Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, welcome back to the Deal.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm only a few miles from you. I'm
Speaker 3: one spring break, but you know, I miss you too much.
Speaker 3: I can't not be on this podcast. Plus, there's way
Speaker 3: too much happening in the world of sports to take
Speaker 3: a break. So I'm at Miami Beach. I'm on Miami Beach.
Speaker 3: I get her on Sunday with my family.
Speaker 2: We land. Everybody wants to go to the beach.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to the beach Sunday afternoon because I'm
Speaker 3: watching the Masters.
Speaker 2: Holy guacamole. What a tournament you must have been watching.
Speaker 1: I think everybody who's watching.
Speaker 4: And look, I know we're going to talk a little
Speaker 4: bit about the numbers, but whatever these numbers are, I
Speaker 4: would double at a triple because every human that I've
Speaker 4: spoken to, every office on Monday was talking about the
Speaker 4: Masters and Rory and the and the comeback, and it
Speaker 4: had a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: It's painful to say.
Speaker 4: It reminded me of the slow train wreck we had
Speaker 4: in two thousand and four against the Red SOX because
Speaker 4: the fans, the players, the media, everyone knew where it
Speaker 4: was going and we were not able to do. What
Speaker 4: Rory McElroy did was turned this whole thing around like
Speaker 4: a Titanic, like an avalanche, and to go off on
Speaker 4: eighteen and then to do an absolute gem for Birdie
Speaker 4: to win it.
Speaker 1: That was awesome.
Speaker 2: It was unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was like standing up, sitting down, I'm
Speaker 3: like shouting at the TV. You know, my wife and
Speaker 3: I were totally engaged. Our daughter wants to go have dinner.
Speaker 3: We're like, no, no, no, no, we can't go.
Speaker 2: We can't go.
Speaker 3: But as you say, like the drama of it unbelievably
Speaker 3: good for the game of golf and the business of golf.
Speaker 3: It couldn't have happened at a better place. The Masters
Speaker 3: obviously beyond iconic. So here are the numbers that are
Speaker 3: really important in this case, highest rating, highest number of viewership,
Speaker 3: or highest viewership in seven years. It was the best
Speaker 3: performing non NFL sporting event for Paramount Plus ever.
Speaker 2: And as you say, everyone who's watching, and I think you're.
Speaker 3: Right to say double or triple because I've probably watched
Speaker 3: the highlight on ESPN on the espn app like fifty
Speaker 3: times of him winning it. So I have to ask you,
Speaker 3: from an athlete's perspective, how do you pull it together?
Speaker 3: Because he made some pretty bad mistakes over the course
Speaker 3: of that round, and especially that putt that he missed
Speaker 3: toward the end. As someone who has been in a
Speaker 3: position to have to like pick yourself up and like,
Speaker 3: in your case, go back to the plate, how do
Speaker 3: you do it?
Speaker 2: What's in your head?
Speaker 4: It's very hard, Jason, And look, he is ironic that
Speaker 4: his worst two holes could have been one and eighteen,
Speaker 4: a double one one to let you know, Bryson the shamba,
Speaker 4: get back in the race and par right away.
Speaker 1: There were even after one.
Speaker 4: And then to close with what looked like a very
Speaker 4: simple shot one hundred twenty five out put the ball
Speaker 4: on the green two putt and you have the green jacket,
Speaker 4: and he could not do that. I think it tells
Speaker 4: you a lot about his makeup. It tells you a
Speaker 4: lot about the pattern recognition, the reps. And here's the
Speaker 4: guy who's thirty five, who's been there. And when you
Speaker 4: look at his press conference and you heard him, you
Speaker 4: felt the agony, but what you really saw was someone
Speaker 4: who had more relief than happiness. And I felt the
Speaker 4: same way when we finally got it done in O nine.
Speaker 4: But I think it's just a lot of mental strength,
Speaker 4: fortitude and willpower. And it was impressive to do because
Speaker 4: most people would fold and they'll get him next.
Speaker 3: Year, I know, and I mean and just like the
Speaker 3: ability to be essentially be a goldfish and just forget
Speaker 3: what happened before and just go out and hit the
Speaker 3: next shot. And by the way, on that first playoff hole,
Speaker 3: I know we're going really deep on this, but I'm
Speaker 3: so obsessed with it. But it's like on that first
Speaker 3: playoff hole, like from a competitive perspective, Rose hits an
Speaker 3: unbelievable approach himself, and then McElroy hits an even better way. Anyway,
Speaker 3: it was just amazing. It was amazing to see the
Speaker 3: history around all of it. You and I both love golf.
Speaker 3: We want what's best for the game. This is going
Speaker 3: to help grow the game, and I just think it's great.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of anxiety. I don't know if
Speaker 4: you felt anxiety. I felt anxiety for Rory. That's one.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and the great Marianna Rivera, my former teammate,
Speaker 4: who was the greatest close of all time, Jason. He
Speaker 4: would always say to me, great closers must have short
Speaker 4: term memory, and that's exactly applies for what Rory had
Speaker 4: to do. Short term memory with an off fight team
Speaker 4: and to come back and shoot at Dart and then
Speaker 4: make Birdie pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, really really unbelievable. All right.
Speaker 3: So I came to Miami, of course via Swarthworeris watched
Speaker 3: my son play lacrosse, because as you know, that's like
Speaker 3: every weekend this spring. It's my last spring. You won't
Speaker 3: have to hear me talk about it anymore after this season.
Speaker 3: After just a few weeks, the senior games coming up
Speaker 3: this weekend. I can't believe it anyway, but I went
Speaker 3: to Swarthmore after going to the Duke Sports Business Conference.
Speaker 3: This is something you had participated and I believe virtually
Speaker 3: very first year that they did it. Back in twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: I was at the fifth edition. Listen to the lineup.
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable. Larry Fitzgerald opens, Rich Climban closed. I'm
Speaker 3: sort of in there in the middle, but I was
Speaker 3: with laurigeent Tilley. She founded espnW. She was the chief
Speaker 3: marketing officer for ESPN. She was unbelievable. Andrew Yaffi, who's
Speaker 3: the CEO of Dude Perfect, was also a longtime NBA executive,
Speaker 3: did the whole social media strategy for the NBA.
Speaker 2: He was on the panel as well. It was super fun.
Speaker 3: It's amazing how much you and I both see this
Speaker 3: so much. It's amazing the interest at the undergraduate and
Speaker 3: the graduate level. People want to work in sports. And
Speaker 3: of course these duke students, they're very smart, as we know,
Speaker 3: and they are ready to go in the world of sports.
Speaker 3: So it was really fun to be there. So you
Speaker 3: and I need to be there at the same time.
