Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Silis and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in the strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
Speaker 1: now tuned in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the
Speaker 1: show was a former us A Brewing baller that spent
Speaker 1: ten seasons playing in the n b A. He now
Speaker 1: works for the Houston Rockets as the color analysts. Let's
Speaker 1: welcome in Ryan Hollins to the building to kJ Live.
Speaker 1: What's good Ryan? What's some big bro? How are you going? Man? Man?
Speaker 1: I'm great, man. It's a little chilly out here in
Speaker 1: l A. Man. You out there and where denver? What's cracking? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean never right now, we got got k on it.
Speaker 1: They're not back the backs, they're like game and games
Speaker 1: whatever they're called. So uh okay, yeah, man, we were
Speaker 1: seeing that young boy up closing personal So you got
Speaker 1: you guys, got yokers. Now the Rockets this year, you
Speaker 1: guys are sitting at around five and fifteen. Um. The
Speaker 1: young guys have been playing a lot, getting a lot
Speaker 1: of experience. Just talk a little bit about how this
Speaker 1: season in this first sort of third or fourth of
Speaker 1: the season has gone for the Houston team, I think
Speaker 1: for the young guys has been amazing because they've got
Speaker 1: a lot of experience. When you can look at the record,
Speaker 1: but you also understand ten of the pirst third team,
Speaker 1: we're on the road. You've seen like two non playoff
Speaker 1: teams already, so like they've been getting hazed and I
Speaker 1: think they've done just well. And I think that the
Speaker 1: big thing is development. And um, you've seen Jalen get better.
Speaker 1: We've seen Jabari who the last three games was averaging
Speaker 1: around nineteen points per you know, kind of really coming
Speaker 1: to his own. So that's a big point of the season.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not that the Rockets aren't trying to
Speaker 1: win games, it's like developments important. And when you got
Speaker 1: a eighteen nineteen year old out there on the floor,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to learn NBA basketball. You know, it's
Speaker 1: rare that you find those, what all due respect, the
Speaker 1: nineteen year old, the Magic Johnson's, the Lucas Lebron's, that's
Speaker 1: why they are who they are and takes other other guys,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple more years to become you know
Speaker 1: that guy. Yeah, no, it does. And it's interesting how
Speaker 1: now you know you mentioned Luca Lebron, but you know
Speaker 1: guys that saw success so early, so prolific in the
Speaker 1: NBA that we kind of measure rookies by that standard
Speaker 1: now and it is sort of unfair. One of the
Speaker 1: young guys on that team, Chugoon, that's been playing a
Speaker 1: lot of good basketball. I read somewhere Yoki said the
Speaker 1: Rockets should run the offense through him more. What's been
Speaker 1: the key to his development this season for the Rockets.
Speaker 1: He had so much success last year, but he came
Speaker 1: up the bench. Now he's a starter. Now the teams
Speaker 1: are game planning for him a little different. Um so
Speaker 1: I Pronchangoon. He's he's a four two year old man
Speaker 1: in a in a twenty year old body like he
Speaker 1: has all the shoulder face, all the he's nice, he's
Speaker 1: he's you at six ten six eleven bro. No, his
Speaker 1: footwork is yeah, I know, yes, that experienced in the
Speaker 1: Turkish League, my man like Hollans. What do you think
Speaker 1: like because he came in experience, he was kind of
Speaker 1: tried through the fire over there. I played in that
Speaker 1: league for a quick cup of coffee. Yeah, it's one
Speaker 1: of the most competitive, physical, tough leagues that I had
Speaker 1: played in while while I was overseas. You think that
Speaker 1: had something to do with it? Or do you Is
Speaker 1: there something going on, you know with with the development
Speaker 1: staff and the work that they're putting in. Just give
Speaker 1: us some insight on how he's gotten so much better.
Speaker 1: It's both big bro, you know, to to be honest,
Speaker 1: um when when you look at him, he's gotten so
Speaker 1: much better in such a small amount of time. But
Speaker 1: you have to understand that I saw him go pound
Speaker 1: for pound Anthony Davis, pound for pound a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys last year, DeAndre Aden, and like he wasn't intimidated.
Speaker 1: He just had to catch up to Oh that's how
Speaker 1: high they jump, that's how fast they run. But I've
Speaker 1: seen him just absolutely work guys on the block. So
Speaker 1: it's it's he's figuring out how to be that guy
Speaker 1: coming in this year with the different expectations of your
Speaker 1: The starter versus off the bench was you know a
Speaker 1: different story for him. Then you know, these young guys
Speaker 1: are working, they they're competing for minutes, they're playing hard.
Speaker 1: So you know for Alp, he's like, oh, I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta get on their level. I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: figure this out. So that's the biggest thing I've seen
Speaker 1: from him is adjusting and growing to what he has
Speaker 1: to see, hear, what he's gonna be seeing on a
Speaker 1: night tonight. Basis, does Jalen Green have the potential to
Speaker 1: be sort of that superstar level type talent in the NBA?
Speaker 1: He does, bro And the reason I say, you know, well,
Speaker 1: it's a couple of reasons. One, he's got it like athlete,
Speaker 1: like he's one of those one percenters dude, like like
Speaker 1: you know how, there's some guys like, oh, he could
Speaker 1: win a duck contest. But then there's some guys like
Speaker 1: the live went too high and he when and caught
Speaker 1: it back here and then come down and just made
Speaker 1: a little really easy finger on it like somebody throwing
Speaker 1: my lib against okay see, and it kind of floated
Speaker 1: like led him too long, like he didn't have his
Speaker 1: his feets weren't right, dog, and he jumped and just gled,
Speaker 1: And the chapter in it was like he has that.
Speaker 1: And then the thing about Jalen is like in here,
Speaker 1: dog like he's there, like he's competitive, he's angry, he's fiery,
Speaker 1: like he's there. So a lot of those reasons are
Speaker 1: why he's gonna be really, really good. And I think
Speaker 1: I would strongly believe he has that superstar potential in
Speaker 1: him because he's like angry when things don't work out,
Speaker 1: Like he's frustrated when you know, hey, like he didn't
Speaker 1: you know, if he's not scoring or he's not playing
Speaker 1: up to where he should be, he's mad. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's not. He's not on a different level. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say Kobe because a lot of people through
Speaker 1: a Kobe, and I think those are really big shoes
Speaker 1: and field. But he has that like anger, like like
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be this dude, y'all tripping, y'all tripping?
Speaker 1: What what do y'all see? Like y'all tripping? That's what
Speaker 1: is like? Yeah, he different dogs, that swagger, that confidence, Uh,
Speaker 1: that's I mean we you know, when we used to
Speaker 1: hoop against guys like that, we would say it was arrogance,
Speaker 1: but it's really not. It's just full on belief and
Speaker 1: your skill setting, your ability. And I definitely agree with
Speaker 1: you on many fronts. With Jalen, I've seen him do
Speaker 1: some stuff that just blows my mind at times. Obviously
Speaker 1: young and he still has to develop and learn how
Speaker 1: to play in the NBA. But man, I want I
Speaker 1: still want to stay on the Rockets for a little bit, man,
Speaker 1: because this is intriguing, this lineup, in this situation and
Speaker 1: then going into next season, how things could could shape
Speaker 1: up okay with draft positions and all that. Kevin Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: How do you characterize him? Is he does he embrace
Speaker 1: like being like sort of a leader, an elder statesman
Speaker 1: on this team. He does as best as he can
Speaker 1: because he's he's still learning the position. This is his
Speaker 1: second year, kind of picking up where he left off
Speaker 1: last year. But to me, he does it by example.
Speaker 1: He talks to his teammates. He has an amazing attitude.
Speaker 1: He's figuring out how to be like a next play guy.
