Speaker 1: Hey, what if this is all ball, we're dropping this podcast.
Speaker 1: It's probably on a I don't know, Friday or Saturday.
Speaker 2: You're getting ready.
Speaker 1: If you're a basketball guy, you may be rolling to
Speaker 1: a workout, rolling.
Speaker 2: To a secret shrimmage.
Speaker 1: If you're an assistant coach, that's where we're going.
Speaker 2: We got a secret scrimmage.
Speaker 1: With Northern Illinois. Kind of cool, you know, like new
Speaker 1: head coach Green Bay. So a lot of different stuff
Speaker 1: going on. Like I try and do things a little different.
Speaker 2: So uh, first, and.
Speaker 1: Apologies to the staff at South Dakota because we were
Speaker 1: supposed to do up until probably a month and a
Speaker 1: half ago, a secret scrimmage with South Dakota. What happened
Speaker 1: was South Dakota is relatively close to here. We're relatively
Speaker 1: close to them, so we scheduled a scrimmage with them
Speaker 1: preliminarily in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis is five hours from
Speaker 1: Green Bay. Remember, for a secret scrimmage team.
Speaker 2: At our level, we probably aren't going to fly.
Speaker 1: It's a five hour drive there, five hour drive back,
Speaker 1: two hours to play, hour to eat and shower. Right,
Speaker 1: that's a long rickin day. So my boy Antoni Weisch
Speaker 1: called me I played with him at Notre Dame. He's
Speaker 1: a study. He was an assistant. He recruited CJ. McCollum
Speaker 1: to Le High.
Speaker 2: And he's at Northern Illinois.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, you want to play us in Milwaukee?
Speaker 1: And I said, uh, well yeah. So I went and
Speaker 1: saw my assistant coaches and I said, hey, guys, would
Speaker 1: we rather play Milwaukee than the Twin Cities?
Speaker 2: And They're like, yeah, yes we would.
Speaker 1: So Milwaukee's like hour thirty from here. There's also a
Speaker 1: little Wayne concert. If you followed us on social media,
Speaker 1: you know, a little Wayne is my guy. Huge Packer fan,
Speaker 1: also a huge Green Bay Phoenix fan. Now we worked
Speaker 1: together at Fox, who work together a little bit of ESPN.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna play the scrimmage, watch some college football,
Speaker 1: go a little Tuncie concert.
Speaker 2: Come on home.
Speaker 1: It's pretty good, right, not bad for the old coach
Speaker 1: taking care of my guys. In the meantime, let's get
Speaker 1: back to the podcast. Part one was Billy Baron. He
Speaker 1: just got done playing overseas at Olivia Milano and just retire.
Speaker 1: In part two, we'll talk a little bit about what
Speaker 1: led to ultimately his retirement. As we talked about his
Speaker 1: college days. In part one of the pod, what's it
Speaker 1: like to play overseas?
Speaker 2: What's it like to not make the NBA? What's it
Speaker 2: like to retire at thirty three?
Speaker 1: That's all part of this podcast without further ado.
Speaker 2: Here's part two. Billy Baron on all Ball. What's the
Speaker 2: best part of playing for your dad?
Speaker 3: The wins man? Right? Winning and I always regret and
Speaker 3: not getting my dad NC tournament, Like I'll always always
Speaker 3: regret it. You know. It's just like that's our senior
Speaker 3: year after everything we went through, win or lost. Me
Speaker 3: and my dad for the most part, you sued to
Speaker 3: walk to dinner after like a state like you doos
Speaker 3: to take me like a nice steakhouse. We go sit
Speaker 3: at the bar. I just have a drink like you
Speaker 3: drinking here my dad after a game. It was awesome,
Speaker 3: Like the best, you know what I mean? Like I
Speaker 3: look back on them, like, do.
Speaker 2: You know me? Do you know how many people?
Speaker 1: Like by the way, the kids might not get it,
Speaker 1: but like dads.
Speaker 2: Listen to the podcast. So that's the fucking best. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's the best.
Speaker 1: Like again, quick story, So my dad passedway a decade ago,
Speaker 1: and when I got done playing in college, that was
Speaker 1: back when I remember like EA sports with have touring
Speaker 1: teams and play against. My dad actually had like a
Speaker 1: touring team. So my dad was a huge woman California.
Speaker 1: He became a huge UCDLA guy. Even when he's the
Speaker 1: longmeas state. He would go and watch him practice. And
Speaker 1: we were close with the Hazards. I was like a
Speaker 1: ball boyder in the Hazard era and Rashid was my
Speaker 1: teammate forever and we're boys, and then we were season
Speaker 1: ticket holders that Herrick, my sisters a cheerleader.
Speaker 2: My brother went there to.
Speaker 1: Walk on and got beat out to make the team.
Speaker 1: They offered me a scholarship, but it was like I didn't,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I want to get away, so I went
Speaker 1: to Notre Dame. So I never played for UTLN. And
Speaker 1: then when I came back and tried to transfer, they
Speaker 1: took Baron Davis like I would take Baron Davis to
Speaker 1: me too. So so we played them in an exhibition
Speaker 1: game and we beat them by twenty six points.
Speaker 2: It was at the time the.
Speaker 1: Worst loss UCLA had ever suffered in poly Pavilion. And
Speaker 1: I hit like four threes. Now, I was a very
Speaker 1: good shooter, and I hit like four threes and played
Speaker 1: like this perfect flog game four game right, And I
Speaker 1: mean that moment and like till the day he.
Speaker 2: Died, he said, what's the greatest moment in your life?
Speaker 2: He would say, my son and I beat UCLA, right
Speaker 2: and right? So but and that was like for fake.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine winning a game, you're the you're the
Speaker 1: best player in the league with your dad having a
Speaker 1: drink and a stake at a bar, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: a that's a dream for any dad, any dad, Like
Speaker 1: is my kid, Like I just I could just set
Speaker 1: my son like a letter and just said, hey, we
Speaker 1: want to recruit it. Yeah, really, but I mean right
Speaker 1: now he would be he's tracking to be, if ever,
Speaker 1: the worst player, right, I want him to be the
Speaker 1: best player. But but I can't like that's amazing, that's
Speaker 1: like you should that's what you should lead with when
Speaker 1: people say, like, what's the greatest moment in your career?
Speaker 2: Like a beer or a drink my dad at a
Speaker 2: bar after women, Yes, that shit doesn't go away.
