Speaker 1: Speaks to the plan in Charlamagne to God here and
Speaker 1: as we come closer the closing out this year, I
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you for tuning into the
Speaker 1: Black Podcast Network. There have been so many great moments
Speaker 1: over the past year. Take a listen to some of
Speaker 1: those captivating moments in this special best of episode.
Speaker 2: Seven time All Star, two time Defensive Player of the Year,
Speaker 2: two thousand and six Champions, three time Defensive Player of
Speaker 2: the Year.
Speaker 3: Man, Welcome to the show, Alonzo.
Speaker 4: Thank you appreciate.
Speaker 3: Than having me. Gentlemen.
Speaker 2: You spoke to the growth of the game and the
Speaker 2: vision of David Stern. And you know, as we currently
Speaker 2: speak five straight years foreign players and won the MVPs
Speaker 2: and the knock. When you were coming in the game
Speaker 2: and when we were coming in the game was European
Speaker 2: players were a little soft and they couldn't kind of
Speaker 2: fit into the physicality of our game. Skilled we couldn't
Speaker 2: fit into the physicality that game. And I think with
Speaker 2: the growth of the game, it's kind of grown more
Speaker 2: toward a European style of basketball.
Speaker 4: And you know what, and the reason being is because
Speaker 4: the mentality is different over there. The culture speak to
Speaker 4: that is different too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean they grew up a little hungrier, almost like
Speaker 4: we did when we were younger. You know, there's a
Speaker 4: certain hunger level. I was with David Stern. We were
Speaker 4: playing an exhibition game and when we had the Big
Speaker 4: Three here in Miami, and I was coming down with
Speaker 4: him and I coming down on the elevator, okay, and
Speaker 4: I just started working with the team recently and as
Speaker 4: vice president, and I said David, I said, what is
Speaker 4: it about us coming over here to play? And from
Speaker 4: a business perspective, I had to think about it when
Speaker 4: he responded to me. But his direct response was, all
Speaker 4: we need it's three hundred million of them. And I
Speaker 4: thought about it when you think of the volume of
Speaker 4: eyes that are following the game of basketball over in China.
Speaker 4: I mean he had billions, a billion, over a billion,
Speaker 4: one point two one point three billion people over there,
Speaker 4: and he said, oh, we need is three hundred million, which, which,
Speaker 4: for lack of a better word, trumps which trump's the
Speaker 4: amount of eyes that we have here. You know, So
Speaker 4: when you think about the business perspective of it, you know,
Speaker 4: it's like, you know, the volume of eyes that are global, really,
Speaker 4: you know, has has been a lot more uh, beneficial
Speaker 4: for the league because from an international perspective, now we're
Speaker 4: sparking the interest of this young, hungry generation of Europeans
Speaker 4: and then the national players, whether it be Africans, you know,
Speaker 4: whether it be you know, you know, whether it be
Speaker 4: you know, Europeans and Serbians. And you think about when Miyama,
Speaker 4: you think about you know, Joel and Bieb. I mean,
Speaker 4: the list goes on.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: You know, you think about the Joker, you know, you
Speaker 4: think that was sparked by the seed playing it by
Speaker 4: David Stern back in nineteen ninety two when we implemented
Speaker 4: the Dream Team and it just spread like wildflife.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm sure he's happy and down.
Speaker 2: Obviously, the growth of the game sixth straight overseas MVPs.
Speaker 2: Do you see this kind of trend continuing to grow
Speaker 2: or do you think American players will come back around
Speaker 2: and kind of meet the challenge.
Speaker 4: There is a reason why each team has a staff
Speaker 4: of three, four, five, even six folks that travel throughout
Speaker 4: the year outside of our country to identify table There's
Speaker 4: a reason why each NBA team has an international scouting stand.
Speaker 4: That's the reason for that, you know, and that's where
Speaker 4: we are. That's what the league is. And I don't
Speaker 4: see it going backwards at all, you know, I see
Speaker 4: it growing even more. I don't know the exact percentage,
Speaker 4: but you know we're coming close to almost fifty percent.
Speaker 4: You know, you got to think of the amount of
Speaker 4: jobs in the league. Now, you only got four hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty jobs. Man, So you got millions of young
Speaker 4: people playing the game of basketball in the United States
Speaker 4: that are dreaming about playing in the NBA. But what
Speaker 4: gets in the way of this process of developing your
Speaker 4: game and doing all the things you need to do
Speaker 4: to take care of your bus body is the money,
Speaker 4: you know. And it starts with au basketball. You know,
Speaker 4: it's basketball is tainted. I play basketball differ much different,
Speaker 4: and now that's tainted by these industries man, you know,
Speaker 4: giving these coaches money, you know. And it's not even
Speaker 4: about developing the player, it's not it's not even about
Speaker 4: developing the fundamentals and the skills of the game. It's
Speaker 4: not about that anymore. When over there, that's all it's about.
