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Speaker 1: Hi everyone at Sophia and welcome back to work in

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Speaker 1: progress with me today is former NBA player, eleven time

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Speaker 1: All Star, two time Finals winner, Olympic gold medalist, and

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Speaker 1: current NBA Global Ambassador Chris Bosh. Chris played for the

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Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors from two thousand three to two thousand ten

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Speaker 1: and then the Miami Heat from two thousand ten to

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Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. While performing at the highest levels of

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Speaker 1: his athletic career, Chris was suddenly diagnosed with the blood

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Speaker 1: clot in his lungs during the All Star break and

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Speaker 1: missed the rest of the season after another blood clot.

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Speaker 1: His extraordinary career came to a premature close, not at

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Speaker 1: a time of his choosing, but as he said in

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Speaker 1: a doctor's office in the middle of the afternoon today,

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Speaker 1: Chris and I talked about his road to mental recovery

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Speaker 1: after this devastating news, and how mental toughness isn't something

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Speaker 1: you just have are not. It's something that you build

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Speaker 1: up like any other muscle. I was incredibly inspired to

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Speaker 1: hear him talk about how mental toughness and empathy have

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Speaker 1: to exist side by side in order for a person

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Speaker 1: to feel fulfilled, and also to be generous in spirit.

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Speaker 1: We also dive into talking about Chris's new book that

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Speaker 1: came out on June one, which is so fantastic. It's

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Speaker 1: called Letters to a Young Athlete. It looks back over

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Speaker 1: his amazing career in the n B A and today.

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Speaker 1: Chris shares what it was like to enter the NBA

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Speaker 1: at just nineteen and what it felt like to make

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Speaker 1: a very personal decision to join the Miami Heat and

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Speaker 1: leave his beloved Toronto Raptors behind. I was incredibly moved

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Speaker 1: to hear how even as he made a decision that

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Speaker 1: was ultimately right for him and was pursuing his career goals,

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Speaker 1: he felt the weight of expectations of so many fans

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Speaker 1: and strangers on his shoulders. Chris offered excellent tips for

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Speaker 1: how you can balance your person and all needs with

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Speaker 1: the expectations of others, which he certainly gets into. In

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Speaker 1: his phenomenal book as well, he talks about lessons he

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Speaker 1: learned about how to succeed in life, especially when my

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Speaker 1: fans you a curveball. Chris Bosh is such an intelligent, compassionate,

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Speaker 1: empathetic and inspiring person. I just cannot wait to share

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Speaker 1: this thoughtful conversation with you all. Enjoy it's so nice

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Speaker 1: to see you. Good to see you as well. Where

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Speaker 1: are you today, Austin. We're in Austin, Austin, Austin, Texas. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is is Yeah, It's it's cool out here. It's

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Speaker 1: it's always been. It's always been funny. You know. We

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Speaker 1: moved here. I'm originally from Dallas, and we were looking

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Speaker 1: in Dallas, you know, after retirement, and Adrian had the idea, uh,

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Speaker 1: to move to you know, just consider Austin. And I

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Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. I was like, man, Damn, I can't

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Speaker 1: believe I didn't think of Austin. You know, we had

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Speaker 1: so many friends throughout the years and even in my

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Speaker 1: recruiting processing, um, you know for basketball going to college,

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Speaker 1: so many people I mean Austin, Austin, Austin, Austin, Austin, Austin,

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Speaker 1: I mean my whole pretty much, my whole life, my

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Speaker 1: whole career. And then um, when we look down here,

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Speaker 1: we fell in love with it too. And you know

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Speaker 1: we've been here since. I think home is such an

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Speaker 1: interesting thing for people like us, right when your job

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Speaker 1: requires that you go wherever the job is Like if

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Speaker 1: I do a show. I moved to North Carolina. I

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Speaker 1: moved to Chicago, Illinois. I moved, and I think about you.

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Speaker 1: You know, you said you grew up in Dallas, but

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Speaker 1: going to Georgia Tech, you know, going to Toronto to

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Speaker 1: play for the Raptors. By the way, I just filmed

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Speaker 1: in Toronto, so like I have major you know, home

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Speaker 1: away from home love there. Um, you know, being in

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Speaker 1: Miami for the heat being all over. Were you loving

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Speaker 1: every place you were or did you feel nostalgic, especially

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Speaker 1: as a young athlete, did you feel nostalgic for home?

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Speaker 1: Did you ever miss Dallas? Oh yeah, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: I eventually grew out of it, But in the beginning,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, I missed home. I remember my rookie year,

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Speaker 1: I had my bags packed for a whole month, Like

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Speaker 1: I had my bag right there at the door, ready

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Speaker 1: to go home, and uh, I would be on the

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Speaker 1: first thing smoking back to Dallas. But then eventually, and

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Speaker 1: I'm sure it happened for you too, you get to

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Speaker 1: a point where you're comfortable. Home is wherever you are.

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Speaker 1: And um, as I got older, I started enjoying just

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Speaker 1: just being off that that became more of a home,

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Speaker 1: you know, just if the season was over, being able

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Speaker 1: to do the things that I've been wanting to do

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Speaker 1: to rest, go see some sites and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: And you know, next thing, you know, you start and

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Speaker 1: build in your own home. And I got to a

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Speaker 1: point where I was comfortable anywhere, you know, so, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, as much as I love Dallas, it was

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Speaker 1: time to you know, grow and find out things that

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Speaker 1: I like. And I was always very very adventurous in

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Speaker 1: that regard. You know, even even in going to college,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people ask me like, why did you

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Speaker 1: go all the way to Georgia Tech. Why didn't you

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Speaker 1: go like to U T or A and m or

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Speaker 1: And you know, I said, you know, I thought you

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Speaker 1: were supposed to go far away from college. That was

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Speaker 1: that was like, that's how it was built up in

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Speaker 1: my mind. And um, you know that that kind of

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Speaker 1: gave me a sense of adventure all the time, to

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Speaker 1: go out and check out some things and not be

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Speaker 1: afraid to venture out. And then getting drafted by Toronto

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Speaker 1: that was another culture shock. And so once that happened,

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Speaker 1: I felt just I felt comfortable anywhere. I can't imagine

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Speaker 1: the shock of that first winter in Toronto, because I've

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Speaker 1: lived through those, and they are brutal. Oh I thought,

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Speaker 1: I thought, I thought I had sauce snow. So when

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Speaker 1: the win, when it started getting cold, it's like the

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Speaker 1: cute cold like in October said yeah, yeah, I'm ready.

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Speaker 1: Yeah it was it was cold, it was long, and

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Speaker 1: I had to get used to it. January and that

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Speaker 1: part of the world is a whole other thing. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah special. I'm so interested in where that curiosity,

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Speaker 1: that adventurous nature you talk about having as a kid

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Speaker 1: comes from, because you know, I get to sit with

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Speaker 1: so many people who have these fascinating stories and they've

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Speaker 1: done these enormous things in their adulthood, but I always

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Speaker 1: want to know who they were as children. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: what was he doing when he was eight? What was

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Speaker 1: he in two? When he was ten? Also, were you

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Speaker 1: always really tall or did you have a growth spurt

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Speaker 1: in middle school? Like when did it all happen? Were

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Speaker 1: you athletic as a child or were you more bookish?

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Speaker 1: And then you found sports because you know, you won

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Speaker 1: the height lottery, Like how did this all play out

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Speaker 1: for you? So it kind of it kind of happened

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Speaker 1: at the same time. I grew up in a household

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Speaker 1: where h and really my whole family, all of my

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Speaker 1: aunts and uncles graduated from college, all of my answer teachers.

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Speaker 1: So that was kind of you know, the environment. And

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Speaker 1: and one um, one of my aunts ended up being

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Speaker 1: you know, can you imagine a black female cop in

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Speaker 1: the eighties in Texas, in Dallas, Texas. So that's the

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Speaker 1: kind of environment that we were raised in. And I

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Speaker 1: was always athletic, you know. I always my dad, um,

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Speaker 1: he played in church leagues. He would take us, we

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Speaker 1: would go watch the local high school, uh play at

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Speaker 1: the games. I would always go to the park with

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Speaker 1: my friends. And so I was always around the game

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Speaker 1: and always playing. And books were always very important, you know.

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Speaker 1: And and we had a of course, you have a

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Speaker 1: no past, no play rule in athletics in in in Texas.

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Speaker 1: My my family was a little not strict, but I

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Speaker 1: had to have a's and bees. We didn't you know.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't like, oh yeah, I gotta see no, that's

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Speaker 1: not that that's not gonna get it. Um. So that

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Speaker 1: was always pretty much in an exercise, Always going to

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Speaker 1: after school activities, always going to the parent teacher meetings

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Speaker 1: with my mom and my dad. My dad might just

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Speaker 1: show up at the school, you know, so you know

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Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't. Yeah, I always had to pretty

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Speaker 1: much be on my p's and queues um at all times.

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Speaker 1: And then and then, you know, the gross spirt eventually happened.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the love was always there. I was obsessed,

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Speaker 1: like obsessed with basketball. I run into so many people

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Speaker 1: now who say, oh, my kid is weird. Sorry, he

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Speaker 1: memorizes all the stats or she knows all the stats,

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Speaker 1: and I tell them, trust me, they're not weird. I

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Speaker 1: was that kid, you know. I was that kid that

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Speaker 1: and you know I had to do through the newspaper.

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Speaker 1: I go over to my grandma's house and get the

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Speaker 1: newspaper and just read the stats baseball and basketball. I

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Speaker 1: was just obsessive with the numbers. So, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: just kind of kept happening. And then then I started growing.

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Speaker 1: I was always tall, but I really really started growing

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Speaker 1: really tall. Yeah, I got it's so cool because I

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Speaker 1: know you always excelled in school academically, you know, and

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Speaker 1: I like to brag on people who come on the show,

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Speaker 1: like you were a member of the National Honor Society,

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Speaker 1: you were in student engineering organizations, you were in the

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Speaker 1: high school robotics club, and you know, you grew up

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Speaker 1: in this family that loved sports, And I think about

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Speaker 1: the picture you're painting of, you know, playing ball with

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Speaker 1: your friends and and watching your dad play in church leagues,

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Speaker 1: and also having all all of this academic prowess in

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Speaker 1: your family, you know, when you're surrounded by teachers and

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Speaker 1: there is um a real emphasis placed on discipline, you know,

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Speaker 1: self discipline, self self betterment, which I think you know,

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Speaker 1: studying is kind of the the highest tier of that too,

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Speaker 1: to learn, you know, as a job. I think about

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Speaker 1: how we didn't value that as kids, and now I'm like, man,

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Speaker 1: when I was in school, literally my only job was

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Speaker 1: to get smarter. It was the only thing I had

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Speaker 1: to think about. If only I had known now that

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Speaker 1: I have a real job, now that I have multiple jobs,

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Speaker 1: isn't that how it always goes? Oh my god, I wonder.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's so cool now as an adult to

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Speaker 1: talk about being into robotics and engineering and math, but

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Speaker 1: as a kid you kind of get I would think stereotypically,

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Speaker 1: more often than not, kids get bullied for that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Did anybody bully you or were you? Did they not

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Speaker 1: want to mess with you because you were also an athlete,

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Speaker 1: Like how added that word? So funny story with that,

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Speaker 1: I'll kind of digress a little bit in the story.

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Speaker 1: In the fifth grade, sixth grade, you know, I've found

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Speaker 1: that that was one of my merging points. You know,

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Speaker 1: my friends on the court weren't always my friends in

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Speaker 1: the classroom, you know, because les, I'll be frank, some

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Speaker 1: of my friends weren't the best behaved individuals, you know,

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Speaker 1: most of my teammates, And so during school I couldn't.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't really. It's like, you know, we could joke around,

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Speaker 1: but I cannot get in trouble with you today because

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Speaker 1: that that cannot happen, you know. So you know, I

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Speaker 1: always I was always that person that would bridge the gap,

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Speaker 1: you know, and and it would kind of be amazed,

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Speaker 1: like Chris, that's your you know, that's your that's your friend. Like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we spend the night over each other's house like all

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Speaker 1: the time in the summer. But school, we wouldn't talk

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Speaker 1: too much. I would have to be focused. And when

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Speaker 1: I was in the Roboties club and and I was

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Speaker 1: in another club called the whiz Kids, it was like

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Speaker 1: a learning photoshop and illustration and graphic design. I didn't

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Speaker 1: tell my friends, so you know, we wouldn't practice UM basketball.

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Speaker 1: Our team wouldn't practice basketball until five, so we wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have practice. We got out of school a three thirty

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Speaker 1: three forty five and we wouldn't have practice until five o'clock.