Speaker 3: At some point, maybe we'll get Coach k or Grant
Speaker 3: Hill or somebody to join us there one day.
Speaker 1: I would love that.
Speaker 4: And look, I think there's nothing like being on campus.
Speaker 4: I loved that as a IF annual. I think there's
Speaker 4: a vibration in these colleges that are awesome. I'm on
Speaker 4: my way, by the way on Thursday to Michigan because
Speaker 4: my daughter has a Titanic play I gotta go watch,
Speaker 4: and this morning she gave me the cliff.
Speaker 1: Notes, so I'm not lost, so I can relate with that.
Speaker 4: But I think when we grew up, Jason and you
Speaker 4: grew up in Atlanta, I grew up in Miami. You
Speaker 4: looked at the major three sports, basketball, football, and baseball.
Speaker 4: Today there's like a fourth or fifth sport, and that's
Speaker 4: the business of media, sports and culture, exactly what we
Speaker 4: cover here on the Deal. And there's more interest. Everywhere
Speaker 4: I travel there's someone that says you and Jason love
Speaker 4: the Deal. They talk about it more than like the
Speaker 4: Yankees or the Masters. It's really impressive the young people,
Speaker 4: how much interest they have in this world that we're
Speaker 4: trying to, you know, collect every every single week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 3: It is interesting to hear people and to talk about
Speaker 3: the ecosystem and everything that's happening around that. For sure,
Speaker 3: you're in Minnesota watching your temper Wolves close out the
Speaker 3: regular season with a nice win over the Jazz. Sunday
Speaker 3: was insane going into Sunday, like seeing everything that was
Speaker 3: at stake, all the seeding, especially in the West that
Speaker 3: was happening. What was it like in the Target Center,
Speaker 3: Like what was the vibe as it was all coming together?
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a weird way.
Speaker 4: I Mean, we've talked about the NCAA brackets and obviously
Speaker 4: the great work you do for charity. It felt like
Speaker 4: a Final four vibe, or at least a bracket NC
Speaker 4: doublea basketball. There was so much excitement. This is the
Speaker 4: first weekend that I've ever been involved in sports where
Speaker 4: on Thursday we.
Speaker 1: Didn't know if we're going to be the eighth seed
Speaker 1: or the third seed.
Speaker 4: Right usually that's defined months before, and it was so exciting.
Speaker 4: Our fan base was awesome. They showed up in a
Speaker 4: big way. Thank goodness. We were able to win Friday
Speaker 4: and Sunday, but the big highlight game was Clippers versus
Speaker 4: Golden State and that went into overtime. I'm sure the
Speaker 4: ratings you saw go from like seven eight million people
Speaker 4: watching the Masters to like.
Speaker 1: Nineteen at peak. I bet that a big audience.
Speaker 4: Once Golden State lost that game, they kind of flipped
Speaker 4: over to the Masters and it was like the perfect storm.
Speaker 4: But it was a great weekend for sports, great weekend
Speaker 4: for the NBA, great weekend for golf, and we were
Speaker 4: all lucky to watch it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally all right, so many more sports to come.
Speaker 3: We're getting into the heart of the heart of the season,
Speaker 3: where you know, baseball is really getting underway in a
Speaker 3: meaningful way. You know, one thing we should note our
Speaker 3: friend Kaitlyn goo Over at League one volleyball.
Speaker 2: They closed out.
Speaker 3: Their season the first inaur Guriral season we talked earlier.
Speaker 3: Go back and listen to that. They did a great
Speaker 3: job Austin the champions for League one Volleyball.
Speaker 2: WNBA is going to be getting underway.
Speaker 3: Your links looking really good as well, and some interesting
Speaker 3: things happening with the draft. A lot of attention paid
Speaker 3: to the draft. So speaking of basketball coming up in
Speaker 3: the deal, we have Richard Jefferson. He is the perfect
Speaker 3: person to talk about as we get deep into playoff basketball.
Speaker 3: He's now on the number one team for ESPN. I
Speaker 3: love this guy. He is so fun he is. He's
Speaker 3: a young guy, played seventeen years in the league, has
Speaker 3: really made his way in a big way in the
Speaker 3: broadcasting world. I mean, what a grinder, what a student
Speaker 3: and a guy you've gotten to know a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yes, and Richard is a really really good guy. He's
Speaker 4: a very talented person. We talked about the three headed
Speaker 4: monster with him really mastering basketball, played in the NBA
Speaker 4: for seventeen years, him now mastering media. He's now in
Speaker 4: the first team at ESPN, which is incredible, and now
Speaker 4: he's trying to tackle the third part, which is what
Speaker 4: we cover his business. And I think because of his
Speaker 4: communicating skills, because he's a guy that builds bridges, I
Speaker 4: think he has an incredible opportunity to be as successful
Speaker 4: as business as the prior to media in sports.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally and interesting, you know to talk to him.
Speaker 2: He's a very real guy.
Speaker 3: So hope you enjoyed this conversation coming up with Richard Jefferson.
Speaker 3: We're so excited to have Richard Jefferson here with us.
Speaker 3: Of course, former NBA player turned broadcaster, turned entorepreneur turned
Speaker 3: empire builder.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, guys, I'm excited. This is not
Speaker 5: my normal podcast format, so that makes a little bit
Speaker 5: more fun.
Speaker 3: I know we're putting you in the hot seat because
Speaker 3: you're a podcaster as well. You know, you are a
Speaker 3: jack of all trades, and you know, Alex, I feel
Speaker 3: like it's such an interesting opportunity for both of us,
Speaker 3: but especially you because is it like looking in a
Speaker 3: mirror here, It really is.
Speaker 4: And you know, rich and I've become good friends and
Speaker 4: I've really admired or the way he's gone about his
Speaker 4: seventeen year career. He's got so many wonderful relationships in
Speaker 4: the game, and he's the ultimate catalyst for building bridges,
Speaker 4: not burning bridges, and I think that's going to help
Speaker 4: him and serve him well in his career also in business.
Speaker 1: Wow, first of all, let's just slow down here, right,
Speaker 1: that's a rod right there. I understand this. Like, I'm
Speaker 1: not a New Yorker.
Speaker 5: I was drafted there, I lived there for a lot
Speaker 5: of years. So to have a legend speak so highly
Speaker 5: somebody that I've looked up to and watched and tracked,
Speaker 5: and just watch all the moves that he's made on
Speaker 5: you know, on and off the floor, court, field, whatever
Speaker 5: the hell we're going to call it. Yeah, on and off.
Speaker 5: It's been impressive. So thank you, Thank you well Rich.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting place to start because you come up
Speaker 3: through a storied college program at University of Arizona.
Speaker 2: You you come into the.
