take. And I think he had, you know, again,

378
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Speaker 1: based upon his perspective, he had talked Tony into Clay

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Speaker 1: as well. How did it go down with you getting

380
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Speaker 1: from Too Lane to Santa Barbara to what Washington State?

381
00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 1: First of all, your your dad was the best recruiter

382
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Speaker 1: of all time. So he would sit, he would sit,

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Speaker 1: put me on a three way call and he would say, Okay,

384
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:03,680
Speaker 1: don't don't, don't say anything. I'm about to call on

385
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:05,879
Speaker 1: these coaches and you're gonna hear. You're gonna hear what

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Speaker 1: they have to say about you. So, um, those are

387
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,199
Speaker 1: the best calls of all time. And I think all

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00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,439
Speaker 1: the coaches knew that the players was before on the

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00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,520
Speaker 1: other end. But um, I think I think it was

390
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 1: a combination. Tony Bennett had reached out to me out

391
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Speaker 1: of high school, and they didn't they didn't have a

392
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:24,199
Speaker 1: scholarship at the time, and you know, we're both you know,

393
00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:26,720
Speaker 1: smaller lefty point guards. So maybe he saw something in

394
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:29,000
Speaker 1: me that that that he had and he connected that

395
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,280
Speaker 1: way and said, you know, and what do you really

396
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:32,920
Speaker 1: say when a lot of coach will call and say

397
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Speaker 1: walk onto my program. And of course you want to

398
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:37,920
Speaker 1: believe that they really love you and they really want

399
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:39,639
Speaker 1: you to be there, but you never really know. And

400
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,520
Speaker 1: so he called me. When I decided to leave, I

401
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 1: talked to your dad, and I talked to some other people,

402
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,119
Speaker 1: and he started making some calls. And then when they

403
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:49,800
Speaker 1: realized I wanted to transfer and now they had a scholarship,

404
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 1: so he he was talking to me. I think it

405
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:55,719
Speaker 1: was Christmas Day and I'm in Santa Barbara. They had

406
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,560
Speaker 1: given us, you know, six days off from Tulane to

407
00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,720
Speaker 1: go home, and Smith's Day, I was getting a call

408
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 1: from my two lane coach. I was getting a call

409
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:05,959
Speaker 1: from Tony Bennett. He said, why don't you fly up

410
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 1: and we can see Washington State, And then David Dickerson

411
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:11,879
Speaker 1: was asking what my decision was, and I told him

412
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't be coming back. And then so I'm

413
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 1: sitting there with a torn knee. It's Christmas time and

414
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,000
Speaker 1: I need I need to find a school. And so

415
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:22,159
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett took a big chance. He flew me up

416
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:25,440
Speaker 1: to go see a game. I had a Southern California

417
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 1: hoodie and some light sweats and he flew me up

418
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,840
Speaker 1: to Hull Pullman, Washington, and I started in Spokane. It

419
00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:34,719
Speaker 1: was like negative tent outside, it felt like and I

420
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:37,160
Speaker 1: was going to see a game in Spokane, Aina against Arizona.

421
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:41,760
Speaker 1: Did they win? They won the first first part of

422
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:47,280
Speaker 1: the first half. They actually had a great team. That

423
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,159
Speaker 1: was when it was still Dick Bennett. So Dick Bennett

424
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,560
Speaker 1: was the coach UM and they had a great team,

425
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 1: great coach, great individuals UM and they were just turning

426
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,000
Speaker 1: the program around where you could see the difference UM

427
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 1: in the games they were playing, and they add, UM,

428
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,120
Speaker 1: that's that's the foundation for the future. And my first

429
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 1: year there was actually Tony's first year. Was was there

430
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: ever a thought of like, oh my god, they plays

431
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:19,159
Speaker 1: so slow because that's not technically your style of basketball. Well,

432
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:21,680
Speaker 1: I think at that time, I just wanted to play

433
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:23,159
Speaker 1: in the Pac ten. That was my that was my

434
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 1: goal I grew up with. I grew up with usc

435
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 1: U c l A watching them on TV. UM an

436
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,840
Speaker 1: opportunity to play in the Pac ten and UH to

437
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,040
Speaker 1: be able to play basically at home in some of

438
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:39,239
Speaker 1: those games. That meant everything. And I didn't really know

439
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,600
Speaker 1: how slow the offense was. I had heard about it UM,

440
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:44,920
Speaker 1: but then again, like I wasn't really recruited out of

441
00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:46,879
Speaker 1: high school, always a chip on my shoulder. I just

442
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,159
Speaker 1: wanted to win games, and so when they offered the scholarship,

443
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: I was ready to take it. Okay. So so you,

444
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it's actually crazy your squad, Like can you

445
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,680
Speaker 1: go back and look because because people always say, well,

446
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,880
Speaker 1: like Clay and play with anybody. Like your first year

447
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 1: you had Kyle Weaver who played in the league, and

448
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 1: he had Aaron Baines on the team, you know Tony's

449
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:16,959
Speaker 1: connections down in Australia. UM figure sophomore year, coming off

450
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 1: an a c L you don't play the whole season,

451
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: You're not eligible until semester. What what was a different place,

452
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 1: different style, different coaching. And again this is before Clay

453
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,439
Speaker 1: arrives and you have your boy Derek Loose and juvenior

454
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,160
Speaker 1: at the time kind of established. Okay, what was what

455
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 1: was that year? Like, um, Well, the interesting thing was,

456
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,080
Speaker 1: so I tore my knee at Texas and m and

457
00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: then when I arrived at Washington State, after a little while,

458
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:43,679
Speaker 1: I was having some pain in my knee and then

459
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,000
Speaker 1: they told me I needed a second surgery and they

460
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,679
Speaker 1: said I was trying to rehab so fast that you know,

461
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 1: they need to go back in and clean it out.

462
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,159
Speaker 1: So that just leveled me because I was in a

463
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: new place. Now it's my third school. Um, I'm trying

464
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: to figure out what's going on and trying to work

465
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: my way back on the team. And so my first

466
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 1: season playing um the beginning, I don't even know if

467
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 1: they had me on minute restriction or whatever it might

468
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: have been. And I was wearing a nice leave and

469
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 1: to age myself, that nice leave was very thick. It

470
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 1: wasn't like some of the nice leaves that they have now,

471
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 1: and it just looked like I came off with surgery.

472
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,560
Speaker 1: So it wasn't untill about halfway through the season when

473
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 1: I decided one game to take the sleeve off and

474
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: I think we're playing at at you dub on a

475
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,040
Speaker 1: rivalry game, and it just things just kind of took

476
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: over from there, and about halfway through the season. I

477
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 1: went from, you know, playing small minutes off the bench

478
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:32,680
Speaker 1: to being a starter, and it kind of took over

479
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,639
Speaker 1: my sophomore year and then it went through the end

480
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 1: of my senior year. Did you know Aaron Baine would

481
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,719
Speaker 1: be this kid. I'm a big Aeron Baine supporter because

482
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: anybody that plays that hard and doesn't care about getting

483
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 1: hit and we'll just do whatever the coach says and

484
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 1: just run through a wall for you. He's one of

485
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: the best screen setters. He's one of the best roleman,

486
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:53,840
Speaker 1: big man, nice guy. He's just ready to play basketball.

487
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:55,919
Speaker 1: So I always believed in him. He just needed to

488
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,480
Speaker 1: find the right place at the right time. Yeah. In

489
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,160
Speaker 1: the old blocker mover offense, he definitely a blocker. There's

490
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: there's there's there's no question. How did you adjust to

491
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 1: that style? Because look, it's it is like it's good,

492
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,720
Speaker 1: clean basketball, and once you're kind of a convert convert

493
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 1: to it, you're like you're all in because you know

494
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: where the shots come. You know, you just guys, you

495
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: wear dudes out, like no one wants to guard anybody

496
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: in that office. I can't imagine being in the second

497
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: team in practice. Like here's okay, I the example. So

498
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: my first year Notre Dame, I was it was like

499
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: I was kind of promised I because that's why I

500
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: went there. I was going to start. And the first

501
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: couple of weeks of practice, like we're playing against the

502
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 1: motion offense, which it didn't really run in high school,

503
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: and you have these gigantic dudes setting these screens, and

504
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: it was it was basically block remover without we call

505
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,239
Speaker 1: it a two side motion or whatever, it's basically kind

506
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,199
Speaker 1: of block remover. And I just remember being on the

507
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 1: gold team. The gold team was the second team, and

508
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,239
Speaker 1: it was the worst. Like they're they're working out their

509
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: offense and you're just getting screened and your neck hurts,

510
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 1: your back hurts, and it is the worst existence on Earth.

511
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:02,240
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine being at Tony Bennett's practice and being

512
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,160
Speaker 1: on the second team like that. If that's that motivation

513
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: to be on the first team, nothing is well. I

514
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: think I think part of it was we when the

515
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,920
Speaker 1: years I was playing there, we we experienced a lot

516
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,120
Speaker 1: of success, and so I think when you when you're

517
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:19,199
Speaker 1: going from from winning games to practice, then that that

518
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: confidence kind of carries over. I think it would have

519
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: been a little tougher if I arrived there and we're

520
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,720
Speaker 1: losing games and then we're grinding it out in practice

521
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 1: and going through those same block remover, but it was

522
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: working in the game. So we would get into some

523
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: drills where we had to get like six or seven

524
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 1: stops out of ten to get out, and they were

525
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 1: just rotating the offenses in and they could do whatever

526
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,200
Speaker 1: they want and we had to just grind them down

527
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: and like defense, but you start to gain so much

528
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 1: confidence in each other and so much pride in the

529
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,280
Speaker 1: defense that it became it became fun. And then as

530
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 1: a as a pass first point guard, that's kind of

531
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 1: how I grew up as a pass first point guard.

532
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: And then in high school it kind of turned me

533
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 1: into a little bit of a score because in high school,

534
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: most of the time, the stars in high school have

535
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: to score all the more. And so when I got

536
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,679
Speaker 1: back to college, um, I was excited to just be

537
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 1: part of the program. I was excited to just to

538
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:04,960
Speaker 1: be part of the team and just try to go

539
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 1: out there and win games. And there wasn't any um

540
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,719
Speaker 1: type of feeling of big time players or anything that

541
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 1: we just had a well balanced team and everybody had

542
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: a role and it just it just fit perfectly. They

543
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: recruited a perfect team that those years. Um, your junior

544
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 1: year was your was your best team, right And and

545
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: it's funny, like most people forget play wasn't actually there

546
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 1: that year your senior year? What what what about that team?

547
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 1: That team kind of came together really really nicely at

548
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: the end of the season. Well, we had UM Coach

549
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: Bennett had a slogan my sophomore year. It was t

550
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:38,640
Speaker 1: a y and everybody thought I had my own Nike

551
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 1: T shirt because it was Tay for Taylor. And so

552
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: it just it meant turnaround year. And so when he

553
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: took over his head coach, he had this mission that

554
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,880
Speaker 1: everything was going to change and we were just kind

555
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: of turn this whole program around and just adopt this

556
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,439
Speaker 1: new mentality of winning. And we had gotten to the

557
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: second round of the tournament and lost, Um I missed

558
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: a game winner and went to double overtime. We were

559
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 1: playing Bannerbilt in the second round. And so when we

560
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,639
Speaker 1: when we lost that game to play I think Georgetown

561
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: in the sweet sixt team we all came together that

562
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 1: summer and we looked at each other and we just

563
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: committed to the system of the program to getting back

564
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: to the success that we had found, and it was

565
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:19,920
Speaker 1: something really unique at Washington State. They only kind of

566
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: had this success one other time. I think it was

567
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,360
Speaker 1: a craig Elo team and during those times, and so

568
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: we were just committed to having that feeling again. And

569
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: so it was just an amazing atmosphere around campus and

570
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: the desire to get back to the tournament was was everything.

571
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: And so that junior year was special because we started

572
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,680
Speaker 1: with a foundation of you know, we already knew where

573
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:41,920
Speaker 1: we wanted to be, instead of having it be the

574
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 1: first first year thing. And then we just kind of

575
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,359
Speaker 1: saw it happen. Um, you get to the tournament, hammer

576
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: went through you Hammer Notre Dame. I mean you gets

577
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: you know, end win. It's like you get take on

578
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Now, I don't know at the time if

579
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: you knew it, but famously, this is like my senior year.

580
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: My senior year was two thousand and North Carolina made

581
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: the final four and Wisconsin at the final four and

582
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: Dick Bennett was a coach and Tony was like a

583
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: manager and he quit play and he had he heard

584
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: his need to write. Um. And uh, Famously, I think

585
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: after the first semifinal. Roy Williams said, like they played Perdue.

586
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,920
Speaker 1: I think I'm trying to try to remember exactly, and

587
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: he said, like that set college basketball back forty years,

588
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: and it was you know, North Carolina likes to play fast.

589
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: It's a different day. They got the best players, right,

590
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 1: Like Danny Green came off the bench on that team.

591
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: That's what that team was, right. But it's still was

592
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,600
Speaker 1: something that really stun like, like, look, that's not generally

593
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: how we roll in college basketball. Like Diick Bennett's an

594
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: all time great guy, all time great coach. He's not

595
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: dealing with you know, Cadillacs. He's dealing with you know, accords.

596
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: Was do you remember for Tony if it was there

597
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: was any special that mentioned motivation? I know you guys

598
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,520
Speaker 1: got your butts kicked and you struggled personally, but was

599
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 1: there any special motivation with that game? I think I

600
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: think we came into that game and the promotion for

601
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: it was clash of styles. You know, it's just like

602
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 1: what what style is going to come through? Is it

603
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: going to be the defense is going to be the offense? Um?

604
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: You know, you here when you play for the Bennett

605
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 1: system that it's a quote unquote boring style of basketball

606
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 1: or whatever you might feel. A lot of players are

607
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: excited and motivated to go play for some a CC

608
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: teams because they played fast and scored a lot of points.

609
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 1: And North Carolina iss always known for having exciting teams.

610
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: But we were confident what we were doing. So we

611
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: came to that game and we wanted to prove all

612
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 1: of us, not just the coach, all the players that

613
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: you know, what we're doing, uh, you know, can get

614
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 1: us to a final four, can beat the number one team.

615
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: What what was tough about that year is we played

616
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: at North Carolina against the number one North Carolina. So

617
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: we showed up to the practice and there's twelve thousand

618
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 1: people in blue, you know, booing us as we're walking

619
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 1: up for practice. So it was a home game for them.

620
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: It was very difficult. But we came into that game

621
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: confidence thinking that we were gonna win, and you know,

622
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 1: obviously it didn't. It didn't go our way that day.

623
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: But that's part of why it's so amazing to watch

624
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 1: coach Bennett now in the a c C having so

625
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: much success because, um, at the end of the day,

626
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: his system definitely works. His style of basketball definitely works,

627
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, there's more than one way to

628
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: do it. Did you did you think at the time

629
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: at the time, did you think, yeah, you can win

630
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: a national championship. I've always thought. We used to joke around, uh, saying, man,

631
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: he can do that with us. Imagine if he has

632
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 1: some real talent. And so he got to the point

633
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 1: where he's a he's a top twenty team every year, preseason, postseason,

634
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: mid season. And so that's the foundation that he's built

635
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: at Virginia just speaks to what he can do as

636
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,479
Speaker 1: a coach, speaks to his system, his coaching staff, everybody

637
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: that he brings around, the quality players he were cruising.

638
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: Does he have a dark side? Does he have Does

639
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: he like this when the doors close, all of a sudden,

640
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: he starts aim at the dudes and then the guys.

641
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: Because I've seen him at a peak and he's come

642
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: and I've seen him at the valley when they lose

643
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: to U NBC, and he has great perspective. I just

644
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: and I know I know him pretty well, but I

645
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: don't know him as intimately as you do. Does he

646
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: have this other kind of switch where all of a

647
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 1: sudden he's he's a different The other side comes out, well,

648
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 1: I have I have a scene where it's uh, when

649
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:33,959
Speaker 1: I know who I am, I'm not stressed about what

650
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 1: I do. And there's a big foundation that I got

651
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: from from coach Bennett about the things that really matter.

652
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: And if you talk to you talk to him that

653
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 1: basketball is something that he enjoys, that he's amazing at

654
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 1: both as a player and as a coach. But he

655
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 1: has a foundation and something different, you know, faith, family

656
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,440
Speaker 1: and friends and a core belief system that gets him

657
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: through his day. So he really has um that even

658
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,560
Speaker 1: keel when it comes to those highs and lows, because

659
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: he understands, you know, he has constant perspective about life

660
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 1: and and the things that are happening for sure. So

661
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: you get home first of all, like I gotta think

662
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: it was so bad for so long. You guys go

663
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: to this week sixteen and you like to have a

664
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: good time. I'm guessing that the police was a good time.