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Speaker 1: So naturally that especially UM, with kids and their adolescence,

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Speaker 1: that is a prime time to get in trouble. And

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Speaker 1: the places, the place that where we went to school,

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Speaker 1: UM in Dallas, South Dallas. You know, it was not

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Speaker 1: the best place for a kid to be roaming the streets,

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Speaker 1: That's what I'll say. And UM, you know you can

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Speaker 1: find trouble right across the street. You know, the school

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Speaker 1: ground was sacred, but as soon as you crossed that street,

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Speaker 1: you're in the real world. And you know, I knew

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Speaker 1: I couldn't use that time to just be running around

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Speaker 1: and and and doing stuff. So I found out about

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Speaker 1: the clubs. I got into them, and I wouldn't tell

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Speaker 1: my friends, I wouldn't tell my teammates. So I would

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Speaker 1: just you know, go have a snack, be on the

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Speaker 1: computer about ninety minutes, and then go to practice. And

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Speaker 1: that became like a daily habit. But yeah, I would

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Speaker 1: never they didn't bully me, but I was always you know,

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Speaker 1: I was always a good sport about it. You know,

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Speaker 1: I knew they would They wouldn't bully me, but they

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Speaker 1: would definitely crack some jokes, and um, you know, I

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Speaker 1: just kept those things to myself. It was like our

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Speaker 1: our secret bubble. You know. When we went to that classroom,

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Speaker 1: everybody was there to get better and it was just

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Speaker 1: like a place of ease. So I kept that, you know,

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Speaker 1: for myself. And it was one instance where one of

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Speaker 1: my coaches, Um, he picked me up and saw me

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Speaker 1: at the robotics competition. I tried to tell him to

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Speaker 1: stay outside, but this is before cell phones were like that, right,

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Speaker 1: And he came into the gym to get me and

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Speaker 1: he saw me, said so this is what you've been doing.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, come on, let's go, let's get out

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Speaker 1: of here. And you're not supposed to know this. There's

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Speaker 1: something so confident about owning your interests in that way,

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Speaker 1: especially as a young person, you know. I I remember

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Speaker 1: being a student and being scared to stand out or

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Speaker 1: or be made fun of, and always wondering if you know,

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Speaker 1: if I admit that I like this, will this put

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Speaker 1: a target on my back. You know, what do you mean?

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Speaker 1: Kids are? Kids are so mean? And I I'm very

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Speaker 1: struck by the fact that even in the fifth grade,

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Speaker 1: you said, I don't want to be the butt of

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Speaker 1: jokes for my team, so I won't tell my team

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Speaker 1: about my robotics club. But I'm still going to go

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Speaker 1: to the robotics club because I love it. And I

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Speaker 1: think a lot of kids fear not fitting in so

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Speaker 1: much that they might suppress their interests. A lot with girls, especially,

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Speaker 1: you know, girls who don't want to be stand out

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Speaker 1: smarties in class because they're afraid that the boys are

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Speaker 1: going to be mean to them. Girls. You know, I

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Speaker 1: remember reading, Oh my God, reading in Hillary Clinton's biography,

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Speaker 1: you know, her talking about how all the girls in

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Speaker 1: her school didn't want to be smarter than their boyfriends,

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Speaker 1: so they would fail their tests on purpose. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, what. But I guess I just wonder, where

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Speaker 1: does that sort of self confidence come from in a

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Speaker 1: in a fifth grade boy, How did you feel the

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Speaker 1: courage to do that and also to do so really

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Speaker 1: with with such a quiet strength? Did that come from

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Speaker 1: your dad, your mom? Was that just all your own?

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Speaker 1: You know? I would I would like to pat myself

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Speaker 1: on the back for that one and and and only

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Speaker 1: because and this is the reason. I grew up in

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Speaker 1: a I went to school in Dallas, but I grew

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Speaker 1: up in a in a small town called Hutchins, Texas.

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Speaker 1: If you're driving south on forty five leaving Dallas, it's

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Speaker 1: the first town you hit. It's the first place you

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Speaker 1: start seeing you know, rest stops or gas stations, and

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Speaker 1: you know dairy queen and you know the fast food favorites.

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Speaker 1: They weren't there back then when I was there, by

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Speaker 1: the way, but it was a very um you go

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Speaker 1: from city to like very spread out country type feel

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Speaker 1: right away. And when we were growing up. I mean,

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Speaker 1: now they've thrown up neighborhoods out there and its apartments.

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Speaker 1: There is more people there, but back then it was

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Speaker 1: just wooded area, uh fields, and you know, small neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: And so for us, we you know, it wasn't secluded,

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Speaker 1: but we were secluded a little bit. And I didn't

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Speaker 1: have friends. It was just me and my brother, you know,

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Speaker 1: and we had to like walk a little bit to

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Speaker 1: go see our friend, or we had to ride our bike,

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Speaker 1: and pretty much it was our house and then to

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Speaker 1: to the front of us was was to the right

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Speaker 1: run down house and more houses, and then to the

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Speaker 1: left a hundred yard field where we would play all

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Speaker 1: the time, and then my grandmother's house. So that was

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Speaker 1: like our street. And we eventually got to the point

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Speaker 1: where we had to entertain ourselves, you know, we had

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Speaker 1: to find hobbies. You know, if we had a tape

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Speaker 1: recorder we would make a show, or once we got

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Speaker 1: computers and had the internet going. We always had computers

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Speaker 1: in the house. That was like the main, main, main

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Speaker 1: thing that we did if we had some free time

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Speaker 1: and couldn't play video games. And once we got the internet,

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Speaker 1: you know, the dial up to the old school DSL,

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Speaker 1: we just are. It's sparked. I know me, It's sparked

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Speaker 1: my curiosity, and I know how I felt and and

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I didn't have those

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Speaker 1: same experiences as my friends because they stayed in neighborhoods,

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Speaker 1: they had their socialists continued after school. So I could

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Speaker 1: see why someone wouldn't want you to know something about

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Speaker 1: them that you could make fun of them for because

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Speaker 1: it would last all day and you could go home.

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Speaker 1: I eventually had to go home, and I had to

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Speaker 1: fill with my time with things that I like doing,

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Speaker 1: and I just knew how they made me feel. I

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Speaker 1: liked it, and I saw early on that it connected

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Speaker 1: um a lot of people, and I was able to

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Speaker 1: you know, make friends and just really do something that

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Speaker 1: I really enjoyed doing. I just enjoyed doing it, you know,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't see myself doing anything else and that that

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Speaker 1: those were the things that always gave me confidence that

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Speaker 1: Now as a dad, do you look at your own

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Speaker 1: kids and and think about wanting to instill that sense

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Speaker 1: of you know, ownership over their passion as as as

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Speaker 1: a leader, you know who speaks to so many other

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Speaker 1: young people, is there advice that you give having done

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Speaker 1: that for yourself, you know, really really stuck to your

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Speaker 1: own interests. Yeah, I encourage them. We encourage them, Adrian

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Speaker 1: and I. We encourage them to follow those passions. If

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Speaker 1: they like something, try it. You know, if you're curious

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Speaker 1: about something, try it will get you to it will

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Speaker 1: get you the whatever you need to feel that you

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Speaker 1: know you're expressing yourself. Please, we will make it happen.

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Speaker 1: And we encourage those things. So I know one of

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Speaker 1: the things that helped me in my development with basketball

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Speaker 1: was my dad not pushing me. You know, I began

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Speaker 1: to push myself. There were some instances where he had

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Speaker 1: to push me. But you can see how the helicopter

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Speaker 1: parents at the at the little league games, that's like

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Speaker 1: a it's a it's a thing. My parents never really

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Speaker 1: did that, and so that only I identified with basketball,

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Speaker 1: and I went for it, you know. So I encouraged

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Speaker 1: my children to think about those things that they really

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Speaker 1: really love and be open to trying things. My daughter,

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Speaker 1: she loves painting and cooking and art. My son, he's

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Speaker 1: like a he's turning into a gadget man. He's uh.

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Speaker 1: He loves putting things together, taking things apart. But he

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Speaker 1: loves music as well, and now he starts in the sketch.

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Speaker 1: Or my twin boys, one loves music and art like

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Speaker 1: his sister, and the youngest baby he likes the electronics

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Speaker 1: and the gaming like his big brother. So I always

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Speaker 1: always want to spark their curiosity, but most importantly, get

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Speaker 1: their hands dirty, put their hands on the electronics, go

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Speaker 1: outside and get these experiences that you know, we really

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Speaker 1: feel that will help them. And then I know eventually

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Speaker 1: they'll they'll they'll make those choices for themselves but we

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Speaker 1: always want to encourage them to do something. And you know,

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Speaker 1: that's that's kind of been It's really been working. It's

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Speaker 1: been great have that idea of encouraging but not pushing.

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Speaker 1: Like the visual it gives me, you know, a hand

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Speaker 1: at your back for support but not going to shove you. Right.

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Speaker 1: They need it, you know, sometimes they need it because

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Speaker 1: when you tell them all right, I pad time is

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Speaker 1: you know, no iPads yet, or I had time is over,

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Speaker 1: we can not do this, it's like you gotta give

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Speaker 1: him that a little nug you know, we're going to

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Speaker 1: paint today. And it's like yes, But then they end

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Speaker 1: up loving it, that's the funny thing. And they ended

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Speaker 1: up they end up making I mean, we have a

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Speaker 1: house full of art and end up making these amazing

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Speaker 1: paintings and and doing these amazing things. And I just

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Speaker 1: want to keep that, keep that going, keep that, keep

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Speaker 1: that curiosity going. We felt like you had that, you know,

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Speaker 1: support to pursue basketball from your dad. Were there athletes

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Speaker 1: at the time that you just idolized, Like who were

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Speaker 1: the people you looked up to as a as a

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Speaker 1: student athlete? Um so Michael Jordan's of course, Uh, Kobe

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Speaker 1: Bryant of course. Um. But the guy who I emulated

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Speaker 1: mostly was Kevin Garnett. Yeah, he he was the pretty much.

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Speaker 1: I grew up in a in an old school mentality

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Speaker 1: um atmosphere. And if you watch the game now, everybody

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Speaker 1: handles the ball and dribbles the ball and shoots threes.

385
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Speaker 1: Back then, that was frowned upon. If you were a

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Speaker 1: big if you were tall, do not drible, don't put

387
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Speaker 1: the ball before you. That was even if we were successful.

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Speaker 1: It's like, no, I just told you not to do that.

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Speaker 1: And right around the time that I got more a

390
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Speaker 1: lot more serious about basketball, and I start hearing um

391
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,360
Speaker 1: phrases like that from my coaches. I saw Kevin Garnett,

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Speaker 1: and the only way you could see UM NBA highlights

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Speaker 1: back then was inside stuff on Saturday morning, And so

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Speaker 1: I will wake up on Saturday morning, I will watch it.

395
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Speaker 1: In one particular day, I saw this tall, skinny dude

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Speaker 1: who is just amazing, and I said, oh, okay, they

397
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Speaker 1: can't tell me not they can't tell me what I

398
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Speaker 1: can't do anymore. I just saw somebody at the highest

399
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Speaker 1: level who looks like me. You know, you get made

400
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Speaker 1: fun of for being thin. Oh you're f real. Oh

401
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,000
Speaker 1: you're this and you know you're still successful. It's crazy.

402
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,800
Speaker 1: But when I saw when I saw that young kid

403
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Speaker 1: drafted out of high school running up and down the floor,

404
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:13,440
Speaker 1: blocking shots, being successful in the league early, I said, yeah, okay,

405
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Speaker 1: I remember myself going to the park right away and

406
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Speaker 1: practicing what I had just saw and imagining myself in

407
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Speaker 1: that same position. So he he was that prototype that

408
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Speaker 1: I needed to see to give my self confidence to say, okay,

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Speaker 1: I can I can be like that. You know. I

410
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:37,439
Speaker 1: love that that moment that a kid sees himself in

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Speaker 1: someone powerful. I remember where I was. I was right

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Speaker 1: there in Yeah, it's the same way. You know. It's

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Speaker 1: the same way with Michael Jordan. I was telling telling

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Speaker 1: my wife the other day. She's like, that's a great story.

415
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Speaker 1: Um everything. This is when basketball started clicking for me.

416
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Speaker 1: It was nine and ninety two. I was seven and

417
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 1: eight years old, and every summer my dad would drive

418
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Speaker 1: us up to Dayton, Ohio and drop us off for

419
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Speaker 1: the summer at my grandma's house. Now, we drove from

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Speaker 1: he drove from Dallas to Dayton, Ohio with two kids

421
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Speaker 1: in the car, single cap truck, and it's a stiction.

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Speaker 1: So we would drive eighteen hours. Oh man, we would

423
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Speaker 1: drive eighteen hours and both times, if not all three

424
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 1: times in these years because they were always in the finals.

425
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Speaker 1: When we got to our grandma's house, it was always

426
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Speaker 1: night and the Bulls were always playing every single time.

427
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: And so I would get there and the game would

428
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: be on and I'd be like, wow, you know the

429
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: first time in ninety look Magic John's I remember my

430
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:55,439
Speaker 1: dad talking about Magic. I remember that much. Okay, okay,

431
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,399
Speaker 1: alright cool. Then the next year the same team is playing,

432
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: So I said, wow, what what is this? Who is

433
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,120
Speaker 1: this guy? I know when I played on the COT,

434
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: but what is this? And I mean I'm watching everyone

435
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: have these reactions and going crazy and and then and

436
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: then that summer the Dream Team formed. Wow. So I

437
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: mean I couldn't even tell. It's like I saw that

438
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 1: and everything else went away except the glow of the TV.