Speaker 3: League, it feels like from the beginning you are thinking
Speaker 3: of yourself very holistically, thinking of yourself as someone who
Speaker 3: obviously has a lot of ambition on the court, but
Speaker 3: because of what you were exposed to from a business perspective,
Speaker 3: like was that the case that you were looking to
Speaker 3: the A Rods and others of the world, and who
Speaker 3: were you looking at.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, at that time, Alex and I didn't
Speaker 5: really know each other, but it was one of those
Speaker 5: things that when I got drafted, you get to New
Speaker 5: York City. New York City is just the financial capital
Speaker 5: of the world, and accidentally you meet people and you
Speaker 5: have conversations with them, and you start to pick up things.
Speaker 5: And I'm a twenty one year old kid with no
Speaker 5: financial history, parent have no financial history, and all of
Speaker 5: a sudden you're just put in rooms and you're friends
Speaker 5: with owners. Now, how did this guy own the team?
Speaker 5: And it's like, well he sold this, So all of
Speaker 5: a sudden you start to get into rooms accidentally, and
Speaker 5: then it's kind of what you do when you're in
Speaker 5: those rooms that can kind of dictate your learning. I
Speaker 5: learned very quickly, and a Rod knows this is that
Speaker 5: when you are in the New York media, you don't
Speaker 5: really say a lot. You don't say a lot, you
Speaker 5: keep it very vanilla. And from there so you kind
Speaker 5: of watch people and how they navigate and how they
Speaker 5: kind of keep their stuff separate. But for me, individually.
Speaker 5: The people that I look to were the people that
Speaker 5: I had the luxury of getting to know. Ardie Rabin
Speaker 5: is one of the people just being in rooms with him.
Speaker 5: The Landises that were former owners of the Net still
Speaker 5: friends with their family to this day. So it was
Speaker 5: really just being in those rooms and getting to know
Speaker 5: some people that have had tremendous amount of success in
Speaker 5: random fields that you start to pick up tidbits from them.
Speaker 1: So, Richard, you have two.
Speaker 4: Of the great ingredients you need in business. That's wonderful
Speaker 4: relationships and a really good communicator. When and how early
Speaker 4: did you start thinking about relationships and communicating skills do matter?
Speaker 5: Probably in high school when we talk about just communication relationships.
Speaker 1: That's just who I was as a person.
Speaker 5: And then you kind of when you start to formulate
Speaker 5: yourself as a young man, you're like, who do I
Speaker 5: want to be? How do I want to be? How
Speaker 5: do I want to walk in rooms? And everybody has
Speaker 5: a different vibe. Some people want to walk into rooms
Speaker 5: and be respected. Some people want to walk into rooms
Speaker 5: and leave a mark. For me. When I want to
Speaker 5: walk into a room, I want people to have a
Speaker 5: good energy when I walk in because I like the
Speaker 5: energy like that in the room. As a young man,
Speaker 5: I kind of got into that, and then I started
Speaker 5: to see over many years how that has now looking
Speaker 5: back on my life, me just having good energy and
Speaker 5: just being a good person and communicator. Fifteen years later,
Speaker 5: people are coming up to me now with opportunities, saying, hey,
Speaker 5: Rich you were so cool in two thousand and four
Speaker 5: and now I'm the head of XYZ. I'd love to
Speaker 5: do something with you, just because you were, you know,
Speaker 5: a good dude.
Speaker 1: In that moment.
Speaker 5: You might not see these things in year one, year two,
Speaker 5: but over multiple years, the relationships and the energy that
Speaker 5: you've brought into rooms typically gets fed back to you.
Speaker 3: I'd love to talk about the transition, you know, out
Speaker 3: of the league and into broadcasting. Was that something you
Speaker 3: always wanted to do? Did opportunities immediately present themselves? How
Speaker 3: does that transition happen? Because I know a little bit
Speaker 3: about how it happened with Alex, but would love to
Speaker 3: hear your story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you know, Alex knows these things. It's a
Speaker 5: lot about relationships. My guy, Flip, his guy from the
Speaker 5: Yes Network who just retired. Flip had watched me with
Speaker 5: the Yes Network. Frank de Grace who runs the NETS,
Speaker 5: and so I had worked with him since I was.
Speaker 1: A rookie and for five straight years.
Speaker 5: When I was about to retire from year twelve on
Speaker 5: flip and Frank de Grace would be like, Richard, we
Speaker 5: want you to come back to the Yes Network. We
Speaker 5: want you to come back here. And so for me,
Speaker 5: I kind of had an idea like, Hey, I'm going
Speaker 5: to retire. What am I going to do next? I
Speaker 5: think I can go do this. You know, there's an insecurity,
Speaker 5: but a curiosity and confidence, right, It's like you're not
Speaker 5: afraid to fail, but like this is something that I
Speaker 5: want to pursue. And so we talk about this the
Speaker 5: relationships that I had built. I hadn't been with the
Speaker 5: NETS for over a decade, but over those six years,
Speaker 5: just being you know, a good person to the media,
Speaker 5: being supportive of what they were trying to do. They
Speaker 5: were the first to give me an opportunity. The Yes
Speaker 5: Network and the NETS were the first like broadcast contract
Speaker 5: that i'd signed.
Speaker 2: You're talking about John Philippelli right when you say.
Speaker 1: Yes, John Philippelli. Yeah, John, Yeah, for audience.
Speaker 5: He's just retired, but he's legend one of the first
Speaker 5: people to be like, Richard, you could be great at this, right.
Speaker 5: You know, you have those people that are like, reach,
Speaker 5: would you be good? Frank DeGrace is one of those
Speaker 5: people say you're good. But when it's just I guess
Speaker 5: it's different from somebody that you feel like, oh, you're
Speaker 5: just kind of fluffing me. You're just kind of messing
Speaker 5: with me. You're not not messing with me, but you're
Speaker 5: just kind of like telling me this in a manner
Speaker 5: that's like you want me to work with you. So
Speaker 5: Flip was a guy that I didn't know well, but
Speaker 5: I knew he had been you.
Speaker 1: Know, the guy.
Speaker 5: So for him to step out like Richard, I think
Speaker 5: you can be amazing at this. You're like, well, this
Speaker 5: guy's seen it all, so like I'm going to believe him.
Speaker 5: And you know, like Alex, he's talked about his relationship
Speaker 5: with you and how you probably have to speak a
Speaker 5: little bit more to who Flip is because he's kind
Speaker 5: of like this urban legend, right. People talk about him,
Speaker 5: but people don't really get to see him often. But
Speaker 5: he knows everything about that industry, in the broadcasting space
Speaker 5: and the producing and all those things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean John Philippelli we call him Flip. I
Speaker 4: mean what he is is basically the Michael Jordan of producers.
