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Speaker 1: Hey, what up. Welcome in on Doug Golliman. This is

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Speaker 1: all Ball. We got a great guest for you the

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Speaker 1: next couple of episodes. UM. Charles Jenkins is a fantastic player.

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Speaker 1: He played for Olympiacos last season. We'll get his part

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Speaker 1: of this pod. You'll find out what it was like

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Speaker 1: to play UM under kind of quarantine, covid in Grease,

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Speaker 1: this plat past year. There's so much good stuff on

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Speaker 1: this pot from his upbringing the um A tragedy which

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Speaker 1: took place when he was in eighth grade, UMM bouncing

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Speaker 1: around high schools, to how he made his way to Hofstra,

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Speaker 1: to becoming a star at Hofstra playing really for two

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Speaker 1: coaches but sort of three coaches at Hofstra, and what

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Speaker 1: happened UH to being drafted in the NBA, to what

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Speaker 1: it's like to play with Steph Curry too, when when

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Speaker 1: Monte Ellis was traded. Like all this stuff, it's all

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Speaker 1: on here, so you're gonna love it. UM. I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna do a draft recap and go through guy by

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Speaker 1: guy by guy, but I do think what's fascinating is

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Speaker 1: UM some of the makings of these teams, right, these

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Speaker 1: are the because if you look at the NBA. The

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Speaker 1: teams in the NBA Finals, you know, I whether they

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Speaker 1: tanked or they were just bad and then they went

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Speaker 1: for the full tank. Gusto Phoenix was really bad a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Milwaukee in two thousand thirteen, they

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Speaker 1: were terrible. And the building blocks of NBA Finals teams

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Speaker 1: starts in the draft. Right, that's a long time, since nineteen,

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Speaker 1: since two thousand and thirty, I think the two thousands

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Speaker 1: their team with Milwaukee, and it's not that long for Phoenix,

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Speaker 1: But um, I mean I like the Devin Booker uh

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Speaker 1: draft pick. He was the youngest guy in the draft

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Speaker 1: that year, and you know, I've I learned from that

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Speaker 1: and the Tobias Harris and so many of these guys

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Speaker 1: that you're like, they're really good, but they're only he's

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Speaker 1: only how old? Oh that's that's that's different. So let

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Speaker 1: me just give you a couple of things that I

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Speaker 1: find interesting. I thought Houston did a really good job. Um,

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Speaker 1: you get Jalen Green, who I personally like, Kate Cunningham

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Speaker 1: better all around, but you do need guys that can score,

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Speaker 1: and this guy can score and he is he has

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Speaker 1: improved during his year with the g league. I knite

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Speaker 1: like he's a bucket freak athlete who's becoming a better shooter.

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Speaker 1: I don't know about decision makings in big games. You're

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Speaker 1: not gonna play in a big game for a couple

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Speaker 1: of years with the Rockets. Doesn't matter. You got the

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Speaker 1: second best prospect on the board, a wing score who's

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Speaker 1: a freak athlete. I like it. But then they got Senguin,

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Speaker 1: who Alpert Seguin, who's eighteen years old, was a machine

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Speaker 1: scoring in Turkey at a very very high level. I

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Speaker 1: thought he should have gone sooner, you know, And then

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Speaker 1: you look at what else they I like their whole draft. Um,

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Speaker 1: the interesting one is Oklahoma City where they got Josh

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Speaker 1: Giddy and Giddy left handed, kind of a one to three,

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Speaker 1: not really a four, tremendous passer. He's kind of got

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Speaker 1: that funky, unorthodox smart not Joe Ingles. He's more of

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Speaker 1: a playmaking guard, but he's not crazy athletic. But here's

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Speaker 1: the thing, Like those guys work in the NBA. They do.

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Speaker 1: Luca don Check is not a great athlete, but he's

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Speaker 1: a great basketball player. And I know I sound like

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Speaker 1: I'm contradicting myself. You like, well, you got Jalen Green,

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Speaker 1: Like they're different. Jalen Green has one. Defensively, he should

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Speaker 1: be able to lock you up and make some plays

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Speaker 1: with athleticism. Offensively, he should be able to score. But

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Speaker 1: Giddy is a guy who can score something, can make

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Speaker 1: everybody else better. Like he's a for a young kid,

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Speaker 1: really skilled, really smart and big. And it's just interesting

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Speaker 1: what Oklahoma City chose to turn down in order to

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Speaker 1: take Josh Giddy. I think those are the Houston and

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma City both in rebuilding. Really interesting. And then Troit

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Speaker 1: Kate has a chance to be special. He is uh

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Speaker 1: Penny Hardaway two point oh to me and people who

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Speaker 1: remember how good Penny Hardaway was. That is a supreme compliment.

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Speaker 1: And Penny um prop forty eight his first year, whereas

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Speaker 1: obviously KAYE came out of its first year. So in

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Speaker 1: terms of development, I would say Kage's probably ahead of

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Speaker 1: where Penny was at this time during his life, during

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Speaker 1: his career, not life. He's still alive, he's coaching anyway.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get to this Charles Jenkins interview, and

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Speaker 1: then I'll give you a couple of thoughts um on

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Speaker 1: the rest of the NBA draft and on Russell Westbrook

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Speaker 1: with the Lakers without further ado. The superstar at Hofstra

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Speaker 1: former draft pick of the Golden State Warriors, Charles Jenkins. Um, okay,

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Speaker 1: so your your first memories of playing who? All right,

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Speaker 1: first memories playing whop are are a where in Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: New York with my older brother and my dad. You know,

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn's fascinating, right because my dad grew up in New

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Speaker 1: York and we used to go back every summer and Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: Growing up in Brooklyn, Brooklyn now is crazy, crazy, nice

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Speaker 1: and expensive and everything's redone not everything, but a lot.

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Speaker 1: I mean it is. You want to talk about a

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Speaker 1: place that has done a complete transformation. But that's for

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Speaker 1: people who are thinking of Brooklyn. Now, what was Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: like when you grew up? Uh? Well, I lived there

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Speaker 1: for a short amount of time so that but that's

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Speaker 1: when I began playing. Brooklyn was pretty rough. We lived

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Speaker 1: in the Brownsler area. Um, it was a lot of crime.

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Speaker 1: Um the games where we started to form that time.

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Speaker 1: So oh, I want to say, like maybe the first

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Speaker 1: couple of years playing I played in Brooklyn, but my

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Speaker 1: dad was so paranoid about where I would end up

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Speaker 1: if I stayed there, so we ended up moving to

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Speaker 1: Queens But at that time it was a very tough

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Speaker 1: neighborhood to live in. It was a lot of you know, shootings,

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Speaker 1: you know, often drug dealing, and a lot of my

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Speaker 1: friends were turning into gang members at a really young age.

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Speaker 1: So it was it was a pretty tough experience for us.

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Speaker 1: So what's that like? Like, what's what's it? What's it

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Speaker 1: really like? We have people who don't grow up in

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Speaker 1: an area where their friends are becoming, you know, members

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Speaker 1: of the gang. How how old you like, let's let's say,

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Speaker 1: how your last year there? You how old were you? Well?

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Speaker 1: Last year I was seven, okay, so you're seven years old?

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Speaker 1: You just you know, fun, I mean I just seven

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Speaker 1: year old usually have no cares in the world, right,

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Speaker 1: they're just boys and they just play and whatever. Um.

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Speaker 1: But like seven year ol kids will before getting into gangs.

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Speaker 1: I mean most I mean most neighborhoods there are gangs

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Speaker 1: affiliated to each neighborhood. So and I have a lot

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Speaker 1: of older cousins that shows that path. So I was

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Speaker 1: around it for I mean too much for someone to

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Speaker 1: be that young and understand it. I mean I was

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Speaker 1: just noticing the other day I was with my nephew

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Speaker 1: and he lives in Brooklyn as well, and at his

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Speaker 1: age he can tell you which gang is from what neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: which is too much information. I would rather him be

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Speaker 1: able to name all the presidents that we had rather

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Speaker 1: than to be that informed about his neighborhood. But unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: out there you have to be aware you're surrounding. So

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Speaker 1: when I was young, I was able to, you know,

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Speaker 1: understand what was going on, just because I was exposed

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Speaker 1: to it when of course, which is a young age.

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Speaker 1: But my dad was very adamant about us not being

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Speaker 1: there long enough to see you know, a lot more

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Speaker 1: that we experienced at that time. Okay, so what would

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Speaker 1: your dad do for a living? My dad was, yes,

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Speaker 1: do you remember the conversation or was it were you

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Speaker 1: too young to that conversation? Too young for the conversation.

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Speaker 1: I just remember that we lived in like a small

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Speaker 1: complex and there was like a big murder that happened

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Speaker 1: where it was like multiple people being like laid out

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Speaker 1: on coming out on stretchers. It was a lot of

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Speaker 1: news coverage, and shortly after that, I remember my dad,

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Speaker 1: you know, letting us know that we won't be living

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Speaker 1: there much longer, so you moved to Queens, which is

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Speaker 1: like a completely different like is it was there a

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Speaker 1: community center or are you out of the park when

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Speaker 1: you when you're now now you're starting to play your

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Speaker 1: eight nine, ten years old. My mom, my mom went

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Speaker 1: to the grocery store when we first moved here and

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Speaker 1: there was like, um, just like brochure for a basketball

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Speaker 1: league that they had. It was ages from there was

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Speaker 1: like from six to nine and then they had another

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Speaker 1: league from ten to thirteen where you can play. And

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Speaker 1: she brought she brought home the pamphlet. We spoke about it,

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Speaker 1: and I think that next Saturday I went down to

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Speaker 1: try out for one of the teams. And I've been

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Speaker 1: playing you know whatever since organized ever since? Were you

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Speaker 1: always good? Was it something like? Nah? I wasn't. Honestly, um,

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Speaker 1: when I was really young, for my from my age,

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Speaker 1: I was exceptionally exceptionally well. I played really good in

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Speaker 1: this league. But when I like traveled around the city,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was when I like, if I went

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Speaker 1: to Brooklyn, we played against Brooklyn teams, I didn't do

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Speaker 1: fairly well all the time. Or if we went up

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Speaker 1: to the Bronx and played against the shows, you know,

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Speaker 1: I had some some problems with them, or if we

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Speaker 1: played against teams like Riverside that was big in New

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Speaker 1: York at that time. No week, I wasn't with the

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Speaker 1: best thing on the floor at Riverside Church. So okay,

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Speaker 1: so you get ready now now you're now you getting

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Speaker 1: middle school in the high school school, what program did

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Speaker 1: you play with? Well, I played for my dad, and

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Speaker 1: my dad had a team that we put together. We

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Speaker 1: were just like literally going around and finding kids and

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Speaker 1: we managed to put it put the get that team

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Speaker 1: for two years, and then I played for the Panthers

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Speaker 1: and Long Island Lightning for about two years. What was

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Speaker 1: it like to play for your dad? It was it

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Speaker 1: was good. I mean he when I played, I was

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Speaker 1: always like a really like big kids. So when I

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Speaker 1: played in other leagues, I played like the four or

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Speaker 1: the five. Even though I was pretty short, I was

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Speaker 1: as bigger than everybody. So I always played the four

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Speaker 1: to five And my dad with, well, tell me, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're not gonna be that tall when you

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Speaker 1: get older, and this is like the average side for

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Speaker 1: a guard. So I want you to play for me

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Speaker 1: and like learn how to you know, be a guard

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Speaker 1: instead of you know, you're not gonna get it. You're

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Speaker 1: not gonna have a chance to get a scholarship being

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Speaker 1: a six three power forward. So he would always say that.