Speaker 1: Oh they didn't go well? All right? Next place? Like
Speaker 1: next play, Like he's correcting himself. Really like next play
Speaker 1: because we get a bad whistle sometimes and I don't
Speaker 1: say we, And when I say we, I mean the
Speaker 1: Rockets in the sense of they get grab they get hell,
Speaker 1: they get pushing the ground and it's something like, hey man,
Speaker 1: you like get up and play and realizing that that's
Speaker 1: what it is. He's been so much better and it's
Speaker 1: it's like it's it's just foul sometimes, like like every
Speaker 1: hooper knows when you get a certain whistle from a referee,
Speaker 1: like it's personal, like you are like like you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But he's I definitely believe a leader.
Speaker 1: He wants to step up and hit the big shots.
Speaker 1: I think he's figuring out still how to get other
Speaker 1: guys involved. So he's the point guard that like if
Speaker 1: you cut kJ, he's hitting you every time, but he's learning,
Speaker 1: Like mm hmm. If I send that guy through, he's
Speaker 1: gonna help. And then then you know, kJ is gonna
Speaker 1: have an open three in the corner. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, So you get a big broke. The next step,
Speaker 1: like I said, is when that cutter goes through, I'm
Speaker 1: waving them through to get the three point shot to
Speaker 1: open up for my teammate. So he starts getting understanding offenses.
Speaker 1: And you know, today's point guard to me, has to
Speaker 1: be even a little bit more doper. You want to
Speaker 1: know why, because before the point guards job is just
Speaker 1: to run to play. Now you gotta know your team's run,
Speaker 1: and you got to know the other team how they're
Speaker 1: playing you. You gotta know your player of stramps. You
Speaker 1: gotta that position is evolved because switching, dude, because now
Speaker 1: your players don't work this, Your players don't work the
Speaker 1: same anymore. So to me, that's the next step for
Speaker 1: for Kevin that he has to get you, but don't
Speaker 1: get it twisted. If you're open, he's getting you the
Speaker 1: rock every time. He's super talented. What do you think
Speaker 1: is the most important facet of a team? I mean,
Speaker 1: there's offense defense that contributes to success. Is it both
Speaker 1: a combination of both? Is it the teams that can
Speaker 1: pick up the defense and stuff the quickest, or is
Speaker 1: the teams that can figure out the offensive stuff the quickest?
Speaker 1: In the NBA? Can I take another route? Do it? Culture? Like?
Speaker 1: Who are you? Like? If your deal is like play defense,
Speaker 1: get it off the glass and run? Like are you
Speaker 1: the best at that? Like if you're a Golden State
Speaker 1: and you score? Are you the best that scoring and
Speaker 1: shooting threes? Right? Like? Culture like who are you are?
Speaker 1: Young guys are figuring out what are we? Do we
Speaker 1: scrap and play hard? Do we run? Are we one
Speaker 1: on one team? Who are the rock Who are we?
Speaker 1: Who are the Rockets? Right now? At this stage of
Speaker 1: the game. They're still figuring it out. There's a second
Speaker 1: unit that plays really hard. kJ Martin, try eaton who's
Speaker 1: my group of They rebound that you dive on the floor,
Speaker 1: They do do that that whole They all the dirty work,
Speaker 1: like all the nasty that O G. Matt Barnes work. Okay,
Speaker 1: then you're already big bro. Then you gotta you know,
Speaker 1: you got Kevin and Jalen who can score one on
Speaker 1: one over anybody, And they're figuring out how does this
Speaker 1: work with everybody else? And when am I supposed to
Speaker 1: go do my deal? Because I can't just go one
Speaker 1: on one every time down it's not gonna work. But
Speaker 1: my team needs me to go one on one. What's
Speaker 1: that balance? So those two are figuring out what it
Speaker 1: looks like. And the best thing I saw in the
Speaker 1: last game Jalen had what seven eight about seven eight
Speaker 1: assist last game, had nine assist the game before, so
Speaker 1: him playmaking. Now it opens up your shot. Now they
Speaker 1: got to figure out how they're gonna guard you. So, um,
Speaker 1: that's to me the biggest difference that I see um
Speaker 1: or the next step with them or that's the culture
Speaker 1: that they have now. But figuring out what, like what
Speaker 1: are we like? Are we the team that's gonna like
Speaker 1: get in your face, We're gonna get a little chippy
Speaker 1: with you. Are good guys are bad guys? Like? And
Speaker 1: it's legit questions. I don't think any are wrong. Should
Speaker 1: we We're gonna say we're up here in Denver. I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, Kate Martin and Chaunce and them boys and Nollo,
Speaker 1: they were bad boys traveling. They were bad boys like
Speaker 1: that was their del you know. So this young team
Speaker 1: is still figuring it out. I think they need to
Speaker 1: run more. You know, when you're young, you gotta run, dude,
Speaker 1: Like people don't want to run with you for four quarters.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe you lose, but you gotta lose your way,
Speaker 1: you know, and then when you figure out what that is,
Speaker 1: you're dangerous. Absolutely no, thank you for that assessment. It
Speaker 1: makes sense to everything that you're saying, especially how you
Speaker 1: how you approach the NBA. I asked about technical stuff
Speaker 1: on court, you went straight to culture and figuring out identity,
Speaker 1: which is absolutely the right thing to do. What about
Speaker 1: this NBA season has maybe surprised you or you've been like,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect that to happen. Has there been anything
Speaker 1: that stood out so far? Holland Utah. Utah has been
Speaker 1: pretty good. It's early though, but you know you're like
Speaker 1: kind of like, what are they? And Mike Connolly has
Speaker 1: found a way to do it again and and and
Speaker 1: be himself. So I think Utah is one of those
Speaker 1: pleasant surprises. Um, Golden State doesn't shock me, like you
Speaker 1: know that you know they're gonna be better, dude, Like
Speaker 1: it's early, they don't do They're probably not even in
Speaker 1: shape yet, you know. And when we saw him it
Speaker 1: looked like the real step in the real play. So
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, they're very much they're very much still there.
Speaker 1: They're they're very much still there, you know. So um, Lakers,
Speaker 1: we're gonna on. Um. I think Indiana pleasant surprise up there.
Speaker 1: Moving to Bonus, they're not great, but like they're gonna
Speaker 1: sneak up and beat you. And they've had a couple
Speaker 1: of comebacks and kind of Rick Carliles getting in his
Speaker 1: bag again. Remember I think how his best coaching job was,
Speaker 1: you know, taking that old Pacers team with after the altercation,
Speaker 1: all the suspensions of just winning games, and it seems
Speaker 1: like he's kind of Rick's kind of doing that again
Speaker 1: up there with the Pacers. So, um, Haliburton has been amazing,
Speaker 1: Yeah dude, yeah, like like really good, like like crazy,
Speaker 1: no turnover stats, it's just to turnover and say and
Speaker 1: so like yeah, yeah. So I think there's a couple
Speaker 1: of surprises in the league, those being one of them.
Speaker 1: I think just everything being even killed though, man, like
Speaker 1: you're honest and Luca doing what they're doing. Are we
Speaker 1: really surprised by that? You know, Yokis being that like
Speaker 1: you know, John Moran. Those things are kind of on
Speaker 1: part of happened. So we haven't seen the breakouts, but
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess I just wrote with Utah, you
Speaker 1: know Utah right now and the Pacers a little bit
Speaker 1: is just like that that team you don't really want
Speaker 1: to play because they'll come back and they'll beat you.
Speaker 1: They play to two bigs. Um, they're they're really traditional.
Speaker 1: But it's just Rick Karnal being Rick dude. Sure. The
Speaker 1: Clippers and the Lakers have surprised me the most as
Speaker 1: far as just the way things are going for both.
Speaker 1: I expected more out of the Clippers. I understand the
Speaker 1: rhyme and the reason we can't things you can't control
Speaker 1: with injuries and this and that. But it's just for me.