Speaker 4: That's all. It's a power man.
Speaker 3: The mean, look at Luca Jesus christ Man, I mean.
Speaker 4: His skill level is all the charge is off the
Speaker 4: charge and it's not like that. You know, our young
Speaker 4: people here can't develop like that as well. But it's
Speaker 4: too much. It gets in the way of it. You know,
Speaker 4: it's too much gets in the way of that process.
Speaker 2: You know, Tumbo becomes a teammate too, incredible shot blockers.
Speaker 2: We heard a story about but Tumble trying to pick
Speaker 2: up girls at the Georgetown bar. Can you tell us
Speaker 2: anything about that?
Speaker 4: Hey, listen, man, listen. We all had a good time. Yeah,
Speaker 4: the k had an even bat. He took advantage of
Speaker 4: those moments when we had as part as you go
Speaker 4: to because he was the one that was heads above
Speaker 4: everybody else, so all the eyes is on him. He
Speaker 4: took advantage of it. But we had a lot of
Speaker 4: We had a lot of fun. We had some memorable moments.
Speaker 4: Probably one of the most memorable moments that I had
Speaker 4: with him, we were we were dominates and his feet
Speaker 4: hung off the bed in the dorm.
Speaker 2: And everything because he's about seven two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's seven two. But anyway, one day he uh,
Speaker 4: he was in the kitchen cooking and he.
Speaker 3: Ran out of he uh, he ran out of flower.
Speaker 4: He was trying to make some chickens, so he used
Speaker 4: so corn bread mix.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: He had the whole apartment smoking. He had tried apartment
Speaker 4: smoke coming.
Speaker 3: All out of the.
Speaker 4: In there, chicken and chicken and bird on the outside,
Speaker 4: and it was wrong inside. It was like I was like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, you need.
Speaker 3: Cornmeal bro not corn bread.
Speaker 6: Cornmeal bro not corn bread.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, Thank you, domin Man.
Speaker 3: Thanks always good to see you guys.
Speaker 2: Obviously a career full of highlights. Are there any dunks
Speaker 2: that's to kind of stand out to your mind? You
Speaker 2: said you love dunkle on big dudes, that's you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think one of my favorite dunks was against Bobbling
Speaker 5: there at the end of the game. I remember, I'm
Speaker 5: on the right side and I come to the middle
Speaker 5: and Kevin Greedy cuts me off and I go back base.
Speaker 5: I say, here, jump, that's it. That's the one. Was
Speaker 5: that a double punt reverse on to the side, so
Speaker 5: you see a ball fake hold hold?
Speaker 6: The post game though, how many guards that post game?
Speaker 3: Back?
Speaker 7: Then?
Speaker 5: Hey, let me tell you he didn't speak to me
Speaker 5: for nine years.
Speaker 3: I said, why you why do you not? I mean,
Speaker 3: what's up with that?
Speaker 5: He said, it's just recently my daughter said I need
Speaker 5: to get by. He said, it's this little skinny kid
Speaker 5: dunk on you like that. You should be embarrassed.
Speaker 2: Damn when you kind of see how that's yourself. Obviously
Speaker 2: you can put yourself back, do you.
Speaker 5: What do you think one of the things that you
Speaker 5: could never put a little guard like that on me?
Speaker 5: Because if you switch, I'm going right to the post.
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna be out on the wing. You're not
Speaker 5: gonna switch. He's thinking that you're gonna hide on. Ain't
Speaker 5: no hiding because we're gonna make you pay for switching.
Speaker 5: And I didn't know that was gonna happen because I
Speaker 5: thought I thought maybe I closed my eyes when I
Speaker 5: went by baseline and we went up, he was at
Speaker 5: the rim like this, you went and I kept going up.
Speaker 5: He was coming down and he looked at me all
Speaker 5: the way down to court, and my teammates said, don't
Speaker 5: go back to the basket.
Speaker 3: Cause he's gonna suck you up.
Speaker 6: Wasn't letting that happen?
Speaker 5: No, no treat you told my tough guys. Let me
Speaker 5: explain something about she ain't letting that happen. There's only
Speaker 5: so much you could say the tree before he slaps
Speaker 5: I'm not going and I've seen him slap many got
Speaker 5: Bill cart right guards. I mean he slaps on gods.