Speaker 3: Like if you were to talk to me, if we
Speaker 3: were at Rhode Island, like I don't know if that
Speaker 3: would have happened. It took the firing of my dad,
Speaker 3: and then how we relocated both to Buffalo, Like I
Speaker 3: could have went to Purdue, and I came here to
Speaker 3: be with you, and he took the job. He always says,
Speaker 3: I took the job to coach you to finish your career,
Speaker 3: like and he did, like he retired one year after
Speaker 3: I left, and he took that job for me. So
Speaker 3: like we both were like, you know, all right, a
Speaker 3: drink after you know, one drink after a game or
Speaker 3: a college kid with their coach. Like many people be like, wow,
Speaker 3: that's crazy, but it's like he knew how hard I
Speaker 3: was working. He also knew the sacrifice that I made
Speaker 3: to come be there with him, and he and I
Speaker 3: understood what he did. So we were just both like,
Speaker 3: have a drink. I mean, like we deserve it. Let's
Speaker 3: just have a drink.
Speaker 2: That the best road win that you remember in college.
Speaker 3: In college probably like so my junior year when we
Speaker 3: got to Canicius, they had won five games a year before.
Speaker 3: It's Canesius. It's the bottom of the bottom of the
Speaker 3: Division one, and we had all these transfers. Everyone else
Speaker 3: will to play and I came in immediately, I became eligible,
Speaker 3: and we were like five and one. We went to
Speaker 3: Temple and the Temple was like just outside the top
Speaker 3: twenty five, and we beat them by like twelve I
Speaker 3: think at their place. And Temple crushed my dad his
Speaker 3: entire time in the eight ten from Bonnie's in the
Speaker 3: nineties to twenty twelve. Temple have my dad's number for
Speaker 3: the most part. And it was nice to go there
Speaker 3: and beat them. And it was just nice because we
Speaker 3: had just left you or I you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Then go doto the Temple and beat them and there
Speaker 3: was like no one at the game because it's cancious.
Speaker 2: It was just well, nobody goes to Temple games.
Speaker 3: Anyway anyway, Right, you're right.
Speaker 2: That's like the worst part. That's like one of the
Speaker 2: worst parts of Earth where that's located too. There is terrible.
Speaker 2: I remember when Dump was there, I was like, dude,
Speaker 2: this place what my Philly standards just drop?
Speaker 1: You know, they built this brand new, beautiful gam and
Speaker 1: nobody goes like why go here?
Speaker 2: Because are you get done playing?
Speaker 3: Mm hmm?
Speaker 2: And now let's get ready for the NBA draft? Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: what were they telling you?
Speaker 3: I had like thirteen fourteen pre draft workouts, so I
Speaker 3: was there. I remember my first workout was Chicago. I
Speaker 3: had Scalabrini was, you know, with Washerman at the time.
Speaker 3: We're doing workouts and he looks at me and he goes, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: TIBs is the coach I played for. TIBs. Just shoot
Speaker 3: behind the ball screen, all right, all I just shoot
Speaker 3: behind the ball screen. We're playing two on two. I
Speaker 3: think Scottie Wilkins guard and me goes down to the
Speaker 3: ball screen and just shoot everyone under the ball screen. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I didn't play that well because you're just like so nervous.
Speaker 3: You're like, Wow, here's the time. I gotta do it,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Like and h I left
Speaker 3: the workout and scal was like, yeah, you're in play
Speaker 3: at forty seven. Really, I'm play at forty seven. After that,
Speaker 3: what I just did there, I was like, Oh, I
Speaker 3: got this. So I did all thirteen workouts and was
Speaker 3: on the cusp of it and it just didn't work out.
Speaker 3: Went to start end up going to Summer League with Chicago.
Speaker 2: Did you watch did you watch the draft?
Speaker 3: I watched it. I thought there was a chance because
Speaker 3: my best workout was actually with San Antonio, like my
Speaker 3: like my roommate at UVA I'm still close with, Joe Harris,
Speaker 3: was in the workout with me and I played so well.
Speaker 3: He looked at Me's like, dude, they're gonna take you.
Speaker 3: Like there's no way they can't take you. And I
Speaker 3: was playing against like Rush Smiths and we're playing one
Speaker 3: on one, two and two, three and three, and I
Speaker 3: like swept him and I'm like, I couldn't miss. It
Speaker 3: was just one of those things that I just couldn't miss.
Speaker 3: And I was like, man, maybe I just did it
Speaker 3: and ended up not working out. So then did the
Speaker 3: whole summer league thing Chicago, and when I was there,
Speaker 3: I actually had a really good offer from Lithuania and
Speaker 3: this is you know, I had a brother who's been
Speaker 3: doing it. No the two ritis the other team, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they just left the euro League so they were better
Speaker 3: than they are now. And I was like, I got
Speaker 3: a contract from them. That's really good. Don't be idiot
Speaker 3: passed that up? Like so, uh, Cleveland talked to me
Speaker 3: about training camp and I was like you know what,
Speaker 3: like that's going to lead to the G League, you know,
Speaker 3: don't be stupid, like go make some money and start
Speaker 3: your career. Over in Europe. So that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I would get again.
Speaker 1: You tell me you had this we wish Chicago, it's
Speaker 1: like every day you're there.
Speaker 2: I just remember with.
Speaker 1: The Lakers, it's like every day of the are you
Speaker 1: get a little bit more comfortable, Like you first show
Speaker 1: up and you're like, what am I doing here?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: And I was.
Speaker 2: I just remember it with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers thing was so fucking intimidating. Like you
Speaker 1: walk in and then like there's Jerry West and there's
Speaker 1: a picture of Elgim Baylor and there's Kream Abdul Jabbar
Speaker 1: and there's Squill and like and then you go in
Speaker 1: the locker room and back.
Speaker 2: Then it was like Shaq and Kobe and Garrik Fisher.
Speaker 1: And all these guys and we're like, what am I doing?
Speaker 2: Right? But then they treated you so they treat you
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: Yes they do, right, they cause they treat summer league
Speaker 1: dudes like they're an NBA All Star like and I'm like,
Speaker 1: well you get massaged every They're like yeah, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: just put me down at eight am over here, right.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I mean, I'm you know, I'm sure all
Speaker 1: this other they're like Derek Fisher was hanging out with him.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's probably like this is a fucking clown.
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, however long i'm here, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pretend like I'm a Laker. But every day I was there, Like,
Speaker 1: you start to go like I could totally do this.
Speaker 2: Like he's like.
Speaker 1: That year it was me and Mike Pemberthy, Okay, and
Speaker 1: and penn Is.
Speaker 2: He's an assistant the NBA.
Speaker 3: He is.
Speaker 1: He was an NIA player that not a lot of
Speaker 1: people knew. I knew because he was training in Orange County.
Speaker 1: And he's like, literally the best fucking shooter I'd ever seen.
Speaker 1: He had like seventy five in a yearly game. Like,
Speaker 1: fucker can shoot like nothing.
Speaker 2: He's a polar.