665
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: After both of these two in the tournaments, I was,

666
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: it was amazing. And what what younger players never understand

667
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 1: is how amazing it is for seniors. Um. And so

668
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: the seniors just had a great time because they could

669
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: really go out on top. Even though we lost. We

670
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: lost to a top seeded team and and people of

671
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 1: the police were starting to talk about, yeah, we're gonna

672
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: beat North Carolina. So that was the excitement that we

673
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: kind of built up two years before that they wouldn't

674
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: think we'd make it to the tournament. And so, um,

675
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: we had built up this confidence. But coach talked about

676
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 1: he didn't want to be a flash in the pan.

677
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 1: So we were already thinking about next year. And I'm

678
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: looking around like, hey, guys, we still got one more year.

679
00:32:58,040 --> 00:32:59,360
Speaker 1: You know, this is pretty fun. We can do this

680
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 1: again because your your dad had famously promised Tony I like, look, man,

681
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: if you ever need a scholarship, let me know, I'll

682
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: take care of it. Like that's the thing. Again, this

683
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: is the the running story. But if if you ever

684
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: you ever tight end scholarships, don't worry about I'll take

685
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: care of But no big deal. So your senior didn't

686
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 1: you play as a walkianger senior year? So so this

687
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 1: story was taken on so many different lives of its own.

688
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: So what happened was, Um, I think somebody had reached

689
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: out to um, my dad and some other people about

690
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: if they wanted to give back to the program. And

691
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: my dad was talking to me and talking to the

692
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: Tony and talking to people, you know, like, let me

693
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: know the best way to give back to the program.

694
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: This program is given so much. And I think Tony

695
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: said something jokingly about a scholarship or something like that,

696
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 1: but he would never ask something of that nature. And

697
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 1: my dad, but my dad and I talked about it,

698
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, you know, if if it ever

699
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: came down to it, I'd give up my scholarship for

700
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 1: the right reason. And at that time I had I

701
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 1: had made a deal with my dad in high school

702
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: that if he didn't have to pay for college, that

703
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,799
Speaker 1: he would buy me a car. And so he said, hey,

704
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: I don't have to pay for college, I'll buy you

705
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 1: a car. And so I was gonna take that car.

706
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,000
Speaker 1: It was a Ford. It was a used for x

707
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: Ford Expedition expedition. As a big boy like that, amazing, amazing,

708
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: So I had that car. It was a two two

709
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,439
Speaker 1: wheel drive car up in Pullman, Washington, and I lived

710
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 1: at the top of a hill. And so I realized that, um,

711
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,279
Speaker 1: if I was going to give up the scholarship. After

712
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 1: a long thing happened Tony came to me and said, hey,

713
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 1: you know, would you really do that. There's these two

714
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 1: players that we're looking at. We have one scholarship. And

715
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 1: I said, man, I was hurt. I was in a

716
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 1: bad place as far as physically. I really just wanted

717
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,439
Speaker 1: to play basketball. He took a chance on me when

718
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 1: almost nobody would. Um, and I said, I'd love to

719
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: give back to this program. I love Washington State. I

720
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,840
Speaker 1: mean I'm wearing a WAZAU shirt right now. Uh. And

721
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, man, if you if you guys

722
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: want to recruit those two guys, I'll give up my scholarship.

723
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,839
Speaker 1: And I sold my car um in order to help

724
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: pay for my senior year. And so he he told

725
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 1: me that if he if he ever, he said, you know,

726
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: if somebody decides to leave the team, or somebody decides

727
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 1: to transfer something like that scholarship becomes back available. Um,

728
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: you know, I would love to give it back to you.

729
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: And I said, well, if that happens, it happens. And

730
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 1: I think it was sometime in the summer one of

731
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: my ex teammates decided to leave and the scholarship came back.

732
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: So I never played as a walk on, but right

733
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: up until senior year. I was prepared to be a

734
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,879
Speaker 1: walk on. Okay, So then did you get into the car? Yeah,

735
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 1: I traded it in. I gotta I gotta use uh

736
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:49,360
Speaker 1: Dodge Durango. It was a little bit different car and

737
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: it had a little more miles on it, but it

738
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: was probably better for the snow. A lot of rattle

739
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: that going out there. I had, I had my I

740
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: had the same deal with my dad and my dad

741
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 1: he he acted like he knew something about cars. He

742
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: n nothing about cars, and so I wanted to get

743
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: like a Grand Cherokee, like a Laredo. Right, He's like,

744
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: why don't want those jeeps like you go off road?

745
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: And so I was like, all right, Well my brothers like, dude,

746
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: you should go get a Camaro. So uh Camaro Super

747
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,839
Speaker 1: Sport with like it has like a Corvette engine, right,

748
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:26,960
Speaker 1: So by take it for a test drive and see,

749
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,359
Speaker 1: shes got some pick up, right, and you know, you're

750
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 1: like trying to not punch it. He doesn't understand that

751
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: you're basically driving a Corvette. So that's what I drove

752
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,319
Speaker 1: around my senior year in high school, which is like ridiculous.

753
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: So then I signed, but I signed a Notre Dame

754
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: doesn't fit. So, UM, my brother wants the car. He

755
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 1: had an accurate little used accurate Integrat. He trades with me.

756
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: I sell him. We sell his Zacara Integra, and I

757
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 1: got a Chevy Blazer, and so I picked up from Napanee, Indiana.

758
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 1: I picked up a Chevy Blazer, and then when I

759
00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: was at Oaklahoma State, I sold the Blazer. At my

760
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,719
Speaker 1: senior year, I had a board truck because everybody a truck, right,

761
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: It's just it's that what kind of car do you have?

762
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: It's what kind of truck do you have? Assimilated to

763
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: Oklahoma culture, UM, your first time you met Clay Thompson,

764
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 1: what do you think? Uh? So me and another teammate

765
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: kind of hosted them. He hosted them, and I was

766
00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: helping him around campus. UM southern California kid. So immediately

767
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: I was talking to them about, you know, what do

768
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: you think about it up here? It's not that bad

769
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: because people they don't people that don't know the police,

770
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: especially they come from Southern California. Did they don't know

771
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 1: how amazing it is, especially as a college experience. UM,

772
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 1: and to play their basketball is just truly incredible. So

773
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: I just wanted to break down some of the barriers

774
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 1: of some of the things he might think or what

775
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,279
Speaker 1: people have told him about the police. And so he's

776
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 1: sitting there. He's got some flip flops, I think, some

777
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 1: some shorts, flip flops, and a T shirt, and we

778
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 1: start rebounding the ball and playing and having him shoot.

779
00:37:58,160 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: So my teammate and I are throwing in the ball

780
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: and he was a top of the key. Now keep

781
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: in mind, he's a high school kid, used to the

782
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 1: high school three and so he's sitting there shooting college

783
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: threes and he probably made like twenty one or twenty

784
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 1: two out of from the top of the key with

785
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 1: with flip flops on on a college recruiting trip. And

786
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 1: we're like, hey, man, looks like you can shoot the ball.

787
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:17,439
Speaker 1: And he just looks dead and dead in our eyes,

788
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: and he's like, I would have made more, but I'm

789
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: not wearing my shoes. And so me and my teammate

790
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 1: we looked at each other like, I think he's serious,

791
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, Like I don't know where to go

792
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: from there. This kid seems pretty good. Obviously we didn't.

793
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 1: We didn't know much about him. We just knew that

794
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 1: I knew that I wanted to go to UCSB in

795
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 1: high school. He probably wanted to go to maybe U C.

796
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:39,439
Speaker 1: L A or USC or whatever he might have wanted

797
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,879
Speaker 1: to do. But we had put together such a great

798
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,439
Speaker 1: program that people were really looking at Washington State as

799
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,960
Speaker 1: a team to contend with. So he thought about Washington

800
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 1: State and he ended up committing. So that the story

801
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,879
Speaker 1: goes something like this. So my brother was a state

802
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:59,239
Speaker 1: maybe a call at the time, and he would play

803
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 1: with my dad in like the spring events, and he

804
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: played great, and then he played for the Pumps in

805
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: the summer, and you know, they just had dudes, right,

806
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:12,800
Speaker 1: and but they don't run. They run in the offense

807
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: and don't really share the ball. You know the experience.

808
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:18,800
Speaker 1: Everybody comes down just trying to get their's right, and

809
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 1: you know, high ball strings spread out. I'm gonna go

810
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:23,840
Speaker 1: get mine, maybe kick off for a dunk, you know,

811
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,879
Speaker 1: you get it, you get yours, whatever, And he would

812
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: kind of like shut down emotionally like he was just

813
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: and people thought he was a powder and that he

814
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 1: was soft, and really he was just pissed because he

815
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:38,719
Speaker 1: didn't get the ball, and so people passed on him.

816
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,440
Speaker 1: And I remember watching him play in high school at

817
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 1: Ocean View with his brother and brother was on the

818
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:47,359
Speaker 1: team too, and and like I was like, I don't

819
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: I was sitting with Ben Hell and I was like,

820
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: I don't get it with Like what do people like?

821
00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,480
Speaker 1: It's like, well, you know, he gets at the bigger level,

822
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: he gets a little soft. And I was like, okay, Um,

823
00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:01,239
Speaker 1: what was he like when he got to campus. Um,

824
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: he's a pretty quiet kid. I used to I used

825
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 1: to joke around him like his dad's the voice of

826
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,840
Speaker 1: the Lakers, So maybe you know, he took Clay's voice,

827
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,879
Speaker 1: um at the at the beginning, but once you get

828
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: to know him, you realize that he's just a really

829
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:15,959
Speaker 1: good guy. You know, he was just he's a little

830
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: more reserved, and then every year he came more and

831
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 1: more out of his shell and he really became the

832
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson that people know now. Um. I think in

833
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,839
Speaker 1: the preseason, or maybe in summer, they might have come

834
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:29,720
Speaker 1: out to summer school a couple of they came as

835
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:31,800
Speaker 1: a class of seven, so they were a really close

836
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:34,799
Speaker 1: group and there was not the many upper classmen. And

837
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:37,319
Speaker 1: so we played one pickup game where it was an

838
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:41,239
Speaker 1: upper classman against the against the rookies, and so we

839
00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 1: were talking a lot, and at the end of the

840
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: game regarding each other and kind of going after each other,

841
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: and he he kind of tries to back down and

842
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 1: shoots this fadeaway shot and hits a game winning shot

843
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 1: on me. And this is a freshman coming in. This

844
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: is gonna be my senior year. And it wasn't by

845
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:56,919
Speaker 1: the basket, it was like out by the three point line.

846
00:40:56,960 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, this guy might be pretty good. Yeah. Um,

847
00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: that year was up and down, like seventeen and sixteen,

848
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 1: and it's really hard when your senior year. Everybody had

849
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:12,799
Speaker 1: dreams of that idyllic senior year of you know, how

850
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: did you emotionally handed up? I think it was tough because, um,

851
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 1: like I said, there were there were seven freshmen, you know,

852
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 1: and and when you have seven freshmen, especially all getting recruited,

853
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 1: everybody's got an idea of not what they've been promised,

854
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 1: but maybe what they expect and expectations can be dangerous.

855
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,799
Speaker 1: You know, you can have goals, but expectations can can

856
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 1: kind of catch you. And so everybody had these ideas

857
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,520
Speaker 1: of what's going on. Playing time minutes, we're trying to

858
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 1: figure that out and trying to incorporate all the young

859
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: guys into our system, and we kind of knew what

860
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 1: it was like, and they were still um ready to

861
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:47,279
Speaker 1: grow up a little bit and said, hey, we still

862
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:49,359
Speaker 1: got years and we're gonna be good. Wait till we're

863
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 1: juniors and seniors and all that kind of stuff, and

864
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 1: this is my senior year. This is it. And so

865
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:56,719
Speaker 1: you're just dealing with a leadership role in trying to

866
00:41:56,760 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: have some consistency. I think that was the biggest thing.

867
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:00,719
Speaker 1: That we were in consistent and we were beating some

868
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 1: good teams and losing games, especially at home, that we

869
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 1: shouldn't have lost. So it was definitely difficult knowing where

870
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 1: we wanted to go. But at the same time, it

871
00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 1: was just a different role and just so you have

872
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 1: to accept it. You get them playing, or what happens

873
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:18,399
Speaker 1: when I get done playing? No, you get start gonna

874
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,839
Speaker 1: get them playing in two I'm talking about two thousand nine,

875
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:27,520
Speaker 1: okay player last game. Yeah, Well for me, it was

876
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play basketball overseas. So it's just like I

877
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: had that. I had that goal when I was young,

878
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:34,959
Speaker 1: so I was like, let's get on it. Let's let's

879
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,040
Speaker 1: get some NBA workouts. Let's try to promote myself as

880
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: much as possible. Let's get to the summer league. Let's

881
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,120
Speaker 1: try to figure out where I can go play. I

882
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:45,800
Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to find it a great agent um

883
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 1: and when you're a European player, changing agents is almost

884
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 1: as common as changing teams. And so I had to

885
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,160
Speaker 1: say agents and I graduated a graduated college, which I'm

886
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:58,080
Speaker 1: fortunate about. His name is Todd Eale and agent at

887
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 1: at of Arizona, and so we had a great relationship.

888
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 1: And he was telling me almost the first day we met.

889
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: He's like, I'd love to get you and get you

890
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: to go play in Germany. I think it's a great

891
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 1: league for young Americans. It's a fast league. And and

892
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 1: the first time I talked to him, he didn't want

893
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 1: to represent me. He said, look, I don't know if

894
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 1: you can play basketball or not, because you've been in

895
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:19,319
Speaker 1: the Bennett system for three years and you've had some

896
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 1: good games, but then I've also seen you dribble the

897
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 1: ball for twenty five seconds, and then you know, I've

898
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:26,239
Speaker 1: never really seen you play. So you should come down

899
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 1: to Arizona and work out a little bit, and then

900
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: let's see what you got. And I think after one

901
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: workout he said, let's work together. Uh, you know, it's

902
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: great to see this side of you. And we started

903
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 1: working together and and within I think the first game

904
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 1: of Summer League, I ended up getting to play with

905
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: the Lakers, which was a dream come true and I'm

906
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,120
Speaker 1: a southern California guy. But then I think the first

907
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: game or the first day I was in Vegas, he

908
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:49,760
Speaker 1: had a contract from me to go play in Germany.

909
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: Like he said, so it was great, Okay, it's good

910
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: in Germany was good team, yeah, good team. Okay. Um,

911
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,399
Speaker 1: so this is your first time playing overseas, first time

912
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: as a professional. I'm sure you went to did you

913
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:06,640
Speaker 1: go to camp? I've actually never been. I played overseas

914
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 1: for three years. I've never went to a camp. M

915
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:10,719
Speaker 1: that's not true. I'm first sure I did go to camp.

916
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: I forgot about that. Um uh what was that? What

917
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 1: was the build up? Like, what was your arrival in

918
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 1: in Gutine getting like, well, I think I'm one of

919
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 1: the most lucky people ever and I was blessed to

920
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 1: go out there and it was basically like an extension

921
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: from college. We had I think seven or eight Americans

922
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:34,319
Speaker 1: that were all first or second year guys overseas, just

923
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 1: a bunch of young a big, young core group of

924
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,279
Speaker 1: guys um that were just an extension from college and

925
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: so we were just out there basically. It it felt

926
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 1: like the same kind of brotherhood, except we weren't going

927
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 1: to class and we were making money. And for me,

928
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:48,839
Speaker 1: for the first time, going out there and getting paid

929
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:50,799
Speaker 1: to play basketball and live in a dream that I've

930
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: had for a long time, I was just special. So

931
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: I was excited to get going, and I had no

932
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 1: idea what it would be like. Um, I had a

933
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,359
Speaker 1: crazy coach and I call him crazy because we're we're

934
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,040
Speaker 1: a good frenzy until now. And he would tell us, look,

935
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna get you the point of pissing

936
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:06,080
Speaker 1: you off, so you play harder and I'll find a

937
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:08,120
Speaker 1: way to piss you off. And I was just like Wow.

938
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,440
Speaker 1: Coming from Tony Bennett, who's just a big support system

939
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: that just tries to get the best out of you

940
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:14,839
Speaker 1: and push you outside of your comfort zone, this guy's

941
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,280
Speaker 1: tell me he's gonna piss me off, and he definitely

942
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:21,399
Speaker 1: did just that. So his name is John Patrick. He's

943
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 1: a coach out in Germany. Great coach and successful guy,

944
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: and he he knew he knew what he was doing.

945
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: Great recruiter, brings guys and and gets the best out

946
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: of them. But he he told me before the first game,

947
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, man, you're gonna be my starting guy.