Speaker 5: I said, treat man, why you slap people like that?
Speaker 5: He said, it takes that manhood when I Hey, that's
Speaker 5: what we get man the same way.
Speaker 6: I know that's my dog. I mean the brother.
Speaker 5: That's one of the reason why you don't want to
Speaker 5: play power Forward.
Speaker 6: Look at it right there, that's him and Zeke Oh
Speaker 6: no in it away.
Speaker 5: That said eight foot wings, you're not getting in there.
Speaker 5: And see he had you got you gotta take one
Speaker 5: to get in there, and he had no problem hit.
Speaker 2: Look how far away he's swinging though, like you can't
Speaker 2: even get Yeah.
Speaker 6: You got you got to take one back.
Speaker 5: Then it wasn't no just wolfing wolf wasn't no crazy
Speaker 5: fine nah man. I remember Oak with the first kid
Speaker 5: and jump.
Speaker 3: So he said, I'm gonna hit.
Speaker 8: Your hands, your hands, you know, he scored and just
Speaker 8: jab somebody running back.
Speaker 6: Look, Hey, that's nobody like that.
Speaker 5: Something that came in all out brawl because he dunked
Speaker 5: and Danny ain't. No nobody hit him with his elbow
Speaker 5: because Danny Ain't kept jabbing him in the ribs.
Speaker 3: Every time you go by a pick.
Speaker 5: So that was a perfect opportunity for treating to get him.
Speaker 6: They got you in your bag too.
Speaker 5: Me and Bird got into it, got into a situation
Speaker 5: and I cook man my train ground.
Speaker 3: I couldn't get loose.
Speaker 6: I hate that I couldn't get like.
Speaker 2: Like this is this little the strength and conditioning motherfucker.
Speaker 6: Right, I couldn't get loose. He did on purpose to face.
Speaker 5: He almost broke his neck.
Speaker 2: He took his face and Andrew's a competitor to Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: the back down.
Speaker 5: You know one guy that he's another guy that gave
Speaker 5: me so much respect man that after I retired. Yeah,
Speaker 5: because he was a past man. We we got in
Speaker 5: so many fights from Boston. Man, it was a normal thing.
Speaker 5: But you know what, it was expected. It wasn't personal.
Speaker 5: We're just trying to in between Boston and Detroit and
Speaker 5: New York teams we had. We had it because if
Speaker 5: you hit us, we're hitting you back.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: That was just our attitude. We had a we had
Speaker 5: a policy on our team. Anybody gets into it, bench clear.
Speaker 3: If the bench don't clear, you.
Speaker 2: Find if you didn't come now, you get fined.
Speaker 5: I'm doing just like this I can't after Yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: not giving up twenty five. That was different. No, But
Speaker 5: then you know your fines were like one hundred and
Speaker 5: fifty two hundred dollars fine, you know, and we used
Speaker 5: to we.
Speaker 3: Used to put it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I wouldn't have noticed that, right, Hey, I noticed
Speaker 6: the one we put it in.
Speaker 5: We put it in a pot, you know, and we
Speaker 5: have shooting and shoot for it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's our minimal. That's because it wasn't that much.
Speaker 3: Man. You know, flagrant found.
Speaker 5: We didn't really know what the flagrant found was.
Speaker 3: Everything looked flagrant back.
Speaker 5: Then against the Troy and my horn, he gonna he's
Speaker 5: gonna lie about it if you talk to me.
Speaker 6: I'm coming down and I.
Speaker 5: Get hit by here by my horn, right, I get
Speaker 5: hit and the small on my back by lambing. I
Speaker 5: went like that bam.
Speaker 3: It hit the ground and I wasn't hurt. But I
Speaker 3: just looked up.
Speaker 5: I said, they didn't just snatch me out of the as.
Speaker 5: I just jump out, just start swinging, And then I
Speaker 5: came to my senses. I said, damn, I gotta fight
Speaker 5: these two big now. Then on this side Kevin Willis
Speaker 5: comes up and on this side rollin I.
Speaker 6: Got more braid.
Speaker 5: They got closer, right and you know, and nobody nobody
Speaker 5: right there too.
Speaker 3: He tried to black a shot.
Speaker 5: He was just cheap shot it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I broke my hand on his head though, punched him
Speaker 5: in the back of his head and broke my finger.
Speaker 5: I said, boy, you got a big old head. Boy,
Speaker 5: I had to pay for that.
Speaker 6: You know, I wasn't a guy.