Speaker 1: Opposite of me. Like I can do everything better than him,
Speaker 1: except I cannot shoot a basketball anywhere near as good
Speaker 1: as him. And it's a triangle, which shooting is actually
Speaker 1: of a premium.
Speaker 2: But I'm like convincing myself, like I'm fucking locking him up.
Speaker 1: We do one on one drills, I'm creating shots like
Speaker 1: I got all this shit going. I'm like and then
Speaker 1: fucking out, you're a third point guard. Like, can you
Speaker 1: stand out there and spread and stay out of the way, right,
Speaker 1: But like every day I was.
Speaker 2: There, I'm like, dude, I'm gonna make this fucking team.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make this team. And then Mitch walked in.
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, can I see you for a second. No,
Speaker 2: you know that you have that experience all in Chicago.
Speaker 2: You're like, this is we did.
Speaker 3: We did the practices in Deerfield that they're old videos of,
Speaker 3: obviously MJ. And I'm walking in here, I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is where the guy walked. This is it? And I
Speaker 3: see his name hanging up there, I see the championships.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what am I doing here? This is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And so that so Tims was the coach and we're
Speaker 3: doing double days. It's like five days in a row, right,
Speaker 3: and de Rose is coming back from his injury because
Speaker 3: he wants to play for Team USA in July. And
Speaker 3: I don't think it was the Olympics. I want to
Speaker 3: say it was like maybe the World Cup was the
Speaker 3: World Cup and De ro is just De Rose twenty
Speaker 3: four still can go. Yeah, he's getting ready, he's doing everything.
Speaker 3: I'm playing against Derrick Rose for four hours of the
Speaker 3: day I'm guarding Derrick.
Speaker 2: Rose Zami b the Lake.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I did that for four for four hours
Speaker 3: straight for five days, and that was interesting for sure.
Speaker 3: That was very interesting, eye opening for sure. It was great.
Speaker 3: Like looking back on that.
Speaker 1: Like, okay, interesting, you give me, yeah, little, give me
Speaker 1: a little more.
Speaker 3: I mean it comes down and makes a move like
Speaker 3: just goes right by you. I'm like, what do you
Speaker 3: want me to do about that? Like I'm supposed to
Speaker 3: guard that? Who can guard that?
Speaker 2: He was nobody.
Speaker 3: He was so freaking explosive. It was just like you're like,
Speaker 3: you're coming down and your thought it isn't even the
Speaker 3: state in front of him, because it's not even a
Speaker 3: realistic thought.
Speaker 2: It was just like will you please just do the
Speaker 2: jump shots that I don't.
Speaker 3: Back in the paint. But it was cool.
Speaker 1: It was it was like, Wow, I was when I
Speaker 1: was the freshman, I guarded Iverston at Georgetown and we
Speaker 1: were in his zone and we had never even practiced.
Speaker 2: Now, we were in his zone like three quarters of game.
Speaker 1: But I remember coming out and it was before he
Speaker 1: was back when he's Bubba check but he stole the
Speaker 1: ball and there's video I'll find altent to and we
Speaker 1: had a guy that Matt gotch sept One Friendswood, Texas,
Speaker 1: and he like waited on him and then just dunked
Speaker 1: on him.
Speaker 2: And I remember like getting the ball and like he
Speaker 2: ran by me.
Speaker 1: I was like, holy shit, it I can't believe it,
Speaker 1: you know, right, like you want to, like you're playing
Speaker 1: basketball and you train like to never be in awe
Speaker 1: of another human being.
Speaker 2: You're like, I've never seen some shit like that.
Speaker 1: Like he's smaller than me, he's skinnier than me, and
Speaker 1: yet he's stronger than me, and I'm fucking strong and
Speaker 1: he just dunked on our step foot, Like what the
Speaker 1: fuck am I watching?
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, yes, it was. It was very similar to
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 1: That it and those guys are like quick and fat,
Speaker 1: like some dudes you guarded are like super quick. Those
Speaker 1: dudes are fast, and like those two are guys that
Speaker 1: were like quick fast exposed to It's it's it's like
Speaker 1: they'll like X men.
Speaker 3: Kind of in control at the same time. It's like yes,
Speaker 3: how how like how It's like it'd be like if
Speaker 3: you took me and then like you sped up the tape.
Speaker 3: It's like you put it like times too like that's that.
Speaker 2: I like that. Yeah at two x speed. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: like that. It's a good one. Okay. So you go
Speaker 2: to Lithuania, that's your first gig.
Speaker 1: Yeah, big, like for people to understand, like that's a
Speaker 1: big gig. And Lithuanians are psychos, Yes, fucking psychos. So
Speaker 1: I played in Russia out and we had four Lithuanians
Speaker 1: on our team. In Lithuanians, I played in perm Russia
Speaker 1: is euro great. We won the the Neville. We beat
Speaker 1: Latovasritus and Jagers they were in this Neble league anyway.
Speaker 1: But we had this assistant coach, Baldies Komi, who's like famous.
Speaker 1: He played He played on the on the team that
Speaker 1: beat us in Davy eight Olympics, the Russians, okay. And
Speaker 1: then the other point guard who's like a famous European
Speaker 1: coach now was Thomas Pinches. Yeah yeah, so and like
Speaker 1: those guys are fucking psychos. And I mean that in
Speaker 1: like a not so loving way, right, yeah, nuts, like
Speaker 1: you come.
Speaker 2: In the good l good lee come we go.
Speaker 1: We we just day off, we go, we get shots,
Speaker 1: we get shots, and so we'll go in and we'll
Speaker 1: be shooting and you know, like again not a great shooter.
Speaker 1: Obviously lost my confidence in college. But like those guys
Speaker 1: wrap it out and then you're like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like your day off. You got a little lift in,
Speaker 1: you got a little sweat in, Like all right, I'm good. Like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's play a little bit. Like four hours later, you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm so tired. And they're like, then
Speaker 1: let's go to let's go to the sauna. Let's go
Speaker 1: to so And then we go to sauna and they.
Speaker 3: Start drinking Russian banya.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and the bony.
Speaker 3: Did you do the Russian banya? Did you ever do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The leaves?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we also did this thing where they do that
Speaker 1: they put this special honey on you.
Speaker 3: Oh dude, I tell people about it here. First time
Speaker 3: I did it, I walked out like whoa, I can't
Speaker 3: do this. Then my teammates are like, no, you gotta
Speaker 3: do it. I did it my first time. They put
Speaker 3: the cold ice on you while they're hitting you over that.
Speaker 3: And then we were in Saratov in the middle of
Speaker 3: nowhere in Russia and you had to get out from
Speaker 3: there and jump in a lake.
Speaker 2: I jumped in and we had we had a we
Speaker 2: had a cold pool when we had to jump in.