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Speaker 1: So playing for him was fun, and it was also

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Speaker 1: tough because he had to like go to distance too

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Speaker 1: show other parents that there was no favoritism even though

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Speaker 1: I was his son. So I learned a lot playing

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Speaker 1: from him. But it's hard. It's super challenging. Like I

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Speaker 1: played for my dad and now I coached my son,

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Speaker 1: and it to like when he has a great game

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Speaker 1: or he's really kind of improving and getting it, it's

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Speaker 1: the best. But you also you have to manage. You

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Speaker 1: can't play favorites. You gotta subbount sometimes. You know, you

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Speaker 1: gotta get into him. You know, you have a deeper relationship.

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Speaker 1: You'll talk, you'll talk back to you some as well,

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Speaker 1: because he does no more than some of the other kids.

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Speaker 1: Like it's a it's a completely different thing than having

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Speaker 1: your guy your kids played for somebody else. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: didn't understand it at the time. I thought he was

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Speaker 1: just trying to make an example of me. But as

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Speaker 1: I got older and I just reflected on it, I

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Speaker 1: was I was thinking about like man, if I if

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Speaker 1: I coached my son and the team that we had,

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Speaker 1: all the parents were involved, they were after, they were

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Speaker 1: at all the games, and of course you want to

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Speaker 1: see your son do well, so that if there's one

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Speaker 1: kid playing for his dad, you definitely don't want your

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Speaker 1: son to be out of some sort of disadvantage. So

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Speaker 1: I think he did a good job that I was

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Speaker 1: just too young to understand at the time. Um, high

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Speaker 1: school was your high school experience? Like, um, well, my

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Speaker 1: my brother. My brother passed away when I was in

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Speaker 1: the eighth grade towards the end of my eighth grade year.

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Speaker 1: So high school my first year. I ended up pulling

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Speaker 1: the Holy Cross for one year, but I was so

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Speaker 1: like depressed for the majority of that year that I

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Speaker 1: didn't even play. I was so so take take me

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Speaker 1: through what happened, how it happened. And my brother, Yes, oh,

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Speaker 1: my brother was a street was a street dude. Um.

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Speaker 1: He was heavy in the crime. He loved it, he thrilled,

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Speaker 1: he thrived in that. He loved like, uh, putting fair

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Speaker 1: into people, robbing people at times, and he just loved

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Speaker 1: that lifestyle. So I mean, unfortunately, that lifestyle only ends

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Speaker 1: two ways. Either you go to jail or you or

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Speaker 1: someone catches up to you, and unfortunately that happened to him. Um.

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Speaker 1: I remember I was going to pick up my cousin

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Speaker 1: and we stayed in the car for a little while

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Speaker 1: because it was a lot of shots going off in Brooklyn.

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Speaker 1: We heard like a lot of shots. It was maybe

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Speaker 1: about like like ten minutes, like back and forth shooting.

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Speaker 1: So we waited in the car for a while before

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Speaker 1: we went upstairs and then want to stop. We went

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Speaker 1: upstairs and I'll never forget my cousin opened the door.

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Speaker 1: He said, I'm surprised y'all alive. I just heard about

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Speaker 1: forty shots outside And we were like, oh no. We

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Speaker 1: were just waiting in the car for it to finish.

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Speaker 1: And then we were coming upstairs. So that happened. We

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Speaker 1: were just all like hanging out for a little bit

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Speaker 1: and then the phone rang and I could hear my

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Speaker 1: mom like scream, like she got she got a call

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Speaker 1: from my brother's my niece's mom, my brother's girlfriend at

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Speaker 1: the time. She called, and I can hear my mom

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Speaker 1: scream and told us to like get like Verry, like

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Speaker 1: we gotta go, we gotta go. So we jumped in

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Speaker 1: the car my mom is driving insane like through the

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Speaker 1: busy like New York streets to get to the hospital.

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Speaker 1: So we were outside the hospital for about one hour,

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Speaker 1: I think, and then doctors, you know, like the doctor

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Speaker 1: kept coming out saying, you know, he's in critical condition,

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Speaker 1: but he's still breathing, of trying our best to kept

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Speaker 1: coming out maybe like every fifteen minutes. And I want

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Speaker 1: to say about the last time he came out, I was,

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Speaker 1: I was standing outside and I didn't know like that

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Speaker 1: he that he pronounced my brother, you know, dad after

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Speaker 1: a while, but like I just remember my aunt like

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Speaker 1: jumping and my sister just passed out, and then it

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Speaker 1: was like a wave of emotion around like just a room.

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Speaker 1: It was like an unbelievable feeling. With me being young,

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Speaker 1: I was eleven, it was like, uh, it was hard

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Speaker 1: for me to like understand what just happened, because like

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Speaker 1: my aunt was hysterical and my sister was like she

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Speaker 1: was like passed out on the ground. She was like

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Speaker 1: they had to put her on the stretcher. So I

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Speaker 1: was kind of hard for me like really feel that

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Speaker 1: emotion because it was so much other things going on.

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Speaker 1: Until you know, later that night, we drove home after

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Speaker 1: my parents saw his body and things like that, and

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Speaker 1: I was able to really understand that my brother is, uh,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna call me tomorrow. You know, big brothers. Big

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Speaker 1: big brothers are like you know, it's like your dad's

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Speaker 1: like your your hero. So but what was it? But

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Speaker 1: you also said that life and putting here in people?

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Speaker 1: So I mean, did you idolize him? What were your

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Speaker 1: before that? And this is hard now obviously because there's

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Speaker 1: still the emotions of him dying, But before that, what

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Speaker 1: what did you think or feel about your brother? Like

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Speaker 1: what was your when people would say say say, oh

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Speaker 1: I know your brother or whatever, like what was your

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Speaker 1: opinion of But the thing, the thing is, he never

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Speaker 1: was like that around me. So the personality he had

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Speaker 1: when he walked outside and he was on the streets,

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Speaker 1: it's totally different from what what I saw on a

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Speaker 1: daily basis. Of course, you know, he was a big

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Speaker 1: I was fan, so we anytime there was a TNT

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Speaker 1: game in the six rout playing we Will, he would

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Speaker 1: make sure that he was around so we could watch

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Speaker 1: it together. Um, he always spoke about hoops, and of

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Speaker 1: course I've seen times where he got into confrontations with

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Speaker 1: people he handled the situation, not with like guns or anything,

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Speaker 1: but like maybe a fish fight or you know, something

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Speaker 1: that's not that like like how it ended for him.

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Speaker 1: But right, I was I never saw, you know, the

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Speaker 1: kind of person he was on a consistent basis he

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Speaker 1: was outside. I've only heard stories, you know, after he

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Speaker 1: passed away about the things that he was. Fox Sports

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Speaker 1: Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.

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00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,800
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot

305
00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,840
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

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00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:55,320
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. So your home and it

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00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:58,720
Speaker 1: kind of all sinks in and hits you that he's

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Speaker 1: not he's not coming home. Um, and you know your

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Speaker 1: parents are a mess, right as any parents would be

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Speaker 1: obviously your your sister, How did you? How did you

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Speaker 1: deal with it? How did you how did you process? Um?

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Speaker 1: I mean it was it was hard. It took it

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Speaker 1: took a long time. I want to say it took

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Speaker 1: about a year a year and change for me to

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Speaker 1: like to kind of wake up. You know, Um, my brother,

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Speaker 1: my brother was My brother used to always call me,

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Speaker 1: like when I came home from school, he would ask

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Speaker 1: me questions like, you know, um, Howard school today? What

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Speaker 1: did you learn or are you are you going to

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Speaker 1: practice your ball handling? Or he'll mentioned something about like

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Speaker 1: hoops and then like we'll have jokes. And he also

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Speaker 1: had his own apartment at a young age, and I

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Speaker 1: would like go see him on the weekend sometimes and

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Speaker 1: we would just like hang out. Of course, he was

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Speaker 1: eleven years older than me, and it was always like

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Speaker 1: a great time for me. So, you know, when I

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Speaker 1: got to high school, of course, my first day I school,

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Speaker 1: I'm around, you know, a different group of people. I

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Speaker 1: was looking forward to that call. You know. There were

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Speaker 1: sometimes where I had, you know, confrontations with people, and

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Speaker 1: I would always want to call my big brother, but

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Speaker 1: it was bigger than what it should have been and

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Speaker 1: I couldn't. So those are the times where I had

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00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,040
Speaker 1: a relationship with him where I could share things that

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Speaker 1: were him that I didn't want to share with my dad.

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Speaker 1: So once the other things that was happening and I

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00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:27,720
Speaker 1: didn't really have anyone that I wanted to I was

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00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,960
Speaker 1: comfortable enough sharing with That's when I started to Philip

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Speaker 1: the most. But I really woke up when my freshman

340
00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:36,840
Speaker 1: year finished and I was I got kicked out of school.

341
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Speaker 1: What did you get a man? I was academically, I wouldn't.

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00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,800
Speaker 1: I was non existent. I was just going to school,

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Speaker 1: but I wasn't. I had zero desire to be there.

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Speaker 1: Why did you go to Holy Across the beginning? Like

345
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:53,439
Speaker 1: what was that your parents picked up? Like? How did you?

346
00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:56,520
Speaker 1: It was when I played for the Panthers. I played

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Speaker 1: for this coach, Lloyd Davin. And the night before or

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Speaker 1: maybe like two three days before high school was gonna start,

349
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Speaker 1: I was gonna go to this public school that I

350
00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:09,960
Speaker 1: ended up going to anyway, Springfield Gardeners. Springfield Gardeners, Yeah,

351
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,000
Speaker 1: which had a really bad reputation. And I saw Lloyd

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Speaker 1: then maybe a couple of nights before school started, and

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Speaker 1: he was like, where are you going this year? And

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Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to Springfield and he was like, man,

355
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:23,679
Speaker 1: like you can't go there? Like that's that school is terrible?

