Speaker 1: M m.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmmm mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to all the Smoke Miami, our basil. Shout
Speaker 3: out to the lazy Susan House been blessing us this.
Speaker 1: Uh, we just smoke this trip. Shout out Trey. Yes, indeed, Jack.
Speaker 3: I think we pride ourselves on making people feel comfortable
Speaker 3: enough to really express themselves because there's no ind agenda,
Speaker 3: there's no tricks here. We genuinely care and love our guests,
Speaker 3: and I think today is a really special opportunity to
Speaker 3: find out what's going on with with one of our
Speaker 3: favorite people. This dude has always been standing up since
Speaker 3: day one. I met him, played against him in college,
Speaker 3: played with him in the pros, and just one of those.
Speaker 1: Real, genuine good people.
Speaker 3: But he was also haunted by some ship and it
Speaker 3: came to a tipping point.
Speaker 1: And correct me if I'm wrong. You just got out Monday.
Speaker 3: Six days, Bro, it's been six days, six days.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, my brother.
Speaker 4: Yeah you already know.
Speaker 3: Let's let's you just told this is your first interviews? Yeah,
Speaker 3: what I mean, let's walk down what's been going on
Speaker 3: because a lot of people have kind of read stuff
Speaker 3: and heard stuff, but a lot of us really love
Speaker 3: you and really want to know from your mouth are
Speaker 3: you good?
Speaker 1: And what happened?
Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, Matt? So first off, thank you for having me,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, just kind of watching you'll growth
Speaker 4: in this space has been inspiring to me and to
Speaker 4: most of us, right, you know, because we all inspire
Speaker 4: and learn from one another.
Speaker 1: So you really know it too.
Speaker 4: So I know you're not You're not now, but you
Speaker 4: know I'm good, man, I'm good. I think you know.
Speaker 4: You know, last two years probably been the most difficult
Speaker 4: season of life for me. And you know the good
Speaker 4: thing about seasons is that they don't last forever, right,
Speaker 4: They change, they grow, they evolve, and it's how you
Speaker 4: come out of that season, right do you do You
Speaker 4: get stuck in pity, embarrassment, guilt, shame, fear, whatever could
Speaker 4: stagnate you. You can get stuck in that, right And
Speaker 4: this ain't the season of fear, of stagnation. This is
Speaker 4: the season of redemption for me. This is the season
Speaker 4: to embrace the experience, the journey, honesty, transparency, because I think,
Speaker 4: like you know, especially for us as Hoopers, we learned
Speaker 4: from one another, right, you know, we learned from one another.
Speaker 4: We learned so much. We teach each other so much.
Speaker 4: Eddie Jones showed me how to tie my double windsor tie.
Speaker 4: You know, there's so many guys who you know, show
Speaker 4: you about work ethic and how to deal with the media,
Speaker 4: and how to help me your family, and how to
Speaker 4: be a professional. So this is an opportunity for us
Speaker 4: to learn, learn from mistakes, learn from adversity, and embrace
Speaker 4: that shit. Right, don't be afraid of what you go through.
Speaker 4: You grow through it. Absolutely sure.
Speaker 3: A bunch of NBA brothers went down with the health
Speaker 3: insurance situation. Our brother Glenn Davis just sat down and
Speaker 3: a few other people. But talk to us about how
Speaker 3: that came about across your plate and why you chose
Speaker 3: to participate in it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, you know, I try to be very clear
Speaker 4: on the fact that it was just a bad judgment.
Speaker 4: It was a mistake, It was greed. It was trying
Speaker 4: to you know, navigate in an the wrong way. You know,
Speaker 4: I didn't wait on God for opportunities, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying to open up for me.
Speaker 5: I saw not even an opportunity.
Speaker 4: I won't call it an opportunity, you know, I saw
Speaker 4: a lick, so to speak, Right, obviously we had the
Speaker 4: supplemental supplemental Benefits card. You know, if you played long enough,
Speaker 4: you have a lot of money on that card, and
Speaker 4: that's supposed to be for you know, medical dental vision.
Speaker 1: Not only you, but your family, YEP, and your.
Speaker 4: Family, and you know, if you don't use it, you
Speaker 4: lose it. And I saw it sitting there and I saw,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a it's a brotherhood league or whatever.
Speaker 4: And I'm not pointing a finger at anybody, but I
Speaker 4: got exposed to it. You know, some cash was moving
Speaker 4: around doing that, and I decided to do it. And man,
Speaker 4: one of the worst, not one of the worst, the
Speaker 4: worst decision I made in my entire life.
Speaker 5: And you know, I embrace it.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm apologetic for it, and you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like, that's why I'm open to speaking about it,
Speaker 4: right because I don't want anybody else to put themselves
Speaker 4: in harm's way. I don't want anybody to bite that
Speaker 4: apple from that tree in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4: And so I decided to do it and made that mistake,
Speaker 4: but I did my time for it. Did eighteen months
Speaker 4: in federal custody, ten months in six months halfway house,
Speaker 4: two months home confinement and I'm here right.
Speaker 3: I'm over those days, like though, because again and we're
Speaker 3: going to dig into it, your childhood. We're going to
Speaker 3: talk about what happened there. But you beat that. Oh
Speaker 3: you went on to college. You beat college, you went
Speaker 3: onto the league, and you were at the top of
Speaker 3: the mountain.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: So to have that, to have you personally step away
Speaker 3: from the game and then next thing, you know, a
Speaker 3: handful of years later, you're in.
Speaker 1: Locked up. What is I like?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it's a world wind somewhat, right, because
Speaker 4: like when you go through things like unhealed trauma, it's
Speaker 4: stored in your body, right, and when somebody touches the
Speaker 4: right button, pokes the right button, we could be triggered.
Speaker 4: And coming from an environment where I come from, I'm
Speaker 4: from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the heart of the city, and like,
Speaker 4: it's a lot of shit that we experienced growing up
Speaker 4: that we pushed down, right. And when you hooping, man,
Speaker 4: you're so busy accomplishing and becoming, and there's always these
Speaker 4: benchmarks that you're trying to achieve that you don't really
Speaker 4: get the process, the journey. What you've seen, you know,
Speaker 4: gunshots you know, you know, molestation, you know, poverty. It
Speaker 4: brings a certain amount of trauma. And I think, like
Speaker 4: what we're so fortunate about is that, like we were
Speaker 4: able to channel that shit in the hoops. We was
Speaker 4: able to go out and put that energy into something positive.
Speaker 4: And I think we came up in a time where
Speaker 4: the game was really starting to grow, the AAU seem
Speaker 4: was starting to grow. We had some transformational players during
Speaker 4: that time. I played AAU with T Mac and Yourdonnas
Speaker 4: and you know a lot of guys from you know,
Speaker 4: the state of Florida. Kobe had just came out. So
Speaker 4: I was able to channel you know what I mean
Speaker 4: that into basketball. And you know one thing about me
Speaker 4: is I was able to dig deeper than most people,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I was super athletic, super quick,
Speaker 4: but like that dog. It was other people who were
Speaker 4: super athletic quick could do everything with it, but I
Speaker 4: could do it longer and harder.
Speaker 1: And dwell there.
Speaker 4: And so I was able to, you know, channel a
Speaker 4: lot of that trauma into my hoops. But it's still
Speaker 4: there because a certain amount of challenges come as you elevate.
Speaker 5: And you take on so much, take on so much for.
Speaker 4: Your family, for your community, from your homeboys and people
Speaker 4: who you come up with. There's so many expectations and
Speaker 4: entitlements that are hard to navigate. And the programming wasn't
Speaker 4: as good then, you know what I mean, The culture
Speaker 4: around the game wasn't as good, It wasn't as professional,
Speaker 4: and you know, like you, you know, you you go
Speaker 4: through these different phases, right. So when I got indicted,
Speaker 4: I was coaching. It was right after Game six. I
Speaker 4: was coaching with the Utah Jazz. I've been around the
Speaker 4: game of basketball. It's the only thing I know, you know,
Speaker 4: working for the Players Association, working for the Celtics in
Speaker 4: the front office, coaching for the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 5: I've always been around the game.
Speaker 4: And you know when that when that had knock, came
Speaker 4: that phone call, you know, about four or five in
Speaker 4: the morning, you know, five calls in a row.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, something's going on.
Speaker 4: Looked outside the Feds were there five six cars, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, strapped up to the te right,
Speaker 4: and you know, I just had to go back and
Speaker 4: you know, tell my wife like little Bay, I'm about
Speaker 4: to go to jail.
Speaker 3: Had there been any previous discussion about anything going on
Speaker 3: or was this the first time he kind of sprung
Speaker 3: it on her?
Speaker 5: No, I sprung it, Yeah, on it.
Speaker 4: Hey, dude, I didn't know I was gonna get indicted, right,
Speaker 4: So they did a superseding indictment for me. So the
Speaker 4: first group of guys went through their situation probably a year.
Speaker 4: You know, he couldn't tell her she wasn't gonna support that. No, No,
Speaker 4: she wouldn't. She wouldn't. And you know, a lot of
Speaker 4: times as men, you know, being vulnerable, it's very difficult,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: It's like, you know, I'm here to protect and provide, and.
Speaker 6: When you can't do that, when you at the point
Speaker 6: where you you know, I understand, Bro, I understand.
Speaker 1: You know, I understand.
Speaker 4: And one of the most difficult things I had to
Speaker 4: grapple with is that.
Speaker 5: Dude, I didn't have to do it.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. And that that that's where
Speaker 4: a lot of my internal work came. You know, in
Speaker 4: sitting down, it's like, Okay, you made a decision that
Speaker 4: hurt your family. Ultimately, not just your family, bro, you
Speaker 4: hurt your community, You hurt your friends, you hurt your
Speaker 4: allies in the basketball space who love you, adore you,
Speaker 4: respect you, appreciate you. Because I did a lot of
Speaker 4: good work, a lot of good work, a lot of
Speaker 4: good work, and mentored a lot of young men, potty
Speaker 4: trained them.
