Speaker 1: This is kJ Live with Chris john Salli and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in the strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
Speaker 1: now killed in kJ Live. Today's guest doing the show
Speaker 1: was a former college basketball start in pro that his
Speaker 1: return to his alma mater, Boys States, and assistant coach
Speaker 1: where he was also a Hall of Famer. Please join
Speaker 1: me in welcome coach Referto burgoson the kJ Live. Berto,
Speaker 1: what's good? What's happening? Man? I appreciate you having me
Speaker 1: on man, anything and everything. Life is good. Brother. Hey,
Speaker 1: congratulations man Boise State. You return to your alma mater
Speaker 1: where you laid some of that found laid the foundation
Speaker 1: for that program, in my opinion, turning it out in
Speaker 1: nine that was my I think my senior year. Remember
Speaker 1: you and speing all day long, talk about what it's
Speaker 1: like to go back man, the boys you stay, You're
Speaker 1: all made and get with coach Leon Rice uh Man,
Speaker 1: it was. You know, it's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's like a dream come true that you
Speaker 1: never you know, I thought about it, you know, being
Speaker 1: a dream for so many years. I just Um, I
Speaker 1: was doing the au stuff and I loved it, like
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved everything about UM. You know,
Speaker 1: just kind of trying to help to, you know, build
Speaker 1: a culture of basketball here in this community that that
Speaker 1: really wasn't one when we you know, when I was here,
Speaker 1: you know, going to college, you know, the high school
Speaker 1: scene and all that, it was great. I enjoyed all
Speaker 1: of that. UM and I really every time anybody would
Speaker 1: ask me getting in college, coach and it was like,
Speaker 1: not just you know, that's just not me, not for me.
Speaker 1: Coach Rice and I you know, we we his kids
Speaker 1: played in my program, so I knew him. Um. You
Speaker 1: know from day one he stepped on into the town
Speaker 1: of boys, like he hit me like day one. It
Speaker 1: was like, look, we want you to be a part
Speaker 1: of program. You know, culture is big for me. You
Speaker 1: know the Gonzagaway, right, you know the way you know,
Speaker 1: we always embraced you know, our alumnis, and they always
Speaker 1: embraced us. So I want to make sure you guys
Speaker 1: coming around. And I think after I left there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of separation where that wasn't UM. That
Speaker 1: wasn't a big deal like a alumni. We just wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of guys around or it just wasn't embraced
Speaker 1: like we thought. And you know he did that um
Speaker 1: so um. Like I said, for me, I wasn't even
Speaker 1: thinking about it. And then, uh, you know, last year
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to go to Eastern Washington. I
Speaker 1: had sent a couple of players to Eastern Washington. Um.
Speaker 1: They had a new coaching um coaching change, and that
Speaker 1: in the associate that took over as the head job.
Speaker 1: He asked me if I wanted to come and kind
Speaker 1: of looked at my wife. My wife looked at me
Speaker 1: like when you know, we wasn't going nowhere. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: in the house. I wanted to retire in kids are
Speaker 1: almost gone, about to be empty, necess what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? And I was just like, man, this is
Speaker 1: this It just kind of seemed it felt right. It
Speaker 1: was a deal where it was like, man, this is
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to go there. Like I said, I
Speaker 1: got to coach my kids. I got to coach my
Speaker 1: oldest son and his senior year. Was that was that
Speaker 1: the big reason why? I mean, because you had you
Speaker 1: had sounding like you were straight. Bro, you sound like
Speaker 1: berto you were straight. You were chilling the a you
Speaker 1: think was locked. Now you're going right into the pressure
Speaker 1: of college basketball and your son's gonna be a senior. Man.
Speaker 1: I coached my son three years at Palisades. Just tell
Speaker 1: me about that process. What you wanted to be there
Speaker 1: for him? You just I mean, talk to me. Nah.
Speaker 1: It didn't even it wasn't like he wasn't even in
Speaker 1: a picture. When I first was getting an opportunity to
Speaker 1: go to Eastern Washington. Now there was one of my
Speaker 1: soul kid by the name of Ellis Magnison. He had
Speaker 1: started at Eastern at the point for two years. He's
Speaker 1: like one of my sons. Like him and my my
Speaker 1: middle souner, like best friends. I've been coaching him since
Speaker 1: he was like six, So he was there, so there
Speaker 1: was an appeal for that. I was like, damn, I
Speaker 1: get to go coach Ellis again. Um. And then it
Speaker 1: almost was like the au stuff. We were already starting
Speaker 1: to like reimage what we were doing, and I felt
Speaker 1: like that we ran our course. But I felt like
Speaker 1: we did what we wanted to accomplish. I felt like
Speaker 1: we actually came in and we helped to um, you know,
Speaker 1: really just propel the culture of basketball and we got
Speaker 1: a lot of kids to get opportunities. And at that
Speaker 1: point the basketball culture here now in Boise has grown
Speaker 1: like it's grown a lot, and it was almost just
Speaker 1: like at that time when it came up, I kind
Speaker 1: of told my wife, like, this opportunity is coming up
Speaker 1: for a reason. We've done, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: things already. Um, I just think this is just a
Speaker 1: different challenge and it's something that that is the right time.
Speaker 1: And at the time, I was thinking to myself, man,
Speaker 1: four or six years old, like getting into college basketball. Now,
Speaker 1: if I'm ever gonna try it and give it a shot,
Speaker 1: I gotta do it now. It's not it's it's not
Speaker 1: gonna come around again. It's probably not gonna happen. And
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not going to you know, not looking to
Speaker 1: start at the bottom or anything like that. Now, this
Speaker 1: opportunity was really good because I was the first assistant
Speaker 1: that he hired, so I got to get I didn't
Speaker 1: have to you know, I got to be in an assistance.
Speaker 1: So it was just one of those situations like, man,
Speaker 1: this is just something we can't turn down. We gotta
Speaker 1: at least give it a shot. Have no regrets if
Speaker 1: it works out, great, If it don't work out, we
Speaker 1: can go back to what we was doing and say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: we did it. And so after I, after I got
Speaker 1: on and and and took um took the job. That's
Speaker 1: when um my son's situation as a grad transfers, like, well, shoot,
Speaker 1: can I come there to him? Like, man, I think
Speaker 1: he would because they lost a bunch of players. He
Speaker 1: didn't know what the proscer was gonna be needed. You
Speaker 1: needed you needed some guys, right, some players? Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So I ended up able to you know, he came
Speaker 1: out there. And then there was another kid I coached
Speaker 1: preschool that came and so then that ended up just
Speaker 1: being an incredible, incredible year for me. Man I got
Speaker 1: I was coaching like three of my kids, like them
Speaker 1: three is like my old kids. It's a whole different situation,
Speaker 1: you know, even though you know, you know, I love
Speaker 1: all the kids are saying, but but it's just a
Speaker 1: little bit different when you're you know, when you're in
Speaker 1: it with guys that you that you you know that
Speaker 1: you came up with, where you primarily on development side
Speaker 1: of things, where you were you are out recruiting, Like
Speaker 1: what was your role in Eastern like, what skilled college
Speaker 1: basketball coaching skills did you pick up out there? Um, well,
Speaker 1: you know at Eastern I mean, you know, especially being there,
Speaker 1: you know, just not it's not you know, I don't
Speaker 1: got the resources of a U c. L A or
Speaker 1: UTUB or even a Boisi state. So you gotta do everything. Man,
Speaker 1: we do everything. We were sharing the load. We were
Speaker 1: sharing a load, player development, recruiting, offense, defense, um, you know,
Speaker 1: admin and stuff, you know stuff. It's one of It's
Speaker 1: a place where it's like, if you want to get
Speaker 1: something done, you might have to just do it yourself,
Speaker 1: you know. And so man, out there I did. UM.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot. I picked up a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of different stuff, and I think the most the
Speaker 1: biggest thing I picked up was just even more so,
Speaker 1: the the interaction and the protocol between um the program,
Speaker 1: the basketball team and that and the administration, but then
Speaker 1: also the basketball team administration and other side of campus,
Speaker 1: the you know, the teachers and the academic side of stuff,
Speaker 1: and how that intertwines and how you have to make
Speaker 1: sure that you are intertwined that to make sure that
Speaker 1: you can give your your your student athletes, your your
Speaker 1: players the best experience possible, and so for me, I
Speaker 1: think that's that's what I picked up the most, was
Speaker 1: just learning you know, how that interaction works. And now
Speaker 1: when you joined the Boys Stay staff, did you come
Speaker 1: back with like a mindset of like I want to
Speaker 1: be you know, I want to be out out in
Speaker 1: the field trying to get players, or did you want
Speaker 1: to be like I want to be in the gym,
Speaker 1: you know, really working on guys and I got some
Speaker 1: stuff really to tell you to teach and which side
Speaker 1: of things or did you want to encompass everything? Like
Speaker 1: I'm just curious to how you know, how your approach
Speaker 1: to your new gig was. Yeah, I think where you
Speaker 1: say like the encompass everything is one thing I think
Speaker 1: for me, I think the way I processed up and
Speaker 1: look at stuff with anything I do is I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to just I try to figure out where I
Speaker 1: fit and how I can make things better. Like you know,
Speaker 1: everybody got their own way and they do things and
Speaker 1: people have success or not success, and but I'll never
Speaker 1: you know, look at a situation like you know, what
Speaker 1: can I do or change this or do something different?