356
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Speaker 1: Is this is that? He's like, you know what, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna make a call and you know, i'll call you tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: And it happened fast like that. He called me. The

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00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:34,840
Speaker 1: next day. I had to like, you know, find a

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Speaker 1: shirt and tie. I went. I sat with the principal

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Speaker 1: and like the dean and a couple of days later,

362
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:44,240
Speaker 1: I was like, holy Cross, but you didn't play sports,

363
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,240
Speaker 1: not at all nothing. So your academically ineligible, you flunk

364
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:55,160
Speaker 1: out of school. You're you're you, and I'm I'm picturing

365
00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,520
Speaker 1: and telling from like your whole family, like there's a

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00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:00,360
Speaker 1: fog over all of you guys because your brother. Yeah,

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00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:04,719
Speaker 1: and so you you had to go back to Springfield

368
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Speaker 1: Springfield gardens. Um, what do you and you're you're playing

369
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Speaker 1: like you like what was your dad like you with

370
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: your grades being go ahead? Now? That was That was

371
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:18,760
Speaker 1: a tough summer for me. Of course I had to

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00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 1: make I had to go to summer school. Um. I

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Speaker 1: had to have the conversation with him about you know what,

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Speaker 1: what paths I can go down if I continue to

375
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 1: um living this way, about waking up, uh, about being

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00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,360
Speaker 1: able to agrieve and still live your life. Really big

377
00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:39,639
Speaker 1: conversation I had with him. My dad worked at a

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00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:42,639
Speaker 1: group home for over twenty years where there were a

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00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 1: bunch of kids who parents didn't want him, and he

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00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:47,639
Speaker 1: would he would take me there, show me how do

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00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 1: these kids live, Compare my life to theirs, and what

382
00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:54,360
Speaker 1: what they did or what what this kid? You know,

383
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:56,920
Speaker 1: how many times this kid was in trouble with the law,

384
00:20:57,359 --> 00:20:59,240
Speaker 1: where what past He's gonna go down? And it was

385
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:01,560
Speaker 1: it as I opened it, because I was I was

386
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: blind to that. I didn't know anything about like like

387
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,439
Speaker 1: just that group home. So he was telling me like,

388
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,120
Speaker 1: this is where I worked, this is my second job.

389
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 1: These are the kids I'm around, this is where they're

390
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:13,239
Speaker 1: involved in this, this is what I have to deal

391
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,200
Speaker 1: with on a consistent basis. Now look at your life.

392
00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: Is your life anything like this? And I was like, no,

393
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 1: it's not. And I think he one time he told

394
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 1: me that he would let me slay the weekend up

395
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 1: there with them, just to see how it is. And

396
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,679
Speaker 1: I was like, no, this is enough for me. And

397
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:35,080
Speaker 1: then you know, I started to get myself together. Um, okay,

398
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,480
Speaker 1: So this whole time, like were you six three early?

399
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,639
Speaker 1: Like did you early? No? No, I was I was

400
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:49,399
Speaker 1: maybe like by ten, Maybe when did you When did

401
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 1: your game start to come together? Because I know about

402
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,160
Speaker 1: your senior year you were star when your game started

403
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: to come together my junior year that just at the

404
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 1: end of my sophomore year, I had to really this summer, um,

405
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 1: I played for a local team in New York City's

406
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: Finance and the coach gave me the opportunity to play

407
00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:12,119
Speaker 1: with at the time like like fifteens, and then I

408
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:14,880
Speaker 1: played on his team with the guys that were getting

409
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: ready for college. I mean, I didn't play that much

410
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:21,879
Speaker 1: on that team, but I got to practice with them. Um,

411
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: I got to learn. I got a chance to feel like,

412
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,200
Speaker 1: all right, I'm young, but I have to food myself.

413
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: Like I felt like I had to proove myself all

414
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:31,480
Speaker 1: the time when I played with the older team, and

415
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 1: I started to get accepted by them, like maybe like

416
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,120
Speaker 1: towards the end of the summer, right going right into

417
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 1: my junior year, and I just had like an amazing

418
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 1: amount of confidences, you know, getting ready for public school basketball,

419
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: and you know, I started to play really well. By

420
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: your senior year, You're one of the best players in

421
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Speaker 1: the city. Right, Um, this is this is two thousand

422
00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:57,560
Speaker 1: and six, So who who else is? Who else is

423
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,239
Speaker 1: big in the city that year? Man Edgar Sosa was

424
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,639
Speaker 1: the best guard in New York at that time. You

425
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,439
Speaker 1: think back, you ere a think back, and it's pretty

426
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: pretty awesome, right Like now you're a superstar, uh international

427
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: basketball player, right, and you think of all of those

428
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: guys who at the time, we're being judged as as

429
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 1: good as you are better than you and guys you

430
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: thought of it, like again, I don't know what Edgar

431
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 1: Socia is doing, but I know he's not not doing

432
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Like it is pretty amazing the snapshot

433
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: of when we're seventeen. Like I was thinking about this,

434
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,640
Speaker 1: I think probably this when I was twelve years old,

435
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,520
Speaker 1: I joined the team and we won the national champion

436
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: like the AU national championship, and like I went back

437
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,439
Speaker 1: in track all and I didn't play very much. And

438
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: I went back in track and I was like, oh,

439
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:45,720
Speaker 1: I had a better run than that guy and that guy,

440
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 1: that guy, that guy. Okay, so it's Edgar Sosa. Who else?

441
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,520
Speaker 1: Malcolm Grant? He ended up. He went to Villanova, the

442
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:58,199
Speaker 1: transferred to Miami. Um, there was a guard Larry Davis.

443
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 1: He went then I think, I mean I was still playing.

444
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: I was still playing really well in Europe. The White

445
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: Hardy he still plays. He was really good. Eugene Harvey,

446
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 1: he went to see the hall. Sure was the was

447
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:19,199
Speaker 1: the guy man and he was a guy. Did you

448
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,440
Speaker 1: play against him? Did you play against him? And Au? Nah?

449
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: He played? He played on the I played on the

450
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:27,520
Speaker 1: Adidas mark. When I did play, I played for the

451
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 1: Student Athlete Broncos and we played Adidas. I don't know

452
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,399
Speaker 1: where to where the gout shows played. I think they

453
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,360
Speaker 1: were a Nike team. Yeah, no, we had that when

454
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: I when I came out two where you just you

455
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: didn't play against Nikes. He didn't he didn't play against

456
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 1: Nike teams or he didn't go to play Nike events.

457
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: Here's two thousand six. You ready, Yeah, Curtis Kelly was

458
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: considered the best player for sure, and your sosa okay,

459
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:07,159
Speaker 1: um bizarre Heyward yeah, Antonio, Antonio Pinion, yeah right, Labor

460
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 1: Larry Davis, John Mitchell, Yeah, Austin Wallace, Brad Sheehan who

461
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: went to Georgia Tech, apparently from Lake. I never heard him.

462
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: Let's see here, Vernon til Vernon twos in two thousand six.

463
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,159
Speaker 1: I think he reclassed though classes he was he was

464
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 1: older than me. Uh. Antoine Pearson went to Manhattan, they

465
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: went the St. Domes Um, Tim Burns, okay, Andre Tarver,

466
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,159
Speaker 1: I'm I'm asking this because I went back and looked

467
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 1: and like you were ranked yeah, best player in New York.

468
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:59,200
Speaker 1: All right, okay, so why hofstra uh at the time

469
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: I was this is the this is my absolute truth.

470
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 1: I tell your story all that. That's it. That's what

471
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 1: this is. By the way, that's what we don't need.

472
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,200
Speaker 1: There's there's no reason you're not hurting anybody's feelings years

473
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 1: after the fact, right, okay, okay, perfect, okay, so um

474
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 1: go after as well as I played UM my junior

475
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: my junior year, I didn't have one division division one

476
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: offer at all. Nothing. Was it because of your great

477
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: or freshman year or I don't know. I don't honestly,

478
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I didn't. I didn't have any

479
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't even get any any letters from

480
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 1: any big time schools. I don't even think there was.

481
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: There was one school that I knew if if all failed,

482
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,159
Speaker 1: I would go to. That's because of this relationship that

483
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 1: I had, and it was Kentucky State. There was a

484
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,919
Speaker 1: guy named Charlie that I grew up playing around and

485
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: he always, you know, gave me, you know a lot

486
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: of praises. He watched me grow out that he was

487
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: involved with that school. And it was also a school

488
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,119
Speaker 1: Long Island A DELFI a high school coach. I played,

489
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: I played high school, so I played against their head

490
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: coach was involved with that university. His name was A Pittman.

491
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 1: So those are those are my guarantees of all fALS,

492
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: like there's a possible chance that I can go there.

493
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 1: But of course, like watching TV, you want to you

494
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: want to play in the big time schools. You want

495
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: to play the Division one basketball. But unfortunately that wasn't

496
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 1: what was going on for me as a junior. So

497
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: my my junior is when you start, you know, you

498
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: start taking the p S a t S. And my

499
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: best friend he was we were going to UM the

500
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: college office in school, and they called both of us

501
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 1: down there and they were like, you know, you got

502
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:50,360
Speaker 1: a register for you know, UM, you know to take

503
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: your p S a t S. This is important and

504
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 1: this is about your future x y Z. And my

505
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:57,640
Speaker 1: friend he said to this lady, I'll never forget. He said,

506
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: I'm not taking the p S A T. He said,

507
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,360
Speaker 1: when I graduate, I'm going to trade school. I'm gonna

508
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,639
Speaker 1: graduate in thirteen months and then I'm gonna start working.

509
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: Now in my head, I was just like, man's that

510
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: don't sound like a bad idea because he has not

511
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 1: He's he knows what he's gonna do. Yeah, he has

512
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 1: a plan, and he was so confident in what he said.

513
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: I was I was thinking, like in my head, like, man,

514
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 1: that don't sound like a bad idea. Of course, I

515
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,360
Speaker 1: went on. I took the p S A t um

516
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: me and my dad spoke about, you know how important

517
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: it is, and we watched you know, basketball documentaries and

518
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: stuff about players. And I think lamar old Him at

519
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: that time had some something going on with his set

520
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 1: score that happened, so I always want to do he

521
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: flew out. He flew out, so so Lamar lamar Old

522
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: Him was supposed to go to uh U and LV

523
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: was U and l V, but I forgot where he

524
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: was originally going. Okay, but but he actually flew out

525
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: to l A. And there's this high school, Linwood High

526
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: School where he took the S A T and like

527
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: had the magic pen where all of sudden like he

528
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: killed and so it was I think it was invalidated

529
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: or something like it. Something like that. I believe that,

530
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: but in my in my mind at the time, since

531
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: I didn't have schools, and of course being in New York,

532
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: like I remember that time Edgar Edgar was already committed

533
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: to Louisville. Kirk Kelly was going to Yukon, you know,

534
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 1: and it was a league that that's big in New York.

535
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: The guy on the microphone always like he was big

536
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: up players that past scholarships, like the score. Sometimes he

537
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: would say like Edgar Sosa Louisville for free, like he

538
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: would always like say stuff like that, and I didn't

539
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:50,479
Speaker 1: I didn't get that. Yeah, yeah, I didn't get one

540
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: of it, of course. But playing in Springfield, we didn't

541
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: really get the big time you know, recognition as like

542
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: other schools. So I guess that's why I flew under

543
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: the radar. But I didn't know just that until later.

544
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: At that time, I was thinking, like, you know, I'm

545
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 1: not getting the scholarships offers that I thought I would

546
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: from any school, let alone like D one, D two.

547
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: I didn't get anything. So I was thinking, like, man,

548
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: I'm this is probably a better option for me to

549
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: do the same as my friend I understay your six

550
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 1: three point guard. At the time, I don't could you

551
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: not shoot? Like what how do? Or was it were

552
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: just not events? Like how how is it possible? I mean,

553
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know, honestly, I don't. I don't

554
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: know how to okay, so so so okay, So who

555
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: the first contact you have with Hobstro was who? And what? Um?