439
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: And I was just fixated on the TV. I couldn't

440
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 1: even tell you when my dad left. Yeah, I was

441
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:34,160
Speaker 1: just remember and I mean, hello, like we've we've hung

442
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 1: out in person. Obviously now we're on zoom because pandemic world.

443
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,479
Speaker 1: But I am not a tall person, which you know,

444
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: because I imagine when you have to talk to people

445
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: like me, you're like, my neck really hurts down, and

446
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: I really do feel for you. But I had no

447
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: I never played basketball, you know, I like, I played soccer.

448
00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 1: And I remember that year in as nine, and that

449
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: was the summer that I for the first time went

450
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 1: to the sleepaway camp that I would go to until

451
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: I was eighteen. I would become a junior counselor and

452
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 1: do the whole thing. And my high school sweetheart is

453
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: my best friend from camp since I was nine years old.

454
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: He's the sweetest person on the planet. And like, talk

455
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: about a great first love story, right, And my high

456
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 1: school sweetheart when we were nine, was obsessed with the Bulls,

457
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 1: So I became obsessed with the Bulls. And I remember

458
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,159
Speaker 1: as a little you know, a y s O soccer player,

459
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: watching Michael Jordan's and I mean, you know, we all

460
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: thought he could fly, Like this man was in the

461
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: air for so long. He was doing things I'd never

462
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: seen a human being do, and the athleticism was arresting

463
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,160
Speaker 1: as a little kid to me. And I think about

464
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: all the years, you know, growing up watching him, and

465
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: then weirdly, I'm having this realization as we're talking and

466
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,439
Speaker 1: you're talking about how impactful he was for you, because

467
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: when I've moved to North Carolina to do One Tree Hill,

468
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: the gym we used for the fictional Tree Hill High

469
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,679
Speaker 1: School was the Michael Jordan Gym in Wilmington, so we

470
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: played on his court and I was like, this feels

471
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 1: like hallowed ground energy and people are like when people

472
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 1: walk in that gym, they get quiet. Even now, there's

473
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: such a respect. And then because I loved him so much,

474
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: I remember I think I was like met the rose

475
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 1: ball or something. I found this really cool old vintage

476
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 1: Bulls jacket when I was in my twenties, which I

477
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 1: obviously bought, and then I got a job in Chicago

478
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: and I was like, go into the home of the Bulls.

479
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 1: What's happening. So I don't know what it is about

480
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: that man, but even as a person who never played

481
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,679
Speaker 1: your sport, he was so impactful to me. And that

482
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 1: I think there's something about icons like that, when they

483
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 1: have put a stamp on everyone's life, even if even

484
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: if the people that they've sort of offered that stamp

485
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: to have nothing to do with their profession. And I

486
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 1: don't know, I think about what those of you in

487
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: your in your world who have made it to that

488
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: highest level I have been able to do with it.

489
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,119
Speaker 1: You know, not just the game at that level and

490
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: the travel and you know, the success, but the way

491
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 1: that you can become like a universal hero. Yeah. Absolutely,

492
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: because sports requires no language. It's its own language, and

493
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: everybody speaks it. Every fan speaks it, no matter where

494
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 1: they're from, or you understand it. What you you understand,

495
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: what you look when you're seeing it. Yeah. Yeah, you know.

496
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 1: With that said, I always um, it's like two things

497
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 1: with that that that that is um, you know, being

498
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 1: able to communicate on the court without language. That I

499
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: really felt that. But at the same time, Mike would

500
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: do the whole st game interview and it would be

501
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 1: you could understand what he was saying. I grew up

502
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 1: in a household where my we couldn't use any slang.

503
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 1: We couldn't talk too loose like my friends. You know,

504
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 1: we couldn't. I couldn't use the language in school. I

505
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: could not bring that home. Me and my brother could

506
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: if my parents weren't listening. But you know, if they

507
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: heard us, they be like, hey, you speak English. And

508
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 1: I got made fun of for that for um speaking

509
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,360
Speaker 1: clear English. You know, they would, uh, they would make

510
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: fun of me, say you're talking white, so what does

511
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 1: that even mean? You know? But when you when I

512
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 1: saw my heroes, you could understand them, you could speak.

513
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: And then I started noticing how my teachers would compliment

514
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: me on being able to talk. You know, I would

515
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: get the compliments of saying, oh wow, hey, good grades,

516
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 1: athlete with good grades. What in the world. It was

517
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: like an anomaly, and I just I felt that right away.

518
00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: And I still you know, I read books, you know,

519
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 1: I always read books throughout my career here. So watching

520
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: the look in people's eyes when he said, oh, yeah,

521
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 1: I read that book, you know, it's kind of um.

522
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 1: It was always an interesting reaction. But I always wanted

523
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: to be clear. I wanted to be concise, and I noticed,

524
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: I noticed the difference, to be frank, in the treatment.

525
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: You know, the teachers were a lot nicer. If you

526
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,880
Speaker 1: have your grades in and your own time, things are

527
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,760
Speaker 1: a little bit easier. When I make sure I have

528
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 1: my work done, It's becoming a thing. Then when I

529
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 1: became a teenager and and the higher I climbed, um

530
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 1: and the state rankings or national rankings and whatnot. It

531
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 1: would be something that would be mentioned if I had

532
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: good grades. So I was really I found that very

533
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 1: fascinating and it made me want to do more, inspired

534
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 1: to do more because I like the compliments. To be

535
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: frank with you, I really liked hearing you know, those

536
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 1: good things about me before we even get on the court,

537
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: And um, I just wanted to continue to try to

538
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 1: keep pursuing that and just do as best as I can.

539
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: And like I said, you know how my household is, uh,

540
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: my aunt. I mean she's an English teacher. She's a

541
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: retired English teacher. I think she's still working. She's seventy

542
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 1: years old and still teaching. And now I have a

543
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 1: book and she's like, hey, I know, she's probably we're

544
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: definitely gonna have a discussion about that one day, but

545
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: she's you know, they were all of my family. They

546
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 1: were always so proud and you can see them beaming.

547
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 1: If if we had good grades the court, that would

548
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 1: be a whole other thing. You know, you root for

549
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: the team. But more importantly, they they wanted to teach

550
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 1: me responsibility. They wanted to teach me all of these things.

551
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: My head couldn't couldn't get too big because if I

552
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 1: played well on Friday night, no matter what, I guarantee you,

553
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: Saturday morning, I will be in the yard mowing, I

554
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 1: will be in the I will be in the kitchen

555
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: cleaning the kitchen and mopping it. You know, it was

556
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: our job to keep the house clean. So that responsibility

557
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: and just noticing how people really really took to seeing

558
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 1: um an athlete so to speak, uh excel in the classroom.

559
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: I just you know, it became addictive. I wanted to

560
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:15,400
Speaker 1: had that, you know, as a as an actor. My

561
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 1: parents were like that business is impossible, and we believe

562
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 1: in you, and if you make it, that's great. But

563
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: what do you have that's yours? Because they essentially posited

564
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: the question to me, Okay, if you have to win

565
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 1: a job, you know, just like for you, you have

566
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 1: to get drafted, and and there are so many people

567
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: who are incredible. Not everybody gets a seat at the table.

568
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 1: So my parents were like, say you're great, but you

569
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: don't get that job. Say you're great, but you don't

570
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:52,240
Speaker 1: get that show. Say they're looking for you know, redhead,

571
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 1: not you. Whatever it is, we don't know what do

572
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: you have that's yours that someone else doesn't have to

573
00:32:57,800 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 1: give you. What do you not have to go out

574
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: and audition and for? And the only thing I could

575
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 1: ever say that would always be mine would be the

576
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: intellect I pursued, the intelligence I learned. You know your

577
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: your brain is and I say this young girls, especially

578
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: all the time. Your brain is the most valuable part

579
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: of your body. And it is the one thing nobody

580
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 1: can take away from you. And if you cultivate that,

581
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: if you lean into your learning, it gives you the

582
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: tools to be great at everything else because of the

583
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: self discipline, because of the curiosity. So I have a

584
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: chapter on that cultivating. Yeah, I loved it. I loved it.

585
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: I was like, it's exactly what I was in here.

586
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: And I always get excited when I'm like seeing the

587
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,479
Speaker 1: nerds were doing good. We're doing good. I'm telling you

588
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: this is coming, you know. And and it's interesting the

589
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: first story that I thought of, and you saying that,

590
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: My parents they never at least if they were skeptical.

591
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: I know for sure they probably at one point in

592
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: time said this boy think he's going to be Oh

593
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 1: my goodness. You know. My father, Um and I talked

594
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 1: about this in the book as well. I remember he

595
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,479
Speaker 1: would talk about it all the time, at least every

596
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: other weekend. But we'd be riding in a truck and

597
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: he would just bring it up and just say, hey,

598
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 1: you need to think about what college you're going to

599
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: because I can't pay for college. I'm like eleven, twelve

600
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:25,320
Speaker 1: years old, you know, and he's telling me, like, yeah,

601
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: I don't have the money. I'm telling you that right now,

602
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: think about what college. And we have these old Encyclopedia

603
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 1: Britannica from the seventies, and so I would go to

604
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,759
Speaker 1: the back of the book and like read the universities

605
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,480
Speaker 1: they had universities, and I thought it was so fascinating

606
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: that there would be a Texas Arlington A, Texas San

607
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 1: Antonio University of Texas, Texas A. And m I was like, wow,

608
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 1: this is so fascinating, and he got me thinking about that.

609
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: But basketball was my only way, you know, where we

610
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,239
Speaker 1: come from, where I come from, the only way to

611
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: get out of the impoverished neighborhood, the only way to

612
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:08,840
Speaker 1: get somewhere with resources was through sports for me. And

613
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 1: I was lucky to have something like that that would

614
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,120
Speaker 1: be able to to give me access to an education

615
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: and a better life and all that stuff, but like

616
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: that was my thing. And so when once he told

617
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 1: me that, you know, I went all in for it.

618
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: You know, it was nothing else really to talk about.

619
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,239
Speaker 1: It was like I already love it. And obviously he

620
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 1: just told me that this is my only way to

621
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,280
Speaker 1: access to a higher education. And and then I started

622
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: becoming more aware and seeing and being obsessed with the

623
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 1: story of those who get the scholarship. The scholarship. It

624
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: became a I mean you underline that word, a scholarship.

625
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: That was just an amazing, amazing word. And so you know,

626
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: I became just like obsessed. I was obsessed with the teams.

627
00:35:56,239 --> 00:36:00,040
Speaker 1: I would watch college basketball. I'd be up just I

628
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,520
Speaker 1: mean every in the wee hours of the morning watching

629
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: the West Coast games, up early watching the East Coast

630
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: Saturday morning games. You know, it was just, you know,

631
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: it became one of those things to where I knew

632
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: what my ticket was and so I put everything into it.

633
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 1: Was it bitter sweet then to go because you know,

634
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:22,439
Speaker 1: you you played a season of ball at Georgia Tech,

635
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 1: but then you were drafted in OH three and what

636
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: an incredible thing obviously to be drafted into the NBA.

637
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,200
Speaker 1: But then you had to leave college. I imagine that

638
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 1: was hard for you was you know a lot of

639
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,800
Speaker 1: people it was so funny because college was a struggle.

640
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously I dealt with homesickness. I dealt with

641
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 1: getting my butt handed to me in practice and in

642
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 1: the games, because it's another level. A CEC is the

643
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: best basketball in the country in my opinion, at that level,

644
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:56,919
Speaker 1: and dealing with school. I was struggling in class because

645
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: I had never had class like that. I found out

646
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 1: that the high school that I went to, we didn't

647
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,359
Speaker 1: have all the tools to prepare us all the way,

648
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: so I had to kind of scramble and figure things out.

649
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: That was tough. And then just getting used to a

650
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,479
Speaker 1: different world. You know, I'd be sore, sore from getting

651
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 1: my butt whooped all day and then go to class

652
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: and then I'd be trying to do my English homework

653
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: and math tutoring, and I just found myself behind the

654
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: eight ball. But I eventually got there, and I eventually

655
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 1: began to get comfortable. As soon as I got comfortable,

656
00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:34,399
Speaker 1: it became warm and it was time to go. And

657
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, A lot of people don't

658
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 1: believe me when I say it. I wasn't trying to

659
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,760
Speaker 1: be a one and done player. I was just playing

660
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 1: the game. I wasn't really thinking much about it. I

661
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 1: just enjoyed doing well. I just wanted to have points

662
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: and remounds and help my team win and block shots,

663
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 1: you know, and and and that's all I focused on.

664
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 1: And then, you know, one day somebody said, hey, yeah, um,

665
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: you know, people find you and they let you know

666
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,799
Speaker 1: you're gonna be the fifth or fourth or fifth pick.

667
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 1: I wasn't ready to hear that. You know, I was

668
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 1: enjoying time with my friends. I was nineteen. The weather

669
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: is clearing up, the basketball season is finally over. We

670
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 1: have a little bit more free time than we did before,

671
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 1: and I'm just having so much fun. The spring parties

672
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 1: are starting, We're hanging out, and it was time to go.