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, this is how you do something. That's
Speaker 1: the way you do it, that's what you're successful. How
Speaker 1: can I you know, falling in line with that, But
Speaker 1: how can I make it better? How can I make
Speaker 1: it more efficient? How can I improve what improve those things?
Speaker 1: And so for me, it is a full and you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, a full encompassing thing, like I want
Speaker 1: to be able to do everything. But my passion does
Speaker 1: lie in the development. My passion, it does, it lies
Speaker 1: in in in total development. I just love spending time,
Speaker 1: not just with young people, but it's specifically young people
Speaker 1: because I know, I think I have a lot to
Speaker 1: give them, because I think I was in their shoes
Speaker 1: and experience a lot, especially as at a young age,
Speaker 1: I experience a lot. But just I think I've learned,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout my life to how to find peace
Speaker 1: and you know, how to how to live healthy. So
Speaker 1: I want to be able to get that to him.
Speaker 1: But that's weird for me. It's like, let me just
Speaker 1: get a guy, get a couple of guys, and let's
Speaker 1: just spend some time on the floor, you know, let's
Speaker 1: spend some time in the film room, Let's spend some
Speaker 1: time at lunch, Let's spend some time, you know, hanging
Speaker 1: out that that's where you know, I thrive it just
Speaker 1: with people. So obviously then that ties into the recruiting zoo.
Speaker 1: You you you enjoy getting to meet people and talk
Speaker 1: to people and figure that out. Um. Mainly, UM, my
Speaker 1: main dealers. I'm in the player development. I coordinated player development,
Speaker 1: which again I embrace. I love doing it, and that's
Speaker 1: what I'm doing mainly. But yeah, we're still doing the
Speaker 1: same thing here man. A lot of recruiting, a lot
Speaker 1: of offense and defense. Um, you know, a little bit
Speaker 1: of everything. Yeah, y'all, y'all A high level program now
Speaker 1: it used to be. I mean, the expectations now I
Speaker 1: think are a lot greater, especially with the tournament appearances
Speaker 1: and all the success that UM and pros. There's been
Speaker 1: a couple of guys that came out of there. I know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. My guy, Clint Parks was training one
Speaker 1: of the kids that came out of Boys before a
Speaker 1: little bit. My son, my son Will had a teammate
Speaker 1: that played at Oregon. I boo, uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so he was he was over there. Um, but um,
Speaker 1: it reminded me what you the way here and you
Speaker 1: talk berto about your approach to the gig to the job.
Speaker 1: It reminded me of my experience us with Lorenzo Romar.
Speaker 1: Romar was about forty seven forty eight because still give
Speaker 1: you buckets and ones, still still young enough to relate,
Speaker 1: but still old enough to where you had to respect
Speaker 1: him as the big the big o g big brother
Speaker 1: type of guy. That and then his roll man at
Speaker 1: U c l A. Was so valuable for us because,
Speaker 1: as you just talked about, it's not just about on
Speaker 1: the court and this's and that, it's about a full
Speaker 1: three sixty mentoring as much time as you can spend
Speaker 1: with these young folks, these these student athletes and your
Speaker 1: program showing them the right way, keeping their head on straight.
Speaker 1: You have no idea how much that means to them
Speaker 1: to keep him them on the straight and narrow. You
Speaker 1: feel me because I know Rod was like that. Romar
Speaker 1: was like that with us. So he's eating lunch with
Speaker 1: he's eat lunch with us, he's breaking down our film.
Speaker 1: Our film sessions are ridiculous because we're just laughing. Like
Speaker 1: you know, because when you watch yourself on Phil Berno,
Speaker 1: you know it's jokes coming. You can't hide from. You
Speaker 1: sta't hide from the film and you're like you said,
Speaker 1: you know when you're in there and you it was
Speaker 1: people that you can relate to, that relates to you.
Speaker 1: It's enjoyable, like you said, and you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: crack on each other and you're gonna talk about each
Speaker 1: other and get so. I know, man, uh, Coach Romar
Speaker 1: is one of my favorites ever, man, ever since I
Speaker 1: was young, just just you know, getting to know him
Speaker 1: and be around. And he got a great staff of
Speaker 1: Peppertine too that like I always tell people, Man, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't here, that's like the best staff I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd love to be around him, dude. They're good,
Speaker 1: is good, and and he's a He's the type of
Speaker 1: do that for me. I know, you know, um was
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that I looked to him like, man,
Speaker 1: that's that's a coach I want to be around. And
Speaker 1: I know I had guys like that in my life
Speaker 1: of my high school coach and you know, one of
Speaker 1: my sisters in college and even you know, even when
Speaker 1: I was in the in the prose, a couple of
Speaker 1: NBA guys that just affected me, like you said, in
Speaker 1: that way, help me along the line, because because I
Speaker 1: was on. I mean, I was on the road to destruction.
Speaker 1: And if it wasn't for some of the people pulling
Speaker 1: me up, I wouldn't have been there and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been able to understand how to you know, find
Speaker 1: that piece or live healthy. So yeah, all facts, all facts, man,
Speaker 1: share it share yeah, No, chair it to that somebody.
Speaker 1: You never know what somebody go get from, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So that's that's the whole thing. Man.
Speaker 1: When you look back though, in your beginnings, Um, you
Speaker 1: were born in the Federal Way, Washington area or Decatur
Speaker 1: or what what? What part of Washington were you born
Speaker 1: and where you from? Talked to me? Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: mean I was actually born in Seattle. I was born
Speaker 1: at University of Washington Hospital. But then I was born
Speaker 1: I was raised in Tacoma, Tacoma. Yeah. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: was raising Tacoma, live with my my grandparents raised me. Um,
Speaker 1: and then I ended up moving from Tacoma my freshman year,
Speaker 1: I moved out to Federal Way and went to Decatur,
Speaker 1: which is I mean, it's basically connected to Tacoma, man.
Speaker 1: I mean like from my grandparents house to where we
Speaker 1: move was like fifteen minutes, Um, but at that time,
Speaker 1: Federal Way was it was it was it was more
Speaker 1: of a suburb. I mean it was a suburb of Tacoma.
Speaker 1: You know, Tacoma was a little bit more like you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know it was. It was a little wild. It
Speaker 1: was a little more you know, I don't know, a
Speaker 1: little a little look like I said, a little bit
Speaker 1: more city like city is a Federal Way was a
Speaker 1: little bit more suburb. Um. So then I went out
Speaker 1: there and yeah, that's where you know, I met I
Speaker 1: met Mike d We met our sophomore year. We were
Speaker 1: both going to Decatur together. And then um my second
Speaker 1: then yeah it was crazy man, we had you and
Speaker 1: Mike Dickerson. Oh the same squad. But what was that?
Speaker 1: What was your squad like that that that one year?
Speaker 1: Who was who else was on that squad that I
Speaker 1: might know? So we had another kid that played with
Speaker 1: us named Javan Hollans University of Air Force. Um, we
Speaker 1: were all sophomores. We were all the same class, um.
Speaker 1: And then the the guys ahead of us. We had
Speaker 1: a couple of seniors that didn't really they really didn't
Speaker 1: who wanted to play baseball. I mean they were hoopers
Speaker 1: there Um, so we did well, Um we did we
Speaker 1: did we? I mean we Yeah, we were gonna be loaded.