Speaker 1: I just felt like, you know, both of those teams
Speaker 1: would be in different positions uh as we had moving
Speaker 1: forward through the season. Just that's my little two cents,
Speaker 1: not got you know it matters to anybody, but uh
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 1: Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: search f s R to listen live. How is let
Speaker 1: me ask you this. Before you got into the TV
Speaker 1: broadcasting and when you were a player in the NBA,
Speaker 1: you were a journeyman and so you you know, you
Speaker 1: bounced around a little bit sometimes you were in a
Speaker 1: couple of teams during the course of the season. How
Speaker 1: what did it take for you from a mental and
Speaker 1: a physical standpoint to stick in the league and to
Speaker 1: continuously be on make an NBA roster for over for
Speaker 1: a decade. People don't know for a young player, I
Speaker 1: had a different coach every single year in the league.
Speaker 1: So I used to be frustrated because I would get
Speaker 1: different defensive coverages, different expectations from the coaches. I couldn't
Speaker 1: really get like a like this is what we do,
Speaker 1: This is what we expect from you from a coach.
Speaker 1: And I got to a point where it was like,
Speaker 1: you just gotta do it, bro, Like whatever they're asking, like,
Speaker 1: you just got to do it. Whatever the system is, like,
Speaker 1: you just got to do it. And I feel like
Speaker 1: that helped me a lot in my longevity. Um and
Speaker 1: then locking in and you know, seeing hey, are you
Speaker 1: more of an asset to what coaches asking or a
Speaker 1: liability you know, or can you deliver what's being asked
Speaker 1: of you? And I feel like that really helped change
Speaker 1: what I was able to do or what I was
Speaker 1: trying to bring to the table and help my longevity
Speaker 1: in the league, because it's not about you, Like now,
Speaker 1: if you're a big time superstar score that's it, But
Speaker 1: like for the role players, how well you fit and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be in different situations all the time and
Speaker 1: you gotta find a way to bring something to the
Speaker 1: table and nix is can't be I don't know what
Speaker 1: we're doing. It's a different coverage in last year. It's
Speaker 1: a different this like you just gotta do it, bro. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the different standard for the role player. Yes, how do
Speaker 1: you fit? How do you adapt? You know, we brought
Speaker 1: you in for X, Y and Z, and these are expectations.
Speaker 1: The expectations are different everywhere. The expectations are different everywhere. Dude. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who's the like the like just the hardest dude that
Speaker 1: you played with, just as far as like a leader,
Speaker 1: ball player, everything all in one. Was there somebody during
Speaker 1: your tenure that you're you could just have like the
Speaker 1: utmost respect for it because of your experience playing alongside
Speaker 1: of him. Kevin Garnett, Bro, that's a history. Kevin Garnett
Speaker 1: is culture. He he is going to preach the hard word,
Speaker 1: that diving on the floor, the intangibles, that little things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's KG all day twice on the Sunday. It's not
Speaker 1: even It's not even close, dude, Like with that man
Speaker 1: rings to the table, big brother is not even close. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's sick. Was there a situation that you look back
Speaker 1: on during your career where you were like, man, that
Speaker 1: was the one that I really am satisfied with my performance.
Speaker 1: I'm happy about how that went. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Is there a place somebody like a full year yeah
Speaker 1: or whatever however long you were there, maybe playoff run,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I'm just kind of you know, yeah, No,
Speaker 1: when um, when I was in Boston piggybacking on KG,
Speaker 1: I learned what basketball was like. You can be like Bro,
Speaker 1: you can lose the love of the game. And the
Speaker 1: NBA is so easy because it becomes a numbers thing.
Speaker 1: The best guy doesn't always play. You're not gonna get
Speaker 1: certain opportunities. The team is trying to lose, teams trying
Speaker 1: to win. You know, you're not getting your shot, and
Speaker 1: it's easy to kind of lose the love of the
Speaker 1: game and just but like I'm just doing what I'm
Speaker 1: told now. In terms of Boston, the reason why I
Speaker 1: say it was so special for me is that Kevin Gardnet,
Speaker 1: Paul Pierce Ray, like those guys played for Pride. We
Speaker 1: were playing Atlanta, bro and I remember me and Greg
Speaker 1: Steves map to the game KG. This is when like
Speaker 1: I forget who was on sports and or something like
Speaker 1: Kg's done. Kg's done, he doesn't have anymore. He's watched
Speaker 1: up for playing Atlanta. I think like Jason Collins, bro Uh,
Speaker 1: he had like the game of his life. Atlanta beats
Speaker 1: us at their place, Like kg's watched up. You know,
Speaker 1: he heard it and KG dropped like thirty five fifteen
Speaker 1: and like three blocks on like sudden crazy dude and
Speaker 1: me and Greg Stevesman were walking back into the locker room.
Speaker 1: True store can't make this up. As we're walk in
Speaker 1: the locker room, we walk around, you know, the gardens
Speaker 1: TV garden is all old and vented throwback and we
Speaker 1: can in CAGs in the locker room by himself and
Speaker 1: he's standing there and he's like looking to the sky
Speaker 1: bro and he's he's flexing. Every muscle in his body
Speaker 1: is flexing. The game has been over for the last
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, dude and KG kid you not, bro. He
Speaker 1: had goose bumps in his arm, had goose bumps shooting
Speaker 1: out through his arm. His hairs were sticking straight up.
Speaker 1: He looked like a like a super saying bro. And
Speaker 1: he was just he was just vibing out and me
Speaker 1: and Greg stopped. He was like, yo that bro, like
Speaker 1: this is not a game, Like Yo, this is real.
Speaker 1: And it was like seeing how intense he was. You
Speaker 1: hear about it, but once you like you see it,
Speaker 1: it's it's different. I remember like before the game, no
Speaker 1: scoring around actually around nobody. He has this same routine
Speaker 1: he does like the Bible, dude, it is clockwork, stretch,
Speaker 1: foam roll, you know, shoot, come in hot tub coat,
Speaker 1: like the same deal. And like if you walk into
Speaker 1: like before the game, playing around, he's gonna give you
Speaker 1: the business. And like when he dogged, like when KG
Speaker 1: is heated, he'll look up like if right at you, bro,
Speaker 1: like like like what do you want? Like and you
Speaker 1: don't want him to go there? Then even like layup
Speaker 1: lines had to be the same. Each person went in
Speaker 1: a certain order, and then as the ball fell out
Speaker 1: the net, he had to let it drop and then
Speaker 1: like him and Rondo passed the ball to like it
Speaker 1: had to be the same deal and like I can't
Speaker 1: make it up, like in order, in order Johnson. So
Speaker 1: like you weren't ready. It was. It was a thing,
Speaker 1: and I probably want to say one of the best
Speaker 1: experiences is uh just little stuff, bro, Like I get
Speaker 1: off on stuff like this. Um. Before the game, there
Speaker 1: was like a like we would come out with certain energy.
Speaker 1: So you get out there and it's the old building
Speaker 1: man TV garden go back right, And we had to
Speaker 1: get out there early. So we're stretching, we're doing our thing,
Speaker 1: and then you know, Paul comes out last. Paul's late.
Speaker 1: It's just Paul's deal, okay. And as he comes out,
Speaker 1: you know KG is kind of there and we would
Speaker 1: be there early. And then KG, you walk out in
Speaker 1: full sweat, all right, literally full start dripping. He's doing
Speaker 1: his leg swings, his whole deal, and uh, Paul will
Speaker 1: come out in the in the tunnel'd be like, Celtics,
Speaker 1: are you ready? Who take it all? We're ready? Who?
Speaker 1: Then he walked in to the huddle, Celtstics, are you ready?