673
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 1: And I wasn't ready to hear that. And you know,

674
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: I just I knew once I heard how high it was,

675
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: I knew I had to leave because I knew what

676
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,360
Speaker 1: that meant, Like I got I can't pass that opportunity up,

677
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: as I have to go, And I wasn't necessarily ready

678
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:39,360
Speaker 1: to do that at the time, but I wanted to

679
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: be with my friends. I wanted to hang out in

680
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,160
Speaker 1: the dorms. I wanted to go to the parties and

681
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,799
Speaker 1: go across the street to the Crappie Burger spot and

682
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: hang out. That it had come to an end, um

683
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,760
Speaker 1: but I just had to continue to evolve and continue

684
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,359
Speaker 1: to transform. And this was it was the plan all

685
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 1: the time, all along. It was the plan, you know.

686
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,040
Speaker 1: So I had to walk through that door, even if

687
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 1: I felt I wasn't ready intimidating, you know. I mean,

688
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:11,359
Speaker 1: you said, you're nineteen years old and suddenly you get

689
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:12,920
Speaker 1: called up and you're going to go play for the

690
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 1: Raptors and you have to pick up and move your

691
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: life and leave school. I mean, what was that experience

692
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:24,400
Speaker 1: like for you? It's very blurry, and you know I

693
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,879
Speaker 1: always um, even even myself, I reflected on that and said,

694
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:32,279
Speaker 1: how crazy is that? I was eighteen? Okay, great, win

695
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,960
Speaker 1: a state championship. Think about this, two thousand to eighteen.

696
00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 1: Win a state championship. Wonderful. I'm going to prim in May. Wonderful.

697
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:45,760
Speaker 1: I'm going to college right that next May. One year later,

698
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:50,880
Speaker 1: I'm in the draft. One month later, I'm getting drafted.

699
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: Less than one and a half years, I'm in in

700
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:57,799
Speaker 1: the gym and Vince Carter is in front of me

701
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, we're a te and we've got

702
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: to practice. It was just like that was the intimidating part,

703
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: going to another country and seeing the difference between you know,

704
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 1: United States and Canada and getting used to that. But

705
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,200
Speaker 1: then being in the part where it's a business now

706
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:18,800
Speaker 1: and and and where I am, I am like really

707
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 1: in here, I see raptors. It's NBA logo. I mean

708
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 1: I used to we used to kill ourselves and try

709
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: to find I mean, I was like NBA socks that

710
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,839
Speaker 1: was currency when I was growing up. I never got

711
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 1: my hands on a pair. But now they're giving me

712
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 1: packs of socks and I gotta put them on, and

713
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: I've got to go to work. And this guy is

714
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: the biggest, strongest guy I've ever seen in my life,

715
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 1: and and they're telling me to go guard him. You know.

716
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:46,560
Speaker 1: So that was the challenging, intimidating parts that I had

717
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: to get used to. And just you just get thrown

718
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: in the frying pran you and you have to learn

719
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 1: how to play. And then on top of that, I

720
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: started like I was I was playing, I was getting

721
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: menaced the coach threw me in and said, Okay, you're

722
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 1: our best You're you're our best guy at this position,

723
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,120
Speaker 1: so you're playing. And so then I got into playing

724
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 1: Big minutes right away at nineteen years old. So I

725
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 1: was just constantly thrown in uncomfortable situations after high school

726
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 1: pretty much for the next three or four years, was

727
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: just always just trying to catch my feet and figure

728
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 1: things out. Is there anyone giving you any kind of

729
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:38,759
Speaker 1: advice or support, because look, I just sat with two

730
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: of my girlfriends that I came up on one treeo

731
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: with and we were just like, you know, talking to

732
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:47,319
Speaker 1: it and telling stories, and we were like, we didn't

733
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 1: know what we were doing at all. One for like

734
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,280
Speaker 1: two weeks, we had no idea what we were doing.

735
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: We didn't know what was insane, we didn't know what

736
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 1: was normal. It was kind of like it was like

737
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:04,799
Speaker 1: getting sucked out to see and people were like, have

738
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 1: fun swimming, and You're like, maybe I'm drowning. What's happening?

739
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:13,000
Speaker 1: And we realized, you know, there was a lot of beauty,

740
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:15,239
Speaker 1: but there was a lot that was really complicated, and

741
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,000
Speaker 1: there was there was a lot of the energy of

742
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 1: kind of feeling thrown to the wolves and you know,

743
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,240
Speaker 1: we talked now about how we wish we'd had mentors,

744
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 1: and we try to talk to, you know, young women

745
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,160
Speaker 1: in our industry whenever we get the chance. And and

746
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,399
Speaker 1: so it's funny that I had that conversation last week

747
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 1: and here you're telling me about this, and I'm like,

748
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 1: I know everyone in your life is going, isn't this amazing? Congratulations?

749
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: And on the inside, you're like, I don't know what's

750
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:46,879
Speaker 1: happening to me? The pressure. Was there anybody in your

751
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 1: organization who was there to help you, to mentor you

752
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:53,839
Speaker 1: to give you advice? Did that exist at the time?

753
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 1: Does that even exist in the NBA? Now? It does?

754
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 1: It does, And I was lucky to have great VET

755
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 1: trend leadership. And I do feel that that's one of

756
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:05,799
Speaker 1: the things that is missing in today's leaking. That's no

757
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: knock on the guys. Now, I know that they have

758
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:12,719
Speaker 1: guys that do that, but back then, it was you

759
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,799
Speaker 1: had that guy that was a little, well not a

760
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 1: little a lot older, like in the twilight of his career,

761
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,759
Speaker 1: and that would be his job to make sure that

762
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 1: the team is good. So in my case, when I

763
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 1: was drafted, um, we had a guy by the name

764
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 1: of Michael Curry. I believe he's still head coach at

765
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: Florida Atlantic University. And he took me in under his

766
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 1: arm right away, and we would practice before practice, we

767
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: would get shots up. We would study, and then we practice,

768
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:48,879
Speaker 1: we would get shot I would be in the gym.

769
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 1: He had me in the gym an hour before we

770
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:54,400
Speaker 1: even had to be there on a game that you know,

771
00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: we have shoot around, which is like a light practice

772
00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: in the morning, we'll be there. We'll be there at

773
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:03,919
Speaker 1: nine ten o'clock before the practice. And if we were

774
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 1: in a city, he would take me, hey, come on,

775
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: let's go, let's go eat, and he would always be

776
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,800
Speaker 1: in my ear telling me things. Then I had another

777
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:14,440
Speaker 1: veteran by the name of Derek Martin, and he would

778
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: always throw dinners for the team. If we were on

779
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: the road, all right, guys, Hey, let's go dinner tonight.

780
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: We're going here, all right hey, he'd take all the

781
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,279
Speaker 1: young guys, let's get some shots up, let's go through

782
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 1: our routines. I was lucky to have those veteran presences

783
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 1: that pushed me and challenged me, and I wanted to

784
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 1: be great, and they would give me pretty much the

785
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,440
Speaker 1: blueprint from their experience, and you know, I would emulate

786
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,480
Speaker 1: those things and do what they asked me to. And

787
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:44,279
Speaker 1: if we were in a game and I was dogging it,

788
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 1: they would tell me. I was lucky to have that

789
00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 1: system of accountability pretty much throughout my career, and then

790
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 1: I was kind of able to digest it for my

791
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,239
Speaker 1: own and and and take those things and use them,

792
00:44:57,320 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 1: so I did. I was lucky enough to have that

793
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: support system. And I even think about one of my trainers.

794
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: I'm a foodie, big time foodie. I'll try any sort

795
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 1: of food. Once wonderful I had. I had a trainer

796
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,399
Speaker 1: by the name of Ray Child. He took me out

797
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,400
Speaker 1: to eat. We would go eat um lunch all the

798
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:18,760
Speaker 1: time after after practice, and I got exposed to Greek food,

799
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:24,600
Speaker 1: and Chinese food, and Italian food, and curries and Indian food.

800
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 1: You know that real authentic um. You've been a Toronto

801
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 1: you know how it is. And I remember distinctly I

802
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:32,959
Speaker 1: was eating one day and he ordered something. He ordered

803
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: razor clams and black bean sauce, and I said, man,

804
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: I'm not eating that. That's nasty. He got mad at me.

805
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 1: He said, how do you know, don't you ever say

806
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 1: that did you try? What are you talking about? And

807
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,839
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, take it easy. I ate it

808
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:50,799
Speaker 1: and guess what, it was great, loved it. When are

809
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 1: we coming back? So ever since that, you know, that

810
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 1: opened my experience to trying new foods and that was

811
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: like an exciting thing to be on the road and

812
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 1: oh wow, what's this restaurant or if it's if we're

813
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 1: in a vacation or you know, especially now you know

814
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 1: Adrian and I we that's our thing, that's our jam.

815
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 1: If we're we're something, you know, we want to we

816
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 1: want to meet chef and we want to try. So

817
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 1: that was like, that was one of those things I

818
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 1: felt that really had a huge impression on me early on.

819
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: So those are the main guys, of course, amongst others

820
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 1: that that really inspired me, really pushed me and and

821
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,799
Speaker 1: held me accountable. Um more important so that I be

822
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:40,520
Speaker 1: able to really incorporate teamwork. I would really be able

823
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 1: to to to put the work in and not lie

824
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: to myself and say that I am You know, they

825
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 1: gave me those checks and balances and they knew they

826
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:51,919
Speaker 1: would tell me what I'm doing right and doing wrong

827
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: and we would discuss it. Having mentors and having people

828
00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: to lean on. I think, can you know, really be

829
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: the difference between like a make or break experience. Yeah. Absolutely,

830
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:05,920
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I was I was

831
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 1: kind of I had to, you know, get over I

832
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 1: think sometimes we, I think all the time, we can

833
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 1: think that that perfect leader is going to walk through

834
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,719
Speaker 1: the door, or the person, know, the President of the

835
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:22,160
Speaker 1: United States, Barack Obama is gonna come in here and

836
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 1: he's gonna mentor me, and we're gonna that's gonna be

837
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 1: my mentor. That's not always the case sometimes, right, you

838
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:31,319
Speaker 1: can take pieces from people that are around you, you know,

839
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: you can. You can rely on on those that you respect,

840
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,719
Speaker 1: whose values you think are aligned with yours, and you

841
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:42,239
Speaker 1: can take pieces from that. I think sometimes we will

842
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,479
Speaker 1: be looking over everybody, you know, I'm tall, be looking

843
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: over everybody else, and what you need is right there

844
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: in front of you. So I just you know, encourage

845
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:53,840
Speaker 1: people to kind of always keep their eye open for

846
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: those things and have those conversations with those right around you.

847
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 1: I think that's such valuable advice and hearing that you

848
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:05,800
Speaker 1: had that you know, this this great kind of supporting

849
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 1: net when you got to Toronto. I wonder was it

850
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,919
Speaker 1: was it hard to leave? Then? What was it like

851
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: to go from Toronto and you know, wind up playing

852
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:21,280
Speaker 1: for the Heat. I thought it was going to be easier.

853
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,759
Speaker 1: I thought the decision I was making was going to

854
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:26,680
Speaker 1: be a lot easier. But it wasn't. You know. I

855
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:28,680
Speaker 1: had built a life in Toronto, had been there for

856
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:32,760
Speaker 1: seven years. I had friends there, and although I felt

857
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 1: in my heart and I knew it was time to

858
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,319
Speaker 1: pursue other things, I wanted to win an NBA championship.

859
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 1: That was gold number one. So that pretty much dictated

860
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,319
Speaker 1: every decision that I made. And then it came to

861
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:48,759
Speaker 1: a head during the free agency process and uh in

862
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:52,680
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten. And what made it especially tough

863
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,279
Speaker 1: was just the love that Toronto had for me. I mean,

864
00:48:56,280 --> 00:49:00,000
Speaker 1: it became a topic of conversation, like you're not leaving, right, Chris.

865
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:02,040
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't even know what I'm having for breakfast,

866
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 1: you know, And it just became so heavy. And and

867
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:09,560
Speaker 1: then as it developed, man, all my friends, you know,

868
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:12,280
Speaker 1: they want to know what's going on. They it became

869
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: like kind of a field. Vince Carter had just left

870
00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:18,200
Speaker 1: about six years five or six years before, so it

871
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:22,319
Speaker 1: was this tension, you know. And and I eventually, um

872
00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: made the decision and follow my dreams and and go

873
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 1: to Miami. And I knew that I would be letting

874
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,240
Speaker 1: a city down, and and that's not that's not always

875
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:33,439
Speaker 1: an easy thing to do. I didn't think it would

876
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 1: be easy. But I didn't knew the I didn't know

877
00:49:35,719 --> 00:49:38,880
Speaker 1: the feelings that would come from me. I mean, the

878
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 1: last game they had signs and we see before we

879
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: want more. I'm like, oh, my goodness, I don't even

880
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,200
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing. What am I gonna do? You know?

881
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 1: And um, you know, when I made my decision, it

882
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:53,279
Speaker 1: was of course a breash of breath of fresh air.

883
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:56,720
Speaker 1: It was time for a change. My life was changing

884
00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:59,800
Speaker 1: in more ways than one. I had met a woman

885
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:03,360
Speaker 1: of my dreams, and and I was, you know, looking

886
00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: towards pursuing that, and I wanted that good fresh start,

887
00:50:06,239 --> 00:50:09,759
Speaker 1: you know, and we, uh, we were looking forward to that.