Speaker 3: I jumped on a lake in January and I was
Speaker 3: like what am I doing? But like I slept the
Speaker 3: next two days. I was just like sleeping like a baby,
Speaker 3: and I was like, that was actually amazing rehabilitation.
Speaker 4: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2: What was the the when you like forst You're out?
Speaker 3: I didn't play it, Like my coach didn't speak any
Speaker 3: English at all, Like he was from a village and
Speaker 3: they had just hired him and he's like known as
Speaker 3: like a joke around the country. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: And so they're like, oh, you played for him, ha haha.
Speaker 3: I'm like yeah, ha ha ha. Like the guy was
Speaker 3: maybe quit basketball, like it was the guy was selling
Speaker 3: meat out of the trunk of his car after what
Speaker 3: Sally us the meat like it was crazy. He was
Speaker 3: actually the same guy that coached the ball kids when
Speaker 3: they went to Lithuania. So like, and the guy who
Speaker 3: wouldn't play me and he didn't give me like a
Speaker 3: reason why he told me, like my first week there,
Speaker 3: He's like, I'm not going to play you too much.
Speaker 3: I can't I don't speak that. I'm getting translated. And
Speaker 3: he goes, I'm not going to play you too much.
Speaker 3: I can't really talk to you. I'm like, oh, all right, sick,
Speaker 3: all right?
Speaker 2: But because how much did you if you know my mask,
Speaker 2: how much do you make it for at year one?
Speaker 2: T Hey great example? Okay, so here's the question to you,
Speaker 2: honest question.
Speaker 1: So a lot of college gets down like right now,
Speaker 1: if you average twenty a game at.
Speaker 2: At Canisius, right, one of the big boys would come
Speaker 2: in and offer you to fifty three hundred grand. Right.
Speaker 2: The problem is when you get done playing for two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty three hundred grand, and then you get
Speaker 2: a really good offer like Latvias Red. This is like
Speaker 2: a good first like one ten is a good first contract,
Speaker 2: Like that's.
Speaker 3: The legal Yeah, it was one of the highest or
Speaker 3: if not the highest rookie paid.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I again, And you can speak like I'm not
Speaker 1: leading you into anything. My thing is like, aren't we
Speaker 1: kind of fucking kids up? Because they don't really understand
Speaker 1: the market. They think the market like and and how
Speaker 1: why could you understand, like they think, like, okay, well
Speaker 1: I can make two hundregrads in college, so then I
Speaker 1: played professionally at the big club, so I'll make two
Speaker 1: hundred grand or three hundre grand.
Speaker 2: They could like nothing that works, especially not when you're rookie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think the whole system is kind
Speaker 3: of being I'm curious to see if that that that
Speaker 3: probably won't happen, Like if a kid does that, that's
Speaker 3: not gonna happen, you know. And and I'm curious to
Speaker 3: see how Europe bounces back from it, because I don't
Speaker 3: think they will. I think college is changing the whole
Speaker 3: game and they know it. They know it as well.
Speaker 3: And then you add an extra two way deal. I'm
Speaker 3: curious to see if the G League increases the money
Speaker 3: at all. But you're right, I mean if I was
Speaker 3: making whenever I was making after I actually had another
Speaker 3: year of eligibility after my senior year because I play
Speaker 3: three years. Yeah, so I was Yeah, I had another year,
Speaker 3: So I can't imagine what I could have made this year.
Speaker 3: But do you imagine I wouldn't have made It's a
Speaker 3: retas twenty.
Speaker 1: Four a game, dude, you probably would have gotten minimum
Speaker 1: three fifty maybe five five fifty Peah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you know, twenty three, twenty two year old, Like,
Speaker 3: come on.
Speaker 2: Not Pat wouldn't be.
Speaker 3: So when Retas comes at the one ten, you're like,
Speaker 3: I'm off set.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm good than hanging on college for another year.
Speaker 2: You're in Europe, so you get done playing, but now
Speaker 2: you don't have much film. Right.
Speaker 1: The whole thing with Europe is like your numbers and
Speaker 1: your film whatever, what was your two?
Speaker 3: Like your two? So I left there I have not
Speaker 3: I don't have much going on. And I went to
Speaker 3: Seem in Belgium and euro Cup team actually in Belgium,
Speaker 3: and they actually took me and my brother. My brother
Speaker 3: called me up and it's like hey, like the coach
Speaker 3: wants both of us. And I was like really and
Speaker 3: like I hated basketball so much that first year, Like
Speaker 3: I it was really really bad, Like I was living
Speaker 3: by myself in Lithuania. I didn't play at all. People
Speaker 3: are just custing me out every day in languages for
Speaker 3: things that aren't my fault. And I had zero confidence.
Speaker 3: And so I went to that team with my with
Speaker 3: my brother and actually with my college teammate who like
Speaker 3: it was great. His name is Jordan Heath. He still
Speaker 3: plays in Japan. So we went there together and he
Speaker 3: was my boy, and I was like, this is exactly awesome,
Speaker 3: Like this is.
Speaker 1: He played and you played in the EuroLeague, euro Cup, EuroCup.
Speaker 2: Which cup?
Speaker 3: It's just it was just called eurocups. Like eurally, euro Cup,
Speaker 3: that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Anymore.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, they don't have that. The course we
Speaker 3: were in, I believe that's euro Cup. Yes, that's EuroCup.
Speaker 2: So what was it like to play with your brother?
Speaker 3: I mean it was amazing, Like, but my brother was
Speaker 3: also like trying to be like the coach, the GM everything.
Speaker 3: I'm like, dude, just like just play, just rely, because
Speaker 3: like I didn't. He didn't play his best. I know
Speaker 3: he could have played better because I think he just
Speaker 3: had like a million things on his mind because like
Speaker 3: he wanted to work. So I'm like, bros, just like play.
Speaker 3: It was a seventh year overseas. It was my second
Speaker 3: year and I just wanted to Like I came off
Speaker 3: that year and I was like I had to chip
Speaker 3: my shoulder, like I'm going to prove people because like honestly,
Speaker 3: I'm a realistic If I can't make a certain amount
Speaker 3: of money in Europe. I'm going home, like I'm gonna
Speaker 3: start my life back home. And I love basketball, but
Speaker 3: I'm like, this isn't it. This sacrifice is too much
Speaker 3: for a little money. So yeah, it was great, man,
Speaker 3: like it was we he lived. He lived on the
Speaker 3: third floor. I live on the second floor. My boy
Speaker 3: lived on the first floor. It was amazing, It really was.
Speaker 2: What do you guys do?
Speaker 3: A bunch of video games? Like we live in this
Speaker 3: like shitty town. Like it was horrible, like horrible.
Speaker 2: There's somebody else that.