Speaker 1: And we jump around and start doing a deal. And
Speaker 1: then we take out and run, take off and run
Speaker 1: down the garden, and it felt like you were running
Speaker 1: through history. And as you come out in the playoffs, dude,
Speaker 1: the tea garden would be full, like they don't play
Speaker 1: this isn't the land of the same that l a
Speaker 1: the st Brooklyn as fans are different, Bro, They're going crazy. kJ.
Speaker 1: We're running out there already in their seat, They're going
Speaker 1: going nuts. When you're coming out this tunnel, you can
Speaker 1: see it. And as you run through it felt like
Speaker 1: I was in the movie dude, and half of us
Speaker 1: go one way, half of the other. We'd circle around
Speaker 1: and we'd high five around and we started the handshakes
Speaker 1: and then the layup lines and it had to be
Speaker 1: to a t, Bro, so we won. There was no accident.
Speaker 1: That was a lifetime experience. Yeah, did you mean, Bro?
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers used to create a unit where KG would
Speaker 1: start and he come out of the game early, like
Speaker 1: six minutes. In every game he hit the first to
Speaker 1: three shots. Me range, jopperds, middies, got got, got come
Speaker 1: out of the game. Then ME and KG would come
Speaker 1: off the bench, and especially if he's got you hyped,
Speaker 1: so listen, Bro, I'm playing with KG. Was on my wall.
Speaker 1: I used to cut out little pictures of Kevin Garnett
Speaker 1: past on my wall on my wall growing up, Bro
Speaker 1: true story, Kg. This was my kind of time. So
Speaker 1: I would be on the ball and KG would get
Speaker 1: back and take my man, and whoever went back, he
Speaker 1: just took him because he was like, we're the same Joe.
Speaker 1: We're the same Joe. That would be on the ball
Speaker 1: and I'd be in a one. It was me and
Speaker 1: Avery Bradley, prime, Avery Bradley, pick up full court. Avery Bradley.
Speaker 1: We started and Keion dueling on the other wing. We
Speaker 1: would deny the other team. They couldn't get the ball
Speaker 1: and bounce. Bro. It was like it was on like
Speaker 1: I can't even I can't even say, hey you. It
Speaker 1: was on something like team practice in the middle of July,
Speaker 1: a real mobal part. Bro. Hey yo, those when I
Speaker 1: say Johnson, I was playing as hard as I could
Speaker 1: physically play like I would have like run, I don't
Speaker 1: run through a wall, Bro, Yo. That some of the
Speaker 1: best times in my life. But you talk about basketball,
Speaker 1: being an experienced giving yourself to the game propelled me. Bro.
Speaker 1: I played five or six more years just off of
Speaker 1: taking nuggets from that that run. We don't get the championship,
Speaker 1: no thanks to Lebron, but that run, Furst I've ever
Speaker 1: been in the NBA and just seeing what it's like
Speaker 1: in the details that going to the game, we're like
Speaker 1: just being game ready, being able to adjust on the fly.
Speaker 1: Like dog running into a pick and roll with Prime
Speaker 1: d Wade coming off and I can't foul him because
Speaker 1: if I get out of position, it's a foul. He's
Speaker 1: looking for the foul the way used to be like
Speaker 1: a power forward, Bro playing to guard. He was looking
Speaker 1: for the contact. So you had to be in the
Speaker 1: stance ready. What was it like playing what was it
Speaker 1: like playing Dwight Howard back then? Here's the thing. Dwight
Speaker 1: was so strong and so fast that like he put
Speaker 1: his arms up and like you couldn't like get around him,
Speaker 1: so you had to like push him out. And like
Speaker 1: Dwight used to walk around like Debo Bro. Dwight had
Speaker 1: his own gravity, Johnson, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: when a guy has his own gravity, like you feel
Speaker 1: where he is on the court. So like Dwight was
Speaker 1: sitting in the painting like I dare you to score
Speaker 1: over me. He was like sending my way, I dare
Speaker 1: to score. Just go. He was getting everything. Dude, you
Speaker 1: had a different he would he just wreck. He would
Speaker 1: defensive player to year by the last what the greatest
Speaker 1: DEACONSI players we've ever seen. It was like and then
Speaker 1: there were like no stretch five. So Dwight can't get
Speaker 1: away with that now because the stretch five there weren't
Speaker 1: stretch five. So he just sat there like he was
Speaker 1: so intimidating you into did you ever try or did
Speaker 1: you ever I didn't catch I didn't catch the white
Speaker 1: him a jump hunker too before, but like he didn't
Speaker 1: even have to play real defense. Bro. You know the kids,
Speaker 1: you're like getting this stands three quarters, you know, get
Speaker 1: be ready to play. Dwight was so strong and so mobile. Bro,
Speaker 1: you you couldn't score on him? Is he couldn't score
Speaker 1: on him? Bro? Is he top seventy five? Eazy? Okay?
Speaker 1: I was just wondering, Bro, he in his era, for
Speaker 1: what he was supposed to do, he was different. Bro.
Speaker 1: They penalized the White maybe for you know, not being
Speaker 1: the greatest teammate, you know, kind of being to his
Speaker 1: own drum at certain times. But it's like, no, that dude,
Speaker 1: that dude right there is different, Bro. He and he's not.
Speaker 1: He has not gotten in respect that he deserves. And
Speaker 1: it's Um, I think it's tough to see, but yeah,
Speaker 1: the White was different. Bro. What doing that your career?
Speaker 1: What was the single greatest performance you ever witnessed or
Speaker 1: were a part of, or your team or that you
Speaker 1: witnessed in person. Two of them that I can't not
Speaker 1: mention first is, um, Clay Thompson play is not really
Speaker 1: Clay yet. I don't think this was like they didn't
Speaker 1: This wasn't like Championship Golden State and like he had
Speaker 1: a couple of games. He was a good shooter. You
Speaker 1: were like, yo, like we like him, like yo, like
Speaker 1: he's good, dude, Like he's good. And me and Carl
Speaker 1: Andry running bench with the Kings were veterans at the time.
Speaker 1: I think, like my ninth year, we're chilling and we're
Speaker 1: having a conversation, like, yo, do you like Clay at all?
Speaker 1: Like you like him like that? You know, we're just
Speaker 1: talking to hoops and he's like he's solid, you know,
Speaker 1: like I rolled with him, like calls like I'm in
Speaker 1: on him. I'm like, you know, I gotta see more.
Speaker 1: You know. Is he just a shooter? Is he defending?
Speaker 1: What is it? You know? Because he knows the guys
Speaker 1: we know, put the ball on the deck. Clay is
Speaker 1: gonna burn you with no dribbles. So I think it's
Speaker 1: like the third quarter and Clay HiT's a a three. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's an open three, al right. Cool. You know, game
Speaker 1: keeps going on the floor of the offense. Play it's
Speaker 1: another three, okay. Cool. They get on transition, Clay comes down,
Speaker 1: pull up three, cool pain Okay, Clay, pull up three
Speaker 1: al right. Cool. Clay goes to the block, turning in
Speaker 1: your mouth and Clay hits another jumping, Clay comes down,
Speaker 1: shot flake one, dribble, pluck three boom, time out, whoa
Speaker 1: hold on? Okay, who's going him? Somebody got we're doing
Speaker 1: when the Kings were going random defenders at them. Clay
Speaker 1: and me and Carl looking at each other more and
Speaker 1: more like, are you watching this? Like yeah, he's like that.
Speaker 1: There's still point plays right in front of me. I'm
Speaker 1: waving my towel down there. Probably hit him down there.
Speaker 1: I know he could hear, but trying to make him.
Speaker 1: It's true. He scores thirty five points in the quarter.
Speaker 1: Bro dang and me and Car inbia at thirty five
Speaker 1: points in one quarter, which means that do the math right,
Speaker 1: could have scored seventy seventy points, yes, seveny time. He
Speaker 1: could have scored a hundred and forty points if he
Speaker 1: did that every single quarter's thirty five right, thirty five seven?