888
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:15,200
Speaker 1: And pretty much I asked some some of my older constituents,

889
00:50:16,040 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: you know, guys in the Hall of Fame, what is

890
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:22,720
Speaker 1: it about? What what is the most important thing? Looking

891
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:25,959
Speaker 1: back on it, and they would say, playing on that stage, man,

892
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:28,640
Speaker 1: you want to play on the stage. You want to

893
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:30,600
Speaker 1: go for it, that's what you want to do. You

894
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,560
Speaker 1: want to go for glory, and you know that that

895
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:37,360
Speaker 1: stuck in my head and um, I mean, and you

896
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:39,920
Speaker 1: know their their answers were quick. Remember talking to Bill Walton,

897
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, you want to play with the big stage.

898
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 1: I was like, this was you play in the seventies

899
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:50,680
Speaker 1: and eighties and he said this is quickly. So I

900
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 1: knew in my heart what I wanted to pursue, and

901
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 1: so I went for it, and luckily things ended up

902
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,080
Speaker 1: working out. But it was again being thrown in another

903
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 1: frying pan, and now we're in more of a in

904
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:10,000
Speaker 1: the bright lights world. Toronto was great. I joke around

905
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 1: that was Toronto years were like my mixtape years. Those

906
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:16,759
Speaker 1: are the special ones. Were just scrappy and trying to

907
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 1: put things together. And then when I got to Miami,

908
00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 1: it's like, oh yeah, number one Billboard album right right,

909
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 1: And if it's not, then you're you're not reaching your potential.

910
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:31,280
Speaker 1: And so you know, it was a different pressure, different attention.

911
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:33,879
Speaker 1: We were under the microscope and I had to get

912
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:37,279
Speaker 1: used to that. Yeah, I mean, it's funny you said

913
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:40,040
Speaker 1: that like mixtape and then what came to mind, is

914
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:42,799
Speaker 1: I was like envisioning you on whatever the version is

915
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 1: of being on stage at the Grammys, Like it's so

916
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 1: big and and you know you going to Miami, like

917
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: you went up with d Wade and Lebron and like

918
00:51:54,239 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 1: you you guys, I mean talk about being like modern gladiator.

919
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 1: It's like, what a pretty much crazy time? I imagine

920
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:08,280
Speaker 1: it was so exciting. Um, you know this this whole

921
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:13,239
Speaker 1: like big three thing. Did you feel kind of like

922
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,279
Speaker 1: a kid again because you were entering into a new

923
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:17,920
Speaker 1: arena or did you feel like this was just your

924
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:19,799
Speaker 1: next step as a man and you were ready, Like

925
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: what what's the what's the internal moment of walking out

926
00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:26,880
Speaker 1: on that big stage. It's a mix of both. I

927
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:29,439
Speaker 1: don't know if you ever have you seen the how

928
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 1: we came together and we had a whole big it

929
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:34,839
Speaker 1: was like a concert with no music. Have you seen that?

930
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,360
Speaker 1: So pretty much? Um, once we agreed to all sign

931
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:44,279
Speaker 1: the heat through this event and we came on the

932
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:48,440
Speaker 1: stage and we had rises and pyrotechniques and I always

933
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:51,319
Speaker 1: watched remember seeing a cut of this on Yeah, but

934
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 1: like I didn't watch the whole ceremony, but I saw

935
00:52:53,680 --> 00:52:56,279
Speaker 1: this because this was up on like the highlight reel

936
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:58,799
Speaker 1: showing like and then this happened in my and I

937
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:02,320
Speaker 1: was like, that looks crazy. Yeah, it was crazy on fire. Yeah,

938
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 1: so that was the kid part. Then we had to

939
00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:09,719
Speaker 1: turn into a growing up pretty quick because you look

940
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:12,879
Speaker 1: around after the dust settles and realized like, oh yeah,

941
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:19,480
Speaker 1: everybody didn't like that. They didn't care for that too much.

942
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:24,000
Speaker 1: I mean in Miami, great, everywhere else, you know. And

943
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:25,960
Speaker 1: and we were just in the moment, you know, everybody

944
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 1: thought we organized it. Shut up. I showed up and

945
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,960
Speaker 1: they said, yeah, you'll be right here, and you're coming

946
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:35,239
Speaker 1: out the stage, and I said, okay, yeah, I know this.

947
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:37,160
Speaker 1: I know how to do this. I watched wrestling my

948
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 1: whole life. Let me how you guys doing over here,

949
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 1: you know, let me hear you. And so, you know,

950
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:44,840
Speaker 1: that was the excitement. But then, yeah, we had to

951
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:47,480
Speaker 1: grow up very fast. And technically we still didn't have

952
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 1: a team. It was just us three and I think

953
00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 1: two other guys that were under contracts. So the team

954
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:56,400
Speaker 1: were under the gun to actually get more guys to

955
00:53:56,600 --> 00:53:58,759
Speaker 1: build a team. It hadn't even been built yet, and

956
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:01,280
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people took that as arrogance,

957
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:03,440
Speaker 1: but you know, we were just you know, pretty much

958
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,879
Speaker 1: showing up and and after that, we we saw that

959
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:09,480
Speaker 1: we were going to have to deal with the consequences

960
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 1: and you know, um, we had to come together. Yeah,

961
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:15,399
Speaker 1: that's something I think is so interesting because his entertainers.

962
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:18,560
Speaker 1: A lot of people think we all are in much

963
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:22,319
Speaker 1: more control, and they don't understand that it's a lot

964
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,759
Speaker 1: of like show up and stand where you're told hit

965
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,359
Speaker 1: your mark, other things, smile at the people. And I

966
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:32,040
Speaker 1: think as you go through your career, you get to

967
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:36,560
Speaker 1: a point where you can say no, earlier years you

968
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 1: don't have that luxury. And I imagine that that really interesting,

969
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: you know, sort of intersection where you all met of

970
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:51,000
Speaker 1: basically throwing a Grammy party without an album yet and

971
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 1: being like, well, I didn't pick this, but nobody knows

972
00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:56,640
Speaker 1: I didn't pick this because I just came here and

973
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 1: and all I can think about because I've had versions

974
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:02,960
Speaker 1: of this and oh my god, the internet is horrible.

975
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,759
Speaker 1: It's like this all happened and in an era with

976
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:09,960
Speaker 1: so much social media access. So yeah, that was pretty

977
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,760
Speaker 1: much like the beginning. That's when I knew like, okay,

978
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:15,719
Speaker 1: we're in a different world. Is a new decade. So

979
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:19,799
Speaker 1: I imagine, because you've talked about this too, that you

980
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:21,880
Speaker 1: know you made this personal decision for you and it

981
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 1: was exactly what you needed, and I don't know, I'm

982
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 1: so glad you did it. You've spoken about how there

983
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 1: was a time where you were really villainized to so

984
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:37,480
Speaker 1: many NBA fans, and I just wonder, like, in that era,

985
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:40,880
Speaker 1: in that new social media space, did you just have

986
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:42,879
Speaker 1: to take a break. Did you have to cut out?

987
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:45,720
Speaker 1: Was that a lot of noise to you after having

988
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:48,680
Speaker 1: just made this big decision. Absolutely that I pretty much

989
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,479
Speaker 1: almost cut it out completely. I mean I would, um,

990
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 1: I would use social media every now and then, but

991
00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:56,719
Speaker 1: not like I did in Toronto. I would ask questions

992
00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:00,000
Speaker 1: and be very very involved. And then once that happened,

993
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember I was, I was home and

994
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:07,480
Speaker 1: I was reading through comments and just like goodness, gracious,

995
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:10,080
Speaker 1: And then I kept doing it though I found myself

996
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 1: wanting to read it and every day reading it, and

997
00:56:12,719 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 1: then I wanted something. One day just clicked like, wait

998
00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:18,200
Speaker 1: a minute, I'm having a bad I think about how

999
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: crazy this is. I'm having a bad day, and my

1000
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 1: day just got ruined off of words I read from

1001
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:30,600
Speaker 1: a stranger with no name on a screen, you know.

1002
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 1: Uh thunder Buddy six told me I sucked, and I'm

1003
00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:39,080
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm believing it, and I'm really I'm

1004
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 1: like really having these reactions. And then just one day

1005
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,520
Speaker 1: it clicked, I said, man, why am I doing this

1006
00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 1: to myself? And I stopped reading comments, you know, and

1007
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:50,560
Speaker 1: that that aided me tremendously. I'm really curious how you

1008
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:55,560
Speaker 1: found your way there, because I know for me, I've

1009
00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:59,520
Speaker 1: had that. I have found myself in really low places,

1010
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: feeling just battered because all these people online have an opinion,

1011
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:06,520
Speaker 1: and it's always the ones with a nasty opinion you

1012
00:57:06,560 --> 00:57:08,239
Speaker 1: want to share it. You know, people who have nice

1013
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:12,000
Speaker 1: opinions of you are just like double tapping like like that,

1014
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,520
Speaker 1: and they're they're on their way. So you, in a

1015
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:17,760
Speaker 1: way you have to think about the fact that it's

1016
00:57:17,760 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 1: not a normal sampling of opinion. But something that was

1017
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 1: so interesting to me. I said to a friend at

1018
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:29,040
Speaker 1: a dinner and she's a trained psychologist. There was a

1019
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:31,360
Speaker 1: group of us sitting around just you know, talking about life,

1020
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:33,360
Speaker 1: and I was explaining this and I was like, I

1021
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:36,240
Speaker 1: don't know why, I know how it's going to make

1022
00:57:36,280 --> 00:57:38,320
Speaker 1: me feel But I look at it, I think maybe

1023
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:41,520
Speaker 1: I feel obligated because I am fortunate, because I did

1024
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:44,520
Speaker 1: make it into this business, because I do have a platform.

1025
00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:47,919
Speaker 1: I feel like I owe this. And she said that's

1026
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:50,360
Speaker 1: not what it is. She said, you have to read

1027
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:53,360
Speaker 1: it because each of us has a story. We would

1028
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:55,280
Speaker 1: never tell it out loud, but each of us has

1029
00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: a story of the reason that we're worthless or the

1030
00:57:58,640 --> 00:58:02,200
Speaker 1: reason that we are not. And she said, what you're

1031
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:05,640
Speaker 1: doing by reading those comments obsessively is you're proving your

1032
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:11,440
Speaker 1: worst story. You're looking for evidence to prove your worst story,

1033
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:13,480
Speaker 1: and just so you could say I knew it right.

1034
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, you're really great.

1035
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:20,720
Speaker 1: Whatever your clients pay you, it's worth it. But I

1036
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: thought about that because we all wonder do I deserve this?

1037
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 1: Why did I get here and someone else didn't? Am

1038
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 1: I good enough? Am I working hard enough? Am I?

1039
00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 1: Am I? Am? I? Am I? And when there's all

1040
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 1: these people who don't know you that tell you the

1041
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 1: worst thing about yourself, you're like, well, if it's that

1042
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:38,920
Speaker 1: obvious to them, it must in some way be true, right,

1043
00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:42,280
Speaker 1: must be true. It's a long time to realize, oh,

1044
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:44,840
Speaker 1: I'm just an easy target for someone to project their

1045
00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:48,000
Speaker 1: pain for sure, for sure. And and that's then, and

1046
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,000
Speaker 1: that's what I had to come to. I had to

1047
00:58:50,040 --> 00:58:52,919
Speaker 1: come to that. You know, I can't get mad over

1048
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 1: words on the screen. It might be a twelve year

1049
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:58,920
Speaker 1: old who just learned how to curse and put it together,

1050
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:01,960
Speaker 1: and now they have in a out and I'm having

1051
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:05,680
Speaker 1: a reaction off of that. And I started having more empathy,

1052
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:10,480
Speaker 1: you know for the negative comments, like, man, how how

1053
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:13,680
Speaker 1: man I really feel for that person that feels that

1054
00:59:13,720 --> 00:59:16,080
Speaker 1: they have to say something. You know, if you want

1055
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:18,520
Speaker 1: to support your team, if you want to say, ah boom,

1056
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 1: heat all day every day is sports. But you know,

1057
00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 1: just the just how nasty it can get. It got

1058
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,000
Speaker 1: nasty very very fast. Yeah. And you know one of

1059
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: the things that you know, speaking to what um you

1060
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:35,080
Speaker 1: were saying, having that survivor's guilt or am I good enough?

1061
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,360
Speaker 1: I always tried to kind of look at it at

1062
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 1: it from a point of saying, man, I deserve this.

1063
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that. I've put the work in.

1064
00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:47,960
Speaker 1: You know, I have worked and toiled, and I was

1065
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 1: in the gym, and I was in the classroom, I

1066
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:54,320
Speaker 1: was there, I put the work in. I deserve what's

1067
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:58,840
Speaker 1: happening right now, and I deserve to have the opportunity

1068
00:59:58,880 --> 01:00:00,640
Speaker 1: to go after what I want to go after, to

1069
01:00:00,720 --> 01:00:03,000
Speaker 1: go after my dreams, to go after my goals. I

1070
01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 1: love that it took me until this year to start

1071
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:08,600
Speaker 1: saying that out loud, to be like, you know what, no,

1072
01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:16,640
Speaker 1: I deserve this. I deserve this, damn it. You know.