Speaker 1: It's like everybody talked about like I'm making money, I'm
Speaker 1: a presure.
Speaker 2: What did you do? Like I can play video games
Speaker 2: every day.
Speaker 3: I would do every day Like I was like simple life.
Speaker 2: You know, I have a bud.
Speaker 1: I have a buddy who named Gave Frank. He's actually
Speaker 1: a doctor in Wilmington. Kind of a fake guy though
Speaker 1: he does he basically prescribes to a medicine have more
Speaker 1: drug addicts.
Speaker 2: Anyway, shout out to Gabe, you're listening.
Speaker 1: But he was like he was in like I think
Speaker 1: he played little in Israel and then he was like
Speaker 1: in the CBA, and then he went to medical school.
Speaker 1: And he like was plunking out of medical school. It's like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck, dude. He's like, bro, I've been playing basketball,
Speaker 1: which means you go to the gym and then you
Speaker 1: come back and you fucking play video games all day,
Speaker 1: and then you go back to the gym and then
Speaker 1: you get something to eat, and then maybe you play
Speaker 1: video games or maybe you go out looking for chicks,
Speaker 1: and then you go to sleep, and then you get
Speaker 1: up and you do it again. He's like, that's not
Speaker 1: really setting me up. Or medical school, Like I got
Speaker 1: to remember, like I gotta be up like twenty hours
Speaker 1: of the day, like studying like eighteen of them.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that's a pretty good point, right,
Speaker 2: What I do when I.
Speaker 1: Do so I don't actually have to work, right, just
Speaker 1: like do shit that I get paid for, but I
Speaker 1: don't actually have to do real stuff. So okay, So
Speaker 1: you play in Belgium.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then what I had a good year there,
Speaker 3: end up going to Spain. I went from there to
Speaker 3: Spain Mercia, so actually I led the It was like
Speaker 3: second in the euro Cup in scoring. So I had
Speaker 3: a good year, advanced my game went to Spain kind
Speaker 3: of like an up and down year there. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean Spain was nice and all, but it was just
Speaker 3: a decent year. It didn't really move the needle for me.
Speaker 3: I had two years. I didn't move the needle for
Speaker 3: me my first year, in my third year, my third
Speaker 3: year is very flat. Then we went to that team
Speaker 3: in Turkey in the middle of like nowhere basically, you know,
Speaker 3: and like my agent had, you know, it was like,
Speaker 3: do you want to go back to Mercia, which is
Speaker 3: like kind of like an Arizona, like I lived on
Speaker 3: a golf course. Do you want to go in Arizona?
Speaker 3: Or do you want to go to Mercia? Do you
Speaker 3: want to go to Strasburg, beautiful French town, they're very
Speaker 3: good in the French League. Or do you want to
Speaker 3: go to this team in like Turkey. I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's like I can't even pronounce her name. I'm like,
Speaker 3: what's that team? You know what I mean, like you
Speaker 3: know they need your score? Okay, what's the team name?
Speaker 3: Like where? I don't care where it is at this point,
Speaker 3: like I need to go play and have a good season.
Speaker 3: So and this is my second year married and I'm
Speaker 3: like Valley. I told my wife, like we're gonna go
Speaker 3: to this place over here. I told, I said, listen,
Speaker 3: you gotta give me like nine months here. I'm going
Speaker 3: to dial it in and then you know, we'll be
Speaker 3: fine after that, I promise. So I went to the
Speaker 3: small team in Turkey and it really worked out.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Like I had great teammates. So I had Sean Marshall
Speaker 3: who went to Boston College. Sure, Josh Duncan, great format Xavier,
Speaker 3: who played at Xavier. Yeah, Jeff he was Pendergraph at
Speaker 3: Arizona State. Uh he's name, yeah, Jeff ayra Is Now
Speaker 3: it was Jeff E. J Rowland played at Saint Mary's.
Speaker 3: So like, I just had like a great group of
Speaker 3: like Americans. It was just like a great stepping stone
Speaker 3: in my career because from there I went on to
Speaker 3: Red Star, which was like a B which was a
Speaker 3: big jump.
Speaker 1: Yes, the Red Star. Yeah, first, when did you get
Speaker 1: the Red Star? Like September training all that stuff.
Speaker 3: I guess like second week in August?
Speaker 2: What's his training line? You know?
Speaker 3: I had a favorable coach that year, which a godsend
Speaker 3: because I had heard horror stories. But like, I'm whatever,
Speaker 3: twenty seven, so I'm like whatever, I'll do whatever I
Speaker 3: have to do. But he was great man Like, he
Speaker 3: was so calm, he was so like what you wouldn't
Speaker 3: think a Serbian would be.
Speaker 2: And don't think he's they like super tall point guards.
Speaker 3: They do. I had first sure at Joe Raglan. My
Speaker 3: second year there had Lorenzo Brown. I'm a two. I
Speaker 3: changed to it too. Yeah, my second year, after my
Speaker 3: second year in Belgium, my team in Spain put me
Speaker 3: at the two. We had a point guard named Facu Compazo,
Speaker 3: who's very good. I don't know if you know, of course, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's really good. So he was So I started playing
Speaker 3: the two, and I was like, whoa, this is way
Speaker 3: easier because like.
Speaker 2: I don't have to run, just go get buckets.
Speaker 3: Like I remember I was playing the point guard from
Speaker 3: that team in Belgium. I'm like bringing the ball up
Speaker 3: every single time. Guys like hounding me, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm six and six to two, but I'm not like
Speaker 3: the fastest guy. So like, if you get to put
Speaker 3: a little point guard on me, like he's gonna turn
Speaker 3: me three or four times, that's exhausting over the course
Speaker 3: of the game. Or and you got to shoot, you
Speaker 3: do all this stuff. So I started playing the two
Speaker 3: and I remember my brother used to come off and
Speaker 3: I'd be drenched in sweat and I look at my brother.
Speaker 3: He's sweating. But I'm like, dude, like I'm working like
Speaker 3: three times harder than you because he was playing the two.
Speaker 3: So finally when they put me at the two, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 3: this is like way easier. So at that time in
Speaker 3: Red Star I was playing, I was playing the two.
Speaker 3: My first year, I had Joe Raglan, he played at
Speaker 3: Wichita State, great player.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And then my second year is Lorenzo Brown was the
Speaker 3: point guard.
Speaker 2: My second year Brown could drop some dimes too.
Speaker 1: What is that We've I've everybody seen that atmosphere on
Speaker 1: like Instagram?
Speaker 2: What's that shit like to play? Man?
Speaker 3: Like you you know some days, like you show up
Speaker 3: to a game, you're just like don't for some reason,
Speaker 3: you just like don't have it. Like he's just like
Speaker 3: maybe in a fog, like maybe if you took a
Speaker 3: nap before the game, was like I just can't wake up.