Speaker 6: As I like to say, this small ship situation can't
Speaker 6: overshadow that though I don't think so. This small situation
Speaker 6: will not overshadow the good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I agree with that, Steve. But when
Speaker 1: you're in it right.
Speaker 5: It gets really silent.
Speaker 4: It's really cold, and people who you know you were
Speaker 4: in relationship with, in friendship with, you know, with bonds
Speaker 4: that go back twenty years, won't pick up the phone,
Speaker 4: won't check on your family. It's not a lot of
Speaker 4: guys who checked up on my wife and my kids
Speaker 4: wild away, you know. But the ones who did, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, and the ones who were supportive,
Speaker 4: I thank God for them, right, because sometimes you have
Speaker 4: to go through adversity to see who really.
Speaker 1: Fucks with you. Absolutely, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So I'm so thankful, you know what I mean that, Like,
Speaker 4: you know, so many of my friends, not so many,
Speaker 4: but a handful of my friends, my old teammates, some
Speaker 4: of the guys who I grew up with, and then
Speaker 4: it's some unlikely people, right, people who you you might know,
Speaker 4: y'all might have a great relationship, but you ain't know
Speaker 4: they love you like that. You love me more than
Speaker 4: some of the people who I, you know, had to
Speaker 4: take care of. You gave the most too, you know.
Speaker 4: And so you deal with all those different elements, right,
Speaker 4: and you try and process them, and you try and
Speaker 4: learn from them, and you're try and be accountable for them.
Speaker 4: I think that's when the real change comes, right, it's
Speaker 4: the accountability part of your mistakes to fall out. And
Speaker 4: just because guys you know, got silent and cold, I
Speaker 4: ain't mad at them for that.
Speaker 1: I went through the angry phase. You know.
Speaker 4: It could be fear associated with that. Some of those
Speaker 4: guys could have been doing some of the things that
Speaker 4: kind of got me locked up that they might be
Speaker 4: intimidated by, right, you know.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 4: It's just a part of the game. It's a part
Speaker 4: of the experience. But it's like that anger and the
Speaker 4: resentment and the the off that I felt, I don't
Speaker 4: have that anymore.
Speaker 1: What did you learn about yourself during this process? Man?
Speaker 4: You know what I learned one that I'm not invincible,
Speaker 4: I'm not Superman.
Speaker 1: But they build us up to be that, Yeah, they do.
Speaker 4: And not only that, you know, we have to have
Speaker 4: that internal confidence in ourselves in order to you know,
Speaker 4: like ascend to the levels.
Speaker 1: That we like.
Speaker 4: Dude, we played what over? How many years did you play?
Speaker 4: Fourteen fourteen? I played in thirteen seasons? Right, Like, even
Speaker 4: within the elite group of the NBA, there's not many
Speaker 4: people who got that tenn right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So there's a certain amount of you know, Superman syndrome
Speaker 4: that we embrace. You know, like, hey, man, I loved
Speaker 4: love being able to help my family and my friends
Speaker 4: and inspire and you know what I mean, bring sustenance
Speaker 4: to them when they needed something and things like that.
Speaker 4: So you embrace that, right. But you know, with that virtue,
Speaker 4: with that giving, you know what I mean, when it's
Speaker 4: not reciprocated, man, it could make us isolate. It can
Speaker 4: make us go deeper into drinking, smoking, being promiscuous, being angry,
Speaker 4: making bad decisions, you know what I mean, Because we
Speaker 4: give so much virtue and then we're not getting reaped,
Speaker 4: We're not getting anything back, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: And so then you start to even question the people
Speaker 4: around you, like you know what I mean, how they
Speaker 4: really view you? So and going through this, what did
Speaker 4: I learned about myself? I learned that I'm a resilient motherfucker.
Speaker 4: I learned that I stand on business. I don't have
Speaker 4: no snitching me, no cutting.
Speaker 1: Me, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like you know, when when the folks came and knocked
Speaker 4: on my door, you know, I accepted, you know the
Speaker 4: responsibility that came with it. I wasn't gonna put anybody's
Speaker 4: family through what me and my family was experienced rules,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. I learned also learned that,
Speaker 4: like you know, the decisions that we make can have.
Speaker 5: Such an impact on the people who rely.
Speaker 1: On and love you. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: You know what we bring to our families, what we
Speaker 4: bring to our careers, what we bring to the buildings.
Speaker 4: Where we bring this energy, this swagger, this confidence, this authenticity.
Speaker 4: And you let those folks down. Man, that was very
Speaker 4: difficult for me to grapple with. I lost about thirty
Speaker 4: pounds during the indictment process.
Speaker 1: Really and you.
Speaker 4: Already yeah, I'm already as well, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: But I lost about thirty pounds. I couldn't eat I
Speaker 4: couldn't sleep. I was embarrassed, you know, like I was
Speaker 4: concerned for my family because I was facing I was
Speaker 4: facing some time, you know.
Speaker 5: So I was very fortunate to get thirty months.
Speaker 3: Was there a part during that, not to cut you off,
Speaker 3: there a part during that that that clicked, like when
Speaker 3: when you're in there with her, a part that clicked,
Speaker 3: Like you said, you went through all these emotions from
Speaker 3: frustrating to embarrassed. Was it a part where Okay, was
Speaker 3: it in there when you realize you need to turn
Speaker 3: the page when you got like what was that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It was in there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was in there because you know, like when
Speaker 4: you're incarcerated, bro, you're own locked down.
Speaker 5: A lot, you're on locked down a lot.
Speaker 4: You know, my ten months in there, we probably just
Speaker 4: locked down for three of those months where you necessarily
Speaker 4: can't go outside. The TV rooms might be locked, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, and no commisary, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. Like, it's a whole bunch of things that
Speaker 4: happened in that environment that you know, most people don't
Speaker 4: know about, they don't understand. Well, I understand it now.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm so, That's why I want to be
Speaker 4: a voice, you know for you know, some reform and
Speaker 4: some accountability, you know, within what goes on with guys
Speaker 4: who are incarcerated. But something clicked in my writings, you know,
Speaker 4: as as Hooper's Dog. We got to be routine based.
Speaker 4: So I got my routine. I jumped on my routine
Speaker 4: as soon as I got there. You know, the first night,
Speaker 4: I did not shower. I didn't want to go to
Speaker 4: the restroom, you know what I mean, I just really
Speaker 4: wanted to kind of sit there right, But the brus
Speaker 4: in there wouldn't let that happen, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: They came brought me a bag because we was locked down,
Speaker 4: so they brought me some shoes, brought me some commissary,
Speaker 4: brought me some clothes and things like that. It's really humbling, brother,
Speaker 4: It's really humbling. I took a lot of pride in
Speaker 4: my swag, in my attire old way, you know, and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, to to you know, to have to wear
Speaker 4: grays and browns is very humbling.
Speaker 3: What was it like in there with obviously the hit
Speaker 3: where you came from. You came from the NBA. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, you played with some of
Speaker 3: the greatest players. You were you were special in your
Speaker 3: own way, that that helping situations that fuck you up
Speaker 3: in situations like how was that?
Speaker 4: Well, it was twofold with that. I think initially it
Speaker 4: was difficult because being high profile in that system, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean a lot of times, you know,
Speaker 4: it could just bring a certain elements target, Yeah, you
Speaker 4: can bring. You can bring a certain element from the
Speaker 4: officers you know, from you know, the inmates alike, right,
Speaker 4: and everything you.
Speaker 5: Do is being watched.
Speaker 4: So the way you carry yourself, who you're speaking to,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Like you know, just everything
Speaker 4: you know, the raid always kind of on me.
Speaker 5: But you know what I just did is I just
Speaker 5: went and did what I know.
Speaker 4: Treat people with respect, you know what I mean, Learn
Speaker 4: the rules of the environment that you're in. Be authentic,
Speaker 4: be routine based, not rely on anybody for anything, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. Get with the right people who
Speaker 4: you know you can work out with, cook and eat with.
Speaker 1: You have to put the past. Did you have to
Speaker 1: put them palls in?
Speaker 3: I did not have to put them palls on nobody.
Speaker 1: No, I ain't have to.
Speaker 4: I didn't have to throw my knuckles at all, you know, Like,
Speaker 4: no I saw some ship in there. You know, there
Speaker 4: was a riot while I was there. You know, I saw,
Speaker 4: you know, I saw, you know, some stuff happened. You'll
Speaker 4: be really surprised that, like how quick shit can change
Speaker 4: in there.
Speaker 5: Right, No, I didn't have to throw hands with anybody.
Speaker 4: I had a couple disagreements or anything, you know like that,
Speaker 4: but you know, nothing that I couldn't verbally work out,
Speaker 4: so you know what I mean, Like my manhood wasn't
Speaker 4: tested or anything like that, you know. And I ain't
Speaker 4: no small dude. I'm skinny and small like in our space,
Speaker 4: but we like we like Netflix, we like Anaanaki, like
Speaker 4: we ain't like natural humans, we like super huge.
Speaker 5: Right, so yeah, no, I didn't have to throw my knuckles.
Speaker 6: What I took from all that is is, you know,
Speaker 6: when I retired too, I went through a little time
Speaker 6: and you said something that resonated to me. And I
Speaker 6: heard this more than anything you said. And we I
Speaker 6: think everybody is guilty of that at some point in
Speaker 6: their life, when they're thinking that I can get up
Speaker 6: and just do what I want to do or make
Speaker 6: something happen. But I had a situation where I had
Speaker 6: to sit and wait on guard too. So that that
Speaker 6: shit touched me. Yeah, because I had a time when
Speaker 6: I retired I had to sit and wait on guard too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he brought him in my life. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: felt you on that. Yeah. No, we all have to
Speaker 1: learn from that, bro, We all have to learn.