Speaker 5: I didn't start a lot of crap. And it's you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of fighting. But one thing about I wasn't
Speaker 5: gonna start no fighting. I'm on, yeah, you know you're
Speaker 5: not knocking this.
Speaker 3: You know. One thing I.
Speaker 5: Didn't deal with disrespect man. You know, I just played
Speaker 5: my game. You know that's it. But you know, like
Speaker 5: I said, you have certain guys that you don't like.
Speaker 5: I don't care. And like I said, it ain't nothing
Speaker 5: they did. They just don't like. Like like Chuck Person
Speaker 5: played with them. We fought all the time. We fought
Speaker 5: all the time, even in pre season. I'm coming down
Speaker 5: on the court preciendinga hits men knocked the win on me.
Speaker 3: I just got it.
Speaker 5: I just start swinging out. You hit him two or
Speaker 5: three times. Then somebody grabbed me by the neck, and
Speaker 5: I'm choking. They choking me, right, just like what Draymond
Speaker 5: did with Gobert. Then it's arm loosen up and all
Speaker 5: you hear behind him, your boy caves and let him go,
Speaker 5: let him go, and he went limp and I looked.
Speaker 2: Back like, thank you, appreciate the big So if you read,
Speaker 2: if you if you threw punches back, then what was
Speaker 2: that five hundred.
Speaker 5: Two fifty two hundred, Oh god, that's it, man, Hey,
Speaker 5: you fifty you got thrown at a million. He might
Speaker 5: you might have got thrown out, but you might have
Speaker 5: got a technical file.
Speaker 3: You get that second taxtic too, But.
Speaker 2: Twenty five thousand for pushing somebody.
Speaker 5: Man, you know what we would guys would laugh at
Speaker 5: that back then pushing time.
Speaker 3: We got enough time.
Speaker 5: We got pushed and pushed up.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: But you know, for us, it's set the tone, like
Speaker 5: you know the game, discover the game ain't gonna be
Speaker 5: nok for.
Speaker 3: I got fined three million, and he ain't died.
Speaker 2: He said he didn't even die.
Speaker 5: He I remember when you got fired at three thousand,
Speaker 5: watching million dollars.
Speaker 8: So y'all had a total of about what eight uh no,
Speaker 8: not close to ten million, man Ron was eight a piece,
Speaker 8: I mean just me and him was eight. He got five.
Speaker 8: I had three. Wow, And all the other players ended
Speaker 8: up to be like ten.
Speaker 5: So you know, you know right now you talk about fine,
Speaker 5: if you dunk on a guy, you look.
Speaker 3: At him ridiculous back.
Speaker 5: I'm like, come on, man, come.
Speaker 3: On, man, I think I need to call the league
Speaker 3: and go back and watch this.
Speaker 5: You know, you know what he's got the need to
Speaker 5: watch real street ball. Yeah, how them brothers play, Hey,
Speaker 5: they would make a lot of them.
Speaker 6: Or hockey.
Speaker 2: You just go sit down four minutes.
Speaker 6: The league is full a whole bunch of light skinned
Speaker 6: casts and they all ain't like that.
Speaker 5: You ain't gonna get how much of that tell you?
Speaker 6: The toughest life the lead right now, the.
Speaker 5: Tougher light skain you. You talk about life again. The
Speaker 5: toughest nice you got to play this game is Mary's Lucas.
Speaker 5: They enforce what hey throw. Nobody messing with him. That's
Speaker 5: nobody who was the one he knocked someone out? Him
Speaker 5: and Daryl Dawkins went, he didn't. I was when I
Speaker 5: was in college back then. You're not supposed to do it.
Speaker 5: But Marius Lucas and Pete Mary's used to train me
Speaker 5: in the summertime. And you so when I came league,
Speaker 5: I got the toughest guy in the league. Then I
Speaker 5: got the wonder little skilled guy to ever play this
Speaker 5: game working out with me. And you know Mariic's Lucas.
Speaker 5: What do you work out? If you ain't working hard
Speaker 5: with him, he get upset. Man, He'll call you out
Speaker 5: and you ain't gonna question him. You know you've seen
Speaker 5: some of the fights he had.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: Man, Today we have twelve time All Star, eleven time
Speaker 2: All NBA, first player in NBA history to average triple double.
Speaker 2: Give me a p NBA Champ. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 2: Oscar Robbinson.
Speaker 3: You get to see you guys.
Speaker 8: I want to ask you what's what's your opinion on
Speaker 8: athletes and activism. I was thrown in the George for
Speaker 8: a situation and yeah, I saw great was able to
Speaker 8: be a big part of that. And I'm honored because
Speaker 8: I think that's the best thing I've done in my
Speaker 8: Life's do something.