556
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: David Dukes? Uh my my senior year, like and like

557
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 1: I want to say about in December my senior year,

558
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: we had um we had this Catholic school versus public

559
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 1: school like invitational tournament that we got invited to and

560
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: we played against st ray and I played really well.

561
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: We lost by four. Of course, Springfield versus St. Raizor

562
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: was supposed to lose by fifty in front of a big,

563
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: big crowd, but we ended up losing by four. We

564
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: had a chance to win the game, we missed the

565
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: last shot and found And I want to say we

566
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: played Saturday morning and Hofstra was at Springfield. David say,

567
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: Springfield Monday, like Monday, the Monday practice. He was there.

568
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: So that was the first time I met him. And

569
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: and what do you think when somebody comes up to

570
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 1: you and says, hey, like, like, what do you think

571
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: about about Hofstra? No? But the funny thing is my dad,

572
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: my dad, him and my dad know each other. So

573
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: my dad he my dad. My dad used to get tickets,

574
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,959
Speaker 1: uh for his kids at the group home. He used

575
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 1: to take all the kids that behave well, he used

576
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 1: to take them to hoshow games. So Coach Dukes was

577
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: responsible for getting him the tickets. So he my dad

578
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: told me that he used to always tell like Coach

579
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: Dukes like, whenever you need him, there's a sixth three

580
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 1: guard that goes to Springfield. And he said, like, Coach

581
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: Duke's never paid it, you know, much attention. He just

582
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 1: was like all right, whatever and just you know, gave

583
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: him the ticket and you know, went about his business.

584
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 1: So when I first met him, the first thing he

585
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 1: said to me is can you shoot? And I was like, yeah,

586
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: I can shoot. He's like, well, let me see your shot,

587
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: and he just rebound a couple of shots for me,

588
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: and then we sat down we talked um. He uh.

589
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: He was telling me about the school, um, the opportunity

590
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 1: I have to play, and in my head I was like, whatever,

591
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: I know somebody I know St John's coming. Omark Cook

592
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: was my favorite player. I wanted to play for St.

593
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 1: John's really bad. Um. So eventually Marri's came on really strong,

594
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: and then I got a phone call from Norm Roberts.

595
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: Norm Roberts went to Springfield and he was showing some

596
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: interest in me, like you know, um, you know, we

597
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 1: heard about how you've been playing. You know, we're have

598
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: sent someone to come watch you, and you know we'll

599
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: keep in contact. But they wanted me to go to

600
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 1: prep school. When I was a senior, there was a

601
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: lot of my friends or chief guys I played against,

602
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 1: that was reclassifying and going to prep schools all over

603
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 1: the world. And I wasn't a fan of that because

604
00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 1: I didn't like high school. So I was like, why

605
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: am I gonna one more year? And I don't like it?

606
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 1: So I mean I was. I was seventeen at the time,

607
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: and before like once I started getting like a couple

608
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:36,320
Speaker 1: of schools, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and

609
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: that changed everything for me. Um how she was only

610
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: twenty minutes away. My dad at that time was working

611
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: three jobs. He worked at UPS at night, he did

612
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: the group home from ten to six, and on the

613
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: weekend he started him and his friends started like a

614
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: truck driving business. So I know that my mom was gonna,

615
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 1: you know, experience a lot of changes in her life.

616
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 1: And my sister and uh, we decided that we would

617
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: stay closer to home if in case she needed anything.

618
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: We wanted to be in driving distance of where wherever

619
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: she needed, and Hosh is right there. Of course, you know,

620
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: it's big East and all of that stuff is cool.

621
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: But you know, if my family is everything to me,

622
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: it's only it's only four of us that have a

623
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,399
Speaker 1: really really tight bond, which is my mom, my dad,

624
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: my sister and myself. So how it made hash an

625
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,240
Speaker 1: easy decision. It wasn't about, you know, basketball at the time.

626
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 1: It was about, of course getting a scholarship, which my

627
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: parents always pushed, and being around for my mom um.

628
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 1: As far as the basketball, we had to senior guards

629
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: that was Lawrence Stokes and Carlo Rivera and we had

630
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 1: one junior guy Antina Guya who And they were telling me,

631
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 1: you know, we're thinking about red shirt and new year.

632
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: First year, you know, you you get to learn learn

633
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: how things are in and then you know going into

634
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,240
Speaker 1: your freshman year you'll be able to be an important

635
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: part of the team. And I was like you in

636
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 1: my head, I was more like, you know, the scholarship

637
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: is enough. But when I got to school, I was

638
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 1: really able to, you know, understand that what they were

639
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,319
Speaker 1: saying was true. So so your first year you're sitting

640
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,399
Speaker 1: there you're watching, right. That's hard, That's that's gotta be

641
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:20,799
Speaker 1: incredibly hard because you had a great senior year and

642
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 1: you had choices to go to prep with Brandon. You

643
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: don't want to go to your high school, or maybe

644
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: you go to one of these other schools and play

645
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: right away, but you know your mom's dealing with stuff.

646
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 1: Um what what was that like to sit and watch

647
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,280
Speaker 1: other guys play for the first time in your life.

648
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: I think it would have been easier if I went

649
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: to another school. I mean, if I went to school

650
00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: out of town, because from New York, I've been here,

651
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 1: you know, all my life up to that point. Yeah,

652
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,760
Speaker 1: so a lot of a lot of people were coming

653
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 1: to the games thinking that I would play. Now if

654
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: I was a rad shirt that um that I know,

655
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,920
Speaker 1: I was in like a suit or something or like

656
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: team sweats watching the games, and it had been a

657
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,759
Speaker 1: lot easier. But the fact that I was dressed, I

658
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: was on a layup line practice, you know, all the

659
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: punishment runs I was a part of. It was it

660
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: was hard to you know, watch a lot of games.

661
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: Of course, games where you know, we got blown out

662
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: and they cleared the bench on games were blown teams

663
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,479
Speaker 1: out and everybody you know, got the chance to play

664
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,319
Speaker 1: except me. So it was it was tough, but I

665
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 1: was also maybe like halfway through it, I knew that

666
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 1: there was no chance that I would play, like zero chance.

667
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 1: I was able to just you know, focus on what

668
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: I needed to do for the next season. Do you

669
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:40,399
Speaker 1: do you remember how you guys did that year? I'm looking,

670
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:45,200
Speaker 1: I have, I had the results. I think, I'm not sure.

671
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:48,320
Speaker 1: I think we finished maybe first or second in the league,

672
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: I think. And you guys lost your first three games. Yeah, well,

673
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: I know we lost and uh we lost our first

674
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 1: three games. We lost that uh uh man, they had them.

675
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:08,000
Speaker 1: It's a Green and White school Charlotte, Yeah, Charlotte. Yeah,

676
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 1: we lost shot and then Manhattan Schools Manhattan, and then

677
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: they were saying that we had a curse of the

678
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 1: Green and White. Yeah, yes, because then you lost to

679
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:23,600
Speaker 1: Hawaii as well. Yeah, Green and White Schools. Yeah. Um,

680
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 1: so you get done with your first year, okay, and

681
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: now those guys are gone. Now you're gonna play. Um

682
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:34,799
Speaker 1: and obviously like you're playing in the summer, and you know,

683
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 1: and and you hadn't like played, but how how different

684
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: was your game? Man? In high school and high school,

685
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: I was I was thinking everybody, so I was you know,

686
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 1: I got whatever I wanted. I was driving the majority

687
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: of the time. I rarely shot shot jumpers, and I

688
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,439
Speaker 1: remember before when I got to to college, Cose Dukes

689
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,479
Speaker 1: would say like, you know you, yeah, you can drive,

690
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 1: that's cool, but at this level they'll throw it in

691
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:01,959
Speaker 1: the stands, so we need to work on your shot.

692
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,320
Speaker 1: And that summer before my freshman year when I actually played,

693
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: I just stayed at school. I asked him, can I

694
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 1: stay in August, I keep my little room and just

695
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: continue to get in the gym, because I knew when

696
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: I came to Queen's I wouldn't have that kind of

697
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:19,879
Speaker 1: access to a gym I could be in every day.

698
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: And we had a graduate assistant, Tom from l at

699
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,399
Speaker 1: the time, who was known and when he was younger

700
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:28,120
Speaker 1: as a really good shooter, and we just spent a

701
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: lot of time together talking. Um, I didn't know. I

702
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: didn't know how to step into a shot like left

703
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 1: right or right left. I didn't know I will always

704
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 1: hop then shoot. So it was a lot of like

705
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: muscle memory things that they used to do, Like Coach

706
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,439
Speaker 1: would come like if I'm getting out of class. Coach,

707
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 1: I have a ball in his hand and sometimes he'll

708
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 1: say left right, tossed the ball in the air and

709
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:54,759
Speaker 1: I had to like step in left right. So I

710
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: will always think about it and we will always practice it.

711
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 1: And once I was able to learn about the footwork,

712
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: I was about you know, fixing my shot, you know,

713
00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: not cocking it back too far, shooting where I'm comfortable,

714
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,200
Speaker 1: the right balance. It was a lot of that going

715
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 1: into it, so I worked so much on it. It

716
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,719
Speaker 1: created a lot more confidence for me because I was like, okay, now,

717
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 1: UM comfortable enough to shoot it and I can drive

718
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: as well. So going into my freshman year, we had

719
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:29,200
Speaker 1: Antoinea Gudio who was a really really good score, really

720
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 1: good shooter, and I was trying to just be the

721
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: best you know, robbing role that I could be because

722
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,239
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity too. So once it got time

723
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 1: to to you know, play against those guys, coming into

724
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,919
Speaker 1: my freshman year and practices, I was a lot more

725
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: confident than I was the year before because you know,

726
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 1: I worked a ton on my game. Okay, so do

727
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 1: you remember your first game when you actually played you

728
00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:05,800
Speaker 1: against against totally cross? Yeah, five points nine rebounds. Um,

729
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 1: so you know, like like, yeah, it's confidence. You're like,

730
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 1: oh this is I'm ready, I'm straight. And then you

731
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: go score five points your second game though you blew

732
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: up right game correct? Correct? Correct? Um? Which which one?

733
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: Which memory is more vivid? The Holy Cross of the

734
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 1: Manhattan I think the I mean, it wasn't the game.

735
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 1: It was the conversation I had with the assistant coach

736
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 1: after we play Holy Cross. That was. That's what I'm

737
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 1: thinking about the most we have we Um, you were

738
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: in the I went to his office. He called me

739
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: in there. It was I remember, so it was weird,

740
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: but it kind of changed. It changed my the way

741
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 1: I was, you know, my approach to the game at

742
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,320
Speaker 1: that time. Of course, I was super hesitant because I

743
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: knew that Tom was the guy and I never I

744
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 1: never played with the guy before. You know, I've always

745
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,359
Speaker 1: been the guy, like up until from like the last

746
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 1: couple of years from high school. So it was an

747
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: adjustment to me. And I was so dependent on him

748
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: that I was, you know, passing up a lot of

749
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:12,160
Speaker 1: opportunities for myself. And the coach called me to the office. Uh,

750
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: coach Mac who coach at St. John's right now, and

751
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: he had the footage of all the possible chances I

752
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 1: could have shot the ball. Look, you passed this up.