Speaker 4: He has over one hundred and twenty Emmy's, He's done
Speaker 4: many world series. He kind of discovered Bob Costas and
Speaker 4: many many others like you. He's given me a lot
Speaker 4: of tips and encouragement. There's no one better. I mean,
Speaker 4: he is the guy.
Speaker 1: But Rich.
Speaker 4: Going back to you, what was the common thread that
Speaker 4: took you from Flip telling you, hey, Rich, you can
Speaker 4: do this to I know I can do this and
Speaker 4: I can actually make a.
Speaker 1: Career out of it.
Speaker 5: From there, it was there's a couple of things. One
Speaker 5: being an athlete coming into this space. This is I
Speaker 5: hate to say these things because I don't want to
Speaker 5: be negative, but the bar was very very low. Not
Speaker 5: from like a talent ability skill set, but like from
Speaker 5: a level of let's say professionalism.
Speaker 1: Do they show up on time? Will they work hard? Yes?
Speaker 5: They made one hundred million dollars? Are they going to
Speaker 5: show up for this? You know, like five k date
Speaker 5: on time and locked in and sharp. And then the
Speaker 5: more I started to be like, okay, well you know this.
Speaker 5: If you're going to do something, be great at it.
Speaker 5: Don't don't just kind of do something casually unless it's
Speaker 5: a hobby. If you're going to spend time on it,
Speaker 5: try and be great. And once I kind of got that, Okay, Well,
Speaker 5: people that I respect and see the industry respects are
Speaker 5: saying that I have a chance to be good. I
Speaker 5: have my own level of confidence, and now it's all
Speaker 5: about my work ethic talent. If you don't work hard,
Speaker 5: people will outwork you. So for me, once I got
Speaker 5: into this industry, I approached it kind of like it
Speaker 5: being an athlete and just like, how hard can I
Speaker 5: work to see how great I can be?
Speaker 4: I love that rich But for our audience, let's bring
Speaker 4: up behind the currents a little bit. We know what
Speaker 4: working hard looks like in basketball, right, you do your drills,
Speaker 4: you go to the gym.
Speaker 1: That's pretty common.
Speaker 4: But tell us what working hard means and really prepping
Speaker 4: and elevating yourself in the world broadcasting. Are you're watching
Speaker 4: more games? Is it relationships? Is it conversations? Tell me
Speaker 4: a little bit about that.
Speaker 5: That's a great question because there's so many things and
Speaker 5: there's a difference in learning how to be great in
Speaker 5: a different field. You can bring a work ethic, but
Speaker 5: you also have to learn where to channel it, Let's say,
Speaker 5: from work ethic for me is watching people that I
Speaker 5: respect and that I think are good at the job
Speaker 5: or better at the job than I am, are in
Speaker 5: a place where I want to get. I would say
Speaker 5: Nate Burlison is one of the guys that I've gotten
Speaker 5: to know. Awesome, awesome guy over at CB. There's people
Speaker 5: in this space that I've worked again, Michael Strahan. He
Speaker 5: was another New York guy around the same time of us,
Speaker 5: so I've gotten to know him a little bit when
Speaker 5: I was younger. I've watched his ascension Ryan Clark at ESPN,
Speaker 5: with those guys that you're like, oh, those guys are
Speaker 5: putting in the time, whether it's how they speak, whether
Speaker 5: that how they communicate. So that to me, watching those
Speaker 5: guys and saying, Okay, what are they doing? Well, why
Speaker 5: did they win the Emmy? All of these things, that's
Speaker 5: for me is work ethics. The same that when you
Speaker 5: watch Michael Jordan, you're like, oh, I want to go
Speaker 5: practice my fade away to be like him, because that's
Speaker 5: an unstoppable move. So the work ethic then changes to Okay,
Speaker 5: who's great at this job? How do I learn from
Speaker 5: them what do they do well? So that's one step
Speaker 5: of just the skill level of the professional. The next
Speaker 5: part is obviously your prep, your prep, your reference understanding. Like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm watching all the games, I'm reading articles, I'm reading
Speaker 5: books about past grades and what impacted them. So you
Speaker 5: can have reference points for the viewer. Right, you can
Speaker 5: know basketball, but if you're like, hey, in Bill Russell's
Speaker 5: book it said X, and this is something that Jalen
Speaker 5: Brown has talked about, like that reference point just carries
Speaker 5: so much weight. And then the next part I would be,
Speaker 5: there's a cadence. There's a cadence to how you speak.
Speaker 5: How you speak on a podcast is different than if
Speaker 5: you're hosting a show. It's different than if you're being
Speaker 5: an analyst. It's different than if you're calling a game.
Speaker 5: All of them have different cadences. How long you have
Speaker 5: to speak, how clear and concise, don't use twelve words
Speaker 5: when you can use nine. Those are things that now
Speaker 5: that's a different skill. And then you start to watch
Speaker 5: the people that are great at it. Like I said again,
Speaker 5: I mentioned Nate and Ryan and some of these guys.
Speaker 5: Those are the guys that I'm like, oh, those guys,
Speaker 5: I see exactly what they're doing. One random talk. Ryan
Speaker 5: Clark won the m ME a couple of years ago,
Speaker 5: and I'm giving him some love because he's outstanding and
Speaker 5: he's somebody that I'm like, Oh, he's putting in the time,
Speaker 5: putting in the work. I noticed that he took out
Speaker 5: every filler word. I was watching his two minute segments
Speaker 5: on Scott van Pelt and I was like, he didn't
Speaker 5: say one um, he didn't say one ah, he didn't
Speaker 5: say you know, there was no filler words. So I
Speaker 5: texted him and I know that there's no way to
Speaker 5: do that without work. If you study this, this job,
Speaker 5: if you study this, there's no way to do that
Speaker 5: without work. So I go, I see what you're doing.
Speaker 5: That's really impressive. How did you do it? He said Richard,
Speaker 5: I had to slow down the way I speak every
Speaker 5: single day, and sometimes it makes you feel like an idiot,
Speaker 5: but I had to slow down the way I speak.
Speaker 5: So I don't speak on air one way, speak on
Speaker 5: like just with my people one way. Right, there's a difference.
Speaker 5: But that was one of the things. And so to
Speaker 5: watch a guy like that, notice what he was doing
Speaker 5: and how he was doing it and him to say,
Speaker 5: if this is what you want, you have to change
Speaker 5: the way you speak across all platforms, and that can
Speaker 5: help you get rid of the ums in the ohs.