Speaker 4: The Bible tells me, man that the steps of a
Speaker 4: good man or ordered by the Lord. Right now, on
Speaker 4: my vision board, I had that I wanted to be
Speaker 4: a coach.
Speaker 5: It was what I was trying the work to become.
Speaker 4: And two a year and a half after, you know,
Speaker 4: I was, you know, hustling with what I got locked
Speaker 4: up for coaching, opportunity came right and so you know,
Speaker 4: it was so anti climatic for me because, like you know,
Speaker 4: the apex of one of my goals to be able
Speaker 4: to be around the game and to learn from Quinn
Speaker 4: Snyder who was my college coach, and he trusted me
Speaker 4: to hire me. Good dude, and something that I had
Speaker 4: done in the past, you know what I mean, came
Speaker 4: to kind of knock me off.
Speaker 1: That man. It broke my.
Speaker 4: Heart, not only for myself and my family, but Quinn.
Speaker 4: I let Quenn down. I was my college coach. I
Speaker 4: was his first pro I love the dude and uh
Speaker 4: to go down on his watch, you know, really hurt
Speaker 4: through text. You know, I keep in touch with a
Speaker 4: few of the guys from my coaching staff. But like man,
Speaker 4: I got really authentic and good relationships with with some
Speaker 4: really and good authentic people. So anybody who I didn't
Speaker 4: speak to or anything like that, it could be two things,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 5: One they couldn't maybe they ain't fuck with me like
Speaker 5: I thought.
Speaker 4: Or two they could be afraid of the stigma associated
Speaker 4: with what I've gone through, right, you know, the affiliation
Speaker 4: of somebody who's going down, because that is a real
Speaker 4: thing when you're feeling. Man, you know, it is like
Speaker 4: a author and it's like an a on your chest.
Speaker 5: It's enough on your chest.
Speaker 4: And in our industry that's not common, I know, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like, it's not common in our
Speaker 4: industry because like in our industry, you almost have to
Speaker 4: be flawless at every intersection, and when you get a
Speaker 4: stain on it, you can be replaced.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, man, it's just a part of it.
Speaker 1: For the upbringing same Sea making vc Omar in Florida.
Speaker 1: To paint the.
Speaker 4: Picture, well, man, I grew up in the eighties man,
Speaker 4: and it was, Man, it was so awesome growing up
Speaker 4: in the eighties. We got a car culture down here.
Speaker 4: We ride donks, we like, you know, it was the eighties.
Speaker 4: It was a dope boy central, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: A lot of a lot of narcotics was coming.
Speaker 5: Through this area.
Speaker 4: So it was it was great growing up there in
Speaker 4: a sense because we had a sense of family since community,
Speaker 4: you know, you knew somebody who knew your people.
Speaker 5: So it still was like that generation. It felt like.
Speaker 1: Old school takes a village.
Speaker 5: It takes a village.
Speaker 4: But you saw the impact of crack and how that
Speaker 4: impacted the family, like you really saw the change, like
Speaker 4: pretty quickly. And you know, just growing up down in
Speaker 4: South Florida. Man, we're big on sports, so you know, basketball,
Speaker 4: football especially, we play in the street football, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean.
Speaker 5: We you know football during football season.
Speaker 4: Basketball during basketball seas. So I grew up man in
Speaker 4: a time where I think it was very unique and
Speaker 4: it was fun. It's shaped it shaped me right on
Speaker 4: my journey. And man, I just I got a soft
Speaker 4: spot for for a lot of it. I love being
Speaker 4: from the crib. I love what's happening in Florida. Obviously
Speaker 4: it's a football state, but we're kind of changing that
Speaker 4: a little bit.
Speaker 5: It's so much talent.
Speaker 4: We always had great athletes with dogs, but now, man,
Speaker 4: you know, with a lot of the skills trainers staying
Speaker 4: Remy from Remy.
Speaker 5: Workouts, there's a lot of guys who are.
Speaker 4: Training our athletes now with skill and precision. So I'm
Speaker 4: excited on, like, you know, with the future holes for
Speaker 4: Florida's basketball.
Speaker 6: We all had our own reasons becoming you know, men
Speaker 6: at a young age. Me growing up in a single
Speaker 6: parent home. I think you had your own situation that
Speaker 6: forced you to be a man at a young age.
Speaker 6: Can you talk about it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Man, I mean obviously you know, everything on your
Speaker 4: journey that you experience is an opportunity for growth, right,
Speaker 4: and they ain't all swet. So you know, when I
Speaker 4: was a child, I went through sexual abuse, and you
Speaker 4: know I pushed that down and didn't really deal with
Speaker 4: that until I was in my early thirties.
Speaker 5: You know, the guilt, the fear, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Also just not enough information about that, right because you
Speaker 4: know a lot of times you just don't know how
Speaker 4: to respond. You're seven eight years old and so you know,
Speaker 4: it forced me to grow up and toughen up a
Speaker 4: little bit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: But it also made me start drinking early.
Speaker 4: It started made me start smoking early, being promiscuous with.
Speaker 1: My body very early.
Speaker 4: And it also like made me a little bit more angry,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, like if somebody tried me
Speaker 4: or if you know, somebody touched me inappropriate, like you know,
Speaker 4: I'm willing to like go all the way there, and
Speaker 4: so you know, I had to learn and work through that.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's something that like as a man,
Speaker 4: it's difficult to talk about, but you know, we do
Speaker 4: the difficult man. You know, like as at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, if we don't share these stories and
Speaker 4: share these experiences, man, we could be neglecting one of
Speaker 4: the little young roles coming up behind us, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. So I think, like we have to
Speaker 4: we gotta transfer this information good, bad, or indifferent. And
Speaker 4: I think a lot of times, man, you know, we
Speaker 4: just don't share the information, the good information enough, the
Speaker 4: real authentic information enough. And that's why I love you guys' platform, man,
Speaker 4: because you guys, you guys throw it off the backboard
Speaker 4: for guys to really be able to come and finish,
Speaker 4: you know, and I love it. But yeah, that's a
Speaker 4: part of the journey. I wrote a book about it,
Speaker 4: and you know, it's a part of my story.
Speaker 6: We're saying that and sharing your story. What's some signs
Speaker 6: that we can look out for for kids in the
Speaker 6: hood that might be going through that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so few things, you know, you know, if kids
Speaker 4: are experiencing anxiety, if you see, you know, a certain
Speaker 4: amount of anger, right if you notice you know, you know,
Speaker 4: promiscuous behavior, you know, substance, you know, them starting to smoke,
Speaker 4: maybe too early, and things like that are isolation.
Speaker 5: Those are some things.
Speaker 4: But like one of the best things, like as men,
Speaker 4: we could do for our families is have those conversations,
Speaker 4: you know, sit your boys and your girls down and say, hey, look,
Speaker 4: this is a healthy touch. This is your private part.
Speaker 4: Don't let nobody touch this. Don't let nobody do that.
Speaker 4: If something ever happens, you know, you let me know,
Speaker 4: you know, And so that communication, because a lot of
Speaker 4: times that usually happens from somebody close enough to be
Speaker 4: able to touch you. So a family member, a friend,
Speaker 4: you know, an older siblings, friend who may you know,
Speaker 4: So sleepovers and things like that are like out of
Speaker 4: the question for my kids unless they might have come
Speaker 4: into my house. And I know that might sound a
Speaker 4: little bit like unfair, but y'all don't come to my house.
Speaker 5: But y'all ain't going to nobody house.
Speaker 1: It just is what it is. When did basketball become
Speaker 1: like for you?
Speaker 4: I think basketball became like for me man at probably
Speaker 4: about four or five years old. I'm the youngest of
Speaker 4: four kids, and my older brother played college ball at
Speaker 4: HBCU bethrom Cookman, And you know, I just fell in
Speaker 4: love with the game, and my dad loved the game.
Speaker 4: I could dribble the ball really good, really early, Like
Speaker 4: I could dribble anything. And man, I had an incredible imagination.
Speaker 4: So like you see this table right here, that was
Speaker 4: a defender euro step in the table, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. You see the top of the door right there,
Speaker 4: Oh that's a rim. Every time I'm going in the bathroom,
Speaker 4: I'm dunking, you know. And so I had this imagination
Speaker 4: for myself, and then I had this incredible work ethic
Speaker 4: that I wanted to develop that talent. And then my
Speaker 4: big brother was nice. He was small, but he was nice.
Speaker 4: So he was like taking me through drills and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. So I fell in love with the game
Speaker 4: at a very early age. When I got indicted, man,
Speaker 4: I thought I lost my love for the game. I
Speaker 4: was like, Man, you know, the basketball world won't embrace
Speaker 4: me anymore. All the things that I've done and I've accomplished,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, will be minimized. And boy
Speaker 4: was I wrong, because soon as I got you know,
Speaker 4: to Coleman, Man, I became the commissioner of the Basketball League.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I'm training guys you know, on the court, like literally
Speaker 4: scheduling like people like want me to train them. So
Speaker 4: I was like, man, I can't run from this game.
Speaker 4: It's a part of my DNA. It's what I love.
Speaker 4: It's my love language. I love this shit, bro. I
Speaker 4: love this game, man, and I love what it can
Speaker 4: do for you, what it's allowed us to experience. I
Speaker 4: been in fourteen countries, you know, I've been to forty
Speaker 4: four states, you know what I mean. I met some
Speaker 4: incredible people. I've seen and experienced some amazing things. I've
Speaker 4: ate some good restaurants.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like, I've seen a lot of shit because of this game,
Speaker 4: and I love it. And I will never let anybody
Speaker 4: take that from me, right, I can't do it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I never.
Speaker 1: Let that happen. When did you know you was nice? Oh?
Speaker 1: High school?
Speaker 4: It's like I knew I was a good player coming
Speaker 4: up or whatever. I was a little bit small, But
Speaker 4: like when I got to like eleventh grade, you know,
Speaker 4: going into senior year and shit like that, I was like,
Speaker 4: you know, something was different.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: I used to run in the pool with my shoes on.