Speaker 1: But then my sophomore year, Mike D ended up transferring
Speaker 1: it and he went to the crosstown rival school. Dad
Speaker 1: didn't really like our coaches. Yeah, he went to the
Speaker 1: crosstown rival and it was games of rivalry. But like
Speaker 1: me and Mike D, like we had created such a
Speaker 1: van we was. You know, we used to have to
Speaker 1: hide like we you know, I get done with practice,
Speaker 1: he get done in practice. He come picking me up.
Speaker 1: We go to pack Weston player. We go to the
Speaker 1: Bellevue Pro Club to play with this. Honest my coach
Speaker 1: didn't know, but you know he wouldn't if he knew that.
Speaker 1: But so so yeah, so I'm I went there. So
Speaker 1: I was indicator idicator for my sophomore through senior year
Speaker 1: and then um from there ended up going to to
Speaker 1: walk you what a you program did you play for?
Speaker 1: Because I think we played did we play you in
Speaker 1: Long Beach? Yeah? So you're so. This is what Craig
Speaker 1: was crazy is we didn't have no AU programs. Then
Speaker 1: it was just straight Washington b c I. And that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why our team was, like you said,
Speaker 1: when he was back pretty good. It was just like
Speaker 1: they literally would pick the team best kids from the
Speaker 1: whole state now mostly just from Western Washington, Eastern Washington
Speaker 1: had kind of like their own little team that they
Speaker 1: would have. So like I remember once my boy name
Speaker 1: that moved out there, he moved from California that played
Speaker 1: for He played in the NBA a couple of years,
Speaker 1: played that Kansas big fellas seven footer or kind of
Speaker 1: kind of awkward big dude. What was his name, Poular Polar,
Speaker 1: Paul Scott Polar, Scott Pollard played on the East Saw.
Speaker 1: He was out there a little bit. But me, Mike
Speaker 1: d oh mcgivons, J T. Donald, Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean we had you know, we had some other dudes,
Speaker 1: you know that was that was getting it in, Davon Green,
Speaker 1: all of them. Do we we played together? So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think about. I know we played you guys
Speaker 1: one time. I think you Gilani Um, Tony Gonzalez. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a yeah, that's remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we played who else is on there? I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: Miles played on there. JR. Henderson, Doug Yeah. See here's
Speaker 1: what's crazy. Though when we played, y'all, Doug wasn't on
Speaker 1: that team. Now here's what's crazy. So I played, we
Speaker 1: played together. We've all played together the summer, but one
Speaker 1: one spring it was either the fall of the spring
Speaker 1: um after we had played against you guys with something.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was Doug or if it
Speaker 1: was or if it was Miles, but somebody connected. No
Speaker 1: I know what happened. We were playing on our Washington
Speaker 1: b c I team. We went out there and stayed
Speaker 1: when we played in the tournament. The Modern Day Team
Speaker 1: hosted us. They let our teams stay with one of
Speaker 1: their players. I ended up staying with this with the
Speaker 1: kid named Darren Hight. Yeah, I know Darren. He played
Speaker 1: so Darren with the prison. So I stayed with Darren
Speaker 1: and we hit it off. It was good, the parents good.
Speaker 1: So then the fall came. Darren called me, was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we need somebody for our team. Doug's dad was coaching
Speaker 1: the Orange Crush. Was I played, but you didn't play
Speaker 1: that I wasn't there, and that's probably what happened. You
Speaker 1: got a bunch of guys didn't play, so they needed
Speaker 1: some guys. I went down there. It was me Trajan
Speaker 1: langdon Uh chauncey oho Uh. Doug didn't play for some reason.
Speaker 1: He was gone. Darren Hight the the six seven athletic
Speaker 1: white kid that went to St. Louis abyss ball. I
Speaker 1: don't remember his name. Um him who else played with us,
Speaker 1: Miles damn Um. I think a lout he was. He
Speaker 1: was young. I don't think he played, but I think
Speaker 1: he practiced with us that modern day and he was nice.
Speaker 1: I don't care how young he was. He was so good, sir.
Speaker 1: And then we had um I think I'm gonna played
Speaker 1: with us. Imna played with us and we so we
Speaker 1: played that and I played that fall and actually had
Speaker 1: and that was kind of one of the ones that
Speaker 1: put me on the MAPPE was good. But that was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that was and I remember going down there's like, man,
Speaker 1: it's the same dudes that but they obviously played against
Speaker 1: you guys in Pump and Run and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: That is so dope, man. But planning for just to
Speaker 1: talk about Bob dot Lee for a second win, Bob,
Speaker 1: so I've been I had played for Bob Gottli, who
Speaker 1: coached the team that you had played on. Doug's dad
Speaker 1: for since since about the seventh grade. But he was
Speaker 1: like he was like the first, but he was like
Speaker 1: the first. You know. Bob was an experienced college coach
Speaker 1: and had been assistance everywhere. So he had sets and
Speaker 1: you was running off yo the sideline after out of bound,
Speaker 1: after timehout. We were coming out with plays, bro. So
Speaker 1: that was that was a great, great memory. But the
Speaker 1: thing I remember about I think we played you guys
Speaker 1: Washington b C. I Man, I remember y'all had this
Speaker 1: like buck this this like monster light skinned dude. Not
Speaker 1: he had a curly time. Who was that? What did
Speaker 1: it do? Tony Norman? Yes, dude, And and he almost
Speaker 1: got into a fight with one of y'all assistant coach.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about, bro. So look, this is
Speaker 1: what's crazy, Like, that's that's my brother. Like. So he
Speaker 1: and I met in Tacoma downtown while I playing that
Speaker 1: late night. We used to have late night at the
Speaker 1: downtown wine to Homa. You know, um during the summers
Speaker 1: that you could do you you go would be during
Speaker 1: the week, but during the school year was just probably
Speaker 1: on Saturdays. I met him. His mom was in the military,
Speaker 1: met him. We kicked it off. He was going to
Speaker 1: a school in Tacoma. So then my um my, uh
Speaker 1: I met him my sophomore year, into my sophomore year,
Speaker 1: so my jewel going into my junior year. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: he wasn't playing. He went to the same school member
Speaker 1: Casey Calvary. Yeah, because he went to the same school
Speaker 1: is Casey Calvary. And they had some other dudes down there,
Speaker 1: but they but Tony wasn't getting a run. I'm like,
Speaker 1: come to school with us. So look, if Mike D
Speaker 1: wouldn't have transferred, it would have been me Mike D
Speaker 1: and him being my boy Jovian Hollins. And do you
Speaker 1: remember Quincy Wilder? Yeah, I do so, Quincy Wilder. That's
Speaker 1: my that's my cousin. So he's two years younger than us,
Speaker 1: my young cousin. Man, look, we was already if we'd
Speaker 1: had that, it would have been a rep. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so ten Norman, that's my hey, man, I do it
Speaker 1: so crazy, it's called crazy Norman. He was he wasn't playing,
Speaker 1: man like I called myself, you know, trying to be tough.
Speaker 1: Back then, you know, I had just gotten into it,
Speaker 1: I think with mad dog masks and I just punk
Speaker 1: mask and so we played y'all next. So we played
Speaker 1: y'all next. You know, I'm I'm going out here. But
Speaker 1: he had that look in his eyes when he wasn't
Speaker 1: backing down, like like you know, you know when somebody, hey, Berto,
Speaker 1: you know, when somebody's like, oh oh this dude, Now
Speaker 1: I can't test you know. So no, no, But I
Speaker 1: remember lud Olsen being at the game, and it was
Speaker 1: a hell of a game. Man. Fox Sports Radio has
Speaker 1: the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
Speaker 1: of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
Speaker 1: within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R
Speaker 1: to listen live. But but bro, tell me this, when
Speaker 1: you look at, you know, the state of Washington and
Speaker 1: the hoop culture out there, you were part of a wave, man,
Speaker 1: and for generation that really put it down and laid
Speaker 1: the foundation for some stuff that's been going on since then.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's been tons of guys that have come
Speaker 1: out that area. What is it about that state, man?