Speaker 3: You're selling cold water on your face. You just like
Speaker 3: I can't wake up. It doesn't matter if you had
Speaker 3: a bad nap and you can't wake up when you
Speaker 3: walk into that gym, like they're there before you are,
Speaker 3: So you're walking into a big game and it's going
Speaker 3: to be packed. As you're walking into the gym, you
Speaker 3: hear them they're in the gym already, and you're like,
Speaker 3: and there's there's ten bodyguards on the side of you
Speaker 3: with helmets and guns and invest and you're like, yo,
Speaker 3: like let's fucking go, Like there's no way we're losing tonight,
Speaker 3: and I'll never forget. Like they playing this gym called
Speaker 3: Pioneer and I call it like the Madison Square Guard
Speaker 3: of Europe. It's like the best gym. It's the best
Speaker 3: gym in the world because it's like it just goes straight.
Speaker 3: The sides just go like straight up and everyone's standing,
Speaker 3: so it feels like everyone's just on top of you
Speaker 3: and they're just like jumping and cheating, lighting off.
Speaker 2: Flares, let off flares, like the flair thing is like
Speaker 2: what what? What is? What is going on here?
Speaker 3: I'm not like I remember we played a game in
Speaker 3: the Championship, Game five of the Championship to go to
Speaker 3: the euro League my first year, and this place is
Speaker 3: absolutely like fact. I mean, they delayed the game for
Speaker 3: forty five minutes because there was because when we went
Speaker 3: to this team at Montenegro, they were like spitting on us.
Speaker 3: They were like pushing us literally in warm ups, like
Speaker 3: throwing the ball. Boys took the ball, threw it in
Speaker 3: the stands. The fans would take the ball, and we're
Speaker 3: in warm ups. It's like, yo, can you give us
Speaker 3: our ball back? And they're pegging the ball at you,
Speaker 3: and you go, this is crazy. I mean, my assistant coach,
Speaker 3: he's at the end of the you know when you
Speaker 3: do layup lines, he's at the end giving you high fives.
Speaker 3: If you looked at the back of his jacket, there
Speaker 3: was lookies just like all over the back of his jacket.
Speaker 3: So we lost game four and we're like all right,
Speaker 3: like wait until they come to our place. This is
Speaker 3: going to be insane. And I remember and shoot around
Speaker 3: like guys, like, the game's gonna get delayed tonight by
Speaker 3: probably like an hour, so just know that because our
Speaker 3: fans are gonna go nuts. So you know, the other
Speaker 3: team is like Norris Cole, Earl Clark, who else is
Speaker 3: on that team? Trying to think, but some players, some guys.
Speaker 3: So we're in warm ups and you know we're going
Speaker 3: to its place as nuts and they run out and
Speaker 3: the place is booing and blah blah blah. And you
Speaker 3: know how I told you about how the ball boys
Speaker 3: took the ball and the bro we had like these
Speaker 3: like mobsters and they put like specific people there, like
Speaker 3: three or four mobsters. They took the ball and they
Speaker 3: start walking towards them and they're at mid court going
Speaker 3: like in the middle like you know, one, two, three,
Speaker 3: go team. They're looking at him, they're walking towards him
Speaker 3: like come here, come get the ball, like this, come
Speaker 3: get the ball. And this is game five to go
Speaker 3: to the Yearly, Like this is you have to win
Speaker 3: your title to get promoted to the Yearly. And they're like,
Speaker 3: come get the ball. And I'm like yo, I'm looking
Speaker 3: down like trying to go through warm ups. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 3: this is like a movie. This is crazy. And so
Speaker 3: like they didn't give him the ball, and then they're
Speaker 3: throwing fireworks someone through like a whole thing of coke
Speaker 3: like and everyone kind of looked at that guy like,
Speaker 3: you know, don't throw soda in the court. It's gonna
Speaker 3: ruin the court. I can't remember that they delayed the game,
Speaker 3: but I remember when the game started. I'm like Guarden,
Speaker 3: Norse Cole and north fast guy, and but it was
Speaker 3: so crazy in there. He gets the ball like and
Speaker 3: I'm picking them up like ninety four and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 3: I'm right here, and that only that place could make
Speaker 3: me do that, like I'm right here and like you're
Speaker 3: not going anywhere type yo. And like I remember at
Speaker 3: one point we're up like fifty, We're up like seventy
Speaker 3: something to twenty something against a team with good players.
Speaker 3: It was wild, man, it was it was it was
Speaker 3: a movie.
Speaker 2: Why'd you quit?
Speaker 3: Because I couldn't My body couldn't do it anymore, like
Speaker 3: I had. What happened to me last year was like
Speaker 3: it was an awful experience, man, Like my wife just
Speaker 3: asked me here like an hour ago, and how do
Speaker 3: you feel, you know, how you did it? I'm actually like,
Speaker 3: I'm actually relieved because what I was going through, Like
Speaker 3: I don't want any athlete.
Speaker 2: To go through that ever ever, which is which is what.
Speaker 3: So I was in Milan these past couple of years
Speaker 3: and we won the championship. My first year, I got
Speaker 3: surgery on my elbow to clean it up, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, four to six week recovery, like scoping the elbow,
Speaker 3: cleaning it out, take out a bone spur. Four six
Speaker 3: weeks perfect, won't miss any time. Fine, and I had
Speaker 3: another year of my deal. Get the surgery done. June
Speaker 3: twenty fourth, you know, go home back to the States.
Speaker 3: I had it done in Italy and my arm's just
Speaker 3: like hurting. I'm like, man, what's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 3: And the doctor's like, oh, no, worry, the pain's gonna
Speaker 3: go away. The pain didn't go away, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, my arm locked up. Yeah, what what's going on?
Speaker 3: What is that? So then I ended up having to
Speaker 3: go back to Italy in late August and they think
Speaker 3: my elbow's frozen, right, So they're taking my elbow and
Speaker 3: they're just like ranking it back and forth, cranking it
Speaker 3: back and forth. Like I'm in like tears, like I'm
Speaker 3: like lightheaded and hurts so much. Eventually we go get
Speaker 3: an MRI. We go back to see the doctor and
Speaker 3: they're like, yeah, like, you have a bunch of stuff
Speaker 3: that grew back in your arm. It's called calcification. You
Speaker 3: have a bunch of stuff that grew back in your arm.