Speaker 4: I would go to the beach and train, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. And one day I went to sleep,
Speaker 4: I was slapping backboard. Next day I woke up, I
Speaker 4: was putting my arm in the realm, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. So it wasn't the day that happened. It
Speaker 4: was all the work leading into that moment, right, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. So like I just always tell youngsters,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, It's like, you know, you
Speaker 4: put the work in, you know, you know you put
Speaker 4: the work in, and you know, incrementally you can develop
Speaker 4: that talent. Like you know, I feel like the biggest
Speaker 4: room in all of our lives is the room for improvement.
Speaker 4: You know, we can get better at it. So if
Speaker 4: you're deficient, you know, with your left hand, you can
Speaker 4: work on it. If your jump shot is broke, you
Speaker 4: can work on it. You know what I mean. Now,
Speaker 4: one thing that's hard to teach is that dog. You
Speaker 4: got to be born with that, you know what I'm saying. Now,
Speaker 4: I've seen some I've seen something like being around a
Speaker 4: person like yourself or a person like you are, even
Speaker 4: like how I played the game, I've helped you, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, like you able to like indoctrinate or put
Speaker 4: some dogs in them a little bit, you know, a
Speaker 4: little bit, but you are who you are.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when it comes to that dog.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got a question though, because all three of
Speaker 3: us had it, and all three of us had somewhat
Speaker 3: traumatic childhood experiences and traumas, and to be able to
Speaker 3: focus that energy into fire, like you said, it comes
Speaker 3: out in different ways.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I know my my, my, my upbringing fueled a lot
Speaker 3: of the snappiness me want to slap people, the fights. Yeah,
Speaker 3: on edge, you know what I mean. Like to be
Speaker 3: able to turn something negative and use as a chip
Speaker 3: or fire. That's a unique because not everybody can do
Speaker 3: that and most of the times and not speculating or
Speaker 3: making it in a blanket situation. People like that have
Speaker 3: gone through some real shit. Yeah you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: Like we don't choose to just be on edge or
Speaker 3: be on it. They're like, yeah, we were turned into that.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I mean, life happens. Shit happens, right, and
Speaker 4: a lot of it comes out in a lot of
Speaker 4: different ways. Like going back to it, the game of
Speaker 4: basketball is so great, right because not only can we
Speaker 4: channel that energy into our sport, but the resources that
Speaker 4: we are exposed to early in life, the speakers that
Speaker 4: we've heard, you know what I mean, the program and
Speaker 4: that we've got an opportunity to be exposed to. Most
Speaker 4: people don't get that, so they don't necessarily know what
Speaker 4: emotional intelligence is. They don't know what their triggers are.
Speaker 4: There's certain things. They just haven't been exposed to the
Speaker 4: information enough. So when we have these talks and things
Speaker 4: like that, the great thing about it is that people
Speaker 4: watching they can see a piece of themselves and us
Speaker 4: and like, okay, like damn, maybe I didn't recognize that
Speaker 4: I snapped because of this. Maybe I got to go
Speaker 4: back to that childhood. So therapy, man, is therapeutic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna ask you what, like what age?
Speaker 1: Because I took like I.
Speaker 3: Was at one point in two different types of therapy
Speaker 3: post retirement.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: When did you did you realize like, Okay, I thought,
Speaker 3: as long as I can fight by myself, I need
Speaker 3: some real help.
Speaker 5: Yeah for me.
Speaker 4: You know, Look, I didn't feel like I needed therapy
Speaker 4: until I got triggered and I lost it. And it
Speaker 4: took about two weeks for me to like even like
Speaker 4: when I say I lost it, I lost it like
Speaker 4: I was out of there. I spent four days in
Speaker 4: a mental institution. You did say you was on the street? Yeah,
Speaker 4: god man, yeah, so you know I'm in the restroom
Speaker 4: in Seattle. Why you remember the biggest sist that we
Speaker 4: used to do when we give up all the stuff,
Speaker 4: you know, in these different communities. And man, I gotta
Speaker 4: grab my butt while I was paying bro. And man,
Speaker 4: when I tell you, when I tell you, like it's
Speaker 4: like like like I turned into like the hawk, Like
Speaker 4: it's like all this energy said instant. It's in that
Speaker 4: moment I lost it, And like as I was trying
Speaker 4: to calm down, I was like, damn, why did I
Speaker 4: I lost it so quick? Like and then all these
Speaker 4: little memories that I had compressed down start popping back
Speaker 4: up from my childhood and damn, I haven't talked about that.
Speaker 1: In a minute. Take your time, bro.
Speaker 5: So when I talk about those triggers, like, I.
Speaker 4: Want everybody to kind of know those things so you
Speaker 4: can do preventive things.
Speaker 5: So we don't let people take us there.
Speaker 4: So we don't so we know we aren't gonna control
Speaker 4: because like in that moment, you can lose it and
Speaker 4: your family can suffer, You can hurt yourself and hurt others.
Speaker 4: You could become a danger to yourself and others. So
Speaker 4: for us, especially guys like us who've seen a lot
Speaker 4: of shit, we gotta know them triggers and try and
Speaker 4: avoid them as much as we can. Ended up in
Speaker 4: Missou Big twelve hoops. Yeah, how was that being in Missouri?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 4: Missoo was great, Mancazoo was great. I enjoyed my college
Speaker 4: experience over there. We did we did with Quin your
Speaker 4: coach both years. No so, I got an opportunity to
Speaker 4: play for Norm Steward my first year and then Quinn's
Speaker 4: night of my second year.
Speaker 5: And man, I had some great teammates in Missoo. It
Speaker 5: was a great little.
Speaker 4: College town and had a lot of fun at Missou
Speaker 4: good recruiting, and they say, how did how did you
Speaker 4: guys end up in in Missouri? That good recruiting?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: They call it nils.
Speaker 6: Now you played against Jamal Samseley too while he was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, when Tinsley came in, shout out JT JT J
Speaker 4: T was spinding the phone booth. So he came in,
Speaker 4: I ain't know who he was. I think he came
Speaker 4: from like Juco or something like that. Right, and we
Speaker 4: went in there like the year before we ran through
Speaker 4: Iowa State, like, oh, we're running through that, right. They
Speaker 4: had marcut spires or they had a nice little squad.
Speaker 4: But then they get this point guard. So me, I'm
Speaker 4: picking up for a court, I'm turning them and he
Speaker 4: acting like I'm not even there. He's spinning he inside
Speaker 4: out in eight, nine, ten times and you look up.
Speaker 4: He had like ten points Tennessee's tim rebound. He had
Speaker 4: a triple double in college in the Big twelve, And I'm.
Speaker 5: Like, who is who is he?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 5: Paul was cold, he was tough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you had that one dunk on old boys at Kansas. Yeah,
Speaker 3: was probably one of the worst right here. That was
Speaker 3: what do you see when you see young kd right here?
Speaker 3: What do you think well used to fly?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I used to.
Speaker 1: I used to get off, get up in the air.
Speaker 1: They called that a charge.
Speaker 4: The dude didn't fall anything like that. But it's Kansas
Speaker 4: and Lawrence. You know they gonna cheat.
Speaker 1: Who is that thirty two? Never been heard from this.
Speaker 5: Shanty Johnson or something like that. I don't want to
Speaker 5: butcher the brothers.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe.
Speaker 4: It was like you trying to see me go to
Speaker 4: the league.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, you got any good Quinn Snyder stories?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got.
Speaker 4: I mean, like like man Quinn is you know, full
Speaker 4: of energy, full of life, got a hearder goal, super smart,
Speaker 4: super talented. But he was young when he coached me
Speaker 4: in college, so he still was active, right, still couldunk
Speaker 4: all that, right, But one day was doing a charge
Speaker 4: drill and you know what I mean, I guess we
Speaker 4: wasn't doing the drill right, So Quinn put himself in
Speaker 4: the drill and he had this cat who was like
Speaker 4: a grad assistant at the time. I think Jason Sutherland,
Speaker 4: and Jason was a country Midwest like wow, boy right, strong,
Speaker 4: stocky like just so.
Speaker 5: You know, just a thundercat.
Speaker 4: So Jason, you know, Quinn's taking positioning himself to take
Speaker 4: the charge.
Speaker 5: So Jason tries to kind of go up soft on.
Speaker 5: Quinn pushed him out there, running me over, running me over.
Speaker 4: So he looked around, he peeled his ears back and
Speaker 4: he went up, and he went up.
Speaker 1: Quinn took the charge.
Speaker 4: And that's how you take a when you take a charge,
Speaker 4: he threw his rolex all that.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: I think Quinn still got back problems to this day.
Speaker 4: From that charge to this day, I still think.
Speaker 6: Got out there and started taking charge of trying to
Speaker 6: show people how to tell that.
Speaker 1: I think Quenn still stretching his back.
Speaker 3: I want to rewind because we didn't ask. But uh
Speaker 3: t Mac Yeah, Matt, what was the because I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3: He's one year older than us, right, yeah, but he
Speaker 3: kind of he might have been killing out here, but
Speaker 3: he jumped on the national scene just all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: and he was going from high school to the pro.
Speaker 5: Yeah, man's playing with him like t Max.
Speaker 4: From Pope County. So I think he was at Auburndale
Speaker 4: before he went to Mountain Zion. And you look back
Speaker 4: at his numbers and he was killing. But it's a
Speaker 4: small town, so we didn't know who he was. So
Speaker 4: we met t Mac at Adidas camp and Mack was like, Oh,
Speaker 4: I'm from Florida. We all playing together. Y'all come watch
Speaker 4: me play. So we go and we roll up and
Speaker 4: we go watch team at play.