Speaker 1: The basketball culture that produces so many skilled athletic high
Speaker 1: i Q having basketball players. Man, I think, Um, I
Speaker 1: mean to start off, I know, like when I was
Speaker 1: coming up living in Tacoma, I didn't there wasn't nobody
Speaker 1: from Tacoma that really actually made it, made it to
Speaker 1: like you know, high d one level. Like there were
Speaker 1: some guys like back in the day that got you know,
Speaker 1: lucky and was there or whatever. But nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody that was nice like they was caught up. Man.
Speaker 1: They was either they just they just they didn't happen.
Speaker 1: But they was at the park. I mean it was
Speaker 1: at the park. You can go down there and see
Speaker 1: all these dudes and Jason Swans in the world and
Speaker 1: Dona Morgan's and these dudes was like killers on reason
Speaker 1: or another. You know, it just didn't happen. Um, but
Speaker 1: Seattle did, like Seattle have some guys. Christie was a
Speaker 1: guy that that I watched growing up. Was like, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, Um, Tony Harris was a killer watching Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so there there was some dudes like that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, shoot Mark Pope, you know he played you know,
Speaker 1: he was from Seattle, he played there. I mean but
Speaker 1: even before then, there was some dudes that was hoopers
Speaker 1: that you know. But I think it just you never
Speaker 1: really see, I don't never really got they they do
Speaker 1: they just do they didn't. Um, but I think you know, um,
Speaker 1: there was like a little bit of a gap, and
Speaker 1: especially down south where I'm from, you know, Tacoma, south
Speaker 1: of Seattle, there just wasn't a lot of dudes. And
Speaker 1: so I think our year, like you said, our year
Speaker 1: was really um before us, you know, like kJ Roberts,
Speaker 1: Donnie Marshall, them dudes that made it at a high level,
Speaker 1: but there was a gap where most of the dudes
Speaker 1: coming from the state of Washington there they wasn't getting there.
Speaker 1: So our year, like you said, with Olma being a
Speaker 1: top five player in the nation, you know, coming out
Speaker 1: of high school, and Mike the killing it and I
Speaker 1: did well, and Javon Green and then obviously Donald and
Speaker 1: j T was a year younger than us, but they
Speaker 1: was on the map already because they was young dudes.
Speaker 1: It was a little bit of like okay, now they
Speaker 1: got something like this stuff up there. And I think
Speaker 1: what happened was a couple of things. One guys like Jamal,
Speaker 1: j T. D watts Um, they just came back and
Speaker 1: embraced the city and they just would come back and
Speaker 1: like Isaiah I T Isaiah Thomas, he does it too,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't when I was coming up with that stuff.
Speaker 1: It was a little bit more um, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to say it leads, but a little bit
Speaker 1: more secluded. In fact, if you want too with the best,
Speaker 1: you had to go to this, right, even a little
Speaker 1: pro club where the pros is that new guy that's
Speaker 1: where you and and they wasn't letting you know, a
Speaker 1: whole lot of other things the crafts in. You know. Again,
Speaker 1: like I said, you gotta play your way up. I
Speaker 1: understand that, like Jamal and j T and I T.
Speaker 1: And then they started a whole new renaissance. Doug help
Speaker 1: with this too. Um. I remember, you know, Jamal being
Speaker 1: a young dude and Doug having this community center and
Speaker 1: have less let's go hoop and he anybody that you
Speaker 1: know you want to come whop, young, old or whatever.
Speaker 1: They started this just this little coast to where it's
Speaker 1: like everybody was accepted no matter if he was young,
Speaker 1: old or whatever. Dude would be like, hey, we're the
Speaker 1: hoop at were comeing to hoop. And you know, like Jamal,
Speaker 1: that dude is just a hooper man. You don't care
Speaker 1: not about working out. He just want to whoop anyway.
Speaker 1: So I think one it was just this culture where
Speaker 1: you know, the young kids and anybody would just see them,
Speaker 1: do they would see them. If you can see people
Speaker 1: and you can see who they are and you can
Speaker 1: touch him and feel him, it does something in inspiring
Speaker 1: you bro so so them little dude. So you know
Speaker 1: whoever it was the McDaniel twins or de Gente or
Speaker 1: you remember Loderic and and Roger Stewart in facts, the
Speaker 1: guys they were seeing and feeling and touching Doug and
Speaker 1: Jamal and and all of these dudes. And then I
Speaker 1: think they just started whoping. But I think the other
Speaker 1: thing was that helped was before we really started getting
Speaker 1: off in hoop and before was basketball in Washington was
Speaker 1: really known for guys like you know, the old school dudes.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta be um, you know, run this
Speaker 1: and run that, and be sharp and be disciplined. Indeed, drill.
Speaker 1: And I think those two worlds met up. Those two
Speaker 1: worlds met up. Now you've got these kids that can
Speaker 1: just hoop because they out there, but they also started
Speaker 1: learning from some of these coaches how to play. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just one or the other. And I think the
Speaker 1: world's met now you started building up and building some guys,
Speaker 1: and now the culture there is just hot man. Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's kids whooping everywhere. And again it's a
Speaker 1: it's just a healthy culture. If you go back and
Speaker 1: like I know, like this summer, there was some stuff
Speaker 1: going on where people was mad, like you know, they
Speaker 1: was you know, baby boy and and and and Paula
Speaker 1: was getting into it. Man. That was just that was
Speaker 1: just hoop stuff. Man. It wasn't like it's a really
Speaker 1: healthy culture there, especially because them dudes I give, I
Speaker 1: give Jamal and Doug and I t I get them do.
Speaker 1: It's like a lot a lot of credit. Man. They
Speaker 1: embraced the culture and they and they're keeping it there
Speaker 1: and they're helping it out. Man, they're helping out for sure. No,
Speaker 1: it's been amazing man, just to watch it and just
Speaker 1: and I remember even with Romar and you dub hype
Speaker 1: where he had going over there when they were poppy okay,
Speaker 1: and it was just a brand. It was it was
Speaker 1: like a unique brand of guy that came out of there,
Speaker 1: Like I say, skilled, high i Q you know, just
Speaker 1: like coming through like dang is great, feel shares it,
Speaker 1: you know, well you just plays the game the right way.
Speaker 1: So I always had a ton of respect for guys
Speaker 1: like that. So for you, though, why when you finish
Speaker 1: your high school career, you you obviously probably had a
Speaker 1: bunch of people beating down your door. Who were some
Speaker 1: of these schools that were recruiting you? And why did
Speaker 1: you ultimately start off at you dub so? I mean
Speaker 1: I was I was a little bit late on the scene, honestly,
Speaker 1: Like it was, you know, um, I wasn't being recruited
Speaker 1: as high as as as Mike d and Omen those guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was people sending me letters, but we
Speaker 1: know how it is. Then it wasn't like crazy, UM
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm but um, I know, you know. The
Speaker 1: summer before my senior year, we played against um, we
Speaker 1: played against uh your boy ant Swan Walker and I
Speaker 1: had a good game and played against Randy Lemmings. The
Speaker 1: team had a good game. I know that's what put
Speaker 1: me on the map. But even my senior year was
Speaker 1: kind of like hit and missed. But that fall, after
Speaker 1: the summer, that fall, I came out and played with
Speaker 1: the Orange Crush with Darren and him and I played
Speaker 1: with like I said, you know them guys on the team.
Speaker 1: I had a really good event down there at Dominus Hills,
Speaker 1: UM people like really started to take notice. So you know,
Speaker 1: it was like my last like the schools that I
Speaker 1: was really really into. UM. I took a visit to
Speaker 1: Boston College, took a visit to Santa Clara. UM Utah
Speaker 1: was recruiting me. You Doug was recruiting me, but they
Speaker 1: really wanted Mike D And we was the same position.
Speaker 1: They really wanted Mike D. So the crazy thing is
Speaker 1: Arizona and Washington both was recruiting both of us. But
Speaker 1: but Mike was high on the list. I was probably
Speaker 1: down here right. So as soon as so here's I
Speaker 1: went to Santa Clara. Steve Nash was my host. I
Speaker 1: had a phenomenal time. Marlon Steve Nash was after it
Speaker 1: was Dick David the coach. I was rolling with Dictavi two.
Speaker 1: And if I was smart, I said, that's where I
Speaker 1: seen when I had a great time. It was a
Speaker 1: great experience. It would have been set off, but I
Speaker 1: was I was young. I was young, I was eighteen.