Speaker 3: For for for our people.
Speaker 8: But what's your opinion on athletes and activism? And how
Speaker 8: was it growing up in Indiana dealing with the KKK
Speaker 8: and all that growing up.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Indiana. First.
Speaker 9: I didn't see any white people at all when I
Speaker 9: played ball unless I played against them.
Speaker 3: In Indiana.
Speaker 9: One white person was Bob Collins, who was a writer
Speaker 9: who loved our team and he wrote about it because
Speaker 9: he's writing about the facts. Other than that poor as
Speaker 9: could be mother than five, divorced, two older brothers. We
Speaker 9: had a little little guys on the street. But tell
Speaker 9: you everything you have to know. I really appreciate those guys.
Speaker 9: You know, sometimes they talk about ghettold kids and whatnot
Speaker 9: and and all the bad things. These guys were great.
Speaker 9: They raised you. They tell you what they do about women,
Speaker 9: drugs and everything else, gaming and everything. So so I'm
Speaker 9: happy about that.
Speaker 3: But it's a.
Speaker 9: But you know, it's really interested when when you when
Speaker 9: you live through a lot of different things whatnot, uh
Speaker 9: that you seek change and whatnot. Uh. I think players
Speaker 9: today with the media and you know it's the socially outfits.
Speaker 9: You have to be careful sometimes, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 9: you you disregard your character and what you want to
Speaker 9: say about because I think they can be very helpful
Speaker 9: as helpful and I never forget uh when the kid Uh,
Speaker 9: I can't think of his name. He stepped still, sat
Speaker 9: on his knees. They didn't stand from the national anthem.
Speaker 9: And and I won't tell you the coaches name that
Speaker 9: you'll figured out, and this and this owner was very
Speaker 9: very upset about them.
Speaker 3: What bob me more than anything. The rest of the
Speaker 3: Black Paars didn't support it. I couldn't.
Speaker 9: I could not understand that they didn't like the national
Speaker 9: anthem either, right they should to be honest. I mean,
Speaker 9: I know the national anthem, but I never heard the
Speaker 9: national anthem. When I was playing ball in college. They
Speaker 9: played well, we always in the locker room, never heard it.
Speaker 9: The national anthem is great, I mean I learned came
Speaker 9: to appreciate it, especially when it was in the Olympics.
Speaker 9: We want to we want to go medal. Then boy
Speaker 9: goes up. Something goes through you. You know, you think
Speaker 9: about you think about your life. You know, where are
Speaker 9: you from and how you got there, you know, and
Speaker 9: the guys you're with, and that's what you think about
Speaker 9: those kind of things.
Speaker 3: Think about the words too, just as fall were still
Speaker 3: waiting on something.
Speaker 2: Well, it's true too, but what was that experience like
Speaker 2: Obviously a different time back then when you're representing a
Speaker 2: country that didn't necessarily represent or love you at times.
Speaker 2: What was it like to be able to do that
Speaker 2: and win at the highest level.
Speaker 9: I think this was in nineteen sixty folks, so it
Speaker 9: goes back a few years. I was fortunate because I
Speaker 9: I met I met Oli there, I met Wilman, Rudolph,
Speaker 9: Ray Norton, and Thompson was the high jumper jump first
Speaker 9: guy from the Americans to jump seven feet. It was
Speaker 9: It was great experience for learning things about yourself, about life.
Speaker 9: I never I never been run that many people like
Speaker 9: that in my life. And you go to the Olympic
Speaker 9: village and you know everyone's there and you just socialize
Speaker 9: and meeting people was not you know. I mean I
Speaker 9: knew Wilma read very well. Wilman, Rudolph was a good
Speaker 9: friend of mine. And then I got to meet Ali
Speaker 9: because I kept telling me to tell me the greatest
Speaker 9: man God and tell them tell me, tell me we
Speaker 9: can whoop anybody.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: That's come on.
Speaker 2: I love it. You were co capping with Jerry West.
Speaker 2: We just lost rest in peace.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Jerry was a good friend of mine. We met
Speaker 9: at the Olympic trials in Denver. He was kind of
Speaker 9: quiet at the time, but we got to talk to
Speaker 9: each other about different things, and and the AU was
Speaker 9: very strong in those days, and they would always try
Speaker 9: to get the best team to play against us. You know,
Speaker 9: something's mighty funny about that. As we won the championship,
Speaker 9: I was sitting with sitting with Pete Knell. Was that coach?
Speaker 9: He said, Oscar. He said, I got a difficult task tonight.