Speaker 1: Yeah right, it's different when you say it like that,
Speaker 1: it hits different. He could have scored a hundred and
Speaker 1: forty points by himself. That dude's a bucket long, story short,
Speaker 1: the greatest things I've ever seen. On the other and there,
Speaker 1: I think there's a picture in the Warrior's office where
Speaker 1: he's shooting, and I'm like behind him waving aild like
Speaker 1: trying to make a miss. Like somebody took a picture
Speaker 1: and showed me, um what, Lebron, We're up three to
Speaker 1: We're ready to get our ring sides. Coming back to
Speaker 1: the crib, coming back to Boston. And the report said
Speaker 1: Lebron is soft, he's not a dog. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: it the actual scouting report, not the scouting report, but
Speaker 1: that was a consensus about him. He's not like that.
Speaker 1: You know, he's talented, he's good. But if you put
Speaker 1: him that was our game plan though, kind of like
Speaker 1: you put him in the right situation, he's gonna fold
Speaker 1: the he you'll see his brain thinking too much and
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's not he's not ready. And we got there.
Speaker 1: We played well. We were gonna come out ready, we
Speaker 1: were gonna be us. We knew that if things got tight,
Speaker 1: we wanted the game to be tight. Okay, we wanted
Speaker 1: the game to be tight because we knew Dwyane Wade
Speaker 1: beat us. I think two games, and we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: as soon as we're locking on Dwayne Wade, he's the
Speaker 1: only guy who can go get you in the in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, so we like cool, we got du
Speaker 1: Wayne Wade figured out, got him locked up. We would
Speaker 1: because now if they got to go to Bron, he's
Speaker 1: not gonna you guys, So you guys weren't tripping on Bron.
Speaker 1: You guys were basically like, if it's the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: you're not really tripping on Brian. We're gonna see t
Speaker 1: Rex arms. He's gonna the moment's gonna hit him. The
Speaker 1: moment's gonna hit him, right, so we're all just do
Speaker 1: our thing, don't trip. Of course, we're playing hard. We
Speaker 1: don't want him to score, but great players are going
Speaker 1: to score, but the moment's gonna hit them. Lebron proceeded
Speaker 1: to have one of the greatest performance that we've ever
Speaker 1: seen in the NBA. In the garden, KG said things
Speaker 1: to him, I can't repeat this day to this day,
Speaker 1: your mama, Grandma. He went in and Lebron had this
Speaker 1: look on his face. Bro. It wasn't hyped, it wasn't sad.
Speaker 1: It was just in the zone, bro. And he gave
Speaker 1: us thirty five, fifteen and like five and for the
Speaker 1: game in the and it's bro, it would have been
Speaker 1: a closed out game. We would have went to the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship, and like, you know, Broun, like it's dunks,
Speaker 1: It's nah, Bro. These were MIDI pull ups. That's when
Speaker 1: he was mid post. That's when he was mid posting.
Speaker 1: Y'all post Bron, we couldn't run a double team over
Speaker 1: there fast enough because he was already turned it around
Speaker 1: in the pet and you know, the double team there,
Speaker 1: so we're jumping on that outside shoulder, forcing them back middle.
Speaker 1: He's still going dog. It was, and it was like
Speaker 1: I never forget it. After we lost. Paul and KG
Speaker 1: were like he liked that, like we respect him, Like
Speaker 1: he liked that, gave it up all right, he got it,
Speaker 1: They're like, he got it. He liked that. Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
Speaker 1: s are to listen live. Yeah, that that Bron game
Speaker 1: was like that turning point game where you know he
Speaker 1: kind of shed that tag of not being clutch. I
Speaker 1: remember back then it was all about Brian, this lack
Speaker 1: of clutchiness and why we can't consider him this and
Speaker 1: that and that game in particular in the guarden. I
Speaker 1: think they had on their black unis uh the dang heat.
Speaker 1: I mean they came with it and he and he
Speaker 1: couldn't miss what is what is it? What did it
Speaker 1: feel like like in that situation after the game when
Speaker 1: you guys realized, like you know that the series had shifted.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say we knew we lost, because
Speaker 1: you're gonna try everything to win, but you knew with
Speaker 1: in their place, with their role players. He role players
Speaker 1: played better at home, their role players running and their
Speaker 1: energy and a different, a different type of atmosphere, like
Speaker 1: we had to win, you know the place you have
Speaker 1: to win this game. Don't let it go back three
Speaker 1: three at their house. And we we don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: we gave it everything we had in game seven, but
Speaker 1: we knew that window was missed. And it was like
Speaker 1: you when you know you've given one percent to something,
Speaker 1: you live with the results. We live with it. It
Speaker 1: was disappointing, but we live with the results. Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1: What do you think was the biggest difference and the
Speaker 1: way that you were coached at U c L a
Speaker 1: versus the way that you were coached in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Ben Hollan, well, laugh and let me get loose. Don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. But it was like, just go be you.
Speaker 1: And it was like, people don't remember I used to
Speaker 1: take cats off the bounce and go bang out. I
Speaker 1: used to shoot. I'm not gonna say before, but if
Speaker 1: I play on the wing, I remember the mid post,
Speaker 1: go go baseline, spend back. Then Hall, I was like,
Speaker 1: I want you on the block. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to drive. I want you to shoot a jump hook.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to block a shot. I want
Speaker 1: you to wall up. It was a whole different thing.
Speaker 1: When I got to the NBA. It was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he has a four years vertical. We didn't know that
Speaker 1: because we never saw you really dunk in college because
Speaker 1: Ben halland just wanted two points. So I had to
Speaker 1: adjust and show God's gifts. You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you played a different game in the league than
Speaker 1: you did in college. Basically, he became the actor I
Speaker 1: had to, and it worked out in the best way
Speaker 1: in the sense that I had to like learn, all right,
Speaker 1: go set the spring, get your shoot over. Okay, he's flaring,
Speaker 1: flipped the screen, read the flare all he jumps out
Speaker 1: slip live Like I had to learn the game of
Speaker 1: basketball from Ben Hallid so later in my career to
Speaker 1: things he taught me. And defensively he was a mastermind.
Speaker 1: I was ahead and when I got to the league
Speaker 1: defensively because of the things he showed me. But once
Speaker 1: I've merged as a veteran, the defense and the offense
Speaker 1: and that the minute details things worked out. But it
Speaker 1: was like being an athlete, run use your gifts that
Speaker 1: you were given, you know what I'm saying. So I
Speaker 1: had to find that when you was it your senior
Speaker 1: year that you played UM in the final? Yes, year
Speaker 1: and so and that was against Florida, Yes, and so
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know about this, Like, up until
Speaker 1: that point, you had been playing well. I remember you
Speaker 1: have been playing well as far as like NBA prospects.
Speaker 1: It was sort of like, you know, you're sort of
Speaker 1: a guy. I don't know if you're on the draft boards,
Speaker 1: but but you were like an interesting sort of dude
Speaker 1: for people. Right, So when you went up against Noah
Speaker 1: and Horford and kind of you know, really showed a
Speaker 1: different class of athleticism against those two guys. Did you
Speaker 1: after that game, even though you had the l in
Speaker 1: the championship, did you at all feel somewhat like satisfied,
Speaker 1: Like like I proved I could play against two highly
Speaker 1: rated dudes that are gonna be, you know, big time pros.
Speaker 1: Well for one of those two were probably my age,
Speaker 1: but there were sophomores at the time, which was like crazy.