Speaker 1: I was caught up in it. Went to Boston College.
Speaker 1: It was a whole different universe, different world. Didn't even
Speaker 1: it was weird, man like, but just because it was
Speaker 1: the Big East and it was Boston College. I was like,
Speaker 1: here's what I'm here's where I'm going, and this is
Speaker 1: what's crazy about this deal. I committed to Boston College,
Speaker 1: signed my letter of intent. I'm I melt my letter
Speaker 1: of intent back. The same day I melted back, I
Speaker 1: get a call from the assistant coach telling me Roberto,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry he wanted you. We're gonna have to renig
Speaker 1: because we just got a commitment from a kid that
Speaker 1: we didn't think we were gonna get. Who was it?
Speaker 1: Who wasn't about to tell you? Says the number one
Speaker 1: player in the state, top ten player in the country
Speaker 1: we thought he was. He thought he was gonna go
Speaker 1: to Duke or something. I can't remember Chris hearing Chris hearing,
Speaker 1: so so it's crazy. Fast forward, fast forward, you know,
Speaker 1: uh five years or whatever. It was. Me and Chris
Speaker 1: played on was on the same team at the NBA
Speaker 1: Draft combine. We connected, hooked up. He was like, look,
Speaker 1: I gotta be a point guard. I'm gonna get you
Speaker 1: the rock. Make sure you make sure. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1: I gonna get you the ball. And I told him
Speaker 1: that story, and I said, Chris, you know you stole
Speaker 1: my scholarship, right story. Yeah, so anyways, long story short,
Speaker 1: Mike de signs in Arizona. As soon as he signs
Speaker 1: in Arizona, Washington puts the full court press in all
Speaker 1: they didn't get Mike. So now I didn't want to
Speaker 1: press me. I was again, I was caught up. It
Speaker 1: was hometown back COLLETTI who was recruiting you? Well, coach
Speaker 1: Jack did, but it was it was it was mainly, well,
Speaker 1: here's who did it? So um Turget was turging up there. No, no,
Speaker 1: no coch McKay, Richie McKay Ritchie. Yeah yeah, so Richie.
Speaker 1: But here's who did the most recruiting. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you did the most recruiting, and I'm gonna let you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you guess wins. They wasn't coaches Darren,
Speaker 1: Darren Heightened, I mean Darren uh Taylors. No, they're eight.
Speaker 1: They were agents. Oh the pup baby, Now, I wonder fund.
Speaker 1: It wasn't good with the good Ones. Yeah, so Eric
Speaker 1: Hughes was boys with the good Ones. They was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of Gary Payton stuff, or Eric was doing
Speaker 1: Gary Payton stuff back then. The Good Ones man them
Speaker 1: dudes k picked me up, took me today's spot looking
Speaker 1: over it. They did all the recruit I said. The
Speaker 1: house was out there in though. I'm like, but you know, um,
Speaker 1: the crazy thing is like Lawyer Malloyd was there. I
Speaker 1: grew up with him. He's the same mazing my sister.
Speaker 1: I knew him from my little so on my visit,
Speaker 1: he snatched me up. I got you a little bro
Speaker 1: showing up. So I was, I mean, my head was
Speaker 1: spending and it actually was the worst SIDS never made
Speaker 1: because I just wasn't ready for that. I wasn't ready
Speaker 1: for the distractions. Man, I was immature. Man, I just
Speaker 1: were you Bert or were you Was it a partying thing?
Speaker 1: Were you going out too much? Were you not focused
Speaker 1: on basketball? Is exactly what it was. It wasn't and
Speaker 1: it wasn't just always partying. It was just like yeah, man,
Speaker 1: like all of my fans like, that's you know, I
Speaker 1: grew up there, That's when my family he was at.
Speaker 1: So sometimes it was just on the weekends I would
Speaker 1: go back and I was just sitting on the block,
Speaker 1: like doing nothing because because everybody wanted to celebrate me, right,
Speaker 1: they want to say, man, you know this guy taking
Speaker 1: around do that, and I was kind of used to that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was some partying in ball, but I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't do I wasn't doing the things that
Speaker 1: got me there. I wasn't doing my work extra work.
Speaker 1: I was messing up in school. Um, I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to class. You know, obviously being a freshman it's to transition,
Speaker 1: but I was even going overboard just because, like I said,
Speaker 1: just being at home at that time, I was not ready.
Speaker 1: It was all me. I was not ready to handle
Speaker 1: those distractions to be able to say no. And um,
Speaker 1: so again, you know, it could have worked out anyway.
Speaker 1: It ended up working out great because you know, obviously
Speaker 1: my career went that way. But but yeah, man, it
Speaker 1: was that's how I went down. What made you made
Speaker 1: to make the move to Boise State or first it
Speaker 1: was Southern College of Southern Idahole for a year, right,
Speaker 1: and and we'll talk about that because I've always been
Speaker 1: enamored with that that that program over there. I was
Speaker 1: just always curious, like what what go what's called of
Speaker 1: Southern Idahole? Like, man, I'm gonna try to give you
Speaker 1: to get this version because we don't got Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this so so again I was at ut up, was
Speaker 1: messing up, you know, um doing everything. And so I
Speaker 1: had a conversation, um, you know, with myself and with
Speaker 1: some of my family, like, look, I gotta get out
Speaker 1: of here, like you know, and some of my family members,
Speaker 1: my coach and myself like, man, you you got to
Speaker 1: either figure this out or not. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of was like, you know what, the best thing for
Speaker 1: me right now is to get as far as away
Speaker 1: as I can. I gotta get away from home and
Speaker 1: grow up. Um Utah was recruiting me at that time.
Speaker 1: They wanted me Santa Claras. They wanted me, but I
Speaker 1: didn't have a graze. I screwed up so bad my
Speaker 1: freshman year. I didn't have the grade. I had to
Speaker 1: go juko. So I went to Midland, Texas first. That's
Speaker 1: a big time too. Though I went to Midland, Texas.
Speaker 1: I was in Middland. I was in Midlent for about
Speaker 1: two months during the summer, and you know, had some
Speaker 1: crazy stuff down there. It was a little bit, but
Speaker 1: it was some crazy stuff down there. Again, I wasn't
Speaker 1: maturing up to handle it, but it was some crazy
Speaker 1: stuff going on down there. Man. We asked you run
Speaker 1: in with the police and stuff that I I wasn't
Speaker 1: used to like, you know, I mean, Texas, it's still
Speaker 1: some racist stuff, but in the Northwest it's kind of hidden.
Speaker 1: Here it's right up in your face, like your face.
Speaker 1: But you know, I still, like I said, I wasn't
Speaker 1: maturing up to handle it. So I ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: me and the coach kind of had a little falling out. Okay,
Speaker 1: yeah there. So then I left and I went to
Speaker 1: c s I. One of my teammates who was a
Speaker 1: year younger Mean's name is Andre Pleasant, who was another killer.
Speaker 1: He was a can't miss Division one dude. He just
Speaker 1: again just never really got the grades together. He was
Speaker 1: at c s I. Told his coach I was doing nothing.
Speaker 1: The coaches like, man, get him out there. So I
Speaker 1: went to c s I. I was at cs I
Speaker 1: for a semester. Life circumstances, man, My mom relapsed, she
Speaker 1: you know, on drugs. He had some stuff. I had
Speaker 1: a girl I was with, she was pregnant. Um through
Speaker 1: high school. I'm going through this stuff. I can't handle it.
Speaker 1: Talking to my coaches, they gave me ultimatum, either stay
Speaker 1: or go. I ended up leaving that semester. Um. So
Speaker 1: when I left that semester, I man, I went home,
Speaker 1: man like I was like I was lost. Man, I
Speaker 1: was about to be done. Like I had, I had nothing.
Speaker 1: I ain't had nothing. Um, good thing. I had some
Speaker 1: good coaches. My high school coach at that time, he
Speaker 1: had got the got assistant job at Boise State at
Speaker 1: that time. He hits me and was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna happen with you. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's gonna go on. You know. Um all the
Speaker 1: schools that was recruiting U S CSR, and it was
Speaker 1: some big schools, which is probably was a good thing
Speaker 1: I didn't go. They got off of you. I was crazy.
Speaker 1: I don't blame mom. I wouldn't. I wouldn't assigned me either. Man,
Speaker 1: I was out there. He would. He gave me some bodies.