Speaker 9: I said, what is it, coach? He said, they don't
Speaker 9: want they don't want Bellamie. I said why. He said,
Speaker 9: you don't know why if they hadn't taken ballot Me
Speaker 9: but had two black guys on the team. This is
Speaker 9: a nineteen sixth of some great players, plan Man, myself
Speaker 9: and Bob Boozer ball Me. We needed him to win
Speaker 9: the championship in Rome. We couldn't have won without him,
Speaker 9: couldn't have won it at all.
Speaker 3: They didn't want him, they didn't want two blacks. No
Speaker 3: here here again.
Speaker 9: I mean, and it's it's a I know, these things
Speaker 9: come up and people don't want to hear these things whatnot.
Speaker 9: Because I had a great experience at the Olympics, I thought,
Speaker 9: I think that was that's the greatest sport event in
Speaker 9: the world for people to get together and and and
Speaker 9: and try to iron out something that differences and whatnot.
Speaker 9: When you run for a medal and and once you
Speaker 9: get a medal, you know, just told told happiness. You know,
Speaker 9: you congratulate the people that that that's running against you,
Speaker 9: but they understead you're happy for them as well.
Speaker 2: Mental health is such a big thing and discussed today,
Speaker 2: but that's just recent. They just maybe the last five
Speaker 2: seven years. Mental health. I mean, with so much racial
Speaker 2: tension back then, although it was the norm, it had
Speaker 2: to affect you day to day. How did that make
Speaker 2: you feel? How were you able to focus on the
Speaker 2: task in hand? How did you get through all the
Speaker 2: stuff you you know, had to unfortunately go through.
Speaker 9: When I went to the universit of Cincinnati, I was
Speaker 9: the first black to play there, and I didn't realize
Speaker 9: it because I'd gone to Cincinnati see Jackie Robinson play
Speaker 9: a lot, and I saw a lot of African American
Speaker 9: people sitting in the stands with not I said, man,
Speaker 9: this is a great sound, great city. So anyway, when
Speaker 9: I go to school there, I didn't see any black people. Man,
Speaker 9: I mean, I'm going to class at nobody, so One
Speaker 9: day I told a coach, I waid I want to
Speaker 9: have a meeting man.
Speaker 3: So I met him eight o'clock in the morning. I said,
Speaker 3: what's going on?
Speaker 9: He told me the stories that they just don't like
Speaker 9: blacks at the school.
Speaker 3: I said, why don't you tell me this now before
Speaker 3: I got here?
Speaker 2: Before I got here.
Speaker 9: A Lisai didn't want to do that because he wanted
Speaker 9: me to come. But anyway, I'm any or commitment, and
Speaker 9: so I was. So I stuck with it. You know,
Speaker 9: it wasn't always easy, right. I sat in my room
Speaker 9: one night, not that, but all the other black guys
Speaker 9: in the same situation up here. Nobody cares, but for
Speaker 9: at least for me, I was a star player of
Speaker 9: the year. That got some tension, you know. But I
Speaker 9: think about all those other players, you know, I really
Speaker 9: felt sorry for them.
Speaker 3: I think that's why I admire you so much.
Speaker 8: I mean, you got a lot of guys today with
Speaker 8: every with all the bonuses and pluses they have, they
Speaker 8: are not able to go out and not not even
Speaker 8: average triple doot, but play to the level you play,
Speaker 8: and they're not really dealing with nothing.
Speaker 3: You was dealing with people threatening your.
Speaker 8: Life, betting your family's life, betting your job threat and
Speaker 8: you still went out there and played to be the
Speaker 8: person you are today. I admire that because you know
Speaker 8: a lot of people that have every think of the world,
Speaker 8: they don't have the confidence to stand up for something
Speaker 8: that that doesn't have nothing, has nothing to do with them.
Speaker 3: You did it your whole career, So.
Speaker 8: I admire that and still be able to be, you know,
Speaker 8: the person who has a basketball player with all that stuff.
Speaker 3: That just says a lot about who you are in life.
Speaker 9: You know, when you get older, if you're realizing that
Speaker 9: more and more, there's so many things that bother you
Speaker 9: on a daily basis, difficult things you got to go on,
Speaker 9: you can't stop. God has has an answer to everybody,
Speaker 9: and he's still in charge, so you can't worry about things.
Speaker 9: A lot of times, you know, you're said unforcunate that
Speaker 9: things happen in your life, that that bother that bother
Speaker 9: you really bother you some terrible things.
Speaker 3: Sometimes, but you got letter play out, but you got
Speaker 3: later playoffs just like that.