Speaker 1: But I don't think anybody knew those two were gonna
Speaker 1: be two mainstays in the NBA for a really long time,
Speaker 1: Like those dudes aren't normal. And then most faces off
Speaker 1: the bench and Chris Richards, so they have four leaguers
Speaker 1: on the team. Most I forgot about. So I was very,
Speaker 1: very frustrated. I didn't realize I played as well as
Speaker 1: I played until after the game. I had ten and
Speaker 1: ten in the championship game and like two blocks. You
Speaker 1: don't realize that, but I was. I was because, No,
Speaker 1: it was so good in Horford. I was going to
Speaker 1: do moves that Ben Hallen never equipped me to do,
Speaker 1: and it was like beating on a baseline spin back.
Speaker 1: He's just as long as you he's still there, all right,
Speaker 1: go up over him with your touch. No, I'm showing
Speaker 1: him the basketball. He's gloving my stuff. So I was frustrated,
Speaker 1: like I could have had twenty and ten and the chip,
Speaker 1: but Ben Hallan didn't let me work on my face
Speaker 1: up to my stuff, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So now playing against other pros, I'm trying to go
Speaker 1: to moves that I hadn't worked on, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is gonna work. This. I have to be able
Speaker 1: to do this to shoot over his length, and I
Speaker 1: didn't have it or to back him down to you know,
Speaker 1: hook or whatever, because no it was weak. But he
Speaker 1: was long. He was just range e athletics super long.
Speaker 1: You know. He was Joe Kim like one of the
Speaker 1: best defend was in the league whence he got to
Speaker 1: the league. So for me, it was figuring that out.
Speaker 1: And I was so frustrated in the sense, and I
Speaker 1: was crushed my last game. I want to think about
Speaker 1: going pro or nothing. I was hurt. We lost in
Speaker 1: the ship. I was crushed. A lot of emotions came
Speaker 1: to me that he just hit me. They crushed me,
Speaker 1: and then it was like yo, get on the ground,
Speaker 1: no time to So Rico called me that weekend. We
Speaker 1: got to work probably that Monday, bro and we we
Speaker 1: we we went at it. Rico heines, Um, but I was.
Speaker 1: I knew I had more for me in the NBA.
Speaker 1: And the first time I saw Noah in the league,
Speaker 1: got him want to post up based up baseline, came
Speaker 1: under that thing and yammed it like like that meant
Speaker 1: something like you know what I'm doing. And I talked
Speaker 1: to Joe Kim. Bro that man owned me in that game.
Speaker 1: There's no question there. And uh, Joe Kim is that dude. Bro.
Speaker 1: I talked to him, Man, I dude had a heck
Speaker 1: of her career. Bro. But but for me and that
Speaker 1: sense big bro definitely the like like dangn like I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do something I don't have right now. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: but you I didn't get any of that. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was blown away by your performance in
Speaker 1: the championship. I still always felt like, you know, that
Speaker 1: was just like wow, Howls really came to play. And
Speaker 1: that's when I knew you were gonna be in the league. Um,
Speaker 1: I didn't know how, but I knew you were going
Speaker 1: to be in the league and you could contribute. I
Speaker 1: was like, this guy could play. I mean, please, you know,
Speaker 1: at forty introvert he's doing all this. Uh so that
Speaker 1: that was impressive. What a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 1: about you A couple of things they don't realize unless
Speaker 1: they obviously look you up, is that you had signed
Speaker 1: with St. Louis originally coach Romar out of high school
Speaker 1: and you were a two sport athlete and we're a
Speaker 1: member of actual member of the u c l A
Speaker 1: track and field team. How did you balance? That's that's
Speaker 1: fascinated me. How how did you? How did you balance?
Speaker 1: To sports? Bro, you know when hoop is over in
Speaker 1: the spring, we're chilling. We're just doing a little the
Speaker 1: little workouts you used to be in there, coach fence
Speaker 1: getting it in. Like that's the time I wish I'd
Speaker 1: never quit track because it was like I could have
Speaker 1: just done some basketball workouts and did track and my
Speaker 1: bounce went wild from year one of year two, that's all.
Speaker 1: My bounce went even like crazier. Bro, you think about it.
Speaker 1: And then I had the knee surgery and sent me
Speaker 1: back a little bit, but it was still there like
Speaker 1: it never left. So yeah, that's the time we're chilling, bro.
Speaker 1: Think about a spring time. We got nothing to do.
Speaker 1: It's just sprain workouts and waits. So yeah, it was,
Speaker 1: it was easy. It was it was like it was
Speaker 1: mentally refreshing. Imagine you go from hoop and you need
Speaker 1: this teammate to go well that, that to work and this,
Speaker 1: and then it's like, oh wow, every single every single
Speaker 1: time I went out at PRD every week, Oh phenomenal
Speaker 1: career best but you just keep getting better and better. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So were you? Were you a Fosbury fly? How did you?
Speaker 1: What did wait? What did you do? The law? High jump?
Speaker 1: High jump? I did high jump and triple job. I
Speaker 1: took third the state and triple jump in high school.
Speaker 1: But everything there there are like no triple jump high jumper,
Speaker 1: so that the events would conflict. They were running to
Speaker 1: each other. So I just primarily did high jump. I
Speaker 1: did seven ft in the quarter and I went backwards,
Speaker 1: if that's what you're asking. I didn't go forward, Yeah,
Speaker 1: forwards that it stated. No, it's just amazing that a
Speaker 1: seven ft because I mean, I'm sure Will Chamberlain. I
Speaker 1: don't know if any other seven foot high jumpers. There
Speaker 1: was a guy that's like six six nine in Cuba
Speaker 1: side of Mayor. I forgot his lap first name. He
Speaker 1: was pretty good, but you know, it's just amazing to
Speaker 1: me that you had the coordination. I was going to
Speaker 1: break down that, the fact you're high jumper, the coordination
Speaker 1: to do all that, to do that type of jump,
Speaker 1: and then the triple jump coordination to go same leg twice.
Speaker 1: What was the training like with that stuff, Holland? Or
Speaker 1: were you just a natural? Bro It's the most unnatural
Speaker 1: thing ever. The first time in high school when I
Speaker 1: went to highjump, bro Um, my coach just had me
Speaker 1: stand on a box and jump into the thing and
Speaker 1: get used to landing. I had to jump in the
Speaker 1: pit and it was our old pit was dusty, and
Speaker 1: the dust stop was going everywhere, and it kind of
Speaker 1: you know age, So every time I jumped in it
Speaker 1: would be full of this side and all kinds of stuff. Dude,
Speaker 1: I jumped in that pit like fifty times my first
Speaker 1: Because if you have perspective, you're running, then you drive
Speaker 1: your leg up, you peek at the bar and then
Speaker 1: the arch you go completely backwards. And I'm trusting that
Speaker 1: I'm looking up into the sky and I'm trusting that
Speaker 1: once my feet get over and I tucked, I'm gonna land.
Speaker 1: Because who trains that jump on a mat? If if
Speaker 1: you did that without have met during there, break your back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all about trust. So the biggest thing is getting
Speaker 1: a trust together. And if it was so difficult, bro,
Speaker 1: but once I got used to it, I got better
Speaker 1: and I kind of figured it out. I got used
Speaker 1: to it, and then I remember, like the best coach
Speaker 1: sometimes your teammates. And I remember six eight was like
Speaker 1: my PR right And I remember this Kevin Weaver, unathletic,
Speaker 1: six four white dude, stiff like a box, not even
Speaker 1: really like bouncing, you know, you know athletes went around
Speaker 1: bouncing and springing. Kevin six eight was my PR right
Speaker 1: in high school. Kevin did a three step approach and
Speaker 1: did six eight street step. Three step approach means like
Speaker 1: you're starting from like you normally you start from far
Speaker 1: back one two, three, four, you know you have certain steps.
Speaker 1: He said one to three and went six eight. And
Speaker 1: I was like, this dude just jumped my PR off
Speaker 1: a three step approach, and I said, I know I
Speaker 1: have more bounced than him. So I literally watched him
Speaker 1: and was like, I'm doing it. Do did it? Do?