948
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 1: I'm pretty excited about it. Um. It was on the

949
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:37,120
Speaker 1: way to the game, I was like, I'll be a rookie.

950
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,000
Speaker 1: I know you're young, but I want you to lead

951
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 1: this team. Had three hours later, I was the last

952
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 1: guy off the bench in the first game, and I

953
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:46,160
Speaker 1: was looking around. I said, I said, what's going on?

954
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: Maybe that was him trying to trying to get on

955
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 1: me as as early as the first game. And so

956
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 1: within a couple of games, I kind of found my

957
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: rhythm and ended up having a really successful rookie year.

958
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 1: But the transition overseas a lot of people have these

959
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,800
Speaker 1: horror stories of what it's like, and I had the opposite.

960
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 1: I had just such an amazing story, and that's probably

961
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: why I'm still out here. Would you make your first year?

962
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 1: It might have been maybe sixty six. And then they

963
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 1: gave us UH coins at a place called salt Aldos

964
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 1: where we go for dinner. Uh. And then there's two

965
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 1: other restaurants we go eat as a team, and so

966
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 1: we were spending breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and just

967
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 1: playing basketball. It was crazy. The best part about Goodeny

968
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: in as far as living there, Like if somebody's ever

969
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:33,919
Speaker 1: going to go visit, what's cool about it? Well, there's

970
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 1: a lot of cool things about it. First, first, Europe.

971
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,600
Speaker 1: Europe does Christmas the best. I mean they have these

972
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:42,800
Speaker 1: Christmas markets and you can drink this hot spice wine

973
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:45,799
Speaker 1: and Christmas markets and when he gets cold, everybody's outside

974
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 1: and you have a downtown that are just walking areas

975
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 1: and no cars going by. And so it was a

976
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:54,839
Speaker 1: really close knit group of people. In Germany, I think

977
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 1: Australia and um France, they have these v I P

978
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 1: rooms after the games, so the sponsors and all the

979
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,279
Speaker 1: team and and family all get together after the game.

980
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:05,800
Speaker 1: So it's like it's a special family type of bond

981
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:08,200
Speaker 1: where you feel and these uh. And I'm not saying

982
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 1: it's a smaller team, but in these smaller cities, and

983
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:13,840
Speaker 1: so it was that family field that kind of drew

984
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 1: me to getting in and why I loved it so much.

985
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:20,239
Speaker 1: How is the beer the beer. It was great. You

986
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:23,919
Speaker 1: gotta ask my dad. My dad can't pronounces so it's

987
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:26,400
Speaker 1: like as soon as he came to visit me be like,

988
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:30,239
Speaker 1: let me get that banana, and he wouldn't be able

989
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:31,759
Speaker 1: to say it. So they have a they have a

990
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: helf advising that they mixed banana with that. You wouldn't

991
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: think it's great, but it's it's the best beer out there.

992
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,320
Speaker 1: So your second year, you go and you played for

993
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: a big club in UM in Turkey, right, and then

994
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:48,040
Speaker 1: you're saying, yeah, uh, I think Galloratos Sarah or whatever

995
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 1: ga yeah, like Tessa, right, we I played against him

996
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: when we were when I was in Israel, we went

997
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: and played in Turkey. And by the way, Turkey is

998
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 1: amazing with an Istanbul, which is as Contantinople. Yeah, like

999
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:04,759
Speaker 1: two continents right there are coming together. I remember going

1000
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: to the bazarre and just walking around and it was

1001
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:11,280
Speaker 1: like something out of a movie. Well, yeah, take me through, okay.

1002
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 1: So well, like he had such a good experience in

1003
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,600
Speaker 1: Germany widely just more money, yeah, I mean it was

1004
00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 1: it was a chance to move up. Um. I signed

1005
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 1: a one plus one I think um and it was

1006
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 1: a chance to move up they were playing in the

1007
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 1: euro Cup. I had played in the euro Challenge the

1008
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: year before and and getting we actually wanted the euro Challenge.

1009
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: So it was an amazing experience there and so a

1010
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:33,439
Speaker 1: chance to move up to the euro Cup UM play

1011
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:37,239
Speaker 1: on a bigger, a bigger platform, UM. And the experience

1012
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:40,520
Speaker 1: was pretty wild for me because I played in Pulm, Washington,

1013
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,319
Speaker 1: and played in a small town in Germany and from

1014
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:44,439
Speaker 1: Santa Barbara. You know, you walk around, you see people

1015
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 1: you know, and now I'm in istanbul Um and it's

1016
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 1: just it's just a holding world. And I wish I

1017
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 1: had gone there maybe a couple of years later when

1018
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:54,319
Speaker 1: I was a little older or more experienced and had

1019
00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 1: been around a little bit, because I didn't realize how

1020
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:59,000
Speaker 1: special istanbul was. But it was really a unique place

1021
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 1: and offered so much, not just basketball wise but off

1022
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 1: the court. Um. I think my mom, My mom always

1023
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 1: inspires me to like see everything in the city. She

1024
00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 1: when she comes to visit, she has a book already

1025
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 1: highlighted with forty five things that you have to do

1026
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 1: just in my area that I probably dragging by every

1027
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 1: day but missed. And so not only was I playing

1028
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,360
Speaker 1: basketball there, but I was checking out all the sites

1029
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 1: and it's one amazing place to live and to visit.

1030
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: Who is the coach Octime mcmoody, What was he like?

1031
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 1: He was? That was my first That was my first

1032
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:42,120
Speaker 1: experience with trying to work through a situation that that

1033
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 1: wasn't that comfortable for me. So when I got there. Normally,

1034
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,400
Speaker 1: when you recruited, I tell a lot of young players

1035
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 1: that you're recruited for a reason. You know, they believe

1036
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:52,319
Speaker 1: in you as a person, and you have to find

1037
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:56,520
Speaker 1: a way to include who you are into the team aspect.

1038
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,439
Speaker 1: So I felt like I was being myself. He brought

1039
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,680
Speaker 1: me in and said, hey, listen, first game, he scored

1040
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:05,799
Speaker 1: twenty plus points and you had five assists. But I

1041
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,600
Speaker 1: want you to be a point guard that scores ten

1042
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 1: points a game and has an eight assists, and I

1043
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:13,560
Speaker 1: want you to get everybody going. And about halfway through

1044
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:16,960
Speaker 1: the year, when I was averaging something of that nature

1045
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 1: and we had lost one game up until that point,

1046
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 1: he said, ah, things aren't really working out, and you know,

1047
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:23,279
Speaker 1: we thought you'd be doing a little bit more. And

1048
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:25,399
Speaker 1: then the management, wanting to get rid of me, probably

1049
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:30,440
Speaker 1: will do to statistics right right, that's he What was

1050
00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:35,520
Speaker 1: what was his national background? Uh? Pretty sure he's Turkish.

1051
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:37,480
Speaker 1: Pretty sure he's Turkish. He had he had been he

1052
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 1: had been coaching in Turkey a long time. A good guy,

1053
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 1: but just very demanding. It was my first experience with

1054
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 1: a really highly demanding coach and a coach that was

1055
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 1: repetition and you either go a hundred percent or you

1056
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,239
Speaker 1: go zero percent, and so it's just one percent all

1057
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:55,839
Speaker 1: the time. And I was like, hey man, I'm I've

1058
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:57,840
Speaker 1: always been a guy that changes changes pace, you know,

1059
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:00,279
Speaker 1: percent That's kind of who I am and said, no, no no,

1060
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 1: I want to run a full speed. So um, I

1061
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,239
Speaker 1: learned a lot in that experience, definitely, um. And you

1062
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: just grow from there. So then you went to album, right,

1063
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 1: which is isn't it traditionally the big team in Germany? Yeah,

1064
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:16,200
Speaker 1: it was until Bayern Munich decided that they wanted to

1065
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 1: have a basketball team that can match their soccer team.

1066
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:20,440
Speaker 1: So they really built up a great program in Germany

1067
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:23,840
Speaker 1: and now they're the number one team over there. So

1068
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 1: so you go just like mid season, right, So now

1069
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:30,360
Speaker 1: you're experiencing all the different again, much more normal for

1070
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 1: a European player than it is an American player, like

1071
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 1: you sign a one plus one and all of a

1072
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: sudden you're on a different team. Um, but for a

1073
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:42,120
Speaker 1: guy who dealt with some disappointment, how do you handle Okay,

1074
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:43,879
Speaker 1: I'm getting caught. I was trying to do. I'm trying

1075
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:45,920
Speaker 1: to please this guy and the second year is a pro.

1076
00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:48,759
Speaker 1: Don't get it. Now, I'm going to album. Who'd you

1077
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:53,359
Speaker 1: play for an album? Uh? Mooly mooly cat sering. Now

1078
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:55,399
Speaker 1: you're really getting into my memory. I'm bad with names

1079
00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:59,480
Speaker 1: that I'm getting them right now. So there you go. Um. So,

1080
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:02,120
Speaker 1: but now you're back in Germany where you'd had so

1081
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 1: much success, but with a completely different squad. Did you

1082
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:09,280
Speaker 1: have like equity within the country where everybody okay, everybody

1083
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: knows Taylor could play. Yeah. I think I think it

1084
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 1: was exciting because they recruited me and a big guy

1085
00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:16,640
Speaker 1: kind of rund the same time. And then the idea

1086
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,760
Speaker 1: was they had just lost a game by like thirty

1087
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 1: five points. Um, that was a surprise for a lot

1088
00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 1: of people, and they said, you know, this team I

1089
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:25,799
Speaker 1: was in I think third place or fourth place at

1090
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 1: the time, and then me and this uh, this big

1091
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:29,600
Speaker 1: guy kind of came in at the same time, and

1092
00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:31,600
Speaker 1: then the vibe around the team was wow, we really

1093
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:33,680
Speaker 1: have a chance to win the championship now, and so

1094
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:35,480
Speaker 1: it felt good to come back and say hey this

1095
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:37,640
Speaker 1: this young kids got a lot of promise. Uh. And

1096
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: it wasn't about my situation in Turkey. It was just

1097
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:44,439
Speaker 1: about moving forward and being in being in Germany. Okay. So, um,

1098
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 1: here's what I want to do. Okay, I want you

1099
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 1: to tell me one thing because you played in all

1100
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:53,319
Speaker 1: these countries, right and played in France. Uh then you

1101
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:57,280
Speaker 1: went and played uh shoot, I think you played in Spain.

1102
00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 1: That they're like France, Spain, It'll Italy, Russia, Russia, Russia again, Israel,

1103
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: back to Russia, Serbia, I mean every everywhere, China, okay, right, okay,

1104
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: So so here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna mention

1105
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 1: that where the country, and you tell me one thing

1106
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:23,760
Speaker 1: about living there that's cool and uh yeah and yeah

1107
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:26,040
Speaker 1: there there and if you have a good story, like

1108
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: just just go. Okay, let's start France. You're in Lamonts.

1109
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 1: I've been Lamont's actually played for Clement Fan which was

1110
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 1: they were trying to move to a Vision one. We

1111
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 1: played Lamons. I think was a friendly or was a game?

1112
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:40,920
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I do remember. It's kind of a

1113
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:42,960
Speaker 1: random city, like in the middle of France. There wasn't

1114
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:47,439
Speaker 1: much to it for me. France. Go well, France, there

1115
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:51,440
Speaker 1: you go. That's my home because I've been happily married

1116
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:53,760
Speaker 1: three and a half years. I met my wife in Lament, France.

1117
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 1: So I met her. I don't bear that, don't bury lead.

1118
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:00,640
Speaker 1: How did you meet her? I met? I met her

1119
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 1: her best friend, and through her best friend, I met her,

1120
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:06,880
Speaker 1: and uh, I think my first date with her she

1121
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 1: came to a game and then she met my mom

1122
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:12,359
Speaker 1: after the game, and so it was it was right

1123
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 1: into the fire. My mom looked at me and she

1124
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 1: she said, oh, that girl, that girl is really nice.

1125
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:18,480
Speaker 1: I was. I was like, oh you thought she was nice? Well,

1126
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:20,719
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna see what

1127
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:23,200
Speaker 1: else is going on there. So for me, Francis Frances

1128
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 1: France is my home and I have a house there now,

1129
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: and uh, that's the place I consider my home. Okay, wait,

1130
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 1: so she's French. I take it, yes, did you speak French?

1131
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: I did not speak French and her English was not great. Okay,

1132
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 1: So How did that? How did that evolve? It went

1133
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:47,440
Speaker 1: from very short conversations, a little Google Translate and extreme

1134
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 1: extreme patience, extreme patience. And uh, my wife is amazing

1135
00:54:53,120 --> 00:54:55,319
Speaker 1: with languages. So she had taken it in school but

1136
00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:57,440
Speaker 1: didn't really take it so seriously. When she met me,

1137
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 1: she started focusing a little bit, you know, with more

1138
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:04,759
Speaker 1: of uh learning language and getting excited about English. And

1139
00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: then she moved to Australia for a little bit, she

1140
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,360
Speaker 1: got really good at English. She came back and she

1141
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 1: just wanted to learn more and more and more and

1142
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:13,560
Speaker 1: more and more, and it made it easy for me

1143
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 1: and so are talking language with each other's English. And

1144
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:19,080
Speaker 1: then when when it comes to returning to favor and

1145
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get her to talk French with me

1146
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:23,799
Speaker 1: and teach me French, I'm not as smart as she

1147
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:26,640
Speaker 1: is and she's not as patient as I am. So

1148
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:28,600
Speaker 1: it was just a bad mixture of trying to trying

1149
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:30,759
Speaker 1: to get the two languages. But after a couple of years,

1150
00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:32,560
Speaker 1: as many some time in France, I picked up more

1151
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:34,080
Speaker 1: and more and so now I feel a little more

1152
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:36,960
Speaker 1: confident talking with some of her family. Your house and Frances,

1153
00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:39,799
Speaker 1: is it a flat? Is it a house like like

1154
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:43,399
Speaker 1: again from somebody from southern California, what would how would

1155
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:47,439
Speaker 1: you describe your your palatial estate in France. I would

1156
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 1: say it's it's more of like um, like uh, countryside home.

1157
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:57,360
Speaker 1: So my wife, my wife grew up about ten fifteen

1158
00:55:57,360 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 1: minutes outside of Lament. Her mom lived more in the

1159
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:04,279
Speaker 1: city and dad has a has a farm outside of

1160
00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 1: the mom actually a farm, and they produce a whole

1161
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:09,920
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff, salad, leak, everything. I've worked out in

1162
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:12,200
Speaker 1: the farm with her brothers and her uncles and her dad,

1163
00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:15,919
Speaker 1: especially during the pandemic. That's where I spent five six

1164
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:19,239
Speaker 1: months um and so it's about five it's about ten

1165
00:56:19,239 --> 00:56:21,239
Speaker 1: minutes outside the city. And we have a nice place.

1166
00:56:21,239 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 1: We bought it with her mom and so she lives there.

1167
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:26,919
Speaker 1: We have a nice place. You know, there's cows uh

1168
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 1: the other side of the fence in the backyard. And

1169
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:33,360
Speaker 1: it's a big difference to growing up in Santa Barbara, California.

1170
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:35,799
Speaker 1: But part of the amazing part of my job is

1171
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:40,000
Speaker 1: creating this diversity for my kids to grow up in

1172
00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:43,360
Speaker 1: where they can experience growing up speaking different languages, seeing

1173
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:47,279
Speaker 1: different things, learning different cultures, and just being more open

1174
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:50,359
Speaker 1: to the world. So it's like stainless Obispo's as you're

1175
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 1: telling right, it's slow down. The best thing about Italy

1176
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:02,360
Speaker 1: food period I had. I had a hook up in

1177
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:04,880
Speaker 1: Italy where he was a fan of the team, and

1178
00:57:04,920 --> 00:57:08,279
Speaker 1: he said, hey, listen, uh, come in, We'll make whatever

1179
00:57:08,360 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 1: you want. Just give us twenty yarrows. And I said,

1180
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: what do you mean. He said, whatever you want, just

1181
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:14,440
Speaker 1: tell us the day before. We'll make you American pancakes.