1073
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:21,280
Speaker 1: But it's funny and and I think I would imagine

1074
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: that that may becomes a little easier in sports because

1075
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:27,320
Speaker 1: there is such a there is like a gladiator energy

1076
01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:29,560
Speaker 1: to what you do at the level you do it.

1077
01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, for me, and again it's

1078
01:00:33,040 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 1: all hitting me. This is so kissed me and weird.

1079
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 1: I have the chills over and over again while we're talking,

1080
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:39,800
Speaker 1: because I just saw my girlfriends from my first job

1081
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:43,600
Speaker 1: last week and we talked about this and I looked

1082
01:00:43,600 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 1: at them and I was like, we deserve this. And god,

1083
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:49,760
Speaker 1: my friend Hillary just was like she fell out laughing,

1084
01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:52,720
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, we grew up in

1085
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:56,960
Speaker 1: an era where all of us women were told over

1086
01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:58,680
Speaker 1: and over again, you're just lucky we let you in

1087
01:00:58,720 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 1: the rooms. Was that kind of energy and now We're like,

1088
01:01:03,160 --> 01:01:05,680
Speaker 1: we're done with that, We're done with that. We're making

1089
01:01:05,680 --> 01:01:08,040
Speaker 1: sure all the younger girls coming in behind us were

1090
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:11,120
Speaker 1: holding the door open for them. This is ridiculous. Everybody

1091
01:01:11,680 --> 01:01:15,880
Speaker 1: we're claiming are our work and are worth and it's

1092
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:18,600
Speaker 1: it's exciting and so it like, it gives me the

1093
01:01:18,640 --> 01:01:20,560
Speaker 1: chills again to hear you say that, because I think

1094
01:01:20,600 --> 01:01:23,040
Speaker 1: you do deserve it. You deserve and that's what you know,

1095
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:26,040
Speaker 1: what I think we're we're in a moment. I think

1096
01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 1: this decade, we're in the decade of the woman, you know,

1097
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:32,040
Speaker 1: and I always say that as men, we're going to

1098
01:01:32,120 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 1: have to have that the tools to be able to

1099
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:38,320
Speaker 1: handle that because we're talking about you know, we're just

1100
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:43,680
Speaker 1: now really understanding in America how disproportionate things have been

1101
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:47,640
Speaker 1: if you're a minority, and my there's a lot of minorities,

1102
01:01:48,320 --> 01:01:52,240
Speaker 1: and so I feel that kind of piggybacking on which

1103
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:55,640
Speaker 1: you have said you're holding open the door. We haven't

1104
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:59,439
Speaker 1: even seeing what is will be created. You know, there

1105
01:01:59,480 --> 01:02:02,200
Speaker 1: needs to be more women entrepreneurs. There needs to be

1106
01:02:02,280 --> 01:02:05,120
Speaker 1: more girls in coding. That's one of the things we

1107
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: try to promote. There needs to be more Yeah, absolutely,

1108
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:12,160
Speaker 1: and and you know, it's just it's all this brilliance.

1109
01:02:12,480 --> 01:02:16,360
Speaker 1: It's worlds we we don't even know, you know, because

1110
01:02:16,720 --> 01:02:20,560
Speaker 1: the scales have been tipped so hard. So think about that.

1111
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,640
Speaker 1: Think about if the world was actually fifty fifty equal pay.

1112
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:26,720
Speaker 1: How crazy would that be? Will be? I don't even

1113
01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:29,360
Speaker 1: know what that would look like. It will eventually get there,

1114
01:02:30,240 --> 01:02:32,600
Speaker 1: but you know, I think um as as we get

1115
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 1: into this new era where people are everyone is sharing information,

1116
01:02:36,600 --> 01:02:40,960
Speaker 1: and you have role models like yourself that little girls

1117
01:02:41,000 --> 01:02:43,960
Speaker 1: and boys of course can look up to and say, hey,

1118
01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:46,600
Speaker 1: that's what I want to do. I want to do that,

1119
01:02:46,720 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 1: and and nothing's gonna stop me. And they start putting

1120
01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:52,960
Speaker 1: that work in and they start cultivating the mind and

1121
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:55,160
Speaker 1: all that that good stuff. We're going to be in

1122
01:02:55,160 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 1: a world that will be totally different and and I

1123
01:02:57,880 --> 01:02:59,760
Speaker 1: think it will be better for that, and it'll be really,

1124
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 1: really great. But that's we tried to be an advocate,

1125
01:03:03,880 --> 01:03:06,280
Speaker 1: especially for young girls, not only young men, but young

1126
01:03:06,360 --> 01:03:10,320
Speaker 1: girls for sure. And and that's crazy. Earlier than the conversation,

1127
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:13,600
Speaker 1: you said that Hillary and Hillary Clinton's book Girls would

1128
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:18,360
Speaker 1: fail their tests on Like that's crazy, Like how much

1129
01:03:18,560 --> 01:03:23,000
Speaker 1: brilliance was missed out on and and while we're on

1130
01:03:23,080 --> 01:03:27,360
Speaker 1: Hillary like um, we were able to uh um host

1131
01:03:27,440 --> 01:03:30,280
Speaker 1: her uh in her presidential run at her home, which

1132
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:33,160
Speaker 1: was a very great moment for our family having her

1133
01:03:33,160 --> 01:03:35,960
Speaker 1: in our home and and being able to just have

1134
01:03:36,040 --> 01:03:40,040
Speaker 1: a fundraiser that was so cool. And just to see

1135
01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:44,760
Speaker 1: I identified with how much crap she was getting for

1136
01:03:45,080 --> 01:03:50,080
Speaker 1: trying to be successful, you know what in the world.

1137
01:03:50,160 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like, okay, guys, I think we

1138
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 1: all saw firsthand, and I mean she took it and

1139
01:03:56,960 --> 01:04:01,560
Speaker 1: kept moving like I mean, and she's tough as nails,

1140
01:04:01,840 --> 01:04:04,880
Speaker 1: you know, And so you know, she's set the example

1141
01:04:04,960 --> 01:04:08,440
Speaker 1: in the bar for so many women to have that

1142
01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:12,280
Speaker 1: confidence to say, yo, I can be president, Yes, and

1143
01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:15,280
Speaker 1: I can go for it. And that shouldn't be a

1144
01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:18,480
Speaker 1: debilitating thought. And people shouldn't look at you like you're

1145
01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:21,440
Speaker 1: crazy if you say that and you want to aspire

1146
01:04:21,480 --> 01:04:25,200
Speaker 1: to do that. Ambition is not a dirty word for anyone.

1147
01:04:26,720 --> 01:04:29,600
Speaker 1: And I think you know you you've referenced this, and

1148
01:04:29,600 --> 01:04:32,400
Speaker 1: and what strikes me whenever I get to spend time

1149
01:04:32,440 --> 01:04:35,320
Speaker 1: with you is that you you just have the most

1150
01:04:35,320 --> 01:04:40,400
Speaker 1: generous spirit. And you're talking about a few moments ago

1151
01:04:40,440 --> 01:04:43,600
Speaker 1: needing to build up more empathy, but you're also talking

1152
01:04:43,600 --> 01:04:47,960
Speaker 1: about the kind of mental toughness that is so important

1153
01:04:48,040 --> 01:04:51,440
Speaker 1: and even for men to usher in more equity for women,

1154
01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:55,720
Speaker 1: it requires empathy and and some toughness and some courage

1155
01:04:55,760 --> 01:04:59,880
Speaker 1: to change old systems. And I think about the fact

1156
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:04,600
Speaker 1: you embody both of those things, that that empathy, that

1157
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:08,280
Speaker 1: willingness to feel and be vulnerable and be curious, and

1158
01:05:08,480 --> 01:05:12,160
Speaker 1: to be tough and measured and to demand of yourself

1159
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 1: at you know, the highest levels. And and you talk

1160
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,000
Speaker 1: about so much of this in your book, and I'm

1161
01:05:18,040 --> 01:05:22,400
Speaker 1: really curious, how did you have to meet that kind

1162
01:05:22,440 --> 01:05:27,240
Speaker 1: of toughness, that that work ethic in yourself and and

1163
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:32,280
Speaker 1: hold empathy for yourself with what you went through because

1164
01:05:32,320 --> 01:05:35,600
Speaker 1: you know one of the world's greatest athletes and suddenly

1165
01:05:35,640 --> 01:05:37,920
Speaker 1: you get diagnosed with a blood cloud in your lungs

1166
01:05:38,120 --> 01:05:45,240
Speaker 1: and and this is a debilitating medical condition. Is that

1167
01:05:45,440 --> 01:05:48,840
Speaker 1: so jarring when your body is so much of your

1168
01:05:48,880 --> 01:05:51,919
Speaker 1: business and then your body, I don't want to say

1169
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 1: betrays you, but does something you were not expecting or

1170
01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:57,840
Speaker 1: maybe it was maybe it felt like a betrayal. Do

1171
01:05:57,920 --> 01:06:01,160
Speaker 1: you definitely feel like a betrayal? Will I will say

1172
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:05,040
Speaker 1: that I did feel like my body betrayed me. You know,

1173
01:06:05,160 --> 01:06:08,280
Speaker 1: eventually you get over it, you know, things happen. And

1174
01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:10,720
Speaker 1: one of the things after I was out the game,

1175
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:13,600
Speaker 1: it's nothing I can say that I can can't say

1176
01:06:13,640 --> 01:06:18,280
Speaker 1: I was prepared. You're just dealing with the day to

1177
01:06:18,400 --> 01:06:21,640
Speaker 1: day information that's coming. And eventually one of the pieces

1178
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 1: of that information in the day to day was like,

1179
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:27,640
Speaker 1: you can't play anymore. So my livelihood. I felt like

1180
01:06:27,680 --> 01:06:30,280
Speaker 1: my livelihood was taken away from me. I mean, that's

1181
01:06:30,320 --> 01:06:34,240
Speaker 1: all I had ever done. Sure I had and have

1182
01:06:34,800 --> 01:06:38,200
Speaker 1: many other interests, but best in the world. That's what

1183
01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:40,760
Speaker 1: I was trying to be every day and that's all

1184
01:06:40,800 --> 01:06:43,120
Speaker 1: I did, you know, That's all I consume myself with,

1185
01:06:43,360 --> 01:06:46,880
Speaker 1: and that's what it takes. And um, you know, I

1186
01:06:46,960 --> 01:06:50,720
Speaker 1: just got to the point where I found myself reflecting

1187
01:06:51,080 --> 01:06:55,240
Speaker 1: on my life on the game, on every single play,

1188
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:59,080
Speaker 1: on every single game, and I eventually came to the

1189
01:06:59,120 --> 01:07:03,480
Speaker 1: point where I was appreciative. You know, I was so

1190
01:07:03,560 --> 01:07:06,280
Speaker 1: glad that I had the right attitude every day and

1191
01:07:06,360 --> 01:07:08,880
Speaker 1: even on the tough days, I still love the game.

1192
01:07:09,640 --> 01:07:12,640
Speaker 1: You know, because one day I walked in the gym

1193
01:07:12,720 --> 01:07:14,600
Speaker 1: and that was my last game. I did not know it,

1194
01:07:15,120 --> 01:07:17,240
Speaker 1: but we played it and it was just a regular

1195
01:07:17,360 --> 01:07:20,120
Speaker 1: night in the NBA, I thought I and I eventually

1196
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:24,040
Speaker 1: came to the point where I feel that that's perfection,

1197
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:27,680
Speaker 1: you know, because when you're trying to be perfect, it

1198
01:07:27,800 --> 01:07:31,720
Speaker 1: just you know. I watched my teammate Dwayne Wade. He

1199
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:33,800
Speaker 1: had a thing called the Last Dance, and I mean,

1200
01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:37,440
Speaker 1: boy a long, the last lap around the league amazing

1201
01:07:38,120 --> 01:07:40,720
Speaker 1: and I didn't get to have that. I thought I

1202
01:07:40,720 --> 01:07:43,680
Speaker 1: would have that, but not only am I, you know,

1203
01:07:43,840 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 1: done playing at thirty thirty two years old. You're not

1204
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 1: going to get that send off. It's just over. And

1205
01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:52,560
Speaker 1: I had to get over that. And I just found

1206
01:07:52,600 --> 01:07:55,840
Speaker 1: myself reflecting looking back at that little kid and being

1207
01:07:55,880 --> 01:07:58,560
Speaker 1: like eventually getting to the point of saying, wow, how

1208
01:07:58,600 --> 01:08:01,520
Speaker 1: special is that? Look with I didn't get all the

1209
01:08:01,560 --> 01:08:05,760
Speaker 1: time that I thought that I was gonna have, But man,

1210
01:08:06,280 --> 01:08:08,800
Speaker 1: look at the time that I had and what I've

1211
01:08:08,800 --> 01:08:12,120
Speaker 1: worked with and what I was able to accomplish, the friends,

1212
01:08:12,800 --> 01:08:16,760
Speaker 1: the lives that we touched hopefully and you know, championships

1213
01:08:16,760 --> 01:08:19,200
Speaker 1: and all these great, great great things. Setting in an

1214
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:23,400
Speaker 1: example being a role model. You know, I wouldn't trade

1215
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:26,160
Speaker 1: that for anything. So you know what they said, well,

1216
01:08:26,200 --> 01:08:28,559
Speaker 1: doesn't kill you, makes you tougher. That was kind of

1217
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:32,879
Speaker 1: one of those situations. But I found myself being, you know, okay,

1218
01:08:32,960 --> 01:08:35,080
Speaker 1: well I need to I need to be more of

1219
01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:37,080
Speaker 1: a father, you know, Not that I wasn't. It's just

1220
01:08:37,160 --> 01:08:39,320
Speaker 1: like you're you're gone quite a bit. And we had

1221
01:08:39,400 --> 01:08:42,160
Speaker 1: just had our twin boys, and you know, we got

1222
01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:46,160
Speaker 1: little babies, and we've got five five now, and I'm

1223
01:08:46,200 --> 01:08:50,160
Speaker 1: home every day and I'm in the carpool lane, and

1224
01:08:50,200 --> 01:08:53,760
Speaker 1: I'm taking my son to to his kindergarten class and

1225
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:56,080
Speaker 1: or his first grade class, and every day he wants

1226
01:08:56,120 --> 01:08:58,400
Speaker 1: me to read to him before class starts, you know.