Speaker 1: Did it? What was your what you get? What was
Speaker 1: your what was your did you beat it? Seven three
Speaker 1: quarters with the highest side done. And I was told
Speaker 1: that when I cleared seven feet and three quarters there
Speaker 1: was like four or five inches that I couldn't even
Speaker 1: want even higher because I still didn't really have the form.
Speaker 1: And what's dang, that's because the toughest thing, maybe, Bro,
Speaker 1: the tough The toughest thing is when you you want
Speaker 1: to just jump super high, but if you get too technical,
Speaker 1: you don't really So you gotta find that mixed up
Speaker 1: power and technique. Boom man. That takes a considered amount
Speaker 1: of grace and coordination. My brother Mariah was a high
Speaker 1: jumper in high school and he did some stuff. Moe
Speaker 1: was high jumping, so I mean, but it does you
Speaker 1: and you had to have a certain type of build
Speaker 1: I think. Although although it's crazy that Kevin was able
Speaker 1: to do that with his box shape as you described,
Speaker 1: easy bro, Yeah, yeah, Kevin and I learned so much
Speaker 1: and he was a great veteran. I just followed him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I come on, man, let's do this, let's do this,
Speaker 1: let's do you know, just followed just watched him. I
Speaker 1: learned so much more from watching him than anything a
Speaker 1: coach could tell me. Fox Sports Radio has the best
Speaker 1: sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
Speaker 1: shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live.
Speaker 1: And who who would you credit for your basketball I
Speaker 1: love of the game, like when you foach fell in
Speaker 1: love with the game when you're a young man. Was
Speaker 1: it a NBA player? Was it a coach? Was it
Speaker 1: you know? Parents? Don't you tell me my dad? Man? Easy?
Speaker 1: He put a court up in the backyard. I'm coming
Speaker 1: home from school. My neighbor went and got me, which
Speaker 1: was weird, Like my neighbor never picked me up from school.
Speaker 1: Let's see the dad or mom people picked me up
Speaker 1: from school. I got home as a court in the backyard.
Speaker 1: I lost my marbles. I remember watching the NBA Championship.
Speaker 1: I was originally a Rockets fan. Dude, watching I came
Speaker 1: and shot go at it. Fell in love with the game.
Speaker 1: They're they're tall like me, they're big like me. And
Speaker 1: then it was the two tall guys were the centerpiece
Speaker 1: of that championship. You know who's gonna win. And I
Speaker 1: just fell in love with the game from there, dude,
Speaker 1: And it was something I was just in the backyard,
Speaker 1: just voluntarily just shooting and playing, and my dad just
Speaker 1: knew it's crazy. My dad always said, my dad's only
Speaker 1: six four. My mom's pip loving that. I was like,
Speaker 1: my son is gonna be seven ft. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: seven ft. Since a kid, I knew I was gonna
Speaker 1: be because he put it in my brain and he
Speaker 1: put the court in the backyard, dude, and I just
Speaker 1: I fell in love with it. He just he just
Speaker 1: put the pieces they're dude, and it worked. Did you
Speaker 1: guys used to work out a lot? Like would it
Speaker 1: be like early in the morning or late at night
Speaker 1: or did you have any uh unorthodox methods that pops
Speaker 1: kind of. I wanted to train with my My dad
Speaker 1: was a tracking football guy, and I went to train
Speaker 1: and work with him more than anything, but he wouldn't
Speaker 1: do it. It's weird. We would go down to the
Speaker 1: high school and he would train the high school kids
Speaker 1: how to hurdle, how to detrain the state champion in hurdles,
Speaker 1: telling him how to hurdle, like like he was his deal.
Speaker 1: So we would play basketball, but he never like training.
Speaker 1: He didn't know how, he didn't know how. You mean
Speaker 1: crazy and we in its different times, Yeah, no, it
Speaker 1: was different times. So when you were around but eighth
Speaker 1: ninth grade, is that when you kind of say you
Speaker 1: took you started to get real serious about the game,
Speaker 1: seeking out training, working on different moves, playing in au.
Speaker 1: Was it around then or was it earlier? Not? Even then,
Speaker 1: I didn't play organized ball. I just played in the backyard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't have those same opportunities. Dude, played in the backyard.
Speaker 1: I thought you. I thought you who I thought you were? Hey?
Speaker 1: You I wanted to I just didn't have an opportunity. Wow,
Speaker 1: So you were just wanted to park. Nowaday that they
Speaker 1: see a kid six five, you're grabbing him on the team.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go pick him up from his house, drive
Speaker 1: him to where he's going. Dude, you know, growing up,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like that. Now every kid has a team.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like that when we grew up. You were
Speaker 1: privileged to kind of have an a U team or
Speaker 1: something like that. Like I got cut, I made the
Speaker 1: freshman team, the JV team, my my summer year, and
Speaker 1: then going into the summer so I didn't play to
Speaker 1: my software. You're organized basketball? How did you get in?
Speaker 1: The college? Radar kept growing, kept getting more bounty. I
Speaker 1: would start. I started going to the camps and then
Speaker 1: I played AU but I didn't really play major AU.
Speaker 1: But I murdered those camps, you know, the the West
Speaker 1: Coast camp, you know, and I'm and I'm murdered. I
Speaker 1: played for rock Fish a little bit, but I murdered.
Speaker 1: And it was like you couldn't deny that. Like Greg
Speaker 1: Hicks ranked me third in California as a center and
Speaker 1: people are like, why are you? Who's the I in Hollins?
Speaker 1: Who is that? Greg was like, just watch, just watch, yeah,
Speaker 1: And why St. Louis coming out? Was it? What? Was
Speaker 1: it all Romar or was it something about St. Louis
Speaker 1: that you loved? There was a combination of boat. It
Speaker 1: was all Romar bro it was two. When Romar bounce,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a question like I'm out. That's so funny,
Speaker 1: I'm out. The funny thing is real quick. Not to
Speaker 1: interrupt you, but when Romar left U c l A
Speaker 1: to go be the head coach at Pepperdine the first time,
Speaker 1: all of us were thinking about bouncing over the Pepperdine Yo,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Oh please, I mean the thought went through
Speaker 1: people's minds. I'll just say that I know I was
Speaker 1: dead serious. I was like Malibu the only thing, you know.
Speaker 1: I was just kind of like, you know, dagn't leaving
Speaker 1: u c l A. But but it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I like I can't leave. Yeah yeah, sorry sorry continue
Speaker 1: my brother, Um yeah, Romar when he left for Washington.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to go to Washington. And when me
Speaker 1: and Romar first talk, he said, if you go to
Speaker 1: any school, who would it be at the U c
Speaker 1: l A. By that time, I didn't like U c
Speaker 1: l A. You know, you still, they just had to
Speaker 1: make sense for me. Dude. I was off them, super
Speaker 1: chip on my shoulder, super chip like they don't rock
Speaker 1: with me. I don't rock with them. So you was
Speaker 1: that you was on that so you were the rolling
Speaker 1: with laugh at first. No, he didn't recruit me. He
Speaker 1: looked past me. Gerald Mackins sat there and looked past me.
Speaker 1: Gerald Mackins had to like get me some like Tracy
Speaker 1: mcgrady's shoes. Bro, he had to order some shoes and
Speaker 1: give me some shoes. Who did to make up for it?
Speaker 1: Because I told him straight off, this is dug. You
Speaker 1: can't bro. Remember I was on one. I was like,
Speaker 1: you overlooked me first my song. Oh I saw you.
Speaker 1: You came to my game and overlooked me, didn't say
Speaker 1: nothing to me. Oh wow, I forgot your Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't know the etiquette, Bro, I didn't know the etiquette.
Speaker 1: And then um, I said, look, I planned on being
Speaker 1: a professional, and this is my choice. In every center
Speaker 1: that went through U c l A made it to
Speaker 1: the pros. I know I'm not there, guy. I know
Speaker 1: they don't know me, they don't know anything about me.