1182
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:15,920
Speaker 1: Will make you this and I said, no, I don't

1183
00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:18,040
Speaker 1: want American pancakes. I want the best Italian food. So

1184
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:20,280
Speaker 1: we would show up and they would have the sliced

1185
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:23,400
Speaker 1: ham and cheese. They would bring on appetizers and pastas

1186
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:26,480
Speaker 1: and steaks and everything you can imagine. Bring some desserts,

1187
00:57:26,600 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 1: you can drink wine. You could stay there for hours

1188
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:30,720
Speaker 1: and you just leaving twenty yearros. He wouldn't let you

1189
00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:34,000
Speaker 1: leave a tip, nothing. He just loved talking, having conversations,

1190
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:36,280
Speaker 1: speaking English and just sharing stories and it was just

1191
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:45,160
Speaker 1: an incredible experience. Russia Cold my my first experience there,

1192
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:48,040
Speaker 1: and there's a town called Nishni no grod Now I

1193
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,120
Speaker 1: owe a lot um to nis Ni. End up having

1194
00:57:51,160 --> 00:57:53,240
Speaker 1: an amazing season out there. That really opened up some

1195
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:57,440
Speaker 1: doors for me moving forward and created some success basketball wise.

1196
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 1: But the first year that my wife decided to live

1197
00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:04,480
Speaker 1: with me, Um we decided we were going to live together.

1198
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:07,120
Speaker 1: And then three weeks later I signed a contract to

1199
00:58:07,160 --> 00:58:10,160
Speaker 1: go live in Nishangard, Russia, which is an hour and

1200
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:14,600
Speaker 1: fifteen minute flight east of Moscow. And we lived in

1201
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 1: a small, small apartment one a little one bedroom apartment.

1202
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:20,720
Speaker 1: And I have pictures with my dad or my mom

1203
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,200
Speaker 1: walking to the grocery store and it's minus twenty minus

1204
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: thirty outside, and it was it was a different situation.

1205
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:29,440
Speaker 1: I saw people on skis walking around. It was wild totally.

1206
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,959
Speaker 1: So I I played my first year was in eual Grade,

1207
00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:36,760
Speaker 1: which is in uh It was in perm Russia, right

1208
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: had Um Russia, same type of I think, it's a

1209
00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:43,640
Speaker 1: two hour flight from from Moscow. I played. I played there, okay,

1210
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:46,200
Speaker 1: so and we won the league like we were the

1211
00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:48,800
Speaker 1: first team, not Saskata Window League. We were were like

1212
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:50,680
Speaker 1: I was one game my whole time in Russia and

1213
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:53,080
Speaker 1: it was only because I had to play with the juniors.

1214
00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 1: We we won the league by so many games. They

1215
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:59,080
Speaker 1: advanced this to the semi finals and they were like

1216
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:01,480
Speaker 1: you you must to stay to play with juniors. So

1217
00:59:01,560 --> 00:59:03,640
Speaker 1: I played against Sesca with all these juniors and I

1218
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:06,560
Speaker 1: was terrible, but it was like one man band thing. Anyway,

1219
00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:10,480
Speaker 1: here's my here's my rushling cold story. So we had

1220
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 1: just got married and she was like, you know, I

1221
00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:17,360
Speaker 1: want to come out there. Okay. So um, we're living

1222
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:20,520
Speaker 1: in the flat up in the sixth floor or something

1223
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:22,439
Speaker 1: in the sixth floor building or ninth floor, ninth foot

1224
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:25,360
Speaker 1: building or whatever. And I get home from the morning

1225
00:59:25,400 --> 00:59:27,600
Speaker 1: workout right, you shoot and lift in the morning and

1226
00:59:27,720 --> 00:59:30,040
Speaker 1: practicing the afternoon, and she wanted, let's go do something.

1227
00:59:30,040 --> 00:59:32,680
Speaker 1: I'm stuck in this apartment. So we went to We

1228
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:35,720
Speaker 1: go to the re Knock, which is the market, and

1229
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 1: I'll never forget one day it was like minus forty

1230
00:59:38,160 --> 00:59:41,000
Speaker 1: and we have like everything covered up except our noses,

1231
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:44,960
Speaker 1: and our boogers froze like literally froze like st like

1232
00:59:45,280 --> 00:59:48,479
Speaker 1: ice cubes. And we're like, we're never doing that again.

1233
00:59:48,560 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 1: That was way. That was too cold, Like we thought

1234
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:52,120
Speaker 1: we were gonna like lose skin. It was. It was

1235
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:54,560
Speaker 1: so incredibly cold, and it used to I felt like

1236
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:56,880
Speaker 1: it would it snowed every day I was there. That's

1237
00:59:56,920 --> 00:59:58,600
Speaker 1: what I remember. I remember like the first three months,

1238
00:59:58,600 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 1: I would wake up and I go, hey, look, it's knowing.

1239
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:02,320
Speaker 1: I was just kind of like being a smartass. It

1240
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:05,240
Speaker 1: literally snowed every day. My my my coach told us

1241
01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:08,400
Speaker 1: one time, he said, hey, tomorrow, um, bring some extra

1242
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:11,800
Speaker 1: stuff because we're gonna warm up outside. And we all

1243
01:00:11,800 --> 01:00:14,120
Speaker 1: looked at each other. It was the beginning of March,

1244
01:00:14,600 --> 01:00:17,520
Speaker 1: but it was freezing outside, and so we all came

1245
01:00:17,560 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 1: with all our stuff. We had sweats and gloves and beads,

1246
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 1: and we did our whole warm up on a lake

1247
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,200
Speaker 1: which was frozen over. And we just ran on this

1248
01:00:25,520 --> 01:00:27,520
Speaker 1: frozen over lake. And as we're running, you gotta keep

1249
01:00:27,520 --> 01:00:30,400
Speaker 1: in mind there's these big seven foot Russian guys and

1250
01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:33,479
Speaker 1: I hear cracking, cracking of snow and cracking of ice,

1251
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:36,560
Speaker 1: and I'm asking them, like, hey, what's going on here,

1252
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:39,200
Speaker 1: like oh this this won't thaw out for weeks, And

1253
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:43,040
Speaker 1: I was like weeks, I don't If I fall in

1254
01:00:43,120 --> 01:00:45,360
Speaker 1: this river, I'm not I'm not. I'm not calling it in.

1255
01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:47,760
Speaker 1: And usually now I've got Russia and the river. Outside

1256
01:00:47,800 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 1: of practice, we were we went and trained in Lithuanian

1257
01:00:52,040 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: in uh uh that shallow? What is that Russia? So

1258
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:00,760
Speaker 1: he advanced all the way to the playoffs and semifinals,

1259
01:01:01,520 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 1: and we um we we end up training and playing

1260
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:08,880
Speaker 1: all these Lithuanian teams to lead up to the playoffs,

1261
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:11,680
Speaker 1: and we went on a run. We go on a

1262
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:14,480
Speaker 1: thirty minute run in the morning. And so they took

1263
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:16,320
Speaker 1: us down to the beach and there was his paths,

1264
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:18,680
Speaker 1: like like there's like a forest and then there's the beach.

1265
01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 1: And the other American was Willie Burton. And Willie was

1266
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:23,600
Speaker 1: like in his thirties, he played in the NBA. He

1267
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:27,680
Speaker 1: was an interesting, your curial guy. And you had the

1268
01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:30,840
Speaker 1: guards that were like the high achievers, right. Then you

1269
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 1: had the big guys that were just like big lumbering

1270
01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:36,000
Speaker 1: Russian dudes, right, and then he had kind of some

1271
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:38,240
Speaker 1: of the dudes in the middle. And so we all

1272
01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:40,400
Speaker 1: take off and I'm with the high achiever group, right,

1273
01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:42,560
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get a good work out in and

1274
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: Willy's kind of in the middle, and then I think

1275
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:47,880
Speaker 1: he's like a gazelle, right. So I think at some

1276
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:50,920
Speaker 1: point he was like, after this, I'm gonna catch up

1277
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:53,400
Speaker 1: with the other group and it's like a winding trail,

1278
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:57,520
Speaker 1: and somewhere along the line he gets lost, you know,

1279
01:01:57,760 --> 01:02:00,200
Speaker 1: turn left, he turns right or whatever, and you're Suppo like,

1280
01:02:00,280 --> 01:02:01,680
Speaker 1: stay with like stay with the group, will you like

1281
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:03,520
Speaker 1: you start with the middle guys. Stay with the middle guys.

1282
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:07,120
Speaker 1: Will He's like, now that I'm gonna go. So we

1283
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:09,800
Speaker 1: get back to the bus and everybody's sweating and drenched,

1284
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:12,000
Speaker 1: and you know, you're drinking. You have this big they drink.

1285
01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:14,760
Speaker 1: They don't believe in cold water, drinking like warm water.

1286
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:18,280
Speaker 1: You're sitting there and just let's just go. Everything smells

1287
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:19,520
Speaker 1: you know, you want I just want to go to

1288
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:27,200
Speaker 1: the hotel. And they're like, goodly, where is Willie. I'm

1289
01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:30,720
Speaker 1: on this pager. I don't know where is really I

1290
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:33,840
Speaker 1: don't know. So we get off the bus and we're

1291
01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:35,960
Speaker 1: kind of like wall, hey, we're in the middle of

1292
01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 1: with the way. Well hey, well well well they Burton,

1293
01:02:39,880 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 1: where are you can't find it? By the way? Fuck it?

1294
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, like he'll fie. He's an adult,

1295
01:02:45,640 --> 01:02:48,440
Speaker 1: will figure it out. So again the same thing, like

1296
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:50,600
Speaker 1: we've had a morning workout. We go back to the gym,

1297
01:02:50,680 --> 01:02:52,360
Speaker 1: we shoot and they take us to the hotel, we

1298
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:55,680
Speaker 1: sleep and then we like scrimmage that night. I'm back

1299
01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:58,240
Speaker 1: in the hotel, like here comes Willie and you know

1300
01:02:58,440 --> 01:03:00,920
Speaker 1: it's like he's kissed at me, like I left him,

1301
01:03:00,960 --> 01:03:03,040
Speaker 1: like I got a soldier and I left the guy

1302
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:07,240
Speaker 1: behind exactly. You go like you left me middle Lithuanio,

1303
01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:10,720
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, you you were with the group

1304
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:12,520
Speaker 1: and then you were not with the group, and like

1305
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:15,320
Speaker 1: we called for you, we waited for you, like you're

1306
01:03:15,360 --> 01:03:17,960
Speaker 1: nowhere to be fat like bulls. So then you know,

1307
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:20,920
Speaker 1: like everybody's mad at you because I didn't know where

1308
01:03:20,960 --> 01:03:23,160
Speaker 1: he was, Like that's about my fault. He's mad at

1309
01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:25,919
Speaker 1: me because he got left right, And you're just sitting

1310
01:03:25,920 --> 01:03:27,960
Speaker 1: there going like this is and then you start to

1311
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:31,560
Speaker 1: think to yourself like that's legitimately scary. I remember, I

1312
01:03:31,600 --> 01:03:34,520
Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever and you've had travels all over, right,

1313
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:37,360
Speaker 1: have you ever had the thought? I remember landing my

1314
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:40,400
Speaker 1: first time in Russia. The guy picks me up, the

1315
01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:43,800
Speaker 1: smoking stops to get somebody eat. Nobody speaks in English,

1316
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:45,920
Speaker 1: and I'm like so tired. You're like in and out

1317
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,320
Speaker 1: of consciousness. I look out there's like red square. Then

1318
01:03:48,320 --> 01:03:50,040
Speaker 1: we're going to some other airport. You know, it is

1319
01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:52,320
Speaker 1: in Russia. Like you fly into Shara Meteva and then

1320
01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:56,040
Speaker 1: they take you to another airport. And I just remember thinking, like,

1321
01:03:56,320 --> 01:03:58,360
Speaker 1: if this guy was a bad human being, like he

1322
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:01,040
Speaker 1: like I wanted my money, just killed me, like push

1323
01:04:01,120 --> 01:04:03,200
Speaker 1: me out the door. Now we would know for weeks,

1324
01:04:03,320 --> 01:04:06,920
Speaker 1: maybe months, maybe years, because he'd be underneath snow, right, Like,

1325
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:13,040
Speaker 1: what what's the craziest middle of nowhere story you can show? Well,

1326
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:16,640
Speaker 1: I've heard. The craziest story I've heard is um is

1327
01:04:16,640 --> 01:04:22,400
Speaker 1: a Russian story where a person, without being mentioned, was

1328
01:04:22,440 --> 01:04:25,640
Speaker 1: supposed to get a bonus and somebody came in Russia.

1329
01:04:25,720 --> 01:04:28,120
Speaker 1: Somebody came and knocked on the door and he had

1330
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:30,400
Speaker 1: some bonus money. I don't know if it's for advancing

1331
01:04:30,520 --> 01:04:32,160
Speaker 1: to the next round or something like that. So guy

1332
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:35,120
Speaker 1: opens the door and the bag, the bag, you know,

1333
01:04:35,240 --> 01:04:37,439
Speaker 1: bag of money gets handed into his hands and it's

1334
01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:39,959
Speaker 1: all good and everything, and so he goes and doesn't

1335
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:42,640
Speaker 1: think anything of it. Thirty minutes later, knock, knock, knock,

1336
01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:45,080
Speaker 1: somebody comes and says, I'm here to pick up the money,

1337
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:49,440
Speaker 1: and so what are you gonna do? And so you

1338
01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:51,440
Speaker 1: know the team says, hey, you know, we dropped off

1339
01:04:51,480 --> 01:04:53,640
Speaker 1: the money. What's the problem, And so they know nothing

1340
01:04:53,680 --> 01:04:55,560
Speaker 1: about the second guy. You know, it's just like so

1341
01:04:56,320 --> 01:04:57,960
Speaker 1: at a certain point, like you said, it's just like

1342
01:04:58,280 --> 01:05:00,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send as many texts I can keep my

1343
01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:03,200
Speaker 1: location on just in case, just you know, so people

1344
01:05:03,240 --> 01:05:05,280
Speaker 1: have some documentation of where I am, what's going on.

1345
01:05:05,440 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: And so especially Americans that think about what's going on

1346
01:05:08,520 --> 01:05:10,520
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, well, you're in Russia with the war,

1347
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:13,439
Speaker 1: with you with Ukraine all kind of stuff, and it's

1348
01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:15,960
Speaker 1: really not like that. But for people that don't know

1349
01:05:16,080 --> 01:05:18,080
Speaker 1: the situation, and you hear stories like that, and it

1350
01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:23,080
Speaker 1: really is like that. Um, you wrote a book which

1351
01:05:23,120 --> 01:05:25,000
Speaker 1: is about to come out. When did you start writing

1352
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:29,680
Speaker 1: a book? I'm excited, man, here it is. I started

1353
01:05:29,720 --> 01:05:32,080
Speaker 1: writing about three years ago. I think I'm in Belgrade

1354
01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:34,280
Speaker 1: right now. When I was in Belgrade the last time

1355
01:05:34,280 --> 01:05:37,600
Speaker 1: I played here, UM, my wife and I we got

1356
01:05:37,680 --> 01:05:42,479
Speaker 1: pregnant with our daughter, Joy, UM and I thought about

1357
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:44,880
Speaker 1: writing a letter to Joy, and I thought about writing

1358
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:49,280
Speaker 1: a letter of just my thoughts about life about her. Um.

1359
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:51,560
Speaker 1: You see these books about like if you could you

1360
01:05:51,600 --> 01:05:54,440
Speaker 1: know and and pose some wisdom on your kids, what

1361
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,520
Speaker 1: would they be or somebody? So I thought about writing

1362
01:05:56,520 --> 01:05:59,240
Speaker 1: a letter of her, um my wish for her for

1363
01:05:59,320 --> 01:06:02,560
Speaker 1: the future. That letter turned into a little bit longer

1364
01:06:02,600 --> 01:06:04,720
Speaker 1: of a letter than I started writing down notes. I'm

1365
01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:06,320
Speaker 1: a bad sleep at night, so I stay up in

1366
01:06:06,320 --> 01:06:08,280
Speaker 1: the night, especially after games, I can't sleep, and write

1367
01:06:08,360 --> 01:06:12,400
Speaker 1: notes and positive messages and inspiring quotes and things that

1368
01:06:12,440 --> 01:06:15,080
Speaker 1: I wanted to share with my kids. And so that

1369
01:06:15,240 --> 01:06:17,160
Speaker 1: turned into more. I went out to play in China,

1370
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,240
Speaker 1: had a lot of time on the road, started adding

1371
01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:21,280
Speaker 1: more thoughts to the paper. Then it became more of

1372
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:24,560
Speaker 1: a process than an end result. So I just enjoyed writing,

1373
01:06:24,640 --> 01:06:26,880
Speaker 1: enjoyed getting the thoughts out. It was kind of my

1374
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:29,360
Speaker 1: way to relax. I'm not even a reader. I didn't

1375
01:06:29,360 --> 01:06:30,960
Speaker 1: even think it would really be a book. And then

1376
01:06:31,400 --> 01:06:35,000
Speaker 1: slowly I decided that it was gonna turn some ideas

1377
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:38,520
Speaker 1: into chapters, chapters into a book. And then through some

1378
01:06:38,640 --> 01:06:43,000
Speaker 1: help of some other people. Uh, my cousin's wife was amazing.