Speaker 5: Now he's unknown, nobody knows who he is at this point,
Speaker 5: and he's going to be a junior or scene. He's
Speaker 5: going into his senior year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So we go see this guy play man and I
Speaker 4: had never seen somebody that skill, that athletic, that smooth,
Speaker 4: that fast with the ball, because the team act was
Speaker 4: super fast, Like he was tall and he was smooth
Speaker 4: and all that, but his first step he was real
Speaker 4: tweaty with it. And so we got to play that
Speaker 4: summer with a matter of fact, he went milled on
Speaker 4: somebody in the All Star Game, Like he went milled
Speaker 4: on this cat in the All Star Game. I saw
Speaker 4: all the college coaches, NBA scouts lose their professionalism. You know,
Speaker 4: it was at the rook he cleared the gym. He
Speaker 4: went milled on somebody at the All Star Game. And
Speaker 4: so we got to play that that that summer together
Speaker 4: and to see his development and his focus. He knew
Speaker 4: what he wanted. He killed the whole summer. He killed
Speaker 4: the whole summer. I mean, it was just amazing to
Speaker 4: watch team at Florida fla Florida Flash.
Speaker 1: We played, y'all. I don't know where we played, you
Speaker 1: guys at probably a long beach.
Speaker 4: It was as you know, we had a squad man
Speaker 4: like eleven twelve D one players from that squad Adida,
Speaker 4: Sony Vicarrol, Elvis Smith, those guys man, and they really
Speaker 4: had a They really were good for our lives. And
Speaker 4: at that point, you know what I mean, we really
Speaker 4: needed that exposure. And you know, Mac was just an
Speaker 4: incredible talent man. And you know, because we played with Mac,
Speaker 4: we got more exposure. That's when my ranking and stuff
Speaker 4: start going up. So we have a we have a
Speaker 4: unique way of like getting lucky and being around the
Speaker 4: right people at the right time that helps you get
Speaker 4: to your destiny.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and two Drafts two thousand, excuse me, two thousand, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was two thousand and two.
Speaker 4: Two thousand and two.
Speaker 3: You came out of Yeah, you know, Donald Sterling collects
Speaker 3: you with the tenth pick in the lost of this Clippers.
Speaker 3: First of all, what was that experience like being drafted?
Speaker 3: It's a lottery pick. Yeah, come into La. You're a
Speaker 3: small town guy, yeah somewhat Yeah, coming to La.
Speaker 1: What was that? Man? It was dope.
Speaker 5: Man, I didn't get invited to the draft. You know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. I didn't get invited to the combine.
Speaker 1: So I liked it, like.
Speaker 4: Twelve thirteen pre draft workouts and there was some cats
Speaker 4: ducking me.
Speaker 1: During that time. Who was in that draft duck and
Speaker 1: you talked to.
Speaker 4: About I mean, you know, I ain't gonna you know,
Speaker 4: it was just let's just say I didn't get to
Speaker 4: work out against everybody. But when I ran in the guys,
Speaker 4: it was it was you know, I was able to
Speaker 4: separate myself during that draft process a little bit, but
Speaker 4: it was doping with the Clippers because man, me Q
Speaker 4: and D all babies, you know, me Q, D Miles
Speaker 4: got drafted together.
Speaker 5: So we got to experience a lot of firsts together.
Speaker 4: And you know, man, it still was some of the
Speaker 4: most fun I think I've ever had playing basketball. We
Speaker 4: just weren't good. You know, you can't win with a
Speaker 4: lot of young players. It was an older league at
Speaker 4: that point. It was it was a grown man league.
Speaker 4: It was a grown man league. The resources that the
Speaker 4: Clippers had were very minimal. They didn't have an environment
Speaker 4: that would cultivate your talent.
Speaker 3: That's kindly put the league. Yeah, practice South Southwest commune
Speaker 3: to college. You used to have to leave the back
Speaker 3: doors open so people didn't break in your cars. There
Speaker 3: was no showers, there's no real lot. You shared the
Speaker 3: locker room with like regular students. Like, what was that like?
Speaker 1: So you get the.
Speaker 3: Idea I'm drafted, I'm a lottery pick, I'm going to
Speaker 3: the NBA. And then the resources are less resources than
Speaker 3: you had in college.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how was that?
Speaker 4: It was tough? Man, You didn't feel like you was
Speaker 4: in the league. You know, you just didn't feel like
Speaker 4: you was in the league. You couldn't go back to
Speaker 4: the gym and work on your jumper if you want.
Speaker 4: You know, I struggled with my shooting early in my career,
Speaker 4: and I just couldn't put enough extra time. Yeah, it
Speaker 4: just wasn't The environment wasn't good enough for that amount
Speaker 4: of young talent, and so it staggered. I feel like
Speaker 4: I got staggered.
Speaker 1: In my development.
Speaker 4: And it wasn't until I went to Miami that I
Speaker 4: that I learned how to be a pro.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get back to that, but I want to
Speaker 3: get because I want to get.
Speaker 4: Some more l A Okay, okay, what was l Like?
Speaker 4: How nice was l O Man? L O was super
Speaker 4: nice man. Ll O man six eleven can dribble past
Speaker 4: shoot man? What a nice human being man. L O
Speaker 4: just you know, l O was just a lot of fun,
Speaker 4: super charismatic, ship talker, extraordinariy like Llo was that dude man,
Speaker 4: just a good dude man.
Speaker 1: We man.
Speaker 4: We barbecued, we fish fried pretty much every day out there.
Speaker 5: We kicked it in La.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, Like were you guys imply?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we was down in the marina. I don't even
Speaker 4: think they was still developed. We was down in the marina.
Speaker 4: And good when I tell you, every day it was
Speaker 4: a Saturday.
Speaker 5: We had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: But l O man, he had a hearter goal, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, super talented, super humble, just a
Speaker 4: just all around good.
Speaker 1: Just good man, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And this in this this generation right here, the things
Speaker 4: that kind of got Lamar in trouble you know he
Speaker 4: could smoke free.
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, absolutely, you know what I mean? Yeah, Q
Speaker 3: Rich and D Miles knuckleheady, Yes, what was that like?
Speaker 3: Because although you guys weren't good, y'all were still popping
Speaker 3: in the l like absolutely popping in that absolutely.
Speaker 4: So I played against Q like probably at twelve. Men,
Speaker 4: I've known Q Rich since I was twelve years old,
Speaker 4: you know, one of my best friends on the planet.
Speaker 4: And man, Q was a dog. And when we would
Speaker 4: go in the summertimes at U C l A and
Speaker 4: things like that, like the battles that Q would have
Speaker 4: with Paul and those guys.
Speaker 5: I'm like Q dog, you know me and Cali bro
Speaker 5: like man, you can give it like Q.
Speaker 1: Just Q is like Q.
Speaker 4: He trained to go. But Q was super talented. We
Speaker 4: played USA together, man, we just and those my brothers
Speaker 4: right there and D MOUs Man young D Mouse. Young
Speaker 4: D MOUs was a wizard. Man played both ends, you know,
Speaker 4: played with a motor. Had a high basketball Iq six
Speaker 4: eleven six eleven probably seven foot four wingspan, could handle
Speaker 4: the rock, great mid range game, had a passion for
Speaker 4: playing with a really good passer, and man, it was
Speaker 4: a lot of fun playing with those guys, man, Q
Speaker 4: and D is to this day man like especially like
Speaker 4: through this process.
Speaker 5: Man, some guys been all the way, all the way
Speaker 5: one honey.
Speaker 1: I love Q and D. That's my boys. So speaking
Speaker 1: of Q brings you to my first practice with you guys.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's why they're so tight. I walk into gym.
Speaker 3: I'm tighted with Rico because of that Rico fun in college.
Speaker 3: I walk into the gym my first NBA practice, y'all.
Speaker 3: First I get caught up on atten day, my first practice.
Speaker 3: This man and Q Richard tangled up. Yeah, but KD
Speaker 3: wasn't doub KD was getting his little jabbed and then
Speaker 3: getting out the way. Yeah, he had a lot of
Speaker 3: move but when he would get a couple of jazz,
Speaker 3: if you wanted to grab it. Yeah, have you ever
Speaker 3: seen that rock Wiland and Chihua?
Speaker 4: Listen, man, listen, man, I am so thankful for everybody
Speaker 4: who was in that gym because if you would have
Speaker 4: got his hands.
Speaker 1: On I just walk into the gym to my first.
Speaker 4: Gimcome to the NBA first man.
Speaker 1: But I was like, okay, this is cool. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, cool see.
Speaker 4: But the good thing about that man, is like, man,
Speaker 4: we left that ship on the court. That was cool,
Speaker 4: and we you know, we talked about it, and you know,
Speaker 4: we was mad at each other for a little bit, right,
Speaker 4: But then that next year, man, we get out the Phoenix.
Speaker 4: Q was playing in Phoenix and Q pulls up and
Speaker 4: scoops me up.
Speaker 1: Man, And you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean, Like, men, this is the thing about
Speaker 4: real authentic friendships and relationships. It's not gonna be all
Speaker 4: peaches and creamy. Sometimes you go on but head right,
Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, man, like that
Speaker 4: is my brother.
Speaker 5: And I loved them.
Speaker 4: I just hate that's that was your first practice.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I'm glad no one really got hurt.
Speaker 3: But he was getting a couple of you little, I said,
Speaker 3: I've seen them knuckles work.
Speaker 4: No, I'm just glad I made it out of that one.
Speaker 4: Say still was in two thousand and three, two thousand
Speaker 4: and three, Yep, I was there.
Speaker 6: I'm actually remember this. I was with the Spurs. Yeah,
Speaker 6: your whole team came to my house.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you came through.
Speaker 1: You came through. We've been doing this, we could doing it.
Speaker 3: Which I smoking came the whole team, the whole team.
Speaker 1: Man, at my house like yesterday.
Speaker 3: That was one time that was really that was the
Speaker 3: one time when you got there the test and the preseason,
Speaker 3: you was good the rest of the year.
Speaker 4: Right yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're still good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So after that one, you was.
Speaker 6: To go, yeah, I remember that. Yeah, you remories a
Speaker 6: whole on too, bro. Yeah you got you. Yeah, man,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, my boy.