Speaker 1: So I came up with a super tip on my
Speaker 1: shoulder and I said that if I can start here,
Speaker 1: the NBA is meant to be. But Mike Fay was
Speaker 1: supposed to be the four year starter there, not Ryan Hollins.
Speaker 1: So when I came, I came about that business. Boss
Speaker 1: you had to see me and probably the first person
Speaker 1: that kind of really gave me my roses. It was like, hey,
Speaker 1: hey he's different. M J. Pops came through. We were
Speaker 1: playing pick up pick up ball, Okay, pull me decide.
Speaker 1: I swear to God, Bro, I want to swear to
Speaker 1: God over something my new like something simple like that.
Speaker 1: Not liking that, but like Pops was like, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a tenure NBA veteran damn time in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew you had Evan Burns, Jason Campono, Ray Young
Speaker 1: with the grown man Calves, had all these guys in there,
Speaker 1: Michael Faye. Michael Faye was like all American at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Ryan Hollins, you're gonna play him plus years in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and I've been I've been at Johnson ever since. J
Speaker 1: M J always has that unique ability as far as
Speaker 1: that basketball stuff that spotted out, especially he sees something
Speaker 1: about it. He's passed that along to us as well,
Speaker 1: and we man, when you're the way you played, they
Speaker 1: just you affected the game in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: without scoring, and I just I mean, for me, it
Speaker 1: was just, you know, it was a no brainer. It
Speaker 1: was a no brainer. I wish the one regret that
Speaker 1: I think I had for you at U c l
Speaker 1: A Was was when they sort of stunted your development
Speaker 1: a little bit as far as the things that you
Speaker 1: were capable of doing, because I definitely saw I remember,
Speaker 1: I think that year on your laugh you're doing some stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember did you take off did you
Speaker 1: have a crazy dunk that year from the thing, dude,
Speaker 1: you had one dunk. But it was one dunk that
Speaker 1: was just crazy. I can't remember, but I was just
Speaker 1: somewhere watching. I think I was at a bar. I
Speaker 1: was just like, he came through. You had you had
Speaker 1: the long brains, and I was like, damn. I was
Speaker 1: like all I think I text somebody was like all
Speaker 1: this man, oh man, that's crazy. Yeah. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, I was. I never I knew there
Speaker 1: was so much more for me because I knew I
Speaker 1: wasn't being taught the right things. And I just knew
Speaker 1: if somebody gave in media the opportunity, if I could
Speaker 1: just creak through that door, I knew I had to
Speaker 1: do it on hustle because I was like, if y'all
Speaker 1: mess around and let me get this skill part, it's around, bro,
Speaker 1: it's around. I just knew there was more for me.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is not it. I haven't even
Speaker 1: become me. You know, you have it, and what I
Speaker 1: what I love about it. You took that same sort
Speaker 1: of attitude and you attack the world of sports media
Speaker 1: and sports broadcasting in a similar fashion. I watched your
Speaker 1: ascent and your rise, and you know, watching your ESPN
Speaker 1: and just just watching you just go about it and
Speaker 1: never turning down a job or an opportunity. At one point,
Speaker 1: you seem to be one of the hardest working men.
Speaker 1: And all the sports media you're on every day two
Speaker 1: and three times. I mean I remember all that, so
Speaker 1: I have a lot of respect for your grind brother
Speaker 1: is is not only as as a basketball player, but
Speaker 1: in the afterlife, you know, the after basketball, You're You're
Speaker 1: an excellent example. I love when you post your stuff
Speaker 1: if you're working out still and just how how you're
Speaker 1: keeping yourself together. Uh in shape, duncan still live still?
Speaker 1: You know? I saw you was in the Big Three?
Speaker 1: Wait whit did you play? I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: that the Big Three? Wait, wait do you still? Like?
Speaker 1: What is it about the Big Three that made you
Speaker 1: want to go and play it? I love the game, bro,
Speaker 1: Like I love the game. And then I'm like, we
Speaker 1: don't got to go overseas and I can still do broadcasting,
Speaker 1: like I love. I always thought they'd have to drag
Speaker 1: me off the court with an injury. Yeah, Like I
Speaker 1: always thought that my career was gonna like Alonzo Morning,
Speaker 1: Like it was gonna have to be it, Like I
Speaker 1: just can't. I always envisioned that, and when I went
Speaker 1: to Spain, I experienced in nationalism, which Trump's racism, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I can't be a part of this.
Speaker 1: So only two of US Americans can be on the
Speaker 1: court at the same time. No matter how well I play,
Speaker 1: you're gonna set me out the game. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get a chance to rock. Policeman pulled me over for
Speaker 1: no reason, was like, where's your passport? I was like,
Speaker 1: I work here, Like where's your passport. I was like, Bro,
Speaker 1: I lived down the street. Where's your passport? I said.
Speaker 1: My father raised me to have much more pride than that.
Speaker 1: So when I went into broadcasting, I knew I ended
Speaker 1: my basketball career premature, but I said, I ain't going
Speaker 1: back overseas. I ain't sending my family over there. I
Speaker 1: ain't doing that. We're not gonna have a ten year
Speaker 1: overseas career. I'm gonna work my gosh darn tailaw to
Speaker 1: make broadcasting work. I don't have an option. M I
Speaker 1: don't have an option. There's no this is gonna pop big, bro,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. This is gonna pop off no matter what.
Speaker 1: And what I didn't know. I was starving to find out.
Speaker 1: I asked a million questions. I used to go to
Speaker 1: the first take. I used to sit in the control
Speaker 1: room the first take and watch the show. So what
Speaker 1: what makes this show good? What is he saying? What's
Speaker 1: he not saying? What? What? What do you want to
Speaker 1: see on the show? What's the idea of the show?
Speaker 1: They said, the producers, What do you guys want for me?
Speaker 1: I used to write essays. I used to write and
Speaker 1: sending stuff to give my notes together, so they knew
Speaker 1: I was prepared, so I could send my knowledge. What
Speaker 1: is the editing? Like my social media? I start running
Speaker 1: on my social media because I realized that dang I
Speaker 1: was a weak clip. So I understood I need to
Speaker 1: come off with some good from my social media. Like Dan,
Speaker 1: you were laying right there. Your biggest judgment yourself. Now
Speaker 1: try to post your content and make your content pop off.
Speaker 1: Then you'll find out that you ain't really doing what
Speaker 1: she's supposed to be doing. How you entertained. I got
Speaker 1: five seconds to grab your attention before you tune off.
Speaker 1: I gotta grab you in five seconds. Then I gotta
Speaker 1: be interesting, Then I gotta I gotta make you feel
Speaker 1: some type of way. If you hear me talk and
Speaker 1: you didn't feel some type of way love joy, happy piece.
Speaker 1: We come back to watch our favorite media personality of
Speaker 1: the emotions. I hate um, I love him. Damn. He
Speaker 1: couldn't be more right, he couldn't be more I had
Speaker 1: to figure that out. I didn't have I didn't have
Speaker 1: an option a J. I wasn't going back overseas. Let's
Speaker 1: say no, man, when you're backs against the wall, you
Speaker 1: sometimes we find out a lot about ourselves, you know,
Speaker 1: when we really have when we really have to step
Speaker 1: up and you know the metal the true measure of
Speaker 1: a man is tested. My brother, Uh, we've been on
Speaker 1: this thing for a minute. Man, it's about time that
Speaker 1: we got you all. I know that I was supposed
Speaker 1: to have you all last year, but uh, you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately did work out. But I'm glad you made some
Speaker 1: time for me and my brother to come on man
Speaker 1: and chop it up with me. I appreciate a big
Speaker 1: bro anytime. You know that, man, Man, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: Ryan Hollins