1379
01:06:43,120 --> 01:06:46,240
Speaker 1: She helped me edit the book. Um and it just

1380
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 1: became what it is now. And so now January twenty two,

1381
01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:52,440
Speaker 1: there's a book coming out and I'm supposed to be

1382
01:06:52,520 --> 01:06:55,320
Speaker 1: a writer now, so it's exciting. What is what is

1383
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:58,680
Speaker 1: the like give given the two sentences of what the

1384
01:06:58,720 --> 01:07:01,480
Speaker 1: book is, Well, it's right on the front front cover.

1385
01:07:01,560 --> 01:07:04,640
Speaker 1: I'll read the book. So it's cultivate joy, reprogram your mind,

1386
01:07:04,880 --> 01:07:08,640
Speaker 1: and define life through an authentic lens. And so I've

1387
01:07:08,680 --> 01:07:11,360
Speaker 1: got around the world and learned a lot of truths.

1388
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:14,200
Speaker 1: I write in the book that you know, your truth

1389
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 1: in America might be different than somebody's truth in Germany,

1390
01:07:17,120 --> 01:07:19,440
Speaker 1: and even in America, everybody has their own truth. They

1391
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:22,640
Speaker 1: see life differently. Not only do we see life through

1392
01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:25,280
Speaker 1: different lenses physically where I have bad eyes and got

1393
01:07:25,360 --> 01:07:28,880
Speaker 1: eye surgery, but we see things differently. And so just

1394
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:32,840
Speaker 1: sharing my experiences, sharing my ideas, and I really feel

1395
01:07:32,880 --> 01:07:36,000
Speaker 1: like we can cultivate joy, cultivate happiness from the inside,

1396
01:07:36,480 --> 01:07:39,680
Speaker 1: and especially right now, I was talking with some people.

1397
01:07:39,720 --> 01:07:41,840
Speaker 1: I didn't share this with you yet, but yesterday was

1398
01:07:41,880 --> 01:07:44,800
Speaker 1: the end of my contract. I'm in Belgrade, Serbia, I

1399
01:07:44,920 --> 01:07:47,439
Speaker 1: have my wife, my two kids, and in the next

1400
01:07:48,480 --> 01:07:51,240
Speaker 1: seventy two hours, I'm gonna be moving to a different country.

1401
01:07:51,320 --> 01:07:53,760
Speaker 1: I don't know where, I don't know what team. And

1402
01:07:54,040 --> 01:07:56,960
Speaker 1: that's part of life. That's that's all these external factors

1403
01:07:57,040 --> 01:07:59,840
Speaker 1: that come into life, and there's I call it controlled chaos.

1404
01:08:00,480 --> 01:08:03,000
Speaker 1: And to be able to define your life from the inside,

1405
01:08:03,360 --> 01:08:08,160
Speaker 1: to have a foundation of confidence and and optimism can

1406
01:08:08,240 --> 01:08:12,920
Speaker 1: really change your outlook on everything. And especially this message

1407
01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:16,320
Speaker 1: where just shook up the world with COVID nineteen. I

1408
01:08:16,400 --> 01:08:18,920
Speaker 1: think it's the perfect time for this message. I think

1409
01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:21,240
Speaker 1: it's a book for everybody, and I'm just excited to

1410
01:08:21,280 --> 01:08:24,200
Speaker 1: share it to the world and especially my family. No no,

1411
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:27,599
Speaker 1: no guesses on where you're gonna play. There's a couple

1412
01:08:27,600 --> 01:08:29,639
Speaker 1: of different places, a couple of different countries. The cool

1413
01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:32,160
Speaker 1: thing about playing so many places is like I have

1414
01:08:32,400 --> 01:08:34,360
Speaker 1: a couple of ideas of where I might want to play.

1415
01:08:34,400 --> 01:08:36,840
Speaker 1: There's France, you know, potentially kind of going back home

1416
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:39,920
Speaker 1: and playing in an area that I love. There's Israel,

1417
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:42,960
Speaker 1: been there before. There's Turkey. I played for a lot

1418
01:08:43,000 --> 01:08:45,560
Speaker 1: of coaches, played with a lot of GM's, played with

1419
01:08:45,600 --> 01:08:48,120
Speaker 1: a lot of players. Um some players when I started.

1420
01:08:48,200 --> 01:08:51,560
Speaker 1: Now are gms and coaches. Because now thirty five and so,

1421
01:08:51,640 --> 01:08:55,599
Speaker 1: I've gotten a lot of calls and it's extremely humbling to, uh,

1422
01:08:55,760 --> 01:08:58,360
Speaker 1: you know, have it announced yesterday that I'm changing teams

1423
01:08:58,439 --> 01:09:01,200
Speaker 1: and to have my phone ring in and some you know,

1424
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:05,559
Speaker 1: five six, seven professional basketball contracts being offered. It's uh,

1425
01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 1: I'm truly blessed. Okay, So, um, there's there's there's a

1426
01:09:10,400 --> 01:09:13,080
Speaker 1: bunch I want to kind of bite into here real quick. Uh,

1427
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:18,200
Speaker 1: what do you want to do when you're done? I

1428
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:20,920
Speaker 1: think one of the most amazing things about life. So

1429
01:09:21,000 --> 01:09:23,960
Speaker 1: in the book, I say life is not happening to you,

1430
01:09:24,080 --> 01:09:27,800
Speaker 1: it's happening for you. And so there's just so many opportunities,

1431
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:29,840
Speaker 1: so many things. I've known since I was five I

1432
01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:32,280
Speaker 1: wanted to be a professional basketball player. And so the

1433
01:09:32,439 --> 01:09:35,040
Speaker 1: idea where I can wake up and choose what I

1434
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:38,280
Speaker 1: want to do or just open up my mind to

1435
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,040
Speaker 1: being creative, and especially now with the Internet and the

1436
01:09:42,120 --> 01:09:44,320
Speaker 1: world being what it is, that you can kind of

1437
01:09:45,080 --> 01:09:46,760
Speaker 1: figure out what you love to do and try to

1438
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:49,120
Speaker 1: make that a profession. And so you love to do

1439
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:51,640
Speaker 1: other than play basketball. Well, the funny thing is I

1440
01:09:51,680 --> 01:09:56,880
Speaker 1: didn't forget. Um, it's gonna be tough to be involved

1441
01:09:56,880 --> 01:09:58,920
Speaker 1: with basketball. There's a lot of traveling and I wanna,

1442
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:00,640
Speaker 1: I wanna, I want to travel, but I want to

1443
01:10:00,640 --> 01:10:02,240
Speaker 1: travel a little bit more for pleasure. Right now, I

1444
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:04,080
Speaker 1: travel and they tell me what clothes to wear, what

1445
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,120
Speaker 1: color T shirt, and what time to be at the

1446
01:10:06,160 --> 01:10:08,080
Speaker 1: gym and things like that. So I want to travel

1447
01:10:08,120 --> 01:10:11,280
Speaker 1: and take my family around the world. Um, I wanna.

1448
01:10:11,479 --> 01:10:13,920
Speaker 1: I never thought i'd be a writer, and now there's

1449
01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:15,840
Speaker 1: a book coming out. So I don't know how much

1450
01:10:15,880 --> 01:10:18,639
Speaker 1: longer I'm gonna play. Um, but I'm just gonna enjoy

1451
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:20,640
Speaker 1: every single second. And then when I'm done, look at

1452
01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:22,800
Speaker 1: some other ideas. And I've already started thinking about a

1453
01:10:22,840 --> 01:10:26,560
Speaker 1: couple of things, but I'm open to everything. What do

1454
01:10:26,640 --> 01:10:29,479
Speaker 1: you tell my son is eleven year old, left handed,

1455
01:10:29,760 --> 01:10:34,400
Speaker 1: white kid, Orange County's little If he grows, you'll grow late,

1456
01:10:35,160 --> 01:10:38,600
Speaker 1: you know. And this is a world where if you

1457
01:10:38,680 --> 01:10:41,960
Speaker 1: walked into a room and said professional basketball player for

1458
01:10:41,960 --> 01:10:44,680
Speaker 1: the last fifteen years, this is what I've done. If

1459
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:47,599
Speaker 1: you were like bullshit, right, I've never been in America,

1460
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:51,800
Speaker 1: Like already, that's all of it, right, Like, no, no,

1461
01:10:53,080 --> 01:10:55,600
Speaker 1: go ask somebody like I played and played in EuroLeague

1462
01:10:55,600 --> 01:10:59,080
Speaker 1: and pretty high levels, all these big clubs. What do

1463
01:10:59,160 --> 01:11:02,679
Speaker 1: you What do you tell the kid who looks around

1464
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:06,439
Speaker 1: it says I can't do this. Everybody's everybody looks looks

1465
01:11:06,479 --> 01:11:09,280
Speaker 1: more of the part than I looked apart. There was

1466
01:11:09,280 --> 01:11:12,400
Speaker 1: a couple of things. Um. I love the idea of

1467
01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:15,040
Speaker 1: whatever it is you seek, you're going to find it.

1468
01:11:15,800 --> 01:11:18,559
Speaker 1: So if you're if you're positive, and if you're seeking

1469
01:11:18,600 --> 01:11:21,599
Speaker 1: a certain thing, you're gonna find people that are positive.

1470
01:11:21,920 --> 01:11:23,840
Speaker 1: If you're trying to motivate yourself to be go a

1471
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:25,960
Speaker 1: certain way, you're going to find people that will help

1472
01:11:26,000 --> 01:11:28,040
Speaker 1: you get that way. If you have if you feel

1473
01:11:28,080 --> 01:11:31,639
Speaker 1: yourself with doubt and insecurity and you and you're seeking

1474
01:11:31,800 --> 01:11:34,320
Speaker 1: that route and that you have excuses and things like that,

1475
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:36,960
Speaker 1: you're gonna find people that will sympathize with you and

1476
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:40,839
Speaker 1: and go along that route. I believe anything is definitely possible.

1477
01:11:41,360 --> 01:11:45,080
Speaker 1: And uh, to focus on improvement instead of perfection. That's

1478
01:11:45,160 --> 01:11:47,679
Speaker 1: kind of been my m O. So every day there's

1479
01:11:47,720 --> 01:11:50,560
Speaker 1: no such thing as perfection. And Uh, I talked in

1480
01:11:50,600 --> 01:11:53,680
Speaker 1: the book about meeting this kid um in China and

1481
01:11:53,720 --> 01:11:56,000
Speaker 1: trying to help him with some drills and just trying

1482
01:11:56,000 --> 01:11:58,000
Speaker 1: to keep his head up while he's doing some dribbling drills,

1483
01:11:58,240 --> 01:12:00,800
Speaker 1: and and he did it again, didn't keep his head up.

1484
01:12:00,800 --> 01:12:02,960
Speaker 1: And I said, hey, man, maybe I didn't translate, and

1485
01:12:03,040 --> 01:12:04,720
Speaker 1: maybe the translator didn't get it, and he said, no,

1486
01:12:04,800 --> 01:12:07,439
Speaker 1: I understand English, but if I do that, I can't

1487
01:12:07,439 --> 01:12:11,040
Speaker 1: do the drill perfectly. And I said, that's an interesting concept.

1488
01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:12,760
Speaker 1: Is like, tell me what player in the NBA you

1489
01:12:12,800 --> 01:12:14,800
Speaker 1: love the most, and tell me how perfect he is

1490
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:17,200
Speaker 1: or if he ever makes mistakes. And so we start

1491
01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:19,920
Speaker 1: with that and we go back. So you have to

1492
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:23,240
Speaker 1: work on improvement instead of perfection. Perfection you're gonna fall short.

1493
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:27,200
Speaker 1: Improvement is about the journey, is about everything that you

1494
01:12:27,320 --> 01:12:29,920
Speaker 1: can control. And so if you focus on your effort

1495
01:12:30,320 --> 01:12:32,840
Speaker 1: and not the outcome, I mean, the world just opens

1496
01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:35,240
Speaker 1: up to you and that becomes that becomes a habit,

1497
01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:37,920
Speaker 1: and if it's basketball or if it's something else, you

1498
01:12:38,040 --> 01:12:41,320
Speaker 1: develop a style of living that's just becomes your habit

1499
01:12:41,439 --> 01:12:44,000
Speaker 1: becomes who you are. One of the things you said

1500
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:45,600
Speaker 1: that stuck with me. You're talking about your coach in

1501
01:12:45,840 --> 01:12:52,200
Speaker 1: Istanbul about how going percent whatever. I remember it's funny.

1502
01:12:52,360 --> 01:12:54,599
Speaker 1: And you also talked about not winely where the same.

1503
01:12:54,600 --> 01:12:56,800
Speaker 1: I'm sure to being a team like you. You'll you'll

1504
01:12:56,840 --> 01:12:58,560
Speaker 1: go through when you're done playing, you'll go through like

1505
01:12:58,680 --> 01:13:00,720
Speaker 1: a I don't know how long gonna be like a

1506
01:13:02,479 --> 01:13:05,000
Speaker 1: point of rebellion, like I don't want I don't want

1507
01:13:05,040 --> 01:13:07,040
Speaker 1: to I don't want to be I don't want to

1508
01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:08,400
Speaker 1: work out with a bunch of people. I want to

1509
01:13:08,520 --> 01:13:10,439
Speaker 1: do everything when I want to do it right, because

1510
01:13:10,439 --> 01:13:12,400
Speaker 1: that's part of the regiment of being an athlete is

1511
01:13:12,439 --> 01:13:14,439
Speaker 1: somebody's always telling you and that kind of motivates you,

1512
01:13:14,520 --> 01:13:17,640
Speaker 1: or somebody's gonna take your spot, etcetera, etcetera. Um. But

1513
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:21,920
Speaker 1: I remember at some point I was doing like three

1514
01:13:22,000 --> 01:13:26,320
Speaker 1: man leave. I was like, I've literally done this for

1515
01:13:26,520 --> 01:13:32,240
Speaker 1: thirty years, like I've never I'm not right, Like it's

1516
01:13:32,280 --> 01:13:35,759
Speaker 1: taken me. I've coached youth basketball now for like three years,

1517
01:13:36,040 --> 01:13:38,519
Speaker 1: guy back at a younger level, and only this year

1518
01:13:38,600 --> 01:13:41,360
Speaker 1: have I reintegrated like three men weave as part of

1519
01:13:41,360 --> 01:13:44,519
Speaker 1: the drills whatever, just because you want passing and catching

1520
01:13:44,560 --> 01:13:46,599
Speaker 1: and cutting and some of those things. I do understand

1521
01:13:46,600 --> 01:13:48,800
Speaker 1: why I exists, but I was just so negative towards

1522
01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:50,559
Speaker 1: like how many times can I do the same thing

1523
01:13:50,680 --> 01:13:54,920
Speaker 1: over and over again? Um? Have you have you gotten

1524
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:56,600
Speaker 1: to that place? Is that? Is that part of it?

1525
01:13:56,680 --> 01:13:59,639
Speaker 1: It's the It's not the games are great, the players

1526
01:13:59,680 --> 01:14:02,320
Speaker 1: are even the preparing for the game is great. It's

1527
01:14:02,360 --> 01:14:04,800
Speaker 1: just those other things that everyone feels like they have

1528
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:06,640
Speaker 1: to do as part of practice. To say there's a

1529
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:09,679
Speaker 1: practice that you're like, that's the part I can't stand.

1530
01:14:10,600 --> 01:14:13,160
Speaker 1: As as I've gotten older, I've I've kind of been

1531
01:14:13,240 --> 01:14:18,040
Speaker 1: like five on five or bust. So you show up,

1532
01:14:18,280 --> 01:14:21,840
Speaker 1: you show up to practice. Good No my favorite and

1533
01:14:22,040 --> 01:14:24,920
Speaker 1: he I think he coaches. He might be back in Israel.

1534
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:27,360
Speaker 1: He wasn't in Turkey. Like we had a bit of

1535
01:14:27,400 --> 01:14:29,519
Speaker 1: a personality conflict when I was in Israel's guy sharonne

1536
01:14:29,560 --> 01:14:32,200
Speaker 1: Drew Ker. Don't if you ever played against Sharon and

1537
01:14:32,479 --> 01:14:35,040
Speaker 1: he would goodly professor good lib. You know so much

1538
01:14:35,080 --> 01:14:36,880
Speaker 1: about Busk. He was like kind of condescend. He was

1539
01:14:36,920 --> 01:14:40,320
Speaker 1: totally condescending. But I love this practice because all we

1540
01:14:40,400 --> 01:14:42,400
Speaker 1: did was five on five Like that was it? Like

1541
01:14:42,479 --> 01:14:44,880
Speaker 1: I would love we we lift, we shoot, and then

1542
01:14:44,960 --> 01:14:47,760
Speaker 1: let's bump, let's go, and it was competitive like that

1543
01:14:48,000 --> 01:14:49,840
Speaker 1: was it that? Like what are we doing other stuff for?