Speaker 5: And that stuff to me is like next level that
Speaker 5: people don't even really process in this industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: And Richard, one thing that I'm always interested in and
Speaker 3: Alex and I've talked a lot about this on this
Speaker 3: show and offline is the idea of getting into the
Speaker 3: booth or getting on the sideline and you know, having
Speaker 3: to be critical, having to you know, talk about people
Speaker 3: that you know, people that you're friends with, people that
Speaker 3: you played with, you know, former teammates, people you admire,
Speaker 3: and you know, being truthful. That's what I want to hear.
Speaker 3: I want to hear the real stuff from someone like you.
Speaker 3: Was that easy for you to do? Was it hard
Speaker 3: for you to do? How do you master the art
Speaker 3: of being honest without coming off like a jerk?
Speaker 5: This is where I will say I have an advantage,
Speaker 5: and I recognize my advantage. I try and acknowledge it.
Speaker 5: I've always been crazy. I've always been this person. So
Speaker 5: whether if I was on your team, while the media
Speaker 5: might not have known it while like I wasn't really
Speaker 5: on social media, so they might. Every teammate of mine
Speaker 5: has always known, oh that's Richard. You just know he's
Speaker 5: gonna say some whiles, even opponents, because I never really
Speaker 5: talked trash on the court. I might say sarcastic things,
Speaker 5: but I was never so when the NBA community knows
Speaker 5: you as such, and I played in the league for
Speaker 5: seventeen years, the people in the NBA know that, all
Speaker 5: my teammates over the years and coaches, it was just
Speaker 5: I was always just that, like sarcastic, like ball breaker.
Speaker 5: So now when I get into the media space, I
Speaker 5: only talk on television like I would talk to a
Speaker 5: player if I was sitting next to him on a bench.
Speaker 5: That's always my rule. What would I say to you
Speaker 5: if I was sitting next to the bench. And sometimes
Speaker 5: I would sit next to people on the bench and
Speaker 5: be like that was a trash shot like that.
Speaker 1: Come on you, come on you, And they know.
Speaker 5: That it's coming from a place of like sarcasm and funny.
Speaker 5: So when you get grandfathered in to kind of that.
Speaker 5: And I would never compare it to Charles and would
Speaker 5: never compare it to Shaq. But like Charles's reputation preceded
Speaker 5: him and then the media got to get a hold
Speaker 5: of that. That's just always who's Charles's been. I've always
Speaker 5: been just like a sarcastic joker. So it doesn't matter
Speaker 5: if you knew me at Arizona, if you knew me
Speaker 5: in the McDonald's game, if you knew me you know
Speaker 5: at year fifteen. I was always that person. I'm just
Speaker 5: now being able to convey that to the public and
Speaker 5: do it in a joking way.
Speaker 2: I want to shift a little bit if we can, to.
Speaker 3: Life sort of beyond basketball, because you've you've taken on
Speaker 3: a lot of entrepreneurial activities as well.
Speaker 2: How do you pick and choose?
Speaker 3: I know this is something Alex thinks about a lot
Speaker 3: in terms of his portfolio and the diversity of that,
Speaker 3: Like how do you go about it?
Speaker 5: I'm still learning right and now I have a much
Speaker 5: I have more time. Like sports can be all consuming,
Speaker 5: We're like you're consumed, Biden, you have a couple other
Speaker 5: side projects. Alex's next level because he was building an
Speaker 5: empire while also being super locked in. I was more
Speaker 5: locked in and just had other interests. I think for me,
Speaker 5: I've picked up on trends here and there. I started
Speaker 5: doing some social media stuff when I was with the Cavs,
Speaker 5: and I noticed how much people were loving the behind
Speaker 5: the scenes, and that kind of let me say, maybe
Speaker 5: I should start a podcast, Maybe I should do this.
Speaker 5: Now this was in twenty sixteen, but not a lot
Speaker 5: of people knew what it was. And we started on
Speaker 5: the road. Channing fry, Ally Clifton and myself. We were
Speaker 5: one of the first like sports podcasts, and people were
Speaker 5: what is this And it was a changing of the media, and.
Speaker 1: We were one of the first.
Speaker 5: And then I'll say even with like my yoga studio,
Speaker 5: because you kind of pick up on trends. I was
Speaker 5: living in Santa Monica, and if you got people know La,
Speaker 5: there's kind of like a bubble. There's a Hermosa Manhattan
Speaker 5: Redondo Beach bubble, then there's Santa Monica, Venice. So I
Speaker 5: was living in Santa Monica, Venice and there's a beautiful
Speaker 5: yoga studio there, and you know, I was training doing that.
Speaker 5: More and more athletes were loving yoga. I really got
Speaker 5: into it, and I had multiple friends that were driving
Speaker 5: from Hermosa Manhattan Beach up to Santa Monica, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: what are you guys coming up here for? There's like, well,
Speaker 5: there's no nice yoga studio down in the South Bank.
Speaker 5: Then I was on a plane and somebody there was
Speaker 5: a young lady that oh, I go to Hot eight
Speaker 5: up in here in Santa Mona, and I was just
Speaker 5: like wow. More and more people, I was like, why
Speaker 5: not open this business? It seems like an opportunity LA.
Speaker 5: For most of Manhattan Beach Reredondo Beach, that's the most
Speaker 5: fit area of LA. And LA is the most fit
Speaker 5: city in the world. So I looked at it from like, wait,
Speaker 5: there's an opportunity here. So me and my friend we
Speaker 5: started doing the numbers. We started trying to see what
Speaker 5: this would look like.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 5: I don't know anything about a small business. I didn't
Speaker 5: know anything about yoga or running a I didn't know anything.
Speaker 5: But I recognized an opportunity, and I recognized that there
Speaker 5: was somewhat of a hole in the market of the
Speaker 5: most fit area of LA, in the most fit city
Speaker 5: in the world. They didn't have something that I think
Speaker 5: the community could really like, and so we opened it.
Speaker 5: We went through, you know, years of research, and we
Speaker 5: did all this stuff. We found the location, and there
Speaker 5: was so much success, and we were very blessed and
Speaker 5: very fortunate because of the community. But there was success
Speaker 5: because I truly felt like we were solving a problem
Speaker 5: that did exist. If people didn't have to drive thirty
Speaker 5: minutes anymore and they could drive ten, they could drive five,
Speaker 5: that's what we offered to them. And then from there
Speaker 5: I learned so much. We've been blessed with the success
Speaker 5: there as a small business, but that has been probably
Speaker 5: the single greatest thing, and probably my most proudest is
Speaker 5: that I took something that I knew nothing about. I
Speaker 5: recognize an opportunity and then obviously came through and had
Speaker 5: success with it.
Speaker 4: Rich I love that, and I really admire guys like
Speaker 4: you where I call them three dimensional career and where
Speaker 4: you've mastered hoops, you've mastered media, and now you're trying
Speaker 4: to master the third leg, which is business and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4: You know, Warren Buffett always taught me that eighty percent
Speaker 4: is planning and showing up and twenty percent is execution.