Speaker 7: It was the ultimate host all the smoke before all
Speaker 7: the smoke, straight up, but that you always had that
Speaker 7: impact on this though. You know, I always just always
Speaker 7: had like an incredible impact. You probably impacted more people
Speaker 7: the most superstars, right, because it's not the superstars who
Speaker 7: spend time and develop you and correct and show you
Speaker 7: how to be a real man in the league, right
Speaker 7: and stand up for yourself and stand on business Like
Speaker 7: a lot of times those guys have.
Speaker 4: A tough job because they're they're isolated. Yeah you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, they're isolated so much from the common
Speaker 4: every day. Not saying that you was coming just being different,
Speaker 4: but you you had such an impact on like the
Speaker 4: whole culture of the game, and most if you don't
Speaker 4: have platforms like this, most mainstream media wouldn't even know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was great at getting people together. I mean
Speaker 3: he brought a whole new energy that Golden State team.
Speaker 3: So she was a dude that got us all hanging out.
Speaker 3: I mean like we're practicing and going to Jack's house
Speaker 3: and eating and smoking and watching game film. Yeah, like
Speaker 3: we wasn't doing that before you got no you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. So yeah, he definitely does. I was
Speaker 3: just spreading out. My burns burned out. Now as soon
Speaker 3: as he got the team, he had crusty lips. I'm
Speaker 3: looking at a lot. Yeah, the Mexican I've seen it.
Speaker 4: Let me go back to l O for a second
Speaker 4: because I remember, so I started smoking like when I
Speaker 4: was like twelve years old, and I had.
Speaker 5: Never like got high off weed until I smoked California.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the difference.
Speaker 4: And I just remember one night it was me, Lamar
Speaker 4: and Wheezy Wilcox. My man, my Weezy. We're doing amazing too,
Speaker 4: you talk. Oh yeah, I talked to her. YEA doing amazing,
Speaker 4: that's the homie. But I just remember we was in
Speaker 4: sack and everything was closed, and I remember we called
Speaker 4: downstairs like, hey man, y'all ain't got no sandwiches or
Speaker 4: nothing right, y'all, ain't got no sandwiches. So a little
Speaker 4: time goes by, I could hear everything, like I could feel.
Speaker 5: I felt like I could hear my heartbeat.
Speaker 1: I could hear you know, first time, get yeah, like
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 4: The first time like where you know, like ice cube,
Speaker 4: like like that's how this.
Speaker 1: So we were really hungry. So about twenty minutes later, man,
Speaker 1: we went back to.
Speaker 4: The phone and say, hey, man ya, we ain't got
Speaker 4: no sandwiches or nothing down there, you know, just like.
Speaker 1: Uber yeah read you know, and you know second one
Speaker 1: of them cities.
Speaker 6: Yeah, ship early, so you get that late after game, they.
Speaker 1: Got no sandwiches, get nothing. Man, we went to sleep.
Speaker 1: We smoked good, but we was.
Speaker 3: Oh oh, I was like George, I already know like
Speaker 3: that young that that young Clipper team was crazy, but
Speaker 3: like there was good camaraderie. Everybody wuck with each other.
Speaker 3: We and everybody was young. Yeah, they was young.
Speaker 4: And you know what, everybody went on to have good careers,
Speaker 4: right when you put them in the good system and
Speaker 4: get them in the right environment, get them out.
Speaker 1: Of that ship. But that ship was fun though. It
Speaker 1: was fun for yeah.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and five Miami Heat Shack's first year d
Speaker 3: Wade's second year. You talk about kind of understanding and
Speaker 3: how to becoming a pro. Yeah, in this environment, tell
Speaker 3: me what it was to be able to come back home,
Speaker 3: man and play for it.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of pressure, man.
Speaker 4: I was on the minimum and everybody wanted to come
Speaker 4: to the games, and they weren't giving tickets like that.
Speaker 4: So it was a lot of pressure on You get
Speaker 4: four around that time, yeah too, Yeah, you're just getting
Speaker 4: four yeah yeah, yeah. But you know, man, that's the
Speaker 4: good thing about relationships and the heat culture, right, they
Speaker 4: understood that. So anytime there was extra tickets or something
Speaker 4: like that, they would, yeah, they would come through. And
Speaker 4: you know, teammates, you use to trade tickets and things
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 1: But man, it was fun.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: I learned how to be a pro, you know. And
Speaker 5: I remember Pat Riley.
Speaker 4: I wasn't playing initially, and I was kind of pouting,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And I remember having a
Speaker 4: note to.
Speaker 1: Go see Pat.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, damn, okay, it's like going to see
Speaker 4: the principle like this is intimidating. So I go up
Speaker 4: and see Pat and Pat just tells me how man. Look,
Speaker 4: you know, like I know, you know you're not playing.
Speaker 4: It's not going well for you. But the way you're.
Speaker 5: Handling it, it's not right. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Your body language in there, you looking disconnected, said, man,
Speaker 4: don't let coach band gun you know, see you pouting.
Speaker 4: Let them see you watching film, Let them see you
Speaker 4: on the court early, let them see you cheering. Start
Speaker 4: sitting up closer by the bench so you can hear
Speaker 4: the game plan. I guarantee you gonna get your opportunity.
Speaker 4: And you got to be ready for And that happened.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: You know, as a as a professional, they develop you
Speaker 4: as a basketball player. They develop you and they push
Speaker 4: you to the brink of you know, asking yourself, am
Speaker 4: I doing the right thing?
Speaker 1: Do I really love this? Were on the track doing
Speaker 1: what eight?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 5: We had to do six?
Speaker 4: It's two times around, that's the eight hundred had six
Speaker 4: eight hundreds for time and pass it. You would have
Speaker 4: to do it again, right, So I just remember like
Speaker 4: questioning like, am I.
Speaker 1: Am I doing the right thing? Here? With my life?
Speaker 1: Is this? What life is?
Speaker 5: The humidity in South Florida?
Speaker 4: I gotta do eight eight? And the guys who are
Speaker 4: part of the culture, they just they d Wade's out there,
Speaker 4: Eddie Jones out there. Rosue used to run like a
Speaker 4: dear Rossue. Butler, you donas. You know, nobody without work,
Speaker 4: you donas. But playing for the heat Man changed my life,
Speaker 4: It really did. Man, Like you know, Spo was our
Speaker 4: position coach, and you just knew he had superstar written
Speaker 4: all over him.
Speaker 1: A lot of.
Speaker 4: People don't like staying van Gundy. He's one of my
Speaker 4: favorite coaches of.
Speaker 1: Now. It's tough.
Speaker 4: He's tough as a coach, but.
Speaker 1: Man, what a good man.
Speaker 4: You know you could be honest with them, transparent with him,
Speaker 4: and he's gonna coach you. I remember he wrote in
Speaker 4: the huddle one time d Wade was mad at him,
Speaker 4: so he drew a star on the on the whiteboard
Speaker 4: and tapped a star like twenty times. He said, here
Speaker 4: it is your star, right, your star, And now I
Speaker 4: can't coach him. You're starting, I can't coach you. So
Speaker 4: Stan had smoke for everybody. It's gonna call you out.
Speaker 4: He accountable and you know, to this day one of
Speaker 4: my favorite Him and Doc are probably my favorite coaches
Speaker 4: that I played for.
Speaker 1: Young d Wade. Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 4: It was like he was Dwayne Wade one day and
Speaker 4: he was the Flash the next.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know.
Speaker 4: What a talent like you know what I mean, like
Speaker 4: mean as a Rattle State, strong as a Knox, you know,
Speaker 4: so much agility, so much poise, and you would just
Speaker 4: see him and spoke crafting on his footwork. You know,
Speaker 4: Spoe was like one of the best like developmental coaches
Speaker 4: I've ever seen, Like as far as skilled development, Spoe
Speaker 4: was so cold at developing talent, right. I know, people
Speaker 4: you know see him as this exitent of the old
Speaker 4: guy and all that, but man like the way that
Speaker 4: he could teach the game and break it down and
Speaker 4: he just Wade was just crafting. Wave was amazing, and
Speaker 4: he was fun. He was hard working, he was humble,
Speaker 4: he was mean, he was tough. I like playing with
Speaker 4: them more than like playing against it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, d Wade always made Shaq obviously coming off a
Speaker 3: Laker team where they had a lot of success and
Speaker 3: now he's there. I know, he was a big joker.
Speaker 3: Did that ship go off well? And did jokes fly
Speaker 3: in Miami the wayther.
Speaker 4: Well not maybe not with Pat, but Shack is maybe
Speaker 4: and Shaq man, you know, Shaq could talk that ship. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Shaq was man just a great teammate, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, like a larger in life figure that you know,
Speaker 4: had a hearder goal. But Shaq taught me a very
Speaker 4: important lesson because I used to talk big ship like
Speaker 4: I'm like, what you're wearing? Like you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: how you look like, whatever your flaw is, I was
Speaker 4: gonna point it out and I was gonna bring it
Speaker 4: up to you, to you in a very comedic way.
Speaker 1: I would talk hell of ship. And one day.
Speaker 5: Shaq can't want to hit that ship and he just
Speaker 5: got tired.
Speaker 1: God damn it, I can't time to ship.
Speaker 4: We're on the plane.
Speaker 1: You. I can't stand this ship.
Speaker 4: I'm tired of this ship.
Speaker 1: You fucking thoughts in there.
Speaker 4: I said, Oh, I ain't even I ain't even messing.
Speaker 1: I said I had to.
Speaker 4: I had to reevaluate, like you know, going hard on people.
Speaker 4: After that, I was like you.
Speaker 1: D was like, man a man, I don't like that ship. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm on the minimum to.
Speaker 4: Man kind of ship.
Speaker 1: Know what a team? Man? Yeah? Was j will there
Speaker 1: with you? No, I was there the year before. They
Speaker 1: want it all.