1544
01:14:49,960 --> 01:14:52,719
Speaker 1: It was amazing. I love. I love when they're like, Okay,

1545
01:14:52,760 --> 01:14:54,519
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this drill and they're saying, oh no, no,

1546
01:14:54,680 --> 01:14:57,280
Speaker 1: the fifth guy will be there, and I'm like, let's

1547
01:14:57,320 --> 01:14:59,519
Speaker 1: put the fifth guy there and let's see where he'll

1548
01:14:59,560 --> 01:15:01,599
Speaker 1: be and let's play that because in the game it's

1549
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:03,839
Speaker 1: gonna be five on five and I and I respect

1550
01:15:03,880 --> 01:15:06,680
Speaker 1: all the drills, and especially the preseason, you have to

1551
01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:09,120
Speaker 1: work on certain things where five on five might not

1552
01:15:09,240 --> 01:15:11,800
Speaker 1: be there. But the older I've gotten, I've definitely felt that.

1553
01:15:12,400 --> 01:15:15,479
Speaker 1: I got to Italy and somebody shared a story with me. Um.

1554
01:15:15,800 --> 01:15:17,880
Speaker 1: I can't think of the name right now, but they're

1555
01:15:17,880 --> 01:15:19,880
Speaker 1: a player that it was playing for the team the

1556
01:15:19,960 --> 01:15:22,280
Speaker 1: year before I got there, and it was like five

1557
01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:25,280
Speaker 1: games into the season and he showed up to practice

1558
01:15:25,360 --> 01:15:27,040
Speaker 1: and right before he walked out on the court, he

1559
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:29,720
Speaker 1: was in practice gear, full gear everything. I just went

1560
01:15:29,760 --> 01:15:32,320
Speaker 1: through the preseason five games. He just sat there and

1561
01:15:32,439 --> 01:15:34,680
Speaker 1: was looking around. Everyone's like, hey, man, okay, if you

1562
01:15:34,760 --> 01:15:39,880
Speaker 1: don't feel good, and he said, I'm done, took off

1563
01:15:39,920 --> 01:15:44,120
Speaker 1: his practice uniform five games in, untied his shoes, carried

1564
01:15:44,160 --> 01:15:46,000
Speaker 1: his shoes with them, just left locker room and he's

1565
01:15:46,000 --> 01:15:47,600
Speaker 1: just like, that's it because at a certain point, like

1566
01:15:47,640 --> 01:15:49,719
Speaker 1: I don't want to go out there and warm up again,

1567
01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:52,360
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this practice. I don't want

1568
01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:54,080
Speaker 1: to play another game, and he was just it, I

1569
01:15:54,160 --> 01:15:56,240
Speaker 1: haven't definitely not gotten to that point because I love

1570
01:15:56,280 --> 01:15:58,479
Speaker 1: the game so much, but I have a feeling that

1571
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:01,560
Speaker 1: for me to finish, uh, it would have to be

1572
01:16:01,680 --> 01:16:03,800
Speaker 1: something where I just look at my family and I say, hey,

1573
01:16:03,880 --> 01:16:06,160
Speaker 1: you know, like, if there's something, if there's a better

1574
01:16:06,760 --> 01:16:09,160
Speaker 1: avenue for my family, and if there's a way that

1575
01:16:09,200 --> 01:16:11,200
Speaker 1: I can create more happiness for my family, then I

1576
01:16:11,200 --> 01:16:12,920
Speaker 1: would take that at a route. But for right now,

1577
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:16,200
Speaker 1: basketball is bringing us too much. I don't know if

1578
01:16:16,200 --> 01:16:17,920
Speaker 1: you know this, but if I were to go back

1579
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:20,760
Speaker 1: and play in France, I'd have to serve a six

1580
01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:24,479
Speaker 1: game suspension. This is the true story. Miss my last

1581
01:16:24,520 --> 01:16:25,800
Speaker 1: for a few one of time about going out with

1582
01:16:25,840 --> 01:16:29,120
Speaker 1: a bank. So I had done ESPN games for a

1583
01:16:29,240 --> 01:16:34,120
Speaker 1: year and my agent was guy Michael Siegel, and um

1584
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:36,720
Speaker 1: Michael was always calling me throughout the year like, man,

1585
01:16:36,760 --> 01:16:38,400
Speaker 1: you gotta come and I got a contract for you here,

1586
01:16:38,479 --> 01:16:40,200
Speaker 1: contract for there. And I only played two years. I

1587
01:16:40,240 --> 01:16:42,080
Speaker 1: didn't do the thing you did. I got lucky enough

1588
01:16:42,120 --> 01:16:45,240
Speaker 1: to get to do ESPN games and I was like,

1589
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:47,240
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do for the next

1590
01:16:47,320 --> 01:16:51,800
Speaker 1: forty years, and so I never forget I did. Um

1591
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:55,200
Speaker 1: Tulsa won the whack championship, and I lived in a

1592
01:16:55,439 --> 01:16:57,960
Speaker 1: house in Oklahoma City at the time, and it was

1593
01:16:58,000 --> 01:17:01,479
Speaker 1: like Tulsa versus Nevada and driving back on the turnpike

1594
01:17:01,680 --> 01:17:03,600
Speaker 1: and I get a call and it's Michael Segal and

1595
01:17:03,680 --> 01:17:08,439
Speaker 1: I had a radio show in Oklahoma, and he said,

1596
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:10,479
Speaker 1: if you leave today, I got a deal for you

1597
01:17:10,600 --> 01:17:13,200
Speaker 1: in Portugal and the team's first division, going to go

1598
01:17:13,240 --> 01:17:15,760
Speaker 1: to the playoffs, could win championship, be a good bonus whatever,

1599
01:17:15,760 --> 01:17:19,439
Speaker 1: but you gotta leave today. If you leave this weekend,

1600
01:17:20,520 --> 01:17:23,000
Speaker 1: um a two in France, but they're trying to advance.

1601
01:17:23,240 --> 01:17:26,200
Speaker 1: The point guard got hurt. It's a two month replacement

1602
01:17:26,240 --> 01:17:28,479
Speaker 1: deal or a month and a half replacement deal. The

1603
01:17:28,560 --> 01:17:30,800
Speaker 1: pay they give you bonus whatever. All the money up

1604
01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:34,720
Speaker 1: like no car, but you're flat anyway. So that was

1605
01:17:34,760 --> 01:17:36,600
Speaker 1: the deal I end up taking because I had a

1606
01:17:36,760 --> 01:17:38,680
Speaker 1: radio boski on Larry Postida, and I felt like I

1607
01:17:38,760 --> 01:17:40,800
Speaker 1: had to face to face with him and tell him like,

1608
01:17:40,840 --> 01:17:42,160
Speaker 1: hey man, I know I have a radio show, but

1609
01:17:42,280 --> 01:17:43,920
Speaker 1: I just don't have this out of my system yet.

1610
01:17:44,360 --> 01:17:45,880
Speaker 1: He was cool about it. I probably could have taken

1611
01:17:45,920 --> 01:17:50,439
Speaker 1: the Portugoo deal, but um, anyway, So I go and

1612
01:17:50,520 --> 01:17:55,400
Speaker 1: play in France and we're playing Man and you know

1613
01:17:55,479 --> 01:17:57,840
Speaker 1: all the teams there, we played them all. We played

1614
01:17:57,880 --> 01:18:01,240
Speaker 1: the first Division, we played uh Parris against Parish Racing.

1615
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:04,320
Speaker 1: But this is a team from up like around Normandy. God,

1616
01:18:04,320 --> 01:18:08,599
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of the team. And maybe

1617
01:18:08,640 --> 01:18:12,679
Speaker 1: where's Lemoes, where's the moog Lemoses? Lemos is more south.

1618
01:18:13,520 --> 01:18:15,280
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of the team you're talking about.

1619
01:18:15,439 --> 01:18:19,040
Speaker 1: I know it's I'll figure it out. So so here's

1620
01:18:19,080 --> 01:18:21,240
Speaker 1: what's crazy about. So it is my last game and

1621
01:18:21,320 --> 01:18:23,479
Speaker 1: they were like, you could stay, but we already have

1622
01:18:23,600 --> 01:18:26,240
Speaker 1: the guy at your salary, so we cut your salary half.

1623
01:18:26,360 --> 01:18:28,080
Speaker 1: We love bla blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm like, no,

1624
01:18:28,160 --> 01:18:30,680
Speaker 1: I'm good. And I was going to be with the

1625
01:18:31,120 --> 01:18:33,640
Speaker 1: Timberwolves in their camp for summer league or whatever and

1626
01:18:33,760 --> 01:18:36,320
Speaker 1: end up getting to do the like again like serendipity,

1627
01:18:36,360 --> 01:18:38,920
Speaker 1: I got to do the NBA Draft on radio, and

1628
01:18:39,000 --> 01:18:40,760
Speaker 1: that's where of be kind of my ESPN career took

1629
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:44,000
Speaker 1: off by not staying. But I remember, like the team's

1630
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:46,639
Speaker 1: getting off the bus and I see Kelvin Gibbs, who's

1631
01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:50,400
Speaker 1: he's now a police officer in Oakland or Berkeley, and

1632
01:18:50,479 --> 01:18:52,160
Speaker 1: he I played against him when he was at Pepperdine

1633
01:18:53,120 --> 01:18:54,800
Speaker 1: and I go up and dap him up whatever and

1634
01:18:54,840 --> 01:18:58,120
Speaker 1: then off the bus. This true story. My high school teammate,

1635
01:18:58,200 --> 01:19:02,200
Speaker 1: this guy in David Laalas area. So La la Um

1636
01:19:02,560 --> 01:19:04,040
Speaker 1: had gone to Notre Dame. I got him to go

1637
01:19:04,120 --> 01:19:06,720
Speaker 1: to Notre Dame when I was a Notre Dame. So

1638
01:19:06,840 --> 01:19:08,720
Speaker 1: he was a freshman when I had left, and then

1639
01:19:08,800 --> 01:19:11,600
Speaker 1: he left, he went to Pepperdine and then it was

1640
01:19:11,720 --> 01:19:13,360
Speaker 1: just like his first or second year as a pro

1641
01:19:13,760 --> 01:19:16,040
Speaker 1: and he was a late pickup and he was training

1642
01:19:16,120 --> 01:19:17,920
Speaker 1: with the team. So he's traveling with them, like what

1643
01:19:18,040 --> 01:19:20,920
Speaker 1: are the chances in this small town in France that

1644
01:19:21,280 --> 01:19:23,640
Speaker 1: like my best friend. And this is before we have

1645
01:19:23,760 --> 01:19:26,400
Speaker 1: cell phones and phase nine. This is like two thousand

1646
01:19:26,479 --> 01:19:32,360
Speaker 1: and two or two and three, right, and uh so

1647
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:35,120
Speaker 1: he helps up and my wife had just arrived in

1648
01:19:35,240 --> 01:19:37,960
Speaker 1: town and La la was in my wedding. Right. So

1649
01:19:38,479 --> 01:19:41,519
Speaker 1: so I'm playing this team and it's a close game.

1650
01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:44,080
Speaker 1: At the end of the game. They have a French

1651
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:47,920
Speaker 1: point guard and he's big jacked, like white dude, and

1652
01:19:48,280 --> 01:19:51,599
Speaker 1: we're kind of going back and forth and he backs

1653
01:19:51,680 --> 01:19:53,880
Speaker 1: off if he plays up close and we're just doing

1654
01:19:53,920 --> 01:19:55,439
Speaker 1: like four corners. I go by him and I lay

1655
01:19:55,520 --> 01:19:56,880
Speaker 1: them and he plays up close and I go by

1656
01:19:56,960 --> 01:19:58,320
Speaker 1: and they help I kick off. I get a dunk

1657
01:19:58,320 --> 01:20:00,360
Speaker 1: and then he backs up and I hit it. It's

1658
01:20:00,400 --> 01:20:05,280
Speaker 1: like perfect ending to this little run. And so he's

1659
01:20:05,320 --> 01:20:09,120
Speaker 1: running his mouth and I'm like scoreboard. I don't understand scoreboard.

1660
01:20:09,720 --> 01:20:12,000
Speaker 1: So he goes he goes by me like bulldogs by me,

1661
01:20:12,120 --> 01:20:14,960
Speaker 1: and we have these two young French dudes and they

1662
01:20:15,040 --> 01:20:17,280
Speaker 1: both blocked his shot and I go get that ship

1663
01:20:17,360 --> 01:20:21,559
Speaker 1: out too times, bitch right, and he's ready. So we're

1664
01:20:21,600 --> 01:20:23,960
Speaker 1: like squaring off and I'm not going to fight anybody, right,

1665
01:20:26,400 --> 01:20:28,479
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, I around and these young

1666
01:20:28,560 --> 01:20:32,200
Speaker 1: friend dudes are literally like yeah, like in America, guys,

1667
01:20:32,920 --> 01:20:35,240
Speaker 1: guys don't really fight, like everybody talks like they fight.

1668
01:20:35,920 --> 01:20:38,439
Speaker 1: No one throws and they are scaring up and they

1669
01:20:38,479 --> 01:20:45,519
Speaker 1: are fighting. So yeah, they're they're everybody's whistling and uh,

1670
01:20:46,320 --> 01:20:48,040
Speaker 1: the rests throw me out of the game because I'm

1671
01:20:48,040 --> 01:20:53,080
Speaker 1: the instigator. I guess perfect. So yeah, so there's seventeen

1672
01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:55,920
Speaker 1: seconds to go in the game, and the way that

1673
01:20:56,600 --> 01:20:59,360
Speaker 1: the Jim and clairemont arn is like the vomitorium where

1674
01:20:59,360 --> 01:21:02,320
Speaker 1: you go to locker is at behind one of the baskets.

1675
01:21:02,840 --> 01:21:06,360
Speaker 1: There's like stands behind there. On top of that, there

1676
01:21:06,439 --> 01:21:08,920
Speaker 1: stands on one side, and then there's like really small

1677
01:21:08,960 --> 01:21:11,040
Speaker 1: like high school stands on one other side. It's a

1678
01:21:11,160 --> 01:21:14,600
Speaker 1: gym morenot are Yeah, And so I'm blowing kisses to

1679
01:21:14,680 --> 01:21:17,680
Speaker 1: people because my last game. And then La La is

1680
01:21:17,720 --> 01:21:19,920
Speaker 1: not on the bench. He's sitting with my wife behind

1681
01:21:20,360 --> 01:21:23,320
Speaker 1: up behind the hoop, and I'm pointing to them. Meanwhile,

1682
01:21:23,360 --> 01:21:26,080
Speaker 1: I hear this like kind a roar from roar from

1683
01:21:26,120 --> 01:21:28,160
Speaker 1: behind me. I turn around. Here comes French Eat because

1684
01:21:28,200 --> 01:21:29,800
Speaker 1: he got throwut of the game and he's coming after me.

1685
01:21:30,160 --> 01:21:32,240
Speaker 1: And then here comes both teams and there's like this

1686
01:21:32,439 --> 01:21:42,000
Speaker 1: massive and we're just so huh. Somewhere I go, I

1687
01:21:42,040 --> 01:21:44,880
Speaker 1: gotta find footage of it. So they like that. We're

1688
01:21:44,920 --> 01:21:46,600
Speaker 1: in our locker room and you know, guys that have

1689
01:21:46,800 --> 01:21:49,640
Speaker 1: jerseys and there's you know, everybody's talking like they just

1690
01:21:49,800 --> 01:21:51,920
Speaker 1: everybody was Mike Tyson and that you know how fights.

1691
01:21:52,320 --> 01:21:54,760
Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody got clean shots and I

1692
01:21:54,840 --> 01:21:57,000
Speaker 1: didn't get I didn't get hurt and get punched or whatever,

1693
01:21:57,120 --> 01:22:00,479
Speaker 1: but I mean that got tackled. So they they grabbed

1694
01:22:00,520 --> 01:22:02,240
Speaker 1: five guys to go out. They run the clock out,

1695
01:22:02,360 --> 01:22:05,519
Speaker 1: finished the game, you know, and then I say goodbye

1696
01:22:05,520 --> 01:22:07,320
Speaker 1: to my my buddies that are getting on the bus.