Speaker 9: I never forget. There was one guy named Norman Allen
Speaker 9: who lived on our street, and he said he was
Speaker 9: talking one day about players being great, and he said,
Speaker 9: remember one thing, and you're on the court, think about
Speaker 9: think about the game. And I'll so said, they can't
Speaker 9: play until they tossed the ball up. So I said,
Speaker 9: what do you mean by that? He said, allways, talk
Speaker 9: about this guy and that guy before the game doesn't
Speaker 9: mean anything. He's when they tossed the ball up. That's
Speaker 9: when you got to go and see whether you can
Speaker 9: get it done or not. But but uh, but but
Speaker 9: it just it just bothers me more than anything that
Speaker 9: you talked earlier about guys and social social activities whatnot.
Speaker 9: They got to be careful because they're involved with shoot deals,
Speaker 9: television deals, commercials.
Speaker 3: But not I think they can be smart about it.
Speaker 3: There's a way to do it.
Speaker 9: You don't have to go out and curse somebody out
Speaker 9: and call them names and what not. But you know,
Speaker 9: but you can be smart about this, you know, and
Speaker 9: have statements that that are thoughtful.
Speaker 3: You know, conversations, Yes, have the conversations.
Speaker 2: The One and Only Man. Welcome to the show with
Speaker 2: Sean kemp Man.
Speaker 8: A lot of you appears from the nineties in the
Speaker 8: Hall of Fame, Miss Richmond grand Hill as well, but
Speaker 8: Tim Hardaway all in the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 6: Is it time?
Speaker 3: The Hall of Fame?
Speaker 6: Good time?
Speaker 7: But I think so, you know, I've always said that,
Speaker 7: you know, those first eight or nine years that I
Speaker 7: had was was was pretty good, pretty solid, you know,
Speaker 7: pretty solid. And also I will tell you this, I'm
Speaker 7: a six time All Star. So that's you know those
Speaker 7: six times, those six games that I started, you know
Speaker 7: who I had to beat the you know that was Charles,
Speaker 7: that's Carmelon. That's every year. Yeah, so that's pretty consistent basketball, right.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: I will say this, so me going through some problems
Speaker 7: and stuff that I went through in my career also
Speaker 7: hurts you at the end. But I think when you
Speaker 7: look at the good side of it and you compare
Speaker 7: the numbers and stuff, I'm right there with some of
Speaker 7: the best ones. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Would you mind opening up and share and talking about
Speaker 2: them problems. We don't have to if you don't.
Speaker 7: Want to, but well, I'm not afraid to talk about it.
Speaker 7: I mean, obviously, I think when any time that you uh,
Speaker 7: you go your body shape goes from this to that,
Speaker 7: you get weight, or you have some drug problems in
Speaker 7: any any anything like that is always going to be
Speaker 7: highlighted you know what I'm saying. So I understand those
Speaker 7: you have those marks against you, But the dominance I
Speaker 7: think of what I played with through those early years
Speaker 7: of my career, I think it should definitely be highlighted.
Speaker 7: Without a doubt.
Speaker 2: I came from two parents that were functioning drug addicts.
Speaker 2: I grew up in it, seen it, dad sold it.
Speaker 2: Were there are times where you were out there at
Speaker 2: your best, making All Star appearances and being great leading
Speaker 2: your team when you were on drugs.
Speaker 7: No, not necessarily on drugs, I believe. I believe when
Speaker 7: my drug where drug issues probably came, and it was
Speaker 7: more when things started to go sideways, when I was
Speaker 7: having some problems with the organization. So I think, you know,
Speaker 7: as far as I was concerned, when you put so
Speaker 7: much into the game of basketball, when you when you
Speaker 7: say that you're going to become the best, when you
Speaker 7: say that you're going to become dominant, it takes a
Speaker 7: lot of time, a lot of effort, right, And I
Speaker 7: don't think what people realize. I don't and I don't
Speaker 7: even try to make them realize this, But I would
Speaker 7: just say this. At the time of playing basketball in
Speaker 7: the nineties was a very physical sport, right, It wasn't.
Speaker 7: It wasn't a weak mass sport. Only the strong hurvive, right.