753
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,440
Speaker 1: You should have took this. Why didn't you take that?

754
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: Why did you make this pass? And I had to

755
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:31,359
Speaker 1: explain and really tell him how I felt. And he

756
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: asked me, like, what are you afraid of? He said,

757
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: what do you are you afraid why? He said, look

758
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: at our bench. He said, if we take you out,

759
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 1: you're second best player on the team. It's not much

760
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: longer before you back into the game. So he said,

761
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:50,240
Speaker 1: you got a dare to be great And I was like, man,

762
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 1: and I was kind of looking at him like is

763
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,319
Speaker 1: this Like are you serious? Are you talking to me?

764
00:41:57,719 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 1: And he was like, yeah, you have to. And he

765
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 1: was like it's gonna start in practice, Like in practice,

766
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: we're gonna put you against torone and you have to, like,

767
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: you know, get comfortable and being more aggressive and you know,

768
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 1: the next couple of practices, I was, I mean, I didn't.

769
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 1: Of course, Tone would kill me all the time in

770
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 1: practice when I was a freshman, he would kill me.

771
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 1: He would get the best to me the majority of

772
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,880
Speaker 1: the time. But I felt comfortable making mistakes and looking

773
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,440
Speaker 1: at coaches reaction because it wasn't like I was just

774
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 1: taking wild shots. I was never like a wold shot

775
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,359
Speaker 1: kind of player. It was just like overthinking mistakes I made.

776
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,480
Speaker 1: So once I was able to get that amount of

777
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 1: confidence from this associate head coach at that time, the

778
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 1: next game I was way more comfortable, and you know,

779
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:47,400
Speaker 1: taking more shots and and and playing like without without thinking.

780
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 1: And the Manhattan game I was. I was in the

781
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: right spots I made. I made all my open looks

782
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: and started to play a lot but a lot better.

783
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,880
Speaker 1: And the kind of the lights which went on the

784
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: first time I saw the first time I saw you

785
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:05,360
Speaker 1: play and like was like, oh, this guy can play.

786
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: Was your junior year you guys took on Yukon, right,

787
00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: and Yukon had kemba, and I remember you and and

788
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 1: Jerome Dison, right, they had kemba, Jerome Dison and Stanley Robinson, Yeah,

789
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 1: and and you gave it to him. You had and

790
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:32,839
Speaker 1: eight and and four. But your your teams weren't as successful,

791
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,959
Speaker 1: so you weren't getting kind of the notoriety. But what

792
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,360
Speaker 1: was what do you remember your college experience? You obviously

793
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: remember every conversation and and every game, like like all

794
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 1: of us do. What was that like to an noow,

795
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 1: like you're growing into being a star, and yet like

796
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 1: if it was now there's two tho one, everybody been

797
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 1: poaching you, trying to get you to transfer up level. Right,

798
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 1: what was it like at Hofstra? Right? What was it

799
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: like at Hofstra when when Twin leaves and now it's

800
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 1: kind of your our team and your team's kind of struggling,

801
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:07,880
Speaker 1: but you yourself are getting better personally, And it was honestly,

802
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 1: it was fun just because I know how hard it

803
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: was for me to get, you know, to a Division

804
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:17,399
Speaker 1: one club. You know, it was really hard to get

805
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:21,320
Speaker 1: to a school, and it was even harder my freshman

806
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 1: year just just adjust to, you know, a different type

807
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 1: of game. So I was more so looking at it like, man,

808
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 1: I'm improving. I was more like noticing, of course that

809
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 1: we didn't have that good of a team, but individually

810
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 1: I was improving every year and giving our our guys

811
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,360
Speaker 1: a better chance at winning almost every every time I

812
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 1: was on the floor, So that I was, I was

813
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 1: thriving in my my opportunity. My sophomore year, I remember

814
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 1: coach put an amazing amount of pressure on me, so

815
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 1: we had six seniors, UM, and I used to shoot

816
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: really early in the morning and Coach was like walking

817
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:02,880
Speaker 1: to UM, like I don't know, he was going somewhere,

818
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 1: and he stopped in the gym and he was like,

819
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:09,439
Speaker 1: I'm gonna announce today that you're a captain. And I'm like, man,

820
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 1: I'm a sophomore, Like why am I captain? Like there

821
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 1: still a lot of things that I don't know, but

822
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,320
Speaker 1: him giving me that responsibility, and I'm starting to notice

823
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,600
Speaker 1: that I was, you know, leading by example when I

824
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: was getting the respect of the older people. It changed

825
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: because then I felt that I have I had a

826
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 1: responsibility for my teammates. Obviously played from your senior year,

827
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 1: played for Tampacora before that, and now once you played,

828
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,520
Speaker 1: once you played as long as you played, you played

829
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: for a lot of coaches, right, you played for a

830
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: lot of dudes. Um, what's the best part about Tampacora?

831
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 1: A guy who you, who recruit you, who you played. Yeah,

832
00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: I mean I've learned. I've learned so much from Coach

833
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 1: core Um, not even from a basketball standpoint. I feel

834
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 1: like just as like a person. I mean, there was

835
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:02,719
Speaker 1: so many at that time time before he went to Fordham. Uh.

836
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: They made me a part of the sub committee. So

837
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:08,239
Speaker 1: it was like I was a representative for you know,

838
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 1: all of the sports and school and we would have

839
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 1: you know, meetings about um, you know, how can we

840
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 1: get more fans to school, how can we you know,

841
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 1: improve things with the students, how can we make the

842
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 1: athlete life better? You know, things about study hall. So

843
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 1: I would go to a lot of meetings and confidence

844
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 1: calls and things with him, and on those rides that

845
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,919
Speaker 1: we would have a lot of just conversations about life. Um.

846
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:40,879
Speaker 1: He would talk to me about like being comfortable, being uncomfortable. Yea.

847
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 1: He would always like tell me a lot of like

848
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 1: little little things. I remember there was one time we

849
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:50,919
Speaker 1: were at this like this this dinner and I didn't

850
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,760
Speaker 1: know anyone, and he would say, like go introduce yourself,

851
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:57,239
Speaker 1: make your presence known, tell them who you are, say

852
00:46:57,239 --> 00:46:59,959
Speaker 1: it with confidence. Or he would say, you know, there's

853
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta say hi to people you don't like.

854
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:05,319
Speaker 1: And he would say watch this, And I would watch

855
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 1: him like go around the room and just network and

856
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:11,120
Speaker 1: get people even though he had you know, personal issues

857
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 1: with them, and they I mean I learned that. And

858
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,040
Speaker 1: I would be like and even like now when I'm

859
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:17,799
Speaker 1: you know, in a situation where I'm in a room

860
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 1: full of people, I will always think about, you know,

861
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,359
Speaker 1: those rides that I had with him, because I used

862
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:26,240
Speaker 1: to be super super just like closed off, right, that's

863
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,480
Speaker 1: very nor right, Like you're a college kid and these

864
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: you have nothing in common with these people, you know, desire,

865
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: but that's to me. It's a lot of things about

866
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 1: the college experience which people don't. We do a bad

867
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: job in the media of explaining, you know, like you know,

868
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,879
Speaker 1: I remember It's like when I was in Oaklahoma State,

869
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 1: we we went on a road trip to uh like

870
00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 1: my my first year there. We weren't supposed to be good,

871
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:52,759
Speaker 1: so we didn't put We only went on like a

872
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: road trip to TCU and then we played Arizona State

873
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 1: in Okoland City. So we were at like spaghetti factory

874
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:01,000
Speaker 1: and we're all messing around, and we had a dude

875
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:05,399
Speaker 1: who who couldn't remember any place, so we all put

876
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 1: in all our pre diem and we're betting whether or

877
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 1: not he could he could drop all of our like

878
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: just our secondary sets, right, And anyway, we got like

879
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 1: super rowdy and there's food everywhere, and coach clocks down

880
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: to our table and he gets so mad that when

881
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 1: we get we go back. We actually had to go

882
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 1: to like these like finishing school classes. I squared to guy,

883
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 1: Like we had to go and everybody had to get

884
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: a coat and tie. We had to learn how to

885
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 1: sit at the dinner table. We had to learn like

886
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 1: proper like proper etiquette, and all these other things. Were like,

887
00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:37,200
Speaker 1: this is crazy. Why are we doing this so stupid?

888
00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:39,319
Speaker 1: Why are we doing this? And then you know, like

889
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 1: again twenty years later, you start to get that, like

890
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 1: the college experience isn't just about playing the games and

891
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 1: trying to become a pro. It's about all these other

892
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,440
Speaker 1: things that you learned that like your parents. Don't that

893
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: not everybody's parents have time to teach them or have

894
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:56,440
Speaker 1: the financial resources to teach them, right or or or

895
00:48:56,520 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 1: you're you're in a completely foreign environment, you know, and

896
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:03,160
Speaker 1: you have to be able to use your basketball in

897
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:07,279
Speaker 1: order to open up these doors to you. So it's amazing, Right,

898
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:10,759
Speaker 1: that's crazy you said that. Now, now, be Coore, I

899
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 1: had those nice suits. Right, he's a jay, Right guy

900
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 1: like those guys always chids always look clean, yes, always clean,

901
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 1: clean shave, good ties, man I had so many like

902
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: good conversations. And it's so funny that you brought up

903
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:30,319
Speaker 1: the the etiquette class because I remember going and I

904
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:34,759
Speaker 1: remember seeing like soup for the first time, and yeah,

905
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:38,439
Speaker 1: of course, like at home. If someone's eating soup at home,

906
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: they're sick. I've never seen you know, I yes, yes,

907
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:48,719
Speaker 1: you're right. Yes, I didn't know they had. I didn't

908
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 1: know what they had soup outside of you know, supermarket

909
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:55,800
Speaker 1: for Campbell's if you're not feeling well. So I remember,

910
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:59,800
Speaker 1: I remember the etiquette class and the salad fork and

911
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:02,960
Speaker 1: how to shake hands like because Allays tell me, look,

912
00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:04,680
Speaker 1: look a man in his eye, meet him at the

913
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:09,600
Speaker 1: web when you shake his hand. So that's yeah, I do.

914
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:16,240
Speaker 1: I learned the last Struss strong stuff. Okay, so um, okay.

915
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:20,319
Speaker 1: So then but core leaves he goes to Hofstra two

916
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: obvious even talked to fordam, I'm sorry to goes goes

917
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:28,719
Speaker 1: to Porta, like you're gonna be a senior and this happens? What? What? What?

918
00:50:28,719 --> 00:50:30,319
Speaker 1: What do you remember? What was going on in your mind?

919
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:36,239
Speaker 1: I remember we had study hall and um one of

920
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,719
Speaker 1: my closest friends to this day, Corne Leaves Fines he

921
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:40,760
Speaker 1: was he was a senior, but he was like finishing

922
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:45,520
Speaker 1: up his classes before graduation and he he there was

923
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:49,320
Speaker 1: this um so the CIA CIA had this uh this

924
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: like this board. It was like a forum where like

925
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,279
Speaker 1: a lot of each school had their own form and

926
00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:59,000
Speaker 1: it's just people right in their opinions on the season.