Speaker 3: We got to operate on that again. So I'm like
Speaker 3: all right, okay, fine, So they operate on it again
Speaker 3: like August nights, and I get I have the Tommy
Speaker 3: John scar here. It's like, right, you know, a scar
Speaker 3: like this big, same thing on this side. They took
Speaker 3: out ten and a half ounces of the stuff that
Speaker 3: gri on my arm, which is like a like a
Speaker 3: steak like it's it's it took out a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: And again, right after that surgery, we go through the
Speaker 3: same type of rehab. I mean like I'm on the
Speaker 3: hospital bed and they're moving my arm back and forth
Speaker 3: and I'm like bleeding through the bandage. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's this. It's extremely painful. My god, this is what
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I
Speaker 3: go back and recovering for the next two months. They're
Speaker 3: just cranking my arm back and forth. My golass staying hurts.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, arm stops moving again, Like what's
Speaker 3: going on? So like, oh, you know, it's okay, it's okay,
Speaker 3: it's okay. So come I was supposed to come back
Speaker 3: for Christmas. Well we have some injuries going on. So
Speaker 3: they're like, well you should play. You know, it's going
Speaker 3: to get better, right, that's the mentality. It's going to
Speaker 3: get better as you play. Somehow, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 3: you know I've never gone through this. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: so I'll play a game, and man, when I tell
Speaker 3: you before the first game I played from June to December,
Speaker 3: I think I literally made ten three pointers total. I
Speaker 3: could not reach the basket. You could have put a
Speaker 3: million dollars at the top of the key, say abillity
Speaker 3: make one out of ten. I couldn't. I had nerve damage.
Speaker 3: I couldn't literally I couldn't follow through, Like my hand
Speaker 3: would go like this, Like I couldn't even shoot, Like
Speaker 3: the ball will go two feet in front of me.
Speaker 3: So some days I would be like, you know, I
Speaker 3: step into it. I could finally get it there. So
Speaker 3: there's like play some games. You know we're shorting guys.
Speaker 3: You know this party recovery process. So we're playing some games.
Speaker 3: I'm playing the point. At this point, I literally have
Speaker 3: one arm. I have my left arm. I can't shoot
Speaker 3: threes in my right arm. I played three four games
Speaker 3: all of a sudden. For the last game, you know,
Speaker 3: I just played so bad. I was in so much pain.
Speaker 3: They're giving me the strongest pain killer. It's not working.
Speaker 3: I start freaking out, you know, on the doctors and everything,
Speaker 3: like what are we doing? Like this is this is joke.
Speaker 3: So we're like, all right, take January off, you know,
Speaker 3: let it heal all this stuff. Okay, take January off.
Speaker 3: Nothing's happening. So at this point, like I'm on a
Speaker 3: contract yere, time is ticking. Europe is super cutthroat, and
Speaker 3: like I'm thirty three and I had all these plans,
Speaker 3: like I finished my first year in Milan like really well,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I want to be in Milan
Speaker 3: for the rest of my career, and I thought I
Speaker 3: established myself like I should be here. Everyone thinks I
Speaker 3: will be here for the rest of my career. And
Speaker 3: it's really good money, by the way. So I uh,
Speaker 3: after January goes, it's not getting any better, and I'm
Speaker 3: like all right, guys, like I'm gonna go see my
Speaker 3: own doctor here like this is not working. I drive
Speaker 3: to Munich with my family. I go see the Bayern
Speaker 3: Munich doctor who's supposed to be like you know, he's
Speaker 3: top he top level. He looks my arm and he's
Speaker 3: like that's impossible. How can you play like that's a joke.
Speaker 3: We go get an MRI. He tells me, yeah, you
Speaker 3: need another surgery. You know, the doctor didn't take out
Speaker 3: the piece that's blocking your reflection, is what he said, Mike,
Speaker 3: you kidding me. I'm like all right, man, Like it
Speaker 3: was like, you know, when my wife asked me how
Speaker 3: you know, how are you doing now? I said, I'm
Speaker 3: relieved because that moment in Munich when he told me
Speaker 3: I needed another surgery right then and there, he basically
Speaker 3: said your career is over. Like in my eyes, like
Speaker 3: that's what I heard. Like I was crying, man, it
Speaker 3: was horrible. Like I'm literally like walking the streets of
Speaker 3: Munich after that, like literally cried like this is like
Speaker 3: this is a joke, you know, So take my family
Speaker 3: back to the States. I'm gonna get the surgery done
Speaker 3: in the States. Trying to find good doctors. Finally found the
Speaker 3: Yankees doctor and he looks at my arm and he
Speaker 3: just goes.
Speaker 2: Who is it.
Speaker 3: I'll check, Yeah, I'll check David Dave, I don't check.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, oh, And he.
Speaker 3: Doesn't hold back. He looks at my arm and goes,
Speaker 3: what a fucking disaster. He goes, what is that? I'm like, doc, please,
Speaker 3: like don't tell me it's that bad. Please. He goes,
Speaker 3: what a fucking disaster. He goes, we don't. He goes
Speaker 3: to scar you. He goes, we don't do that. We
Speaker 3: don't do that at all. And he goes, what have
Speaker 3: you been doing? Free habbing? And they've been cranking my arm?
Speaker 4: He goes.
Speaker 3: He puts his hands on his head. He's like, no,
Speaker 3: what are you doing? So I'm like all right. Like
Speaker 3: he goes, you want to get the surgery. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm here. He goes, and I said to him, I go,
Speaker 3: can you save my arm? He goes, I'll try. He goes,
Speaker 3: it's awful as it is, but I'll try. Like when
Speaker 3: I tell you, like my arm was like like this
Speaker 3: is almost perfect extension, Like it was here to here.
Speaker 3: That's all I had. Was there, That's all I had.
Speaker 3: So I go and get the surgery. March nineteenth after like, man,
Speaker 3: after like the week, I'm like, all right, we it's
Speaker 3: a movement here all right. After two weeks, I started
Speaker 3: shooting basketball and I feel like a little kid again. Man.
Speaker 3: I'm like, holy, I can get the ball in my
Speaker 3: shooting pocket. I couldn't get the ball my shooting pocket
Speaker 3: was gone. My arm couldn't bend. It still it doesn't
Speaker 3: really bend, but I can get the ball in my
Speaker 3: shooting pocket. Once I got the ball in my shooting pocket,
Speaker 3: I looked at my wife. I'm like, oh, we can
Speaker 3: do this. Oh we can definitely do this. So I
Speaker 3: text my coach right away because they ruled me out
Speaker 3: for the season, because my physical therapist was like, you
Speaker 3: can come back in May, and I'm like, WHOA really May? Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I texted my coach and I'm like, hey, coach,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be back for the playoffs, like I'm gonna play.
Speaker 3: I told them I'm gonna play in the playoffs. You
Speaker 3: can only play six Bogners. We had ten, so I said.
Speaker 3: I text my coach. I said with the confidence, crazy conference,
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna play. I'm gonna practic, I'm gonna play.