Speaker 1: He said, no matter what you do, I don't care
Speaker 1: what you do. Can you just go make sure you
Speaker 1: finish your AM, go to school, finish your A. And
Speaker 1: if you do that, maybe something happens, maybe it doesn't,
Speaker 1: but at least you didn't lose all the time. So
Speaker 1: good thing. My grandmother and my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: they helped me pay for school. I finished my A
Speaker 1: A and once I finished my A I think my
Speaker 1: coach was testing me to see if I really was
Speaker 1: gonna do it, called me and he was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't have no other I had one other school, Illinois
Speaker 1: Chicago was the only other school calling me. They tracked
Speaker 1: me down from my grandma's house or something like that.
Speaker 1: But my coach was like, hey, I can vince my
Speaker 1: head coach to give you a shot. This is your
Speaker 1: last chance, can come or you you cannot, you know,
Speaker 1: do it. And that's see how I ended up, that's all.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking in my mind, I ain't man, i
Speaker 1: ain't going to Boise, Idaho. I'm not going out there. Man.
Speaker 1: It ain't nothing out there on. But that's the only
Speaker 1: thing I had and it was the best thing that
Speaker 1: ever happened to me. Monster senior year at both at
Speaker 1: Boise State, where your average over twenty game, uh, you
Speaker 1: run a regular season Big West championship. Uh. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing your ESPN a bunch um and just being enamored, like, dang,
Speaker 1: this dude is six six out here, just just rack
Speaker 1: he was dunking on dudes. Bertough, I mean, you turned
Speaker 1: it out. I'll just be honest. And you were but
Speaker 1: the handle, the push, I mean, just everything that you had. Man,
Speaker 1: you were just so live like trust me, we were
Speaker 1: out in l A. You see, like, hey Burdough, we'll
Speaker 1: be in the building. We'd be watching your hard lights
Speaker 1: and your days like we'd be going crazy, dude, we'd
Speaker 1: be going crazy on you have that series your man.
Speaker 1: You go to the draft, you're picked, but the fifty
Speaker 1: seven pick in the second round. Tell me, I asked
Speaker 1: every all my guys that got drafted on here, I
Speaker 1: asked this question. Were you satisfied? Were you happy about
Speaker 1: being drafted? Were you disappointed it wasn't higher? And how
Speaker 1: did it feel to just be drafted? Because some of us,
Speaker 1: like myself, did not hear his name called on that
Speaker 1: special night, bro, So I always want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: How how did that? How did that feel? Before I
Speaker 1: answer that one, get back a little bit too. At
Speaker 1: Boydy State and y'all being at U C. L A.
Speaker 1: And it was always because again we played against you
Speaker 1: guys when we were young, and it was something for us.
Speaker 1: We looked at you guys from l A like, man,
Speaker 1: this is like you guys was like our our barometer.
Speaker 1: Like it was like we had to catch Gilani, we
Speaker 1: had to catch Ricky Price, we had to catch you.
Speaker 1: We had to catch Tony. And so when y'all was
Speaker 1: at U c l A, it was the same thing.
Speaker 1: We always watched you out to be like, man, they're
Speaker 1: go Toby got a nasty duncan did. Chris is five
Speaker 1: six ft three, So we was the same way. So
Speaker 1: my junior year when we played you guys, Polly, he
Speaker 1: was in their gas. We was. We was ready, especially
Speaker 1: because like Kiwan was with us and that was Baron
Speaker 1: Boy and they went to put together. Yeah, so Kiwan
Speaker 1: had us geeked and amp and we went in there
Speaker 1: and we was at man. We was going and then
Speaker 1: I but here's the thing that's crazy thing you talk about. Man,
Speaker 1: it was one play and I wish I could forget it,
Speaker 1: but I can't because they got it on the internet.
Speaker 1: In the blast Man, I was trying to go dunk
Speaker 1: on JR. I think it was either JR. Glani I
Speaker 1: came here. I think it was JR. I was trying
Speaker 1: to go dunk on his do baseline and Baron comes
Speaker 1: from behind me and just just snatches it right. So listen.
Speaker 1: I try to live. I don't never want nobody to
Speaker 1: see that. Ever, my kids found on Twitter or something
Speaker 1: like real a Baron and then was in it. It's
Speaker 1: that one and put recorse re recorded they always and
Speaker 1: then all the kids that I coached, Berto, why did
Speaker 1: Baron knew you like this? Bla blah blah blah blah blah. Hey,
Speaker 1: they killed me. They killed me the internet. You can't
Speaker 1: hide from the Internet, Bernough. And I've been telling them.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, y'all, see what Baron did that andre Kierlincoln.
Speaker 1: You see he didn't do it to a lot of people. Man,
Speaker 1: it happened. I said, you play at that level, you
Speaker 1: donna get You're gonna get something. You're gonna get guys
Speaker 1: something so um so yeah. So man, respect to all y'all. Man,
Speaker 1: we we had the same we used to just like
Speaker 1: every time y'all playing. Man, it was it was it
Speaker 1: was love, man, it was respect. Fox Sports Radio has
Speaker 1: the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
Speaker 1: of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
Speaker 1: within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
Speaker 1: to listen live. Man. The draft deal, yeah, the draft
Speaker 1: deal was was incredible, man, UM. Leading up to the draft. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was you know, I was on the boards.
Speaker 1: I was mid to late first round, second round whatever.
Speaker 1: You know. UM did the did all the stuff did
Speaker 1: the Smith did the Chicago did well and all of
Speaker 1: them was getting interviews with a couple of teams were
Speaker 1: saying they really wanted me. When I was in Chicago.
Speaker 1: After the second day, I had two really good days.
Speaker 1: My asians getting calls like yes, yes, yes, she' lining
Speaker 1: this up. After the second day when we did our physicals,
Speaker 1: UM I did my physical and my e k G
Speaker 1: came up weird. I had a heart deal. They discovered
Speaker 1: out how to enlarge heart. So it was it was
Speaker 1: a scary thing. I had to go get tested. And
Speaker 1: when that happened, it was like it was one of
Speaker 1: the most Uh, it was one of the most heart
Speaker 1: wrenching the days that level like because they're basically telling
Speaker 1: me at that time, people was like they was afraid
Speaker 1: of that. They were like, You're never gonna be able
Speaker 1: to because hand gathers, because gatherings. Everybody was like scared
Speaker 1: for real. Yeah yeah, So they shut me down. And
Speaker 1: then at that point my asient was like, look, man,
Speaker 1: all this stuff out the window. You just gotta go.
Speaker 1: So I had to go to a bunch of different places. Man.
Speaker 1: I had to go to Mayo. I had to go
Speaker 1: to Swedish Hearts instud in Seattle. I had to have
Speaker 1: people clear me. Finally after you know, weeks and weeks
Speaker 1: and we to do in this test and they cleared
Speaker 1: me like they cleared me, said you're good, jump back
Speaker 1: on boards. And then at that time I didn't I
Speaker 1: wasn't able to do. Um. There was a couple of
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to do, like a couple of workouts
Speaker 1: that was that had lined up. So my agent had
Speaker 1: to like squish the stuff in. I ended up doing uh,
Speaker 1: twenty two workouts. I ended up doing twenty two individual
Speaker 1: workouts at that time. Um. They said that was the
Speaker 1: most individual workouts anybody had done after Mike D. Wow,
Speaker 1: Mike D did like twenty four twenty five. He Mike
Speaker 1: D always for our whole life detention, just one up
Speaker 1: in me every time. I'm like, man, bro, just chill out, Man,
Speaker 1: can you just not have energy? One time? Bro, like
Speaker 1: twenty four workouts? Bro, Man, I had one. One time
Speaker 1: I went from I went to I went Houston, Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Vancouver three back to back days, and did it work
Speaker 1: out who and did you have like who who would
Speaker 1: you work out against? Would it be like a group
Speaker 1: with like other? Two? Guy talked to me, Hey, the
Speaker 1: best work the best one ever was in Seattle with
Speaker 1: Ron Artest with menta mea, Hey, this man was so wild,
Speaker 1: crazy man. We had dinner with the owner of the gym.