927
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,120
Speaker 1: Sometimes I used to go there for motivation after I

928
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,640
Speaker 1: played bad. There was always somebody talking crap about me

929
00:51:03,680 --> 00:51:07,040
Speaker 1: in there, And one time he showed me like it

930
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,440
Speaker 1: was like an entire form about coach kora and it

931
00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 1: was like coach Kora U is getting ready to go

932
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,359
Speaker 1: to Ford him He's leaving HOS this year. For sure,

933
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 1: it was a whole form of different people talking about it,

934
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 1: but I didn't know if it was true or not.

935
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:24,879
Speaker 1: And we were still having our our postseason workouts at

936
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:27,960
Speaker 1: that time, so it was kind of hard to, you know,

937
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 1: understand if it was these were just rumors that was

938
00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:34,400
Speaker 1: true because I was seeing him a lot and everything

939
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,279
Speaker 1: was pretty normal. And the next week we it was

940
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: like a Tuesday, I think, or maybe a Thursday. He

941
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:43,760
Speaker 1: wasn't there the entire day, didn't see him. Office door closed.

942
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:45,799
Speaker 1: I'm asking everyone, like where is two get like these

943
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,360
Speaker 1: out he's out. And we had study hall and I

944
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:51,319
Speaker 1: was like on the g A just asking where is coach?

945
00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:54,799
Speaker 1: Call his phone right now? I called him. He didn't answer,

946
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:57,719
Speaker 1: where is he? Why he's not here today? And it

947
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: was on ESPN, like, uh, like the college corner of course,

948
00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:03,719
Speaker 1: you know, a small schools. We were always like in

949
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:06,719
Speaker 1: the bottom left corner. Yeah, there was any news and

950
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:10,680
Speaker 1: it was like Pokora question mark for them something like that,

951
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 1: and I clicked it and it was like Pocora's um

952
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 1: shouldn't there, should announce that Tom Pecorre is going to

953
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 1: be the new head coach of UM for them. And

954
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:22,960
Speaker 1: I looked at the g A and I said, what

955
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 1: is this? Is this true? He's still telling me just

956
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:27,719
Speaker 1: do your work, don't worry about it. That's not true.

957
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,239
Speaker 1: I don't believe everything you read. All right, I let

958
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:32,720
Speaker 1: it go. The next day we had our team banquets,

959
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: so of course he was there. This is like, you know,

960
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:37,799
Speaker 1: you know, given our seniors their jerseys, let them give

961
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:40,160
Speaker 1: that last speech, have nice dinner, and we all go

962
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:43,960
Speaker 1: our separate ways. Uh. The entire team is meeting in

963
00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:45,760
Speaker 1: the in the locker room. We had our little players

964
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 1: lounge and we were getting dressed and at the bottom

965
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:51,799
Speaker 1: of the screen and flashed Tom Pecora is the new

966
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:55,960
Speaker 1: head basketball coach of Fordham University, and everybody was just

967
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,480
Speaker 1: like super just like what, like how And I was

968
00:52:59,560 --> 00:53:01,880
Speaker 1: I took a personally because, like I said, I've been

969
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 1: a coach all the time. I've had many conversations with him.

970
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 1: I remember when I went on had a crazy shooter slump,

971
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:11,560
Speaker 1: he called me and he gave He asked me if

972
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,000
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to the movies. He actually if

973
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:17,040
Speaker 1: my girls pregnant. He was super helpful at that time

974
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:20,239
Speaker 1: to try to, you know, to help me and to

975
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:22,600
Speaker 1: have a relationship with me. So the fact that that happened,

976
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 1: I was pissed because if he would have told me,

977
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 1: it would have been, you know, better for me to

978
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:30,360
Speaker 1: just know rather than to find out watching them, you

979
00:53:30,400 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 1: know ESPN. So I remember being really upset about that.

980
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: Did they ask you about who you want to be

981
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 1: the coaches? They involved you at all? We had a

982
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,920
Speaker 1: meeting um with the with the the athletic director Jack

983
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,480
Speaker 1: Hayes at the time, and I wanted to then make

984
00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:50,839
Speaker 1: him to be the own coach just because he was there.

985
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:54,680
Speaker 1: And you know, we will probably have this similar system.

986
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:57,279
Speaker 1: Everybody loves coach mac and we thought that he would

987
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 1: get that opportunity. UM I saw Coach Mack. We spoke

988
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:03,440
Speaker 1: the entire time. He told me that he had an

989
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,960
Speaker 1: interview for it. I saw him get dressed and walk

990
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:10,080
Speaker 1: into the office before and then he called me the

991
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 1: next morning and he said that they're gonna hire Tim

992
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 1: Welsh and I'm like, who the hell is that. I've

993
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:22,160
Speaker 1: never never heard of him before. Um, I had no

994
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:24,839
Speaker 1: idea who he was. And I remember just thinking like, man,

995
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:29,040
Speaker 1: my senior year, why is this happening? Like why why

996
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:32,880
Speaker 1: can't we just you know, keep what we had, you know,

997
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: after maybe leave when I'm gone. But you know, they

998
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 1: hired Tim much for about I think two months. I think, yeah,

999
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:44,200
Speaker 1: he got it, he got a d U y right,

1000
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:47,080
Speaker 1: So I mean this, this something is crazy because we

1001
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:51,440
Speaker 1: look back now and you know, all you remember is okay,

1002
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:55,879
Speaker 1: Pakora leaves and he goes to Fordham Okay, and then

1003
00:54:56,640 --> 00:54:58,719
Speaker 1: you think of Mocus Sarson. There's that two months. So

1004
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:03,000
Speaker 1: Tim Welsh comes in, right, and uh, previous to that,

1005
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 1: he had been I think it at providences, so so

1006
00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:11,840
Speaker 1: you have no relationship with him. He comes in What

1007
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:13,520
Speaker 1: did you think of coach Welsh when you met him?

1008
00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:19,560
Speaker 1: I mean he was pretty cool. Um, we went out

1009
00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 1: to dinner, we talked a lot. He had me involved

1010
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 1: in his personal life. I don't know if it was

1011
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:27,960
Speaker 1: like a plan or something, but he was always asking me, like,

1012
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,840
Speaker 1: where's a nice neighborhood to living out here? Um, I

1013
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 1: don't want to be too far from the gym just

1014
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:34,880
Speaker 1: in case you guys need something. And I remember like

1015
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,040
Speaker 1: being in point luck out with him a couple of times,

1016
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:42,239
Speaker 1: or after practice having conversations or you know who he

1017
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:45,880
Speaker 1: thought would help us and you know, the opportunity the

1018
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:48,759
Speaker 1: team had to be better and things like that. It

1019
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:50,840
Speaker 1: was a short amount of time, but I felt like

1020
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 1: I had some you know, like I say so on

1021
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:59,799
Speaker 1: with what was going on at the time, and even

1022
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:02,200
Speaker 1: even through that we were getting a new strength coach

1023
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 1: and he had to, like the strength coach sit down

1024
00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 1: with me and I had a say song whether we

1025
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:11,240
Speaker 1: should hire the guy or not. So I felt really confident,

1026
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:13,320
Speaker 1: like man like. I mean, of course all of the

1027
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 1: business stuff I wasn't involved in the coach Lacora, but

1028
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:19,640
Speaker 1: like for him to like do that and make my

1029
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:23,360
Speaker 1: my opinion so valued. I was like, man, maybe this

1030
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 1: is gonna be, you know, something different. And I remember

1031
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,320
Speaker 1: we had I wouldn't to Haggy Award my junior and

1032
00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 1: they had like Coach Pacora like say great things about me.

1033
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,320
Speaker 1: And then Tim Welch was standing up there too, and

1034
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:42,320
Speaker 1: he said he said, uh. He said, um, you know,

1035
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:46,680
Speaker 1: thank you Coach Lacora. Um, you've been an amazing host,

1036
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 1: he said. He said, you left me a great office. Um,

1037
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,719
Speaker 1: I opened up the I opened up your closet and

1038
00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:58,239
Speaker 1: it was an amazing amount of ties that you left

1039
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 1: for me. Thank you, he said. With the greatest gift

1040
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:04,120
Speaker 1: you left me was Charles Jenkins. And I was like, man,

1041
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 1: I was that was a smooth line to me. Like

1042
00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:09,799
Speaker 1: at the time, I was like, man, that was nice,

1043
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 1: Like I didn't see it coming, Like it was super smooth.

1044
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:16,360
Speaker 1: And then you know, I was happy about it. I was.

1045
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,560
Speaker 1: I was confident on a lot of my my teammates

1046
00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:23,320
Speaker 1: were hesitant. Some guys wanted to transfer. Um. They ended

1047
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:27,920
Speaker 1: up bringing in um Alan Griffin. Yeah. I know him

1048
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,200
Speaker 1: as Bird because when I lived in Brownsville, he was

1049
00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:32,320
Speaker 1: he was getting ready to go to Syracuse. So I

1050
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:34,000
Speaker 1: knew him since I was a kid. So I was

1051
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:36,200
Speaker 1: really happy about that, Like, man, this is somebody I

1052
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 1: know for real, Like he can come to my house.

1053
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 1: My parents know him, they'll be happy to see him.

1054
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:43,120
Speaker 1: My families know each other. So I was super super

1055
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,520
Speaker 1: happy about him getting a job as as one of

1056
00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:51,440
Speaker 1: the assistant coaches. So, I mean everything was looked promising

1057
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:56,080
Speaker 1: until what that Friday morning? Yeah, so he so Friday.

1058
00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:59,520
Speaker 1: So there's a Friday morning right in the in the spring,

1059
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 1: I think in the late spring. How did you found out?

1060
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 1: And find out? We got like a we got a

1061
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:11,240
Speaker 1: message um from uh the graduate assistant at the time.

1062
00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 1: I met Steve race Fell and it was like um

1063
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:19,680
Speaker 1: mandatory meeting at I don't know, maybe eleven or something,

1064
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:23,400
Speaker 1: which was normally our practice time. Manly no practice today,

1065
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,200
Speaker 1: mandatory meeting. Okay, so we all walked in. I had

1066
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 1: no idea, but we had this this Hungarian dude that

1067
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:32,600
Speaker 1: was graduating. His name was Miko Sabo, and he was

1068
00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:36,160
Speaker 1: already like laughing because he knew what happened, but he

1069
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:37,920
Speaker 1: didn't share. He was just like, oh, you don't know

1070
00:58:38,040 --> 00:58:39,720
Speaker 1: what happened, or you'll see, But he was kind of

1071
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:46,080
Speaker 1: like smirking about it and we uh. The athletic director

1072
00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 1: walked in and the president Stuart Robinovich, and he was like, um,

1073
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: you know Tim Welsh resigned and we were like what.

1074
00:58:57,440 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 1: I was like what how? How? What? What just happened?

1075
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:04,080
Speaker 1: And there that's that's that's how they presented it to us,

1076
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:08,480
Speaker 1: like you know, he resigned and then after like guys

1077
00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:10,680
Speaker 1: were saying, you know, he fell asleep aout the light.