Speaker 4: When you think about Rich Jefferson, Inc. Five sevent ten
Speaker 4: years from now, what are your dreams? What are you for?
Speaker 1: Casting man?
Speaker 5: There truly, And this is where you know I've really gravitated.
Speaker 5: And I'm appreciative of you, Alex, because I've always watched,
Speaker 5: you know me now personally as an observer. So when
Speaker 5: I tell you I've observed for a very long time,
Speaker 5: that's just kind of like how my brain works. I'm
Speaker 5: always constantly observing different things in different places. For me,
Speaker 5: in five to ten years, it's just a well rounded portfolio.
Speaker 1: To say.
Speaker 5: At least I've owned some apartment buildings with good friends,
Speaker 5: and there's been talks of a possible development there, but
Speaker 5: just some sing you know, some multifamily units. I have
Speaker 5: my own podcast, which I own. I have a business,
Speaker 5: and you know, one of those things is I've heard
Speaker 5: there's a bunch of business sayings. But it's like, you're
Speaker 5: not really making money unless you're making money while you're
Speaker 5: not working, right or while you're sleeping.
Speaker 1: And I think about the yoga studio.
Speaker 5: I go in there twice a week, I take yoga,
Speaker 5: but I'm not a part of the everyday infrastructure, so
Speaker 5: that thing is just an income that I get to.
Speaker 1: And so then you're like, oh.
Speaker 5: I see this, How can I duplicate this, whether it's
Speaker 5: a chain of that, whether it's finding another hole in
Speaker 5: the market, the same kind of like listening to the
Speaker 5: community of what was lacking, That same kind of conversation
Speaker 5: is out there about other things. I didn't know anything
Speaker 5: about yoga and we were able to be successful. So
Speaker 5: for me, I just look at it like in five
Speaker 5: ten years, I want a level of growth. I want
Speaker 5: to be able to be even more well rounded in
Speaker 5: the financial space and just a better understanding of what's
Speaker 5: going on in the world. As you know, just understanding
Speaker 5: the world right now is a very financially dangerous or
Speaker 5: financially beneficial place, depending on how you're observing it and
Speaker 5: how you're interacting with it.
Speaker 4: So rich when it comes to some of the players
Speaker 4: that you coming out of Arizona mirrored and admired and
Speaker 4: perhaps mentor to you, maybe give me a name or
Speaker 4: two there. My guy in the business world was Magic
Speaker 4: and he has had such a print in my business career,
Speaker 4: post pre and post retirement. Who are some of the
Speaker 4: guys that you've looked up in your sport.
Speaker 1: Man, There's so many. That's a good one.
Speaker 5: I think if you're really trying to improve yourself as
Speaker 5: a human being, you take something from everyone. It doesn't
Speaker 5: matter if it's a quote, it doesn't matter if it's
Speaker 5: a line. It's like I take something like Alex, I'll
Speaker 5: give you your flowers, like I look to you and
Speaker 5: just people don't. I had a meeting and let me
Speaker 5: just give out Alex some flowers. We had worked with
Speaker 5: the same social media team, even though we had known
Speaker 5: each other, but that was the first time we were
Speaker 5: able to start having more interactions and went to Alex's
Speaker 5: house to have a meeting with them, just talk. We
Speaker 5: talked tubes, we hung out, and he had a business
Speaker 5: meeting that he was doing right after, and he was like, Richard,
Speaker 5: I think you should stay for this business meeting. And
Speaker 5: it was just on their deck they were having lunch,
Speaker 5: and it was didn't know anything that these human beings
Speaker 5: were saying. It was so outside. I knew what they
Speaker 5: were discussing, but it was the connections. And they spent
Speaker 5: fifteen minutes talking, Oh do you know so and so,
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I've worked with them and we've in this
Speaker 5: And all of a sudden, I'm getting a bird's eye
Speaker 5: view of this amazing conversation that Alex not only like
Speaker 5: allowed me, invited me to and knew that I would
Speaker 5: like just be blown away and that impact. Like again, Alex,
Speaker 5: I don't know if you if I've really conveyed. I
Speaker 5: know I said thank you and I appreciate it, but
Speaker 5: just to be here in this moment and say thank
Speaker 5: you for that and like that to me is when
Speaker 5: you get yourself in these positions. And then to have
Speaker 5: a guy like Alex, say, Richard a great talking basketball
Speaker 5: would you like to sit in on this meeting that
Speaker 5: I'm about to have on some investments, and You're like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I would love to. And then to learn so much
Speaker 5: in such a short conversation, and I didn't say a word.
Speaker 1: I just stood on the side.
Speaker 5: And was just like, Okay, they're talking about numbers that
Speaker 5: I have not really talked about before in my life.
Speaker 1: Those are the things that like.
Speaker 5: I'm appreciative of view Alex, because that opened my mind.
Speaker 5: That opened my thirst and hunger even more for wanting
Speaker 5: to understand more of the business side and the financial
Speaker 5: side and really just improving what I feel like I
Speaker 5: can accomplish there. So when I say people that I've
Speaker 5: looked to like You're one of those people. And that's
Speaker 5: why when you invited me to that next level. Oh
Speaker 5: it was. It was a very very special special time.
Speaker 4: Oh well, that was my pleasure, Jason. I got to
Speaker 4: tell you The one thing about rich just to give
Speaker 4: them a little props back, is most athletes will come in,
Speaker 4: they got three other things to do and they move on,
Speaker 4: or they may say I'll catch the next meeting. But
Speaker 4: for him to sit there and stand there and put
Speaker 4: into time, that's why I think rich is going to
Speaker 4: have such a phenomenal career in that third leg, which
Speaker 4: is business and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3: So, Richard, one thing that you know you've been open
Speaker 3: and honest about is a bad experience, which is basically
Speaker 3: someone who worked with you completely took advantage of you.
Speaker 3: Now under you know, criminal indictment. You know, Alex talks
Speaker 3: all the time about, you know, the team he surrounds
Speaker 3: himself with. Athletes are very vulnerable candidly because of the
Speaker 3: amount of money that you guys make. I know it
Speaker 3: is it has brought you to really want to help
Speaker 3: people with financial literacy.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us a little bit about you.
Speaker 1: Have to dance around it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yes, stole a bunch of money and swindled me. Right,
Speaker 5: you don't have to dance around here.
Speaker 1: I can see.
Speaker 5: It's like, so you've been it's okay, okay, it's okay.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, yeah it was.
Speaker 2: But someone stole a bunch of money from you, a.