Speaker 1: He throwing he throwing out questions in the owner about
Speaker 1: his private life and stuff. Right, that's the first time
Speaker 1: I met this dude and said, oh he's different. Um no, man,
Speaker 1: it was man. The workouts was great. Man like you, man,
Speaker 1: I can't even remember all the will Avery and the
Speaker 1: one in the couple level. What's our boy? That with
Speaker 1: the d two do uh? George that was in with
Speaker 1: the Lakers for Nevin worked out against each other in Houston.
Speaker 1: Um too, man. Gordon Gearchek worked out against him in Phoenix.
Speaker 1: It was it was a lot of them dudes. Man,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of them dudes and it was
Speaker 1: it was some crazy stuff. The craziest thing happened when
Speaker 1: he was in Phoenix working out at the end of
Speaker 1: the workout, so first we had to play one on
Speaker 1: one against Frank Johnson and his old but out there
Speaker 1: just still shifty. Give of people buckets, right, we gotta
Speaker 1: play one on one against him. After we get through
Speaker 1: chasing him around one on one, after we had argued
Speaker 1: our workout, Danny A says, Okay, y'all get on the
Speaker 1: line about the run. Okay, maybe doing a couple down
Speaker 1: the backs. No, you gotta run for three straight minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's down, back, down back, just down the back,
Speaker 1: three straight minutes. We're getting ready to run. He said,
Speaker 1: all one more thing, here's somebody joining you. He put
Speaker 1: his thirteen year old son in there on the line
Speaker 1: with us. He put them on the line. We're looking
Speaker 1: at him like we're going this man sprinting, hey, and
Speaker 1: he making y'all look bad. He makes y'all look bad,
Speaker 1: and you know we are in here like we ain't
Speaker 1: eventually public. I can't remember exactly who was in there.
Speaker 1: A couple of the dudes, it was like three or
Speaker 1: four of us. Days just was like, forget it, man,
Speaker 1: we can't keep up with just due And I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not letting this kid beat me. Man. I'm dying running. Hey.
Speaker 1: He could run forever. He could have ran forever, I
Speaker 1: promise you. I he was so one. It was like
Speaker 1: white you is just basically just trying to embarrass us,
Speaker 1: just putting us in there and trying to embarrass us.
Speaker 1: So so anyways, all this stuff was good, man, it
Speaker 1: was all great. When it came down to it, after
Speaker 1: I did my workouts, you know, I had it was
Speaker 1: two teams. My agent basically was like, um, it was
Speaker 1: Vancouver and Salt Lake was the two teams that said
Speaker 1: they were gonna take me in the first round. Vancouver
Speaker 1: had a number two pick. They knew Franchise didn't want
Speaker 1: them to draft him. They were trying to trade to pick.
Speaker 1: They said they were gonna trade to pick for a
Speaker 1: lower uh a pick in the middle of the end,
Speaker 1: get a veteran, and then they were gonna take me.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen, obviously, they weren't able to trade it,
Speaker 1: and then they ended up taking the ad to take
Speaker 1: step they had to take Franchise and then, um, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the jazz they had like twenty twenty or
Speaker 1: twenty one, and they basically the whole draft that they
Speaker 1: on the phone with me and my Asian like hey,
Speaker 1: we we we don't know what we're doing. We designed
Speaker 1: between two guys, Roberto or another guy, Roberto or another guy,
Speaker 1: and we like, you know, we we we, you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of a stalemate. And they ended up taking uh,
Speaker 1: your boy from Minnesota, the shooter dark skinning kid, Uh Quincy, Yes,
Speaker 1: Quincy Lewis, and Quincy Lewis is the guy they called.
Speaker 1: And it was like, man and that when that happened,
Speaker 1: I was like, shoot, I'm I was almost thinking like
Speaker 1: at that time, I was like, man, I might not
Speaker 1: like it might not happen. I might not get drafted.
Speaker 1: Like I'm at my grandparents house where I grew up
Speaker 1: at forty Pacific and Tacoma house. Flew all the family there,
Speaker 1: all my friends, everybody there, and we're like, man, it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. And then um time starts to go on
Speaker 1: and my agent hits me and he's just like, um, Detroit,
Speaker 1: Detroit wants to take you. It was like maybe like
Speaker 1: the third or the fourth pick in the second round,
Speaker 1: they want to take you. He said, However, um, Portland
Speaker 1: is calling and they don't have any pick, but they're
Speaker 1: trying to they're trying to trade for a pick right now.
Speaker 1: They really want you. They want you bad. They're seeing
Speaker 1: you bla blah blah blah blah. Um, they're already basically
Speaker 1: saying they're gonna you know, they're gonna guarantee you a
Speaker 1: two year deal. Um, they got veterans, so you're gonna
Speaker 1: get to come in and learn. You ain't got you know,
Speaker 1: ain't no pressure. You know, it's older guys, this and that,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith and and Dead Left and all these dudes.
Speaker 1: But they really want you to think you can play.
Speaker 1: What do you want me to do? You want me
Speaker 1: to tell the Detroit No, Detroit is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: You know, they're not guaranteeing you anything. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of young dudes. You know, it's gonna be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a battle making a team. Um. Uh, your
Speaker 1: boy was there. Then Larry Brown was there, coach there,
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, this is this this this is
Speaker 1: all you know, this is this could be a tough deal.
Speaker 1: You know, they're trying to figure it out. And so
Speaker 1: I said, man, Portland's it's right down the road. Blahlah blah.
Speaker 1: You know I get to play with you know, I
Speaker 1: mean I grew up watching Steve Smith, Like that's the
Speaker 1: that's the man, so I and guarantee him, like, you know,
Speaker 1: do it. So they ended up trading Atlanta where Atlanta
Speaker 1: picked me, but they had already done the trade. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, man, when my name got called, I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna lie man, I broke out in tears. Man. That
Speaker 1: was like, I just I was not a good basketball
Speaker 1: player when I was young. I didn't really start getting
Speaker 1: good at basketball until like my sophomore year in high
Speaker 1: school when I transferred schools and the coach that was
Speaker 1: there took a kid that was maybe a little bit athletic,
Speaker 1: kind of had some lent, but just was a street
Speaker 1: ball hooper that just loved to play and started teaching
Speaker 1: me like how to play, how to work out, how
Speaker 1: to do stuff. And I started getting better than But
Speaker 1: even then, nobody was like, oh, yeah, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: the guy. It was you know, it was Mike d
Speaker 1: it was Homer, it was those guys. And then you know,
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't go work out at Boise State.
Speaker 1: It's Boise State. People started singing my name because I
Speaker 1: was like, but it wasn't. The NBA was was always
Speaker 1: like way off, like yeah, it was a dream, but
Speaker 1: it was way off and so for all of that
Speaker 1: have to happen and have my name called. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget that moment. It was one of the best, you know,
Speaker 1: basketball deals ever happened in my life. It was it
Speaker 1: was special, man like, it was special. It was special,
Speaker 1: no question, no question. You spent eleven years as a
Speaker 1: pro c b A France and Italy, Belgium, Spain, Turkey.
Speaker 1: What did you learn about yourself along that professional basketball
Speaker 1: journey that you may can teach the next generation of
Speaker 1: ball players. What did you find out about yourself as
Speaker 1: a man as a ball player. Um, I think the
Speaker 1: first thing I learned, and and and the most important
Speaker 1: thing I think for me as a person I learned
Speaker 1: was that I was way too close minded, a little
Speaker 1: bit arrogant, and a lot ignorant of what was out
Speaker 1: there right like you know how it is man we
Speaker 1: come from. You know, we're prideful people, number one, you
Speaker 1: know being you know, being our bloodline. But to being
Speaker 1: an American. You always think America is the best thing
Speaker 1: and the only thing, and this is the only and
Speaker 1: I think going being playing in all those different countries,
Speaker 1: being around all the different people, going and playing all
Speaker 1: these different places. I just started to you know, figure
Speaker 1: out learned that you know, we we were all different
Speaker 1: but were all the same. And it's just understanding, man.
Speaker 1: It's like it's understanding and being open to stuff and
Speaker 1: not just being like this is the only way you
Speaker 1: do stuff or this is the right way or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. It's a whole lot of rights out there.