Speaker 4: So it was like Damon Jones and Eddie Jones and
Speaker 4: d Wade, Shaq, your donnas. Like, we had a lot
Speaker 4: of vet Steve Smith, Christian Lakener.
Speaker 1: We talked about that on the way here.
Speaker 6: You you want of the only guys in the NBA
Speaker 6: to master the Steve Smith move.
Speaker 1: That's you know, yeah, that's my vet.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Smithy Smithy man.
Speaker 4: Like see, growing up in South Florida, we got to
Speaker 4: see the Heat games and so like when Steve Smith
Speaker 4: came in the game, you know down here, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you got to see him play. And he had this
Speaker 4: little half spin and uh he hit me with it
Speaker 4: one time. He was like, oh, young fella. He told me,
Speaker 4: I used to do it a little too fast.
Speaker 5: I'm like, dude, I ain't six eight. I gotta I
Speaker 5: gotta be twitchy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: But Steve is a mentor, a friend, you know, just
Speaker 4: set a good example for us.
Speaker 5: Just a really really good man.
Speaker 4: That's just a mentor too overall, just a great man.
Speaker 1: He taught me to part the post up as a guard. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's why I learned how to post up a.
Speaker 4: Sure sure, Yeah, we ain't want to see you facing
Speaker 4: up that. They don't even they don't even pivot. You
Speaker 4: don't even play out the triple thread anymore. You don't
Speaker 4: even get logo posted.
Speaker 1: Make it hard. It's tough. Now, it's a whole different
Speaker 1: ball game.
Speaker 6: You ended up in the Celtis in twenty twelve, Paul
Speaker 6: Pierce kg rondo.
Speaker 1: How was that? Man? It was?
Speaker 4: It was amazing man, playing with the Celtics. You know,
Speaker 4: obviously the Celtics is a prestigious organization. It's something about
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, when you go in that arena,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, that's different and unique, and
Speaker 4: when you go to other arenas, you know, Celtics fans
Speaker 4: are everywhere. Yeah, But man, KG, I wish I would
Speaker 4: have got to play with him earlier because like, he
Speaker 4: unlocked something in you like nobody else. Man, he was
Speaker 4: a sensey, you know what I mean, as far as
Speaker 4: giving himself to the game. He did the same thing
Speaker 4: the same way, the same time, every game, every practice,
Speaker 4: and he would get himself ready to play like no other.
Speaker 5: He's a perfectionist, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: From the way he watched Family Guy before the game before,
Speaker 4: the way you know he go get in the steam
Speaker 4: room before the game, the way he you know, blessed
Speaker 4: the environment before he get on the court like he
Speaker 4: was systematically. He would do the same thing the same
Speaker 4: way every day. And man, that was just a great experience.
Speaker 4: I love playing with the Celtics. His My favorite experience
Speaker 4: in basketball was playing with the Celtics. It was a
Speaker 4: real brotherhood. It was like no other.
Speaker 6: That year, you got to see the King in Wrath
Speaker 6: on game six, Yeah, yeah, can you walk walk us
Speaker 6: through that?
Speaker 4: I mean, I try and forget about it, but you
Speaker 4: know it's the I know, right, It's like he was
Speaker 4: like hypnotized almost like you know what I mean, but.
Speaker 1: Look at his face right there, you know, he looked.
Speaker 4: Right there, you know, you know, and it was like, man,
Speaker 4: man Ticket was doing everything to try and get him
Speaker 4: off his game every time he walked, like you know,
Speaker 4: bumping into him out like everything Ticket could do, and man,
Speaker 4: we would just go back and just like we we couldn't.
Speaker 5: We couldn't do nothing. We couldn't. We just couldn't do
Speaker 5: nothing with him.
Speaker 4: But like you have, like great players have to have
Speaker 4: those kind of moments, right, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: because it's something different about them, Like because all of
Speaker 4: us are talented, we can all run, jump, shoot whatever,
Speaker 4: but like the super superstars. They have another level of
Speaker 4: getting to the zone and then being able to dwell
Speaker 4: there and he's done it for so long. Man, that
Speaker 4: was a long week. We thought we was going to
Speaker 4: the finals. I mean, that was an opportunity to close
Speaker 4: them out. We had been, you know, playing very well.
Speaker 4: We had them game six, we were three to two,
Speaker 4: and the man like just had a legacy game.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he had a legacy game.
Speaker 3: I know that was a fun team. You were calling
Speaker 3: any fun moments with that squad?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, like.
Speaker 4: Every family, every family you know, has its fuge, right,
Speaker 4: and there was some tension internally, you know with some
Speaker 4: of the guys. But I don't know, man, I think
Speaker 4: you know, I think some of those stories it's meant
Speaker 4: for them.
Speaker 1: To tell you know what I mean. I respect that,
Speaker 1: but let's just say you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: You know Ray and Rondo, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: Like they they had great feel for each other on
Speaker 4: the court, but like just from a personality standpoint, they
Speaker 4: just kind of I.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't talk about I'm talking about like fun stories, Okay,
Speaker 3: going down like club shiit isn't it or any of
Speaker 3: the stuff with Paul, Like like we work with them.
Speaker 1: We burnt out there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we had we had some nights, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, We had some nights.
Speaker 1: Like but.
Speaker 4: That was the lockout year, so we was playing back
Speaker 4: to back to backs, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 4: and so like a big part of us, you know,
Speaker 4: getting together was like going out to hook a lounge,
Speaker 4: going to eat, you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: getting together at each other's cribs and ship like that.
Speaker 4: But like, no, no crazy story. Okay, you got to
Speaker 4: fight with rayam Man, I ain't get in all these fights,
Speaker 4: like y'all saying, man, no, me and Ray, Yeah, me
Speaker 4: and Ray. Uh we got tangled up, you know like
Speaker 4: back in our days we used to compete.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like you know, the game is physical, so.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of o.
Speaker 6: Nah Nah, that wasn't That wasn't average though, y'all.
Speaker 1: Yeah you dumped it. Well, Ray hit me with the elbow.
Speaker 6: You're trying to stop on the string, trying to stop
Speaker 6: on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you lock on that shoulder and you're chasing coming
Speaker 4: on three staggers, right, and he stopped and he hit
Speaker 4: me with that to get up. Yeah, and then you
Speaker 4: know it just spilled over into the crowd, you know,
Speaker 4: I got five games, probably because I.
Speaker 1: Ran the locker room.
Speaker 5: Are you the finishing Yeah, you know, I mean you're
Speaker 5: doing nice one too.
Speaker 1: It was quick too, but they grabbed plastic.
Speaker 4: Man, I know he got you back, But it was
Speaker 4: really Stacey fault though that we got in the fight
Speaker 4: because they on the way there, Yeah, the way there,
Speaker 4: you know, hit him in the face, right, But it
Speaker 4: wasn't even on.
Speaker 1: Purpose, Store, It wasn't on purpose. No, it wasn't just
Speaker 1: clipped him right. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Stacey hit him, but you know he hit me.
Speaker 4: It's like any meaning money you Stacey.
Speaker 1: The first one over there too, The first one over there.
Speaker 4: Sta stage pulled Ray right, Stace pulled, he pulled and
Speaker 4: put him in the full next and be like, as.
Speaker 1: So I go to the locker room, I'm cussing theirs out.
Speaker 4: I'm like, bro, don't y'all never let nobody grab me
Speaker 4: if I'm fighting, somebody grabbed.
Speaker 6: Them, like, don't grab me. Yeah, that's how you got
Speaker 6: that's that's that's long. That's how you get teed off.
Speaker 6: They got your arms, you man, I did run to
Speaker 6: the bag.
Speaker 3: Are you trying to get them after here?
Speaker 1: You don't grab me? What you don't grab me for
Speaker 1: something happened. That's that.
Speaker 5: That's that untreated trauma.
Speaker 4: That's what that was right there.
Speaker 6: Uh, Ship, you opened up on our instrumental Doc Rivers
Speaker 6: and Danny A's work when you were value of your
Speaker 6: mental health demons.
Speaker 1: Can you shot some of those stories? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Man, I mean I spoke about it earlier. I spent
Speaker 4: four days in the mental institution. And you know, here's
Speaker 4: the thing about like this game behind the game, right,
Speaker 4: That's why what you guys do is so important because
Speaker 4: it's these what what people see and then what really happens.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Doc Rivers came to see me every day while I
Speaker 4: was in the mental institution. Every single morning, Doctor, I'm.
Speaker 1: Just coming leave alone.
Speaker 4: I'll be here for you know, Doc and you know
Speaker 4: that little one bowl, you know, he was there every
Speaker 4: day to come and see me. Simultaneously, Danny was going
Speaker 4: to our house in Wellesley to check on my family.
Speaker 4: And so when you talk about what makes organizations different,
Speaker 4: it's not just the aesthetics, it's the infrastructure.
Speaker 1: It's the people, you.
Speaker 4: Know what I mean that create the heat culture or
Speaker 4: the Celtics mantras in Stigma and Danny Ainge and Doc rivers,
Speaker 4: you know, or two of the best men our game
Speaker 4: has ever seen.
Speaker 1: I love to hear it. What do the next few
Speaker 1: years look like for you? Oh man?
Speaker 6: Getting back into the thing I got into.
Speaker 1: Get back to it. We might have to work for
Speaker 1: you over here if you want to come fuck with us.
Speaker 4: Man, I need that work.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: You know, like I have some gifts, right, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like I've always had a gift to speak, to communicate,
Speaker 4: to inspire, to motivate, and so I'm gonna stay true
Speaker 4: to that. Doing a documentary on this experience, because I
Speaker 4: think it's best we tell our own stories and control
Speaker 4: the narrative, but like in an authentic way. And so
Speaker 4: you know, I'm gonna push out the documentary, and you know,
Speaker 4: me and Trevor been, you know, kind of having some
Speaker 4: conversations about some things that we can do.