Speaker 5: Lot of money. They sold a lot of money. There's
Speaker 5: two things, and again everybody's different. So I just say
Speaker 5: from my experience, one, I look at myself from like,
Speaker 5: how did I get over it? One? I was fortunate
Speaker 5: where I had another five seven years left of my career,
Speaker 5: so like, obviously my saving and my spending was never crazy.
Speaker 5: But I also look at it when it went down
Speaker 5: and the stuff I look at it from a sp
Speaker 5: If you would have told me the day I got
Speaker 5: drafted that I would own my home, my mom and
Speaker 5: dad would own their home, and neither of us would
Speaker 5: have to work again, I would sign up. It doesn't
Speaker 5: matter if you got one hundred million in the bank,
Speaker 5: you got five million in the bank, you got twenty
Speaker 5: doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: If that's the goal is to change your life.
Speaker 5: My life was changed, right, That's how I kept myself
Speaker 5: not being like woe with me. I believe that I
Speaker 5: had future earning potentials, and honestly, sometimes it's about your ls.
Speaker 1: So that situation.
Speaker 5: I was a very young man and he had forged
Speaker 5: the power of attorney, and he was kind of cooking
Speaker 5: the books. And my parents with no financial really understanding
Speaker 5: me with very little because I just knew my spending
Speaker 5: it was under control given the amounts of money that
Speaker 5: I was making. So he was more cooking the books,
Speaker 5: cooking the books. And just like a lot of people,
Speaker 5: when two thousand and eight and that financial crisis hit
Speaker 5: and everyone started checking their books to make sure everything
Speaker 5: was good, it was like, wait a second, something's not right,
Speaker 5: and you know again. I think athletes also one of
Speaker 5: the reasons why I like talking about it is because
Speaker 5: I think athletes are afraid to say there's an ego,
Speaker 5: there's a machismo of like, hey, I got taken, I
Speaker 5: got swindled, something happened. I think it's better to talk
Speaker 5: about it. I think it's better to have these discussions
Speaker 5: of how this happened. And so for me, that's what happened.
Speaker 5: I was a part of an FBI investigation and wirefraud,
Speaker 5: and we were doing wire taps and it was all
Speaker 5: sorts of stuff to see what this individual was doing
Speaker 5: and what I probably learned most from that and I
Speaker 5: value that because you can make mistakes twenty to thirty,
Speaker 5: you don't want to make mistakes fifty to sixty. You
Speaker 5: don't want to know. Those are the areas where you
Speaker 5: want to be a lot less risky. You don't want
Speaker 5: to be so for me to be like, hey, I
Speaker 5: made these mistakes. What did I learn? I tell everybody this,
Speaker 5: all the young men. Always have two financial advisors. You
Speaker 5: make enough money, right, have two financial advisors. Have them
Speaker 5: check each other's work. If you don't know about this,
Speaker 5: someone could be cooking the books. You can be looking
Speaker 5: at it. This is what your bank account says this
Speaker 5: and you have no idea. But if you have two
Speaker 5: different people from two different places that maybe you send
Speaker 5: seventy percent, maybe you send thirty percent, whatever it is,
Speaker 5: at least they're able to check each other's work and
Speaker 5: hold each other accountable because they don't benefit from each other.
Speaker 5: That's the one thing that I learned. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 5: all of my situation, all of my money, will, all
Speaker 5: of my portfolio will not be with one person because
Speaker 5: if that person goes Bernie made off, if that person
Speaker 5: goes crazy, And.
Speaker 1: That's what I would tell people.
Speaker 5: As an athlete, It's like, if Bernie made Off can
Speaker 5: steal forty billion dollars from the richest, smartest, most intelligent
Speaker 5: financial people in the world, Who the hell am I
Speaker 5: to think that I can't get my money taken? Everyone can,
Speaker 5: So you learn your financial literacy starts to go up
Speaker 5: and understanding of it.
Speaker 1: So that's really you know, it was a terrible situation.
Speaker 5: I've kept a blessed perspective about it and the lessons
Speaker 5: that it learned, and I just try and help give
Speaker 5: people information about it.
Speaker 2: So we're going to get to our lightning round in
Speaker 2: the second.
Speaker 3: But one thing I before before we get to that,
Speaker 3: I did want to talk about, because it's sort of
Speaker 3: dovetails with all of this, is you know, rich you
Speaker 3: went to a story you.
Speaker 2: Know, college and played basketball.
Speaker 3: You know Ludelson obviously like a legendary coach at the
Speaker 3: University of Arizona. As you look back at the college game, now,
Speaker 3: I have to think about a lot of the warnings
Speaker 3: that you're giving with Nil with the transfer portal. How
Speaker 3: much do you worry about sort of the state of
Speaker 3: the college basketball business at this point, and is there
Speaker 3: anything that we can do in your mind to ensure
Speaker 3: that those players remain financially safe. I'm sort of leading
Speaker 3: you here because I'm giving you some of my own
Speaker 3: feelings obviously, like what needs to happen here to ensure
Speaker 3: that you know everybody turns out okay?
Speaker 5: Well, one great question, Jason. I think people sometimes like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: why do you?
Speaker 2: Why do you?
Speaker 5: Why are people I wouldn't say like, for my opinion,
Speaker 5: it's because basketball change my life. The sport changed my life.
Speaker 5: So I care about how the sport is not only played,
Speaker 5: but the environment in which the younger athletes are navigating.
Speaker 5: I care about that because I know what it meant
Speaker 5: for me and what it did for me, and I
Speaker 5: wanted to do that for other young men and women.
Speaker 1: I think the nil thing is scary.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you just again from my own financial space,
Speaker 5: my biggest worry is taxes.
Speaker 1: Right, all these kids.
Speaker 5: Are getting all this money, and we know the IRS
Speaker 5: doesn't come until all the money's gone. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 5: by the way, you owe s two hundred fifty thousand
Speaker 5: dollars in taxes. That's the part that I want to
Speaker 5: make sure that is being communicated. When you're getting one
Speaker 5: hundred thousand dollars check and you're getting this and you
Speaker 5: just you're twenty one, twenty two, and if your parents
Speaker 5: don't come from that, like even if schools are teaching
Speaker 5: you financial literacy, if you don't fully have experience and understand,
Speaker 5: and then I just don't think there's enough good people
Speaker 5: to help navigate them. Do they have the right financials advisors?
Speaker 1: Do they have? And we know it's just littered with crooks. Actually,
Speaker 1: because you have.
Speaker 5: A new two hundred three hundred people that now can
Speaker 5: get millions of dollars, that brings in all the crooks
Speaker 5: and all the jerks and all those idiots. For me,
Speaker 5: I think there still needs to be regulation. I think
Speaker 5: the NCUBA they dropped the ball. They had a monopoly,
Speaker 5: they wanted to continue using that monopoly. The Supreme Court
Speaker 5: said okay, enough is enough, and then all the right
Speaker 5: wheels and regulations just came off and it just became
Speaker 5: the wild wide West. Well that's not good either. The
Speaker 5: way the nc DOUBLEA had it before is not good.