Speaker 7: And you know, as you you want to compete at
Speaker 7: those best at those best levels. So I don't think
Speaker 7: drugs really came into factor to me until probably when
Speaker 7: I started to lose. You know, when you start to
Speaker 7: lose your life change, you know, so you know, the
Speaker 7: one thing and I tell you, guys, just the one
Speaker 7: thing that I kind of regret about back then is
Speaker 7: that I'll say this is that you know, playing with
Speaker 7: Gary Payton, we had this great friendship, this great camaradi
Speaker 7: where we won so many games, winning fifty sixty games
Speaker 7: a year. You sometimes when you start to look at
Speaker 7: things far as its financial, sometimes you put that ahead
Speaker 7: of what you have chemistry wise.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 7: I tell Garry this all the time. If I could
Speaker 7: go back and change a few things we were, probably
Speaker 7: both of us would probably work on being with each other,
Speaker 7: playing with each other a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: You got what we did? You have at the bar?
Speaker 2: What's the story? So I did voiceovers for this show
Speaker 2: called What's Real Stories of Basketball? And it was when
Speaker 2: they brought Old Boy and that average like four points
Speaker 2: and two rebounds, anything, mclvain. So I did the voiceover
Speaker 2: for that seed you talked on it and everything. So
Speaker 2: I did the voiceover for that, and I didn't obviously
Speaker 2: I was younger when that happened, so I didn't realize, like, damn,
Speaker 2: why would he leave? But I read how you know,
Speaker 2: they came in four years on note like, they came
Speaker 2: in and gave Jim mcavain, someone who didn't play, didn't
Speaker 2: do anything, a bunch of money. This dude led the
Speaker 2: team every in rebounds, scoring, to the to the playoffs,
Speaker 2: to the and he was making more than Sean So
Speaker 2: that you at the time, right, So that, yeah, maybe
Speaker 2: some more things, but like I said, that's the kind
Speaker 2: of what I got.
Speaker 7: But I think you know, to me, it wasn't necessarily
Speaker 7: about the money.
Speaker 2: It's more about the respect, right, come on, man, Like it.
Speaker 7: Takes great effort, absolutely with the best every day, every night.
Speaker 7: And when you do that consistently for year after year
Speaker 7: or that, Yeah, man, absolutely, I think and I'm just
Speaker 7: telling you this when I look at it now, I
Speaker 7: look at it back and I'm probably as a young
Speaker 7: man you're going through that, you probably take it personally, Yeah,
Speaker 7: in life and in business, one of the things that
Speaker 7: you don't do is take things personally. Once you take
Speaker 7: it personally, it's going to affect not only who you are,
Speaker 7: but also what you do.
Speaker 2: But but I assume, with all due respect, it's hard
Speaker 2: not to and I in no way do I want
Speaker 2: people to make it think like you were mad about
Speaker 2: someone else get money. That wasn't what I got from it.
Speaker 2: It was was it was the respect factor.
Speaker 3: But you would.
Speaker 2: Accomplish with that team you deserved more than what you were.
Speaker 7: Well, I think that's I think that's what you do
Speaker 7: when you're a player. You're working, You're working for that,
Speaker 7: that's what you're those steps, those are the things that
Speaker 7: you're working for. And man, I was one of those
Speaker 7: guys who who who kind of went in there was
Speaker 7: just like, Hey, what do I need to do to
Speaker 7: become you know, the best? What do I need to
Speaker 7: do to become one of the highest paid and who
Speaker 7: you know? And I can remember the conversation the general manager.
Speaker 7: The general manager came to me and h he was like, well,
Speaker 7: if you if you want to be the high one
Speaker 7: of the highest paid, then all you got do is
Speaker 7: go out there. I played Michael Jordan and I was like, okay, well, well,
Speaker 7: a couple of years later we play in the championship,
Speaker 7: and uh, I look at it as an opportunity. That's
Speaker 7: an opportunity for me to shine, and it's also an
Speaker 7: opportunity for you to make more money. As they said,
Speaker 7: I mean, if I can outscore Michael Jordan in this
Speaker 7: series then and also play well and help our team
Speaker 7: achieve what we try and achieve, then I'm gonna put
Speaker 7: myself in a pretty good position. Well I played well done,
Speaker 7: those little things we want it kind of when it
Speaker 7: came time for payday, there was no phone call when
Speaker 7: you lose the series. That's what they do to you sometimes.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 7: You know, it's like, hey, it kind of forgot about
Speaker 7: that conversation before ahead. So you know, I think you know,
Speaker 7: and I say this, when as a young man, you
Speaker 7: sometimes you take those things personal without a doubt. Those
Speaker 7: those same things that you take personal, you sometimes don't
Speaker 7: take personal. And that's kind of what makes you, That's
Speaker 7: what kind of drives you. So you know, there were
Speaker 7: things that I probably didn't take personal that drove me,
Speaker 7: but that one right there definitely hurt me.
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