1697
01:22:08,320 --> 01:22:11,880
Speaker 1: And the next day I'm leaving and the coach and

1698
01:22:11,920 --> 01:22:13,800
Speaker 1: the general manager come over and they give me like

1699
01:22:13,880 --> 01:22:17,280
Speaker 1: a cash bonus and they're like, by the way, you

1700
01:22:17,400 --> 01:22:21,600
Speaker 1: must know, like you are suspended next six games. It's like,

1701
01:22:21,640 --> 01:22:24,320
Speaker 1: all right, that's how my professional career ended. So I'm

1702
01:22:24,360 --> 01:22:26,400
Speaker 1: not telling you that's how you should end your career.

1703
01:22:26,880 --> 01:22:29,000
Speaker 1: It's not a bad way to go out is go

1704
01:22:29,120 --> 01:22:31,760
Speaker 1: out where you get suspended. Right, You're not a drug guy,

1705
01:22:31,840 --> 01:22:33,439
Speaker 1: don't use drugs, but if you want to go out

1706
01:22:33,479 --> 01:22:35,400
Speaker 1: and take a swing at somebody, that may be a

1707
01:22:35,400 --> 01:22:39,960
Speaker 1: good way to go. You'd be like Hauver the Gottig

1708
01:22:40,800 --> 01:22:44,439
Speaker 1: the lowest I've ever finished. Uh was playing for an

1709
01:22:44,479 --> 01:22:46,240
Speaker 1: Italian team and this was the only year I think

1710
01:22:46,280 --> 01:22:48,680
Speaker 1: I didn't go to the playoffs. Um, and it was

1711
01:22:48,720 --> 01:22:50,680
Speaker 1: the last game of the season, and we knew it

1712
01:22:50,760 --> 01:22:53,000
Speaker 1: was the last game of the season. And this is

1713
01:22:53,080 --> 01:22:55,519
Speaker 1: the closest I can get to your story. And so

1714
01:22:56,160 --> 01:22:59,800
Speaker 1: the my my teammates are kind of already checked out

1715
01:23:00,120 --> 01:23:01,800
Speaker 1: and this is a game that we can win. I'm

1716
01:23:01,840 --> 01:23:03,920
Speaker 1: a super competitor and I always want to win, it

1717
01:23:03,960 --> 01:23:06,519
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what the situation is. And I realized that

1718
01:23:06,640 --> 01:23:08,240
Speaker 1: these guys are checked out and we're losing to a

1719
01:23:08,280 --> 01:23:10,360
Speaker 1: team that we shouldn't be losing like this too, And

1720
01:23:10,479 --> 01:23:11,960
Speaker 1: so the closest thing I could do is I walk

1721
01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:13,760
Speaker 1: out to the referee and I asked him to kick

1722
01:23:13,800 --> 01:23:16,840
Speaker 1: me out of the game. And because I couldn't be

1723
01:23:16,880 --> 01:23:18,240
Speaker 1: a part of it anymore. It's the only time I've

1724
01:23:18,240 --> 01:23:19,840
Speaker 1: ever done anything like this, So I asked me to

1725
01:23:19,880 --> 01:23:21,200
Speaker 1: kick me out of game. So I can't kick you

1726
01:23:21,200 --> 01:23:23,439
Speaker 1: out of the game. So that I used some choicy

1727
01:23:23,520 --> 01:23:25,960
Speaker 1: words for him to give me a technical foul, and

1728
01:23:26,040 --> 01:23:27,720
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I walked up to him as

1729
01:23:27,760 --> 01:23:29,200
Speaker 1: they're shooting free those are like, Man, I want you

1730
01:23:29,240 --> 01:23:30,679
Speaker 1: to kick me out of the game. So I can't

1731
01:23:30,680 --> 01:23:31,880
Speaker 1: just kick you out of the game. I said, well

1732
01:23:31,920 --> 01:23:33,519
Speaker 1: you can now and said just kind of gave a

1733
01:23:33,880 --> 01:23:35,519
Speaker 1: game a little push or something like that, and I

1734
01:23:35,720 --> 01:23:37,280
Speaker 1: and I had to go to him after the game

1735
01:23:37,320 --> 01:23:38,720
Speaker 1: and I said, man, I didn't you know, I didn't

1736
01:23:38,760 --> 01:23:40,720
Speaker 1: want to push you. You kind of forced me to

1737
01:23:40,800 --> 01:23:42,240
Speaker 1: do that because if I keep talking to you, you

1738
01:23:42,280 --> 01:23:43,840
Speaker 1: know you already gave me the text, so it'll look

1739
01:23:43,880 --> 01:23:45,519
Speaker 1: bad if you really kicked me out. So I just

1740
01:23:45,600 --> 01:23:47,920
Speaker 1: pushed him and left and and so I don't know

1741
01:23:48,000 --> 01:23:51,040
Speaker 1: if I'm suspended from the Italian League, but there it did.

1742
01:23:51,720 --> 01:23:54,519
Speaker 1: That's pretty that's that's pretty good. When you you have

1743
01:23:54,560 --> 01:23:57,760
Speaker 1: a curse in a different language. That's the only time

1744
01:23:57,800 --> 01:23:59,280
Speaker 1: I curse when I'm on the court is just in

1745
01:23:59,320 --> 01:24:02,120
Speaker 1: different languages, just because you just get so used to it,

1746
01:24:02,200 --> 01:24:03,600
Speaker 1: and then it's a more fun way to curse, and

1747
01:24:03,640 --> 01:24:05,760
Speaker 1: it almost feels like you're not saying anything bad. But

1748
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:08,840
Speaker 1: the weird part is agree if you directly translate their

1749
01:24:08,880 --> 01:24:12,760
Speaker 1: curse words, it's way worse. It's way worse. And so

1750
01:24:12,800 --> 01:24:14,400
Speaker 1: when you tell some of these young Americans what these

1751
01:24:14,439 --> 01:24:16,479
Speaker 1: coaches are saying, what these fans are saying, it makes

1752
01:24:16,520 --> 01:24:18,120
Speaker 1: them want to fight. But you realize that it's not

1753
01:24:18,240 --> 01:24:21,160
Speaker 1: it's not like that. It's amazing point. That's when I

1754
01:24:21,200 --> 01:24:23,360
Speaker 1: went to Russia, Like, my my dream was kind of

1755
01:24:24,000 --> 01:24:26,479
Speaker 1: your dream that you're living. Was my dream. I want

1756
01:24:26,479 --> 01:24:27,880
Speaker 1: to go to play in a different country every year

1757
01:24:27,920 --> 01:24:29,760
Speaker 1: and learn the language every year. So I go and

1758
01:24:29,840 --> 01:24:31,840
Speaker 1: play in Russia. We take a Russian tutor. It was

1759
01:24:31,880 --> 01:24:33,320
Speaker 1: the worst thing I ever could have done, and helped

1760
01:24:33,360 --> 01:24:37,360
Speaker 1: me order food and helped me have conversations with people

1761
01:24:37,360 --> 01:24:39,960
Speaker 1: because nobody spoke English whatever. But it hurt me because

1762
01:24:40,000 --> 01:24:42,040
Speaker 1: now I understood what all the coaches were saying about

1763
01:24:42,120 --> 01:24:43,760
Speaker 1: me and when the players are saying about me. And

1764
01:24:43,800 --> 01:24:45,559
Speaker 1: I was like, and then when I was in Israel,

1765
01:24:45,600 --> 01:24:48,320
Speaker 1: I didn't really learn Hebrew. I knew phrases, but they

1766
01:24:48,360 --> 01:24:51,400
Speaker 1: would always they would speak English. And there was another

1767
01:24:51,840 --> 01:24:54,120
Speaker 1: American point guard you probably played against some guid contour

1768
01:24:54,920 --> 01:24:58,560
Speaker 1: and okay, and I'll never forget, like we played in

1769
01:24:58,600 --> 01:25:01,200
Speaker 1: the first half and if I play, he was like

1770
01:25:01,240 --> 01:25:03,360
Speaker 1: the only Israeli so he would play a lot and

1771
01:25:03,439 --> 01:25:08,040
Speaker 1: they play something together whatever, but they speak in English.

1772
01:25:08,200 --> 01:25:10,519
Speaker 1: And then when there was some issue, they started speaking

1773
01:25:10,560 --> 01:25:14,200
Speaker 1: in Hebrew and you're like, wait, hold, hold, wait, whoa

1774
01:25:14,560 --> 01:25:16,559
Speaker 1: hold on, let's let's go to the English version here,

1775
01:25:16,880 --> 01:25:19,120
Speaker 1: so I know what you're saying. But it's actually kind

1776
01:25:19,160 --> 01:25:20,920
Speaker 1: of a bad thing sometimes to learn what people are

1777
01:25:20,960 --> 01:25:23,080
Speaker 1: saying and how they're saying it, because you're like, wow, yeah,

1778
01:25:23,120 --> 01:25:26,840
Speaker 1: I really wish I had not known that ignorance is

1779
01:25:26,840 --> 01:25:28,920
Speaker 1: bliss unless they point at me. When they started pointing

1780
01:25:28,920 --> 01:25:30,799
Speaker 1: at me, I'm like, all right here we go English, English,

1781
01:25:30,840 --> 01:25:34,439
Speaker 1: English only. Just bring it whatever you need to say, Like,

1782
01:25:34,520 --> 01:25:36,680
Speaker 1: I'm right here, we can talk about it. I'll cut

1783
01:25:36,800 --> 01:25:38,320
Speaker 1: back and you the same language if I have to.

1784
01:25:38,520 --> 01:25:40,760
Speaker 1: I don't want to, but let's let's just let's just

1785
01:25:40,840 --> 01:25:47,120
Speaker 1: do it proper amount of time to work out for practice,

1786
01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:53,000
Speaker 1: individual for you in your training. I grew up a

1787
01:25:53,080 --> 01:25:57,280
Speaker 1: Kobe fan, so I heard about his throw up workouts

1788
01:25:57,320 --> 01:26:00,800
Speaker 1: where he worked out forty five minutes to to throw up.

1789
01:26:01,560 --> 01:26:03,640
Speaker 1: I've talked to some trainers in the weight room to say,

1790
01:26:03,720 --> 01:26:06,000
Speaker 1: once you go past an hour, you're not getting anything done.

1791
01:26:06,040 --> 01:26:08,960
Speaker 1: It's deteriorate for the body. So I'm a big efficiency

1792
01:26:09,040 --> 01:26:12,360
Speaker 1: person where let's let's do it in one practice instead

1793
01:26:12,400 --> 01:26:14,479
Speaker 1: of doing it too Let's do it in a short

1794
01:26:14,479 --> 01:26:16,240
Speaker 1: amount of time. But if we're gonna be on the court,

1795
01:26:16,720 --> 01:26:19,120
Speaker 1: let's let's get stuff done. Let's take it seriously, let's

1796
01:26:19,160 --> 01:26:20,920
Speaker 1: work hard. And then you know a lot of times

1797
01:26:20,920 --> 01:26:22,479
Speaker 1: I'll be like, Okay, we're gonna go through a lot

1798
01:26:22,520 --> 01:26:24,280
Speaker 1: of these things, and we're gonna go half speed all

1799
01:26:24,280 --> 01:26:25,400
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and then it takes a really

1800
01:26:25,439 --> 01:26:27,840
Speaker 1: long time, like, hey, let's go full speed, let's get

1801
01:26:27,920 --> 01:26:31,120
Speaker 1: game reps, let's let's knock each other out, let's compete

1802
01:26:31,479 --> 01:26:34,519
Speaker 1: at the highest level, and then let's get out of there. Uh,

1803
01:26:34,640 --> 01:26:41,000
Speaker 1: the single best player that you've ever played with her against? Oh,

1804
01:26:43,720 --> 01:26:46,599
Speaker 1: I think that's tough. I don't know, because I'm still playing.

1805
01:26:46,600 --> 01:26:49,080
Speaker 1: I can't keep anybody that that type of that type

1806
01:26:49,080 --> 01:26:50,760
Speaker 1: of process I want. And you can't say one guy

1807
01:26:50,800 --> 01:26:52,320
Speaker 1: that you'd be like man, ten years ago, I play

1808
01:26:52,320 --> 01:26:55,360
Speaker 1: against this dude. You know what's interesting is um I

1809
01:26:55,400 --> 01:26:57,960
Speaker 1: always thought in college the toughest player to guard was

1810
01:26:58,080 --> 01:27:01,320
Speaker 1: Jared Baylis. So he was at Arizona and I was

1811
01:27:01,360 --> 01:27:03,559
Speaker 1: at Washington State. And when I was in the Pac ten,

1812
01:27:04,080 --> 01:27:07,280
Speaker 1: it was fierce. I mean every single night what you

1813
01:27:07,360 --> 01:27:08,920
Speaker 1: were playing against the guy that ended up being a

1814
01:27:09,040 --> 01:27:12,600
Speaker 1: top fifteen pick. And like you said, you had, you know,

1815
01:27:12,760 --> 01:27:14,680
Speaker 1: some players coming off the bend. I mean, I think

1816
01:27:15,320 --> 01:27:17,280
Speaker 1: Westbrook was coming off the bench at U C. L A.

1817
01:27:18,400 --> 01:27:20,479
Speaker 1: And so those the type of teams were playing against.

1818
01:27:20,479 --> 01:27:22,120
Speaker 1: So so you had you had tough players. You have

1819
01:27:22,320 --> 01:27:25,760
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas it and but but I remember, like like

1820
01:27:25,920 --> 01:27:28,120
Speaker 1: you played obviously mccabi, Telvi like, I had never heard

1821
01:27:28,160 --> 01:27:30,800
Speaker 1: of Arion McDonald before. Now of a sudden, I'm playing

1822
01:27:30,800 --> 01:27:33,160
Speaker 1: against ARIALD McDonald. But I'm a Ranana. I'm like, this

1823
01:27:33,320 --> 01:27:37,320
Speaker 1: guy is good holy ship. Well well for me, For me,

1824
01:27:37,439 --> 01:27:40,120
Speaker 1: it's about it's about red light, yellow light, green light.

1825
01:27:40,479 --> 01:27:42,080
Speaker 1: So if you're playing against a person with a green

1826
01:27:42,200 --> 01:27:45,080
Speaker 1: light in Europe, I mean, it doesn't really matter if

1827
01:27:45,120 --> 01:27:46,719
Speaker 1: you know the name or not know the name. Anybody

1828
01:27:46,800 --> 01:27:48,880
Speaker 1: with a with a full green light that's taking x

1829
01:27:48,920 --> 01:27:50,800
Speaker 1: amount of shots per game. I played in China where

1830
01:27:50,800 --> 01:27:53,080
Speaker 1: these guys are taking thirty four shots per game or

1831
01:27:53,120 --> 01:27:54,679
Speaker 1: something like that, where it's just like now you gotta

1832
01:27:54,720 --> 01:27:57,000
Speaker 1: guard him all night and he's got a green light.

1833
01:27:57,080 --> 01:28:00,560
Speaker 1: It's it's it's tough. So I can't think of anybody individually.

1834
01:28:00,920 --> 01:28:05,400
Speaker 1: I can just think of and some I can remember

1835
01:28:05,439 --> 01:28:07,400
Speaker 1: some games that were tapped. There was a guy Squeaky

1836
01:28:07,520 --> 01:28:09,240
Speaker 1: Johnson that played at U A B when I was

1837
01:28:09,280 --> 01:28:13,679
Speaker 1: a freshman, and so he he picked me up full court.

1838
01:28:14,200 --> 01:28:17,680
Speaker 1: We played at at You A B and he had

1839
01:28:17,720 --> 01:28:19,560
Speaker 1: I think I had five turnovers at You A B.

1840
01:28:20,439 --> 01:28:22,200
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about it since then. This is humbling.

1841
01:28:22,320 --> 01:28:24,240
Speaker 1: And so then we played the second game at two

1842
01:28:24,360 --> 01:28:26,080
Speaker 1: lane at home, and I'm coming into the game. I'm

1843
01:28:26,080 --> 01:28:30,080
Speaker 1: a freshman. He's like a senior point guard, all defense whatever.

1844
01:28:30,520 --> 01:28:32,080
Speaker 1: He's picking me up full court the whole game. So

1845
01:28:32,120 --> 01:28:33,560
Speaker 1: the game started like I'm just gonna take care of

1846
01:28:33,600 --> 01:28:35,400
Speaker 1: the ball, don't don't need to worry about myself, just

1847
01:28:35,720 --> 01:28:38,040
Speaker 1: just take care of the ball. We win the jump ball,

1848
01:28:39,240 --> 01:28:41,439
Speaker 1: I take one dribble, goes off my foot out of bounds.

1849
01:28:43,120 --> 01:28:44,760
Speaker 1: He wasn't even guarding me at the time. I think

1850
01:28:44,800 --> 01:28:46,880
Speaker 1: I was thinking about so much during the day. Dribble

1851
01:28:46,880 --> 01:28:49,800
Speaker 1: the ball out of bounce, and uh, that's that's life.