1227
01:08:58,520 --> 01:09:03,679
Speaker 1: And these were the things that I found myself falling into.

1228
01:09:03,760 --> 01:09:06,240
Speaker 1: And every morning I was just you know, I would

1229
01:09:06,280 --> 01:09:08,320
Speaker 1: drop him off and come back home and I just

1230
01:09:08,360 --> 01:09:14,840
Speaker 1: start writing and just trying to find something, you know,

1231
01:09:15,080 --> 01:09:17,880
Speaker 1: writing and reflecting. Is that where the book came from?

1232
01:09:18,439 --> 01:09:21,880
Speaker 1: Kind of pretty much? Yeah, that's that's uh, that's where

1233
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:24,760
Speaker 1: it started. I did not know. I couldn't tell you

1234
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:26,280
Speaker 1: that I said, oh, I'm going to write a book.

1235
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:29,360
Speaker 1: I had always been told I had a knack for writing,

1236
01:09:29,400 --> 01:09:32,559
Speaker 1: even when I was in school. It's just I didn't

1237
01:09:32,600 --> 01:09:34,680
Speaker 1: like doing it, but I could do it and I

1238
01:09:34,680 --> 01:09:37,920
Speaker 1: could pass my test. My English teacher would just be, hey,

1239
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:39,880
Speaker 1: you know, you could really you know, But I never

1240
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:43,960
Speaker 1: I never really liked it all the way. And then

1241
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:46,200
Speaker 1: I found myself and but I always did it throughout

1242
01:09:46,240 --> 01:09:49,360
Speaker 1: my whole life. And then I found myself focusing every morning.

1243
01:09:50,200 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 1: Um this this book called The Artist Way. You should

1244
01:09:53,160 --> 01:09:58,040
Speaker 1: check it out. And oh my god, this is crazy,

1245
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:03,439
Speaker 1: this is creepy. Yeah, I was about to say, it

1246
01:10:03,479 --> 01:10:07,880
Speaker 1: sounds like you were doing morning pages, morning pages, morning pages.

1247
01:10:08,040 --> 01:10:12,040
Speaker 1: So I was doing morning pages and I just saw

1248
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:14,599
Speaker 1: what I was writing down as I was writing it,

1249
01:10:14,800 --> 01:10:17,400
Speaker 1: and the first thing happened. I was like, Okay, I

1250
01:10:17,439 --> 01:10:19,680
Speaker 1: don't like what I'm writing. I don't like what I'm

1251
01:10:19,720 --> 01:10:22,360
Speaker 1: thinking about because okay, it's week three and I'm talking

1252
01:10:22,400 --> 01:10:26,040
Speaker 1: to I'm in this loop. So then I just found

1253
01:10:26,160 --> 01:10:28,759
Speaker 1: other things to empty my brain one and I found

1254
01:10:28,760 --> 01:10:33,160
Speaker 1: myself reflecting on those conversations that I had with my

1255
01:10:33,280 --> 01:10:37,320
Speaker 1: coach back in the day, or my high school workout

1256
01:10:37,360 --> 01:10:40,640
Speaker 1: guy him telling me, or that hot meal on a

1257
01:10:40,720 --> 01:10:43,080
Speaker 1: Friday night and one of my coaches would take me.

1258
01:10:43,120 --> 01:10:46,280
Speaker 1: We would go and eat some food, and we go

1259
01:10:46,360 --> 01:10:49,720
Speaker 1: watch basketball and just drive around town. I felt like

1260
01:10:49,720 --> 01:10:53,559
Speaker 1: a grown up. Those were the things I found myself

1261
01:10:53,800 --> 01:10:56,960
Speaker 1: reflecting on and all those people that helped me get

1262
01:10:56,960 --> 01:10:59,280
Speaker 1: to the point that I had eventually got to. And

1263
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:02,600
Speaker 1: I imagine that that's where some of that healing for

1264
01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:07,360
Speaker 1: not having the you know, final career moment you thought

1265
01:11:07,360 --> 01:11:11,479
Speaker 1: you'd have. In investigating all of these memories and all

1266
01:11:11,520 --> 01:11:13,240
Speaker 1: of these moments that shaped too you get to go,

1267
01:11:13,280 --> 01:11:15,599
Speaker 1: oh my god, look at all the moments I had

1268
01:11:16,800 --> 01:11:21,520
Speaker 1: and I'm still having amazing and I have an opportunity

1269
01:11:21,840 --> 01:11:24,120
Speaker 1: to hopefully one day pay homage to that and help

1270
01:11:24,160 --> 01:11:27,880
Speaker 1: someone else out. Yeah, I'm I'm really curious about something

1271
01:11:27,880 --> 01:11:29,960
Speaker 1: because everything you've talked about today has been weird. I've

1272
01:11:30,000 --> 01:11:32,800
Speaker 1: had the chills like times. So I feel like I

1273
01:11:32,800 --> 01:11:34,640
Speaker 1: need to ask this question. Because when you first sent

1274
01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:37,120
Speaker 1: me the book and I read the title and it's

1275
01:11:37,160 --> 01:11:40,519
Speaker 1: called Letters to a Young Athlete, I had this zinger

1276
01:11:40,560 --> 01:11:42,639
Speaker 1: of a moment because one of the books that shaped

1277
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:45,559
Speaker 1: me most as an artist in my twenties was Raindo

1278
01:11:45,640 --> 01:11:49,160
Speaker 1: Maria Rookies Letters to a Young Poet. I knew it,

1279
01:11:50,000 --> 01:11:52,519
Speaker 1: like I feel like I feel like he's just dropping

1280
01:11:52,520 --> 01:11:55,080
Speaker 1: a little bit of like, you know, Pixie Doest on this,

1281
01:11:55,200 --> 01:11:58,320
Speaker 1: so it is that that's a reference. Absolutely got some

1282
01:11:58,320 --> 01:12:00,880
Speaker 1: real que quotes in there, you know, it was, yeah,

1283
01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:03,439
Speaker 1: it was you know, I hadn't you know, I gotta

1284
01:12:03,439 --> 01:12:06,080
Speaker 1: be you know, Honestly, when when we found out that

1285
01:12:06,200 --> 01:12:10,480
Speaker 1: Letters to a Young Athlete hadn't been used before, we said, Okay,

1286
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:12,880
Speaker 1: oh my god, we gotta move now. This is so perfect.

1287
01:12:12,960 --> 01:12:15,320
Speaker 1: And I referenced those Letters to Young Poet, Letters to

1288
01:12:15,360 --> 01:12:19,640
Speaker 1: a young jazz musician, Letters of Seneca. Those were definitely,

1289
01:12:19,680 --> 01:12:22,599
Speaker 1: definitely huge influences. But mostly what I got from those

1290
01:12:22,720 --> 01:12:27,840
Speaker 1: was the calculated approach to the mindset, not so much

1291
01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:32,000
Speaker 1: the action, not so much you should do this, it's

1292
01:12:32,080 --> 01:12:37,720
Speaker 1: just having that mindset and that focus to function, to

1293
01:12:37,840 --> 01:12:40,800
Speaker 1: be able to go after something or do something. And

1294
01:12:41,479 --> 01:12:43,920
Speaker 1: you know, I read that those and so many other

1295
01:12:43,960 --> 01:12:46,720
Speaker 1: books that I felt translated to my game and my

1296
01:12:46,800 --> 01:12:49,960
Speaker 1: approach to the game. You know that I really really

1297
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:53,759
Speaker 1: really wanted to to write something that I wanted to read.

1298
01:12:54,400 --> 01:12:56,599
Speaker 1: So this is the book that I would want to read.

1299
01:12:56,640 --> 01:12:59,680
Speaker 1: I read before games and after games. That was my thing,

1300
01:13:00,240 --> 01:13:03,719
Speaker 1: and so throughout my career I was able to read hundreds,

1301
01:13:03,760 --> 01:13:07,640
Speaker 1: if not thousands of books, and so this is the

1302
01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:10,080
Speaker 1: book that I felt I was trying to fill in gaps.

1303
01:13:10,160 --> 01:13:11,920
Speaker 1: We were trying to fill in the gaps that I

1304
01:13:11,960 --> 01:13:15,320
Speaker 1: felt like, Yo, this is this thing right here, this

1305
01:13:15,360 --> 01:13:17,880
Speaker 1: is what I would read to get myself ready and

1306
01:13:17,920 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 1: focused and and and hype to accomplish what I need

1307
01:13:22,080 --> 01:13:25,599
Speaker 1: to accomplish. It's so cool. I mean everything in the book,

1308
01:13:26,280 --> 01:13:29,360
Speaker 1: you know from from how the most important lessons in

1309
01:13:29,400 --> 01:13:32,000
Speaker 1: life aren't just about basketball, and you know you reference

1310
01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:34,960
Speaker 1: some of those with your family and finding a new rhythm.

1311
01:13:35,600 --> 01:13:38,559
Speaker 1: I love that. You know, the book talks about great

1312
01:13:38,720 --> 01:13:41,400
Speaker 1: leaders that are also naturally quiet people. I was like,

1313
01:13:41,720 --> 01:13:44,080
Speaker 1: because it is going to be important for so many people.

1314
01:13:44,680 --> 01:13:46,760
Speaker 1: You know. You you write about how to spot the

1315
01:13:46,760 --> 01:13:50,439
Speaker 1: difference between ego and confidence and how it pushed you

1316
01:13:50,520 --> 01:13:53,719
Speaker 1: to pursue your dreams. I mean, there's there's so much

1317
01:13:54,280 --> 01:13:58,160
Speaker 1: in this book that is so I appreciate that. Thank

1318
01:13:58,200 --> 01:14:00,200
Speaker 1: you very much. And you know that was always a thing.

1319
01:14:00,200 --> 01:14:02,040
Speaker 1: I mean, that was the conversation that I and I

1320
01:14:02,120 --> 01:14:04,960
Speaker 1: referenced that in the book. It was my coach, my coach,

1321
01:14:05,200 --> 01:14:08,400
Speaker 1: coach Bishop, he was our he was my high school coach,

1322
01:14:08,720 --> 01:14:11,519
Speaker 1: varsity coach. And you know, he told me he was

1323
01:14:11,560 --> 01:14:13,519
Speaker 1: the one that opened my eyes to that and say, hey,

1324
01:14:13,560 --> 01:14:15,280
Speaker 1: you don't have to be the guy with the bullhorn,

1325
01:14:15,680 --> 01:14:18,800
Speaker 1: you know, yelling and yelling at everybody that that not

1326
01:14:19,040 --> 01:14:22,320
Speaker 1: is not necessarily what a leader is. You can be

1327
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:26,800
Speaker 1: a leader by being one time, by your effort, by

1328
01:14:26,960 --> 01:14:29,559
Speaker 1: having the right attitude those three things. If you you

1329
01:14:29,560 --> 01:14:33,080
Speaker 1: can control those, you know, and if you if you

1330
01:14:33,120 --> 01:14:37,000
Speaker 1: take it on yourself to control those things, that'll be great.

1331
01:14:37,080 --> 01:14:41,400
Speaker 1: Because your teammates are watching. Those around you are watching

1332
01:14:42,120 --> 01:14:44,240
Speaker 1: even if you don't say a word. So if you're

1333
01:14:44,479 --> 01:14:48,599
Speaker 1: dressed and ready on time for practice, not putting your

1334
01:14:48,600 --> 01:14:52,559
Speaker 1: sneakers on, when your boss comes in and say all right, everybody,

1335
01:14:52,560 --> 01:14:55,400
Speaker 1: get ready, All right, come on in, let's let's get

1336
01:14:55,400 --> 01:14:57,240
Speaker 1: ready for today. And then you see people taking out

1337
01:14:57,280 --> 01:15:00,519
Speaker 1: their notebook. No, no no, no, my notebook is ready. I

1338
01:15:00,560 --> 01:15:04,040
Speaker 1: got my pin right there, I've got everything I need

1339
01:15:04,400 --> 01:15:07,519
Speaker 1: and we're let's go. You know, so I took that

1340
01:15:07,560 --> 01:15:10,200
Speaker 1: mentality throughout my career and I felt it helped me.