Speaker 1: You know, we're trying to find the best way, but
Speaker 1: it's a whole lot of rights. So I think that
Speaker 1: was like my biggest thing I just got. I learned
Speaker 1: so much about myself, like I said, of of of
Speaker 1: just you know, I think I was a little bit
Speaker 1: closed minded, right, Like closed minded and just not open
Speaker 1: to you know, what was out there. And I think
Speaker 1: that helped me to uh, you know, be able to
Speaker 1: just kind of just do whatever, man, and live whatever
Speaker 1: and be be grateful for for you know, what I
Speaker 1: have and who I am and be open And I
Speaker 1: think that helped me to learn so much more about
Speaker 1: not just myself but everything. That was one um And
Speaker 1: I think the second thing that was really big from
Speaker 1: a basketball standpoint, it was just it's all about being
Speaker 1: that being available and taking opportunities. Like it's just you know,
Speaker 1: be at everything man, like, don't turn down an opportunity.
Speaker 1: You never know when something is gonna happen come your
Speaker 1: way or when something's gonna come and if you ain't there,
Speaker 1: it ain't ain't gonna and it ain't gonna happen if
Speaker 1: you ain't there. So just just being available and being
Speaker 1: being their opportunities and enjoying it, enjoy enjoying the opportunity.
Speaker 1: You're not just there because you're trying to get something
Speaker 1: out of it. You're there because you want to enjoy
Speaker 1: the party. You know, you want to enjoy the And like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would be here on this podcast
Speaker 1: talking to you if it wasn't because I think, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it was you and I whenever we saw each
Speaker 1: other competed or talk, you know, we hit it off.
Speaker 1: It was always cool, it was always love, was always understanding.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be that way now, and I think I
Speaker 1: have you know, there's a lot of people like that
Speaker 1: that I've run into, and his basketball culture obviously as small,
Speaker 1: but man, I got love for for everybody, and I
Speaker 1: feel like I hope that people do too, because I
Speaker 1: think I enjoyed people and people enjoy me when I
Speaker 1: around him. Man, That's some sound advice, bro, because if,
Speaker 1: like you say, if you're not there, then you definitely
Speaker 1: ain't getting an opportunity. I took opportunities, man. People when
Speaker 1: they told me to go to Qatar, and they told
Speaker 1: me go here, I win a championship. I'm in Qatar, right,
Speaker 1: they tell me it's right next to Dubai. This is
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. So I leave December September eleven.
Speaker 1: Just happened, bro, And so they everybody looking at me
Speaker 1: like I was completely out of my mind. They're like,
Speaker 1: you going to the Middle East. I'm like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: they but they was offering some solid bread. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so I go over there, man. First year, we get
Speaker 1: to the championship, I end up losing the Johnny Rhodes
Speaker 1: remember Johnny Roads. Yeah, yeah, he played for Sauta Arabia.
Speaker 1: Just dude hit the game winner on us man. Uh,
Speaker 1: So I missed out on my bonus. The second year
Speaker 1: we win to win the Championship of Asia, end up
Speaker 1: playing against j R. Henderson and Sham got in the final.
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia brought them and the next year, so we
Speaker 1: ended up spating. I was playing. Was he playing in
Speaker 1: Japan in or he was still in an here so
Speaker 1: so he um see that was oh one, so I
Speaker 1: think he might have been sniffing with Vancouver a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he was still back and forth a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then it was like yo, you know, Saudi Arabia
Speaker 1: was of from the bag back then. I think they
Speaker 1: was getting like fifty sixty for like two months or
Speaker 1: some crazy. So it was a bag. So they just
Speaker 1: had the bad game. But all that to be said, Bro,
Speaker 1: like so much so many people. I brought Stavee Bozeman
Speaker 1: out there with me to Katar, to Malaysia, but we
Speaker 1: had such a amazing experience, man, just lifelong relationships, amazing experiences,
Speaker 1: and nothing would have happened if I would have told
Speaker 1: Katar no, if I would have said, I ain't going
Speaker 1: to the Middle East. But no, that's some sound advice
Speaker 1: for this next generation. Man. My last question for you, Bro,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about just quickly, your current squad boys. Instead,
Speaker 1: you guys are in the Mountain West Conference pick fourth.
Speaker 1: I believe to finish in the conference this year. Just
Speaker 1: get coach, give me the outlook on this year's squads
Speaker 1: and players to watch four and just you know, talk
Speaker 1: about your squad. Man, It's uh, it's some talent in
Speaker 1: the building. I'll tell you that much. It's some really
Speaker 1: really good talent. We got a good mixture of some
Speaker 1: some veteran talent and some young talent. Um. It is, uh,
Speaker 1: the first thing I say. It's an incredible culture around here.
Speaker 1: These these guys, Coach Rice and the staff and the
Speaker 1: kids here have done a good job of, you know,
Speaker 1: just nursing an incredible culture. Like I love coming to
Speaker 1: work every day. Man, I get here earlier on here
Speaker 1: and then these guys just start coming in and Coach,
Speaker 1: let's get some work. I mean, it's it's a different
Speaker 1: deal when you get to when you ain't gotta like
Speaker 1: you know, beg and plead and proke and prod. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: go work. They love it. They want to um and
Speaker 1: so I'm really excited about that. Um obviously coming off
Speaker 1: the heels of the momentum that they created last year. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, guys is coming in with some high expectations
Speaker 1: and and really really like really coming in, like, man,
Speaker 1: we need to be better than we were last year.
Speaker 1: We gotta win at least one more game. We don't
Speaker 1: need these one more game that's gonna lead to another one,
Speaker 1: so we gotta do it. Um. We got some new guys, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we got some new guys. We've got a couple of transfers.
Speaker 1: We've got some freshman guys that we're gonna expect from
Speaker 1: big things. And so that's gonna be the key to
Speaker 1: our season is how well can we get these guys,
Speaker 1: those guys acclimated to the Broncho way, and how well
Speaker 1: we can get them acclimated into understand and learning stuff
Speaker 1: and get that chemistry. The sooner and the quicker that
Speaker 1: we can get that chemistry and get them do jelling. Um,
Speaker 1: I expect big things from this team, man, And I'm,
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm grateful to be a part of it,
Speaker 1: being worked with these guys. And you know, we had
Speaker 1: a good, good, good little reps this morning. We'll have
Speaker 1: another little um we'll have we'll do a little bit
Speaker 1: of a rep tonight this afternoon. So it's good, man.
Speaker 1: It's like I said, it's a really good culture. Um,
Speaker 1: not just even the basketball program, but even the other side,
Speaker 1: the admin. They behind us, the fans here like the
Speaker 1: best man. I mean, I'll never did. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the reason why I went to boys You State playing
Speaker 1: for the Stampede so many times I kept coming back
Speaker 1: because you know, the fan base, the community here, they
Speaker 1: get behind you and they just I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you feel, you feel it push. So it's a great spot. Man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be some big time Is it gonna be
Speaker 1: a big time, big time year? No, definitely, definitely, definitely
Speaker 1: what the state is on the map in college basketball.
Speaker 1: The conference, you guys playing its high level. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be extremely competitive with Wyoming, San Diego State, and then
Speaker 1: you know, you look at the other these other teams
Speaker 1: they got that. You know, Colorado is kind of they're
Speaker 1: not in the Mountain West. Colorado State, Colorado State. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody got Everybody got better, so next got better. Nevada,
Speaker 1: Utah State. It's gonna be Aye. It's like you said,
Speaker 1: the conference. I just think people don't understand, Like you know,
Speaker 1: people that know, people that know who they do, they
Speaker 1: give they like man the Mountain West as a killer.
Speaker 1: People that don't know, I don't think they realize how
Speaker 1: high level of a conference this is. Man is shoot, man,
Speaker 1: we had four teams. She probably should have been by
Speaker 1: it got to the tournament last year so I mean
Speaker 1: facts fact. Well, Berto, Man, we appreciate you coming on
Speaker 1: the show. My brother was so glad to see you
Speaker 1: in college basketball, impacting the next generation of young student
Speaker 1: athletes for the greater good and for the betterment of
Speaker 1: their both basketball game and their and their character and
Speaker 1: who they are off the floor. Man, Thank you again, brother.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. I appreciate you. Man. Thanks you. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna send you a Bronco
Speaker 1: shirt so you can take that duck one off. I'll
Speaker 1: keep you posted after this week. Hey, if it's free,
Speaker 1: it's for me. I will gotta do it. I will
Speaker 1: have it on the next show. Berto, all right, man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen. Roberto Berguson appreciate you.