1852
01:28:49,800 --> 01:28:51,439
Speaker 1: Because I ended up hitting the game winner in the game,

1853
01:28:51,560 --> 01:28:53,519
Speaker 1: end up beating you a b and it was a

1854
01:28:53,720 --> 01:28:55,720
Speaker 1: memorable game. But I just remember coming in that game like,

1855
01:28:55,800 --> 01:28:57,280
Speaker 1: oh man, I don't want to play against this guy.

1856
01:28:58,920 --> 01:29:00,519
Speaker 1: The best you ever, best game that you could have

1857
01:29:00,600 --> 01:29:07,240
Speaker 1: ever played, the most memorable, Uh, the most memorable. My

1858
01:29:07,400 --> 01:29:11,439
Speaker 1: last time wearing the coop jersey at home Washington State.

1859
01:29:11,920 --> 01:29:13,720
Speaker 1: We're playing Arizona State at home and I hit a

1860
01:29:13,760 --> 01:29:16,600
Speaker 1: game winner against Harden's Arizona State. So it was my

1861
01:29:16,680 --> 01:29:19,439
Speaker 1: last time I played in Beasley Coliseum. So that was

1862
01:29:19,520 --> 01:29:22,320
Speaker 1: my senior night. Um and so that was amazing. I

1863
01:29:22,400 --> 01:29:23,800
Speaker 1: made the first shot of the game. I think I

1864
01:29:23,920 --> 01:29:27,000
Speaker 1: missed twelve straight shots. I've always been the most incredible

1865
01:29:27,000 --> 01:29:28,800
Speaker 1: free throw shooter. I missed a free throw. To see

1866
01:29:28,800 --> 01:29:31,360
Speaker 1: all the game, we found James Harden. He makes three

1867
01:29:31,479 --> 01:29:34,880
Speaker 1: free throws to go to overtime. Uh, in overtime, I'm

1868
01:29:34,920 --> 01:29:37,240
Speaker 1: still playing bad, trying so hard to have a good

1869
01:29:37,320 --> 01:29:39,960
Speaker 1: senior night. Every Tony Bennett said he was preparing a

1870
01:29:40,040 --> 01:29:42,400
Speaker 1: speech to because these are the guys that he had

1871
01:29:42,439 --> 01:29:44,160
Speaker 1: grew up with. He's like, how am I gonna talk

1872
01:29:44,200 --> 01:29:46,519
Speaker 1: to these guys after such a big letdown, especially Taylor

1873
01:29:47,040 --> 01:29:49,519
Speaker 1: and h I came running down the court, passed it

1874
01:29:49,560 --> 01:29:51,320
Speaker 1: to a teammate and just yelled at him to throw

1875
01:29:51,360 --> 01:29:52,760
Speaker 1: it back to me. Threw it back to me, and

1876
01:29:52,840 --> 01:29:55,200
Speaker 1: just with like four seconds left, shot it from you know,

1877
01:29:55,320 --> 01:29:57,840
Speaker 1: beyond NBA range and it went in and it just

1878
01:29:57,920 --> 01:30:00,639
Speaker 1: happened to be that that memorable night, you know, first

1879
01:30:00,680 --> 01:30:04,720
Speaker 1: senior night. So probably that game the are you an

1880
01:30:04,840 --> 01:30:07,920
Speaker 1: exotic food guy? Like have you gone like when I was.

1881
01:30:08,240 --> 01:30:11,559
Speaker 1: I've tried calf brains, I've tried cowballs, I've tried all

1882
01:30:11,560 --> 01:30:14,160
Speaker 1: that stuff. Like you are your exotic traveling the world

1883
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:16,559
Speaker 1: and seeing all these plays. What's the most exotic food

1884
01:30:16,600 --> 01:30:19,519
Speaker 1: you've ever eat? They have a blood tofu in China

1885
01:30:19,680 --> 01:30:23,080
Speaker 1: that's pretty nasty. Um, And then I went to it.

1886
01:30:23,960 --> 01:30:25,519
Speaker 1: What does that mean? What is blood tofu? You just

1887
01:30:25,560 --> 01:30:27,240
Speaker 1: like threw it out like, oh blood, oh blood too,

1888
01:30:27,400 --> 01:30:29,760
Speaker 1: oh blood tofu? Blood? You know? Blood tofu? You know

1889
01:30:29,800 --> 01:30:35,760
Speaker 1: blood tofu? Right? I mean Tuesday night blood tofu. It's

1890
01:30:35,840 --> 01:30:41,400
Speaker 1: some type of animal blood that's like marri and tofu

1891
01:30:41,479 --> 01:30:44,240
Speaker 1: is marinated in or something, and then they love to

1892
01:30:44,280 --> 01:30:46,000
Speaker 1: eat it. I really don't know to this day what

1893
01:30:46,120 --> 01:30:48,200
Speaker 1: I was eating. But the most exotic thing I had

1894
01:30:48,400 --> 01:30:52,080
Speaker 1: was I walked into a buffet at a really nice hotel.

1895
01:30:52,160 --> 01:30:54,040
Speaker 1: We went up to one of those little sky lounges

1896
01:30:54,120 --> 01:30:56,719
Speaker 1: where the place rotates around and you're looking at the city,

1897
01:30:57,520 --> 01:30:59,880
Speaker 1: and they had this amazing buffet. And as I'm walking down,

1898
01:31:00,479 --> 01:31:04,760
Speaker 1: I noticed a huge crocodile head. It's like a huge

1899
01:31:04,800 --> 01:31:06,880
Speaker 1: crocodile head, and as you get closer, I realized that

1900
01:31:06,960 --> 01:31:11,160
Speaker 1: it's hollowed out and the raw crocodile meat is on

1901
01:31:11,240 --> 01:31:13,880
Speaker 1: the inside. It's like alligator crocodile. So it's a head

1902
01:31:14,280 --> 01:31:17,639
Speaker 1: with the body. The whole thing is there, hollowed out meat,

1903
01:31:18,040 --> 01:31:20,120
Speaker 1: and you like scoop out the meat yourself and then

1904
01:31:20,160 --> 01:31:21,519
Speaker 1: you give it to them to put on the grill

1905
01:31:21,840 --> 01:31:24,200
Speaker 1: and then you eat it. And so that was probably

1906
01:31:24,240 --> 01:31:26,320
Speaker 1: one of the craziest things I've done. I'm not the

1907
01:31:26,360 --> 01:31:29,479
Speaker 1: guy that will eat spiders or eat different stuff like that.

1908
01:31:29,600 --> 01:31:31,160
Speaker 1: And I think that we all learned a lesson from

1909
01:31:31,200 --> 01:31:34,360
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen that maybe some of those markets in China

1910
01:31:34,400 --> 01:31:36,519
Speaker 1: are probably not the best places to to get your

1911
01:31:36,720 --> 01:31:39,720
Speaker 1: to get your exotic foods um. But there you go,

1912
01:31:40,760 --> 01:31:43,920
Speaker 1: Francis home. If there's one other place that you've traveled

1913
01:31:43,960 --> 01:31:46,800
Speaker 1: to your life, I could live here, what would it, Pike,

1914
01:31:47,800 --> 01:31:51,680
Speaker 1: There's two places. There's a part of Athens Grease. It's

1915
01:31:51,920 --> 01:31:56,439
Speaker 1: glee Fata Glifata. Greece is like kind of the southern

1916
01:31:56,520 --> 01:32:00,400
Speaker 1: California of Greece, even though Greece seems like it's can

1917
01:32:00,439 --> 01:32:02,200
Speaker 1: the whole places like in California on the water. But

1918
01:32:03,000 --> 01:32:05,760
Speaker 1: fought fought is truly amazing. I was playing last year

1919
01:32:05,800 --> 01:32:09,080
Speaker 1: there with Olympiacos uh and found at home there amazingly

1920
01:32:09,200 --> 01:32:12,360
Speaker 1: family friendly. And then I love Tel Aviv, Israel. I

1921
01:32:12,400 --> 01:32:14,960
Speaker 1: mean Tel Aviv is just incredible. My wife is in

1922
01:32:15,040 --> 01:32:16,920
Speaker 1: love with it. She has great friends there and we

1923
01:32:17,000 --> 01:32:20,040
Speaker 1: developed great bonds. I mean, being there is like being

1924
01:32:20,080 --> 01:32:23,240
Speaker 1: at home because they the style of people there is

1925
01:32:23,280 --> 01:32:26,800
Speaker 1: all about family, having Shabbat dinners and just people coming

1926
01:32:26,800 --> 01:32:29,479
Speaker 1: together around food and there's no cell phones on the

1927
01:32:29,560 --> 01:32:33,000
Speaker 1: table and everyone's just just enjoying family time. It's amazing.

1928
01:32:34,840 --> 01:32:37,920
Speaker 1: Um okay, here's here's the last. And this is a

1929
01:32:38,080 --> 01:32:41,320
Speaker 1: it's a really random question off air. We were talking

1930
01:32:41,400 --> 01:32:45,040
Speaker 1: about ordering out and stuff like, okay, so here we

1931
01:32:45,120 --> 01:32:49,240
Speaker 1: have like doeor dash Ubres whatever, and granted you're in Belgrade,

1932
01:32:49,240 --> 01:32:51,719
Speaker 1: you're gonna change locations. Like is it the same setup

1933
01:32:51,800 --> 01:32:53,680
Speaker 1: like an app to order food to go pick it

1934
01:32:53,800 --> 01:32:56,320
Speaker 1: up with with the pandemic or is it is it?

1935
01:32:56,520 --> 01:32:58,600
Speaker 1: Is it? For sure? For sure? They have they have.

1936
01:32:59,320 --> 01:33:01,360
Speaker 1: One of the most amazing things about traveling the world

1937
01:33:01,479 --> 01:33:04,360
Speaker 1: is the food they have amazing. The cultures are amazing,

1938
01:33:04,400 --> 01:33:08,680
Speaker 1: that people are amazing, but the food here is fantastic. Unfortunately,

1939
01:33:08,760 --> 01:33:12,240
Speaker 1: the second time around, now vegetarian slash vegan, so I'm

1940
01:33:12,280 --> 01:33:14,400
Speaker 1: eating a lot of better stuff when before I was

1941
01:33:14,439 --> 01:33:17,360
Speaker 1: eating everything out here. So they have everything you can

1942
01:33:17,439 --> 01:33:20,720
Speaker 1: think of. Um, it's a misconception for the most part,

1943
01:33:20,760 --> 01:33:22,560
Speaker 1: when you travel these different countries and they still have

1944
01:33:22,640 --> 01:33:24,679
Speaker 1: the stuff that you have back in the States. Sometimes

1945
01:33:24,760 --> 01:33:26,920
Speaker 1: they have all that and more, and sometimes they have

1946
01:33:27,120 --> 01:33:29,719
Speaker 1: just the same type of stuff, so everything is just perfect.

1947
01:33:29,760 --> 01:33:34,280
Speaker 1: Living out of her worst place you've ever been looking

1948
01:33:34,400 --> 01:33:38,479
Speaker 1: back there when when I when I was there, everything

1949
01:33:38,600 --> 01:33:40,559
Speaker 1: felt great. But looking back, I don't think I could

1950
01:33:40,600 --> 01:33:44,320
Speaker 1: go back to certain places in Russia. Um, just from

1951
01:33:44,360 --> 01:33:46,719
Speaker 1: a standpoint that I'm older now, I got my kids,

1952
01:33:46,800 --> 01:33:48,519
Speaker 1: I don't think I could take anybody that. You know,

1953
01:33:48,560 --> 01:33:51,840
Speaker 1: it's a negative twenty weather but uh, I honestly found

1954
01:33:51,920 --> 01:33:54,080
Speaker 1: something amazing in every place. It was one of the

1955
01:33:54,240 --> 01:33:57,840
Speaker 1: worst contracts I had signed, not from a standpoint anything else,

1956
01:33:57,880 --> 01:33:59,559
Speaker 1: but I felt like I had taken a step back

1957
01:33:59,600 --> 01:34:01,040
Speaker 1: in a way. I was really trying to go for

1958
01:34:01,160 --> 01:34:03,839
Speaker 1: this one team and ended up signing and in France,

1959
01:34:04,080 --> 01:34:06,000
Speaker 1: and now it's where my home is, that's where my

1960
01:34:06,080 --> 01:34:08,679
Speaker 1: wife is, and I love the management. Still my favorite

1961
01:34:08,720 --> 01:34:11,360
Speaker 1: president I've ever had, and the favorite management I've ever had,

1962
01:34:11,600 --> 01:34:13,080
Speaker 1: and one of the favorite teams I ever played for.

1963
01:34:13,160 --> 01:34:15,280
Speaker 1: It was in France, and at the time I thought

1964
01:34:15,360 --> 01:34:17,479
Speaker 1: it was in the right move for me, and looking back,

1965
01:34:17,560 --> 01:34:20,439
Speaker 1: it couldn't have been better. Well, listen, I can't wait

1966
01:34:20,479 --> 01:34:23,160
Speaker 1: to read the book. I do get an advanced copy, right, vision,

1967
01:34:23,160 --> 01:34:26,160
Speaker 1: I get an advantag Yeah, of course, okay, I get

1968
01:34:26,160 --> 01:34:29,160
Speaker 1: an advanced copy. And I would love to hear where

1969
01:34:29,200 --> 01:34:31,840
Speaker 1: you where you played next and what the next book is.

1970
01:34:32,560 --> 01:34:34,639
Speaker 1: And I may if you're not gonna, if you're gonna

1971
01:34:34,640 --> 01:34:35,800
Speaker 1: be in France, I may have to bring my guy,

1972
01:34:35,920 --> 01:34:37,960
Speaker 1: my little guy, to come and work with you and

1973
01:34:38,080 --> 01:34:40,160
Speaker 1: do those forty five minute throw up throw up workouts.

1974
01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:44,880
Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is amazing, simply amazing, and we

1975
01:34:45,040 --> 01:34:47,320
Speaker 1: miss you here state side, but we're just throw by

1976
01:34:47,360 --> 01:34:49,439
Speaker 1: your success and thank you so much for joining us.

1977
01:34:50,120 --> 01:34:51,840
Speaker 1: Hey man, thank you so much for having me. I'm

1978
01:34:51,960 --> 01:34:54,080
Speaker 1: I really do appreciate it and I look forward to

1979
01:34:54,080 --> 01:34:57,320
Speaker 1: speaking with me again. The book is Vision, right. It's

1980
01:34:57,360 --> 01:35:03,400
Speaker 1: gonna be available in January of on um by Taylor Rochester. Taylor,

1981
01:35:03,439 --> 01:35:05,840
Speaker 1: great stuff, man, you can't wait to read it, all right, man,

1982
01:35:05,920 --> 01:35:10,519
Speaker 1: thanks a lot. Be sure to catch the live edition

1983
01:35:10,600 --> 01:35:13,639
Speaker 1: of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Easter

1984
01:35:13,840 --> 01:35:16,560
Speaker 1: noon Pacific. My thanks to Taylor. A quick reminder of

1985
01:35:16,560 --> 01:35:18,799
Speaker 1: The Doug Gotlieb Show airs daily three to six Eastern

1986
01:35:18,840 --> 01:35:21,800
Speaker 1: twelve three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio dot Com, Fox

1987
01:35:21,840 --> 01:35:25,800
Speaker 1: Sports Tradeer, the I Heart Radio app, wherever wherever you

1988
01:35:25,960 --> 01:35:29,479
Speaker 1: listen to us on Serious XM to seventeen and two

1989
01:35:29,560 --> 01:35:32,439
Speaker 1: oh three h You can also go back and check

1990
01:35:32,479 --> 01:35:35,080
Speaker 1: out any of our previous All Balls. Scott Brooks is

1991
01:35:35,160 --> 01:35:37,600
Speaker 1: on it, Nadoates is on it, Jake billis. We had

1992
01:35:37,680 --> 01:35:40,000
Speaker 1: a two part one which j billis is amazing. We

1993
01:35:40,080 --> 01:35:44,080
Speaker 1: got great stuff. Make sure you download, subscribe, rate, and

1994
01:35:44,240 --> 01:35:47,679
Speaker 1: write a review. Do those things in the meantime. Thanks

1995
01:35:47,720 --> 01:35:49,280
Speaker 1: so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. By

1996
01:35:49,320 --> 01:35:52,360
Speaker 1: thanks to Taylor Rochest for all his time joining us

1997
01:35:53,120 --> 01:35:58,400
Speaker 1: live from uh from Zagreb. I'm Doug Gottlieban. This is

1998
01:35:58,479 --> 01:35:58,840
Speaker 1: All Ball