Speaker 5: But I'm gonna be around the game one way or another.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I thank God for my buddy staying Remy from Remy
Speaker 4: workouts because while I was at the halfway House, I
Speaker 4: got to work on the court with NBA players every
Speaker 4: day and work with the youth every day. And I
Speaker 4: know there's a certain rhythm and cadence that I'm able
Speaker 4: to you know, unlock in in in hoopers, and then
Speaker 4: I think there's a certain wisdom from our experience that
Speaker 4: I'm able to.
Speaker 5: Help them avoid a lot of things.
Speaker 4: And so the next few years for me, man, I'm
Speaker 4: really gonna focus on, you know, creating content, pushing out
Speaker 4: this docuseriy, contributing to the game of basketball, right and
Speaker 4: in a number of different ways, right, But more so
Speaker 4: than anything with that as well, it's like the prison reform,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And it's not like just
Speaker 4: a reform. It's just like when I was down, we
Speaker 4: had no speakers that looked like me that came through, right,
Speaker 4: And I think there's a demographic in the lot of
Speaker 4: people that look like you in there that's being ignored
Speaker 4: somewhat neglected, you know. And I say that in the
Speaker 4: nicest way possible and isolated. And so, you know, because
Speaker 4: I went through this experience, I'm forever feeling right, and
Speaker 4: I have a platform and I have a voice to
Speaker 4: bring up, you know, some of the things that go on,
Speaker 4: so you can help, you.
Speaker 5: Know, provoke change in a positive way.
Speaker 4: It's not a judgment thing because everything was not bad there, right,
Speaker 4: You know everything was not bad, but there's room for
Speaker 4: improvement in that system. And so yeah, man, I'm just
Speaker 4: I'm locked in for that, man, and I'm here for it,
Speaker 4: and I'm.
Speaker 5: Looking forward to the next phase of life.
Speaker 4: And like at the end of the day, Matt, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna stand ten toes down. I'm not the same me.
Speaker 4: I'm a different version of me right now because I
Speaker 4: don't give a fuck as much as I used to
Speaker 4: as far as how people view me or or what
Speaker 4: you know, somebody's image of me is I can't care
Speaker 4: about because I know who I am now and I
Speaker 4: know what I can endure, right and I also know
Speaker 4: what I can have to avoid on a.
Speaker 1: Journey to find that person. Yes, I know what about Uh?
Speaker 1: What about what about Big Three?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: So that's the question I had to ask my birthday.
Speaker 1: Look like, great ship.
Speaker 5: I'm still dunking. I'm still dunking.
Speaker 6: If you thinking about coming back in the game, the
Speaker 6: Big Thing would love to have you.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I received that and we'll talk about okay that.
Speaker 3: I need a little cut it out, sir, well, quick
Speaker 3: hitters before we get you out of your one piece
Speaker 3: of advice you would give your younger self.
Speaker 4: The piece of advice that I would give my younger self.
Speaker 1: Is wow. I think I would have got my.
Speaker 4: Relationship with the Lord better right and tried to follow
Speaker 4: the teachings of my faith a little bit more. I
Speaker 4: wish I would have been honest about, you know, some
Speaker 4: of the things that I experienced, so that I could
Speaker 4: have dealt with them along the way.
Speaker 5: A lot of times when you don't deal with things
Speaker 5: along the.
Speaker 4: Way, other habits and things come because you're masking and you're.
Speaker 5: Hurting and you're avoiding certain things.
Speaker 4: And so I would have done my work earlier, and
Speaker 4: I would have tried more to you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: get be in alignment with my faith.
Speaker 1: Kind of off script.
Speaker 3: But the woman behind you, uh huh, they held you
Speaker 3: down through all this, huh absolutely?
Speaker 1: What about her?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: You know what, man, Tash, go back.
Speaker 4: We got together when we were sixteen years old, and
Speaker 4: you know, we got four beautiful kids together, and every
Speaker 4: step of the way she's been, you know, right here
Speaker 4: for me. And the good thing about like, you know,
Speaker 4: relationships and things like that. Man, Hey, they're not always perfect.
Speaker 4: They're not always peaches and cream. You're gonna have highs
Speaker 4: and lows, Lord knows, I made a shitload of mistakes
Speaker 4: all the way right, and you know, like through it all,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, through it all the ups,
Speaker 4: the downs, the trials, the tribulations, and because we've been
Speaker 4: together so long, it's really all we know. And so
Speaker 4: like in this process, there was a time where we
Speaker 4: had to take some space.
Speaker 5: And evaluate, Hey, it's just where we want to be.
Speaker 4: Like we've been doing this thing for twenty plus years,
Speaker 4: where all each other knows it's a lot going on
Speaker 4: right now. And I couldn't do anything but respect that part,
Speaker 4: right because like at the end of the day, you
Speaker 4: have to make your bed, you have to sleep in it.
Speaker 4: But man, God is so good man. And love is kind,
Speaker 4: love is patient, love is forgiveness, and you know, we
Speaker 4: found it in our hearts to you know, say that
Speaker 4: it's better for us to be together. We better together.
Speaker 4: Our kids are stronger when we're together, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. We still love each other like we're youngsters.
Speaker 4: When I look at my babe, I look at her
Speaker 4: and I see you know myself, I see my children,
Speaker 4: different versions of my children's face in her, and I
Speaker 4: just love her.
Speaker 5: Man, that's my girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, they love it. I love it. I
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, Jack one album on repeat right now that
Speaker 6: I can't stop with Dad, k Dot not enough, Like
Speaker 6: I can't stop man like Dot like Dot, don't like Dot,
Speaker 6: don't discipline like Kendrick Dogg.
Speaker 4: It's like, man, it's like, I don't know, man. It's
Speaker 4: something about the way that he raps in the content
Speaker 4: that he creates that I feel in my spirit. It's
Speaker 4: like like like, so I got that.
Speaker 5: I got that Dot on repeat right now?
Speaker 3: Five dinner guests dead, are alive? You plus five at
Speaker 3: the dinner table. Food, great environment, great who you're sitting
Speaker 3: around that table with.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: You know what, man, one of my favorite people, if
Speaker 4: not my favorite man in history, you know, besides Jesus, Right,
Speaker 4: it's my pops.
Speaker 5: And I really miss my dad.
Speaker 4: And if I could sit down and have dinner with
Speaker 4: my pops, we'll talk plenty of ship. Right, And so
Speaker 4: I missed my dad. I would love to sit down
Speaker 4: with him. My wife always invited to my table, so
Speaker 4: I ain't gonna never, you know, have a table and
Speaker 4: she can't be at it. But man, you know, like
Speaker 4: some of my favorite people. Man, it's like I love
Speaker 4: Dion Sanders. Yeah, man, like you know Deon Sanders, is.
Speaker 1: You got a chance? No, no, got got? I would
Speaker 1: be real cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, is such an inspiration. I would have to say,
Speaker 4: you know, Malcolm X brother, but that man, you know,
Speaker 4: just reading his just reading some of his books and
Speaker 4: hearing some of his speeches, and you know, his his
Speaker 4: command of the language and his toughness in his s
Speaker 4: nenness unbelievable. And you know, last, but not least, I'll say,
Speaker 4: you know President Obama, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 4: you know, President Obama is somebody I always felt like
Speaker 4: if you can, you know, sit at a table with him,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. He's like one of the
Speaker 4: few people who make.
Speaker 5: Everybody kind of blush.
Speaker 4: It's like, damn, that's Baraccover.
Speaker 5: So those would be like the people would like to
Speaker 5: sit down.
Speaker 6: With best Florida raised athlete of all time.
Speaker 1: Oh that's very easy, Prime, Yeah, no question.
Speaker 4: It ain't even seen them Windmill like you go back
Speaker 4: and see him in those dogs. Yeah, it's like the
Speaker 4: greatest athlete maybe of all time.
Speaker 1: Jackson. Yeah, man, you know, like Prime, if.
Speaker 6: It was one guess that you would like to see
Speaker 6: on all the smoke, who would it be, But you
Speaker 6: have to help us get your answer on the show.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, man, you guys do such great work
Speaker 4: and y'all like the environment is so relaxing. Who would
Speaker 4: I love to see come on this show. Have y'all
Speaker 4: had mellow yet?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I've had mellow guaranteed.
Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, let me think.
Speaker 6: You that where's wzy Att?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Let me man.
Speaker 4: Most people don't know this man. Chris Wilcox is an
Speaker 4: amazing businessman.
Speaker 3: I want to let him the reservation stuff he got.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Man, we'll do shout out spoon to spoon with him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, no, Wheelcox would be somebody you know, obviously.
Speaker 5: A national champion, played a long time, went.
Speaker 4: Through heart issues and so you know he had had
Speaker 4: to face you know, morality, you know, in a sense.
Speaker 4: But yeah, Chris will also be somebody pretty cool that
Speaker 4: y'all could deal with.
Speaker 6: The old school I had in the bet he bought
Speaker 6: it from. Did he tricked it out?
Speaker 1: Yeah? He looked good. Hey man, we love you, man,
Speaker 1: I love man.
Speaker 4: I love you too, Man, I always will always.
Speaker 3: I feel like the best hag you have to come
Speaker 3: for you you've always been and the reason why you've
Speaker 3: messed up in the past, and even before we started talking,
Speaker 3: I'm like, nah, you tell your side because you've always
Speaker 3: been stand up and your heart has always been in
Speaker 3: the right place. You just slipped up a few times
Speaker 3: to be able to address the childhood trauma and everything
Speaker 3: that came from it and have that humility to accept
Speaker 3: responsibility and better yourself. The doors are going to open
Speaker 3: back up and in a matter of time, so I'm
Speaker 3: glad you was able to fun with.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. Man All the Smoke.
Speaker 4: Next time I come on All the Smoke, I should
Speaker 4: be a probation.
Speaker 3: You can catch this on All Smoke Production YouTube and
Speaker 3: the Draft Cans Network.
Speaker 1: We'll see y'all next time.
Speaker 2: H mm hmmmm mm, hmmm hmm