Speaker 5: The way it is now is not good. They need
Speaker 5: to come up with some sort of regulation, some sort
Speaker 5: of group that says, hey, this is what you can.
Speaker 5: We can't have kids transferring from schools. Every single year
Speaker 5: to try and get the highest bidder, and then all
Speaker 5: of a sudden they don't graduate college. That's not that's
Speaker 5: not the goal of this. And so I don't know
Speaker 5: baseball has a good formula where if you go to college,
Speaker 5: you got to be there for three years, even though
Speaker 5: a team can draft you and hold your rights. There's
Speaker 5: a lot of different things, and I think the nc DOUBLEA,
Speaker 5: because it is a feeder for the NBA, the NBA
Speaker 5: should have some sort of idea or work with the
Speaker 5: NCAA is like, we don't want all of this chaos
Speaker 5: that's going on. I love that the players are making money,
Speaker 5: but Alex you know this, Jason, you know this. Just
Speaker 5: because everyone's making money doesn't mean it's a good environment.
Speaker 5: It could be a toxic environment that can lead to
Speaker 5: things ten to fifteen years down the road.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean my own view of it, you know,
Speaker 3: having done a little bit of work around this is
Speaker 3: candidly what we actually need and what could help solve
Speaker 3: this problem.
Speaker 2: And not to put more work on your shoulders.
Speaker 3: Rich is like, I think we need more former athletes
Speaker 3: involved in this who actually understand the rigors of it
Speaker 3: and the traps and the cons and also the upside.
Speaker 3: So hopefully that comes to fruition because it's it's a
Speaker 3: tough position.
Speaker 5: Another thing where Alex might know. Recently Arizona just left
Speaker 5: and went to the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: Big twelve. Yeah, Big twelve.
Speaker 3: It's still confusing to me, right because I know and
Speaker 3: and honestly, it could change tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It could change tomorrow.
Speaker 5: But the commissioner there is Brett Yormark, who used to
Speaker 5: work in New York, used to work with the Nets,
Speaker 5: and so yeah, he invited me to be a part
Speaker 5: of the alumni council as a representative for Arizona. It
Speaker 5: was myself and Jenny Finch as representatives from Arizona to
Speaker 5: be a part of an alumni council to kind of
Speaker 5: bring that The goal is to give that former athlete
Speaker 5: opinion and to be in that space. So I'm not
Speaker 5: just talking about it. I'm being about it, and I'm
Speaker 5: trying to be a part of these panels and I'm
Speaker 5: working these things so that I can have a positive
Speaker 5: voice and an impact when the time does come.
Speaker 2: All right, let's do the lightning ground.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 2: Let's do it, all right, So five questions. You know
Speaker 2: how to do this. I'll start and then now so
Speaker 2: we'll pick it up.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go go.
Speaker 3: What's the best piece of ad you've ever received on
Speaker 3: deal making your business?
Speaker 5: Rob Mayler, one of my brothers, said, set your price
Speaker 5: and live your life. Don't argue, don't fight on this.
Speaker 5: If this is your number, if this is your mark,
Speaker 5: set it. Maybe you have to adjust it at times,
Speaker 5: but set your price and live your life.
Speaker 4: Don't stress. Who's your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good one, dream deal making partner. Espn. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2: What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 5: Most nervous I've ever been was actually in the slam
Speaker 5: dunk contest that I did in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: It was horrific.
Speaker 5: I was terrible, but that spotlight and that was the
Speaker 5: first you know, you've done some of these things. But
Speaker 5: then all of a sudden, it's like, all right, Richard
Speaker 5: jeffersonid lights go down, all of the arenas there and.
Speaker 1: It's just like, whoa this is?
Speaker 5: This is kind of intense, and Amari I apologize, right,
Speaker 5: we're gonna I'm gonna tell him storry. So Mari's Sidemeyer.
Speaker 5: We were both in the Dunk Contest and we were
Speaker 5: sitting next week and he was even I was twenty three,
Speaker 5: he was even younger than me, and he was like,
Speaker 5: I don't think I've ever been so nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm like, bro me neither. This is trippy.
Speaker 5: This, you know, because you're still a kid, You're still
Speaker 5: a fan. Right when you're twenty three, you can't even
Speaker 5: believe you're in the NBA and all of a sudden
Speaker 5: you're in the Dunk Contest that you've watched your whole life,
Speaker 5: and you're like, yeah, this has been intense, so that
Speaker 5: might be high high.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 4: Speaking of intents, what's your hype song before a big
Speaker 4: meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5: Ooh Dreams Nightmares by meek Mail meek Mail Dreams Nightmares.
Speaker 1: That that just is like, let's go, let's go, all right.
Speaker 3: Last question, what's your advice for someone who wants a
Speaker 3: career like yours?
Speaker 5: Don't be afraid to fail, Like My confidence comes because
Speaker 5: I have no problem taking an l getting back up
Speaker 5: on my feed. I come from nothing. I'm from Glendale, Arizona.
Speaker 5: My parents didn't play sports, my brothers didn't play sports.
Speaker 5: I found basketball. I liked it believed in myself, and
Speaker 5: then once you believed in yourself, you should just continue
Speaker 5: doing that and whatever field or whatever thing that you do.
Speaker 5: So that's all I've done. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 5: have any broadcasting background, but if you've listened to this,
Speaker 5: you know, I study people, I learn from people, I
Speaker 5: support people and say, hey, you're doing a great job.
Speaker 5: If you've kind of followed that blueprint over a long
Speaker 5: period of time, in stack days and weeks and hours
Speaker 5: and months and years, you will have success.
Speaker 1: It's literally impossible.
Speaker 5: To not have success, but it is possible to not
Speaker 5: put in the work.
Speaker 3: Well, great, great stuff. Thank you so much, Richard Jefferson.
Speaker 3: You are a legend. We love watching and listening to you,
Speaker 3: and it was great to go deep in your career
Speaker 3: and get a sense of your ambition.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Thanks rich Thank you. Thank you both seriously man that
Speaker 5: I appreciate you both.
Speaker 3: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 3: This episode was made by Animazarakus, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie
Speaker 3: Philip Amy. Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is
Speaker 3: our video editor. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Speaker 3: Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brendan
Speaker 3: neonham Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Additional
Speaker 3: support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so
Speaker 3: much for listening to the deal. If you have a minute, subscribe,
Speaker 3: rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us.
Speaker 3: I'm Jason Kelly. See you next week.