1078
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:13,760
Speaker 1: He was, he was extremely drunk, he's and he got

1079
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:17,600
Speaker 1: bailed out this morning by the when when he said it,

1080
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:20,840
Speaker 1: I was just like how how? Like I just I

1081
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:24,120
Speaker 1: just spoke to him the day before, like how how? How?

1082
00:59:24,480 --> 00:59:28,040
Speaker 1: How did this happen? And it's still didn't register to

1083
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:30,120
Speaker 1: me until we got outside. So I was like walking

1084
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:32,760
Speaker 1: to my car and then it was like the News

1085
00:59:32,880 --> 00:59:37,240
Speaker 1: twelve van was out there and they were like, oh,

1086
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 1: you guys are from the basketball team. You want to

1087
00:59:38,800 --> 00:59:41,280
Speaker 1: ask you questions about your coach, like how how do

1088
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,960
Speaker 1: you feel about him? Um getting a d U I

1089
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:47,120
Speaker 1: And I was just like telling the guys that. I

1090
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:48,600
Speaker 1: was really like, let's just get in the car, like

1091
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:51,600
Speaker 1: let's not go, let's not you know, entertain It's like,

1092
00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:52,840
Speaker 1: let's just get in a car. So we got in

1093
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:55,240
Speaker 1: the car, we drove off and then like later that

1094
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 1: night I watched the news twelve and they had like

1095
00:59:58,240 --> 01:00:01,600
Speaker 1: their reactions from all the student and stout that was

1096
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 1: so you know, big Hosship fans all of a sudden

1097
01:00:04,760 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 1: because there was a camera in front of their faces

1098
01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:09,440
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, he really was. They had

1099
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:11,240
Speaker 1: like his mug shot on TV. I was like, man,

1100
01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:14,480
Speaker 1: like a coach, like, that's crazy. He was. He was

1101
01:00:14,600 --> 01:00:16,680
Speaker 1: drinking and he got behind the wheel. That's kind of

1102
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 1: like because it was like just the time of it

1103
01:00:20,440 --> 01:00:22,320
Speaker 1: was like man like, of course there are people that

1104
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:26,760
Speaker 1: unfortunately drinking drive, but for him for that to happened

1105
01:00:26,760 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 1: to him was like man, what what's the next? Like

1106
01:00:30,440 --> 01:00:33,880
Speaker 1: what else is going to happen? So so so again,

1107
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:36,440
Speaker 1: now they could have hired from the staff or whatever

1108
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:40,600
Speaker 1: they bring in they bring in. Mo were you did

1109
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:43,520
Speaker 1: they ask you the second time around? You know, they

1110
01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:46,960
Speaker 1: just they just asked me how how? Because after that

1111
01:00:47,000 --> 01:00:49,360
Speaker 1: happened with Coach Welsh, we had we had one practice.

1112
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:53,800
Speaker 1: We had one practice before they decided to who was

1113
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:55,920
Speaker 1: going to be the coach, So we were still practicing

1114
01:00:56,000 --> 01:00:58,200
Speaker 1: with the assistant coaches, just coach to us wasn't there,

1115
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:02,520
Speaker 1: and I sort of the president and he just asked me, like,

1116
01:01:02,560 --> 01:01:04,760
Speaker 1: how's WORKOUP was going? And I said, oh, they're going

1117
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:07,200
Speaker 1: pretty good. But like just I don't want to say

1118
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:09,280
Speaker 1: things are awful here. I hated of course, Like I

1119
01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:16,920
Speaker 1: was just like, no, it's okay, all right. And who

1120
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:19,000
Speaker 1: I met with the athletic director. I was trying to

1121
01:01:19,040 --> 01:01:21,600
Speaker 1: get vanmaking, like this is a sign that making should

1122
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:23,960
Speaker 1: be here, and they were like, don't and I was.

1123
01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 1: I was in tears because I'm like, I'm a senior. Now,

1124
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:28,360
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have no idea who's going to come

1125
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:32,880
Speaker 1: in here? Um? How they were talking about Tim Cluse

1126
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 1: and I heard Tim Cluse run his players to death.

1127
01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:36,760
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I don't want to go through

1128
01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:43,360
Speaker 1: that as a senior. Yeah, and we had that you

1129
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:44,840
Speaker 1: would have scored, you would have scored a bunch of

1130
01:01:44,880 --> 01:01:50,400
Speaker 1: points probably, yeah. But oh. Then there was another meeting

1131
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 1: and it was a little weird because the assistant coaches,

1132
01:01:53,160 --> 01:01:55,280
Speaker 1: you know, they were in like street clothes, and coachm

1133
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 1: walked in in the suit. So it looks super it

1134
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:02,120
Speaker 1: looks super weird because I never, honestly, I never spoke

1135
01:02:02,200 --> 01:02:04,640
Speaker 1: to Coach Mo when he was when I first met him,

1136
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:06,520
Speaker 1: I was just going back there. I would talk to

1137
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:09,440
Speaker 1: coach Griffin or I would talk to you know, Tim Welch.

1138
01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:12,880
Speaker 1: Of course, No walked in with the athletic director and

1139
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 1: he said, we're gonna name Mocus Sarah the head coach

1140
01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:20,520
Speaker 1: and m I had to start over, like, Hi, I'm Charles.

1141
01:02:20,720 --> 01:02:22,920
Speaker 1: I know I wasn't really open to you in the beginning,

1142
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:24,720
Speaker 1: but it looks like you're the guy. So let's like

1143
01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:30,400
Speaker 1: trying to build a relationship. Pass forward to your after

1144
01:02:30,480 --> 01:02:32,640
Speaker 1: your senior year, You're getting ready for the NBA draft.

1145
01:02:33,440 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 1: Hy Um, what do you think? What was your agent telling? Uh?

1146
01:02:42,120 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: And my agent was telling me I'll get drafted. Um.

1147
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:49,080
Speaker 1: He didn't really have an idea where I know, I

1148
01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:57,560
Speaker 1: worked out for about fourteen or fifteen teams. Um, some

1149
01:02:57,760 --> 01:02:59,880
Speaker 1: workouts were a lot better than that. Some some work

1150
01:03:00,160 --> 01:03:02,080
Speaker 1: I had. I really thought I was going to these

1151
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:04,720
Speaker 1: teams I worked off like like like what was your best?

1152
01:03:04,800 --> 01:03:12,600
Speaker 1: Your your best? Like Charlotte was my absolute best? Uh,

1153
01:03:13,080 --> 01:03:16,480
Speaker 1: what do you mean players? I know Marshaun Brooks was there.

1154
01:03:17,720 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 1: Uh they were. I think his name is the Darius Done.

1155
01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:27,320
Speaker 1: He went to Bay Yeah. Him. Uh, Darius Morris was there,

1156
01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:30,360
Speaker 1: and we had two bigs I can't remember. I think

1157
01:03:30,440 --> 01:03:34,320
Speaker 1: one was Trey Tompkins and the other one was Nicola Busevich,

1158
01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:39,320
Speaker 1: I think, and I just remember winning almost every drill.

1159
01:03:39,880 --> 01:03:41,480
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I missed. When we played

1160
01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:44,280
Speaker 1: the full court three on three, I don't. I played

1161
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:47,919
Speaker 1: really well in front of Paul Silason. So I was thinking,

1162
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:50,400
Speaker 1: like our worst case scenario, I'm gonna I'm gonna be

1163
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:52,760
Speaker 1: in Charlotte in the back of my mind. But they

1164
01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:54,959
Speaker 1: didn't have like they didn't have a lot of picks.

1165
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:57,400
Speaker 1: I know they took Kimba and I think they had

1166
01:03:57,440 --> 01:03:59,800
Speaker 1: like a late first, like in the fifties or something,

1167
01:04:02,040 --> 01:04:05,240
Speaker 1: so we had he was getting feedback. Some teams wanted

1168
01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:07,560
Speaker 1: me to come back, but I had other workout schedule

1169
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 1: and I couldn't go to I can um see a

1170
01:04:10,320 --> 01:04:13,880
Speaker 1: team again. I'm gonna work out really well for Detroit. Um.

1171
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:16,280
Speaker 1: I had a good meeting with him after, so I

1172
01:04:16,320 --> 01:04:19,320
Speaker 1: would where I really thought I was gonna go if

1173
01:04:19,800 --> 01:04:23,400
Speaker 1: I had to bet, was Detroit. I think it was

1174
01:04:23,480 --> 01:04:30,560
Speaker 1: like thirty three they took. They took Kyle Singler. Yeah, Okay.

1175
01:04:30,800 --> 01:04:34,160
Speaker 1: Draft Draft night, where were you draft knight. I was

1176
01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:39,920
Speaker 1: in the w hotel with my family, okay, um, and

1177
01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 1: and just just your few four and your agent or no,

1178
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:51,480
Speaker 1: it was my mom, my mom, dad, sister, brother or

1179
01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 1: my brother in law, my best friend, college teammate and

1180
01:04:56,080 --> 01:04:58,120
Speaker 1: one of my my childhood friends was there. So it

1181
01:04:58,160 --> 01:05:00,640
Speaker 1: was about eight of us. Who's your who's your best friend?

1182
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:03,280
Speaker 1: Who was with you? Uh? The kwan Bats. We've been

1183
01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:07,520
Speaker 1: friends since like four or five years old? Okay, so

1184
01:05:07,880 --> 01:05:10,640
Speaker 1: what think was gonna happen? Like? Was he like mine,

1185
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:13,680
Speaker 1: I know you're doing. I mean he's more reserved. He's

1186
01:05:13,680 --> 01:05:15,600
Speaker 1: not the kind of dude that's like in your air,

1187
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:19,080
Speaker 1: you know, he's really observant. Um, so he wasn't really

1188
01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:22,400
Speaker 1: feeding me anything. It was my college teammate, Nathaniel Lester,

1189
01:05:22,560 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: who who thought that I should have been a lot

1190
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:32,240
Speaker 1: of you pick if you asked him, like yeah, Like

1191
01:05:32,360 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 1: every time a point guard goes like no, Nolan Smith

1192
01:05:34,800 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 1: gets like, oh you better than Smith. Norris Cole was

1193
01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:40,520
Speaker 1: the first round pick, Like you killed? Norris called Corey

1194
01:05:40,640 --> 01:05:43,440
Speaker 1: Joseph goes Man, you kill. The move was going like

1195
01:05:43,520 --> 01:05:46,960
Speaker 1: these guys are idiots, right, Yeah, that's that's that's that's

1196
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:49,880
Speaker 1: exactly who he was that entire night. He was that

1197
01:05:51,040 --> 01:05:53,360
Speaker 1: because obviously to me, I knew, I knew I wasn't

1198
01:05:53,360 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 1: a lot of you pick. So when the first round began,

1199
01:05:58,080 --> 01:05:59,840
Speaker 1: I think we were at like the mall or something.