Speaker 3: So I worked my butt off in Florida for like
Speaker 3: the month of April. I show up there after the
Speaker 3: day after the last regular season game. I have four
Speaker 3: practices to prove myself. I basically I haven't played all year,
Speaker 3: and I was back man like, I was hitting shots
Speaker 3: and I was just like, oh, like this is this
Speaker 3: is unbelievable, like you know, talking shit all this stuff,
Speaker 3: and I felt like I had to miss the beat
Speaker 3: he puts me in the rotation. I'm like, wow, man,
Speaker 3: I'm like kind of tearing up. I'm like, Dad, I
Speaker 3: can't believe we just pulled that off. Bro, I get
Speaker 3: I get to the warm ups of the game, so
Speaker 3: they didn't announce me, and I was playing until I
Speaker 3: literally showed up and I walked out my warm up
Speaker 3: and everyone's clapping. I got goose bumps. I go and
Speaker 3: I'm doing floaters my my routines, like I just start
Speaker 3: with floaters. I go up with a floater.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: I come down and I just tear my cap and
Speaker 3: I felt it go right away. I just I tore
Speaker 3: my cap and I knew it right away, Like I
Speaker 3: was like wow, like that just like I'm like looking
Speaker 3: up with my that really just happened. Really, go back
Speaker 3: to my locker room. I'm texted my wife and text
Speaker 3: my brother. I'm like, I just tore my calf, like
Speaker 3: I know for a fact, it's gone, Like what do
Speaker 3: I do? And then we kind of came up with
Speaker 3: a solution like you gotta play, like you got to
Speaker 3: show Europe that your elbows healthy. So I'm like walking
Speaker 3: on like I'm walking on like the edge of my foot,
Speaker 3: walking on my heel, playing the game and I hit
Speaker 3: my only three and I came out of the game
Speaker 3: and I didn't play. I didn't play again because basically
Speaker 3: they were rehabbing me to come back for the finals.
Speaker 3: I tore it again. It wasn't ready. So that's another story.
Speaker 3: But I get back to America. Second day in America,
Speaker 3: my agent hits me up and says, yeah, the team
Speaker 3: doesn't want your back. They don't want to say a
Speaker 3: risk on you. I was like, after all, that, really,
Speaker 3: don't you don't even tell me to my faith, you
Speaker 3: just you tell me After I left my second day
Speaker 3: in America. So that was like between Munich and when
Speaker 3: I heard that news, those were extremely tough, like I
Speaker 3: could have freaking broke my hand and punched a wall
Speaker 3: like it was. That was that frustrated. So I waited around.
Speaker 3: I'm sending workouts to teams and I'm and I'm I'm
Speaker 3: slinging it. I'm shooting it well, but everyone has question
Speaker 3: marks about my status. I didn't have any year league offers,
Speaker 3: and I told my agent, like I just I only
Speaker 3: went year league, like I'm not playing anything else because
Speaker 3: I established myself in the league and I thought I
Speaker 3: can play in the league for you know, start, you know,
Speaker 3: two three, four more years. So he came with China
Speaker 3: like late, I think late in September, which is late,
Speaker 3: you know, Europe's already going on. So he came to
Speaker 3: me with with China. I said, yeah, I'll do It's
Speaker 3: great money, Yeah, let's do it. So we go to Shanghai,
Speaker 3: fly my family out to Shanghai. We get there and
Speaker 3: I'm practicing with them, and they're doing two a days,
Speaker 3: two and a half hour, both taped, you know, and
Speaker 3: I take a couple of hits in my elbow and
Speaker 3: I'm just like, this isn't this isn't it. Like this
Speaker 3: isn't this isn't it. And in China everyone signs month
Speaker 3: to month contracts. In the first two months, the last
Speaker 3: five months are guaranteed. So I'm like, listen, like, let's
Speaker 3: just call it what it is. Like I told myself,
Speaker 3: like this isn't going to work, Like I'm not going
Speaker 3: to make it. Like I literally woke up at the
Speaker 3: middle of the night and you start crying to my
Speaker 3: wife and I'm just like listen, like I'm done. I'm done,
Speaker 3: Like this is what like this stress level, Like I've
Speaker 3: stressed over my dad being fired, over going to different schools,
Speaker 3: over living all these countries. This was like completely on
Speaker 3: another level what I was battling with. And I was like,
Speaker 3: where do Let's just go home and we just went
Speaker 3: home and like and that was it. That was it.
Speaker 3: So now it's either you know, I've been I've been
Speaker 3: talking to my agent. My agent's extremely powerful in Europe.
Speaker 3: His name is Mishko or is Nanovich. He represents Jokic
Speaker 3: and he's got that the team Mega, I don't know
Speaker 3: what their name. This year they usually Mega B Max,
Speaker 3: the pink team. So he's got them over there, and
Speaker 3: I told, you know, maybe i'll you know, talk to
Speaker 3: him about helping him out and sending kids to college
Speaker 3: because there's a whole bunch of European talent. It's kind
Speaker 3: of it's it's it's the new wave. So we've had
Speaker 3: discussions about that and we're we're gonna talk tomorrow about it.
Speaker 3: A couple of NBA teams have reached out for different purposes,
Speaker 3: whether it's player development, scouting and whatnot. So I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go around there for the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: All right, that's it for part one of of our
Speaker 1: our pod. I think it's probably gonna be a three
Speaker 1: part pod with Billy Barron. Pretty awesome stuff. Reminded of
Speaker 1: the Doug Gottlieb broadcast live daily on Fox Sports Trading
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: We go from three.
Speaker 1: To five Eastern twelve to Pacific. You can download that
Speaker 1: as a podcast. We even download this podcast, and I
Speaker 1: just I have so many thanks for people who they
Speaker 1: continue to make this not only this pod possible, but
Speaker 1: but this gig is special.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: I mentioned a lot meats in the in I'll mention
Speaker 1: it in the podcast. Scott and Kelly Perry, you guys
Speaker 1: have been awesome. We're starting to, you know, work some
Speaker 1: some business with the gun, which of course is a
Speaker 1: basketball I guess feeding training device if you will. And then,
Speaker 1: as many of you have noticed, our good friends at
Speaker 1: Liquid Death have hopped on board as well with the
Speaker 1: program and with me specifically, and I've been murdering my
Speaker 1: thirst ever since. Well listen, we got more all balls
Speaker 1: to come. Okay, so make sure you tell it for and.
Speaker 2: Download rate download, subscribe and rate, review and uh.
Speaker 1: In a couple of days we'll drop part two, and
Speaker 1: a couple of days after that we'll drop part three.
Speaker 2: It gets better and better. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2: I'm Doug Godli.
Speaker 3: This is all ball