1341
01:15:10,240 --> 01:15:12,479
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be coming in the gym when

1342
01:15:12,479 --> 01:15:14,640
Speaker 1: the coach says okay, he blows the whistle, and we

1343
01:15:14,680 --> 01:15:19,759
Speaker 1: have our huddle. I'm not tying my shoes, I'm not running,

1344
01:15:20,680 --> 01:15:24,360
Speaker 1: you know, putting on my jersey frantically pacing to get there.

1345
01:15:24,400 --> 01:15:29,200
Speaker 1: I'm dressed, I'm ready, I'm ready to go, and let's go.

1346
01:15:29,680 --> 01:15:32,000
Speaker 1: And I never you know, I really really took that

1347
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:34,040
Speaker 1: to heart and it really really helped me. So those

1348
01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:38,120
Speaker 1: were definitely, um, some great lessons that I learned that

1349
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:41,400
Speaker 1: really really aided me in my career. So you've done

1350
01:15:41,400 --> 01:15:46,400
Speaker 1: all this reflecting. It feels like it's been a beautiful experience.

1351
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:48,880
Speaker 1: And your book just came out, which I'm so so

1352
01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:53,679
Speaker 1: excited about. And and what now? What do you feel

1353
01:15:54,000 --> 01:15:57,000
Speaker 1: is the key to balance, you know, in your life

1354
01:15:57,040 --> 01:15:59,599
Speaker 1: and in your family and in your career. Now, man,

1355
01:15:59,600 --> 01:16:02,160
Speaker 1: that's a or a question, what is the key to balance?

1356
01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:07,679
Speaker 1: I have been so fortunate enough to find something in writing,

1357
01:16:08,479 --> 01:16:11,080
Speaker 1: and it was a three year process. It was from saying, hey,

1358
01:16:11,120 --> 01:16:13,439
Speaker 1: we should write a book, to the book coming out

1359
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:17,519
Speaker 1: three years. Okay, I want people to understand that. But

1360
01:16:17,840 --> 01:16:21,040
Speaker 1: now it's really just about you know, you know, setting

1361
01:16:21,040 --> 01:16:24,479
Speaker 1: a good example, letting people know, uh that they can

1362
01:16:24,560 --> 01:16:27,080
Speaker 1: go for those dreams. And it's okay, And I have

1363
01:16:27,600 --> 01:16:30,479
Speaker 1: other things that I'm into as well. And I'm an

1364
01:16:30,520 --> 01:16:35,200
Speaker 1: aspiring music producer, an aspiring writer, and you know, it's

1365
01:16:35,240 --> 01:16:39,040
Speaker 1: about going after that next thing. And you know, I've

1366
01:16:39,080 --> 01:16:44,280
Speaker 1: been open to just not having just the thing right away.

1367
01:16:44,320 --> 01:16:47,080
Speaker 1: I've been this This process has taught me to just

1368
01:16:47,160 --> 01:16:52,200
Speaker 1: sometimes just start and you'll be surprised the avenues that

1369
01:16:52,240 --> 01:16:54,960
Speaker 1: will just open up and the people that you'll meet.

1370
01:16:55,280 --> 01:16:57,160
Speaker 1: If you just say, man, I'm gonna just start playing

1371
01:16:57,160 --> 01:16:59,920
Speaker 1: the guitar today and I'm gonna learn and I'm not

1372
01:17:00,080 --> 01:17:03,120
Speaker 1: gonna stop until I learned it, you'd be surprised the

1373
01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:06,720
Speaker 1: people that you meet, the experiences that you'll have, the

1374
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:09,080
Speaker 1: whole other part of your brain, and the whole other

1375
01:17:09,080 --> 01:17:11,760
Speaker 1: part of the world you know, that will open up.

1376
01:17:12,040 --> 01:17:15,439
Speaker 1: And in that, I think the balance for me is,

1377
01:17:15,680 --> 01:17:18,320
Speaker 1: you know, of course, spending time with my children, having

1378
01:17:18,320 --> 01:17:21,639
Speaker 1: those moments to stay totally present. That's a challenge that

1379
01:17:22,560 --> 01:17:25,120
Speaker 1: you know I have every day because I'm used to

1380
01:17:25,280 --> 01:17:28,320
Speaker 1: staying so focused on my thing, you know. I the

1381
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,840
Speaker 1: balance is where if we're you know, this past Saturday,

1382
01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:34,760
Speaker 1: if we're we'll just go to brunch, take all the

1383
01:17:34,840 --> 01:17:36,880
Speaker 1: kids and everybody get in the car. We're gonna put

1384
01:17:36,880 --> 01:17:39,639
Speaker 1: on the playlist, and we're just gonna ride, and we're

1385
01:17:39,640 --> 01:17:41,479
Speaker 1: gonna go to brunch, and then after we're gonna go

1386
01:17:41,520 --> 01:17:44,200
Speaker 1: to the park, and then we're just gonna hang out

1387
01:17:44,400 --> 01:17:47,120
Speaker 1: and and have a good time. And you know, those

1388
01:17:47,520 --> 01:17:51,360
Speaker 1: those have been the parts to the balance that that

1389
01:17:51,400 --> 01:17:54,479
Speaker 1: really bring me joy. And that on top of hopefully,

1390
01:17:54,600 --> 01:17:58,120
Speaker 1: you know, this book will be the start of conversations,

1391
01:17:58,240 --> 01:18:07,280
Speaker 1: the start of a whole generation of young athletes, old athletes, CEOs, leaders, coaches, followers,

1392
01:18:07,320 --> 01:18:12,160
Speaker 1: everybody to um you know, aspire to to help each

1393
01:18:12,160 --> 01:18:13,880
Speaker 1: other out and get better. And that's where I think

1394
01:18:14,439 --> 01:18:18,240
Speaker 1: I can really really affect not only basketball, but hopefully

1395
01:18:18,320 --> 01:18:22,240
Speaker 1: affect some positive bring some positivity in society as well.

1396
01:18:22,400 --> 01:18:24,960
Speaker 1: That's like, that's like the goal now. And you know,

1397
01:18:25,000 --> 01:18:27,240
Speaker 1: I don't have it all figured out. Some days where

1398
01:18:27,240 --> 01:18:30,160
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting in my computer and just say what

1399
01:18:30,200 --> 01:18:33,880
Speaker 1: am I doing? You know, those that's a part of it,

1400
01:18:33,960 --> 01:18:38,280
Speaker 1: but just um, you know, staying focus on being positive,

1401
01:18:38,800 --> 01:18:42,120
Speaker 1: staying focused on having the right attitude, and staying focused

1402
01:18:42,160 --> 01:18:45,120
Speaker 1: on just every day putting that nickel in the bank

1403
01:18:45,160 --> 01:18:49,200
Speaker 1: of growing my brain, growing my kid's brain, helping a

1404
01:18:49,240 --> 01:18:52,280
Speaker 1: positivity in the world. That's uh that's what it's about

1405
01:18:52,280 --> 01:18:57,400
Speaker 1: now that what kind of music are you making? We

1406
01:18:57,439 --> 01:19:00,400
Speaker 1: make all kind of music we make uh r and B.

1407
01:19:00,680 --> 01:19:04,080
Speaker 1: I mean make anything country which you want, some hip hop.

1408
01:19:05,000 --> 01:19:09,280
Speaker 1: You know that learning to produce music is something that

1409
01:19:09,320 --> 01:19:12,000
Speaker 1: feels so intimidating to me. But I'm not surprised at

1410
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:14,559
Speaker 1: all that you're like, I'm inspired by this. I'll just

1411
01:19:14,560 --> 01:19:16,200
Speaker 1: go learn how to do it. And of course course

1412
01:19:16,240 --> 01:19:19,679
Speaker 1: would do that that. Yeah, it's getting to that point.

1413
01:19:19,800 --> 01:19:22,559
Speaker 1: It's something that's that's one of the things as well,

1414
01:19:22,680 --> 01:19:26,920
Speaker 1: you know, languages and music and just you know, just

1415
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:30,600
Speaker 1: the arts. I love doing that stuff and you know

1416
01:19:30,640 --> 01:19:33,040
Speaker 1: we're do it with my kids too, But you know,

1417
01:19:33,160 --> 01:19:35,840
Speaker 1: just being open to the challenge of saying, man, can

1418
01:19:35,880 --> 01:19:38,400
Speaker 1: I can? I Yeah, of course I can. You know

1419
01:19:38,600 --> 01:19:40,400
Speaker 1: you know that if you stay with it, it's going

1420
01:19:40,439 --> 01:19:44,360
Speaker 1: to happen. So, yeah, I'm learning languages. I'm painting, I'm drawing,

1421
01:19:44,479 --> 01:19:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm writing, I'm making music. We're doing all kinds of

1422
01:19:47,240 --> 01:19:49,920
Speaker 1: stuff over here. So I want to be you and

1423
01:19:50,040 --> 01:19:51,559
Speaker 1: I grow up. I also want to learn how to

1424
01:19:51,600 --> 01:19:57,599
Speaker 1: manage time in the way that you do. So, my friend,

1425
01:19:57,680 --> 01:19:59,920
Speaker 1: my favorite thing to ask everybody who comes on the show,

1426
01:20:00,240 --> 01:20:04,120
Speaker 1: And my last question for you is what do you

1427
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:08,360
Speaker 1: feel like in your life? Given the title of our podcast,

1428
01:20:09,320 --> 01:20:11,480
Speaker 1: what do you feel like? It's still a work in progress.

1429
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:14,320
Speaker 1: I think me myself as a as a person. One

1430
01:20:14,360 --> 01:20:16,800
Speaker 1: of the things that um, I found myself reflecting on

1431
01:20:16,880 --> 01:20:19,519
Speaker 1: it still to this day, is like we have a phrase.

1432
01:20:19,560 --> 01:20:22,840
Speaker 1: They can take away the what, but can't take away

1433
01:20:22,840 --> 01:20:27,559
Speaker 1: the why. What I mean by that is thinking about

1434
01:20:27,560 --> 01:20:29,720
Speaker 1: what type of person you are? Sure you know, I

1435
01:20:29,720 --> 01:20:32,200
Speaker 1: can go out there and score fifty points at night

1436
01:20:32,520 --> 01:20:36,519
Speaker 1: and have everybody wanting to talk to me. But if

1437
01:20:36,520 --> 01:20:39,680
Speaker 1: I'm a butt and nobody wants to talk to me,

1438
01:20:39,720 --> 01:20:43,040
Speaker 1: I'm just a jerk and I didn't inspire anyone. What

1439
01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:46,240
Speaker 1: is it really about? The reason, you know why I

1440
01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:50,080
Speaker 1: did things was to inspire, was to express myself, was

1441
01:20:50,120 --> 01:20:52,920
Speaker 1: to be a good person, you know, And I think, um,

1442
01:20:52,960 --> 01:20:55,120
Speaker 1: you know, it's always a work in progress. Every day

1443
01:20:55,320 --> 01:20:58,200
Speaker 1: I think about my actions every single day. I think

1444
01:20:58,240 --> 01:21:02,679
Speaker 1: about the moves that I'm making and always considering does

1445
01:21:02,760 --> 01:21:08,880
Speaker 1: this align with what I'm doing? And that that's like

1446
01:21:08,960 --> 01:21:11,880
Speaker 1: the daily thing. So yeah, I am a work in progress.

1447
01:21:12,040 --> 01:21:14,919
Speaker 1: You know. Every day I'm always trying to sharpen myself,

1448
01:21:15,160 --> 01:21:20,240
Speaker 1: my mental spiritual side, my children, the type of father

1449
01:21:20,360 --> 01:21:23,680
Speaker 1: I am, the type of friend I am. You know,

1450
01:21:23,840 --> 01:21:27,719
Speaker 1: those are the things that I'm really really working on daily,

1451
01:21:28,160 --> 01:21:30,760
Speaker 1: you know. And it takes that daily work. And you know,

1452
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:33,639
Speaker 1: I think, um, if I continue that progress and keep

1453
01:21:33,640 --> 01:21:35,479
Speaker 1: getting better, and keep getting better, and keep being a

1454
01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:39,240
Speaker 1: better person, keep challenging myself and those around me, uh

1455
01:21:39,360 --> 01:21:43,000
Speaker 1: to be a better person, Holy hold hold people accountable

1456
01:21:43,000 --> 01:21:46,160
Speaker 1: and have them hold me accountable as well. I think

1457
01:21:46,200 --> 01:21:50,679
Speaker 1: that is the main working progress that would just move

1458
01:21:50,800 --> 01:21:54,839
Speaker 1: mountains and and and just inspire and and be amazing.

1459
01:21:54,920 --> 01:21:58,200
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm excited about. That's exciting. Indeed, Thank

1460
01:21:58,240 --> 01:21:59,439
Speaker 1: you so much. Thank you