1200
01:06:00,640 --> 01:06:02,840
Speaker 1: My parents was already in the hotel, my sister was there,

1201
01:06:02,880 --> 01:06:05,000
Speaker 1: but we were like at the mall in Queens where

1202
01:06:05,000 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 1: weren't even in the city yet. And I was saying, like,

1203
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:11,080
Speaker 1: all right, maybe like around like the seventeen pick, like

1204
01:06:11,160 --> 01:06:14,640
Speaker 1: we should start making our way to the city. So

1205
01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:18,000
Speaker 1: we drove, we got a parking spot, and then we

1206
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:20,720
Speaker 1: made our way upstairs, probably like around the time I

1207
01:06:20,760 --> 01:06:25,680
Speaker 1: think Reggie Jackson just got picked. And then we started

1208
01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:29,360
Speaker 1: to watch. But it was like it was tough because

1209
01:06:29,640 --> 01:06:32,919
Speaker 1: I mean, my mom is there, Um she's being a mom,

1210
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:36,600
Speaker 1: very supportive, and she's also she didn't have much knowledge

1211
01:06:36,640 --> 01:06:38,240
Speaker 1: of like what's going on. All she was waiting for

1212
01:06:38,440 --> 01:06:40,760
Speaker 1: was to see to see me on the screen. And

1213
01:06:40,880 --> 01:06:43,800
Speaker 1: you know, Jay billis have the best available you know,

1214
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:48,280
Speaker 1: picks and from after like the lottery, I was at

1215
01:06:48,360 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 1: like ten and then I went from ten and then

1216
01:06:51,400 --> 01:06:53,600
Speaker 1: I was me and Josh Shelby was like one and two.

1217
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:56,160
Speaker 1: So seeing that at the bottom, but my name is

1218
01:06:56,200 --> 01:06:59,040
Speaker 1: still not being called. Was like, and I'm like, damn,

1219
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 1: like what how? Like why is this going on? But

1220
01:07:01,960 --> 01:07:05,600
Speaker 1: there's also an amazing amount of pressure around the room too,

1221
01:07:06,120 --> 01:07:08,280
Speaker 1: So I want to like stay composed and look like

1222
01:07:09,280 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 1: I'm not frustrated, but also want to like have my

1223
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:16,160
Speaker 1: own reaction to what's going on. But every any reaction

1224
01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:19,040
Speaker 1: I had, someone in the room already expressed it, whether

1225
01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:24,200
Speaker 1: it was like a or damn not yet, or what's

1226
01:07:24,240 --> 01:07:26,760
Speaker 1: your agent saying? Like sometimes somebody were like questioning my

1227
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:28,560
Speaker 1: agent and stuff, and me and my agent were like

1228
01:07:28,640 --> 01:07:30,840
Speaker 1: texting back and forth at the time, and I was saying, like, man,

1229
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:32,520
Speaker 1: I feel like you lied to me, like this is

1230
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:35,920
Speaker 1: this is not happening, like especially at at the forties.

1231
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:38,040
Speaker 1: I mean, I met with UM Golden State in Chicago,

1232
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:39,640
Speaker 1: but I didn't work I didn't get a chance to

1233
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:43,000
Speaker 1: work out for them, so I definitely didn't think that UM.

1234
01:07:44,040 --> 01:07:46,120
Speaker 1: I didn't play that well in the Minnesota workout. I

1235
01:07:46,160 --> 01:07:50,000
Speaker 1: know they took Malcolm Lee, and I wasn't like ecstatic

1236
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:52,320
Speaker 1: about that. I was just looking at the team's left

1237
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,480
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, it's only about twenty picks. Left

1238
01:07:54,560 --> 01:07:56,680
Speaker 1: like something's gotta happen. I knew a hundred percent I

1239
01:07:56,800 --> 01:08:00,760
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be a laker, but so much going on

1240
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:04,480
Speaker 1: at the time, I couldn't really like cast my own

1241
01:08:04,520 --> 01:08:08,520
Speaker 1: emotion because my family was so animated the entire time.

1242
01:08:10,160 --> 01:08:12,240
Speaker 1: So okay, So who did you get the call from?

1243
01:08:13,160 --> 01:08:16,000
Speaker 1: I got the call from my agent. Uh he was.

1244
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:17,920
Speaker 1: He was on the phone. He was like, you know,

1245
01:08:18,080 --> 01:08:20,680
Speaker 1: you had you gotta you have to prove yourself. Uh,

1246
01:08:20,760 --> 01:08:23,000
Speaker 1: they made a mistake, and we're gonna prove that they

1247
01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:25,960
Speaker 1: made a mistake. He young up the phone, and my

1248
01:08:26,160 --> 01:08:28,960
Speaker 1: family was all like at that At that point, they

1249
01:08:29,000 --> 01:08:32,240
Speaker 1: were all like dreamed. I'm just reacting to everything that happened.

1250
01:08:33,080 --> 01:08:35,760
Speaker 1: And I was just like standing up and before, like

1251
01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:37,840
Speaker 1: Adam Silver said it, I just had like a bottle

1252
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,040
Speaker 1: of champagne and I like I was I was so

1253
01:08:40,320 --> 01:08:43,439
Speaker 1: mad though. I was so mad. I had a bothers

1254
01:08:43,520 --> 01:08:46,639
Speaker 1: Jampa and I just like throw it on the ground

1255
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:50,360
Speaker 1: and they just exploded everywhere, and everybody was like a shock,

1256
01:08:50,479 --> 01:08:53,320
Speaker 1: like like are you okay, Like it's okay, don't worry,

1257
01:08:53,360 --> 01:08:55,160
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. You're gonna get out of this. And

1258
01:08:55,200 --> 01:08:56,800
Speaker 1: while all of this is going on at him. So

1259
01:08:56,840 --> 01:09:00,840
Speaker 1: it was like with pick and call my name in

1260
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:03,439
Speaker 1: the room, just like when when crazy and my phone

1261
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:10,120
Speaker 1: went from probably five messages so like three hundred and something.

1262
01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 1: It was crazy. It's back when people left voicemails, left messages. Yes,

1263
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:21,759
Speaker 1: nobody a message that we know. Nobody listens to voicemails

1264
01:09:21,800 --> 01:09:24,679
Speaker 1: that we returns voicemails. It's just a text it it'd

1265
01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:30,680
Speaker 1: be back, all right. That's part one of my h

1266
01:09:30,960 --> 01:09:33,160
Speaker 1: My talk with Charles Jenkins will drop apart two a

1267
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:35,120
Speaker 1: couple of days. We'll let this one kind of simmer

1268
01:09:35,160 --> 01:09:37,280
Speaker 1: for a little bit. It's really really good stuff. Um.

1269
01:09:38,479 --> 01:09:40,000
Speaker 1: I do want to say this in regards to Russell

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01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:43,840
Speaker 1: Westbrook trade. I've talked to about NBA people that are like, look,

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01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:49,080
Speaker 1: that dude is so crazy competitive. He pushes guys, pushes guys.

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01:09:49,280 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 1: Lebron does the same thing. Um, so there's obviously an

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01:09:53,360 --> 01:09:55,680
Speaker 1: attraction there, and he can make plays off the job.

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01:09:55,760 --> 01:09:59,840
Speaker 1: We can create shots for other people. Russell Westbrook is

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01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:05,880
Speaker 1: a tremendous player. But does he fit the Lakers. No? No,

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01:10:07,200 --> 01:10:11,280
Speaker 1: He's a high volume, low make shooter who needs the

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01:10:11,320 --> 01:10:14,760
Speaker 1: ball in his hands. We need Anthony Davis get the ball.

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01:10:14,800 --> 01:10:18,920
Speaker 1: We need Lebron to have the ball. Yes, could could

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01:10:19,000 --> 01:10:21,360
Speaker 1: he be given you know, the second quarter or whatever

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01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:24,080
Speaker 1: to kind of do his thing, But they they're gonna

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01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:26,679
Speaker 1: need so much more shooting around him. Now. The one

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01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 1: thing about Ross as opposed to Ben Simmons, is like,

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01:10:32,160 --> 01:10:33,840
Speaker 1: at some point you do have to take these shots,

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01:10:34,520 --> 01:10:39,000
Speaker 1: and um, there's a lot of good there. I just

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01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:42,519
Speaker 1: I don't know how they're gonna get enough other pieces.

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01:10:44,080 --> 01:10:47,160
Speaker 1: He's also older. He's had three knee surgeries. Lebron has

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01:10:47,200 --> 01:10:49,519
Speaker 1: had his first couple of injuries he's ever had in

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01:10:49,600 --> 01:10:53,000
Speaker 1: his career. Not because he's there's something wrong with him.

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01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:54,960
Speaker 1: You just you get to your mid thirties and things

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01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:57,599
Speaker 1: start to break down. Plus Anthony Davis is the youngest

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01:10:57,680 --> 01:10:59,840
Speaker 1: of the three, and he breaks down all the time.

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01:11:00,960 --> 01:11:03,639
Speaker 1: So I still want to see what they put together

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01:11:03,960 --> 01:11:06,040
Speaker 1: around him, what they're able. They got a sign in

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01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:07,559
Speaker 1: trade Dennis Shrewder and they got they got to find

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01:11:07,560 --> 01:11:10,280
Speaker 1: a way to move some pieces around. But I don't

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01:11:10,640 --> 01:11:14,040
Speaker 1: love that that mix. And and they're all friends and

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01:11:14,080 --> 01:11:16,000
Speaker 1: we all think, well we're all buddies. They'll get like

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01:11:16,040 --> 01:11:18,799
Speaker 1: when does that work? Didn't work with Westbrook and Harden

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01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:22,080
Speaker 1: they were buddies. You don't have to love the guy

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01:11:22,200 --> 01:11:23,960
Speaker 1: that you're playing. You had love playing with the guy,

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01:11:24,000 --> 01:11:25,880
Speaker 1: but not necessarily love him off the court. I don't

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01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:29,000
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I don't love it. I

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01:11:29,040 --> 01:11:30,720
Speaker 1: don't love it. It's very very interesting. You know, they

1304
01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:33,200
Speaker 1: were gonna hire Scott Brooks as an assistant. They didn't,

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01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:35,840
Speaker 1: So now you have a coaching staff that hasn't coached

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01:11:35,880 --> 01:11:39,599
Speaker 1: to be there. That's really interesting. Are you will love

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01:11:39,800 --> 01:11:42,519
Speaker 1: part two? Um? If you love part one? If you

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01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:44,519
Speaker 1: didn't love part one, you'll love part two. I guarantee it.

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01:11:44,960 --> 01:11:46,760
Speaker 1: You can listen to The Doug Otlip Show daily three

1310
01:11:46,800 --> 01:11:51,120
Speaker 1: to six Eastern twelve three Pacific on these stations, on

1311
01:11:51,280 --> 01:11:54,000
Speaker 1: on your Fox Sports radio stations, or on the I

1312
01:11:54,120 --> 01:11:56,800
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app. You can also download that podcast and

1313
01:11:56,880 --> 01:11:59,360
Speaker 1: that of course All Sports. Thanks so much for listening.

1314
01:11:59,439 --> 01:12:02,760
Speaker 1: Don't forget to write a review. Downloads, subscribe rate tell.

1315
01:12:02,760 --> 01:12:05,640
Speaker 1: A friend tweeted out that was pretty good thanks to

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01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:08,759
Speaker 1: Charles Jenkins. We'll get to part two next. I'm Doug Gottlieb.

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Speaker 1: This is all ball m